Yay! Forbidden Embers Releases Today!

Hi Everyone!  Sorry for my long, dry spell-- I've been working to get the Tracy Deebs name and blog off the ground.  But I just have to share.  My third Dragon's Heat novel, Forbidden Embers, hits the shelves today, October 4th!  This is Logan's story and I can't wait to hear what you think.

To whet your appetite, here's the blurb:

The Dragonstar clan is under attack, endangered by an insidious enemy. Now a top sentry must go undercover, but the task will be more than he bargained for…

Desperate to save his clan from deadly biological warfare, Dragonstar sentry Logan Kelly must infiltrate the Wyvermoon clan—and put an end to the war. Posing as a rogue dragon without a clan, Logan quickly realizes how close the Wyvermoons are to anarchy since the death of their leader. Their ranks are thin, and their only hope lies in Cecily Fournier, the princess whose grasp on the throne is shaky at best. All he has to do is stick around long enough to see his enemies fail.

The plan is foolproof. Until he falls for Cecily.

What starts as an uneasy alliance turns into an uncontrollable passion. As the spark between them gets hotter, Logan discovers the Wyvermoon’s hidden agenda. But how can he bring down the Wyvermoons without exposing himself as a traitor to the woman he loves?

And here's an exclusive excerpt:

He scanned one more time, came up with nothing.  Dropped all but the innermost layers of his mental shields and still came away empty handed.  She wasn’t really thinking about anything, was just lying there, on his sleeping bag, in a dreamy, half-awake state that he longed to be a part of.

            Finally, as certain as he could be that she wasn’t there for any reason beyond the obvious, he stepped into the clearing.  Both man and dragon preened at the sight of her there, waiting for him on the closest thing to a bed he currently had.

He walked over to her slowly, making no effort to disguise his approach.  He didn’t want to startle her, after all.  Not now, when he was so close to his goal.  But Cecily didn’t move, even when he stood over her, and a little spurt of alarm worked its way through him.  Had his scan been wrong?  Was she hurt somehow?

“Cecily.”  He called her name as he crouched over her, reached a hand out to stroke her cheek.  The skin was warm, supple, and his beast—coiled to attack at the threat of her being hurt—relaxed at the feel of her.

Her eyes opened slowly, dreamily and she looked so inviting laying there, her long, blond hair spread around her like a halo, that it took all his willpower not to jump on her and take her like the starving man he suddenly was. 

“Logan.”  Her smile was soft and sweet, as was the hand she reached up to brush against his chest.  “You’re here.”

“I’m here,” he agreed, his voice hoarse.  “And so are you.”

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I can see that.”

She flushed a little, her skin turning that same milky pink it had the day before.  It made him want to lap her up, one slow lick at a time.  His dragon roared its approval and, unable to resist, he leaned down and nuzzled the silky skin beneath her ear.

Her breath caught and her hands came up to clutch at his head, to hold him in place.  Logan grinned at the thought, more than happy to stay exactly where he was for, say, the next century or so.  He nuzzled her again, then swirled his tongue behind her ear.

She gasped, arched, and her hands trembled in his hair.  His arousal shot through the stratosphere at the obvious signs of her arousal.  She was incredibly responsive, even more so than she’d been the night before when he’d used his mind to bring her to orgasm, and he was dying to get inside her.  To see how she reacted when he was actually making love to her.

At the same time, though, he wanted to take things slowly,  To explore every part of her that he could.  To find every sweet spot on her body and make her as crazy for him as he was for her.

He pulled away reluctantly, gratified by her small whimper and the way her hands tried to hold on to him.  “It’s okay, darlin’.  I’m not going anywhere.”

  He shifted, lowered himself to the ground beside her, then stretched out on his side so that he was facing her, their bodies only inches apart.  She smiled at him, a tremulous curving of her lips that worked its way inside of him and melted his heart just a little, when he would have sworn such a thing was impossible.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t come back,” he said, then immediately regretted the impulse.  What was wrong with him?  He was supposed to be exploiting her vulnerabilities, not showing her his own.

But she didn’t move to take instant advantage of his admission, didn’t do anything but reach out and stroke a hand over the roughness of his chin.  He hadn’t shaved in a couple days and suddenly he wished that he had.  He didn’t want to scrape her sensitive skin with his stubble.

“I couldn’t stay away,” she answered, rubbing her knuckles against his unscarred cheek.

“I could shave,” he offered.  “If it’s bothering you—“

“Are you kidding?  I love the way it feels.  I want to feel it against—“  She broke off, her eyes shifting away shyly and his temperature skyrocketed.

“Where?” he demanded, grabbing her chin between his thumb and forefinger and tilting her head until she was once again looking him in the eye.  “Where do you want to feel it?”

She shook her head, her white little teeth biting down on her lower lip in embarrassment or nervousness or some other emotion he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“Cecily,” he asked again, and this time even he could hear the dragon in the deep gravel of his voice.  “Tell me.”

“I can’t.”  Her voice broke.  “Don’t make me say it.” 

He swore at the vulnerability in her eyes, at the shyness that was so shocking in another shifter.  He must have spent too much of his time in recent years around dominant, confident females—he’d forgotten what it was like to be with a woman who wasn’t clawing his back as she told him exactly what she wanted from him.

Before Cecily, he would have sworn that was exactly what he liked in a woman, but there was something about her reticence that turned him on harder and faster than any woman ever had before. 

“I’m sorry, darling’.”  He brushed a soothing kiss over her forehead.  “I didn’t mean to push so hard.”

She shook her head.  “Don’t apologize.  I’m the one who—“

He stopped her with a kiss.  And though he wanted to devour her, to thrust his tongue into the honeyed recesses of her mouth and take everything she had, he kept it soft, sweet, and he hoped, a little comforting.  She deserved that much, after the way he’d come at her the day before down by the lake—and later, in her thoughts. 

He’d been a selfish asshole with her, he realized, as he soothed her nerves away with tender kisses to her cheeks, her forehead, the corner of her mouth.  He’d been so caught up in his own needs and desires that he’d forgotten what the instant attraction between them must be like for her. 

She was young, less than an eighth of his age, so she had to be relatively inexperienced sexually—at least compared to him.  Which meant that for her to give her body to him--a man she didn’t know very well and who wasn’t of her clan—she was probably already stretching her comfort zone.  He needed to take it easy with her.

But it was hard to remember that, and even harder to do it, when her body arched against his and he could feel the heat rolling off her in waves that called to him and to the beast inside him.  Her breasts pushed against his chest and he could feel her hard little nipples digging into his muscles there.  It was making him crazy with the need to be inside her.

Her needs weren’t the same as his, he reminded himself viciously.  At least not yet.  He needed to pet her and tease her and take it slow if he had any hope of raising her desire to the fever pitch his was already at.  Reining in his need-- and the dragon that was prowling just beneath his skin, watching, waiting for its chance to get to her—Logan took a deep breath.  Then reached for her, praying his control was as good as he thought it was.

I hope you like!