Today you can see Book 1 of the second O'Connor brother, Ciaran, His Gentle Persuasion, a novella by Alyssa Bailey is now on Bethany's Woodshed, this week in preparation for presentation this January 3oth.
Watch carefully, because my publisher has a wonderful offer coming on the weekend. A sale...but I will tell you about it when it is available.
Those of you who do not currently enjoy the benefits of Bethany's Woodshed, I don't want you to totally miss out. Here is a tease for you.
His Gentle Persuasion
Rancher Ciarán O’Connor is one of the best and most successful equine and canine trainers in the Northwest. Finding a date is never hard for Ciarán but unearthing a woman that meets all of his particular expectations that is not too needy herself is more challenging. He is ready to wait for as long as it takes when he spots Nurse Katherine Franklin and makes a horse trade to get better acquainted. He finds that just like his wild or abused animals, Ciarán must slowly work at the puzzle of Katie’s past to find the jewel hidden beneath all that manipulation. It will take all the tools in his arsenal to reach his goal.
Katie has a reputation with the men in the community; hard to catch and impossible to keep. Ciarán O’Connor makes her blood run hot. This rancher expects the woman he loves to allow him to take care of her which includes her obedience when he asks for it. And a red hot bottom when she doesn’t. Ciarán doesn’t need someone like Katie, whose past screams for her to run while her heart begs her to stay, but will he take her anyway?
Can Ciarán convince Katherine that his take-charge lifestyle is not only what she needs, but everything she craves? Or is she going to turn away from the future she desires because of the past she has endured?
- He has all she needs and everything she craves
And here is the teaser:
KATIE has left her date, Aaron, still at the rodeo and went to the parking lot to drive home. She has met Ciaran several times, but that is all.
"Where is Aaron?" Ciarán looked around as though he expected to see him somewhere.
"Oh, inside, I told him that I was going home and I didn't need him to go with me if he
wasn't ready. We came in separate cars so that worked out fine or it seemed like it would."
"He allowed you to go home alone? Where is your phone? Did you already call someone
to come and get you?"
She shrugged her shoulders to dismiss her answer. "I left it at home. And just to be clear,
no one allowed me to do anything. I do what I want."
Ciarán growled as he told her to sit tight and he would be right back. A shiver of
something ran through her body at his tone, creating a rolling anticipation in her stomach and a clenching of her core. Ciarán got into his pickup a few rows away and pulled up in the row front of her car. Jumping out he told her to get into his truck to stay cool and he would jump-start her battery.
"Oh, I'm all right, it isn't too hot," Katie said quickly, not moving from her leather
upholstery so he would not know that her legs were quickly becoming seared to the seat. She knew that skin peeled from the seat sound would be a dead giveaway.
She had made it a hard and fast rule not to let another person, especially a man, dominate
anything associated with her actions or her will. She had allowed that before with disastrous results and would not do it again. She had come a long way but it was still difficult to trust anyone with macho tendencies. Gorgeous as this specimen was, he was machismo personified.
Ciarán opened the door wider and went down on his haunches saying deliberately and in
a quiet voice, "Don't argue, beag Leanaí. You will be perfectly safe. Mind me and go sit on the passenger side of my pickup or I will not get your car started and you will have to let me take you home in my truck."
Again, Katie was dismayed when she sensed a thrill that went right to the center of her
womanhood. However, she was not going to acknowledge it by dwelling on it. Nor was she
going to let another man tell her what to do even if this one was sexy as hell while doing it. Been there, done that. However, her inner soul was begging that she let this one in. It was begging her to try again with this man.
"What did you say? You said it twice now, beag Leanaí. What is that?"
"Truck." He stood up. The conversation was over.
Katie looked up at Ciarán, who had backed up from the door to give her room to step
onto the hot pavement and pushed his Stetson back on his head. He reached his hand down to help her out. She stared for a moment at his hand and then looked up at his face that immediately housed raised eyebrows and a question that seemed to ask, really, you want to push this?
Her panic button did not go off with bells and whistles as normal. She wanted to trust
him. She was wary of him even though she had heard he was a good person. Katie shook her head but she was obviously ambiguous about it.
That calm and quietly confident voice rang out again. "Katie, you need to get in my truck
now or your hind end is going to feel hotter than the rest of you already is."
Did he just say that? Did he just threaten to spank her? Oh, no, he did not! Even as she
thought it, the zinging his words created pinged all of her erotic zones so quickly that she was almost panting. She made a final look into his eyes and saw there was no way he was bluffing. She instinctively knew he would spank but not damage her in any way. She was not quite ready to test his level of commitment.
Decision made, she growled, "Fine. Move." She was in a huff and pushed his hand away to get out on her own.
"Katherine."
He still stood there offering her his assistance and she didn't have enough room to get out
without taking his hand. As she stood and then twisted away from him, he swatted her bottom one time, hard enough to make her sizzle both inside and out. She gave him a look of outrage but it bounced off the side of his head. He had dismissed her.
She stomped over to the passenger side of the truck and climbed in, slamming the door
and sitting with her arms folded, staring straight ahead. She had begun, she thought secretly, to overheat in more than one way, but she would rather die than admit that to him. He was just too cocky and she was feeling slippery as she wiggled the tingle away.
Ciarán chuckled. He put the cables on the batteries, opened his door to climb in and
waited for a moment.
"What are we waiting for?" She looked at him with a question on her face and watched
him ignore her.
"Little one."
"Beg pardon?"
"Beag Leanaí means little one. It is an endearment, meant to be something nice to say. It's
Irish, from my mom."
"Oh."
That is what she said but what she wanted to say was, Are you truly that incredibly
charming or pulling my leg? Is this a trick? It would mean a man might be trustworthy because he did sweet things and admitted to liking his mom. Oh. In addition, he called her an endearment. It didn't matter that the affectionate word implied she was young and inexperienced and his. She liked it. She liked him. She decided to ask the question he obviously ignored earlier.
"What are we waiting for?" she asked again.
"I am trying to give your battery a few minutes to charge so it will start on the first try."
"Oh. That makes sense." Then silence. It was too heavy for Katie to breathe in. She had
to break the silence to alleviate her unease.
"You hit me." She accused.
"Swatted."
"Same thing."
"Nope. Hit is with intent to do harm. I would never hit a woman. Swats are to reinforce
my words or gain attention. I swatted."Ciarán had been chatty before but he was succinct now. "Once."
"Oh."
Again, the silence that filled the gap was oppressing and she was glad when he made a
move. After a few minutes, he turned to her and said, "Stay here."
Ciarán jumped out and went over to her car to reach in and turn the key. Before he had
turned the ignition, she was out of his truck. It started right up. Disengaging the cables, he brought down the hood of the car and reached over to shut his, all the time watching her come to a stop next to him.
"Um, thanks for the help, Ciarán."
He put the jumpers back in his utility box in the bed of the truck before turning to address
Katie. "You do not mind very well, beag Leanaí."
"What?"
"Turn around."
Still calm, still in control, and Lord have mercy, it still made her bottom twinge and her
juices flow. "No, just no. You are not hitting me again."
"Swatting. You need a whole spanking but I can tell you are skittish so one good swat to
reinforce the fact that I expect obedience when it is for your protection. I have not done anything that would tell you I am not safe to be around have I. I would not do you any lasting hurt, and you know that. Now, turn around."
There is that voice she melted immediately upon hearing. Katie had thought spankings
were what she wanted but quickly learned she didn't. Somehow, though, it felt like this man knew the type she wanted; no needed. He leaned over, grabbing her upper arm firmly but with a gentleness that she had not had from a man in a long time. In a caring way. Her father did not count.
Ciarán turned her bottom at an angle and she looked into his eyes as her peripheral vision
caught his right arm rise up and descend on her shorts-clad bottom hard. She squealed.
"Ow, dammit that hurt."
"It was meant to. Watch the mouth." Reaching down, he leaned in and kissed that mouth
with reined in passion she wanted to fall into. "Tastes sweet, though," he said with a raspy voice clogged with emotion. Katie smiled satisfied she had affected him too.
"I'll follow you home to make sure you get there. You may need to get a new battery or
alternator because if it has done it once, it will do it again. I checked the cables and they are fine so it was something else. If you bring it out to the ranch, my guy can look at it."
Katie shook her head to deny his statement and to clear her head.
"I know how to drive home and I won't turn the car off until I get there. I'll take it to a mechanic. Thanks, though."
Her panic was rising fast now that her thinking had cleared. Ciarán stood in front of her car and waited for her to allow him to follow her home.
"Really, Ciarán, I will be okay. I can't have you follow me. I will be okay. I promise."
"Can't or won't?" he reached up to place a strand of hair behind her ear and she flinched.
"Katie honey, I do not intend to do more than make sure you get home safely. I won't get out. I will just follow for your protection. But you need to let me."
Katie looked away as she struggled with letting him do that, letting any man get that
close to her. She knew it made logical sense. She knew everyone knew where her father lived. It would serve no purpose to deny him what he seemed to need to do. She would just let him follow her home and that will be the end of his trying to take control.
"Listen, Katherine, I cannot let you go home alone without an escort in case the car stops
for some reason. You don't even have a phone. So you have two choices, let me drive you home and come back to get your car later or I follow you to get you home safely."
Ciarán's voice was gentle, reasonable and yet authoritative. Katie looked for a reason to
not do what he asked. She hesitated, he called her Katherine, again and that was the universal sign of warning. She did not want to push Ciarán for she could see and instinctively knew this was a man who operated under a different code than most men that she encountered. It was certainly one that her ex, Stuart, had never even understood. Nevertheless, control was control and that was more than she would allow.
Her hesitation seemed to cue his next response.
Remember to check back at the end of the week... I'll have the links up
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