December 1, 2009
NAL Trade
ISBN: 0451228030
ISBN-13: 978-0451228031
The Satin Sash
Business partners Grey Richards and Heath Solis are best friends, even though they’re as different as night and day. Grey is calm, confident, and always in control. Heath is as passionate as his smoldering looks. No woman can resist them, and it’s always been easy to share. Until now…
Grey is head over heels in love with Antonia Kearny, a woman whose luscious body enflames his senses and whose playful, willing spirit captures his heart. He’ll do anything to see her smile, to hear her breath catch, to make her scream his name. And when he realizes that Toni wants another man—and that it’s Heath—he’ll make the ultimate sacrifice…
On a decadent weekend in Mexico, Toni will experience the hunger, the touch, the taste of two men. But will her desire bring them together, or tear them apart?
Three nights, three lovers, and one choice that may destroy them all.
~ Michelle Wiener, Romantic Times BOOKreviews
(posted 12.01.09)
Chapter One
“Your woman wants me.”
Grey Richards froze, then lowered the glass of wine and turned to look at the man facing him. Heath’s jet-black eyes gleamed with a disconcerting mix of devilment and concern.
Grey glanced over the crowded room to where Toni stood, smiling among a group
of women. His gut clenched in a knot. “Come again?”
“Your woman. She wants me.”
For a stunned moment, Grey gazed into the crimson depths of his glass, his sixth
of red cabernet, and decided if he wasn’t drunk, then his friend and partner
was.
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My books are, unapologetically, red-hot and explicit, and so
choosing an
excerpt that is appropriate for general online reading can be a challenge. Please
enjoy this excerpt knowing that it has been carefully chosen for a
broad audience. Also, I may have, er, edited some wording. But to indulge
in all the heat for which my books are known, please pick up or order a copy
of the book. ~ Red
“Toni?”
“Do you have another woman?” Heath replied.
Grey could only stare at him.
Underneath the black tuxedo he’d borrowed from Grey, Heath Solis was still
the rough-edged daredevil he’d met twenty years ago, and while his social
skills could use a little polish, Grey had always appreciated his bluntness.
No one cut through the bullshit like Heath.
Together they’d been through good times and bad, but unspoken between
them lay a quiet understanding. They worked well together. Grey the brain; Heath
the muscle.
Having jointly built RS Corporation from scratch, making the company Chicago’s most successful commercial development firm, Grey managed the corporate offices in the city while Heath handled their businesses abroad. Where Heath liked to keep his private life to himself, Grey had to face the press. Grey enjoyed living lavishly, while Heath preferred frugal surroundings.
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Despite the differences, they were united by dedication, wills of steel, and
a fierce loyalty and trust.
Heath’s childhood might have been far from the ideal foundation for a hero, but Grey would put his life in no one’s hands but his.
Heath was the brother Grey never had. Grey was all Heath had.
He couldn’t believe he was hearing this.
“You’re serious?” he asked.
Heath’s jaw was set, his expression somber; Heath’s face could send people scrambling when he scowled, and lure the ladies when he smiled. “I wouldn’t kid you about this,” he said, shooting Grey a sidelong glance. “You haven’t exactly taken her off the market, have you?”
Head reeling, Grey looked back at the group of women to find Toni gone. The room
was alive with music. Glittering chandeliers hung from a vaulted ceiling, fountains
spouted champagne, busy waiters circulated among the guests.
He and Heath stood a good distance from the dance floor, amidst dozens of vacated
tables at what had been a five-thousand-dollar-per-seat mediocre dinner, but
it didn’t take him long to spot her.
She was on the dance floor, whirling in the arms of Senator Louis. A pretty flush
stained her cheeks as she let the energetic man twirl her round and round.
Without even realizing it, she’d had Grey’s nuts in a twist from
the instant he set eyes on her. Now at the sight of her petite, graceful body
draped in shimmering fire-engine red, while she smiled one of her million smiles,
Grey was a ball of lust waiting to be unleashed on her.
Her little bottom jiggled, her bosom heaved, and her eyes sparkled like gems.
She was all fun, all life, all sweetness and spice. The large diamond studs he’d
given her for Christmas peeked through the glossy chestnut waves tumbling past
her shoulders, catching the light.
His blood thrummed in his veins with the desire to press his mouth to one ear
and tongue her. Eat up that sweet, feisty baby, his juicy-lipped baby, nibble
by nibble. His chest swelled, a sensation that had become painful of late and
all too real.
He was in love with her.
Irrefutably, indisputably in love with Toni.
It was a place he’d never imagined himself to be. A place where all thought
centered around her, all actions aimed to please her. A place where Grey could
hardly think.
All he could think of was her.
What had started as a passionate fling had turned into a full-blown relationship,
to the point where Grey’s penthouse had been empty for months. The closet
in Toni’s apartment was now crammed with his expensive suits and endless
racks of ties. Their bathroom looked like a war zone. His schedule was continually
interrupted with unexpected but delightful “situations.”
And he wouldn’t change any of it for the world.
You’re not wearing panties tonight, Toni.
Why not?
Because every time I look at you, I want to know your pussy
is bare under that dress, and I’ll think of nothing but taking you home
and licking you.
She’d been a sight to behold, leaning over the bathroom mirror, creaming those pouty lips with a glittery red substance. “Will I get a prize for surviving an entire night without panties?” she had playfully asked, setting the lipstick down and twirling around to fix his collar.
Her eyes gleamed appreciatively as she took in his tuxedo-clad figure. She fitted
her body up against his and fingered the black bow at his throat. “Will
I get to take everything off but this, Mr. Richards?”
“Give me some of that,” he murmured huskily as he ducked his head to
run his tongue across the plump bottom curve of her lips, “and I’ll
show you how I plan to suckle the lips between your thighs.”
At thirty-five, Grey had seen and done it all. As teenagers, he and Heath had
had dirty, raunchy sex with the dirtiest, raunchiest women they could find. Prostitutes
and kinky widows and women who seemed so high and drunk they’d do anything
with anyone. They’d done things to women that the girls in high school
and college would never in their wildest dreams let a man, much less a boy, do.
That had been sex for Grey at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.
Later, through the years, while he and Heath went their separate ways, he’d
acquired a connoisseur’s taste for it, like fine wines and cigars. He’d
sought pretty women much as he sought out the finest cars; he’d had them
all.
And not a single experience compared to being with Toni. No orgy or threesome or a plain vanilla sex could capture a fraction of the intensity of his feelings for her, his wanting of her. She was so passionate, her eager receptiveness to his touch consumed him. He was addicted to memorizing her noises, testing her responses, discovering where to caress, to touch, to bring her pleasure. Her face as it bloomed in orgasm brought him to his knees; he’d never seen anything so beautiful.
He wanted her now. Here, at this wretched party. In front of Heath, in front
of everybody.
He burned under his suit, itched to take her into a nearby hall and remind her
who it was she wanted, who it was she fucked all day, every day, and begged for
more.
He did no such thing.
Instead he averted his eyes and studied his friend and business partner once
again.
“What would have given you the impression she wants you?”
Heath took a step to stand shoulder to shoulder, his midnight gaze tracking Toni. Grey did not like the hot, possessive way Heath looked at her. Or the slow, knowing smile stretching his lips.
“Do you honestly think I don’t
know when a woman wants me?”
“Did she tell you so?”
“Nah. She’s too fine to tell me in words.”
Oh, she was fine all right. More than fine. Perfect.
Unlike the models Grey had preferred for years, Toni was no tall, bosomy Amazon.
She was a small, sprightly thing—a little fire to Grey’s ice. A whirlwind
of smiles and surprises that made his heart ache with how freaking adorable she
was.
Her eyes—the vibrant energy of her entire being simmered inside them.
A chameleonic green of shade and undeterminable, susceptible to her emotions
like mood rings. Grey got dark forest with her passion, emerald with her smiles,
mossy green with her silence.
What color does Heath get?
Struggling to remain calm, Grey raised the fluted glass and contemplated his
beauty above the rim, engaged in yet another lively dance. Song after song blasted
in the room, but Grey heard nothing but his heart pounding.
Your woman wants me....
Toni was a sensual, sexual, highly emotional being. Sweet in nature; deliciously
responsive in bed. Her lusty appetite was unsurpassed by that of anyone Grey
had ever met before, and her responsiveness to the barest touch was addictive.
She wasn’t afraid of anything and would always try something once. She
liked it dirty, a little naughty, and seemed to get a thrill when he got rough.
But never, ever, had Grey considered she might crave more. More sex, more lust.
More.
“If she didn’t say so, then why would you be telling me this?”
“We danced.” Heath bent to whisper. “I touched her.”
“And?”
“And she let me.”
While Grey had been listening to Carlton earlier, specifically to the retired
accountant’s monotonous dissertation on the economy, Toni had been in Heath’s
arms. Sans panties, because he and Toni had thought to play a little game of
anticipation tonight.
She let Heath touch her?
Stomach churning with bile, he set the empty glass on a passing tray. “Toni is a sensual woman, but she responds to no man like she responds to me.” He fixed his friend with a cold smile—the same he used across the boardroom when the meeting was adjourned. “Whatever it is you’re thinking, you can forget it.”
Heath snorted, a primitive sound Grey recognized as having multiple meanings.
His partner jammed his hand into his inner coat pocket and produced a long, shiny
red sash.
Grey’s
eyes slimmed to slits. “That
looks familiar.”
“She wore it around her neck.” Heath grasped the back of Grey’s
hand and slapped the sash into his palm. “Tie it to my door if you change
your mind. I leave Wednesday.”
Grey fisted the flimsy fabric in his palm and glanced up at Heath’s retreating
back. “Wait.”
Probably unused to Grey’s most glacial tone being directed at him, Heath
stiffened, hands fisting at his sides before he turned around.
Their gazes met with no antagonism, but with a calm, collected watchfulness.
“You’re saying... you want...?” There was little that differentiated Grey from a statue.
“You know what I’m saying.” The broad white smile Heath shot him was the devil’s own. “Think about it, Grey.”
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It started with a sash...
I absolutely love flimsy, pretty things. Although I’d been thinking for
quite some time about the characters in The Satin Sash,
the idea of incorporating the sash in this book came to me on a trip to Chicago.
The very day I fell in love with a beautiful red sash I spotted at Saks Fifth
Avenue. A girl can dream, right?
Well instead of dreaming that it was this red author who got lucky and acquired
that delicious piece of cloth for herself, I pictured one of my lead characters,
Grey Richards—powerful, rich and sexy—striding into the luxurious
store in his sharp black Armani to purchase both the glamorous red dress and
the matching sash for his woman.
Picture the perfect aloofness and the slow smile of Richard Gere in ‘Pretty
Woman’ as he allows Julia Roberts, er, more exactly Vivian, to shop until
she dropped? That’s what I pictured Grey doing that day—and from
then on, the sash took on a new meaning.
The sash came to mean more to them than just a gift. It meant: I am dedicated
to you, I want you, I care.
So what happens when our heroine loses possession of it?
Well, I assume you’ve found out!
The Setting...
Chicago seems like the perfect setting for a drama. The city is busy, beautiful,
and sexy. The wind is so wild it comes at you no matter what direction you
take. It abused my hair, my clothes, and my skin, and I still loved it. I
can’t think of a better place to live and fall in love. As my family
and I roamed the city, I also became a fan of Navy Pier. Fun and games for
everyone and with a magnificent view of Lake Michigan. So where would these
three interesting characters escape for a bit of ‘adult’ fun
but somewhere secluded and yet also breathtaking?
Los Cabos is unparralleled to me, as far as Mexican beaches are concerned. The sun is always blazing, but there’s frequently fresh breeze to cool you off, and there are few words to describe the blue of the water and the powdery white of the sand. I could pack my bags and move to Los Cabos forever, that’s how much I doted on it when Mr. Red took me, the kids, and my in laws for our first visit several years ago. I do so love my Mr. Red.
The Romance...
And Grey, Toni, and Heath thoroughly enjoyed their weekend together. Attraction
is an internal chemistry – proven to stem from the brain. And yet it
is the visual images which usually bring us that first awareness. Eyes, lips,
mouths. A weekend dedicated to pleasure where you can let your senses bloom,
allow yourself to become conscious of the silence around you so that you
can hear yourself think and feel and experience, seem like the ultimate luxury
for anyone. One little sash, but one big choice for all three of them.
Let go of your reservations…
It would be nice if life could stop once in a while so we could enjoy pleasurable
sensations to the fullest. Maybe your time will stop just for a
little bit, enough for you to fully delve into this unconventional love story.