No more SSS

Today is usually the day I sign up for Six Sentence Sunday, but I've decided that I won't be doing it this week. I'm too busy right now to do the rounds like I should, and with the hop ending at the end of January, I'm going to have to find something new for Sundays anyway.

There's talk something might get organized separately from SSS, but I don't know what it might be. I think I'll end up doing something similar on my own, just posting a snippet and highlighting backlist titles on a regular basis. Who knows at this point? Maybe it'll be something completely different.

Right now, I just need to survive Christmas, lol.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Maddy and Cash had sex. This is the morning after, when Maddy wakes early and tries to get up without disturbing Cash.

She was stopped from rising by his fingers curling around her arm.

“I already woke up one morning without you in my bed. I don't want to do it again.”

Something warmed in Maddy's stomach, and she leaned to brush a soft kiss across his mouth. His arm snaked around her waist, drawing her back to lie on top of him.

“Stay,” he breathed into the kiss.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Maddy and Cash had sex, but when Cash fell asleep afterward, he had a nightmare about his past. Maddy woke him out of it, but he refused to talk about it. Instead, he coaxes her into the shower, where she takes control.

“It would kill me if something happened to you and I knew I could've stopped it,” he whispered.

“I know.”

Her mouth dotted kisses along his spine, while her hands continued lathering his chest. Cash lowered his head to protect his body from the shower's torrent, and for what seemed forever, the world vanished, leaving behind only the close quarters of the steam shrouding them in its dusky caress. Tenderness fused them together, his body singing with heat, his mind clearing of the detritus of his nightmare.

And then it was no longer enough.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Since it's taken so long to get Maddy and Cash together, the six today is from the same scene as last week's. Just...later on, after Cash's words have worked their magic on her.

...He pressed her back down into the mattress, his strokes becoming increasingly insistent, but when he unexpectedly let go of her wrists, Maddy hesitated.

“Touch me,” Cash ordered.

It was what she had wanted since they'd walked into the room. Pushing past the red haze that seemed to be slowing her movements, Maddy raked her nails up his arms, to his shoulders, careful to avoid his injury from the previous night as she found the nape of his neck. He shuddered, trembled, moaned as he returned to her mouth.

“You wondrous woman,” he whispered.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

I'm skipping ahead a little. Maddy and Cash came a little closer after he got shot by his "ex." This happens the next night, when Maddy has decided she's ready to take the next step in their relationship. This is Cash's response...

“...I've wanted you too long for this to be all raindrops on roses. Not that I can't do the soft touch, because it certainly has its time and place, but if you think that I can pull that off tonight, after how amazing last night was, after how long I've dreamt of you…” Though she could see how he trembled, he reached out and caressed the line of her jaw, so tenderly she wondered yet again about the dichotomy of this man.

“If this happens,” Cash continued, “don't expect that I'll be able to hold back. I have a tendency to take control in bed anyway, but you…the way you fight back…” His long fingers slid around her neck to cup the back of her head, holding her still while he leaned down and ghosted his lips over hers.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation.

Once Cash explains to her about his past, that he was part of a magical world where he got in trouble with the wrong people and had to go into hiding to protect the people he loved, Maddy finds it easier to understand him and accept her attraction. Things start getting more complicated when they have a near-death accident with one of their "engagement" presents, but then even more so when one of Cash's so-called exes in this painting world decides to teach him a lesson. Maddy is on the dancefloor with someone else when the six begins...

For a moment, his body blocked her view. By the time Maddy wrenched herself free, the blonde with the pistol had lifted her arm, aiming it at the sole occupant in the doorway.

“Cash!” Maddy shouted.

She didn't wait to see if he heard her. Damning her long skirts, Maddy broke into a dead run, determined to get to the other woman before she could pull the trigger.

She tackled the shooter as the gun's discharge pierced the air, sending the club's occupants scurrying for cover...

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation. At this point in the story, they've had to spend the night at an engagement party thrown for them, without letting anyone in on the truth. Maddy enjoyed herself more than she thought she would, even able to relax, but when Cash confronts her afterward and demands the truth, she gets scared and explains it away by saying she was just playing to their audience. Cash kisses her. This comes immediate after.

Her swollen mouth begged to be kissed again, but Cash gathered the rest of his resolve and let her go, taking a step away as much for his sake as hers.

“So, where's your audience now?” he asked, gesturing toward the empty apartment. “Real isn't perfect, Maddy. It's passionate, and sometimes cruel, and quite often the last thing you would ever expect. It most certainly doesn't ask that you put on the show that you think others want to see. It's never asked you to be anything but what you are, and in case the champagne is making your thought processes a tad slow tonight, yes, I am referring to how I've always regarded you.”

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash and Maddy are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Last week, he decided to teach her how to dance to make her impersonation easier, but when they reached the last dance, Maddy stumbled for the first time...

Immediately, Cash caught her against his hip, holding her there for what seemed an eternity, but could only have been a fragment of a moment. His unmistakable arousal nudged along her body, and when she turned to more fully face him again, the flicker of desire darkened his eyes.

“Maybe we should stop,” she breathed.

“I think we already have.”

Dimly, she became aware of the stillness of their feet. The thudding elsewhere in her body had completely blocked it out.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! I'm currently at GayRomLit in Albuquerque, and driving back to San Francisco today and tomorrow, so my apologies about being slow to comment this week. If I could find a way to do it from the road, you can bet I would. It would make the long drive more bearable, lol.

For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Maddy and Cash have been sucked into a 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Cash got a drunk Maddy back to their home in this other world, where she woke up with a terrible hangover. He gave her a brief explanation about magic being the cause, a story she has to buy because nothing else comes close to explaining what is going on, and then Cash offered to teach her how to dance so she doesn't have to play barfly at the club all night.

She stood there silently, long enough for the first song to end and the second to begin. Cash never made a move, waiting patiently by the record player, dancing eyes watching her with growing amusement.

“You know this only works if you're actually within touching distance, don't you?” he asked when the second song ended as well.

“I'm still thinking about it.”

“Think a little bit closer then.” With long steps, he marched forward and took her hand, leading her back to the open space in the middle of the room.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! I'm currently at GayRomLit in Albuquerque, and driving back to San Francisco today and tomorrow, so my apologies about being slow to comment this week. If I could find a way to do it from the road, you can bet I would. It would make the long drive more bearable, lol.

For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. Last week, Cash and Maddy experienced the alternate world they got sucked into for the first time, the 1940s private club milieu where Maddy's a dancer, Cash is the bouncer, and the whole world thinks they're engaged. Maddy drank a little too much as she struggled to understand what was going on, while a jealous Cash looked on.

This week's six comes very soon after. Cash has managed to get Maddy out of the club, to get her safely home, but as he stands on the street and thinks about what's going on around them, the reader learns their current situation might not have such innocent roots...

It had been a long time since he had witnessed magic powerful enough to create an entire world to this detail. Nothing appeared out of place to the time period, not the forties' fashion, not the architecture, not the sounds of the city around them. Whoever created the painting had even gone as far as to create alternate lives for him and Maddy, and while he certainly wasn't complaining about the idea of being engaged, it reeked of motives far sneakier than made him comfortable. He'd done everything he could to ensure he wasn't found. The last thing he wanted was for an innocent party to get dragged into his own private war. Especially if it was Maddy.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. I have a real soft spot for this one. It combines a lot of my favorite elements in romance - time travel, paranormal, snarky banter, and a lot of action. It's the story of Maddy Cardinale, an art restorer at a prestigious NYC museum, her co-worker, the irrepressible Cash Vinci, and what happens to them when Cash receives a mysterious painting.

Last week, we met Maddy at the start of a really bad night at work. A painting of a 1940s nightclub arrived for Cash, and the pair find themselves sucked into it. Cash ends as a bouncer in a tux, Maddy is one of the dancers, and much to their surprise, everyone in the painting world thinks they're engaged. Maddy does not take it well. Cash's reaction to her is a little more mixed.

In this place, she was his. Every guy wanted to be him because they knew, at the end of the night, Madeline Cardinale was going home with him.

Then she'd hit the bar. Three straight shots later, she was laughing too loudly, flirting with an ever-growing circle of men, allowing herself to be led out to the dance floor only occasionally when the band launched into a slow waltz. He had to watch as hands found their way to her ass, as arms held her against bodies that weren't his. It was ridiculous, but every time it happened, Cash's jaw tensed, and the thunder in his gut threatened to ball his hands into fists.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the next two months, I'm featuring my RT Award Nominee, the het paranormal/time travel-ish erotic romance, Two Lives in Waltz Time. I have a real soft spot for this one. It combines a lot of my favorite elements in romance - time travel, paranormal, snarky banter, and a lot of action. It's the story of Maddy Cardinale, an art restorer at a prestigious NYC museum, her co-worker, the irrepressible Cash Vinci, and what happens to them when Cash receives a mysterious painting. At the start of the story, Maddy has arrived for her midnight shift after getting caught in a downpour. Her best friend Ava is offering to help her out before Cash shows up.

It wasn't much—just a faded white T-shirt that said, “I'll show you my motherboard, if you show me your hard drive” and a pair of navy cut-off sweats. Maddy chewed at her lower lip as she held them up.

“No offense, but if I wear these, I'm going to look like a clown.”

Ava smiled brightly, steering Maddy so she was forced to look at her reflection again. “Yes, but you'll be a dry, non-transparent clown.”

“And suddenly I see the appeal.” 

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the month of September, I'm highlighting sentences from a short story that released two years ago, a contemporary gay erotica piece called Yesterday's Names. Jonathan has traveled to Italy to visit Nettuno, where his hook-up from the night before has surprised him by showing up to keep him company for what he knows will be a long, hard day. I'm skipping slightly ahead to that evening, after Jonathan has returned to Rome, his purpose for coming to Italy fulfilled.

...The images that filled my head weren’t the ones from the club, though I doubted I would ever forget the taste of his mouth on mine. No, I remembered him in the sunlight, the slight pressure of his hand on my back, the lyrical cadences of his voice as we talked more about our families. I had learned he had three siblings he hadn’t seen since he’d come out, and nieces and nephews he’d never seen at all. He’d told me about moving to Rome, and his first boyfriend, while I talked about how excited I’d been the first time I’d been able to kiss a guy without worrying Pastor Grant was going to catch me and renounce me for a sinner.

I didn’t want to spend the night with a stranger. I wanted Davide.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the month of September, I'm highlighting sentences from a short story that released two years ago, a contemporary gay erotica piece called Yesterday's Names. Last week, the distraction Jonathan was searching for culminated in a hook-up with Davide and a sweet good-bye. Now, he's off to Nettuno for the purpose of his visit to Italy, where he is surprised by Davide showing up, to be there since he believes Jonathan needs a friend.

Within two minutes, we were back in the sunshine, a map of the cemetery with the grave I wanted clearly marked in hand.

Not all of the crosses bore names. I tried not to look at them too closely as we walked by, but when we passed the third one with the same inscription, I pulled my glasses off to scrub at my eyes.

Davide immediately stopped. He waited patiently for me to pull myself together, silent and present, the only two things I needed right now.

If I was losing it over, “Here rests in honored glory, a Comrade in Arms, known but to God,” how did I ever think I was going to make it with a grave I actually recognized?

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the month of September, I'm highlighting sentences from a short story that released two years ago, a contemporary gay erotica piece called Yesterday's Names. Last week, Jonathan Lynch, a teacher who goes to Italy for a very special purpose, met a guy at a club named Davide. After some private time in a dark corner, Davide is walking Jonathan to the taxi stand, holding him close to his side like they are boyfriends. This closeness is what Jonathan is referring to at the very beginning of my six.

...The glow left from my orgasm remained a lot longer than it might otherwise, because of that. The fantasy of having someone like this all the time was almost more delicious than the sex had been. I live a life of closed doors and whispered secrets, where denying who I am is as natural as breathing, where having someone walk next to me only means one of my students is having problems and is trailing beside me in hopes of help. Men didn’t walk me home, or slide their hand into my back pocket as a show of ownership. So I was going to enjoy this as long as it lasted, even if none of it was real. Because for tonight, I was going to pretend it was.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

I am back to doing SSS! When I had to go on hiatus, I'd been highlighting sentences from a short story that released two years ago, a contemporary gay erotica piece called Yesterday's Names, so I've decided I'm going to stick with that for the month of September. It's the story of Jonathan Lynch, a teacher who goes to Italy for a very special purpose. It's not as easy to face as he hoped, though, and he's gone out to a local club in hopes of some distraction.

He regarded me with a half-smile, wide-set brown eyes friendly and inquisitive. Soft hazel flecks in them caught the evening sun. His dark, shoulder-length hair was combed off his face, tucked behind his ears like it annoyed him rather than as a fashion statement, and the shadows of the beard making itself known for the night barely masked the adorable cleft in his square chin.

“Hello,” he said, his soft voice carrying through the dance music.

Somehow, I managed a croaked, “Hi.” Mr. Personality, that’s me.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the month of May, I'm highlighting sentences from a short story that released two years ago, a contemporary gay erotica piece called Yesterday's Names. It's the story of Jonathan Lynch, a teacher who goes to Italy for a very special purpose. It's not as easy to face as he hoped, though.

Nothing says procrastination better than a trip to a local bar.

I can’t even say it was an arbitrary choice. I spent fifteen minutes Googling gay bars in Rome—fifteen wasted minutes, I might add, since my command on the Italian language consists mostly of tourist phrases I’d picked up to help me on my trip and not the ability to read conversational reviews posted by other desperate gay men.

All right, the desperate part of that description is probably obvious transference on my part. It’s been a stressful couple of months. I’m not feeling as nice as I usually try to be.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the months of March and April, I'm highlighting sentences from the very first novel I had published, a het vampire erotic romance called Chains of Jericho. It was the very first book I had final in EPIC's ebook awards (then called the EPPIE), and since I had two final this year, I figured this was a good time to share the one that started it all.

Dec has just learned that the nightmare he's been trying to control isn't over, and come back to his room and Maya wracked with too many feelings. A kiss has exploded into the potential for more.

Her breathing was starting to even out. “So why do you need it now?”

If he’d been more eloquent, this would’ve been the time to tell her how much she’d brought into his life over the past few months, how watching her and learning about her had shown him the costs of being driven toward a single purpose, how lonely it could be when one closed the door to anything but their goal. He would’ve told her about Tasha, and about how he’d failed, and then begged her not to give up on him just because he’d made this fatal mistake. He would’ve been able to put voice to the burgeoning feelings he had for this beautiful woman, in spite of the fact that she was human, or maybe because of it, and how she constantly amazed him with her willingness to look above and beyond.

But Dec didn’t possess a silver tongue, and he had to settle for a simple, “Because you were looking for me.”

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the months of March and April, I'm highlighting sentences from the very first novel I had published, a het vampire erotic romance called Chains of Jericho. It was the very first book I had final in EPIC's ebook awards (then called the EPPIE), and since I had two final this year, I figured this was a good time to share the one that started it all.

Continuing on from last week's scene with Maya and Dec's finally getting sexual...

He must’ve felt her orgasm coming. Seconds before his fucking and sucking sent her careening over the edge, Dec’s mouth slid down and away, his jaw dropping, his teeth grazing over the soft skin of her inner thigh before finding the spot where it was most sensitive. Maya felt the distinct prick of his fangs sinking into her flesh, but it was the first almost painful pull that catapulted her into coming, unfettering her as her climax picked her up in fiery waves and rocked her through its wake, everything spinning out of control around her as she rode it to its finish.

Maya was only half-aware of Dec disengaging from the bite. But when he slid up her body, his weight pressing her more firmly into the mattress, she turned automatically into his kiss, tasting herself on his tongue as she moaned in satisfaction. “That ... was...” she started to say when they broke apart, but the rest of it escaped her.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.

Six Sentence Sunday

Welcome to my SSS! For the months of March and April, I'm highlighting sentences from the very first novel I had published, a het vampire erotic romance called Chains of Jericho. It was the very first book I had final in EPIC's ebook awards (then called the EPPIE), and since I had two final this year, I figured this was a good time to share the one that started it all.

Sharing a room has progressed Maya and Dec's relationship to its natural conclusion...

She was wet, wetter than she could remember being in a long time without the aid of something plastic and vibrating directly between her legs. But though that was now where he seemed to be heading, there was nothing artificial about the way Dec touched her, or the way he growled in the back of his throat when he discovered a fresh patch of her skin to taste, or the probing of his fingers as he determinedly pulled her thighs apart. He never said a word, his mouth too busy etching a path down her navel, and she tensed as she felt his fingertips brush over her cotton-covered mound, tracing her slit with a surprising delicacy.

“Let me,” Maya breathed. She started to lift her hips to shimmy out of her panties, but Dec’s powerful forearm stopped her, clamping down around her waist while he sat up to gaze down at her.

“Don’t,” he ordered.

To check out all the other six sentence contributions, head over to the official website.