Tag Archives: short story

Double Trouble, Double Release From Adriana Kraft

 

Love you a little Adriana Kraft? Well today’s your lucky day with twice as much reading yumminess being launched! AND Adriana will be awarding a $10 Amazon GC, to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Please use the RaffleCopter below to enter. Remember you may increase your chances of winning by visiting the other tour stops. You may find those locations here.

 

Now here’s the latest news from Adriana Kraft, launching A Woman for Zachary –Book Two of Meghan’s Playhouse, AND Hot to the Touch, Book Fifteen of Swinging Games

 

Take it away, Adriana! 

 

One of my favorite recent memes from FaceBook reads as follows: When I get old, they’re never going to say “what a sweet old lady.” They’re gonna say “what on EARTH is she up to now?!”

 

If that sounds like trouble, hold on to your hat—we’ve got a double dose heading your way. Our two recent erotic romance ménage releases feature leading characters at mid-life.

 

Baby boomers ourselves, we often write characters in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s and beyond. If that’s not what trips your trigger, these two books aren’t for you – but, with any luck, all of us will reach these ages eventually, and we hope our readers do so with vim, vigor, and yes, a vibrant and active sex life. We like to think some of our characters can light the way.

 

Hot to the Touch takes the mid-fifties couple who star in our Swinging Games series to a clothing optional RV resort for some summer fun. In A Woman for Zachary, the early twenties heroine who starred in Seducing Cat hooks up with a mid-forties woman and an early-fifties man to ignite the spark that’s been smoldering between them.

 

 

A Woman for Zachary Blurb:

It’s New York! Broadway beckons, but Meg has more fun keeping an erotic triangle going with her current flame, Zach Cullen, and her drama coach, Josie Patrice.

Zachary Cullen has ignored Josette Patrice’s overtures for years, but she agrees to take on his latest protégé-slash-arm-candy Meghan Keenan in her off-Broadway workshop theater. Though the girl has incredible talent, Josie would stake her reputation on that little thing being a switch-hitter, like herself, and she doesn’t want Zach to be duped.

 

Josie sets out to seduce Meg and expose her for what she is, but all bets are off when Meg turns the tables on Josie to hook her up with Zach.

 

Erotic Romance Ménage

Novella, 28,000 words

eXtasy Books, August 4, 2017

Four Flames: Explicit Sex, MF, FF;

Ménage, FFM, FMF; Sex toys

 

Buy Links:

extasy books | Amazon

Excerpt:

Josie was shaking her head back and forth before Zach finished speaking. “That’s not enough.”

Zach closed the distance between the two of them.

She pressed her back against the wall, and he placed his palms against it, framing her head. She licked her lips.

What was he doing? She’d imagined him being this close countless times, but not in this way. Not in anger. Not struggling with his sense of fairness over sharing another woman. She kept her arms locked at her sides.

“That’s exactly what Meg said. What is enough? Do we draw lots for her?”

Josie shook her head.

“Maybe I can have her even days of the month and you odd days.”

“That might work.” Josie could hardly breathe. Zach’s male scent was overpowering. She’d agree to almost anything, if he just stayed where he was. She should be afraid of him, but she wasn’t. This was a man she’d known for a decade. He might be very angry, even deeply pained, but he wouldn’t hurt her—at least not physically.

“It works for parking cars in the winter. It’s a beginning, I guess.” His eyes darkened with a passion she couldn’t decipher. She watched his eyes shut and re-open.

And then his mouth was crushing against hers. She tried to breathe through her nostrils. His muffled groans filled her mouth. Tentatively, she lifted her hands to his shoulders. It was as if he was in a trance. She sighed and pulled him closer. Maybe she was, too.

 

 

 

Hot to the Touch Blurb:

Can the summer get any hotter? Escaping Southern Indiana summer heat, swingers Brett and Jen check out a Minnesota clothing optional RV resort, where the rules are very different from the swing lifestyle venues they’re used to. When they spot a hot looking couple in the swimming pool, they’re definitely interested, but they know better than to make the first move. Will Paul and Kim turn out to be players, or will Brett and Jen get a cold shoulder?

 

Erotic Romance Ménage

Short Story, 7,000 words

eXtasy Books, July 30, 2017

Four Flames: Explicit Sex, MF, FF;

Ménage, MFMF

 

Buy Links:

extasy books | Amazon

Excerpt:

“Hi guys,” Kim said, giving Jen a hug. “We ran into traffic, but we’re here at last. I love your outfit, Jen. That short skirt is just right for your long legs. You guys are fine dancers.”

“And you look fantastic,” Jen managed to say. “That top is so sexy. As you said, just a touch of mystery. And I love those dangling earrings. They sparkle nearly as much as you do. Absolutely stunning.”

“Thank you,” Kim murmured, turning to hug Brett.

“As stunning as you look,” Paul said, gathering Jen into his arms for a long hug. “You both look scrumptious. Good enough to eat. Right, Brett?”

Brett nodded.

Jen noticed Kim made no move to break away from Brett’s arms. She watched the olive-skinned woman drag her lips across Brett’s wrist before lifting it up and sliding onto the curved bench. Jen slid in from the other side, with the guys sitting on either end. A bare leg brushed against her left leg, a trousered one against her right. If those legs were meant to only tease, she’d be very, very upset before the night was over.

 

 

About Adriana Kraft:

Winner of the 2014 Bisexual Book Award for erotic fiction, author Adriana Kraft is a married couple writing Sizzling Romantic Suspense and Erotic Romance for Two, Three, or More.

One man, one woman, danger and intrigue – always a happy ending, but oh, what a ride! Readers can count on our Romantic Suspense line for gutsy characters, hot sex, and breathtaking intimacy as our hero and heroine battle outer threats and inner demons to stay alive and fall in love.

A man, a woman (or two), or another man, threesomes, foursomes—what’s your fantasy? We write our Erotic Romance stories to entertain, of course, but most of all we write them because we believe in happy endings for all who fall in love, whatever their gender, sexual orientation or numerical combination. Here you’ll find multiple partners, three-way, four-way and more, swing lifestyle, lesbian, bisexual, ménage and polyamory, in both contemporary and paranormal settings.

Together we have published over thirty-five romance novels and novellas to outstanding reviews. We love hearing from readers at adrianakraft99@yahoo.com, and here is our website:

 

When It’s Time to Heat Things Up http://adrianakraft.com

Author Links:

Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads | Pinterest | Amazon Author Page | Newsletter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Pursue Mr. Sands in Cosmopolitan Magazine!

 

I’m very excited to announce that a brand new Mr. Sands story is in the UK online version of Cosmopolitan Magazine today in the LOVE & SEX section! For those of you who have been “in pursuit of Mr. Sands” with my blog short snippets of him and Elise North, the PI who is being paid by Magda Gardener to pursue him, I hope you’ll pursue them right on over to Cosmo and enjoy the read. While the title is the same, In pursuit of Mr. Sands, the content entirely new.

 

I’m even more excited that Cosmo has taken this story because it’s only slightly more than a month before Blindsided, the second novel in the Medusa’s Consortium series comes out. (29 September) If you’ve been following those sketches, then you know that Mr. Sands is a Medusa’s Consortium story. While I have had several snippets on my blog, I have viewed those stories, and the one appearing in Cosmo today, as an artist might view sketches on her sketchpad in preparation to do a painting or a sculpture. Elise and Mr. Sands are a work in progress, and their story has come to me
in bits and pieces, including the encounter you will find in Cosmo today. All of these snippets and sketches are leading to a novella, or possibly even a novel, in the Consortium series. I’m chuffed to bits that I’ve been able to get a little of their story on Cosmo for everyone to read, so please do go on over to Cosmo’s LOVE & Sex section and read the latest Mr. Sands sketch. I think you’ll like it.

Listen to Pheromones on the Kiss Me Quick Podcast!

971975_344575092312914_1323301349_nI’ve never listened to one of my stories being read out-loud to me. At least not until the lovely Rose Caraway released my story, Pheromones, on her fabulously popular Kiss Me Quick podcast. Wow! What a rush to hear my words read in Rose’s very sexy librarian voice! I’m chuffed to bits! I’m sending on the links to share with you because the podcast and the mp3 download are FREE just like all of Rose’s wonderful Kiss Me Quick series.

Having Pheromones read by Rose on the Kiss Me Quick podcast couldn’t have happened at a better time, since Pheromones is one of the stories in my new release — a collection of my short stories from Xcite Books called Gracefully Aroused.

Here’s a little bit about Pheromones:

An unusually powerful sense of smell gives Chloe the ability to sniff out the scents of people in lust. When she volunteers for a research trial into pheromones, she doesn’t realise the scientist in charge will have the perfect, sexy aroma she’s always craved in a lover.

You Can Listen Now!Best of KDG final cover image

There’s a special added bonus on Rose’s Kiss Me Quick podcast along with Pharomones. Rose is also reading the deliciously naughty Salome Wilde’s hot story, Too Wondrous to Measure from the Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex anthology. And now the really fun part about this post is that not only can you download the Kiss Me Quick podcast that has Pheromones on it, you can actually listen to it right here on my blog! It’s a fabulous podcast, so whether you listen here or download it, please enjoy!

 

 
 

Here’s a little bit about Gracefully Aroused:

From a love spell that doesn’t quite go to plan to a farmhand who needs a little discipline; from a woman who is addicted to the confessional to a personal trainer with a very unorthodox method of guaranteeing his clients they’ll look fab come bikini season, K D Grace will tell you a naughty story with a twist. Before there was Ms Holly and the Pet Shop, before there were sexy ghosts, before Grace Marshall upped the romance ante, K D Grace was into quickies, and here’s a selection of her naughtiest.

Here’s a little bit about the lovely Rose Caraway.

Sexy-Librarian-web-headerRose Caraway is a native Northern California writer, narrator, and podcaster on the hit shows “The Kiss Me Quick’s” Eroti-cast, Sex stories by Rose Caraway,  and “The Sexy Librarian”   She has written two novels (soon to be published) and countless short stories. Although her specialty is erotic fiction/nonfiction, she also has a passion for writing suspense, fantasy, and romance works. Some of her influences include Stephen King, Dan Savage, Jean M. Auel, Charlotte Bronte, Mia Martina, and Ann Rice.

Rose’s writings prominently showcase her sex-positive approach to life, as well as her commitment to both feminism and masculinism. Being a staunch supporter of the LGBT community,  she believes that people of all genders and orientations should be considered complementary and interdependent and necessary for a truly healthy and functional society.

In addition to writing, Rose’s other passions revolve around keeping an active lifestyle, and a deep love of music and its many incarnations. She is immersed in the martial arts and has earned a Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. She also studies and practices, Brazilian Jujitsu, Krav Maga, and Mixed Martial Arts.

You can find Rose here:

Website- http://www.thekissmequicks.com/

The Kiss Me Quick’s Podcast- http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kiss-me-quicks-sex-stories/id463196186

Twitter-    twitter@RoseCaraway

Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kiss-Me-Quicks-Eroti-cast/133513530074653

 

New Release: Off the Beaten Track by Lucy Felthouse

Another new release from my good friend and fellow writer, Lucy Felthouse!

 

Off the Beaten TrackWhen workaholic Libby Strong’s friends and family make her take a long overdue holiday, she’s not impressed. A week of lounging by a swimming pool and doing nothing is not her idea of fun. In an act of rebellion, she books a day trip, touring in a jeep. When her guide arrives, Libby’s astonished to discover she’s the only patron going on the trip. But as hunky Demetrio takes her off the beaten track and deep into the beautiful Portuguese countryside, she soon leaves her worries behind and hangs on tight for the ride of her life.

Available from:

All Romance eBooks
Resplendence Publishing
1PlaceforRomance.com
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Barnes & Noble

Excerpt:

Libby huffed and puffed as she made her way up the steep slope leading to the rear exit of the hotel complex. She swore the builders had had secret CCTV cameras installed so they could watch people suffer their poor planning for years to come. At least it was early. Had it been lunchtime, she’d surely have passed out with the heat.

Ah well, Libby thought as she finally reached the road, it’ll be worth it. This trip is going to be amazing.

As she stood on the mercifully flat pavement and got her breath back, a thought niggled at her. Nobody else was here. Panicking, Libby wrenched open her bag and pulled out her paperwork. She examined it, then a glance at her watch confirmed she had both the right date and time. So where was everyone? Yes, she was ten minutes early but surely the others should be here by now? Looking down the slope she’d just ascended, Libby frowned as she saw it was deserted. Everywhere was deserted.

Fuck, she thought, perhaps they were all here earlier and they’ve gone without me!

The rumble of an engine distracted Libby from her worries. Turning, she saw a jeep trundling down the road towards her. She watched hopefully as the driver pulled the vehicle up beside where she stood and reached into the passenger seat.

Picking up a clipboard, the man glanced down, then at her, and said, “You are Libby Strong?”

She nodded.

The man grinned widely, revealing dimples in both cheeks, and hopped out of the jeep. Walking around the vehicle to where she stood, he held out a hand.

“I am Demetrio. Your guide for the day.”

Libby took his hand and shook it. It was warm and strong. Much like the rest of him, she suspected, as she gave him a subtle once over. He was tall, with black curly hair to his shoulders, luscious brown eyes and olive skin. A white t-shirt bearing the holiday company’s logo covered his top half—though without obscuring his impressive biceps—and he wore longish tan colored shorts on the bottom. A pair of non-descript white-ish trainers and faded red cap completed his outfit.

“I’m Libby,” she said, even though he already knew her name. She was just being polite. “Pleased to meet you.”

They broke off the handshake and Demetrio smiled again, then moved to the passenger side of the jeep and pulled open the door.

“Please,” he said, gesturing she should get in.

Libby did as she was told, but couldn’t help asking the burning question.

“Where is everyone else?”

Demetrio waited until she was safely in the passenger seat, closed the door and made his way to the driver’s side. He got in, then turned to her.

“There is nobody else. You are only person on this trip. You get best views!”

He laughed then , the flash of white teeth against olive skin resulting in an unexpected jolt in Libby’s nether regions. She studied his profile for a few seconds, then grudgingly admitted to herself that Demetrio was, in fact, very attractive. Despite the fact she was a red-blooded woman, she rarely noticed such things.

Like most people, she’d come on this holiday to recharge her batteries. Unlike most people, she’d been practically forced into it. Libby was somewhat of a workaholic, which left her little time for anything else. It was this fact which had cost her her last relationship. The long working hours, frequent rain checks on their dates and her lack of interest in any kind of affection, let alone sex, had finally caused James to walk away.

Libby had barely noticed. She’d just carried on working, and working…until her friends and family had finally intervened. They’d booked the holiday to Portugal, arranged with her boss for her to have the time off, and basically given her little choice but to go.

*****

Lucy FelthouseLucy is a graduate of the University of Derby, where she studied Creative Writing. During her first year, she was dared to write an erotic story – so she did. It went down a storm and she’s never looked back. Lucy has had stories published by Cleis Press, Constable and Robinson, House of Erotica, Noble Romance, Ravenous Romance, Resplendence Publishing, Summerhouse Publishing, Sweetmeats Press and Xcite Books. She is also the editor of Uniform Behaviour and Seducing the Myth. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9

Looking for the Wintergreen with Trish DeVene

I’m so excited to have Trish DeVene as my guest on A Hopeful Romantic! Her story, ‘Looking for the Wintergreen,’ from the fabulous Oysters and Chocolate anthology, Nice Girls, Naughty Sex, is one of my favourite stories ever, erotica or otherwise. Trish is going to tell us the story behind ‘Looking for the Wintergreen.’  Welcome Trish!

Walking down a market street in Tokyo, a friend of mine saw a man with a long shine of black hair, cat-like in his stride—a person who halted her own casual walk and made her turn for a gasping gaze. That was twenty years ago and she hasn’t forgotten him, or that moment. Why not? What did it awaken? How did he pass over the threshold of her mind and become housed in her?

Another friend once told me that he and a friend were pulling up beside a car in traffic—a woman driver whose blonde hair flowed over her left shoulder, and whose smooth tanned arm draped lazily the wheel. They sat straighter; they waited for the car to press evenly beside hers. And they asked, “But does she have the face? Does she?” Oh, she did, and the friend wrote a poem because the moment was monumental, stamping his memory. For that moment, had she awakened something, created change? A new poem was born.

Every now and then, we happen upon something or someone that for unknown reasons snares us. I wonder if beauty catches the eye but something else deeper draws the longer look and holds the memory: the mystery, the potential, something sleeping in ourselves come to life? Or is perfect beauty—in nature, art, or people—a balm for the pain in life?

When I began writing “Looking for the Wintergreen,” I wanted quite simply to explore the possibilities of a beautiful man entering a sensitive, withdrawn young woman’s world. Aurelio literally steps up the porch steps, and through the front door of Leah’s remote family home that’s buried under swoops of snow. Except he isn’t made from their remote, white landscape; he is brown-skinned and warm, fit for a house of adobe. In him, Leah sees the summer valley at sunset, the gentle slopes that ride out to the tree line.

Does beauty make us vulnerable? Leah quickly monitors herself, noting as he passes casually into the house that care should be taken in crossing thresholds. “Think first, know the destination, prepare. There should be commitment in any crossing.” No one has crossed this threshold since her father’s sudden and soundless departure from their lives. And Leah, like the house buried in snow, has buried herself in literature—lust and love relegated to daydream only, as the family tries to recover.

Her pain is silent, her loss of trust unexpressed. In books, she finds fascinating heroes who reflect her own desires; she has no need for the messy, disappointing, fleeting attractions of real life, the kind that only leave you vulnerable.

She wonders if this beautiful boy knows what he steps over and into? But when he shakes out his hair, darker than their starless nights, he smiles and his gold-brown eyes sparkle on her. His face is open with trust. And for a moment her fantasy worlds blend with reality. She wants him to step in.

I was a child of gothic romances and fairy tales with noble kings, larger than life men who made the heroine take a second, longer, ever-lasting look. My grade-school girlfriends would get mad at me, asking why I never liked any of the boys in school. It wasn’t because I had too-high expectations, wanting real life to mimic books. It was because, for the moment, my own imagination excited me more. I wasn’t yet intrigued enough to take that messy step out of self and into another.

When Aurelio crosses the threshold into Leah’s house, it is her moment to step out—out of herself, out of fantasies, to take a chance on real life. He sees her desire. He acts on it.

When her brother, heading into town, hesitates at the door, paused in the white slit, one foot over the threshold, Leah urges him out, waiting for the door to slam, and suction Aurelio in.

But Aurelio, in turn, leads Leah outside where the white world melts, where behind the tool shed, he approaches her, his dark frame, his lush copper face, sunlit eyes, the petaled lips that part … kissing him, like gulping a sky of effervescent stars. She relinquishes to her very real desire.

In the end, when they return, he puts his hand on hers on the doorknob. Snow melts and her home’s threshold is new and solid with trust.

For me, stories are like crossing over thresholds, whether we’re closing our eyes to step into a new world in writing them, or we are readers entering an unknown tale to sit in someone else’s skin. And how often in life do we come across something, like the man on the Tokyo street, that opens our eyes or our hearts to a new landscape of possibility?

Thresholds are about change, one room to another, or one life to another. Sometimes the threshold is defined by great circumstances. But sometimes it’s just the passing gift of beauty and our own moment of trust that opens a new door.

Blurb:
In a remote house, buried under silencing snow, a young girl takes refuge in the fantasy world of literature to bury the pain of her father’s leaving. She disdains the clumsy antics of her brother and his friends, certain that in real life there is no one worth relinquishing her trust to, no Arthurs or Lancelots or Sir Galahads.

But when her brother’s friend Aurelio comes to spend the night, she finds herself watching him, sleepless with fantasies about him. In the morning, at their kitchen table, where he sits in his easy beauty, he catches her staring, and she discovers how it feels when a man knows a woman’s desire. A man who won’t leave it buried.

Excerpt:

The next morning, rattling pans woke me. My mother was making breakfast for the boys. A hearty breakfast always for my brother. I understood. I was here; he was away. He had that freckled-face enthusiasm that she remembered in dad.

I wondered for a moment what she thought of his friend Aurelio. Would she flush when she passed him a plate of eggs? Did girls scramble for the desk next to his at school? Teachers change Cs to As when he flashed that smile?

I was angry in the melting morning. Icicles dripped outside my window, and I brushed out my hair, vowing not to shower until I had coffee. When I walked into the kitchen, his mouth was open to a forkful of scrambled eggs. He shoveled them in before he smiled. Anger dissipated. I was the melting icicle.

Between him and me were twelve tile squares, two chair backs, one oblong table with a cracked Formica top, and a great wash of blurring sunlight. No slim belt-line barrier this morning. It was as if the entire room were a blockade. I was braless under the sweatshirt I’d thrown on, and the soft fabric scratched my nipples, sharpening them.

“Morning,” I managed, skirting the counter, as far from him as our small kitchen allowed. He grinned again and bit into the toast.

I was used to pale: The kitchen walls a faded yellow wash, the curtains sheer to sunlight, and all of us fair-skinned Irish. He was a shaft of dark color sitting at our table. Raven hair cut a straight line just above his black shirt collar, only a sliver of brown neck, and his hair fringed down his forehead, meeting black, defined brows. He looked down at his plate, focused on food. And he looked warmer than a hot plate of fresh pancakes, that syrup-colored skin shining in the streaks of sun.

I was staring at the sheen on his cheekbone when I realized he’d looked up. The smile was gone, his warm eyes darker. He knew I’d been looking. I tried a small smile and picked up the coffee mug on the counter, but he only stared.

So this was how it felt when a man knew a woman’s desire. I bit my lip, immediately annoyed with myself for this foolish reaction. Bitten lips. What did that mean?

His arm stretched toward me, that smooth hand wrapping the cold chrome of the chair. Here was a bridge – fingernails, knuckles, forearm. “Are you having breakfast?” he asked, and the chair scraped toward me.

I held the coffee pot up. “Just this for now.” I ignored the bridge, poured the dark liquid into my mug, and started back toward the bedroom.

“Did you get to look at the paper?” he called.

The paper. Yes, it was on my bed. I was stalled in the hallway, between the pull of his stare and safety. I pointed toward my room and nodded. The coffee mug steamed, my hand burning around it. I felt my clothes dissipate with the steam, left standing in his stare. “Yes,” I managed. “It’s …”

“I’ll come get it when I’m done,” he said.

I trusted my feet to take me back. I sat on the bed beside the papers. I wanted him.

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Girls-Naughty-Sex-Erotic/dp/1580053432

Author Bio:
Trish DeVene (also writing as Patricia J. Esposito) has been a writer of edgy paranormal fiction most of her life, but always knew she had a romantic heart and a tendency toward the sensual. Two years ago she decided to explore that sensuality and sold her first erotica short story. She hasn’t wanted to stop. She’s had numerous stories and poems published in anthologies, such as Nice Girls, Naughty Sex, The Cougar Book, Apparitions, and Lights of Love, and in magazines, including Rose and Thorn, Oysters and Chocolate, Clean Sheets, Karamu, Hungur, Sounds of the Night, and Midnight Street, and her GLBT vampire novel, Beside the Darker Shore, was released this year. Long-time married to the “boy-next-door,” she has two daughters and works at home as a copy editor, when she’s not off exploring the intoxicating realms of the imagination and chasing muses.

Personal Links:
http://patricia-j-esposito.blogspot.com/
http://patriciaesposito.wordpress.com/

Buy Link Beside the Darker Shore: http://www.amazon.com/Beside-Darker-Shore-Patricia-Esposito/dp/1615724168
Buy Link The Cougar Book: http://www.amazon.com/Cougar-Book-Jolie-du-Pre/dp/1905091567