With This Kiss (40 page)

Yes, I’m a gardener and I live at Frog Crossing. In England, my original home, we tend to name our houses, and the habit lives on for me. Some say I should have gone for Toad Hall, but enough said about them.

Things magical, mystical, otherworldly, enchanting—or terrifying—have occupied my storytelling mind since I was a child. Does this have anything to do with gardening? Yes. Nighttime in a garden, alone, is the closest I can come to feeling connected to the very alive world that exists in my mind. Is it the underworld? I don’t think so. It is the otherworld, and that’s where anything is possible.

At night, in that darkness, I feel not only what I remember from the day, but all sorts of creatures moving around me and going through their personal dramas. I hear them, too. True, I’m the one pulling the strings for the action, but that’s where the stories take root, grow, and spread. This is my plotting ground.

In DARKNESS BOUND, things that fly through tall trees feature prominently. Werehound Niles Latimer and widowed, mostly human, Leigh Kelly are under attack from every quarter by fearsome elements bent on tearing them apart. If their bond becomes permanent and they produce a child, they can destroy a master plan to take control of the paranormal world.

The tale is set on atmospheric Whidbey Island in the Pacific Northwest, close to the small and vibrant town of Langley, where human eyes see nothing of the battle waged around them. But the unknowing humans play an important part in my sometimes dark, sometimes lighthearted, sometimes serious, a little quirky, but always intensely passionate story.

Welcome to DARKNESS BOUND,

Ahh. With QUINN I get to begin another family saga of love, laughter, and danger, all set on a sprawling ranch in Wyoming, in the shadow of the Grand Tetons. What
could be more fun than this? As I’m fond of saying, I just love a rugged cowboy.

There is something about ranching that, despite all its hard work, calls to me. Maybe it’s the feeling that farmers, ranchers, and cattlemen helped settle this great nation. Maybe it’s my belief that there is something noble about working the land, and having a special connection to the animals that need tending.

Quinn is all my heroes wrapped into one tough, rugged cowboy. As the oldest of three boys, he’s expected to follow the rules and always keep his brothers safe, especially with their mother gone missing when they were children. In tune with the land he loves, he’s drawn to the plight of wolves and has devoted his life to researching them and to working the ranch that has become his family’s legacy. He has no need for romantic attachments… well, until one woman bursts into his life.

Fiercely independent, Cheyenne O’Brien has been running a ranch on her own, since the death of her father and brother. Cheyenne isn’t one to ask for help, but when an unknown enemy attacks her and her home, she will fight back with everything she has, and Quinn will be right by her side.

To me, Cheyenne is the embodiment of the Western woman: strong, adventurous, willing to do whatever it takes to survive—and still very much a beautiful, soft-hearted, vulnerable woman where her heart is concerned.

I loved watching
the sparks
fly between Quinn and Cheyenne.

As a writer, the thrill is to create another fascinating family and then watch as they work, play, and love, all
the while facing up to the threat of very real danger from those who wish them harm.

I hope you’ll come along to share the adventure and enjoy the ride with my new Wyoming Sky trilogy!

When my husband I were first married, one of our favorite things to do was to go away for a romantic weekend together at a historic inn. We loved to stay at old inns (the Sagamore on Lake George in the Adirondacks), or windswept inns on the Pacific Ocean (the Coronado in San Diego), or majestic inns made of stone in the middle of a seemingly endless meadow (the Ahwahnee in Yosemite Valley). Now that we’ve got two very active kids, we have slightly different requirements for our getaways, which are more boisterous and slightly less romantic… although I have to say our kids put up with “Mommy and Daddy are kissing again” pretty darn well! Fortunately, my husband and kids know that my favorite thing
is afternoon tea, and my husband and son don’t at all seem to mind being the only males in frilly rooms full of girls and women in pretty dresses.

As I sat down to write the story of Rebecca and Sean in WITH THIS KISS, I immediately knew I wanted it to take place in the inn on Emerald Lake. With those pictures in my head of all the inns I’ve stayed at over the years, I knew not only what this inn looked like, but also the many love stories that had been born—and renewed—there over the years. What’s more, I knew the inn needed to be a large part of the story, and that the history in those walls around my hero and heroine would be an integral part of the magic of their romance. Because when deeply hidden secrets threaten to keep Rebecca and Sean apart despite the fireworks that neither of them can deny, the truth of what happened in the inn so many years ago is finally revealed.

I so enjoyed creating my fantasy inn on Emerald Lake, and I hope that as you’re reading WITH THIS KISS, even if you aren’t able to get away for a romantic weekend right this second, for a few hours you’ll feel as if you’ve spent some time relaxing… and falling in love.

Happy reading,

Who hasn’t wished for a fresh start at some point in their lives? I know I have. The urge became particularly keen when I was starting high school in Connecticut. Not that it was a terrible place to grow up, but an awkward phase combined with a pack of mean girls eager to point out every quirk and flaw had left their scars. Left me wishing I could go somewhere new, where I could meet all new people. People who wouldn’t remember the braces (complete with headgear!), the unibrow, the glasses (lavender plastic frames!), and the time my mom tried to perm my bangs with disastrous results.

In RUN FROM FEAR, Talia Vega is looking for a similar fresh start. Granted, the monsters from her past are a bit more formidable than a pack of snotty twelve-year-olds, and the scars she bears are physical as well as emotional. But like so many of us, all she really wants is a fresh start, a new life, away from the shadows of her past.

But just as I was forced to sit in class with peers who remembered when I had a mouth full of metal and no idea how to wield a pair of tweezers, Talia Vega can’t outrun the people unwilling to let her forget everything she’s tried to leave behind. Lucky for her, Jack Brooks, the one man who has seen her at her absolute lowest point, will do anything to protect her from monsters past and present.

And even though I got my own fresh start of sorts
when I moved across the country for college, I sure wish someone had been around to protect me from my mother and her Ogilvie home perm kit. I don’t care what the commercial says—you CAN get it wrong!