Excerpt from Tall, Dark and Naked

Coming in December, my tale of loneliness and love wrapped in a shiny red bow...


Anna O'Banyon is a woman who understands loss and loneliness more than she wants to. She desperately doesn't want to wake up alone on Christmas Day. Jasper Snow, a member of the Winter Clan of the Water Elemental elves at the North Pole, is put in charge by Kris Kringle of the newly-formed Mended Hearts Division of Santa Claus, Incorporated. It's his job to make sure Anna's wish comes true.

Good thing for her he's so dedicated.

~ * ~

Kris straightened in his chair and held up his hand. “I’ve made my decision, Mr. Snow. You are now officially the President of our Mended Hearts Division.”

When Jazz stood there, staring at him, searching for something—anything—that could change the other man’s mind, Kris waved his hand in a shooing motion. “That’s all, Mr. Snow. You may go.”

Jazz clamped his jaw on the pithy retort that strained against his lips and scrubbed his hand over his goatee. Damned sanctimonious… Turning, he stalked to the office door and flung it open.

“Oh, there’s just one more thing,” Kris said, his tone colored with a dark note of glee. “I want you to personally handle our first client. Show the troops how it’s done, so to speak.”

Jazz slowly turned to face his tormenter. Kris’s chubby cheeks were red and his blue eyes sparkled with good cheer. At Jazz’s expense.

“I don’t do field work,” Jazz said through his teeth. Forty years he’d spent here. To be told he had to go back out in the trenches—to handle a fucking romantic issue yet—wasn’t welcomed news. He clenched his fists against the urge to throttle Kris’s thick throat, patriarch of the clan or no.

“You do now.” Kris stared at him and the good humor leeched from his gaze. He appeared every inch the Patriarch—hard, cold and immovable. “You still have ten years of your fifty-year commitment here at the North Pole, Jazz. I know you’ll make the Mended Hearts Division the best-run division in Santa Claus, Incorporated. You can get your assignment from Sapphire.” He looked down at the paperwork in front of him, effectively dismissing Jazz.

Jazz walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him, restraining his temper until he could get someplace more private. He glanced at Kris’s assistant and scowled at the smirk on her lips.

“Oh, come on, Jazz,” Sapphire Goldstone said. “Lover-boy that you are, you could do this with both hands tied behind your back.” She tucked a strand of periwinkle-colored hair behind one pointed ear and held out a slim folder. “Your assignment, should you decide to accept it…”

When his scowl deepened at her reference to a human television spy show and he refused to take the folder, she giggled and placed it back on the desk. “You Water Elementals, always so serious.” Standing, she sauntered over to him. His gaze skimmed up her long, slender legs, over her curvy hips up to her large breasts. She brought her hands up to cup those lovely mounds of flesh, her clear green eyes darkening as she pinched her nipples. “You should be more like us Earth Elementals, Jasper.”

“How’s that?” he asked, raising one brow. “Lusty? Flighty and flirty?”

“Oh, Jazz.” Her eyes went half-mast as her fingers on her nipples moved faster. “All Elementals are lusty. We all take our pleasure when we can, even Kris. Even you, lover. And if someone watches, well…” She moaned softly and shivered. Stopping in front of him, she moved her fingers to the buttons of her flimsy green blouse and began undoing them. “You want some help getting started on your assignment?” she asked.

Jazz kept his gaze fixed on her silken flesh as it appeared in the gap of her blouse. When she shrugged off the silky material, he immediately bent and pulled one stiff pink bud into his mouth, sucking hard. Her fingers wrapped in his hair and she moaned. He moved to the other breast and licked the hard tip, then sucked the entire areola between his lips.

He wasn’t even close to being done with her pretty breasts when she moved away. She waggled a finger at him. Cupping her breasts again, she said, “These are for inspiration only, lover.”

“And I’m inspired, ” he growled, reaching for her.

She danced out of his reach. “Behave, Jasper, or you won’t get what you need from me.”

Jazz braced his fists on his hips. Sapphire always liked to play before sex. He just wasn’t in the mood today.

“Oh, don’t pout,” she whispered. She rubbed her thumb over his lips, then dropped to her knees in front of him. Looking up from under her lashes, her tongue swept over her lush lips as she drew down his zipper with agonizing slowness. Reaching into the opening, she freed his cock and wrapped both hands around his growing length. “This is what I want.”

There wasn’t another elf in the North Pole who could suck a rod like Sapphire. Once she got going, the man attached to that hard piece of flesh didn’t have a chance.

When she pulled him into her throat and swallowed, he groaned, the sound coming from deep down in his gut. Then she swirled her tongue around the sensitive crown, lapping at him like a sexy little kitten. Her fingers danced over his taut balls, tugging and pulling in rhythm to her swirling tongue.

She took another deep draw on his cock, but before he could spurt, she gripped him tightly at the base of his shaft, stemming his release. With a smile, she pulled a red ribbon from her pocket and tied it around his cock, making a fancy multi-looped bow with the ends. Then she slid his still-hard decorated shaft back into his pants and pulled up the zipper. She patted his groin. “There. Now you’re ready to head off on your assignment.”

Copyright ©2006 Sherrill Quinn. All Rights Reserved.

Coming in December at Whiskey Creek Press Torrid!




"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted." ~Mae West