Friday, November 21, 2014

The Lords of Avalon Series is completed. Lords of Atonement, the final installment, was released in September.
Currently, I am working on a Contemporary Paranormal Romance Series. Book 1 of The Decker Brothers Trilogy, It's in the Cards, while I am researching the next series in the continuing adventures of the Avalon Society, The Avalon Society Chronicles.
I hope to release It's in the Cards by late spring of 2015, and Book 1 of the Avalon Society Chronicles in late 2015.
 

Excerpt from Book 1 of the Decker Brothers Trilogy,

It's in the Cards


 
“Here comes Hot Cop and two equally hot men!” Harper sidled up to Jade at the counter, flashing her a broad grin.
“Really?” Jade looked up. She was instantly aware of the tingles of excitement she felt when she saw him. It frightened her, but made her happy at the same time.
“Oh, yes! He’s not a cop today, just filling out a pair of khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt ever so fine. The other two guys aren’t bad either, in fact, they’re pretty hot too.”
Jade rolled her eyes at Harper. The copper bells tinkled as the door opened.
She watched a tall, lean man with golden brown, shoulder-length hair breeze in. He wore an easy, relaxed smile. Decker, holding a cup in each hand, followed him. Trailing behind them was the tallest of the three. He was fit and well muscled. She noticed he limped, and wore jeans unlike his brothers who were dressed in shorts. His black hair was short and mussed, looking like he had just run a hand through it. They all had blue eyes, strong, angular facial features, square jaws, and they all favored one another.
“Are you brothers?” Jade smiled.
“Yeah. These are my brothers,” Decker said with a smile as he approached the counter. “Jade, this is Liam,” he gestured to the taller, more serious one, “and Brody. I picked up a green tea for you next door.”
Jade smiled as she accepted the tea and napkin from him. Their fingers brushed as she took it from him. She felt a jolt of energy – good energy. She turned to his brothers. “Hello Liam, Brody. It’s nice to meet you.”
“So, ah, my brother says you work here.” Brody gave her a lopsided grin.
“And she’s one of the owners,” Decker supplied, earning a smile from Jade.
“It’s an awesome place,” Brody said as he looked around.
“There is some great energy in here,” Liam said as he limped toward the bookshelves.
“Thanks. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished so far,” Jade said.
“Go look around.” As Brody still stood behind him, Decker turned to give him a meaningful look.
“Oh.” Brody shrugged. “Sure,” he said as he walked off smiling.
“Thanks for the tea, Decker.”
“You’re welcome. I made the mistake of telling Liam that I met a nice, beautiful woman yesterday. I mentioned that we met at Connor’s and that you worked here. Liam told Brody this morning when he dropped in for breakfast. If I didn’t come with them, they would have come without me. I’d rather be here so they don’t cause you, or me, too much embarrassment. So the tea is a peace offering in advance.” He flashed her that gorgeous smile.
Jade blushed.
“No blushing, Jade,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“I’m not embarrassed, I’m flattered.” She was. He said she was beautiful and nice. It had been a long time since a man had complimented her that way. She realized it felt good to know a man that she was seriously attracted to thought she was beautiful. She shrugged and gave him a smile. She took a sip of her tea.
She noticed Harper was talking to his brother, Brody, about the Kirlian camera that they used for their aura photos.
“Would you like to sit where it’s comfortable,” Jade gestured to the sitting area as she moved around the counter.
He followed her to the plush sofas and chairs near the rows of bookshelves. He chose to sit beside her, so maybe they could have something of a semi-private conversation.
“You don’t have any reading appointments today? It seems quiet in here.”
“It is exceptionally quiet for a Saturday. I had two appointments scheduled this morning. They cancelled,” she shrugged. “It happens sometimes.”
“That’s too bad.”
“No, I think it’s a good thing today. You’ve come by, and it gives us a chance to talk.”
“Well, I’m sorry your clients didn’t show up, but I am glad we can hang out. You want to give me that reading we talked about yesterday?”
“Sure, come on back.”
Decker rose and looked to Liam, “I’m getting a reading. You guys okay to hang out for awhile?”
“Yeah, sure,” Liam said with a wide grin as he made his way to the sitting area with several books. Decker saw Brody grinning like an idiot at him too. Brothers!
 
“Is there anything in particular you want to know, or do you just want a general reading?” Jade asked after they sat down at her table.
“Just general is fine. Are you intuitive?”
“Yes, I am a medium.”
“Great, that’s even better.” Decker gave her an easy smile.
He watched Jade shuffle her cards to clear them. She handed him the deck. Decker shuffled until they felt right then handed them back to her.
He watched her cut the deck in three stacks then pick up them up. She laid the cards out in the Celtic cross pattern.
He grinned when he saw the first two cards, the King of Cups, or Hearts, crossed by the Queen of Cups.
Jade was a little disappointed with the feeling she got from the King and Queen of Cups. Cups didn’t always signify a romantic relationship, but in this case, she knew it did. She could feel it. They were definitely about romance. Hot Cop had a Queen of Cups somewhere. Darn it! The good ones were always taken it seemed.
“It appears this is about a relationship.”
“I’m not in a relationship…yet.” He shook his head.
She pulled two cards to clarify. The page of cups and the two of swords. “You’re definitely thinking about it. There is someone in particular, in the picture…but you hesitate for some reason, or there is something keeping you from her.”
“I am thinking of pursuing a relationship with a particular someone, but I don’t know how she feels about me. I don’t really know her that well.”
Lucky girl! Whoever she was, she’d be an idiot to say no to him.
Jade drew the ace of swords as he was speaking. Action. She could feel energy dance across her back and shoulders.
“This card is about taking action. The feeling I’m getting, is that you should definitely let her know you’re interested.” She pulled the moon card. “Yeah, she doesn’t know you are interested in her that way.”
“She doesn’t?” he asked. “Huh.” He paused after several seconds of what appeared to be deep thought. He nodded.
God his eyes were beautiful. Brilliant, striking blue.
“Like I said, I don’t know her well. I’m a boring, old-fashioned, monogamous relationship kind of guy. I only date when I’m interested in having a relationship with someone. I take things very slowly. I’ve learned from past-relationships not to rush in.”
“I agree with you there. Rushing isn’t the best way. But maybe just let her know you like her.” Oh, she had the rottenest luck. She hadn’t been interested in a man like this since she had recovered from Austin’s death. If she were ever going to enter into a relationship again, it would definitely be with an old-fashioned, monogamous relationship kind of guy, and even better if he looked like Decker. Apparently, Decker was interested in someone else.
“Just tell her I like her?” He narrowed those gorgeous eyes.
Jade nodded. “Or show her.”
“Like bringing her favorite beverage to her while she’s at work?” He grinned at her. He guessed it was probably a goofy grin too. Surely, she would get it this time.
Jade was dumbstruck. Was he…? She didn’t know. She would play it safe.
Ah, she faltered just a little there. He was still grinning at her.
“Sure, I thought it was really sweet that you brought me an iced tea today.”
“Good.” He studied her for several long seconds. “Okay, I’m going to step out of my comfort zone and take your advice, because like you told me, this girl may not have any idea I’m interested in her. I normally take things slower than this, but…” he held up his hands. “I’m determined to make sure she knows how I feel.”
He continued to watch her intently.
Jade lifted a brow. “And? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to tell her I like her. That I’m interested in her.”
“Good.” Jade forced a smile. Darn it. He did have his eye on another woman. It wasn’t her.  
“Yeah, I’m going to do it.” He reached across the round table and took her hand as he said, “I like you Jade Murphy. I’m interested.”
She sat in stunned silence for a few seconds then smiled at him. “You’re not teasing me are you?”
“No, I wouldn’t tease about something like that. I like you. I’m interested in you. Will you go out with me?” He caressed her fingers lightly with the pad of his thumb.
“Yes,” she breathed a sigh of relief. “I would like to go out with you, Decker.” She squeezed his hand and smiled.
“Good. We’re on the same page.”
She laughed. “We are.”
He reached over, gathered up the cards, and placed them in a stack. “You can’t finish the reading since it’s about you too.”
“You read Tarot?”
“Not as good as you can, I’m sure. My mother read cards. She taught me a long time ago. I haven’t picked up a deck in years, though.”
“That’s so awesome.” Jade grinned happily. A gorgeous, sweet, old-fashioned kind of guy who understood what she did and wasn’t freaked out by it. It couldn’t get any better than this!
 

 

 
 

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Excerpt from Lords of Atonement,

to be released Summer 2014

Coming Soon!


 
“Sorry,” she managed to utter before making the next stitch.
“It was nothing, El.” He bent his head and whispered into her ear. “Just put your stitches in. Get it done. You’re killing me, here. I have never professed to be a saint. Your nearness… it affects me,” he said in a husky whisper. He couldn’t resist pressing a soft kiss against the shell of her ear.
“Is that all you think about?” she asked in irritation.
“With you, El, yes. Only you. When I am this close to you, and almost bloody naked, yes! I dream about it. I’ve told you before, El. You do things to me. Like no other woman ever has. I’m mad with it. Mad for you. I’m not stopping until you give in.”
She tried to be irritated by his words, yet, hearing that he dreamed about her did something to her. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t wondered what it would be like to lay with him. 
He saw the heat mirrored in her gorgeous witchy blue eyes when she looked up, met his gaze. She wanted him! Just as much as he did her. Triumph, at last.
“So, if you can’t sleep at night, El, you can come next door, to my chamber. I’ll tell you - show you - what you do to me,” he whispered again.
She averted her gaze. She couldn’t look at him any longer. She was afraid she’d see something in his eyes, something that would convince her she should go to him in the midnight hours. There could never be anything between them. She was a healer and meant to stay in Cornwall. That was that.
When next she raised her eyes to him, the heat was gone. That stubborn determination was back. She was so prickly.
When she finished applying the poultice to his side and turned to clean up in the washbasin, he asked her, “Am I free to go?”
“No. The poultice needs to stay on the wound for a bit. It will prevent infection. You should lie down.”
“How long?”
“A half hour. It would work even better if it were on for an hour. I wish you would consider it.”
He nodded. “Can you help me into my shirt? I’ll go lie down in my chamber. You can remove it in an hour.”
It was Elowen’s turn to smile triumphantly. “Good. I will. I wasn’t expecting that you would do it.”
“I wouldn’t, if it wasn’t that you asked me. I’m going out on a limb and trying to prove that you mean something to me, El. That I will do as you ask, bend to you.” He allowed her to help him into his shirt, which he left untucked. He decided he didn’t need his waistcoat or coat, so he set them on the table.
He looked at the cravat in his hand and grinned. He threw it over her head and around her shoulders, pulling her close against him with two hands full of silk.
“Oomph!” Elowen exhaled as she bumped up against his hard body. Everything was hard – everything! It made her dizzy and warm to be so close, to feel his heat and the male hardness of him.
He wound his arms about her, letting the cravat fall to the floor.
“I just want to give my nurse proper thanks.”
To her surprise, he gave her a sweet, gentle kiss. He drew it out a little, nipped and tugged at her lips, then smiled down at her. One hand remained beneath her chin.
“Thank you, Elowen. Will you promise me you will be more careful in the future? And think before you take action?”
Elowen sighed in humbled defeat, “Yes.”
“Don’t look so glum, my witch. Sometimes the most power comes to us when we give up control.” He grinned down at her. He stepped back.
“Come, I’ll walk you to the kitchen then upstairs.”
“I thought you were going to lie down?” She arched a finely etched raven brow at him.
“I will. Once I know you are safe in your chamber.”
Elowen didn’t like it that he would escort her, but she consented with a nod.
 
She felt uncomfortable going into his bedchamber to check on his poultice, but he was a perfect gentleman. He instructed her to leave the door open while she tended him. Aside from a whispered joke or two, he hadn’t mentioned much about what lay between them. This thing. This pull. This…attraction. Yes, she had to admit, she was attracted to the man like a moth to flame.
 


Sunday, January 19, 2014

Prologue from Book 1 of the Darkes of Penzance series 

by K. R. Richards 

Penzance, Cornwall 1845
Every other Thursday for the past three years Captain Jonas Darke took a phaeton from his fine gentleman’s residence, Trevena House, just outside Penzance, into the town proper to number four Regent Square. He called upon the young widow, Mrs. Loveday there. On a fine day, the couple would walk along Chapel Street, maybe even the Promenade. They might pause for an ice or stop in at the Book Sellers. Afterward, they would return to Regent Square where Captain Darke, now eight years maimed and able to walk only with the use of a cane would take tea or an early supper with the widow then take his leave and return alone to Trevena House.
On a cold, bleak, winter’s day, such as this, the residents of Penzance were left to wonder what the widow and the Captain did with their afternoons. Mrs. Loveday, a widow for four years past, in her younger years was considered quite the loveliest young woman in Penzance, with dark blue eyes the color of the Cornish sea during a storm, dark brown hair and fair, unblemished skin. When she came out, she was rumored to have been called a diamond of the first water her first months in London, before her father arranged her marriage to Henry Loveday.
Captain Darke, considered quite a catch in his day, was still quite handsome with dark hair, eyes, and a fit figure, excepting for his crushed leg. Though still involved with shipping and ship building as all the Darkes were, his days as a daring sea Captain and rake about London were long behind him. In truth, he was now more of a recluse.   
One rarely saw Captain Darke in Penzance proper, unless it was to see him enter the offices of Darke, Darke & Co or on a Thursday with the young widow on his arm. The same could be said for the widow, Louisa Loveday, although she did visit the unfortunate women at the almshouse weekly and attended services at the church. She shopped at the market occasionally, but mostly her butler or cook performed such tasks.
There were whispers that residents of Regent Square were more attentive to the goings on in the Square every other Thursday. Some even made a point to stay home on those days and tended to remain near the front windows so they might have a good view of the street and number four. None could ever say they saw anything untoward taking place in the front parlour of Mrs. Loveday’s house. Occasionally, there was a glimpse of the misfit couple sitting across the small tea table from one another. Those Regent Square residents with very sharp sight might see the widow passing the Captain a cup of tea.
He was a man cut down in his prime, after all, who had no prospects of marriage after the horrible accident that left him crippled. He was no doubt lonely living in his grand and spacious gentleman’s residence outside of town. His elegant home offered lush gardens and land, but no companionship save that of his Uncle, Aunt, and cousins when they visited.
Poor Louisa Loveday, widowed as practically a new bride, was married just a few years really. Loveday left her childless, with only a small, yet neat and fashionable house on Regent Square. It was rumored Mr. Loveday left very little money behind, scarcely enough to pay for a cook, butler and allow much for her to live on. There had been many whispers, even before his death, that Henry Loveday, handsome though he was, was a gamester and womanizer.
So on this cold and dreary morning, Mr. and Mrs. Leake in number three Regent Square, and the Misses Symonds in number five were not paying particular attention when the Captain’s carriage, not his phaeton as was the custom, rolled into the square. However, once they realized it was the Captain indeed arriving at number four, they were instantly attentive. Other neighbors took note as well.
It was exactly two hours earlier than his normal arrival time, which gave the Misses Symonds some cause for concern. True, it was a windy, drizzly day and the Captain did sometimes arrive in a carriage when the weather was foul, but it was not the Captain’s habit to call during the morning hours.
The inhabitants of Regent Square thought the deviation from the normal quite odd. That he was in a carriage, not a phaeton was one thing, but it was another thing entirely that Captain Darke was indisputably early.  
The suspense increased when he did not step down, but sent his footman to the door in his stead. Those who were at home on this particular Thursday morning, were now at their parlour windows, eagerly watching this extraordinary event unfold.
The growing number of residents congregating at the front windows about Regent Square were left open-mouthed when she, Louisa Loveday, exited number four in a slate blue gown. More than one lady remarked that the young widow wore only dark somber colors. Even more shocking, the Captain’s footman stepped into the foyer of number four and brought a small trunk with him, placing it into the boot of Captain Darke’s carriage.
What was this? What could this mean? The buzzing of excited voices could nearly be heard travelling aloft from house to house throughout the Square.
As the fine carriage left the terraced houses of Regent Square behind and turned onto Abbey Street, heading toward Chapel Street, practically all of the residents had witnessed the widow and the Captain sitting side by side in the carriage, not across from one another as they usually did.
The inhabitants rushed into their narrow front gardens and excitedly speculated amongst themselves what it all could mean.
By the time they took their evening meals in the small but fashionable dining rooms in Regent Square, all of Penzance Society knew that Captain Darke and Mrs. Loveday had stopped by the church and exchanged their vows. It was reported that a quarter of an hour after the ceremony concluded, Captain Darke’s carriage took them to the gloriously modern and fashionable residence, Trevena House, atop the bluff outside of town.
Many remarked the next day that the conversation at every table in Penzance that evening was of Captain and Mrs. Darke.  
Penzance was abuzz. There hadn’t been such excitement in the town since Melissa Emonds eloped with Jory Davis five years before; excepting of course when the Davis’s babe was born a mere seven months later. (Calendars were duly marked in the event the new Mrs. Darke should have a child soon.)
The Captain and the Widow must have been in love! Perhaps all this time he was romancing her. It could be they were so lonely, they simply married for company, to ease the boredom of their dark and dreary days that stretched endlessly before them? Neither one had any other prospects really.
The ladies tended to romanticize everything while the gentlemen might remark to one another in the public houses or one of the clubs in the evening that the Captain was a man, maimed leg or no, and the widow had always been, and still was, quite handsome with a fine figure.
Yet, as the days passed, the ladies and even the gentlemen in Penzance wondered what really happened between Captain Jonas Darke and Mrs. Louisa Loveday. No one knew exactly what it was that brought the couple together. Wouldn’t it be just dreadful if they never knew the reason? Well, they certainly couldn’t allow that happen. 
Book 1 of the Darkes of Penzance series will be released late 2014.  
Lords of Atonement, the final installment of the Lords of Avalon series will be released in Summer 2014!