She Writes With Love

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” — Moulin Rouge!

Day Four:  When Empires Fall

Welcome to the final day of Romancing the Book! Hasn’t all this romance been wonderful? 🙂

Today I want to showcase the three relationships within my latest novel, When Empires Fall. It’s a book filled with murder, deception, passion, and lots of drama, therefore the romances within had to be just as dramatic. When Empires Fall tells the story of the Vasser Hotel family, notably three late-twenties aged siblings who run the Vasser Hotel in New York City. Workaholic Grant, charming playboy Linc, and vindictive Madison are the stars, and each has their own story to tell…

Grant Vasser is the oldest brother and the general manager of the hotel. He’s prickly, serious, unemotional and ambitious, and he makes no secret of his dedication to his family and to the hotel. He reveres tradition, fears change, and prefers being alone most of the time. It is a wish his siblings gladly granted him, but when he acquires a new secretary, she’s not as easily pushed aside.

Enter Quinn Taylor:  bubbly, cheerful, talkative, sarcastic, and clever. She takes an immediate dislike to her seriously rude boss, but does her best to look past his faults to see the person he truly is inside. It is this curiosity that brings her closer to him than any person has ever gotten. He opens up to her, and she falls hard for him. Now if only she could make him realize he loves her too… 😉

Linc Vasser is the younger brother and in charge of marketing for the hotel. He is a vibrant, fun-loving guy with a penchant for all things dangerous, adventurous, and impulsive. Passionate and stubborn, giving and carefree, Linc lives life to the fullest and holds no grudges. Except against his own brother, but you’ll have to read the book to find out why that is.

When Lynette Shaw enters the picture, daughter of the well-respected Senator Shaw of South Carolina and a ballerina in the New York Ballet, Linc can’t help but flirt with her. Loving women is something he’s never been ashamed of, but there is something about her quiet Southern charm and polite resistance to his advances that has him pursue her even harder. She won’t give in until he removes his charismatic mask, revealing his true beliefs, convictions, and desires, but once he does she will have a very hard time resisting him. After all, he can be very convincing!

Madison Vasser is the younger sister of Grant and Linc, and she is, without a doubt, my favorite character in the book. She runs the restaurants of the hotel, and is a very strong, capable woman that still manages to embrace her sexuality while trampling weaker beings with her blood red stiletto heel. She’s intense, vindictive, courageous and bold, and ready and willing to take on the world to protect the one thing she loves most:  her family. So when a man from her past enters her life once again, it will take every last ounce of control she can muster to steer clear of him, for her own safety.

His name is Wyatt Bailey, and he might as well have danger written boldly across his forehead. He’s a gambling man with a dark past, a love for seedy bars in worn out places where the dice rolls and money changes hands as easily as the women do. He knows Madison from many a year ago, when they both called Las Vegas their home.

When he comes back into her life unexpectedly, she immediately wants nothing more than to kill him. Revenge would be sweet, but death is almost too good for the bastard. He has other plans, many of them including her, and forces his way back into her arms and eventually back into her bed, knowing he can never leave her side again. She’s always been it for him, even though they were torn apart all those years ago. Now he just needs to make her see that she still loves him too.

“Oh.” She bit her lip as he leaned toward her, his mouth brushing over her cheek, then hovering just over her ear.

“Does it worry you to know that I want you?” He asked softly, his free hand cupping her elbow gently, his other still touching her neck.

“It floors me…Grant.”

“Maybe I should stop wasting time and just ask you.”

“Ask me what?” She trembled once against him, her eyes widening.

He smiled coyly, making her heart pound in her chest.  “Do you love me like I love you, Lynette?  Or are you just playing with this fool’s heart of mine?”

“Like I said, I can never believe a word that comes out of that pretty little mouth of yours.” With a movement that was both swift and possessive, Wyatt pulled her in and crushed her mouth with his, his hands gripping her coat to keep her close until he could feel her giving in, loosening up, letting go.

“Damn you,” she gasped, her lips hard on his while her teeth nipped and her heart ached.  “I hate you.”

“I know.”

Thank you for joining me this Valentine’s Day to celebrate love! If you’re interested in learning more about When Empires Fall, you can download a sample or purchase it on Amazon!