“It’s the Mississippi.”

Rhys’ low whisper sounded almost reverent in her ear. Standing at the bank of the enormous river, she could understand why.

“But I thought it was muddy.”

He pulled her back closer against his chest, wrapping his arms tighter around her while keeping his chin tucked securely over her shoulder.

“It is, in most places, but it’s relatively calm here, plus right now the sun is blinding you from seeing its actual color.”

The perfect time.

He was right, the sun danced across the top of the water like tiny diamonds more beautiful than anything she’d ever seen. The grass everywhere she looked was bright green, melding with the softer greens of enormous willows and other trees that looked like they’d stood guarding this bank for a hundred years. In the distance, she could see some water traffic and they weren’t so far off the road that cars passing wouldn’t see them, but right before her, for this second in time, the Mississippi was all hers.

Hers and Rhys’.

“Let’s sit down.”

“Harlee, baby, there’s been a lot of flooding this season, the ground’s soaked.”

She pulled his hand, leading him closer to the old tree behind them, “I don't care. So I’ll get my butt wet.”

“Harlee, you’ll get your butt drenched.”

She went to sit anyway and he grabbed her up, “Okay, okay. At least sit on me. That way one of us will stay dry.”

She held back laughter at the look on his face as he slumped to the wet soggy ground. Chivalrous as the day is long. Giving him a mocking smile, she quipped, “You’re the kind of guy who’d put his cape over a puddle for a woman to walk on, aren’t you?”

With one eye still closed in apparent discomfort, he situated his back against the trunk, his tone was leery when he answered her.

“I suppose.”

“It wasn’t an insult. I’ve just never met a guy like you before.”

He held his arms up to her. “Come on.” With a passing smile, she happily let him lead her onto his lap.

“Justin’s not like this?”

“I’m not sure.”

The farther she got from Justin, the more she realized the Justin she thought she was in love with probably didn’t even exist. She’d made him into something in her mind—in her dreams—that he couldn’t live up to, and in all honesty, she had to accept that on some level he probably knew that, and in part was why he needed to get away from her. It felt shameful to admit, but she couldn’t hide the truth from herself any longer.

“He was always kind, but I think maybe I overwhelmed him. It was as if he always waited to follow my lead before deciding on a plan of action. I think he wanted to please me so much that he’d do anything I asked.”

“And not tell you how he really felt about it?”

She shrugged. “Guess that about sums it up.”

A long tendril of hair that had fallen from her ponytail twisted around his finger as he softly spoke right next to her ear, “You know, Harlee, don't blame yourself. I think Justin has a lot invested in not letting people see him.”

Harlee heard pain tightening his voice as he continued.

“He’s holding onto a hell of a lot of guilt, you know, and I know what that can do to a person. Being constantly fearful that everybody can see right through you, and will reject you right off. Or worse, they’ll hate you as much as you hate yourself.”

“Is that why you try so hard to push people away, make them hate you, that way you feel in control of it at least?”

His head fell back against the tree with a hard chuckle. “Damn, you should have been the psych major. Probably would have gotten farther than me.”

He tugged her back harder against him, hiding his face in her neck and hair as if the vulnerability was all too much for him. Harlee figured he never spoke about his past and was honored to get this much but wanted more, needed more, so she pushed him, gently.

“How’d you know about this spot?”

She laid her head back casually against his shoulder, her hand resting over his around her stomach, feeling as if they were one body. She wanted one heart, but wondered if that was too much.

“I used to work at a quarry just down the road for a while. Used to come here on my lunch hour. It was quiet. I could think.”

They were both quiet after that, lost in their own thoughts and the beauty before them. Harlee watched a badger making its way towards the shoreline as dragonflies danced over the water’s edge. The landscape was so different from what she was used to, but she found herself feeling attuned with it, as if she was meant to be here.

A boat went by, whistling at them. Both returned the wave from the captain in the wheelhouse. She was contentedly ready to spend the rest of her life in that moment. Especially when Rhys started hypnotically running his fingers down her cheek and neck.

“This is where I got my life back. Such as it is.”

A hard sound emanated from him, breaking Harlee’s heart. She wanted to argue with him. His life had some turmoil, there was the drinking and she assumed the womanizing, and the anti-social behavior, but he owned his own business, and had a heart of solid gold even if he did try to hide it with every bit as much effort as a size sixteen hooker trying to shimmy into a size eight spandex mini.

“Sitting here on this bank, I had a moment of sanity, or insanity. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which is which.”

Melancholy words brought her back and she noticed his laughter held more pain than humor, but she understood what he meant perfectly.

“I decided to go home, get a job and if nothing else, stop giving Mama more to worry about. I think it would have killed me if anything had happened to her while I was off being an ass. And on top of that, I wanted to help people, kids, like me.

“For a small amount of time I thought I actually could. I got my GED, then went to community college. Lasted a couple of years, believe it or not, but too much prodding into my psyche about pushed me over the edge and I dropped out.”

“You have an incredibly strong spirit, Rhys.”

She remembered her early times with Justin. He spoke more easily with her than Rhys
did, he readily told her everything, but held back his emotions. Rhys hardly wanted to tell her anything, but when he did, it wasn’t just words he shared, but all of him.

“I know nothing about you, Harlee. Like, what’s your favorite color, favorite flower, or song, or movie? What kind of food do you like? What’s your favorite thing about living in the desert?”

She reached back and covered his mouth with her fingers. “And if you keep asking questions I won’t be able to answer any.”

She smiled and brought her hand down to her lap, lacing it with Rhys’.

“Yellow’s my favorite color, Gardenia my favorite flower. Song I’m not sure I could pick one, there’s too many to choose from, but maybe something by Shania, or Beyonce, or Michael Buble, which I guess probably wouldn’t be his song, but whatever.”

“Ah, strong women and a man not afraid to walk to the beat of his own drum, very telling.”

She laughed at his observation. She’d never felt strong herself, but she did tend to gravitate towards those that were.

“You walk to your own beat and your mom’s a strong woman.”

“She’d have to be I guess. What about movie?”

Harlee drew deep breaths of muggy river air into her lungs, relaxing more and more with each one. This was the perfect time of day to see the river. She couldn’t imagine it ever looking more beautiful.

“Gone With the Wind, maybe. I love the south and I love movies where you see someone’s whole life. I mean, when that movie starts, Scarlet—love her or hate her—is on the brink of womanhood. By the end, she’s had three marriages, lost two children, committed murder, lived through a war and hopefully, at long last—discovered love.”

“Even though she lost it?”

He sounded skeptical, even without looking at him, but she knew her heart on this one. “Lost love is still love. It’s like this river; it can’t pass by and leave you unchanged.”

She felt herself falling further and further under the spell of his voice, his touch, and the river and nearly sighed with contentment.

“Have you ever been in love, Harlee?”

The question struck her as odd coming from Rhys, but then it wasn’t like he knew how she felt about him. With great care, she turned in his lap, almost kneeing him in the chest when she tried to wrap her leg around his waist. Finally, she sat chest to chest with him, gently caressing his face as she stared deep into his stormy blue eyes and wondered what to tell him.

“I thought I loved Justin.”

That statement was followed again by a long stretch of silence as Harlee let her fingers trace every inch of his face. The scar above his lip, the creases around his eyes, the fullness of his lips, the straight line of his nose.

“I love you, Rhys.”

Labels: blade publishing, Samantha Lucas, Untamable excerpt

**Excerpt contains Adult language. Untamable available Sept 2nd, only from Blade Publishing. The video for Untamable follows this post. ;)

“Harlee.”

He said it in concession as he walked past her table without even a glance. In only a moment, he would be gone. Her heart would start working properly, and she’d be able to breathe again. But she had to admit—to herself at the very least—she’d also be miserable. So on a sharp breath she called after him, “Rhys.”

He stopped with his back to her. She watched the muscles bunch under his shirt, the tension radiating through his shoulders. For a few seconds she wondered if he would simply bolt, without a word. She sighed out of pure frustration. Finally, he turned around and faced her. The desire she saw reflected in his eyes mirrored her own. She was sure of it, but that wasn’t the point, she wanted to find some comfortable ground with this man who would inevitably be a part of her life.

“Sit with me a while?”

She made the offer softly, with hope and maybe a little fear that he’d accept it. The bottom line was they needed to get past this. “Please?”

Rhys stood staring down at her. Her bright green eyes, filled with such entreaty, were killing him. How was it possible he could be such a soft touch after all he’d been through? Why was it not possible simply to walk away from her? The bottom line, of course, was that he didn’t want to sit with her; he wanted to fuck her—repeatedly, until neither of them could move.

He inhaled coffee aromas deep into his lungs while he tried to gather the courage to either sit down with her, or run. Right now, he felt a little like a paralyzed rabbit caught at the end of a hunter’s rifle.

He’d had the dream again yesterday. Only since actually meeting Harlee the woman, the dreams had changed, were becoming more personal.

More intimate.

He woke from them hard and in desperate need of release. Even now, he could feel the tension in his cock growing. He wanted to let it out, then find it a nice wet home inside Harlee, where he could find hours of mindless bliss pleasuring her oh-so-sweet body.

Cloaked heavily in sarcasm and I don’t give a shit, he pulled out the chair opposite her. Then decided to go for broke and took the one beside her, placing his back to the sun streaming through the window.

“Haven’t seen you around lately. Decide your heart wasn’t worth the effort?”

He pulled the cap off his tall coffee cup and shook the foam back into the drink nonchalantly, as if he wasn’t rock hard and fighting every instinct and urge he had to just fuck her now on the table. The girl had his nerves ratcheting so tight he could barely breathe. Still he managed a seductive grin in her direction, hoping to annoy her a little, if nothing else.

“What are you talking about?”

He nearly laughed at how her eyebrows snapped together, and the look of utter confusion that washed over her features.

“The gym. You decide getting fit wasn’t worth the effort, or just wasn’t worth putting up with me?”

This time as he sent her the grin, her eyes narrowed and he knew he’d hit closer to home than she liked.

Good, serves her right.

At least it wasn’t just his skin getting something shoved under it; and the wounded animal look wasn’t going to work on him either, he wouldn’t let it.

“You told me to take my fitness needs back to Vegas.”

He smiled at her and with his thick southern drawl called her out. “So I did. Yet you obviously haven’t.”

She was taking very deep, very deliberate, slow breaths that almost made him laugh. They were more alike then she probably wanted to know.

“Is that really what you want? For me to leave town?”

Rhys sat back casually in the chair. As casually as he could, despite catching Harlee staring at his jeans. He wanted to offer her a private showing, but bit his tongue.

“Y-you know, we, we...” She closed her eyes tight and let out the last deep breath she’d taken on a rush. “Damn it! I can’t even talk around you.”

“And that’s somehow my fault, princess?”

She opened her eyes and glared at him. Fire sparked from those dazzling green depths.

“Stop calling me that!”

“See, you talk just fine when you want to.” He took a sip from his cup and covertly added, “And when you’re not staring at my legs, or was it my cock you wanted?”

Her jaw dropped and she stared mutely at him for so long he had to fight against the urge to squirm.

“You’re right. Sorry. I was staring.”

“That’s all right, sugar. You stare all you want.” After swallowing another sip of brew, he leaned close enough to draw in her scent. “I know I’m going to.”

Labels: blade publishing, romance novels, Samantha Lucas, Untamable

Labels: blade publishing, book trailer, Samantha Lucas, Untamable

This is the part I think women don’t understand. When a guy falls in love, his lover’s body parts become bewitching. I’m not going to tell you that our heads don’t turn when we see a stacked blond walking down the street. But when we fall for you—really, really fall for you—you hijack our sense of beautiful. What’s sexy to us? You—in the "before" picture.

That is the end of a fascinating and very honest article about one man and his view of woman and thier bodies. Read the whole thing here, it's great!

This article is copied from The National Zoo Website. All links are theirs. ;)

Asian elephants are endangered in the wild, where perhaps only 30,000 still live in forests of south and southeast Asia. They are endangered in North American zoos, too. That's why the 2001 birth of Kandula, the result of artificial insemination, was such a triumph.

This young male represents a major effort by the National Zoo to develop a herd of breeding Asian elephants, build a new Zoo habitat called Elephant Trails for these majestic animals, and help to save populations both in zoos and in the wild through science and conservation initiatives.

Celebrate Asian Elephants

On August 23, come to the Zoo for a day-long celebration of these amazing animals. Special demonstrations will show how our keepers and vets care for elephants, and what a day in the life of a Zoo elephant is like. Our oldest elephant, Ambika, turns 60 this year so stop by the yards to watch her enjoy her birthday “cake,” specially prepared by the Zoo’s nutritionists. Get the details.

Shanthi Is Not Pregnant

Shanthi, one of two female Asian elephants at the Zoo, was artificially inseminated in January but is not pregnant. In 2001, Shanthi gave birth to Kandula. He was the fifth elephant in the world conceived by artificial insemination. Through past artificial insemination procedures done with Shanthi, Zoo scientists collected information that led to a greater understanding of elephant reproduction. An elephant birth would help us in building a security population of Asian elephants, in case they go extinct in the wild.

Asian elephants are endangered. Fewer than 30,000 remain in the wild, most in small fragmented populations.

Kandula now stands at about six and a half feet tall at the shoulder and weighs about 4,250 pounds. He is making a transition away from his family. more

You can see the Zoo's Asian elephants live on our cam, which sometimes looks to their outdoor habitat and other times looks into an indoor enclosure.

Read All About It

Find out about the Zoo's history of caring for and studying Asian elephants, and what we're doing today to conserve them. more

What is Elephant Trails? A Campaign to Save Asian Elephants! more

Web Cam Is Offline

The web cams for elephants are unavailable during the renovation of our elephant habitats. Please check the elephant pages on our website for Elephant Trails updates. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Mammal Mystery
What animal scales rocks in Africa and is related to elephants but weighs just a few pounds? Find out.

Elephant Enigma
How do you get a four-ton animal to open up and say, "Ahhh"? Find out.

Asian Elephant Neighbors
In Asia, elephants may share broadly overlapping ranges with tigers, sloth bears, clouded leopards, and other Zoo species. Thousands of years ago, Asian elephants and giant pandas may have met. Asia Trail brings these species together at the National Zoo.

Other Elephants
One species of elephant lives in Asia, while two different species live in Africa: the savanna elephant and the forest elephant.

The savanna elephant, which you may see in many zoos, ranges through open habitats in eastern and southern Africa, while the forest elephant occupies central and west African forests, such as those in Gabon. Only recently did scientists decide, based on DNA studies, that these two forms were indeed distinct species. more

Rhys Eckhart is haunted by dreams. Dreams of a childhood torn apart by tragedy and dreams of a woman he’d do anything to possess. Trapped by scars no one could possibly understand, he's spent most of his adult life effectively building walls to keep everyone out. Until one small woman rocks his world to its core and suddenly it’s time to face his demons.

Harlee dreams of a life with white picket fences and babies and puppies. She wants nice and orderly and controllable. She has a plan and she’s holding onto it tight, despite the quiet whisperings of her heart, until the night Rhys walks into her life. Now she’s dealing with passion and forbidden temptations and tormented by what ifs. The biggest one being, what if she wasn’t already his brother’s fiancée?


Available Sept 2nd! Only from Blade Publishing

Labels: blade publishing, Samantha Lucas, Untamable

Gorillas; There are three subspecies of gorillas living in different parts of Africa. •Western Lowland - Gorilla gorilla gorilla •Eastern Lowland - Gorilla gorilla graueri •Mountain Gorilla gorilla berengei

The first recorded gorilla sighting (by western civilization) was in the 5th century B.C. by a Roman explorer.

A gorilla family usually includes one silverback, the strongest male and the undisputed leader, one immature male between 8 and 13 years old, three or four adult females, who stay with the silverback for life, and three to six youngsters under eight years old. Some groups are larger or smaller. Males sometimes travel alone or form bachelor groups.

Mountain gorillas live at altitudes of up to 4100 m. (13,450 ft).

The mountain gorilla's diet consists of leaves, coarse stems, bark, roots, vines, bamboo, wild cherry, thistles and nettles, and when food is scarce, insects, snails and slugs.

Western lowland gorillas eat more fruit than the other subspecies; it is readily available within the lower elevations of their range. They are selective feeders that utilize the fruits, stems, flowers, shoots, bulbs, bark, leaves, and pith of over 200 plant species.

The oldest animal that we know of in the wild died at 35 years of age.

Facial expressions for communicating include a play face, lip-tucking (tension), protruding tongue (uncertainty or concentration), and yawning (stress) (Dixson, 1981; Hoff and Maple, 1982).

Fewer than 650 mountain gorillas and 40,000 lowland gorillas are left in the world. Gentle and intelligent creatures, gorillas are more closely-related to humankind than many might expect.

Gorillas are mainly ground-living, but where trees are strong enough and fruiting, whole groups can be seen in them. Chimpanzee nests are similar to the gorillas, but the chimpanzees nest much higher in the trees.

Gorillas live about 35 years in the wild and more than 50 years in a zoological environment. The mortality rate for immature gorillas under six years of age is over 40% and the risks are highest during the first year. Fighting silverbacks, predation, injury, and disease are all serious threats to youngsters that lessen as the apes reach maturity. However, the risks continue throughout life.

Gorillas produce more than 15 recognized vocalizations. Some sounds are used mainly for group communication because gorillas are nearly invisible to each other while feeding and traveling in the vegetation. Gorillas have never been observed hunting or feeding on any animals other than invertebrates such as termites and ants.Deep belches are common during feeding and suggest contentment. Pig-like grunts are used to establish right-of-way during foraging and to settle squabbles. Male gorillas roar and growl during aggressive behaviors. Silverbacks vocalize the most.

Gorillas seldom drink water; their succulent food items provide enough dietary water.

All great apes exhibit a capacity for complex learning. In behavioral research facilities, some gorillas have learned sign language and formed very simple sentences to communicate with people. Chimpanzees have been observed creating tools from their environment and then using them to accomplish certain tasks such as probing for termites with sticks or gathering water for drinking with crumpled leaves. Young chimps learn these behaviors from watching other chimps. Gorillas have not been observed making or using tools in the wild.

The Future of the Gorilla

Across Africa, eco-tourism and gorilla-viewing tourism continue to be the most effective method of "sustainable use" being developed by conservation programs. In Gabon, where visitors are unlikely to see gorillas, the success of eco-tourism played a role in the official creation of a totally protected core area within Lopé Reserve. Despite the advantages of tourism for conservation, we are all aware of its drawbacks and the need for constant monitoring of its effects. The time is ripe for a thorough assessment across Africa, of tourism's impact on gorillas and their forest habitat. There need to be more sites like Rwanda's Parc National des Volcans, where some gorilla groups are visited only by researchers, and can act as a baseline against which to judge the influences of tourism.

Adopt a Gorilla today!

Labels: animal conservation, gorilla

I got essentially a revise and resubmit. :(

Which is fine, and I'm still letting all their comments sink in. It's just the people I had read it before I sent it in (which to be honest I rarely do and maybe this is why) said things very different from what the publisher said, so I'm torn.

I so appreciate the team at Liquid Silver who gave me such a thought out response, but I'm also completely bogged down with other projects and I'm having to move, so I honestly have no idea when I'd be able to revise if I choose to go that way. I'm so sorry, because I know you all are waiting for it. I'll let you know as soon as I decide something.

Labels: animal conservation, polar bears, wildlife