Wednesday, August 24, 2011

YAHOO GROUP APPRECIATION EVENT DAY 10 ~ NIKKI DUNCAN

My feature author today is Nikki Duncan from the Wicked Writers Blog/Yahoo Group. Nikki's newest book is part of the wicked reads and was released on 8/9/11. 


The church is booked. All he needs is a fiance.
A man’s wedding is derailed when his fiance bolts three days before walking down the aisle. With hopes of granting his ailing grandmother’s final wish, he pleads his case to his best friend. Is she willing to accept a marriage of convenience, or will she hold out for more?


Excerpt: 

Not the marrying kind?” Neil Casey let the door slam with enough force to rattle the photos on the wall. “She’s not the marrying kind? What in Hell did she think she was agreeing to?”
“Of all the stupid…” He dropped his keys into the bowl on the hall table and continued his private rant. “Moronic…” They clanked loudly and almost bounced over the edge. “Bullshit excuses. Not the marrying kind.”
“I told you Nina’d flake.” Delaney Alexander, his closest friend, and the only person brave enough to taunt him with an I-told-you-so-backhand, sat on his sofa in workout shorts and raised a long leg to study her newly painted toes. Her subtly highlighted brown hair was pulled back in a straight ponytail and glinted with reds and yellows thanks to the lights of the Vegas strip beyond his window.
He wasn’t surprised to see her, but neither was he thrilled to no longer be alone. “I told you I needed you to be wrong.”
“Sucks to be you sometimes.” She sounded bored.
Battling the urge to smash everything breakable within five feet, Neil sat on the sofa and looked at the small bottle in Delaney’s hand. “Whatever the hell they call that color, it looks like vomit.”
“Damn.” She did a sort of bummed cluck out of the corner of her mouth and screwed on the nail polish lid. “I’d hoped it would be better on.”
“It’s great if your goal is to make men think of retching when they look at you.”
“Says the man freshly dumped days before his wedding.”
“Stupid bitch.” Muttering about Nina, he slumped into the sofa. The urge to demolish things receded behind the pressure building in his head. “Not you. What the shit was I thinking?”
“I know. And you weren’t thinking. At least not with the full power of your Northern brain.”
Her honesty should bother him, and maybe it would if he hadn’t already told himself every truth Delaney happily laid out. Her honesty and accuracy changed nothing and did nothing to undo his failure, but one great thing about Delaney was that she knew him better than he’d ever allowed anyone to know him. Well, almost anyone.
“Michael and Jen trusted me.”
She shot him one of her patented don’t-be-so-melodramatic looks. “They still can.”
“Sure. I’ll just whip out my magic black book and call in a back-up fiancé.” The idea had merit. Neil fished his cell from his front jeans pocket and started rolling through the contacts.
Amy. Pretty. Smart enough. Flat as paper in bed.
Brittany. Liked sex. Everywhere. Every way. With every one.
Chastity. Anything but. Now close friends with Brittany.
Delaney. Skip.
Erin. Sweet, naively so. Intellectual. Shy in bed, but not dull when she warmed up.
Fabiana. Just call me Fab when I’m really not.
Gloria. Only one way to shut that mouth and the quiet wasn’t worth suffering through her lack of skill.
Hannah. Maybe.
“Hand over the chickberry.” Delaney yanked his phone from his hand. “You’re not calling Hannah, or any other she-troglodyte you’ve idiotically saved in this phone.”

Find out more about Nikki Duncan at her website
Nikki is offering a Samhain gift card to one random commenter. All you have to do is follow this blog and comment telling me if you have or ever had a close friend of the opposite sex. Did you ever feel like you should be more? Wished you would be more? Please leave your email addy so I can contact you if you win. I will choose a winner on 9/16/11 and post here.
Thanks for visiting and be sure to check back tomorrow for Sylvia Day!!!


* US Residence Only
* Must be 18 to Enter

22 comments:

  1. Oddly I have never felt that way for any of my male friends. I have had a couple of them develop something more, but I was never really interested. It has affected the basis of our friendship, sort of lost that comfortable feel to the point where I felt awkward.

    Raonaid at gmail dot com

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  3. I did have a guy who was a close friend. We went places together and had a good time. He was the one who wanted to take the relationship to the next level after about a year. I didn't have a good track record with relationships and was afraid. He's now my DH and we've been together for 13 years.

    kacbooks(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  4. Fortunately I have had a close friend of the opposite sex and although our mutual friends were constantly trying to bring us together (even going so far as to lock us in an office together) but there just wasn't any sparks. Others couldn't let it go so they tried but eventually we all found out why... turned out he is gay:)

    *Follower
    yadkny@hotmail.com

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  5. I have had several male friends and I have never wanted more and I don't think they have either but other people think it. I am a follower
    debby236 at gmail dot com

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  6. Great post:)
    Now that is a yummy cover!
    Looks really good,thank you for the chance to win!
    elliott2668(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  7. My best male friend I have been married too for 17 years! :-)

    slandon9903(at)gmail(dot)com

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  8. I had a best Male friend for over 20 years since we had been in grade school together. We were close friends and nothing more until he suddenly died a few years ago. We were just friends and he even had a wife that I really liked. It is possible to have really good friends of the opposite sex.

    miztik_rose@yahoo.com

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  9. I love reading these comments. I am with you guys. I think it's absolutely possible to have a great friend of the opposite sex and have nothing come out of it. But when it does I think it can be a beautiful thing, like with Karen C.

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  10. Actually a majority of my friends are of the opposite sex! I was always 'one of the guys' which was hard when I was younger. Now that I'm older. I love it! Thanks for the awesome giveaway (and great question)!

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  11. I still have some great guy friends, I have one who would like to take it to the next level, but understands where I am coming from in me not wanting to, but we are still good friends and still travel and talk all the time

    shelly@ledgetoplogistics.com

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  12. Have male friends, but they are just friends, never wanted them to be more. Am a follower. Great post.

    skpetal at hotmail dot com

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  13. I've only had two male friends who I would have wanted to change into lovers. One married someone else (but we're still good friends), and with the other, we decided to stay just as friends, because we weren't sure how the change would effect our friendship, and we didn't want that to change. We're still great friends, even though we don't see each other that much because he lives in NJ, and I live in Wisconsin!

    Later,

    Lynn

    lwrettig@wisc.edu

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  14. In highschool, I had several guy friends. I tried dating one and it didn't work and ruined the friendship. I had a crush on the other but we never acted on it. The others were just some great friends to hang with. I miss it but life took us all in different directions, most I haven't seen in decades although we all re-connected in facebook about a year ago.

    books4me67 at ymail.com

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  15. I have had many close male friends, and had more than friendly feelings for a couple. I was always afraid of ruining the friendhips so I never acted on them. Eventually, they drifted away anyways. Sometimes I think I should hav tried but then I think that if the friendship did not last, nothing else would have either.
    manning_j2004 at yahood to com

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  16. I had one close male friend growing up and I never had "those" feelings toward him. We sort of went our separate ways when I moved from Puerto Rico to the US and finally reconnected about 4 years ago. It was like time had never existed we fell right back into our friendship. I don't think I could ever risk something like this.

    flaca798 at hotmail dot com

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  17. I've never had a male friend that was this close. My DH, when we were dating, became friends first but the dating thing lead us both to want the relationship thingy and finally marriage. We recently celebrated our 15 year of friends/marriage.
    follower
    j-coverholser at sbcglobal dot net

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  18. Yes I did have a close friend of the opposite sex and sometimes felt I wanted more. I was married but he was always there to listen to me. He passed away two years ago and I miss him still. He was always kind to both of us and for that reason I appreciated him more. Now that I have been married for 48 years I know my true love is the one I married but miss the friendship from the other one.

    Susan Leech
    garysue @ dejazzd.com

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  19. I've had a couple of guys friends that I was close to and miss them dearly. Not sure if I would have wanted to explore the boundries outside of friendship or not.

    gfc - pams00
    pams00 @ aol.com

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  20. in HS i had a friend who i was attracted to, and we flirted non-stop...he always drove me to work when i had to walk (he told me he purposely drove by knowing i had to walk awe) we just never moved past the friends though...regrets yes...but he is married now and lives in another state so all is well

    GFC follower seachele71
    seachele71@hotmail.com

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  21. Oh yes, I had a guy friend I was very close with and we actually tried dating, but it just didnt work. We were better as friends than as a couple. (He's now happily married to a great woman and I am an engaged to a beyond wonderful man :) ) We were able to stay friends after our attempt at being a couple though lol.
    Ashley A
    ash_app@hotmail.com
    GFC follower AshleyAnne

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  22. I have been close to a few guys but i never thought of them romanticly. They were just my pals. :)
    shadowluvs2read(at)aol(dot)com

    ReplyDelete

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