Happy Valentine's Day - come share the romance!

Happy Valentine's Day! Please come share the romance - tell us if you are doing anything romantic today and please feel free to add your romantic reads to the comments section below.

Tell us about your books and stories!

Wonderful romance for Valentine's Day - from Bekki Lynn

Just in time for Valentines, Bekki Lynn has put together some great stories and offers for you. Please see below for the blurbs, covers and links.

Absentee Love Returns - contemporary, non-erotic - only 99c!

Gail Green's world is turned upside down when an alleged mobster gives her an ultimatum; lose her newborn son or follow orders. The choice she chooses puts both of them in danger she had never believed possible. When they are kidnapped, she has no idea which of the Galletti’s enemies is behind it, if any. That is until Rico Galletti turns up with a wild story of working with a covert organization that works in conjunction with military field operations. Before she can comprehend the whole sordid story, he's shot. [mainstream/contemporary, non-erotic]

ISBN - 978-1-4580-4338-2 -

Purchase Bekki's books at:
Smashwords, Kobo, Amazon, Lulu, Diesel, Sony, Barnes and Noble.

Annie and the Young Master - an erotic historical fairy tale - only 99c!

Banished from her home, Lillian Basford picked herself up and set out to start a new life. When Samuel Wadkins came along and gave her a real-life taste of what her dreams with him had teased her with, she became torn between her life as it was and what it’d now become. [erotic historical]

ISBN: 978-1-4524-3636-4 Purchase at: Smashwords, Kobo, Amazon, Lulu, Diesel, Sony, and Barnes & Noble.

Purchase Bekki's books at:
Smashwords, Kobo, Amazon, Lulu, Diesel, Sony, Barnes and Noble.

Cornflower - BDSM - only 99c!

Max and Erin escape to their cabin for a weekend of fun and games. While in the midst of heated passion, a rope slips and she's injured. Max insists they take a break, but when games resume, the out of control fire within her disallows her to use the safe word. When he sees the pain etched in her face, off comes mask, the restraints and slave jewelry. Will they be able to get past the betrayal of trust? [BDSM]

Purchase Bekki's books at:
Smashwords, Kobo, Amazon, Lulu, Diesel, Sony, Barnes and Noble.

Jackie's Boys - menage trios - only 99c!

Jackie's used to the antics of her husband, Lenny, and his twin brother, Randy, but this time they decided to include her in their latest bet. She had forty-eight hours to figure out which one of them she was married to. However, she decides to turn the game around on them by following through on a long-time fantasy to have both brothers at the same time.

ISBN: 978-1-4524-7898-2

Purchase Bekki's books at:
Smashwords, Kobo, Amazon, Lulu, Diesel, Sony, Barnes and Noble.

Fancy a sensual Roman Romance for Valentine's Day? Only 99c!

My sensual historical romance, 'Flavia's Secret' is only 99c from Bookstrand - and is offered there at an 83% discount until Feb 14th. Set against the backdrop of the ancient Roman Empire, it could be your perfect Valentine's Day read!

To tempt you, here's a new excerpt from my sensual historical romance, 'Flavia's Secret', which takes place in ancient Roman Britain. Flavia and Marcus are at a special, secret bathing place in Aquae Sulis (Ancient Roman Bath) ...

Excerpt.

‘Marcus, our clothes,’ she said, in almost a whisper, as he touched her waist and then her breast through the clinging wet linen.

‘We will change at home. Tell Hadrian and the others we were caught in a local storm.’ Marcus was already caught. More than the finest painting he had ever seen or hoped to produce, more than the most evocative of scents or music, Flavia stirred him, but at present it was his own earthier desire that was the problem. If she touched him at all, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to hold back.

‘Is this a dream?’ she murmured, capturing his mood exactly as she rested her head against his shoulder, giving in a moment to temptation, Marcus guessed. ‘Dreams can be dangerous.’

‘Not this one,’ Marcus reassured. He was determined it wouldn’t be. She was locked in his arms, standing with him in the middle of this amazing pool, with the steam from the waters releasing the perfume of the enclosing rosemary and lavender bushes. Their own private, secret bathing place.

‘I have wanted to do this for so long,’ he said, drawing off her belt, feeling her gown billowing around his legs.

‘Did you bathe Drusilla?’

Her face was burrowed against his chest, so Marcus couldn’t see her expression. ‘Little Aurelia used to join me in the barracks bath house in Germania,’ he answered truthfully. ‘She and the other youngsters used to play games in the baths.’

‘Did—’

‘No more talk.’ Marcus raised her chin with his thumb and kissed her, tumbling her clothes off with swift, sure hands. I have you now, little water goddess, and in your own element, he thought, his voice abandoned in the heat of the moment. She made his very skin crackle.

He wanted her to revel in every instant. The desire to honor and promote her enjoyment helped Marcus to control his own aching need as he gathered her back to himself with undisguised delight.

She had her eyes tightly closed again and he scooped water and lightly washed her face, smiling as her lips quivered and almost kissed his fingers. He sensed the conflict within her between pleasure and propriety and longed to prove to her what a sexy little creature she was, but he did not want her to feel ashamed afterwards by anything they did.

He stopped her hand as he felt her fingers on his belt. ‘Next time you can bathe me,’ he said, with a lightness he did not feel. He found her caresses far too erotic. ‘That is a promise.’

Her throaty giggle almost drove him over the edge. He felt her stand on top-toe and then, using the water itself as an added support, bounce lightly off her toes to snatch a kiss as light as the beat of a moth’s wing from his mouth.

‘Flavia!’ He lowered his head and kissed her back. The provoking wench was playing with fire.

‘We have no bathing oil,’ he said, keeping to the practical. ‘But I am sure we will manage.’

It was easy to begin with her hair, which fascinated him, and hard, too, when he really wanted to share so much more with her than bathing. But they were learning each other, he sensed, and he wanted her to trust him. That mattered above everything.

He released her plait, hearing her muttered apology that she was wearing none of the combs he had bought her and responding with a hand-ruffle of her loosened hair, saying, ‘Those are probably gone with the fire, but I will buy you more.’

‘I will buy my own,’ she shot back instantly. ‘From my wages.’

‘Well said!’ Marcus grunted, teasing her in return by tickling her under her arms until Flavia was giggling and thrashing against him, water splashing everywhere.

‘Stop, stop!’ she cried, almost hiccupping with laughter.

He spun her round, the water making her virtually weightless, and tucked an arm around her waist. ‘Now for your back,’ he said.

He stroked the water over her, gently kneading the muscles on either side of her spine, hearing her breath quicken each time his hand approached her waist. Thinking about the faint sprinkling of freckles by her right shoulder blade and how taut and fine her skin was, he washed her arms. She seemed to shimmer in his arms, the rising steam wreathing her face so that she almost appeared to be wearing a veil made of mist.

Torn between passion and a strange sense of mystery, Marcus again reminded himself what he was supposed to be doing. Although he had not yet touched certain areas, he could not resist kissing the back of her freshly-bathed neck.

‘And your legs.’

With her damp head pillowed against his middle ribs, he lifted her quickly so that her feet flipped off the pool bottom. He caught her right leg and brought it closer to the surface, the warm water adding a further dimension of sensation as he ran his hand slowly over her sleek calf and thigh. He was equally scrupulous in his attention to her left leg.

‘And the rest.’

Flavia shivered as he turned her round to face him, his legs threading through hers. She felt increasingly strange in this soft, mobile, warm medium of water, and not only because she was an indifferent swimmer.

‘Marcus.’ She tried to think of the words to express concern and found she had forgotten them. She was rapidly forgetting any sense of decorum. The secret pool itself added to her confusion, the scents of its lavender and rosemary bushes perfuming the air and its steam condensing and sparkling on Marcus’ long black eyelashes, dampening the ends of his tough, dark brown hair.

‘Close your eyes a moment,’ he said.

To show her trust in him, she did so, feeling the water rise and fall in a subtle lingering embrace against her breasts. Everything here was voluptuous; she could imagine losing track of time and place.

‘You can open them now,’ Marcus said against her ear.

He was naked—his tunic, belt and loin cloth mere shadows on the bottom of the pool. ‘I will fetch them up later.’ He smiled. ‘With your own.’

‘Oh!’ Flavia had forgotten that her gown and under-tunic languished under this flood of gently swirling, gray-green water. Above the water, his upper torso glistened in the spray and sun, the harsh contours of his face softened by the rising steam.

And by love, perhaps? Flavia hoped it was love, although when she recalled her jealous question about his bathing habits with his wife she was ashamed.

She gasped afresh as he took her hand and laid it against the middle of his chest. She could feel his strongly beating heart, the pulse increasing as her fingers moved, almost of her own volition, touching his bronzed skin below and above the water. She found herself smiling at her own exploration.

He touched her in return. Gathering water and allowing it to run through his fingers, he bathed her breasts and her trim, flat stomach. The water trickled between her breasts like the gentlest and warmest of rain-showers as his hand followed, defining every curve.

‘Marcus!’ She felt to be splitting in two between shock and delight. She twisted in his arms, shy and at the same time proud, because he made her feel beautiful, desirable.


To read more, please see my 'Flavia's Secret' - now only 99c at Bookstrand.

For more details of my ancient world historical romances, please see my Bookstrand author page:
http://www.bookstrand.com/lindsay-townsend

Or go to my website: http://www.lindsaytownsend.net/
http://www.twitter.com/lindsayromantic

Best wishes, Lindsay Townsend

Valentines Day - The myth, the man, the customs

by: Stephanie Burkhart

Ah, February, the month of love dedicated to St. Valentine. Yet Valentine's story is mired in myth and legend. No one knows the definitive background of this romantic Saint, but we do know he existed – and inspired long ago.

What we do know isn't much. Archaeologists have uncovered a tomb in the Old Roman catacombs dedicated to the Saint. In 496 A.D., 14 February was declared a day of honor to the Saint by Pope Gelassius.

There are three prevailing myths surrounding Valentine. The first one dates back to when Claudius II was Emperor of Rome, in the 3rd Century A.D. (270 A.D., to be exact) Claudius determined single men made better soldiers and forbid the Roman soldiers to marry. Valentine, a priest, defied Claudius and married the soldiers. When Claudius found out what Valentine was doing, he had him put to death.

The second myth, which could easily blend into the first, had Valentine in jail. (Probably awaiting his fate that Claudius had decreed) While in prison, Valentine fell in love with the jailor's daughter. Before he was put to death, he sent her a letter and signed it, "From Your Valentine," thus, staring an expression that you can still find on Valentine cards today.

The third myth, which again, could easily blend into the first and second, making this all one myth, involves the pagan Roman celebration called Lupercalia. The Romans considered February the start of spring and with the onset of spring, they found it a time for purification. Houses were cleaned and swept. Salt and wheat were sprinkled throughout their home as part of their custom of purification. Lupercalia began on the Ides of February (15 February) and dedicated to the Roman god of fertility as well as the Roman founders of Romulus and Remus.

The church had a habit of taking pagan Roman celebrations and fitting them into the calendar to make them more "politically correct." It was Pope Gelassius who outlawed Lupercalia, and it was believe St. Valentine's feast day replaced it in order to "Christianize" the pagan ritual.

While the official reason has been lost to history, I don't see why all three of these myths can't be melded together to found the basis of the day we celebrate now.

Interestingly, different cultures nowadays have different takes on the 14th of February. In the Western world, cards, flowers, and chocolates are traditional gifts. In Finland, it's known as Friend's Day and it extends to friends as well as loved one.

In Turkey, the day is known as Sweetheart's Day. Interesting since most of Turkey follows Islam. In most Asian countries, notably Japan, the only recognition of St. Valentine's Day is a custom where only the women give men chocolate. There is a reply day for the men to return the favor to the women.

Countries like India, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan try to have the holiday banned. At a minimum, the governments in those countries discourage participation, but there is a thriving black market of roses and wrapping paper.

Information taken from Online Sources including Wikipedia.



Author Bio: A member of Generation X, Stephanie was born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire. She joined the US Army at 18 and spent 11 years active duty, 7 stationed overseas in Germany. When she left the service, she settled in California and is now a 911 Dispatcher for LAPD. Her favorite football team is the New England Patriots. Stephanie's latest release is "Twilight Over Moldavia," a paranormal romance set in Romania in the 1880's.

5 Hearts, Sizzling Hot Book Reviews
The twisting story line will keep your nose in the book until you have finished. Stephanie's ability to add suspense and mystery to romances gives her stories all the more depth. If you love werewolf stories, romances, or a good book, I recommend Twilight Over Moldavia.

4 Stars, Vijaya Schartz, author
In this novel full of danger and intrigue, sexy scenes, and unspeakable secrets, the werewolves are the villains, and oh how dangerous they are, and unwashed, and uncivilized. The kind of villains you love to hate.

5 Stars, Mona Risk, Author "No More Lies"
Burkhart's writing style grabs the reader from the first page. She keeps you breathless with her suspense as she transports you to exotic areas you will enjoy discovering.

5 Stars, Karen Michelle Nutt, Author of the "Fallen Angel" Series:
"Ms. Burkhart paranormal tale is rich in history, painting a picture as clearly as if the reader is standing beside Stefan and Caroline."

5 Stars, Barbara M. Hodges, Author of "The Blue Flame"
Twilight Over Moldavia whisked me into a part of the world I knew nothing about, and gave me a wonderful love story filled with suspense too. What more could a reader desire?

5 Stars, Reader's Favorites, Brenda Ballard

BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSAhxv0lTIM

BLURB:
Romanian unification is on the horizon. Prince Stefan Sigmaringen travels to Ploiesti, Carpathia. He's to be promised in marriage to the Crown Princes Caroline, a spirited young lady who prefers riding horses and archery to embroidery and dancing.

Despite Stefan's initial apprehension, he discovers that his intended is a pleasant surprise with a caring heart. He also learns a strange man named Timon has an unnatural interest in him.

Two years later, Stefan and Caroline are officially engaged. To Stefan's horror he overhears his mother confessing to a dangerous secret – she cursed him in order to conceive him and Stefan owes his body to Timon. There is a condition to overcome the curse, but Stefan will have to draw on all his courage and inner strength to confront the werewolf who desires to posses his soul. Stefan feels it isn't fair to fall in love with Caroline with a foul enchantment hanging over his head. Dare Caroline break the blood bonds of the curse with her love?

ENJOY THIS EXCERPT:

She nipped at her lower lip, and the energy between them surged. He tilted his head and drew her close, their mouths awkwardly skirting each other. Her breath, warm and hinting of apricots from the wine she had sipped earlier, ghosted over his cheek. Their lips brushed, and his pulse spiked. Gently, he continued to kiss her with hesitant exploration. She was the first woman he had ever kissed, and her lips were everything he had expected -- and more.

He placed his hands on her waist and tugged her close, pressing her against the length of his body. She put her hands on his shoulders and trailed her fingers along the nape of his neck.

Stefan groaned and increased the intensity of the kiss. Fueled by their mutual desire, his manhood grew hard. He hadn't known that feeling before. He could lose his head to it.

He broke off the kiss and drew in a breath. Confusion pooled in Caroline's expression.

"No." He paused. "I don't think we should go too fast."

"All right."

"Alina, I don't think it's wise for us to discuss Viktor," Stefan's mother said, her proximity startling him. Nervous energy spiked through him at her tone.

He placed his finger over his lips, and Caroline nodded. He furrowed his brow and gestured for her to hide behind the rose bushes near the bench with him. She did so.



His mother's and Lady Alina's footsteps echoed along the walking path.

"Viktor put all of this in motion," Lady Alina said.

Stefan's mother exhaled. "No, I did," she said, her voice heavy with regret. "I made a poor decision."

"He took advantage of you in a moment of deep pain. You were mourning the death of your son, Hadrian."

"I should have been more guarded."

"Viktor was a cunning wolf. We all thought he could be trusted."

Their footsteps stopped. Stefan prayed they couldn't hear his pounding heartbeat.

"The curse will come to fruition soon," Alina said.

BUY LINKS:

ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS:
http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-moldavianmoonbooktwotwilightovermoldavia-667833-139.html

AMAZON KINDLE:
http://www.amazon.com/Moldavian-Moon-Book-Two-ebook/dp/B006RQ7LU8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325479348&sr=8-1

PUBLISHER'S BUY LINK:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-247/Moldavian-Moon-Book-Two/Detail.bok

B&N NOOK:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moldavian-moon-book-two-stephanie-burkhart/1108111730?ean=2940013822177&itm=1&usri=twilight+over+moldavia
FIND ME ON THE WEB AT:
WEBSITE:
http://www.stephanieburkhart.com

TWITTER:
http://twitter.com/StephBurkhart

FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephanie-Burkhart-Author/149938795021166

GOOD READS:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart

Welcome to Valentine's Poetry Week at Lindsay's Romantics!

Welcome to Valentine's Poetry Week at Lindsay's Romantics! We're celebrating Valentine's Day, love and romance all this week through the medium of poetry. Poetry is the oldest, most expressive, most intense literary form. It captures and reveals our deepest feelings and enables us to share those emotions with others. So here at the start of our Valentine Poetry Week are some love poems, written by us.

The Stalactite

If we turn to stone above our organic time
let me be a stalactite hanging over you
feeding you drop by drop like a new born
growing a crystal jewel
reaching up closing the distance
an aching gap that mortality rent between our lips
building a bridge until they touch again that kiss
to seal anew the bond that made the spiral column of pure white bliss
memorial to love ten thousand years before.

Alan Calder, Poet and author at Willowmoon Press:
http://www.willowmoonpublishing.com/authors.html



Lovers Undress
You're a shaft of light
In my crimson evening.

Let's make each other beautiful;
You in a silver ball gown,
Shoulders shine above it
Above superb resilient breasts.


Slow, sensual dance, rustling fabrics,
Hands, breath to lips and tongues
Held through this breeze.


I've striven in my work-outs
For this moment;
I'm yours to relish,
you're mine to savour.


So now undo me, see legs first
- Yours I'll match
Now find my waist and torso
- Feel at first
And then unbutton,
Peel and see.


In shorts I stand before you now,
Athletic
You're throbbing for the next -
You take my waistband, draw
Now I'm just in trunks
- Erotic in your smouldering light.


I'll do the same for you, I'm delicate
with zips and buttons, buckles
Release your gown,
A glittering parachute
and you step out


- In what I dreamed you'd wear:
A purple strapless one-piece
Clinging to your toned lovely form


A one-piece proclaims
A woman's fullest power - Concealing, revealing,
Balance just right - to draw on,
and you can wear one
Before all others.


Now you're my bathing beauty,
I am yours.


The water calls us, shimmering warm;
Let's slice the waves,
Please do the backstroke, let me see
Your breasts, your thighs
Thrusting through the surface
And now an underwater kiss


Now to the shore.
You lie on me, I rub your back
Our costumes dry, peel off
and now deep cleaving
Of thigh and groin.


You are so deep , so strong in love
Made thunderstorms;
You frightened all the others off
Yet drew me out;
Let me embrace my feminine
In our unrobing

Submission? domination?
Now those terms
Lose all pretence of meaning,
In the flooding flames of total love.


You're a shaft of light
In my crimson evening.


David Russell


 ~~~~~~ Zurroc's Love Poem to Kytaira
I know my tigress.
Wild fierce energy burning, she is large of heart.
Kind to those in need, she is a predator for justice.

Currents of white-hot fire arc between us when her Tigress spirit mates with my Tiger soul.

Ancient passions ignite when we tangle, woman and man becoming one.

Savage is another name for the beauty of my Tigress.

She frees me, my woman.

For, what is untamed in me growls to caress what is untamed in her.

From ~ Tigress Shapeshifter... meet the new boss, worse than the old boss... by Savanna Kougar 

Sunny days

Sunny days I spent with you
Memories to last my whole life through
From bronze to silver then to gold
This is how our lives unfold
Simple thoughts, simple pleasures
Worth more than any treasures

Margaret Maguire, Poet and Writer.


My Forever Valentine.

As young lovers, finding each other their urgent lips and bodies entwine.
Forty years on the rush is for the hot wheat bag that they find divine.
My love for you takes my youthful breathe away.
My ancient bones tell me, if I chase there will be a delay.

New-born love; so fragile, so precious, so inane,
Ripened love, mellowed and tempered by life,
sees the sprint of youth as insane.

Fresh hearts are easily given away,
bruised beings retreat, in the hope of loving another someday.

Spring like spirit scatters its seed far and wide,
Autumn’s sprite knows a more fruitful place for its kernel to hide.

And as the last of the summer’s sun begins to fade
and our thoughts turn to a hardier time,
We will still be together; sharing our memories,
our hot water bottle, our life
and you will always be mine.

Candida Heard, writer and poet


Real Time

Turn off the satellites,
Throw away the phones,
I don't want to speak.
I need ROSES, bouquets,
Heart to heart.
Facebook OFF-
love ME!

Christine Hirst, writer and photographer. (Christine took the sunset photograph at the top of this post.)

Romantic Roman flowers for the month of Valentine's Day

As a forerunner to Valentine's Day, and with my Roman books in mind, I thought I'd talk about some romantic Roman flowers. Some are surprising. Some are popular even today.
Sweet violet is a pretty, sweet-smelling flower used, like the anemone and the madonna lily, in garlands at Roman banquets. The scent was believed to ward off drunkenness! The Romans loved the scent of violets and even drank wine infused with violets and honey.

Vervain is a dull-looking plant but one which the Romans believed held magical proprieties. Believed to bring good luck, it was used in love potions.


Roman brides used mint for their garlands, and their faces may have been cleansed with a facepack made from the juice of yellow elecampane, because it was believed that Helen of Troy was collecting the flower when Paris abducted her.
Then as now however, the most popular romantic flower was the rose. Roses were grown in Campania for sale and the streets in Rome were red with rose garlands. They were known as flowers of seduction - Cleopatra was rumoured to have seduced Mark Anthony with rose petals. I'll leave it to your imagination as to how!


Bookstrand have Flavia's Secret on offer as a free ebook from today until Valentine's Day. If you haven't tried one of my books yet, here's a chance!
For details of the book and the free download, go to:

http://www.bookstrand.com/flavias-secret .
Update (December 7): Many of my other Bookstrand titles are now available for a mere $2.99.
Best wishes, Lindsay Townsend http://www.lindsaytownsend.net/
(Painting by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema and drawings of sweet violet, elecampane and mint from Wikimedia Commons.)