Welcome Guest Sue Swift!

Thanks for visiting on my blog, Sue! It’s a pleasure to have you. Sue has an excerpt of Spy Game for us today! What a great cover!


Fledgling agent Ani Sharif has finally been assigned to her first undercover mission—to seduce software tycoon Richard Rexford, known as the fearsome T-Rex of Silicon Valley. He's suspected of selling software secrets to the Chinese. Ani must succeed at her first assignment, but will handsome, clever Richard uncover her secrets and seize her heart?

Spy Game by Sue Swift
Prologue

San Francisco, California

On Saturday afternoon, Gar saw an umbrella hung in the signal tree in Golden Gate Park, so he met his contact in the Castro at midnight. To anyone watching, they’d look like two guys outside a crowded bar, sharing a smoke, but his contact passed Gar a tiny package, a package worth millions to his customers in Indonesia.

He tucked the package inside his jacket and mounted his motorcycle, heading for Potrero Hill and the shelter of a safe house. As he passed through a residential area, he slowed, and only then did he hear the growl of another motorcycle on his tail. At first he thought it was happenstance, but as he turned one corner and then the next, with the following motorcycle’s roar ringing and banging in his ears, he realized he’d been tagged.

Gar tried every trick he knew to shake the tail, but nothing worked. Too late, he saw that he’d been herded toward the shore of the bay, heading too fast down a dead-end alley, with warehouses on each side and a chained metal gate in front of him.

Braking too hard, he jerked the bike into a sharp turn in front of the ten-foot-high gate. The bike slewed on the slick, damp street, drawing a screeching curve to the left before crashing into the cyclone fence.

He hit hard and went down, his bike clattering on its side, sliding out of the fog lamp’s amber halo into the dark, misty night.

In a haze of pain, he lay stunned on the pavement, moving in and out of consciousness, with the bitterness of failure flooding his mouth.

The other motorcycle stopped. Gar heard the scrape of boots on asphalt. Blinking, he raised his heavy head a fraction to see an hourglass figure silhouetted against the golden light. He groaned and dropped his head back. One hand scrabbled toward the precious parcel, seeking to protect it.

The boots stopped close to his head. Too close, but nothing he could do about it. Too weak. Too much pain. Should have worn a helmet…

Motorcycle leathers creaked. He smelled jasmine, felt warmth, sensed she knelt beside him. He blinked again.

She had a jaunty smile and eyes that gleamed green even in the dim light. Opening his jacket, she removed the package, which contained the prototype of the computerized brain that would run some of the United States’ newest, most sophisticated guided missiles.

“Thank you.” She tucked the package into her jacket and walked away, her boots crunching. He heard her bike kick, catch, and roar away, its growl receding into the misty night.

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Best-selling, award-winning author Sue Swift, a.k.a Suz deMello, has written over fifteen novels, plus several short stories and non-fiction articles. She writes in numerous genres including romance, mystery, paranormal, historical, contemporary comedy and erotica. She’s a freelance editor who’s worked for Total-E-Bound, Ai Press, Liquid Silver Books and Etopia Press. She also takes on private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in PW, Kirkus and Booklist, attained the finals of the RITA and reached the top ten on a bestseller list.

A former trial attorney, she resides in northern California. Her passion is world travel, and she’s left the US over a dozen times, including stints working overseas for many months. Right now, she's working on her next manuscript and planning her next trip.

Her blog is at http://www.fearlessfastpacedfiction.com/. Find her reading picks @ReadThis4fun on Twitter, and befriend her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/SueSwift). Her sites are at http://www.sue-swift.com/ and http://www.suzdemello.com/.

Thanks for joining us, Sue!

A little business before I close. This month is Smashwords summer sale and I'll be offering different free books throughout the month. This week is Dead to the Max and Revenge Sex. Keep checking back!  http://www.smashwords.com/. You can also join me over at Sue's blog! http://fearlessfastpacedfiction.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/755/

Take Your Pleasure!

A bit of business first, a reminder that She's Gotta Be Mine

Amazon, iTunes, and other major e-tailers.

 But only for a few more days. Don't miss the freebie!

With Fifty Shades of Grey being on all the bestseller lists, I’m reissuing my little bondage e-book, Take Your Pleasure. There's probably something about not mentioning someone else's book before you mention your own, but whatever! I’ve got a fun new cover Take Your Pleasure, and in editing it again, I enjoyed the read. Here’s a little blurb and excerpt to whet your appetites.

A naughty little story with a bit of bondage, ménage, and a very good spanking!

Natalie Beaumonde’s life turns upside down the day she walks in on her boyfriend, Van, playing submissive to a beautiful dominatrix. Not only has she been betrayed, but Natalie loses her belief in herself as a desirable woman. And when she starts making mistakes at work, her career being the one thing she’s always excelled at, she’s in danger of losing her self-worth and her job, too.

Lincoln Masters isn’t like most bosses. Instead of issuing a reprimand, he decides his sexy executive assistant needs a good spanking, something he’s been dying to deliver for almost a year. And afterward, he hatches a plan to help Natalie rebuild her self-confidence and show her wandering man the error of his ways: become the sexy dominatrix her boyfriend is looking for. Being a Master himself, Lincoln’s the perfect dom to help her execute the delectable punishment.

Lincoln’s terms for helping her? He wants a piece of Natalie, too. Suddenly, Natalie finds herself developing a growing fascination with her boss and all the exciting, deliciously naughty things he can do for her. When Van’s punishment is complete, can she go back to being just Mr. Masters’ assistant?

Excerpt of Take Your Pleasure
Copyright 2012 Jasmine Haynes

Natalie wanted to gag. It had been such a shitty week. Mr. Masters was right about everything. She’d failed him miserably, made so many mistakes. He was a hard taskmaster, but she’d always measured up, always delivered more than required. Until last weekend, when she’d walked in on Van with that woman. Now she couldn’t stop replaying those images in her mind, and they seemed to overshadow everything else she was supposed to be doing on the job.

She’d been with Van for two years. At thirty years old, with her own home and a solid job, Natalie had even considered taking the next step with him, moving in together. How could he do that to her? And how could he do that with some horrible woman dressed head to toe in skintight leather?

There wasn’t a single bulge on her lithe form.

Natalie shuddered to think of her own body packed into all that leather. But the worst was the noises he’d made, the sighs, the moans, the cries, the groans of pleasure. He’d never sounded like that with Natalie, never gone utterly wild when she touched him. Not even in the beginning.

“Miss Beaumonde, are you listening to me?”

Oh God. “Of course, sir.” What had he said?

She certainly couldn’t tell Mr. Masters all her personal problems. First of all, she wouldn’t receive an ounce of sympathy. Second, he didn’t believe personal issues should ever get in the way of work. Honestly, neither did she.

He rounded the end of his desk and paced behind her in a semicircle. She didn’t dare turn her head to look at him despite the itch along her spine. You never wanted Mr. Masters at your back when he was pissed at you. Though when he was on your side, there was no greater ally.

“I’m very displeased, Miss Beaumonde, and, quite frankly, shocked.” His breath was at her ear. “This isn’t like you.”

She’d worked for the company for five years and as his executive assistant for a year. She’d always done an exceptional job for him.

“So…” Coming to rest beside her, he lowered his voice to an almost seductive pitch. With his tall form only in her peripheral vision, feeling him next to her rather than seeing him clearly enhanced the effect. His tone was like warm maple syrup drizzled down her spine and licked all the way back up. “You have a decision, my dear,” he finished softly.

She suppressed the urge to shiver. It wasn’t the thing to get turned on by your boss’s voice, especially when you were on the rebound from catching your boyfriend with another woman. “Yes, sir,” she whispered. “I’ll do whatever I can to make it up to you.”

“You most certainly will, Miss Beaumonde.” Facing her, he leaned back against his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. “Now here’s your choice.” He cocked an eyebrow. “You can tell me what issue has put your job second on your list of priorities.” After a pause, he added, “In detail.”

Oh no no no. She stared at the desktop rather than meet his gaze. Even now, remembering Van’s wild abandon and his total pleasure at the hands of another woman was demoralizing. Natalie had suddenly had it slammed in her face that she wasn’t woman enough for him. And she certainly couldn’t describe what she’d seen.

So, uh, no, not gonna tell Mr. Masters a thing.

“Or,” her boss went on inexorably when she said nothing, “you can bend over my desk, lift your skirt, and take the spanking you so richly deserve.”

I hope you enjoyed that little taste of Take Your Pleasure. You can read a longer excerpt on my website. It’s currently available on Amazon, Smashwords, ARe. Soon to be available from B&N, Apple, and Sony.

But back to Fifty Shades. I discussed this yesterday on my blog over at Tote-Bags-N-Blogs, but I still want to learn more about why people are going gaga over this trilogy. Why has it become so huge? Why is everyone buying it? Let’s there’s been plenty of great BDSM romance books out there. I have started the book but am only a chapter in. My first impression is that I don’t like first-person present-tense POV. It takes a while to get used to that. It’s also a very long book, which is another reason I’ve hesitated reading it. But I’m determined to get through it despite that. If you’ve read the book, what did you think? Loved it, hated it? If you haven’t read it, why not, genre doesn’t interest you, the hype turns you off? Let’s talk about this phenomenon. Of course, I’m especially interested because I write erotic romance!

HOT excerpt for Hot For The Teacher

A very happy birthday to my good friend Rosemary Gunn!!!!


She’s Gotta Be Mine is still free on Amazon, iBook, and other major retailers.

Last week I had a great interview with Nikki Prince. And this week she’s back to give us a titillating excerpt of Hot for the Teacher which she cowrote with Bella Rosso. Here’s what she had to say about the story in her interview:

“I co-wrote an Interracial Cougar Erotic Romance (novella length) with my bestie Bella Rosso, called Hot For The Teacher. We both have always wanted to write and we've been role-playing (writing) together since 2006. We had been saying for a long while we should write an actual book together. So we did. Hot For The Teacher is not actually our first try. But it is the one that we had perfected enough to send in to see if we could get a contract. It is now in edits because it got picked up by Keith Publishing for publication! So a release date will be coming soon once our edits are done.”

Here’s a little introduction to Hot for the Teacher:

Divorced and gun-shy, Professor Dyani Delacroix resists the advances of her SEXY college student Caleb Tegner. After four years of classes with him, she doesn’t expect Caleb to declare her the woman he desires, or to rock her senseless on her desk during office hours. Despite all their barriers, Caleb’s tenacity and charm prove to be stronger than Dyani’s will, leaving her wondering if he’s the one to show her the path back to love.

Hot for the Teacher
Copyright 2012 Nikki Prince & Bella Rosso
Excerpt

“Hello, Professor Delacroix.” He purred the words; she shivered as her name rolled over his tongue. She swallowed, watching as he closed the door behind him and found a seat in front of her desk.

“Hello Caleb.” She tried to ignore the sound he emitted. The noise he had made could not be resonating with sensual purpose. It had to be a figment of her imagination. Yet, even that figment made her shift as she felt the wetness seep between her thighs just from looking at him. She cleared her throat and tried to give an appearance of being more comfortable than she really felt, then continued. “So tell me, what’s happening as of late that you’re failing?”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at her through slitted eyes with a lazy smile. “My attention has been set on other things.” She heard the emphasis he placed on other things.

“Other things?” A slender brow rose and she looked up at him. She was trying not to focus on how much she wanted to taste that lazy smile. How she loved the goatee and how wickedly long his hair was. How she watched him in class and lusted after his young body. Many nights going home to masturbate to his image, and then later feeling ashamed. Only to be unable to fight that same need the next time she saw him. It was a delicious, yet vicious circle she was entangled in.

“Mmmm, yes...other things...” Once again he placed importance on those two words. His eyes slowly drank her in, resting a moment on her cleavage hinted at under her loosened blouse. He licked his lower lip as if he would love to lick a slow line between them. Her breath caught, and she swallowed as she tried to slow her breathing, to appear normal to him, hell, to herself.

“You do realize that you are close to failing? I find it puzzling. Especially seeing as you have been my top student.”

He chuckled. “I hadn’t intended on failing, but you are a hard woman to catch the attention of.”

“Why on earth would you want to capture my attention, Caleb?”

His eyes slid back up to her face, their eyes locking. “Because you have captured mine.” He said softly, his words laden with lust and want.

She stood quickly, her eyes widening. “Caleb…” His name caught in her throat and came out as a croak as she shook her head, attempting to clear it of the lust that was slowly infiltrating it. Her bottom lip trembled. This was her dream. To hear him say he wanted her and to be able to reach out and touch him like she wished. But no. She couldn’t.

He stood with her and moved in front of her, close, but not touching her. “Yes, Prof?” he said. His voice was full of warmth as he stared deep in her eyes and gave a gentle smile.

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Thanks for the intriguing excerpt, Nikki. I can’t wait to read the book! Thanks so much for joining me in on the blog!