Top Ten Reasons to Date a Hockey Player

My book One Man Advantage came out last week. The hero of the story, Logan Heller, is a professional hockey player. Logan is the brother of Jase (Breakaway) and Tag (Faceoff). As the third of four boys in the Heller family, following in the steps of his two older brothers has never been easy. Logan’s always been a joker, a fun guy who never takes things too seriously, always with a smile on his face and a smart remark. Of course, Logan is hiding a lot between that carefree façade, including a deep-seated fear that he’ll never be as good as his two older brothers, both on and off the ice.

BLURB:

After her ex trashes her reputation in front of the media and it quickly goes viral, Nicole vows she’ll never get involved with another hockey player. Too bad her job with the Minneapolis Caribou puts her in contact with sexy hockey players on a daily basis, including the newly traded center, Logan Heller. Logan’s pretty sure Nicole is the perfect woman for him and he’s determined to have her—in and out of bed. Nicole is equally determined to never date another hockey player. But Logan has a one-man advantage…he knows what she really wants. 

Logan spends much of the story trying to convince Nicole they should be together, and at one point he tells her some of the reasons why it’s good to date a hockey player. He only gets through a few of them and although he doesn’t completely convince her with these reasons, he does soften her up a little with his sense of humor. Here's a short excerpt - this is at a Thanksgiving dinner party Nicole's friends Taylor and Fedor host:

“Fedor wants to know if you picked up any chicken wings,” Logan said.

“Chicken wings! Is he nuts? This is Thanksgiving.”

“He says he needs Buffalo chicken wings to watch football.”

“Phhht. I’ll go talk to him.” She hustled out of the room, leaving Nicole and Logan alone.

“Excuse me,” she said. He blocked the door. “I need to go change.”

He looked down at her, his mouth a flat line. “How was your date Saturday night?”

She smiled, her eyes narrowed up in fake cheer. “Lovely. How about you? I heard you went out with some of the guys.”

“Yep.”

“I heard there were girls all over you.” Oh hell, did she say that out loud?

“Yep. That’s why I went.”

Her smile faded. Bastard.

They stood there facing each other. Nicole had to break the eye contact, she just couldn’t hold his gaze without wanting to fall to her knees in front of him. “Please. Let me by.”

After a brief hesitation, he stepped aside. She hurried out of the dining room and down the hall to the guest room. Closing the door behind her, she pressed her hands to hot cheeks. The attraction she felt to Logan hadn’t diminished and only reinforced how extremely painful her date with Paul had been. They just had nothing in common, and much as she wanted to expand her horizons and have some kind of interests outside of hockey...he just wasn’t going to do it.

She changed out of her jeans and sweater into the dress she’d brought, a sleeveless black dress that was simple, but she liked the shape of the neckline and how it fit her body. She brushed her hair and touched up mascara and lip gloss, then went out to greet the other guests who started arriving.

Taylor started music, but the guys made her turn it off until the football game was over. People filled the kitchen and great room, talking and laughing, offering to help with food. Nicole stirred gravy while Logan mashed potatoes and she had to fight to keep her eyes off his big flexing muscles as he held the pot and plunged the masher in and out. Ergh.

“So what are the other top ten reasons to date a hockey player?” Taylor asked Logan.

He shot her a sexy smile. “Let’s see how many I can remember. Um...they always wear protection.”

Nicole choked. And coughed.

“You okay, hon?” Taylor asked.

“Yes,” she wheezed. She could not look at Logan. Even so, she sensed his grin.

“They have great hands,” he continued.

Oh yeah. Oh god, yeah.

“They have great stamina.”

She bit her lip. Their sex on the floor hadn’t required a lot of stamina; they’d both been so hot for each other, it hadn’t lasted all that long. But she had no doubt he had lots and lots of stamina. Actually, so did she...

“Nic, you’re whipping the gravy into a froth,” Taylor said. “I think it’s good.”

“Oh. Yeah. Okay.” She set down the whisk. And Taylor had to go and talk about whipping. “It’s hot in here,” she said without thinking, and then she caught Logan’s smirk and her face turned scorching. “I mean, I’ve been standing over this hot stove...I need more wine.”

She grabbed her glass and downed the rest of the contents, started to reach for the bottle, but Logan was there with it. He poured some into her glass.

“Thanks,” she croaked. She met his knowing gaze, his brown eyes gleaming.

    Here are the rest of the reasons why to date a hockey player:

10. They have great stamina
9. They have really long sticks
8. They know when to play rough
7. When they play rough they do it from behind
6. They can score from any position
5. They find the opening and get in it
4. They always wear protection
3. They never miss their target
2. They have great hands
1. Other athletes only play with balls  

Hey, it's time for another release!

So I’ve been riding this last Samhain release (One Wicked Night) on quite a bit of a high! I’m so thrilled with the reviews and emails I’ve gotten from readers, bloggers, and reviewers.

But hey – I think it’s time for another release! Rule of Three is out next week (February 14). 

These two books are similar in many ways. They’re both ménage à trois stories featuring two men and a woman. One of the men is a “bad boy”. The woman in each story is a “good girl”. Both stories are extremely emotional and very hot. I won’t tell you if they both have the same kind of ending—you have to read them to find THAT out!

But they’re very different, too. In One Wicked Night, the two men are in a relationship (of sorts) at the beginning of the story, which expands to include a woman. In Rule of Three, Chris and Kassidy are a couple. They’ve just moved in together and are deeply in love, and then another man appears in their life.

In One Wicked Night, most of the journey of self-discovery is undergone by Tyler and Kaelin. Nick is there, solid, dependable and steady for both of them, although he has his own moment of having to face his true feelings.

But in Rule of Three, all three characters have some learning to do about themselves. Kassidy has always been the good girl—the good daughter, the good sister, the good girlfriend. Suddenly...she’s being very bad. Dag is a bad boy on the surface who doesn’t commit and doesn’t really feel worthy of being loved. Suddenly he’s involved with not just one person, but two. And Chris...probably has the most difficult journey of all.

Some ménage à trois stories are about a one-time fling that’s hot and exciting. Some are about a long-term ménage à trois relationship. That can’t be easy. It’s a hot fantasy, sure, but realistically, there are very real obstacles to making something like that work. All romances are about overcoming obstacles to find that HEA, but in a ménage story the obstacles can be even greater because of it being a complicated threesome.

Come visit me at the Smutketeers blog today – I’m sharing more about the writing of Rule of Three - AND the “rule of three” in writing (!!) with some sexy little snippets from the book. And I’m giving away an ARC of Rule of Three to one commenter! You know you want it!

A new release and a BIG thank you

"There are so many people I have to thank for helping with this book: my wonderful critique partner Nara Malone for her valuable feedback; all of the Nine Naughty Novelists for their incredible friendship, support and encouragement through challenging times, in particular, PG Forte and Erin Nicholas who read this manuscript and also gave feedback; as always my family who support me no matter what; and most especially goddess editor Sue-Ellen Gower—thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support and input! I’m so glad we’re working together again, Suz!" 

That is the author note at the beginning of One Wicked Night,  my latest release (yesterday!) from Samhain Publishing. Just in case any of you Naughty Novelists don’t happen to read it, I wanted you to know how grateful I am to you. You all know the “challenging times” I went through over the last year and I wanted to acknowledge how much your support and encouragement meant to me. Every single one of you gave words of encouragement at various times and for various reasons, and helped me get this book out there.

One Wicked Night is one of those stories that “wrote itself”. It didn’t take a lot of research. I didn’t do a lot of planning. The characters developed very clearly and quickly in my mind. I never had moments where I was stuck on what they should do next. I loved Kaelin and Tyler and Nick, and I loved this story and I believed in it. And I hope readers like it too! Here’s a little excerpt!

The boys are back in town…
Ten years ago, Kaelin Daume spent a steamy summer home from college secretly hanging out with town bad boy Tyler Wirth and his best friend Nick Kernsted. The connection was warm, complicated, and came to a crashing end when she walked in on her two forbidden friends with another woman. The shocking scene of sex and bondage has haunted her boring, oh-so-vanilla life ever since.

The fallout from that night tore Tyler’s life apart. He left Mapleglen, disowned and disgraced, to build a successful advertising career and a unique relationship with Nick. Nothing could bring him back except his sister’s wedding, and he plans to hightail it back to Chicago as soon as it’s over. At least one good thing hasn’t changed: Kaelin is as sweet as ever. Except she doesn’t seem too thrilled to hear it.

As tensions run high, Kaelin can’t resist the temptation to commit one crazy act of rebellion. Once the web of secrets, sins and lies starts to unravel, though, their lives will never be the same…

---

Product Warnings

This book contains a nice girl who gets her naughty on with two hot men. M/M/F and M/M scenes may cause an increase in body temperature, pulse rate and respiration. Read with caution! For adult use only.

EXCERPT:

Their eyes met and held in a stretched-out connection.

She didn’t move away from his touch, although she was sitting with both her hands captured by his and Nick’s, sandwiched between them, but she wasn’t trying to get away, and he let his hand drift to her shoulder.

“You’re so sweet, Kaelin,” he said hoarsely. “You put the whole wedding together for Avery. You bailed out Scott. Even my mom loves you.”

A tiny huff of laughter escaped her at that.

Tyler looked at Nick, who also gazed at Kaelin’s face with a look of admiration and yes, hunger.

Nick wanted her too.

As if sensing Tyler’s gaze on him, Nick looked away from Kaelin, and his and Tyler’s gazes locked. Unspoken questions passed between them.

Tyler closed his eyes. It was futile to even let ideas like that tease the edges of his mind. Kaelin was a good girl, the best kind of good girl, sweet and innocent and no doubt as vanilla as soft-serve ice cream. He’d had to take drastic measures the last time he’d started having outrageous, inappropriate thoughts like that about her, and this could be no different.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered, big brown eyes focused on him when he opened his.

His mouth twisted. “Nothing.” He lifted the hand he still held and kissed her fingers. Her pupils went wide, eyes dark as she watched him. Hell. “You’re just so nice, Kaelin. Such a good girl.”

She went very still, sitting there on the couch between him and Nick.

“Really,” he continued. “Brent seemed like a nice guy too. You’d make a good couple.”

“Oh for Chrissakes!” The words exploded out of her mouth and she yanked her hands out of their grip. “I’m not that nice!”

And she grabbed Tyler’s head, yanked him toward her and kissed him hard.

Too stunned to even kiss her back, his head reeled as she shoved him away, but that was nothing compared to the bolt of lightning that struck him when she turned to Nick, grabbed him and kissed him too.

 Buy it at the Samhain Bookstore or Amazon or B&N