Hong Kong Heat from Raven McAllan

I love to travel. I’d say anywhere, but that would be a lie. I prefer somewhere warm. I don’t generally write a journal, but on holiday I do. Sometimes it’s a lot, others not so much.

But I do try to record my thoughts and impressions.

I skimmed through one the other day.

It said, Hong Kong, day 1. There’s no two ways about it, I have to come back again. And again. There’s so much to see and do, I could spend a year here and still not see the half.

Well, I have been back again and again. (Sadly not for a year, though I’ve managed every season at least once.) And I still haven’t seen the half.

But I have written a book set there.

Have I done it justice? I hope so, because now it’s out in digital, and print.

(chair swivel jiggle, pop open the fizz, mega squee!)

And as I wrote I was transported back to my favorite city. Scents sounds, views and memories all crowded in, and helped me write. Oh, and maybe this is where I must add, no, not everything in the book is from personal experience and memory wink. I do have an author’s imagination. However, Lamma Island is there, so is the track over it, and when Dh and I walked it (we didn’t shelter from the rain until we got to the Indian Restaurant snigger) so was the boy selling Ice Lollies.

Sai Kung is Sai Kung, Hong Park ditto…. And you get the drift. This book comes from the heart… And the memories.

Blurb:

Debra Scotburn never thought of herself as a cougar, until she fell in lust at first sight with a much younger man.

Braam Van Meister, a hotshot—and hot-bod—trouble- doesn’t do commitment, until the older, curvy, vivacious brunette robs him off his ability to control a certain body part.

Unable to keep their hands off each other, they embark on a passion-filled holiday fling.

Surely that is all it can ever be? Braam’s work takes him all around the world at a moment’s notice, and Debra is on the last leg of her middle-aged-crisis induced gap year.

When misunderstandings tear them apart, can they both admit their love and find the trust needed to make this more than just a fling?

A wee excerpt, just for you…

(the story is set in a hotel. One of the doormen has been assaulted. Braam is trying to find out why and who by…

“Simon, enough. I’m weary and I need to sleep. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.”

Simon Yip also stood. “Okay, point taken. It’s late and my wife says she’s going to buy a cardboard cut-out of me so the children know what I look like. I’ll ring you in the morning if I need anything else. Take care and look out for low flying arms.” He chuckled at his own wit and walked away. The young policeman with him followed behind.

Braam locked the office and headed in the opposite direction. If Deb—he must discover the rest of her name—were still in his suite, she’d probably be asleep.

He opened the suite door quietly. He could hear the TV on low and guessed it would be playing to itself. Poor woman, why on earth would she take a chance on him?

Braam dropped his loose change into a bowl and walked around the corner into the lounge area.

Deb looked up at him from over a cup of what looked like tea and smiled. “They let you go then?”

If smiles were rated, that one would be off the scale. He grinned.

“With a little bit of smart talking and blackmail.”

She looked somewhat alarmed.

“No, hey, not really. I went to school with the sergeant. I didn’t have to say I’d dish the dirt on how he was pee farthest up the wall champion for three years running.”

Deb burst out laughing and the liquid in her cup sloshed dangerously near the rim. “Were you the runner-up?”

Braam reached into the fridge and took out a bottle of wine. He wanted just one small glass. “Never took part,” he said gravely. “I was the time keeper because I had a second hand on my watch.”

He grabbed the cup from her as she sniggered so much tears spiked her lashes.

“Steady. Here.” He passed Deb a tissue and held the bottle out. “Fresh cuppa, Sav Blanc, or shall I open some fizz?”

Debra wiped her eyes. “Not fizz. It might shoot out of the bottle and up the wall.”

“There is that. Sav Blanc?”

Debra nodded. “A small one that’s all. It’s silly o’clock and I bet you have to work tomorrow?”

“True.” Braam poured two glasses and passed one to her before sitting on the settee next to her and stretching his legs out with a sigh. “Ahh, I need this. Bloody assholes, and thank you for waiting. It was so good to see you in here when I got back.” He squeezed her hand and she returned the gesture. “Hell, I’m so achy and weary. And so glad you’re here, Deb, whoever you are.” He stretched his arm out. “C’mere and let me have a hug please.”

Debra wriggled and leaned against him. Her perfume was delicate and sexy. It was a pity he was too shattered to do anything about the way he wanted to feel. However, her snuggled next to him was a good start.

“Hmm, that’s beautiful,” he said drowsily. He could stay like they were forever. “Lovely perfume.”

“Fancy recognising it. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Deb swivelled around to look up at him.

He had no idea what she was talking about. “Pardon?”

“Recognising my perfume,” she said. “Beautiful.”

“Ah.” Should he own up? “Sadly I didn’t, I just knew I like it. And wishing I wasn’t so bloody knackered not to have the energy to do what I want.”

“Which is?” She sounded as if she genuinely wanted to know.

Braam opted to tell her and if she slapped his face and left, well better now than later.  To screw you senseless. Maybe he’d better phrase it a little less crudely.

“To make love to you. To discover everything there is to know about you. To see if we have what we both need.” He raised his uninjured shoulder a little in a sort of shrug. It was hard to put his feelings into words. He was a man for heaven’s sake and they weren’t supposed to bare their soul easily. “I have a gut feeling we have something that could be more than a lot of people ever get in a lifetime. Is it weird? Yes. Do I think it sounds stupid because we hardly know each other? Yes. Am I bothered? No, not as long as you feel the same.”

He waited. The fridge buzzed as its motor cut in and stopped as abruptly as it had started. It was so hard not to rush into speech and demand that she tell him her thoughts.

“I’m not sure what I feel to be honest,” Debra said slowly. “I’m scared how much I want you to want me. Appalled that I almost made love without protection. Hell, I’ve drummed that into my kids since forever. I used to do lessons in it. Safe sex or no sex was one of my classes. I was a teacher. That apart, I know I do want to see where we go from here.”

Braam refrained from doing a high five. “Shall we take it slowly? Or as slow as we can within our timescale then?”

Deb smiled. “Oh yes.” She kissed his cheek and nuzzled his neck.

Braam went from tired to aroused in less time than you could say condom alert. He ignored the reminder of his bruises that his body gave him, as he lifted Deb onto his lap.

“I’m too heavy,” she protested but didn’t try to get off.

“You’re not, you’re perfect.” He stroked her arms in a way he hoped reassured her.

“Hmm, which bits of me have you ignored?” Deb said. “Shall I list stuff?”

“Nothing to list. Now cease wriggling or my attempts to take it slowly will go up in flames. Or in a hard dick.” He was very aware of that part of his body waking up.

“Yeah, sorry.” She didn’t sound it. “Well, for one thing, I’m cradle snatching. Got me a toy boy.” She bit her lip. “Do you mind that I’m so much older than you?”

What? “Woman, you do talk crap at times. I’m thirty-two for goodness sake, neither a toy, nor a boy.”

“I’m forty-four with more baggage than a jumbo jet.”

She’s worried about that?

“Twelve years is nothing. Hey, you’re merely a cougar. You’re as old as you feel. I feel seventy at the moment so that works out well. Now hush. Let’s snuggle and cuddle for a bit.” Braam did what he’d wanted to do since it had registered she’d waited for him. He stroked his hand down her cheek, across her neck and over the material that covered her breasts. “Damned if I don’t want to see you naked. Hold you next to me and stroke your soft skin. Feel it next to mine and then make love with you in every which way. Go to bed with you, wake up with you and, well, see where it all goes. No empty promises.”

Deb slid off his lap and held her hand out. “Do you have an alarm clock?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Then how about you set it and let’s do one of those things for a while. Snuggle and cuddle. You look so damned uncomfortable on that settee. At least we can get horizontal.”

“Naked?” He injected a leer into his tone. “Skin to skin and all that?”

“Don’t push it, mate. Walk not run.”

 

Buy links (well just in case I’ve inspired you to guys to find out what I know and what is my imagination…)

Totally Bound | Amazon UK | Amazon US | All Romance eBooks

Happy Reading,

Love R x