Who says you can't go home again? In Urban Renewal a movie star tries to rekindle a lost love in this emotional and gutwrenching story. Keep reading to get a glimpse into this book and make sure to visit the other blogs hosting this tour who are listed here to learn even more about this book. Don't forget to fill out the rafflecopter form below for your chance to win a copy of this book.....
Movie star Mercedes Montague has it all – the fame, the fortune, and the glittering celebrity lifestyle. But she lost herself somewhere along the way. On a publicity tour for her next movie she realizes she’s just fifty miles from her hometown. Mercedes – real name Marie Dillard – decides to bolt and go home to see if she can find what’s left of herself. Hiding away in her grandparents’ old home in a working class neighborhood she’s haunted by memories and reminders of her first and only love, Joe Shelby.
Marie’s stunned when Joe shows up at her door. Passion kindles between them from the first moment their eyes meet but she won’t let it consume her unless it’s going to include a lasting love. As they renew their relationship, Marie and Joe face many struggles.
Can a movie star return to reality or is love just a distant dream?
Can a movie star return to reality or is love just a distant dream?
EXCERPT:
Shifting shadows cast by the streetlights and passing vehicles danced on the wall of Marie’s bedroom as Joe undressed her with slow hands. He took his time, unhurried, and his fingers lingered to caress her skin. Her skin became ultra-sensitive, responsive to the slightest stroke. Anticipation rippled across her flesh with delicious delight and a wild sense of intoxication swept over her. Marie hadn’t had anything to drink but she experienced the same high rush, drunk on Joe’s physical presence.
She raked her fingers across his bare back and adored the sound he made, not quite a grunt or a moan. He retaliated by caressing her breasts and burying his face against them. She had known his body once and although a few years of wear showed, it hadn’t changed much as Marie explored it. Her hands followed the curve of his hip, the cleft between his legs as if she were blind.
Joe traced the outline of her ribs with one finger, tantalizing and ticklish. “You’re too damn skinny,” he said as his fingers touched bone just below the skin. “But you’re sexy as hell anyway.”
“Shut up and kiss me,” Marie replied, the line an old one from their past. In their earliest attraction period, Joe teased her unmercifully and she would often snap at him, “Shut up,” but she never wanted him to quit. He hadn’t.
“Your wish is my command, movie star princess,” Joe told her, laughter in his voice.
From the moment his mouth touched hers, she burned with fire. His hot lips melted her body into pliant wax, his to do whatever he wished. Joe kissed her with the same slow nonchalance, no hurry, and his indolence drove her wild. The more she ached for release, the harder Marie coveted wildness, the slower Joe became and the more deliberate.
Every sense came to attention as high voltage desire increased through Marie, her body arcing with want and need. Marie’s desire amplified each noise; his soft grunts and the sound of their flesh against naked skin. With her head against Joe’s chest to nibble, to offer what they used to call a hickey, Marie heard the steady sound of his heartbeat. Despite the dimness in the room she saw Joe’s nude body with perfect clarity, his pale skin silhouetted against the dark as if illuminated. She supposed he could see her just as well. His taste lingered on her tongue and his masculine aroma, three parts just Joe and one part men’s cologne, filled her nose, heady as a love charm. Marie marveled at the sensation beneath her fingertips whether she touched the smooth skin of his back or the tight curly hair surrounding his balls.
Her love marks bruised his chest but not where it would show and as he fondled her, Joe talked. She didn’t always listen but Marie enjoyed the sound of his voice in her ears, loving and familiar. He paused on her lower right side and his fingers traced the scar there.
“You had your appendix out after you left here, didn’t you?” he asked as if it mattered. It didn’t, though, nothing counted but this moment and the love between them.
“Uh-huh,” she answered, distracted. “It was a long time ago. Forget about it.”
Joe said something but she didn’t hear it as sensations claimed her. He knelt on the floor and his hand caressed her mound, his fingers straying into her inner sanctum. Joe’s touch delivered pleasure but it increased her need. “Ohhh!” she cried, arching her back as the spirals of pleasure scalded her body. “Joe, do it!”
In an odd little voice, part of a game they used to play, he said, “All in good time, my pretty, all in good time.”
Until he backed her up against the bed where she’d slept since childhood Marie thought she might die of want. Sexual tension built between them, as potent and volatile as a brewing storm. She didn’t remember lying down or know if she toppled onto the bed or what but once she knew she had a mattress beneath her, she writhed into position. Her legs scissored around his torso and locked tight as he lowered himself onto her.
“Do you want me, Marie?” Joe asked, the first man to use her real name during sex in decades, maybe the only one who ever did.
“Yes, yes, yes!”
As her hands reached upward to grasp his shoulders, Joe grabbed them and held them as he entered her in one swift, strong motion. He filled her and as her body quivered with impact Marie clenched her inner walls to tighten around him, to stroke. His wordless outcry of pure joy encouraged her to do it again and then again. In his reaction Joe let loose her hands and she grabbed him, holding on tight. Their bodies bucked against one another in a harsh battle, a sweet dance, and a tender expression of love all in one.
In the last moments her nails clawed his back and she screeched, guttural and hoarse. Joe kissed her, this time with the savagery she craved and when they came together, bodies in unison, both mouths and genitals were locked together. Wonderful physical bliss suffused Marie and at the final moment, her vision exploded crimson.
After they quit shuddering and their breath returned to an even pace Marie curled up in the circle of his arms. As teenaged lovers she dreamed of such a moment but they never had a chance. Ma wouldn’t have stood for it in her house and so their intimacy remained within the confines of Joe’s car or a blanket spread beneath a tree in a hidden nook at the park. They breathed together as if they remained one body, minds in sync.
BUY LINKS: AMAZON | ARe | BOOKSTRAND
AUTHOR INFO:
Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy writes romance about everyday people often caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Her titles range from contemporary to historical to time travel and sometimes stray into the paranormal. She is a native of the historic city of St. Joseph, Missouri, a jumping off spot for countless wagon trains in the days of the old west and where outlaw Jesse James met his death. She now lives in a small Ozark town in what passes for the suburbs. As a member of Romance Writers of America, Missouri Writers Guild, and the Ozark Writers League, Lee Ann pens a weekly column for the local newspaper. She has served on the local library board and arts council. As a member of the Rebel Elite team, her upcoming releases will shift to exclusive Rebel in 2013. Lee Ann is also one of the short list of Rebel authors named Best of 2012. She was also among the Best of 2011. She’s married with three children and one spoiled Jack Russell terrier.
EMAIL | WEBSITE | BLOG | TWITTER | FB (PERSONAL PAGE) | FB (AUTHOR PAGE) | AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE | GOODREADS
**********GIVEAWAY**********
a Rafflecopter giveaway
No comments:
Post a Comment