I’m just popping in with a quick and dirty update.

I have a release date for Seduction Game (I-Team #7). The ebook version will be out on Oct. 20. That’s only four and a half months away. (This is an update with the correct date. I initially got the wrong one from NY.)

My editor loved the story. She made no changes it, but sent it straight off to copy editing. Berkley is releasing the ebook version separately so my readers won’t have to wait so long.

The print edition won’t be out until June 2016 unless a slot opens up earlier, in which case it could be released earlier. I don’t know when the audiobook will be released. I hope to have that information for you soon.

I also have the back cover copy for the book. I thought you might want to see it. How about a little tease?

CIA Officer Nick Andris wants revenge. His last mission failed after a Georgian arms smuggler killed his lover. He’s been tailing a woman for three weeks hoping she will lead him to his target. But there’s a problem with the intel. Holly Elise Bradshaw is nothing more than an entertainment writer with a love for sex and designer clothes. Clearly someone at Langley made a mistake . . .

When Holly finds herself in trouble, the only weapons at her disposal are her brains and her body. But they won’t be enough to handle the man who’s following her. He’s going to turn her world upside-down.


Oh, yes, he is. And, believe me, she returns the favor as only Holly can.

Mark your calendars. Oct. 20 is going to be a very special day for me. It marks my return from a place I never wanted to go. I can’t wait to share this story with you!

Also, watch for a new I-Team After Hours novella on June 23. I’m working on it right now. The hero of the story is Jack West, widower, rancher and former Army Ranger. You met him in Skin Deep and saw a little of him in Striking Distance. He owns the Cimarron Ranch in the mountains west of Denver and is Nate West’s father. He gets a second chance at love when Janet Killeen, the FBI agent he threw off his land in Striking Distance and who was badly wounded later in that story, ends up in a ditch near the ranch during a blizzard.

I don’t have a title yet, but I will soon. This story marks the first time I’ve written about an older couple. Janet is 45, and Jack is 63 (but a fully functional 63). All of my heroes and heroines have been in their late 20s or 30s. I don’t believe romance ends at 40 or 50 or even 60 or 70. I know a lot of romance readers feel that way, too. And Jack is one of a kind—gruff, physically fit, a cowboy with a romantic streak.

Stay tuned for excerpts and more news!

© Mjth | Dreamstime.com

I don’t have a cover. I don’t have an official title, though I’m willing to mud wrestle my publisher to keep this one. I don’t even have a publication date.

But what I do have is a completed manuscript for Holly and Nick’s story. I sent it to my publisher on Sunday night and am very happy with how the story turned out.

Celebration!

© Atustudio | Dreamstime.com

What do I love about this story? There are so many things!

It’s sexy. It has to be sexy, right? It is Horny Holly’s story, after all. In Nick Andris, she finds a man who matches her libido, but has a very different view of love and sex.

It’s lighter than most of the other I-Team novels. After the past year, I needed some humor and fun in my life, and Holly and Nick brought that, making me laugh almost every day.

It’s poignant. Holly and Nick have had their share of personal tragedies, and with each other they find their way forward to a love they never thought they could have.

It’s exciting. A CIA officer. Terrorists. Holly and Nick...

It has a tear-jerker ending and epilogue. Well, I wrote it, right? And I love tears at the end of a story. Not giving anything away here.

As soon as I have the publication date, I will announce it. We’ll have a big cover reveal, too.

For now, I’m taking a week to clean my house and take care of other things that were neglected during the months that I was writing this story.

Next week, I’ll be starting an I-Team After Hours novella that will be released prior to Seduction Game. It will tell the story of Jack West, the decorated former Army Ranger and father of Nate West, the hero of Skin Deep. Jack owns the Cimarron Ranch, where he runs cattle and breeds horses. A widower, he has put his heart into the ranch and into Nate and his family. The last thing he expects is to fall in love again. But that’s what happens after he finds former FBI agent Janet Killeen off the road near his property in the middle of a Rocky Mountain blizzard.

Jack and Janet have met before. The last time Janet saw him, he was about to kick her off his property. (That scene is in Striking Distance.) Recovering from a gunshot wound she sustained while on a protection detail for journalist Laura Nilsson, Janet has no patience for Jack. But she also doesn’t want to freeze to death in her car.

The chance meeting is a new beginning for them both. For Jack, it’s a second chance at true love. For Janet, it’s the beginning of a new life.

I hope to have Jack and Janet’s story to you by mid-June. It’s my way of giving you some I-Team to chew on before Holly and Nick’s store comes out. I know it’s been a long time since I’ve had a book out. Stay tuned for more information!

When the novella is done, I will be throwing myself into a new contemporary romance series set in the mountains involving members of a mountain rescue team — men and women who are rock climbers, mountaineers, paramedics, wildland fire fighters, and pilots who save lives by rescuing people from life-threatening situations in the mountains or battling the dangers of the mountains. Here are some events from real life that have involved mountain rescue teams: avalanche rescue, people falling while climbing, lost hikers, people who break bones while hiking, people falling down mine shafts, dumb frat boys dragging a keg to the top of one of the Flatirons and then being too drunk to get down (this falls into my favorite category — “Stuck on a rock”); heart attacks or sudden illness on remote mountain trails; and so on.

My own life was saved by a mountain ranger in 1994 after I fell 40 feet climbing. Because of my experience and the fact that I was raised in a mountain climbing family, this is going to be a fun series for me to write. It won’t be romantic suspense, but there will be plenty of excitement and perhaps even some crossover with the I-Team series in the form of Gabe Rossiter and the West family from the Cimarron Ranch. It’s a Colorado mountain series written by someone who grew up in the Colorado mountains.

I hope you’re as excited as I am for all of this!

Thanks for your continued support. I saw a plastic surgeon yesterday and am bolstered by what he said. We’re planning to start the series of surgeries for my reconstruction in September.

Life is slowly returning to normal. After facing cancer, what could be more wonderful than that?

If you’ve read this far, it’s time for an EXCERT! This is from Chapter 10 of Seduction Game.


Holly and Nick enjoy supper outside on her back deck on a summer evening...

“I have a surprise for you.” She scooted her chair away from the table, lifted her dress high up her thighs to reveal the garters, and then did The Leg Cross.

He gave a long, slow exhale, his brow furrowing when he saw that she wasn’t wearing panties. “Please tell me that’s dessert.”

“You’re still hungry?” She stood, picked up her wine glass, and walked slowly toward the door, leaving the plates and silverware for later.

A strong arm shot out, caught her around the waist and drew her back. “Where do you think you’re going?”

She lowered her voice. “Somewhere the neighbors and CIS guys won’t see us.”

He took the wine glass from her hand and set it on the table. “I am the neighbors. Fuck the CIS guys.”

He drew her into his lap so that they sat face to face, her legs straddling him, then drew down his zipper and freed his erect cock from his boxers. “I want you now.”

A shiver ran through her.

“But people—”

“People will be jealous.” He grinned. “Just try not to give us away.”

He reached down with one hand to tease her inner thighs with light brushes of his finger tips that made her skin tingle.

She felt herself grow wet, already wanting him inside her. She took his cock in hand and began to stroke him, felt his hips jerk, heard his breath catch.

But his gaze never wavered.

He caught her clit between his fingers, gave it a little tug, then explored her fully, the tip of one finger making delicious circles over the opening to her vagina before sliding inside her.

“See, that right there is what’s going to give us away, honey. Don’t let your head fall back all sexy like that. Keep your eyes open. Look at me. We’re just having a conversation here.”

And what a conversation.

His fingers caressed her deep inside, taking their time, asking her if she wanted more. Her body answered yes.

He withdrew his fingers and began to tease her clit with his thumb, asking it to join in the game. It swelled beneath his touch—another yes.

Oh, God, she was melting, coming to pieces in his lap, the gliding pressure of his thumb making the ache inside her worse.

He reached into his pocket with his free hand, drew out a condom and handed it to her. She opened it, rolled it over his erection, while his hands reached beneath her dress to grasp her buttocks. When the condom was in place, he shifted in his seat, took his cock in hand, and guided himself inside her.

She couldn’t help but moan, her eyes drifting shut.

He felt so good, as he thrust into her from below, stretching her, filling her, the slick friction already carrying her home.

“Keep it together, honey.”

She opened her eyes, smiled at him.

Two could so play at this game...


 (c) Copyright 2015 Pamela Clare

Things that happened today done in the style of SNL’s video short "Like a Boss" (If you haven't seen it, it’s utterly offensive and wonderful):

Went to an organic farm / Froze my fingers off / Held a chicken / Took some photos / Called a guy a douche-bag / Read some press releases / Tossed them in the recycle / Got free spatula (WTF?) / Wrote an article / Copyedited flats... And now I'm home.

In the middle of that, I got a phone call from my editor at Penguin.

Yes, today was a day for good news. But let me back up for a moment...

After Extreme Exposure was released, I was invited to be part of an anthology called Catch of the Day. My agent called and told me what the deadline was and suggested I consider the anthology as a way of getting my name out there. I would be the least-known author in the anthology, and tagging along with bigger names would bring new readers to my writing. Or that was the theory, anyway.

I didn’t think I could pull it off. Firstly, the anthology was supposed to be humorous. Me, humorous? Not really. My books veer toward the dark side and include things like torture. There's nothing humorous about that.

Plus I was overwhelmed with deadlines. Writing books in two genres means keeping two publishing houses happy. Doing that while raising a son by yourself and working full time as the editor-in-chief of a newspaper? You’d have to be out of your mind to try it. (Which tells you something about me.)

I had my cell phone in my hand and was dialing my agent’s number to tell her that I just couldn’t do it, when the idea for an I-Team novella fell more or less fully formed into my head. Clunk. Just like that. I took that as a sign that I could do it, and should do it, so when she answered, I told her I would sign on.

Writing ”Heaven Can’t Wait” took about five weekends, and it was both stressful and a lot of fun. I laughed out loud while writing it — yes, there is humor in it — and then I fell so in love with Lissy and Will that I wished they’d gotten a full novel.

Sadly, the anthology didn’t do well, and most readers probably don’t know there’s an I-Team novella out there. I always felt bad about that because I liked the story, personally, and some of my readers who did manage to find it said they thought it was both fun and ultra-sexy (not surprising, I suppose, given that it’s a story about two people who love each other trying not to have sex before their wedding).


But several months ago I got an idea. I called my editor at Penguin and asked her why in the age of electronic publishing they couldn’t release "Heaven Can’t Wait” as a stand-alone novella-length e-book and make it available in a bunch of different e-book formats — Sony, Kindle, etc.

Today when I spoke to her she said they were doing just that. Right now the story is being converted to e-book formats and they expect it to be available in a few months.

So those of you who are I-Team fans are going to get an extra bit of reading this year. ”Heaven Can’t Wait” is set chronologically between Extreme Exposure and Hard Evidence, and the I-Team characters that existed at that time, including Tessa, Sophie and Horny Holly, are part of the story.

Will, the hero, is a former college football star who is working as a sports reporter, while Lissy is the newspaper’s fashion editor. If the names sound familiar, it’s probably because you read a little about them in Hard Evidence.

This must have been a day for news, because there were also some developments with regard to my MacKinnon’s Rangers series and Connor’s book, but I can’t share that news yet. But trust me — it’s good news.

And now, just for fun, an excerpt from ”Heaven Can’t Wait”:



Lissy lay with her head against Will’s sweat-slick chest, running her fingers absentmindedly through his chest hair, her body limp and glowing from their most recent round of crazed sex. She loved these nights when she had him to herself.

An unpleasant flutter in her stomach drew her mind back to what she’d spent all evening trying to forget — her mother’s call. Her mother was still trying to get her to postpone the wedding until Will signed a prenup, dangling cash in her face as if she could be bought. Hadn’t she proved long ago that she didn’t give a damn about her parents’ money?

But it wasn’t the usual discussion about divorce and assets that had bothered her; it was her mother’s comment about sex and love. Her mother had quoted some study showing that couples who’d lived together before getting married had a higher divorce rate than those who waited to have sex until after marriage.

Lissy had argued that the study, like most, was skewed from the beginning, as people who waited until after marriage to have sex tended to be people who also opposed divorce. Statistics never told the whole story. Any good journalist knew that.

You wouldn’t be the first woman to confuse a man’s sexual attention with love, Melisande. Just wait till he gets his fill of you and the hormones wear off. Men like him marry for two things: sex and money.

Not her Will. No way.

“Do you realize that a hundred or even fifty years ago, we’d both be virgins?” She didn’t know she’d spoken until she heard her own voice.

His fingers stroked the hollow above her hip. “Good thing it’s not a hundred or even fifty years ago. My balls would have burst by now.”

“But don’t you think things were more romantic then? Sex would have been a great mystery for us.”

“I doubt it would have been that much of a mystery. We’d probably both have grown up in the country and seen our share of farm-animal lovin’.”

“The point I’m trying to make is that neither of us would have any personal experience with sex until our wedding night.”

“That’s assuming that I hadn’t already charmed my way into your bloomers or found some ‘loose woman’ willing to let me defile her.” His voice dropped to a dark, velvet purr. “I can be very persuasive.”

Lissy sat up, trying not to laugh, and glared at him. “You’re ruining my fantasy.”

He grinned, stretched, and folded his muscular arms behind his head. “Oh. Sorry. Go on. I’m listening.”

“After the reception, we’d go the bridal chamber, where everything would be roses and candles. There’d be a fire in the hearth—”

“—if it were winter.”

She ignored him. “You’d undress me first and then yourself. I’d probably never have seen a naked man before, so I’d be shy and afraid—”

“Oh, Will, it’s soooo big! Please, don’t hurt me!”

“—but you would soothe me and assure me that everything was going to be fine. Then you’d undress yourself, carry me to the bed and make passionate love to me.”

He reached out, ran his fingers down her hair. “Are you sure that’s how it would go? I think you’ve read too many novels. If it were a hundred years ago and we were both virgins, I think it would go more like this.”

“Do tell.”

“We’d have been raised to see nudity as shameful, so the room would be dark, and you would have changed from your wedding gown to a proper white nightgown and gotten into bed before I entered the room. I’d come in, wearing my nightshirt, and crawl into bed with you. You’d be worried that it was going to hurt, and I’d be worried that my dick might not work. I’d lift your gown up to your hips, spread your legs, and it would be over in a minute. You’d hate it, and you’d get pregnant — with the first of my twelve children.”

She fought back a giggle. “Thank you for that enchanting vision of romance.”

“You’re welcome.” His knuckles grazed a nipple, sent heat skittering into her belly.

She batted his hand away. “You’re just afraid you can’t do it.”

He frowned. “Do what?”

“Wait.”

He raised a dark eyebrow, raked her with his gaze. “It’s a bit too late for that, isn’t it?”

And then it came to her. “Not if we start over.”

“Start over?”

“You know — wait until our wedding night to have sex again.”

The look on his handsome face almost made her laugh out loud, but there was something about this that felt important to her.

Then he sat up and brushed a strand of hair from her cheek, the humor gone from his eyes. “This is about something your mother said, isn’t it?”

She hated that he was able to see through her so clearly. “I just think it would add to the romance if we held back a little bit, made ourselves wait. It’s only two weeks. Unless you don’t think you can hack it.”

Will was tempted to end this conversation by pulling her beneath him and showing her just what she’d be giving up, but something told him saying the wrong thing just now would be a bad idea. Besides, he wasn’t one to turn down a challenge.

“If you want to wait until after the wedding to have sex again, that’s fine.”

The surprise on her face mirrored the astonishment he felt.

What the hell did you just say, Fraser? Are you an idiot?

Her eyes narrowed. “You really think you can do it?”

Her long hair hung about her heart-shaped face, tangled from a night of repeated lovemaking. Her nipples peeked out from between the strands, just begging to be licked and sucked. Her lips were swollen from kissing, and her cheeks were still rosy from her last orgasm, when she’d ridden him to within an inch of his life. Her green eyes shone with a mix of intelligence and feminine allure. And he was agreeing not to fuck her?

“Of course I can do it. I’m not some eighteen-year-old college student.”

She sat up on her heels. “Then how about we make a bet?”

He leaned back on his elbows, suddenly feeling competitive. “You name it.”

“Okay. We agree not to have sex again until our wedding night, and whoever gives in and asks for it first loses.”

That sounded easy enough—two weeks, no sex. “Fine. It’s a deal.”

“But there has to be some penalty.” She hopped out of bed, walked the length of the room, forcing him to stare first at the bare curves of her scrumptious ass, and then at the auburn curls of her muff. “If you lose, you and your groomsmen have to wear the mauve cummerbunds I wanted.”

He gave a snort, lifted his gaze to her face. “In that case, there is no way I’m going to lose. I’m not wearing pink.”

“Mauve.”

“Whatever.”

She crawled back into bed, smiling. “We’ll see.”

“And what about you, Miss Lissy? What price will you pay if you come begging for it?” And then he had it. “I know. You’ll have to promise to love, honor and obey me.”

Her mouth fell open in outrage. “No way! Absolutely not!”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Okay, then. How about this? If you lose, you have to wear the slutty gown.”

“The Oleg Cassini?”

He had no idea what the designer’s name was, but he’d loved the way she’d looked in that dress — ultra-feminine and sexy as hell — and had been disappointed when she’d decided to go with something else. “The one that’s skin-tight and has the crystals on the straps.”

She gaped at him. “The Badgley Mischka! I’m fashion editor of the paper, Will. I can’t walk down the aisle half naked!”

“Then I guess the bet is off.” A part of him — the part located about six inches below his navel — heaved a sigh of relief. He reached over and turned off the bedside lamp.

Then out of the darkness, she spoke. “You’re on.”