Dear Readers --- Happy holidays!

It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since I loaded everything I owned into a UHAUL and moved from Texas to New York. Leaving Texas behind left me replaying in my head all the things I was going to miss about my home state. After a few months in New York, while I have found new things to love, I miss much about Texas, most especially red-hot cowboys. Love them cowboys. Everything about them; those snug jeans that hug their muscular thighs, the hats that tilt back in just the right way, somehow complimenting cocky attitudes that say they know all the right moves at all the right times. Oh yeah. Love those cowboys. And you know, one thing about a cowboy -- a real rough and tough cowboy, is they almost always guaranteed to be a wild ride. And if there is anyone who fits that bill, a cowboy that knows the meaning of ‘wild ride', it's Constantine Vega, my hero from Lone Star Surrender. He is most definitely a wild ride - a long, hot, wild ride. He's dangerous. He's daring. He's oh so sexy.

So buckle up and enjoy a little taste of Constantine in the following excerpt - I know I did while writing Lone Star Surrender.

Harlequin Blaze (January 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0373794460
ISBN-13: 978-0373794461

Pre-Order at: Amazon.com Borders





He would break every rule she made...

Undercover agent Constantine Vega sacrificed three years of his life building up the case of a sinister drug lord. But only days before the trial threats against his life finds Constantine on the run with tantalizing federal prosecutor, Nicole Ward - a desperate journey promising both sin and sensation...

Nicole has been trying her best to follow the rules...rules that she once broke with disastrous results. But the magnetic and passionate force of Constantine Vega threatens to unleash every tempestuous feeling inside her. With so much at stake, can she trust Constantine with her body - and her life?

Excerpt: (unedited version) This scene is in a cave - the bad guys are chasing them - my heroine is claustrophobic so the hero has to creatively find ways to comfort her:

Their eyes locked and sexual tension spiked as if it had been shot into the room with a cannon. Silence fell between them, heavy with the sudden charge. Constantine was studying her with such intensity she felt as if he could see her soul, unveil what secrets her file hadn't already revealed. Wordlessly, he inched closer.

Instantly, Nicole's heart began to race, anticipating his touch, his nearness. He reached for one of her boots as if he meant to take it off. But that set off one of her phobia alarms, dousing the sexual heat of seconds before. How did he expect her to get out of this place without her boots? Nicole jerked her feet toward her, pulling her knees to her chest and hugging them. "What are you doing?"

"Getting you some relief. You know your feet are killing you."

"I can't run in bare feet." Running in boots with the heels cut off was bad enough.

"You won't be running anytime soon," he informed her. "We have six hours until we leave. You might as well get some rest and dry off."

Her throat went dry. "Six hours? In this cave?" She shook her head. All her efforts at relaxing flew to the wayside. "No. I can't. I . . .I can't be in this hole that long." Constantine's expression softened. "Don't look at me like that. I am fine. I just can't stay here that long."

He reached out and cupped her cheek with his hand. "You can." Somehow he was closer now. His knees touched hers, a small comfort in a small space. "I'll help you."

"I don't need your help. Just give me some space to process all of this." Reacting to small spaces often induced a feeling of suffocation. Crowding her would only make it worse.

But he didn't back off. His fingers slid around one of her calves and inched her pant leg upward; his callused fingers brushed just below her knee. Tiny darts of electricity shot straight to her core. And considering her current state of anxiety, that shouldn't be possible, but yet, he was proving it was. Maybe she didn't need space. Maybe she needed him. It seemed sex distracted her from her fear and she really wanted to be distracted right now. She focused on the sizzling sensations he was creating in her, focused on his face so she wouldn't look at the enclosure of the walls. His gaze swept her mouth, lingering before lifting. "I'm not sure I'm capable of giving you space right now," he said. "I want you too badly, Nicole."

She swallowed at the directness of his words, finding herself lost in those chocolate-colored eyes of his, mesmerized. Desire pooled in her limbs, driving away the fear once again.

Slowly Constantine began to inch the zipper on her boot downward, his fingers trailing her bare skin in its wake. Nicole suppressed a shiver, not willing to let him see how easily he affected her. Good Lord, the man made taking a boot off sexy.

"I didn't want to leave you that first night," he murmured.

The unexpected comment drew a hint of anger from her. Instinctively, she reached forward and covered his hand with hers, stilling his action. In the process, their lips drew dangerously close. After hours in the woods, he shouldn't smell good but he did. Spicy and male.

"But you did leave, didn't you?" she challenged thinking of how he'd snuck under her guard and then left her sitting at that table, feeling a fool. It stung and the memory stiffened her spine.

"If I had stayed, I would have taken you up to a hotel room and made love to you in as many ways as you would have let me." His fingers slid around her other calf, and she couldn't find the will to stop him. "But then, morning would have come, and you would have hated me."

"I should hate you," she whispered, torn between her desires to embrace her attraction to this man and her desire to run to know this man and her fear of what doing so might mean, her fear he might wake a part of her that needed to stay dormant. "What you did was wrong."

His gaze dropped to her mouth and then lifted. "Do you?" he asked. "Do you hate me, Nicole?"

Her chin lifted slightly. If he thought lust and admiration, or even like, were the same, he was wrong. Her ex had taught her well--sex could be just sex. "I haven't decided yet."

His mouth quirked ever so slightly. "Good. Then I still have a chance to affect the decision."

Leaning into her, Constantine brushed his lips over hers in a seductive caress that left her wanting more. "Anger can be a powerful aphrodisiac," he murmured softly. "Perhaps you can think of some ways to even the score."