Excerpt Sunday - Love and Diamonds Anthology

Today, I'm putting in an excerpt from my short story in the Love and Diamonds Anthology. Briefly what the story is about:

Rosalee finds an engagement ring in a pocket at the dry cleaner where she works. The ring looks just like the one she returned after accepting her boyfriend’s proposal three years earlier. She still regrets giving it back to Sam, especially after he broke her heart and left. Unable to resist, she tries on the ring but can’t get it off. She has to find the owner and explain herself. What will she say?

Excerpt:

The box was probably empty. Who would leave an engagement ring in their pocket before sending their suit to the dry-cleaners? Something that valuable. Unlikely.

She needed to know what was in there so she could note it in the lost property book. If it was something worth more than an expensive restaurant meal for two, she was obligated to call the customer straight away. Company policy.

She walked up to the desk and smiled. This wasn’t a crazy nightmare coming back to taunt her, to remind her how she’d messed up her life, no, this was just an ordinary day at work.

The little lid flipped open with a jerk, and she gasped.

It couldn’t be! No! This was a crazy nightmare. She would wake up any minute.

The memories flooded back. Tears pricked her eyes. Her fingers instinctively grasped the small, delicate ring with two diamonds—one large, round diamond in the centre and another tiny one offset to the side, like the big diamond’s child or soul mate.

Soul mate. She’d known a soul mate once. The very man who’d given her this ring.

This ring? Why was her engagement ring in the pocket of a suit? One year to the day after she’d told Sam she wasn’t certain she could marry him, and he’d turned away from her in bitterness?

Sure, she’d been so wrong to choose a ring with him and then when he proposed, to say she wasn’t sure and wanted more time. What guy would take that sitting down? But leave her? Give up on them forever?

The ring was on her finger in a moment. She’d been dreaming of wearing it for months; of taking back the terrible mistake she’d made. Of keeping the very symbol of her love for Samuel.

But it wasn’t to be.

She knew that now and could never go back. But somehow she had to get over the memories so she could move on, find someone else. Or would she run away again? Was she the runaway fiancée who couldn’t put that ring on her finger? Who couldn’t commit?

No, she had to return this ring to the owner. That was her job too. She was the one who did errands, who drove around the town to take back people’s clothes and belongings. A chance to get out of the smelly dry-cleaning room was always welcome, but not today.

It wouldn’t be him, she knew that. Just a crazy coincidence that someone had chosen the same ring and she’d seen it. Odd to happen exactly a year later though.

Maybe this was fate. This was her chance to get over the hurt once and for all. To move on.

She took hold of the ring to pull it off. A little tight. The other lady must be tiny. She was small enough herself. She should have thought of that before she tried it on. A little wriggling would get it loose in a moment.

She wriggled it with her other hand, but it wouldn’t budge.

The anthology can be purchased here: Amazon

Excerpt Sunday: Waking up in Vegas

What happens in Vegas…
Waking up to the bright lights of Vegas in an unfamiliar penthouse suite, cocktail waitress Phoenix Montgomery finds she’s covered from head to foot in gold glitter and not alone – aside from the empty bottle of champagne, there’s a mystery man in the shower and a huge sparkly ring on her finger!

Stays in Vegas?
There’s no denying Max Waldburg’s demi-god sex appeal but commitment-phobic Phoenix doesn’t do relationships. Only it seems her new husband (agh!) has other ideas…he’s trying to keep that ring on her finger and his wife firmly back in his bed. The only question on her lips is – why? Or maybe, why not?

* * *

“Since I’m obviously at the disadvantage here, I don’t suppose we could speed this up a little? Like full name, place of birth, age, job description?” The reason why I married a complete stranger?
He eyed her for a long moment and she resisted the urge to squirm. For a mad second she thought he was weighing something up and deciding how much to tell her. God, she hoped he wasn’t a con man. That would be awkward if she was left with the bill for this fancy suite. She didn’t think her life savings would stretch to breakfast, let alone a night in this hotel.
Then he smiled, mouth wide, eyes crinkling, and her heart thundered against her chest. With a smile like that, it was amazing he was still single. Well, single enough to marry her, of course.
Assuming he wasn’t some Mormon with three wives back home. Was bigamy legal here in Nevada?
“Max Waldburg. I was born in a tiny principality in Europe you won’t have heard of, my age is on our marriage contract, and I work for my grandfather on his farm.”
Farm. Napa. Something clicked. “A vineyard. You make wine.”
“I’m a vintner, yes. Five years of studying viticulture, and a whole lot more as an apprentice to my grandfather, and the critics say I’m getting quite good at it.”
He reached for her hand, and this time she didn’t push him away. His touch was more than a caress; it was as if she stood in a rainbow, in a shaft of sunlight on a cold day.
“You’ll love it there. The farmhouse has a wrap-around veranda and a kitchen the size of forever. You can stand at the front door and look out over the entire valley and see nothing but vines and trees. At sunset, it’s truly magical.”
She’d married a poet. That figured. She always managed to attract men with very little grasp on reality.

Waking up in Vegas is available from Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and All Romance eBooks.

Excerpt from 'The Trouble with Mojitos'

This week's excerpt is from the ideal summer holiday read, The Trouble with Mojitos.

For those headed back to work tomorrow, this light-hearted romance will help keep that holiday vibe going. For those of you still on holiday... Shush, I don't want to hear it!

 * * *

Juan brought two big earthenware platters to their table, filled with huge grilled lobsters, shelled and fresh from the barbecue, served on a bed of rice.
Kenzie licked her lips. “And what are these?” she asked, pointing at her plate.
“Plantain chips. They’re like bananas – sweet.” Rik lifted one off his plate and held it to her lips.
Her gaze held his for a fraction of a second before she opened her mouth and took a bite.
“Are you flirting with me?” she asked, once she’d swallowed it down. He was right, it was sweet. Better than plain old potato chips back home.
“Of course. Isn’t that what one does when on a date with a beautiful woman?”
She choked on the plantain chip. “This isn’t a date!”
“It isn’t?” His eyes held that dangerous glitter again. “Dinner, moonlight, pretty woman...sure looks like a date to me.”
“Yeah, but I’m leaving in three days.”
He grinned. “What difference does that make? It’s just a date, not a lifelong commitment.” The way his face pulled at that thought, she could guess what he thought of lifelong commitments.
“I don’t do one-night stands,” she said, as haughtily as she could muster.
No, she had a tendency to throw herself into long, complicated relationships and lose her heart and a piece of herself in the process.
And pick up a reputation.
She concentrated on her lobster and pretended that the idea of getting down and dirty with Rik wasn’t giving her hot flushes.
He leaned back in his seat and eyed her. “I’ve never had a one night stand either, but there’s always a first time for everything.”
A man who’d never had a one-night stand? Yeah right, and pull the other leg.
Her mojito glass was empty. She chased down the last of the lobster with Rik’s untouched drink.
Perhaps it would be different if she just indulged her body for a change, and kept her heart out of it. Perhaps a one-night stand was exactly what she needed.
Three days...that wasn’t enough time to lose her heart. Right?
The hot flush headed south. She pressed her thighs together, but that only made it worse.
No, she couldn’t. She’d sworn a vow. And that mischief in Rik’s eyes definitely put him in the ‘off limits, avoid-at-all-costs’ category.
“I think you should take me home,” she said. Her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat.
“That was easier than I expected.”
She choked again. “I mean...I need to work tomorrow...”
He grinned and rose. “I know what you meant.”
Rik dropped cash on the table, then moved to hold her seat for her to stand. Such old-fashioned manners did nothing to ease her erratic pulse. Why couldn’t he be a straight-forward jerk and make it easy on her?
Juan waved them out the restaurant with another beaming smile, and then they were back on the boat which suddenly seemed even more intimate than their table at the restaurant had been.
While Rik guided the boat out of the harbour, Kenzie lounged back on the bench, no longer caring that her dress rode up and flashed way too much thigh. She was rewarded by his lingering gaze on her legs.
Good. She hoped his pulse was just as affected as hers. She hoped she drove him just as crazy as he drove her.
The coastline of Los Pajaros shimmered with magic in the dark, tiny fairy lights glittering between the trees, the beaches edged with dancing phosphorescence.
But the real magic show was above. She leaned back on her elbows and looked up. She’d lived close enough to London all her life that the sight of the Milky Way was still a treat. That was one of the best perks of her job – it took her to places where she could escape the light and noise pollution and actually see the stars.
This night sky was a hundred times better than any she’d seen, and she’d travelled enough to have seen a lot of impressive nights.
A balmy breeze stroked over her bare limbs. Her skin felt more alive, almost electric.
Los Pajaros had awakened her senses. Every colour seemed brighter, every experience deeper. The lazy heat that caressed her skin, the rich scents, the tastes…sweet and tart melting together.
And she definitely felt hungry for more. Of everything.
It was as if she’d been only half alive before, and here she was awakened, a new person, a better person.
This sense of possibility was familiar, it was that feeling she’d had as a child, that sense that she could have anything, do anything, be anything. She closed her eyes and breathed it in. She wasn’t a screw up. She was a young woman with the world at her feet, and a future, not just a past.
Today could be the beginning of a whole new life.

* * *

Turquoise blue waters. Sandy white beaches. Mojitos... Film location scout Kenzie Cole has found herself in paradise. Working in the Caribbean for a week is just what she needs to escape the long line of exes in her closet. Though the last thing she expects is to be picked up at the resort bar by a disgraced former Prince!

Luckily for Kenzie, exile is suiting the man formerly known as Prince Fredrik very well. And it’s not long before his rugged, pirate charm is proving hard to resist.

But Rik’s been spending his time in paradise exorcising demons of his own and he has danger written all over him. If Kenzie was sensible she’d run a mile instead of lose herself to lust - although, they do say sometimes you have to get lost before you can be found....


The Trouble with Mojitos is published by Harper Impulse, a division of Harper Collins, and is available from the following online retailers: Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and All Romance eBooks.