Guest post: MJ O'Shea's Red Velvet Cupcakes

I'm pleased to host author MJ O'Shea today at my blog. She's here to share some delicious inside information about her latest solo release from Dreamspinner Press, Coming Home.

Hi everyone! This is Mj O'Shea here. Today I wanted to share a recipe, and a scene from Coming Home. :)

Click the picture to enlarge the recipe   

I don't think the excerpt needs much introduction. Let's just say Lex and Tally found a use for their extra frosting… I love cupcakes.

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“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, making all those cupcakes. And since the bakery was willing to sell us all the ingredients at below cost, the profit on the whole luncheon will be better than I planned.”
Tally groaned. “It was that bad. My fingers are going to be cramped forever. Don’t get any ideas about doing it again. You already owe me many, many hours of mind-blowing sex for this.”
“Which I’ll happily start repaying if we can please get in the shower first.” Lex made a face. “Every centimeter of me is sticky.” He dragged his shirt off, chuckling when it got stuck on his head for a moment before it popped off and was tossed aside.
Tally stood and reached down to haul Lex up with him.
“I’ll lick the frosting off.”
Lex found himself giggling at the thought… giggling. Shit. “Did we drink all of that wine?”
Tally made a show of eyeballing down into the bottles. “Yep.”
Lex groaned. “And we forgot about dinner.” He eyed the mostly full pizza box on the table. “No wonder I’m feeling kind of loopy. I thought it was from all the sugar.”
Tally reached down and dug a finger full of frosting from the mess-up pile and slowly wiped it down Lex’s cheek before licking it off.
“Mmmm. Sweet.”
“Hey,” Lex mumbled, distracted by the spark in his belly. “I’m already all sticky.”
Tally waggled his eyebrows, then reached down for another big gooey glop of cream cheese frosting. With one challenging look he wiped it right into Lex’s hair.
“Really, Tal, knock it off. My living room is already such a mess.”
“Living room?” Tally murmured. “I didn’t say anything about getting frosting on your living room. Only on you.” Then with a grin he picked up a lopsided cupcake and dragged it down Lex’s chest, making a white creamy trail all the way to his jeans. Without warning, he shoved the whole thing into Lex’s waistband and ground it in as hard as he could, bursting into laughter.
“Oh, you suck!” Lex chuckled before taking another cupcake and squashing it into the side of Tally’s face. “Game on.”
Tally ripped his shirt up and over his head, then grabbed two handfuls of messy crumbling cake and squatted defensively behind the oak coffee table. Lex squatted down too, nearly falling, and snaked an arm out to grab his own squishy ammunition. Lex took aim first and fired, catching Tally square in the chest. The moist thud was very satisfying. So was watching red cake and gooey frosting drip down that perfect chest. He got distracted by looking and barely noticed the projectile coming toward his face. Just in time, he dove to the side—but groaned when the cupcake hit one of his newly painted walls instead of his face.
“Hey! I just repainted this room a few months ago,” he complained, lunging toward Tally with the hugest pile of frosting he could scrape together. The frosting ended up in a big swath down the front of Tally’s chest, getting rubbed into his skin by Lex, who’d managed to fall all the way on top of him. Tally chuckled and wrapped his arms around Lex’s back.
“I do believe I’ve won,” Tally murmured with a superior smirk.
“No way! You missed when you threw it at me, and I’m the one on top of you.” He leaned over and nibbled the bit of cake that was balancing on Tally’s nipple.
“Yeah, but now I can do this.”
Lex arched his back in shock as a long, thick trail of frosting and cake was smeared from his neck all the way down his spine into the back of his pants. “See? I totally won.”
Lex was squirming and trying to dislodge the hunk of cupcake that had gotten stuck between his cheeks.
“You know, it would be easier if you just took them off.” Tally’s chuckle made Lex’s slightly drunk stomach weak.
He rolled off of Tally and worked at the button of his jeans which was caked with halfway-hardened sugar. Tally took the opportunity to lick at Lex’s chest, cleaning up frosting and nuzzling his nipples while he was at it.
“You’re not making this any easier for me, you know,” Lex muttered, finally yanking the stuck button free and tugging at his zipper.
“I was hoping to make it harder.”
Lex groaned at Tally’s dumb joke, then lifted his hips and shoved his jeans down and off. He wiggled then, and brushed as many of the remaining crumbs from his body as he could. Lex saw Tally gulp, and it made him grin. “C’mere.” He spread his legs invitingly and reached out for Tally. Tally scrambled to get his own jeans off, then he crawled between Lex’s bare legs.
Their bodies came together in a squelching sugary mess that neither of them could muster up much concern over.
“Mmmm, you feel good. Smell nice too.” Lex smiled and twined his legs around Tally’s hips.
“You always feel good,” Tally murmured. “Shower? I wouldn’t want to get this shit all over your pretty designer sheets.”
Lex poked him and bucked his hips. “I don’t hear you complaining about the sheets when you’re on them.”
Tally gave him a soft smile and kissed him. “Nope. No complaints at all when I’m in your bed.”
“Cheeseball,” Lex grumbled. “C’mon. This frosting is going to end up sticking my ass cheeks together.”
Tally rolled his eyes but stood up. “Such a romantic.”
Lex smirked at him and hopped up, swaying dizzily for a moment before scampering off to the shower.
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Thanks for having me:) And I'm always looking for great recipes, new and old. You can get in contact with me at any of these places:
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Backblurb:

Tallis Carrington ruled Rock Bay with his gang of jocks and an iron fist—until a scandal destroyed his family's name. Ten years later Tallis is dead broke, newly homeless, and on the walk of shame to end all walks of shame. He needs money and needs it fast, and Rock Bay is the only home he knows. But the people of Rock Bay haven’t forgotten him—or the spoiled brat he used to be.
The only person in town willing to overlook his past is Lex, the new coffee shop owner, who offers Tally a job even though he appears to despise Tally based on his reputation alone. When Tally discovers his gorgeous boss is the kid he tortured back in high school, Lex's hot and cold routine finally makes sense. Now Tally has to pull out all the stops to prove he was never really the jerk he seemed to be. After all, if he can win Lex’s heart, the rest of the town should be a piece of coffee cake.

Get Coming Home from from Dreamspinner Press.
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