My Christmas novel, Cold Nights, Hot Bodies is sure to burn up the pages of your new ereader and wow, isn't Shane just divine! Sexy armpits make me all aquiver and my cover artist sure knows my weakness!
Not only is the cover attractive, so is the price, for a limited time only Cold Nights, Hot Bodies is just 99c at Ellora's Cave and All Romance eBooks, and 60c/37p on Amazon / Amazon UK. Grab this if you like a little fantasy role play with your mulled wine and mince pies!
Blurb
All my life I’ve been the quiet bookworm, the office mouse. It hasn’t bothered me. Immersing myself in erotic novels has kept me wriggling on the edge of my seat at work and firmly entrenched in my own fantasy world at night.
Though one thing is bothering me—my damn virginity. If only I could find a sexy bedroom expert to introduce me to the delights of having a lover. Someone handsome and charming, who can rival the hunky alpha males in my books. I have a very vivid, very well-fed imagination—he’ll have to keep up.
Then, one bitterly cold night, thanks to a devious, conniving, so-called friend, the perfect opportunity to rid myself of this pesky virginity problem comes along. Before I know it, the heroes in my novels have come alive in the person of Shane Galloway, who’s pleasuring me with every trick in the book and wheedling into my heart in the hottest ways possible.
In this excerpt Shane and Ashley have just made their way back from the pub to their hotel. Trudging through the snow hasn't chilled their desires or frozen their lust for each other, they're hotter than ever and even thrown a sprinkle of kink into the mix...
The trudge back was swifter than the journey to the pub. We were all conscious of getting caught in the dark, but fortunately it wasn’t long before we spotted the welcoming golden lights of The Fenchurch in the distance.
We bid Rachel and Jeremy goodbye in the lobby—they had plans to go and listen to a pianist in the Champagne Lounge—and took the elevator to our suite.
As soon as the large brass doors of the elevator slid shut, Shane dragged me up against his body. “I got harder with every step we took on the way back,” he whispered onto my lips. “The thought of another night with you is driving me insane. I can’t believe I got so lucky.”
Wrapping my arms around his waist, I pulled him closer. He was right, he was hard. Very hard.
“You want to play a game?” I asked. All the way back a thought had been nagging away at me. Shane’s enjoyment of Stolen and Seduced had my mind racing with possibilities. There was something I needed to ask him while I had the courage of wine and felt so sublimely close to him.
“Only if it involves playing with you,” he said, grinning. “It does.”
He cocked his head. “Go on.”
I glanced at the lift numbers and the small upward arrow flashing. Could I really suggest it?
“Honey, tell me.”
I swallowed and looked up into his face. “You’ve got me curious,” he said.
I dragged in a deep breath. I wasn’t sure how he would take my suggestion but I hoped with all my heart it would appeal to him. “You know that book you read last night on my laptop?”
“Yep.”
“Well, it’s one of my favorites and I wondered...” I paused. Would he think I was weirdly kinky or worse, completely freaky?
His voice lowered and his eyelids dropped slightly. “And you wondered if I fancied a little role-play?” His tone held a note of disbelief but also interest, and he’d certainly hit the nail on the head as to what I was suggesting.
My gaze snapped to his. “Yes.”
“Oh, Ashley, I don’t know if I’m ever going to be the same again after meeting you.” He pulled me a little tighter. “You’re a dream come true.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Hell, yeah, the thought of you tied up like Eliza and your pleasure completely under my control is a massive turn-on. But are you sure? You only lost your virginity last night. I’d hate to scare you or do something you weren’t comfortable with.”
“Of course I’m sure or I wouldn’t have suggested it. And as for having just lost my virginity, hell, I’m twenty-three, I figure I have a few years of sex to make up for.”
The doors slid open and we stepped out into the fortunately deserted hallway. I would have died if anyone from Safe as Houses had heard that last sentence.
“Well, in that case, be prepared to be ‘stolen and seduced’, little lady,” he whispered hotly into my ear. “But anything you really don’t like, or if you want me to stop then just say,” he paused, “Paddington Bear.”
“Paddington Bear?”
“Yes, then I’ll know that you mean it and you’re not just getting into the role of Eliza and begging to be freed even when you don’t want to be.”
Paddington Bear. Okay.
I slid the keycard into our door and shoved it open. The room had been cleaned and smelled of polish. There was one dim lamp on in the living area.
“Go into the bathroom,” Shane said, slipping out of his coat and throwing it over the back of the sofa. “And when you come out Hest will be waiting.” He sat down and tugged off his wellington boots.
Heart fluttering, I quickly slipped out of my boots, nipped through the bedroom and into the en suite. With the door shut I leaned back against the wood. The bathrobes folded around my shoulders in a soft embrace. I felt giddy with anticipation, high with excitement. Oh my god! What had I asked for? And far from being shocked by my request, Shane had been up for it immediately. This was something I’d always dreamed of, being the heroine in one of my books—and now it was about to be realized.
Maybe I should have chosen a less dangerous scene. The one from The Millionaire’s Bride would have been less wild and not at all kinky. But Shane hadn’t read that one, he’d read, and enjoyed, Stolen and Seduced. Clearly fate had brought that scenario upon us and now there was nothing to do but enjoy.
Hastily, I brushed my teeth, staring all the time at my reflection. Once again there was something different about me, not just my rosy cheeks and windblown hair, but a hunger in my eyes, a longing, and a need that demanded to be satisfied buzzed between my legs and made my breasts heavy. Sex and getting naked with Shane was all I could think of.
I finished freshening up and slowly opened the door. The bedroom was in complete darkness. It was so black that when I clicked the bathroom light off I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.
Taking a tentative step onto the carpet, my heart thudded. I struggled to catch my breath. The thrill of handing over this fantasy to Shane was off-the-Richter-scale sexy.
When will he grab me?
Will he be gentle and sweet or will he launch into the rough-and-tough role of Hest?
Walking farther into the room, slowly and hesitantly, I waited either to be captured or to bump my shins into furniture. I reached for something to feel my way around and blinked in the velvety blackness.
Suddenly a big palm clamped over my mouth and my head was pulled back into the solid muscle of a shoulder.
I yelped in shock but the sound was muffled.
“Keep quiet, Miss Winters, if you value your life!”
Something with an unnervingly metallic coolness pressed against my jugular, it slipped downward then around my neck, leaving a sharp trail of sensation.
My whole body froze, except for my heart rate, which rocketed. Surely Shane wouldn’t use a knife for our game? It was what Hest had used but...
He must have sensed my real fear, for the sharpness lifted and I heard a double click. The “weapon” was a ball-point pen.
Phew!
The pen was back at my neck and his hot mouth by my ear. When he spoke, his voice was low and dangerous. It was easy to imagine in the darkness that it was Hest with a razor-sharp knife holding me tight.
“You’ve teased me for too long, Eliza. Made me want you until I was crazy with it and then you tossed me away. Do you really think you can do that with a man like me? Do you? Really?”
He moved his hand from my mouth and I slipped happily into role. “Hest, get off me. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I started to spin away but he clasped me to his body. His erection prodded at the small of my back and his arm became a tight band of granite around me. The pen flattened widthways over the lump in my throat.
“Oh, no, you don’t, I have plans for you. Plans to make you mine, forever.”
My excitement threatened to bubble over and my knees turned jelly-like. He even sounded like Hest and I swear his words were exactly the same as the book. Did he have a photographic memory or something?
“You can’t do this, my father will be out searching for me, no expense will be spared. Hotel security will see us.”
He laughed and lifted me as though I was no weight at all. As my feet left the floor, he began to stride forward, all the time speaking huskily into my ear. “No one will find you, Eliza, I’ve made sure we won’t be seen, and besides, who would expect you to be held in the very place you were taken from? What kind of gangster would stay at The Plaza?”
I wriggled within his grip the way Eliza did in the story. Writhing and flailing. Fighting to be free. But it was no good, his hold was strong and firm and the more I tried to escape the tighter he held me. The pleasure of him increasing his grip urged me on with my squirming.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, he dropped me backward, fast. Luckily, I landed on the bed. Air whooshed from my lungs and immediately I scrabbled to the opposite side, enjoying the chase but knowing I wouldn’t get away. And, of course, not wanting to get away .
“Oh, no, you don’t.” His full weight was over me, his hands roaming fast and wild, pulling and dragging at my clothes. “You can’t escape, and soon you won’t want to. Soon you’ll come to realize only I can give you what you need, Eliza, and you will admit it’s me that you love, only me, for all of time.”
Praise for Cold Nights, Hot Bodies
"This is a great, quick, easy, sexy, lovable book by Lily Harlem! I highly recommend this to anyone. Loved it!"
"If you are looking for a cute read with lots of great sex and a HEA than this is the book for you!"
"I love this author. Her characters are always so real. This was truly a great story. It was a story about Ashley's emerging sexuality and Individualism as well as Shane getting over the break up of his marriage. Both have what the other desperately needs. The exchange of sexual tension and trust is wonderfully written. Bravo again to Lily Harlem!"
"Hot, sweet, romantic, steamy are just a few of the words I would use to describe this story."
