Yep. You read the title right. You can win a copy of my book in ebook version of "Blessed Be" the first in my erotic vampire romance series.
This is in celebration of the release of Blessed Be's sequel last week of "Truth, Justice, and the Vampire Way" at Ellora's Cave.
HOW can you win?
It's simple. Leave me a post (or two or three) on my blog this week between today, Tuesday April 28th and Sunday May 3rd at 5 pm EST). I'll have one of my kids draw a winner from a hat on Sunday and I'll post the winner on Monday.
Make sure to visit my blog on Monday to see if you're the winner and then email - or leave me a comment on my blog with your email address where I can send your prize.
Here's a blurb and excerpt of "Blessed Be".
Blessed Be By Ashley Ladd
Shortly before her wedding, Chloe questions her choice of future husband. Lately, her sexy dreams about Luke—her beloved fiancé who disappeared seven year earlier—seem so real. Their scorching union cannot be shaken.
Although Luke's investigation of a Ft. Lauderdale vampire clan changed his life forever, he never forgot his feelings for Chloe. His astral projecting into Chloe's dreams has angered Anika, the Alpha vampire set on Luke as a lifemate. Now he must convince Chloe their love deserves one last chance, and protect her—at all costs.
Excerpt "Blessed Be"
“I see you’ve let that mangy cat inside now. I should call the Health Department. Or maybe I should just take him to animal control.” The sneer on Gerald’s lips leapt to his eyes. He snatched the cat and sprinted for the door.
The tomcat screeched and clawed frantically at Gerald’s face, drawing blood, forcing Gerald to drop him in a heap at his feet. Then it tore off across the room, its eyes glowing oddly silver in the dim light.
A look of utter amazement etched comically across the doctor’s countenance as blood clung to his fingers after he touched his torn cheek. “That does it. He’s going to the pound tonight. Or maybe I’ll just tie an anchor around his neck and sink him to the bottom of the ocean.”
“No! Don’t you dare touch my cat.” Chloe dove for the cat.
The vile Gerald scooped up the struggling, spitting creature first.
The door burst open, and the vampire from Chloe’s dream stamped inside. A legion of wicked-looking dwarfs hobbled closely behind, big ears sticking out, long hair billowing behind them. The raven-haired woman pointed a talon-like finger at Chloe and leered. “Take her back to the manor. Alive.”
Chloe gasped, her heart ready to burst from her chest and her respiration became shallow. She faced off against the trespasser, planting her feet wide apart. “You can’t be real.”
One of the hunch-backed ogres batted Chloe’s feet out from under her, so that she fell to the floor and thumped her head. Intense pain slashed through her, stealing her breath.
The cat let out a horrible screech and before her eyes, transformed into Luke, just as he always looked in her dreams.
Blinking, Chloe couldn’t believe her eyes. She had to be dreaming. Cats didn’t transform into humans. Luke was dead. The vampire was a figment of her dreams. Yet Gerald and Shawanda also stared open-mouthed at the ensemble.
“Who are you?” Chloe finally found her voice and gouged the fiend in his eyes, making him howl as he retreated.
“I know karate!” Shawanda threatened, shrieking and swinging her leg in a high kick.
The vampire merely chuckled and flew into the air, avoiding the blow easily. Hissing, her fangs burst from her gums. She punched the nurse, reeling her backward into Gerald who was cowering in the corner.
Furious, Chloe threw the phone at the cackling vampire who ducked so that the phone smashed through the window. “What do you want from us?”
“I want you to leave Lukas alone. He’ll never be mine as long as you’re alive.” The vampire swooped down on her, scooping Chloe into her strong arms.
Luke delivered a deadly chop to the attacker, making her drop Chloe. Cursing loudly, he caught Chloe just before she hit the floor. “Are you okay, darlin’?”
Confused, dazed, Chloe shook her head. “Yes. No. You were a cat…you flew in the air…”
“Shhhh. I’ll explain everything as soon as I take care of Anika. Will you be okay for a moment?”
“Long as one of those things doesn’t try to devour me.” Chloe couldn’t stop staring at Luke. He couldn’t really be here. Or maybe she was dead. If so, this obviously wasn’t heaven. And yet, what could be more heavenly than to be held in Luke’s arms one more time?
“You’ll be okay for a few moments? You’re not going to faint on me?”
She touched her fingertips to her spinning head, feeling like she was being sucked into a force five tornado. It felt heavy but she wasn’t in danger of passing out. “Yeah. I think so.”
Luke brushed a kiss across her lips shooting volts of electricity through her and laid her back gently. “I’ll return shortly.”
“Promise?” On second thought, she wasn’t at all fine. She was talking to a ghost and envisioning vampires and all manners of monsters. It was probably all a bizarre dream, but it had a very real quality to it that alarmed her.
“Promise.” His eyes glowed silver and he lifted his head and howled, an earsplitting, inhuman sound that sent chills through her.
“Damn you to hell, Anika! I will have your head for this.” The vigor in Luke’s voice made Chloe blink and shrink back from him.
Anika hovered high overhead, her eyes glittering darkly. “As you are so fond of telling me, Lukas, we’re already in hell. Your threats mean little to me.” She dissipated into mist and shimmered away.
Luke swore under his breath and turned to Gerald and Shawanda. He approached them furtively but non-threateningly. He waved a hand over their eyes, which instantly glazed over. “You need to sleep now. When you awaken, you will think this was a dream.”
Chloe absorbed his words, turning them over in her mind. Luke controlled dreams? So, maybe she hadn’t been hallucinating. Maybe all her fantasies had been real, cloaked in the auspices of dreams. Struggling to her feet gingerly, her head still reeled and her heart raced. A jumble of emotions threatened to tear her up. “You promised me an explanation. Am I dreaming? Was I dreaming all those other times? Are you real?”
Luke rejoined her, supporting her to the couch in her private office. “Let me settle those two and I’ll be right back.”
Fear that he wouldn’t return grasped her and she grabbed at his hand that felt very durable and not the least bit transient. She let her hand slip to his warm wrist and felt for a pulse. To her dismay, she didn’t detect a single beat. “Don’t leave. Explain first. I don’t understand. If you’re real, why have you pretended you were dead? Why did you leave me?”
Blessed Be's sequel "Truth, Justice and the Vampire Way"
Truth, Justice and the Vampire Way By Ashley Ladd
When Tony Nelson is swept off his feet by Genevieve, an eight-hundred-year-old vampire queen who doesn't look a day over thirty, it's quickly apparent sucking his blood isn't all the sexy vampire has in mind. But Tony has bigger plans for his undeath than a sexual attraction that sizzles his synapses.
Torn between his insatiable hunger for Genevieve and his desire to celebrate his new "super" powers by fighting crime in Ft. Lauderdale, Tony butts heads with the feisty queen more than once.
But when his superhero deeds threaten his new family, leading their arch-enemies, the werecats, straight to their door, Tony has a difficult choice to make—one that will have ramifications for all of them.
Tony Nelson yawned widely against his palm as he navigated the deserted downtown streets on his way to rescue his neighbor’s sister. As usual, Carlos’ Benz was out of commission and, as usual, he’d turned to his unable-to-say-no pal Tony to save the day. He’d never forgive himself if anything happened to Sophie.
As he searched for the address Carlos had given him, he passed several abandoned cars and run-down buildings. A few people drunkenly swayed and yelled obscenities so he rolled up his window and turned on the AC.
He turned from the one-way side street onto a four-lane boulevard and breathed a sigh of relief. Then out of the corner of his eye, a blur startled him and he slammed on the brakes. The car careened out of control. A sickening thud rent the air. Then a young woman clad in all black was thrown into the middle of the otherwise deserted road.
His heart stopping, his blood freezing in his veins, he couldn’t budge. Then with a burst of adrenaline he leaped from the vehicle. “Lord, what have I done?”
Blood thrummed in his veins and he sprinted to the prone figure to kneel by her side. Gingerly he checked for signs of broken bones. “Can you hear me? Are you okay? Say something or give me a sign.”
The woman coughed and her lashes fluttered. She pinned him with eyes as dark as midnight from beneath the thickest lashes he’d seen.
Greatly relieved, he expelled his breath and rocked back on his haunches. “Thank you, God.”
Unable to catch her words as the breeze whipped them away, Tony lowered his ear to her lips. He waited several moments and when she didn’t speak again, he fished around in his pocket for his phone. Moonlight glinted off the shiny casing. “Don’t move, I’ll stay with you until the ambulance gets here.”
A gruff masculine voice broke the still of the night. “He’s loyal.”
Tony’s heart stopped and then sprinted at full speed. The phone dropped with a clatter but he caught himself with his hand. As pebbles punished his palm he swore under his breath, and then wiped his hand down the length of his slacks. “Who’s there? Where are you?”
The woman captured his hand in hers. “No need for an ambulance. I would appreciate it if you’d take me home, however.”
Tony broke into a sweat, and his hands grew clammier as he turned back to her. “I don’t know if you should move. Can you walk?”
Nearby a car’s engine revved, and the woman struggled onto her elbows and looked about. “Please help me…”
The automobile’s engine roared, but neither the owner of the man’s voice nor the vehicle made an appearance and he frowned as he considered his options. As he hoped he wasn’t doing the wrong thing, he hoisted her into his arms.
A smile curved the woman’s lips. “You’re right. He is strong.”
Catching the fact that she did not address her remark to him, Tony grimaced. “Who are you talking to?”
Another blur dashed out of the shadows, and a white guy dressed in a black T-shirt and boot-cut jeans blocked his way. Half hidden by his straggly brown hair, a knowing grin split the man’s face. “Me.”
The woman curled her arms about Tony’s neck and crooned, “He’ll do quite nicely.”
The man nodded slightly. “I’m not so sure he’d make a good addition.”
Addition? Tony ached to flee, but froze. The woman’s gaze hypnotized him, and every muscle petrified. His feet remained cemented to the pavement. His legs didn’t listen to his command to run.
She shot a venomous glare at the other man. “You wouldn’t like anyone I choose if it’s not you.”
Then the woman parted her lips and pearly white fangs burst from her gums. Before Tony could react, she ripped away his shirt and buried her face against his chest.
Unable to break free, to loose the scream choking his throat, he watched in horror as if floating above the scene. Her fangs sank into his breast, and an exquisite ache filled him as he slumped to his knees, still clutching her to his heart.
Having trouble dealing with the reality of what was happening, Tony reeled. What an intense dream. He couldn’t wake. A titillating sensation tingled in his loins and then the moon spun out of control.
All around, familiar sounds testified to the reality of what was happening: The crash of waves against the nearby shore. The occasional whoosh of a car’s engine. The caw of seagulls. Faraway police sirens.
As if he were putty, the woman pulled him into his car, shoved him down on the backseat and sank her teeth deeper.
Vaguely he was aware that the vampire had stripped him of his slacks, and that she ran a long, spiky fingernail along the length of his penis, that the sound of her breath thundered in his ear.
“Impressive. You’ll do quite nicely,” the woman purred in a silky, if muffled voice even as she suckled his nipple and feasted on him. Not missing a beat, she wrapped her fingers around his cock and stroked.
Both books available at: Ellora's Cave
You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)
Truth, Justice and the Vampire Way
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