I'm thrilled to announce...

 After almost a year of suffering 

through a terrible writer's block...

I have three novels being released within three months. Whoot!  

My Sexy Sensei

Release date:  July 27, 2012.

Lisa Hampton is committed to her career, but a woman in the traditional Japanese martial arts is seldom taken seriously. At least not until one hot and hunky man takes her very seriously. James Rhee runs his own brand of martial arts studio, teaching movie stars who want to shine in their on-screen stunts.

It’s a job Lisa genuinely wants no part of. But she soon finds it’s hard to refuse the maddening man anything…including her body. Before she knows it, she’s let her guard down and sinfully sizzling sex has turned into something she simply can’t fight.

An Excerpt From: MY SEXY SENSEI

Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

I turned, glancing up at the man standing beside my car, who was leaning down to speak to me through the open window. I thought that he was Japanese at first, but from the size of him I decided on second thought that he was more than likely Korean. A closer look at his face as he removed his reflective dark glasses confirmed my second impression. I rolled my window down the rest of the way and said, “Yes?”

I never usually pay more than scant attention to men—it’s safer not to. But I couldn’t help but pay attention to this one. He was tall for an Asian man. Judging by the way he was bending down to talk to me, he stood over six feet tall. I inhaled deeply as I lifted my wide eyes up the long length of that incredibly ripped body and noted the way he had been assessing me as well. My gut clenched as he returned his dark eyes to my face and his smile curved wickedly as if he knew the exact effect he was having on me.

He dropped down onto his haunches beside the car and his eyes were almost level with mine as he said quietly, “I would like to see your letter of recommendation, if you don’t mind.”

I frowned. How had he…? I hadn’t noticed him inside when I had shown it to Hirokawa. So how the hell had he known my name? My wary hesitation made him grin and my thoughts went a trifle haywire. And so did parts lower down my anatomy.

Holy shit! The man was absolutely the most intense, dangerously sensual male I’d ever laid eyes on.

I swallowed the dryness in my throat and fought to control a sudden glandular reaction that I’d never experienced before—total and consuming lust.

Oh, yeah. This man is dangerous.

Come, My Love

Release date:  August 29, 2012

What Fran Jamison and Jack Gerrard have in common could be balanced on the head of a pin. Jack screwed up his chances with the BBW years ago when he allowed his friends to influence his choices. And Fran totally lost her chance with the hot campus jock by openly spurning his attempt to apologize.

Fran has never been to any of the reunions, but now a friend needs her, so this time she hasn’t been able to shimmy out of it. What she doesn’t expect in a million years is to find herself making hot love with Jack Gerrard on the hood of a parked car…on the airport parking ramp!

Jack lost her once. But if she thinks she’s getting away this time, she’s dead wrong. 

An Excerpt From: COME, MY LOVE

Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

To: franjamison@think_tank.com

From: SikorskiK@WIndiU.edu

Hello to all of Gracie’s Girls, class of 2002 Once again, thanks to all of you for the flowers and phone calls after my aunt Gracie’s passing last winter. You all meant so much to her, and to me.

As I’m sure you all know, our ten-year college reunion is coming up this summer. Since I now have Aunt Gracie’s big rambling house all to myself, I’d like to extend an invitation. If any of you are coming back for the reunion, you’re more than welcome to stay here, in your old rooms. Gracie quit taking in college students several years back, so there’s no one here but me and I’d love to have some company while I’m getting the house ready to put on the market. So what do you say? One last time as roommates? It would be great to see all of you again.

Hugs,

Karen

She hadn’t planned to attend, at least not until she’d received Karen’s guilt-inspiring email. Every instinct she possessed screamed at her to hit the delete key and pretend the email hadn’t arrived, but she just couldn’t do that. Karen was having financial problems and might have to sell the historic but dilapidated old Victorian house they had all shared in college.

She shouldn’t feel so gun-shy, but even after all these years it would be hard for her to go back and see all her old pals with the memories of her college years slamming hard into her refurbished self-image. A self-image that had taken her seven long years of analysis and hard work to create.

Fran sighed and rubbed her temples, shoving her reading glasses up onto her sleep-tousled head. She’d received the formal reunion invitation last week but had tossed it without even looking at it. No use reliving the whole college scene just to see how everyone else looked… See how many of her friends had kids… How they had all changed over the ten years since she’d last seen them. She certainly didn’t feel like listening to them telling stories about new babies and favorite pets and how they’d met their husbands.

All the things Fran had excluded from her life in favor of monetary success and “being her own woman”.

Fran was far more realistic now. She refused to kid herself. She had never found the man of her dreams and settled down to raise a family, mainly because it had taken her seven years to get past her own demented mental image of herself. And now that she finally recognized her own worth and had learned to love herself as she was, she was way past the wild need to flaunt her wares and try to trap some unwary male. Besides, most men in her age bracket were already married. Or divorced and on the rebound. Or just looking for a one-night stand. So far, that had never quite appealed, no matter how good looking the man in question happened to be.

Men were not a necessity in life. Besides…she’d royally screwed up, long ago, with the only man she’d ever really wanted any sort of relationship with.

She ran her fingers through her wild curls and pressed her thumbs against the bridge of her nose. Back then she’d been so sure that the tentative advances he’d made were simply another way for the jock community at WIU to have a laugh-fest at her expense. She’d reacted defensively, tearing his ego into tiny strips. And then he’d basically left her alone. Damn…

Only years later, after many long sessions with her uber-patient therapist, had it flashed with astonishing clarity into her mind. Jack Gerrard—her dream man—had actually tried to ask her out on a date. And she had gone off on the man as if he’d just asked her to jump naked into an anthill.

She gave a sigh of resignation. The worst part of it was that she’d always had the most pathetic crush on the man—most girls had crushes on the hot, sexy hero of the WIU gridiron.

Even in high school, Gerrard had always been in the company of cheerleaders and prom queens and the most popular girls. They hung all over him like bees around a honey pot. One look from those riveting blue eyes could make any girl drop her panties with a scream of delight. But Jack had ignored them most of the time, keeping up excellent grades so he could play varsity football. She supposed that was the true attraction.

Sure. There she went, lying to herself again. She’d been hot for his ripped body, just like all the other girls. But it had gone deeper than that with her.

He had offered her some modicum of friendship, and good-looking guys did not want to be pals with Fran Jamison. So when that friendship was withdrawn without explanation or reason, it had torn her up inside.

 Never Tempt Fate

Release date:  
September 26, 2012

There is no such thing as a white knight. Christine Lange thought she’d found one once…not! So what if her world is falling apart and she has nowhere to turn? She’s strong. She can make it on her own without a man. But when one shows up out of the blue, offering her a helping hand, she grabs it. Pride be damned. After all…this time she knows in advance that he’s gay. Why else would a man who looks like that need a temporary wife to satisfy his family?

Tonio needs a wife and the sexy redhead is perfect. She’s attractive and desperate…and since she doesn’t like men there’s no danger of her falling in love with him. But Fate likes to play with those who tempt her by making assumptions, and an agreement to see to each other’s physical needs soon has them scorching the sheets. Christine gives Tonio her body, but it isn’t long before he realizes that what he really wants is her heart. It’s gonna be one hell of an interesting two years.

An Excerpt From: NEVER TEMPT FATE

Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Chris threw her jacket over the back of the chair and kicked off her high heels. She had promised Mrs. Allen that she would vacuum the lobby and polish the first floor paneling after she got off work, and the bus had been terribly late. She tore off her silk blouse and her skirt and dragged on a rather ugly looking old T-shirt and a pair of well worn Levi’s, jamming her bare feet into her ratty old sneakers. She hurried through to the bathroom, dragging her hair up off her neck with her hands as she looked for a scrunchy to secure it with.

She glanced at her watch after securing her flyaway mop, and hoped Mrs. Allen wouldn’t be too upset about her vacuuming after 6:00 p.m. It shouldn’t disturb anyone. Mrs. Abbott was deaf as a post, and Mr. Delayne worked afternoons. They were the only ones who complained all the time. She grabbed the utility room key off the hook by her door and hurried along the hall to the stairs, not wanting to wait for the elevator. It probably wouldn’t work anyway.

She hoped she had made a good impression on Mr. Anderson today. She had worked through her lunch hour to get her office set up. The previous person in the position had left a stack of work that dated back seventeen months. It would take her weeks to get it all sorted out. She was hungry and tired, and she still had to do the cleaning she had promised to do.

She hurried down the steps and through the fire door on the first floor and headed for the utility closet across from the manager’s apartment. She wouldn’t have a spare minute to check the paper for rentals until after eight, and nobody liked to be bothered by phone calls that late. She had tried valiantly to look through the ads on the bus, but standing and hanging onto a damned strap had made it impossible.

As she dragged the ancient Kirby from the closet and plugged it in, she wondered if she might be able to get an actual seat if she left a half-hour earlier in the morning. The trip was pretty lousy standing in the aisle. It was a five block walk to the bus stop, then a thirty minute bus trip on her feet, then another three block walk to the office. Her feet were killing her. Tomorrow she would wear her sneakers and carry her heels in a shopping bag.

She jabbed the switch on the vacuum with her toe, and as the vacuum whirred to life, she quickly and efficiently worked her way along one end of the main hallway, then the other, before heading for the entryway and lobby. She backed around the corner and avoided knocking the antique lamp off the hall table, working her way toward the main entrance.

If she hurried, maybe she would be finished before Mrs. Allen even got home.

* * * *

The car slid to a halt before the steps leading up into the lobby of what must have once been a rather elegant apartment building. As Jose opened the door for him, Tonio stepped out, frowning at the untrimmed shrubbery that half-obliterated the uneven, broken concrete of the sidewalk. The place had been utterly neglected for what appeared to be quite some time. He knew that his father had always insisted on his properties being kept up, but this one had somehow been missed. He glanced at the peeling paint on the wood around the front entryway, and he glanced at his driver. “I won’t be long.”

He climbed the cracked concrete of the front steps, and removed his leather glove to push open the sadly neglected oak and glass doors. The sound of a vacuum cleaner met his ears as he stepped inside and glanced about, and he paused as a woman appeared around the corner from the right hallway, her back to him as she negotiated the turn, jabbing the whirring edge of the Kirby into the corner and under a table.

He noted how quickly she was moving, as if in a hurry, and he wondered if this could be the manager. He glanced at the paper in his hand, and as he lifted his eyes, the darting vacuum attempted to eat the toe of his hand-made Italian shoe! He stared down at the offending machine, irritated that its operator had been so careless. He drew a deep breath as the vacuum was shut off, and a startled voice gasped, “Oh, my God! I am so sorry!”

“No terrible damage done,” he breathed in a well-controlled voice, lifting his eyes up the worn jeans, over a baggy T-shirt to meet a pair of horrified green eyes, and he had to stop himself from laughing aloud. She looked so utterly stricken he found it difficult not to smile. He inhaled slowly, noting the smudge of dirt across her nose, and the way her mouth had dropped open wordlessly as she stared up into his face.

He lifted one brow and asked quietly, “Mrs. Allen?”

Check out my website for pre-release giveaways and other treats! This is so exciting for me! 

In the meantime, if you are planning to attend Romanticon in October, you will find my special print edition of Broken Rules available during the book signing October 14th. This book, which includes my short novels Her Own Set of Rules and Double Your Pleasure, will ONLY be available at the book signing until it formally is released in December. 

So I hope to see you there!  Tell me you read my blog for a special gift....

Hugs!

Fran Lee
http://www.franleeromance.com