Blog Tour, Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
Vacation Tails by Deanna Wadsworth
Pride of the Caribbean, Book 2
When the full moon rises, your soul will become complete…
Those are the words ominously whispered to Jeremiah Singleton his first day aboard the Pride of the Caribbean—an enchanted cruise ship where paranormals hide in plain sight.
Jeremiah leads a quiet life running an aquarium store. Stepping out of his shell to attend his sister’s wedding aboard the Pride, Jeremiah is delightfully surprised to find himself in a whirlwind romance with a handsome blue-eyed school teacher.
Skip Weaver has always been lucky, so it was no shock when he won a cruise. The one thing Skip hasn’t had any luck with though is love. But his streak of bad luck with love could finally be over when he meets Jeremiah.
However, nothing aboard the Pride is ever that simple.
Ancient legends, untapped magic, secrets from the past, and dangerous stalkers are on the itinerary for this tropical getaway. Both men are about to get the surprise of their lives, and all of it might be too much for their shipboard romance to survive.
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When the first kiss of sand touched Jeremiah’s toes, he dropped his bag, shedding his sandals and T-shirt as he raced toward the water. “C’mon!”
Skip laughed, the sound as musical to his ears as the water crashing on the soft sandy beach.
Jeremiah ran into the surf. When the water hit his knees and he saw the change in the waves—indicating where the seafloor dropped off—he arched his arms overhead and swan dove into the water.
Silence.
The warm tropical waters wrapped around him as he dove deep. He loved the feel of the muscles in his arms cutting through the water. Stopping, he opened his eyes, never bothered by the salt like other people. Turquoise, pristine water surrounded him. He could see little seashells and rocks all the way down on the sandy bottom. Schools of fish, disturbed by his sudden arrival, skittered about. As much as he wanted to stay underwater, he wanted more to spend the afternoon swimming with Skip.
That’s new. I usually don’t want to swim with anyone else.
But then again, Skip wasn’t just anyone else.
He kicked to the surface, breaking free and gulping fresh lungsful of air. He brushed the hair out of his eyes and looked back toward the beach, a little surprised how far he’d swum out. He felt bad when he saw Skip pulling his hair and pacing.
When Jeremiah waved, Skip threw up his arms in relief.
Did he think I drowned? He smirked. He obviously doesn’t know what a good swimmer I am or how at-home I feel in the water.
He did long breast strokes, bouncing along, and enjoying the way the waves sped his advance toward the shore. When he felt the sand swishing in the water, he put his feet down and waded the rest of the way.
Skip looked both amused and annoyed. “Are you crazy? You just gonna go out there without your life vest or nothin’?”
Laughing, he shook the water from his hair. “I swim in the ocean every day, except when the weather’s bad.”
“Every day?”
“Yeah, my house sits on a canal on the intercostal. I go off my dock, then swim down the canal, and out into the water.”
“Don’t you worry about sharks and gators?”
Jeremiah tried not to chuckle again because he didn’t want to sound patronizing. “I see them, but they leave me alone, if I leave them alone.”
Skip’s eyebrows shot up. “I go back to my original theory. You are a crazy man.” His gaze swept up-and-down Jeremiah’s chest. “But fried green tomatoes, are you a sexy crazy man.”
He did chuckle at that as he reached for Skip’s hand. “You wanna get your snorkel gear?”
“Yeah, c’mon.” Skip tugged on his arm, and Jeremiah followed him out of the water to the beach where the staff distributed snorkels, masks, flippers, and life vests.
“I’ll just take the snorkel and mask. I don’t need the other stuff,” Jeremiah told the man with a ponytail and a pouchy belly who seemed to be in charge. The name stitched in his polo shirt read Kelly.
Kelly cocked his head to the side. “For the safety of all of our passengers, sir, the Pride requires you to wear a life vest. But you don’t need to use the flippers.”
Begrudgingly Jeremiah took the life vest and mask with a snorkel hanging from it. Then he helped situate Skip in his gear.
When Skip put his flippers on and tried to walk to the surf, Jeremiah laughed. “Don’t put those on till you’re in the water.”
Skip waved away Jeremiah’s advice. “I’m almost there.” He lifted his flippered feet dramatically so they wouldn’t sink in the sand, looking like a cross between a swamp monster and a duck.
Jeremiah laughed heartily as he followed. When Kelly wasn’t paying attention, he dropped his life vest in the dry sand where Skip had picked up Jeremiah’s hastily abandoned clothing and bag and placed it beside his. He dove in, enjoying being in the water.
And most of all, he enjoyed being there with Skip.
Skip had gotten along famously with his family last night and hadn’t seemed annoyed when Jeremiah needed to tend to Mitch. In fact, he’d been concerned about Mitch when they’d met for the excursion, despite his own predicament. Mitch felt terrible about cussing him out, but Jeremiah had assured him not to worry. His brother had stayed aboard the Pride, nursing a hangover, but with plans to treat himself to a spa day. Despite the previous evening, Mitch insisted he woke feeling better than he had in a long time. “I just needed some Miah time,” he’d said. “Everything’s better when you’re around.”
One more reason Jeremiah intended to push for Mitch to move in with him when they got home. A computer programmer could work from anywhere, and Jeremiah wanted Mitch close so he could protect him.
Just like he intended to protect Skip from his crazy ex-boyfriend.
Frowning, Jeremiah decided to find this David and have words with him. Strong ones. Jeremiah didn’t have a temper, but more than one person—including his own mother—had told him he was downright terrifying on those rare occasions he became angered.
And David threatening Skip made Jeremiah very, very angry.
“C’mon,” Skip called, several yards ahead and closer to the reef.
The sight of his boyfriend—can I call him that?—in the water pushed thoughts of a confrontation with David away for the time being. He was on a tropical beach with a gorgeous man, and he didn’t want to miss a moment of it.
Trunk Bay was a half-moon cove of white sand and turquoise water, protected by a beautiful coral reef. Face down in the water, he breathed easily through the snorkel. Jeremiah caught up to Skip then reached out and took his hand. They glanced at each other underwater. Skip smiling around his snorkel was quite possibly the cutest thing Jeremiah had ever seen. They swam in circles, periodically one of them pointing out a new wonderful sight. Convenient stone markers identifying different fish and types of coral sat on the bottom of the bay, easy to read in the pristine water.
Down on the sandy floor, Jeremiah spied a slender, spotted seashell from a scaphella junonia. He released Skip’s hand and dove down, kicking his legs. Though easily thirty feet down, the cooler water at the bottom invigorated him. When he reached the seafloor, he picked up the tiny junonia shell. It was maybe an inch and a half, empty, and utterly flawless. Jeremiah looked up. The sunlight glistening on the water’s surface silhouetted Skip floating above. Jeremiah’s heart fluttered and he wished he could sit on the ocean floor and stare up at Skip for the rest of his days.
Movement to his left caught his attention.
A large fin flipped around an outcropping of coral. Heart skipping, he blinked several times. But whatever shark or fish was down there did not circle back around. He pushed off the sand and kicked toward the surface, swimming to Skip. He glanced over his shoulder a couple times before he reached the surface. Another flash of green tail made him hesitate. It didn’t look like any fish or shark he recognized. The buoyancy of his body gently floated him the rest away up and he surfaced beside Skip, blowing the water from his snorkel like a whale spout.
“Oh my Lord, you can hold your breath forever! I tried to swim down with you, but I couldn’t get more than six or seven feet before the pressure hurt my ears.”
“Yeah,” Jeremiah agreed, his mind still on the strange tail he’d seen. “Everybody’s different when it comes to diving.”
Something about that fish seemed familiar, like he should know what it was. But he felt like he was playing a trivia game, hearing the clues and knowing the answer, but still coming up blank.
“You’re not even out of breath.” Mask on his forehead, Skip placed his hands on Jeremiah’s chest. “You’re so in shape it makes me feel like a couch spud.”
Jeremiah smiled and pushed his mask up too. He wrapped an arm around Skip’s wet, warm body and drew him close. “I wanted to get you this.” He held out the shell.
“Oh, that sure is purddy,” Skip cried, his face bright with childlike wonder. He traced the conical tip, and then down the spiral rows littered in brown spots.
“It’s the shell for a deep-water sea snail, the scaphella junonia,” Jeremiah explained. “Or Juno’s volute.”
“Aren’t you just a marine life encyclopedia,” Skip teased.
“You like it?” he asked hopefully. “Junonias are highly collectable with beachcombers because they’re very hard to find naturally. Unless you’re lucky enough to find one on the beach after a big storm. It’s beautiful and rare. An unexpected find… just like you.”
Skip’s face wrinkled into a touching smile. “Aww, you’re the sweetest thing, hon. I love it, but am I allowed to keep it? The guy on the bus said we couldn’t take shells or rocks.”
Distracted by the incident with David, Jeremiah had missed that part, but he supposed it made sense. If every visitor took something, eventually there’d be nothing left. “I’ll get you another one on the ship,” he promised. “They’re common bycatch from deep sea shrimp trawling, so they’re easy to find in gift shops, just very rare in the wild.”
Skip studied the shell for a long time, tracing the edges. “Nope,” he finally decided. “I’m keeping it because it’s from you.” He tugged on the Velcro pocket of his swim trunks, and slipped the shell inside. “What shell, sir? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re a bad boy.”
“Will you punish me?” Skip grinned and put his arms around Jeremiah’s neck, then kissed the tip of his nose.
“Maybe later.”
“Yay!”
They both chuckled.
“Are you having a good time?” Jeremiah wanted to know. It surprised him how he needed for Skip to enjoy the water as much as he did.
Skip’s blue eyes went wide. “Awesome. Especially now.” He pressed closer and when his flippers caught on Jeremiah’s feet, Jeremiah wrapped one leg around his knees to hold him still. Then he rolled onto his back, bringing Skip with him.
“Just float here with me.” He situated Skip on top of him as they bounced and floated on the surface. “The saltwater makes you buoyant.”
“I could get used to this,” Skip said.
Jeremiah raised his chin for a kiss.
He’d never kissed a man like Skip, nor had he ever wanted to kiss anyone so much. His mouth couldn’t get enough of him! Their tongues frolicked together, slipping in and out of each other’s mouths like playful seals. The waves were gentle, the skies calm, but the persistent pull of the surf moved them toward the shore. Skip lay atop Jeremiah and between his legs as Jeremiah floated on his back, letting the water push them where it wanted. They drifted further away from the group, the waves taking them to the more secluded edge of the beach.
“I feel like I’m getting a ride on a dolphin.” Skip didn’t seem uncomfortable, trusting Jeremiah would take care of them.
If Skip allowed it, Jeremiah wanted to take care of him in every way.
Check out Book 1 in the series
The Boyfriend Cruise
(Pride of the Caribbean Book 1)
The Pride of the Caribbean is a cruise ship unlike any other. Paranormals working on board the enchanted ship hide in plain sight, under the benevolent protection of a demigod captain and his fairy husband.
And this is a shipboard romance unlike any other.
Josh Gilbert’s well-meaning family booked a gay-friendly cruise for Christmas in order to find Josh a boyfriend. Hoping to escape the constant parade of bachelors—and the collapsible fishing rod dangling mistletoe his mom keeps in her purse—Josh takes solace in a growing friendship with the ship’s photographer, Nathan. Though Josh is falling for Nathan, he worries it will never be more than a shipboard fling.
Nathan recently became aware of his incubus heritage and has finally learned how to control his demon side. But Josh has awakened more than just the demon’s need for orgasms—Josh has awakened Nathan’s heart. What’s developing between them is the real thing, but can Josh ever accept Nathan’s promiscuous past… and love a sex demon?
Amid lush tropical settings, family hilarity, holiday costume parties, sexy snorkeling adventures, gingerbread martinis, and mythical creatures, will Josh get his Christmas wish and finally find the true love he’s wanted for so long?
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To celebrate Deanna Wadsworth’s Release, We are away 2 e-sets of Pride of the Caribbean Series so far (The Boyfriend Cruise & Vacation Tails)!
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About the Author:
Deanna Wadsworth might be a bestselling erotica author, but she leads a pretty vanilla life in Ohio with her wonderful husband and a couple adorable cocker spaniels. She has been spinning tales and penning stories since childhood, and her first erotic novella was published in 2010. She has served multiple board positions for different RWA chapters, including President of the Rainbow Romance Writers in 2017. When she isn’t writing books or brainstorming with friends, you can find her making people gorgeous in a beauty salon. An avid reader, she also loves gardening, cooking, music, and dancing. Often she can be seen hanging out on the sandbar in the muddy Maumee River or chilling with her hubby and a cocktail in their basement bar. In between all that fun, Deanna cherishes the quiet times when she can let her wildly active imagination have the full run of her mind. Her fascination with people and the interworkings of their relationships have always inspired her to write romance with spice and love without boundaries.
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