ALL IN Excerpt & Contest

Three days and counting until the release of my Ellora's Cave novella, ALL IN ! To celebrate, I'm holding a contest this week.

In the story, when Mariah and Tucker are shopping in a Venetian glass store in Las Vegas, she admires a millefiori necklace. Millefiori means "a thousand flowers" in Italian.


According to FossilFly.com:

To create a [millefiori] pendant, a glass rod is covered with layers of different colored glass to create an intricate design and heated in the furnace so the layers fuse together. The rod is then re-heated and pulled to become very thin but still maintain the perfect cross section of the original design. Once the rod cools off, it is cut into small discs.

These tiny sections of various canes or "millefiori" are cut and patiently and artistically placed into metal rings of different shapes and sizes. These pieces are then reheated again to slightly fuse the canes together to form the pendant. The rough pendant is then ground and polished to make it look like a magnificent glass mosaic.

This is the necklace you can win. The chain is sterling silver and the pendant is glass, of course. To enter the contest, read the excerpt (adult content) below and answer the two questions that follow it. I'll announce the winner of the contest on Sunday, Sept. 16 here on the blog.

Mariah knew Tucker was going to kiss her, wanted him to kiss her, and when he did, she responded as if she’d been in hibernation. Part of her thought, you’re being a sleaze, but most of her didn’t care. The Wish Fairy had come through and Mariah wasn’t going to squander this once-in-a-lifetime chance to fulfill a fantasy she’d been fostering for six long years. Hell no. She slid her arms around his hard body and kissed him back.


His mouth moved over hers and he made a low sound of enjoyment that seemed to reverberate inside her. As he threaded his fingers through her hair, cradling her head, she moaned too. Sensations swept through her. Tucker was here in the flesh, pushing his tongue into her mouth, crowding her against the wall. She wasn’t imagining the spicy smell of his cologne or his strong arms—

Ping .

They both stepped hurriedly apart as the elevator doors opened and a family of four entered. Mariah touched her lips as if she could brush away the evidence, but the parents and kids paid no attention to them. The doors closed again. Tucker coughed and looked at her questioningly, his finger pointing first to the lit lobby button and then to the one reading thirty-five. Mariah bit her lip. The moment of truth.

Digging up her nerve, she pushed the button for his floor and earned herself a slow smile that sent shivers of anticipation through her body. He sidled up next to her as the elevator descended, and when it spilled the family out into the noisy lobby, more people got on. He draped an arm around her shoulders and traced his finger back and forth across her collarbone. It was an excruciating exercise in patience to wait as people got on and off the elevator. She had to work hard to keep her breathing even.

At last they arrived at his floor. He took her hand and led her into another private hallway. As he inserted his card key into the slot, Mariah gasped.

What’s wrong?” he asked, alarmed.

“What time is it?”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost nine. Why?” he asked, a slight frown wrinkling his forehead. “Do you have another appointment you forgot about? Do you turn into a pumpkin?”

She laughed. Little did he know.

“Yes. Three hours from now I’ll be fleeing your room with one naked foot.”

He chuckled, but that frown remained as he paused. The light on the door lock turned from green to red again.

“You know,” he said, looking pensive, “if you’ve changed your mind and you want to grab that bite after all, that’s okay. I swear I don’t know what came over me in the elevator. I don’t usually come on so strong.”

It’s the wish in action, Mariah thought. The wish that expires at nine p.m. two days from now.

“Oh no,” she assured him. “I haven’t changed my mind.”

Tucker relaxed and with a smile and half-closed eyes, he cupped a hand around the back of her neck and claimed her mouth again. Heat flared as if they hadn’t been interrupted at all. When his tongue sought entrance, sliding along her lips, she parted them eagerly. Pleasure flowed through her veins like chocolate lava and her body throbbed, aching to be filled with Tucker’s hard cock.

Murmuring softly to her, he kissed her again and again, dipping his tongue each time to taste her more and more deeply. The hand on her waist slid up until his thumb brushed the side of her breast. Oh God. Mariah involuntarily tightened her arms around him as lust surged between her legs. They stood locked together a while longer until Tucker finally broke away, breathing rapidly and with a slight smile slanting his lips.

He pushed his key into the lock and opened the door. Then, taking her hand, he led her inside.

Questions: If a Universal Wish Fairy came to grant you a wish, what would you wish for? And have you ever had a similar experience in an elevator? Post your answers in the comment section and you'll be entered to win the millefiori necklace!