Category Archives: ebooks

It’s a Perfectly Naughty Trifecta!

I have a new book out—the sequel to Five Ways ‘Til Sunday
and Fournicopia! Check it out! ~DD

Playing with pain can put you in a world of hurt…or bliss.

Delta Heat, Book 3

Playing switch in front of a La Forge BDSM club audience was supposed to be a one-time fling. A favor for a friend. Instead, when Craig Eason realizes he’s caught the attention of an enigmatic, powerful Dom across the crowded room, he senses this could be the man he’s been looking for to test the boundaries of his own sexuality.

Firefighter Aiden Byrne is a very private man with strong S&M longings he keeps in check for everyone else’s safety. His sub, Jennifer Callum, thinks she likes it rough, but he can’t let go the way he’d like to. Until one defiant stare from the handsome cop on the La Forge stage causes Aiden’s most dangerous needs to uncoil from the deepest, darkest part of his soul.

With the blessing—and active involvement—of his sub, a seduction is set in motion that ends in a scene that shakes them all to the core…

Warning: Contains a powerful, burly firefighter who plans to take everything a hot cop thinks he knows about himself and send it up in smoke. Please replace the batteries in all your smoke detectors before reading this book. Contains scenes with m/m/f, m/m, spanking, flogging, restraints, and one wild orgy of pleasure.

Read an excerpt
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Buy at Samhain

Sometimes, you just want to smile…

I didn’t start out writing sexy books. In fact, I didn’t start our writing alone. I partnered with my sister through five books until we gained confidence and stepped out on our own. However, the four books we left languishing continued to nag at us. We knew there would be a right time to bring them out from under the bed and polish them into blindingly shiny shape.

Luckily, readers are finding the first story and loving it.

“Wildly funny – Surprisingly Sweet!” “A Great Romantic Comedy” “…You’re laughing ’til almost crying…”

But don’t take my word for it. Click on the cover and read what else they had to say.

See what happens when a secret billionaire and an aspiring actress get a little wild in Texas.


A man with a soft spot for women…

Closet Texas millionaire, Tanner Peschke has three months to prove he can make a profit at the family used car dealership or he will lose his job, disappoint his father and break his promise to his dying mother. The root of his problem is women. He can’t resist them–any of them. All it takes is the scent of delicate perfume or a misty-eyed gaze from an elderly woman with a sob story, and he becomes silly putty in the hands of his feminine customers. Until, with a stroke of luck and a buck of a mechanical bull, he hires Janine Davis to star with him in the dealership’s live TV ads.

A woman who won’t let a handsome cowboy get in the way of her dream…

Determined to make a name for herself, Janine needs to pay the bills between acting jobs. The offer to do a series of commercials for Peschke Motors is a chance to get her face “out there”. Recognizing a player when she sees one, Janine agrees to co-star with her handsome employer fully intending to keep their relationship strictly professional. First break she gets, she’s heading to Hollywood.

Their jungle-themed commercials take a crazy twist, and Tanner finds himself falling…from a sales banner while chasing a monkey. But more importantly, he’s falling for Janine. She’s just the one woman to tame this cowboy’s wild heart. Convincing her to stay with him might be harder than catching a mischievous monkey.

A Cornucopia of Naughty

I like titles.

Sometimes, I’m lucky enough to hit upon a title that spins the whole story. Five Ways ‘Til Sunday and its sequel, Fournicopia, are two prime examples.

Not that I didn’t know before I started that the stories would revolve around a group of guys, best friends, who happened to Memphis cops. But really, that’s all I had when I started. That, and an idea of a countdown, a smorgasbord of wicked delights, where each man met his match, plucked by love one at a time.

In Five Ways, I had the title, then happened to glance at my personal “vision board” where my bucket list is pinned. Mine includes all the places I want to see, the family experiences I want to share before I die. But what about sexual experiences? Could my heroine have her own naughty little bucket list? From there, the story wrote itself.

Fournicopia came from me doodling titles on a piece of paper. What could I use that had  the word “four” in it. Well, none that satisfied me. Then a slip of the tongue as I was playing with words, gave me the idea. Fournicopia—a morphing of “cornucopia” (a horn of plenty—now there’s a visual!) and “fornication”…

I never said I was into subtle.

Forget the sugar. Send her the spice.

Delta Heat, Book 2

Gus Taggert knows a setup when he sees one. The doughnut shop his police officer buddies have sent him to, Cornucopia, is too frilly. Too pink. Then the woman behind the counter serves up a mini-lesson in submission that leaves him ready and willing to obey her order to see her tonight at La Forge BDSM club.

The large, burly cop is exactly the kind of alpha guy that newly minted Domme Aislinn Darby has been dying to tie up and spank. Yet after she puts him through his paces, she finds herself eager to let him take control—something she’s never before enjoyed with a man.

Determined to find out once and for all if she has what it takes to control a scene, she orders him up for one more go. Only this time, she intends to ensure he remembers who’s in charge. She’s even willing to offer a little bribe: accept her dictates, and his reward is her—any way he wants her.

Except when it’s time for payback, it comes with several twists she never saw coming.

Warning: When a male sub decides to turn the tables on his pretty Domme, he calls for backup from his best friends. Contains scenes with m/m/f, m/f/m, f/f, spanking, restraints, and an orgy of pleasure no woman can resist. 

 

Gus Taggert knew it was a cliché. A cop in a doughnut shop. The officers waiting for him to arrive for the sergeant’s morning meeting didn’t like making the run because of the inevitable roll of the eyes or smartass grin they’d get standing in line.

However, he didn’t mind being the “doughnut guy”. The plus for being the brunt of any jokes was that he ate for free. That was okay with him. He took any pointed looks or lame jokes in stride. He was an affable guy. Hard to rile.

He’d learned long ago to stifle his anger and look for the good in people, even when they messed up. Being oversized and strong, he’d always had to be more careful throwing his weight around. People could get hurt, and that wasn’t why he’d been drawn to law enforcement. He wasn’t a bully in a uniform.

Gus liked being a cop. Liked what it stood for. Loved the dark navy uniform and the camaraderie of his brother cops. He didn’t mind that his closest buds were all moving on to bigger and better things. He liked being a beat cop. Liked patrolling the neighborhood he lived in and getting to know the people he protected.

His father had been a small-town cop, and his father before him had been the sheriff of their little Arkansas berg. But then his mom had moved to Memphis—not because she’d wanted to, but because when his mom and dad divorced, she’d wanted to start fresh where everyone didn’t know her business and didn’t whisper to her ex about who she was seeing next.

Gus had missed his old school and friends, but had a natural gift for making new ones. That he was big and brawny, quick on his feet despite his size, had made him a natural for the football team.

And that’s where he’d met Jackson Teague and Craig Eason, who surprisingly enough wanted to be cops, too, when they graduated.

They’d all gone to college together, applied for the police academy and been accepted. That’s where they’d met the remaining members of their current posse, Beau McIntyre and Mondo Acevedo.

So, Gus was never lonely. He had his peeps, a job he loved, a city that kept him on his toes. And today, he was on his way to explore a new doughnut shop.

Mondo, although now in vice and no longer attending the station-house morning meetings, had given him a roll of bills the night before. “Treat the guys to doughnuts. On me.”

Gus had glanced at the roll. “This is too much.”

“Not for the place I want you to go.”

He should have known from the gleam in Mondo’s dark brown eyes that something was up, but Gus liked to think the best of people. Maybe Mondo really did just want to treat the guys to something special.

Well, it was special all right. Not like any doughnut shop Gus had ever seen before. He stood on the street in front of the small store front, eyeing the painted glass window with its pink awning, and felt the first rumbles of misgiving.

Cornucopia. He’d had to Google it the night before to get the address and see what the name meant. A horn of plenty. A familiar Thanksgiving ornament. But there weren’t ears of corn or squashes spilling from the dark pink horn painted on the glass. Doughnuts looking like Christmas presents, painted with ribbons and sparkling with stars, spilled from the mouth of the horn.

All the pink and frothy cuteness made him itch. However, he’d been given a wad of cash and a mission to buy a couple dozen doughnuts from this specific shop. For once, his face burned at the idea.

Hitching up his utility belt, he blew out a deep breath that billowed his cheeks, and pushed the glass door. A bell at the top tinkled.

Inside, the shop was pretty much what he’d expected—pale purple tiled flooring, white-painted iron bistro tables, boxes decorated in frou-frou paper and ribbons stacked at one end of the sparkling clean glass-front counter.

Thankfully, the shop was empty. Maybe he could back out, say it’d been closed when he came by, and he could hit a Dunkin’ Donuts on the way to the station house.

As soon as he’d made up his mind to leave, he heard a stirring from the back, and rather than be caught with one foot still on the sidewalk outside like he was scared to come in, he stepped through the door and held the bell so it didn’t chime again.

“Have a thing for bells?” came a husky feminine voice.

His gaze darted back to the counter, his cheeks filling with heat. A woman stood there, every bit as pretty and dainty as her little shop, with dark red hair, pale-as-dinner-china white cheeks and large brown eyes. The kind of woman he avoided like the plague because he always felt like a lumbering bear beside them.

What had she asked? Oh, yeah, the bells. He didn’t have a thing for them, he’d only wanted to be quiet and not charge into the place like a bull in a china shop. “No, ma’am.”

“That’s a nice start,” she said, her voice dropping again into a sexy, shivering whisper.

Gus’s cheeks burned hotter, because he knew she’d just made a joke and he didn’t understand it. Further, meeting her amused gaze proved surprisingly difficult. He had the urge to duck his head. To wait for permission to come closer.

Her amusement faded. “Come in, officer,” she said with brisk efficiency. “Can I help you with something?”

He cleared his throat, scuffed his boots on the doormat, like that was why he’d paused coming in, and stepped deeper inside the shop. “I’m just here to buy some doughnuts.”

“I don’t sell just doughnuts.” Her voice sharpened.

Had he insulted her somehow? He came closer to the counter. “They’re pretty doughnuts.”

“I’m a trained pastry chef. These are gourmet doughnuts.”

Like he’d said, they were pretty, but he didn’t get what it was she expected him to say. He thrust his hand into his pocket and took out the roll of bills Mondo had given him. “Mondo said you’d fix me up.”

“Mondo…” Her eyes sparkled for a moment, then narrowed. “Show me which you’re interested in.”

He reached out to point at one confection sitting on a tray atop the glass counter. The doughnut looked more like a pretty cupcake and was covered in glaze with star-shaped silver beads glinting on the top. “Some of these?”

Her hand shot out and slapped the top of his. Not hard, but the loud crack it made startled him. “Ma’am?” he asked, startled she’d dared smack an officer of the law.

Enter a Dark World…

Check the comments for the name of the winner! ~DD

* * *

Do you like a dash of scary with the your paranormal. How about heaping tablespoon of kink? Then here’s a series for you. Femme Noir. Even if you don’t think you’d like a strictly f/f book, these will surprise you, tempt you. And the stories are just too damn intriguing for you not to want more.

Post a comment, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free download of the first book in this series, Bitten in the Big Easy. I’ll post the winner here on Friday!

Here’s a snippet from the just released, Charmed in the Big Easy

From “The Mambo’s Door”, part 2 of Charmed:

Ingrid Kassel is a fledgling witch, uncertain and not in complete control of her powers, especially after drinking a double-shot of vampire blood. With the same instructions as MeLeah—retrieve an object buried with a daughter of the Voodoo Queen—she angers the spirit guarding the tomb and finds herself entering a shadowy limbo, where she meets beautiful Marie, living in fear of a demon who also desires the black magic candle infused with the powerful mambo’s blood. In desperation, Marie tricks Ingrid, capturing her and seducing her to charge the candle for her own bid for freedom.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Marie sat on the rickety wooden porch that stretched the length of the cabin on stilts, watching the path atop the narrow bern as she did most days. The bayou was quiet, something that calmed her mind and heart after a night of terrors. She wished she could sleep, to dream of another time, another place. To relive the past and pretend she still had time to change her destiny.

But those who lived in this realm never slept. And daydreams took on lives of their own. So she watched, her eyes unblinking, gazing down the narrow path leading deeper into the dark waters.

For a moment she thought maybe she had drifted into a dream, because the figure striding boldly down the path wasn’t familiar, didn’t belong. It wasn’t Baron Samedi with his top hat perched jauntily on his head, ready to deliver another warning with a smile and his dead eyes.

No, it was a woman, a pretty one, dressed like a man, wearing dark trousers and a shirt that hugged her small breasts. A hat covered her hair, but blonde strands hung beside her face—her very red, sweaty face.

The woman strode toward her porch, not stopping until she stood at the base of her steps. “You Marie?” she asked, tilting back her head.

Marie sat very still, clutching the arms of her rocking chair. A new voice. A new face. A pretty woman. Was this one of the baron’s many tests? She unglued her tongue from where it was stuck to the top of her dry mouth. “Oui. I am. Who asks?”

The woman’s crystal-blue eyes sparkled with life. Her furrowed brows bespoke impatience. “Ingrid Kassel,” she said, her voice brisk. “You have something I need.”

“As do you, chérie,” Marie said, a smile tugging at her mouth. Something she hadn’t done in a long time, but the look of irritation on the woman’s face told her this wasn’t some dead-eyed phantom sent by the loa of this limbo-land.

Ingrid, Marie repeated silently. Not a pretty name. It was as rigid as the woman’s militant posture. Still, the blonde was real, warm, breathing—and so attractive that long-dormant desires stirred inside Marie.

Who was she? What was she doing here? The woman’s pale face and wheat-colored hair betrayed Nordic origins. Why had she not been consigned to their realm, to frigid Hel? Had she somehow angered the baron on her journey to death? Or had she committed some great crime against him? Best to be careful.

“What do you seek?”

“A talisman. A candle your mother gave you.”

Marie startled. “Well, you can’t have it. The candle’s powerful magick. It’s best it stays with me.” The candle was her only weapon, her only hope. This woman would have to pry it from her cold, dead fingers.

Oh yes—she was already dead.

Marie’s interest in the woman was piqued. Her ennui lifted. She rarely had visitors. And to have someone asking about the candle… She wondered again if the baron was trying to get her prize. If so, he was destined to be disappointed. Again.

She grinned at pretty Ingrid’s reddening face.

“I’ve come a long way to find you.”

“Then you must be tired,” Marie drawled. “Why not rest on my porch?”

Ingrid blew an exasperated breath. “Marie Laveau. That’s you, right? The second one?”

What did the girl know? Did she know that “little Marie” had borrowed her mother’s fame, even impersonated her to increase her reputation and the heft of her purse? All without any true calling. Not like her mother had possessed.

“I’m the daughter,” she said with a nod.

The woman climbed three steps. “You performed good works, for the benefit of the people of New Orleans. You’d be doing that again—if you gave me the candle.”

Oh, Marie had performed all right. She’d given grand displays before thousands, using magicians’ tricks to fool the masses. She’d made impotent love potions, performed exorcisms on the mad. For money.

“What great calamity has sent you to this realm?”

“A vampire, Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess herself, is in New Orleans. And she’s using witches, turning them into her minions to increase her powers. We think she intends a bloodbath. To turn the city into her personal hunting ground.”

“I’ve never heard of her. And she’s only a vampire, not a god. She has weaknesses the livin’ can exploit.”

“She’s using magick. There’s no telling what she can do now. We must stop her.”

“We?” Marie said, raising a brow.

“My coven sisters and myself.”

“You seem to be forgettin’ somethin’, gal.”

Ingrid’s sudden exhale billowed her cheeks. “What’s that? Do you need tribute, too?”

Marie swept aside her question. “You’re dead. How can you hope to deliver any talisman to your sisters when you’re trapped here?”

“But I’m not dead. I entreated Ma’man Brigit to open your tomb so I could find the candle. This is where she led me.”

Marie held still while Ingrid’s words churned inside her mind. “You’re livin’? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“I swear it’s true.” Ingrid climbed another step and held out her hand. “You can touch me if you don’t believe it.”

Marie ignored the pale hand. “You can touch me, too. It tells me nothin’.”

Ingrid dropped her hand and rubbed it against the side of her trousers. “You have powers. Use them to discern whether I’m telling you the truth.”

It was on the tip of Marie’s tongue to tell her she didn’t possess any powers or supernatural talents. She wasn’t her mother.

However, the woman standing in front of her did. Perhaps this was her chance to charge the candle and use it for her own purpose.

“You’re a rude woman,” Marie said, hardening her face. “You demand somethin’ from me, somethin’ precious, and yet you offer me nothin’ in return.”

“I don’t have anything to give you.” Ingrid’s mouth clamped shut, then opened again with a quick, inward breath. “Oh, except a flashlight that doesn’t work,” she said, drawing something out of her back pocket.

Marie had no idea what a flashlight was. She gave a dismissive wave toward the cylindrical item the pale woman clutched. “I been alone in this small house for a long time. I have few guests.” Unless you counted the undead things that surrounded her tiny cabin in the darkness. “I can make you tea. You can rest.” She let her gaze slip down the lithe body of the young woman. “Perhaps we can negotiate a price.”

Ingrid’s eyebrows shot skyward. “I don’t have time for this.”

Marie snorted. “Time has no meanin’ here. You have all the time you need.”

The blonde’s head shook. “I don’t understand.”

Marie glanced across the clearing toward the darkening bayou. “Darkness comes. When the light fades, you must be inside this house or you’ll die of a certainty.”

Ingrid darted a nervous glance behind her. “What happens when it gets dark?”

“Do you know where you’ve come?” Marie asked softly, using the voice that had enticed thousands into believing she was magickal.

“Not really.”

“This be neither heaven nor hell.”

“Purgatory?”

“A place of atonement. A place where one learns lessons and where one is judged before movin’ on to her destination.”

Ingrid’s eyes softened in concern. “You’ve been here a long time.”

“There be no long or short time here. Did you not hear me, gal? Time here is measured by light and darkness, just as it is in the land of the livin’. But it has no meanin’. If I meet my maman in some far-off day, she won’t know I lived decades after her death. I died a much older woman than what you see now.”

The softness faded, replaced again with an impatient scowl. “I really don’t have time for this. If it’s going to be dark soon, I need that candle now.”

The sounds of insects—flies and crickets—began to rise. Rustling in the darkest parts of the forest changed to large crashes. Gentle, lapping waves became agitated splashes.

Ingrid looked behind her. “What was that?”

“Night has come. Come inside now!”

“The tomb I came through isn’t far.”

“You won’t make it. Come inside, gal.”

Night fell in an instant, like a curtain suddenly lowering. Marie shoved off her chair, waved a hand in front of her to find the woman, and gripped her arm to pull her up the stoop and through the doorway just as the first of the creatures screeched from the forest’s edge.

Their Virgin’s Secret

Their Virgin’s Secret
Contemporary Erotic Romance/Menage a trois

Release Date: Dec 24, 2011

Order: Coming soon!
Download eBook: Epub/Sone/others | Kindle | Kindle UK | Nook | All Romance eBooks

Two Men on a Mission

Security Professionals Burke and Cole Lennox have shared women before but never meant to fall in love with one. Their lives are precarious, always on the edge of trouble. But Jessa Wade is too tempting, too perfect to let go. They’re on a dangerous mission, but they can’t help but get close to the beautiful, innocent artist. When their mission takes them to a foreign land, they reluctantly leave their love behind, promising to return for her one day.

A Woman with a Secret

After her lovers disappeared, Jessa Wade bravely moves on with her life, protecting her secret. But when she becomes the target of one of Burke and Cole’s enemies, the men leap into action, vowing to save their woman and to never leave again. As danger stalks all three, they must come together and face the mistakes of their past. On the run and out of time, Burke and Cole will fight for their future with Jessa. But will Jessa’s secret bring them together…or tear them apart?

Read Excerpt

Amazon Big Deal $1.99

Now just $1.99 on Kindle until December 3rd!

PASSION FOR THE GAME

For the notorious Lady Winter, seduction and duplicity are required to survive. Cunning and precision are the tools of pirate Christopher St. John. Pitted against one another, they are a surprise waiting to happen…

Set a criminal to catch a criminal

Christopher St. John and Maria, Lady Winter are infamous in Society for their misdeeds and their charming allures. Wherever they go, scandalized whispers and covetous glances follow. A ruthless pirate and a widow whose two husbands have met untimely deaths, the wickedly renowned figures are even more intriguing to the authorities. Now they’ve been set on the most provocative of tasks–St. John is released from prison to learn the “Wintry Widow’s” intimate secrets, while Lady Winter is charged with performing a similar deception in reverse. One will succeed. One will hang.

From ballroom to bedroom, they’re perfectly matched

With the fate of loved ones in the balance, the unlikely couple embarks upon a battle of wills and wits that takes them from glittering ballrooms to the depths of the underworld to the candlelit pleasures of the bedroom. As they fall helpless to a desire and startling affinity neither expected, the deadly web of their subterfuge closes in, forcing them to make a choice. Individual freedom? Or an audacious scheme to keep an impossible yet irresistible love…

Hunters Eli and Sarel…reissue

2011 Revision

The Hunters Book 2

Three centuries is a long time to spend alone…but Elijah Crawford is used to it. He’s got his friends, he’s got thugs to kill, and a mild obsession with an on-and-off again lover to keep him occupied.

But then a woman appears in his dark world, one who just might bring some light to those endless nights. Just one look makes him hunger. Just one glimpse makes him burn.

There’s just one complication. She wants him dead.

Sarel Chandler knows all about vampires and she knows all about monsters–or so she thinks. The monster she knows as Elijah Crawford is responsible for the death of her sister and she’s going to see that he pays for it.

There’s just one complication…she’s completely wrong…and she’s about to pay for it in so many ways.

Warning: This book contains a pissed-off witch, a sexy Master vampire, some serious ménage action and lots of one-on-one time…of the up-close-and-personal variety. And I do mean lots…

Excerpt

Eli’s eyes closed. God, he hurt. The blood in his veins pumped sluggishly and it seemed to be filled with acid, burning him from the inside out. “Tori…?” He could smell her, that subtle scent of peaches, sex, woman, and vampire.

“She’s down the hall. We can’t get her to feed, Eli,” Kelsey said, her eyes closing. She had to. She had never been much of a liar, and if he looked dead at her, he’d see the lie. Right now, he was probably too weak to scent it, but he might still see it. “Declan’s tried and she won’t respond to him. I don’t know how to reach her.”

Desperate energy suddenly flooded him as the rage broke open inside. He rolled, pinning the woman beside him, staring down in her slanted green and gold eyes. He was so fucking tired, and it wasn’t such a chore to let it all be over, after three centuries of walking alone. He would never have Tori and there was no other woman.

But he could not let them die. Tori and Declan meant more to him than his own soul. The bitch in his bed could save him, and then he could save Tori and Declan. Then he could go right on being lonely, but what else the fuck was new?

“You owe me blood, darling,” he purred with menace, his muscles trembling with the effort it took to move and hold her, even though she didn’t resist him at all.

Those rather amazing eyes closed and she turned her head. Baring her neck. And then she said quietly, “I know.”

read more

Smashwords | All Romance Ebooks | Nook | Kindle

I don’t know if/when this book will be released back into print. Details will be posted to the site when/if that changes.

THEIR VIRGIN CAPTIVE

Their Virgin Captive
Contemporary Erotic Romance/Menage a quatre
Release Date: August 30, 2011

Brothers Gavin, Slade, and Dex, fall hard for Gavin’s new secretary, beautiful Hannah Craig. The oil executives know they must give her time to get to know them before she can choose one . . . who will seduce the virgin and keep her for his own. But when a dangerous predator begins stalking the small-town beauty, they work together to protect her, abducting Hannah and spiriting her to an isolated hideaway. Once alone with her, none of them can contain their burning desire. Though Slade and Dex don’t mind sharing, Gavin’s tragic past has put distance between him and his brothers. Now, they’re hoping that not only will Hannah love them back . . . but maybe mend their fractured family.

After overcoming her initial fears, the men teach her wild pleasure she’s never imagined. She grows closer to each, their devotion melting her inhibitions. Hannah finds herself embracing love with all three men—and hoping she can heal Gavin’s wounded soul. But her new found happiness turns to terror when her stalker finds her. Will Gavin, Slade and Dex lose their woman to a menace that threatens everything they hold dear, or will they finally unite to make Hannah theirs forever?

* * *

Now that I’ve explained what I’m talking about today, I can move onto the how and why. I’ve been dying to write a ménage book since my last one released in 2008, but I couldn’t squeeze one into my schedule all by myself. I’ve also been so tempted to try collaborating for years and years. In this project and in this co-author, I think I’ve found the perfect blend. I think the book is by turns funny, angsty, and yes, very hot. I’m super excited to share this book and my very first collaboration with readers. For a sneak peek at the first chapter, just click here. Then buckle your seatbelt. Next Tuesday is going to be a wild ride!

Undeniably Sexy!

For my latest release, I couldn’t decide whether to write a cowboy or a vampire story—so I made it both! ~DD

The best defense is no match for desire this hot…

Kate McKinnon’s Sanctuary is an island of refuge in a western frontier shrouded in post-apocalyptic chaos. Her only escape from her crushing responsibilities is occasional radio contact with other pockets of survivors. Especially one man whose deep, raspy voice cuts through her exhaustion, straight to her heart. A man whose face she has only imagined.

When she and her ranch hands are surrounded by renegades, she doesn’t recognize the leader of the militaristic band that rescues them, but knows that voice.

Ty Bennett is already half in love with the human woman whose voice haunts his dreams. His impulsive offer to add muscle to the Sanctuary’s defenses is dangerous to them both. Helping her may redeem some of his sins, but proximity only increases his hunger to possess her—body, soul…and blood.

Without hesitation, she welcomes Ty and his men into the Sanctuary…only to discover the reason why they only ride at night. Yet the survival instinct that screams at her to drive them off is no match for Ty’s seductive powers. Or the need for protection from the threat that howls at Sanctuary’s gates.

Kate pushed back the edge of her duster and tucked it behind the holster hanging from Sam’s gun belt. She walked into the store and straight up to the cashier’s desk, doing her best to ignore the overpowering stench of rotting food coming from the produce section. She reached into the shelf above the station, rooting for a pack of cigarettes, but found none and cursed.

So she returned her attention to the front doors and kept track of the men’s progress which she could judge because Shep stood at the end of each row as Danny ran down the aisles to fill one squeaking cart after another according to Shep’s shouted instructions.

She glanced at her watch—fifteen minutes. Too long. “Time to wrap it up. We have to go, guys,” she shouted. It really shouldn’t take this long. There wasn’t much left on the shelves. She glanced down, kicked a cockroach off her boot and squashed it with her heel.

When the men moved into the storage area at the back of the building, she tensed, listening for any signs of trouble in the back, any signs of ambush. Not until she heard the whirring of the cart wheels coming down the aisle again did she let out a relieved breath.

She ran through the entrance to stand guard over the truck while Shep and Danny emptied the contents of the carts into the truck bed—mostly canned goods and paper products. Everything else had been eaten by bugs and mice or was too rotten for human consumption.

“Any place else we need to stop?” Shep asked.

“Just need to get the gas.”

The stacked five-gallon cans in the truck bed represented their hope they’d find enough fuel to run the generator and give them precious light for a few more weeks.

“We’ll head to the Exxon station,” she said. “It’s more open.”

At the gas station, she pulled out the key to the underground storage tank Mr. Jeffers had left her when he migrated east, and while Shep lowered a garden hose into the well to siphon gas into the canisters, she again kept watch.

When he was filling the last of the cans, she heard the sounds she’d dreaded—vehicles coming down the road at a fast clip. “Load up, guys. We’re done.”

Shep pulled up the hose and quickly locked the cap to the well, then bounded into the cab of the truck with the energy of a man much younger than his sixty years. Adrenaline could do that to a man.

Kate peeled out of the parking lot, heading back the way to Sanctuary, but as she’d feared, vehicles turned sideways in the road blocked their exit. She spun the steering wheel, running up over the curb to double back the way they’d come. “Don’t you dare fire on them,” she shouted to Danny. “If they shoot back they could hit that gas. Let’s find us a place where we can stand off.”

The First Baptist Church was just around the corner and not a likely place for monsters to hide.

She ran up over the curb, all the way up to the front steps of the church, and everyone piled out of the truck and dove for the front doors as vehicles careened into the parking lot behind them.

“Shep, you check the back entrance,” she shouted as she broke out a stained-glass window with her pistol grip. “Danny, you get up into the choir loft and keep watch from the upstairs windows.”

They waited while vehicles circled the parking lot, effectively encircling the building. Whooping shouts rang in the air.

“How much ammo you got on you, girl?” Shep shouted from the opposite end of the church.

She patted her duster pockets. “Enough. I don’t miss much.”

“Don’t look like we need silver load.”

He was right. What surrounded them weren’t werebeasts—it was the lowest form of human life—those who preyed on the survivors.

“Well, this will be easy pickin’s,” she murmured, and steeled herself for the coming confrontation.

Kate didn’t wait to hear what they might say. The only thing they wanted was her—women were a scarce commodity on the frontier. She took a bead down the barrel of her pistol and squeezed off a shot through the windshield of a pickup, pleased at the splash of red that exploded against the glass. She spared a thought for the fact she felt less remorse murdering this scum than she did vicious werebeasts. But the renegades had chosen their course. The wolves were victims acting on instinct. One of the women she sheltered had fallen into their clutches for a short time before she’d managed an escape. Kate could only guess at what she’d suffered because to this day she barely spoke and couldn’t look a man in the eyes.

Cool as ice, she chose another target, unwilling to let even a tremor of fear or regret ruin her shot—doing like her daddy taught her, pretending the men ducking behind their vehicles were just the paper targets she’d practiced on.

One. Two. Three down. Then Shep’s shotgun exploded with a roar, catching a cry closer than she’d expected. Were they sneaking up on them?

“What do you see, Danny?” she shouted as she flattened her back against the wall next to the window.

“We’ve got maybe twenty of the bastards out there,” Danny’s excited voice echoed from above. “But they seem to be holding back now.”

“Hello in there,” a tinny voice said over a loudspeaker. “We don’t mean you any harm. You had no call to fire on us. We were just…seeing if you needed help.”

Kate gave Shep a skeptical glance. She edged closer to the window to shout outside. “Well, we don’t. Why don’t you move along?”

“Thought I saw a woman in there,” the man said, the tone of his voice sly. “Honey, we can offer you better protection than an old man and a boy.”

Kate curled her upper lip in a snarl. “Thanks for the offer, but we won’t be stayin’ in town long.”

Laughter sounded outside, low and not especially amused. It had a dirty edge to it and made her skin crawl.
With the lull, she ejected her magazine and inserted a full clip into her pistol.

“It’s gonna be nighttime soon,” the voice outside said. “You really should find shelter. We have a nice place. Plenty to eat.”

A sick knot formed in the pit of her stomach knowing what the trade would be. However, she’d run up against their sort before and prevailed. The trick was to keep her wits about her.

If she could just get a shot at the guy behind the mike…

A long silence followed. She darted a glance around the window sill and realized the attention of the men around surrounding the building was on something in the distance. Then she heard it—engines, big ones, roaring their way.

Being the cowards they were, the gang bolted into their vehicles as quickly as they could and departed. Right behind them appeared a convoy of green camouflaged military vehicles. Hummers and large, canvas-topped transport vehicles with machine–gun turrets mounted on top.

Kate kept to the shadows while watching the long column of trucks come into view. “Shep, you see that?”

“Didn’t know they were operating this far into the frontier,” he said, coming up behind her to peek out the window. “Better stay inside ’til we know whose side they’re on.”

She expected the convoy to continue on past, but one by one they pulled into the church parking lot.
Kate held her breath, her heartbeat racing—the first suffocating wash of true fear pouring down her spine in an icy fall.

From the lead vehicle, a door opened and a man dressed in blue jeans and a black leather jacket jumped from the cab to the hard pavement below.

Her first sight of him told her instinctively here was bigger trouble than she’d already faced. This wasn’t the stupid scum she’d squared off with. He was a hundred times more intimidating.

For one, he was a big man. Taller even then Sam, his wide shoulders and muscled thighs bespoke of years of physical training. In close quarters, he’d be impossible to beat. She squeezed the grip of her weapon harder, already thinking about where she’d have to place the first shot to bring him down quick.

The closer he strode, the greater her unease. Not only did he have the size to make her heart leap to the back of her throat, he moved with a rangy grace that said he’d be fast on his feet. His face with its square jaw and sharp cheekbones completed the portrait of an unstoppable man once he’d set his eyes on a target.
Now she just hoped that dark, hard gaze never rested on her.

While she drew deep breaths to calm her racing heart and the tremor of her hands, an uninvited thought crossed her mind. If she weren’t battling for her life in the middle of an Apocalypse, this would be the sort of man she’d want. Dangerous, brutal—sexy as hell.

But he was dressed in civilian clothes and riding in a military vehicle. Was he just the leader of a smarter band of criminals?

He stopped about twenty paces from the church doors and put his hands on his hips. “Kate McKinnon, are you in there?”

She jerked at the familiar deep tones of his voice. Her startled glance found Shep’s.

His eyes were narrowed in his lined face, and he shook his head. “You know him?” he hissed. “Might be some kind a trick.”

“This is Ty Bennett.”

Kate closed her eyes and sank against the wall, feeling like her whole world was spinning out of control. How could this be?

“Kate, the cavalry’s here, sweetheart.”

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New Releases!

A lot can happen in one month. And as always with me, it’s feast or famine. This month, it’s a yummy twosome. Click on the covers to read an excerpt! Both are available for download today!

Includes my paranormal novella, She’s All That

Librarian by day, Melanie Bradshaw, is driven to desperation by her torrid dreams. However, when she acts on her desires, things go horribly wrong and she witnesses the murder of an overly amorous lounge lizard. With the body disintegrating before her eyes, who’s going to believe her?

When Detective Moses Brown gets the latest Full Moon case, he’s hoping it’s no more than another crazy looking for attention—until he meets the delectable Melanie Bradshaw. Melanie took a walk on the wild side straight into vampire territory. They know her and now she’s not safe. Until he can find out why, he’s going to stick to her like glue. If his own attraction gets between him and his good intentions, he’ll just grit his teeth and do his best to ignore it.

But pretty little Melanie has designs on his body. How’s a brother to resist?

Two very handy men mend a divorcée’s broken heart…

Rather than cry over spilt milk, a newly divorced woman throws caution to the wind and decides to seduce her neighbor’s handsome handy man.

Jeff isn’t stupid—Pamela tossed those screws into her sink to get his attention! The fact she’s beautiful and vulnerable convinces him she needs “special” attention. When he has her hot and horny, he surprises her with his partner Casey and a threesome.

What starts for Pamela as a wild, no-holds-barred fling quickly gets stickier as the guys push for something longer lasting.