RACHEL LEE
Letter from the Author:Dear Friends,
This is a truly exciting year for me. I'm publishing three books very close to my heart.
First and foremost is a long awaited reprint of MISS EMMALINE AND THE ARCHANGEL. It will be included in a two-book volume along with IRONHEART, and will be titled A CONARD COUNTY HOMECOMING. So many of you have written to me to tell me you're having a terrible time finding MISS EMMA, so it's a real delight to say that it will be available in July.
In June, from Warner Books, will be BEFORE I SLEEP, a novel of suspense and high romance. Five years ago, radio talk show host Carey Justice was a young prosecutor who helped send and innocent man to death row. The trial, and all her concerns about it, helped end her relationships with Detective Seamus Rourke. But now Carey receives word that the man she helped convict has been given an execution date. She has just three weeks to find proof of his innocence, and she turns to Seamus, the only man who can help her. But Seamus has ghosts of his own....
Excerpt from BEFORE I SLEEP: She followed him, feeling a mixture of things she didn't care to identify. Feeling anything about Seamus Rourke was like testing a tooth that ached. There was no telling when the wrong touch might cause unbearable pain to flare.
At the door he turned to say good night, but he never spoke the words. Their eyes met and something shifted in the air, making it electric like the calm before the storm.
He felt it, too; she could see it in the way his pupils dilated and his face seemed to take on a drowsy expression that had nothing to do with sleep.
Her heart began to beat heavily and her mouth opened slightly. No, said some sane portion of her mind. Don't do this. Don't let this happen. The pain had nearly torn her apart last time. Hell, she'd hardly even dated for fear of an involvement that could cause her that kind of pain again.
Now here she was, her entire body suddenly straining toward Seamus as if she were a flower and he the sun she so desperately needed.
But desire was spiraling deep within her, building a whirlpool that was about to draw her in. Heaviness was filling her limbs, making her feel soft and pliant, and the screaming protests of her common sense seemed far away and muffled, and unimportant.
And he hadn't done a thing except look at her with that slumberous expression she remembered all too vividly. That look had always been a promise of exquisite pleasure and complete forgetfulness, a call to join him in another world where no one and nothing existed except the two of them. It had always been a promise that for a little while she would be the center of his universe, everything else forgotten.
But only for a little while. That hard-learned lesson held her back now, hovering over the whirlpool of need that was making her throb in every cell.
Afterwards, memory always returned, and she was always once again the forbidden fruit, the sin he shouldn't have committed, the pleasure he didn't deserve. How many times had she seen that transformation grip him, turning him from ardent, laughing lover into guilty widower?
She couldn’t bear the pain again.
She started to turn away, to save herself. At least she thought she did. She felt the muscles tense in preparation, even though her feet, glued to the floor, didn't move at all.
But before she could escape, before she could even try to, he reached out and drew her into his arms.
She was lost then. In an instant she weakened, grew pliable, rediscovering the warm, soft place deep inside her than only he could reach. Everything else slipped away but her awareness of him and how he made her feel.
His chest was hard yet welcoming, and she fit against him with a comfort that she had felt with no one else. It was as if their bodies were matching pieces of a puzzle.
And the strength of his arms around her back answered some long-buried yearning, filling an emptiness—and making her feel safer than she had felt since the last time he had held her this way.
"Carey..." He barely whispered her name, then bent his head and covered her mouth in a deep kiss that wasted no time heading straight for her soul.
Her palms spread on his back, feeling his heat and strength through the thin layer of cotton, and her hips instinctively sought to press against his. And today and yesterday and tomorrow all slipped away as she spun dizzily into a maelstrom of need.
"God, I’ve missed you..." His words were husky, broken as he lifted his mouth from hers and dragged air into his lungs. "Carey..."
Her name on his lips had sometimes sounded like a curse, but right now it sounded like a prayer. She dug her fingers into his back, hanging on for dear life, wondering how she could have survived for so long without this wild, heady, warm feeling he gave her. How could she have forgotten...
His mouth covered hers again, his tongue took possession of its hot, wet depths, driving away thought. His hands stroked her back, memorizing her slender contours, awakening nerve endings to forgotten pleasure, fueling the heavy ache between her thighs.
More...oh, she needed so much more! Impatient anticipation gripped her, causing her to hold her breath in hope that his hands would move to touch her aching breasts, or to draw her up more tightly against him. Every cell in her body was aching with the need for more and more...
And suddenly an icy tendril of fear wormed its way into her awareness, freezing her.
What was she doing?
Her hands gripped his shoulders and shoved, tearing her away from him. Breathless, aching, hunched almost as if she expected a blow, she stared at him and said hoarsely, "No...no..."
His hands had already begun to reach for her again, but they froze in midair. He closed his eyes, drew several deep, ragged breaths, then nodded.
When he looked at her again, she could see hurt, disappointment and yearning. But she could also see determination.
"Good night," he said, and walked out, closing the door behind him.Copyright © 1999 Rachel Lee
And finally, in September, there will be an all-new Conard County book. Titled CONARD COUNTY: BOOTS AND BADGES, it includes four stories. When one woman seeks refuse in the small Wyoming town, four resourceful residents are drawn into the suspense that shadows this desperate stranger's life: A dedicated doctor. A courageous nurse. A valiant schoolteacher. As they all come in contact with this woman on the run, they find themselves entwined in a mystery, touched by unexpected love...and participants in the grandest wedding Conard County has ever seen.I hope all these books bring you as much pleasure in the reading as they brought me in the writing!
Sincerely,
Rachel Lee (a.k.a. Sue Civil-Brown)
June 1999
Mail: Rachel Lee, c/o Cornerstone Literary Agency,
4500 Wilshire Blvd, Second Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90010E-mail: Rachel_Lee@poboxes.com
Web site: http://www.rachellee.com
Backlist:
Published as Rachel Lee:
Published as Sue Civil-Brown:From Berkley Books:
SECRET VALENTINES (Anthology)
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN*
*MISTLETOE KISSES (Reissue)
SERIOUS RISKS
DEFYING GRAVITY
EXILE'S END
CHEROKEE THUNDER
MISS EMMALINE AND THE ARCHANGEL**
IRONHEART**
**A CONARD COUNTY HOMECOMING (Reissue)
IMMINENT THUNDER
LOST WARRIORS
POINT OF NO RETURN
THUNDER MOUNTAIN
LOVERS DARK AND DANGEROUS (Anthology)
A QUESTION OF JUSTICE
COWBOY COP
DESTINATION: CONARD COUNTY
A CONARD COUNTY RECKONING
NIGHTHAWK
COWBOY COMES HOME
THE CATCH OF CONARD COUNTY
A FATEFUL CHOICE
CAUGHT
From Avon Books:
 |
 |
E-mail: bookbug@oocities.com
