Release Party--Three for the Show

What if we were balloons, and celebration meant flying away? A flashy show of color, free of worldly bonds, lifiting toward the sun, clouds softly brushing as they whisper by... ;o) Yes, I do indulge in a bit of poetry from time to time, but I promise not to burden the blog with any more of it, LOL!

But seriously, for day three of our release party, if you could grab hold of your balloon and fly, what would your destination be? What says freedom to you?

Is home the freest place you know, or would charting your way toward a sunnier place be the release you need? Is escape from time-to-time how you stay grounded in your every day (I have to say that's me clinging to the baloon to the left, getting away so I'll want to come back to stay), or can your peace only be found in the fondly familiar?

This is a creative excercise I do not just before every new book, but during yoga and pilates and other mind-body exercises, too. Also in the midst some of the tougher times life sends my way. I go back to simpler days, back when I was a young girl, and remember my fly-away dreams. For me, the trip usually involves ocean and tides and waves that sweep my imagination away...

Tell us where your mind goes, when you need a party of one--what's your dream escape, if you could fly far, far away. If your ties to all those to-dos fell away, what would be your first dream destination be? Where does your mind recharge or let go or whatever you need the most, even if it's only in fantasy?

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Day 2 Winners...

Fannie, the XOXO heart purse and wallet are yours!!!

Jan, a selection of books and promo items from RT '07 are yours (and congrats for sending your partinal in!!!).

And Bambella, you'll be receive a Border's gift certificate ;o)

Keep sending those mailing addresses to me, ladies.

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Day 3 Prizes--The great Nine West tote pictured above, more RT '07 books and promo items pictured in the last few posts (another deck of Ellora's Cave cards, perhaps???) and one more Borders gift certificate, if we keep getting such great participation.

There will be a new tote to win tomorrow and Friday--Friday's being the best of the bunch, so keep coming back and commenting.

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And my blog escape for you--another excerpt...this time, Kate and Stephen's morning after their first love scene. It's a great reveal of what these two are really dealing with underneath their tough, everyday heroic exteriors. Can't wait to hear what you think. I absolutely love these characters--think they're the realest I've ever drawn ;o)

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"Is the juice fresh squeezed?" Kate asked as she floated into the kitchen the next morning.

She'd gotten very little sleep for the second night in a row, but she'd never felt better.

"The juice is from the carton you keep in the door of the fridge." Stephen had pulled on his dress slacks. He'd left his oxford shirt unbuttoned.

He was using a wire whisk to give a mixing bowl of eggs what-for.

"Let me guess." She sat and sipped her juice. "Rich lawyers make their own breakfasts these days, just to prove that they don't take their status too seriously."

He shrugged. "No sense having to get dressed and go out for anything more complicated than coffee. So, I took a few classes and learned the basics."

Whatever he wanted, Stephen simply set his mind to and got. And last night, he'd set his mind on her.

"Basic smells good." She inhaled the delicious scent of her victory. Closed her eyes to savor.

How long had it been since she'd felt this loose? This at-ease with a new day, let alone with a near-stranger making himself at home in her kitchen. Except Stephen hadn't been a stranger since they'd first met at the hospital. Something deep inside them had connected. Something she hadn't ever expected to find.

She didn't want to leave the kitchen or the moment that a part of her wasn't sure she'd be able to hold on to, once they walked back into the real world.

"Eat." He laid a plate in front of her. "We've got a long day ahead of us."

He'd piled the plate high with eggs and bacon cooked to savory perfection. And there was plenty remaining for Lissa, who hadn't made an appearance yet. Kate lifted a fluffy, buttery forkful and saluted her indentured servant before taking a bite.

"You're as good as your word." She'd scooped up another mouthful, before she'd swallowed the first. "We'll have to wager more often, at least until my waistline outgrows my wardrobe."

"I'll buy you a new wardrobe." His naughty leer down the neck of her bathrobe, under which he'd insisted she wear nothing, made swallowing her next bite difficult. "Losing to you is a pleasure."

She covered her snort by sipping her juice.

"You loathe losing." She crunched a strip of bacon.

"Actually, I don't lose." He set his fork down and rested his forearms on either side of his plate.

"And that makes this morning..."

"About having you right where I wanted you, without having to ask if I could stay."

"So, you let me win last night, so you didn't have to admit to wanting to stick around?" She laid her fork aside. "That's a shade manipulative, don't you think?"

"I'm a lawyer." Stephen's expression turned distant for the first time since she'd walked up to his car last night. "Exactly what did you think I do for a living."

She blinked.

"You help people who are being chewed up and spit out by the legal system," she countered carefully.

"I help myself." He sat back and folded his arms, renewing her faith in just how sexy a man in rumpled, business attire could look. "Doing what I do for other people--"

"Is all about you?" There was no glass to hide her disbelief this time. She was clenching the tablecloth too tightly to pick it up.

The real world could have at least waited until after breakfast to make an reappearance.

"I'm not some romantic hero," Stephen warned.

During the night he'd been more generous, more patient, more involved than any man she'd ever been with. Before that, he'd waited for her to work through her confusion over the Digarro case and her brother. He'd given her time to trust him. To trust herself.

What exactly was a hero in his book?

"Do you always tell women that you're a using son-of-a-bitch over breakfast the morning after?"
"I don't make woman breakfast. I'm never around for the morning."

"Maybe I've manipulated you, then."

"Maybe you should listen to what I'm saying, before you go another round with me tonight."

"Tonight?"

"I want tonight." He took her hand. Held fast when she would have shied away, unsure of his mood. "I want tomorrow morning. Damn it, I want you, Kate, any way I can get you, and I never
play to lose. But I don't want you to wake up tomorrow or next week or next month--"

"Next month? Let me get this straight. You're a bastard, but I'm going to let you stick around for a month?"

His low opinion of himself, hidden deep beneath the successful veneer of one of the top legal players in town, translated at some level to a low opinion of her.

Didn't he get that?

"No. I'm..." He let her go and ran his fingers through his sleep-rumpled hair. "I didn't--"

"Think I was smart enough to figure out for myself whether I should trust you or not?"

"You're smarter than I am, Kate, but--"

"But with men, I'm too inexperienced?"

"Not that I could tell last night, no." There was that leering glance again, the one that made her want to shove reality back out of the kitchen door. "Hell no. But--"

"Then what exactly is my problem. What makes you think you have to warn me off, so I don't make the mistake of falling under your spell? I get it. You're a real person with your own agenda. I mean, you even have selfish motives for the work you do, just like everybody else. What was I thinking!"

Stephen studied his cold plate of perfectly prepared food.

"I don't do relationships well," he explained. "My work keeps people at a distance, but I still get to do them some good. Which is a step up from my parents, who spent their trust funds on themselves and didn't give a shit about anyone else. But, doing the caring, loving thing isn't my strong suite. Never will be."

And there it was--the connection she hadn't been able to put her finger on. The unspoken understanding she'd felt in Stephen, long before she'd let herself trust anything he said or did.

"Well, since my father beat the hell out of my mother, when he wasn't belittling her so she thought she was worthless without him--" Kate said, her voice rough. "--and since my mother hid the signs of their dysfunctional home life from everyone in town but me, and since I hid the whole thing myself, I guess I have my own reasons for pushing people away."

Stephen sat straighter in his chair.

"Kate--

"I don't have the first clue how to trust my feelings for anyone, either," she continued. She wasn't stopping until it was done. "Not even my brother, or the only man who pushed through my crap long enough to get me to marry him. So, I guess that makes me a closed-off, manipulative user, right along with you. Maybe you're the one who should be careful. Breakfast the morning after, with a serial one-night stand like me?" She tisk-tisked, as she stood and walked to the sink to scrape her food down the drain. "Not a wise move, counselor."

Stephen stepped behind her. He wrapped an arm around her waist and braced the other on the edge of the sink. Curled her into his warmth.

"We already established that you're smarter than I am," he whispered against the spot on her neck, just below her ear, that he'd discovered was ticklish. "And I'd bet money you can count the number of one night stands you've had on one hand. Not that I wouldn't take another night with you any way I could get it."

He turned her until their bodies aligned. She was close enough to want to kiss the beard stubble lining his jaw.

"So." She rubbed her palm across his chest--she'd discovered a few sensitive spots of her own.
"You're as bad a judge of playmates as I am, then?"

"I'm not playing." His hand covered hers. "And neither are you. But..."

"You're scared."

Strong, independent, successful men who could bend anything in their worlds to their will didn't get scared. But Stephen was.

"Of hurting you, yes." He pulled her fingers to his lips, kissed them, then let her hand drop to her side.

She lifted it right back to his mouth and began tracing his lips. Her breath caught as he sucked the tip of one finger between his lips.

"Or maybe," she offered, "you're trying to scare me away, so you get to control how much this hurts you when it's over?"

Stephen took a step back...