WYOMING WIFE?—a conversation with Jace and Samantha

Harlequin has reissued 16 of my backlist titles in ebook. Today I'm talking with Jace Tremayne and Samantha Burkett about WYOMING WIFE?, a Silhouette Desire originally released in print and currently available as a Harlequin Desire in ebook.

Hello Samantha and Jace. Welcome to my blog.

Jace:  Thanks for inviting us.

Samantha:  It's nice to be here.

Jace, you raise cattle in Wyoming on a ranch that has been in your family for several generations. Samantha, you were an efficiency expert working for a consulting firm in Los Angeles. That seems about as opposite as you can get. How in the world did the two of you meet?

Jace:  I was up in my helicopter checking the outlying areas of my ranch for damages and problems following the first wave of an early season snowstorm. The second wave was closing in on me and I had just made a wide turn to head back to the house and barn before the winds forced me down and I ended up stranded in the back pasture. That's when I spotted this car on the road stuck in a snowdrift.

Samantha:  Never in my life had I been so startled, frightened, and cold all at the same time. This helicopter suddenly appeared from out of nowhere and landed on the road. The pilot ran over to my car, threw me over his shoulder, then carried me back to his helicopter without saying a word. There I was…strapped into the seat with not even a door between me and the wild blue yonder, no winter coat and the icy cold wind cutting through my silk pants suit, and no idea where he was taking me.

What was someone from Los Angeles, inappropriately dressed for the place and weather, doing on a country road in Wyoming stuck in the snow?

Jace:  LOL. That was my exact question once we got back to the ranch house.

Samantha:  Well…(embarrassed chuckle) it was definitely not one of my finer moments. I had flown from Los Angeles to Denver to surprise my fiancé. It turned out that I was the one surprised when…uh…well, I caught him in bed with another woman. Needless to say, I was devastated over the betrayal. I started driving my rental car without any thought about where I was going and ended up lost and stuck in a snowdrift.

It sounds as if you were truly a fish out of water, so to speak. A big city girl living in Los Angeles with a corporate job who dresses in silk pantsuits suddenly on a cattle ranch in Wyoming in the middle of a blizzard. What in the world could the two of you possibly have found in common?

Samantha:  We obviously had nothing in common, yet I still felt this undeniable attraction to him. Not just his rugged good looks, either. I had never met anyone like him. Straight forward, confident, not feeling a need to impress others. He was comfortable and content with his life and his place in the order of things. Something I had never felt.

Jace:  (took her hand) Probably why you chose the career you did…a drive to be perfect in an imperfect world, to seek perfection in spite of the fact that no one is perfect.

So, while you were stranded together, how did you work out your differences?

Jace:  My live-in housekeeper/cook was away visiting her daughter. Her son is my ranch foreman. I had lost my…my wife had died a couple of years earlier and…well, Samantha did her best to help out but it immediately became obvious that in the kitchen anything more difficult than putting something in a microwave was out of her realm of expertise. I showed her how to gather eggs from the hen house, thinking it was a simple task anyone could handle, but it turned out that she was afraid of the chickens.

Samantha:  They had scary mean eyes! LOL It was truly a jolting experience to my sense of reality. As someone who thought she could accomplish anything by simply studying the problem and finding the most efficient solution, I ended up frustrated by everything around me.

What happened? Was there a specific incident for each of you? A moment in time when two people who seemingly had nothing in common realized that each was the person the other had been searching for? The one you wanted to spend the rest of my life with?

Jace:  A single moment?

Samantha:  A specific incident?

Jace/Samantha:  No, nothing like that.

LOL…well you both seem to agree on that. So what happened?

Jace:  You mean besides her disastrous attempts at making the type of hearty breakfast a rancher needs before spending the day working outdoors in a blizzard? Coffee…weak coffee, at that…and a slice of toast don't get the job done. (shoots sly grin at Samantha) We won't even go into what she did with dinner.

Surely there must have been moments where you found some common ground.

Samantha:  All things considered, he was extremely patient with my many blunders. Talk about being a fish out of water. Everything around me was so foreign to my life's experience. And the people…they were exactly what they appeared to be. No pretenses or phoniness. Emotionally, it frightened me. But other than some angry outbursts from Jace…which were totally justified…he was—

Jace:  (taking Samantha's hand) It's all in the book.

Samantha:  Exactly.

Thank you, Jace and Samantha, for joining me today.

WYOMING WIFE?, a Silhouette Desire by Shawna Delacorte reissued in ebook format. Available at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com (do search for author name Shawna Delacorte). Also available from Amazon for Kindle and Barnes & Noble for Nook as well as other online vendors.

Check my website for additional excerpts from WYOMING WIFE? and for information about my other Harlequin reissues.  www.shawnadelacorte.com

Blurb:

SNOWBOUND WITH A WYOMING COWBOY

Samantha Burkett knew microwave meals, rush-hour gridlock and men in three-piece suits. But an ill-fated trip to Wyoming in the midst of a blizzard set her reality on its ear….

Jace Tremayne had literally swooped down from the big sky to save her life. The rugged, tautly muscled rancher hadn't taken no for an answer, flinging her over his shoulder and flying her by copter to his remote ranch to wait out the worst of the storm. But close quarters with this irresistible cowboy showed Samantha how truly different their worlds were. And how completely Jace rocked hers….

But could she ever be content as this man's Wyoming wife?

Inside front cover excerpt:

"You do know that you'll have to stay here overnight, don't you? Maybe even longer."

Anxiety flitted around inside Samantha's stomach. It looked as if it would be just the two of them in the house.

"You seem to be uncomfortable," Jace added. "Let me assure you that you're perfectly safe—"

"Oh, no…it's not that."

Samantha stared at the flames in the fireplace. Exactly what was her problem? She had been totally unprepared for any of the things that had occurred since she left Los Angeles. And the biggest surprise of all was the way Jace Tremayne made her pulse race. It was inappropriate, very confusing…and very real. It was also totally absurd. He was a cowboy, a rugged outdoorsman—not at all the type of man who would fit in her world.

And a cattle ranch in Wyoming was certainly no place for her….

WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?—an interview with Reece and Brandi

Harlequin has reissued 16 of my backlist titles in ebook. Today Reece Covington and Brandi Doyle are my guests to talk with us about WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?, a mystery/romantic suspense from Harlequin Intrigue originally released in print and currently available from Harlequin Intrigue in ebook.

Greetings, Reece and Brandi. Thanks for stopping by today.

Reece:  Thanks for the invitation, Shawna. We're pleased to be here. What would you like to know?

Right to business…LOL…okay.  My first question is for Brandi. You were being stalked, you had no idea why or by whom, and when you reported it to the police they basically dismissed you. They didn't offer you any help at all?

Brandi:  Absolutely none. I guess intellectually I understood their position. I couldn't supply them with a name or a reason or even any specific details. But emotionally, their attitude left me frustrated, angry…and very frightened. It was as if they were telling me when I turned up dead they would try to work it into their schedule but until that time…tough luck lady.

And then you were kidnapped from your own garage, escaped your abductor, and were able to find shelter from a storm in an empty cabin in the woods. And that's when Reece entered the picture?

Reece:  Yes. As luck would have it…or perhaps fate would be a more accurate word…it was my cabin. It was one of the few occupied cabins at the lake that time of year. I'd been living there, actually hiding away from society in general, since my release from prison.

You were in prison for two years?

Reece:  (clenches jaw into a hard line while frowning) Yes, two very long years on trumped up charges and false testimony from a police officer. That got me two years in prison and the loss of the private investigator's license. But, as a former P.I. I had the skills and expertise to help Brandi. That is, once she finally calmed down, stopped fighting me, and realized I wasn't going to hurt her. Then she told me how and why she found it necessary to break into my cabin while I was buying supplies.

Brandi:  I think fate is truly the right word. What are the odds of the cabin belonging to a detective, the very person I needed at a time when I truly needed help. It didn't take long for us to discover that the policeman who framed Reece was the same person who had abducted me.

Isn't that quite a coincidence…maybe too much of a coincidence?

Reece:  Not when you have all the facts and know the details.

If this policeman was someone that you had a long-standing feud with then that action, even though both morally wrong and definitely illegal, of framing you for a crime most have had a motive for him to do that. But why Brandi? What could she possibly have to do with anything or anyone connected with these people?

Brandi:  That was our biggest stumbling block. Nothing about it made any sense, but that didn't diminish that fact that it was very real.

Reece:  The more we dug into anything and everything that seemed suspicious, the deeper we sank into confusion. Being followed, threatened and even shot at quickly followed. Evidence disappeared. Unraveling the why became a major stumbling block, but we finally came across the one clue that connected the dots. Unfortunately, even though we had discovered the why we were still a long way from having all the details and evidence—all that pesky little stuff referred to as 'proof'. Another problem…by that time we were both being stalked and our lives were in danger. And then there was the FBI…

The FBI? Why…how did they get involved?

Reece:  That seemed at the time to have been a miscalculation on my part. I contacted an FBI agent I had worked with several years ago, thinking he might be able to give us some help as someone with connections and access to information who didn't have any association with the local police or local events. We ended up with everyone after us including the D.A.'s office and the FBI, albeit for different reasons.

It seems that the FBI should have been help rather than someone you were avoiding. Why were they trying to track you down and why didn't you want them to find you?

Brandi:  (grins) I believe all that is in the book.

Reece:  (grabs hold on Brandi's hand) Yep—it's all in the book.

Ah, yes. I know where this is going. You're about to tell me to read the book.

Brandi:  Right you are!

Sounds like an excellent idea. Thanks for being with us today.

WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?, a Harlequin Intrigue mystery/romantic suspense by Shawna Delacorte reissued in ebook format. Available at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com (do search for author name Shawna Delacorte). Also available from Amazon for Kindle and Barnes & Noble for Nook as well as other ebook vendors.  Check out my website for additional excerpts from WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED? and information about my other Harlequin ebook reissues.   www.shawnadelacorte.com

Blurb:

WHO WAS THE BEAUTY IN HIS BED?

After a long day, the last thing private eye Reece Covington expected to find was a beautiful stranger hiding out in his remote mountain cabin. And when she awoke and told him she was in danger, Reece had an immediate and intense need to protect her. Who was this woman who'd turned his world upside down?

Local law enforcement claimed there was little evidence supporting the danger Brandi Doyle reported she was in. Luckily, Reece quickly discovered the stalker Brandi was running from was the same man Reece was running to…for vengeance. But would their intimate connection only give an elusive criminal more ammunition for murder?

Inside front cover excerpt:

Everything seemed to be in order, except for the woman asleep in his cabin. Reece took in everything about the stranger—the wet clothes clinging to her body, the tousled, short blond hair and a beautiful face that even in sleep was in obvious turmoil. He felt a definite tug on his reality, a strange combination of lust and concern.

Should he wake her and demand to know what she was doing in his cabin? He spotted her purse on the end table. As he reached for it she stirred, then jerked to attention.

Her eyes went wide with fright as her gaze landed on him.

Her voice was anything but firm as she eased her way out of the chair. She moved behind it in an obvious attempt to put a barricade between them. "Who…who are you?"

"Well, Goldilocks…this is my cabin, and I want to know why you've been sleeping in my bed."

THE TYCOON'S SON—an interview with Vicki and Wyatt

Harlequin has reissued 16 of my backlist titles in ebook. Today Vicki Bingham and Wyatt Edwards are my guests for a conversation about THE TYCOON'S SON, a Silhouette Desire originally released in print and currently available as a Harlequin Desire in ebook.

Hello Vicki and Wyatt.  Thank you for making time in your schedule to be here today.

Vicki:  Our pleasure, Shawna.  Thank you for inviting us.

As I understand it, the two of you dated back when you originally lived in Sea Cliff then you both ended up leaving town and going your separate ways.  Wyatt, I'd like to address my first question to you.  What prompted your decision to move back to Sea Cliff after having been away for fifteen years?

Wyatt:  That's a good question, but I'm not sure I have a good answer…at least not one that made a lot of sense at the time.  Ten years before I returned, my father died and left me control of his business empire headquartered in San Francisco.  Prior to that I'd been working primarily with the corporation's international holdings.  For the ten years I was at the corporate offices I had a restlessness pulling at me.  I wanted to recapture the past, a time when things seemed much simpler.  In retrospect, I now realize that I was looking for the contentment I had when Vicki and I were dating.  So I had the old family home renovated and decided to make that my primary residence.  With computers and teleconferencing, I felt I could easily work from there and go into the corporate offices in San Francisco only a few days a month.

What about you, Vicki?  Why did you return to Sea Cliff after having been away for fifteen years?

Vicki:  My father owned the local country store…groceries in front and the post office in back.  When he died a couple of months earlier, I returned to Sea Cliff to run the store. I was a bit at loose ends since my husband had also recently died so that my entire family consisted of just my son and me.  When I learned that Wyatt was returning, I didn't know what to think or do.  I wanted to stay as far removed from him as I could. My memory was of the Edwards' family who lived in the big house on top of the hill like royalty in their castle looking down on their realm. The last thing I wanted was to bring up the past, to dredge up what might have been before he walked on me.

He walked out on you?

Wyatt:  And for fifteen years I had believed she was the one who walked out on me…left town as a means of leaving me.

That sounds like nothing more than a misunderstanding.  Couldn't the two of you have straightened it out with a simple conversation?

Vicki:  Unfortunately simple is something it wasn't.  My priority wasn't in straightening out the past, it was in protecting my son from the present and future because of the past.  The past was the last thing I wanted to dredge up.

Protect your son from what?

Vicki:  He was 14, a difficult age at best, especially to be pulled away from his friends and relocated to a small town. I wanted to protect him from what I believed would be an emotionally devastating situation for him.

Wyatt:  I kept pushing Vicki.  (he reached over and took her hand)  I wanted answers, I had to know why she walked out on me.  The truth finally came out and we were both shocked, but finally able to talk about it.

What truth did you discover?

Vicki:  I didn't walk out on him. I thought it was the other way around.  Bottom line, it was more than one truth that finally found the light of day.  (flashes a teasing grin)  But I can't tell you about what they were.

Wyatt:  You'll have to read—

LOL  I know…you don't need to tell me.  I have to read the book.  Thank you Vicki and Wyatt for stopping by.

THE TYCOON'S SON, a Silhouette Desire by Shawna Delacorte reissued in ebook format.  Available at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com (do search for author name Shawna Delacorte).  Also available from Amazon for Kindle and Barnes & Noble for Nook as well as other online vendors.  Additional excerpts from THE TYCOON'S SON and information on my other Harlequin ebook reissues available on my website  http://shawnadelacorte.com

Blurb:

HER FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD SECRET

Years melted away the moment Vicki Bingham gazed into piercing blue eyes and took in the very gorgeous—very grown-up—version of the boy she'd once loved. The rich boy who had deserted her after a magical night of exploring caresses and explosive kisses. The millionaire who was father to her teenage son…and hadn't a clue.

Or did he?

Because Wyatt Edwards had taken an uncanny interest in young Richie, and an even more unsettling interest in Vicki herself, the moment he returned to town. He seemed to want answers—and it was clear he wanted Vicki. But all that would surely change once this tycoon discovered the truth….

Inside front cover excerpt:

"Here's to what has been and what is yet to be."

His words settled over her like a soft caress. He wrapped her in his embrace and snuggled back into the corner of the couch, pulling her with him.

"It's been a long time, Vicki. I've often wondered what happened to you, what you were doing…whether or not you were happy."

It was not what she had been expecting and she was not sure how to respond. "I was wondering the same thing about you."

Any further thoughts were put on hold when he claimed her mouth with all the passion he had been carrying inside him for the past fifteen years.

A soft moan escaped her lips. Things had gone too far. She could not stop what was happening even if she wanted to. If it was to be that they had only this one night together, then she wanted it to be enough to last her a lifetime.

THE SEDGWICK CURSE—A conversation with Taylor and Donovan

Harlequin has reissued 16 of my backlist titles in ebook.  Today I'm speaking with Taylor MacKenzie and Lord Donovan Sedgwick about THE SEDGWICK CURSE, a Harlequin Intrigue mystery/romantic suspense originally released in print and currently available in ebook.

Good morning and thanks to both of you for joining us today.  I think my first question is for you, Lord Sedgwick.

Donovan:  Please call me Donovan.  (pauses) I still haven't been able to completely reconcile being the owner of the title, especially considering the circumstances that passed it on to me.

It's a title that's been in your family for a long time, isn't it?  Along with the large estate located in the Cotswolds area of England?

Donovan:  A very long time…for centuries to be exact, starting in the late 1600s after the monarchy was restored to the throne with Charles II.  (brightens as he grasps Taylor's hand)  But on the other side, if my family history hadn't taken a strange twist the way it did along the way I never would have met this lovely lady and would have always felt as if something very important was missing from my life.

So, Taylor…your family history and Donovan's family history were somehow connected?  You're from the United States and had never been to England, is that correct?

Taylor:  Yes, it's now been over a century ago that the connection between our families resulted in the curse placed on the Sedgwick family.  In my correspondence with Donovan's father, I lied about the purpose of my trip to England.  The reality of it was to trace the origins of the crime that had resulted in the brutal death of my great grandmother and great grandfather who were tenant farmers on the Sedgwick estate.  My grandmother was a baby at the time and was whisked away to safety by some of the villagers and eventually arrived in America by way of Canada.

Donovan…you didn't have any idea who Taylor was when she showed up at your front door one night?

Donovan:  (chuckles) I assumed my father had been dealing with a man who wanted to research the annual festival we hold on the estate grounds for a book he was writing on British country festivals.  Our particular festival has been an annual event for over 250 years.

And Taylor was that 'man'?

Donovan:  She didn't fool me for a moment.  I knew as soon as I opened the door that it wasn't a man standing there!  (turns serious) But her timing was terrible.  My father had…uh, he had died a couple of months earlier.  It was the night before her arrival that the century old curse had seemed to come to fruition with the evil of the past turned loose on the present, followed by a string of grisly murders…

(Donovan's voice trailed off and Taylor picked up the conversation).

Taylor:  I had never been as frightened in my life as I was shortly after I arrived at the Sedgwick estate that night.  I felt as if I was being stalked by some evil presence.  Sometimes it seemed so close that I could literally reach out and actually touch it.  Or worse yet, that it could touch me.

Was there someone…or something…actually stalking you?  Was any of it real or merely the result of the centuries-old gothic atmosphere of the older areas of the house?

Taylor:  Oh, it was real…very real.  And so was the resulting danger.

Donovan:  There was much more going on than just a malevolent presence playing havoc with everything and everyone.  There was an entirely separate agenda happening at the same time involving blackmail, deceit, and extortion.  All-in-all, a very messy quagmire of conflicting facts and feelings.

That sounds like quite a tangled web.  Obviously whatever happened was finally put to rest for good and the two of you are now married and still living on the estate.  How did all of that come about? 

Donovan:  (Taylor started to speak, but Donovan got the words out first) For the answer to that one, you'll need—

Ah…I know what's coming next.  You're going to tell me I have to read the book.

Donovan:  Exactly!

THE SEDGWICK CURSE, a Harlequin Intrigue romantic suspense by Shawna Delacorte is available in ebook at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com (do search for author name Shawna Delacorte).  Also available from Amazon for Kindle and Barnes & Novel for Nook as well as other online vendors.  Additional excerpts from THE SEDGWICK CURSE are available on my website along with information about my other Harlequin ebook reissues.  www.shawnadelacorte.com

Blurb:

THE CHILLING TRUTH

To learn the truth behind her great-grandmother's past—and the curse that still surrounded both her family and the old woman's tiny country village—Taylor MacKenzie made her way to England. But from the moment she arrived at her ancestors' manor house, an eerie chill echoed the evil of the past and a shadowy figure seemed to follow her every move.

Donovan Sedgwick, the new lord of the manor, had eyes that pierced Taylor's soul and held her in an otherworldly thrall. But he seemed ravaged by demons of his own—demons that only her kisses were able to calm.

Inside Front Cover Excerpt:

She whirled around, her gaze staring into the darkness of the garden. Someone was watching her, staring from the safety of some hidden place. She gasped for air as if all the oxygen had been taken away from her.

"Who's there? Who…?" The words came out as a whisper then they died in her mouth. Her heart pounded in her chest and the sound roared in her ears. A wall of fear surrounded her. She forced her feet to move, to carry her toward the house. Her plodding steps turned into a run as she headed for the light at the kitchen door.

"Where have you been?" The words came at her from the darkness. A jolt of adrenaline raced through her body before she identified the voice as Donovan's. Then he grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her toward him….