Romancing the Seas is on Amazon

Oh how very excited am I! I was on Facebook yesterday, at the Crimson Romance Sisters Group and I saw that a release-day-sister, Christy McKellen, posted up that her book was available for pre-order. I hot-fingered it over to Amazon and ta-daaaaaah...there she was...

Romancing the Seas

Cait has finally made it. After 3 years serious writing (2 more not so serious, more like a 'I want to write a book' commitment as opposed to 'hot damn I HAVE to write a book'.) I'm very happy, what a perfect Christmas present.

So for all of you out there that are wondering what it's like, have a blurb and an excerpt :)


Sous-chef Pippa Renshaw thinks a change of scene will mend a bruised heart, so she swaps her job in a prestigious London restaurant to head-chef on a cruise ship sailing around New Zealand. A great plan until she meets her new CEO, the delectable Jonathon Eagleton, and discovers she has to share a suite with him.
Even though sparks fly whenever they are together, Jonathon steadfastly keeps her at arm’s length, which suits Pippa just fine because she’s still getting over the betrayal of the last time she had a relationship with the boss.
The situation is starting to feel like solitary confinement until a thunderstorm traps them in a tramper’s hut while hiking. Suddenly a different kind of storm unleashes inside the hut.
But will they be able to go back to their previous status now the line has been crossed?



There were several top-of-the-range treadmills and she chose one, slowly working her stride.

But her mind refused to let up. Why had she come out here to New Zealand? She should have stayed in London, working for Marcus. Okay, maybe she would have moved to a different restaurant, but even then she would have been surrounded by the familiar, not the unknown — and the downright scary. Now she was a prisoner of her own design: new country — heck, new continent — new job, new boss, no friends, and not even any space to call her own.

Pippa heaved a sigh, then took lots of little breaths to make up for her hard working lungs. Oh, who knows, maybe she had done the right thing. How could she have stayed in London after what Marcus had done? An up and coming celebrity chef, she had supported him all the way. Until his publicist had said to him, “Lose the sous chef; she’s too ordinary a look for you. You need an it girl on your arm, so all the paparazzi will be snapping you for the celebrity magazines.”

“Look, Pippa,” Marcus had pleaded. “Just give me a couple of years to get to the top of my career and then we can be together properly. We can still be together, but just keep our relationship under cover.”

Pippa had wanted to cry, but instead picked up her bag and walked out of the flat she had never quite moved into.

She had been right to leave. But whether she had been right to leave so drastically, swapping everything she had ever known for the unknown, was very questionable.

Her heart pounded rapidly and she pressed the treadmill button to lower the speed, concentrating on breathing deeply to slow her heart rate down. A light cough from the treadmill beside her nearly threw her off her treadmill in surprise.

Her new roomie.

In an attempt not to let the machine sweep her off, she pumped her legs and finally caught back up with the pace. Great. Glances at the monitor, proudly proclaiming a heart rate of 190, made her want to curl up and die. Mr. Eagleton, on the other hand, appeared very relaxed and loose limbed beside her as he lengthened into his pace, despite a faint sheen of sweat — clearly he had been in the gym for a while.

Breathe.

“Are you okay?” He didn’t look at her as he asked, he just kept running.

Okay? Sure, if you call just having learnt I have to share a suite with you, starting from tomorrow, okay.

She breathed deeply, trying to use mind over body to slow her heart. God forbid, he may look over, see the state of her, and think it was his effect on her. Or she was desperately unfit. Which would her pride prefer?

“Fine. You?” Being economical with her words was a necessity.

“Yup.”

Pippa’s head felt bogged down in quicksand and her heart stubbornly refused to go below 190.

“Did you get my note?” His tone was curt.

She nodded and then, feeling she let herself down, hit the speed to bring the treadmill down to a fast walking pace. Having a conversation whilst running proved impossible.

“I did, yeah. Did you get mine?” Picking up her bottle of water, she took a big glug, welcoming the coolness.

“No.” She could feel him looking at her through the mirrors in front of them.

“I thought we weren’t leaving until this day next week.” She met his gaze. Her tummy decided to get in on the fitness malarkey and started doing somersaults. He looked very fit with an easy lope to his running Pippa envied, carrying his six foot plus frame easily.

“Well, sorry.” There was no shortage of breath despite running at — quick glance at his monitor — 10k an hour.

“I have so many questions. I thought we were berthed for another week, plenty of time for me to get to know the ship and Coral’s kitchen.” She could hear her voice becoming thinner, and stopped.

He glanced sideways at her, a slight smile on his face, making it quite clear he was enjoying his game of cat and mouse.

 “I assumed you knew the departure date of the Coral Princess.”

Pippa walked at a slow pace now, breathing deeply, up through her diaphragm and out through her nose, but it didn’t help. Her heart rate remained at 150.

“Well, you said so yourself, Mr. Mulberry made a lot of mistakes. One of them was telling me the wrong departure date. I don’t know anything about Coral’s kitchen, and so I’d appreciate hearing everything you can tell me about it.”

Jonathon’s answer to her was to increase his speed. “You’ll find out all you need to know tomorrow. In the meantime I suggest you catch up on some sleep and I’ll see you on board in the morning.”

Blast the man. He wasn’t going to give her any respite from worrying.

One last try.

“Perhaps then we could share a taxi to the port so you can enlighten me on the way?”

Jonathon flicked out his iPod headphones from the carrier on his wrist and started unwinding them, loping beside her.

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, do you? People may get the wrong impression.”

He fixed the headphones into his ears, nodded to her, and increased his pace yet again.

Conversation clearly closed.