Let’s welcome multi-published author,Lynne Silver, to Reviews By Molly today! This blog post is a week over due but real life issues arose and we postponed until today. But, I’m happy to say that FINALLY! Finally she is here and this post is awesome! Be sure and enter the giveaway at the end of the post!
Welcome Lynne! Please, take it away.
Author Lynne Silver
Top 10 Hottest Cities/Settings
by Lynne Silver
It’s January, so I’m a month late, but I love, love, love the last week of December yearly wrap-ups. I want to know the top 10 biggest celebrity gaffes and the top 10 things to look forward to in the New Year.
I thought it would be fun to compile a list of our top 10 hottest cities for romance. I don’t mean temperature wise, though warm weather helps. I mean sexy hot. Who’s with me? Great, let’s get started.
10. London This is a duh. Nearly every regency is set here, with the occasional forays into the countryside. London has the men on horseback, Regent’s Park, and Almacks. I feel a swoon coming on.
9. Space Ship/Pirate ship: Well, it’s not on a map, but something about the confining space forcing close proximity of its passengers, makes for great loving. Never mind the Zero G atmosphere or the seasick inducing waves, you just know your hero and heroine are going to go below deck for alone time within a few chapters.
8. New York City Ahh, New York. The last place you want to be when the aliens invade or zombies attack. Somehow they know the heart of the country is in the city that never sleeps. Its occupants may never sleep, but they do sleep around. NY is the setting to our plucky Urban fantasy heroines and our hapless chick lit stars. It’s not long before they’re riding the subway to love.
7. Paris: The city of lights, or is it love? Paris is a romantic dream of a city. There are strolls along the Seine, cafes in St. Germaine, and the smell of freshly baked baguettes.
6. Hawaii: It’s an island chain where the weather is always warm enough for bikinis and the water is the most gorgeous shade of blue you’ve ever seen, save for your hero’s eyes. It’s the perfect honeymoon destination, so you just know those hotel room doors on Waikiki all have “Do Not Disturb” on the knobs.
5. Fictional small town: Robyn Carr, Lori Wilde and Hope Ramsay have made even this city slicker want to move to a small town where everyone will know my name and everything about me. In a good way, of course. They’ll bake me pie when I’m blue and knit me blankets when I’m cold. And of course the hunky widowed town doctor/bartender/bad boy will be there to keep me company on those lonely nights.
4. Ranches in Montana, Wyoming, etc..: Similar to the fictional small town, but with horses and cows and Bull riders here. Which means a lot of, you know, riding. Lorelei James and Cassandra Carr give those cowboys a reason to unbuckle their extra-large belts and shout Yee Haw!
3. New Orleans With the Dark Hunters and the Immortals after Dark running around, it’s a wonder all single women between the ages of 18 and 100 haven’t moved down to the Bayou. I feel the need for some Cajun, y’all.
2. Greece: Forget the realities of the economic crisis, there’s a plethora of billionaires here waiting to coerce you into a marriage of convenience or force a secret baby on you. It helps that the men are tan and strong and the islands are rife with achingly beautiful views. Where’s my passport?
1. Beltsville, Maryland. Yeah, you heard me right. What you may not have heard of is Beltsville, MD. It’s in a working class suburb outside of Washington DC, about half-way to Baltimore. It’s never been fancied a sexy place. Until now. There’s a Home Depot, an Ikea, federal government office parks, and…The Program. The Program is my setting for the Coded for Love Series, featuring genetically enhanced soldiers working in secret for the US government. Home to roughly 50 active soldiers, a few retired one, and several young families with future soldiers, The Program has heroes who need to find their perfect match and create the next generation of super soldier. There’s a shooting range, weight room, and swimming pool. And lots of bedrooms. All the makings for some sexy times.
About Conquered Match:
When genetically enhanced soldier Ryan Lopez learns his beloved wife Thea has betrayed his team by going to the news media and spilling Program secrets, he takes responsibility for her punishment the only way he knows how—seducing her until she’s begging for release. But the more he takes control of her body, the more he tests both their limits, and realizes he’s never fully understood his wife’s dark desires. It will take every bit of Ryan’s enhanced strength to prove to them both that the woman he loves is also his conquered match.
Excerpt:
“Ryan,” she said, looking over at her beloved husband. “I’m sorry.”
He didn’t respond. His resolute profile remained locked, staring straight ahead.
For the first time since going to the press, doubt crept into her belly, causing an uncomfortable lurch that threatened to come up her esophagus. “I am sorry, I swear.”
Finally, he slowed his gait and looked down at her. “Are you? Or are you sorry you were caught?”
Ouch. Okay, she probably deserved that. By going to the press, she’d betrayed not only her husband, but his team and everything he’d spent his whole life working toward. But she’d had her reasons, if only he’d give her a chance. She could explain. An unfamiliar lump formed in her throat and tears welled in her eyes. If only she could go back a few days and talk to Ryan before talking to the press. But she’d been sad, so sad, and Ryan had treated her as if she were made of porcelain, too scared to talk about their loss.
Would she go back if given the choice? If she could reverse time, surely she’d go back five weeks to the day she miscarried and do something different. Stay in bed with her legs elevated or remember to take her prenatal vitamin, maybe. But that was crazy thinking. The doctors had assured her it was nothing she’d done. Her body had simply seen the genetically enhanced baby as a virus and expunged it. No, not it. Her. It had been a girl. Against Ryan’s concerns, she’d begged to know the gender of their dead child.
“What are you going to do to me? Feed me bread and water? Lock me up? Beat me?” she asked as they stepped into their tiny two-bedroom house on the compound.
He turned with a look she’d only seen once before on his face, the day she’d finally agreed to marry him after leading him on a merry one-year chase.
Desperation and dominance. A scary combination.
“Don’t tempt me. I’ve never hit a woman, and I certainly won’t start with you.” The small foyer’s creamy yellow walls seemed to squeeze in on her husband’s wide shoulders.
She released a breath. She hadn’t truly believed Ryan would ever lay a hand on her in anger, but she’d pushed him to the edge of control. Given that he was a genetically enhanced soldier, he’d probably kill her if he ever lost his physical temper with her.
Ryan stalked away from her, and then spun to face her. “They all laugh at me, Thea. My friends. They think I’m a wuss and let you wear the pants in the family. And I’ve been able to shrug it off, because I know how it is between us. You like to think you’re in charge and I’ve been content to let the illusion stand, because where it counts we have an equal partnership.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but shut it after his eyes glinted dangerously.
“But I’m done.”
She nearly vomited. What did he mean done? Was he done with her? She’d never be done with him. It would kill her if he left her. She’d known it was a possibility when she’d told a reporter all about her life in the Program, America’s top-secret military compound for breeding enhanced soldiers, but she’d been in a grief-fueled rage, uncaring about anything other than her own agenda. With a few weeks’ distance, she owned her mistakes and alienating her husband had been the biggest one.
“I’m done letting you have the power in the relationship. From now on I decide.” His palm slammed the wall, missing a wood-framed wedding portrait by inches.
She stared at him, not sure how to handle this. Ryan had always left decisions up to her. Whenever she asked his opinion about movies or dinner, he shrugged and told her it was her choice. So she’d stopped asking. “I knew you wanted pizza last night. Why didn’t you say something? I didn’t need Chinese takeout that badly,” she burst out, unable to keep silent. It went against her nature to not talk.
“You think I care about dinner last night?” he asked with narrowed eyes. “Jesus, Thea. I don’t give a shit about food. You can eat shrimp lo mein every night of the week for all I care.”
“Then what…”
“I was talking about sex, and our careers and our living situation, but mostly about sex, dammit.”
Oh.
“When we were first matched, I was so happy to be done playing games. No more lying to strange women about my job or excuses of why I could never stay the night or invite them to my place. I was happy to have a woman who knew what I was and where I worked. But no, you had me panting after you for a year, sneaking into my apartment at night, like I was your dirty little secret.”
“Everyone knew we were a match,” she protested. “It was hardly a secret.”
“And yet you kept me craving you, chasing you, doling out your favors when you decided you wanted sex. I thought things would be different when we married, but nothing’s changed. I’m still never sure where I stand with you.”
“What are you saying? You’re going to take me whether I want you or not. That’s rape.” The look on his face actually had her stepping back and mentally measuring the short distance to the door.
“Screw you, Thea.”
She tossed her head with a carelessness that was at total odds with her actual emotions. “What then?”
There was a long pause. She bit her lip, waiting for his sentencing. “I’m using the only option open to me. You’re going to have to beg, Thea.”
She swallowed.
“Turn around.”
She stared at him a beat before obeying. In a deft move, reiterating he was a highly trained special ops warrior, he slid plastic zip ties around her wrists, binding them behind her back. Not tight enough to hurt, but enough that her breasts were thrust forward by her arm position.
“Thea Lopez…” His husky whisper tickled her ear. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you.”
About the Author:
By day, Lynne Silver lives the suburban soccer mom life; volunteering with the PTA, doing laundry and working. By night she enters the sensuous world of alpha males and passionate heroines.
She calls the nation’s capital home and lives in an old fixer-upper with her husband and their two sons. When not writing romance, she reads it. Lots of it. Over and over and over again, preferably with a bag of M&Ms in hand. She is represented by literary agent, Jessica Alvarez of Bookends LLC
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The Solstice Heat