Cold, Heat, Valentine's Day, Shifters, and Cat's Patient Heart - Oh, my!

It’s January and cold.  Everyone I know is counting the days until spring and suffering from at least a mild dose of cabin fever.  The weather is both bitter and bleak.  One of the few things upcoming to look forward to is Valentine’s Day.  The retailers have already put out their displays of Valentines, roses, heart-shaped candy boxes and such, a bright spot radiating with pink and red, cheerful against the drab days.
 

My latest release – in addition to having a story, Cait’s Buffalo, in the just released Alpha’s Claim anthology from Evernight Publishing – is a reprise of an earlier work.  First released two years ago as A Patient Heart, the story is back as Cat’s Patient Heart, available now for just $1.99 on Amazon.com.  Here’s the blurb:

Sometimes broken hearts are never mended….but sometimes there’s still a chance for love. 

She dreamed of marrying Connor Donavan as a little girl but as a teenager, he broke her heart.  Ten years later and far from their hometown, Catherine has become a nurse. One snowy evening she finds a new patient – Connor.  As he recovers from an accident, their old feelings return as the sparks fly.  Catherine, Connor’s ‘Cat’, realizes she still loves him and believes he loves her too.  But when he recuperates at her home, his real life intrudes into their idyll and changes everything.  Connor leaves again, Cat stays behind….until a message sends her speeding to Kansas City and Connor’s nightclub on Valentine’s Day!

The purchase link:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HYDY7B4

And an excerpt:

Word that night shift nurse Catherine Lessard camped by the bedside of a patient who looked a lot like Hugh Jackman would spread through the small hospital with speed. Small town gossip always moved with swift certainty, true or not, and this would be no different. A faint twinge because she just put the first black mark on her impeccable record registered but this old bond with Connor trumped it.

In for a penny, in for a pound, she thought, an old adage her grandmother often quoted and since her presence here would wag tongues through the facility and out into the streets anyway, she lowered the bed rail so she could sit on the edge of the bed facing Connor. She smoothed back a few stray strands of hair and touched his hand. When she did, his fingers curled around her hand and he stirred.

“Hey, honey,” she said in a soft, gentle voice, the old endearment slipping out unnoticed. “Your scan’s over.”

His chin dipped in such a slight nod she almost missed the motion.

“I hurt,” he rasped, hoarse.

“You’re getting pain meds in your IV drip,” Catherine said, “They should kick in before long. I know you probably feel pretty rough right now but in a few hours, you’ll start feeling better.”

“I hope so,” Connor whispered.

“I promise, you will. By the time I come back for my shift, you should be feeling more human.”

His hand tightened around hers. “Don’t leave. Stay.”

“I can stay a few more minutes but I’ve got to get some sleep because I work tonight,” Catherine said, with compassion. “I can’t take care of you and the other patients if I don’t get rested.”

His dark eyes, deeper than a glass of bourbon, stared up into hers until she swore he touched her soul with his gaze. “Cat, please stay.”

His plea touched her heart but she couldn’t stay, even if she wanted to – which she did. “Why?”

“You love me and I still love you,” Connor said in an awful croak. “No one else’s been nice to me for years, not like you. No one else loves me and never did.”

Catherine realized he remained under the influence of the meds, the heavy duty painkiller and even the anesthesia but she caught the truth hidden deep within. He might still be a tough guy – and looked the part – but now Connor seemed vulnerable in a way she’d never seen him. In everyday life, she figured he hid this side of himself so deep no one noticed. Moved to tenderness, she cupped her free hand to his cheek even though she didn’t dare tell him she still loved him.

Coming soon….Stranger Danger also from Evernight Publishing.  Here’s the blurb:

Sara English built a life for herself far from her native Los Angeles.  As a widow and proprietor of a florist shop in small town America, she lives a mundane life but she’s never forgotten her first love, Santiago Ruiz or the way he hurt her.  When he shows up at her door early one morning, he’s a stranger but the old attraction hasn’t died.  Last she knew, he was a cop but now he’s sporting a gang tattoo on his back and he’s on the run.  When she freaks out, Santiago swears he’s been in deep cover as Javier Morales for two years but his cover was blown and he’s in danger.  As their reunion heats up, the drama reaches a new level when her apartment windows are shattered in a burst of gunfire.  They go on the run, first to an isolated mobile home, then to a casino, and then to Tulsa, Oklahoma where a showdown with the gang’s leader is inevitable.  Unless Santiago can find a way to change things, he’s a dead man.  Sara’s committed to the long haul and hopes for a happy ending – if they can live long enough to find one.