I just 1 week LOVE MATCH releases into the book reading world and I am stoked and excited!!
SO, of course, today’s teaser is a little snippet from the book.And a familiar face pops up here.
“Hey, kids. Happy Happy,” Kick Loomis said, leaning over the bar so he could be heard. Befitting the occasion, he was wearing a black t-shirt with colored suspenders over it emblazed with Happy New Year and the year running up them. “What are ya drinking? I’ve got a few specials going tonight.”
Surprise shot through him when Layla ordered the champagne cocktail to his beer.
“What?” she asked when she smacked her lips and groaned after the first sip and found him staring at her mouth. “I love champagne and this is good.”
Kick overheard her, grinned, and gave her a thumbs-up before making his way down the bar.
Since LOVE MATCH will be releasing in 2 weeks (!) I figured I’d do a little tease for it today to whet your reading appetites.
Here’s a little motivation as to why Cody is such a playa…
She nodded. “So. You were out with the Canterbury girl last night.” The way she said it had the hairs on his forearms jumping to attention.
“Oh? Who’d you hear that from?”
She flipped her fingers in the air. “Just someone who happened to be at The Love Shack the same time you were.”
Mentally, his eyes dragged around the bar to try and remember who could have spotted, then reported, to his mother on his whereabouts. She had her spies everywhere around town.
“Katie’s a sweet girl,” he said.
“Yes. She is. A girl, that is. Has she even graduated from college yet?”
It took everything in him not to toss her a snide comeback. He knew his mother. His divorce had devastated her. Almost as much as it had him. The difference was she wanted him to get married again, while he was content to be single the rest of his life and just simply play the field as long as he could, which he hoped would be until he was six feet under.
Dating girls who were much younger than he was, who were only looking to be taken out and treated good by a guy without any of the happily-ever-after notions front and center was a plan that was fitting him nicely. The one drawback was his mother’s persistent disregard for his playboy – as much as you could be one in a small town – persona.
“Yes, Mom, she did,” he responded after taking a swig of beer. “With a degree in nursing, too. But you know that since her mom’s in your book club. I’m sure Mrs. Canterbury has mentioned how proud she is of her daughter and her new job over at Holy Mother of God Hospital.”
Sally bit down on her lip. Two could play at this spy thing. Katie had told him last night their mothers were in the same club that met every Tuesday night. She offered that she thought they didn’t read and discuss a book as much as drink wine, eat cookies, and gossip about everyone in town.
That sounded right up his mom’s alley.
“It’s just that she’s so, so…” She shrugged.
“Nice? Sweet? Pretty?”
“Young. She’s almost half your age, Cody.”
Okay, she wasn’t wrong. Forty to Katie’s twenty-three was a bit of a stretch. But it wasn’t like he was going to marry her or forge a life with her. They were friends. Simply having some fun, a few laughs over drinks and dinner. And if that progressed to friends with some benefits, well that was his business and Katie’s.
“I just don’t want to see her hurt,” his mother said.
“Why would she be hurt? Katie knows the score. I’m very up-front with all the girls I date. They know from the get-go that I’m not looking to get married again. Been there; bought the t-shirt.”
Got my heart broken he kept to himself.
Intrigued? Hee hee. You can preorder/order it a few ways:
Through my webstore, where you’ll get an autographed print copy. Of course, this is my favorite way because you get it directly from me, no middleman, and you get presents from me when you order, too, LOL!
So LOVE MATCH releases 5.21 and today seems like a good way to kick off a few teasers to whet your preordering appetites, LOL. You can preorder it through Amazon, or get a print copy, autographed, directly from me, here: DIRECT ORDER
Before she could answer him the overpowering aroma of a familiar cloying perfume hit him square in the face as a pair of hands slid around and covered his eyes. Incredibly close to his ear, so close the lobe got wet from the breath expressed next to it, a sultry voice, the product of too many nights drinking and too many morning hangover cures said, “Guess who, handsome?”
He didn’t need to guess. He’d know that perfume and voice anywhere. In all honesty, he’d tried to forget it as much as possible. He didn’t get a chance to reply, though, as the hands flew from his eyes and the smacking sound of wet kiss hit his jaw. He knew without the need for a mirror, his chin was covered in Cherries in the Snow red, the wearer’s favorite lipstick shade.
“Boo!” the woman said, wrapping her arms around his neck and laughing.
“Hey, Rachel.” He cast a furtive glance at a still wide-eyed Layla, then tried to extract the hands of the woman he’d dated briefly from around his neck. It was like trying to uncoil a hungry boa constrictor from a meal. “Didn’t know you were back in town.”
Ignoring Layla, the woman shifted so she was facing his side of the table and leaned an ample hip across it. “Got back yesterday.”
He nodded then said, “Meet Layla Warton. She’s Effie Mason’s granddaughter. This is Rachel Carmody. We were in school together.”
With the fakest smile he’d ever seen she barely flicked her theatrically made-up eyes toward Layla and said, “Hey.” Turning a real smile to him she asked, “I’m only in town for three days then back on the road again for another four months. Sweet running into you here. I was gonna text to see if you wanted to hook up later. Maybe grab a few drinks at the Love Shack and…whatever.”
He could tell the implications of the whatever weren’t lost on Layla. Her cheeks went beet-red and her lips blanched.
Ignoring the question, he said to Layla, “Rachel’s a backup singer in a country band.”
“Oh, how exciting,” Layla said, the tone in her voice telling him it was nothing of the kind. “What’s the band’s name?”
Rachel gave it and Layla shook her head. “Sorry. Don’t know it.”
For the first time, Rachel looked squarely at Layla. Cody thought she must have been a bit threatened by what she saw, because she stood up from her leaning position and pushed her shoulders back, forcing her more than pronounced breasts to jut forward, perfectly level with his eyes.
“Well, they’re very well known on the country circuit,” Rachel declared. With a flip of her honey-blonde hair – not her natural color, a fact he knew personally – she once again turned to him. “I’ve gotta run. I just stopped in to pick up my mother’s order. Call me later.”
It wasn’t a request.
He didn’t respond since he had no intention of meeting up with her. Rachel had been a mistake from the get-go. They were too different, had nothing of substance in common, not even to talk about, she drank too much and was much too loud for his taste.
With another brazen kiss, this time aimed for his mouth which he avoided by turning a bit to the side, she graced him with a cheeky smile and sauntered to the counter to pick up her to-go bag.
Silence covered the space between him and Layla.
He knew he should say something, but what?
Hey, sorry about that. She’s just a girl I hooked up with during a low point in my life?
Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen.
He cleared his throat and said, instead, “So. We were talking about—”
What the hell had they been talking about? Rachel’s arrival threw the conversation out of his mind.
I’m getting all the final edits together for LOVE MATCHto release on May 21st so I decided to give you a little tease today on what’s to come between the pages.
First, this is a slow burn, small-town, small-town boy, cinnamon roll hero, careerwoman heroine love story. The intimacy is behind closed doors and the emotions are high.
But…it still has some lightheartedness, lest you think it is a heavy tome. LOL
This scene is Layla’s re-introduction to the home she spent many happy childhood summers in. The place needs some…fixing up, to say the least.
Her expectations of a hot shower went out the window after two minutes, naked and lathered up inside the claw-footed tub when the water suddenly switched to ice cold. Shrieking like a banshee running for the hills, she turned the knob all the way to the left, then right, in a feeble attempt to heat the stream up again.
No luck.
Switching the shower off, she grabbed a towel, shaking like a naked maraca, her hair still dripping with shampoo, some of it running into her eyes, wrapped herself into it and climbed out of the tub. She flipped on the sink hot water tap and as soon as she felt the temperature go warm, shoved her head underneath it to rinse her hair. She considered it an actual miracle she got the shampoo all out before the tap went icy like the shower.
Layla never got toweled off and dressed so fast in her life. With her hair slung up in a twisty towel and her cold and still shaking body now clothed, she turned the shower hot water tap again just to see what would happen. Cold water continued to flow even after three minutes.
“So much for that promised hot shower,” she mumbled as she donned thick socks.
Down in the kitchen, the unwashed dishes and wine glasses from last night’s dinner were propped on the counter. She tried the sink tap and found the same issue. No hot water.
Back in her bedroom she tugged her laptop case from the floor and pulled out the notebook she routinely used when making notes for a client and wrote at the top of a clean page hot water tank.
Might as well see what else needs fixing.
“But first, tea.”
Back in the kitchen, she found her grannie’s old metal teapot, the one she remembered using as a teenager, filled it with the cold water and then put it on the stove. When she turned on the flame knob, the persistent clicking sound indicated the pilot light needed to be engaged.
Rolling her eyes, she found matches in a side drawer, struck one, and then lit it, forgetting that she’d turned the knob to high heat status. A burst of red-hot flames ringed around the burner. Jumping back with another shriek, Layla lost her grip on the match, and it fell, still lit, to the floor. Before it could damage the faded linoleum, she stomped it out with her foot, forgetting she wore only socks.
As the subtle burn scorched through the wool, stinging her foot, she jumped up on the other and grabbed the now scorched one, letting loose with a stream of curses her mother would have fainted at if she’d been within hearing distance.
Once the stinging stopped, she dropped her foot and placed the tea kettle on the now-lit burner after regulating it down to a medium/low flame.
On a sigh, she muttered, “Why the heck did I think this was a good idea?”
While the water heated, she wrote stove on her list, then added linoleum under it.
Watching a kettle boil wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, so Layla puttered around the kitchen to discover what else needed attention or updating.
Before the water came to a boil, she’d discovered the wood was rotting under the sink, the cabinet shelves above the stove were all warped, and the microwave, which looked like it had been an original model back in the 80s, didn’t work.
Reinforcing herself with a strong cup of tea, she carried it about the house with her to see what else needed attention. Now, her tea long gone, the cup sitting somewhere in Grannie’s parlor, she considered her list.
Her two-page list.
It’s gonna be a fun challenge to fix this place up!!
Because RETRIBUTIONreleases in just 14 days, I figured today would be appropriate for another little snippet from the book.
Brainstorming is the best way for the SPCD team to come to a meeting of the minds about who the killer might be. Here’s a quick little scene after they find the most recent dead girl.
“The cause of death in all the victims, including Brittany Chasen, was massive blood loss from surgical trauma, namely the removal of the girls’ reproductive organs. From the preliminary drug result data, no systemic anesthetics were used, and I couldn’t locate any topical applications either.”
Anna inhaled sharply.
“This sick creep opened these girls without providing any kind of pain relief. I can only hope they were unconscious, or already half dead when he did it.”
“Any physical findings?” Tucker asked.
“There was substantial muscle decay, indicating they were starved for the length of their captivity. You know about the ritual cutting of the arms and legs. Nothing that was deep enough to kill, but some of the open wounds were topically infected. Each girl had evidence of sodomy, vaginal rape, and swollen pharynx indicative of oral rape. Microscopic investigations showed no fibers, no DNA, no blood, nothing. Their bodies were scrubbed clean inside and out with bleach, probably postmortem, before they were dumped.”
Tucker nodded. “Anna?”
Referring to the device at her fingertips, she said, “Interviews with the parents of each victim have proved fruitless so far. All were somewhere other than they were supposed to be when they disappeared. Brittany was thought to be at soccer practice and instead was seen at a music store. Emily Johannson was due at school play practice but was last seen going into a CVS. Margaret Pearl had a piano lesson she skipped and went to a local mall instead. Erin Heuser missed a guitar lesson to go to a Quick-Mart. Paula Killarney dodged basketball practice for a coffee shop. And Magdala Profinsky was due to babysit for her cousin and wasn’t seen anywhere after her last class of the day. There’s no common link between them. All six attended different schools, lived in very different neighborhoods and came from widespread financial and social backgrounds. They didn’t know each other and there are no friends that link them. They were, for all intents and purposes, total strangers.”
“What’s the common thread?” Tucker asked, removing his glasses and cleaning them with a handkerchief.
“Physically, they resembled one another in basic makeup,” she said. “Each was approximately five feet three to five feet five inches tall. Each was a blonde with shoulder-length or longer hair, blue eyes, and trim physiques. White. None of them weighed more than a hundred and ten pounds. Two were vegans. Four played a sport, and two played instruments. Nothing stands out.”
This week, we are back to my upcoming Heaven’s Matchmaker Book 2, LOVE MATCH, releasing on 5.21.24. Here’s the meet cute!
After moving from the outer office, Layla glanced down at her phone to note the time and while walking through the opened elevator doors barreled straight into someone alighting from it.
The someone was built like an army tank and Layla, literally, bounced off it like a coin dropped on a military-made bed.
“Oh.”
Just as she was about to fall backward and – mortifyingly – land on her ass, hands wound around her upper arms and squeezed to keep her upright.
Incredibly strong hands.
Layla’s gaze shot to those hands, which were tanned and sun-kissed, then traveled up the arms encased in a thick brown leather jacket to land on a jaw covered with a half week’s worth of ash-colored whiskers. A tiny vertical crevasse under the bottom lip, sitting squarely in the center of the chin peeked its way through the stubble.
Layla’s mouth watered. A chin dimple was her sexual kryptonite.
A long pair of legs ensconced in faded jeans hugged thick thighs and tapered down to rough-and-ready work boots covered with old paint splotches. His head was bare despite the cold of the day and the shock of unruly and errant wavy brown hair covering it made her fingers twitch for a touch. While she’d always liked a man with a chin dimple, the rough and ready workman look didn’t ordinarily strike her fancy. All the men she’d ever dated, including her now infamous ex, had been suit, tie, and pocket square guys who had monthly manicures, doused themselves in expensive cologne, and rarely – if ever – had unruly hair.
To say she had a type wouldn’t be wrong. To also say she finally realized that type was a bit of a douche would be equally true.
“Excuse me.” His voice was deep and tinged with a seductive rasp that Layla felt reverberate through her.
Ignoring the words, she concentrated instead on the lips they sailed through. Thick and full, their dusky rose hue reminded her of the color of tropical sunsets. Lifting her gaze up to the rest of his face she encountered a perfectly straight nose and a pair of Hershey’s Kiss-colored eyes shaped like almonds.
Layla had a weakness for almonds. And an absolute penchant for chocolate.
The unusual jealousy that bounded through her at the length and fullness of his eyelashes stunned her. She wanted to press her fingers against them, see if they were real, while at the same time rub her lips against that fabulous mouth to taste him.
She blinked a few times, then shook her head back and forth to rid it of the alien thoughts taking up residence in her brain.
“You okay?” he asked as he flexed his hands around the sleeves of her coat.
So I have a release date for my next book in the HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER series, LOVE MATCH: May 21.
In this scene, we get introduced to Cody’s Huskie. I think you’ll like her name…lol
“What are you doing here?” That all too familiar sensation of heat rose up Layla’s neck and jaw again.
Why, whenever she was in his presence, did she react so rudely? Layla was many things but ill-mannered wasn’t usually one of them.
Except with Cody Fonda.
When he tilted his head and gave her a one-sided grin, she bit down on her lips, then said, “I’m sorry. I thought you were the delivery van I’ve been expecting.” Flustered, she repeated, “Sorry.
“I told you yesterday after we decided what you wanted done that I was gonna start today.”
“You did, but I thought you meant you were sending in a crew to deal with everything.”
For a few beats he just stood there, staring at her. That intense perusal had her insides swirling.
“Can we come in?” he finally asked. “It’s cold standing here.”
“Oh, jeez, sorry. Yes, yes, of course.” She threw the door open and stood back.
“Thanks.”
“And who is this lovely lady?” She offered her hand for the dog to sniff and was rewarded with a lick across her palm.
“This is Jane. She usually comes to sites with me because I don’t like to leave her home alone all day. Is that gonna be a problem?”
“Not at all. I love do—wait a minute.” She stood upright and shook her head side to side twice. “Your dog’s name is…Jane?”
He nodded.
“As in…Jane Fonda?”
He shot his index finger at her and grinned. “Got it in one.”
Her lips lifted. “Oh, my God. That’s just…”
He put the box down, tugged off his skull cap, and ruffled his hair into place. “I know, but it really is the perfect name for her. Now, to answer you,” he said as he zipped his jacket down, “My crew is currently out doing two other projects that require several people each. Yours are relatively easy and I can do them without help.”
I
ll have preorder links and GoodReads link up next. For now…happy reading. ~ Peg
I’m currently editing my next HEAVEN’S MATCHMAKER, LOVE MATCH, book 2 in the series. I don’t have a release date yet, but here’s a little taste of what’s to come.
“Let’s go grab lunch,” he said after a moment. “We can discuss it, iron out all the details over a burger or a sandwich.”
She blinked several times, hearing his voice, but the words made no sense. “What?”
“Lunch? You know? That meal between breakfast and dinner?”
She gaped up at him, her toes starting to tingle when he grinned down at her.
“I’m assuming you’re done visiting for today?”
She nodded.
He returned the motion. “And I just finished visiting with mine. I’m hungry and I have a long afternoon ahead of me, so why don’t we head into town, grab something to eat and we can go over what it is you want me to do? Sound good?”
It took her a few moments of internal debate before she finally said, “I could eat.”
Staring at the phone, Tucker debated calling Kella. It had been two days since she‘d been given all the case information. She should have gone through it by now.
Just as he decided to call, his secretary buzzed through.
“Yes, Marcia?’
“Call for you on two. I almost didn’t believe who it was.” Tucker could feel her smile through the office wire. “It’s Kella. I haven’t spoken to her in I don’t know how long.”
“Put her through.”
A second later he said, “Kella?”
“Hey, Tuck.”
“Please tell me you’re done with the profile.”
“I’m fine, and how are you this lovely morning,” she asked, a laugh in her voice.
Tucker tossed his glasses on his desk and rubbed his eyes. “Kella, I don’t have time –”
“You never did,” she told him, the mirth still in her tone.
“What have you got?”
“Well, to backtrack a little, I went through everything you gave me. This is one disturbed man.”
“That goes without saying.”
“Yeah well, you and the Posse probably have a baseline profile. Male, twenty-five to forty, trouble with relationships. Lives alone, no friends, menial job, poor education. How’m I doing?”
“Right on the nose.”
“Well, you can throw it away. None of it’s accurate, except for the gender.”
Tucker sat bolt upright, put his glasses back on, and pulled a legal pad and pen across his desk.
So because I’ve got three things running at the same time for RETRIBUTION, my 4.23.24 release ( Goodreads Giveaway, Booksprout read and review, Preorder) you just have to know I need to tease it today, lol!
In this scene, the bane of Tucker Petrie’s existence, newspaper reporter Donovan Rule, is being his obnoxious self and Tuck can’t take it anymore. Donovan will have a pivotal role toward the end of the book.. but this scene shows just how much Tucker can’t stand him.
“There’s more press here than when we went in,” Anna said, glancing around at the dozen of news vans and waiting reporters.
“They’re like vultures,” Tucker said. “Useful at times, but still bloodsuckers.”
As they made their way back to the car amid shouts and questions being hurled at them, Anna saw Rule and his cameraman approaching them from the other direction.
“Get in the car,” Anna said, shoving Kella. “Keep your face down.”
Just as she collapsed into the back seat, the reporter descended upon them. “Agent Petrie, who is that woman?”
“Go away Rule,” Tucker said, guarding the windows of the car with his body so the camera couldn’t film through them. For once he silently thanked the car salesman for insisting that tinted windows were a necessity.
Nonplused, the reporter shoved his microphone under Tucker’s chin and asked, “So does The Butcher have Myrna Rowlands? Is that why you and Agent Langdon, along with your mystery guest, are here?”
“Neither myself nor any member of my team has any comment for you, Rule, so get lost. Now.”
Tucker shot into the driver’s seat and in one motion, shoved the key into the ignition, locked the doors, and gunned the engine.
“Think he’s gonna move?” Anna asked.
“He’d better, or he’s roadkill,” Tucker answered, putting the car into drive.
Without a glance at the annoying team, Tucker pulled the car from the curb.
A loud scream filtered through the windows as he moved into the side street traffic.
Anna turned around and saw Rule sitting on the curb, his foot nestled in his lap.
“I think you ran over his foot,” she said, trying not to laugh.
“Is he breathing?” Tucker asked.
“Looks like he’s screaming.”
Tucker nodded. “Then he’s not dead and I can’t be charged with vehicular homicide.”
Intrigued? LOL. 4.23.2024 is the release date. Check out all the links above if you’re interested in reading it.
Peggy Jaeger, Author 