TBT: Chains of Jericho

I did something earlier this week that I've meant to do since RT 2014. I finally joined RWA. It's been ten years since I published my first romance, but it took almost all of that for me to be comfortable joining the professional organization.

I couldn't do it for the longest time because I would've felt like a hypocrite. When I first started writing, e-publishing didn't count. Then when they couldn't ignore e-publishing anymore, they discriminated against LGBT authors. I couldn't, in all good conscience, be a part of an organization that wouldn't recognize so many hard-working people. It felt wrong.

That finally changed, and in all honesty, I was ready to join after having a long lunch with my old friend Denny Bryce at RT 2014. I didn't get around to it before the convention, then honestly forgot until RT of this year. It's been on my list to do, and finally, FINALLY, I applied.

I still have to join the LGBT charter and look for other charters to be a part of, but the first step is done.

So today's TBT is my very first romance that I ever published. It's an m/f vampire story that was originally published through Linden Bay Romance. When Linden Bay was bought out by Samhain, I got the rights back and re-released it through Liquid Silver. It was also an EPPIE finalist, which I'm very proud of.

Declan Jericho is a vampire with a purpose. His best hope for success rests on the shoulders of a brilliant young cancer specialist, but saving the undead isn’t exactly the career path Dr. Maya Sheldon has in mind.

When Dec kidnaps Maya from work, the last thing she wants to do is help him. Then she discovers what he wants her for: develop a cure for the mysterious illness killing the young vampires in his care. Vampires or not, she’s unable to abandon them. Her interest in Dec quickly shifts from professional to something more intimate, but as their attraction grows, darker secrets threaten their newfound relationship. Dec has his own reasons for wanting the young vampires cured, and he’s not telling…

For an excerpt and purchase information, head over to Liquid Silver Books!

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.

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.

Maya got bitten a second time by Danny when she was examining him. Dec has returned with supplies and found her buried in research.

Dropping the bags containing Maya’s things, he marched forward to reach for her arm. Maya shocked him by bolting from the chair and putting the table between them.

“Before you get mad--” she started.

Dec’s brows shot up. “Before?” he demanded. “You think I can walk into my room, see that you’ve been hurt, and not already be upset?”

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.

Maya is examining Danny, the teenaged vampire who attacked her the first night in the refuge. She's discovered Danny is Dec's little brother and the progression of his illness is the reason Dec is so gung ho about finding a cure. (For clarity's sake, Katie is Dec's main lieutenant.)

Beads of blood swelled in the grooves, and purple and blue bruises were already joining the green marks from yesterday and before. Danny’s whimpers of pain tore through Maya’s defenses, making her wince with him, and she reached down to her bag and some bandages, holding the chains away from the worst of the injuries near his neck as she did so.

The sudden sting of his fangs sinking into her wrist made her cry out loud. Maya yanked against the attack, feeling her flesh rip as she broke away, the blood spurting from the exposed vein. Danny grinned at her with a sickening crimson leer, his head falling back onto the pillow, but it was wiped from his face when Katie’s fist connected with his jaw.

“I told you not to move the chains,” Katie said as Maya stumbled away from the bed.

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've decided to highlight 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.

Maya has learned that she's been kidnapped so she can find an antidote to the blood disease that's killing all the young vampires in Dec's care. Here, she's still trying to process what's going on.

As the water spilled over her shoulders, Maya’s fingers went to the exposed bite on her neck, touching the small raised holes where his fangs had pierced her skin. The memory of his whispered plea for absolution made her shiver in spite of the hot water, and she couldn’t help but wonder what could’ve happened to Dec to make him change his ways. He’d seemed genuinely contrite that he’d bitten her. She supposed it could’ve been his fear that he’d go too far and lose the aid he’d gone to such lengths to retrieve, but she wasn’t convinced that was all of it. There had to be more. After all, why was he so concerned about saving all these young vampires?

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've decided to highlight 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 titles final this year, I figured this was a good time to share the one that started it all.

Last week, Maya learned she was kidnapped by a vampire when he bit her. This is later that same night, after Dec has been forced to keep Maya in his own quarters to keep her safe from the others in the refuge. She's asleep. He can't.

At the moment, his every nerve was aware of her presence, his erection straining against the denim of his jeans. He wanted nothing more than to strip out of the rest of his clothes and finish what he’d started with the bite, sinking into her supple flesh in more ways than one. It had been a long time since he’d felt the desire to forget his vows, and even longer since he’d seriously contemplated dismissing them entirely, but something about Maya Sheldon made him wonder if it might not be possible to have it both ways.

She inspired hope. He’d seen it in the faces of her patients at the hospital.

Funny, but Dec had never once considered that just maybe he might be included in those numbers, not even when he’d decided she was his best hope to save Danny and the others.

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've decided to highlight 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 find out next weekend whether one of the two titles I have that finaled this year have won, I figured this was a good time to share the one that started it all.

The heroine is Dr. Maya Sheldon, a pediatric oncologist in San Francisco. Last week, she met a man in an alley outside her hospital when she was trying to help someone who seemed hurt. He kidnapped her, but in his underground home, she finds herself thrown in chaos when a teenaged boy with fangs looks to be on the rampage. Her kidnapper, Dec, stopped him. This follows immediately afterward as Maya finds herself caught between Dec and a group of young people who all look like vampires.

The velvet baritone of his voice so close to her ear made her shiver. “But you let Danny get a taste of you. I don’t have a choice any more.”

She felt a cool tingle where his mouth trailed down the side of her neck, and the swift memory of the slice of Danny’s teeth into her hand made her start struggling against Dec’s hold.

“Forgive me,” he whispered.

The sharp prick of fangs sinking into her neck tore the scream from Maya’s throat.

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've decided to highlight 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 find out in two weeks whether one of the two titles I have that finaled this year have won, I figured this was a good time to share the one that started it all.

The heroine is Dr. Maya Sheldon, a pediatric oncologist in San Francisco. At the start of the story, she's leaving work late, hears a cry for help off the parking lot, and runs to help. The woman she thought was dead stands up when a man shows up, and he's just told Maya he needs her to come with him. Not quite an auspicious start for our two leads to meet, let's just say.

She realized he hadn’t said, “I won’t hurt you,” which made her terror about what he really wanted burn just a little bit brighter. “I’m thinking ... no,” she started to say, and then stopped when she saw the familiar strobe of police lights at the end of the alley. Relief flooded through her as her pace hesitated, but it must’ve shown in her face because the stranger’s head whipped around to see what she was looking at.

“What did you do?” he asked.

“It’s called 911, asshole,” she retorted. “Now’s the time you might want to think about running before they lock you up.”

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