Surpassing Pleasures in 1...2...3

On Friday the sequel to Winter Hearts will be released! Surpassing Pleasures is Zipporah and Seb's story. Thought I would just give you a little taste to whet your appetite!

Blurb:

Special Agent Sebastian Spade, has worked hard since he met Zipporah Jericho to convince her that he’s her man. But every encounter ends with Zip dancing out of reach to protect a family secret. When they are brought together by a murder, Seb determines this time he will never let her go.

In the bedroom, on the road, in a secret cabin in the woods, he masters her body by daring to satisfy her deepest desires. Together as they explore the forbidden pleasures that await them with every touch they discover trust is another word for love.

Excerpt:

Zip knew it was going to be a bad week when she found a body in the ladies restroom. Fortunately, it wasn’t her first discovery of a body so she didn’t scream or do any of the other stereotypical sissy stuff but it did piss her off. No woman should have to deal with a dead person when it was that time of the month—unless it was somebody the woman had finished off herself.

The woman’s short blonde hair was mussed, sticking out in all directions. The knife protruding from her back was a pretty clear indicator that death wasn’t accidental. And the pool of blood surrounding her left little hope that she survived, so Zip elected to go for help.

She backed out into the hall, bumping into Sebastian Spade, her brother’s coworker.

“Zip?”

“Body in the restroom,” she blurted out. “Dead body.”

He tugged her out of the way, pressing her against the wall next to the door. “Don’t move.” He slipped his gun from his holster, opened the restroom door with his shoulder and peeked inside. Damn. It certainly looked like a body to him. Approaching the woman, he leaned down and checked for signs of life though experience told him the woman was gone. He blew out a quick breath, pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched his partner’s number on speed dial.

“Yeah?”

“Me. Your sister just found a body in the restroom.” Before Quill could ask any questions, Seb turned off the phone and went back in the hallway to join Zipporah. “Quill’s on his way. Do you need to sit down?”

She crossed her arms tightly over her chest to hide her trembling hands. “No. I’m okay until he gets here.” Her quick visit with her brother, Quill at the local FBI office had turned out to be a bad idea. She thought about asking for her purse, still on the restroom floor where she’d dropped it but decided that was a bad idea. Maybe Quill or Seb would be able to return it to her later.

Seb crouched next to her while they waited. “How about telling me what happened?”

She rubbed her arms with trembling hands. “I stopped in the restroom to brush my hair. It’s windy outside. A-and there she was on the floor.”

“Did you recognize her?”

Zip shook her head. “I didn’t see her face.”

He just nodded and straightened up as Quill rushed down the hall toward them.

After that, things went downhill fast. Zip spent the next few hours in the company of another of Quill’s team members while the crime scene was processed. Finally, her brother produced her bag and sprung her from the cold sterile office so he could take her to lunch.

Ensconced in a back booth in a small restaurant not far from the office, Quill silently regarded his younger sister. Once their waitress brought them coffee, he asked, “What happened? I know you told everyone else your story but now I want you to tell me what you didn’t tell them.”

“She was one of us.”

Disturbed by her news, he dropped his head. “You’re sure?”

“Aren’t you?”

“Since you were the one who found her, I wasn’t permitted to enter the crime scene.” His wry answer almost disguised the chagrin he suffered at the slight. Almost. It had been a long two weeks for Quill and his exclusion from a crime scene was just one more item in a growing list of slights that threatened his job since the fiasco at Marshallwoods Tech.

“I see. What are you not telling me?” she asked.

“As of now, I’m on paid vacation until further notice. Someone up the line decided I would be less of an embarrassment if I wasn’t around for a while. Apparently it wasn’t very professional to allow myself to be drugged and bound to the very young woman I was investigating. Especially since we were half-naked.”

And then things happened...

In other news, I'm happy to announce that Deborah won a free copy of Surpassing Pleasures. Deborah, please e-mail me at annycook67@yahoo.com so we can make arrangements!

anny