Editor’s
Pick - Heat Level: 3
In the
merry village of Amāre, love isn’t just the town’s namesake—it’s a way of life.
When Scarlett Hood discovers that her grandmother’s retirement fund has been
targeted by the wolf of Wall Street, Bernie Wolfe, the photo journalist
realizes she will need more than her telephoto lens to take him down. She’ll
need help.
Help
arrives in the unlikely Jack Hunter, the local bean farmer, who struck it rich
only to lose his golden crop to Wolfe. Now working for the Security &
Exchange Commission (SEC), Jack is on the hunt to bring down Wolfe and Giant
Investment Services. Nothing—not even his unbridled attraction to Scarlett—will
keep him from tackling the man who stole his grandmother’s land and put him out
of business. Can Scarlett Hood and Jack Hunter team up together to bring down
one of Amāre’s worst villains and find their own happily ever after?
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Evernight
Publishing will also debut her upcoming Cupid romance, “The Hart Moment” that
focuses on two college professors who realize there’s nothing academic about
their sexual attraction to each other.
This
November, readers will be in for a treat when “My Midnight Cowboy” will be
tucked in stockings for Red Moon Romance’s “The Naughty List” anthology.Pumpkin’s favorite time of year is fall when the leaves are turning, the weather is crisper and the nights are a whole lot longer.
LINKS:
Write to her at: pumpkinspicecom@yahoo.com
Follow her on Twitter: @PumpkinSpiceU2
Excerpt:
I clapped my hands together and practically scared Scarlett into a
sitting position. “Okay, so I guess it’s time we get you cleaned up.”
She shook her head, and a mess of crimson spirals moved haphazardly
across her fair face. “Oh, ouch.” She reached up and touched the back of her
head.
I was instantly at her side. “Lie
back down.” She gently slid on the
couch. “Crap. Maybe you have a concussion.” I looked behind me at the front
door, but I knew Granny had already left. I carefully sat beside Scarlett and
moved a wayward lock away from her face. I leaned over and started feeling
behind the back of her head. I felt her eyes on me as I groped her head like I
was checking a watermelon for freshness. I really wasn’t sure what I was doing
because suddenly touching Scarlett sent my senses into overload. Her hair was
soft and silky between my fingers. I slowed down my rhythm and gently massaged
her scalp. A low murmur escaped her lips. I quickly glanced at her, and her
eyes were closed. I wanted to lean over and kiss her perfectly plump lips, but
I returned my focus to her head where my hands wove through her wild hair that
was a wonderland of richness. Even though she was soaked in wine, her head
smelled like lavender. Now when I looked again at her, she looked up at me and
smiled.
“I don’t feel any bumps?” I asked as more of a question than a
statement.
Scarlett’s deep, husky laugh rose to my ears like an aphrodisiac
that sent a signal to my brain and straight to my jeans as if she had suddenly
cupped my cock. Her laughter was that enticing. It spiked a primal desire to
have her beneath me with her mouth wrapped around my cock, which was beginning
to grow as fast as my field of bean stocks.
I
quickly shook my head and jerked away from her as if from a hot flame. “Yup,” I
said brushing my hands together and trying to shake free from the heat that
radiated between us. “I think you’re A-okay. Okay-dokay.”
She
looked up at me, and her faint green eyes questioned me. “What happened?”
I
shrugged. “Nothing. Just taking Granny’s orders to get you cleaned up. So let’s
get moving and get you ready.” I hiked my thumb toward where I imagined the
bathroom was located. “I’ll start the shower, run a bath, or grab a bucket of
water from the well.” I scratched my head. “I’m not sure if there’s running
water out here. But no matter.” I snapped. “I’ll do whatever it takes.” I
pointed to Scarlett. “To get you freshened up.” Who am I? I sounded like some jingle writer for a feminine hygiene
commercial.
Scarlett
shook her head. “But Granny won’t be back for at least an hour.”
I
nodded. “Yes, but she left me in charge to get you cleaned up.”
Scarlett
slightly raised her hips off the couch, and her yellow skirt fell forward to
reveal sheer panties that were streaked red. But even stained in wine, it was
clear to see that Scarlett was a true redhead.
“I
don’t think I should move in my condition,” she said with a coy look on her
face. “Could you help me, Jack?”
I
swallowed hard and looked at the tiniest, barely-there V-shaped
panty that was held together by thin, pink, spaghetti-like straps that hugged
Scarlett’s narrow hips. I wanted to gnaw them off with my teeth to get to the
strip of hair that was tucked beneath the sexy sheer. Instead, I held Scarlett
in my gaze.
“Maybe you hit your head
too hard?” I said trying to maintain some semblance of control, trying to be
the good guy, trying to remember that we just met. Trying to get a handle on a
situation that was suddenly moving too fast, too soon, and yet felt so right,
which made no sense at all.
Scarlett rolled her head
from side-to-side. Locks of her hair swayed in a truly mesmerizing, hypnotic
fashion. “Jack, Jack, Jack. You over-think things way too much. If this Wolfe
guy really is so bad and I really was in harm’s way then you just came and
rescued me.” She looked up at me, and in that look I could have shot my load.
“Shouldn’t we be living
in the moment?” Her voice dripped with sex appeal, and my mind and body stopped
working together. “Shouldn’t we forget what’s behind us and start moving
forward? I’m not usually this way, but tonight hasn’t gone anywhere like I had planned. I met some Wolfe in the woods. I knew
he was bad news, I knew that, but I didn’t listen to my gut.”
For a moment anger
flashed across her face. “I should have listened to my first instinct. But I
didn’t.” She shook her head. “I did what was expected of me. I shared my dessert. I played nice.”
Her hands were in her
lap, and she opened them like she was releasing a bomb. “And then because of my
kindness, I got knocked out by you, and now you tell me that Blue may have lost
everything?” Her voice dropped like she was about to cry. “If we can’t save
what Blue lost…”
Scarlett placed both of her
hands over her chest, and in that moment I could tell that what she needed.
What she wanted wasn’t necessarily me, but some retreat, some reprieve, some
form of escapism from everything that had just happened. And if I could give
her thirty minutes, though I hoped much longer, of total release, what was the
harm?
