Author Profile: Penelope Holt

Inkspell Publishing, which produces the Jamie Richmond series, has many talented authors in the family.   Recently I’ve connected with Penelope Holt, whose latest book was released this month. 

Polly Wants a Lover

Polly wants a lover to outmatch her cheating husband and heal her broken heart.

From childhood, Polly Sullivan was obsessed with one thing—becoming a professional dancer, right up until the day Christian Caldwell strode into her life. A sexual magnet and force of nature, he seduced her with his irresistible lovemaking, taking over her life and undermining her ambition, until he alone was her sole obsession.

Six years later, and now Christian’s wife, Polly’s career and confidence are in tatters. As she tails her husband’s latest mistress through a parking lot, fate puts her on a collision course with love when she runs her Subaru into a pick-up truck. Its owner, Marcus Bell, is heir to the legendary Turner-Bell horse farm, although he is currently estranged from his family and slumming as the manager of a dive bar.

As she discovers just how many affairs lie in her cheating husband’s past, a shaken Polly longs to recover her confidence and the career she abandoned to become Christian’s wife. She yearns to rekindle passion with a man she can trust. But as her lithe dancer’s body cries out for Marcus Bell’s touch, her injured heart screams no. Is Marcus the devoted lover she craves, or is Polly dancing from one heartbreak to another?

Here's An Excerpt

Polly set her wine glass down on the bedroom dresser. Her lingering doubts and worries about her marriage had crushed her self-confidence. Once hot nights in bed with Christian were growing colder. They still had sex, and he was still hungry for her, but his desire seemed fleeting, and once satisfied, she could see how his thoughts turned elsewhere. Today, in the parking lot, she’d gotten an eyeful of his mistress, so at least she knew now why he was so distracted, and where his thoughts went when he had that distant look on his face.

She took the blue nightie from her dresser drawer and unfolded the sexy garment. Now it only mocked her naive notion that she could fix her marriage with a home-cooked meal and a night of smoldering sex in lacy lingerie. In the mirror, she caught sight of her frowning face and saw early signs of elevens, the two vertical worry lines between her eyes. She thought about the last few months and Christian’s guilty behavior. More than once, he’d come home in the early morning hours, claiming business meetings had kept him out late. He kept his phone on him at all times, clearly worried that she might get her hands on it and discover something damning. And he was throwing off a strange energy. Sometimes distant, and then, at other times, almost too affectionate, like he was compensating for something. “Penny for your thoughts,” she would say, when she caught him with a far-away look in his eye, but he would brush her off. “Just work stuff.”

​Instead of acknowledging the signs that her husband was cheating, it had been easier to put the blame on herself and vow to work harder at fixing a marriage she hadn’t broken. She smoothed away the frown lines with her finger and talked to her reflection in the mirror. “You’re not a kid anymore, Polly. You’re coming up on thirty-three. You’ve given Christian six of your best years. Don’t waste any more on what can’t be saved.” But even as she said this, she was filled with insecurity. On what planet would she ever be able to walk away from Christian Caldwell? Handsome, successful, going places, with the world at his feet. He had captured her heart long ago, and she worried that now, even after he'd broken it, she wouldn’t be able to take it back from him. Balling up the nightie, she crushed the soft fabric and crammed it in the drawer.

Buy Link

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DK7VXXLN​