Rosellen Price
Blood and Wine is the first adventure in a series of Rosellen Price’s most engaging character, Madeline Fox.
Madeline, Interior Designer, is well known in the community of the rich, for her flair for the exquisite and her knowledge of period furniture.
Madeline gets romantically involved with a cop that is working a local case involving a serial killer.
Upon leaving a lavish party, Madeline gets taken down by the killer and wakes up in an abandoned lighthouse. Terrified, knowing none of the other women made it out alive, she plots her escape.
Blood and Wine delivers a stunning, absorbing thriller, that grabs the reader from the first sentence, and races through to the shocking end.
Rosellen Price studied Interior Design and period furniture in college. She lives with her loving fiance and her three shih-tzu’s, Topas, Onyx and their new little Emerald in the country in the Midwest. This is her first hardcover debut.
“I’ve got the most perfect Porterhouse steaks and a couple of bottles of wine,” a sexy voice said, “you want to join me for dinner?”
“May I see your ID officer?”
“I’ll show you anything you want, Ms. Fox,” he purred.
“Oh, my!” I exclaimed with a chuckle. “May I bring anything?”
“How about your tooth brush?” he teased. “See you at eight.” and hung up.
Chapter 20
I took a long hot shower, washing my hair with the rich jasmine-scented shampoo and conditioner that Frederick Fekkai made up espeically for me, lathered twice with jasmine body shampoo, and after briskly toweling off, smoothed coordinating creamy lotion all over my body.
The last few days had been unseasonably warm, so I dressed in very soft pink cotton cuffed shorts, as my tan was still a beautiful creamy color, a matching top with wine bottles and wine glasses happily dancing across it with beads and stones that shined, and soft pink sandals that also had beads and stones that adorned them. To this I added fun pink ear bobs, then twisted my hair up into a pink clasp.
He had rented a cottage just down the beach from me, and as I approached I could see him through the kitchen French doors. He had on khaki shorts, a polo shirt and dock shoes. He was mixing something, very engrossed in his work, so I snuck up the stairs from the beach and rapped sharply on the glass, watching him jump and throw the utensils he was using into the air. He screamed something, then muttered something else while he opened the door for me.
“Awfully jumpy for a cop, aren’t you?” I snickered.
“Cute,” was his only reply.
“What are you making?” I inquired.
“Caesar salad, so why don’t you mix us a drink?” he glowered.
I spied a cocktail bar at the end of the kitchen and proceeded to fix a couple of Black Velvet’s on the rocks. When I handed him his, he pushed me against the counter, and I felt the hardness of him against me. He lowered his head and his mouth came down over mine with a possessiveness that surprised me. I kissed him back feeling the intense heat, and then suddenly he moved away, almost like he needed to get that out of his system. I should have felt assaulted, however I felt wonderful instead.
He went back to preparations of the salad and asked me how I liked my steak.
“Rare, or medium rare, depending on the chef,” I replied.
He glanced sideways at me, and resumed his duties. “So, just what brought you to this area?” he asked.
“Well, I was born in Iowa, studied in New York, and decided if I were to ever make any money I needed to be where people loved to spend money. I’ve worked very hard to be the very best I can, and I am lucky to have an excellent reputation throughout the community of the privileged.”
At this point the salad was done and he went to the refrigerator, pulled out two beautiful thick steaks, and headed for the grill. I could smell the baked potatoes in the oven, I picked up my bourbon and headed out onto the patio right behind him. He threw the steaks onto the flaming grill, and smiled.
He was so confident, so sexy, without even trying. It was almost like he didn’t care what you thought of him. He knew who he was and didn’t care if anybody liked him or not.
He had a patio table set for dinner and even had all the flatware in the right place! He reached over and flipped a switch on a CD player, and for the second time tonight he surprised me by playing classical music. A timer went off on the stove and I offered to get the potatoes and salad. He had wine open and breathing, and we sat down to a wonderful meal.
We talked about some of my clients and some funny things that have happened to me over the years, like the time I submitted my bill to a clients husband, or so I thought. Turns out the guy is her lover, takes one look at the amount and says to me, “she isn’t that good in bed”, hands the bill back to me and walks off. I damn near died. He had a few funny stories of his own so we sat there enjoying the night and a second bottle of wine.
Finally we got up to carry the dishes into the kitchen, and before I knew what was happening he gathered me into his arms. He slowly kissed me and his lips were warm and moist. His arms were strong around me and I felt totally protected. Then suddenly he scooped me up in his arms and carried me straight to his bedroom.
