Ghost Lover has disappeared but will return.

As Ghosts are prone to do, Ghost Lover has disappeared but he will soon return with a new cover.

Print version available now
ebook
COMING DEC. 2, 2013

This Contemporary Sweet Romance is full of humor, bad behaviors, a lascivious ghost, and a charming ghost cat that will entertain readers from teens to adults. 

Ghost Lover

Completely broke and with a criminal record to boot, Senna Smith is one day from eviction from her apartment when Brendon, her promiscuous roommate from London, suggests she go to England, marry him, and manage his fortune. With few other options, she agrees to an open marriage. But she’ll never, ever, have sex with him, knowing if she falls in love with him, he’ll break her heart.

As trustee of Brendon’s family fortune, there is no way Brendon’s older brother, Garrison Durran, is going to let him marry a self-professed American gold-digger. As Senna tries to embrace castle life and English society for Brendon’s sake, Gar discovers Senna is the perfect woman for him--beautiful and intelligent, kind and caring. Now, if she wasn’t already engaged to his brother…

The ancestral ghost of Durran Castle has to intervene if the Durran brothers have any chance of an heir. He can’t leave them to fix matters on their own. They are useless buggers when it comes to love. As counselor to Gar, matchmaker for Brendon, and lover to Senna, a ghost’s work is never done.

CONTENT WARNING: Allergy warning: Ghost cat in book.   

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COMING DECEMBER 2, 2013

Chapter 1

Senna woke to her breast beeping. Trying to make sense of the oddity, she pushed herself up to rest on her elbows and discovered the noise came from Brendon’s wristwatch. Somehow, his hand had found its way beneath her bra during the night, and now chirped like a baby chick.

She contemplated tearing his hand off at the wrist, but he looked so angelic with his curly dark hair framing his handsome face. With a heavy sigh, she unlatched her bra and eased his hand out, then gently shook him until his face scrunched into a pained grimace.

He groaned and frowned at his noisy watch. “This is a god-awful hour to be woken up,” he said in his sexy British accent. “Never bothers me when I’m coming home at this hour.”

Senna rolled her eyes. “Speak for yourself.”

Pushing himself up, he shook his head. “Remember the second night I came around? You kept yelling at me, ‘Did I realize it was four in the morning?’ At the time, I couldn’t understand your fuss.” He groaned and scratched his scalp. “Well, I certainly understand it now. It’s bloody hell to be woken at this ungodly hour.”

A big yawn burst out of her. “If you’d asked your brother the time of our flights, we might’ve been able to sleep longer.”

“True. I should’ve asked. Only, whenever I talk to him, all I can think is, won’t he ever shut his cake hole? Then, where is the closest pub so I can drown all memory of the call? In the future, perhaps you should talk to him for me.”

She rolled her neck, listening to the endless pop-and-crackles. “He can’t be that bad.”

Brendon rubbed his eyes with such fury that she feared for his retinas. She gently captured his hands and pulled them from his face. He glared at her with a sullen pout. “I’ve agreed to your ridiculous condition of no sex. It seems I should be allowed a condition of my own.”

For some reason, Brendon feared his brother. She would try to pry the reason from him later, but right now she needed to soothe him. “All right, I’ll intercede between you and your brother.” Then a worrisome thought occurred to her. “He won’t hit me, will he?”

“No. He might damage your hearing with all his bellowing, but he would never hurt a woman. You’re perfectly safe, physically, and I suspect a good match for him with your fiery temper,” Brendon said with cheery optimism. “Let’s have one final cup of tea, shall we?”

Senna rose and groaned from a night sleeping on the floor. Maybe she shouldn’t have sold the couch at the moving sale yesterday. “I’m going to take a hot shower.”

Beneath the soothing warm water, her muscles relaxed and her pains from a hardwood night’s sleep disappeared. All too soon, her moment of solitude ended when Brendon attempted to join her under the guise of bringing her a cup of tea.

“Out!” she yelled, as she wrapped herself in the plastic shower curtain.

“Don’t you want your tea?” His aura of innocence would’ve made angels envious.

“Not in the shower! Now out!”

She wanted to slap him silly for invading her privacy, but she would not be the destroyer of a priceless teacup. Brendon’s brother would get the heirlooms back in one piece. Why he brought them on his travels she had no idea, but he claimed they were very old and valuable, having survived both the invasion of Romans and the bombings of Hitler.

Ten minutes later, when Senna came out of the bathroom dressed in her best linen slacks and jacket, Brendon whistled with approval. 

“You look first class.” He offered her a steaming cup. “Tea, madam?”

Why not? She leaned on the doorframe and sipped her last cup of tea in the empty apartment.

* * * *

Once they arrived at the airport and went to the ticket counter, Senna discovered not only did she look first class, but she’d be flying first class.

Brendon, on the other hand, couldn’t believe anyone would fly anything else. “My brother doesn’t particularly like me, but he’d never be so cruel as to book me in coach.”

“But how will I repay him for my ticket? It probably cost a fortune.”

He chuckled and playfully nudged her side. “I don’t think first class costs a half-million yet.”

Senna gritted her teeth. She wished she had proof the half million Brendon said she’d get if they married actually existed, but the more he talked about it, the more his eyes twinkled. One thing she’d learned in the six month invasion of the locust--a locust named Brendon--was his eyes twinkled whenever he cast his magic.

“May I have the tickets?” she asked, remembering all the wallets he’d lost over the months she’d known him.

He handed the packet and teacups over. “I need to take a piss, be back in an hour.” He disappeared down the main corridor with a jaunt a bit too perky for a man looking for the bathroom.

She watched his progress down the aisle, past the restrooms, and into the sports bar. Knowing where to find him, she located a seat, took out the ticket, and thumbed to the back receipt. Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. Her flight cost 11,263 dollars.

Determined to pay Brendon’s brother back, Senna calculated how long it would take, assuming she worked for minimum wage, eight hours a day. During her first calculation, she forgot to take out taxes. The second time, she remembered no one worked three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Nor would any employer let her work forty hours a week, because then she’d qualify as a full time employee, and terrible things would happen to their stock value if they paid their workers benefits. So instead, she’d receive a check for seven hours, but asked to work longer as part of the company’s ‘winning culture’ team spirit.

Horror stricken, she stared at the final calculation. After covering the bare essentials to survive, it would take one hundred and forty-two years to pay Brendon’s brother back. If Brendon didn’t have a half-million, she’d never be able to pay her debts. She wondered if England still had debtor’s prisons like the ones that terrorized Charles Dickens’ characters.

The intercom interrupted her dire thoughts when a friendly female voice announced the flight to London had begun boarding. The woman cheerfully invited first class to board early, but unfortunately, Senna couldn’t. She had to retrieve her lost baggage--Brendon. Congratulating herself on her foresight to watch where he’d disappeared, she headed straight to the sports bar.

And didn’t see Brendon.

With no time to waste, she hurried to the bartender. “Excuse me, have you seen a good-looking young man in his early twenties, baby-blue eyes with dark, slightly unruly hair?”

The young man focused on cleaning invisible spots on a glass. “People come and go.”

She suspected he’d lied to her because his interest in the glass seemed unnaturally intense.

“Look, I’m his sister and we are about to miss our flight home to England.”

The bartender raised his right eyebrow in challenge. “You don’t sound like his sister.”

Living with a British-speaking locust for six months finally paid off as Senna broke into a convincing and sultry British accent. “Well, I’ve been attending college here in the States and took on the local accent so I’d fit in.”

The bartender abandoned his glass and focused entirely on her like a wolf eyeing a bunny. “Baby, your accent is so damn sexy it should be illegal.” He tilted his head and grinned. “How about I close the bar and we join your brother in the storeroom?”

She wanted to tell him to sod off in her sexy new accent, but forced a smile of regret. “Unfortunately, our plane is boarding. Please point me to this closet.”

Lyrical Press Contract has signed for Ghost Lover

I've fabulous news!

Lyrical Press is to published my novel 

This New Adult sweet double-romance is full of humor, bad behaviors, a lascivious ghost, and a charming ghost cat that will entertain readers from teens to adults. 

Ghost Lover

With an emptied checking account, Senna Smith is one day from being evicted from her apartment and living on the street. Brendon, an irascible young Brit suggests she marry him and manage his fortune. With no viable alternatives, she agrees to the proposal with the understanding she’ll never, ever have sex with him. He’s free to bed whoever he likes, just as long as it’s not her.

When they arrive in England, Brendon’s older brother, Gar, is infuriated by Senna’s open admission she doesn’t love Brendon and has agreed to marry him only if his trust fund has a half-million  in it.

As determined as Gar is to dislike this self-professed 'gold digger', in a short time he falls hopelessly in love with her. However, he can’t act on his feelings. To do so would destroy his brother.

Recognizing the McCulloch family line is doomed to extinction unless he intervenes, the ancestral ghost, Lassier, impersonates Gar to keep Senna from giving up when matters appear hopeless. The ghost ocelot Mr. Finch does his part by giving Senna comfort, by lying on her chest and purring. Lassier locates the perfect girl for Brendon and sends Gar back to America to retrieve her. Once, all the players are under the same roof, Lassier and Gar hope matters will straighten out. Unfortunately, Brendon, knowing his brother wants Senna, is determined to keep her as his wife and Catlain as his mistress. However, nothing is going as he plans and if he doesn’t come to his senses soon, no one will have a happy ever after and the McCulloch line will end.

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That's all I've got write now, this is hot off the press. The ink is still wet on the contracts.

Peep Rep:  That sounds good. When's it coming out.

Release date should be in December 2013.