Yay, my book comes out today. Silk Hauntings , the second book in the Cobblestone Press Rune series.
Gavin Mackenzie is a best selling horror author and amateur ghost hunter. His plans to investigate paranormal activity at a local mansion are denied by the sexy new owner; even as she makes it clear she’d welcome him in her bed.
Taylor Ammons is using the mansion for her new business: holding educational sexual retreats for women. She’s not prepared for her attraction to her quiet neighbor, or his determination to convince her that the mansion is haunted.
Then strange things start happening, and Taylor has to bring Gavin in for some exploring that goes beyond the bedroom.
Here’s an excerpt (the first couple pages of the book)
An ass like that should be illegal.
Gavin MacKenzie shut his laptop and stared at the red leather miniskirt—and the ass under it—swinging back and forth as it passed by his window. The woman walking turned her head and caught him looking.
Damn.
Her platinum blonde hair lifted with the warm spring breeze. She was young. Mid-twenties. At least ten to twelve years younger than him. Her mouth, full, sexy, and designed for all kinds of sin, curved into a smile.
Ah, shit.
If Taylor Ammons didn’t use that as an invitation to knock on his door, he’d keel over from shock. The woman had been trying to get in his pants for days now. And the more she came around, the harder it was to feign indifference. Hell, like she believed he was indifferent anyway. He got a mammoth-sized hard-on every time she came within two feet of him.
Sure enough, Taylor veered off the trail that crossed both of their properties and headed straight for his front door. A second later she gave it a cute, musical tap.
Gavin stood up, grinding his teeth together as he went to open it.
“Gavin.” Taylor winked and strode past him, dropping the groceries she’d been carrying onto the table in his entryway. “How’s it going?” She turned and ran her brazen gaze over him. “You ready to have some wild monkey sex yet?”
Damn if she didn’t have a mouth like a sailor. Gavin pushed his glasses further up his nose, and hoped the look he was giving her was reprimanding.
“Is this a social visit, Miss Ammons, or was there something you needed?”
“Miss Ammons?” She quirked an eyebrow and walked over to his desk, picking up the half drunk glass of whiskey. “Naughty, naughty, Mr. MacKenzie. Drinking during the day?”
She tilted the glass back and swallowed the rest in one gulp, not even so much as flinching at the fiery liquid.
Hmm. There was something to be said about a woman who could appreciate good Scottish whiskey.
He folded his arms across his chest. “It relaxes me.”
She sat down on the edge of the desk and her skirt hiked up another inch. “I know something else that could relax you.”
His gaze dropped to her smooth, pale thighs atop long legs. Relax wasn’t exactly the verb he would have chosen.
His jaw clenched. “Are you still using the mansion as a brothel?”
Taylor’s smile turned tight, her eyes narrowed. “It isn’t a brothel.” She crossed one leg over another, and for the briefest second he’d caught a glimpse of black lace.
Damn, here comes the hard-on. He clenched his fists so he wouldn’t reach out and drag her to him.
“It’s a retreat for women who want to further their ability to please themselves and their partners during sex.”
Images of her pleasing him filled his head. “I’m not interested in the particulars, Taylor.”
She laughed, a husky sound that lengthened his cock another inch. “Oh, I think you’re very interested, Gavin. And that’s why you’re being so uptight.”
She’d hit the nail on the head, but he had no intention of admitting it.
Time to change the course of the conversation. “Tell me something, Taylor. Notice anything strange up at the mansion?”
* * * * *
Taylor swallowed hard, her thoughts turning from her sexy, closed-off neighbor to her new home. She stared into Gavin’s mocking blue eyes, and a shiver of unease shot through her. Anything strange? How could he possibly have known…? No. It was nothing. Just her overactive imagination. Things weren’t disappearing; she was misplacing them. And Gavin was just playing up on the ghost rumors. Well, she wasn’t going to buy into it.
“Are you still insisting the place is haunted, Gavin?” She rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Sorry I outbid you on the house, but claiming it’s haunted is hardly going to drive me out.”
That pissed him off. His jaw hardened, and she had the sudden urge to yank those silly glasses off his face. They just didn’t fit. It was the whole Clark Kent affect. He was a brainiac with the body of a baseball player on steroids. Not that he did steroids. Well, that she knew of.
He was just so sexy, and the fact that he’d been turning her down for that past couple of weeks just made him that much more of a challenge. He’s talking again.
“…that I didn’t get the house, Taylor. But you can’t discount the fact that there’s been proven paranormal activity there. If you’d give me the chance to come up and run some tests—”
“Umm, no. Sorry, Gavin.” She slid off the desk and approached him. “I’ll give you the chance to go to bed with me, but you’re not running any ridiculous tests in my house.”
She understood sex. It was her forte. But ghosts? It was like asking her to believe in the Easter Bunny.
“Taylor…” He backed up.
“Gavin.” She followed him until he hit the table in the entryway, and then she crowded close.
“Why won’t you kiss me? I promise you’ll like it.”
He glanced down at her grocery bag. “Isn’t that ice cream? You should really get that home before it melts.”
“It’ll stay hard.” She grinned and then shook her head. “Boy, you don’t make this easy on me, do you, Gav?”
She slid her hands up his starched cotton shirt until she reached his shoulders. They were broad, the defined muscles rippled under her touch. Yes, definitely a Clark Kent complex. Hell, he even had the dark hair and blue eyes. Too bad he was such a stick in the mud. Well, she’d fix that.
Being just a few inches shorter than him, she only had to stretch a little as she pulled his head down to hers.
“Taste me,” she whispered. “You won’t regret it.” She made no further moves, and gave him a second to resist.
Beneath the glasses his eyes darkened with heat, and then he lowered his mouth, crushing his lips down on hers.
Gavin Mackenzie is a best selling horror author and amateur ghost hunter. His plans to investigate paranormal activity at a local mansion are denied by the sexy new owner; even as she makes it clear she’d welcome him in her bed.
