Author Focus: MS Spencer

Welcome Author M.S. Spencer to Romance Beckons!

Although M. S. Spencer has lived or traveled in five continents, the last 30 years have been spent mostly in Washington, D.C. as a librarian, Congressional staff assistant, speechwriter, editor, birdwatcher, kayaker, policy wonk, non-profit director and parent. She now divides her time among Virginia, Maine and Florida.

Ms. Spencer has published six best selling contemporary romance novels. Lost in His Arms is set in the spinning world of 1991 when countries fell like flies and a CIA fixer had his hands full. In Lost and Found we follow a desperate wife searching the wilds of Maine for the husband who disappeared. Losers Keepers is a tale of love, lust and treachery set on the island of Chincoteague. Triptych tells of jealousy and intrigue high above the Potomac River. In Artful Dodging: the Torpedo Factory Murders, Milo Everhart, artist, meets her match in lawyer Tristram Brodie on the battleground of the old munitions factory turned art center called the Torpedo Factory. Her latest release is Mai Tais & Mayhem. Lapses of Memory, a story of two journalists who meet every few years as love waxes and wanes in the midst of world crises, is due out May 10, 2013.

Connect With Her: 
Blog: http://msspencertalespinner.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msspencertalespinner
Facebook Author Page: www.facebook.com/M.S.SpencerAuthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/msspencerauthor
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/msspencerauthor/

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Is there anything more romantic than the silken sands and warm waters of the Florida Gulf Coast? The 770 miles of the Gulf Coast of Florida are home to an enormous variety of wildlife. Inhabiting the calm, turquoise waters are dolphins, sting rays, leaping mullets, enormous tarpon, silvery fast snook, and even barracuda. Five species of sea turtle live in the Gulf of Mexico: Kemp’s ridley, leatherback, loggerhead, green and hawksbill. Our heroine Tessa Diamond belongs to a group that catalogues sea turtle nests. During nesting season, volunteers like Tessa tramp the beach every day at dawn to look for turtle crawls—evidence that a female has lumbered out of the water, dug a shallow hole, and deposited a hundred or so ping-pong sized eggs. Sitting on the beach one starry night, Tessa witnesses the hatchlings break out and in one surging mass make a beeline for the water.

Sea turtles figure prominently in my new romantic suspense novel Mai Tais and Mayhem: Murder at Mote Marine. When not counting nests, Tessa volunteers at the Mote Marine Aquarium, at which an ornery leatherback, Fred, leads her to a gruesome discovery. And in the course of pursuing leads to a murder, she learns which ones make the best soup!

CONTEST!

I’ll choose one lucky reader to win a pdf of Mai Tais and Mayhem from those who answer this question accurately: who does Tessa suspect is a thief?

Tessa Diamond, newly arrived on the Florida Gulf Coast and looking for something to occupy her time, rescues a baby pufferfish from a hungry seagull. Her good deed leads her to the famous Mote Marine Laboratory of Sarasota, and she volunteers to help at the turtle rehabilitation hospital.

When she discovers a dead body where a live turtle should be, she is swept into a shady world of smuggling, Russian gangsters, and coded messages. She confronts murder, attempted ravishment, parrots, sea turtles and big fish, only to encounter blossoming romances at every turn, including one of her own.

She is torn between Cameron Mason, tiger-eyed and handsome, and Dugan Trevally, sexy and dangerous, but before she can drop her longstanding opposition to marriage and accept her true love, she must face the possibility that one of them could be a thief, and even a murderer.

Mai Tais & Mayhem: Murder at Mote Marine (a Sarasota Romance) 
Secret Cravings Publishing (January 2013)
eBook 64,484 words (208 pp)
Contemporary romantic suspense/mystery, M/F, 3 flames

EXCERPT (R) ~ First Date

So this is Bean Point. What a glorious view.”

Tessa snuggled under his arm. “It’s named after George Emerson Bean, the first settler on the island.”

“Ah, so it’s not named for the fields of golden beans that used to wave across the…er…um…what?”

She laughed. “Hoist by your own petard, or in this case metaphor?”

Cameron tapped her nose with a finger. “I guess I’m distracted.”

Tessa gazed at him as the stars blacked out one by one, leaving only the ones in her eyes. He bent his head to her and their lips met. The next few minutes passed slowly in a dream of unbuttoning and unzipping, then of warm skin touching skin, of limbs interlaced, and finally, of complementary parts dovetailing in ardent abandon.

“There, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Cameron brushed some sand off Tessa’s breast. The warmth of his fingers remained on her flesh, and she cupped the spot, not wanting to lose the sensation. He gently moved her palm aside and bent to kiss her nipple. It hardened and rose to meet him. His hand trailed down her belly, caressing her hips and edging toward her vulva. Tessa couldn’t move. Her whole body lay rigid, waiting, hoping he would make love to her again. Even the gritty sand beneath her buttocks couldn’t distract her from her hunger for more.
“You want some more?”

She could only nod. The half-moon rode overhead, fighting with the stars for dominance. Cameron flipped her over on her stomach. She felt his breath on her ankles but couldn’t see what he was doing. Something tickled the back of her knees. Soft lips nipped the sensitive spot there, then proceeded up her thighs and across her ass. He stopped at the small of her back and sucked a bit of the skin into his mouth, sending a hot wave of desire surging over her body. Tessa began to writhe, but stopped when the motion ground broken shells into her knees. Her vagina ached for a satisfyingly thick, stiff prick to fill the vacuum. Juices leaked out in anticipation, puddling in the sand. Suddenly Cameron’s hand slipped underneath her belly. He inserted two fingers into her pussy and wham! Her orgasm pulled her up on her knees and she bucked against the fingers, grunting and moaning. “Oh God, Cameron.”

“Yes, baby? Does that feel good?”

“Oh, yeeesssss.”

“Wait till you feel this.” He spread her thighs, smashing her breasts into the ground. She felt his penis beating against her, moving up to close with her.

“Hello? Who’s there?”

The two lovers split apart, panting. In the dim light Tessa couldn’t see Cameron’s face, nor that of whoever had called out, but the voice was embarrassingly familiar. Josiah. She grabbed her shift and dragged it over her head. Cameron had dressed as well by the time a chubby figure hove into view, swinging a flashlight to and fro. When the beam hit Tessa’s face she was sitting calmly next to Cameron. “Josiah? Is that you?”

Buy links:
Secret Cravings  |  Amazon  |  ARe  |  B&N

DON't FORGET THE CONTEST: I’ll choose one lucky reader to win a pdf of Mai Tais and Mayhem from those who answer this question accurately: who does Tessa suspect is a thief?