It's here! Over 30 amazing authors, hot reads and awesome prizes, what more could you possible want? Now I hear you all asking many questions, so sit back and allow me to ease some of that curiosity.
What are the prizes?
Grand Prizes
US
Readers International
Readers
$100 Amazon Gift card to one
reader
$100 Amazon (INT) Gift card to one reader
$50 Amazon Gift card to one
reader $50 Amazon (INT) Gift card to one reader
How do I enter this competition?
There is a secret code
embedded in this Holiday Hop. Each author has one word of it, and readers must
visit each site to collect all of the words and enter them on this form.
There are 32 Authors, and
32 Words, so be sure you capture all of them. Individual prizes on each site
will be given away per terms of the author hosting them.
Feel free to hop over to
the main Hop page if you have any further questions:
**** Shhh, don't tell anyone (except the entry form), my secret code
word is
No ****
Now if that's not enough prizes, the authors are having their own separate giveaways on their individual pages. The links to each of the author's websites can be found on the Holiday Hop Home page. As for mine, keep reading.
My Daily Competition
To enter my daily giveaway of a $5 Amazon gift card, all you need to do is name an actor who would best suit the lead male role for each of my books in the comments section. (And don't forget to include your email address).
Monday 15th December: Micah (Trust in Me, Please!)
Tuesday 16th December: Dominic (A Stranger She Has Always Known)
Wednesday 17th December: Gabe (Reclaiming His Discarded Mate)
Thursday 18th December: Dustin (His Forbidden Mate)
Friday 19th December: Parker (Denying His Second Chance)
Since we're scattered all over the world I'm going to stipulate 11:59pm EST of each day as the cut off for that day's competition. That will make it the middle of the day for me here in Australia.
While I have you here, allow me to tell you a little about an ancient vampire so set in his ways, he rejects his mate.
[Siren Classic: Erotic Paranormal Romance, vampires, spanking, HEA]
Why did the constant rejection of a man she barely knew hurt so much?
Allie Fisher’s a successful author and radio show host. So much so, she’s gained herself a stalker. Her life’s turned upside down when she meets Margo. With their new blossoming friendship came a heartache Allie never knew was possible.
Parker Winston’s a 543-year-old vampire. He’s had a mate and lost her. He has no room in his heart for anyone else. Even another mate. When he meets his sister’s new friend, he immediately knows she’s his second chance. To preserve his memory of his first mate, he takes what he needs from Allie but offers nothing of himself in return. By the time he realises that there’s enough room in his heart for two, it may be too late.
Can Parker convince Allie of his true feelings for her? Or will her stalker deny him the opportunity by taking her from him permanently?
STORY EXCERPT
Prologue
Parker Winston sat in his home office,
slouching in his high-back leather chair, listening to the radio. The current
deejay, only known as Lady X, had been on the air each weeknight for the last
year. Since first hearing her speak, Parker had been unable to do anything
other than dedicate three hours of his life each night to the show. He wished
he could claim that it was the show’s content keeping him loyal, rather than
her hypnotic voice, but that would be a lie. Life advice wasn’t something that
held his interest. He had enough family members pointing out to him what he was
doing wrong with his life. He had no desire for a complete stranger to do it as
well.
“I should have known I would find you in
here,” said one of the aforementioned family members, who seemed content to
stick her nose where it didn’t belong.
His little sister, Margo, stood at the door
of his office, with one hand on her hip while the other held a strange-looking
cocktail. He had been expecting either her or their mother to appear at some
stage. He had left them with a room full of people to entertain. Though he
could happily concede that it was their duty to do so, not his. The party may
be occurring in his house, but it wasn’t one he had organised or even wanted to
attend.
Since his father’s unexpected death, two
years ago, his mother and sister had been trying to organise his life. It got
worse when they had moved in with him a few months back after their familial
home was lost in a fire, along with everything they had accumulated over the
many centuries. His family believed that he should be paired by now with his
chosen mate, and working on the next generation of Winstons. He was, after all,
the new leader of the vampires in this city and head of their family, taking
over after his father’s passing. He could understand his mother and sister’s
expectations, but what they needed to accept was that he had already found his
mate, impregnated her, and lost both the love of his life and his unborn child.
Their kind were rarely offered a second chance at happiness, and he truly
believed that he didn’t deserve one.
He was pulled from his ponderings by the
leather sole of his little sister’s stiletto tapping on his wooden floorboards.
“What is it that I can do for you, Margo?” he asked calmly, as if he were in
the dark over what could have possibly upset her.
“Parker, there are currently over two hundred
people in this house, here by your invitation. Do you think you could at least
make an effort to make them feel welcome?” Margo reprimanded, like only she or
their mother could. Anyone else would have found themselves ejected from the
room, through the closed floor to ceiling windows.
“Now, squirt, we both know I had nothing to
do with the invitations, or the guest list for that matter,” Parker stated,
ensuring he had used his pet name for his little sister. The one she believed
that she had long ago outgrown. “These are yours and mother’s guests, so why
don’t you go and enjoy yourself?”
“Parker, I’m worried about you. This isn’t
healthy, hiding away like this, obsessing over a woman you know nothing about,”
Margo replied, worry evident in her voice. “Have you considered that maybe this
obsession with listening to her show runs deeper than just fascination? Maybe
it’s a compulsion that requires further exploration.”
Immediately, he knew what Margo was alluding
to. It had been something he had also considered, in his weaker moments. But he
knew it couldn’t be, and he had no wish for it to be either. Lady X wasn’t his
mate. His love for his sweet, darling Liz wouldn’t allow it.
“Margo, I’ve had my only chance at happiness
and lost it. It’s left to you now to provide mother with grandbabies.”
Parker would have laughed at his little
sister’s muttered “that’s unlikely to happen” as she left, had he not been
serious in his message. By vampire standards, Margo was still quite young, at
two hundred and eighty-two years old. While she was quite mature and had lived
independently for many years, procreation wise, she was considered to be coming
into her prime. He, on the other hand, was five hundred and forty-three years
old. While he knew he was far from being old for a vampire, he was too old and
set in his ways to accommodate anyone else in his life. Especially someone he
knew he had no capacity to love, and had no intentions of providing with child.
When he had lost his beloved Liz and their baby, he had vowed never to allow
another into his heart again. That edict hadn’t changed in the last three
hundred years, and he believed there would be no other that could possibly
alter it.
* * * *
Allie Fisher all but fell into the chair at
the café she often visited after work, while she waited for her hot chocolate.
It was just after 2:00 a.m., and the way she was feeling, she couldn’t help but
be grateful for the all-night coffee shop. She had just finished her last radio
show for the week and was quite literally exhausted. Not that she would sleep
when she got home though.
Unlike most twenty-seven-year-olds, Allie had
no life outside of her work. Up until three years ago, she had been an average
young woman, enjoying the freedom of her youth. She had just finished her
psychology degree when her life took a turn, though she would never say it was
for the worst. Her mother, who had moved across the country from Allie a few
years prior, had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Due to their lack of
closeness, Allie had only discovered the extent of the illness when it was in
its final stages. Her mother had been given only a few months to live. This
spurred Allie into action. She moved away from everything she knew, to care for
her mother in her final moments, and couldn’t have been more grateful for the
opportunity. The two months her mother had originally been given to live,
turned into nearly a year and a half. It gave Allie and her mother a chance to
mend their broken relationship, providing Allie with some of the best months of
their entire life together. Allie finally had some beautiful memories of her
mother.
Due to her mother’s illness, working in her
chosen field wasn’t possible. So Allie decided to take the time to follow one
of her other dreams. To become a published author. In the three years since
graduating and moving, Allie had written and published five books. All, so far,
had been best sellers in their genre, and more importantly, provided enough of
an income to ensure there was always food on the table and a roof over their
heads.
In those three years, she had also become an
insomniac. With the constant flow of ideas and thoughts for her books floating
around in her head, plus the twenty-four-hour care she was providing her
mother, Allie found sleep had become an afterthought and cat naps had become
her only source of rejuvenation. This led to her inability to sleep. Hence, the
reason she now wrote her books during the day and prepared and conducted her radio
show at night.
As for a social life, well she didn’t have
one. Her mother’s illness had not been the cause, but the catalyst to her non-existent
social life and friends. As soon as she had left her old life back in
Washington and moved in with her mother, her friends slowly started to
disappear from her life. Even her supposed closest friend had abandoned her
because she was no longer there to ensure her safe passage home. Allie rarely
drank, while her ex-friend felt she needed alcohol to successfully socialise.
Within months of Allie leaving, this friend had sent her a terse e-mail
regarding her desertion. It hadn’t come as a surprise to Allie that her
supposed friend viewed their friendship with such little regard, but it was
still a disappointment. It made her appraise her need for such empty
relationships. Therein ending that friendship, and the new reserved Allie was
born.
People tended to view her willingness to help
others as a weakness that they could exploit. How wrong they were! In her
youth, her desire to be liked had blinded her to people’s true motivation, but
not anymore. It had been a hard lesson to learn, but it was one she would never
forget. Her apprehensiveness about letting anyone close now guarded her heart
like a solid fortress, allowing few to enter.
Now she found herself returning home to an
empty apartment and a lonely life. She had no relatives left and only two
people she classed as close friends. They were currently travelling the world.
Her characters in her books, the regulars at the soup kitchen she volunteered
at every Saturday night, and her nightly callers were her only sources of
socialisation. But as her life stood at the moment, it was probably for the
best. It would seem that being an accomplished author, while having many perks,
also came with a few quite dangerous disadvantages.
Allie had picked herself up a stalker. One
that, up until recently, the police had no interest in. It started out as a few
too-personal e-mails, suggesting their relationship went far beyond that of an
author-reader one. This was followed by several threatening letters to her
publisher. They began arriving after Allie had opted to ignore the last few e-mails
from this person. The letters accused the publisher of blocking his e-mails and
putting a stop to their relationship. That was when the police got involved. Of
course they couldn’t do much, and seemed to relegate their case to the bottom
of the pile. It wasn’t until the publishing office had been broken into, and
files rummaged through that the police began to pay attention. It also helped
that a senator had his offices in the same building.
They thought his intent was to discover Allie’s
true identity and whereabouts. Thankfully, the publishing company took their
author’s privacy seriously. Any personal information was locked away from the
world in encrypted files. Since then Allie’s alter ego had been placed on house
arrest. All of her public appearances had been cancelled. This left Allie with
limited interaction with the public. Since she was lacking in the friend’s
department, her radio listeners, the regulars at the soup kitchen, and her stop
for her nightly hot chocolate were the only form of conversation she got at the
moment. Even her groceries were delivered, a necessity of an author who lived
alone. Otherwise, Allie would become so engrossed in the story she was writing
that a trip to the local supermarket would be the last thing on her mind.
Leaving the cupboards bare, and an author to wither away to nothing.
ADULT EXCERPT
She watched as his elegant long fingers began
separating the keys. Her fear all but forgotten as her mind, along with her
hormones had her imagining all the wonderful things he could do with his hands.
And all of them were to her naked body. Her pussy began weeping, soaking her
underwear. Parker visibly inhaled deeply before growling.
He handed her back her keys and said, “Open
the door before I take you out here in the hallway.”
Her hands began to tremble, not from the
threat, but the blatant promise his words held. She no sooner had the door open,
than he was pushing her through it. As soon as they had both crossed the
threshold, Parker had kicked the door shut, and had her body pinned to the wall
just inside the door. His impressive bulge pressed into her back.
“I need you. Please say ‘yes,’” he whispered
in her ear.
Without any forethought, she answered with
the one reply that would provide them both with a little relief. “Yes!”
Before she could consider the implications of
her response, Parker had her turned around. Her back hit the wall with such
force that it pushed all the air from her lungs. Her raging hormones overrode
any of her panic. Without any of the usual hesitation that went along with a
first kiss, Parker’s mouth came down on hers, hard. Her hands found their way
up to his hair. She held on to it as he continued his assault on her lips. His
tongue pushed through her slightly parted lips, seeking a dance partner. Hers
quickly obliged. As she took her first taste of the man who had haunted her
every thought, she felt his extended fangs. Swiping her tongue over them, she
heard him groan.
“Bedroom?” Parker asked breathlessly when he
pulled back from the kiss.
Lifting her arm, she directed her finger down
the hallway that led to all the bedrooms. Pointing was the only means of
communication she currently had. All her senses were going haywire. Never
before had she ever experienced anything like it. Parker must have realised
that a pointed finger was all he was going to get. So he followed her muted
directions, rushing them both down the hallway. He stopped outside the only two
closed doors. Lifting his nose to the air, he smelt. Without a word, he opened
the one belonging to her bedroom.
He pushed her toward the bed, only stopping
when her legs hit the wooden frame. She whimpered when he stepped back. She
immediately noticed the loss of his body heat. He held a finger up in front of
her. That was all the warning she got before the sharp, vampire talon ran down
her chest, slicing her clothing. Her tight T-shirt and sports bra slid down her
arms and fell from her body.
Parker’s slow perusal left goose bumps in its
wake. His eyes darkened further with lust when they fell upon her breasts. His
large hands came up to cup them, squeezing them. More juices escaped her
already overflowing pussy. She could now smell her own arousal. It seemed to
add to her excitement. Parker wasn’t immune to its effects either.
His hands left her breasts and moved down her
body. Their destination, her hips, still clad in yoga pants. With a smile,
Parker ran his taloned finger over her lower body. She trembled as his path
became obvious to her. Widening her stance, she allowed him access to her most
private of areas. She wasn’t disappointed.
The sharp talon gave her nothing but
exquisite pleasure. Its feathered touch traced her pussy, eliciting a moan from
her. The sweet torture had her clit demanding the same treatment. Before she
could verbalise the request, Parker had removed his finger and shredded her
pants.
“Get on the bed, now!” he ordered, as he
removed his own clothing.
Allie quickly scrambled onto her bed,
desperate not to lose sight of Parker for too long. She wanted to drink in
everything there was to this man, including the amazing body she knew he hid
below his well-tailored shirts and pants. When she had settled, she turned to
appreciate the view. His toned abs and sculpted chest were magnificent. But it
was his cock that drew her eyes.
It was the most beautiful thing she had ever
seen, in a scary kind of way. It stood thick and long, pointing proudly toward
his stomach. The purple shade of the mushroom head, had just become her
favourite colour. Licking her lips, she had the sudden urge to take a cock into
her mouth for the first time in her life. The groan that came from Parker had
her eyes reluctantly leaving the magnificent sight and moving up toward his
face. There, she noticed his pained expression.
“Last chance to back out,” he said through
clenched teeth.
“I need you, Parker. Please!”
“Are you on the pill?”
“Yes.”
“Good” was all he said before he pounced.
He landed over her, pinning her to the bed.
He nudged her legs apart and began rubbing his cock against her greedy pussy.
She tried to lift her hips, desperate to guide his cock to where she needed it.
But his body held her captive under him. It would seem that he had plans of his
own. Thankfully, those plans seemed to coincide with hers.
He thrust into her with such force, her head ended up at
a strange angle. She found herself facing the headboard of the bed. Not that
she was complaining. Everything felt like it had righted itself in her life as
soon as he entered her.
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