Sunday Smooch with Victoria James

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Victoria James ---- but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is ..... Helen S!


Can you please contact Amy Andrews at amy (at) amyandrews (dot) com (dot) au to receive your copy of Lingerie For Felons  .........


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Rancher's Second Chance by Victoria James ........

Widowed rancher Cole Forrester is all about running his family's ranch and guarding his heart. The last thing he's looking for is love, but when his little sister can't make it home to handle some of her wedding details, he's forced to entertain the event planner, Melanie Simms. Melanie is everything he's not even remotely interested in: she's high-society, complicated, and high maintenance. But when he's stranded with her at his remote cabin in the Colorado mountains, he realizes he's seriously underestimated her. She's hiding something about her past from him, but despite everything, he finds himself falling for the last woman he ever expected, and the first woman to make him want to give his heart and risk everything...

Scene set-up - [Cole and Melanie are stranded in his cabin in the Colorado mountains. This is their first time really alone together and as a storm blusters outside, they both try and fight their attraction to each other…]

             He took her face in his hands, feeling the softness, reveling in it. The longing in her eyes stirred something in his gut, something that went beyond lust, beyond missing a woman. He stared at her, his thumb tracing the smooth skin of her cheek. He wanted to taste her; more than anything he wanted to taste Melanie. He slowly bent over, bracing his forearms on the bed, on either side of her. He could see the rapid movement of her pulse at the base of her throat. He hovered in that moment, reveling in the strength of his desire for her, in the pleasure of wanting her.

            “Cole,” she whispered.

            “Yeah.”

            “Are you going to kiss me, or make me beg?”

            His heart smashed against his rib cage. “Beg? Darling, I’d never make you beg. You want me, you got me,” he said and lowered his head.

            She met him halfway.

…

            Cole’s mouth came down on hers with a rough gentleness that robbed her of speech and thought. His mouth moved restlessly, demanding and consuming. Her lips parted on a moan and his tongue delved inside where she welcomed him with everything she had. The weight of his strong body against hers, the feel of his mouth becoming one with hers, made her never want to be without him again. His warm hand grasped her calf gently squeezing and then traveling higher, grasping her thigh, the curve of her bottom, her waist.

            Cole’s dark eyes moved over her body with appreciation and his hands followed suit. His hands were calloused, working hands, large and strong, but capable of the most tender touch. She whispered his name and he lifted his head, bracing himself on his forearms as he looked down at her.

            Her hands trailed over the smattering of hair on his forearms, up over the bunched muscles of his biceps and then over his shoulders until she reached his face. She held him there for a moment, pausing for the briefest of seconds, feeling the stubble covering his strong jaw. She thread her hands into the hair at the nape of his neck and drew him down to her again. He kissed her as though he hadn’t kissed her in forever, with a hunger that robbed her of thought and infused her with passion.

Victoria has an eCopy of The Rancher's Second Chance for one commenter who answers this question.....

I love books (reading and writing) when there’s a big storm that strands the couple together (maybe that’s because I’m from Canada and winter snowstorms are a given)! How about you? Do you like when there’s a blizzard or storm that traps the hero and heroine together?

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from A Lot Like Love by Helen Lacey ....... will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

That 70's Show!

The other evening Twin Two was flicking through the cable channels. She started out DVRing something she wanted to watch the next day, then she bought a movie on Apple TV, and finally pushed pause while she made a hot chocolate.

While she was in the kitchen expertly frothing milk at the coffee machine (in my days it was bitter old cocoa with no fact fluffy milk...) she said,  "So Mum, what did you watch when you were little? What was it like in the olden days?"

"Well," I said (after threatening to cancel her pocket money if she ever called it the olden days again). "For starters, until I was twelve we only had a black and white T.V . And only one channel until I was about 10."

Her eyes did that funny bug-out sort of thing and she dropped her voice to a horrified whisper. "ONE channel! O.M.G!! How did you survive? And what did you watch?"

And suddenly I came over all nostalgic. I remembered Sunday nights with the whole family watching a movie in front of the fire, Friday nights eating fish and chips while we watched the farming programme, and the incredible sight of the channel actually closing down for the night at 11pm!

Looking back, many of my favourite T.V shows were very similar to the books I write now - real people with everyday problems.

But because there wasn't much choice in what we watched, I also came to love a bit of fantasy....

 

and even a touch of the paranormal!

How about you? What T.V programmes did you love to watch when you were little, and do you watch the same sort of shows now?

Tooth Fairy!

by Sharon Archer

Smile!

The title of this post is completely misleading but I couldn't resist... and I'm pleased to say that I haven't had to put any offerings under my pillow to tempt the tooth fairy! 

I'm here to talk dentists! And to confess I'm a quivering jelly when it comes to visiting one.  Several really bad experiences have all left their mark. The low lights - wisdom teeth (all out before I turned eighteen), miscellaneous extractions in the days when that was the preferred option to straighten teeth and one very unpleasant experience at a dental school with a needle when I was 5 years old.  I've fainted in the dentist chair on two occasions.

Needless to say, visiting the dentist hasn't featured high on my list of fun things to do.  But a few years ago, I realised I couldn't put of going any longer so I asked around and found my new tooth expert.

I still don't like going to see him but I do like his approach to dental care.

My latest visit was to his hygienist!  She is a Tartar Titan!  All alien mouth forms will be found and ruthlessly eliminated!

I spent the morning before the visit, flossing and brushing and NOT eating chocolate!  I'm actually pretty good with my tooth care but there's something about knowing the enamel will be examined under the microscope that makes me want to polish each millimetre meticulously.

I learned that I have an overbite, retrograde lower incisors, and that she could tell I was right handed because I don't do quite as well at cleaning the back molars on the upper left-hand side.  Have to work on that!

She discovered an ultra-sensitive spot on one of my molars and had to scrape me off the ceiling back into the chair.  That spot was 'painted' with a super-fluoride treatment which tasted suspiciously banana-ry.

Anyway, I'm thrilled to say that all is going well with my teeth and I'm doing a pretty good job of maintaining them.  My reward was a 'show bag' containing tooth-related goodies!  a tooth brush, a small tube of toothpaste and the cutest little floss!

How about you?  Any scary dental stories?  Does the thought of a visit to the dentist have your knees quaking?

Still Learning

I don't believe we ever stop learning.  Even without consciously engaging in educational enterprises, we read, listen, watch.   There's that saying, which I firmly believe, about learning something new every day.  Just by living.

But this month I have started two structured educational exercises -- not writing-related, and not because I woke up one morning thinking "I need to expand my knowledge" -- but because of opportunity.   The first is a basic Italian For Travellers course, eight lessons one per week, at our local community college.   The fact they're offering Italian this semester is a happy coincidence as I'm going to Italy this year.  My first time and  I will, hopefully, know enough basic phrases to be polite to the locals...or to at least locate the appropriate words in my phrase book.

No sooner had I signed up for Italian than my sister-in-law asked if I was interested in Ancient History.  Our local high school offers HSC-based subjects to the community and they needed one more student for this course to go ahead.  Some arm-twisting ensued but after one lesson I'm so glad I signed up.  Not just because it will inform my Italy trip but because I'm enjoying the classroom, the reading, the subject matter.   I even enjoy organising my notes into a folder (there will be colour coding.)  And I've downloaded an audiobook on the History of Ancient Rome which is my listening while I walk.

So, that's what I'll be up to for the next few months (Italian) and the rest of the year (Ancient History.)  Is anyone else busy with learning at the moment?  Have you taken any classes recently?  Do you make a conscious effort to further your education or do you prefer to learn by living?

Sunday Smooch with Ros Baxter

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Ros Baxter but first 

... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Marcy Schuler....


Can you please contact michelle (at)michelle-douglas  (dot) com to receive your copy of Road Trip With The Eligible Bachelor


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from  Lingerie For Felons 

If there’s one universal truth, it’s this: You’re always wearing your worst underwear when you land in trouble. 

Lola’s parents told her that everyone can make a difference. And she believed them. She’s been fighting the good fights since she was eleven years old. But at 23, Lola falls hard for an Australian stockbroker who thinks Doctors Without Borders is a porno and Joni Mitchell sounds like a harp seal being battered to death. She cuts him loose, but over the next fifteen years, through protests, misunderstandings, humiliating predicaments, and a number of poor underwear choices, their lives and paths continue to converge. 

Along the way, Lola learns a few important life lessons: Never wear a red lace thong to a strip search. Make sure you take motion sickness pills if you’re going to the Southern Ocean to save the whales. And sometimes, Mr Right can be all wrong, and Mr Wrong just needs time to find the right path. 

Scene set-up


Lola finds herself with a strange and confusing attraction to stockbroker Wayne. She’s resisting it heroically.  But he’s just cooked her dinner, and showed her his rooftop garden (no saucy pun intended) and there is something about this man... 


Smooch  - 

We sat down at the same time and my body rolled into his on the squishy sofa.  He slid an arm around my shoulder like it was the most natural thing in the world. I felt his mouth drop to the top of my head and heard him inhale deeply. His breath feathered my neck and I smelled skin and sun and citrus. He fiddled with a remote control and from somewhere close by a beautiful voice rasped ‘whenever I’m alone with you’.

Then all of a sudden, the room was hot and close and I began to babble. ‘Actually, I’m sure I’ll find out you really faked the whole thing. The meal, that is. Ha ha. I’ll locate the tricky little deli where you got this stuff from. And don’t think I’ll forgive you for making me feel inadequate either. I can hold a serious grudge. Like, really.’ I was talking faster and faster as his big face inched closer to mine. ‘I might not ever forgive you. I might have to exact some horrible revenge.’

His beautiful, scary green eyes were millimetres away now. I could feel his breath on my face. So close. 

‘I might… I might…’

One of his hands snaked into my hair, twisting it around big fingers. 

It was all too dangerous.

His big, soft-hard lips closed over mine. I’d only been kissed a couple of times in my life, but when Wayne kissed me I had none of the thoughts I’d had those times. Like, ‘ugh why is he doing it like that?’ Or ‘why can I smell coriander?’ Or ‘God I can taste cologne’. 

It wasn’t like a storybook kiss either: stars exploding, astral travelling, blah blah. But that kiss reached its velvet tentacles right down to my toes, and on the way it grabbed my large intestine like a big, unseen, hairy hand, and stroked it like a very willing kitten. 

And all I could think was: Ah, that’s what they mean by toe-curling. 

I pulled away, gasping for air.

‘More?’ he asked.

I started babbling again. ‘No, no. No way. Not that it wasn’t very nice. It was. Nice. Very. It’s just…er...I think I might have peed my pants’. 

I made a spirited dash for the bathroom, displacing some pottery on the way. 

 

For a chance to win a copy of Lingerie For Felons leave an answer to this question in the comments! Did you ever have a kiss so good it scared you?

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

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

Just my luck…?

I'm sorry. Truly, I am. To whoever I upset or crossed…please take pity on me now!  I don't remember breaking a mirror or walking under a ladder but recently I've been having some…challenges…

-Monday- at the gym, I was sitting on one of those large swiss balls doing posture strengthening exercises with a trainer, when suddenly the ball rolled out from under me, bouncing me backside first to the floor causing a 5kg dumbbell to smash against my calf, ripping a huge dent in my pride (of course there were lots of people in the usually very quiet gym) and causing a very large swollen bruise

-Tuesday -I popped in to the local Indian restaurant and had a brief chat to the owner. I discovered they were closing down in two days so I mentioned I was coming in with a group of friends the next day. When we arrived the restaurant was in darkness- they'd decided that no one had actually booked a table (and for them, chances were we wouldn't turn up) so they'd closed down a day early! So we were stuck there hungry and thirsty after a bracing walk, no other restaurant for a couple of miles, with no transport to get anywhere else, and no food! And because I hadn't 'booked' per se I felt hugely responsible.

Is the universe telling me something?

-Wednesday - and I can barely even bring myself to tell you this…  I sat on my ensuite toilet and the damn thing Fell. Off. The. Wall.  Yet another bounce to my poor backside which, like my back and legs, was pretty soggy from the toilet basin water (thankfully I'd just cleaned the damn thing!) Red-faced and bruised I had to phone a plumber who thought the whole thing was hysterical! Of course, that type of toilet isn't stocked any more, so they can't get more bracings for the wall, and therefore we have to buy a whole new toilet!

Trouble comes in threes, they say. So I won't include the spilt cup of coffee all over my iPad/keyboard this morning or the blown-up swimming pool pump on Tuesday in case I might be asking the universe for one more thing to make a double-run this week. I'm hoping I've had my run of bad luck for a while, but I'm going out to buy a rabbit's foot to carry around with me just in case (not a real one, obviously!). I've never been superstitious before but I'm thinking I might just give it a try. I have a friend who always gets a car parking space right outside wherever she's going (be it restaurant, shop etc) and never has to drive round the block searching, she also often wins raffles and competitions for big ticket items, and sees herself as just 'lucky.' Me? Not so much.

My husband reckons I'm just focusing on the negatives and grouping random events to make it seem like I'm unlucky. Is he right? Is it really just observation bias? Do you believe in luck or superstition? Do you consider yourself lucky or unlucky? Anyone out there know what I should do to make sure my luck gets better?