Blogiversary Celebration and Giveaway: Welcome to Authors Rinda Elliott and Jocelynn Drake!

We’re so pleased to welcome authors Rinda Elliott and Jocelynn Drake to our 5 Year Blogiversary Celebration. They’ve brought along a snippet from Jocelynn’s Holiday Romance Walking on Thin Ice (loved it!) as well as a great big e-book giveaway, so be sure to check out the details below.

Welcome, Rinda and Jocelynn!

Congratulations on your five year anniversary! Jocelynn and I are thrilled to be a part of it. We’re giving away a set of Unbreakable Bonds ebooks to date. I’m also kicking in a copy of Jocelynn Drake’s most recent solo release, Walking on Thin Ice, because it’s Christmas time! This is a romantic and sexy Christmas novella sure to warm up those winter nights. And to give you a taste, here’s an excerpt.

About Walking on Thin Ice

It’s not easy for Spenser Roland to admit it, but he needs help. Christmas is just a few days away, and he can’t face the idea of showing up to his family’s gathering alone … again. They want to see him happily settled, but Spenser doesn’t date. He can’t risk it if he wants to protect his family. But one unexpected night with Evan Scott has him thinking that maybe he can strike a deal that will make his family happy and give him a little holiday cheer as well.

Evan never should have accepted a ride home from the sexy-as-hell corporate executive, but he’s proud that he stuck to his guns. He’s done with the one-night stand game. He wants something real. Something that lasts. But when Spenser returns, asking him to pose as his boyfriend over the weekend at a Christmas celebration, Evan is sure he’s lost his mind.

But he can’t say no.

Maybe it’s the shadow of loneliness in Spenser’s bright blue eyes that’s too much like his own. Or maybe it’s his heart-stopping smile.

Either way, Evan knows he’s on thin ice with Spenser, risking his own rules and heart, but Spenser is worth the risk.

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Excerpt

Spenser was beginning to seriously question his sanity. He had been following Evan through his parents’ ice-spangled property for more than an hour now. The brisk wind was biting through his jeans and long johns and tugging tears from the corners of his eye before freezing them. He was frozen down to the bone and Evan had to be feeling it even more as he knelt, crawled, sat, and laid on the frozen ground to get the pictures he wanted.

And he had a lot to work with. The winter storm had been heavy during the night, coating everything in ice nearly half an inch thick. The boughs of trees creaked loudly as they shifted their heavy burden with every pass of the wind. As the sun crested the horizon, the earth glowed. It was breathtaking… and in the center of it stood Evan. His camera was lowered to his chest and he was staring up at a massive cluster of pines, their limbs pulled down to the earth under the weight of the ice.

“I can’t imagine what it was like to grow up here,” Evan said in an almost awe-filled whisper as if he was afraid his voice would shatter the moment.

Spenser readjusted the camera bag and stood next to the artist. “All the close neighbors were older; their kids were grown. We had friends from school come over occasionally, but mostly it was just Ronnie, Jake, and me.” He pointed to an opening in the tree-line where he could see the barest hint of a beaten path. “Ronnie and I spent a lot of our summers running in the woods. There’s a shallow creek we used to build stick bridges across and sail leaf boats.” He stopped and slowly smiled as a new memory swam forward. “Had my first kiss at that creek.”

“Really?” Evan let the camera hang loose around his neck as he stepped in front of Spenser. “How old were you?”

“Thirteen.”

“Boy or girl?”

“Boy. Trevor Cantripp.”

Evan stepped closer, sliding his cold hands inside Spenser’s coat, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Anything else happen at that creek with Trevor?”

“No. His family moved away a couple months later.”

“Because of a kiss?”

Spenser chuckled, pulling Evan closer when he started to step back. “No. His dad’s job. They moved around a lot.”

“So, you knew early…”

“That I was gay? Yeah.”

“But you didn’t tell your parents until you were in college.”

Spenser’s hands tightened in Evan’s coat and he struggled to smooth out his expression. Yes, he’d known at an early age that he was gay, but he’d also known how certain family members would feel about that information. As a result, he’d never been quite sure how his parents would take the news. It had been the only thing he’d ever hid from them and he’d hated it. He may have described it as a non-event to Evan— and it had been— but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been scared out of his mind at the time.

“Spense?” Evan prodded when he’d been silent too long.

“I was too occupied in high school with sports and classes for it to be an issue. When I told them, I think I was trying to shock them.” Which was mostly true.

“Didn’t work out too well, huh?”

Spenser snorted, feeling the tension drain out of him. “You’ve met my siblings. My parents don’t shock easy.”

Evan’s head was tipped up and Spenser couldn’t fight the temptation any longer. Leaning his head down, he brushed one, two, three soft, searching kisses across Evan’s lips before the man in his arms sighed and opened his mouth for a deeper, searing kiss. The camera dug painfully into his stomach as he tried to pull Evan closer. It was probably better he couldn’t. Evan getting closer would lead to removing clothes and it was too damn cold for that.

Evan chuckled against his lips and Spenser started to pull back, but Evan held him in place by wrapping one cold hand around the back of his neck. “We can’t stop kissing now,” Evan said, his lips brushing against Spenser’s. “Our lips will freeze.”

“Or we could hurry inside now and reconsider my original plan before you decided you’d rather have pictures of ice.”

“That sounds good to me.”

“You got everything you need?”

Evan growled, his hands tightening on Spenser. “Definitely got it all right here.”

Spenser laughed loudly, the sound echoing through the heavy winter silence. He gave Evan a little shove away. “I’m deducting points. That was sad.”

Evan winked at him. “Don’t worry. I know a few tricks that’ll get me those points back.”

Find Rinda Elliott and Jocelynn Drake at their joint Website, Facebook, Facebook Readers Group, and Tumblr.

The Giveaway

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