In a family of remarkable people, ordinary Beatrice strives to prove herself worthy. When her family is threatened with losing everything, she rushes to London to save them. Unfortunately, she chooses as her savior the very man who will see her family brought low.
Garrett has sworn vengeance on Sir Arthur of Anglesea for destroying his life when he was a boy and forcing his mother into prostitution for them to survive. He has chosen as his instrument Sir Arthur's youngest daughter, Beatrice.
Can Beatrice's goodness teach Garrett that love, not vengeance, is the greatest reward of all?
Time to be wooed. Wooed with honeyed words and sweeter touches. Delightful tingles spread to Beatrice’s fingertips, rushed back again, and pooled in her stomach.
Spring filled the air with scents of new grass and wildflowers. The sun beamed from a cloudless arc of blue above her. Birdsong serenaded her, as cornflowers merrily bobbed beside the path. Even the insects buzzed encouragement. Only one thing was missing.
Garrett.
She dare not tarry much longer. Someone from the keep would soon come looking for her. Beatrice shifted her basket to the other arm and investigated a patch of what might be vervain. From the keep, anyone would see her picking wildflowers. Just as she intended.
A footpath disappeared between the dense green beech thickets. It crossed a small stream before meandering through the trees and down to the village below. Was he still down in the village? She tried to picture what he’d be doing. Working at the forge, perhaps?
She gave up on the plant and straightened. She wouldn’t know vervain from, well, anything. Opposite the village, a path shot straight as an arrow through the meadow toward the castle. For certain, Garrett wouldn’t come from that direction. Perhaps he wasn’t coming at all. He’d made her no promises. There was no understanding between them. But, she dearly hoped all the same.
Hoping, however, didn’t make him appear.
The sun blazed down harsh on her face and she’d freckle.
“Wish, wish, planted a feather and wished a bird would grow.” Nurse’s voice
sang in her head. It was nonsense, pure and simple. Nonsense, like lingering alone on a path, pretending to pick wildflowers, whilst waiting for a man she barely knew to appear. A man with dark and mysterious eyes that whispered of secret places and forbidden pleasures. She was a goose. When she pictured the scene in her mind, it went thus. A beautiful maiden, garbed in her finest blue samite, engrossed in the gentle occupation of picking flowers by the roadside. The sun gleamed off her flaxen hair and brought roses to her alabaster cheek. Her slender form, bent like a reed to her feminine labors...
Roses be damned, she was sweating beneath her silk. It would leave stains on the fabric. She’d never hear the end of it from Nurse.
A soft whistle jolted her.
Her heart leapt.
There he stood, by the thicket.
Smiling to warm her from the inside, one shoulder propped against a tree, arms folded across his broad chest.
Born British and raised in South Africa, Sarah Hegger suffers from an incurable case of wanderlust. Her match? A hot Canadian engineer, whose marriage proposal she accepted six short weeks after they first met. Together they’ve made homes in seven different cities across three different continents (and back again once or twice). If only it made her multilingual, but the best she can manage is idiosyncratic English, fluent Afrikaans, conversant Russian, pigeon Portuguese, even worse Zulu and enough French to get herself into trouble.
Mimicking her globe trotting adventures, Sarah’s career path began as a gainfully employed actress, drifted into public relations, settled a moment in advertising, and eventually took root in the fertile soil of her first love, writing. She also moonlights as a wife and mother.
She currently lives in Salt Lake City with her teenage daughters, two Golden Retrievers and aforementioned husband. Part footloose buccaneer, part quixotic observer of life, Sarah’s restless heart is most content when reading or writing books.
Sarah is the recipient of the 2015 EPIC Award for Historical Romance.
Six years ago, Loreley Cooper thought she had it all. Head over heels in love with her boyfriend Jason and ready to take on the future after college, she landed the internship of her dreams. But things came crashing down during a fight, when she believed she found out he’d done something she knew she could never forgive. Completely heartbroken she walked away and hasn’t talked to him since.
Now, six years later, Loreley is recovering from a painful tragedy that almost killed her. Finally finding her way back to herself, now famous rock star Jason Sanders storms back into her life and seems determined to win her back. Why he would seek her out after all this time, Loreley has no idea. She has sworn to never talk to him again after what he did.
Jason Sanders is determined to not let the love of his life walk away from him again and is willing to do anything and everything to make her give them another chance.
Misunderstandings are uncovered and secrets are revealed that lead to pain and heartbreak yet again. Will they have what it takes to forgive each other and themselves and fight for their happily-ever-after or is it too late?
I have been writing stories in my head since I can remember. Much to my teachers’ dismay, given the task of writing a short essay I would always come back with way too long and detailed stories. Many discussions (I have always been somewhat of a smart-aleck) and bad grades were the result, so that for most of my life I thought I couldn’t write worth a damn and pursued other careers. But the dream of being an author wouldn’t be ignored and kept lingering. With a little help from my fantastic husband, who gave me the necessary kick in the behind, I was finally brave enough to start writing my first novel and finished it only a few short weeks later—well, the first draft, that is. The seal was broken.
My novels jump genres and touch on all kinds of different topics, but the things I try to focus on no matter what are romance, strong women, and a good sense of humor.
Now, when I’m not in my writing cave, spinning the tales that have been hounding me or editing (yes, I am also a professional editor, guess that degree in Literature and Linguistics turned out to be useful after all!), I enjoy reading, drinking coffee, eating good food, and listening to rock music.
My name is Willow Erwin, and I hate summer. My mother always said hate is a strong word, but in this case, it’s the right one. I haven’t found one good thing about the season. Most people tell me since I’m a teacher that reason alone should make it my favorite season, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. For me, summer brings everything I abhor: bugs, heat, sweating, and painful memories of a woman I will never see again.
Then, in the wink of one very beautiful blue eye, all of that
changed. This is the story of Summer and how she taught me to love her. It’s about her quiet, and sometimes fearful, way of teaching me to embrace the moment, and to live recklessly. It’s about how both of us learned to forgive, to hope, to pray, and to love, even after summer ends.
Katie Mettner writes inspirational romance from a little house in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. She's the author of three series: The Sugar Series, The Northern Lights Series, and the Snowberry Holiday Series, all set in Minnesota. Her series are a mix of new adult and romantic suspense. After Summer Ends is Katie’s first lesbian romance, but many readers may recognize Willow Erwin from The Northern Lights Series.
Katie lives with her soul mate, whom she met online at Thanksgiving and married in April. Together they share their lives with their three children and two leopard geckos. After suffering an especially bad spill on the bunny hill in 1989, Katie became an amputee in 2011, giving her the much-needed time to pen her first novel, Sugar's Dance. With the release of Sugar's story, Katie discovered the unfilled need for disabled heroes and heroines. Her stories are about empowering people with special circumstances to find the one person who will love them because of their abilities, not their inabilities. Katie has a slight addiction to Twitter and blogging, with a lessening aversion to Pinterest now that she quit trying to make the things she pinned.
Good lovin’ is easy…But true happiness is harder to find…
To anyone on the outside looking in through the door of Cyndarella Worthy’s life, it looks like she’s got it all. At thirty-two, she’s beautiful and successful, with a handsome brother lover, Thad Mitchell. But deep in her heart, she holds a candle for Bashar Bazzi, the Chaldean immigrant she loved ten years ago. Bashar left for Iraq and she never saw him again, and she assumes he made a marriage within his own community without a backward glance.
Cyn’s girlfriends, Tavie, Denise and Vette, know that their sister still carries the scars of Bashar, but they pray she’ll find love and peace with Thad. Anyway, they’ve got issues too: Tavie’s dating smart school principal, Mack Dooley, but she can’t escape the rumors that he’s playing around; Denise’s marriage to Sean is under pressure because she hasn’t conceived a second child; Vette’s dating an older guy, Louis Burns, but wonders if she’ll ever get a ring on her finger.
When Thad proposes to Cyn and she accepts, it looks like this sister’s finally on her way to true happiness. But no sooner are the celebrations done, when there’s trouble—Bashar Bazzi is home, and he’s ready to settle his unfinished business with Cyn…
The passionate, powerful heart-breaking prequel to Betrayal’s Dust by Vina St Fran.
Chapter One
There are men who speak about their penis as if it is an extended member of their family. They damn near burst out of their pants to make the introduction. The thing they fail to realize is that, for most women, inches can’t compensate for character or a man’s worth.
Cyndarella Worthy’s mama always told her how to behave like a lady throughout much of her life. Except when it came to the subject of men. Perhaps had they had such conversations, it would have spared Cyn the consequential heartache she racked up in dating deadbeats.
Hell, Cyn pouted, most women don’t realize they’re dating a fucking’ loser until each layer is peeled back piece by piece like an onion. So much so, it ends up making everything around you tear.
First of all, you got to check off the outer layer. Of course he's dangerously fine, like Terrance Howard. All the way down to that little smirk of a smile on his face that initially drives you wild. This is a man that any mother would pray her daughter would bring home. A well groomed professional man with the material trimmings that would make most women's hearts swoon, and let’s not neglect to mention that big fat bank account.
Accompanying this package are the big boy-toys, you know, the E-Class Mercedes Benz, and perhaps a Hummer or some other luxury SUV parked next to the Benz in his three-car garage. And, imagine, there is an empty spot waiting he’s been saving just for you! He’s a go-getter on the fast track career-wise. Heck, there ain’t anything sexier than a man on a mission!
Three months have passed and by now you’ve discovered the middle layer. Your potential Mr. Right is charming, blends into most social settings and loves to shower you with affection. And yes, you've hit the sheets with him to find he is equipped with a substantial-sized tool to drill you deep in the wee hours of the night.
Women lie when they say size don’t matter, Cyn reasoned.
In her clinical experience, Cyn found fucking men with little dicks required much more work in order for her to achieve an orgasm. God forbid if they suffered from premature ejaculation! For her it wasn’t an option she desired to explore.
Getting to the inner layer some six months later, you find that things aren't quite working out. Mr. Right has fast become Mr. Wrong. He starts calling you less and making excuses why he's unavailable. And when you are together, his cell phone rings all through the night, and he can't seem to keep his lies straight as to who’s on the other end of the phone. It is then you realize the object of your affection has started to show his ass and, of course, it's all because he thinks things are moving way too fast. He needs time to sort things out. Bottom line is, Mr. Lover Man isn't ready to commit and has moved on to his next conquest.
Examining herself, at thirty-two, Cyn was striking in appearance. Yet, she was further from the altar than she’d ever been. Not only that, Cyn had what she called the five Bs: bank, beauty, boobs, booty and brains. And the fact she hadn’t become a member of the single mothers’ club made her stick her chest out even more. But wouldn’t you know, some people viewed her as selfish because of this? That was their problem, not hers.
Thad Mitchell, Cyn’s latest flame, was a bit different from the usual targets she dated. He was divorced with a four-year-old daughter. Normally, Cyn didn’t do men with baby mommas because she hated the drama that went along with it. Too many of her girlfriends had suffered just because they made the mistake of falling in love with a man who had dependents. Despite their good intentions, some men never truly, completely made a clean break.
It just so happened Cyn lucked out, because Thad’s ex got remarried overseas to a fellow naval officer, so Thad rarely got weekend visits. It was more of a long- distance phone relationship. Heather, his ex, was great about sending family videos and photos. Thad visited twice a year, which Cyn encouraged because she sure as hell didn’t want anything getting in the middle of quality time with her man, namely him drowning his sorrows because he missed his little girl.
At eight months old, the relationship was still quite fresh and Thad agreed to something most men couldn’t seem to follow through on: courtship. That was the one stipulation Cyn had before she’d accept a single date with a man. And if he wasn’t consistent, forget about it! Three months into their courtship, Thad hadn’t failed her. With a demanding high profile career, Cyn rarely had time for anything more than an occasional fling every now and then. Not that she minded variety at all, but she had to admit, her favorite slogan, ‘A few good men’, was starting to get stale.
Thad was eye candy at its finest. At 6’ 5”, weighing in around 280 pounds, his body was definitely lean and mean. He had fair skin and a strong jaw line, accompanied by keen facial features that appeared like they had been chiseled into place. The thought alone of staring up into Thad’s piercing hazel eyes made her ache to be with him. And being with him felt right. She was satisfied with the way they were progressing. She kept her fingers crossed that they would stay that way.
Hi. I'm Vina St. Fran, a Michigan native and I write contemporary romance stories for a mature audience. I am also Political Contributor for Examiner.com, which is an online news publication.
Let me expound upon what drives me to write as an author. I like creating stories about powerful, kick-ass women who make it happen in the boardroom and the bedroom without apologies. You will find my novels may contain characters of different ethnic backgrounds who add spice to the plot, and makes for interesting reading.
My female heroines are confident and charismatic, yet they are vulnerable when it comes to matters of the heart. The realism is heartfelt, for to love is to risk. They find certain situations push them to the brink of despair, yet in the middle of it all they manage to enjoy amazing, fulfilling sex lives with their significant others, which is thrilling and downright erotic. The end result is that the characters mature, and develop into stronger women.
