Vixenwriter

Just a quick note to say I’ll be scarce over the next week or so as I finish up INSIDE OUT – I’ll toss up some excerpts here and there but if you’re looking for an email back from me, it might be a few days!

Today’s theme is Dumped! So I thought I’d use an excerpt from LAID BARE when Erin dumps Todd ten years before…

LAID BARE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

“I don’t know how to talk to you.” He scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Why do you make simple things so complicated? Maybe you should stop worrying so much and just talk to me. Be yourself. Why don’t you tell me about yourself? We’ve been, um, dating for a few months now, but you don’t talk about yourself much.”

He took a bite of pizza and watched her carefully. “Not much to tell. Seattle born and bred. Being a cop runs in the family. My dad, both brothers and my sister are cops. I’m single because I broke off an engagement about a year and a half ago. I’m dating around right now. It’s hard to find a woman who accepts the whole cop’s wife thing.”

Erin looked at him and thought over what she’d heard.

“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong place.”

“What do you mean?” He shifted uncomfortably. “Look, Erin, I like you and all, but this . . . thing between us is just fun. No offense but we’re not suited at all.”

It shouldn’t have hurt, but it did. He was delusional. “Bullshit.” She finished the first slice and leaned back. “I’m not asking you to marry me or anything. But we connect, Todd Keenan. You spend so much time trying to just be fucking normal, you get tripped up in it. Just be yourself. Yes, you like dirty talk. You’re kinky, big deal. Why do you fight so hard against what you seem to really like? I like it, I’m willing. You come hard. Why do you deny yourself this way?”

“It’s not who I am!” He stood and stormed into the kitchen. She heard the plate clatter and she wiped her mouth.

“Is it so fucking awful? It’s not like you want to wear a chicken suit while you fuck someone wrapped in plastic wrap or something. You don’t, do you?” She laughed but stopped when he growled and stomped back into the living room.

“It’s not who I am, damn you! Look, it’s you and me. I’m not like this with other women. I’m gentle and the sex is nice. I don’t know what comes over me when you’re near. It’s not right. I wasn’t . . . I’m not supposed to like it.”

She shrugged. What else could she do? Beg him to be who he was? When he thought being who he was, who she was, made them some kind of freaks? “The last thing I want to do is force you into talking dirty and begging me to suck your cock with my fingers in your ass, stroking your prostate.”

He winced and petty satisfaction settled in. He liked it. Got off on it. And it was her fault he was so damned repressed he hated himself over it?

She grabbed her bag. “I’ll spare you the it was fun talk and you can spare me the it’s not you, it’s me stuff. Okay?” Hesitating, she sighed and tiptoed up to kiss him quickly. “I hope you find a place in your life when you can let go and be happy. But I’m not a dirty secret. I’m not bad and wrong for being comfortable with myself, and I won’t let you make me feel that way.”

He slammed a hand against the wall next to her and then grabbed her around the waist, pulling her flush against his body.

“Damn it, Erin, I don’t lose control. I’m a controlled man. I make good choices. I don’t fuck women against alley walls. It’s offputting.”

“Really now? So who fucked me in that alley, Todd? Your doppelganger? Who shoved my mouth down on his cock in his truck three nights ago when we got back from the grocery store? You like it rough. You like it dirty. Why are you so ashamed of it? You didn’t hurt me. I was there with you every step of the way.”

“I don’t want to like it, damn it. Can’t you understand that? I don’t choose to like it. I don’t want to be the man who likes to fuck rough! I choose not to be him.” He shoved a hand through his hair.

Pain sliced through her. “I get it. You think being with me is a bad choice.”

“It’s not . . . I didn’t plan for you, Erin. I like you.”

“But you don’t like who you are when you’re with me. You blame this on me and I’m not having it. I won’t be responsible for your life. You’re a big boy.”

“No. Oh fuck, I don’t know. This is very intense. I have an intense job. I’m not sure if I need an intense personal life too.”

“I see.” She looked into his eyes, wishing he’d wake up and see her. See them and what they could have together.

“You keep saying that, Erin. But how can you see? I don’t even see.”

“All I see is a man who can’t face himself. And it makes me sad, because you’re alive when we’re together and you’re not hiding who you are. You’re playing a game with this, a stupid game. Why I don’t know, because I like who you are. I won’t play this game with you. I’m worth more and so are you.” She leaned up, pressed her hand over his heart and kissed his chin. “Good-bye, Todd. I wish you well, I really do. If you change your mind, give me a call. Maybe I’ll be available.”

He watched her walk out the door and told himself it was for the
best, but he knew he was lying to himself. Just like she said he was.
Be Sure To Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!
Lissa Matthews
TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Shelli Stevens
Eliza Gayle
Vivian Arend
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro

I’ve already announced this at my group and on twitter, but I forgot to say so here – I learned this week that I’ll be in an upcoming Berkley Heat anthology with Beth Kery, Megan Hart and EMMA HOLLY (I can name her now). She’s one of my writing idols and I’m thrilled!

I don’t have a lot of details yet, just that it’s contemporary romance and will have a menage/love triangle theme. My story (plotted it last night) will be a menage story. The antho is slotted for mid 2011!

As it’s writerly wednesday, I may be back later to post a snippet of something. Or maybe not! I plan on writing all day long because my deadline for Inside Out is coming fast.

- EDITED TO ADD: The unnamed author from above is EMMA HOLLY! I’m so beyond thrilled. When my agent called me last night to give me details (because she knows of my love of Holly’s books) I said, “No fucking way!” because I’m professional like that. Thank god Laura knows me well enough to understand this was a good thing, LOL.

Please welcome the fabulous Juliana Stone to the blog today! Jules is made of awesome and her very first book is out today from Samhain! Her next book, His Darkest Hunger, is out in April from Avon (you can check out her upcoming titles at her website!)

Back to the Future….Or not.

Interesting question, no? And one my heroine in Black Legacy deals with on a daily basis. How cool…to be able to travel either forward or backward in time. For Frankie Black it’s pretty much a family business. They are the time police! She and her sisters are the only thing standing between rogue jumpers, people like The New Order, who would manipulate time for their own evil purposes!

I had so much fun writing this short for Samhain and am totally pumped that it releases today! I’ve always been fascinated by time travel. The very possibility of it is intriguing and amazing to me. .

In this first installment in this series, Frankie has been ordered back 300 years, to present day earth in order to make sure that Dekkar James survives the night. He’s been targeted for assassination by The New Order. Little does Frankie know she’s about to meet the man of her dreams….a man who is perfectly, imperfect.

Here is an excerpt of their first meeting:

“Don’t say I didn’t bring you anything for your birthday. You owe me one, Dekkar.”

Frankie’s eyes shot up until they were caught, held in place with an invisible rope by the greenest, sexiest eyes she’d ever seen on a man.

Dekkar James stood a few inches from her, hands loose at his side, shirtless and ripped. His incredible torso was covered in an elaborate array of colorful tattoos that snaked up, caressing the hard abs.

Seconds turned into a long, slow silence, broken by the most devastating smile imaginable.

He didn’t speak, just held out his hand.

Frankie’s breath caught in her throat, and she felt as if she were coming apart, so intense was her body’s reaction.

She hesitated for one moment, and then her hand reached for his, a feeling of fire racing over her flesh as she made contact.

Everything faded away, and she let him lead her out the door, down yet another hallway, until the only sound was their heavy breathing. The air felt thick and it clung to her skin, like a soft caress. She glanced down to her timepiece. She had a little over an hour before the operatives from the New Order were scheduled to arrive.

She wanted to look up, but couldn’t meet his eyes. Her own pale blue orbs had stopped at the sight of the huge bulge that strained against the black of his leather.

When she did manage to raise her eyes higher, his mouth was descending, and she felt her own lips tremble in anticipation.

What the hell was wrong with her? She was on assignment for Christ sakes, and was about to break one of the most vehemently enforced rules of a Black Opal.

No fucking with a target.

His lips were firm, with just a hint of softness that gripped the edges as he opened his mouth wide, and plundered her warm wetness with his tongue. Fire erupted, hot and raging; it was immediate and all consuming.

Frankie had never in her life experienced such a kiss. It was both passionate and brutal in its intensity. She knew she was lost. There would never again be such a first kiss.

Not ever.

Sigh…I love first kisses especially when they lead to one helluva a hot encounter!

I will give away a free copy of this book, but you must comment with an answer to this question…If you had the ability to time travel where would you go? To what time and place? I’ll check back tomorrow and announce a winner!