Tag Archives: siren publishing

Is Sex the Journey or the Destination? – A Guest Post by JL Peridot (@jlperidot) #giveaway

Guest Blogger, , , , ,

In stories and in life, sex can be an exciting driver for change. Desire stokes your energy and pushes you forward, waking you up, forcing you to appreciate what’s around you instead of sticking to the status quo.

When a friend of mine left her first husband, we were all shocked. To us, she was the heroine of a beautiful college romance that turned into the perfect life.

I tell her story with permission: one day, she met someone. She wanted him. She’d never felt this way before. Suddenly, she found she couldn’t settle for the first answer that came up when she wondered if Happily Ever After existed.

Whether or not this new guy was her hero, her desire for him thrust her marriage under a microscope. For the first time, she saw the stark incompatibilities, the lack of respect, the micro-aggressions and passive-aggressions that over the years told her to shut up and just be a good wife. She realised her husband had been antagonist material this whole time, and she was just too blind to see it.

Months after her marriage ended, I asked why she never hooked up with the new guy. She said even though her desire for him was “the beginning of the end”, she realised it was never really about getting together with him. She’d been deeply unhappy in her relationship for so long that it had become normal. She was sleepwalking through it, and figured that’s just what happiness must be like.

Yet somehow, her body knew that her head and her heart were out of synch. Every fibre of her being was determined to put it right. It tried letting her know through anxiety, through depression, through chronic illness, but nothing worked. Finally, it tried sexual desire — the beast that grows stronger, the more you try to ignore it.

A year later, she was a divorcee and the happiest I’d ever seen her, starting a new relationship with guy who later proved that heroes aren’t just found in storybooks.

In my novel, Chasing Sisyphus, my heroine and hero are undoubtedly attracted to each other. It’s no traditional romance novel attraction. They’re two good-looking adults who’ve been around the block enough to know there’s something there. The problem is there’s no way a wanted criminal and a cop can hook up. Not even in a corrupt city like Basilica.

So, what can they do? They can’t stop at the first answer that comes to mind: turning on each other and getting on with their lives. That’s what you’d settle for if it were with any old Joe. But when you want someone — really want someone — you look for a different answer. You can’t help it. Every fibre of your being pushes you towards it.

It doesn’t have to be about the sex, really. Sex, the act or just the mere idea of it, is there to wake you up. And with your eyes open, you can finally see the chapters of your life for what they are, and get back to creating your story.

Thank you, KD, for having me on your blog.

*****

Chasing Sisyphus excerpt:

Adria took a deep breath. Then another. The air was too thick in here. Shadows and sparks crept over her vision. Why was the floor moving?

She fumbled for the doorknob. No dice. Dried her hand on the towel and tried again. Cool air flooded in. Sweat prickled her skin. She blinked hard and rubbed water from her eyes. The dull carpet beneath her seemed to stretch on forever, a giant tilting landscape meeting a worn wallpaper horizon.

Detective Carver stepped toward her. He held out a cup and motioned for her to take it. She tucked a finger in the handle and clutched it in both hands. A dark crack streaked the rim like a wrinkle in a knuckle. Meanwhile, her own knuckles were pale.

“I guess I should thank you”—he smiled—“you know, for saving my life.”

“Don’t mention it,” she whispered, vision clearing as she sucked in a breath of fresh motel air.

The detective’s shirt hung, still wet, on the back of a chair. The contours of his chest and abdomen showed through his dark undershirt, accentuated by the sheen of composite fabric under lamplight. A shallow dimple creased the edge of his smile.

Details.

Anchors.

They’d come so close to not making it. But he’d cuffed her round the front. He was the sort of cop who’d do a thing like that. And the few seconds it bought made all the difference.

That’s why she went back.

He stood in front of her and knocked back his shot, the muscles in his wrist and arm flexing and twisting with the motion.

“Hey”—he looked at her—“something the matter?”

Heart racing, she downed her drink without a word and reached for him. She pulled his face to hers. His skin was warm. His breath was warm. Beneath the smell of liquor and earthy river water lurked the aroma of another person. A breathing person who caught her as she fell into him, as she kissed him, fumbling for something to hold onto.

The detective let go of his cup. It landed next to hers on the carpet. She kicked them both away. Her lips recognised him, recognised the sensation of life breathing between them both. Only this time, he was alive, too, hot and moving. His arms gripped her, holding her as she pushed her body toward him, against the growing need under his clothes. She was a buoy, slammed into him by waves in a storm. He clung to her, seizing fistfuls of her hair.

“What are we doing?” he gasped.

“We almost died tonight.”

She kissed him again, seeking his tongue where their lips met. Her nimble fingers worked the clasp of his belt. When it was undone, she peeled his undershirt from his muscular torso. His skin was cold beneath her touch, or were her hands hot from the shower? She looked at him. Right in the eye. She guided his hands up her waist and watched him intently.

“Fuck that, right?”

“Yeah”—he nodded—“fuck that.”

*****

Chasing Sisyphus blurb:

Bounty hunter Adria Yuan is hot on the trail of her final hit: a notorious hacker wanted by the city’s elite. With the reward, she can pay for her brother’s surgery and finally get out of Basilica City. Trouble is, her line of work’s not exactly legal, and she’s barely staying ahead of the cops who want her target, too.

Detective Rhys Carver may be a little unorthodox, but he’s a good cop. Born and bred in Basilica, he does his part to keep his city clean. As clean as it gets, at least. And with Adria suddenly in his sights, it’s going to take more than falling in love for him to let her go.

As the pair close in on their mark, they are unwittingly drawn into a high profile conspiracy that could thrust the whole of Basilica into chaos. Can Adria and Rhys set aside their differences, and their desires, to save the only home they know?

*****

About JL Peridot

JL Peridot never expected to write romance. She likes her stories with a little danger and only realised in her 30s that falling in love is one of the most dangerous things we do. From her home in Western Australia, she writes erotic romance, erotica, shopping lists and long-winded walls of text to her very patient friends.

*****

GIVEAWAY!

Make sure to follow the whole tour—the more posts you visit throughout, the more chances you’ll get to enter the giveaway. The tour dates are here: http://writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/jl-peridot/

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A Heroine with Sass and Attitude by Jan Graham (@jan_graham)

Guest Blogger, , , , , ,

WMS_blogtourI want to thank K D Grace for hosting me as part of my Switching Mercedes Blog Tour. It’s really great to be here on day four of the tour.

Today I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my books heroine, Mercedes. For those of you who have read the first two books in the series, you’ll know exactly who she is. Mercedes is the step-sister of my first two heroes, Daniel and Christian Shore, from Finding Angel. Although she has only appeared as a secondary character in the series so far, her sassy attitude and strong will definitely made an impact with readers. I’m not really surprised she ended up having a book of her own. I was surprised by the story she told me.

Like a lot of people you look at the outward appearance without seeing the person underneath, or asking the correct questions to truly get to know them. Strength is often honed through adversity and I was amazed to discover that was exactly the case with Mercedes. I’m not going to give away details but, throughout the story, Mercedes once again faces a threat to her safety and it’s her past experience that shapes her response to the present day crisis and personal challenges she faces throughout the book.

As I wrote her story I began to think about personal discussions I had with clients during my years working in the welfare system. So many people used bad or difficult situations in their past as a reason not to attempt to change, making it an excuse for bad or destructive behavior. There were some though, who, like Mercedes, had the attitude and drive to say, I refuse to let that situation cripple me, and by doing so they managed to change their lives for the better. In hindsight, I believe that the women I worked with, who displayed strength and who refused to back down in the face of adversity, were somehow my inspiration for the character of Mercedes. I hope in some small way, Mercedes may inspire others to look fear in the face and overcome whatever threatens to hold them down. For that reason she’s one of my favorite heroines to date.

Below is information about Switching Mercedes and where you can purchase it, along with my other books, including the first two in the Wylde Shore Series. If you’ve missed any of the previous blog from the tour you can check them out by looking up the appearance dates via link below. There is also a competition running during the tour, where you can win the complete Wylde Shore Series, entry details are at the bottom of this post.

Excerpt:

God she was adorable. He felt like he was a schoolboy being given a good dressing down by an angry principal. If he was any way inclined to that sort of thing he’d be hard as a rock by now. No wonder she was considered the best professional Mistress in the city. Instead he grew hard for other reasons. The black leather dress she wore fit her like a glove with the zip front pushing her breasts together and up to show the most alluring cleavage, like two soft pillow tops he wanted to bury his face in then bite just for the pleasure of hearing her moan. Her thigh high boots allowed for only the smallest peek of sheer nylon-covered flesh between boot top and dress hem. He wanted to raise the hemline and see what lay beneath.

She appeared to be on a roll, although he’d given up listening to the barrage of insults she fired at his brother. If he was Zane, which of course he wasn’t, he’d wait for her to calm herself, get the fact he’d annoyed her off her chest, and then proceed. But he wasn’t Zane, and the one inherent difference between the two of them was his brother was far more patient with women, especially when they were upset. Ash, on the other hand, knew exactly how to soothe this savage beast.

He casually butted out the cigar on the wall, pocketing the extinguished two-thirds. After all, with trade embargos, Cubans were hard to come by unless one visited the country, and he wouldn’t be back there for the foreseeable future. He expected his target to step back when he pushed away from the wall and stood upright, but she didn’t. Too busy explaining how she was happy with a casual sex arrangement and that was all a Neanderthal like Zane could ever hope for. Too bad he wasn’t his brother. He’d probably reconsider what he was about to do.

With lightening speed he reached out his arm and circled her waist, pulling her toward him. A quick one-eighty-degree spin had her in the shadows, back to the wall, surrounded by his larger frame.

“Enough.” He covered her mouth with his in their second, long overdue kiss, swallowing her fury and any objections she may have been about to voice. She responded with a seductive moan as their tongues entwined. He had her, and this time he wouldn’t let her go until she screamed his name. Well, his brother’s name actually. Damn it, he should just tell her.

All notions of confession were blown away when she looped her arms around the back of his neck and pulled herself up onto his body, her legs circling his waist. He clasped the globes of her ass in both hands and assisted in repositioning her, standing taller and wedging her more tightly between the brickwork and his body. He moved his hands in turn, repositioning them under the leather of her dress, dragging it up as he cupped the bare flesh of her ass cheeks. She was either commando or wearing a G-string. Knowing the latter more likely to be true, he slid his fingers to the crease of her ass until he found a thread of material. Following the thin trail of lace to the wetness between her legs, he moved the lace aside, allowing his fingers to delve between her lips before sliding effortlessly inside her… one…two…three.

As the third long digit pushed inside, Mercedes broke the kiss, exhaling a breathless moan of pleasure, her cunt tightening around his fingers.

“Fuck my fingers and come for me, baby.” He’d prefer to have her come on his cock, but he refused to be caught with his pants down if Bethany chose to show up for their meeting.

“Not here, please, Zane.” Despite the request for a change of venue, Mercedes thrust downward. Ash extended his thumb to rub over her clit, resulting in another mewling of delight from his now totally aroused and compliant little hellcat as she rode his fingers, driving them deep inside.

“No one can see you, baby, I’ve got you covered.” Sweet pussy juice spread over his hand as her cunt began to pulse around him in a flurry of release. She pulled his hair and buried her face against his chest, muffling the passionate cry as she came. “Again.”

This time he did the maneuvering of his fingers, thrusting them deep and fast within her, quickly bringing her to another climax.

“Please no more, not here. You know I don’t like public displays.” Mercedes cupped his face between her hands and rested her forehead against his. “I need you buried deep inside me, your skin against mine, but not here.”

Not here, great.

“Your place or mine?” It was obvious Beth was a no-show, so leaving the area didn’t matter. He’d contact her later.

“Neither.” She lowered her legs and pushed away from him, straightening her hem as she headed straight for the staff entry door. “The perfect place is right inside. You have a lock on your office door so we won’t be disturbed.”

Fuck, no. She was inside the club before he could stop her. Zane was working tonight, which meant he needed to stay the hell out of there, but instead he followed, hoping to drag her back into his arms and change her mind before anyone found out Zane Reynolds had a doppelganger.

Switching MercedesBlurb:

Zane Reynolds believes he’s found the perfect submissive for he and his brother but there’s a problem.  Mistress Mercedes Harris-Shore doesn’t want to submit to anyone. Zane hopes a bet will solve that issue, along with providing the key to finally win not only Mercedes’s submission, but also her heart.

Ash Reynolds knows he isn’t a good man for any woman to fall in love with. He’s a paid mercenary, disillusioned with life and his ability to fit into the civilized world. Zane insists he’s found the perfect woman for them to share, but the problem is, Mercedes has no idea Ash exists.

Mercedes has more to worry about than a wager where she plays submissive to Zane for a week. She’s just become a serial killer’s new target and met the man assigned to protect her, Zane’s twin, Ash Reynolds. Ash appears as interested in her submission as Zane, but Mercedes isn’t looking to be shared.

Buy Links:

Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/switching-mercedes

All books available by Jan Graham: http://www.bookstrand.com/jan-graham

Author Bio:

Jan Graham describes herself in many ways. She is a full time writer, friend, submissive, orphan, widow, aunt, and sometimes, a wild child. Despite any hiccups the universe may throw at her, she believes in experiencing everything life has to offer and being the best person she can be. Jan lives in Newcastle, Australia, where she spends her time writing erotic romance. Her writing falls under a variety of genres including BDSM, contemporary romance, romantic suspense and paranormal romance. Jan has often been quoted as saying:

“I am glad to finally give the characters that swirl around my head on a constant basis, the opportunity to put themselves down on paper and I hope they entertain my readers as much as they amuse me.”

My social media hangouts – drop by to like or follow, and don’t forget to say hello to me while you’re there.

Website: http://www.jangraham.com.au

Blog: http://jangraham.blogspot.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/JanGrahamAuthorpage

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jan_graham

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jangraham

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The Greatest Fight of All by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

Guest Blogger, , , , , , ,

The Greatest Fight of AllBLURB:

Amelia Jennings fights for a new life. All alone, after losing her brothers and father to the consequences of war, she evades an abusive relationship. She fears military men, dominant men, and especially men who like to fight for a living, just like her ex-boyfriend.

As she tries to adapt to her new life, she attempts to avoid her best friend’s brothers, who turn her on in a way she definitely isn’t used to. Mènage relationships are common, but these particular men scare her and remind her of the past she is trying to forget.

The Haas brothers, Murphy, Waylon, Brody, Ricky are tough, set in their ways, and now interested in their sister’s friend. Amelia is the only woman to get under their skin. She fights them tooth and nail, evades their every attempt at seduction, and makes them want things and feel things they never thought they would. They want her in their bed, and their claiming ownership. Standing in the way of happiness is her past, and one man who vows to get her back.

Available from:

Siren Publishing: http://www.bookstrand.com/the-american-soldier-collection-5-the-greatest-fight-of-all

EXCERPT:

Amelia smiled then leaned back and closed her eyes. She started thinking about her new life here. The hospital was ten minutes from the condo and Regan said she spoke to Murphy about finding an apartment to rent near her new job. Of course Regan said she was fine with having Amelia stay with her for however long, but Amelia overheard Galen asking about sleeping over, and Regan denied him. Amelia didn’t want to stand in the way of her friend’s love life.

She crossed her legs and allowed the relaxing atmosphere to ease her mind.

She wasn’t too surprised that she thought of her brothers. Kyle and Edward. She really thought that she could have saved Kyle. But she learned that people have to have some bit of hope of desire to live, or else it was useless. Why couldn’t she have brothers like Regan did? As the thought hit her mind, she realized that she wouldn’t want them as brothers. She couldn’t even pretend to see them in that light or with that label. Seeing them as brothers was the farthest thing from her mind.

“How did you find one of the best spots on the ranch?”

Amelia jumped as she sat forward and looked behind her. The sudden sound of a man’s voice startled her.

“Oh God, Ricky, you scared me.”

She watched as Ricky walked around the bench and stared down at her. He kept one hand on his hip and holster. It was taking some getting used to, seeing so many people carrying firearms wherever they went. Back in New York, weapons were concealed, and usually carried by cops and thugs. Ricky was sporting a black gun, she had no clue what kind, because he looked so sexy.

“Didn’t mean to scare you, darling. You looked so lost in thought,” he said and she tried to look into his eyes, but the black Stetson he wore was low. It made him appear dangerous. She had the silly “butterflies in her stomach” sensation, and she wasn’t certain why.

“It’s so peaceful out here. You all must have loved growing up on the ranch,” she said as she pried her eyes off of the man and forced herself to look toward the two men getting down off the horses. Mad Dog.

She didn’t know who the other guy was. Her eyes zeroed in on Mad Dog and how his presence instantly magnified the atmosphere around them.

“It was the best way to grow up. Living off the land, working on the farm and in the fields. It’s very beautiful,” Ricky said as he held her gaze then lowered himself to the seat next to her.

She adjusted her position as his thick, hard thigh made contact with her bare one. Perhaps wearing pants would have been the better option today.

“Howdy.”

She looked up as Mad Dog and another young cowboy tipped their hats at her.

“Hi,” she replied.

“I’m Jonas. You must be Amelia, Regan’s friend.”

He reached his hand out and she accepted it as he held her gaze. This cowboy was much younger than Mad Dog and Ricky. His green eyes sparkled as he looked her thighs over.

“Nice to meet you, Jonas.”

“So what are you doing out here all alone?” Mad Dog asked and he sounded kind of pissed.

She looked over her shoulder toward the house, way in the distance and her belly tightened from his reprimanding tone.

“Regan just headed inside. I was enjoying the quietness.” Damn her shaky voice. Mad Dog Murphy was such a disciplinary man.

Mad Dog stared down at her. His dark blue eyes sparkled as his eyes roamed over her body. There was no denying it. Mad Dog and Ricky affected her. So she focused on Jonas.

“So, where are you staying? Has Regan given you a tour of town and some of the hot spots?” Jonas asked as he stood next to her. She decided to stand up, feeling the heat of Ricky’s thigh next to hers. As she stood, a light breeze collided against her skin, sending her long, black hair over her shoulders. Her skirt lifted slightly because of the flared bottom edge and she grabbed onto it to keep it in place. In doing so, she nearly lost her balance, her legs so shaky from having Mad Dog staring at her, watching her every move, and Ricky doing the same thing.

“Whoa,” Jonas said as he reached for her and steadied her by her waist.

“I’m okay. Thank you,” she said to Jonas who smiled down at her then released his hold and tipped his hat. “No problem, ma’am.”

“Jonas, want to take the horses back to the stable for us. We’ll call it a day. We should walk Amelia back up to the house,” Mad Dog stated firmly, surprising Jonas but also making Amelia jump from his commanding tone.

“It was nice meeting you Amelia. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

 

For bio and other info on books, author and releases- www.dixielynndwyer.com