Excerpt from my Cuffed By Candlelight Novella

Cuffed by Candlelight: An Erotic Romance Anthology
With Novellas by: Beverly Jenkins, Gwyneth Bolton, and Katherine D. Jones
Parker Publishing, LLC
February 2007

Blurb for my novella "Handcuffs Mean Never Having To Say You're Sorry"

Why try to reason...

DEA Agent Lance King has been watching over Tamara Downing ever since she was a kid and he will continue to look out for her, whether she likes it or not. In fact, he thinks it's high time she comes to term with the fact that they are meant to be together. If only he could figure out a way to get her to stay still long enough to listen to him. Steamy, sultry, lovemaking might just do the trick... She has to be able to see reason eventually. Doesn't she?

When you've got handcuffs...

Newly minted Police Detective Tamara Downing has made it her business to stay away from the man she gave her virginity to, especially since in the process he stole her heart and handed it back to her permanently broken. There is nothing Lance can tell her to get her to understand why he took it upon himself to meddle in her most recent case. But then she never has found another lover quite like him... She could stick around long enough to get some sexual maintenance and make Lance see exactly what he walked away from ten-years ago. He can't be serious about all this love and marriage stuff anyway. Can he?

Their journey to love becomes a test of wills laced with passion and desire. Will they get to a space where their love can prevail?

Excerpt from "Handcuffs Mean Never Having to Say You're Sorry"

"Pull out ya nine, while I cock on mine--" Tamara Downing left the four-story brick building that housed Murder Row records rapping Lil' Kim lyrics and aiming her imaginary gun. Her real Newark PD issued piece was in the car. Yes, things were going her way. Tommy Coles had finally noticed she was alive, and it would only be a matter of time before she could put his behind up under the jail. NPD believed that he ran a prostitution ring out of Murder Row, luring girls in with dreams of stardom. Several of his former "video models" had gone missing, and one was badly beaten but wouldn't talk.

The ringing of her cell phone snapped her out of her momentary reverie, and she quickly answered it as she made her way from the building to her car. She'd just turned the dang thing on again since she always turned it off when she was working.

Giving the dark parking lot a quick once over, she mentally prepared herself for any trouble. Murder Row Records was known for unsavory characters, and she had no desire to get caught out there by someone who saw her as an easy mark. And, even though she'd been born in Newark and raised in East Orange, New Jersey, she knew that dark parking lots in Brick City--Newark's unofficial nickname--didn't mix with petite young women in super-tight lycra mini dresses. She could more than handle herself if pressed to do so, but it wouldn't exactly bode well with her undercover assignment if she started going all Alias and Xena-Warrior Princess in the parking lot.

Letting her feet move a little faster when she spotted two strange looking men in the shadows, Kara answered her phone softly. "Yeah." She tried to answer it as quickly as possible. The Lil' Kim ring tone she’d downloaded that played "Shut Up, Bitch" just might have given the jerks in the parking lot the wrong idea.

"It's about time you answered the phone, baby. I've been so worried about you. You didn't stop by the past two Saturdays like you normally do."

Mama Paula. Tamara loved the woman who'd saved her life by taking her in after her mother died. But Mama Paula brought worrying to new height.

"I'm fine, Mama Paula. Honest. But I can't talk now." Holding her cell phone to her ear with her shoulder, she started to unlock the door to her red poor-girl's version of a sports car.

Mama Paula hesitated slightly, and Tamara knew instinctively that couldn't be good. Mama Paula only went silent when she felt a little bit guilty or ill at ease about something she'd done. When it came to Tamara's life or business that could only mean one thing. "Oh. Okay. I was just worried. That's why I asked Lance to--"

Several curse words ran through her head, but she had way too much respect for Mama Paula to utter any of them. "Oh, Mama Paula, tell me you didn't ask Lance to check up on me. You know I don’t like the way he steps in and tries to--"

Before Tamara could finish her sentence, a gun and a badge were in her face. The shadowed men that she'd thought were thugs turned out to be something worse.

"Unh, Mama Paula, I have to go now." Tamara hung up the phone without waiting for a response. One of the men had already started cuffing her, and he clearly needed her other hand free to finish the job.