Hello everyone and welcome to another addition of
Soulful Quotes. Today, I have several great stories I think you will like for this month's feature. Each one of these authors has a book or novella in an anthology centered around the romantic holiday of Valentine's Day.
The books I feature today are from authors who were not afraid to be soulful, sappy, and/or suggestive when it came to their heroes. So, grab a seat, and pick up a pen and paper so you can add these to your TBR list.
Happy reading!
“Hi, baby,” he whispered, one big fist sinking into her chignon and destroying it. “I missed you something fierce. Let me kiss you. Now that I’ve found you, I’m not letting you go until we know so much about each other, you’ll either hate me or never leave me again.”
***
He knew he was brash.
But sweet Jesus, she melted against him just as she had that night a year ago in the room at The Drake. She was hot and supple, her fine amber hair streaming over his hand like a warm river, her breasts flush to his chest, and he ached for more of her.
“Let me put this down,” he got out, his voice raw with all the pent up need, the worry, the longing all year long to have her once more. She looked enchanted, less stunned, but compliant as she watched him put his grocery bag on the table. Then her hands grabbed his lapels and pulled him against her.
Good start, baby. His arms surrounded her, his mouth took hers and oh, Christ is she food for my soul. Her lips were the same satin that he kissed in his dreams. Her tongue, the same eager partner to his in a duel to seize more of the other.
“Mara. Mara, honey.” He couldn’t stop saying her name as he claimed her with his lips on hers and his hands all over that toned body. “I’ve looked for you everywhere.”
“Did you?” she asked in a tiny voice, her gaze sweeping his features, her fingers tracing his cheekbones, the outline of his mouth, his jaw.
At once a wall clanged down between them—and she shook her head.
Reality changed her features from ravenous lover to confused teenager. “You can’t tell me that you— You aren’t—”
He lifted his hands in surrender. “Sweetheart, let me explain.”
“No.” She took a step backward. “You? You are the President of Capitol Communications? No. No, no.”
Jason knew if he rushed her, if he crowded her, she’d freak. He had no idea if she had a hard-assed-broad persona, but he was definitely not interested in bringing any out. He stood his ground. “My name is Jason Sherwood. I am the president and CEO of Capitol. I was a year ago. I am now. I have been looking for you ever since last Valentine’s Day at The Dr—”
“Is that what you’re doing here?”
“What?”
“Using that night to blackmail me into giving you my company?”
So much for not wanting to summon the bitchy female exec. He turned on his heel. Went for his bag and a bottle of the wine. Calmly putting them on the kitchen counter, he sensed her watching him. Like a trapped animal watched a hunter. Why was that? She was not his. Not by a long shot. Yet.
~ Cerise DeLand, Be Mine
Jack slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the box of candy hearts. Ellie gaped at him when he shook a handful into his palm. “Here. Hold this,” he ordered, thrusting the box into her hand.
Her fingers closed around it automatically. Her forehead creased into puzzled lines as she stared at the box. “Were you afraid we’d run out of things to talk about?”
“Nope. I just like these,” he said, sorting through the candies is his palm. A smile quirked his lips when he found the one he wanted. He plucked the tiny pink heart from his hand and offered it to her. “But this is what I really want to say.”
“Be Mine,” she whispered, her gaze fixed on the chatty confection.
“I don’t know why, Ellie, and I don’t know how. I just know I have to try.”
~ Margaret Ethridge, Be Mine(from BE MINE, VALENTINE Anthology)
* * *
His compassion touched her heart. “Are you betrothed or belong to a woman in marriage?” she asked.
The arrow snapped as his startled gaze met hers.
“If you ask because your breast is bare and my hand is upon you,” He tossed the broken shaft aside, and shed his shirt ripping it into strips. “I assure you my only intention is to render aid.” His hands covered with her blood, he retrieved a small flask from a leather pouch secured to his breeches and pulled out the stopper.
“What is that?”
“Communion wine.”
Valentina gasped. “You think I am dying.” She lowered her gaze to her bosom and saw the broken arrow, blood leaking around it which had soaked the front of her dress and shift beneath.
“Not for your last Eucharist. To clean the wound. The Lord be praised, the arrow is not deep. Your angelic flight distracted me when I shot and lessened the force of the arrow.”
“You are a priest?”
“Still want to know if I have a wife?”
“I am a believer. I would be a good wife for a priest.”He laughed. “I shoot you in the chest, and you propose marriage? Let us preserve your life before we begin our courtship.” He poured the wine around the wood protruding from her chest. “Although, I must admit, we are beginning rather poorly. Sit up, there’s a girl.”
(from BE MINE, VALENTINE Anthology)
“I bought them when I stopped at a store on the way up here,” she said, taking the small box from him. She shook out the slender deck and showed them to him. “Each one has a question on it, it’s a game for Valentine’s Day. Want to play?”
“What’s the purpose?” Suspicion and amusement vied for dominance in his expression as he looked at her.
“They’re called The Conversation Cards, they’re meant to stimulate talking to each other,” she said.
“I can think of better stimulations, sweetheart.” He laughed.
She rolled her eyes and selected a card. “What’s the first thing you notice in a person?”
“Is there a point to this?”
She made a face at him. “It’s a game of sorts, allowing you to get to know things about the person you’re with,” she said. “It wouldn’t pain you to play along, would it?”
He took the card from her and looked at it. White and red, simple and sweet. The kind of thing teenagers might enjoy, and yet there was something very sweet about the hearts and red script. He shrugged.
“The first thing I noticed about you was your honesty,” he told her. “But that was in your letters. When we met, I noticed the light in your eyes. You were so alive and filled with passion.” He leaned forward and touched her cheek, his thumb tracing the curving slope. “You still don’t seem to understand how much beauty that can create in a woman, or how seductive it is to a man.”
~ Denysé Bridger, The Conversation Cards(from PAS DE DEUX Anthology)
* * *
“I think from the first day that I saw you struggling with the sign out front I’ve been in love with you. Fierce, honest, independent, someone who could stand on her own or next to the person she loved. That is how I see you, how I have always seen you.”~ Brigit Aine, Her Secret Admirer (from PAS DE DEUX Anthology)
