The Winner of Defiance is...

Haley Ferguson! 

*cue the applause*

Congratulations, Haley!!  I'll be passing this information along to Shelly Crane and she'll be in touch with you very soon. 

Thank you all for participating.  We appreciate your support more than you can imagine!  I hope each and every one you has an amazing week:)

Giveaway: Defiance by Shelly Crane

So, my lovely and talented friend, Shelly Crane will be releasing the highly-anticipated third installment of the Significance series, Defiance, on March 13th.  She'll be giving away an ARC (eBook, international) to one lucky winner from my blog!  Woohoo!  What do you have to do to win this awesome prize, you ask?  Just leave a comment with your name, e-mail address and the reason you love the Significance series and you'll be automatically entered into the drawing.  You have to be quick, though!  I'll be randomly selecting a winner on Monday, March 12th and announcing it at noon on my blog so get your comments in FAST!  Here's a peek at the amazing cover and a description of this latest tale:

In the third installment of the Significance series, we begin with Maggie and Caleb in the clutches of a new enemy; the Virtuoso council. Not only do they have to deal with the consequences of taking the lives of the Watsons and the council attempting to take Maggie away to keep their precious Visionary safe, but they must deal with Marla as well. All are determined to undermine, control and use Caleb and Maggie's rare gifts for their own uses, some wish to destroy them entirely. Then Maggie's father and Bish are threatened but the council forbids the presence of humans. Peter and the family fight and stand beside them every step of the way to save Maggie's father, to keep Caleb and Maggie together when the corrupted council is so set on keeping them apart and to stop Marla and whatever she has up her sleeve. Then Maggie has the shock of her life when she discovers something about her real father. It may change everything for everyone. Stay tuned as the story continues.

''One thing was certain in my mind; change was necessary and the truth was always the best option, but that didn’t mean that it was going to be a painless journey…''  - Maggie

Ready, set, GO!

Playlist for Blood Like Poison

Okay, so it goes without saying that I'm WAY late to the game with this one, but I just posted the playlist for Bo and Ridley's beginning (For the Love of a Vampire) to my sidebar.  I'm going to do them as I go from now on, but I couldn't resist doing this one in retrospect, as many of the songs are permanently etched into my mind.  What do you think?

Beginnings, An M. Leighton Anthology

Today, I launched an anthology that includes the first book of 5 of my series.  Those books are: Madly, Blood Like Poison, Wiccan, The Reaping and Caterpillar. It is available on Amazon today, but won't be on B&N until later.  And get this, it's ONLY $3.99!  Y'all, that's hours and hours of entertainment for less than four dollars!  Holy canoli!  I'd love y'all forever if you'd help me spread the word. *bats eyelashes*  And stay tuned because I'm going to be doing quite a few giveaways in the coming weeks.  All sorts of combinations of things.  It's gonna be EPIC!

Anyway, here's the cover for Beginnings.  The link to Amazon is below it.  Thanks for stopping by:)

Buy it or Gift it on Amazon

TRANSFER STUDENT BLOG TOUR : EXCERPT

Okay, so I'm lucky enough to have another awesome author and fellow Plume on my blog today.  Her name is Laura A. H. Elliott and she is A-MAZING.  She's also doing a giveaway, so be sure to read past the excerpt to get all the details.

Now, without further ado, here's a little about Laura and her book:

Laura loves writing about enchanted road trips, birthday gifts that are out of this world, and alien romance while eating lots of popcorn. She’s the author of Winnemucca, a small-town fairy tale inspired by her life-long love of a little-known town, Avenal, CA, and her equal love of enchanted teenage road trips. 13 on Halloween is the first book in the Teen Halloween Series. 14 on Halloween, book 2 in the Teen Halloween series, will be released in the summer of 2012. Her new release, TRANSFER STUDENT will be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble March 20th.

Her newest title, Transfer Student, will be available March 20th.  Until then, here's the blurb and a little sneak peek:

TRANSFER STUDENT is the latest novel from Laura A. H. Elliott and will release on Amazon and Barnes & Noble March 20th. Here’s a little bit about the novel and an excerpt written from Ashley’s POV about her obsession with Rhoe’s best friend, Yuke. Be sure to read to the end to enter to win the EBOOK

GIVEAWAY and this week’s SWAG!

Two Worlds––Two Teens––One Wish
Geek Rhoe and Surfer Ashley would never be friends.
Even if they lived on the same planet.
But, they’ll become so much more.
They’ll transfer.

Earthling Ashley’s world revolves around winning daily popularity contests at Beverly Hills High School and surfing competitions with sweet scholarship prizes that will finally help her break free of her control-freak mother. Ashley never loses. Ashley never wishes on stars. But that changes when her senior class takes a field trip to the Griffith Observatory where Ashley’s conflicting feelings about her predatory best frenemy Tiffany, throws Ashley’s carefully-crafted Queen of B.H.H.S. title under the bus.

Meanwhile on planet Retha, Rhoe misses his dad, loves his mom’s home-cooked Glechy crag with a side of Ory sauce, is desperate to heal his sick brother and wants more than anything to win The Retha New Invention Competition. He and his best friend Yuke have worked for the past two years constructing the teleporting telescope Rhoe started building with his dad before an accident killed him. Rhoe’s never kissed a girl. Rhoe’s hero is the eccentric physicist, Ramay. But that changes when the telescope teleports Rhoe across the universe with an unintended side-effect. Ashley and Rhoe transfer––swap lives––when they make the same wish at the same time.

Popular-surfer-turned-boy-geek alien Ashley must handle life on Retha as Rhoe complete with webbed feet, low-gravity, an obsession with Yuke, all the while being hunted by Rethan spies and resenting her hairy, flat chest. Boy-geek-turned-popular-surfer Rhoe must fit in at Beverly Hills High School as Ashley, compete in The Laguna Beach Invitational without becoming shark food, dodge boys’ affections, cool his preoccupation with kissing Tiffany and his new body, on his quest to find the healing rocks he believes will save his brother’s life.

If only it were that simple. Some wishes can’t come true. Some have to. How far would you go for someone you love?

EXCERPT:

Yuke catches up to me. We walk side-by-side in silence through the Golden Meadow. The airboard launch, a sort of gigantic upside-down slide, peeks over a row of Truffula Trees.
           “Listen, there are three things you have to remember about soaring. You’ll never soar if your mind is on the ground. Put it up on The Ridge,” Yuke says, pointing to a purple-blue mountain ahead of us. “Rhoe taught me that.”
         The way he says Rhoe I know it’s happened. He knows. He really knows I’m not Rhoe, I’m…Ashley. It’s sunk in. Finally. I stop walking and can hardly breathe. It’s the first time he’s ever seen the real me, and his gaze warms me down to my frog-feet. Yuke spots the question in my eyes.
         “The Ridge of No Return,” he says with a small smile, “It’s the prime place to catch air. But beware The Devil’s Grip. Soar too high and you’ll be caught in The Grip and lost to The Other Side. Forever.”
         He misreads the question in my eyes. Again. I shiver thinking about The Grip and dying in the mythic ice and snow of The Other Side. I stare at my hideous frog-feet, my peds. I don’t care about The Ridge. There’s only one person I care about. One boy I’ll never have. Yuke.
         “What else?” I ask, peering deeper into Yuke’s alien eyes.
         “You’ve got to feel the beat of the wind in your peds. Surrender to the air. And know, deep in your hearts, no one is its master.”
         I hear and don’t hear every word Yuke says. For the first time in my life I can’t speak. I can’t take my eyes off Yuke, now that he knows I’m not Rhoe. He wouldn’t be telling his best friend, an Astral, how to airboard unless he knows I’m Ashley, someone who doesn’t know much about soaring.
         “Your catchers will always stop you if you fall,” Yuke says, filling the silence between us. He raises his arms above his head. Delicate wings expand out from under his arms. Thin pinkish-purple skin stretches over delicate, long bones. No feathers at all. Just smooth, glimmering skin. And it’s crazy. A week ago I wouldn’t even look twice at a guy with a big nose, but now, I’m hot for an alien. With wings. He’s that hot. 
         I have to touch him. It’s beyond wanting to. The way Yuke spreads his wings makes his pecs flare and his biceps seize. He’s beyond gorgeous. The way his sheer wings take to the breeze makes Yuke more unreal than he already is to me. He’s everything I never wanted and everything I can’t live without. It feels like we’re the only souls in the universe. The look in his golden exotic eyes melts my ability to stay away from him.
         “You can’t be real,” I say taking a few steps closer to him, holding my hand out to touch his wing. Waiting for him to let me. To know it’s OK. He flexes and lets his head fall back a little inviting my touch. I lay my alien fingers on his smooth taught skin, and run them over his wing’s thin hollow bones. My eyes fill with tears. His wings flutter in a breeze. He’s beautiful.
         Yuke sticks his chest out and when he drops his arms his catchers vanish back into his biceps. “I can’t let you soar. Not now,” he says, the crowd cheers just beyond the trees.
         Only then do I remember where we are. What we’re here to do. A band begins to play a set of songs. The crowd beyond the row of trees cheers again and again.
         “I have to. I’m doing this for Rhoe,” I say.
         Yuke puts his hand on my shoulder. I shudder.
         “And for me,” I say.
         Yuke’s golden eyes focus only on mine, on the Earthling inside of this alien body.
         “And for you,” I say, feeling the beat of my hearts in my throat. “We’re going to win this damn thing.”


GIVEAWAY:
Here’s how to enter to WIN A TRANSFER STUDENT EBOOK! Just follow @Laurawriting and tweet: [leave a comment here with your link]

Can’t wait to read Transfer Student by @Laurawriting Check out the Blog Tour & Giveaway! #teenreads #scifi #romance #ya http://wp.me/P1J9jx-bs
THAT’S NOT ALL:
Every week all comments are entered to win some great swag too! THIS WEEK’S SWAG: GROOVY NASA TRAVEL MUGS, real meteorite fragments, signed bookmarks, Griffith Park Observatory pen & postcards, Apollo 40th Anniversary commemorative coin and MORE! Check out the weekly swag here: http://wp.me/P1J9jx-bs

THIS WEEK’S GIVEAWAY OPEN UNTIL MARCH 5! 6PM PST. 1 swag winner will be picked. Open internationally!

To find out where in the world Laura is and more about her upcoming books, visit her blog Laurasmagicday: http://laurasmagicday.wordpress.com/ <http://laurasmagicday.wordpress.com/> and friend her on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Laura.A.H.Elliott... <http://www.facebook.com/Laura.A.H.Elliott.> If Twitter is your thing she's @Laurawriting <https://twitter.com/#!/Laurawriting> . Or, drop her a line at elliwrite [at] yahoo [dot] com.
Laura is a plume-carrying member of THE PARANORMAL PLUME SOCIETY <http://www.theplumessociety.com/> , and is also a member of The YA INDIE CARNIVAL <http://yaauthorclub.blogspot.com/>  & THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST YA AUTHORS <http://pacificnorthwestyaauthors.wordpress.com/> !

Guest Author--Michelle Muto

I'm so excited for y'all to meet the author I'm hosting today.  Her name is Michelle Muto and she is the author of both Don't Fear the Reaper and The Book of Lost Souls.  She's here today to give us a chapter from Don't Fear the Reaper. 

First of all, let me tell you a little about Michelle.  She has always loved storytelling. When she was a child, her favorite stories were of monsters and things that lurked in the dark. Telling stories often frightened her classmates and got her into a lot of trouble with her teachers. They had no sense of humor.

As an adult, Michelle traded her love of writing for the corporate life where she was an IT professional. Today, she's doing what she loves best - writing and storytelling.

Michelle grew up in Chicago, but currently lives in NE Georgia with her husband and their two dogs. She loves scary books, funny movies, sports cars, and chocolate.

Michelle is also a fellow Paranormal Plume and I got to meet her. Y'all, she's A-MAZING!!

Now, take a look at this frickin' awesome cover and incredible description! 

Grief-stricken by the murder of her twin, Keely Morrison is convinced suicide is her ticket to eternal peace and a chance to reunite with her sister. When Keely succeeds in taking her own life, she discovers death isn’t at all what she expected. Instead, she’s trapped in a netherworld on Earth and her only hope for reconnecting with her sister and navigating the afterlife is a bounty-hunting reaper and a sardonic, possibly unscrupulous, demon. But when the demon offers Keely her greatest temptation—revenge on her sister's murderer—she must uncover his motives and determine who she can trust. Because, as Keely soon learns, both reaper and demon are keeping secrets and she fears the worst is true—that her every decision will change how, and with whom, she spends eternity.

And now...the teaser!!

First Chapter Teaser: 

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for they are with me. 

I repeated my version of the psalm as I watched the ribbon of blood drift from my wrist. I’d hoped it would be a distraction—something to stop me from wondering what my sister’s dying thoughts had been. Exhaling slowly, I let the emptiness consume me. 

Jordan had kept my secrets and I had kept hers. In the end, it came down to just one secret between us that took her life. Now, it would take mine. I should have said something, but nothing I said or did now could bring her back or make anyone understand what she meant to me.

Are you here, Jordan? Are you with me? Tell me about heaven...

I told myself Jordan was gone, never coming back, but her memories continued to haunt me. I had no idea if there even was

She should still be here. It wasn’t fair. 

I’d been the difficult one—much more than Jordan. For a while, I’d even gotten into drugs. Mom and Dad had worried I’d get Jordan into drugs, too. But I wouldn’t. Not ever. Besides, that part of my life had been over long before Jordan’s death. A small gargoyle tattoo on my left shoulder was all that remained of my previous lifestyle.

Mom and Dad started treating me differently after Jordan’s funeral two months ago. She and I were twins, so I understood how hard it was for them to look at me and not see her. Sometimes, they wouldn’t look at me at all. Mom went to the psychiatrist, but no one asked if I needed to talk to someone about what happened. No one asked if I needed sleeping pills or antidepressants. Yeah, sure. Don’t give the former addict pills of any sort. 

Not one person saw the all-consuming suffering that gnawed at my soul. Why couldn’t anyone see? Jordan had been more than my sister—she’d been my Samson, my strength. I would have done anything for her, and yet, I’d failed her. I wasn’t the one who’d killed her, but I might as well have been. How could I ever live with that? My heart had a stillness to it since her death. 

I shall fear no evil.

I couldn’t very well recite the first part of Psalm 23 because it said I shall not want, and I did want. I wanted to go back in time. I wanted my sister back. Clearly, goodness and mercy were never going to be part of my life ever again. In my mind, I saw myself walking through the iron gates of hell with demons cackling gleefully all around.

I didn’t want to die. Not really. I was just tired and didn’t know of another way to stop the pain. Doctors removed a bad appendix. Dentists pulled rotten teeth. What was I supposed to do when my very essence hurt, when the cancer I’d come to call depression made every decent memory agonizingly unbearable? 

Before I’d gotten down to cutting my wrist (I managed to only cut one), I’d taken a few swigs of Dad’s tequila—the good kind he kept in the basement freezer. I’d used another swig or two to chase down the remainder of Mom’s sleeping pills in the event I failed to hit an artery or vein. Then I’d set the bottle on the ledge of the tub in case I needed further liquid encouragement. Instead of using a knife or a razor, I attached a cutting blade to my Dad’s Dremel. The Dremel was faster, I reasoned. More efficient. 

It would have been easier to OD, I suppose. But I felt closer to my sister this way, to suffer as she’d suffered.

I recited the line from Psalms 23 again. It had become my personal mantra. 

The words resonated in my parents’ oversized bathroom. I’d chosen theirs because the Jacuzzi tub was larger than the tub in the hall bathroom. Jordan and I used to take bubble baths together in this same tub when we were little.

Innocence felt like a lifetime ago. I searched the bathroom for bubble bath but came up short. Soap might have made the laceration hurt more so it was probably just as well. Besides, the crimson streaming from my wrist like watercolor on silk was oddly mesmerizing. 

The loneliness inside proved unrelenting, and the line from the psalms made me feel better. I prayed for the agony inside me to stop. I argued with God. Pleaded. But after all was said and done, I just wanted the darkness to call me home.

I tried not to think of who would find my body or who’d read the note I’d left. I blamed myself not only for failing Jordan, but for failing my parents, too. 

My lifeline to this existence continued to bleed out into the warm water. Killing myself had been harder than I’d imagined. I hadn’t anticipated the searing fire racing through my veins. I reached for the tequila with my good arm but couldn’t quite manage. Tears welled in my eyes. 

Part of me foolishly felt Jordan was here. The other part feared she wasn’t.

Give me a sign, Sis. Just one.

I imagined seeing my parents at my funeral—their gaunt faces, red-eyed and sleepless. How could I do this to them? Wasn’t the devastation of losing one child enough? 

No. Stop. A voice in my head screamed. Don’t do this. Don’t. Please...

I shifted my body, attempted to get my uncooperative legs under me. I could see the phone on my parents’ nightstand. I could make it that far. Had to. The voice was right. I didn’t want to do this. I felt disorientated, dizzy. Darkness crept along the edges of my vision. Focusing became difficult. A sweeping shadow of black caught my attention. Someone stood in the bathroom—not my sister. A man. Had I managed to call 911? I couldn’t remember getting out of the tub. And why’d I get back in? Did I use a towel? 

Mom is going to be pissed when she sees the blood I’ve tracked all over the bedroom carpet. 

“I’m sorry,” I told the man in black. 

“It’s okay, Keely. Don’t be afraid.” Not my father’s voice. It was softer, with a hint of sorrow. Distant. Fleeting. Later, I’d feel embarrassed about this, but for now I was safe from the nothing I’d almost become. My teeth clattered from the chill. My eyelids fluttered in time with my breaths. The tub water had turned the color of port wine. The ribbons, the pretty, red watercolor ribbons were gone.

Dull gray clouded my sight.

A voice whispered to me, and my consciousness floated to the surface again. 

“—okay, Keely.”

Cold. So cold.

“I’m right here.”

There was no fear in me as the man bent forward, his face inches from mine. He was my father’s age, and yet strangely older. His eyes were so...blue, almost iridescent. The irises were rimmed in a fine line of black, and the creases etched at the corners reminded me of sunbeams as he gave me a weak smile. The oddly. Dressed. Paramedic. A warm hand reached into the water and cradled mine. My fingers clutched his. I sighed, feeling myself floating, drifting. Light—high and intense exploded before me. No! Too much. Too much! I shuddered and labored to catch my breath, but it wouldn’t come. 

Finally, the comfort of darkness rose to greet me.

Where to buy/download sample chapters:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Smashwords

Createspace

Connect with Michelle:

Blog

FB

Twitter

YA Indie Carnival- Name That Tune

This week at the carnival is all about music.  Now, I must first say that I think music MAKES television and movies.  Seriously, they can add so much emotional depth to a scene--suspense, sadness, happiness, excitement.  Steam.  Those are the ones I like best, the songs that go with steamy scenes.  I guess because I write romance, I have a soundtrack that plays in the back of my head almost constantly when I write a love scene.  The thing is, it is all my own.  It never has a title or a performing artist.  It's just music that I hear, playing along in the background, underscoring my characters' love and desire for one another.  If I COULD listen to music while I wrote, I totally would.  But the thing is, I CAN'T.  Literally.  The music consumes me and I can't focus on what I'm writing.  I would love to be one of those people who has to write with mood music playing.  But, alas, *sigh*  I'm not.  I have to have complete and utter silence when I write.  Now what goes on in my head is a different story.  But ambient noise has to be kept to a minimum and, unfortunately, that includes music. 

One of these days I'm going to do a playlist for one of my books.  Maybe even the one I'm working on now.  All my characters love music and I used to write songs into some scenes so you'd know what was going on in their heads, in their lives, in their hearts.  But since then, I've learned that doing that is bad writerly etiquette so I stopped.  The songs still play in my head, though.  And one day I'll make a list for you so you'll know how it feels to be completely immersed in the characters the way I am when I write them.  I must admit, it's pretty dang cool:)

A good example of this is the masquerade scene in Blood Like Poison: Destined for a Vampire.  When I wrote it, "Sweet Dream" by Beyonce was playing in the background.  I'll post the trailer here along with that scene to see if you can picture it as clearly as I did.  I gotta tell you, writing that scene was amazing!  So here.  See what you think.  The timing may be off just a little.  It's hard to get the length just right, but you get the gist.  Or at least I hope you get the gist:)

The loud music faded into the familiar thump of a not-quite-slow song.  Its beat brought to mind steamy nights and writhing bodies.  The sensual rhythm called to many of the people surrounding Savannah, beckoning them to the dance floor.  Scary couples and gruesome groups started to move in unison to the heavy bass.  I searched the made-up and masked faces for Savannah until I located her bright, serpentine halo.  She’d been lassoed into a dance by a dead cowboy I recognized.  He sat three rows behind me in study hall.

Suddenly aware of being the lone person not on the dance floor dancing, I turned to make my way around to the refreshments table.  I was skirting the writhing mob of dancers when I felt a familiar tug in my belly.

I stopped in my tracks and looked around.  Immediately, my heart sped up, banging like a drum, keeping time with the erratic expansion of my lungs as I grew more and more breathless.

I searched the faces for the one that occupied far too many of my thoughts, but I didn’t see him.  I could’ve almost convinced myself that I’d been mistaken, but the magnetism that I felt intensified with every breath, assuring me that it was no mistake.  Those invisible strings were pulling me, no dragging me into the middle of the crowd, where bodies were crushed together so tightly they moved as if they were one.

Weaving my way through perfumed and cologned figures, I felt like I was getting lost in the fray when I saw a tall, darkly cloaked figure watching me through a break in the mob. 

He was dressed as Dracula.  His robe was ebony satin with a blood red lining and the hood that covered his head shadowed all but his mouth. 

My breath hitched in my throat and burned in my lungs.  My pulse thumped wildly and my skin tingled in response to a presence that I couldn’t forget.  It was Bo.  Beneath the hood that concealed most of his face and the cloak that concealed most of his body, I knew it was him.  I’d know him anywhere.  I’d love him always.

I could see only his handsomely square jaw and chiseled mouth.  My eyes hungrily memorized the lips that I’d never forget the taste of.  I felt like I’d been starved of them for far too long. 

As Bo’s hand rose slowly from his side, reaching out to me through the crowd of bodies, the words to the song carved themselves onto my heart.  Bo was both my sweetest dream and my most beautiful nightmare.

Without hesitation, I stepped forward and slipped my hand into his.  A little bolt of electricity shot up my arm when our skin made contact.  Bo pulled me to him and I inhaled, reveling in the tangy scent that had teased me for what seemed like forever, and probably always would. 

Bodies brushed me from every angle, every direction, but the only thing that I felt was Bo pressed to my front from chest to thigh.  I looked up into the most consuming eyes I’d ever seen and I fell into them, sinking into the only place I ever really wanted to be. 

I saw Bo’s lips move and, even above the music, I heard his whisper. 

“I never thought I’d get to love someone so beautiful,” he said. 

The words echoed through my soul and warmed me to my toes.  With Bo staring down at me, his words in my ears, his body moving gently against mine, it was the most surreal moment—dream-like, so much so I never wanted to wake from it.

The music surrounded us, wrapping us in a pulsing cocoon of privacy amid the sea of bodies.  I laid my palms flat against Bo’s chest as one of his hands snaked around my waist.  The fingers of his other hand teased the skin of my arm as they made their way up to disappear beneath the hair at my nape.  I felt them tangle in my hair and then curl into a light fist. 

With one quick tug, Bo pulled my head to the side as he bent toward me.

I gasped when I felt his hot lips at my throat.  I pressed my body closer to his, running my hands down the sides of his firm abdomen.  I felt the hard muscles contract beneath my fingertips as Bo’s breath hissed through his teeth.

Lyrics about guilty pleasure wove a sensual web around us.  My blood heated with thoughts of Bo’s skin on mine, covering me, sliding against me. 

The friction of Bo’s body rubbing against mine, moving in time with the music, sang along my nerves and turned my core into a raging inferno.  When I felt his tongue licking at the pulse that beat violently beneath my ear, I had to bite my lip to keep a moan from escaping.

“There’s no one like you,” he said, his lips tickling my sensitive skin as he spoke.  “There’s no taste like you,” he sighed, trailing his tongue up to tease the lobe of my ear, drawing it gently into his mouth.  “No feel like you,” he moaned, his hand moving to the base of my spine and pressing my hips into his.  “There’s no one that I need like I need you.”

My insides melted.  I wanted to cry with the pleasure of it, the bitter-sweetness of it.  I couldn’t imagine ever wanting someone as much as I wanted Bo.  I didn’t think my heart could take it without exploding.  I would gladly give up years of my life to be with him, if only for a little while.  In the end, I knew it would be worth it.

Bo raised his head to look at me, his eyes searing me with a heat so intense, I felt it in my stomach.  Without a word, he tightened his hold on me and lifted until my feet were several inches from the ground and my chest was plastered to his.  Slowly, he turned and walked out of the crush, away from the crowd. 

He carried me toward a deserted corner of the gymnasium and into a short, dark hallway that led to a door that emptied out onto the stage in the auditorium right next door.

The music still thudded in my chest, obscuring the excited patter of my heart.  Bo walked to the back of the hallway, to its blackest point, and stopped, pushing me up against the wall and holding me there with his body.   And then his mouth was devouring mine.

As his tongue tangled mercilessly with mine, I grabbed his shoulders and held on tight.  I felt his hands at my thighs, his fingers working the material of my dress up until I could feel skin on skin. 

I wanted Bo so badly it almost hurt.  I wanted more.  I wanted it all and the frustration of it was killing me.

At first, the scream sounded like it came from somewhere inside me, like the cry of my body for Bo’s attention suddenly became audible.  But then I heard the music die and an uncharacteristic hush fall across the gymnasium, which lay only a few feet away.

All right, y'all go check out the other carnis.  As always, happy reading and TGIF!


Dani Snell Refracted Light Reviews
Patti Larsen Author of The Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House, The Hunted Series and the Hayle Coven Novels
Courtney Cole Author of Every Last Kiss, Fated, Princess, and Guardian. Also a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles
Fisher Amelie Author of The Understorey, as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles
Laura Elliott Author of Winnemucca as well as 13 on Halloween, book 1 in the Teen Halloween Series
Amy Jones Author of The Soul Quest Trilogy as well as a contributing author in The Glassheart Chronicles
Rachel Coles Author of Diary of a Duct Tape Zombie, Whistles, Beergarden, Plagues, Bees of St. John, and Mushrooms
T.R. Graves Author of Warriors of the Cross
PJ Hoover Author of Solstice, The Emerald Tablet, The Navel of the World, The Necropolis
Cheri Schmidt Author of Fateful, Fractured, and Fair Maiden
Lexus Luke Author of Manitou, The Sky People Saga
Suzy Turner Author of December Moon and Raven
K.C. Blake Author of Vampire Rules
Gwenn Wright Author of Filter
Kimberly Kinrade Author of Bits of You & Pieces of Me and Forbidden Mind
Madeline Smoot Author of Missing, Summer Shorts, and The Girls
Cidney Swanson Author of Ripple series
Heather Self Blogger, Reviewer and upcoming Indie Author
Heather M. White, Author of The Destiny Saga
Melissa Pearl, Author The Time Spirit Trilogy
T. G. Ayer
Bryna Butler, Author of Midnight Guardian series