This week’s theme, Our Sexy Halloween, comes from Harvest Moon Heart, a short story that I will be rewriting into a longer piece.  I hope you enjoy the following snippet:

Igor stepped aside allowing Madame Simza Nuri to pass through. Milky white shoulders played peekaboo through flowing blue sleeves. A peach shawl wrapped seductively around a curvy waist over the floral print floor length skirt. Candle light reflected off her shiny black waist length hair. She bowed slightly, a grin playing at the corners of her lips. Jasper sensed she believed she’d won the war when the battle hadn’t even begun.

He itched to run his fingers through her hair and to capture her against him. The urge to mate soared through him, tempting the wolf lingering inside.

Her gaze drifted across the room and up the winding stairs to the balcony where their host lingered. She blew him a kiss then turned straight toward Jasper. Her gaze searched the shadows of the room.

Wolf-blood blazed through his veins. His senses heightened. Whoever this woman was heated him in ways that were more dangerous than the rise of the harvest moon. He hadn’t seen her face and yet his body knew she was trouble. This Madame Nuri as Igor called her.

Everything about her oozed sexual danger.

“That was some entrance.” The words flitted around Simza’s ear, teasing and seductive. A wave of pleasure heated her. Her breathing hitched when she looked into laughing amber eyes. “I don’t believe we’ve met, and here I thought I knew everyone in the village.”

“Well, a girl has to do something to get into the ball of the season.” She smiled, fingering the bullet around her neck. It warmed against her skin, sending an unusual spark through her.

Old Loves

You asked me why I was leavin’ . . .

Why I said it was bad from the start.

I couldn’t explain but I knew I couldn’t

Share you in your kind of life style.

I thought I was strong enough to do it

But my heart couldn’t take it anymore.

I’ve heard you’ve found another,

Our friends have seen you together.

It’s been so long since I held you next to me . . .

Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing.

But I look at myself and I realize it was right.

You helped me a lot and helped me to understand

That lovin’ my man is where I should be

And how I’d feel if he did that to me.

We’ve both made new starts in our life . . .

You with your new wife

And me with the man of my life.

We’ve both learned . . .

And found what he had yearned for

Was the kind of love,

That together we are not above,

But can only give to the ones we now love.

Written:  March 9, 1982

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Snowy Firelight

Long before I became a romance novelist, I wrote poetry and had three published in “American Poetry Anthology 1987.”  For the next several weeks, I’ll be sharing those pieces with you.  Here’s the first one from February 1982:

 

“Snowy Firelight” 

It’s snowy outside tonight

And I’m sittin’ alone by the firelight

Sippin’ on red rosé wine

Remembering a love that was so fine. 

Is she holding you tight

On this snowing night?

Is her love strong

When things go wrong?

Can she make you smile

When tears begin to fall? 

We were so free and happy

Our love was as fresh as this falling snow

Our passion burned brighter

Than the flames of this fire. 

I see your face in these flames

As they begin to die away . . .

Watching the falling snow

Melt as our love did years ago

While sittin’ here sippin’ red rosé wine

Remember a love that was so fine.

 

Written February 25, 1982