Before we get to Danielle's guest post and the giveaway she's generously letting me offer to my dear followers, I want to thank Bewitching Book Tours for letting me be a part of this tour in support of
Ardeur and Danielle herself for taking time out of her busy schedule to join us her today. Get comfy now and join me in welcoming Danielle....
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Thanks for having me on the blog! I thought I’d share a scene that didn’t make it into Ardeur with everyone today.
Stretched out on their blanket, sun shining down through the canopy of leaves above them, Brody watched Ardeur. The smooth column of her throat worked as she swallowed the last of her bottled water. His body reacted instantly and he cursed himself for being a lecherous bastard.
Relax, he thought. Down boy. Dating and stuff first.
Ardy shifted to lie down beside him and snuggled into his right side. She smiled up at him, “So, question for you.”
He grinned and asked, “Are we revisiting our twenty questions session from the other day?”
“Yes,” she laughed softly. “I want to know everything about you. We’ve missed a lot of time together, Brody.”
“I know. Okay. Go ahead,” he prompted. “Ask.”
She rested her right arm over his belly and squeezed gently. “What’s your favorite movie?”
Brody thought about it for a minute. He wanted to say American Werewolf in London but decided to go one better. “Van Helsing,” he replied instead. Before she could respond, he asked, “Yours?”
He tried to resist laughing out loud and knew he’d failed miserably when she poked his side and called bullshit. She tapped one slim, manicured fingertip on her chin as she thought.
“Oddly enough, Ghost.”
Holding in a groan, he glanced down at her. Well, duh, he thought. Of course.
“Okay. What’s your favorite color?” he asked while tracing her features with his mind.
With a grin, she pointed at her shirt. Low cut and revealing way more than he wanted anyone else but him to see of her, the vermillion material clung to every curve. His wolf growled appreciatively and Brody couldn’t agree more with it.
“Silly question, baby. Red, obviously.” She brought his left hand to her lips and nipped at his knuckles. “You? Oh, and what’s your favorite food?”
His favorite color? He didn’t really have one. As for favorite food—did she count? Brody shook away the thought. That way laid danger and things she wasn’t ready for yet.
“It’s a couple of colors, I guess. I like brown, black, blue and white.”
Looking down at her again, he smiled devilishly. “As for food, now that’s a hard one,” he replied while acting like he had to think about it. “Hmm, I’d have to say tangerines.”
Purring gently in her ear, Brody smirked as the citrusy scent of her lust drifted to him. He watched her, enjoying the glazed look and obvious desire shinning in Ardy’s eyes.
“Damn,” she sighed. “Um, favorite thing of yours?”
Once again, his thoughts veered to her body and he chided himself. “Right now?” he asked and she nodded. “You. Your personality, your body… everything about you.” Sliding a hand up her thigh, he asked about her favorite season and thanked the gods for the sudden inspiration.
“Season?” She tucked her face into his neck and inhaled before replying,
“Fall. The colors are pretty, and it smells like you do. Rich, earthy and home. You?”
Brody wrapped his right arm around her and held Ardeur against him. Gods, she fit him perfectly.
“Well, Goldie. You’re all summer, and it’s a tie now with winter.” He chuckled when she huffed and continued,” You see. When I was a pup and it would snow…” Brody grinned, remembering how fun it was to roll around in the snow and chase after the flakes as they fell from the sky. “Just, it was great.” Placing a kiss on her forehead, he asked, “Favorite place?”
She brought a hand up to caress his cheek and he stared back into her eyes, noting the light gray flecks in the dark, periwinkle blue. Her thumb brushed across his cheekbone and it took everything he had not to lean up and kiss her.
“Right here, wrapped up in you,” she replied. “The tub would come a distant second.” He blinked in surprise and she smiled. “It’s a great place to think. What’s yours?”
It used to be the pack, he thought, but it didn’t feel like home anymore. Here, with her in his arms. This was where he belonged.
“Right here,” he murmured against her lips. “With you.”
Ardy opened for him and he took possession of her mouth. She kissed him back with equal passion and he growled with approval. Rolling, he settled her beneath him on the blanket.
“Goldie,” he groaned with their lips a whisper apart. He slid his hands up her thighs, kissing his way down her neck as her fingers gripped his shoulders.
Brody didn’t realize how far things had progressed until Ardeur slid her hands beneath his shirt and tugged it up to bare his stomach. He pulled back, the glow from his eyes bathing her face in soft, golden hues. Sitting back on his heels between her denim clad thighs, Brody shook himself and scrubbed a hand over his face.
“Baby? What’s wrong?” Ardeur asked. “Why’d you stop?”
Embarrassed, he gave her a reassuring smile. “Sorry. I let myself get carried away. We agreed to go slow and—yeah. I can’t promise that I’ll be able to stop if we get down to skin on skin.”
She bit her lip and he groaned internally. Gods, that simple little gesture stirred his lust up again and it took every ounce of his willpower not to damn the consequences of kissing her once more.
“Okay,” she said, and smiled. “Favorite thing to do by yourself?”
Brody laughed, settled onto the blanket beside her and pulled Ardeur back against his side. More at peace with himself than he’d felt in ages, he brushed his lips over Ardy’s hair and answered her question. The greedy bastard in his pants wasn’t happy with the change in activity but, oh well—he’d deal with the discomfort until she was ready. Silently, he prayed it was soon.
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Ardeur by Danielle Gavan
Book 1 Abbey of Angels
Born a necromancer…
Sold by parents who wanted a normal child, Ardeur Lisle now hosts a demon and was trained to be a killer for hire. As an adult possessed, dreaming of escape and of a kind face from her childhood helps keep her sane.
If she breaks free from her captors, what will this new world full of paranormal beings hold for her? Ridding herself of her demon parasite will be her first priority.
A promise kept...
Brody Callaghan never forgot the angelic blonde from his childhood. After years of military service, he swears to track down the face still haunting him from his youth.
But Brody has a furry secret of his own; one unveiled with each full moon. Will the two hold onto love with danger, deception, and an obsessed angel driving them apart?
Excerpt:
I woke up to the sound of birds chirping on my windowsill and moved to slide out of bed to shut the window. The sharp pain in my temple and the thick feeling of my tongue when I pried it from the roof of my mouth were the first indications that something had gone down while I was sleeping. You got out again, didn't you? How are you doing this?
Shadekar's snide laugh slid like oil through my head and made me wince. “Nice jammies you've got there, Sister Mary Floozy Pants.”
“Jammies? What?” My eyes turned to look downward, and I jumped at the sight of the yards and yards of pristine white cotton that covered me from the buttoned collar at my throat to the frilly trim that dangled over my toes. “How in the hell did I get into this? I know you sure as hell didn't put me in it.” I fisted my hands in the soft fabric and looked around for clues as I pulled the nightgown off and threw it in the garbage bin. “What the hell?”
My bottom was covered in the most modest pair of underpants I had ever seen. They covered me from the top of my thighs to above the dip of my belly button with even more of the virginal white cotton. The crowning insult of the entire outfit was the matronly brassiere that had my chest in a strangle hold, the likes of which none of the bras I'd ever been forced to wear could compare with.
“Ooh, baby. Now that is some sexy shit there, Blondie.”
Shade, shut up. This is your fault. Who the hell did this to me?
A pair of dark blue eyes under a fringe of unruly black hair played behind my eyes and I groaned. Shade let me see Azrael carrying my sleeping form back to my room, wave his hand over me to change the outfit I'd had on to the one I'd woken up in before he put me in bed and left quietly.
“Damn it.”
It took me all of five minutes to get dressed, brush my teeth and run down the hall. I knew that Rae would be in his office by now. I threw the solid oak door open without knocking in my hurry to find out just what he'd seen while Shade had been in control. “Rae, what the hell hap…?”
My sentence stopped abruptly as I skidded to a halt behind a tall man with cropped brown hair and the widest shoulders I'd ever seen. “Oh, sorry. You have company - I'll come back later.”
Rae leaned over to peer around his guest and smiled when he saw me.
“Afternoon Ardy, nice to see you're wearing more than what I last saw you in.” He waved at one of the chairs in front of his desk. “You might want to stick around. I think you know my guest - Brody?”
The big guy turned and I looked up into a pair of eyes I'd thought never to see again. There they were, the eyes I'd seen in my dreams every night and the dimples - oh, God. He still had the dimples and the roguish smile that had charmed me even at the tender age of six.
My right hand trembled and it rose to dart out and touch the solid chest that was level with my face. “Oh, shit. You're real.”
Brody's laugh at my comment was rich, husky and warm like the whisky that I had the night before. His own hand, so much bigger and more tanned than my own pale one, came up and caught mine before I could snatch it back. “I'm real and damn happy to have finally found you, again.”
“Again, what?” I looked up at him, confusion clouding the blue of my eyes. “You found me before?”
Azrael rose from his chair and rounded the hand carved oak desk. “I'll leave you two to catch up. There are a few things I need to, um, yeah. I'm just going to go.”
If either of us heard Rae leave, we showed no sign of it. We stared at each other, mesmerized by the fact that we were finally together again.
“I brought your bag.” Brody held up the tattered and patched up satchel that had carried everything I owned for the last seven years.
It took a moment of confused blinking before I realized what he was talking about and was able to form a coherent thought. “I, um. How did you get it?”
He deposited the bag on the chair next to me and then reached to take my other hand inside of his large one. I couldn't help but look down at our hands and notice the differences between us, the obvious ones and the not so obvious, before I pulled my hands free and stepped back out of touching range. It wasn't because I didn't want him touching me; I just never allowed anyone to touch me, ever.
Brody was dark where I was light, callused where I was soft, and relaxed when I was freaked out despite being thrilled to see him. I opened myself up a bit to taste his energy and what I found had me stumbling back to look up at him, eyes gone wide with wonder. Whatever he was hiding behind the broad shouldered all-American boy looks had eyes that glowed gold when it had looked back at me.
“What are you?”
His eyes flashed gold at my question and then I knew. I felt warm fur brush across my skin and the scents of the forest blew over my senses. “Werewolf?”
“Yep. Just like the rest of my family.” He sat down in the empty chair and smiled up at me before reaching out to take my left hand in his. “Sit with me, please? I'll explain what I meant about finding you again.”
My denim-covered ass parked itself in the chair my bag was in and I pulled my hand from his. I reached back to jockey the bag around so I'd have more room to keep my trembling hands out of Brody's. I took advantage of the distraction to settle my emotions and smooth my frayed nerves before turning around to face him once more. “Okay, explain.”
He leaned forward, elbows on knees and let his hands hang loosely between us. I knew he was giving me the option to take them or not and he was going to be disappointed because I wouldn't, couldn't touch him back. I wanted to, so much, but the fear of rejection ran deep. Shade had been successful in that endeavor. I would never be comfortable with anyone touching me.
“Do you recall much about what happened just before your accident? Maybe someone was calling out for you to stop?”
I nodded, the events before the BMW slammed into me replayed in my mind.
“That was me. The voice that tried to stop you from running out in front of that car was mine. I'm the one who called the ambulance and took care of you before it arrived. I stood outside the hospital every damned day while you were there, praying to a God that I don't believe in that you'd be okay.” He turned his face up toward mine and caught my eyes with his own golden ones. “If I hadn't had that bag of yours, I'd have never known to go see Dr. Martals or how to find you after you disappeared from the hospital.”
The mention of my doctor's name snapped my attention into focus. I pulled my bag around to my lap and ripped it open in search of the notebook that held the details of my life. It was the only place he could have found information about Celine and - oh, shit. “How much of this did you read?”
He at least had the decency to blush before responding that he'd read most of it and had seen that I'd remembered him throughout the years.
“Even my birthdays. Why?”
“You were the only person who was ever nice to me; the only person in twenty five years to show me something other than contempt, disgust or fear.” Brody reached out to take my hand in his and I scooted back in my chair, the wooden legs scraping against the hardwood floor. I stood and hedged toward the door. “I'm sorry, Brody. I've been looking forward to seeing you again since that last time in school but, I can't. I'm too afraid that you'll reject me too once you know what I am.”
The doorknob was in my hand before I knew it and I was out the door, running down the hall without hearing the words that he spoke next.
“I know what you are and I'm okay with it.”
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About the Author:
Danielle Gavan lives in Ontario, Canada with her husband and their two sons. Danielle has been writing since she was in middle school.
She loves a good book and is usually found with her nose in one. She has an extensive list of them on her book pile. When she's not writing or reading, Danielle keeps herself busy editing, designing book covers and baking.
Her guilty pleasures are her favorite television shows Bones, House and Hawaii Five-0. Danielle welcomes email and you may contact her at danielle@rhpublishing1.com. You can also find her hanging out on the forum she shares with Jennifer Feuerstein. The Crowded Minds is a great place to relax and have a little fun.
Find Danielle on the web:
http://www.daniellegavan.net
http://dgavan.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/DanielleGavan
http://www.facebook.com/danielle.gavan
http://everythingerotic.blogspot.com/
http://thedigitaldigest.blogspot.com/
******GIVEAWAY******
The giveaway is for an ebook copy, winner's choice, of Ardeur, Cursed, Tarnished Tiaras or UnWrapped.
- This is for INTERNATIONAL entrants. Everyone can enter.
- Leave a comment with your email address included to make contacting the winner easier.
- Winner will be chosen using Random.org
- Giveaway ends on Sept. 21st at 11:59 pm.
- Winner will be notified by email, and announced on this blog, and will have 48 hours to respond before an alternate winner is chosen.
