Desiree is a fellow Samhain author who was a music rep, which of course piqued my interest :) USA Today says, "Desiree Holt is like the Nora Roberts of erotic romance". She writes several enormously popular series including Samhain's Naked Cowboy series (new release coming August 27). Today s
Enjoy an excerpt from Feel the Heat (Phoenix Agency)
When the doorbell rang, she was
gripped by a sudden attack of nerves, her palms sweating for no reason. She
wiped them on her jeans and looked through the peephole. What she saw was an
identification folder with a photo ID and Troy Arsenault, Phoenix Agency, in
black capital letters, along with the Phoenix logo.
“It’s me,” he called through
the door. “Maybe you’d better let me in before your friends out here decide to
join me.”
Friends? What friends?
She cracked the door a little,
and her heart sank when she realized some of the reporters and photographers
had wandered back closer to the house, apparently hoping to catch a glimpse of
her. Or to get a quick shot at her before the cops chased them away. At least
they were staying off of her lawn. A cruiser would be driving by again before
too long and they’d get chased away. She swallowed hard against the sudden rise
of panic.
I won’t give in to it.
Everything’s going to be fine. They’ll go away, and I can have my life back.
Summer slid off the safety
chain and opened the door just enough for Troy to slip through. When she closed
it, she hooked the chain again and turned the deadbolt. Then she turned to the
man in her foyer.
She was prepared to be polite, let
him do his thing and send him on his way. But when she looked at the man
standing there, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth and all her breath
was trapped in her lungs. Faith had told her Troy Arsenault was a former SEAL
and as far as Summer was concerned, he could have been the poster boy for
recruiting. He was as tall as Mark, with a lean runner’s body and deeply tanned
skin. His light brown hair was just a tad long, curling at the neck of his
shirt, the kind of hair a woman wanted to run her fingers through.
But it was his face that was
the most arresting. Ruggedly handsome, like Mark, high cheekbones were slashes
on either side of his nose and eyes the color of melted chocolate studied her
from beneath unexpectedly dark eyebrows and lashes.
Holy crap!
Her reaction to him was hot and totally unexpected and she made a
deliberate effort to tamp it down. For one thing, he was only here to make sure
she was safe. For another, her history with men was so unpleasant that she’d
decided to swear off them completely. The last thing she needed was to have her
ruthlessly controlled hormones decide to take a walk on the wild side. How
terribly inconvenient that those hormones chose this particular moment to start
galloping through her system again. Maybe she should have insisted harder to
Faith that she didn’t need anyone.
“Looks like you’re pretty
popular with the folks out there.” His mouth curved in a smile but his tone was
dead serious. When she didn’t comment he asked, “You okay?”
Summer gave herself a mental
shake. What was going on with her? She had a problem here and this man had
kindly agreed to come check it out as a favor to her friends. This was
business, not pleasure. She’d hoped for someone at least appealing to look at
but Troy Arsenault had danger
written all over him.
“Sorry.” She didn’t know if her
hands trembled because of the mob outside or the nearness of this man. She
shoved them into the pockets of her jeans. “Thank you for coming over here, although I
don’t think it was really necessary.”
“From what I saw outside, this
may be a little more serious than you think.” He held out his hand. “Troy
Arsenault. But you already know that, right? Nice to meet you, Summer.”
“Same goes. And the idiots
outside will probably go away the next time a police car comes by.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah?
Doesn’t look like it to me.”
She suddenly found herself
tongue-tied. What happened next? “Um, would you like some coffee? I made a
fresh pot.”
“Thanks. That would be nice.”
She led the way into her
kitchen and motioned for him to have a seat at the table. Figuring the first
rush of phone calls would have subsided by now, she picked up the receiver from
the counter and replaced it in the cradle. Her hand hovered over it a moment as
she waited to see if it rang. When it didn’t, she breathed a sigh of relief and
turned to occupy herself taking down mugs and filling them. As she poured the
coffee, she tried to focus on the situation and not the man. Troy Arsenault had
an electric magnetism about him that made the air sizzle and scrambled her
brain. And that was the last thing she needed right now.
Available now at Amazon, BN, All Romance Ebooks
Desiree Holt has lived a life of excitement that brings the color to her writing. She was a summer fishing guide, a summer field hand where she was one of only three women working, a member of a beginning ski team that skied in competition (and no, no broken bones!). She spent several years in the music business representing every kind of artist from country singer to heavy metal rock bands. For several years she also ran her own public relations agency handling any client that interested her. She is twice a finalist for an EPIC E-Book Award, a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year Award at The Romance Studio, and is published by four different houses. Romance Junkies said of her work: “Desiree Holt is the most amazing erotica author of our time and each story is more fulfilling then the last.”
Website
Blog
The Phoenix Agency on FB thephoenixagency
Desiree is in the hospital today for an unexpected surgery so she can't be here to answer each of your comments as she usually does.
ReplyDeletePlease join me in wishing Desiree a speedy recovery!
Phoenix Agency series sounds awesome, and Feel the Heat is on my wish list. Please thank Desiree for the excerpt. Hope she makes a miraculous recovery.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the well wishes, Judy!
DeleteSo glad you enjoyed Desiree's and Joy's excerpts :)