Hey, gang! Well, tomorrow (very early) I’m off to my annual trip/RAH’s family reunion here:

Getting RAH on the plane with his broken in 4 places ankle will be an interesting feat. We’ll manage. Somehow. Once we do, it’s a week of R & R, sand and sun–and LOTS of Doomsday Brethren. I’m behind, so I’m hoping to catch up, like quick!

In the meantime, here’s a little snippet of WATCH ME, which comes out from Samhain in about 10 days!

Shanna York was set to achieve her glittering ballroom dreams and become a dance champion—until her dance partner gets tangled up in scandal and blackmail. With the clock ticking and all her ambitions at stake, the last thing she needs is the gorgeous owner of a sex club tempting her with the forbidden.

Or maybe that’s the very thing she needs…

Alejandro Diaz has sizzled for Shanna since he set eyes on her months ago. Her repeated rebuffs will make her surrender that much sweeter. She’s ambitious and driven…but so is he. When she asks for his assistance to ensnare a voyeuristic blackmailer with a video fetish, he doesn’t hesitate to help her stage a bedroom trap. But neither is prepared to face scorching, endless passion, the blackmailer’s real identity—or the undeniable love that grows between them.

copyright Shelley Bradley, 2007
If you are under 18, please navigate elsewhere.

“You’re a good girl. Watching you get fucked turns me on, but fucking you myself is heaven. You accept my cock wherever I put it, don’t you?” the man said.

“Yes! Master, yes!” cried the woman on stage.

Shanna crossed her legs and squirmed again. “Is he…having anal sex with her?”

Alejandro nodded. “It is another show of her submission to him.”

She drew in a sharp breath. Even in this dim light, he could see her hard nipples go even harder. Oh, another something on his long list of things to do to her body once he got the chance. Alejandro managed to keep his smile to himself—barely.

“Seen enough?”

“What?” Shanna tore her eyes away from the couple reluctantly. “O—oh, yes.”

He rose and helped her to her feet, then guided her out the door, back into the well-lit hallway. Flushed cheeks, very hard nipples, rapid breaths, pulse beating at her neck. If she owned a vibrator, he’d bet it would get a strenuous workout this afternoon. First time he could ever remember being jealous of plastic and batteries. He’d offer his own flesh, but if he pushed her too hard, too fast, she would run in the other direction.

“So, the scene… How does tomorrow night sound for catching a blackmailer? I will make sure the room is free then.”

Shanna took a deep breath. “I haven’t made up my mind.”

“Whatever you wish. You are the one with a competition in a few weeks and a blackmailer with an ax to grind.”

“Damn it. All right. Tomorrow night.”

“Be here by nine.” Alejandro tamped down his smile of triumph with effort. “What sort of scene should I set up? Something for you to do alone?”

Shanna paled a bit more, then mustered her bravado and lifted her chin. “Maybe…you should participate, too. But don’t get the wrong idea.”

“Wrong idea?”

She sent him a suspicious glare. “I’m serious. This is business. I need to find out who’s trying to sabotage me. You need to know who’s jeopardizing your club. I’m not interested in you personally.”

“Of course not.”

“And I’m not sleeping with you.”

Who said anything about sleeping? Alejandro thought fiercely.

“Whatever you want, that is what we’ll do. Nothing more.” And absolutely nothing less.

Enjoy your week!! I’ll draw for the DECADENT excerpt winners when I return. In my absence, Naughty Nikki is in charge. Y’all be good…or bad, as the mood strikes!

BUSY time of year for me. Getting ready for a week long trip, trying to tie up some loose ends, RAH is still down. But I am totally jazzed to share the trailer for DECADENT (Berkley Heat, October 2) with you. I think this is really hot, and the music is just perfect. Enjoy the visual feast!!

To celebrate, I’ll choose 3 people at random who comment here about the trailer to win a first chapter sneak peek of DECADENT. So tell me what you think!!

Recently on an author loop, a fellow author said that she’d received a review that stated her book was cliché, and she was confused. Did that mean the plot was predictable or that actual phrases, like white as a sheet, had been used too often?

Even more confusing, the plot points the reviewer cited as cliché were perhaps not uncommon, but very real. I believe some examples others gave in other books were a heroine having a very close gay friend (Yes, I have one myself. Great guy!) and a woman who feels/behaves differently because she’s wearing sexy clothes. Um, I’m not likely to flirt if I’m wearing no make up, my hair is in a ponytail and I’ve got on a ratty t-shirt and jeans. Put me in a little black dress…totally different.

Show me someone who doesn’t know one person who’s ever had a bad relationship—or had one themselves. If you qualify, you’re pretty sheltered. Some things are REAL and hard not to put into book. We, as writers, identify about these things because we’ve lived them or loved someone who has. We understand them, and can therefore make them more real.

In my mind (scary place, I know…), frequently, it’s not so much that the plot is predictable. At least not in and of itself. To me, the REAL problem arises when the book is predictable AND the emotional depth at which the writer (and thus, the characters) deal with it, is shallow. Honestly, I think some of the most talented authors are the ones who make you FEEL, despite the fact you know exactly where the book is going. You brace yourself; you know what’s coming next is going to wrench your guts out. You think you’re covered, then BAM! The author still manages to get you right between the eyes and in the heart, and you’re sobbing over their lost loved one or whatever. I can cite a number of authors who are this way for me. I love them and have a fair number on my keeper shelf.

There are authors who blow me away, plot wise. JK Rowling comes to mind. You never know what’s going to come out of her head or where the story is going. You never know exactly what will happen to Harry and his friends next. I cried at Dumbledore’s funeral (if you haven’t read Half Blood Prince, I apologize…), but typically she doesn’t make me feel as much as she keeps me guessing.

At the end of the day, I guess it depends on what you value: being moved or being surprised. Agreed that both is best, but if I have to choose, I go with being moved. I think that’s what good romantic fiction is about.

Your thoughts?

I haven’t done one of these in a while, and I’m hoping to get back on track now that life is starting to get normal again. Thanks for being patient!!

Today, I’m featuring my own upcoming novella from Samhain, WATCH ME, which is out July 10. As promised, Naughty Nikki finished the trailer. Take a peek!

WATCH ME

Here’s a little extra excerpt, just to get you going on a Friday:
Excerpt WATCH ME
copyright Shelley Bradley
For readers age 18 and over. If you are under 18, please navigate elsewhere.

“Everyone is watching,” he whispered.

“Yes.” Her voice shook.

He bent and lifted her leg, wrapping her calf around his thigh and urging her head to fall back to his shoulder. Their eyes met, their mouths inches apart.

Shanna felt stripped down, as if she were naked under Alejandro’s knowing gaze. God, if he didn’t stop that, she’d melt against him in seconds.

“Men are watching you, wanting you.”

He grabbed her thigh, spun her around to face him, then placed that thigh over his hip. They rested nearly hip to hip again. As he leaned back slightly, he forced her chest against his. Still, she could not break his stare.

“You like it,” he whispered.

She opened her mouth to deny it, but Alejandro’s gaze stopped her, warning her before she could do anything foolish, like lie.

“I know you do.”

The intensity of his stare, the way in which he’d dug past her icy defenses, seemed to see the real her, and guessed her dirty secret… He was a walking wet dream.

He was her worst nightmare.

He swayed with the music in the opposite direction, bringing her body with him. With a gentle caress of her cheek, he directed her gaze back to his—all while making it look like a part of the dance.

“You know you do,” he murmured. “You love knowing that most every man in the room right now would kill to have your body against his and have a front-row seat of that smoldering sensuality you keep wrapped in ice suddenly melting in a pool at his feet.”

His words made her shake. Oh, no. No! “Stop.”

He performed an open step, then brought her back for a box. “Their eyes cling to you as you lure them in with the sway of your hips to the music and your femininity. Their gazes caress your breasts as your chest lifts with every move and breath. They watch the sleek movements of those gorgeous thighs and wish they were between them.”

A glance around proved he was totally right. Easily a dozen men were openly watching her and Alejandro dance, their gazes ranging from more than mildly interested to sizzling with heat. Desire vibrated deep inside her, pulsing under her clit. How wet could she get before it stained the front of her thin costume?

And how had Alejandro known what turned her on?

Most people had only seen the driven dancer who yearned to win and find some way to make her family proud. No one else had seen the woman inside who used dance to express the sexuality she otherwise repressed. No one.

This man had seen her hidden sensuality in the blink of an eye. He’d all but mocked her icy reserve. He looked at her as if he could see past it, all the way to the fear and emptiness that fed her ambition.

Thankfully, the music ended.

“Thank you for an interesting evening, Mr. Diaz. Perhaps our paths will cross again.” Not if she could help it.

Still, he didn’t let go, continued to stare at her with that sultry hint of a smile as the music began again. “The evening is not over. I bought all of your dances tonight, for the whole night.”

Shanna stared at him, wide eyed and stunned. Panicked. He’d bought all of her dances? She swallowed. That was bad. Very bad. Just being in his arms and hearing his words made her feel vulnerable in a way she didn’t like and would not accept.

And she was stuck with him for the next three hours? Lord, she was in so much trouble.

“Why?”

“I enjoy watching you being watched and the way it arouses you. I love knowing that so many men in the room are fantasizing about slaking their lust with you—”

“You can’t know what other men are thinking,” she protested.

“But I can. It is exactly what I’m thinking. It is even more delicious because I alone am holding you in my arms.”

Oh, God. Oh, God. “This conversation is inappropriate.”

“Honesty disturbs you?”

“I’m not…I—I don’t get aroused knowing that men are watching me.”

“Really?”

He urged her into a cross again. No sooner than she turned to step into the next box, he pushed against her hand, sending her spinning to face the wall. Then he was behind her, hands on her swaying hips, his mouth hovering just over her sensitive neck in a darkened corner of the ballroom.

Shanna shivered as he exhaled, quivered as he gripped her hips.

Then he reached around to place his hand flat on her stomach again…but he aimed high, flattening his palm on the upper swells of her chest and smoothing his way down.

“Hard nipples,” he commented. “Little edible, want-to-suck-them-in-my-mouth nipples.”

She hissed in a breath, and opened her mouth to stop him, tell him to get lost…but he kept tantalizing her as he caressed his way south, down her ribs, over her stomach, until his fingers brushed the front of her costume right over her sex. He lingered. Shame and arousal crashed inside her. She closed her eyes. Her thong was about to overflow.

“You’re always wet when you dance in public…like now, aren’t you?”

At his touch, his words, pleasure spiked, hitting her full force, like a blast from a raging fire. She sucked in a breath. Damn it, why did he have to be right?

If he could figure that much out after just a few minutes with her, Shanna knew he’d dig deeper, quickly, into her soul, unless she put distance between them now.

“Stop,” she demanded in her best ice-queen voice.

“Answer me, querida.”

“No.”

He danced her to face him again as one song segued into the next, this one a waltz.

“Do not be embarrassed. Your arousal turns me on. It’s one of the reasons I chose not to give up when you rebuffed me at the Bartolino event. I want that arousal,” he whispered in her ear, making her shiver. “I want it in my hands, my mouth, all around my cock when I fuck you and you wonder exactly who is watching us.”

Happy Friday!

Gang, sorry I’ve been so absent. Giving RAH all the attention and TLC (not to mention keeping up with cooking and cleaning, etc.) has really eaten into my blogging time. Thanks to everyone who posted and wished him well!! I’m back with some updates and new info, so here we go…

RAH’s surgery was last Wednesday. It took longer than expected and he had some anesthesia side-effects, but the operation itself was a success. In time, he’ll heal. So that was the best news of all! It was a long day at the hospital, but we got to take him home that evening. He’s been gaining a little more mobility each day. I think by next week, he’ll be much more independent. And happier.

*New Excerpt*
The release of WATCH ME, my sexy novella with Samhain, is coming up on July 10! I put a new excerpt on my website. But here’s an extra-special one, just for you, `cause that’s the kind of helpful girl I am. Here’s the blurb:

Shanna York was set to achieve her glittering ballroom dreams and become a dance champion—until her dance partner gets tangled up in scandal and blackmail. With the clock ticking and all her ambitions at stake, the last thing she needs is the gorgeous owner of a sex club tempting her with the forbidden.

Alejandro Diaz has sizzled for Shanna since he set eyes on her months ago. Her repeated rebuffs will make her surrender that much sweeter. She’s ambitious and driven…but so is he. When she asks for his assistance to ensnare a voyeuristic blackmailer with a video fetish, he doesn’t hesitate to help her stage a bedroom trap. But neither is prepared to face scorching, endless passion, the blackmailer’s real identity—or the undeniable love that grows between them.

EXCERPT:
“I knew you would be here.”

“M—me?”

“Hmm.” He led her into another open position, then curled her against his body, hips crushed against hips. And she felt more than his pelvis. Way more.

“Certainly you can feel my…enthusiasm to meet you again.” He laughed, seemingly at himself.

Yeah. His enthusiasm was sizeable and very hard to miss.

Then he leaned her back over his arm in an exaggerated dip and followed her down. Until his face was an inch from her breasts. Shanna felt him exhale, his warm breath on her cleavage. Her nipples beaded instantly.

Slowly, he lifted her back upright, then spun her around, until her back rested against his chest. And he nestled his erection in the small of her back. The flat of his palm covered her abdomen, and he took her other hand in his. The gesture probably looked proprietary. It certainly felt that way.

Straight ahead, she saw Kristoff dancing with a thin, middle-aged woman with hair a dubious shade of red. He peered at her with a questioning brow raised.

Alejandro led her to swivel her hips against his, in time with the music. Kristoff didn’t miss a second of it. In fact, as Shanna looked around, she realized they’d gathered quite a bit of attention.

A blast of moisture flooded her thong.

“Everyone is watching,” he whispered.

“Yes.” Her voice shook.

He bent and lifted her leg, wrapping her calf around his thigh and urging her head to fall back to his shoulder. Their eyes met, their mouths inches apart.

Shanna felt stripped down, as if she were naked under Alejandro’s knowing gaze. God, if he didn’t stop that, she’d melt against him in seconds.

“Men are watching you, wanting you.”

He grabbed her thigh, spun her around to face him, then placed that thigh over his hip. They rested nearly hip to hip again. As he leaned back slightly, he forced her chest against his. Still, she could not break his stare.

“You like it,” he whispered.

She opened her mouth to deny it, but Alejandro’s gaze stopped her, warning her before she could do anything foolish, like lie.

“I know you do.”

The intensity of his stare, the way in which he’d dug past her icy defenses, seemed to see the real her, and guessed her dirty secret… He was a walking wet dream.

He was her worst nightmare.

He swayed with the music in the opposite direction, bringing her body with him. With a gentle caress of her cheek, he directed her gaze back to his—all while making it look like a part of the dance.

“You know you do,” he murmured. “You love knowing that most every man in the room right now would kill to have your body against his and have a front-row seat of that smoldering sensuality you keep wrapped in ice suddenly melting in a pool at his feet.”

His words made her shake. Oh, no. No! “Stop.”

He performed an open step, then brought her back for a box. “Their eyes cling to you as you lure them in with the sway of your hips to the music and your femininity. Their gazes caress your breasts as your chest lifts with every move and breath. They watch the sleek movements of those gorgeous thighs and wish they were between them.”

A glance around proved he was totally right. Easily a dozen men were openly watching her and Alejandro dance, their gazes ranging from more than mildly interested to sizzling with heat. Desire vibrated deep inside her, pulsing under her clit. How wet could she get before it stained the front of her thin costume?

And how had Alejandro known what turned her on?

Keep watching my blog. I’ll post more excerpts in the next few weeks! And the trailer is nearly complete. I’ll be by Friday, I have a sizzling 60 seconds to share with you. So come back for that!

What else?? DECADENT is now available for pre-order on Barnes & Noble. I’m really excited about this book. If you’ve read WICKED TIES and wanted to know all about Deke, here’s your chance. You’ll get to see LOTS of him in this one! The advance reviews so far are dazzling, so mark October 2 on your calendar!

The trailer for this book is also in process. The developer will probably be finished with it in the next week or two. I’ll definitely share when it’s ready. The initial test runs are hot!! Just a little tweaking and we’ll be there.

Inbetween summons from the patient, I’m doing a little work on my upcoming paranormal that’s still without a title. I’ve had a few people whose opinion I trust peek at it and they’ve all given me really positive feedback. Whopee! If you want a little more information, visit the Doomsday Brethren site. I’ll be adding more content as I’m able.

Sorry for anyone who comes here to get a chuckle or just see what I’m up to. I’ve been woefully absent. But this time, I have a pretty big reason:

Thursday nigth RAH (Romance Author Husband) fell by the pool. Just one bad step, and he tripped. I was upstairs, slaving away on my current work in progress, when whamo, he goes down. I can’t lift RAH, and he can’t get up since he tells me he broke his ankle. That’s bad. Very bad. So we call 911.

2 fire engines, an ambulance, 6 firefighters and 2 EMTs later, RAH is on his way to the hospital. I’m following in the car. Thankfully, neighbors emerged to take Munchkin for the evening, so no worries there.

Naturally, this event is 5 minutes before dinner, so no one has eaten. RAH is in pain and starving. Not a good combination for a man.

At the hospital, we’re seen pretty quickly, despite the ER being a full house that night. It didn’t take long for them to X-ray RAH and come back with the news: Not only was the ankle broken, it was broken on both sides and in the back. He’d also dislocated his foot.

They admitted him about 11 that night and monitored him for pain and other possible complications during the night. He was released the following evening about 6, with the understanding that we’d be coming back sometime between Monday and Wednesday to have surgery to realign everything and insert plates/screws to hold it altogether. For now, this is what he looks like:

Since our return home from the hospital on Friday night, it’s been a constant stream of cooking and nursing. RAH can’t do much more than watch TV and surf the Internet on his laptop. He’s on heavy-duty drugs, so he’s sleeping more than usual. He won’t be driving for 6 weeks. Poor guy.

In the meantime, if I’m not around much, you know it’s because I’m trying to make my sweetie all better!