My next guest helping me to celebrate my 20th anniversary is Ally Blake. Ally is more than a friend and colleague, she is also my webmistress, helping me keep in touch with readers around the world. She picks up the things I miss, finds links for me and goes the extra mile every month when she updates my site. It's a real joy to welcome her to tell you about her latest book, The Rules of Engagement. Over to you, Ally...
Thanks so much for having me over
to celebrate your 20th anniversary, Liz!
It reminds me my ten years comes up next December. You've been such a support, a wonderful ear,
and a lovely writing friend these past years, I am blessed to know you. You'll be first on the invite list for my
party, I assure you.
And it's extra kind of you to
have me since I don't even have a Christmas story on the shelves! In fact, I've never written a Christmas book,
and THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT - out now from Harlequin Presents Extra - is no different.
But if you're after something to
warm up your holidays if you're in the snowy north, or to add some sizzle to
your sweltering summer if you, like me, live down south, then this could be
your luck day ;).
I was meant to be writing another
story, one of those tricky ones where every word on the page was written in
blood, when I heard Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love on the radio. And that was that. Caitlyn March was born - a woman so addicted
to love, when we first meet her she's just getting over her fourth failed
engagement. And from that moment this
fun, frothy book near wrote itself. It
was such a joy I dedicated it to fairy dust.
Here's a taste
The house
lights slowly lifted, encouraging the dregs to stumble on home. Panic set in.
Caitlyn's hair would be a mess, her lipstick bitten away, her mascara
ever so delightfully smudged. Yet Dax's
expression didn’t change. The glint in
his eyes if anything grew.
Quickened. Scorched.
Oh God. Oh God!
OH GOD!
And for a girl
who in the past had lived for the adrenalin brought on by the mere possibility
of a new relationship, she felt like she was free falling into those hot hazel
eyes.
In the past,
being the most important part. She wasn’t
looking for that brand of blistering intensity that could sweep a girl off her
feet before she knew what was happening. She wanted fun and frivolity. She needed...
Sorbet.
All of a
sudden parts of herself began to click and slide, like the tumbling open of a
combination lock.
What she
needed most was emotional catharsis.
What she
wanted was to clear the bad taste in her mouth that her most recent failed
engagement had left behind.
Sorbet sex.
What kind of
sorbet sex she couldn’t be certain, since it was her first time going down that
route. Sorbet came in a million
different flavours, and if hers came in the guise of a tall dark handsome
stranger she had no doubt could wipe away the memory of every man she’d ever
met, well then who was she to argue?
‘Closing
time,’ Ivan called out, dragging Caitlyn to the present.
Her breath
shook as she wondered how exactly one went about picking up a sexy stranger in
a bar by asking for no strings sorbet sex.
‘Hungry?’ she
asked, before she even felt the word coming.
‘Ravenous,’
Dax said without missing a single beat.
Well, she
thought, as he slid his hand around her waist, resting it possessively on her
hip as he led her towards the door, even that gentle touch making her feel like
lava was sliding through her veins, that’s how.
Grab the paperback from The Book Depository (free delivery worldwide!) or the ebook from eHarlequin.
For a free online romance, given to you in daily bite sized pieces, "like" Arabella Rose’s journey on www.facebook.com/50dayswithrose.
