An Indecent Proposal...with Mia Marlowe (+Giveaway)

An Indecent Proposal
on Christmas Eve with Mia Marlowe

About the Author:

Award winning author Mia Marlowe writes historical romance for Kensington Publishing and Sourcebooks. Her debut title received acclaim from romance luminaries. #1 New York Times bestseller Victoria Alexander says Mia's Touch of a Thief has "adventure and heat and everything I want in a great story!" UK's BooksMonthly has crowned Mia Marlowe "the queen of saucy historical romance."
Mia learned much of what she knows about storytelling from singing. A classically trained soprano, she won the District Metropolitan Opera Auditions and shared a stage with Placido Domingo. As she prepared for operatic roles, she devised back stories for her characters. Since she's worn a real corset, and had to sing high C's in one, she empathizes with the trials of her fictional heroines. But in Mia's stories, they don't die in a Parisian garret. They get to live and keep the hero!

Find Mia Online: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Readers often ask me what happens to my characters after their book has ended. In the case of HOW TO PLEASE A PIRATE, I can offer a small peek into the lives of Jacquelyn and Gabriel Drake and what sort of adventures they enjoy after the main story is over. Come with me now and I’ll whisk you back to Cornwall for. . . - Mia

A Dragon Caern Christmas

by Mia Marlowe

“One ball is hanging low.” Jacquelyn Drake cocked her head and narrowed her eyes at her husband.

     “That, my love, is the condition of most men.” Gabriel glanced over his shoulder and waggled his dark brows at her. “But how you can tell from there is a mystery.”

     She swatted his well-muscled derrière. “I mean the spice balls on the kissing bough. The left one is lower than the right. See if you can tie it up higher.”

     Gabriel stretched to reach the kissing bough he’d just hung from the arched center of the solar’s ceiling. He hiked the clove-encrusted suet ball a few finger-widths higher. The spicy fragrance mingled with the fresh evergreens in the bough.

     “Any particular reason they have to match?”

     “Because it will please me if they do.” Jacquelyn waggled her brows back at him and stepped close to wrap her arms around his waist. “And I’m sure you want to please me.”

     “It’s what I live for,” he assured her. Gabriel couldn’t reciprocate with an embrace while he tied up her Christmas folderol, but he bent to kiss her anyway. His lips covered hers

in a warm, wet promise of even better things to come.

     “And I . . .” she said between love nips, “want to please . . .” Jacquelyn pressed herself against him and rocked slowly. He groaned. “. . . you, too, milord.”

     “Ow!” He broke off their kiss and shook his hand, blowing on his fingertips. “That holly is prickly.”

     “That’s because it represents men,” Jacquelyn explained as she took his injured hand and kissed each finger tip, pausing to suck the one with the angry red mark. She smiled when Gabriel’s breathing hitched a bit. “Holly for men, ivy for women and mistletoe for—”

     “Trust me, love. I know what mistletoe is for.” Gabriel pulled her close for a demonstration that had her gasping for air and not wanting to come up for it at the same time. He tasted of the mulled wine they’d shared earlier and his kiss sent an intoxicating sizzle through her veins. When his hands slipped over the curve of her breasts, heat spread down her body. Jacquelyn wondered if there was time to hoist her skirts for a quick—

     “Ow!” Jacquelyn jerked back and rubbed her crown. The spice ball had come untied, landed on her noggin, bounced to the floor and wobbled across the flagstone to a lopsided stop. “I thought sailors were supposed to be handy with knots.”

     “Sailors, aye. None handier.” Gabriel grinned sheepishly as he bent to scoop up the offending ornament. “But pirates are known to play fast and loose with the rules from time to time and I may have skipped a step with that last knot.” He pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head. “You have to admit, I was being distracted.”

     “Well, I’ll not distract you this time.” She crossed her arms under her breasts.

     “Lyn, you distract me just by breathing.”

     Her insides melted when Gabriel used his special name for her. “You know, you’re supposed to pluck a mistletoe berry each time you steal a kiss,” she said. “When they’re gone, the free kisses are ended.”

     “What if the kisses are freely given?” he asked.

     “That, my love, is another matter entirely.”

 ~*~*~*~

*Don't forget to stop by Ramblings From This Chick for Shana Galen's Scene*

**To read the rest of this FREE short story, which bridges the characters from HOW TO PLEASE A PIRATE with the ones in HOW TO VEX A VISCOUNT, please visit http://miamarlowe.com/blog/a-dragon-caern-christmas/ .

How about you? Do you wonder about the lives of fictional couples who’ve already been given their HEA?  Would like to know how they’re doing? Have you ever written any fan fiction to keep characters you love alive?

Leave a comment or question for me and you’ll be entered in the random drawing for my Christmas enovella, MY LADY BELOW STAIRS! Two winners will be chosen.

Available Now:

Nobody misses Lord & Lady Hartwell's Christmas Ball, . . . but they all go for different reasons. When Lady Sybil runs off with an Italian portrait painter, her bastard half-sister Jane Tate goes in her place. Lord Eddleton plans on proposing to "Sybil" under the mistletoe. Lady Darvish is on the hunt for her fifth husband.. And Ian Michael MacGarrett, the head groom with more than horseflesh on his mind, is determined to show Jane that love doesn't have to pretend.

Get Your Copy Today:

Amazon (Kindle) | Barnes&Noble (Nook)

Mia is giving away two ecopies of her book, My Lady Below Stairs, to one lucky commenter (Open to all with ereader/program access)! Make sure to leave a meaningful comment/answer her question above AND fill out the rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to enter the Grand Prize Giveaway