After a serious crash in competition, ski patrol leader Seri Lohan, a Super G gold medalist, will never compete again. Chad Jenkins, next year’s hope for another downhill gold for the U.S., is seriously injured on Seri’s patrol watch, and she volunteers to take care of him.
Years ago, Chad broke her heart. She’s determined not to let him do so again, but, trapped with him in a chalet by a blizzard, all the old sensual tensions and longings emerge. Chad, however, desperately needs Seri's help and isn’t above using seduction as a means to keep her with him.
If Seri succumbs to Chad's advances, what will it do to her relationship with the man who’s asked her to marry him? And more importantly, what will it do to her heart?
To lure the killer of two women into the open, and find evidence of illegal gun sales by the owner of Pinky’s Club, ATF sends Special Agent Karin Woodhall undercover as an exotic dancer. Unfortunately, Angelo, her back up, finds her too sensual to resist.
Anguished over her safety in the seedy world of bikers, drugs, and weapons, Angelo demands she withdraw from the job. Karin adamantly refuses, setting up a tension between them that heightens the danger as they work this assignment.
Passion, whether in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius, on a historic rancho, in the Middle East or an ordinary American town, makes slaves of us all...
Previously available only in electronic format, these steamy stories of erotic romance have now been combined—due to popular demand—for a paperback edition! Included are the tales... .
Sweet Chocolate Ecstasy totters on the brink of bankruptcy, and owner Madison Ruhl struggles to save it. The candy shop is the fulfillment of her childhood wish to be a chocolatier in her own shop, and Madison fights for it not only for herself, but to save the jobs of two young college students who work for her.
There’s a $15,000 prize for ribbon candy design at the annual candy makers convention, and she risks all by paying the large fee to enter. Sexy, tattooed Craig Winslow, the stranger she’s hired as her designer, comes riding into her life on a Harley. Her attraction to him is immediate. At the same time, a darkly sensual prince enters her life—through her dreams. Madison’s torn between the hot, seductive passion of the two men, who each offer solutions to Sweet Chocolate Ecstasy.
But neither man is who he appears to be. Each has a secret that promises ruination...
When pediatrician Elizabeth Michaels, signs up to travel to a Middle Eastern country for a brief stint with an Across Borders Physicians team, she has no idea her visit will expose her to danger and offer her love. Confronted by agents from the C.I.A. and ordered to secretly accompany a wounded person out of the country, she has no choice but to consent. No other American physician will be in that part of the country.
Shocked to find her assignment is not a child but one of the most handsome men she’s ever seen, she wrestles with the ethics of her profession—acting on romantic feelings for a patient is absolutely forbidden.
When Special Agent Shir Mansouri regains consciousness, he looks into the most beautiful eyes he’s ever seen on a woman. Her confidence and competence as she manages his injuries, her body as he surreptitiously watches her undress, stir things deep in his belly and his heart. Cursing his weakness, he will nevertheless guard her with his life.
But when danger rears its dragon head, he finds himself torn between Nation and self.
Five years after their college friendship ended in bitterness, Paige Matheson and John “Tap” Tappingham meet unexpectedly on a summer excavation in the ancient city of Pompeii, Italy.
Paige has survived a nasty love affair, but still suffers from career burnout. Eager to try new things in new places and return home refreshed, she’s excited about exploring Southern Italy, working a dig for the first time, and taking art lessons. The seductive, classical art of Pompeii, with its erotic visions, awakens her senses and primes her for love.
Ostensibly, Tap is the dig’s bookkeeper, but he’s really on a dangerous secret mission. He knows he should stay away from Paige to protect her, but in the shadow of the sleeping giant Vesuvius, long-repressed emotions ignite between them. They can’t hold back their feelings.
True to his fears, danger strikes like an adder lying in wait. Will he and Paige survive? And if they do, will their love evolve into something more than a sensual summer fling?
Carolina Valdez, author of the popular Amber Heat Wave winner Dark Stranger, returns with another story of passions denied and budding love.
The award-winning writer composed her first stories at the age of eight. That was about the time Santa left the first books she had in her home-abridged versions of the Wizard of Oz for children. She has happy memories of trips to used bookstores with her mother to locate and buy the full versions when she was ten or twelve.
Captivated by the odd characters and their adventures, Carolina wrote a letter to L. Frank Baum, the author. Ruth Plumly Thompson replied, enclosing a map of the Kingdom of Oz. Sadly, the letter and map have disappeared over the years, but the love of writing and creating her own fictional worlds have remained. Carolina has a collection of Oz books, one of which, given to her by her mother when it was new, has recently been appraised at $350.
Carolina has more than sixty publications to her credit, ranging from children's stories to articles in professional journals. A public health nurse with an advanced university degree, she won RN magazine's First Award for Writing, and has been published also in the American Journal of Nursing. She was a Guideposts Writers Workshop and Guideposts Reunion Workshop winner, and her work has appeared in that periodical and several Daily Guideposts books. Among her other wins are the Soul-Making Literary Prize for Essay, the Marjorie Davis Roller Award for non-fiction, Della Crowder Memorial and Millenium awards for poetry, and the Norman E. and Marjorie J. Roller first prize for a story about a horse that can float on water.
She contributed (under the name Carol Holman) to Mean Girls Grow Up, a book regarding adult female relational aggression due for release in August 2005.
Dark Stranger is her first venture into sensual romance. Her first attempt into the murder genre can be read on-line at Mysterical-E.
Among her current projects are two contemporary novels—a romance set in the U.S. and Ireland, and a suspense set in South Pasadena, California.
Valdez is a member of the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime/Los Angeles, and The National League of American Pen Women, Inc., in Letters.
She resides with her husband in sunny Southern California.
When Diana Waters attends her first Mardi Gras masked ball in New Orleans, she has no inkling she’ll be spun back in time to the Dark Ages on a carousel manipulated by a jealous witch. She also has no clue her new lover, Lance Davison, costumed as a black knight, is in, actuality, a powerful wizard.
Lance follows Diana back in time, not only to protect her, but to save his brother’s castle holdings and break the curse cast upon him by the evil wizard Mardroc.
Will Diana and Lance be able to survive their journey into the portal to darkness, where deadly griffins and giant, spider-like creatures pursue them at every step? Or will they discover a way to destroy their ruthless enemies and return to the present day, unscathed and with their love firmly intact?
Their passion melts the sand to glass on the surfing beaches of southern California, but she’s a billionaire’s daughter and he’s the son of a plumber. Aching to be loved for herself, and not her father’s money, Keegan O’Neil has assumed a false identity.
Before she can reveal who she really is, however, Hunter Ingram, the man who’s unlocked her body and captured her heart, finds out her true identity in the most unexpected way. Shocked and hurt, Hunter disappears.
Will Keegan ever find him again? And if she does, can their love survive her deception?
