Come See What's New in Today's Romance!

Greetings! Welcome to the Cuddle Up With a Contemporary Romance Blog Hop, where you can find out all about Upcoming and New Releases from Secret Cravings Authors! PLUS, all the authors will be giving away special prizes, so be sure to visit them all!

Today I am going to tell you about my upcoming Romantic Suspense Thriller Alicia's Possession! 

After having both a Paranormal Regency and a Contemporary Romance published last summer, this year I am jumping into a new sub-genre. Also, this novel contains a little light bondage and mild elements of Dominance and submission, which is a complete departure for me! Alicia's Possession will be released in July, so I do hope you will check it out. I don't have a cover yet, but most of the novel is set around lakes in Louisiana - so there you have it!

Now for my prize... As my new novel will not be available to give away until July, I picked out something related to the heroine Alicia. You see, she absolutely LOVES wine (no idea where I got the inspiration for that-LOL!), and, when strange things start happening in her home, she thinks a ghost is haunting her. Hence, I am giving away a book on wine entitled Decantations. (Get it? Like "incantations" to communicate with the dead?) So leave a comment letting me know what you think about my foray into romantic suspense for your chance to win a brand new hardcover edition of Decantations (and don't forget to leave your email address so I can let you know when you win). I will be drawing for a winner on Friday, May 24th. Then hop on over to the other authors' blogs to see what they have dreamed up for you!  Enjoy!

~Colette

 UPDATE: Congratulations to the WINNER of the giveaway - Decantations - as selected by Random.org, Catherine Lee! Thanks to everyone for commenting!

 

About Alicia's Possession
 

Haunted by a traumatic accident and her husband’s betrayal, Alicia believes she can never trust again. Now she must surrender her will to Mason if she wants to find out if the bizarre events terrorizing her are the work of the paranormal, her own paranoia, or something far more sinister.

After recovering from a freak car crash that put her in a coma for two months and left her with no memory of the accident, wealthy socialite Alicia Pageant becomes convinced there is a connection between the seemingly mysterious disappearance of her neighbor from across the lake and a series of bizarre occurrences inside her own house; but everyone, including the detective investigating the neighbor’s disappearance, thinks the woman’s head injury has left her unable to distinguish reality from fantasy.

When Detective Mason Crawley is called out to investigate this "suspicious incident," Alicia’s palpable sadness and vulnerability awaken his instinct to protect her and lead her into the light; but as her story begins to unravel, each new piece of information creates more questions than it answers. He begins to wonder if the woman he is falling in love with is a witness to a cleverly-concealed crime, dangerously delusional, or a murderer.
(Contains light bondage and mild elements of Dominance and submission.)

Excerpt

     “What do you want?” she asked. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
     Mason gripped her upper arms, forcing her eyes to meet his. He knew he’d made a mistake the moment her warmth bled through the silk of her robe and into his palms, sending a ripple of sensation up his arms and down his body.

     "Why did you lie about knowing Judith?" he asked, his voice low and gravelly but not in the terse tone he used to intimidate a witness.

      No, she might not recognize it, but he could hear his lust cradling each syllable.
     She squeezed her eyes tight as if to prevent her tears’ escape, but instead it forced them down her cheeks. “I wasn’t lying. I don’t know her. I don’t remember her. I don’t remember anything.”
     He lifted one hand from her arm and brushed the tears from her cheek with his thumb before running it across her bottom lip. Her eyes remained closed, and his chest rose and fell in rhythm with hers. He leaned in close enough to inhale her breath.
      “Don’t,” she said without force.
     He shuffled his feet forward the few inches required for his body to brush against her breasts. “How can you not remember?”
     “Th-the accident.”
     He brought his mouth down, barely touching hers, his tongue tasting the salt of tears on her lips—those lips he had wanted to kiss from the first moment they’d met.
    “Please,” she said on a puff of air and tried to pull away from him, but he tightened his hold on her arm.
     “Please what?”
     “Please…don’t kiss me.”
     “I think you want me to kiss you.” When she said nothing in protest, he pressed his lips to hers and gently pulled first her top, then her bottom lip into his mouth. He held her chin between his thumb and fist to lift her face.

     Tears still streamed down her cheeks, but she opened her eyes and shook her head. “I…I can’t do this.”
     Mason trailed his finger down her throat to the opening of her robe, stopping just over her heart, and she trembled with a hitch in her breath.
     “What do you mean you didn’t remember her because of the accident?”
     “I have…gaps, memory loss.” Her tears had begun to wane.
     “I’m going to kiss you again.”
    “No,” she whispered when his mouth hovered mere millimeters over hers. He dropped his hand from her arm to the small of her back and pulled her against him, and she gasped at the unmistakable evidence of his arousal. “I’m not ready for this.”
     “Because of your injury?”
     “Because of the infidelity. My husband. He hurt me.” Her words pinched his heart and he nodded. “I can’t be with a man—any man. I can’t trust anyone. I don’t even trust myself to have the sense or judgment to know who can be trusted. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to trust anyone again.”
     Mason laid a soft kiss on her mouth, tugging her bottom lip gently between his teeth. He lifted his face just enough to look at her. In time, he could teach her to trust again, at least to trust him, but it would take patience—and perseverance. He thought she might be worth the effort.
     “If you want me to stop,” he told her, “if you really mean it, say ‘apple.’”
     Alicia furrowed her brow and blinked before meeting his stare directly. “But I told you to stop.”
    “Yes, but you didn’t mean it.” The color rushing into her cheeks proved him right. “I will only stop if you say ‘apple.’ Understand?”
    She responded with a single, slow nod, never taking her eyes off him. When he covered her mouth with his, he ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, and she opened for him. He wrapped both arms around her then, holding her tight, and she placed her hands on his shoulders. As his tongue swirled inside her mouth, she leaned against him and released a low, moaning sigh. He allowed the kiss to continue and to deepen, in part because he wanted to prevent her from using the safety word, but primarily because he didn’t want to relinquish her delicious mouth. Although he would never call himself a connoisseur, he could detect the subtle notes of cherry, chocolate, and plum from the wine on her tongue.