Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Release Day! Sins of the Heart and Excerpt


SINS OF THE HEART
Award-winning Historical Adventure Romance
by
Delle Jacobs

5 Ribbons! Romance Junkies
Samhain Publishing ~~ ISBN: 978-1-60504-035-6
Available in electronic and trade paperback editions

Find out more about this and other Delle Jacobs books at
http://dellejacobs.com

FABULOUS CONTEST!
The Most Beautiful Place on Earth!
Share your most beautiful place with photos or comments and win a fantastic prize basket of goodies from my most beautiful place on earth- Hawaii
http://dellejacobs.blogspot.com


*****

The Cornish Coast at sunrise: Two ladies, one spyglass- Two naked men dashing into the surf. One, icy-eyed Lord Edenstorm, is the man Lady Juliette hoped would never find her.

She has what he wants- the names of the gold-smuggling traitors. He doesn't know if she tells him, she dies. If she doesn't tell, she dies. If she pretends to give him what he wants, she just might stay alive.

But what happens if deception gives way to love? Is it possible to forgive the Sins of the Heart?





EXCERPT 1
The sea was yellow gold as the sun dropped toward the horizon, a quiet plane of precious metal that melted into silvered sand, and as far as the eye could see, changed from gilded sea to brilliant amber sky. All the world was silver and gold.
The horses paced across the wet sand, their steps muffled, disturbing the metallic sheen that settled back to serenity in the little rounded puddles they left behind. Only the quiet huffing of the horses’ breath and the faint screech of gulls far out from the shore broke the silence.
She had long ago loosened her bonnet and let it fall behind her, to feel the delicate breeze in her hair as they rode. Beside her rode the man with silver eyes and golden hair, his face dark in the shadow, as silent as the quiet water. It had been his idea to ride along the shore, taking advantage of the long beach created when the tide ebbed. But low tide was a curious thing that made one believe in the forever of an instant. She had come along, appeasing him because…Was it because she must keep him occupied, to keep him from making discoveries about the people she loved?
Oddly, though. She had come to expect, almost to want his companionship. Never knowing when he would turn the quiet of the moment into some strange demand that ruined all that was beautiful. Or if he would not. Perhaps today was one of those times when he would remain silent, or trade the silence for small, beautiful words.
He was, in so many ways, a strange man. He did not court her. But he shared beautiful things with her, often in silence, as if he accepted or believed they saw them the same way. She wondered if they did. Did he see and feel the colors with the sort of passion that invaded her?
They reached the headland that separated this beach from the next, and he pulled ahead. Here, their ride must come to an end.
“Don’t go there,” she said, and reached for the bridle on his bay.
“Is that a cave?” His head inclined in the direction of the sharply jagged cove tucked between two cliffs.
“It’s called Colliver’s Cove. They say it was used by Robert Colliver, but they also say Robert Colliver left Looe in his youth and never returned. Both could not be true. They also tell tales of men who drowned because a high sea came up and caught them inside. When the tide comes in, the cavern floods.”
Edenstorm leaned forward in his saddle. He planted a fist on his hip and narrowed his eyes as he studied the small, dark opening that marked the top of the cave.
“Don’t go in there,” she said again. “There are many ways to be killed on the Cornish Coast. That is one of them.”
His ghostly silver eyes studied her for a moment, then he dismounted. He held his hands up to her and she slid down, his hands catching around her waist. They turned back to the beach they had just left.
He stopped, scanning the distant horizon where the sun dropped lower in the sky and began to tinge the gold with pink.
“If you painted, how would you paint this?”
“Rapidly. Soon the sun will go down and we will never see it quite this way again.” She swept her hand in an arc along the horizon. “It is not simply golden, anywhere. It is only the way the many colors work together that makes it so.” She pointed to a distant promontory. “Look over there. Even the rock in the distance is bathed in gold, yet none of it is truly the color it seems.”
He stood there, his eyes intense and hazy, darkening to smoky pewter. She was aware of the scent that was his, so close and mingling with the salt of the sea and flesh of horse, with leather and brawn.
“I could never paint,” he said, his voice as soft as fine doeskin. “But I could never forget this. If I could paint, I'd paint you, bathed in gold, just as you are right now. The color of your hair gleams like tiny strands of golden light.”
He took one of her curls into his fingers, then slipped a hand into her hair. A tangle of longing twisted and turned in his eyes. “I’d want to capture the light shining in your hair and playing across your face, the softness of your lips.”
“How do you know they’re soft?” she whispered.
“I just do.” The pad of his thumb crossed over her lower lip. “Yes, soft.”
She gasped as his lips touched hers, but not from fear or outrage, but because she had not known her own longing. Had not known the feel of his arms circling her and pulling her close to his body where she could feel all his firmness as if she flowed into it, his kiss deepening and stroking in ways that set her afire inside. Her heart raced with the pounding of an unexplainable wildness within her, the heat she had not understood that had been building from the moment she had first seen him on the beach.

11 comments:

  1. My most beautiful place is any beach with my husband. I would love to go to Hawaii, but have not so far.

    Congrats on you print release.

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  2. Very nice cover! Congrats on the release!

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  3. I forgot to say the most beautiful place--and its hard to mention just one, so I have to mention two :)

    One--the reef my husband and I snorkled in when we visited St. Lucia.

    Two--the top of Brandon Mountain in Ireland. It is really more like a tall hill. It sits on the Dingle Peninsula, and is just the most gorgeous view of the lands.

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  4. Congrats on the release, Delle! LOVE that cover!!

    For me, nothing can top London!! As much as I loved the beaches in Mexico and Majorca, etc...the heat and sand override the beauty for me. But London...from the architecture to the breathtaking gardens...I just can't ever get enough!

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  5. The beach at Anna Maria Island on a sunny early June day; umbrella, book, wine, the lulling rhythm of the waves, the bath-warm water. Sand so white it seems like snow. No phone calls, no 'to do' list. School is out for teachers, too! Kathryn Struck

    I want to buy your book, and will!

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  6. What great stuff here! I have some pictures I'll post that match with your comments on Tuesday, so check back then! (Yes, I did find Anna Maria Island, St. Lucia, London and even Brandon Mountain!)

    And thanks for the good thoughts. Sure, Kathryn, I'd love for you to buy my book. Hope you love to read it too.

    Delle

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  7. Hi Delle! It is hard to pick just one beautiful spot! I have some phots of Madiera Spain, and some from my River Rhine cruise, plus San Cabos Lucas. How do we send you photos?

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  8. Oh Duh to me- I forgot to say: Congratulations on the release!

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  9. Posted by Delle for Danielle Thorne

    Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures, Delle, and for the petition which I signed. My favorite place in the whole world is Yellowstone National Park--there is a variety of beauty there like no other place--as if the Earth in that area is alive and breathing all around you. I once had the opportunity to go snowmobiling in the Park before it became overcrowded and they had to make some restrictions. White snowfall billowing over those sea blue geysers. The buffalo milling around with frozen Santa beards--I'll never forget that as long as I live. What a great contest. I'll have to post a photo later in the month.

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  10. Oh, Martha! What shall we do with you? Are you as bad as I am, with too many wonders in the world to see? Yea! Send us one of each!

    The email address is above: delle@dellejacobs.com

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  11. Great excerpt, Delle! And what a lovely cover. I can't wait to read more. I have a thing for beaches, too.
    Congratulations on Release day!

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