As most of you know, I love writing my hot Texas shifters but sometimes I like to mix things up a  bit with small-town, Texas set contemporaries featuring to sexy southern men we all love. I’ ve always wanted to write a brother series and now I’m finally doing it with my first story about the hot, gorgeous Dobbs brothers of Delight, Texas. This first story, Return to Delight, tells the story of the middle brother Cooper who is determined to re-claim the woman who ‘got away’. This story comes out Weds., Mar. 30 at Ellora’s Cave.

Blurb:

Harley June Baker left Delight thinking never to return, but when circumstances draw her back to this tiny town and straight into Cooper’s strong arms, she knows she’s in deep trouble. The man she’d loved and left behind is now one sexy devil-in-denim and hotter than a Texas summer night. With his every wicked touch throwing her senses into overdrive, how could any sane woman resist?

Cooper Dobbs is a man on a mission. He let Harley get away once, but never again. Knowing it’s time to burn up some sheets with the delectable woman, Cooper plies her with a raw, savage passion that threatens to incinerate them both. It’s gonna take plenty of panty-drenching sex and a fair amount of sweet-talkin’ to make Harley his, but Cooper reckons he’s up to the challenge.

Excerpt:

Copyright © REGINA CARLYSLE, 2011

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

Chapter One

Harley June Baker tightened her grip on the steering wheel of her candy-apple red Mazda Miata and pressed a booted foot on the accelerator as she swept past the powder blue sign that read Welcome to Delight! Serving up miles of smiles deep in the heart of Texas!

Yeah, right.

She did the whole mental eye roll thing. All the town of Delight ever served up was a healthy dose of boredom. Around these parts, the citizens of this tiny Hill Country town called the place Dee-light with a heavy emphasis on the “e” but as a starry-eyed teenager with a thirst for excitement and adventure, all she’d really wanted was to get the hell out. Back then the place was one dead-end road to nowhere but now she wasn’t so sure. Childhood memories rolled slowly over her threatening to take her under.

The blast of nostalgia hit her, quite unexpectedly, and she blinked back tears as she thought of her mom and how much she missed her. Deborah had died a few months ago leaving Harley June a million good memories along with an aging Victorian that had been in the family for countless generations. For as long as she could remember it had just been her and Mom. She didn’t know her dad. He’d hung around long enough to name her after his favorite motorcycle and then one day, he’d gotten on it and driven away never to return.

What a shithead!

Her mom had been a wonderful woman but he’d been too young and stupid to see that. She and Mom had done okay though. When she reached adulthood, she realized that not only did she look like Mom but that she’d inherited a sassy streak of independence and a hard-work ethic that was pure Deb Baker.

Harley stopped at a red light in the center of Main and flipped on her right turn signal. Leaving Mom a dozen years ago to chase her dreams had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She turned at the First Methodist Church and drove the three blocks to Austin Road. Her hands began to tremble and tears filled her eyes when she took in the long, tree-lined street with its neatly paved sidewalks. When she was little, she’d mastered bike riding and in-line skates on those concrete paths. In the distance she spotted the big Victorian that had been in her family for generations. She shouldn’t sell it! She should keep it and see if she could make a different kind of life for herself in this small town that held her childhood memories.

“No! I can’t stay. There’s nothing for me here,” she argued aloud. Then her eyes narrowed as she saw the shiny black bad-boy truck parked in front of the house. Next to the vehicle sat a giant-sized toolbox and several cans of paint. Harley June pulled up behind the truck and turned off the ignition. She’d hired Connelly Brothers Construction to do an eensy face-lift on the house to make it more attractive to potential buyers. Obviously they’d followed her instructions and had sent someone over to begin work. She had emailed several days ago telling them she’d be in town and it was good to see they’d gotten a start on things.

Grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, she stepped out and walked to the sidewalk, stopping to take in the wide, old-fashioned veranda with its large round pillars and the high gables of the roofline. Someone had repainted the double front doors a dark charcoal and had planted bold, red geraniums in the iron urns flanking the entrance.

Why?

It was beyond strange considering she was selling. Yes, they were lovely but who would do such a thing?

Frowning a little, she advanced, her boot heels knocking smartly on the front walkway. As she headed up the wide steps to the porch, she stopped then caught her breath and held it. Nostalgia mixed with bittersweet longing curled tightly in her chest as Cooper Dobbs stood there looking at her through a pair of heavily lashed smoky-colored eyes. Bare-chested and holding a well-used paintbrush, he grinned broadly. A pair of dimples dipped into his bronzed cheeks and his blacker-than-night hair was mussed as if he’d repeatedly raked his fingers through it. A portion of that sexy black stuff drooped over his forehead. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he dropped the paintbrush onto a broad swath of canvas on the floor of the porch. “Well, hey Harley June! It’s about damn time you came home,” he drawled as he reached into a back pocket to grab a crumpled blue bandanna. He wiped futilely at the pale gray paint smears on his deliciously mounded chest and dragged it over a set of washboard abs.

Was there drool on her chin?