It’s out!!! Here are some places you can order
My publisher Samhain-any format and currently 30% off so it’s only $3.85.
And how about a real glimpse of Pryor Bernaux???? 😉
Pryor didn’t answer the front door when she rang the bell.
Elita blew out a breath, trying to get her sweaty hair off her forehead. When it didn’t
move, she grimaced and dug through her bag for a scrunchy. She didn’t care that the fluffy
hair bands weren’t in fashion anymore because they worked best on long, thick hair. She
found a black one, slipped it over her wrist and set her purse on the porch. She raked her
hair back with her fingers, noting the areas around her temples were damp. Once her hair
was off her face and neck, she sighed with relief. Leaving it down on a hot day like today had been a bad, bad idea. She ignored the tiny voice that whispered she’d wanted to look good for the youngest Bernaux brother.
She picked up her purse, thought about locking it in the car, but remembered she’d
thrown in more makeup that morning. It would all melt into goo. Normally, she didn’t carry much in her purse.
Normally, she didn’t primp like this.
She had it bad.
Bad enough that she’d gone against her own promise to wait to come back. She hoped
his brothers were home, but if they weren’t, her plan was to not let Pryor do any magic on
her whatsoever. Squaring her shoulders, Elita walked along the long, creaking porch to the
side stairs. She kept her gaze on the ground as she walked, checking for stray vines. For
crawling, murderous, tripping vines. A stand of thick trees made welcome shade as she
followed the faint sound of music coming from the back of the house. Recognizing the slow,
sexy trip hop song, she picked up her pace and headed for the walkway between the small
outbuildings.
A glance toward the house showed he’d managed to paint another section in the time
she’d been gone. That was probably why he hadn’t answered his phone today.
She slowed when she spotted Pryor.
He lay in a hammock stretched between two massive trees at the edge of the cleared
backyard. A portable CD player sat next to him. She recognized the sultry song, surprised
he was listening to something from the nineties. She tried to guess his age again as she
walked close to him. The sunlight sparkled off the water on his other side. He must have
been wearing shorts because one muscular, bare leg bent over the edge of the hammock as
he pushed off with his foot.
Surely he wasn’t lying out here naked.
His arms came up to lace behind his briefly raised head and she breathed out a sigh
when she saw the black T-shirt. She tried to tell herself it was a sigh of relief that he was
obviously not naked out here. She set her purse under one of the tables out of the sun and
walked up to the hammock. Pryor continued to gently push off the ground as he watched
her come close.
“I got the paresse.”
Heat curled inside Elita with Pryor’s low, muttered words. It shot throughout her body
when his mouth stretched into that slow, sexy grin.
“You feel lazy, eh?”
“Oui. It’s too hot to keep painting today.” His thigh muscles flexed as he rocked the
hammock. His T-shirt had more holes than Swiss cheese, his khaki shorts looked well
washed and soft. “This is the best place on the whole property that picks up a breeze.”
She lifted an eyebrow, then briefly closed her eyes to try and feel it. She grinned, looked
back at him. “What breeze? You’re making that up.”
“Alohrs pas!”
His low chuckle as he said “Of course not!” made her flush. She could imagine hearing
it, by her ear, in bed. The chuckle, not those particular words. She couldn’t imagine anything he would say no to in bed.
And with that thought, her lower body started that annoying hot throb again.
“Close your eyes again, Elita,” he said, voice low. “Wait.”
She did. All she heard was the gentle creak of the ropes holding the hammock, the plop
of something jumping into the swamp close to them…the rustle of leaves above, which
meant the wind could and did reach some of this area. And then, just like magic, a true
breeze brushed over the surface of her skin. Her hair stood on end. She closed her eyes,
tilted her head back and soaked it in like her Ma’man always told her to. It felt like Pryor
himself touched her and she shivered. She opened her eyes to find the heat in the air around them was nothing compared to the heat coming at her from that gaze.