Friday 22 July 2011

Romantic Friday Writers - Coming Home

This week on Romantic Friday Writers, the theme is Coming Home. My contribution is a new story that came to me last night.
Tonye Hume, the prodigal son, returns to his childhood home in Port Harcourt, Nigeria for the first time in fifteen years. In his case, he is back successful and wealthy. And his father is dead. Yet his return awakens so much from his past that he’s kept buried – secrets, betrayal and pain.

The scene I’ve chosen is when he sees his former youthful crush Kambili for the first time after so long. She is one of the reasons he left his home in the first place.

Thursday 21 July 2011

Hanging out with Lara Daniels

We're taking a break from Thrusty Thursday this week as I'm hanging out with Lara Daniel's at her blog. We're talking about what I've been up to recently and why I write. Show some love by popping over there and saying hello.

Check back tomorrow to see my submission for Romantic Friday Writers. Thrusty Thursday will be back next week.

Friday 15 July 2011

Romantic Friday Writers - Surrender

This week you’re getting a double whammy as I’m participating in Romantic Friday Writers. This week’s theme is Surrender and my submission is the first kiss from Her Weekend Bodyguard my current contemporary romance work in progress.

For previous excerpts, go here.


 Here it is:
***
 “Kiss me. You know, lip to lip.”

“I don’t do kissing or cuddling for that matter,” Kola’s gruff response back.

“No? Even for me? Just this once? You did promise to give me whatever I asked for. Was that a lie?”

Kola shook his head, a frown marring his features. “You don’t know what you’re asking, Tari.”

“I know exactly what I’m asking for. You make it sound like it’s something greater. It’s only a kiss, Kola.”

“And if I kiss you, you’ll stop this silly game you’re playing?” Kola’s eyes turned a deep dark chocolate hue with need that matched her own.

Tari nodded. She’d do anything to get him to kiss her, even if it meant playing dirty. “You’re such a spoilsport. Just kiss me, will you.” Flashing her best sexy smile, she bunched her fists in his t-shirt to pull him closer.

Kola lowered his head and she knew he was going to oblige her. Standing on tiptoes, she leaned into him meeting him halfway. He growled before their lips met. At the same time he pushed her backwards until her back hit the wall behind squashing her in a sandwich between the firmness of his body and the plaster of the kitchen wall.

When their lips connected, it was a possession, an incursion. Kola’s heat invaded her. Sensation flooded her body. Placing both hands against the wall, he pressed into her. The rigid wall of his chest pushing against her hardening nipples, his burgeoning arousal pressed against her belly, his day growth rubbing against her cheeks. She had never been so turned on. Combusting on the spot, she felt heat throbbing incessantly between her legs. All she could think about was getting to the bedroom, the large bed in it and having this hunk of a man quenching the ache between her thighs.

Then he broke off the kiss and stepped back. It was like stepping under a freezing cold shower after being under the baking heat of the sun. She had been that engrossed, that overwhelmed, that lost in the kiss.

“Lunch will be ready in five minutes,” his voice was husky as he turned away from her and went back to sorting out lunch as if nothing had happened. She leaned against the wall, mouth swollen, her core throbbing, her body trembling like a leaf.

She wanted Kola now more than ever.

***

So as first kisses go, do you think it hit the spot? Share your thoughts.
Don't forget to check out who else is participating this week by clicking on the Romantic Friday Writers link above when you've commented.


Thursday 14 July 2011

HWB Excerpt 3

Today at thrustyTM Thursday I’m celebrating completing the first draft of my 2nd historical romance short story. I really enjoyed writing that story. Of course the work isn’t done yet as I still have to polish it up for submission. But in the meantime, join me in celebration with another excerpt from Her Weekend Bodyguard, back by popular demand.

For previous excerpts go to Excerpt 1 and Excerpt 2.

Enjoy!

***



“Would you like some more wine?” Kola asked as he lifted the wine bottle from the ice bucket. Tari nodded and he refilled her glass before refilling his. They were having lunch at the kitchen table.

In his head he’d been cursing the fact that he’d kissed Tari. As he told her earlier, he didn’t do kissing. Hadn’t kissed a woman in years. It didn’t mean he didn’t have sex with women or touch their bodies with his lips. It just meant there was never any mouth to mouth contact. Kissing usually meant a lot more to women and he never needed that kind of complication. All he was ever interested in was giving and receiving pleasure. He could do that quite easily without any mouth to mouth.

So he had known it was a bad idea kissing her. However, a part of him had wanted to shut her up so she would get off his case for good. And when she’d looked at him with those doleful eyes, his already thin resistance had vanished.

The kiss had burned him so deeply it was all he could do not to unzip his jeans, rip her shorts and knickers off and take her against that wall. He’d known she was dripping wet. He could smell her sweet intoxicating arousal all around him. Even as he sat down here in front of her pretending to eat, his arousal was pushing against his jeans as he recalled her lush moist lips and the warm depths of her mouth. He’d had to pull away from her when a part of his brain that was still functioning remembered that this was Tari. That she would regret this whole thing later. The last thing he wanted to do was to add to her hurt. But she was driving him crazy. He was going to have to find a way to keep her at a distance. His control was wearing thin.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” she asked him putting her fork down on her plate.

“Drop it, Tari,” Kola flashed her with his don’t-go-there glare but she ignored it anyway and carried on.

“Is that a no? I only ask because I want to know what you’re afraid of.”

Kola felt her hand on his thigh under the table. He had to clench his teeth to stop himself from groaning at the heat he felt straight at his groin.

“I’m not afraid of anybody.” He knew his voice sounded husky but couldn’t control it.

“You could have fooled me there. I mean, if you have a girlfriend, you can tell me and I’ll back off.”

She started drawing slow circles on his thigh with her finger and his jeans suddenly felt very tight.

“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he said in resignation and placed his hand on top of hers, lifting it off his leg.

“If it’s not a girlfriend then who. Because I know you’re not afraid of my parents or my cousins. I also know you want me. So what’s stopping you?”

“If this is about the kiss, forget it. It was wrong. It shouldn’t have happened. You are like a kid sister to me.” He had to keep reminding himself she was a member of the Essien family, a family that treated him like one of them. He shouldn’t be lusting after her.

Tari placed her hand on top of his on the table and heat shot through his body again.

“I’m not your kid sister. Neither am I your blood relative. What I am is a woman with needs and I want you, Kola.”

“It’s not going to happen, Tari.” Kola pushed back his chair, stood up and walked out of the kitchen. He didn’t have to sit there and listen to her slowly drive him insane.

Thursday 7 July 2011

Her Weekend Bodyguard (WIP) - Excerpt 2

It’s thrusty Thursday again. This week let me introduce you to the heroine of Her Weekend Bodyguard, a contemporary romance I’m currently working on. To see the previous excerpt go here.

Tari is the heiress to the Akan Oil and Gas fortunes. Beneath the femme fatale exterior, is a compassionate woman who loves easily and would do anything to protect those she loves. When pictures of her fiancé in a compromising position with a call girl are published in the gossip press just a few weeks before their wedding, she needs a place to escape the pressure from family, friends and the press for a few days. She calls up Kola, her uncle’s chief of security, whom she’s known most of her life.   

Here is my visual inspiration for Tari.

Now for the excerpt...

“Something smells good,” Tari said when she walked into the kitchen to find Kola busy preparing lunch. He was now dressed in a white t-shirt and blue denim, a manly apron wrapped around his waist. He looked gorgeously edible and a brief image of him in nothing but the apron flashed through her head.

“I hope you’re hungry. There’s plenty of food here,” he replied flashing a boyish smile that had her heart tripping over itself. It was official. This man affected her tremendously.

“I sure am. All that swimming gave me an appetite. But I have to wonder if you have what I really want to eat though.” She turned on a smile she hoped was sexy as she walked to the fridge and took out a bottle of water. Opening it she drank straight from the bottle, letting some of the water trickle down her chin as she gulped it down.

She watched Kola as he stared at her throat watching its movement while she swallowed, his brown eyes darkening to almost black, his pupils dilating and his nostrils flared. Satisfaction and anticipation washed over her as she watched Kola struggle to control his response to her words and action. She so loved pushing his buttons.

After their earlier poolside encounter she had purposefully kept away from him knowing he’d locked himself away in his study. Following her swim she had taken her book and gone into the living room to read.  The space had been very stark and masculine. Black furniture contrasting harshly against the white walls; the huge flat-screen television dominating one wall. Apart from the floor-to-ceiling mirror on one wall, there had been no pictures on the walls and the space seemed a bit impersonal as there was nothing that seemed to identify the person who lived in it. The other thing that struck her was that for a bachelor pad the house was immaculate. But then again she should have known that would be the case. Cautious and safe Kola was also organised and neat Kola.

Did the man ever let lose, she had wondered.

“Not sure what you’re hungry for but I’m making Shrimp Linguine,” he said and turned away stirring the contents of the pan.

Before Tari could spell her needs out to him, her phone started buzzing in the back pocket of her shorts. She pulled it out and without thinking answered it.

“Hello.”

“Finally, Tari.” The exasperated voice of her fiancé came through loud and clear from the other end of the line.

“Oh, it’s you. Peter, what do you want?” She replied abruptly and rolled her eyes upwards as Kola watched her closely from across the kitchen.

“Don’t be like that. I’ve been trying to call you since last night. I went to your apartment but you weren’t there. Your parents said they don’t know where you are. Where are you?” Peter asked accusingly.

“You’ve spoken to my parents? You have a nerve after what you’ve done.”

“I had to go see them when you wouldn’t answer my calls and you weren’t in your apartment. They understand that it’s all been a misunderstanding,” Peter explained with seeming confidence.

“What?” Suddenly feeling sick, she sat down on the kitchen chair. Surely her parents could see through Peter’s act. See that he was not the choir boy they’d thought he was.

“Your parents were very reasonable. I’m hoping I can see you face to face so I can explain. Where are you?”

“Not that it’s any of your business but I’m with a friend,” Tari snapped back. She was getting tired of the conversation and fast too.

“Which of your friends? I’ve called Tamara and Haleema and they both claim they don’t know where you are. Come on, Tari. We have a wedding in a few weeks-.”

“Well, you should have thought about that before you decided to dip you dick into that Abuja whore.”

“Look here. Don’t talk to me like that. Where are you, Tari? You can’t just ignore me. Don’t you dare mess up this wedding?”

“Or you’ll do what? You can’t threaten me Peter. I’ll see you when I’m good and ready. Goodbye.”

Fuming Tari switched off the phone, her hands shaking. She dropped the phone and it clattered onto the table.

Grrr... That man! She’ll soon show him!

Sensing Kola close presence, she lifted her head. She could intuit his barely concealed rage oozing off him even before he spoke. His fists were clenched at his sides and his pulse was pounding at the base of his neck.

“Did I hear you right? Did that bastard threaten you?” Kola gritted out. She didn’t respond immediately and simply stared out the kitchen window. “Tell me. Did he?”

Tari looked at Kola. Her protector. Always quick to jump up to fight her battles. Except this time she didn’t need him doing that for her. She was an adult and could fight her own battles. Moreover she wasn’t afraid of Peter. She could take care of her fiancé. However she needed Kola in other ways, if only he would oblige her.

Standing up Tari moved closer to Kola and placed her palms against his chest. She could feel the pounding of his heart beat against her hand and heard his breathe hitch at the contact. His skin was warm to the touch even under his t-shirt.

“I can take care of Peter. He doesn’t scare me but I do know of a way you can help me,” she purred.

“Name it.” His response was quick and emphatic. Just what she was hoping for.

“Kiss me.”
***
So having now met both Kola and Tari, do you think they are good match? Share your thoughts on the excerpt and visual inspiration.
Have a thrusty Thursday!
The Romance Reviews