It's here - the long awaited Celebrating Independence Blog Hop, one of the biggest, best blog hops in the romance business. The hops put together by author Drea Becraft and her Blog Hop Spot are legendary and I always enjoy them. I'm giving away one eBook copy of In The Shadow of War and one ebook copy of Guy's Angel, my two full length historicals from Rebel Ink Press. Those are my main prizes for the entire blog hop. And, because I just adore my readers - without readers where would I be - I always like to toss in a few daily prizes either.
So that means today - first day of the hop - I'm also going to give away a copy of my little Elvis, time travel, fantasy fun novella from Champagne Books, Long Live The King. I had a blast writing it and so I thought I'd toss an extra copy into the giveaway. Come back tomorrow for another extra giveaway too and one every day through the blog hop. And if you prefer a title, be sure to mention it and please, please put your email address. I can't send you the prize without it!
Now of course you'll want to visit all the other blogs involved so here's the link back to The Blog Hop Spot where you can link to all the blogs (and all the fantastic prizes)
http://thebloghopspot.com/event-page/
I love Fourth of July, it's long been one of my favorite holidays. I love the fact I don't have to shop for weeks ahead or decorate the house or bake for days (like Christmas), no big meal to prepare (Thanksgiving) or a meal plus Easter baskets, bunnies and church (Easter). It's low key and always fun.
Here's a sizzling hot excerpt from In The Shadow of War:
In The Shadow of War
Rebel Ink Press May 17 2012
$5.99
206 pages
ISBN # RIP0004104
ISBN # RIP0004104
Blurb:
Her great-granddaughter wants to know if Bette remembers World War
II for a school project and her questions revive old memories….
Small town school teacher Bette Sullivan's life was interrupted
when the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941 but her world changed forever when she met
Private Benny Levy, a soldier from the Flatbush neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York stationed at Camp
Crowder, the local Army base.
Their attraction is immediate and mutual but as their relationship
grows their love and lives are shadowed by World War II. As the future looms
uncertain the couple comes together with almost desperate need and a powerful
love they hope can weather anything, including the war.
Bette heard his footsteps coming up onto the
porch at straight up six and she leapt up to open the door. With a broad grin, Benny swept her into his
arms and hugged her. Bette basked in his
embrace and lifted her face for his kiss.
Without saying
a word, Benny brought his mouth down to hers with speed. Their lips united with a powerful rush of
heat warmer than the August evening, more potent than a straight shot of good
whiskey. It seemed to Bette, he poured
every ounce of longing from the week into it which she caught and mixed with
her own. Her mouth tingled and her body
revived with desire so strong if he’d wanted to do the deed standing upright in
the doorway, she would’ve. His kiss
lasted long enough she lost track of time and anything outside the two of them
ceased to matter. When he paused, Bette
laid her head against his chest, content to hear the steady beat of his heart
through his uniform. Benny stroked her
hair, his hand gentle and easy.
“Hey,
there, Mrs. Levy,” he said. “I needed that.”
“Me,
too,” she said, voice muffled against him. “I missed you so much.”
“It’s
funny how it works,” Benny said, still holding her. “When you were just my
girl, I missed you plenty, but now you’re my wife and I spent three whole days
and nights with you, I can’t hardly stand being alone. I think about you all the time, even when I
shouldn’t be.”
“Did you
get my letter?”
“Yeah,
sure I did,” he said. “I liked it, baby.
So, tell me, how are you? Are you all right?”
“I’m
good,” Bette said. “I’m fine, now, but I’ve been okay. What about you?”
“I do
okay, too,” he said. “They keep me busy and I’m tired but I don’t sleep so good
so I’m worn out.”
Bette
gazed up into his face and saw the dark smudges beneath his eyes. “You look exhausted, honey. Do you want to go take a nap?”
He shook
his head. “I don’t want to waste my time with you sleeping, doll.”
“Are you
hungry? I can fix supper.”
Benny
grinned. “I was going to take you out
but whaddya got?”
Over the simple supper, he told her about the letter he’d received
from his mother back home in Flatbush.
“She wrote it before we called her,” Benny said. “I’m glad we did
because otherwise I’d been worried. It
was pretty sad, about David being gone and all.
She had the priest say Mass for his soul.”
He
sounded so forlorn Bette reached out to grasp his hand and asked, “So how are
you feeling about David?”
Benny
made a small face. “Oh, I’m better than I was, I guess. It’s going to hurt for a while. They shipped out some guys the other day,
headed for the South Pacific somewhere, and I thought about my brother.”
Fear
blossomed within Bette as the seed planted with Polly’s words grew again, this
time producing a terrible flower of concern. “Benny, they won’t send you
anywhere, will they?”
He pushed
his empty plate away and lit a smoke before he said, with a sigh, “They could,
baby. It’s the Army and they’ll do what
they want. Right now, they seem to like
how I’m a wiz with motors so maybe they’ll keep me. Don’t worry, sweetheart, I ain’t in no hurry
to get overseas and be a hero. I’m no
coward, but I’d like to live, for you and for Ma and a lot of other people who
care about me.”
Bette
shuddered with the goose-walking-over-your-grave feeling again. “I think I’d
die if you were sent so far away and I’d worry myself sick.”
“Don’t
think about it,” Benny said. “I don’t wanna even talk about it. Maybe it won’t never happen. Wanna go dancing or something?”
Her blood
heated with a wicked fever as she answered, “Something would do just fine.”
His grey
eyes kindled with desire as Benny pushed back his chair from the table. He offered her his hand and she took it as
she rose. “Hey, your aunt’s not coming back too soon, is she?”
“She’s
gone to the farm all weekend,” Bette said. “So we can do whatever you
want. When do you have to be back
anyway?”
Benny
grinned. “The official pass says midnight tonight but the company clerk
promised he’d cover my ass if I can make it back by six tomorrow morning. Is it all right by you, baby?”
“It’s
perfect.”
Bette left
their dirty dishes on the table, shut off all the lights in the house, locked
the front door, and took her husband to her bedroom. In her chaste room, Bette stripped out of her
dress with such speed she stood naked before Benny undid his tie. She came to him, naked and without any
shyness. Her nimble fingers unbuttoned
his shirt and trousers, pulled the cloth away from his body and when he wore
nothing, Bette’s hands roamed over his nude flesh with delight. The very touch of his skin beneath her fingertips
evoked heady ripples of physical pleasure, waves rippling through her with
delicious anticipation. She adored
touching him, enjoyed it and claimed the right to do so. Their tie went beyond the legal vows, the
words spoken, to touch something much deeper and stronger.
Benny
caressed her body with such slow, sweet strokes she thought she might just purr
like a satisfied cat. Bette let the
pleasure glide over her skin and relished it.
They teased and tempted each other as their appetites expanded until
Bette could bear no more. She put her
hand around his cock and stroked in a way which caused Benny to groan with
appreciation. Within minutes, he
maneuvered her onto the bed and on her back.
Bette flung apart her legs to welcome him into her private sanctum, but
he held back. Instead Benny laced his
fingers through hers on both hands and held her in place. Maintaining total control he kissed her,
first on the mouth, then between her breasts, his tongue laving around each
nipple. Next, as her body ached for
release Benny entered her cleft with his tongue. On a tide of delight so intense Bette thought
she’d die, she moved and when he reared up to enter with his dick, she waited,
moist and ready.
He
slammed into her with carefully maintained force, enough to pack her full but
with pleasure, never pain. Benny still
grasped her hands in his as he worked her body smooth and strong. Bette came with a wild explosion so powerful
it rocked her to her core, inside and out.
She couldn’t contain the wordless shout of joy bursting from her mouth
as at the last Benny released her so they rose together to reach the peak,
claim it and crash back to earth sated.
They
twined together among her sweat damp sheets, content to cuddle and then talk in
easy whispers. “I never did none of it before, not like this anyhow,” Benny
told her, with a grin. “Did you like it?”
“Mmmhm,”
Bette murmured, lazy and lethargic. “I did.”
“Yeah?
Then we’ll do it again in a little bit,” he said with a yawn. “Now I’m sleepy.”
“So get
some rest,” Bette said, even though it wasn’t dark outside yet. “You could use
it and since you can stay until morning, why not?”
Benny
chuckled. “I have a smart wife, you know? And a real sweetheart of one.”
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sounds great thanks
ReplyDeleteforettarose@yahoo.com
I haven't read too many books in the World War II era but its always been a fascination of mine.
ReplyDeletevampiremistress2010(at)gmail(dot)com