Ramblings From This Chick: A Naughty New Year...Brazen Style with Christina Phillips and Giveaway

Christina Phillips is an ex-pat Brit who now lives in sunny Western Australia with her high school sweetheart and their family. She enjoys writing paranormal, historical and contemporary romance where the stories sizzle and the heroine brings her hero to his knees.

She is addicted to good coffee, expensive chocolate and bad boy heroes. She's also owned by three gorgeous cats who are convinced the universe revolves around their needs. They are not wrong.

Hi everyone, I hope you’re enjoying the holidays!

For the Brazen New Year Event I wrote a brand new scene, with new characters who jumped out at me and demanded to be heard. I hope you enjoy their midnight kiss as much as I did writing it =)

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Ryan Andrews needed to get out of there.

He’d only agreed to come to this glittering New Year’s Eve ball in one of the top hotels in Manhattan as a favor to his best friend Jake. Except Jake had bailed and now Ryan was surrounded by a couple of hundred people he didn’t know, who kept giving him sideways glances as if wondering what the hell a scarred ex-Marine was doing among their blue-blooded ranks.

I should’ve stayed in Montana. In his family’s cabin hidden deep in the mountains. It was the only place that gave him any peace since he’d been retired on medical grounds eight months ago, but when Jake had called and told him about the trouble his little sister, Alexis, was in, Ryan hadn’t hesitated catching the next plane out.

He shouldered his way through the crowd toward the floor to ceiling windows that gave a spectacular view of the city skyline. It was almost midnight. He could escape before the ball dropped.

He swung around, and collided into a curvy redhead. “Oops,” she said, and laughed up at him as her pink champagne sloshed out of her glass onto the floor.

“Are you okay?” Before he could stop himself he grabbed her arm to steady her as she wobbled on her stilettos. What the hell? He’d avoided touching anyone since that bloodied night a year ago, when he and Jake had saved each other’s lives. Instead of releasing her, his fingers lingered on her warm skin. Feels like silk…

She didn’t back off or slap his hand away. Slowly he trailed his fingers along her arm before breaking contact. There was something hypnotic in her big green eyes and he couldn’t tear his gaze away.

Leave right now. He didn’t do small talk. Hell, he barely damn well talked at all anymore.

“I’m fine.” Even in her heels she only reached his shoulders. Her hair was a mass of curls that tumbled down her back. He had the crazy urge to plunge his fingers through those fiery curls and back her up against the windows. She placed her glass on the tray of a passing waiter before returning her attention to him. “So, were you about to make a great escape as well?”

He dragged in a deep breath. The subtle hint of jasmine drifted in the air and her full pink lips curved into another smile.

“This isn’t my scene.” His gaze roved over her designer dress and the diamonds glittering in her ears before her words fully penetrated. “You were thinking of leaving?”

“I was. Until you almost knocked me flying.”

He’d half smiled at her before he realized what he was doing. “Why’d you want to leave? These are your people.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Judgey, aren’t you?”

He laughed, and the sound shocked the hell out of him. “Are you here with anyone?” Way to go, Andrews. Talk about subtle. But it’d been too long since he’d flirted with a gorgeous woman. Too damn long since he’d even wanted to.

“No one special.” For a fleeting moment there was an elusive, vulnerable air about her, and his long buried protective instinct surged through him. “Are you?”

“I am now.” He stepped closer to her and her breath hitched as she looked up at him. She didn’t flinch at his scars or stare at them as though they fascinated her. She just looked…at him. “Do you still want to get out of here?”

Before she could answer a raucous cheer reverberated around the room, and fireworks lit up the night sky through the wall of glass. Another year over.

“Yes,” she whispered. She swayed closer to him. “Happy New Year.”

He bent his head. It was meant to be a brief, chaste kiss between strangers celebrating the moment, but the second their lips touched he forgot about going slow or holding back. Her mouth opened and she tasted of champagne and chocolate and it was crazily addictive.

He wound his arm around her and tugged her tight against his body. His dick stirred and a groan razed his throat. I don’t even know her name. He didn’t care. For the first time in forever raw sexual need thundered through his blood. I’m alive. He speared his fingers through her hair and gripped the back of her head.

She looped her arms around his neck, and her kiss was sweet and sexy like nothing he’d experienced before. Her breasts pressed against his chest, driving him out of his mind, and he glided his palm over her perfect ass. She sighed and shifted against him, and he needed so much more.

He broke their kiss. Her breath was ragged and eyes dark with need. Maybe tonight was all they had. He’d make it last a lifetime.

“Ryan?” Jake’s voice penetrated the haze of lust and he slowly turned, his arm secure around her waist. She tensed, as though the interruption was unwelcome, and his hold on her became possessive. He’d lay down his life for Jake, but tonight he was taking this woman back to his room.

Before he could say anything, Jake took a menacing step toward him. “What the hell are you doing with my sister, Andrews?”

Disbelief punched through him. This is Alexis? The shock on her face gave him all the answer he needed.

Of all the women here tonight, he had to crave the only one he could never have. Let go of her. It was way harder than it should’ve been.

Happy New Year. Yeah, right.

She’s the only one he wants…and the one he can never have

Ella Clark has been in love with Alex Grayson forever. She’s tired of being invisible—or worse, being treated like his kid sister. If she can just get him to drop his iron-fisted control for two seconds, she’ll prove she knows exactly how to blow his mind.

Alex has been fighting his attraction to Ella since her should-have-been-innocent sweet sixteen kiss burned down his world. He’s damaged, and there’s no way he’ll ever drag her into his screwed up life. Until she offers him something he’s always craved—steamy, no-strings sex inside his exclusive BDSM club. Where she’ll be safe from the darkness that haunts him.

Except there’s nothing safe about being with Ella, and the more she gives, the harder it is to let her go. If he stays, he risks everything, but how can he walk away from the only woman he’s ever needed?

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