I have a Christmas treat for you today. I fell first for Gemma’s writing on Friday’s, through the naughty group I flash with each week, and then on Sunday’s, through Six Sunday. I’m so excited to have Gemma here today telling us all about her brand new release, Christmas Delights. Above you’ll find all kinds of Gemma links, also as always, the cover will take you to the book at Goodreads. Look below for a message from Gemma, the blurb, excerpt, bio, more books from Gemma, and the buy links for Christmas Delights. Take it away Gemma.
Hi Sidney,
Thank you for having me over today. I want to tell you about my new release ‘Christmas Delights’. As you know, l love to write Erotica and as Christmas is my favourite time of the year, it seemed a perfect opportunity to combine the two!
I have written five short stories with Christmas as a theme guaranteed to warm up the coldest of winter nights:
Synopsis:
Christmas is a time for giving. One of the most important things we can give is love, how we express that love is up to us. In this anthology, Christmas is expressed through erotic journeys of lust and discovery, making it a very special time of the year for all the characters within. Lie back and enjoy these five erotic tales of Christmas written from the naughty pen of Gemma Parkes:
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wear lingerie that really made you feel beautiful? Danielle is reluctant until she feels super sexy in her present from Michael. A story bound to warm even the most reluctant of lovers.
A Christmas shopping expedition to England’s capitol city ends up with a visit to a live sex show. An erotic author and her boyfriend are about to view the action from very close quarters. Will it be everything they expected, or more?
Leanne is bored with the commercialism Christmas invariably brings. Will new employee Mike encourage her to get into the spirit of things by allowing him to spend the season with her?
Adventurous couple Clare and Jake have wonderful imaginations that run riot around this time of year. Even the dullest of Christmas decorations can become erotic in the extreme. What else do they have hidden away in their ‘Naughty Box’?
Penny is listening to Christmas Carol singers outside her window, when Jack arrives to spend the night. A lazy preparation of finger food won’t be enough to satisfy either of these passionate lovers.
Excerpt:
Penny sat beside the fire and muted the sound from the TV. She could just make out the faint voices singing ‘Good King Wenceslas’.
Jack would be calling round at 6pm. She could hardly wait and closed her eyes to think delicious thoughts about what the evening might entail.
Penny had prepared a meal of sorts, finger food her mother would call it whilst her best friend Zoe called it ‘lazy’. There were chicken wings, spicy and plain, sausage rolls and three different quiches, some breadsticks and dips and a few other nibbles, crisps mainly.
Anyway Penny didn’t want to spend the evening eating, it had been a difficult week at work and her stress levels were higher than usual. She was planning on an evening of unbridled passion and had prepared the bedroom accordingly with warm red sheets and scented Ylang Ylang candles waiting patiently to be lit. All there was left to do was immerse herself in a deep bath of softening, sensuous bubbles that would guarantee velvety skin just begging to be stroked.
At 6pm Jack arrived wearing a huge grin and holding out a bottle of chilled chardonnay.
He gathered her into his arms almost immediately, placing the bottle down on the nearest surface so that his hands were free to roam over Penny’s warm body through the silken robe she was wearing. Her curves yielded to his touch as his mouth found hers covering it with his full, soft lips and drawing from her a low groan when he eased his tongue inside her receptive mouth.
“I’ve waited all day for your body.” Jack muttered against her lips as he started to ease the robe from one of her silken shoulders.
“Good.” Penny murmured in response and her fingers set about undoing the buttons on his pale blue shirt
They backed up into the room, their lips still searching and nibbling, Penny’s robe was left behind them in a pool on the floor as Jack’s hands explored every soft inch of her body with wide palms, stroking and squeezing her sensitized flesh.
Jack turned Penny around in one movement and bent her forward with her hands against the wall as he loosened his trousers, pulling them down to his knees along with his under shorts.
“I love your ass,” he breathed, “God I love your ass.”
Lady Jane wants Will, for her slave, and she’ll pay a high price to get him. Will dreams of a life under Jane’s spike heels, but in the future city-state of New York, it’s illegal to enslave a free man. Jane, once a notorious hacker, now a network security consultant, isn’t used to letting a little thing like the law keep her from getting what she wants. When a bound and naked Will is delivered to her kitchen door, she takes great pleasure in using leather cat and cuffs and cruel penetrating sex games to tame him. But Will must give up everything to prove his loyalty to her before he can take his rightful place forever kneeling at her perfect feet.
Picture your favorite place in the world. Now, can you tell us a little bit about the place you’ve pictured?
A tiny island off the coast of Belize. I’m wearing a snorkel, a mask, flippers and nothing else, kicking gently in the warm ocean over the most beautiful coral reef I’ve ever seen, with bright colorful fish watching me curiously.
Do you prefer salty or sweet?
Salty. I have a weakness for salt and pepper chips.
What’s your favorite drink?
Tea. I drink tea obsessively, several glasses a day, and rarely drink anything else. I like many different varieties, but Earl Gray de la crème is my favorite.
What was the first book to make a lasting impression on you?
That’s hard to say. I still have my Little Red Riding Hood book that my grandmother read to me when I was a toddler. Books were my best friends growing up. By the time I was 11, I was reading my mother’s bodice rippers and my brother’s Gor books, as well as every bit of science fiction and fantasy I could get my hands on.
I think possibly “The Hobbit” which I first read at 10 was the first book that I felt really changed me fundamentally. It gave me a sort of, “little guys can do amazing things” feeling. That book shaped me to believe that if I persevered, I could slay dragons and change the world.
What was the last book you read that made a lasting impression on you?
Jim Butcher’s “Ghost Story.” There’s something pretty amazing about killing off the hugely popular hero of your long running series, then writing another book, with him as a ghost, trying to solve his own murder. Loved it.
Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
My first book was a collection of my erotic vampire short stories, “Bare Throat, Naked Hunger.” It’s been recently re-published with a lovely new cover by Melange Books. I had a bit of challenge with it, in that the first publisher who wanted it, didn’t want to let me enter one of the stories in the “Best Erotic Fantasy and Science Fiction” contest anthology that Cecelia Tan does for Circlet Press. I thought it would be very good publicity for the book to do so, and didn’t want to be restricted from it, so I took the book to another publisher: MS Fiction which then became Melange. Wonderful folks to work with. I’ve been delighted with them, and the folks at Freya’s Bower and Circlet, more than any other publishers I’ve worked with. The ironic kicker was, I decided to enter a different story, a science fiction interrogation story, “Caught” in the “Best Erotic F & SF” anthology instead.
Can you tell us about a criticism you’ve received that pushed you into a better writing place?
My crit group is brilliant. My writing has improved by leap and bounds over the years, thanks to them. They have taught me a lot of my writing faults, and I have broken many bad habits because of them. One thing I tend to do is write in present tense. In very short stories, it can work, but the longer the story, the more uncomfortable it becomes for the reader. I had to hear that a lot of times from a lot of people before I could force myself to write in past tense. I still often slip from past to present when I’m drafting stories, and have to go back and fix the tenses. In my mind, the story is happening while I’m writing it.
I also tend to focus on the characters, dialog, and plot to the point where setting is almost totally lost at times. My characters hang in blank white space like Neo in the empty matrix if I’m not very careful. My crit group calls me on that every time.
How did you come up with your title?
Titles are very difficult for me normally. I tend to start with a very basic title and come up with something better later. “I Want That One” was the first line in the story, and MS Word saved it automatically as the name of the file. I intended to come up with a title later. Instead, I decided it WAS the perfect title, and made it the last line in the story, too.
Panster, plotter, or a little of both?
This is a difficult question for me to answer. If anyone watched me write, they would think I was a seat of the pants kind of writer, but honestly, I tend to have a story percolating in my brain, or at least a few basic plot points and scenes of the story and key elements of the main characters, for hours, days, even weeks or months, before I get a chance to sit down and write it. Finding time to sit in front of my keyboard for something other than my day job is a big challenge for me. By the time I get to actually write a story, I’ve often already imagined it from beginning to end in considerable detail. So, while it looks like I’m just making it up as I go along, I’m really describing the movie that I’ve already created in my head.
Tell us a bit about the projects you are working on now?
I’ve been doing a lot of mainstream stories lately under a different name. I have a couple of erotica stories in my head, though, that I’d like to write when I can find a little spare time. One story that has been hounding me to write it for ages is about a succubus demon who marries and eventually kills evil men: mobsters, corporate sharks and the like. She runs afoul of a handsome police detective, investigating the mysterious death of her latest husband. He thinks she’s just a human black widow murderer, not understanding that killing her lovers is essential to her nature, something she can’t always control. She chooses only to marry men that she hates, so she won’t regret it when making love to her one too many times kills them. She has a beautiful shimmering, iridescent wings tattoo that covers most of her back and runs down her thighs. When she needs to escape, she unfurls her very real, but delicate, diaphanous demon wings and flies away. I’ll write it one of these days.
My stories always have an element of the supernatural or the future. I’m really a science fiction and fantasy writer who adores sex in many forms, including the wilder side of kink. “I Want That One” is set in a future where New York is a city/state with a new nobility defended by hackers in cyberspace, and there are some intense kinks in the story, BDSM, female dominance, and such. But the true essence of the story is one woman, used to getting what she wants, who wants a man, not used to being wanted.
Paige E. Roberts has published a variety of sexy stories in the US and UK on the fringes of reality and beyond: fantasy, science fiction, superhero, vampire, and shape-shifter stories, with D/s, SM, GLBT, BDSM, and other alphabet soup elements. She lives in Round Rock with her husband and two kids and is active in the local kink community, co-founder of the Voyagers group. Her futuristic femdom story “I Want That One” just came out from www.freyasbower.com “Bare Throat, Naked Hunger,” her anthology of erotic vampire stories is available in e-book or print from www.midnightshowcase.com , Amazon, or Fictionwise. Her sci fi interrogation scene story, “Caught,” is in the new “Best Erotic Fantasy and Science Fiction” anthology from Circlet Press.
The battered survivor of an abusive marriage, Angela doesn’t mourn her husband’s death in a drug deal gone bad. But she’s not sure she can survive losing her heart to the handsome detective who assumes she’s a criminal, too.Tasked with Angela’s safety after she’s targeted by an unknown enemy, Jake discovers the beautiful widow is not what she seems. He soon realizes that trusting her goes hand-in-hand with desiring her, and passion and duty collide.Now it’s up to Jake to keep Angela—and their chance at happiness—alive.
Excerpt:
The kitchen scene I blogged on my site, and the recipe for Pear-Hazelnut Tarts — the link to the recipe can be found on my website.
What am I doing? Angela raced to the refrigerator and opened the door to test the firmness of the dough, taking time to clear her mind from the sensual daze induced by Jake’s kisses.
Heat scorched her cheeks. If the timer hadn’t gone off, would she have let him take her right there on the table? She sprinkled flour onto the counter and placed the dough on it, forming it into a square.
“Can I help?” Jake’s husky voice drifted over her sensitive nerves as he came up behind her and heat radiated from him as he positioned himself at her back.
She pushed hair from her face and reached for the rolling pin, not looking at him. She felt like a gazelle being stalked by a lion.
“No, I’ve got it, thanks.” She rolled the dough into a rectangle, before folding the short ends over the middle to make three layers. Turning the dough a quarter turn she rolled it away from her into another large rectangle.
“That looks complicated.” Jake placed an arm at each side of her, then gripped the counter and peered over her shoulder. Effectively caging her in, his warm, minty, breath feathered across her face. “Explain to me what you’re doing. I might like to make it for my son sometime.”
Her hands trembled when she folded the short ends over the middle again to make another three layers. Normally, she’d place the dough back in the refrigerator at this point for another twenty minutes, but if she worked fast enough she could skip that step. And she wanted to get this done as soon as possible and put some space between her and Jake. Afraid she would throw herself back into his arms.
She glanced over her shoulder and met his heated gaze. His eyes smoldered with banked lust. “Seriously?”
He nodded, watching her with a predatory gleam in his eyes.
She took another shaky breath and glanced back down. “Okay. It—it’s a simple recipe really. I’m making dough for Pear-Hazelnut Tarts. I’ll write it down for you.”
“That’d be great.” His body pressed up against her.
Angela gulped. “Well—well, first you prepare the dough, then you need to wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about half an hour.”
“Uh huh.” He leaned in and nuzzled her ear. “Refrigerate the dough. Got it.”
Her mind went into lockdown. Nothing but silence and sexual tension filled the room.
“I’m listening,” Jake brushed his thumb across her cheek. “Flour,” he murmured, nuzzling her neck.
“Oh.” Her body was wound tight and desire pooled in her belly, and her breasts felt heavy and aching with the need to be touched. A tremor ran through her.
She gave the dough another turn and again folded the ends over. “After you remove the dough from the refrigerator, you need to roll it flat, and shape it into a large rectangle, then fold the short ends over the middle so that it makes three layers.” She demonstrated it for him, although she didn’t really think he was paying attention.
“Right. Three layers,” he repeated. One hand slid to her stomach, tugging her closer.
Angela’s pulse raced. “Umm. Repeat this four times,” she managed to say. “The dough needs to remain firm, if not . . . if not, put it back in the refrigerator for another fifteen minutes before continuing.”
“Mmm, sounds like a lot of work.”
She gave her shoulders a little shrug to loosen his arms from around her. “Some space here, please,” she said, breathlessly.
About The Author:
Cheryl Yeko lives in Wisconsin with her husband Patrick. She loves to read, write, play piano and spend time with her grandchildren.
Although she has spent most of her professional life as a legal assistant, she can also include realtor, small business owner, and virtual assistant/mobile notary to her varied background. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America as well as the Wisconsin Chapter.
Cheryl is thrilled to be able to add author to her resume and would love to hear comments from readers.
Genre: Paranormal erotic-romance, vampire, historical, parallel worlds. Publisher: Loose Id LLC Date of Publication: September 25, 2012 ISBN: 978-1-61118-903-2
Number of pages: 286
I have not one but two authors for you today and they’re here talking about the music that inspired them to write Claimed By Dragons. As always, you can click on the pretty cover to see the book, Claimed By Dragons, on Goodreads. Don’t miss the Book Trailer and Excerpt below and at the very bottom you’ll find a bunch of buy links. Enjoy!
BLURB:
In an odd Wiccan shop in Salem, Jael pulls an unusual stone from a witch’s wish bag. Little does she know her wildest dreams of adventure and a torrid affair with two gorgeous co-workers are about to come true—in spades.
Jael’s dreamy boss, Roarke offers her the assignment of a lifetime: a photo safari to Mount Kilimanjaro. The African scenery is stunning but the unexpected arrival of her two office crushes, Roarke and Kypton ignites her passion. Just as the trio is getting steamy at a beautiful waterfall, danger intervenes forcing the men to reveal their secret. They’re dragons. And now, to save her life, they have no choice but to abduct a startled Jael to their mountain lair on Kilimanjaro.
In the dragons’ love nest, Jael learns the truth about their origins and explores all the erotic possibilities two eager lovers can offer. Love awakens, but the guys are being stalked by a covert group of dragon hunters and withholding a life or death secret that will push Jael’s courageous heart and commitment to the limits.
Note:This book contains explicit sexual situations, graphic language, and material that some readers may find objectionable: anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices, menage (m/m/f).
BOOK TRAILER:
When we were writing Claimed By Dragons music played a big part and we want to share a few of favorites with you today.
Amber Skyze: Music and Writing Are One Since a child I’ve connected to music on many different levels. I love all different types, but lean more towards Rock/Heavy Metal. I listen to music more than I watch television. My CD collection is large and my iPod diverse.
Music plays a huge part in my writing too. I hear a song and picture a story. Not the full story, but a general theme. Sometimes it’s only the title that strikes an idea for a story, but normally it’s the lyrics.
Take for instance Dante’s Desire, published with Ellora’s Cave. I wrote this story after hearing the song I Get Off, by Halestorm. It’s about someone getting off watching another get off. I knew I had to write Dante’s Desire. The book starts with Addison, the heroine, performing sexual acts in her window for her sexy neighbor across the street.
Another Ellora’s Cave book – Spend The Night With Me, is loosely attached to a song. The song Need You Now, by Lady Antebellum starts off talking about scattered pictures. The image struck a chord with me (no pun intended). This book starts with my heroine Brooke looking at pictures of her now deceased fiancé. After hearing this song, I changed part of the scene to her sitting on the floor with pictures scattered around her. She’s packing them away to move forward with her life.
Sometimes my heroes are musicians like Reed Walker in Body Shots, available from Ellora’s Cave. He’s a singer and guitar player. His band plays at the heroines bar. Reed signs a song he’d written for the heroine many years prior, weakening her defenses.
Those are just a few examples of how I weave my love for music into my writing life. Is there anything that plays a big role in your life?
Katalina Leon: I have to listen to music when I write, it’ not an option, it’s a must! I prefer moody instrumental soundtracks when I’m actually writing, but I listen to and love all this stuff too, whenever I need a little break.
Best song to do a private Striptease to:
Nine Inch Nails “Sunspots”
(You’ll swear you were wearing clothes before the music started) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTt79FZYwsI
Best song to feel empowered by:
Kelly Clarkson “Stronger” (What Doesn’t Kill You)
Best song to make me wish I’d taken guitar lessons seriously:
Led Zeppelin’s ”Ten Years Gone”
EXCERPT:
(In this scene Jael has pulled a stone from Witch Casey’s wish bag and had her fortune told by a wriggly snake, now she has to sit still for a moment and reflect on her love life.)
Jael closed her fingers around the stone and thought of another man who worked with her—Kypton. Kypton was quiet and aloof with most everyone in the department, but his gaze followed her longingly every time she walked past.
When she told her friends she liked the manager of the IT department, they teased her relentlessly. They couldn’t picture her with a computer geek. Thing was, Kypton was the furthest thing from a computer geek. She understood why they immediately thought of someone with glasses, a shirt buttoned up tight to the neck, and a pocket protector sticking out of his shirt pocket. That wasn’t Kypton.
What her friends and others in her office seemed to miss was that beneath the subdued exterior, Kypton was smoking hot with pale blond hair and baby blue eyes. His voice carried the softest hint of northern Europe. He pronounced e’s as a’s, and she wondered if Kypton had gone to school in Switzerland or lived near there as a child.
Occasionally she was fortunate enough to peek down his collar and glimpse the silky blond hair on his chest. His broad shoulders and well-defined chest stood out in anything he wore. His arms looked like he frequented the gym, and those fitted khakis he favored as office wear gave her a view of a sexy, tight ass. A hint of smoldering physicality simmered just below the surface as if he were completely capable of picking her up, carrying her into a quiet storage room, and banging her senseless. At least that was what she hoped. She concluded the other women in her office must be blind or foolish not to notice Kypton’s potential. Kypton seemed thoughtful and sensitive too, which was a huge plus. He’d jumped in to help her on numerous occasions, often staying late at work to do so. He also avoided all office gossip or conflicts and went out of his way to help others before he was even asked, which she found pretty damn attractive.
All in all Kypton was a dreamy guy, even if he might appear a bit sedate.
Only problem was Roarke attracted her too.
Roarke was Kypton’s opposite. Roarke was outgoing and authoritative. When he entered the room, others stopped what they were doing to listen. Though he was a manager, he had an artistic, wild vibe about him that was exciting to be near. He dressed well in bold colors like earthy orange or rich purple. It was a treat to watch him walk past her desk and catch a whiff of his subtle citrusy aftershave—that was, if he ever really shaved. His square jaw seemed perpetually stubbled in a grainy, sexy sort of way.
Roarke had coppery skin and the swarthy good looks of a Barbary pirate chief. She half fantasized he was the son of some powerful khan and his mother was some delicate-boned beauty. Roarke was both puzzling and stunning to look at. His sleek nose and chiseled bone structure made his origins difficult to guess. She wondered if there was a tribe of exotically perfect people hiding somewhere on a long-forgotten island, who sneaked away from their hidden paradise now and then to work as office managers.
As a natural leader, Roarke drew people to his side with ease. He spoke passionately with his expressive hands and cognac-brown eyes as much as he did with words. Anything earthy and creative interested him—nature, movies, paintings, or books, he loved them all. His apartment contained a dazzling array of fine books and an impressive collection of beautiful artifacts displayed in lit niches.
A visit to his apartment was not only a physical thrill; it was mentally stimulating to the artist in her to look at the many things he’d collected over the years. Roarke seemed to live in such a different world from the average person, and she longed be to invited in.
Roarke worked as a manager in the human resource department of International Explorer magazine and network. He was well respected and very much in demand.
She’d foolishly told Roarke on the first date she had no intention of getting involved with a coworker, so maybe some of the distance between them was her fault. She wanted to take it back. What a dummy she was for saying that.
That wasn’t to say nothing had happened between them. It had. Twice after a dreamy museum date or trip to the movies on Roarke’s birthday, the date had ended with both of them unable to keep their hands off each other.
Roarke had picked her up, carried her into his bedroom, tossed her onto his amethyst sheets, and lavished her with the best oral she’d ever had. Roarke was a total sensualist and seemed to know exactly what she needed to come hard. She’d loved every second of writhing in his firm but loving grasp and was eager to reciprocate.
She just wasn’t sure where she stood with him. A date once in a while was for chumps. Maybe he was waiting for her to admit that she did want to get involved with a coworker before pursuing her a little harder.
“Never underestimate the power of love.” Witch Casey winked as she popped the captured snake back into the basket.
Jael turned her attention to the woman standing in front of her. Had she been reading Jael’s mind?
“Your dilemma will not be hard to decide. You already know exactly what you want, and you don’t have to choose.”
Jael’s eyes widened.
Dear God, she can read my mind. I wonder if she saw the naughty thoughts?
“I did, dear.” Witch Casey shrugged. “But your secrets are safe with me. Besides, no one believes me anyway.”
(Jael’s life gets crazy fast, when she returns to work to face Roarke and Kypton with the wish stone in her pocket.)
Thank you so much for having us as your guests!
“Claimed By Dragons” Amber Skyze & Katalina Leon
Book 2 in The Bag Of Tricks book series.
Loose Id Publishing: http://www.loose-id.com/authors/a-f/amber-skyze-katalina-leon.html
Look for Book 1 in The Bag Of Tricks series“ The Strix”.
Also available at ARe and Amazon.
Join Amber Skyze and Katalina Leon on facebook.
Author Bio Katalina Leon:
I’m an artist, an author, mother and wife. I write for Loose Id Publishing and Ellora’s Cave. I try to bring a touch of the mystical and a big sense of adventure to everything I write because I believe there’s a bold, kick-ass heroine inside all of us who wants to take a wild ride with a strong worthy hero.
From a very young age, Amber Skyze began making up stories–the only child syndrome. Telling tall tales to all her friends she never dreamed of putting words on paper. In fact if anyone asked her if she would write when she grew up, she’d have laughed.
It wasn’t until raising children and reading all those romances that she decided–hey, I can write these. HA! Easier said than done.
When not crafting hot, steamy tales, this New York transplant now resides in Rhode Island with her husband, four children (who force her to work a day job), and three dogs.
She currently writes for Ellora’s Cave, Loose Id and is self-published.
Two weeks ago I put the spotlight on Skye’s new release. Now, I’ll give you my review of Hear Me, plus an excerpt, and I have the details for Skye’s Tour wide giveaway.
Giveaway:
Skye Warren is giving away a $100 Amazon gift card and four $25 Barnes & Noble gift cards on this tour. Enter to win by leaving a comment below. What do you enjoy about reading dark books?
Blurb:
She doesn’t remember her past, only her training. She can’t talk, not that a good slave should speak out of turn. None of that matters when she wakes up in the warm, rustic room. Her new master is distant but kind. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t want her.
Longing for the shackles of safety, she pulls from the last dregs of her will to prove her worth as a slave. It seems to be working. He responds first to her body and next to her submission. The secrets of his past haunt the cabin, fraying the tightening bond between Master and slave, but it is her own memories that may finally unravel it.
This book contains a bonus short story Escape, set in the same dark erotica world.
WARNING:
This book contains explicit scenes of sex, including dubious consent and captivity situations. The BDSM does not conform to literary conventions, making it sometimes more realistic, and other times not. This is a work of fiction not appropriate for anyone uncomfortable with these situations or anyone under the age of eighteen.
Review:
This was my 2nd Skye Warren read and she blew this one out of the water. She keeps you on your toes from the very beginning, while she paints a sensual world threaded deep in emotions and submission, mystery and thrilling suspense, dominance and even romance.
It was easy to care about the Heroine (Melody/slave) right away, I could feel the fight in her even after she survived horrific sexual slavery. This story takes you on a journey, who is the heroine, where is the heroine. Skye starts the story at the perfect junction of change. You get to awaken along with the heroine and figure out along the way what the truth really is.
At one point the heroine thinks: She no longer thought of survival alone; she wanted more. The Heroine fights back from the slave mentality, but faces cruel obstacles along the way. Skye’s fluid powerful writing, that I’ve come to love, is present and in full force. I highly recommend Hear Me.
~ 5 Stars ~
Excerpt (Explicit):
Her training wasn’t about how to stand or to suck, not really. She had become an expert at reading expressions, at decoding body language. He was a formidable cipher, but she only needed time.
Meanwhile, she knew well enough what those heavy lids and flattened lips meant. She saw the tinge of red on his cheeks. All of that would have told her, even if she hadn’t seen the bulge in his wet jeans. He wanted to take her and this time, it wasn’t in his sleep. It wasn’t in some awkward moment, born of pity—no. He had initiated this. He had brought her to this magical place. No dream.
He seemed to like her forwardness, like a release valve to the curious guilt he had about her status, so she tentatively reached up to sweep a wet lock of hair from his forehead. He remained still for her touch, his expression one of approving forbearance. But when she went to stroke down his neck, he caught her wrist.
“I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to say no if you don’t want it too. I’m afraid you can’t. If I were better—stronger—I wouldn’t even make you choose, but I…” He sighed. The moisture in the air beaded on his eyelashes. “It’s been so long. I’ve waited so long.”
He pulled her in deeper, until the water climbed her thighs and lapped at her cunt. They followed the wall of the cave until it opened up onto a small beach that was completely enclosed by cool stone and reflective water. Barely enough place for both of them, but she knew that was the point. Here even the white noise of the water was reduced, and all she could hear was her breath and his.
“I never imagined a submissive as perfect as you,” he said lowly, but the words were as commanding as she’d ever heard him. “I keep thinking you’re not real, that I’ll wake up and find myself alone again. But this isn’t real, is it? You aren’t really like this. They made you this way.”
Don’t make me think about it. Just want me.
“Jesus Christ,” he said. “When you look at me, so damn trusting. It’s not right. I know that, but I can’t stop. Will you let me, subby? Can I hurt you?”
I have the lovely Sarah Bella here today and she isn’t empty handed. First, gaze on that beautiful cover and see all the links and details at the top of the post. Next is her Rafflecopter code for a tour wide give away ***You could win a Gift basket with an E-copy of Delilah’s Passion, Cookbook that follows the book, T-shirt, and swag!!***, followed by the blurb for Delilah’s Passion, some great advice for new authors, an excerpt from Delilah’s Passion, Sarah’s bio, and last I have the buy links for Delilah’s Passion.
Delilah Steele was living the high life. She had a high-powered job, a man she loved and nothing was holding her back. When her world, and her trust, was irrevocably shattered by the man she loved, Delilah had no choice but to return to the town she grew up in – and couldn’t wait to leave. There she goes to work for Aiden Dean, a handsome heartbreaker who seems to have his eye on Delilah. When Delilah’s long-absent father arrives on the scene, she has to figure out how to cope with his presence and desire to be a part of her life. Now Delilah has to learn how to live – and love – all over again. Will her hard knocks past continue to haunt her, or will Aiden break through her tough exterior and show her that forever can be a good thing?
Advice for the Emerging Author:
I’ve had a different journey into publishing than most authors. After finishing and submitting Delilah’s Passion, I had to wait. There’s nothing to do after hitting send unless you start another project. So I started another project. I did NaNoWriMo – National novel writing month and wrote 14 days of Oh.
That’s when my path shifted. I decided to focus on getting my name out there as many times and ways as I could. I set a goal to submit thirty pieces of writing to publishing houses in 2011. I wrote everything from flash fiction to novellas and I met my goal. Of the thirty pieces I submitted, nine were accepted. I am currently published with six different small presses.
I learned more in twelve months of submitting that I would have learned in five years of writing and submitting novels. Why? Because I did it thirty times.
My favorite piece of writing advice changes depending on what I’m working on, but I think that in general, the most important thing for a newbie author to learn is how to accept and apply constructive criticism.
The key, I think, is to use only a beta or pre-reader whom you trust implicitly. That way, when you’re reading their edits and suggestions, you know they’re raising valid concerns. You trusted their opinion enough to let them read your MS and you need to remind yourself of that when your instinct is to curl up and protect your story.
There is validity in every concern brought up by a pre-reader and you have to learn to separate your feelings about the story from the editing process. Once you do that, you’re golden.
Excerpt:
Delilah took her time, enjoying a few more minutes in the fresh
powder. When she finally made her way inside, Aiden was already
sitting on the couch in his flannel pajama pants and a University of
Minnesota sweatshirt, drinking a cup of hot cocoa. He nodded toward
the end table where she saw a second cup of cocoa, presumably
intended for her.
She peeled off her soggy gloves and hat, dropping them to the tile
floor. Kicking futilely at her boots, she tried to pry them off her feet.
“I need dry jeans before the cocoa is going to do me any good.” She
laughed and hopped around the entry, trying to get her boots off.
The dryer buzzed. “That would be your fleece pants. Cozy and
warm from the dryer.”
“Ooh.” She moaned excitedly as she ran into the laundry room
behind the staircase. Delilah shucked her wet jeans and underwear
and threw them in the laundry tub, stepping into warm, fuzzy, fleecy
bliss. She walked back out to the couch and Aiden, rolling her
shoulders and snuggling into her warm pants.
“The only thing that could make this more perfect would be my
slipper boots and a roaring fire.” She curled up on the couch opposite
him.
Aiden pulled her slippers out from behind his back, handing them
over with one hand while the other picked up a remote from the arm
of the couch and clicked a button.
The fire in the gas fireplace roared to life and Delilah threw her
head back and laughed.
“I guess you think you know me well, or something like that?
Hmm?” she winked. “You are too damn funny.”
“I think I know you about as well as any two people can possibly
know each other after seven short weeks.” Aiden tapped his long
fingers on his chin, pretending to be deep in contemplation.
“Short, hmm?” Delilah teased. “They’ve seemed pretty long to me.
So long that it seemed like they dragged, actually.”
Aiden scowled at her, crossing his arms and feigning offense.
She liked the way his nose crinkled up and his heavy brows drew
together, but she loved the way the muscles in his arms drew his shirt
tightly against him as he moved.
“Are you insinuating that I am less than exemplary company?
Because I have it on good authority that I am exceptionally
entertaining. And I have a nice tush.” He winked at her.
“I guess if you call being sold into slave labor entertaining, then
sure, I’m thoroughly entertained.” Delilah shifted on the couch,
turning so her back was against the armrest and tucked her legs
beneath herself.
“You sold your own soul, woman. That had nothing to do with
me,” he argued jokingly.
“You bought it.”
“See, merely a business transaction.” Delilah pulled on her slippers
and swatted Aiden lightly on the shoulder.
Author Bio:
Sarah is a small town Minnesota girl who calls pop by its proper name – pop. She wrote her first novel when she was fourteen; it may or may not have been up to industry standards. She now writes both novels and short stories in the romance, mystery/suspense, paranormal and erotica genres.
She loves traveling anywhere south of the equator and finds that a nice dark microbrew can help get the creative juices flowing. When she’s not writing or traveling, you can find Sarah with her nose buried in a book. Sarah lives in the small town she grew up in with her husband, three children, her cat and her dog.
I found Skye through Six Sunday. Each week her six sentences would grab hold of me and sink in. I read Trust in Me (Dark Erotica #2) and really enjoyed it. There is a ton of power and emotion in Skye’s words. I jumped at the chance to be a part of Skye’s tour for the release of her third book in the series. She’s definitely an author I recommend. Skye will be here, at my blog in just two weeks. I’m excited. But you can check out her tour now, click on the tour button. Below I have the blurb, trailer, and buy links.
She doesn’t remember her past, only her training. She can’t talk, not that a good slave should speak out of turn. None of that matters when she wakes up in the warm, rustic room. Her new master is distant but kind. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t want her.
Longing for the shackles of safety, she pulls from the last dregs of her will to prove her worth as a slave. It seems to be working. He responds first to her body and next to her submission. The secrets of his past haunt the cabin, fraying the tightening bond between Master and slave, but it is her own memories that may finally unravel it.
This book contains a bonus short story Escape, set in the same dark erotica world.
WARNING:
This book contains explicit scenes of sex, including dubious consent and captivity situations. The BDSM does not conform to literary conventions, making it sometimes more realistic, and other times not. This is a work of fiction not appropriate for anyone uncomfortable with these situations or anyone under the age of eighteen.
Click the pretty cover to see Mystically Bound on Goodreads
Tess Jennings’ life is in chaos. Not only has her ghost lover, Kipp McGowen, crossed into the Netherworld, but she’s the newest member of a secret society. And they want her to start work immediately. Upon arriving in White Castle, Louisiana, she is presented with an offer she cannot refuse.
The Grand Master has been murdered and Tess must solve the crime by locating his ghost. The reward—a magical spell to save Kipp. But as Tess dives deeper into the case, the more danger surrounds her. Not everyone wants the murder solved, and she is caught in the crossfire.
Soon, Tess finds herself knee-deep in a hunt for a spell, a race to locate a killer, and a journey to the beyond. Will Kipp finally take a living breath, or will Tess take her last?
I’m bringing you all the details on this hot little number PLUS there is a tour wide giveaway!!! It is a comment to win and the prizes are: An autographed print copy of Anna Doubles Down AND a $25 gift certificate to Bookstrand online. There’s a Rafflecopter to make everything easy and an extra chance to win too.
BLURB:
Anna can’t believe how much the woman in the picture looks like her. They could be twins, except the picture was taken in 1871. Either she’s a relative, or Anna had a past life in Hamilton, Nevada. Either way, the temptation to visit the old ghost town is too much. She and her friend Kat travel west. While off exploring on her own, Anna is knocked unconscious when she falls down the steps in the saloon. She can hardly believe her eyes when she wakes. Beau and Zeke won the Silver Rush Saloon in a poker game and have been partners and secret lovers for over ten years. They don’t know what to make of the woman they found half-dressed in their cellar. She claims to know something terrible that’s about to happen to their town and needs their help. Will Anna be able to win their love and trust before it’s too late?
EXCERPT:
Work-roughened palms with long, tapering fingers roughly untied the rope at her waist and yanked the loose pants down her thighs. She groaned and let her fingers slide through Zeke’s hair when he nuzzled her mound over the satiny cloth of her thong. “Darlin’, you’ve got some of the strangest drawers I’ve ever seen. There’s practically nothing to ’em.” He ran his thumb over the silky nub of her panties eliciting a soft gasp from her lips.
Beau pulled her hand away, forcing her arms back as he unfastened and pulled off her shirt. She became pliant as he kissed every inch of the skin he exposed, his hand sliding down her back to rest on the swell of her ass. She could feel him tugging on the elastic of her thong. “I wanna see you, Anna.”
“Yeah, me too.” Zeke slid the tiny scrap of material down her legs letting his fingers run through her feminine curls. “You’re so silky here.”
“Let me see.” Beau’s hand snaked around her hip, his fingers skimming over her pussy lips. “Damn, she’s sopping wet.”
Zeke reached between her legs to brush a fingertip across the hood of her throbbing clit. “I can’t wait any longer, Beau.” He dropped to his knees and rubbed her swollen clit with his thumb. Leaning close, he replaced his hand with his mouth and ran his tongue up the slit of her wet pussy.
“No!” Anna cried out when Beau pulled her away from the fiery pleasure of Zeke’s mouth.
“Patience, Anna. We just need to get a little more comfortable.” He scooped her into his arms and tossed her onto the bed. Now we can all get down to business.”
Anna watched the two men quickly strip off their clothes. Their chiseled, work-roughened features causing the breath to catch in her throat. Both men sported impressive erections, and both were already leaking pre-cum. She swallowed hard. “What about protection?”
Beau gave her a wink as he climbed onto the bed. “Don’t worry, honey. We’ll make sure to pull out in time. We won’t be leaving you with a babe.”
Anna forced herself to concentrate as Zeke snuggled close on her other side. “No, that’s not what I mean. You can’t get me pregnant, at least not right now.”
Zeke placed a hand on her chin and forced her gaze up to his. “I’m so sorry, Anna. You can’t have children?”
“No, I mean yes, I probably can. I just wouldn’t be able to get pregnant for a few months. I just had my Depo shot before we left on vacation.” She sighed at the puzzled frowns on their faces. “It’s an injection the doctor gives me a few times a year that keeps me from getting pregnant. That way I get to decide when I want to have a baby.”
“Guess we don’t have to ask if you’ve been with a man before.” Beau smoothed the hair away from her face.
“Well, yes, I’ve had a couple of relationships with men.” She watched their faces carefully. “Does that make a difference?”
“Absolutely not!”
“No, honey, not at all.”
Anna giggled. “I’m glad it doesn’t bother you.”
“If you can’t conceive a child, then why were you asking about protection?” Zeke moved over and settled between her spread thighs.
His warm breath on her stomach made it difficult for Anna to voice her thoughts. “I meant condoms, you know, for disease.” She took a deep breath. “Not that I’m sick or anything, I mean I’m clean and I’m sure you are, too, but it always pays to be careful.” She could feel herself flushing as she rambled on.
“What are you—”
“I know what she’s talking about.” Beau ran his hand through Zeke’s hair. “I read about ’em. Some kind of little coverings men could use to catch their seed so they didn’t spill into their woman’s body.”
“I never heard of such a thing.” Zeke leaned close and blew gently on her spread pussy. “As far as I know there’s nothing like that around here.”
Anna groaned and closed her eyes as she brushed her hand along the bristly roughness of his unshaven beard. She could feel the muffled heat of his breath flicker across her abdomen. “I guess it’ll have to be okay then.” She lost the ability to talk when Zeke stroked her clit with his thumb, his fingers working their way inside her. She began to pant as he rubbed gentle circles around the tiny nub.
“You’re so beautiful.” Beau kissed her eyelids softly, his hand caressing across the skin of her chest. His lips roamed over to her earlobe and then down the side of her neck while his fingers teased the sensitive tip of her breast, making maddeningly slow circles around the peak. He pinched and kneaded each nipple in turn before lifting her breast in his hand. He circled her nipple with his tongue just before he sucked it deep inside his mouth.
“Spread your legs wider,” Zeke ordered. He settled his upper body even lower between her spread thighs and licked her from bottom to top. “God, you taste like sweet honey.” He laved her most intimate places with his hot tongue, stroking down her slit and back up, swirling around her pulsing clit.
Anna groaned harshly when Beau’s thumb circled her nipple, torturing it into a hard bud before sucking it deep into his mouth. She couldn’t stop a moan from escaping when she felt the sharp nip of his teeth on her tender flesh.
Zeke opened her folds with his fingers and began to lick her clit in earnest while he penetrated her sheath with his fingers. He plucked and teased her swollen nub, slipping his thick index finger in and out before tracing her cleft again.
“Oh, God,” she cried out, her hips bucking off the mattress as an orgasm washed through her senses.
Zeke threw a hand across her abdomen, holding her still as he lapped and sucked until the last wave of pleasure receded.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
I was born, and raised in the great southern state of Tennessee. In my youth, I studied nursing, and spent several happy years working in the hospitals there until I branched out into medical management in 1980.
In 1998 I was managing a medical supply house in Chattanooga, when I met the love of my life. The only problem facing me then, he lived way out in Oklahoma. You see, we had met in a chat room!
He romanced me daily with love letters, flowers and phone calls. It wasn’t long before I uprooted myself, and moved west to join him. We married in 1999, and then continued our fantasy romance all over the world. Together we have traveled in almost all of the Continental United States, and taken trips to Canada and China.
I retired from working in 2002 and it wasn’t long before my husband was encouraging me to find some kind of outlet to occupy my time, something that was challenging, and rewarding. I was already obsessed with reading about romance, and I began to think I could probably write a good, romantic story. My husband heartily agreed with me. With that encouragement, I began writing my first book. I wasn’t really convinced that anyone else would find it interesting, but he pressed me to take a chance and send it in to a publisher. To my surprise, it was accepted, and now I’m able to share it with readers everywhere who like a “happily ever after” story.
Today, I’m living in California with my, still romantic, husband of twelve years, and our boys. Our boys consist of Beau, Midnight, and Bubba, three male cats that allow us to live with them and serve them at their leisure. I continue to write almost daily, hoping that someone, somewhere will get the same enjoyment from reading my stories, that I get from writing them.
Would you just look at that cover, it’s beautiful. Lucky Victoria and lucky us. I have all kinds of treats for you today. Paranormal Romance author Victoria Danann is celebrating the release of book two in her series, The Order of the Black Swan: The Witch’s Dream. She’s holding a tour wide GIVEAWAY!! Victoria is offering one Autographed Print Copy of her book plus a mousepad!! Check out the mouse pad right here on the right. All you need to do is comment, right here on this blog post.
BOOK DESCRIPTION:
He was left behind when Elora Laiken made her choice. Now he’s had it with love, but a transplanted witch who happens to be the world’s best tracker hopes she can change his mind.
The Witch’s Dream begins with B Team on loan for temporary assignment to Black Swan headquarters in Edinburgh where they are supposed to fill in for stretched-thin resources and assist with a werewolf issue. They’ve been given permission to stop in Ireland for a few days and help Ram and Elora celebrate their handfasting at the palace in Derry.
When they reach Edinburgh, the afterglow of an elftale wedding quickly turns all business. A missing person report turns into a demon abduction. A simple werewolf sanction becomes a diplomatic issue requiring the one thing Elora is no longer willing to give – finesse. From New York to Ireland to Edinburgh to Siena to the Texas Hill Country to Napa Valley. From promises to rages to hunts to epiphanies.
This is a story that proves true love can find you when you’re least expecting it – even when you’re far, far from home.
Erotic quotient: A few steamy scenes. No menage. No BDSM.
EXCERPT:
When Kay’s bunch arrived it suddenly seemed as if the one hundred seventy five room palace on twelve thousand acres would not be nearly big enough. His family had migrated to South Texas in the nineteenth century and found it agreeably inhospitable. Berserkers enjoy a good challenge. So they founded an organization to clean up the mess, taking on rowdy itinerants who heartily embraced a get-it-done, no-rules philosophy and called it the Texas Rangers. Were it not for berserkers it seems unlikely that the frontier mix of Comanche, desperados, and javelina could have been subdued so relatively quickly and by so few.
Chaos Caelian, named such by his maternal grandmother as was her privilege in berserker society, was affectionately known as Kay. It was the nickname bestowed upon him by his teammate Rammel Hawking soon after they’d met. Ram had thought a knight named Kay – like the foster brother of King Arthur from Arthurian legend – was amusing. So Chaos became Sir Kay and it stuck. Even his own parents eventually began calling him Kay.
Yes. Everybody knew the near giant knight as Kay except for his three older sisters who refused to give up calling him Bubba, never letting him forget for a minute that he was the “baby” of the family. The four youngest Caelian children were close in age, only a year apart, and in familial ties. There was a much older brother, but he and their parents almost seemed to comprise a second family. The three preschool girls started out calling him “brother”, but the nickname quickly degenerated into Bubba and would not go away.
Their grandmother, sometimes called Evil Gran by those she had named, gave the girls similar hardships to bear. Having inherited the “sight” from her own grandmother, Evil Gran claimed she knew three girls were coming and set out to name them after the Norns; the three keepers of time according to Norse myth. Hence, they were named in order of linear time – past, present, and future: Urda, Verdandia, and Skulda. In a triumph of sibling camaraderie and conspiracy over custom, their names had morphed into something more suitable before they entered kindergarten. Urda became known as “Urz”, Verdandia as “Dandie” and Skulda did a triple twist into “Squoozie” which, odd as it was, seemed like a custom fit.
Elora had once heard Kay say that opening the door to his boyhood home was like going through the wardrobe to the land of “Nornia”.
The entire family resembled the popular perception of Vikings: tall, fair haired, fair skinned, with blue eyes, an abundance of athletic ability, and an indomitable desire to know where to plunder the best jewelry. Fortunately the family had accumulated multigenerational wealth in land, cattle, and oil in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century so the quest for jewelry did not require going a’viking as it was known in the old days. Kay’s sisters were content with the occasional plunder of Gump’s, Tiffany, and Cartier.
Author Bio:
For the past thirteen years, Victoria has illustrated and authored Seasons of the Witch calendars and planners.
Though works of fiction are a departure for her, she has had this series simmering on the back burner of her mind for years. In addition to authoring and illustrating Seasons of the Witch, she plays rock music and manages one of Houston’s premier R&B/Variety/Pop bands.
This series will eventually include some of my actual experience in the paranormal with fictionalized anecdotes from my journals during the years when I was a practicing “metaphysician”, but most of the material is fantasy – of course.
Christmas Delights
S.J. Maylee 