Libby Campbell has dropped by to share her second book in her Romancing the Coast series, "Holding Cynthia" - Her heroes are definitely my kind of guys.
She's currently working on a time travel with another author, so I asked:
If you could travel to any time, what time period would you like to
explore?
I’d love to visit Victorian England
if I could live as one of the upper classes. My roots are English but, on my
mother’s side at least, my family were the ruled, not the ruling class.
I’d want to be the Victorian lady
with a handsome, stern but loving husband who lets her sleep until 9, shop for
fine clothes, and play cards until early morning hours.
That's the life for me, too.
Excerpt:
Antony opened his arms. “Come
here.”
Cynthia tilted her head, not
understanding what he wanted.
“Come. Sit on my knee for a bit,
we’re going to have a little talk.”
She sat awkwardly on his left thigh
and he responded by lifting her legs up, so they draped over the right arm of
the chair. There was no choice but to put her arm around his neck for balance.
He bounced her a couple of times.
“That’s nice, isn’t it?”
“It is.” She leaned into him,
enjoying the softness of his beard rubbing her face.
“I’ve told you I’m going to spank
you. How do you feel about that?”
“I haven’t been spanked since I was
a little kid and even then it was just a couple of fast swats.” She shrugged.
“I guess I’ll try anything once.”
“If you and I are going continue
seeing each other, you’d better be prepared for it to happen on a regular
basis. How long and hard the spankings are will depend entirely on you.”
She bent her head, hiding behind
the curtain of her silver bob that draped in front of her face. “Really?”
“I’m a lover not a fighter,” he
said, hugging her gently. “Spanking is a way of clearing the air between us. It
keeps things on an even keel, relieves built up tension.”
“You mean your tension about what I
do?”
“For the most part, yes. I’m not
going to bullshit you. I’m going to be the leader in our relationship. You are
an amazingly strong and capable woman. But you’re also stubborn and willful.
You’ve been the boss of your own life for so long, you think you’re taking care
of yourself, that you’re self-aware. But you’re not. You know some of the things
that you’ve been doing like taking care of business, taking care of your
mother, your daughter, your father. That’s not looking after yourself. That’s
looking after community which is important.”
He held her a bit closer. “But you
can’t look after anyone if you don’t look after yourself. Everything I’ve
learned about you tells me your needs haven’t been looked after for a very long
time. No one who is looking after themselves gets so exhausted they can’t
manage a half hour walk. You need someone to watch over you. If you’ll let me,
I’d like that to be me.”
She leaned into him, tired to the
core, grateful just to be sitting on his lap. “I’d like it to be you, too. I
think. I don’t know. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have someone
telling me what to do all the time.”
“I’m not going to tell you what to
do all the time. Not only are you too smart to need that, it would bore me too
quickly to have to do it. I’m only going to take control when I can see that
you’ve lost your way.”
He lifted her chin, meeting her
eyes. “Does that sound fair?”
“Sure.” She brushed a lock of hair
behind her ears.
“Do you know why I’m going to spank
you today?”
Blurb:
Antony Jacobson first held Cynthia Donohue in his arms at a
wintry December wedding. Four months later, the statuesque, silver-haired woman
continues to haunt his thoughts.
Cynthia is about to move to the West Coast to be closer her
daughter. As her plane touches down in her new city, she steels herself to cope
on her own. When she finds Antony waiting at the arrivals gate, a wave of gratitude
and desire floods through her.
A lifetime of independence hasn’t prepared Cynthia for a
submissive role in a relationship. She craves love, romance, and someone to
share sunsets. But deep down she believes her dreams are out of her reach.
Worse, they are a betrayal of her feminist principles. That’s fine:
indomitable, handsome Antony will wait.
She is tired and aching beyond all memory so Antony takes
charge. Very quickly, he realizes there is something wrong, very wrong, with
Cynthia’s health. He insists that she see a doctor.
She says he is overprotective. He agrees. He is also
determined to look after her if she won’t look after herself. A trip over his
knee shakes Cynthia to the core. In spite of herself she likes – she wants –
this loving correction. More importantly, she agrees that he may be right about
seeing a doctor.
Is Antony too much, too soon, or is he just what the doctor
ordered?
Amazon
Blushing Books
Don’t miss these other
great books from Libby Campbell and Blushing Books:
Seeing Ronnie.(Romancing the Coast, Book 1)
Simon in Charge – 3 book boxset, featuring:
Winning Sadie is also available as an audio book from
Audible. Buy it here.
About the Author:
Libby Campbell writes in the bay window of her mock-Tudor
home. Her muse is fueled by coffee, chocolate, and many cups of fragrant tea.
Libby and her leading man share a love of hiking, beach walks, road trips, and
an occasional night of dancing. They live in a leafy, seaside neighborhood on a
rocky Canadian island.
Libby savors her evening bubble baths where she sings along
to her favorite music, safe in the knowledge that no one can hear her. She
loves all animals, but particularly small dogs with big attitudes and big ones
who think they are lap dogs. A woman for all seasons, Libby is happy cuddling
in front of a winter fire, watching a summer sunset, listening to birds in the
spring, and walking in the autumn rain.
Optimistic by nature, Libby wants a solid HEA in her reading
and her writing. She writes the stories she wants to read. To see what she’s working
on now, or how she formed her earlier novels, visit her Pinterest
boards where she pins pictures that inspire her characters and their worlds.
Connect with Libby
Campbell on social media:
Visit her website and blog here: Libby Campbell
Find her on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Libby-Campbell-849543415164235/
Follow her on Twitter: @LibbyC26
Visit her Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Libby-Campbell/e/B01B75CENW
Pinterest: https://nz.pinterest.com/libby3054/
Visit the other participants joining in the
Thank you for hosting me today. It's a delight to be here.
ReplyDeleteHi Kathryn and Libby, I enjoyed the excerpt, this sounds like a sweet story :)
ReplyDeleteHugs
Roz