Happy Chocolate and Roses Day!

 There should be at least five days dedicated to celebrating chocolate and roses, two of the best things in a woman’s life, don’t you think? Five days a month sounds righteous to me. ;-) I hope you’re loving the Chocolate and Roses Blog Hop and discovering great new authors and fresh stories. Stick around for a chance to win a copy of my latest release. Thank you, Lea Barrymire, the goddess-author who brought us this wonderful blog hop! If you’re not coming from her blog, do check her out.

My name is Michele Hart, and I write gritty, high-action Paranormal/Sci-Fi Romantic Adventure and Suspense. Welcome to my blog. I have angels & demons, shape-shifters, monsters, horrendous villains, hunky heroes who love risk, and the smart heroines who love them for it.

Pick up a FREE READ here! http://www.MicheleHart.com/b22-book.htm

In celebration of chocolate and roses, I’ve chosen an excerpt for you coming from my Sci-Fi Romantic Adventure Luminous Nights, a book filled with chocolate… No, that came out wrong. Let’s say, the hero Jack wields wicked alien chocolate bars. And they aren’t his only incredibly sexy tools, believe me. Not by a long-shot. This mystery man commands a frightening arsenal of skills and technology to complete his mission. Part of his mission is Rachel.

Here’s your blurb:

Cop or convict?
How many faces can one man own?

An assassin wearing a holographic mask and a prison tattoo boards Rachel’s freighter during a prison riot, intent on collecting gadgets capable of changing a man’s identity from the black-market gang who'd stolen them. Rachel’s never sure of Jack's identity nor his goal, but he claims to be an Alliance I-Marshal. Cop or convict? The clues never stop contradicting. She's horrified to find the bright holographic mask conceals the gruesome face of a monster. And the badge doesn’t slow him from murdering people right before her eyes.

When Rachel learns Jack will trade innocent lives for the digital miracles, she determines to make the mercenary grow a heart.  How could a stone-cold killer kiss her so hotly? How could she kiss such a dangerous deceiver?

Jack has done years in prison to learn who’d stolen the remaining Gemini ticks, 3-D magic. Nothing will keep him from gaining extreme technology capable of unleashing galaxy-wide chaos. Forget feelings for Rachel. She can’t stop him from killing everyone involved.

***

What the heck, watch a video...

 Here's a chocolate excerpt for you.

Jack forever has a trick up his sleeve. He’s a master at bending circumstance to his will. He must tell Rachel he’s going to kill someone she loves, but first…

[ This excerpt is rated R because Jack is a bad boy in nearly every way. ]

“I’ve a new treat for you.” 

The look in his sky blue eyes touring her in her black nightie hinted of mischief and debauchery. Whatever his treat was, no doubt it was designed to put what Jack wanted right in his hands. He seemed to hold unlimited weapons built for that purpose.

Rachel stretched out on her side atop the bed, watching him and the ballet of his bare-chested sinew beneath sun-kissed flesh. He lay opposite her on his side, facing her, very close, pitching sizzle in his gaze. His finger traced the wrinkles of the black silk she wore. The alien chocolate lay an arm’s reach away, lending the moment its delicious aroma. Her eyes roamed his half-naked form, every cell of her body reigniting to his silent bid. Goose bumps raced over her flesh, shooting a pulse of pleasure through her.

“You always wield the most powerful incentives, Jack.”

Smiling as though he held all the secrets to the universe, he reached into the same hip pocket of his pajama pants where he’d earlier carried chocolate, making it melty, and he drew another gold foil-wrapped treasure. This time the foil was wrapped with a green ribbon, and she didn’t know what it was.

“This is Eltanin’s best mint chocolate.” His eyes flashed, upcoming ecstasy there.

Her head fell backward, experiencing the expiration of resistance at mention of such a thing. Returning her sight to him, she confessed, “I’ve never had it.”

He peeled the wrapper away to find the mint chocolate gooey. He took a glob of it on his finger and, his eyes daring her, set the finger a fraction from her lips, the aroma of mint tickling her nose. 

“What do you want for a piece of mint chocolate, Jack?” She was eager to hear the deal on the table. She could see his joy in her question. 

“Everything you have.”

“I believe I’ve been giving you that for the last few days.”

“No, you’ve been lending it to me. I want it all to be mine.”

She took his teasing finger into her mouth and sucked the chocolate from his fingertip. Her taste buds flooded with delight of the finest aphrodisiac chocolate and a mint flavor so powerful, it turned every breath into an arctic wind blowing through her body already set afire by his nearness. The sensation filled her head with conflicting reports of hot and cold throughout her being. His smile was pornographic.

His arm propped up to support his head, his prismatic vision wandered over her nightgown, seemingly very disappointed.

“Rachel, no work of art should be hidden.” His expression was long-suffering to teach her that lesson. “What had I been thinking when I’d bought the nightie? As pretty as it is on you, the nightie has to go. You can wear it another time. Art must be displayed.”

He snickered as he sat up beside her and tugged the soft fabric from her body. The swatch rode the air down to the floor beside the bed. She fought the urge to cover up, but his gaze and the artwork he’d put on her body made her feel so beautiful, she surrendered to his sight. She lay nude before him, leaning against the headboard of the bed, atop a mound of pillows. To be fair, he said, he stripped himself of his pajama bottoms in record time and rejoined her on the bed. His unveiled golden body made her throb. The sight of his ready erection struck her with the most hungry, empty feeling. The heat he generated won over the arctic breeze of the chocolate.

He surveyed and approved his inspired work, red-berry-and-ink swirls and symbols still vivid on every section of her body, drawn like the scars of Aztec warriors. She liked the way he filled his sight with his artistic enhancement of her. He made her feel…ethereal.

“Are you cold? I’ll heat you up, my Aztec goddess.” His smooth, deep voice shot her through with anticipation.

“Nobody heats me up like you do, Jack. I’m not cold at all.” 

His talented hand went to her side, stroking the hourglass of her figure, sending the most engaging tension through her. Her breath quickened as his hand took accounting of his new territory.

He took up another glob of the mint chocolate onto his finger and redrew the sun over the berry stains on her breast. Her heart pounded so hard for him, she could see its thump in her chest. Then he sucked the mint chocolate from her breast, lighting thrilling fireworks of tension and pleasure through her, making her call out for him as she locked her fingers onto the blond spikes of his head. The lap of his tongue, his capture of her with his lips, the gentle suck of his mouth stole her mind from the room. 

He must have heard enough of his name in pleading tones because he pressed her into the pillows, and he filled her mouth with his mint chocolate kiss again, passionate and hungry. As though he couldn’t wait another minute just to be there, he fit his body between her legs, and she trembled. Her knees came around his hips in welcome. She could feel his erection hard against her and growing stronger, multiplying the craving and ache within her. Her hands spread over his hairy chest, and she savored the friction of their bodies. Then she noticed their hearts pounding in unison. His weight atop her turned her on entirely. She slid her hands down to the hard river-rapids of his stomach, stroking the soft hair there, enduring the tension and lightning he gave her. 

He finally broke his marauding kiss. The air she sucked in, enhanced by the mint, chilled her again, then quickly thawed to the wildfire he set in her body.

His weight taken on his strong arms, he delayed, just sent his sight wandering down her decorated body, drinking her in. Then he buried his nose in her hair, taking in a deep breath.

“Rachel,” he said low into her tresses from above, “I can just imagine myself as a warrior-priest about to give an offering to an Aztec goddess upon her altar.”

The vision was fabulous. Rachel dressed in feathers and beads lying upon a stone altar, Jack wearing war paint above her, taking her like a holy sacrament.

Then he penetrated her, launching an explosion through her body and soul. She forgot to breathe, gasped his name, experienced the wild wave of pleasure he put into her. When she sucked in a breath again, the cold sensation of the mint flooded her body, sending shock and splendor through her again at the collision of fire and ice. 

Locking her in his arms, he squeezed her in the ecstasy of his filling of her. She didn’t have to stay quiet this time, so she let it out in an unrestrained cry. He held her there, nestled in his firm embrace, giving her time to experience that pleasure fully. Waves of rapture finally ebbed. For now.

Delaying, he propped himself up on his elbows to gaze down upon her, and he swept stray hairs from her eyes.

She recognized his supernatural glow, thinking him an unbelievable sight. Smiling, he dipped his finger in the mint chocolate again and put it to her lips. She sucked the cool delight from his finger, refreshing her body’s response to the delicacy, its cooling infusion, while his hard body dominated her. Then he gave her another hot kiss, and the chocolate and Jack mixed together filled every cell of her body. 

Powerful above her, he unleashed himself, making her cry out his name with every plunge of his body into hers and driving the most exquisite waves of pleasure she’d yet endured. The cool and hot multiplied every sensation into shivering bliss.

When he’d reduced her to sweaty, sated moans calling on Heaven, he gave up his fight to hold back and his embrace of her tightened, giving her one last soar through imaginary mountain breeze, the power of his orgasm shaking her. 

After waning flights of release brought them back to the room, Jack rolled onto his side against the bed pillows and tugged Rachel into his arms, settling her close to him, throwing a leg over hers to keep possession of her. Quiet, he propped an elbow over her head to bear some of his weight, and he sent that hand to slide through her hair. The other hand roved down her breasts, over her belly, and over her thighs, tracing his deifying artwork. His contact was the most incredible thing. 

She stretched her legs against his hard thigh wrapping them. “I love the way you capture me, Jack. You wrap your whole body around me as though you’re containing me.”

“I have you under my arrest.”

She giggled at his employment of law enforcement metaphors. He’d probably spent half his life cracking cop jokes. 

He’d probably spent the last five years in prison fantasizing of touching a woman again…

“Is this a cop-and-criminal fetish of yours? Maybe a domination scenario that gives you power?” 

She pulled from his arms just a little and gave him a interrogative smile. “Jack… Does your job turn you on?”

He burst into an amused chuckle of denial, then he pressed her back into his arms, back to her place, and he nuzzled his face again into her hair. 

“No, it doesn’t have a thing to do with my job,” he said, very close to her ear, his breath brushing her neck. “I think it’s more about wanting to make contact in every way with something that’s all mine.”

She was all his. For once, she didn’t question his sincerity, chose not to search his words for meaning. It was such a beautiful thing to say, and she didn’t want to ruin the music of it with any negative thought when he was the source of so much light within her. 

Jack was all she wanted now. What could take away their ecstasy?

The end was seconds away.

 *** 

[ Now for shameless self-promotion. ]

Don’t stop. Read more.
Luminous Nights finaled in the Golden Quill Contest for Best Sci-Fi.
Find out why.
Explore steamy, peril-packed excerpts, check out awesome reviews:
  http://www.michelehart.com/b15-book.htm

Read the First Chapter:
http://dreneebagbypresentsfirstchapters.blogspot.com/2010/08/luminous-nights-by-michele-hart.html
Buy Link: http://www.BookStrand.com/luminous-nights
Available @ BookStrand, Amazon Books, Barnes & Noble,
nearly everywhere exciting adventures await you.

Leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite chocolate—dark, milk, white, with caramel, with peanut butter—or your favorite roses, and I’ll draw a name every day of the Chocolate and Roses Blog Hop and give away an e-book copy of my newest, hottest release, Gangbusters. Check out Gangbusters here! http://www.MicheleHart.com/b28-book.htm

Love, chocolate, and roses to all the ladies!
Michele

Here’s your kick-off for more chocolate and roses.

1. Lea Barrymire (Check Lea’s blog!)
2. Michele Hart (Clicking here will get you deja vu.)
3. Rose Leigh Woods
4. Carolyn Rosewood
5. Rita Bay
6. JoAnne Kendrick
7. Becca Simone
8. Siobhan Muir
9. Camile Carson
10. Wendy Soliman
11. Kasey Dean
12. Alicia White
13. Lynn Tyler
14. Hennesee Andrews
15. Christi Bart
16. Nicole Morgan
17. Missy Lyons
18. Jan Graham
19. Casey Crow
20. Simone Sinna
21. Lea Kinkade