Please help me welcome one of my dear friends, LORI LEGER!
I've got guest author
Lori Leger on my blog today. She's got four of the most heartfelt contemporary romances published
from her La Fleur de Love series, all set in southern Louisiana. The last time
she was with us, she discussed the first and second books in the series, Some
Day Somebody and Last First Kiss. This time she's going to discuss her other
books in the series, Hart's Desire and Brown Eyed Girl. You can learn more about Lori at
Good morning, Lori.
Lori: Good morning
Jennifer.
Jen: I see you've
brought someone along with you, (you say, batting your lashes at the tall,
dark-haired, blue-eyed piece of man-candy standing beside Lori.)
Lori: Yes, I've brought
the male protagonist from Last First Kiss, Mr. Jackson Broussard.
Jen: Nice to meet you
Jackson.
JB: Same here, Jenn.
Lori's told us wonderful things about you and the rest of her Ass Cheek Angel
friends.
Jen: *chuckles* Oh, we
love our little group. *Clears her throat* Ahem, now why did you decide to
accompany Lori today, Mr. Broussard.
JB: *Smiles* Mr.
Broussard is my uncle, please call me Jackson.
Jen: *blushing* Okay
then...Jackson..
.
JB: Well, Jennifer, Lori
was rather upset one day about a reader's review and her comments about me. I
was willing to let it go, but she insisted I have my turn at the podium, so to
speak.
Jen: Ye..ee.sss, we all
heard about that...alot. *grins over at Lori, who's surreptitiously checking
her phone messages.*
Lori: *Looks up from her
phone* What's that? Did you ask me something?
Jen: No...no...not at
all...you go on about your business while I talk to Jackson.
So, Jackson, what do you
think about the reader's accusation that you were cold at the scene of the
accident that took your wife and your best friend's life?
JB: Well, I had a
concussion, and was in shock from seeing what was left of my wife of fifteen
years lying dead and mutilated on the highway.
Jen: *Tearing up* That
must have been just awful for you.
JB: I'm not gonna sugar
coat it, Jennifer…the sounds, the smells…it was terrible. At some point I
remembered that Toby and Giselle had been just in front of us and all I could
think about was that their two little girls would be alone if they didn’t make
it. I lost both my parents just before my fifth birthday and I can still
remember how devastated I was.
Jen: But you had your
uncle to take care of you.
JB: Yes, thank God for
Uncle Bill. Anyway, when I found Toby and Giselle and realized he was gone, all
I could think about was getting Giselle some help so her girls wouldn't be
alone. Toby was a great guy...a great friend. I didn't realize until much later
that he knew how bad I had it at home with Chloe.
Jen: Ah, yes,
Chloe...the bi...
JB: *quickly
interrupting* ....piece of work!
Jen: Yeah, whatever.
*Rolls her eyes*
JB: No need to speak ill
of the dead, Jen. Chloe’s mom had a big part in making her the way she was.
Jen: *looking sheepish*
You're right, I guess. So, were you and Toby really that close?
JB: Absolutely, even
though I didn't want to be his friend at first, considering how I felt about Giselle
and how bad she hated me. But every time we were at the gym he'd kick up a
conversation—next thing I knew he was making me laugh. He was like a brother
Jen: So, what was life
with Chloe like?
JB: The year we dated
was great. She was a beautiful girl, healthy, fun, vibrant. Later, she decided
she wanted to be model think. I thought she got too thin, but she wanted it
that way. She was always a little cold to my best bud, Red, but I thought she'd
get over that eventually.
Jen: Did Red ever try
to warn you about her?
JB: Red isn't that kind
of guy. He never once dissed Chloe to me, not even when she accused him of
coming on to her a few nights before our wedding. He only denied it and said
he'd never do that to me. I thought she was just a little jealous and it would
blow over but Chloe decided I needed a new best man. Red bowed out gracefully, to keep the peace. That's
the kind of guy he is. I found out after Chloe died that she and my new 'best
man' had sex during our wedding, and for years afterwards.
Jenn: Oh, wow...what a
guy...and what a wife. So when did it turn bad with Chloe?
JB: After I switched
jobs and moved us from Baton Rouge to Lake Coburn. She didn't like that at all
and never hesitated to tell me. It was less money, but the hours were better
and I figured when we had a couple of kids Chloe would need my help. When it
didn't happen after a couple of years, I talked her into the two of us seeing a
doctor.
Jen: And was there a
problem?
JB: It turns out the
only problem was that she was sneaking birth control pills for years because
she never wanted children.
Jen: *mouth drops open
in shock* Are you serious?
JB: Yep, she said it in
the sweet little letter she left with the lawyer when we made our wills one
day. I didn't read it until after her death by the way. She told me she'd been
faking the bi-polar disorder symptoms for years to keep me in check. I also found
out she was pregnant the time of the accident and she had an abortion scheduled
the same day.
Jen: Wow! What’d you
do?
JB: I kind of went crazy
cleaning out the house. I got rid of everything except for my old bed from
college and one chair. Then I got plastered.
Jen: *Taps her pen on
the desk while nodding thoughtfully* So, you wiped her out of your life.
JB: I tried to. Turns
out it’s difficult to get closure when the person you’re angry with dies.
Nobody to blame but myself for letting it go on so long. So…I channeled all my
energy into helping Toby’s girls go on without him. And man, did I ever fall in
love with his two daughters.
Jen: What about Toby’s
other girl?
JB: Now Jennifer, you
know that would be a spoiler for those ladies out there who haven’t read the
book.
Jen: *Nods and grins*
Yep, you’re right again, Jackson. Is there anything else you’d like to say to
our bloggers?
JB: Only that I’d love
to see them again…between the sheets…of Last First Kiss… *Gives her a smile and
a wink*
Jen: *Fans herself* Whoa…is it me or did someone turn up the
heat?
Lori: *Rolls her
eyes* Do you want to hear about the
other books now?
Jen:
Ahem…whew…ahem…*pulls delicately at her collar*
Um….yes…absolutely! Tells us about book 3 and 4 of your series, Lori.
Lori: Actually, I call
my short e-book, Hart’s Desire, book 2.5.
It’s sort of a prequel to book 3, Brown Eyed Girl.
Jen: Are they available
in paperback as well as e-book?
Lori: Hart’s Desire is e-book
only, but Brown Eyed Girl is both. Here are the blurbs and excerpts for them.
Hart’s Desire (Blurb)
It’s 1974, and a pregnant Melinda
Dawson is whisked away to a home for unwed mothers in Dallas, Texas. Kept as a
virtual prisoner, Melinda has no way of getting word to her boyfriend where she
is or why she was taken away.
Greg Hart is left feeling alone and
abandoned by the girl he would have gladly married, had he only known about the
pregnancy. Six months of thinking she’s left town to avoid breaking up with him
has taken its toll on him. He decides to soldier away his broken heart with a
career in the U.S. Marines.
After nearly dying in childbirth,
Melinda wakes up two days later with no baby, and a one way bus ticket home to
McCray, Washington. Unable to leave Texas without the daughter she’d given
birth to, she stays there, eventually getting a job as a live-in nanny to a
prominent Houston family.
Thirty years later she returns to
McCray to care for her ailing father.
While shopping, Melinda encounters Greg, now retired from the Marines,
and Mayor of the town. Sparks fly between the two, rekindling the physical
attraction they’d both believed to be long dead.
Can the two of them by-pass the
feelings of bitterness and abandonment in order to find the most precious part
of themselves?
Hart’s Desire is part of my La
Fleur de Love series, introducing characters you’ll meet in Last First Kiss,
Brown Eyed Girl, and Heaven in Your Eyes. I can tell you they eventually find
their child, but you’ll have to read the other books to discover her identity.
Excerpt: The book actually begins in
1974 with the birth of their child, but I’m using the scene where Melinda and
Greg meet up again over thirty years later.
June 4th, 2005
Gregory Hart
cringed at the door’s jingle signaling the presence of another customer. It was
Friday afternoon before a much needed weekend, and all he wanted was to go home
and pop a top on an icy longneck. He shook his head but didn’t look up from the
spreadsheet on his computer screen.
Days like
this...hell, weeks like this made him want to pack up and sell the
place. Just take off and drive somewhere, anywhere, to get away from here,
where everywhere he turned, something or someone reminded him of the wife he’d
lost to cancer a year ago.
“Excuse me, where
do you keep the batteries?” a woman’s voice asked from the end of the aisle to
his left.
“What do you need
them for?”
“A television
remote control...um...triple-A, I think.”
Without looking
up, he reached up to the counter display on his right and pulled a pack. “Will
these do?” he said, sliding the pack to the end of the check-out counter.
“That’s just what
I needed. What do I owe you?”
He glanced up,
thinking her voice sounded disturbingly familiar. His gaze landed on a pretty
lady, with curly hair and green eyes that sparkled with curiosity. The breath
left him in a rush the moment recognition dawned. He stood, speechless, staring
at the woman who’d left town as a young girl of seventeen, taking his heart
with her. Thirty years had changed her, of course, but not enough to keep him
from knowing the first woman he’d ever loved.
“How much?” she
repeated, her Texas accent sounding breathless and rushed for time.
“Oh, about two
bucks...and one broken heart.” He watched as she froze, her hand shoved deep
inside her purse. “You’re looking good, Melin.”
She raised her
wide eyed gaze to him and immediately flushed a becoming pink...some things
never changed.
“Greg?”
“Yep...what
brings you back to this part of the world?”
“My...my mom
passed,” she said, sounding flustered. “Dad...Dad needs me here to take care of
him.”
“So you’re not
here visiting?”
She shook her
head slowly. “How long have you been back here? Last I heard you’d joined the
Marines.”
“I retired with
twenty-five and came back in 2000. I figured I gave the U.S. military enough of
me, it was time to live my own life. I married a year later.”
“Oh. You hadn’t
married before then?” she asked.
“Nope. Kept
waiting to hear you’d come back to town, but you never did.” He pointed a long
finger at her. “You’re the reason I made a career of the Marines.” Just for a
moment he felt guilty for the comment when her face paled, but her next words
made him swallow the apology he’d considered.
“You’re the
reason I never came back,” she said, her voice an icy statement full of bitterness
and anger.
Before he could
reply, she’d spun on her heels and walked out, leaving the batteries there on
the counter. The only sign she’d even been there was the echoing jingle of the
door’s bell and the fragrance of her perfume, Chanel No. 5.
Some things never
changed.
Brown Eyed Girl (Blurb)
You’d think Dr. Tiffany LeBlanc would
breeze through life with no worries. Although practicing in Lake Coburn,
Louisiana, she and her handsome fiancé, Tanner Collins, were both reared in
Houston’s elite circle of social snobbery.
Life could be so perfect…if she could just keep her cheating fiancé in
check, and get her parents approval for once in their miserable lives. Her only
moral support is her brother, Drake, a practicing Houston attorney, other than
the loving, but relocated, nanny who raised them both.
Scott `Red’ McAllister comes from much
different stock. Raised in a large, boisterously lovable, but hard-working
family in a tiny Louisiana farming community, he’s a highly respected business
man. The owner of one successful club in Lafayette, his second is under
construction in Lake Coburn. His free-wheeling, single man lifestyle comes to a
screeching halt after meeting the good doctor several months earlier. He
decides then to steal her away from her unappreciative fiancé, his old college
nemesis, Tanner.
Just when it looks like he’ll have it
all, the tide turns ominously for Red. One mysterious phone call promising
disaster for him, leads to another, each more baffling to the business man. The
loss of his club due to fire is only the beginning of someone’s plan to ruin
him.
Will the promise of new love triumph
over hardship, or will revenge forge its own trail of death and destruction?
Excerpt:
Red walked
Tiffany to her car. “So, how about it Doc, are you glad you came?”
She nodded
enthusiastically. “I am. It felt good to let go and have some fun. Thanks for
letting me be a part of this today.”
“You’re
welcome here anytime—I hope you know that.”
She gazed
up at him, her face a study in curiosity. “What about Tanner?”
He bowed
gallantly. “If you must,” he said with an exaggerated sigh. “I’d be civil for
your sake, and I promise not to break his nose, Tiffy.”
She poked
him playfully in the chest. “Don’t call me that again.”
“If it’s
good enough for Tanner, it should be good enough for me...Tiffy,” he taunted.
“Stop it,”
she said, this time with more conviction.
“Aw, but
Tiffy is such a cute little nickname…like Buffy or—”
“I’m
warning you, Red!” she said, her anger plainly evident.
“You don’t
stop Tanner from saying it, why should you stop me, huh Tiffy?”
Before he
knew it, she’d popped him good on the mouth.
“Stop it!”
she snapped.
He grabbed
her wrist in one swift movement. “You know, Doc, that’s the second time you
slap me in less th—” His accusation trailed off as he witnessed something else,
something just as heated, replace the fury in her eyes. His heart pumped
furiously as he stepped closer, pressing her back firmly up against the car.
His breath quickened, matching her own rapid panting as she gazed up at him
with eyes the color of rich, melted chocolate.
Damn it all, but I could get lost in those
eyes. Without a doubt, he’d never wanted someone so bad before.
“Doc...”
Not wanting to scare her off, he lowered his mouth to hers in an agonizingly
slow movement. In a perfect world that would have been enough and she’d have
let him kiss her. But this was reality, and a second before their lips would
have met, her whispered plea stopped him.
“Don’t
Red, please.”
Red
paused, pulling back enough to watch her long eyelashes flutter closed. He let go
of her wrist and slowly, gently, moved that hand behind her head to pull her up
against his chest.
Stiff with
tension, she clenched the sides of his shirt until the tension eased slowly
from her body. Her hands slid to his back as she finally settled comfortably
against him.
Red
brought his right arm around to pull her closer and they stood, holding each
other, surrounded by the quiet sounds of late autumn. The north wind whipped
through the yard full of pecans, oaks, and silver leaf maple trees, sending the
dry leaves skittering across the ground around their feet.
“You feel
so damn good,” he whispered. “Like you belong here.”
“Oh
God…don’t say that,” she murmured into his shirt.
He moved
his hand to the back of her neck, gently massaging, as he pressed the softest
of kisses upon her crown. “Doc...Please don’t marry Tanner,” he whispered, not
caring if his plea sounded desperate. He was
desperate—desperate to make her see how good they’d be together—desperate for
her to give him a chance to prove it to her.
She buried
her face in his shirt and spoke through muffled sobs. “Oh God, please don’t say
anything more, Red. I have to go.”
He took a
deep breath to fortify himself. “I know,” he said, as he reluctantly released
her and backed away so she could get into her car.
She started
the engine, avoiding eye contact with him as she shifted into drive. Keeping
her head lowered, she sat there with her foot on the brakes, the steering wheel
tightly clenched in both hands. He tapped lightly on her window with his
knuckle then flattened his palm on the glass.
Tiffany
looked up, her eyes wide with agonized longing. Red’s breath caught painfully
in his chest as he caught the shimmering of tears on her long lashes. Just as
he reached for the door handle, she released the brakes. He stood, hands shoved
deep in his pockets, watching the slow progression of her car, every second
taking her further out of reach.
Thanks for having me yet
again, Jennifer! Now that I’ve quit the J.O.B. maybe I’ll have time to get my
own blog up and running again so I can invite you ladies over.
You can find the BUY LINKS at
AMAZON !
Thanks for being here today, Lori!!
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