Creepy Crawlies to Eat by C. B. Clark #FearlessFriday #Romance

FEARLESS FRIDAY

It's great having C. B. Clark back on Discover... And wow, today's Fearless Friday gave me the creepy crawlies. Read and enjoy!

Thank you for having me on your Blog today, Brenda. I’m thrilled to be back on Fearless Friday.

I enjoy traveling (at least I did, until Covid-19) and when I travel, I like to eat the local food as much as possible. I’ve tasted baked guinea pig in Peru, whale blubber (muktuk) cooked by the Inuit in the Arctic, boiled crickets in Vietnam, and fried bull testicles (criadillas) in Argentina. But when presented with a tarantula in Cambodia, I was reluctant. Many of the spiders were alive and crawling all over the sides of their containers or on people’s hands and arms.

Fried tarantula is a delicacy in Cambodia, and in spite of my fear and revulsion, I was determined to give it a try. The tarantula I was offered was deep fried (thank the Lord!), but there was no hiding the reality that it was a very large spider. After much encouragement, I tore off a leg. The crackling crunch was unsettling, and the rasp of the stiff bristles on my tongue made me gag. After I swallowed down the first leg, there were seven more to go. 

Finally, only the large, round spider abdomen remained. I popped it in my mouth and chewed. The texture was sticky and similar to peanut butter, and just as challenging to clear out of my mouth. The taste was earthy and not unpleasant, but I grabbed my water bottle and

washed down the remains. Eating that tarantula was an adventure, and part of the Cambodian lifestyle, but not an experience I care to repeat.

Blurb:

Reeling from loss and heartbreak, Stella King is desperate to escape painful memories. The position of nanny on an isolated ranch in British Columbia’s rugged Chilcotin Plateau seems the answer to her prayers. 

Cattle rancher, Dawson Wheeler, has worked hard to overcome grief and build a predictable world for his young daughter. The last thing he needs is the all-too-attractive Stella disrupting the smooth running of his ranch, especially now that disturbing incidents are happening on his property. 

Defending his land against those who want to gut it will be a challenge, but the biggest threat of all may be to his heart. 

Excerpt:

The back of his neck itched. “You’re Stella King?” Of course she was. Who else would be waiting here at this time of night? Once again, he glanced at the photograph clenched in his hand—gray curls, thick glasses, sixty years old. That was the Stella King he’d hired. The itching amped up to a full-out assault.

She stood and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Dawson.”

He stumbled back another step, his worst fears confirmed. This gorgeous woman was the nanny he’d hired to look after Deirdre.

Her light-blue wool sweater did nothing to hide the full, rounded mounds of her breasts. Her legs looked a mile long in the white denim, skintight, designer jeans tucked into a pair of knee-high, high-heeled, black leather boots. Her perfume wafted on the evening breeze, a heady mix of spring flowers and something subtle but decidedly feminine.

He struggled to swallow, but his throat was parched, his tongue as dry as old leather against the roof of his mouth.

Silence stretched between them. An owl hooted from a nearby tree, crickets chirped in the tall grass lining the ditch, and still he didn’t move.

She frowned and dropped her hand.

“I…uh…er…I wasn’t expecting, um…” Sucking in a deep breath, he tried again. “Look, there’s been a mistake. I was expecting someone a little—” He coughed and searched for the right words. “—well, someone a little older.” He held out the crumpled photograph. “The photograph the agency sent—”

“Oh, that. They told me there’d been a mix-up. Apparently, the company sent you the wrong picture.”

Her laugh floated through the air like a melody.

“But as you can see—” She fished in her oversized, black leather purse, pulled out a rhinestone-studded, pink wallet, and flipped it open, flashing him her driver’s license. “—I am indeed Stella King, the woman you hired.”

He studied the identification, but no matter how many times he read the details, the facts didn’t change. “But, you’re too young. You—”

She cut him off again. “I’m thirty-two, Mr. Wheeler. Surely that’s old enough to be a nanny to a five-year-old.”

Dawson tunneled his fingers through his unruly mass of dark curls. “You don’t understand. The Circle 5’s a working ranch, Ms. King. There’s just me, Deirdre, and Alf, and the boys around most of the time. Sometimes weeks go by when we don’t see another person.” He paused and waited for her to understand what he was trying to tell her.

Buy Links:

Nook (Barnes & Noble): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/healing-hearts-c-b-clark/1136377247?ean=2940163089826

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Hearts-C-B-Clark-ebook/dp/B084FW1VTV

iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/healing-hearts/id1497767650

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/search?query=healing+hearts+cb+clark

Google Books: https://books.google.ca/books?id=htzWDwAAQBAJ&dq=Healing+Hearts+cb+clark&hl

Also available at Walmart.com

Author Bio:

Award-winning author, C.B. Clark, has written six romantic suspense novels published by The Wild Rose Press. She has worked as an archaeologist and an educator, and enjoys hiking, canoeing, and snowshoeing with her husband and dog near her home in the wilderness of central British Columbia.

Social Media Links:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbclarkauthor/

Blog: https://cbclarkauthor.wordpress.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbclarkauthor

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cbclarkauthor/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15029617.C_B_Clark

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/C.-B.-Clark/e/B01BK61TQG/