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Thursday, May 9, 2024

Seducing the Innkeeper is featured on Opening Scene Thursday #MFRWAuthor #BWLAuthor #romance #spicy #Vermont #Son not known about

Chapter One

Christa Sommers counted the receipts for the restaurant and the bar of Green Mountain Inn. She rubbed her forehead and stared at the totals. As she matched the copies of the bills with the cash and credit card slips she clenched her teeth. Someone had slipped with a heavy hand into the cash and she knew the identity of the culprit or culprits. A hundred dollars short. Last week the shortage had been nearly four hundred.

She reached for the stack of just paid bills. For the fourth month she had to use money from the room rentals to cover the bar and restaurant expenses. Her stomach roiled. The time had come to inform the thieves and ignore the guilt trip they would attempt to use again. This time she wouldn’t cave. She might even call the police. But they were family and she had very few relatives.

“Mom, when are we leaving?”

Christa smiled at her son. “Give me ten minutes.” She tousled Davy’s blonde hair and felt a pang of regret. He looked so much like the father he didn’t know.

Do not walk that road. She had no time for regrets. She wrote the last check and sealed the envelope. After putting the money and credit card slips in a deposit bag she reached for her jacket.

Before she and Davy reached the office door her half-sisters barged into the room. She looked at her son. He didn’t need to hear another quarrel with the pair. “Davy, wait for me outside.”

He glared at the two young women. “Okay.”

Christa cleared her throat. “Just what is your problem today?” She waited for one of them to speak.

“You have to look at this brochure.” Peggy waved a paper. “This is absolutely what Stel and I need to survive boredom. The guests who stay here are old.”

“We need to have some fun,” Stella added. “Meet young and very eligible guys.”

“No cruise.” Christa noted the prices. “This is out of the question.” Though the guests who come to view the fall foliage were older they were little problem. “I’m no longer paying for your fun and games.”

“Why not?” Stella fisted her hands on her hips. “You owe us. Remember where you were when Mom and Dad died. We were left alone and ended in that place for six weeks.”

Christa swallowed. She wouldn’t bite this time “I said so. You need to find jobs.”

“We have them here,” Peggy said.

Stella sneered. “Right. Steering old people to tables and running the cash drawer. Getting paid pennies. All we need is a few thou.”

Christa shook her head. “Not possible. We need to discuss the money that’s missing from the restaurant and bar registers. There are discrepancies.”

Peggy stepped closer. “If people didn’t use credit cards we could have all we want.”

Stella nodded. “She’s right. We just need a vacation. A singles’ cruise is perfect. We might find the right men.”

Christa remembered the bills from the vacation the pair had taken in June to celebrate Peggy’s college graduation. And the problems presented by the two men who had followed them to the inn hoping to share the bounty. At twenty-two and twenty-three her half sisters were selfish and self-centered. When would they stop blaming her for an accident that hadn’t been her fault? She had been out of touch when they’d needed her. The single time had happened years ago. The time had come for them to be responsible for their own lives.

Peggy planted her hands on the desk. “Why do we always have to fight for our share of the inn’s profits?”

Christa drew a deep breath. “You have no share.”

“So you say.” Stella glared. “On Monday we’re calling a lawyer.”

“Go ahead. Do that instead of taking the path you need to find jobs.” There she’d said what she’d avoided since Peggy had graduated in June.

“What are you talking about?” Stella’s voice rose to a strident pitch. “We own more of this dump than you. Mom said no matter what happened to Dad we were set for life.”

“She lied.” Christa knew her father had told his second wife lies about the ownership of the inn. Until his death he’d been her guardian with no more than a life tenancy. After his death she’d learned her mother had left the inn to her. “You also need to know the inn is for sale.”

“You can’t do that,” Peggy said.

“We won’t sign,” Stella added.

“Your signatures aren’t needed. Now hear this.” Before she could tell them her next part of the offer the pair stomped away.

Christa slumped in a chair. Their anger and the thefts weren’t her fault except she had allowed the pilfering to continue all summer. She had meant to tell them the moment Peggy had graduated from college. As usual she had tabled the confrontation. No longer. They had to learn their free-loading days had ended.

“Mom, when are we going?”

“Now.” She grabbed the stack of envelopes and the deposit bag and followed her son to the Jeep. A grin turned her lips upward. She had finally grown a spine. The trick was finding a way to keep the bones firmly in place.

My Places

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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Seducing the Innkeeper #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Romsnce #Spicy #Vermont

A chance photograph sends Mark Blakefield to Vermont to find something he lost and didn't know about. He has a son. He also has a way to find the woman he fell in love during his last year of college. Her disappearance when he went to pick her up for dinner puzzles him. Though he searched for Christa Parsons for months and never found her. The photograph taken by one of his writers for Good Travelin' shows an inn in Vermont. He rushes off to solve the mystery and claim his son.

Christa Sommers runs the family inn left to her by her mother. Besides making the inn successful, she is raising her nine year old son, Davy. She has to deal with her younger, selfish half-sisters and she has reached the end point of her patience with them.

When Mark arrives she is stunned. Now she has to explain who she never told him about Davy. Part of the reason was her attempts to find him were foiled by a secretary and the other was being swamped by work. One sight and she fears falling in love with him or losing custody of her son.

Can Mark figure why he was looking for someone with the wrong name? Can he persuade Christa he has loved her for all those years and convince her to share her life and her son with him?

My Places

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Thursday, May 2, 2024

Seducing the Photographer is featured on Thursday's Opening Scene #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Romance, #Photographs #broken bones

“Done.” Meg Blakefield closed her laptop and sank back in her chair. “Move. Friday at last.” Unlike her siblings and co-workers she refused to use the cliché. And unlike most of them she had no plans for the weekend beyond revising her rules of life. Should she scrap them and come up with a new set? Her present ones hadn’t taken her to her desired place, a home with the man of her dreams. All she’d earned from following those rules was a hand full of failed relationships.

Her elbows rested on the desk. The next issue of Good Lookin’ was at the printer’s, a perfect ending for an intense week of work and a very long day. She yawned.

The office door opened. One of her brothers stepped inside. “Good. You’re still here.”

She looked up. “You must be seeing things.”

“I need a favor.”

“Sure.” She wanted to bite her tongue a moment too late. She’d just mangled one of her rules/ Know what you’re agreeing to before you commit to do a favor or you’ll find yourself in trouble.

“Thanks. You can pick up Steve Martin at the airport tonight. His flight arrives around nine.”

“Wait a minute.” Meg’s shoulder muscles tensed. Once more she had leaped into a steaming cauldron. She stared at her brother. What did his cat in the cream smile mean? Was this some kind of sick joke? “You want me to do what?”

“Go to the airport. Meet Steve’s plane. Drive him home. He spoke each word is though he spoke to a child.

Meg’s emotions tumbled over each other like stones in a polishing tumbler. “I’m the last person he would want to see. Remember the scene I created three weeks ago.” Though she hadn’t shouted her accusations the words had flowed through the open office door. She would never forget Steve’s reaction. First an angry denial. Then he’d laughed and declared he would do no more photo shoots for Good Lookin’. His voice had boomed.

“Come on. Steve doesn’t hold grudges. Kiss and make up. He would enjoy that.”

“Right.” Meg glared at her brother. She couldn’t tell him or anyone about her first meeting with the photographer.

He’s the one. Her body had taken fire the moment their hands had touched. She knew she’d been taken by the Blakefield curse.

Every time he came near or when there was a casual touch her body reacted and the voice in her head repeated those fatal words. She blushed. His knowing green eyes showed he knew about the strong attraction. He always smiled and made a teasing remark. Though she’d become adept at avoiding him her feelings hadn’t changed.

Mark laughed. “Pick him up.”

“Remember how he reacted when I accused him of leaking the details of my exclusive interview to that witch editor of Beauty Spot.

Mark chuckled. “I do. He resigned. Then Allie explained how you shoot first and regret at leisure. He stayed. He looks on the incident as a joke.” Mark pressed his hands on the desk and leaned forward. “You never explained why you accused him.”

Because she hadn’t wanted to believe the man she’d been seeing was the one who had leaked the information. “She and Steve had a relationship. Believing he was the one seemed easy.”

Mark hooted. “They had a fling. The day you accused him she was a month in his past.”

“She used to be his boss. How was I to know where his loyalty lay?”

“I’ll give you that.” He straightened. “When he came to the group fulltime he cut his ties with her rag. Be a sport and do the airport run.”

“Send a limo.”

“A limo isn’t how we treat our employees. Dad’s away. Luke’s tied up. Allie’s with Greg. I’m off to check some B and Bs.”

“Maybe I have plans.”

Do you?”

“Sort of.”

He arched a brow. “No you don’t. What is your problem?”

She couldn’t tell him how every time Steve appeared she felt like a teen crushing on the school jock. “I…”

“Come on. Now that Allie’s moved you’re the closest to JFK and you drive that huge four door sedan.”

“So.”

“Company policy.”

She groaned. When any staffer was out of town on assignment unless they had

If the plane landed at nine, she could leave the airport by nine thirty. The drive to the Hudson River village where he lived would take an hour or so. Thirty minutes later she would be home. She could avoid the temptation to jump him for that long.

“You win. I’ll go.”

Mark patted her hand. “Good girl.”

She debated barking or biting. She waved him away. “You owe me.”

He paused. “One more thing. Take the wheelchair I parked in the hall. Steve had a small accident.”

Meg went into protective mode. “How small?”

“A lot of bruises and a broken leg.”

She rolled her eyes. There went her plans for a quick pickup and delivery. She would have to accompany him into the apartment. She thought about throwing something but the only thing on her ultra neat desk were her laptop, the phone and a stack of page proofs. She ran to the door.

“Mark, you really owe me and I’ll collect.”

The closing elevator door was her answer.

Steve Morgan. A sound midway between a sigh and a groan escaped. She was in trouble. He was hot. So was he but his frequent teasing remarks made her bristle. His green eyes hinted promises he would keep for a time. She wanted to believe he would commit forever but she’d heard volumes about his short attention span. According to her sister he’d dated and discarded at least four women in the three months he’d been a Good Magazine Group employer.

You don’t want an affair. Rule number two. Any man you consider must want a lifetime commitment. No matter how many stars she wished upon Steve wasn’t that man. She laughed. Saying yes to what hadn’t been and what would never be offered was foolish.

With her laptop in hand she stepped into the hall. Mark hadn’t been joking. There was a wheelchair in the hall. She pushed the chair to the elevator and rode to the basement parking garage. After putting the chair in the trunk she drove to her apartment and made an omelet for dinner. As she ate she checked the arrival time of Steve’s flight.

She was going to kill her brother. Around nine was really nine forty-five. By the time she delivered Steve she wouldn’t have the energy to drive back here.

Meg paced around the living room. Her plans had to be revised. She reached for the phone. She would camp in her sister’s fiancé’s apartment. In the morning she could visit Peek-A-Boo boutique, check the lingerie and speak to the owner about the possibility of a magazine spread for the February edition of Good Lookin’. What she’d seen of the bras and panties Allie had purchased had turned her thoughts in that direction.

She dialed Greg’s apartment. The answering machine invited her to leave a message. She received the same response on Allie’s cell and left the same words on both. “Meg here. I need a place to crash for tonight. Bringing Steve home from the airport. Be there between ten and midnight.”

Meg rolled her shoulders. The tight muscles uncoiled. She had a plan to minimize the time spent with Steve. Was that what she wanted? No, but it was the only way to keep her current rules of life.

My Places

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Sunday, April 28, 2024

Seducing the Photographer is featured as Sunday's Book, #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Photographer #sisters #romance #Spicy

Meg is sure she’s made a mistake when she agrees to pick up and Injured Steve, the magazine group’s photographer from the airport. The first moment she saw him, the Blakefield Curse took effect. She fell in love and she was a forever woman. He wasn’t. Spending time with him over the weekend only cements her feelings. She has rules of life and she breaks everyone of them even the new ones she added that weekend.

Steve has been intrigued by Meg and he enjoys her blushes. He’s found ways to raise them but something more is happening here. When she leaves abruptly, he wants to track her down but his broken leg makes pursuit difficult. Now he must find a way to win her over and that takes some time and clever moves.

My Places

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Saturday, April 20, 2024

Books by Janet Lane Walters are featured on Saturday's Blurbs #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #Books #blurbs #romance

She was the only girl to turn him down. What will happen when business and a wedding bring them together again.

Jules Grayson was a player as a teen and that hasn’t changed. Business and a friend’s wedding join to bring him to the place where his life had imploded and where his trust issues began. A Ponzi scheme and a suicide forced him into a group home he hated. For ten years he has avoided returning.

Grace Sutton is faced with a dilemma added to by the appearance of Jules in her Sweet and Spicy Cupcake bakery. Years ago she turned Jules down but she had a crush. His appearance erodes the vow she made years ago. Men had used her mother and led the woman into drugs and alcohol. Grace vowed to forego relationships with men until she could support herself. Though the bakery is making money, she doesn’t feel secure. When Jules arrives with a contract for a magazine feature, she is conflicted and attracted.

Seducing the Doctor

You’re next.”

Those words send Matt Blakefield fleeing his brother’s wedding. Marriage or even falling in love is the last of his desires. What he wants to learn is the identity of the owner of the house he wants to use as a make-over for the magazine he edits, Good Livin’. A fall rainstorm and a pine tree sends his motorcycle into a spin and into the arms of an old acquaintance, a girl he hurt in high school.

Cassie Moore has borrowed a cabin from one of her partners in a cardiology practice to come to terms with a broken engagement. The news came via an email. Her fiancée had married another woman just weeks before their scheduled marriage. The appearance of Matt at her door brings an old attraction into full bloom. She realizes love is lurking but he’s a player and she needs to forget the connection.

Is it possible that a weekend of love can become a lifetime?

Thursday, April 18, 2024

Seducing the Chef is featured today with Thursday's Opening Scene #BWLAuthor #MFRWAuthor #romance #chef #reviewer #old family feud

Morning sun streamed through the wide windows of the lower floor office of Five Cuisines. Greg Ramsey typed the last item on the week’s menus. He checked the list of supplies needed and sent orders to the various venues. Monday mornings when the restaurant was closed had become his planning day.

He loaded the heavy paper in the printer and began the process of producing the menus for each of the five rooms. As the papers slid from the printer he heard a light tapping at the door.

“Come in.”

When his mother entered he rose and lightly hugged her. “Your timing is perfect. Just finished creating the menus for the week.”

Stella Ramsey, tall, slender with a gray streak in her dark hair, kissed his cheek. “How is my handsome son?”

“Pleased with our success.” Six months ago they had opened the restaurant and they were on their way toward becoming a profitable venture. For the past month there had been few empty tables at either evening seating. Even on Wednesday and Thursday they’d been solidly booked. The weekend brunches were gaining the attention of people who came to browse in the antique shops and other unusual stores in the Hudson River village.

He reached for the letter that had arrived last week. The offer could make or break his dream. He knew little about the magazine Good Eatin’ other than a spread was eagerly sought by the nation’s restaurants. As his silent partner, his mother had a voice in whether they should chance a bad review.

“What was so important you asked me to cancel my lunch date?” She smiled. “Please tell me you’ve found a weekend hostess.”

He shook his head. “The job is yours until you say you’ve had enough.”

“Might be soon.”

He arched a brow. “Something serious happening in our life.”

She laughed. “You’ll be the first to know. What about you? Have you met the woman of your dreams and the one who will make me happy?”

“When do I have time?”

“Make time. Several of the sous chefs are young and attractive. Ask one of them out.”

He held up a hand. “Not going there. They’re taken and I only poach eggs and a few other foods.”

She sat on the chair beside his desk. “So what’s the news you’re bursting to tell?”

He handed her the letter. “This arrived the other day. The offer could be a sweet opportunity”

As she read he studied her face. Her expression changed like the weather. His mother’s beauty always made him smile. He’d always wondered why she hadn’t married again. Had she mourned her father for fifteen years? He recalled the nights when he’d been awakened by their angry voices raised in accusations.

She touched the silver streak in her dark hair. She scowled. “You will not let those people near Five Cuisines. I won’t have them here.”

The venom in her voice surprised him. “Why not? I hear a feature in Good Eatin’ will place us among the top restaurants in the country.”

“I won’t let him use his magazine to destroy you the way he ruined your father’s dreams.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Peter Blakely, editor of Good Eatin’ of the Good Magazine Group, deliberately used his wife’s magazine to destroy Le Provencal.”

Greg rose and went to her side. He’d been sixteen when the tragedy had occurred. His father’s suicide had brought drastic changes in their lives. “Why would this Blakefield do that?”

She stared at her hands. “Your father told me his family and Peter’s had been at odds since they arrived in this country during the colonial days. Your father and Peter became rivals in high school. I met Peter in college. We fell in love and were engaged but we had a fight. I broke the engagement. Peter wanted no part of my parents’ restaurant. Victor heard about the break-up and comforted me. He went to work for my parents and we were married. Peter was furious. He threatened to destroy Victor. He waited for years until he found the right time and he succeeded.”

“How?” Greg met her gaze.

“He wrote dreadful articles about the food and the ambience. Victor had made changes in the décor and the menu. People stopped coming. The shame caused your father to take his life. Victor had always been mercurial and volatile. When he drank depression brought him low.”

“Do you have copies of these articles?”

“Your father wouldn’t let me read them. He burned them. Promise you won’t let these people near Five Cuisines.”

Greg looked away. Her comments disappointed him. Until he learned more about this feud he would hold off sending a letter of regret. “Are you sure this is the right decision?”

She looked away. “Yes.”

There was more to her story but he wouldn’t pry. He took the letter from her, folded the paper and placed it with the envelope in the center drawer. “I’ll handle this later. About the feud. Is there any reason for us to be involved?”

“Drop the idea of a feature. Peter Blakefield doesn’t forgive or forget.” She rose and walked to the door.

He had no idea how to discover what had been said about his father of Le Provencal. He didn’t want to slam the door on an opportunity. Maybe she would change her mind. He shook his head. An ancient family rivalry. How medieval.

My Places

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