For ten years Harlequin has brought female readers some of the hottest erotic romance around. Here’s a video that features covers of hot sellers for each of the past ten years. As a bonus, there’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the cover concept is designed, laid out, photogragraphed, and then finally put together.
Chasing Fire – Nora Roberts
April 12, 2011 By
In her latest novel, Nora Roberts delves into the world of elite firefighters. These men and women thrive in a world filled with danger – always living on the edge. It’s into this world that Rowan Tripp was born. Her father was a legendary smoke jumper from Missoula. So it was not surprising that she had been fighting fires since the age of eighteen. This summer when she returned to Montana for the fire season she would be greeted by the strongest crop of rookies in years. Among them was Gulliver “Gull” Curry. He was a walking contradiction – a hotshot firefighter that was one of the best – but also worked in a kids’ archade in the off season.
But things become even more dangerous as a dark presence lashes out against Rowan. Someone wanted payback for a tragedy from the previous season. Though Gull is a temptation, Rowan can’t allow herself to be distracted either in the air or on the ground. Too much depended on her keeping her wits about her.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
Caught in the crosshairs of wind above the Bitterroots, the jump ship fought to find its stream. Fire boiling over the land jabbed
its fists up through towers of smoke as if trying for a knockout punch.From her seat Rowan Tripp angled to watch a seriously pissed-off Mother Nature’s big show. In minutes she’d be inside it, enclosed in the mad world of searing heat, leaping flames, choking smoke. She’d wage war with shovel and saw, grit and guile. A war she didn’t intend to lose.
Her stomach bounced along with the plane, a sensation she’d taught herself to ignore. She’d flown all of her life, and had fought wildfires every season since her eighteenth birthday. For the last half of those eight years she’d jumped fire.
She’d studied, trained, bled and burned-outwilled pain and exhaustion to become a Zulie. A Missoula smoke jumper.
She stretched out her long legs as best she could for a moment, rolled her shoulders under her pack to keep them loose.
Beside her, her jump partner watched as she did. His fingers did a fast tap dance on his thighs.“She looks mean.”
“We’re meaner.”
He shot her a fast, toothy grin.
“Bet your ass.”
Nerves. She could all but feel them riding along his skin.
Near the end of his first season, Rowan thought, and Jim Brayner
needed to pump himself up before a jump. Some always would, she decided, while others caught short catnaps to bank sleep against the heavy withdrawals to come.She was first jump on this load, and Jim would be right behind her.
If he needed a little juice, she’d supply it.“Kick her ass, more like. It’s the first real bitch we’ve jumped in a
week.” She gave him an easy elbow jab.“Weren’t you the one who kept saying the season was done?”
He tapped those busy fingers on his thighs to some inner rhythm.
“Nah, that was Matt,” he insisted, grin still wide as he deflected the claim onto his brother.
“That’s what you get with a couple Nebraska farm boys. Don’t you
have a hot date tomorrow night?”“My dates are always hot.”
She couldn’t argue, as she’d seen Jim snag women like rainbow trout anytime the unit had pulled a night off to kick it up in town.
He’d hit on her, she remembered, about two short seconds after he’d arrived on base. Still, he’d been good-natured about her shutdown. She’d implemented a firm policy against dating within the unit.
Otherwise, she might’ve been tempted. He had that open, innocent face offset by the quick grin, and the gleam in the eye. For fun, she thought, for a careless pop of the cork out of the lust bottle. For serious-even if she’d been looking for serious-he’d never do the trick. Though they were the same age, he was just too young, too fresh off the farm-and maybe just a little too sweet under the thin layer of green that hadn’t burned off quite yet.
“Which girl’s going to bed sad and lonely if you’re still dancing with the dragon?” she asked him.
“Lucille.”
“That’s the little one-with the giggle.”
His fingers tapped, tapped, tapped on his knee. “She does more than giggle.”
“You’re a dog, Romeo.”
He tipped back his head, let out a series of sharp barks that made
her laugh.“Make sure Dolly doesn’t find out you’re out howling,” she commented. She knew-everyone knew-he’d been banging one of the base cooks like a drum all season.
“I can handle Dolly.” The tapping picked up pace. “Gonna handle Dolly.”
Okay, Rowan thought, something bent out of shape there, which was why smart people didn’t bang or get banged by people they worked with.
She gave him a little nudge because those busy fingers concerned her.
“Everything okay with you, farm boy?”
His pale blue eyes met hers for an instant, then shifted away while
his knees did a bounce under those drumming fingers.“No problems here. It’s going to be smooth sailing like always. I just need to get down there.”
She put a hand over his to still it. “You need to keep your head in the game, Jim.”
“It’s there. Right there. Look at her, swishing her tail,” he said.
“Once us Zulies get down there, she won’t be so sassy. We’ll put her down, and I’ll be making time with Lucille tomorrow night.”
Unlikely, Rowan thought to herself. Her aerial view of the fire put her gauge at a solid two days of hard, sweaty work.
And that was if things went their way.
Rowan reached for her helmet, nodded toward their spotter.
“Getting ready. Stay chilly, farm boy.
“I’m ice.”
Cards-so dubbed as he carried a pack everywhere-wound his way
through the load of ten jumpers and equipment to the rear of the plane, attached the tail of his harness to the restraining line.Even as Cards shouted out the warning to guard their reserves, Rowan hooked her arm over hers. Cards, a tough-bodied vet, pulled the door open to a rush of wind tainted with smoke and fuel.
As he reached for the first set of streamers, Rowan set her helmet over her short crown of blond hair, strapped it, adjusted her face mask.
She watched the streamers doing their colorful dance against the
smoke-stained sky. Their long strips kicked in the turbulence, spiraled toward the southwest, seemed to roll, to rise, then caught another bounce before whisking into the trees.Cards called, “Right!” into his headset, and the pilot turned the plane.
The second set of streamers snapped out, spun like a kid’s wind-up toy. The strips wrapped together, pulled apart, then dropped onto the tree-flanked patch of the jump site.
“The wind line’s running across that creek, down to the trees and
across the site,” Rowan said to Jim.Over her, the spotter and pilot made more adjustments, and another set of streamers snapped out into the slipstream.
“It’s got a bite to it.”
“Yeah. I saw.” Jim swiped the back of his hand over his mouth before strapping on his helmet and mask.
“Take her to three thousand,” Cards shouted.
Jump altitude. As first man, first stick, Rowan rose to take position.
“About three hundred yards of drift,” she shouted to Jim, repeating what she’d heard Cards telling the pilot. “But there’s that bite.
Don’t get caught downwind.”
“Not my first party.”
She saw his grin behind the bars of his face mask-confident, even
eager. But something in his eyes, she thought. Just for a flash.
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Irish Sex Fairy By Kelly Jamieson – eBook
March 18, 2011 By
The Irish Sex Fairy believes sex will cure all problems… So says Great-aunt Maeve, owner of the Irish Sex Fairy, a sex shop in Kilkenny, California.
When stressed-out Keara visits Maeve after a hostage situation where she was held at gunpoint, she’s ready to try anything to get over the flashbacks and nightmares and intense guilt over her role in the incident.
Enter sexy Shane Dunstan, Kilkenny’s deputy police chief and old flame of Keara’s. With black hair and blue eyes and a body a girl could easily lose herself in for a lifetime, he’s perfect for putting Maeve’s remedy to the test. He’s more than happy to help. A lot.
But while all the sizzling sex does seem to make Keara feel better, it creates a whole new set of problems. Keara needs to overcome her fears and get back to her career, but that means leaving Shane and Maeve. And when the past comes back to haunt her in a terrifying encounter, she’s about to find out just how effective Maeve’s cure-all is.
Except:
“Keara!”
It was Shane. She pressed a hand to her racing heart, the adrenaline rush making her legs go mushy. With the lights on, she had to be clearly visible in there, so ducking out wasn’t an option.
She cautiously moved to the door and glared at him, putting a hand on the door frame to steady herself. In the wake of the adrenaline rush, weakness slid through her.
“What are you doing?” he asked, and she could hear him through the glass as well as read his lips. “Let me in.”
She shook her head. “No.”
He scowled. “Are you all right?”
“No! You scared the crap out of me!” Now she slumped fully against the wall. She sucked in a long breath.
“Keara, let me in!”
“I’m not letting a strange man in here in the middle of the night.”
“Keara. I’m hardy a stranger.”
So he did remember. Her body tightened. Her eyes met his through the glass.
“I’m also a cop, for Chrissake. I’m just trying to make sure everything’s all right.”
“I don’t care if you’re Jesus himself,” she replied. “I don’t really know you.”
He rolled his eyes.With a sigh, she punched in the numbers to disable the alarm system Maeve had showed her how to use so she could come and go as she pleased. She unlocked the door and Shane stepped into the store, closed the door behind him and flicked the lock again.
“What the hell are you doing down here in the middle of the night?” he demanded.
“I couldn’t sleep. I decided to come down and look around.”
He stared at her and she realized he had a smear of something on his jaw. She gazed at it. “Uh…you have something…” She lifted her hand point at it and realized what it was. Lipstick. “You have lipstick on your face,” she said. “Guess the date went well tonight, huh? Make use of all those condoms?”
Shane blinked at her, lifted a hand to his cheek.
“Other side,” she said. He scrubbed at his stubbly jaw.
Date? Condoms? Oh yeah. Considering he’d only rolled out of Laila’s bed an hour ago, he’d forgotten her pretty damn quickly. Maeve’s niece had knocked him off balance.
She seemed a lot different than the passionate, vibrant girl he remembered. The girl who’d driven him wild with lust. Now she was pale, with dark shadows under those sparkling emerald green eyes that had bewitched him. Now, she could freeze whiskey with a glance of those witchy eyes.
“The date was fine,” he said. “And yeah…” He eyed her and gave a deliberate smirk. “The sex was safe.”
“I’m so glad for you,” she snapped, taking a step back. Which was when he realized she was barely dressed. A thin, ribbed white cotton tank top clearly outlined her small breasts, shadowy nipples prominent, and the little shorts, white with pink hearts, revealed her long, sleek legs. Oh man. He’d touched those breasts. He’d had those legs wrapped around him. His dick hardened.
She held a glass in one hand and gave the other hand a shake, drops flying off it. She muttered something he couldn’t hear.
“Spill your drink?” he asked. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
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Erotic Words Wednesday – Bared
January 20, 2010 By
This week’s selection for Erotic Words Wednesday is an excerpt from the opening chapter of Bared by Jill Shalvis.
Rafe Delacantro was in Hell and, as usual, it was a woman’s fault.
The lush, vibrant green tropical forest of Kauai surrounded him. With the hanging vines and myriad trees and bushes, not to mention the buzz of strange and exotic insects and who knew what else, the place was a virtual paradise.
But all he felt was pent-up frustration and resentment, both of which he needed to get rid of in order to make this photo shoot work. It was his last photo shoot, at least for Hollywood, and he couldn’t wait to get it done. For ten years he’d been snapping images of the rich and famous, the spoiled beauties, the upand-comers, working mostly in fashion and for magazines, making a name for himself as one of the best photographers. And it had been a good run. He was proud of all that he’d accomplished.
But at age thirty-two he was tired of the demands, of the games. Tired of being at the beck and call of people who had too much fame, too much money and not a clue as to what real life was about.
Rafe had a clue, and he wanted more of it.
Still, being a photographer defined him, so he wouldn’t – couldn’t – retire his camera entirely. After this last series of shoots, he’d use a camera for himself only, trying his hand at something other than people. Plants, landscapes, even animals – anything that couldn’t talk back, argue or con. Yeah, his retirement was well earned and it would be amazing.
As soon as this job was done – this one last favor for a good friend. It was a calendar spread, twelve months of fantasies … which, for Rafe, equaled twelve different, difficult shoots in various locales. They were working on the March page of the calendar today, and his crew stood by. The lighting seemed perfect at the moment, but given the rumbling in the sky, this would be temporary.
They really needed to get started right now, but they were missing one important, necessary element – the model.
Hence his frustration, resentment and seething temper.
Finally, just as the last of his patience vanished, she showed up, taking her sweet time sauntering through the muggy, steamy heat down the path toward the crew as if she had all day. Her eyes – a light amber color that matched her name – were hidden behind mirrored sunglasses. Amber’s hair tumbled past her shoulders free and unencumbered, as he’d requested. One thing going his way, at least. Her long, willowy body was covered by a wraparound skirt and a T-shirt, because he happened to be holding her costume in his hand. But he had no doubt that her mouthwatering form, the one that had graced many a B movie and more than her share of dubious-quality Web sites, would be perfect for what he had in mind.
[Read more...]
Erotic Words Wednesday – Colters’ Woman
June 24, 2009 By
Excerpt from Colter’s Woman by Maya Banks:
The cabin exuded masculinity. All the rooms were sparsely decorated in earth tones. The living room was dominated by the stone fireplace, and the glow spread warmth over the rustic wood floors. It was, she imagined, just as a cabin may have looked a hundred years ago.
Ethan sat at a desk several feet from the fireplace. He was concentrating on a computer screen and occasionally tapping on the keyboard. Did they have internet access here in the middle of nowhere?
She looked around for the others, but the house was silent. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the room until she stood behind Ethan.
“Ethan?” she asked, damning how quivery her voice came out.
He swiveled around in his chair and looked inquisitively at her.
“Can I ask you some questions?”
“Of course,” he replied.
He stood up and tucked her hand in his then pulled her over to the couch.
“Let’s get comfortable.”
She sank down beside him, careful to keep a safe distance from him. One touch from him and she was likely to throw herself into his arms and beg him to make love to her.
Copyright 2006 All rights reserved a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication
Description of Colters’ Woman:
Adam, Ethan and Ryan aren’t looking for women. They’re looking for a woman. One woman to share their lives and their beds. They don’t want a casual romp in the hay, they want the woman who will complete them-and they’re losing hope of finding her. That is until Adam finds Holly lying in the snow just yards from their cabin. He knows she’s different the minute he holds her in his arms. But before Adam gets his hopes up, he knows he has to gauge his brothers’ reactions. Soon it’s evident that she’s the one. There are a few problems, however-convincing her she belongs with them and keeping her safe from the man who wants her dead. Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, menage a quatre, violence.
| Click on cover for more information: |
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| Banks, Maya – Colters’ Woman |
Erotic Words Wednesday – Tequila Truth
March 11, 2009 By
This week’s selection is at the top of eBook Eros’ Top Download list. It’s a story of a woman who has had a lusty dream that comes true. No messing around – it gets right to the point!
Here’s what eBook Eros’ has to say about Tequila Truth:
One’s the loneliest number. Two’s company. Three’s a fantasy come true.
The rules of Tequila Truth are quite simple. Shots are poured, a question asked, and only absolute truth can be the answer. Kylie Halston has been playing the game with her roommates, Colt and Heath, since their freshmen year of college. On his twenty-fifth birthday, Heath poses a question: “What is your ultimate sex fantasy?” While Colt and Heath’s fantasies are too hot for words, it’s Kylie’s sex dream that hits a little too close to home for all of them. Her wish? For a menage a trois with two men, complete with bondage and a bit of spanking for good measure.
Colt and Heath are only too willing to make Kylie’s fantasies come true and they make a proposal-one no-holds-barred, sexed-up weekend where nothing is off the menu. The only question is, come Monday, will their platonic relationship survive the passion?
Warning, you will need to crank up the air conditioning before reading as this title contains all the following erotic goodies: explicit sex, menage a trois (m,f,m), anal sex, spanking, bondage, and graphic language.
eBook – Uncovering Egypt
October 21, 2008 By
Desire hot enough to reach through the ages and melt the sands of time. Jasmine Devi is eager to start digging up artifacts on a field expedition to Giza. Finding a hidden chamber and an ancient bracelet could change this Egyptologist’s life forever.
King Okpara is called through time to stop what he believes is someone stealing his former queen’s sacred jewel. When he finds the bracelet firmly attached to the wrist of a woman of impeccable beauty, his plans change. Believing Jasmine is destined to be his new queen, Okpara needs to use all of his skill to convince her to step back in time with him. In the face of Okpara’s campaign to gain her trust and cater to her innermost desires, how can Jasmine refuse?
Warning: Explicit sex, hot Egyptian men, and a unique body chamber.
eBook – Italian Stallions
October 5, 2008 By
One of the ways the Internet has revolutionized the way we do things is in our reading habits. No more do we have to be content with what is available on the bookshelves of our local book store. We now have a huge selection to chose from thanks to digital publishing. And for those of us that want to read Erotica that’s a welcome change. There’s no need to go sneaking around trying to find some “erotica” – it’s now all over the net. We can download short stories to share with a partner just before bed, or for our own enjoyment. There are series of books that follow clans, or families, or even mythical creatures.
What’s your pleasure? You can find whatever you want in Erotic eBooks. Each week I’ll pick out a new one to feature but don’t let that limit you. There’s lots and lots of outlets there where you can find good quality eBooks. This week, it’s a collection of two stories highlighting the Italian-American Male.
The swagger. The sensuality. Ya gotta love ‘em. The hottest heroes are Italian-American, and every woman knows it.
IN HIS BED by Karin Tabke — Intense and darkly handsome, Gabriel LaMotta is working an undercover FBI investigation in San Francisco-and he’s making the mob real nervous. Tough luck. They can’t hide inside a club full of pole-dancing babes. But Gabe would like to know what a demure, soft-spoken beauty like Gia Cipriani is doing there. But first he has to rescue her. Then he’ll ask the questions. And when they get behind closed doors, a high-octane attraction turns into blazing, soul-shattering sex. Gia may look innocent, but she sure knows how to show her appreciation-and set him on fire.
WILL THAT BE ALL? by Jami Alden — Vince Mattera clawed his way up from poverty to the top of the financial heap in San Francisco. The hedge fund he manages is making millions. But he still eats at the same little Italian restaurant where he always ate. The marinara is homemade, the food is real, and it doesn’t hurt that the owner just hired a spicy little brunette. But smart-mouthed Theresa Bellessi is a whole lot more than a waitress-she’s a goddess. And Vince intends to sexually worship every inch of her glorious, soon-to-be-naked body. Check, please.
