Tag: Lily Harlem

#DFRAT: Excerpt (+ a Giveaway): Hired by Lily Harlem

Posted July 28, 2013 by Rowena in Features | 6 Comments

One hundred grand to babysit bad boy Logan “Phoenix” Taylor on a paradise island-seriously, how bad could he be? Frankly, it didn’t matter. Not when it would make my dreams of going to nursing school possible. I wasn’t even expected to talk to him, just hang out in a luxurious villa on a private beach and study.
Simple, right? But I hadn’t counted on Logan being so deliciously bad that he was oh so good. And when the temperature cranked to boiling point, he knew just how to satisfy the deepest, darkest part of my soul and give my body exactly what it needed.
Amongst the sand and waves, we transported each other to an exquisite world of pleasure where only we existed, only we mattered. But the heady mix of emotions and lust couldn’t keep things from spiraling out of control back in reality, where I had to keep the secret that I’d been hired to entertain him…even if it shattered my delicate heart. Even if it cost my destiny.

Read an Excerpt of Hired:

I watched Logan close the umbrella and secure the pole into place. He glanced around, shading his eyes with his hand, checking for anything else that might blow away, then headed my way with a train of dry, flat leaves skittering past his feet. I opened the door wide to let him through. He stepped in, still squinting against the dust, as I pushed the door shut with a loud click. The world went silent. After the howling wind and the roaring sea, the quiet of the house was acute and heavy and fell around us like a dense cloak.

Leaning back against the door, I pulled in a deep breath. “Made it,” I gasped.

“Yeah,” he said, stepping up close—real close.

When I looked up, his cheeks were stained red, several grains of sand hung in his long lashes and his hair was tousled and dusted with gold. “Is that everything tied down?” I asked, trying to ignore my breasts heaving against my halter-top.

“Well, almost everything,” he said with a decidedly carnal grin.

I swallowed and flattened my palms against the cool glass door behind me. “What else do you need to tie down?”

The right side of his mouth creased upward and his brows gave the tiniest of twitches. “I’d quite like to tie you down,” he said, his gaze coming to rest on my mouth. “To the bed.”

Licking my lips, I tasted salt. My stomach knotted as excitement, anticipation and sin collided in a delicious tangle.

“But I guess that’s moving a bit fast,” he murmured, bending his head lower. “We only just met.”

“A bit fast for me,” I agreed, absorbing the burning heat from his body as it radiated against mine.

“Brooke.” He raised one hand and rested it against the wooden doorframe by my left ear. His body moved in closer still. The gorgeous spiced aftershave he wore invaded my nostrils and settled not just on my tongue but somewhere else deep inside me. “Do you remember when you walked out of the water yesterday?” he asked in a low, rumbling voice.

“Yes.” How could I forget the toe-curling embarrassment? He’d stared silently toward me as I’d ambled up the beach, trying desperately to look cool and unflustered. I felt my cheeks warming further at the memory as my stomach twisted.

“It was a million times better than any Bond movie.”

“It was?”

“Hell, yeah. If they had you as a Bond girl it would be my favorite film by miles. Not just 007, but in general, any film ever.” His mouth slid upward in a grin. “You just about blew my mind.”

“I did?” My eyes widened in surprise. He’d liked what he’d seen, and I thought he’d been unimpressed with my curvy attributes.

“Oh, yeah, and other parts of my anatomy.”

He ducked his head, his lips a whisper from mine. I could almost taste the salt on his mouth.

“Well, we wouldn’t want that would we, Logan?” I murmured.

“Wouldn’t we?” His brows raised.

“Sounds painful.” I swallowed, my throat felt tight.

“It’s already getting painful.”

Find out more about Lily:

Website http://www.lilyharlem.com/
Blog http://www.lilyharlem.blogspot.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/lily_harlem
Facebook http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Lily-Harlem/100003519563064
Facebook author page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lily-Harlem-author-page/200182030094568
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/lilyharlem/
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4070110.Lily_Harlem
Google+ https://plus.google.com/u/0/106837751333678531161/posts

Giveaway:
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Tagged: DFRAT, Digital First ReadAThon, Ellora's Cave, Excerpts, Giveaways, Lily Harlem

Shared by Lily Harlem

Posted August 7, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 1 Comment

Judith‘s review of Shared by Lily Harlem

Struggling artist Ariane Arlington flees the Welsh vfalleys after exposing her corrupt boss. But when the sun rises she finds herself jobless andhomeless in Cardiff with barely a penny to her name.

She responds to a classified ad in the local paper: “Room to let, wanted, girl to share.” What she doesn’t realize is that the two insanely gorgeous guys who live in the penthouse apartment really do want a girl to share, in every sense of the word. Fortunately for Ariane, rent is the last thing on their minds.

She discovers the men are bound together by a turbulent past. Liam, a computer whiz, keeps a painful secret hidden beneath his buff exterior, while Quinn, a pioneering neurosurgeon, wonders if he’ll ever meet a woman who can live with his controlling ways. They admit the one thing missing from their lives is a woman just like Ariane, who can handle them both in and out of the bedroom and who, together, they can keep satisfied, loved, and most of all, safe.

I remember when the Broadway musical “Paint Your Wagon” premiered and how scandalized the media and lots of Americans were that the main heroine in that musical had two husbands. Her reasoning was: if some men in the world could have two wives, why can’t I have two husbands since I love both these men? It is that sort of question that drives this story. There are two men, both good looking, successful, and really involved with their professions, so much so that dating and relationships have been almost impossible. So they determine that having a “girl to share” would meet their needs as well as giving that woman the opportunity to be the most loved, sexually satisfied, cared for, and guarded of any woman in the world. After her upsetting and life-changing personal encounter with her boss Jed, Ariane likes the sound of all that.

She arrives at the penthouse to view the “room to let” and discovers an apartment that was WAY beyond her means. Now the rationale for keeping her there initially I thought to be just a little week, and I am not sure very many women would have cooperated. But our heroine was homeless with very little money in her possession, having walked away from her apartment, her possessions, and her job. She had exposed her ex-boss’ criminal activity and she was running for her life. Were I in that situation, perhaps the invitation to stay in such beautiful surroundings would have been welcome to me as well. She slowly but surely realizes that these two men want to have someone in their life to love and care for, and who will love and care for them.

Liam is a cancer survivor and Quinn is the American neurosurgeon who used some pioneering surgical techniques to save his life. Quinn is now living and working in Wales because his “intended” left his standing at the altar and he found it impossible to continue to work in New York. Now they want Ariane.

You have three people, all of whom have run into the hurts of life in a major way, and it is no wonder that they were instantly drawn to one another. I think their story is interesting because Ariane was able to bring a different perspective to both these men about themselves, about their work, and the importance of a healthy personal relationship to keep them anchored and balanced. Quinn wanted to be “in charge” but Ariane had to help him learn to give over that control he prized so much. Liam learned to “come in out of the dark” and both began to see life through Ariane’s eyes.

This really is a lovely romantic tale and while the setting and some of the language is uniquely European, yet the themes and the points it makes are about the universal qualities which an open, caring, giving and receiving love can bring into all our relationships. From time to time I thought the writing was just a little juvenile and the plot a little “thin.” But, overall, I have to say that I enjoyed it emmensely and think it is a worthy addition to Ellora’s Cave romance line-up.

I give this book a 4 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.