Tempting Tess When forty-five year old widow, Tess Garrity decides it’s time to re-evaluate her very stale life, she rents a charming cabin in the mountains of Ruidoso, New Mexico to think things through, little expecting her entire life is about to take a drastic turn. Oh yeah, she’s very drawn and more than a little sexually turned on by the sinfully handsome man who lives next door.   Daniel Rios is captivated by the stunning older woman who is renting his cabin just next door. She is sweet, funny, and sexy enough to make him yearn to fuck her. He wants her more than his next breath but his first order of business is getting rid of an unwanted houseguest. For Daniel, it is mission accomplished as he moves in on Tess, tempting her to take another chance on love-with him. It’s a naughty, edgy, seductive challenge he is fully prepared to take. Coming May 8, 2008 From Ellora's Cave

An Excerpt from the Book

He was the hottest man she’d even seen. Jeff had been a handsome but rather ordinary man. Their life had been one of friendship and comfort. This moment with Daniel in the middle of the night was altogether different from anything she’d ever experienced before. Intimacy was ripe in the air and Tess wanted to shy away from it. She was afraid of what this man did to her. She’d been married to the same sweet, gentle man for years but she’d never felt the sheer magnetic pull that she felt with this stranger.

It scared her to death!

The cabin was shadowy, the lighting soft and it looked like Daniel would be here for the night. What on earth was she going to do with him?

Well, actually she could think of ten or twenty things she could do with him but, uh-uh, not going there. She wasn’t one of those aggressive women who could just walk up to a guy and say, oh, um, by the way, you’re the hottest, sexiest man I’ve ever met and I want your cock plunging into my pussy. Right fucking now! I want you to bang me into the mattress until my head threatens to explode. I want you to lick my cunt until I drown you in my cream.

Shit!

Terror zipped through her veins at all these crazy thoughts. She was a mother, for Christ’s sake. She was at least a dozen years older than this hot stud. He’d laugh his ass off if he only knew what she was thinking.

Drawing her control around her, Tess struggled to regulate her breathing and went to Daniel who stood looking down into the fireplace. Tiny sparks were catching the dry wood, burning it into a delicate, cool blue mingled with hot yellow. Shadows from the growing flames seemed to dance along his torso like a sensual touch. Flicking, teasing flesh that was bronze and hard and so very tempting.

Suddenly he looked over at her as she stood there holding a wine glass in each hand. His eyes were hotter than the fire he’d built. Tess stood motionless, unable to speak.

“I want you to know something,” he said. “I met Hillary a year ago. She was vacationing here with friends and I took her to bed. For some reason, she got it in her head that I wanted more. Wanted a relationship.”

“You didn’t.”

Daniel shook his head and made a sound of disgust. “Hardly. She’s not my type. Good for a one night stand but that’s about it with a woman like that. She’s a party girl and I’ve had my fill with it. Outgrown it. That’s not what my life is about anymore.”

Tess pressed a glass into his hand, sensing his need to talk. She was a good listener. Always had been. “You told me this evening that you’re a man, not a kid. You’re right about that.”

He speared her with a glance then took a sip of the chilled wine. “Got that right. I’m into women not girls.”

“I see.” Tess looked down into the fire, watched it catch and grow. Burning, fragrant and clean.

“I doubt you do. She showed up here a few days ago, unexpectedly, making demands, talking about a future.”

“What happened?”

Daniel shrugged. “I told her I wasn’t interested in something serious with her and that I wanted her to leave tomorrow morning. I mentioned I’d met someone else and she got pissed off and left. It’s a good thing. Right after I told her to leave, she grabbed my cock through my jeans. She started stroking me, tried to get me hot for her and I pushed her hand away. Everything can’t be solved through sex.”

“Some things can,” Tess whispered, almost to herself. Her gaze shot up when she realized she’d spoken the thought aloud.

His eyes narrowed then focused on her lips for a split second. “Tess.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “God! Dumb. I don’t know where that came from. “

Daniel took her glass and set it, along with his on the mantle. He turned to face her squarely. His hands, those marvelous hard hands, settled on her shoulders. A calloused thumb traced the exposed line of her collarbone and a shiver of awareness sank deep into her bones. “You can say anything to me. Anything at all. Ask me about the woman, Tess. Ask me about the woman I met. “

She drew in a shaky breath as expectation hummed in the air. She shouldn’t ask because she already knew the answer and this answer could land her in a world of heartache. She knew what he was going to say and a whip of fear mingled with anticipation lashed wildly through her body. It couldn’t be. Things like this didn’t happen to her. The flesh between her legs throbbed like mad, moisture pooled, thick and heavy in the crotch of her panties. Muscles, little used over the past few years, pulsed to life.

“Okay. Who is she, Daniel?”

“I told her I’d met you, Tess. I told her I’d met you.”

Coming May 8, 2008 from