“Yes, I do,” she said, cupping his face, needing to look into his heated gaze. Needing him to look into hers. “Take me to the space station, Jack.”
Desire darkened his gaze, and he dipped to nip at her shoulder. “I think I’m going to like working on docking procedures,” he said, hard and ready, brushing against her, making her yearn to have him inside.
She rocked into him, learning the feel of him. Her nerve endings tingled, twitched in anticipation. “Something tells me you’ll get it right the first time.”
And he did.
Coming Soon
Maria is a co-pilot currently without a wingman.
With a past full of Mr. Wrongs and Been-there-done-him-I’d-rather-pull-my-eyelashes-out-with-pliers-before-I’d-do-him-again men, she’s holding out for a hero.
A sudden storm over a Colorado mountain cabin produces an interesting catch, and soon she’s fishing more than trout out of the lake.
Maybe her past and present were the wrong places to look for her Mr. Right…
FUTURE HERO
Book Two in the Time-shift Heroes Series
Coming Soon
***
For announcements about upcoming releases and exclusive contests:
Join Donna’s Newsletter
Visit me at: www.donnamichaelsauthor.com
***
Harland County Series
Book One: Her Fated Cowboy
L.A. cop Jordan Masters Ryan has a problem. Her normal method of meeting a crisis head-on and taking it down won’t work. Not this time. Not when fate is her adversary. Having kept her from the man she thought she’d always marry, the same fickle fate took away the man she eventually did. Thrown back into the path of her first love, she finds hers is not the only heart fate has damaged.
Widower and software CEO, Cole McCall fills his days with computer codes and his free time working the family’s cattle ranch. Blaming himself for his wife’s death, he’s become hard and bitter. When his visiting former neighbor sets out to delete the firewall around his heart, he discovers there’s no protection against the Jordan virus. Though she understands his pain and reawakens his soul, will it be enough for Cole to overcome his past and embrace their fated hearts?
***
Book Two: Her Unbridled Cowboy
**Ranked #12 in Predator & Editor’s Best Romance of 2013**
Homeless and unemployed thanks to an earthquake, divorced California chef Kerri Masters agrees to head back to her hometown to help plan her sister’s Texas wedding. It must be her weakened state that has her eyeing the neighbor she used to follow around as a child. Her tastes tend towards gentlemen in suits, cultured, and neatly groomed— not a dimple-glaring, giant of a cowboy. He’s big and virile, and makes her want things the inadequacies brought out during her divorce keep her from carrying out.
Connor McCall’s brotherly feelings for the pesky former neighbor disappear when the grown up version steps on his ranch in her fancy clothes and shiny heels. Too bad she’s a city girl, because he has no use for them. Three times he tried to marry one, and three times the engagements failed. He’s not looking for number four no matter how much his body is all for jumping back in the saddle and showing the sexy chef just how it feels to be loved by a cowboy.
Turns out the earthquake was nothing compared to the passionate, force of nature of an unbridled cowboy, and Kerri learns far more about herself, and Connor, than she ever expected. But when events put his trust in her on the line, will he choose his heart or his pride?
***
Book Three: Her Uniform Cowboy
**Voted BEST COWBOY in a Book/Reader’s Choice-LRC**
Desperate for change after a verbally abusive relationship, Brandi Wyne leaves a symphony career, her family, and the Poconos to fall back on a designing degree and a chance to renovate a restaurant/pub in Texas. Even though part of a National Guard family, she’d sworn off military men when the last one proved less than supportive of her thyroid condition and subsequent weight gain. Too bad her body seems to forget that fact whenever she’s near the very hot, very military local sheriff.
Texas Army National Guard First Sergeant Kade Dalton never planned on becoming Harland County Sheriff or the attraction to a curvy, military-hating designer from Pennsylvania. Heavy with guilt from the death of a soldier under his command during a recent deployment, and dealing with his co-owned horse ranch and a bungling young deputy, it's hard most days just to keep his sanity. But it’s the Yankee bombshell who threatens not only his sanity, but tempts his body...and his heart.
Fighting their attraction becomes a losing battle, and Kade soon finds sanctuary in the arms of the beautiful designer. Does he really have the right to saddle Brandi with his stress issues? And if so, can he take a chance on the town’s newest resident not abandoning him like others in his past?
***
Harland County Series
Visit my Harland County Series Page for release information and updates!
Book One: Her Fated Cowboy (April 2013)
Book Two: Her Unbridled Cowboy (June 2013)
Book Three: Her Uniform Cowboy (Dec. 2013)
Book Four: Her Forever Cowboy (May 2014)
Book Five: Her Healing Cowboy (tba)
♥
Coming 2014
~Harland County Spin off Series~
Citizen Soldier Novels
Guarding Hearts of the Pocono Valley
Visit my Website for release information and updates!
Book 1: Wyne and Dine – Ben
Book 2: Wyne and Chocolate – Keiffer
Book 3: Wyne and Roses – Mason
Book 4: Wyne and Song – Ethan
***
Cowboy-Sexy
Honky Tonk Hearts Series with The Wild Rose Press
by Donna Michaels
**4 Star RT Magazine Review*&*NOR Reviewer Top Pick**
**Ranked #19 in Predator & Editor’s Best Romance 2013**
Finn Brennan was used to his brother playing practical jokes, but this time he’d gone too far--sending him a woman as a ranch hand, and not just a woman, but a Marine.
When Lt. Camilla Walker's CO asks her to help out at his family's dude ranch until he returns from deployment, she never expected to be thrust into a mistaken engagement to his sexy, cowboy twin--a former Navy SEAL who hates the Corps.
The Corps took Finn’s father, his girlfriend and threatened his naval career. He’s worked hard for another shot at getting back to active duty and won’t let his brother’s prank interfere. The last thing he needs is the temptation of a headstrong, unyielding, hot Marine getting in the way.
***
She Does Know Jack
A Romantic Comedy Mystery
by Donna Michaels
**NOR Reviewer Top Pick**
Former Army Ranger Capt. Jack ‘Dodger’ Anderson would rather run naked through a minefield in the Afghan desert than participate in a reality television show, but when his brother Matthew begins to receive threats, Jack quickly becomes Matthew’s shadow. As if the investigation isn’t baffling enough, he has to contend with the addition of a beautiful and vaguely familiar new contestant.
Security specialist, Brielle Chapman reluctantly agrees to help her uncle by going undercover as a contestant on the Meet Your Mate reality show. Having nearly failed on a similar assignment, she wants to prove she still has a future in this business. But when the brother of the groom turns out to be Dodger, the only one-nighter she ever had—while in disguise from a prior undercover case—her job becomes harder. Does he recognize her? And how can she investigate with their sizzling attraction fogging her brain? Determined to finish the job, she brings the case to a surprising climax, uncovers the culprit and meets her own mate.
About the Author
Donna Michaels is a multi-published author of Romaginative Fiction. From short to epic, sweet to very hot, she writes all lengths and most romance genres. A finalist in several writing competitions, she writes roma
nce through the H’s—Hot, Humorous & Heartwarming.
Happily married to a military man for nearly twenty-eight years, she found it only natural for the military to spill into some of her writing, as well as humorous episodes from her full family life. Residing in Northeastern Pennsylvania with their four children and several rescued cats, she is surrounded by writing material.
Donna is contracted with The Wild Rose Press and Whimsical Publications. This book is her first attempt at self-publishing. She’s released several since, including her Harland County Series, an Amazon Best Selling contemporary western series. If you enjoyed this story, please check out Donna’s other works. All her books are available in eBook, and her novels are also available in print.
For more information about the author and all of her titles visit: www.donnamichaelsauthor.com
Email at: [email protected]
Thanks for reading!
~Donna
Desires of the Heart
a Novella by
Linda LaRoque
Loren Fairchild longs for children, but is barren. At a cottage in Carlisle, UK, she puts her divorce behind her and begins a new life. In 1947 the former owner’s wife disappeared. That same week, according to local gossip, her husband took up with a dark-headed harlot. One morning in 2007, a simple-minded woman appears at Loren’s cottage and triggers events that change Loren’s life forever.
Miles Chapeau misses the wife, the mother of his two children, he’d known before the war. When he returned from WWII in 1945, he learned she’d been hurt in an air raid and has the mind of a child. He loves her and would never forsake his duty, but misses the intimate side of marriage and a woman to share his life. One day she disappears and his existence is turned upside down.
Caught in a web of confusion, Loren and Miles struggle to determine the direction their lives must take.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidences either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, scanned, distributed, stored in, or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system in any form, whether electronic or mechanical, either now known or developed in the future, without the express written permission of the author, except by a reviewer for review purposes.
Desires of the Heart
Copyright © 2008 by Linda LaRoque
ISBN: 978-0-9893792-1-2
Cover Art: Diana Carlile
Second Digital Edition (Revised) April 2013
First Digital Edition 2008 by The Wild Rose Press
License Notes
This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work in whole or in part is illegal. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people unless in a qualified lending program. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the provider and purchase your own copy. Do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
References and Acknowledgements:
Fashion Sourcebooks, the 1940s; Peacock, John; 1998 Thames and Hudson, Ltd; London.
Early History of X-Rays SLAC
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/pubs/beamline/25/2/25-2-assmus.pdf
X-Ray Shoe Fitting Machine
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/002457.asp
Chapter One
Houston, Texas, August 2007
Loren lay unmoving as her husband rammed into her body again and again, each thrust a blow to her heart. A tear rolled down her cheek, but she bit her lip to keep from crying out. The act she’d once taken such joy in now broke her heart. It was an offense to her body. How had their lovemaking come to this? At long last, he groaned and warm semen filled her—the life giving fluid that would never take root in her infertile body.
Randall rolled onto his back, breathing in deep gasps. “If that didn’t make a baby, nothing will.”
The fool man actually thought his virility could nullify what the doctor told them. How had she not noticed how thoughtless and egotistical he was before they married? Loren and Randall had such high hopes for a family in the beginning, but they’d been shattered. She would never become pregnant, feel her child move, or nurse it at her breast. Randall’s answer was, “Doctors don’t know everything. We just have to try harder.”
From that time on, they didn’t make love, they had sex—raw, rough, heart-destroying sex—sex that became more painful for her each time he touched her. He couldn’t keep his frustration and hurt out of his touch.
Loren rolled to her side, her back to him, and drew her knees up to her chest. Fist in her mouth, she struggled not to sob out loud. She didn’t care if he heard her cry, but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. With each tear that fell, the tiny bit of love she’d hidden away for him died a little more. Her well had dried up.
He scoffed. “Stop that sniveling, Loren. I didn’t hurt you. You wouldn’t be so dry if you’d loosen up a bit.”
She jumped off the bed and turned on him. Fists propped on her hips, she snarled, “Loosen up? How can I do that when every time you put your hands on me, there is no longer tenderness, no love?”
He lurched out of the bed, his beautiful body outlined in the moonlight. It used to bring her such pleasure to just look at him—the wide chest, narrow waist and hips. Now Loren glanced away from his nakedness as if seeing him thus was an invasion of his privacy. He was no longer the man she’d fallen in love with. Hands fisted at his side, his sex lying limp between his hairy legs, he sputtered, “What the hell are you talking about? You’ve never complained before.” He raked his hands through his dark blonde hair. “It’s you. You’re like a dried-up prune.”
She grabbed her robe off the bed, put it on, tied the sash in a knot and pointed to the bed. “Think about what just happened there. Do you call that making love?” she blurted. “Hell no. You crawl on me, rut like a hog, and then roll off.”
He looked at her like she’d lost her marbles, and then back at the bed. Fury transformed his features; he shook his head, and opened his mouth to speak. She held up a hand. “Don’t bother. I don’t want to hear it. It’s over for us, Randall. Do you hear me?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “Over!”
“Now, just a minute. Let’s talk about this.”
He’d been cheating on her for several months. Why the hell she hadn’t kicked him out when she first found out, she didn’t know. Denial probably. “It’s too late for talking. I’m leaving for Daddy’s cottage in Carlisle tomorrow for an extended vacation. When I get back I want your things out of here so we can put the house on the market.”
“You’ve got a lot to lose so I wouldn’t do anything rash. You won’t be living the high life you are now.”
“Rash, let’s talk about rashes for a minute. You’ve been scratching yours with Amy for months now so I don’t think my decision is rash.” Got you there, asshole. And if he pisses me off, I just might fight in court to get a larger settlement. “And furthermore, I don’t need your money. I’ll do just fine on my own.”
His jaw dropped, he clenched his fists and bellowed. “Shit! She doesn’t mean anything to me. She’s just a distraction... you know, a fling.” He ran his eyes down her body and then back up to her face, measuring her. “It started right after our talk with the doctor,” He snarled. “Dammit, I was hurt and angry.” He pounded his chest. “How dare the doctor tell me I didn’t pick the perfect woman?”
“You were hurt? How about me? What do you think I was going through? You didn’t care. It’s always
been all about you.” She strode to the closet and pulled out a suitcase. “Well, I’ve got news for you, Mister. From now on it’s going to be all about me.”
*****
Carlisle, United Kingdom, August 2007
The minute Loren Fairchild stepped from the cab, the cottage called to her, soothing her ragged and tender emotions. It reminded her of William Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon. Not that she’d visited the landmark, but she’d seen pictures in a magazine. It had a thatch roof and exposed outer beams, cocoa brown against white. With its ivy covered entrance and walls, a profusion of pink roses bordering the hedges and walkway, it was lovely, much nicer than William’s abode.
While she surveyed her surroundings, the cabbie unloaded the trunk, or boot as it was called here, and removed her bags. Arms loaded, he started up the walkway. She rushed along behind him to unlock the front door. It swung open and he set her things in the entryway.
“Sure glad to see someone in the old place. A shame for this beauty to go to waste.” He accepted the bills handed him and stuffed them in his pocket. “Will you be staying long, Mrs. Fairchild?”
“For a few months, at least.” Long enough for her divorce to be finalized. She glanced up at his cheerful face, his smile almost hidden by his beard and mustache. “Maybe longer.”
“The ladies in the village will be pleased. Many remember your mum and will want to share stories about the old days with you.”
10 Timeless Heroes; A Time Travel Romance Boxed Set Page 228