Beth Kery

Happy Samhain Eve! (Or maybe that’s tomorrow, so in either case, Happy Halloween Eve!)

The (unofficial) winner of BOTH The Missing and Deeper is….#22, Jennifer D!

The winner of a free ecopy of Flirting in Traffic is…#10, Carol!

Ladies, write to me at bethkery@aol.com to claim your prizes. You have the weekend to respond!

I hope everybody has fun with their families for the Halloween Holiday. Warm, memorable moments to you

all!

I’m going to give away an e-copy of Flirting in Traffic to one commenter here at my blog, AND to one commenter at my yahoo group (totally awesome group of fun, reading ladies) Total Exposure! in the next….er, 20 hours? in celebration of Halloween!! About 5 pm CST tomorrow night, at the same time I announce the winner of The Missing/Deeper, I’ll also announce the winner for an instant e-book copy of Flirting in Traffic.

FLIRTING IN TRAFFIC

Flirting has got a fun Halloween party in it, so I thought you guys might likey. This is one of my few non-erotics, but nevertheless, I have heard that people still find it pretty damn steamy.

FIT is a contemporary, not a paranormal. The excerpt takes places at a Halloween party at the house of the Irish-American hero’s mother, and the ‘clan’ has a fun, scary way to celebrate with the little ones. So Esa, already treading in unfamiliar territory as far as dating with the ultra-sexy Finn, decides to strike out…and find her ‘wolf man’ in the darkness of a Halloween night. :)

Hope you enjoy Halloween with your own Wolf Man!!

FLIRTING IN TRAFFIC
Publisher: Cerridwen Press
Read another Excerpt
Purchase

She went off like a red-hot firecracker on his foyer floor, then vanished.

Esa never intended to participate in her best friend’s unorthodox dating scheme – flirting with hunky construction workers in Chicago traffic. Her thoughts changed when she saw a long, lean slice of heaven strutting around the side of the highway. For him, she would be the carefree sex kitten her borrowed car with its suggestive license plates implied she was.

Though smarting from the wounds of a recent break-up, Finn can’t resist the tempting redhead driving the come-and-get-me car, flashing him contemptuous looks with those brandy-colored eyes. The lure of taming the feisty little kitten is just too great to deny…

Excerpt:

Esa peered through the darkness, afraid she would trip over a bush or a small child. The night was chilly but not overly so and she wore only a lightweight leather jacket. She paused when she heard the sound of muffled laughter in the distance and little feet scurrying through the leaves.

She suppressed her own nervous giggle of excitement. Why did humans love to scare themselves so much? Something brushed against her outstretched hand and she jumped in alarm, sighing when she realized it was just the bark of a thick tree trunk. Thankfully she hadn’t walked straight into it and knocked herself out.

She suddenly went very still when she heard footsteps in the leaves just feet away from her.

“Wolf Man’s right on the other side of that tree,” Esa barely made out a boy whispering.

“He is not. Quit trying to scare me, Cory,” a younger girl’s voice responded shakily.

“He is. Let’s get him before he gets us!”

The sound of rapidly rushing feet made Esa’s eyes go wide in panic. “No, wait. I’m not the Wolf Man, I’m Esa…oh—”

She stopped speaking abruptly when the weight of a small body collided against her legs and arms wrapped around her thighs. She teetered for a second, almost losing her balance, but then righted herself and steadied the small body that had attempted to tackle her as well.

“It’s a lady,” the little girl who had been correct to doubt the presence of the Wolf

Man exclaimed.

“Shhh, quiet, Amanda. He’ll hear you. You’d better not get us caught,” a boy admonished.

“Are you all right?” Esa asked as she extricated Amanda from her legs. She bent down and peered at the vague outline in the blackness. From the size of her Esa guessed that she must have been around six or seven years old. She was accompanied by three other children, all of them older, given the sizes of their shadows.

“Are you looking for the Wolf Man too?” the little girl asked in a stage whisper.

“Er…yes, I am.”

The girl giggled.

“Let’s go, Amanda,” one of the boys hissed in a long-suffering big brother voice. They melted back into the darkness and were gone as quickly as they’d come. Esa tried to calm her rapid breathing in the silence that followed.

She left the relatively secure landmark of the tree and wandered to the left of the yard, her arms stretched out in front of her. The children likely knew the territory of the backyards intimately but Esa was not only nearly blind but ignorant as she stumbled around back there. Her fingers encountered a waist-high bush. She tried to move around it but quickly realized it was a hedge that probably separated the two yards.

A light rustling sound reached her hyper-alert ears and she paused. She drew her breath in cautiously but all was silent except for the muted voices and music of the party in the distance. It probably had just been some leaves scattering in the wind. Still, some instinct told her it was more than that.

“Finn?” she queried softly, her heart hammering in her ears. “Is that you?”

When she got no answer she resumed picking her way along the hedge, looking for an opening between the yards. Just when she found a gap in the bushes someone grabbed her from behind…someone who was most definitely not a child.

Despite the fact that she’d come there specifically to find him, her nerves got the better of her. A scream rose in her throat. His hand was over her mouth in a second, stifling it.

“What are you afraid of, little girl? Didn’t you come looking for a wolf?” he growled near her ear. His voice was muffled by the mask he must be wearing. He sounded both familiar and sinister at once. Esa shivered uncontrollably in fear and something else, something much more powerful.

She twisted her head away from his hand on her mouth, freeing it. She squirmed in his hold. He wrapped her securely in his strong arms, making a mockery of her struggle. His body felt long and hard pressed so tightly against her. Excitement jolted through her with the strength of an electric shock, adrenaline pumping into her veins and a powerful sexual awareness enlivening her flesh.

“Is this how you greet all your dates?” she muttered sarcastically between ragged pants. She yelped in surprise when he suddenly shifted his weight and fell to the ground, bringing her down on top of him. He rolled over until she was lying on her back in the cool grass, his body covering her.

“Only the ones who come looking for it,” he said quietly near her face, amusement lacing his tone.

It had all happened so quickly that Esa was momentarily stunned into silence. He must have removed his mask because his voice had sounded normal just now—that low, seductive rumble that she associated exclusively with Finn. His fragrant breath struck her lips and cheeks in choppy bursts of air. His scent reached her nostrils— subtle, spicy aftershave, clean male skin and fragrant leaves. She smiled to herself, realizing she wasn’t the first person he’d tumbled in the leaves and grass tonight.

Her fingers came up to touch what she couldn’t see, lacing through the thick hair the collar of his jacket. She pressed her fingertips to his skull, applying a downward pressure.

“I guess I was…looking for it, I mean,” she whispered breathlessly. “Come here, Wolf Man.”

But she needn’t have said it because he’d already been on his way.

Despite his aggressive play his lips were gentle and persuasive when they touched hers. Not that Esa required persuading. She curled her fingers in his hair and craned her neck up for more of the taste of him.

“Shhh,” he whispered so softly that she barely heard him over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. He proceeded to nibble and eat at her mouth like it was a rare Godiva truffle that he’d found in the midst of his dime store Halloween candy. Esa felt herself turning to warm, sweet syrup under the influence of that kiss.

She whimpered into his mouth when his tongue slid along her lower lip, politely asking for entrance. Esa granted it, melting into the cool grass beneath the divine heat of Finn’s hard body and his intoxicating kiss. When she began to rub her tongue next to his, matching his slow, erotic rhythm, he growled and rocked his erection against her harboring heat. Esa shifted her hips up against him, the resulting friction making their kiss hungrier. She applied suction, pulling him further into her.

“Be careful about teasing, Esa,” Finn mock-threatened quietly next to her damp lips a few seconds later. His hand spread along her waist and found its way beneath her jacket, rising slowly up the side of her torso. She shivered almost uncontrollably beneath him despite the fact that heat emanated from his body. “It’s a full moon, you know…and you test the beast sorely.”

Esa tried to snort in amusement when he flexed his hips for emphasis but was quickly silenced when he slid his hand over her sweater-covered breast. He cupped her softly then shaped her firmly to his palm. Her nipple stiffened against the pressure, sending a sympathetic jolt of pure desire between her thighs. She groaned and rubbed up against him to alleviate the sharp ache.

“Esa,” he muttered as he continued to mold her breast with his hand and their flesh strained against one another’s with growing need. Esa was gratified to hear that all amusement had vanished from his tone.

She heard a child’s muffled laughter nearby.

“Finn, stop,” she whispered. “The kids are—”

“They can’t see anything,” Finn growled into her neck between hungry kisses.

“Yes, but—”

“I’m just…kissing you… What’s the big…deal?” he asked between nibbles of flesh. The big deal was that Esa was so aroused as she lay there beneath Finn in the middle of his mother’s leaf-strewn backyard that it didn’t feel like just kissing in the slightest.

“But I think they might be—”

“Now,” someone yelled.

“Right there,” Esa finished.

“Gotcha, Wolf Man!” a boy yelled at the same time that the weight of several bodies fell on top of them.

“Ow! Hey… Watch the kidneys,” Finn ordered between grunts as child after child piled on top of them. Esa broke out in laughter when he covered her body from the tackling kids.

“Tickle him like he does us!”

Esa ducked her head into Finn’s chest for protection against the ensuing mêlée of laughing, squirming, tickling children. Finn finally managed to get them off them with a combination of half-serious threats, gentle wrestling and returned tickles.

“There’s a lady here. Now cut it out,” Finn finally said as he wrestled one of his older, more boisterous nephews while trying to stop two giggling nieces from tickling his ribs. “Go and hide again. You guys conquered this Wolf Man. Another uncle is going to come get you.”

“Who, Uncle Finn?” the boy who wrestled with him demanded.

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna tell him to hunt you down first if you don’t get out of here, Aidan. Hurry up. He’ll be out here in a minute.”

“Are you okay?” Finn asked softly as the sound of the children’s voices faded.

“Yes,” Esa said with a laugh as she sat up. “Except for the leaves in my hair.”

His hand spread along her neck, his fingers reaching to tangle in her hair. “I’m used to leaves in your hair. It’s one of the things I like about you.”

Esa froze. Something about the warmth in his tone had taken her by surprise.

It had taken her by pleasant surprise. So pleasant that Esa had been caught with her guard down. First there had been a burning-hot desire followed by the playful antics of the children. To have such lighthearted pleasure and fun followed by that indefinable something in Finn’s voice just now…the indication that he liked more than one thing about her left Esa mentally spinning.

She wondered if he sensed the tension as well when he suddenly removed his hand and stood. He reached for her hand and pulled her up.

“How about we get some food after all that wrestling?”

“Wrestling, huh? Is that what they call it these days?” she asked, joining in his obvious effort to lighten the moment.

His deep laughter made her smile into the darkness. She couldn’t decide as they walked through the yard whether or not she was relieved or disappointed to be back in familiar territory with Finn.

Putting my post up early since I’ll be out of town. Click on the author links starting Saturday. Have a great weekend! For those of you just checking, I’d love to meet you in Lexington, Kentucky this Saturday for a book signing at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Check the bottom of my home page for details. Also, check beneath this post for the winner of Shiloh Walker’s book in the Friday book giveaway!

Vic started into wakefulness, surprised to see the gray light of dawn peeking around the blinds in his bedroom. It gratified him that he’d slept for a good majority of the night. The reason for his profound sleep was enfolded snugly in his arms at the moment.

He’d never really had to convince Niall with words to sleep in his bed that night. After they’d finally left her new condominium, exhausted and completely happy from their multiple rounds of phenomenal lovemaking, they’d ducked into a Thai restaurant for dinner. Vic had guessed from Niall’s heavy eyelids after she’d drank a glass of wine and devoured almost her entire portion of chicken pad thai that she wouldn’t be long for the waking world. So he’d suggested they watch a DVD together at his place and sure enough, within forty-five minutes he had an armful of soft, warm, sleeping woman.

Presently he nuzzled the hair at her nape and inhaled her scent. Maybe it was the dampness he found at her neck or maybe it had been the sensation of the tremors that periodically shook her body that had awakened him in the first place. Or perhaps the primitive part of his brain recognized the scent that mixed with the residual fresh, floral scent of Niall’s perfume.

It was the smell of fear.

His fingers skimmed along her neck and back. Sweat soaked through her t-shirt. She moaned in her sleep. The sound pained Vic on some deep, indefinable level.

“Niall. Wake up. Wake up, baby,” he murmured as he stroked her sides and pressed his lips against a flushed cheek. She whimpered, the noise reminding him of a trapped animal, both mournful and panicked at once.

He couldn’t stand it.

“Niall.”

She jumped in his arms.

“Vic?”

“You were dreaming,” he muttered close to her ear. He continued to rub her body along the length of her thigh to her ribs, attempting to soothe her. She moved restlessly in his arms and finally sat up. For a few seconds she just sat at the edge of his bed as her breathing slowed, her face shadowed by the dim light and her huddled posture. Neither of them spoke when she finally rose and went to the bathroom.

She returned to the bedside hesitantly a minute later. “I’m sorry for waking you,” she said in her low, smoky voice that seemed perfectly suited to the muted, gray light of dawn.

“I slept better last night than I have in weeks. You’ve got nothing to apologize for,” Vic told her when she perched on the edge of his bed. He wanted to reach out and pull her back into his arms. He wanted to keep her safe from whatever plagued her dreams. But something in her tense posture made him wary about touching her.

“Maybe I should just go,” she whispered.

“Don’t.”

He saw her head fall forward, sensed her uncertainty…her vulnerability.

“I’m all sweaty,” she murmured shakily.

“So we’ll take a shower in a little bit,” Vic stated with more ease than he actually felt. His jaw clenched when she still didn’t move. This dawn encounter with Niall struck him as heavy…threatening even, although why that should be he couldn’t say. The eerie mist of dreams must be clinging to him as well.

“I’m leaving for Manhattan later today,” he heard her whisper.

“You told me that you’re not taking off until four o’clock. There’s plenty of time. Niall?”

“Yes.”

“Come here,” he said softly.

It was only after she’d slid back into bed and was fast in his arms that he finally exhaled the burning air in his lungs.

Read an another excerpt from Wicked Burn
Order Wicked Burn

Click on the links below for other ‘emotions’ excerpts from these talented authors.
Jaci Burton
Eliza Gayle
Michelle Pillow
Mandy Roth
Juliana Stone
Lacey Savage
McKenna Jeffries
Moira Rogers
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Sasha White
Ashley Ladd
Victoria Janssen
Shelli Stevens
Shelley Munro
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane
Leah Braemel

#29, Paula. Congrats, Paula!

You have the weekend to write me at bethkery@aol.com with your address. Next week, I’ll be giving away a copy of Megan Hart’s Deeper!

Greetings! Since I’ll be leaving early tomorrow for the Lexington Book Signing, I’ll be announcing the winner of The Missing on Friday morning instead of afternoon. Please be sure to check over the weekend to see if you won, and then contact me at bethkery@aol.com!

Yes, it happened again. The Amazon gift certificate prize once again went unclaimed. If it isn’t claimed this time around, I’m going to roll it into my next contest, since it gets a bit discouraging and anti-climactic when you can’t even get the winner to claim the prize. Sigh.

The winner of the one hundred dollar Amazon gift certificate is entry number 25, Amy M! Amy, PLEASE write me at bethkery@aol to claim your prize. Also include your preferred email address to receive your e-gift card.

Okay, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you, Amy! Everyone else, remember that comments on any Beth Kery blog post between Monday and Friday qualify you to win a book on Friday. Which means–yes–you do need to check back over the weekend to see if you won. If I chased down one person for these contests, I’d have to do it for everyone, so I’m going to hold fast on that rule.

This week’s book–Shiloh Walker’s The Missing.

Hey all, Happy Monday! I’m busily writing away on Down and Dirty and listening to royalty free music for the Release video Lea is working on for me. :)

Just another reminder of my book signing in Lexington, KY next Saturday. See my home page for details.

I’m going to start doing a book giveaway every Friday afternoon. All you have to do to qualify to win is leave a comment at my blog anytime between Monday and when the winner is announced Friday at (around) 5 pm CST. You can comment as many times as you like, but only one comment per person will go into the pot. You have until Monday to contact me at bethkery@aol.com with your address, or I’ll choose another name. Pretty simple, but lots of fun!

This week, I’m giving away a copy of talented author Shiloh Walker’s The Missing.

A sinfully sexy novel of romantic suspense about a woman whose psychic gift drives away the man she loves—and years later draws him back to her…

Click here for excerpt and purchase information.

I just wanted to give a heads up that I’ll be in Lexington next weekend for a book signing. Here’s the address and information:

October 24, 2009
2-4 pm
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
161 Lexington Green Cir # B
Lexington, KY 40503-3325

If you can make it, tell me beforehand at bethkery@aol.com and I’ll look forward to seeing you and chatting!

I just got the thumbs up from my agent on a proposal I’ve done for a contemp series, one that’s very close to my heart. I’m really excited about it, and hope it goes okay in pitch-ville. Fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, I’m writing Down and Dirty–an erotic contemp for the Heat line that’s due in January and scheming out a plot-line for my second Princes of the Underground book–a paranormal vampire series, the first of which comes out next year from Samhain.

I kind of like having several projects going on at once, but I have to admit that when it comes to the last half to a third of a book, I have to focus exclusively on it alone.

What about you? Are you a sole-focuser-on-one-thing or do you like to juggle several balls at once?

Hi all! I haven’t gotten the cover yet for Holiday Bound, but I just did the webpage for it, so I thought you might like to have a sneak peek. I know it’s gloomy enough in Chicago today to start thinking about snow storms…and hot lovin’. :)

HOLIDAY BOUND
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Contemporary/Erotic
Length: Short Novel
Release date: December 1, 2009
Price: 4.50

The Oedipal Complex has never been so sexy…

Alex Carradine can’t believe his father wants to come and visit his ski resort. Could it be that after so many stormy years, “slick Mitch” Carridine wants to offer an olive branch? Maybe the old man is mellowing, settling down with the new lover he’s bringing along.

Then Alex realizes the acid truth. This is no warm family visit. His father’s latest conquest is none other than the woman of Alex’s sexual fantasies, meant only to dangle tauntingly in front of his face. At least an unexpected blizzard has frozen his father out of the picture entirely.

Angeline Kastakis was looking forward to taking the next step in her relationship with Mitch. Too late she realizes she’s been led into a familial battle zone. Now it’s Christmas and she’s marooned in a blizzard with an insolent, gorgeous hunk of man whose blazing blue eyes tell her loud and clear he wants her in his bed. Preferably tied to it with a bow.

There’s no escape in sight. But as Alex stirs her secret longing to be mastered by a man, escape is the last thing on her mind…

Excerpt:

She jumped in alarm when something thumped heavily on the window. A scream tickled her throat at the sight of the dark, hulking figure looming just inches away. Without thinking, she clicked the lock button. A great paw thumped on the window again. It took Angeline’s stunned brain a moment to realize the paw was covered in a black ski-glove. The frozen metal of her car door handle rattled.

“Unlock the damn door,” the monster-man growled.

Realizing her foolishness, Angeline hit the unlock button. The door swung open. He bent his tall form and glared at her briefly. Angeline had a fleeting impression of flashing, furious blue eyes and a scowl surrounded by a dark beard encrusted with ice crystals. She had to resist the urge to slam the door shut again.

“Can’t you read?” he demanded rudely.

“Eh…excuse me?” Angeline sputtered.

“This road is closed. What’d you do? Remove the barricade?”

“There wasn’t any barricade. I drove right up here, just like any poor, unsuspecting soul might—”

“Unsuspecting idiot,” he interrupted. He straightened. “Apparently you’re the one person on the planet who doesn’t know we’re in the midst of a sleet storm with a blizzard to follow. This road is dangerous.”

“You’re telling me that?”

“Come on,” he said tersely, ignoring her heated outburst. “It’s getting dark. I don’t want to be wandering around this skating rink in the pitch black.”

Angeline hesitated. She didn’t relish the idea of going with this intimidating, rude, bear of a man any more than she did trekking up the mountain alone in search of the resort.

“That’s all right. Thank you. I’ll just follow the road up to Heavenly View. You needn’t bother yourself. I’ll be fine.”

“That’s doubtful, considering the resort is shut down.”

“Shut down? How do you know?”

“Because I own the place. Like I said, this road is dangerous. I don’t want people risking their necks on it. Are you coming or not?”

Angeline swallowed back her retort in the face of his rudeness. She shouldn’t have been surprised that she spoke to Alex Carradine in person. The male outside her door was huge, and hadn’t Mitchell said his son won a football scholarship to Princeton? She should have expected he’d be built like a linebacker—or a bear, which he resembled presently in his insulated, hip-length black ski jacket and black knit hat.

She tossed her keys and phone into her purse and clambered out of the SUV. She threw his large, shadowed form a dark look as she slammed the door, although she doubted he could see it in the encroaching gloom.

“Where are we going?”

“To my house,” he said as he turned and started to walk through two feet of snow, his boots making a cracking sound as he broke the thin layer of ice on top. Angeline plunged in after him, glad he didn’t notice when she nearly did a face plant on her slippery first step.

“You don’t live up at the resort?”

“No.”

“Pleasant sort,” Angeline muttered under her breath when he didn’t say anything else, just continued to stalk through the deep snow on long legs.

“Could you slow down, please?” she called out irritably after several minutes. She’d been trying desperately to keep up, placing her feet in the holes his boots had left in the snow, but as darkness fell, it became increasingly difficult to see his footprints. Besides, she was getting winded from the pace he’d set. He paused and turned to look at her.

“I told you I wanted to make it back before dark.”

“Thank you, I heard you. But if you keep going so fast, you’ll get too far ahead for me to see where you’re going. I’ll be lost out here,” she explained slowly, like she was talking to a second grader. He must have taken too many hits to the head in the backfield, Angeline decided. It was a miracle he’d been so successful in his career as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade. Mitchell had certainly implied on several occasions that his only son was thicker than refrigerated molasses.

“Better keep up, then,” he informed her.

Angeline made a sound of disbelief and just stared as his big shadow began to recede. When she realized he was fading from her vision, she plowed into the snow after him. She had to focus all her energy on not falling. The temperature was dropping and the sheet of ice on the snow was becoming increasingly hard to break. The icy pellets that had been stinging her nose and cheeks had altered to large flakes of swirling snow. Thank God she’d just come from her parents’ farm and not straight from work, or else she might have been wearing a pair of stilettos instead of the practical boots she sported.

She could just imagine what Mitchell Carradine’s taciturn son would have to say about her wearing heels. Probably accuse her of being a fashionable idiot—

“Ugh,” she grunted into Alex’s back after he halted abruptly. She bounced off him. The man was as solid as a brick wall. “What did you stop for?”

“We’re here,” he muttered.

Angeline blinked and strained to look around his massive shoulders. She saw the outlines of a dark structure, but couldn’t make out any detail. It took her a moment to realize Alex had opened a door and moved inside. She stumbled after him, catching her foot on the threshold and tripping heavily on some kind of hard flooring, catching herself at the last moment.

“Can’t you turn on a light?” She squinted into the darkness.

“I could—if the electricity wasn’t out,” he muttered dryly. “The ice is weighing down the tree branches and they are falling on the power lines. Weren’t you wondering why it was so dark coming up the hill?”

“I wondered, all right. I just thought the owner was a sadistic cheap-wad who—”

She stopped when she recalled she was speaking to the owner of Heavenly View Ski Resort.

A single flame flared. Alex held a long match to the wick of a kerosene lamp. It lit his countenance in a fiery glow, giving Angeline her first real look at him. His face looked intimidating in the flickering shadows…like it’d been carved from rock. His slanted brows and dark facial hair gave him a demonic look. She shivered when he turned to look in her direction.

While Mitchell was all urbane sophistication, his son was rough-hewn and intimidating.

“Take off your stuff. You’re all wet,” he ordered. He tore at the laces of his boots and unceremoniously kicked them off. He whisked off his knit hat and tossed it on what appeared to be a worktable covered with neatly organized tools and storage bins. Angeline glanced around the dim, cold room, realizing they were in a garage. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that he had unzipped his coat and whipped it over his shoulders. Angeline turned, the image of rippling muscle snagging her gaze. She gasped.

He glanced down bemusedly at his bare chest.

“I was using up the last of the hot water when I heard your wheels spinning. The bathroom is at the end of the hall and faces east. Good thing I was in the shower, or I might never have heard you.” He picked up the lantern and nodded impatiently at her coat.

Angeline peeled her eyes off a glorious spread of male flesh. He was large all right, but his insulated coat had disguised the fact that he was also lean, sinewy…

…and beautiful, in a primitive, Spartan warrior, take no prisoners kind of way.

The thought made her tear at the buttons on her coat hastily, as though action would help chase it away. How old did Mitchell say Alex was? Had he ever said? In her imagination, she’d always pictured him as the overgrown, rebellious teenager, the type who just wouldn’t accept adult responsibility.

But the brooding, somber man who pinned her with a palpable stare while she awkwardly removed her ice-encrusted boots hardly called to mind Peter Pan.

She’d always suspected that Mitchell was quite proud of the fact that, at age 55, he drew stares of longing from females and envious glances from younger males in their prime. He’d certainly seemed pleased by her look of amazement when he’d told her his age. She’d have guessed he was ten years younger if she were going by appearance alone. As a name partner in one of the largest, most successful law firms in the city, Mitchell had it all—the power and confidence of an older, seasoned man along with the athletic build and face of a younger one.

She’d assumed Alex was in his mid-twenties.

She’d assumed wrong, she admitted as she glanced up anxiously between damp lashes to catch a glimpse of the imposing man who stood so close. He was probably in his early thirties, if not older.

He was older than her.

The realization unsettled her for some reason.

“Has your father called? I couldn’t reach him, my cell phone isn’t getting any service here.” She pushed back her hood and slid her wool coat off her shoulders.

What he did next startled her, even though she was getting used to being surprised by Alex Carradine. He stepped toward her and placed his chilled fingers on her chin. He tilted up her face. Her lips parted in amazement as he held up the lantern to study her with a narrowed gaze.

“Angeline Kastakis.”

“That’s right. I thought… I thought you knew it was me when you first saw me,” she said, even though it was clear he’d just now realized she was his father’s girlfriend. She could read his expression in the dim light as easily as she could interpret hieroglyphics. She glanced down, made uneasy by his relentless stare. Mitchell had the manners of a prince. How could his son possibly be so rude…so rough?

“My father’s girlfriend is Angeline Kastakis,” he said in a deadpan voice. Her confusion amplified when his rock-like expression broke. White teeth flashed in his swarthy face. The abrupt alteration—the sheer power of his sudden smile—made her take a step back.

His brows rose at her show of wariness and he gave a sharp bark of laughter.

“He said you weren’t his type.”

Angeline froze. “What?”

His glittering eyes swept down over her body. “Not a petite little doll,” he added, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Angeline couldn’t believe his nerve…his meanness. “Are you trying to imply that Mitchell has been talking about me behind my back? To you?”

His expression went cold once again. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. He said it four years ago. The old man’s had plenty of time to change his mind and decide he likes ’em built like an Amazon. Come on. I’m gonna have a hell of a time keeping Daddy’s girl warm for the next few days.”
*******
Holiday Bound
December 1 from Samhain Publishing