TJ Michaels

You know, when I first started thinking on this theme I was thinking it referred to important calendar dates. You know, like an anniversary or birthday or date of a memorable event, whether good or not so good. Then it dawned on me that an important date could be that first date, or the dinner date that your beau asked you to marry him or whatever.

And for the first few days I couldn’t think at all of a single excerpt from any of my books! At the time Iwas traveling for work, looking for a new house while away from home, dealing with any other myriad of things and my poor brain was just tired. In the end, I picked an excerpt where the heroine was so wrapped up in what was going on in her head that she wasn’t seeing what was really in front of her. She was missing the forest for the trees…kind of like me right now.

So enjoy this excerpt from Primed to Pounce where Delaine Jeris, our heroine, is so caught up in what she thought was a wrong done against her, that she almost misses out on her dude.

Enjoy, then visit the other Snippet Saturday authors via the links at the bottom of this post ;D

TJ

Excerpt from Primed to Pounce
by TJ Michaels
Copyright @ 2006, All Rights Reserved

*Stop running, Suta. Embrace our mate. He comes.*

‘Yeah, whatever,’ Delaine words were flat and uncaring, and in truth, she hadn’t really been listening to what Sapa was saying to her along the bond.

The sleek mountain cat rolled her eyes and stalked away to a quiet corner of Delaine’s mind. Before she retreated, Delaine felt her frustration. Well, she could forget about meditating. All she could think about was Justin. Justin’s lips. Justin’s hands on her body. Justin treating her like the queen he proclaimed her to be. Cooking for her. Taking her on road trips.

Justin sleeping with her best friend. Rather, a chick that was supposed to be her friend.

She wanted to knock herself in the head. What had she been thinking to get involved with him anyway? He was too nice, too perfect. And you know what they say—if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. So here she was again, in a relationship with a man who couldn’t keep his dick out of another woman’s pants. Her boss might think he was a good guy, but Delaine saw him as nothing but Gary-Number-Two.

Grumbling under her breath, she rose from the back porch and stomped into the cabin. She hit the sheets early, determined not to lose any more sleep over Justin, Pam or her job.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

What the hell was that? On silent feet, Delaine jumped out of bed with her gun in hand. She checked the lock on the window in her bedroom then edged her way to the small living room.

Bam! Bam! Bam!

Someone was banging on the door like they were the police. That was fine, because if it wasn’t the police, whoever it was would limp away with a bullet in the ass.

“Delaine! Open the door!”

She lowered her weapon and clicked on the safety. Justin? Oh my god. How the hell had he found her? Okay, now that was a stupid question, she thought, shaking her head. The man worked for one of the most sophisticated covert organizations in the country. Of course he could find her.

Geesh, Delaine, get it together, girl, she grumbled at herself. ‘And Sapa, stop all that pacing. It’s making me dizzy.’ An irritated growl resonated along the bond.

Sapa had told her Justin would come for her. She hadn’t believed it one whit, not while he had someone else’s warm body to bury his cock in. But Sapa had been wrong, in a manner of speaking. He hadn’t come for her. The bastard had come for Pam. And when she was finished with him, he’d wish he’d kept his distance

With her gun fisted on her hip, she yanked the door open and glared up at him under the light of the single bulb illuminating the small front porch.

“What the hell are you doing here? Why aren’t you with Pam?”

Justin drew his neck back, arched a brow and looked down at her like she was crazy.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Delaine ignored his innocent, confused expression and ground her words into his face. “You. Slept. With. Pam! You bastard!”

“I slept with Pam? You’ve got to be kidding me!” he laughed.

Delaine quirked a brow, not seeing any humor in the situation. His laugh seemed genuine enough, but this was a man whose job was to be an expert at hiding who he really was. As are you. She ignored that little voice and, seeing no humor in the situation, scowled at him and his stupid laughter.

SNIPPET SATURDAY AUTHORS!
Anne Rainey
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Lauren Dane
Helen Kay Dimon
Vivian Arend
Shelli Stevens
Shiloh Walker

Hey all, I’ve been awfully remiss in keeping my Goodreads up to date. I took some time and caught up today and hope I actually remembered all the books I’ve read in the past couple of months!

T.J.’s bookshelf: read

Play of Passion

by Nalini Singh

Believe it or not, this was my first Nalini Singh book and I LOVED IT!

tagged:
paranormal, romance, shape-shifter, vampire, and hot

Bound By Blood

by Cynthia Eden

tagged:
paranormal, romance, shape-shifter, and vampire

Night Embrace

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

tagged:
paranormal, romance, and vampire

Master of Smoke

by Angela Knight

tagged:
fantasy, paranormal, romance, shape-shifter, and vampire

Master of Fire

by Angela Knight

tagged:
fantasy, paranormal, romance, vampire, and shape-shifter

Never Cry Wolf

by Cynthia Eden

tagged:
paranormal, romance, and hot

Warrior

by Angela Knight

tagged:
futuristic, hot, and romance

Three Sinful Wishes

by R.G. Alexander , Rachel Grace

Moon Dance (Mageverse Novella)

by Angela Knight

Guardian

by Angela Knight

Pleasure of a Dark Prince

by Kresley Cole

Dark Needs at Night’s Edge

by Kresley Cole

tagged:
fantasy, romance, paranormal, shape-shifter, and vampire

No Rest for the Wicked

by Kresley Cole

OMG this was a kickazz book! ‘Nuff said.

tagged:
paranormal, hot, romance, shape-shifter, vampire, and fantasy

Master of Dragons

by Angela Knight

tagged:
fantasy, paranormal, romance, shape-shifter, and vampire

The Legend of Michael

by Lisa Renee Jones

tagged:
futuristic, romance, and hot

Snaring the Huntress

by Sylvia Day

tagged:
futuristic, romance, sci-fi, and hot

Just got in from a business trip to the East coast where Hurricane Irene had done a number the day before I flew in. Happy to say that nothing exciting (read: dangerous) was going on by the time I got there. But the weather can be a funny thing. Temperamental. Or for certain lucky females, the weather can be  a conspirator. Enjoy this snippet from Gift Wrap Optional where our heroine, Melaniece, has just been drop kicked by the weather. Her beau, however, isn’t complaining at all ;D

Remember to visit all the other Snippet Saturday authors via the links at the bottom of the post! Enjoy your weekend ;D

Melaniece couldn’t believe it. Maybe if she closed her eyes and clicked her bare heels three times this nightmare would be over. What the hell was Santa trying to do to her anyway? A loving that would have bordered on cataclysmic was interrupted by the telephone. Thinking the kids might be stuck in a ditch somewhere, she rushed to answer it. It was them on the phone and they’d ditched her all right, left her up here in the mountains to be bushwhacked by Michael. And now Mother Nature decided to keep her stuck here with the man.

“This is just not happening,” she fumed as she strode uncaringly naked to the laundry room. Yanking open the door she stared out into the garage. No joke. The kids’ SUV was gone, replaced by Michael’s monster machine—a jet-black Hummer took up more than its fair share of the three car garage.

Michael’s hands lovingly caressed her shoulders accompanied by the hot, hard length of his cock brushing up against her bare ass, a reminder of what they’d been up to when the phone rang. Bastard.

“Mel, it’s not as bad as it looks, I promise.”

“How can you say such a jacked up thing to me, Michael? I’ve never spent the Christmas holidays without my children. Ever!” Every spot on her now tense shoulders and neck grew warm. Such talented fingers. Oooh, the easy massage was working. Come on girl, get it together. You’re supposed to be mad, remember?

“I’m going home toDenverto join them. You can stay here if you like until the roads are clear enough for you to drive home.” Damn it was cold. The backs of her legs were nicely warmed by an obviously heat efficient Michael along with the warmth streaming from the laundry room, but the front of her body was so chilled her poor nipples felt like little fudgesicles. Tempted to step back and lean against the spinning clothes dryer, she yanked away from Michael’s gentle touch instead.

Mad? Absolutely. Stupid? Hell no, and there was no way she was going to chill her toes by stepping into the garage. Holding onto the doorjamb she leaned out and stretched for the door opener mounted on the wall.

“Mel, don’t you dare open that garage door while you’re standing here naked,” Michael warned. Oh, so now he was going to tell her what to do? Not bloody likely. He had some nerve and how dare he growl at her like that. She would have told him so if her eyes hadn’t been pasted to the sight revealed by the open garage door.

“I repeat, this is just not happening,” she whispered. “Oh come on, Santa, work with me here.”

“What was that, Mel?”

“N-Nothing. Never mind.” All she could do was stare at the six-foot wall of snow standing between her car and the driveway outside.

At least the kids left last night, otherwise they might not have made it toDenverat all in this mess. And it was still coming down in big, wet flakes. Instinctively she turned to the huge vehicle parked next to hers, but could only shake her head. Even Michael’s Hummer wasn’t big or bad enough to get out of the garage. They were well and truly snowed in. And before she could make it out of the laundry room, the dryer began to spin slower and slower until it stopped altogether…just before the lights flickered off. Along with everything else in the house. Damn, damn, DAMN!

With some growling of her own, Melaniece turned on her heel, elbowed past Michael and stomped straight to her room. Now where had she put the battery-powered weather radio Melvin gave her a couple of years ago? Yanking an oversized T-shirt off the shelf, she pulled it on quickly and bent to the task of digging through the plastic storage boxes. Blast it all, she could barely see in the dim light filtering into the closet from the window across the room. Relieved when her hand closed around the small square metal and plastic box she snatched it out and turned it on.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, she turned the tuning knob until she found a clear channel. She didn’t need to look up to know a concerned Michael Bannon’s eyes were plastered to her face. She felt him, knew he was worried about her. The knowledge made her want to reach out to him, stroke the soft waves on his head with one hand while easing eager fingers over the planes and ridges of his beautifully defined chest and stomach. A still very naked chest and stomach.

“The National Weather Service predicts this blizzard will blow out in the next forty-eight hours. The worst of the snow started falling early this morning around three a.m. If you had somewhere to go, we hope you got there last night.”

Her hopes plummeted.

“Smart-assed weather man,” she grumbled quietly to herself, massaging her temples. Just great, now her head hurt.

Snippet Saturday awesomeness from:
Anne Rainey
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Alison Kent
Denise A. Agnew
Helen Kay Dimon
Lacey Savage
Shelli Stevens
Shiloh Walker