New Year, New Book and a few New Nominations

Happy New Year!!!

ARRA Awards

The year is still shiny and new and already exciting things are happening.  

A couple of our lovely Cats have been nominated in the Favourite Short Category Romance category of the 2013 Australian Romance Readers Awards. Amy Andrews features twice with Driving Her Crazy and The Girl Least Likely to Marry. Also nominated are Annie West’s Imprisoned by a Vow and Michelle Douglas’ The Redemption of Rico D’Angelo. And it was a huge shock and absolute delight that I discovered The Love Deception is also nominated. Just to be in a finals list with such incredible authors is an unbelievable thrill.

 

Amy also blitzed other categories including a nomination for Holding Out for a Hero in Favourite Contemporary Romance. Amy’s fabulous hero Jake Prince from Holding Out for a Hero is nominated in The Sexiest Hero category and Amy’s also up for Favourite Australian Romance Author 2013. So wonderful, Amy!

The Billionaire’s Pursuit of Love

My new release, The Billionaire’s Pursuit of Love, is out this week. I love this story and cried a couple of time while writing it, so I hope I’ve been able to capture that emotion on the page.  The story features wildlife warrior Sarah Walker and international technology guru Blake Huntington-Fiennes. The premise is…

When Sarah Walker's beloved wildlife sanctuary is threatened with closure, she heads for London and goes straight to the top to find out why. But the man responsible is the one man she's never forgotten, and the only person who can destroy all her happiness.

Billionaire CEO Blake Huntington-Fiennes can't believe that the girl he's spent years searching for has just marched into his boardroom. And this time, he's willing to resort to any means necessary to keep her. But Sarah has a secret she must protect at all costs or risk losing something even more precious than the sanctuary…

Excerpt

Blake and Sarah have just finished dinner at the luxury Dorchester restaurant in London. They’re seated at a special private table, surrounded by an oval wall of lights. Sarah has a secret and she has to escape Blake’s charms to keep it...

‘Blake . . .’ He took his name from her lips with a kiss. She softened under his touch. She wanted this, too. God, he had to have her.

She dragged her lips from his. ‘People will see.’

‘I don’t give a damn.’ He found her mouth again. She tasted of chocolate and strawberries. Of hot passion and erotic promise.

‘Let’s get out of here.’ He pulled her towards the wall of light. He’d book the penthouse suite.

‘No.’ She wrenched herself from his grip and slipped through the luminous curtain.

He flung the lights aside and strode after her.

‘Put this on my tab,’ Blake ordered the maître d’ and followed her out onto the street. Sarah stood hailing a cab.

‘Running again?’ he said.

‘You were the one who ran. Disappeared. Vanished from the face of the earth.’ Her red-hot anger hit him with surprising force.

‘I think we’ve established that I didn’t.’

‘No. You denied it. That doesn’t make it true.’

A black cab pulled up and Sarah opened the door. ‘I have to go. Goodbye, Blake.’

Hell, were those tears in her eyes? The cartilage between his ribs felt as though it had fused solid. He grabbed the door of the taxi. ‘Stay with me.’ The passion in his voice scared him. He cared too much.

‘Blake, that time is gone. I can’t . . . Please . . .’

The tone of her voice told him everything. She’d known that passion, deep enough to transport you to a place so heavenly that without it, life was forever grey and lifeless and desolate.

He caught her about the waist and drew her hard against his body. His pulse flared and smashed away every rational thought. He slid his other hand up the back of her neck and claimed her mouth. Her lips were as warm and lush as a tropical afternoon. He kissed her, hoping all the words he wanted to say were there in his kiss. All the time they had wasted could be washed away. They could relive their hot passion. He wanted her. Now. Now. Now.

She slid her hands onto his chest and pushed.

‘No, Blake. We can’t . . .’

‘Why the hell not?’ He hadn’t meant to sound so callous.

‘Because . . . Because . . .’

She yanked free, climbed into the taxi and slammed the door shut.

The cab pulled into the traffic. Sarah turned and watched him until the taxi rounded the corner.

Blake stared at the spot where the cab had disappeared. His blood pumped hot and fast. Sarah had no idea who she was dealing with if she imagined she could just evaporate.

I hope you enjoyed the excerpt. The Billionaire’s Pursuit of Love is available now from Amazon, iTunes, Google, Destiny Romance and Penguin.