Coming in on the home stretch now!

Today’s hostess is Portia Da Costa who is offering up an awesome Yorkshire Rose tote AND it’ll have TWO books – winner’s choice from her available backlist. How’s that for an amazing prize?

KISS IT BETTER – Portia Da Costa
Virgin Black Lace
ISBN: 0352345217

Published in the US on 4th August 2009

BLURB

Pleasure with a perfect stranger…

Jay Bentley is a man with issues. Haunted by physical and psychological demons, he seeks solace and sexual oblivion in the pursuit of an exquisite erotic daydream from his youth, and the reality of a woman who has illuminated his inner fantasies since a brief meeting years ago.

Sandy Jackson has always known that a certain magic is ‘missing’ from her life. She’s feisty and philosophical, but her dreams are filled with heated images of a handsome Prince Charming she once encountered, a man who will kiss everything better and thrill her with glorious, dangerous pleasure.

But the past is an illusion, and the present fraught with conflict and uneasy compromise… can two passionate lovers reconcile their differences and slake their burning sensual hunger for each other in a wild and daring liaison?

EXCERPT

At a business cocktail party, Sandy Jackson encounters the sexy, mysterious stranger she first set eyes on in her café, The Little Teapot, earlier in the day.

“So, is he your type?”

Sandy rocked – literally – on her silly heels. She knew exactly who was standing beside her, and the deep and strangely raw voice really seemed to fit him. She’d only heard it briefly in the Teapot because Kat had served him, but it was unmistakeable, never to be forgotten.

Schooling herself to stay calm, she turned slowly towards the hard man with the beard, who’d been watching her and was now only a couple feet away.

“Not really.” She dared to look up at him. His eyes were sharp and intelligent, dark grey and glinting with a strange, disquieting light. Shaken, she returned her attention to the man in the photo – the rather glamorous Signor Guidetti. “But I do believe that’s our esteemed host, the hotel manager.”

“Indeed it is.”

For several seconds, they stared at the image in silence, then, as one, they scanned the room, looking for the hotel’s suave, slightly flashy Italian proprietor.

“So, why isn’t he your type?”

Put on the spot, Sandy frowned. What business was it of his? Yet still the ghost from her past resurfaced.

“He’s too groomed. Too slick. Too perfect.”

Unlike you.

She suppressed a flinch. Up close, her tough looking man was tougher than ever.

Tall, he towered above her, his shoulders broad and his lean yet muscular limbs strong looking beneath a rather beautiful lightweight suit in midnight grey. His buzz-cut hair was dark and looked velvety against his fine, nobly shaped skull. He had the look of a Roman Emperor, civilized yet savage.

But it was his face, most of all, that made her swallow, both intrigued by it and also faintly frightened.

His features were even, sculpted and masculine, and just as imperial as his cropped hair. But the network of fine white and pink scars that traced the planes of his high cheekbones, his mouth and jaw line, framed by his crisp dark beard, spoke eloquently of pain and suffering.

“Unlike me.”

The fierce, damaged face softened in a smile as he echoed her thoughts, and Sandy almost gasped. Once again, a fleeting sense of memory almost rocked her.

“There’s nothing wrong with looking as if you’ve lived a bit,” she countered, regaining her wits. For all his scars, the tall man had charisma. And his strong body was affecting her, making hers rouse irrationally.

Was he scarred all over? Were the clean, hard lines of his limbs marked and battered? It suddenly seemed important to find out.

“Well, that’s good to know.” His low laugh was as rough as his speaking voice, but Sandy felt it reach out and touch her like a phantom hand. Hormonal reactions fired all over her body and she experienced a tingling all over her skin, as if the fine sheen of sweat on it was creating a subtle field. She’d been hot before, but now she was burning up.

“Care for another drink?”

Her companion nodded at her glass, which Sandy suddenly realised was empty. She couldn’t remember drinking the wine, but obviously she’d been nervously swigging away without realising it. Another drink would slip down well, and soothe her parched throat, even if it was a tepid and uninspiring vintage.

“Yeah, great! I’d love one, thanks.”

She held out the empty, and as the tall, mysterious man took it from her, their fingers briefly touched.

Oooh!

Electricity seemed to arc between them, ramping up the tingling sensation. She suppressed a gasp as his dark eyes widened. He’d felt it too.

“Be right back. Don’t go away.”

TODAY’S QUESTION: You have four dollars and some typical vending machines at a convenience store right off an interstate highway you’re taking for a road trip in the summer. What do you get?

I’ll choose a winner tomorrow! Good luck