Taryn Elliott and I have little holiday gift for you - an excerpt from her hot new erotic romance, "Holiday Sparks". It was released Thursday, December 20th by
Ellora's Cave.
Book Blurb (from Taryn):
Darcy
Tucker hates Christmas.
Being lead supervisor at a department store shows her the very
worst of
humanity. When her holiday display is demolished, she turns to
the least
likely person she knows—her hot, tattooed tenant who seems to
get off on the
very idea of Christmas. Maybe she can get him to decorate the
store and stop
decorating her house.
Tattoo
artist Ben Hartley may
not look the part, but Christmas is his favorite holiday. When
Darcy gets in a
jam and reveals her vulnerable side, he finally gets to learn
more about
the sexy woman behind the cool façade.
Thrown
in close quarters to fix
her store, Ben and Darcy realize the only chilly thing between
them is the
temperature outside. One supremely hot kiss leads to a night
full of passionate
surprises. Now Ben has to show her that there’s more to life
than work, and
that the season of hope is full of sexy possibilities with or
without a
Christmas tree.
Now, get comfy, grab a drink and enjoy.
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Excerpt
“Four, five, si—” Ben paused as the Christmas
song fizzled
out. “Shit.” He pushed up the last two reps then dumped his weight
bar back
onto the rack and rolled off his bench. He thought he’d worked all
the kinks
out of the program he’d written for the house.
He hurried down the steps and came to an abrupt
halt. The
lights on the porch were out. “Dammit.” He swung open the door and
frowned. His
landlady’s spectacular ass lined up perfectly with his face.
Stunned for a
moment, he simply stared before asking, “What are you doing?”
Their doors were side by side in the setup of
the duplex.
She had a pair of pliers in her hand and each of the clear clips
he’d
painstakingly tacked around the arched window were sprinkled
across their
shared deck. “I’m taking,” she grunted, “down these lights.”
The glow from the lights on the bushes
highlighted the khaki
material that hugged her ass a little too perfectly. He frowned
and returned
his focus to the window above. “Why?”
“Because,” she snarled and pulled, “I,” another
clip fell
and the string of lights sagged against her shoulder, “hate
Christmas.”
“How can you hate Christmas?” Even his cranky
old Grandpa
Radley loved Christmas. “Hey, stop.”
“This is my house. And I will not have We Wish You a Merry Christmas blaring from some
ridiculous speaker
as lights sparkle and flash and cause seizures!”
He reached up and took the pliers from her,
stuffing down a
laugh. “Honestly, stop.”
She looked down at him, her eyes definitely on
death ray
instead of stun.
He cleared his throat. Nope, laughing would not
be smart.
“You’re the one tearing up the siding. I tacked them in so that
there wouldn’t
be any structural damage.”
“Fine. Then take them down yourself.”
“How about I just take them down on your side
of the house?”
“No, take them all down. This is my house and
this is my
rule.”
His eyebrows shot up. The librarian tone zinged
him in
places it shouldn’t. “That wasn’t in the lease agreement,” he said
amiably. The
little pulse in the side of her neck was fluttering and her eyes
were just a
little too bright. She stood a few inches taller than him thanks
to the
stepladder. And he was pretty sure she was a minute away from a
true meltdown.
“No structural changes to the house covers
that, Mr.
Hartley.”
“Well, Miss Tucker, I hardly think a few
Christmas lights
could be considered structural changes.”
“Oh no? There’s a freaking,” she widened her
arms, gasping
for breath, “sleigh in the yard with all—and I do mean all—the
reindeer. Oh,
and my house looks like a demonic jukebox!”
He wasn’t sure why her rant made him want to
grin like an
idiot, but it did. “I like Christmas. The kids get a kick out of
it and
it’s…well, it’s cheery.”
She turned on the stepladder and the whole
thing tipped. Ben
grabbed the first thing he could—a handful of curvy hip. She
slapped her hand
onto the siding for balance and stared down at him with disdain.
He cleared his throat and stepped back.
Laughing would only
tick her off more. The little voice in the back of his head wanted
to keep
going and see if she’d pull a Linda Blair. This was probably more
words than
they’d shared since she’d showed him the house over the summer.
He crossed his arms, digging his fingers into
his quickly
cooling muscles. It was a warm night, but not exactly muscle-shirt
weather.
“Look, it’s getting dark. I’ll take them down first thing in the
morning, how’s
that?”
A little muscle twitched in her cheek. He could
tell that
she wanted to argue with him, but she finally nodded and stepped
down.
“Tomorrow,” her chin tipped up, “please.”
Now this was the Darcy he was used to. The
polite, almost
icy woman he bumped into at the mailbox. She was usually rolling
up the
driveway as he was heading to his shop. Perversely, he liked the
one that had
flipped out a moment ago.
“Sorry you don’t like the display.” She almost
met him eye
to eye even off the ladder. It was odd for him to be around a
woman nearly as
tall as he was. The porch light illuminated her just enough to see
her gaze
drop to his arm. His voice gentled. “I’m even sorrier that you
hate Christmas.”
“I
didn’t know I had
to make myself clear on the subject.” Her gaze tripped to the
tattoos that
sleeved his right arm. The sweat had faded in the coolness of the
night but his
muscles were still tight from his workout. “You don’t seem the
caroling,
Christmas-is-my-secret-hobby type.”
He swiped his hand down his biceps and
tightened it under
her obvious perusal. He was proud of his ink. He turned until the
evergreen in
the middle of the flames of the dragon was in her line of sight.
It wrapped
most of his upper arm. Most people only saw the dragon. They
didn’t notice that
in the midst of the fire, a Christmas tree glowed bright with
lights and a blue
flame star at the top.
With all the crap he’d seen on this earth, one
thing remained.
He loved the hope of Christmas. It wasn’t the religion part for
him, just the
hope of it. Wars had yielded one night of peace, people smiled at
strangers and
children reminded everyone what it was like to have a bit of
simple pleasure.
“And who would be the Christmas type?”
“Carly.”
He laughed. “Carly is definitely a Christmas
mom, but kids
have that effect whether you’re the type or not.”
“Christmas is ill-mannered people, impatient
lines and the
screams of overtired children that have been dragged to eight
stores in three
hours.” Darcy Tucker’s eyes were pinched and her mouth was now a
grim line.
He swiped his thumb down the tree in his
tattoo. “Christmas
is alive and well no matter how awful things get.” Her dark-green
eyes softened
and she opened her mouth to say something but he lifted his hand.
As she said,
it was her place. “I’ll have them down tomorrow. Do you mind if I
enjoy them
tonight?”
She nodded slowly. “One night.”
“Sorry to inconvenience you.”
She snapped her stepladder shut, averting her
eyes. “Thank
you,” she said softly and slipped inside.
Ben collected the clips off the deck and
stuffed them into
his pocket. It had been an unusually bitter month on the
all-around. His niece
was wrapped up tight with a shoulder harness thanks to a bad fall
from her
bike. So instead of the art lessons he usually used to keep her
occupied, she
was moping around his shop, Luna Hart. With any luck she’d get the
sling off
before Christmas.
His brother was working extra hours to pay for
her medical
bills, which made Brittany even more bratty. And he’d just dented
his savings
to buy updated equipment for his shop.
Putting up a bit of Christmas cheer had calmed
him. He’d
just have to bring the lights over to the shop instead. It didn’t
exactly suit
the tattoo parlor. Cesar would just have to deal with a carnival
of lights
outside.
And maybe he could finally get Brittany to
smile. She liked
to order him around, and getting her involved in the decorating
would distract
her.
He gathered the white lights that sagged from
the awning and
took them down because now they just looked stupid. He worked
quickly. Thanks
to his height and Darcy Tucker’s rampage there were only a few
left. He wasn’t
sure why she’d taken them down on his side first. He shook his
head. Now the
house looked as though it was winking. He made a mental note to
add that into
his programming ideas.
It was too bad Darcy Tucker was so unhappy with
the idea of
Christmas.
She sure was pretty under the twinkle lights.
*******************************************************************************
Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Release Date: December 20, 2012
Format: ebook
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Erotica
ISBN: 9781419943904
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Taryn and the publisher, Ellora's Cave, have kindly offered one copy of "Holiday Sparks" to a reader. To enter, use the Rafflecopter widget below. Please read my
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