Volume 1, Issue 2 - November 2005
|
Welcome to my bi-monthly newsletter, Lyndi's Love Notes.
Contents of this issue:
Lyndi's News
Feature Article:
The Seamy Side of Dodge
Exclusive Excerpt from Desperado
Quotes for the Month: The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West
Featured Author: Lani Aames
Featured Book: Valiant
This Month's Contest
Lyndi's Books
Check This Month's Contest for information on how to enter to win a download of Lani's fabulous erotic novella Valiant.
|
|
News
Welcome to the second issue of Lyndi's Love Notes. This month's theme is Westerns.
I'm pleased to have a coupls of new reviews to share with you.
Lily and the Gambler was recently reviewed by Delia at Joyfully Reviewed who said, "Lily and the Gambler by Lyndi Lamont is a spicy read. Lily is an adventurous woman who is hiding her true personality under widow’s weeds. She has to make a decision to marry for security and respectability, or to take a gamble on love. King is a master player. He takes the opportunities he’s given and works them to his best advantage. He’s not above a little manipulation when it comes to getting the woman he loves. I liked how much fun these characters had together when they were being their true selves. The attraction between them was palpable and Lily is no proper Englishwoman in the bedroom! Lily and the Gambler is a hands-down, winner-take-all story."
Click here to read the entire review.
Prepare To Be Boarded, as part of the Shiver M' Timbers AmberPax(TM), was recently reviewed by Pam L. at A Romance Reviews. She said, "Lyndi Lamont does a great job with Prepare To Be Boarded. I loved Eliza and Morgan is such a romantic hunk, I had to cheer for Eliza after everything she’d been through!"
Click here to read the entire review.
|
The Seamy Side of Dodge
by Lyndi Lamont
In Desperado the hero, Bart, confronts the villain in a saloon on the south side of Front Street, the seamy side of Dodge. Both men end up getting arrested, not an unlikely occurance.
Unlike the Long Branch Saloon of Gunsmoke fame, most of the establishments on the south side of Dodge City's main street were considered less than respectable. The two exceptions were the Great Western Hotel and Bell's Livery Stable. The south side saloons featured amusements not available in the more sedate establishments on the other side of the street. As one resident put it, "It was only a few steps from the Long Branch to the Lady Gay, but every step was paved with bad intentions."
In addition to the Lady Gay, which had a platform for an orchestra, the south side had the Comique Theater, referred to as the "Commie-cue" by the residents, and tje Varieties Dance Hall which introduced the Can-Can to Dodge, filling the hall to capacity. When he was a young man, Eddie Foy, the famous vaudevillian, appeared at the Comique. He described Dodge as "an ugly but fascinating little town."
During his act, Foy was joined by a local female performer for some supposedly witty repartee. For instance, Foy would tell her, "You are my dearest duck," to which she would reply, "Foy, you are trying to stuff me." Foy later said that during his performances, from the other end of the house came "the click and clatter of poker chips, ball, cards, dice, wheels and other devices... mingled with a medley of crisp phrases--'Thirty-five to one!', Get your money down, folks,' Eight to one on the colors,'" etc. It took a real trouper to perform under those conditions.
Dodge City had two dance halls, one filled with white girls and open only to white men. The other featured only black girls, but was patronized by both white and black men. The "hostesses" at the dance halls recieved part of the money the men paid to dance with them, plus part of the price of the drinks bought for them by their customers. The bedrooms at the back of the dance hall were used by the hostesses to supplement their meager wages by the practice of prostitution. They also "entertained" men in the tents or shanties they inhabited, usually situated behind the dance hall. Because there were no required medical checkups, venereal disease was rampant.
Respectable people referred to the dance hall hostesses by euphemisms, such as "soiled doves, daughters of sin, fallen frails, or doves of the roost." Some of the girls took Southern-sounding names, like Dixie Lee, hoping to appeal to the Confederate sympathies of the Texas cowboys. Apparently Dixie was successful. At her untimely death, she purportedly left an estate of $100,000. Her father, a minister in Missouri, was shocked both by the news of his daughter's profession and the fortune she had made. One of his friends is reported to have said: "It just goes to show, Reverend, that the wages of sin are a damned sight better than the wages of virtue."
© 2005 by Linda McLaughlin
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Top
|
|
Exclusive Excerpt from Desperado
She walked toward the chair and he moved aside just enough to let her by. His scent of bay rum and pure male tantalized her senses. His nearness had her nearly swooning. Why did she find this dangerous man so intoxicating?
When she sat, he knelt before her to unlace and remove her shoes. He took one foot in his hand and ran the other up the outside of her leg, untied her garter, then slowly rolled her stocking down to her ankle.
"Easy and slow," he drawled. "Just the way I like it."
He pulled the stocking off her foot, tickling her instep, making her squirm in the chair, then repeated his actions with her other leg.
She squeezed her thighs together in a vain attempt to still the need his presence roused in her woman's core, leaving her hungry for his touch, but knowing she shouldn't allow it. As if that had ever stopped her before. "There's just one thing I want to know. Where have you been, and what have you done?"
"Later," he said before sucking on her little toe.
She snatched her foot out of his hand and stared at him, wondering how the good boy she'd known at the orphanage could have grown into a man wanted for murder. "I want to know now."
He smiled his heart-stopping smile. "Be patient, Esther. Anticipation is its own reward, you know."
She laughed and pulled his black hat off his head, tossing it to one side. He'd always known how to get around her. "That's supposed to be virtue is its own reward."
His grin grew lascivious. "Afraid I wouldn't know much about virtue."
No, but he did know a lot about how to torment her with just a touch and a look. And had been doing so on a somewhat regular basis for some years now. If the townsfolk ever found out the schoolmarm was carrying on with a wanted man, she'd be run out of town on a rail.
Oh, but it's worth it, she thought as he turned his attentions to her breasts, kneading them through the soft cotton. Her own hunger came on in a heated rush.
He pulled her chemise down over her shoulders, baring her breasts to his gaze. His mouth settled on one taut nipple, sucking and laving it. His mustache lightly abraded the soft skin of her breasts, adding to the sensation. Molten shafts of need ran down her stomach to her core.
She caught his head in her hands, twining her fingers in his thick, shaggy blond hair. Oh, he was a talented devil, her desperado.
He turned his attention to the other breast while his hand probed at the opening in her drawers. She spread her legs wider to give him access to her heated center, already wet with need. He parted the soft flesh, his fingers stroking and teasing, circling her button of pleasure while he continued to suckle her breast. Tension coiled through her, spiraling outward. Her buttocks clenched, her toes curled, and her breathing quickened. Jolts of pleasure hurtled her skyward until she exploded and fell into free fall, crying his name.
The reminder this might be their last time together brought her abruptly back to earth.
Bart looked up, a lopsided grin on his face, and she smiled back despite her heartache. Might as well make the most of the time they had left.
She moved her foot between his, up the inside of his thigh until she found the hard evidence of his desire and he groaned aloud.
"You are wearing entirely too many clothes." She untied his red neckerchief, then stroked the strong column of his neck. His pulse beat strongly against her fingers.
He grinned and stood up, pulling her up with him. Patting her on the behind, he said, "Why don't you get into bed while I undress?"
Esther removed her drawers, then pulled down the covers and reclined on the bed. Never taking his covetous gaze from hers, he removed his black vest and pulled his white cotton shirt over his head, exposing the lean muscles of his arms and torso to her hungry eyes. Sunlight from the window glinted on the golden hair covering his body. The only thing marring his perfection was the jagged scar that ran across his left side, down his rib cage. It was his badge of courage won in war. It wasn't the only scar he'd brought home, but the others were invisible wounds of the heart and spirit. Scars she had sought to heal with her love, but that hadn't been enough to keep him by her side.
He pulled off his boots, then took off his pants and drawers. His penis, erect and proud, jutted from its nest of hair.
She felt wanton, lying naked on a sunny afternoon watching a man undress. She cupped her breasts, teasing the nipples with her fingertips, then trailed one hand down across her belly to the damp curls. Need spiraled inside her. "Are you going to join me?"
He climbed onto the bed and gathered her in his arms for a passionate kiss. "I don't know how much longer I can wait, darlin'."
"Don't wait. It's been too long."
He entered her, stretching her sheath until she was filled with him. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, pulling him as close as possible. His lovemaking was hurried, feverish, needy. Her arousal rose to match his as he thrust into her. His body grew slick with sweat, his breathing labored, his male odor musky. Her senses swam with the feel and scent of him. They were one now, for this moment in time. One last thrust and he emptied his seed into her welcoming body.
Though she still ached with the need for fulfillment, she held him close as he relaxed, his body slumping over and around hers. They had the rest of the day to be together. He collapsed on the mattress, one leg thrown over hers, his head on her chest. She held him to her bosom and kissed the top of his head.
I love you.
The words filled her head and her heart, but she dared not speak them aloud. If she did, he would never understand why she had to send him away. For good.
© 2005 by Lyndi Lamont
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Top
|
|
Quotes for the Month, The Wit and Wisdom of Mae West:
When a girl goes wrong, men go right... after her
Give a man a free hand... and he'll run it all over you
To err is human -- but it feels divine
Top
|
|
September's Featured Author: Lani Aames aka Lanette Curington
Lanette Curington was born and raised in west Tennessee. She resides there with her husband, two daughters, and eight cats. Starkissed was an Eppie 2001 finalist and PEARL nominee. She is also the author of At the Stroke of Midnight and—writing as Lani Aames—Desperate Hearts, Gillian's Island, Moonstoned, Valiant, and many other manuscripts, both completed and in progress. She is also presently working on her next novel, Immortal Conquest, a mythological romance.
You can learn more about Lani's writing by visiting her website at
http://www.laniaames.com,
or email her at lani@laniaames.com.
Top
|
|
September's Featured Book: Valiant by Lani Aames
Genre: Western Erotica Novella
Amber Quill Press Rating: Moderate Sexual Content/Language
Quade Singleton has returned to the town of Valiant to find that his childhood friend Delaney Shaw is all grown up and waiting for him. They share one night of perfect passion, but before they can plan their future together, Quade has been arrested, tried, and sentenced to hang for the murder of his uncle.
Delaney believes Quade is innocent. To save him from the hangman's noose, Delaney breaks him out of jail, convincing him that being a wanted man forever is better than being a dead man tomorrow. Delaney would be happy with Quade no matter where they are, but with a feeling that there's more to the murder than Quade is telling, she sets out to save the man she loves...
What Reviewers are saying about Valiant:
5 Angels! "Valiant, with its twists and turns, kept me captivated... The strength of these characters pulls you into a really enjoyable book that should not be missed! You'll be taken back in to the Old West, just as if you are living there and going through the feelings and emotions of the characters with them. This pervasive emotion makes this book well worth your time. Valiant is a historical book packed with page-turning action..." —Wendi for
Fallen Angel Reviews
4 Blue Ribbons! "VALIANT is a fast paced western romance that will keep you reading until the very end. The love between Quade and Delaney is so sweet and true you can’t help but cheer for them, even when they are escaping from jail. With love scenes so hot they singe the pages and a romance so sweet it brings tears to your eyes, all make VALIANT a must read romance." —Dina Smith for Romance Junkies
Formats available: HTML, MSR, PDF,
Link to purchase:
http://www.amberquill.com/Valiant.html
|
|
Exclusive Excerpt from Valiant:
CHAPTER ONE
An outburst of laughter on the other side of the livery barn caught Delaney Shaw's attention, and she didn't see Harvey coming toward her. When he took her by the hand to swing her toward the center of the room, she shook her head and tried to pull back. He insisted with a good-natured smile and jerk of his head. Delaney gave in, picking up the beat of the lively music and falling naturally into the square dance steps.
Delaney enjoyed dancing with Harvey McKay. He was the best dancer in the town of Valiant, Colorado, and a good friend. At one time, he had expressed an interest in her, but she had put him off the same way she had discouraged any of the other eligible young men who might have come courting. All of them had given up on her long ago, and she was reconciled to being a spinster at the age of nineteen.
No one knew why she kept her distance from men and marriage. Even her father, bewildered at the thought that he might never have grandchildren, couldn't understand her reluctance to allow any young man to come calling. He favored Harvey as a prospective son-in-law because as sheriff, he knew what a good man his deputy was. But Delaney felt it best not to tell anyone, even her father, that her heart belonged to someone she might never see again. It was her secret to keep.
When the dance ended, Harvey led her to the refreshment table and ladled up a cup of punch for her. She thanked him and took a sip, but the music, the laughter, and the warmth were getting to her. She set the cup aside.
"Something wrong, Delaney?"
She looked up into Harvey's earnest face. He was a handsome man with a head full of sandy hair that never looked neat no matter how many times he ran a comb through it. His warm brown eyes were always friendly. She didn't love him except as a dear friend, and she knew Harvey had never been in love with her. He was only trying to please her father by courting her. That was why they could be the best of friends now.
Sometimes, though, she wondered if she shouldn't give in and make some kind of life for herself. Harvey was the finest man she knew, aside from her father, and he would make a good husband. But deep inside, she knew she would wait as long as she had to.
"I need some air."
Harvey set down his cup. "I'll walk with you outside."
"No, stay and enjoy yourself." Delaney patted his arm.
"If you need anything, you know where to find me."
She nodded, then threaded her way through the crowd of people. Nearly everyone who lived within a few hours traveling distance of Valiant was present. The only exception was Marinda Cullen and her father, but their absence wasn't unusual. Even when Marinda's mother was alive, the Cullens had never attended any social gatherings in Valiant. John Cullen wouldn't allow it, not even church services on Sunday.
Delaney retrieved her shawl, and when she slipped outside, she stood and let the early summer breeze cool her overheated skin. She had no intention of going back, and Harvey knew her well enough that when she didn't return, he wouldn't worry. He would guess she'd walked home as she had on many occasions before. She'd had enough frivolity for one evening.
Making her way around the various buckboards and shays, she came to the corral. She sighed and leaned against a post. A horse neighed, then another, and a trill of feminine laughter carried from the darkness on the other side. Probably Louisa Wilton. Louisa liked to giggle in the dark with boys. Delaney had never giggled in the dark with a boy, and sometimes she wondered what it would be like.
What would it be like if Harvey kissed her until he took her breath away? Delaney smiled and shook her head. She couldn't imagine that much passion in Harvey McKay.
No, the only boy she ever wanted to kiss had left seven years ago and as far as she knew, no one had ever heard from him again. He was Marinda Cullen's cousin, and on the rare occasion when Marinda came to town and Delaney asked about him, Marinda would just shake her head. Marinda had always been a strange, quiet girl who had become a strange, quiet young woman.
Of course, the boy Delaney remembered wouldn't be a boy now. He would be twenty-one, and she wondered what he looked like. Would he be tall and handsome? Would he still have the brightest blue eyes she'd ever seen and unruly hair as black as India ink? Would he even remember her, the little girl who had fallen in love with him at first sight?
Delaney hugged the crocheted shawl, one of the last things her mother had made the year before her death from consumption. She ran her hand over the lacey design, wishing her mother were there to advise and counsel her. Perhaps she could have told Delaney how to forget him and not let the memory of him consume her. Not a day passed that she didn't think of him and wonder where he was or what he was doing. Was he even still alive?
She laid her head back on the corral post and closed her eyes against the pain. She knew she was living in a dream world, a land of fancy where he would ride up one day and sweep her away. A place where he loved her as much as she loved him. She was being ridiculously sentimental, but just as she'd never been able to remove him from her thoughts, she couldn't shed her love for him from her heart. She'd measured her feelings for every man she'd ever known against those she carried for him, and one by one they'd all fallen short.
A sound drifted on the night air and she recognized it as the muffled hoof beats of a horse trotting along the dusty street leading into town. Slowly, she opened her eyes and raised her head, wondering who would be arriving this late. In another hour or so, the festivities would start to wind down, those living farthest away leaving first.
A full moon provided enough light to see by, but the horse and rider hadn't come into view yet. She spread her shawl over her shoulders and started toward the sound. By the time she reached the clearing beyond where the wagons and carriages were parked, he had ridden into view.
The familiarity of the rider made Delaney's breath catch and her heart race in her chest. The way he sat in the saddle, the determined set of his shoulders, the slight tilt of his body...she knew him although his hat was drawn down low over his face. As he drew nearer, she saw a holstered gun slung low on his left hip--he was left-handed--and Delaney thought her heart might explode. When his head lifted a little and he caught sight of her, he brought the buckskin to an abrupt halt.
"Quade?" she called out before she realized his name was on her lips. "Is that you, Quade Singleton?"
And then her skirts were flying as she ran toward him, not waiting for an answer. Her heart knew him even if her eyes hadn't seen the sight of him in seven years. When she reached him, he leaned over and swung her up hard against his chest.
Catching the brim of his hat, she swept it off his head, then put her arm around his neck. Moonlight silvered his ink-black hair. With the fingertips of her free hand, she traced the weathered lines on his face, pausing at the white jagged scar on his cheekbone--a permanent reminder of his final day in Valiant. The last time she'd seen him that mark had been an open wound, bruised and bloody.
He'd grown into a man, harder and leaner than the boy he'd been. She brushed aside a stray lock of his hair and looked into his eyes. By moonlight, they appeared dark and without depth, but she remembered the startling blue that reflected every emotion, even if only for a second before becoming guarded. The eyes of a desperate boy who refused to give in even when overwhelmed by a bleak life at the hands of his wretched uncle.
"Delaney..." Her name came as softly as a sigh, then his hard mouth slanted over hers, taking her breath just as he'd stolen her heart so long ago. His lips moved warmly over hers. The kiss of the man differed completely from the kiss of the boy who'd left her. Back then, the quick press of his lips to hers when she'd been twelve years old had signified a chaste good-bye, nothing more.
Delaney closed her eyes and melted into the kiss of the man Quade had become, responding as the woman she now was.
CHAPTER 2
Quade kissed Delaney with the unconstrained passion of a yearning that had burned his heart and body for seven long years. His mouth took hers, ravishing her lips and tongue with his, the same way his cock ached to take her. She responded to his greed with a pure fire all her own. Her arms tightened around him as her lips trembled, her tongue shyly touching his.
She tasted sweeter than he'd ever imagined and never thought he'd be given the chance to find out. Delaney, his Delaney. She'd been his secret possession since the first time he'd laid eyes on her. He was the dirty boy in rags standing in the mud when she came out of the sheriff's office with her father the first day they arrived in Valiant. She'd worn a frilly pink dress with ribbons to match in her long fall of deep brown curls. He'd thought she was an angel come to take him to heaven when she turned and smiled at him.
Now, she was in his arms, and she was all his...
© 2005 by Lanette Curington
Top
|
|
November's Contest:
For a chance to win a download of Lani's fabulous erotic novella Valiant, send an email to lyndilamont@sbcglobal.net with the word Valiant in the subject line.
Congratulations to Rahaila I. who won September's contest, a download of Take On Me by Lacey Savage.
|
|
Lyndi’s Books:
DARE ALL FOR LOVE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF EROTIC ROMANCE
Historical Erotica Anthology
Join Lyndi Lamont for a journey into the past, where the men are roguish and the women daring.
A gambler disrupts the plans of a mail-order bride looking for one last fling...
A rakish officer wants to paint a respectable lady—in the nude...
A bold wench and a dashing pirate heat up the tropics...
A schoolmarm gives herself to the outlaw waiting in her bedroom...
Contents: Lily and the Gambler, Painting Penelope, Prepare To Be Boarded, Desperado
|
|
DESPERADO
Short Historical/Western Erotica
Rating: Graphic Sexual Content/Graphic Language
Schoolmarm Esther McFarland comes home to find an outlaw waiting in her bedroom. Why does she find this desperado so irresistible? All she wants from life is a home and family of her own, but all he has to offer is danger and delight.
Bart Braddock is a wanted man. Though he knows Esther is the only woman for him, he can’t promise her the home she wants. But that doesn’t stop him from taking her body and stealing her heart...
Click here to read an excerpt.
|
|
PREPARE TO BE BOARDED
Short Historical Erotica
Rating: Graphic Sexual Content/Graphic Language
When the ship on which Eliza Honeyfield is traveling is stopped by pirates, she meets the man of her dreams. But dare she give her heart, and body, to a pirate?
Morgan Price is delighted with the bold and saucy English wench. But is she enough to make him give up his wild pirate ways?
Click here to read an excerpt.
|
|
LILY AND THE GAMBLER
Historical/Western Erotica Novella
Rating: Moderate Sexual Content/Graphic Language
On the way to meet her groom-to-be, mail order bride Lily Albright can't resist one last fling with a sexy gambler. After one night with Lily, Creighton "King" Callaway knows he has found his Queen of Hearts. But can he convince her to pass up a sober businessman for a foot-loose card sharp? Only Lady Luck knows for sure...
Click here to read an excerpt.
|
|
PAINTING PENELOPE
Short Historical Erotica
Rating: Moderate Sexual Content/Language
Respectable Penelope Porter is appalled when she learns she is expected to pay her father's gaming debts by posing for rakish Captain Logan Wilding—in the nude!
As Logan feared, painting Penelope turns out to be pure torture—until she decides to let him touch as well as look...
Click here to read an excerpt.
Top
|
|
I hope you enjoyed this issue of Lyndi's Love Notes. Watch for the next issue in January.
Happy Holidays to all!
Lyndi
|
