On the Edge
Dani Collins
(Blue Spruce Lodge, #1)
Published by: Tule Publishing
Publication date: January 16th 2018
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
When Glory Cormer’s father introduces her to ‘their’ new business partner, she’s appalled. Viking-like Rolf Johansson exudes the same alpha-intimidation that jocks used to torment her through high school. After nursing her mother the last several years, she’s trying to break out of her shell and secretly pursue a writing career, but Rolf insists she go through with the rotten deal her father struck with his brother to renovate an old chalet.
Rolf envisions this mountain as a world-class resort for elite athletes and other jet setters. As a downhill champion and owner of a world-renowned sports equipment empire, he knows what it takes to get what he wants. Nothing will stop him, especially not a hotheaded wallflower who turns the ice in his veins to lava.
Bonus Story! This book contains Glory’s novella Blessed Winter, a no-room-at-the-inn Christmas romance.
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EXCERPT:
“I’m saying I don’t know how to deal with it. I’m not a sensitive man. I don’t want to hurt you again.” His fingers crept all the way around her upper arm, thumb stroking her skin as he gently clasped her in his warm grip.
“So don’t,” she suggested with a flash of irritation.
“Okay.” How did he make one word sound so dangerous? Like a dare. “You tell me what hurts more. Resisting or giving in?”
And now she was falling into an eclipse, staring into eyes that were golden and black at the same time, pulling her right out of herself and twisting her around so her body was in a sensual agony, tied up and yearning.
“Should we see?” he murmured, hands touching her with light sorcery, caressing her arm, caressing her throat, tilting up her chin.
She shouldn’t be this stupid, but she did hurt. All the time. With want…
His head lowered, slanted. His mouth hovered so she could feel the magnetic buzz of ions bouncing between their lips. When he nudged, made that first contact, her mouth stung, so hot and sensitized with anticipation she gasped.
He settled his lips over hers, hot and thorough. Confident. He kissed her in a way she had never been kissed before. This man held himself back with monumental discipline, she realized, because when he went for something, he went for it, and he was a force to be reckoned with. He claimed her with irresistible precision, mouth pressing hers open so the connection went from sweet suggestion to overwhelming passion in a single heartbeat.
She opened her mouth and let him in. Kissed him back with more offering than skill, not even hesitating. Compelled. If he was screwing with her—
Whatever she had consciously been thinking sizzled into nothing. She forgot how to form thoughts. All she knew was the feel of his lips against hers, smooth and firm, pulling just enough to make her follow him, then pressing to keep her sealed inside their world.
His hand slid through her hair to cup the back of her skull. His other arm went around her, broad hand slipping beneath her loose shirt to sit against the skin of her lower back, leaving a starfish of heat imprinted there. A shudder went through her, all of her muscles checking out and giving her body over to his strength. All she could do was lift her arms and cling around his neck, plastering herself to him while they devoured each other. Tongues came into play. His. Hers. She moaned, loving the swirling textures. Reveling in their blatant consumption of each other.
He was hard. She felt him against her abdomen and pulses of reaction hit her loins, making her want to grind against him. She wanted to do it already. Now.
As she realized how caught up she was, she yanked back, gasping.
He let her put some space between them, but kept his arm around her. His cheekbones were flushed above his beard, his eyes like liquid gold.
She hadn’t minded that beard, she realized, and wanted to stroke it with her fingers. She touched instead where the soft hairs had scraped against her chin, wondering how that rough-soft abrasion would feel against her stomach. Her thighs.
Her body reacted with a rush of heat and another pulse. She was very aware of the bed right there, while his eyes were halos of light around pupils the size of the moon.
“And that,” he said, accent thick. “Is why it is my business who spends time in this room.”
A quick Q & A with Dani Collins. Be sure to check out her website for more FAQs. (http://danicollins.com/faq/)
How did you get the idea for On The Edge?
I had a hero walk into my imagination—more of an attitude, really. I didn’t know he was an Alpine champion, just that he was high-octane and kind of a dick. Rolf is very single-minded and ultra-confident. He’s not mean, he’s just self-sufficient, doesn’t waste words, and doesn’t suffer fools (of which his brother arguably is.)
I was brainstorming with my daughter about it and she suggested a ski lodge. About that time, we were re-doing our will and I was working on setting up the kids to administer my literary estate. That got me thinking that Glory, the heroine, could be managing her deceased mother’s backlist. Then I thought, What if she wants to write, too, but she’s afraid of being in her mom’s shadow?
Have you ever worked on more than one book at a time?
Funny you should ask! On The Edge turned into what my husband refers to as ‘A book within a book.’ Once I decided Glory would be a romance writer, I started writing her book in real time while writing the rest of the story. Each time she sat down to write, I wrote the next scene of her book.
What do you listen to while you write?
My kids would say my favorite soundtrack is snow falling. That’s kind of true, although rain on the roof is actually my favorite. A fly buzzing or the neighbor’s music playing in summer makes me grind my teeth.
Having said that, I find music very inspiring for characters and plot points. I have a firm idea about a future character based on Fun’s Carry On (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7yCLn-O-Y0)
And George Ezra’s Don’t Matter Now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM5mM-QDg24)
Why did you decide to write romance?
I started reading romance in high school and knew right away that I wanted to do it for a job. It took twenty-five years (true story) but I got The Call in 2012 and I’ve sold forty books since then. (Many of them the rejected manuscripts still sitting on my hard drive.)
I love the hopefulness of romance. In all those years of rejection, one thing that helped me keep going was the plucky heroines who keep after their dreams in romance. I believed in happy endings and I got mine.
What else do you write?
I’ve written twenty-five books for Harlequin Presents and On The Edge is number eight for Tule’s Montana Born. I also have some erotic romance, romantic comedy and even an epic medieval fantasy. I tried a lot of things before settling into the lanes of Presents and Montana.
You can find all my books, and read the first two chapters of most of them, on my website here: http://danicollins.com/books/
Author Bio:
Award-winning, USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. Mostly she writes contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule’s Montana Born, but her backlist of forty books also includes self-published erotic romance, romantic comedy, and even an epic medieval fantasy. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. She lives in Christina Lake, BC, Canada with her husband of thirty years who occasionally coaxes her out of her attic office to visit their grown children.
Five Fast and Fun Facts about On The Edge
- The working title for On The Edge was Uphill Battles.
- Glory is a romance author, like me! Also like me: she’s sarcastic, an introvert, and swears a lot.
- Glory writes a no-room-at-the-inn Christmas romance called Blessed Winter. You read it as you read On The Edge. My husband calls it ‘a book within a book.’
- Murphy, the dog that Rolf’s brother brings to the lodge and leaves with him (against Rolf’s will!) is real. My brother-in-law rescued him two years ago.
- The name Blue Spruce Lodge is in memory of my grandmother. She loved Blue Spruce trees. (And romance novels, as do I!)
GIVEAWAY!
Sincerely Karen Jo 