Published in January 2007, 'Coral' is a contemporary romance set in a Seal Sanctuary. Coral is a young woman in love with her Marine Biologist boss Marcus. Determined to escape the pain of unrequited love she resigns, telling him she wants more than just work in her life - she wants a passionate man and a baby! When he offers her a baby she runs away, knowing exactly how manipulative he can be in order to keep Coral the dogsbody administrator. She manages six months of relaxation and anonymity until her semi nude photograph appears in an international wildlife magazine and her 'new' boss turns up - only this time Marcus's cool scientific detachment is obliterated by the heat and he is determined to give her that baby. 

ISBN: 1-4241-1122-6 www.publishamerica.com

Available from Amazon Books www.amazon.com www.amazon.co.uk

Read an excerpt here:

Coral watched the pictures coming in over the fax machine. She was glad they weren’t in colour because of the graphical quality of what had been done to the seals depicted on them. She almost could not bear to look at them because they were so horrific. Her boss leaned over her and ripped off the page quickly. He stood so close to her that she could feel the warmth of his body.

“These are excellent. I think we’ll be able to get international Media interest. What do you think Coral? Would you like to fax them over to your friend in the editorial department? What’s his name - Edward somebody or other?”

Coral glanced up at him. Close up he was overpoweringly handsome, with hazel to brown eyes and tousled sand coloured hair slightly wet from a shower. She narrowed her eyes deliberately, trying not to feel anything at all.

“He wasn’t keen on the last story we sent him. He wanted something more controversial.” She glowered at him because she wanted him to move out of her way so she could think about the job in hand, but he refused to shift and deliberately kept her gaze.

“Well, this is definitely controversial and I think you could persuade him. He was really keen on you at last year’s press launch. Didn’t you go out with him after that?”

Coral frowned. She was beginning to feel angry. “Marcus, if you are going to bring the subject up at least get your facts right. He tried to kiss me at that Press Launch because he was drunk and you punched him out cold. He phoned me two days later to discuss two articles he wanted to write. You made me go to that meeting because you wanted the publicity for your work and because you were afraid he’d sue you for a broken jaw. He was a perfect gentleman and apologised to me personally and you gave me three weeks of grief because I stayed overnight in London when I was supposed to be here at nine the next day.”

Her boss smiled at her, deviously, seeing her face so volatile with emotion. Her blue eyes were flashing with anger and her hair was flung back escaping as usual from its hair band. Coral read his gaze and tried to push past him, but Andrew came in behind them and Marcus moved forward to let him past at the same time and it brought her right up against him. Her breasts in the thin cotton shirt brushed his chest and she gasped at the sensation that shook her. She managed to twist to one side and escape past the filing cabinets and around the corner only because she was so slim. Her heart was thudding rapidly because she had fallen in love with him years ago and he had never paid her half this much attention before. She took off her glasses and wiped them with a tissue, telling herself that he was only behaving this way because of what he wanted from her.

“You can’t escape that easily.” He said, coming around the corner to watch her speculatively.

Coral put her spectacles back on and stared at him calmly. “You forget. I gave you my resignation over a month ago. I’ve overstayed that by three days. I have only had three hours sleep out of the last twenty-four because you wanted a last minute inventory. I’m tired and I’m not going to be pushed around anymore and do things just because you ask me.”

“You don’t have to go Coral.” He started to really turn on the charm now and Coral looked away in disgust.

“Don’t bother Marcus, I’ve seen you do this before remember? Jane stayed last year because you persuaded her, against her better judgement, and she didn’t get paid until the spring. Work isn’t everything and this charity has eaten me up for six years. I refuse to do it any more.”

“But what would we do without you? You organise everything from press launches to wages and your creative cooking is unmatched over five countries.”

Coral laughed now. She was starting to become bitter. “I’m not indispensable Marcus. No one is. You’ve told me that often enough and as for my cooking, you wouldn’t know the meaning of good cuisine if it got up and cooked you. What I do is scrape the barest ingredients together in the cheapest possible energy-saving way to feed the ten to occasional three hundred people on this project. There is nothing creative about it. Neither is there anything stimulating in doing a dead end administration job.”

“Dead end? But what about everything you’ve learned through being with us?” He was appalled, but also wickedly amused. She was right where he wanted her to be, heated up and irrational: just where she was most likely to make a mistake and give in to him.

Coral was furious as she glimpsed that cold clinical amusement in his eyes and folded her hands over her chest. She knew what he was trying to do. He’d done it so many times to other people and now she had enough, she decided to throw it all back at him.

“I have a brain which no longer gets any new stimulus and a heart which still hasn’t healed from seeing the amount of carnage my fellow human beings have seen fit to inflict on the animal kingdom.”

“You’ve helped us, you’ve made a really good team member and you’ve really got us noticed by the press. Because of you we’ve stopped a lot more carnage than we could possibly have done without you.” His eyes were full of silent admiration.

He had just paid her the greatest compliment he had ever done and she felt herself weakening. Then she realised that he had also stepped that little bit closer to her so she was aware of him as a man again and she knew it was all premeditated. He wanted to weaken her resolve to leave and was willing to do anything to get to her.

“Don’t even try Marcus. My immunity to your charm comes from years of subtle put-downs. I think the week I joined you referred to me as the spotty red head with no sense of timing, compassion or intelligence. Would you like me to remind you of some of your rather more devastating observations?”

“I was going through a bad time because my wife had just left me.”

That nearly got Coral, that major elicitor of sympathy, then she heard the intake of breath from Gloria and Andrew who were both listening intently. But then she became aware of the sudden spark of triumph on Marcus’s face and her eyes narrowed to slits. Her compassion evaporated. “You are always going through a bad time when things aren’t going your way. You have an appallingly adolescent lack of control when it comes to your temper. And it wouldn’t surprise me if your wife didn’t leave because you drove her to it. Marcus, you have to accept that people need to ‘get a life’ sometimes. I felt so sorry for Jane because you put her through hell when she finally met someone she cared about. I was so pleased she managed to escape to a good man. I’m just like her. I don’t want to be here for the rest of my life.”

“What do you want then? The same as Jane - marriage and babies?”

Coral winced at the hostility in his voice. She had seen him reduce other people to gibbering wrecks with his caustic tongue but even though she had been angry with him in the past she had never deliberately provoked him. Coral had realised a long time ago that she was slightly afraid of him but she had to face that now and was determined to stand up for herself. She’d never lied to him about who she was and she certainly wasn’t going to start now.

“Yes. I want to fall in love with someone who is going love me passionately. And yes, I want a baby. I’d like her to see the wonder that this earth has to offer the innocent, not just the cruelty that mankind inflicts on it.”

He stared at her, looking at her as if she had grown two heads. “You never had a family until you came here so what the hell do you know about nurturing another human being?” He had deliberately reminded her of her past, going from one foster family to another. He was determined not to let her get away easily. “And babies are an awful lot of responsibility when you don’t have a support system around. This is just your biological clock ticking Coral; it’s hormonal. You’re intelligent enough to know that you don’t need a family to be complete. And you’re young; you’ve got loads of time to think about babies. Stay with us. We’re your family. You need us and we need you.”

She shook her head. “No.”

He sighed with exasperation: “If you like children so much you can do more work with the local schools.”

“I want my own child, not a hundred other people’s.” She glowered at him and started to pick up her belongings.

“But we need you here.” His voice became much more powerful because it was so sensual. She knew of old what effect his voice had on her resolve and steeled herself to stick by her decision.

“My replacement is blonde and beautiful with excellent administration experience as well as a degree in Marine Biology.”

“Stay on as my assistant then. I’ll teach you about Marine Biology.”

“No Marcus. I’ve heard that before. It just turned into yet more typing.” She just looked at him, and her eyes showed him how much strain he was putting her under. He felt himself soften towards her and he found himself saying something unbelievable.

“If you want a baby Coral, I’m sure it can be arranged.”

She laughed, so shocked and so cynical that he could hardly believe it. “Yes, no doubt you would find me some researcher who has a spare half an hour to sacrifice once every two months.” She was shocked and highly amused at the same time. She could not believe what he had just said, shaking her head in complete disbelief.

Marcus sighed, and his eyes glittered. “No Coral. If you want a baby I’ll give you one.”

Holly is currently working on the book which follows 'Coral' and centres on Edward, one of the characters in the first book. After suffering rejected love Edward falls in love with a most unsuitable single mother of three, causing her through a bizarre series of incidents to lose her job and her home. In recompense he offers her his share of a house on his aristocratic mother's Scottish estate. Unfortunately the other half is occupied by his twin brother Aidan. And there are a few things Edward has forgotten to mention about him!