I love having good news or something exciting to share. Today is definitely exciting. I'm sharing the sneak peak of my artist friend Joanne Renaud's sketch for the painting she is doing for me based on my paranormal christmas menage story called A Midnight Clear.
The story is not yet available (I'm gearing up to send it to my editor soon). But I thought I'd post an excerpt, blurb and the sketch of course!
Here's the blurb:
Zoey Blake is down on her luck. After losing her parents in
a car crash and having to drop out of college in order to make ends meet, she
finds she cannot afford the basics of life and is left living on the streets
without a morsel of food to sustain her. When she is fatally attacked by
another homeless person just a week before Christmas, she is rescued by a
mysterious stranger named Ian.
Ian
Kennedy, a century old Irish vampire, can’t resist rescuing a stray, especially
if that stray is a beautiful young woman fallen on hard times. Wanting to take
care of her like the stray cats he’s saved over the years, he brings her to his
home. However, he underestimates Zoey. As a flesh and blood woman who is both
beautiful and sensual, she tempts him to fall in love with her sweet nature and
warm heart. He is all for seducing her, but there’s just one problem. His best
friend and fellow vampire, Connor made him swear a vow decades ago: no more
mortal lovers.
Connor
O’Shea has never forgotten his one true love, Lara. He and Ian, close as
brothers, had shared Lara’s bed together without jealousy. But when another
vampire from their past murdered her, Connor swore never to let a mortal woman
pay the price for loving him. That is until he sees…and kisses …Zoey. With a
heart of gold and a stubbornness to rival his own, Zoey is just the sort of
woman to make him break every vow he’s ever made, especially when it comes to
love.
As
Christmas draws near, Zoey struggles to accept the loss of her parents and the
life she once had and she wonders if she can ever find happiness again. Connor
and Ian unite forces, determined to prove to her that love is something sacred
and special and something they all can share.
Here's the sketch!!
Here's an excerpt:
Ian was a vampire.
Zoey blinked, her brain short circuiting as she tried to process his words and
failed.
“Oh my God. He bit me! Am I going to turn into
one?”
Ian’s face was
suddenly above hers, his hands on her neck, her legs, everywhere as he checked
her for injury.
“No, lass, no. You
won’t become a vampire.”
Relief surged
through her. She was safe with him.
“Connor, you
damned fool. What are you doing biting her?” he snarled.
The other man,
Connor, she’d been right to assume, shifted uneasily by the door, his hair wild
from her hands running through it.
“You left me a
voicemail. Said she was my dinner and I had to scare her.”
“What? That’s not
what I said you idiot!” Ian scooped Zoey up into his arms. She burrowed into
him instinctively. The remnants of her climax still rippled through her in tiny
aftershocks and his strong arms absorbed her trembling.
“Ian…” Connor
growled back.
“I said I had a
guest and was bringing her dinner. I warned you to be sure not to scare her.
Bloody hell man, she’ll never forgive me, not after you attacked her.” Ian
exited the bedroom and started down the hall towards the living room where he
settled her on the leather couch and grabbed a heavy thick blanket and he
tucked it around her. Connor followed at a distance, eyes avoiding Zoey. That
irritated her, not that she could say why exactly.
“Ian, I’m sorry.
The message cut out in places. I thought I heard what I heard. I didn’t know.
It’s clear she’s your dinner. I didn’t realize you were bringing them home
again. You usually eat out.”
Ian, who had been
brushing hair back from Zoey’s face, tensed. His eyes caught hers and held
before he spoke to Connor.
“She’s not my
dinner. She’s just a woman who’s in need of some help. I offered her a place to
stay and to get her some food.” He pointed to the kitchen countertop which had
several take out bags from the nearby restaurants.
The aroma of the
food drifted beneath Zoey’s nose, and her mouth watered. Hunger hit her stomach
with the violence of a physical blow, and she tensed in Ian’s arms. Food. God,
she was ravenous. She’d quite forgotten it when she’d been beneath Connor in
his bed. Her eyes strayed to the kitchen where the food was. It took every
ounce of self-control not to run straight at the food. Somehow she knew making
sudden movements in front of Connor, a vampire, might be a bad idea.
A vampire. She still had to process
that, but she could do that later, when her stomach was full.
“Who is she, Ian?”
“Her name is Zoey
Blake.” Ian moved so that he lifted her up and sat back on the couch with her
in his lap.
It probably should
have bothered her that he just moved her about and picked her up without
asking. But she liked that he simply took control and more importantly, that he
seemed to enjoy keeping her close. Even despite the allure of food she was
reluctant to leave his arms.
“And why did you
bring Zoey here?” Connor’s eyes narrowed to slits.
The very air about
them seemed to vibrate, like someone had just plucked the strings of a harp and
the sound waves still traveled silently along the air. The hair on Zoey’s neck
rose and her skin tingled with awareness of the two men and the situation.
“She has nowhere else to go,” Ian
rushed on. “The lass lost her family,
her home. When I discovered her, she was dying in an alley where some whoreson
had attacked her.” His voice was full of quiet desperation, but tinged with an
edge of defiance.
Connor’s full lips
twisted in a bitter sneer. “So you’d thought you’d bring her home and play the
nursemaid? What about your promise to me? No more mortal lovers. Not after what
happened to Lara.”
Zoey stiffened. Mortal lover? “Who’s Lara?” She glanced up
at Ian. The movement brushed her lips across the line of his jaw. He tensed,
chest and arm muscles hardening. The sudden bulge beneath her bottom had her
blushing.
“You test me,
love. Be careful.” His warm breath stirred the crown of her hair, eliciting
little shivers from her. “Connor, she stays. Get used to the idea. She’s mine,
and I will care for her. You are welcome to help, but do not make me choose
between you. I will pick her. We swore once to protect the innocent. Zoey is as
innocent as they come.”
“Hey! I’m not that innocent.” She was
no stranger to sex – there had been a few boys through college before she was
forced to drop out, and even if it had been a few years, she remembered the
mechanics of it. Even if she’d been celibate lately, she’d still had her share
of beyond wicked fantasies, her current ones featuring the pair of men both
staring at her.
Connor snorted.
“Right. You’re as green as the grass near Belfast.”
“I’m not sure what
that means,” Zoey shot back a tad uncertain but still riled enough to glower at
him. “But I think I’m insulted.”
Ian chuckled, but
it soon died when she glared up at him with all the fury a woman could muster
against a handsome vampire, which was apparently enough to make his eyes
twinkle despite his lack of a smile. She turned her glower towards Connor, hoping
to have a better effect.
“Don’t argue with
me, pet,” Connor growled. “I’m liable to turn you over my knee and smack your
arse until it’s a lovely shade of red.”
“You’re not to
touch her.” Ian shielded her with his arms protectively, but she wasn’t scared.
Connor’s threat had her body heating and the promise of his hand on her ass,
even in punishment, melted her insides. She needed help. This was so wrong. She
shouldn’t want him to spank her, and it sure as hell shouldn’t have aroused
her.
Connor spun away
and slammed his hands down on the granite kitchen countertop. His head dropped
between his hunched shoulders.
Ian shifted her
off his lap onto the other side of the couch as put his body between her and his
friend’s. “Connor?”
She gazed steadily
at the other man’s back, the tension rolled off him in waves. She couldn’t help
but remember their encounter minutes before when he’d had her on her back in
his bed. There hadn’t been any tension there, only passion. Her surrender, his
domination and a sexual release the likes of which she’d never felt before. Her
womb clenched at the mere memory of his fingers pumping inside her. She
suddenly remembered she was in Ian’s arms. She raised her head and saw his
nostrils flaring. Surely he couldn’t…smell her arousal.
Please god, I hope not.
“She’s helpless,
Connor. I refuse to put her back out onto the streets. She was dying when I
found her.”
Connor finally
turned back to face them. “She’s another stray. Like your wee cats. But you
can’t keep her, Ian. She’s a human, not an animal.”
Ian’s shoulders
stiffened and a low growl vibrated from the back of his throat. Her hackles
rose, and she suddenly realized Ian was just as dangerous as Connor was,
although he’d hidden it from her with his outward gentleness.
As the words
permeated through her hungry mind, she felt a sudden stab of anger, and the
prickling of tears behind her eyes. Why hadn’t she seen it before? She would
have, she argued to herself, if she hadn’t been so hungry. She was a pity case
to this man. Ian didn’t look at her with passion – he looked at her with pity.
She’d mistaken his intentions in the bathroom earlier when he’d kissed her, men
did that didn’t they? Sleep with women they pitied? And the hurt of that
thought wracked her insides with an angry sadness that choked her. Zoey was too
angry to say a word, the violent emotions ripped through her and she didn’t
dare open her mouth, otherwise she’d say a thousand things she’d regret.
With a growl, Connor
looked away.
“You should have
let nature run its course. We cannot save every mortal we come across.”
Hope you all enjoyed the post! Please feel free to share your thoughts! AND STAYED TUNED...When the finished painting is completed I will be giving away a copy of my paranormal Novella, a signed piece of Scene Art from A Midnight Clear and a first chapter sneak peek of the story!
