Who's Your Valentine?

I asked the Get Lost Crew

 ~out of all the characters they've written~

who would they choose to be their Valentine this year. 

WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
Let us know in the comments for a chance to win a $5.00 Gift Card.
~ ~ ~

JOSEPH MULCAHY

Christmas Comes to Apple Grove

Available for Purchase

Joseph is an older hero in my novella. A widower who taught his daughters to be handymen in order to take over the family business.

EXCERPT

With a clutch of daisies on the bench seat beside him, Joe drove to the cemetery. Parking his pickup, he got out and looked up at the sky. The gathering clouds parted, and the sun warmed the air around him. Maureen knew he was coming.

Looking down at her gravestone he felt the quiet descend as always. No matter how he felt when he arrived, within minutes, he’d feel tension, anger, and frustration slip away.

Kneeling, he traced her name, and the date he’d lost her. “Maureen, my love, how could so many years have passed? Some days it feels like yesterday—others, it feels like a lifetime.”

Comfortable, he sat alongside her stone and drew his knees to his chest. “Our daughters are all doing well. They’ve married good men, but you already knew that.”

Settling in for a chat, he brought her up to date on all of their grandbabies. “They would have loved you, but I know you’re keeping an extra eye on them from Heaven. Trust me our two oldest pistols, Danny and Joey, need it! They remind me of Meg when she was little. God forbid if they ever find out their mother climbed the ship’s mast in McCormack’s field and got stuck halfway to the crow’s nest—or the water tower railing.” A warm breeze blew past his cheek and he laughed. “I’d forgotten about Mr. Weatherbee’s barn roof.”

~ ~ ~

ZEKE KINNISON

The Piper

Available for Purchase

One of my most beloved heroes is Christian Ezekiel  "Zeke" Kinnison from The Piper, the Eleventh Day (12 Days of Mail Order Christmas Brides series). Zeke Kinnison exemplies integrity and honor in a hero. Loyal to the dying request of his captain, he returns the bundled of letters and a pocket watch to his widow. And though he fell in love with her while reading her letters aloud to his weary captain, he performs the requested task and leaves after a stolen kiss in the April moonlight, his heart forever dedicated to Genevieve. Until, years later, when fate brings them together for a second chance. 

Here is a taste of one of my fav scenes--both romantic and sizzling!--showing Zeke's attitude toward Genevieve--a widowed woman he'd walked away from a decade before (trust me, it's complicated!) When she first arrives in Noelle, Colorado she has no idea it's Zeke who is hiding beneath the bearded and rough mountain man exterior. But he recognizes her immediately and his world is upended. I'll also be signing The Piper at the upcoming BookloversCon in Nashville on March 21! Hope to see some of you there! Happy Valentines Day!

EXCERPT

A knock on the door brought Zeke out of his reverie. At first the tapping was gentle, but with each subsequent knock they became louder, more determined. His gaze clung to the front door. As sure as the seasons change, he knew who stood on the other side of that door. The demons he’d wrestled with for over a decade had come to roost and he was about to face the first woman he’d ever given his heart to.

~ ~ ~

WYATT JAMESON

Black Ice
Available for Purchase

My valentine this year is Wyatt Jameson, hero of Black Ice. His integrity, courage and ability to keep his cool in a crisis make him an excellent companion in the unpredictable weather conditions around Deadwood, SD. 

EXCERPT

“Evelyn Cotton,” he said as the players checked their cards. “Wow. It’s really you.”

That voice filtered through her senses, a sweet memory and brand new at the same time. Her head snapped up and she was immediately caught in a bright, laser-blue gaze. Those familiar eyes seemed to freeze time, stopping it short and pitching her backward.
Wyatt Jameson.

This was the last place on earth she’d expect to see him. Of course she’d given up on ever seeing him again, period. What had she done so wrong that fate or luck or whatever dumped him at her table? 

~ ~ ~

GRAY COVEY
The Rancher and 
the Rock Star
Available for Purchase

I took the "way back machine" to find my Valentine this year. Gray Covey is the world-famous rock star from my very first published novel. Gray not only embodies every fantasy I have about falling in love with a rock star, but he is also my perfect hero.

Gray might be a superstar, but he's also a father struggling to connect with his teenage son, a man who needs to learn what's truly important in life, and inherently romantic and kind. Watching him fall in love with his heroine, Abby Stadtler and seeing how much he was willing to learn from her about life made him one of my favorite characters. He's been the love of my writing life ever since his book was published! 

In this excerpt, Abby is concocting her signature hot chocolate--an artery-clogging "magic potion" she makes whenever there's something to celebrate. And what's a singer to do when faced with magic?

Enjoy the excerpt and check out my original series "Love From Kennison Falls."

EXCERPT

   “What’s the occasion—happy or sad?” Gray leaned in behind her, his whisper causing shivers.

   “Happy. You’re back safely.” She giggled. “My magic potion.”

   “A love potion?”

   “I said magic. Don’t get full of yourself, buster.”

   He nibbled down her neck to a point just beneath the collar of her polo shirt. First wetting the spot with his tongue, he worried at it gently with his teeth. She groaned and pushed him away. “No hickeys, the kids are home.”

   “If this were a movie, now would be the time our hero sings to the girl and changes her mind.”

   “Ooh yeah, like in an Elvis movie.” She laughed again. “Hmm, forgot about Elvis. Maybe he’s number three, and you’re number four.”

   “Nope. I’m pretty sure I’m moving up the list, not down.” He started humming, and her skin vibrated beneath his breath.

   She closed her eyes. “I always wondered where the background music came from.”

   He straightened and winked. “Be right back.”

   He returned with his guitar, a flashy Ovation acoustic, slung across his shoulders. At his first chord, a thrill dove for Abby’s stomach. Then he sang, for her alone, a slow, gravelly version of the old “Love Potion No. 9.” He trailed her around the kitchen, leering as she added the chocolate to the pan on the stove, laughing as she pulled out four mugs. The “gypsy’s pad on Thirty-Fourth and Vine,” the “turpentine,” the “India ink” . . . all the silly, novelty lyrics took on the sultry heat of a jazz love song. His fingers mesmerized her, flexing to form chords. The knuckles slipping beneath his tanned skin were as sexy as the baritone she could no longer resist.

   He sang over her shoulder while she stirred her chocolate potion, sang in her face when she backed up, giggling, against a counter, and sang as he finished with an Elvis-worthy pelvis-waggle. Abby had never seen The King move with any more heat in his hips than Gray did when he pulled the Ovation’s strap over his head and leaned the guitar against a cabinet.

   “Now Elvis kisses the girl,” he said.

   “Oh.” There was barely breath enough in her lungs to speak. “I guess you’d better follow the script.”

   His mouth devoured hers. In the back of her mind, she’d feared the singing would draw Kim’s curiosity, but when his fingers formed their chords on the skin beneath her ears, the worry faded.      When Gray’s tongue slid between her lips and more liquid drizzled into her core, she forgot to care.

He pulled from the kiss, and she moaned in protest.

   “Abby, the rain stopped,” he whispered.

   “Yes, it did.”

   “It’s only nine-thirty. I think there’s still time for that horseback ride. Now. As it gets dark.”

   “Are you serious?”

   “I want you to myself, for a couple of hours. The darkroom is too close to my son and your daughter. You told me once nighttime rides were fun.”

   “And dangerous. I mentioned that as well.”

   “I can promise you this one would be dangerous in more ways than one.”

   She knew better than to go riding off into danger and, still, her heart soared directly into its path.
~ ~ ~

WADE HAMILTON

Criminal Alliance

Available for Pre-Order

Wade has an old soul and a charmingly gorgeous smile. Secretly, he wonders if he can ever escape his past. But outwardly, he's full-on bravado. Ultimately, I'd love for him to be my Valentine because of his honor. He always keeps his word. The following is part of a scene in Therese's point of view. I love the teasing, but "get real" moment.

EXCERPT--

   “Shh.” He placed a finger across her lips. “Your boss might be listening.”

   “I feel like we’re wasting time,” she whispered back, as close to his ear as he’d been to hers.

   “I know a lot of things we can do in the dark.”

   His whisper sent one of those delicious tingles down her spine, landing in all the right spots.

   “You already passed on that, remember?”

   “Postponed,” he breathed intimately across the top of her ear.

   One word of encouragement from him and she melted in anticipation. About to give in, she came to her senses when two unknown somebodies walked past the door. “You’re right. They may be watching us. I know surveillance and security increased since you brought the building down. Literally.”

   “To be fair, I was in no shape to destroy anything.” Wade twisted her hair around his finger, trapping her ear close to his face.

   “Never mind, you know exactly what I mean.” Breathy words escaped and a gasp of expectation as his lips passed across hers once more.

   “As a matter of fact, I do,” he said louder, leaning away from her.

   “Don’t sound so surprised.” She cut an anxious giggle short, changing it to a worried tap on his shoulder. Why am I more nervous with him than the criminal I work for?

   “I am surprised.”

   “Why? This happens when two people know each other. It’s natural.”

   He laughed so hard he began to choke, coughing into his hand like a man with asthma.

   “Why is that so funny?” she asked before she laughed with him.

   “Therese, we don’t know each other.” He shook his head, laughing more. “We have this thing—believe me, it’s an attractive thing and I like it. But I don’t know if anything about you is even real.”

God, he was right. Wade Hamilton was absolutely right. He didn’t know her, but she’d kept tabs on him, researched him, knew a lot about him.

~ ~ ~

WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE?

Let us know your choice of our five heroes

in the comments for a chance to win a $5.00 Gift Card.

your host, Angi Morgan

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