Excerpt: 'The New Year's Fantasy' by KT Grant

KT Grant, author of The New Year's Fantasy, shares on excerpt from her timely new release …

KT: The New Year's Fantasy is a contemporary romance featuring a 44-year-old hairy-chested firefighter hero and a 31-year-old schoolteacher heroine whose one-night stand on New Year's Eve becomes much more. The New Year's Fantasy is a sequel to The Christmas Fantasy, a holiday novella I wrote in 2010. In that story, Mandy, the heroine, who's turning 30 on Christmas and is still a virgin, sets out to seduce her older brother's best friend, who happens to be a firefighter (he's also a redhead and wears glasses). Now in The New Year's Fantasy, Mandy's best friend, Jessica, has her shot at a happily ever after with a man who appears out of nowhere and rocks her world. That man is Doug, an older, divorced father of a pre-teen daughter and a fire captain who doesn't think he's sexy at all. When he and Jessica meet at a ritzy New Year's Eve party, sparks fly for both of them that leads to a night both will never forget, and becomes much more …

Here's an excerpt, in which Doug asks Jessica to dance after spotting her sitting alone …

He kissed her knuckles and tugged her to her feet. She stared at him in charming confusion. "I haven't danced once tonight. Would you dance with me?"

"Are you asking because you feel bad for me?" She stepped back.

He set his hands on her waist to keep her locked in place. "Lady, you think I feel bad for you? Hell, I wanted to get you out on the dance floor the moment I saw you eating those strawberries."

"Lady?" She laid her palm on the middle of his chest. "Isn't that the title of some eighties song? How old are you?"

He wasn't ready to discuss their ages just yet. Once he'd held her in his arms and made her forget every man that came before him, including a kiss he wanted to claim from her at midnight, then maybe he would tell her his age. "Dance with me first, and then I'll tell you."

"I like the way you think, Mister Mister," she said with a giggle and joined him on the dance floor off to the side near one of the speakers.

"We're going to talk in eighties song titles now?" He placed his hands on her waist, pulling her in tight.

Her arms came around his neck as she looked up at him. "I'm a child of the nineties, which can help you guess my age." She pressed her mouth under his ear. "Not that I care how old you are."

His pulse raced again, and his erection jutted the front of his pants. Swinging Jessica around in a circle, he tried putting some space between them, but she kept brushing against him.

She pressed her cheek to his shoulder. "You're very nice."

He didn't want to be nice in her eyes. Nice was boring. He'd been too nice for too long. He wanted her to find him sexy and daring. The way she snuggled up to him while they swayed unleashed a passion he hadn't felt in years. He ached to set it free. Maybe Jessica would help him release this sudden fever. Lowering his face, he inhaled her floral scent.

She lifted her head with a drowsy-eyed stare aimed at him. "Are you sniffing my hair?"

"I plead the fifth." He kissed the middle of her forehead.

"My mouth is here." She pointed to a juicy lip he couldn't wait to taste.

"I'm building up the anticipation for midnight." He twirled her outward, enjoying her startled gasp, and then pulled her back in. She said something he didn't catch and then pinched his side. He laughed and started to swing back around but caught sight of one of his guys dancing with his girlfriend.

He nodded at Chris Lockeheart who scowled in his direction. Finding it odd, he shrugged it off. Chris started to mouth something at him, but then his girlfriend drew him down for a kiss.

Thinking his subordinate's poor mood must be sexual frustration because of his girlfriend's roaming hands and mouth, Doug turned back to the sensual woman in his arms.

Jessica peered up at him, more alert than before. She caressed his back with her nails, leaving pleasant tingles in her wake. "I just turned thirty-one on Christmas."

No going back now. "I'm turning forty-five on February fourteenth."

Her eyes widened, and he braced for her to chide him for their fourteen-year age gap. Instead, she hopped on her toes. "We're both born on holidays! Another wonderful coincidence."

"That's all you have to say?" He clasped her by the hips, biting the inside of his cheek to stop from groaning when she rocked against him.

"What do you want me to say, Grandpa?" She skipped back and folded her arms behind her back.

Oh, so it's going to be like that. Taking her for another spin as the slow tune changed to a faster beat, he claimed her mouth in a punishing kiss, proving he was far from being just nice or too old.

***

Whoa. I've never been kissed like this before! Jessica's mind flipped upside down as Doug planted his mouth on hers in a fiery lip lock. She'd never been kissed with such intensity and passion from a man. Rendered breathless, she held his shoulders, anxious for him to lick inside her mouth. Greedy for a taste of him, she opened her mouth, welcoming his tongue, but he broke apart, huffing against her cheek as he kept her from sliding to the floor.

"That. Is. Some kiss," she panted.

"It's been a while, but I assume my technique wasn't too rusty?" He stroked the back of her head.

"It's outstanding." She moved back, blinking away the blurry face in front of her. "Your technique on a scale of one to ten is a nine."

Find out more about KT Grant and her books at ktgrnt.wordpress.com.