Why 1Night Stands?
By Special Guest Cate Peace
As
an accidental romance author, I often think about why I wanted to write for
this line so badly. The first 1Night Stand I read was Jessica Subject’s Celestial Seduction, and I loved it.
Then I started reading Taryn Kincaid and Diane Alberts and Zee Monodee and,
well… I decided, why the heck not?
(I
say “accidental” because I never intended to go this route. I wanted to be a
science fiction/fantasy author, but after reading a bunch of these stories, I
just couldn’t say no to the voices in my head. Er…um, I mean, the muse. Yes.
Muse.)
So
I started feeding the mental gremlins after midnight. I even got them wet a
time or two. And then I dragged them into the sweet light of day. They gave me
a feisty heroine, her mysterious best friend, and the vampire who’d been on a
mission of atonement for twenty years.
So,
if’n you like vampires, I’m your girl. Mine don’t sparkle, though. Just
remember that.
So
why 1Night Stands? They’ve got something for everybody. Some of the stories are
full of drama and feels (like mine), some are light and fun, some are downright
kinky as hell, and all of them have a wonderful happy ending. I’m so happy and
excited to be counted among the 200 1Night Stand stories in the universe.
About This Time Next Year
Vampire Kiernan
Shaw has never forgotten the night twenty years ago when he’d been forced to
stand by while another vampire killed a six-year-old girl’s parents in front of
her. He’s spent the better part of the last two decades watching over her,
protecting her and hoping for an opportunity to make amends one day.
Ever since
surviving the vampire attack that killed her parents, Moira Curran has dealt
with the resulting nightmares and abandonment issues the only way she could—by
throwing herself into her biochemistry career, preferring a life of a hermit in
her lab to facing the reality of her lonely life.
Madame Eve
brings them back together for one fateful night. An immediate bond of sizzling
chemistry and respect forms, but can it heal her fears and his guilt?
Excerpt:
She
was the girl, his girl, not some
random hookup he could use and toss aside. When she pulled away, he couldn’t
speak, couldn’t react;
his lips tingling from her heat. For a moment, he’d known completion.
“What’s
your name?” she asked.
He
thought back to Madame Eve’s email. If
she trusts you, she will tell you her name. He understood the power of
names, and so did Madame Eve. Something insignificant to a mortal meant
everything to a vampire, in whose world names were both salvation and control.
Remind a vampire of his humanity, or steal it away by forcing him to do
something horrific, like watching a little girl’s parents be eviscerated right
in front of her.
“Kiernan
Shaw.” Swallowing hard, he found his way back onto the coffee table. “And yours?”
Would
she tell him her name? Would she allow him that kind of power?
She
took a deep breath, as though considering the same questions. “Moira Curran.”
He
rolled the name on his tongue and loved the way it felt. “Beautiful.” He
reached to stroke her cheek, but she flinched. “Moira, I won’t hurt you. I
could never hurt you.”
“I’m
sorry,” she muttered. “Old habits, I guess.”
He
nodded, unable to speak for a moment. The cloying lilac scent of her fear
almost strangled him. “Why did you ask me to stay?”
“I
don’t know.”
Neither
did he, but he wouldn’t leave until she asked him to.
“I
don’t want to be alone, Kiernan. Isn’t that pathetic?”
You’ve never been alone. Not
really.
He
warmed at the sound of his name on her lips. “Not in the slightest.” His mouth
watered at the thought of kissing her, exploring her, making his name come out
of that gorgeous mouth again and again. He tamped down his desire. Nothing good
would happen if he moved too fast. Willem had all but guaranteed him a life
alone. Like he approached a scared animal, he moved next to her on the couch.
She uncoiled, but didn’t relax. “Talk, Moira. Please.”
The
silence hurt his ears as much as any scream.
She
shook her head. “It’s too hard.” Tears spilled but she didn’t move to wipe them
away.
Time
to be bold, I guess. He brushed a hand against her cheek
again. Instead of flinching, she eased into his touch. “I want to lessen your
hurt, however I can,” he said. “Will you let me?”
Catherine Peace
has been telling stories for as long as she could remember. She often blames
two things for her forays into speculative fiction—Syfy (when it was SciFi)
channel Sundays with her dad and The
Island of Dr. Moreau by HG Wells. She graduated in 2008 from Northern
Kentucky University with a degree in English and is still chasing the dream of
being super rich and famous, mostly so she can sit around in her PJs all day
and write stories. When not being a slave to the people in her head, she’s a slave
to two adorable dogs.
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4 comments:
Welcome, Cate! (And thanks for that shout out!)
Thanks for having me, Taryn!
Cate, Your excerpt drew me right in. Yikes! Off to the online bookstore...again.
Haha, sorry for the inconvenience, Teri ;) Thank you for the support!
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