Sunday Smooch - A Vow To Secure His Legacy

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Annie West but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Mary Preston!!


Can you please contact amy(at)amyandrews (dot)com(dot)au to receive your copy of NUMBERED.


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from A VOW TO SECURE HIS LEGACY.

 One Night With Consequences

“Marry me. This week.” 

After losing her mother, Imogen Holgate believes she’s living on borrowed time with the same terminal illness. So the cautious accountant blows all her savings on a once-in-a-lifetime trip around the world, where she meets sexy Parisian Thierry Girard. But after two steamy weeks there are permanent consequences to their temporary affair…

Now with more than herself to think about, Imogen turns to Thierry to help, but the last thing she expected was for him to imprison her with a gold ring!

Scene set-up

Imogen is ticking Paris off her bucket list. She knows she's fatally ill and wants to live before she dies. An affair with a gorgeous Frenchman wasn't on her list but the attraction between her and Thierry is instantaneous. She's just told him he's kind for spending the evening helping her see Paris and seeing her back to her hotel room.

Smooch  -

‘I’m not good at kind.’ He stroked a finger down her cheek in a barely-there touch that rocketed to the centre of her being. ‘In fact, I excel at doing exactly what pleases me most.’ His head dipped and Imogen’s breath stalled as his breath caressed her lips. ‘And what pleases me most is to be with you, Imogen.’

Imogen swallowed hard. It was what she wanted, what she’d steeled herself to ask. Yet part of her, the cautious, reserved part that had kept her safe for twenty five years, froze her tongue.

Safe? There was no safe, not any more. Not when she could count the future in months, not decades.

‘Or am I wrong?’ His hand dropped and still she felt his touch like a sense memory. ‘Do you not want-?’

‘Yes!’ Her purse tumbled to the floor as her hand shot out. She clutched his fingers, threading hers through them. The flash of heat from the contact point was like an electric charge. ‘I want.’

How badly she wanted. Need was a shimmering wave, engulfing her.

He didn’t smile. If anything his features grew harder, flesh pulling taut across those magnificent bones. His fingers tightened around hers.

‘I can offer you short term pleasure, Imogen. That’s all.’ His eyes narrowed as if he tried to read her thoughts. ‘If that’s not what you want-’

Her finger on his mouth stopped his words and sent another ripple of sensual awareness through her. Despite his honed, masculine features his lips were surprisingly soft. She felt light-headed just thinking about them on her mouth.

‘That sounds perfect.’ She drew a breath shaky with grim amusement. ‘I’m not in the market for long term.’

The words were barely out when his head swooped and his mouth met hers. Firmly, implacably, no teasing, just the sure, sensual demand of a man who knew what he wanted and, Imogen realised as her lips parted, who knew how to please a woman. The swipe of his tongue, the angle of his mouth, the possessive clasp of his hand around her skull were so right, she wondered how she’d gone her whole life without experiencing anything like it.

Whatever she and Scott had shared it was nothing like this.

Thierry circled an arm around her, pulling her against his hard frame. Everywhere they touched, from her breasts to her thighs, exploded into tingling awareness as if she’d brushed a live wire. Darts of fire shot to her nipples, her pelvis, even up the back of her neck as he massaged her scalp and she heard herself moan into his mouth.

He tasted better than chocolate, rich and strong and addictive. She slid her arms around his neck and hung on tight as her knees gave way.

Instantly the arm at her back tightened. He swung her off the ground, high in his arms, making her feel precious and feminine against his imposing masculinity. His mouth devoured hers, seeking, demanding, yet giving so much pleasure exultation filled her.

This was a kiss. This was desire.

She was greedy for him, hungry for the passion he’d stoked so easily. She pushed her fingers through his hair, its soft thickness enticing.

‘More,’ she mumbled against his lips.

One of the things that immediately attracts Imogen to Thierry is his voice - deep, low and with a drool-worthy French accent. Is there an accent you can't resist? 

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Louise Cusack will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver 

Titles and Nicknames: What the Author Calls a Book vs. the Published Title

I was musing today on book names. Not so much the title a published book has across its cover, but the name it still carries in my head. Sometimes, when people talk about a story of mine I need to do a quick mental calculation, swapping its published name for the one I used to call it privately while I was writing. Some of those first names stick in my mind a long time and others disappear as soon as a final title is decided on for publication.

 

Take my next book. 'A Vow to Secure His Legacy' seems an okay title. Yet, I still think of it as 'Bucket List Bride' which is the name I and my crit partner gave it as I was planning the story. It wasn't a title I suggested to my editor as I really couldn't see BLB being used for a Presents story. The story is about a woman who believes she's dying. She decides to spend her last relatively healthy months on travelling the globe to tick items off her bucket list. Along the way she acquires a French lover and then a pregnancy and her plans change. You can see why the name appealed.

 

Similarly, the book after this one, which is called 'The Flaw in Raffaele's Revenge' is still, in my mind, my RBB or Reverse Beauty and the Beast, as it's about a scarred, reclusive heroine who falls for the most gorgeous man on the planet. Again, not a title I suggested to my editor.

 

Here are a few others. When I wrote an amnesia story about a hero from Lake Como in Northern Italy it was fated that it would become 'Coma in Como' to me. Most of the time I remember it's now called 'Forgotten Mistress, Secret Love-Child' but I still think of the old nickname just as often as the published title.

 



Along the way 'The Liakos Legacy' became 'The Greek's Convenient Mistress' and 'The Unwanted Wife' turned into 'The Greek Tycoon's Unexpected Bride'. I still remember and sometimes use the old names for those two as they were both books where, remarkably, I wrote the book because I got the title in my head and just had to write the story!

 

'Forbidden Desire' turned into 'Defying His Desert Duty'. It's a story very reminiscent of Tristan and Iseult, where the hero falls for the woman he's escorting as a bride to marry his king. Hence 'forbidden', but I admit I tend only to remember the published title of this one now.

 

 



 

There are a number of others, including 'Love at First Sight' which became 'Undone By His Touch'. In that book the hero falls for the heroine while he's blind, but when he regains his sight he recognises her as the woman he's always held responsible for his brother's death. So there's a question about whether he 'saw' her better through his eyes or when he was blind. Sometimes I have to think for a second or two to remember the official title. 

How about you? Do you use nicknames for favourite or everyday things? Do you find yourself sometimes using a shorthand code with your family and friends for things the rest of us would call by another name? Do YOU have a nickname?

A VOW TO SECURE HIS LEGACY will be out soon. Here are a couple of links if you want to order it:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Book Depository
Harlequin