Release Party--Two for the Prizes

Okay, the saying is Two for the Show, but I'm taking creative liscense because we're having so much fun...

Winners from yesterday and a new excerpt are below (a Lissa and Martin scene this time, as promised), but first a new party question to keep everyone hanging out and having a good time--and of course commenting, so you can be in the running for today's prizes (which I'm sprinkling in throughout the post, so enjoy the view ;o) ...

Reality TV--that's what a lot of my friends get together to watch on "party" night. I know, it sounds very tame, but we do have PR (Project Runway) and TC (Top Chef) night. I know I've asked this before, but so much keeps changing on the the tube...What do you and your friends watch the most? Are you tuned in to Tim Gunn's new fashion show? What about "What Not To Wear" or "How Do I Look?"

TV Dramas vs. SitComs--What's your fav. new show (Dirty, Sexy Money, anyone???) or is a drama more to your liking? Is there an "oldie but still goodie? you're still tuning in to watch? Is Grey's bumming you out now more than making you giggle???

Me? I'm actually getting back into The Unit this season--I think the writing and the drama/uniqueness of the plots is getting better...they seem to have hit their "mainstream" stride... Just about everything else, I have to wait for the DVDs to come up. I don't trust myself with TiVo, you understand. I'd never get anything done... Though I do see that PW is slated to start up again mid-November. Did anyone else catch that an outsted cotnestant is already griping on the Internet Gossip Rag blogs???

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Okay--yesterday's winners and an new excerpt...

Ruth, the Guess mini evening clutch is yours!!!

Julie, you get the great giveaway bag from RT, complete with promo items I snuck back home inside ;o)

And, because the covnersation was so lively yesterday... One of my prize decks of EC model cards and an Ellora's Cave book goes to... Amy S.!!!

Ladies, email me your mailing addresses, and I'll pack everything up for you today!! Gonna keep up with the mailings this time...scouts honor ;o)

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Today's XOXO purse/wallet combo (see the pucture above), another selection of books and a Borders Gift Certificate go to randomly selected commenters to today's post...so Party On and let us know your guiltiest TV pleasure!!!

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Now, about Lissa and Martin's first romantic scene, as a running subplot from The Perfect Daughter through Because of a Boy...our truobled lovers have already met in BOAB and spatted a bit...actually a lot, because Martin's fighting his therapy and recovery and has walked away from everyone and everything he still wants so badly but is afraid he can't keep...and Lissa's not ready to let him go without a fight...

Martin is working out with his physical therapist, overdoing it of course, and not aware that Lissa is there watching as he crashes and burns because he's too frustrated to let his recovery (or their relationship) take its own course:

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Martin positioned himself between the bars and braced his weight on his hands. Carmen stood to the side, spotting him.

"Just a few steps today," she cautioned. "You've pushed a bit too far already."

Ignoring her, he set off, tentatively sliding--sliding--his right foot forward, while loosening his hold on the bars and lifting his hands. Letting the right leg bear his weight, he inhaled and lifted the left off the ground. His right let promptly gave out, its muscles clenching in a spasm he barely felt, as the ground rushed up to meet him. He caught his weight on his arms. Carmen took as much of it as she could, while he struggled to get his legs back under him.

Every curse word he'd ever heard came tumbling out, one right after the other.

"Martin!" Suddenly, Lissa was supporting the side opposite Carmen. "Are you all right?"

"What the hell are you doing here!" His body leaned into hers, as if he had no say in the matter. And to make matters worse, the area immediately south of his waist responded the same as it had every other time he'd seen her since she arrived in Atlanta. "Can't you get it through you head, I don't want you here."

Clearly his body did, but that didn't mean he intended to do anything about it. Hell, he couldn't even put one foot in front of the other, even if Carmen had given him the all-clear to pursue his reawakened libido.

Just no swinging from the chandelier for a while, big boy she'd teased.

"Back on the bars," she said now. "I'll get your crutch."

His damn arms were weak as noodles as he fought to support his weight on his own.

"Get away from me," he growled at both women. "I'm fine."

Carmen must have been satisfied. She turned and retrieved his crutch, then headed for the side room where she'd massage the kinks out of his muscles on a low table he'd barely be able to roll off of once she was through.

"Five minutes, and your ass is mine again," she said as she went. "You're going to be stiff tomorrow, and your hip's already tight. You're not going anywhere tonight, until I've worked you over from head to toe."

And he wasn't going anywhere near her table until his raging hard-on was under control.

"You can't be here," he said to Lissa in as close to a civil tone as he could manage.

"Martin..." She felt so right beside him, still touching him.

It was bewitching. Terrifying. It made him want to throw his crutch away and lean on her instead. Forever.

Except, even with his manhood intact, he was still half the man she deserved.

"I..." He sighed. Time to cut to the chase. "I can't handle you being here, making me feel the things you do, when..."

"You don't like the way I make you feel?" She glanced down, then let her gaze slide back up his sweat-slicked body. "Wanna run that one by me again?"

"Yes, I'm hard." He clenched his jaw. "It seems all you have to do is walk in the room the last couple of days, and I want you."

She smirked and backed up.

"Be careful, Martin, or you might just turn my head."

"Fine, as long as I'm turning it away." He eased out from between the bars, and headed on his one-and-a-half good legs to finish the day's PT.

Lissa, of course, put her two bewitching legs to work and cut him off at the pass. Leggings... She was wearing black leggings beneath her coat and the oversized sweater that hugged her thighs and butt in a way that gave every muscle in his body even more reason to cramp.

"Damn it, get out of my way!" He'd meant to sound mean.

What came out was closer to begging.

"I've done that long enough." The fury rising in her expression was more than a warning. It was a promise. "I don't care how afraid you are of me or us or whatever you're feeling, I'm not going anywhere tonight, or any other night, until I damn well want to. And right now, I want to be in your way, more than I've wanted anything else in my life."

It wasn't a good idea, he might not be able to get up again, but he headed for the nearest bench and lowered himself down with a groan.

He couldn't bear being close to what he couldn't have, no matter how many times she offered him his dream come true.

It was Lissa's turn to sigh.

"Is it really possible?" She was standing in front of him.

"Is what possible?"

"That you're more afraid of me than you are of never having complete use of your body again?"
Martin leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. He still saw her though. She'd always be in his mind, even after she'd given up and was gone.

"Anything's possible," he said.

Lissa's soft touch on his cheek had his eyes jerking open. Her touch trailed down his chest and the ancient muscle shirt he'd worn. Then those legging-clad legs he had nightly fantasies about were straddling him as she slowly, carefully lowered herself to his lap. His instant response jerked beneath her.

"The question is, why?" she purred.

"Why?" He gripped her waist, his hands filling with her sleek softness, his fingers tightening against his body's demand to sample more. "Because I don't have the strength to move you off me and walk away, not even for your own damn good. And screw sex. I can't be what you need outside the bedroom, either, and we both know it."

She rocked forward, her expression turning dreamy as she draped her arms around his neck.

"I know this feels wonderful." She lowered her head enough for her to lick the inner curve of his ear. "And I know your big, bad heart, and how much you're worried about hurting me, turns me on even more than your body does."

Her lips fluttered against his throat. His hands began to roam.

He'd touched her, held her, even made out with her back in Oakwood. But that had been forever ago, when he'd been carefully courting her and hiding the parts of himself he'd never wanted her to have to deal with. There was nothing careful about the need coursing through him. The drive to take her, to stake his claim, to make sure there would never be another man that could give her what she'd remember having with him.

He wanted to be that man for her, the one she couldn't leave behind, not in her mind. The way she'd always be the woman in his. No more lies. No more hiding. He wanted, needed, her soul.

The way he wanted to believe she needed his, shadows and all.

"Get away from me." He ordered his hands to stop their decent to the bottom nestled against his lap.

He dropped his arms to his side and opened his eyes to stare into her stunned ones.

"Why?" She didn't budge. "So you can be right? So you can limp away and console yourself, instead of dealing with the dirty work of living with what you want? You refuse to let yourself reach for happiness, Martin. That would mean trusting that you and I can handle the good stuff together, as well as whatever's bound to go wrong next."

A not-so-hushed cough was the only warning they got.

"Would you two mind postponing the good stuff?" Carmen wanted to know. "I've got dinner plans, and--"

"No problem." Lissa rocked forward and back again, then she slipped to her feet.

But she didn't back off. She just stood there, only an inch away. Martin's hands reached for her before he realized what he was doing. He clenched them. Pressed them against the bench. His chest accidentally brushed hers as he stood.

Like hell it had been an accident.

Her next breath took his away, his body was so sensitized to the feel of her against him. And she noticed.

She'd always noticed everything about him. About them.

"We're finishing this tonight," she promised.