Hi Alternate Read! Thanks for letting me share today!
Good news for audio books lovers: the Ridges of Wayback, Texas are
taking the audible universe by storm next month! On September 7, 1st
Place More Than Magic Novella BLACKEST HEART will launch in audio book at
AudioLark.com, followed closely by BLUEST HEART (Book II) and BET IT ON MY
HEART (Book III)! Learn more about these books at The Wild Rose Press where
they are now available in paperback and digital editions (http://www.thewildrosepress.com/amber-leigh-williams-m-352.html?zenid=50de7eb45fdbcdf80d38f8d531f53f1d)!
To celebrate, I thought I’d bring my three favorite cowboys and their
heroines with me today to talk about heat. Sparks. Fireworks. In romance—life
and literary—it’s called sexual chemistry. My favorite thing about writing
romance is molding this chemistry around each couple. Never was it so apparent to me that the tone of sexual tension is
different for each h/h until I wrote a western romance trilogy.
In BLACKEST HEART, A-list actress Stella Ridge returns to Wayback,
Texas after a car accident to heal and finds solace in the most unexpected
place: the arms of silent cowboy, Judd Black. Because Judd’s character doesn’t
communicate with words, I couldn’t rely on banter to fill in the blanks. The
tension built out of long, smoldering looks, telling gestures and raw
physicality. The chemistry might be unspoken but, boy, is it deadly:
Stella recognized the broad back and thick, black hair. Breathing
a sigh of relief, she walked up to Judd. “You all right?” she asked when she
was within hearing distance.
His head whirled around, his brows perking up in surprise at the sight of
her. As she rounded the bench he was resting on, she saw him wrapping tape around the hand Jack had
tried to rip off.
“That was a tough ride,” she said. She felt like an idiot. Of course, he
knew that—better than anyone.
He nodded, dropping his attention back to his hand.
“Here, let me do that,” she said, stepping to him. He didn’t
resist the hand that reached out to take his and the roll of medical tape. They
were both silent as she wrapped his wrist, palm and thumb tight. Using her
teeth to tear the tape, she bent her head down close to his to break it in two.
She secured the bandaging and raised her eyes to his.
God, they were gorgeous. She’d never seen eyes that deep or rich. Their
multihued depths left her throat bone dry. Her heart raced somewhere between
her uvula and chest cavity. “That better?” she asked, voice no more than a
hoarse murmur.
He nodded slightly, eyes searching hers. Had she ever noticed how full his
lips were? She licked her own and watched his gaze travel down over them.
She sucked in a sharp breath and stood up, taking a step back from him.
Jesus, she felt like a horny teenager. She shook her head to clear it. “I just
came back to make sure you’re okay.”
His brows quirked up again in surprise. She shoved her hands in her jeans
pockets, feeling awkward. “That hand going to be all right?”
She was relieved when his gaze dropped from face to his hand,
unable to breathe right when he looked at her. He twisted his wrist around and
ran his good hand over his thumb and wrist. She’d never really noticed how
thick both were, how dark.
Swallowing hard to wet her throat though her saliva was still missing,
words bubbled up on her tongue. She pushed them out on impulse. “Do you want to
go to the party with me tonight?”
This time when his gaze rose to hers there was genuine shock on his face.
He recovered after a moment, narrowing his eyes.
She shrugged and let out a nervous laugh. “Keefe couldn’t keep a secret to
save his life.”
He studied her face for a long moment. As she waited on tenterhooks, her
face grew hot. Her palms were slick with sweat…and not from the heat.
Yep, she was definitely reverting back to those unsteady, tempestuous
adolescent years.
A smile moved over his mouth, stunning her. Her heart jittered
hopefully. Standing, he closed the gap she’d put between them. She wanted to
press her mouth over the curved line of his. Body humming from his closeness,
she realized breathless inches separated them.
She hadn’t been this hot since her last fever.
Blackest Heart © Amber Leigh Williams
On another note, in BLUEST
HEART, Stella’s brother Casey Ridge and his heroine, Josie Brusky,
brought me back to basics. Let’s face it: a story where one or both of the
romantic subjects start out resisting the other is just plain fun for the rest
of us. Casey has known so-called “bad girl” Josie is the one for him for some
time despite the fact that Josie doesn’t want to darken Wayback’s “good boy”
with her sordid past. Problem is, the good boy has never been so sexy. A story
is fueled by conflict and Josie’s attraction offset by her resistance to
Casey’s charms goes a long way toward building their sexual chemistry:
Josie drove without any idea where to go. That subtle scent of his
filled her Jeep, making her dizzy. If she’d had a lick of sense, she could roll
down the window and let the muggy air staunch it out.
She took a long drag and held the scent in her lungs. Warmth crawled up her
torso. God, she wanted him.
Gravel spit under her tires as she jerked the wheel and turned into the
rodeo arena parking lot.
“Whoa!” Casey yelled, gripping the roll bar over his head as the Jeep
veered into the grass toward the picnic area. “Where the hell are you going?”
She braked hard under a tree and ground the shifter into park.
Unbuckling her seatbelt, she wrested it aside and crawled over the console into
his lap, mouth seeking his. Her kiss swallowed his sound of surprise. She
couldn’t think. Until the burn he’d lit inside her died out, she just had to
kiss him.
It only spread. She deepened the kiss, urgently stroking his tongue with
hers. His taste was rare, lovely. Who needed whiskey when you could have Casey
Ridge? Her hands snuck under his shirt, stroking the hard muscles over his
abdomen. She thrilled in his shiver as her nails trailed teasingly over his
chest.
He didn’t fight her. Arms winding around her, he pulled her tight against
him. His mouth moved under hers, challenging, daring. She shifted, her boots
knocking against the confines of the dash until she straddled him and ground her
hips into his. His head dropped back against the headrest on a groan. Managing
to push his shirt up over his stomach, she fumbled with the snap of his jeans.
“Whoa,” he said again, this time breathlessly, turning his mouth
away from hers. “Whoa, wait a minute.”
“Shut up and kiss me,” she hissed, arching into him again. “Touch me.”
“Not here, Jos,” he said, gripping her wrists. “I won’t do it here.”
She jerked out of his hands and pushed her hair from her face, frustrated.
“Why the hell not?”
“I’m not going to do it here in the car,” he explained. “That’s no way to
treat a lady.”
“I’m no lady,” she retorted.
His eyes softened and his hand lifted to touch her face. “Yeah, you are.
You just don’t want people to know it.”
“Oh, but you do,” she said sourly.
“I know you,” he assured her. He said it the same way he’d spoken
earlier. Her heart cried out for that softness, that promise of tender love and
care.
Unable to stand how weak it made her feel, she licked her lips, tasting him
there. He wasn’t going to get away from her this time. She’d cry if he did, and
she never cried. Hand trailing down between them, she gripped the insistent
bulge under the fly of his jeans. “So where do you take all your ladies,
Casey?”
He blew out a breath, a groan stirring deep in his throat. “I’m driving.”
Bluest Heart © Amber Leigh Williams
The tone changed once again for BET
IT ON MY HEART (voted Book of the Week by readers at Long & Short Reviews)
with the so-called “playboy of Wayback,” Keefe Ridge, who gets knocked on his
fine, denim-clad behind when hard-hitting city-slicker Calli Morlani takes
Wayback by storm. Stuck on the range for two weeks, Calli finds the hot
playboy’s flirtation a pleasant distraction and winds up in bed with him…in
more ways than one. Calli and Keefe are all about playful banter from the
onset:
“Are you a gift from God or do they make all the men like you
around you?”
“What’re you talking about?” Keefe asked with a chuckle, threading his
fingers through hers and pulling her close, navel to navel.
“You ride a horse like a Trojan warrior,” Calli pointed out. “You happen to
look like on, too, minus the hat and boots. You’re ninety-nine-point-nine-nine
percent charm. And you also happen to be a fabulous dancer.” She tilted her
head curiously. “All that’s missing is ‘Great Kisser.’”
He lowered his lips. They brushed hers as he murmured, “God that covered.”
Her eyes drifted to a close while he lingered a breath away, teasing her.
That fresh smell of his wrapped her close and warm. “Of course, you do.”
Her lips parted under his to accept the full depth of his
smoldering kiss. The hands she’d twined at the nape of his neck fell limp on
his collar. Her head bowed back into his cupped palm as his tongue danced over
hers in firm, languid strokes.
Heart pattering, breath stalling, she hardly noticed the hum that
escaped her throat. His hand was trekking down her back, long fingers inciting
the skin underneath the zipper of her dress.
The song ended, but
she didn’t break away from him when applause sounded around them and people
began to nudge past them on and off the dance floor. His hands gripped her hips
as the kiss intensified.
Good God.
Bet
It On My Heart © Amber Leigh Williams
Ah, good times. And see what I mean? Not only is every character
unique. The sexual tone melds differently to every story. Going deeper, Stella
and Judd have a long build-up, the tension between them coming to a head in
what I like to call The Throw-Down scene.
For Casey and Josie, when we encounter them in BLUEST HEART,
they’ve been dancing around the fire for some time. It’s no surprise things get
hot fast between them and Josie learns once burned, there’s no going back to
what was. Especially when Casey begins The Hot Pursuit.
On a two-week time clock, Keefe and Calli have no problem going
from simmer to boil in a matter of days. The trouble for them is getting that
boil to burn out. When it doesn’t, feelings start to get thrown into the
unlikely mix and they get Tender In The Hay.
So readers, it’s your turn! Tell me about your favorite romances. What about
the tone of sexual tension in these stories struck you? Did it factor into why
this book stands out for you? To those who comment, I’m offering a
chance to win a trade paperback edition of THE WAY BACK HOME. This
western romance anthology features three stories of the Wayback, TX series
(“Where a Cowboy Falls in Love Every Eight Seconds”), including award-winning
novella BLACKEST HEART—Book I in the Ridges of Wayback, TX trilogy!
To find out more about my western romance and other stories, visit me on the
web at http://www.amberleighwilliams.com!
For a chance to win please;
- follow this blog publicly or 'like' our new Facebook page (both would be great!)
- leave a reply to the author with your email address so Sassy can contact you if you are the winner!
- Competition closes in two weeks - Tuesday 7th September 2010
- USA/CAN only
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August 2010
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1 pb copy of The Way Back Home - closes 7th Sept 2010
