Naughty New Release

THE NAUGHTY BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN FIANCEE

Get it today from ARe HERE!

The Naughty Billionaire's Virgin Fiancee

This digital novella is at AllRomance.com in ePub, Mobi, and PDF for compatibility with your eReading device. The eBook will become available on Amazon.com and BN.com in the near future. It will not be available in print.

And don’t miss the LIVE release event with Cat Johnson at Shindig.com Monday, May 13 from 7-8PM ET

THE NAUGHTY BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN FIANCEE

The best laid plans…

Branson Welles doesn’t want a fiancée, but he better get one fast before his controlling grandfather yanks his trust fund out from under him. How convenient that recent college grad Jen needs money to pay her school loan just when Bran needs to hire a girl to play the role of his new lady love. It’s the perfect plan, until the sexual attraction makes it impossible for them to keep it strictly business.

One night together leads to another and before he knows it, Bran doesn’t want to fake it any longer. Could the naughty billionaire playboy really be ready to settle down, and with a virgin?

EXCERPT:

“You going to tell me what the old man did this time, or are we just going to drink our way through this one without discussing it?” Jon cocked a brow.

Bran let out a short, humorless laugh. He needed a nice stiff drink, which he’d have shortly. He needed a good fuck too, but that wasn’t on the immediate horizon, so he might as well vent as long as Jon had asked.

Glancing up, he saw the cocktail waitress on her way toward them. “Hang on until she’s gone, and then I’ll tell you.”

“Gentlemen.” The brunette bent at the waist and Bran got a nice view of the globes of her breasts showing above the buttons of the white shirt.

She lifted the first glass of amber liquid off the tray and handed it to him. She pivoted toward Jon, giving Bran a close-up view of the curves of her ass beneath the clingy black pants of her uniform.

He raised the glass to his lips and watched, amused, as Jon’s gaze dropped to her cleavage as she bent to serve him.

“You’re new, aren’t you?” Jon asked.

“Yes, sir.” She bobbed her head in a nod.

“Well, it’s nice to have you aboard.” Jon shot her the smile that Bran had seen charm the panties off more than a few females, sometimes two at a time.

“Thank you.” She smiled in return, but it had a professional feel to it. That of a person who wanted to keep her new job.

A woman immune to Jon… Interesting.

Bran guessed she was young, not long out of college, but she was no girl. She had all the curves of a woman. She adhered to the club’s employee dress code, but with an extra button left undone, a heel to lift her ass a bit higher, and trousers that fit like a second skin, she managed to ensure the male patrons had something to look at, as well as guarantee herself a nice tip at the end of the day.

“Let me know if you need anything else.” Her blue eyes, so intense in color they appeared almost a violet-blue in this light, moved from one man to the other.

Oh, Bran needed something all right. To sweat out this foul mood of his. Since racquetball hadn’t done it, perhaps bending her over the arm of the chair and spanking that sweet ass before he fucked her would, but Granddaddy would most definitely frown upon that behavior. Besides, this girl didn’t look the type.

He nodded, dismissing her. As she turned and made her way back to the bar, Jon shook his head. “She did that on purpose.”

Bran lifted a brow. “Did what?”

“Bent over so I’d get an eyeful of tit.”

“Of course, she did. She works for tips.” Bran didn’t blame her one bit. She did what she had to do to survive, just as he did.

Truth be told, her way was a hell of a lot more palatable to him than what he’d been forced to endure from his family, all in the name of keeping his trust fund—the carrot his grandfather had dangled and then threatened to yank away for most of Bran’s life.

He swallowed another long swig of whisky. It scorched its way down his throat. Bran savored the burn. It was sure as hell preferable to being numb and feeling nothing, like his father. The man had become nothing more than a puppet to Bran’s grandfather. That’s what a life under this family’s thumb did. Bran wasn’t about to let that happen to him.

“Bran.” Jon saying his name brought Bran’s head up from where he’d been transfixed watching the liquid swirl in the glass.

“Yeah?”

A frown creased his friend’s forehead. “There’s no one in here but us, so talk.”

A houseboy moved passed them and added another log to the fire, but Bran knew what Jon meant. It was early in the day. The bar was empty of members, save for them. There was no one here who would overhear and report back to his grandfather.

Letting out a sigh, Bran said, “Granddaddy has decided I need to grow up.”

The furrows in Jon’s brow deepened. “You work full time administering the foundation. You sit on how many boards? Hell, you even bought yourself a damn sedan to drive instead of that hot new British two-seater I tried to talk you into. How much more grown up does he want you to be?”

“He wants me married and popping out new pawns for him to control.”

“Married?” The shocked expression on Jon’s face was enough to make Bran snort out a laugh. “You’re not even thirty yet.”

“Yes, I know. But Grandfather was married by thirty, so apparently I have to be, as well.”

“Have to be.” Jon’s eyes opened wider. “Shit, is that written into the terms of your trust fund?”

“No, he’s more subtle, and manipulative, than that. My trust is fully revocable at any time by his whim alone, up until my thirtieth birthday. What he did say was he strongly suggested I find a woman to settle down with because he, and I quote, ‘would hate to have to reevaluate the future of the family’s holdings’.”

“That’s crazy. I couldn’t live like that. What are you going to do?”

“Finish this drink and order another. Where’s the waitress?” Bran leaned forward in the chair and craned his neck to search for her. She wasn’t in the room. He fell back with a huff.

“Hey, that’s an idea…”

“What’s an idea? Remain so drunk I don’t notice I’m destitute when he yanks it all away from me?”

“No, my idea is a bit more fun than that, and you get to keep your money.”

“Do tell.”

“We’re rich. It’s about time we started acting like it.”

“I’m rich for now, until Granddaddy says otherwise. And what do you mean act like we’re rich?” Bran pointedly eyed the immediate surroundings. The oak paneled room. The polished sterling silver trophies on the mantle that surrounded a fireplace large enough a grown man could almost stand upright inside. The life-size John Singer Sergeant portrait of the exclusive club’s founder hanging above.

“I meant you can buy a drink, so why can’t you buy a fiancée?”

“Oh? Is there a new store in town I missed? Fiancées-R-Us?”

“No, smart ass, but I have an idea where you might be able to get one. Here she comes. Be quiet and let me do the talking.” Jon pulled his feet off the ottoman and planted them square on the floor.

“She who?” Bran frowned at his friend.

“Shh.” Jon leaned forward and raised one hand to signal the server.

A Few Good Men Print Release Today!

A Few Good Men

It’s been available as an eBook for some time now, but finally today A FEW GOOD MEN  releases in trade paperback!!

ORDER at:

Amazon

Samhain Publishing

Amazon Kindle

Barnes & Noble

All Romance eBooks

Kobo

He has met the enemy…but he’s never fought desire like this. 

a Red, Hot & Blue novel, Book 7

Deployed in the deadliest place on earth, Army Staff Sergeant John Blake relies on caffeine, adrenaline, years of training and sheer force of will to get through his days. He has no problem with his tank crew passing around a sexy romance novel, but John’s a fighter, not a lover. He’ll pass. Winding up as the author’s accidental pen pal wasn’t in his plan, but there’s something about her sweet, caring emails that has him looking forward to checking his inbox.

Week after week, Maureen Mullen, aka erotic romance writer Summer Winters, has dated one loser after another in a quest to find the last decent man on earth. Now it seems she’s found him—halfway around the world. When it comes to falling for unavailable men, she’s batting a thousand.

Gradually, the emails between the war-hardened warrior and the writer of passionate prose heat up to the point of keeping them up warm and wanting at night. Soon they’re wondering if it’s possible to build something solid out of cyberspace, or if it’s just an emotional mirage that will dissolve in the heat of reality.

Warning: Contains some steamy phone calls from the war zone and one hell of a sexy first meeting between two strangers who are already in love.

“A Few Good Men is filled with suspense, humor and an erotic passion that will have a smile on your face as the last page is turned.” Jo, Joyfully Reviewed

@AllRomance #RT13 Expo Goes Global ~ 30% Rebate!

ARe RT13 Expo

Take advantage of this limited time event on all rebate eligible titles site wide at All Romance.com

Use the code @allromance at checkout.

How do you know if a title is ‘rebate eligible’? Look for the little crown icon (shown below) next to the price.

Hurry, offer ends at 8 am Central Time May 3, 2013.

Rebate Eligible

May 2013 Calendar Wallpaper

Happy May Day and time for a new edition of the monthly desktop calendar wallpaper!

This month’s design was inspired by Memorial Day and the May 7th paperback release of my military Red, Hot & Blue series novel A FEW GOOD MEN. What is most special is that the background image of the US flag through the camo netting was taken by one of my military consultants upon arrival at his new camp in Djibouti way back in 2006. I love that picture and am honored to share it with all of you.

May Calendar Desktop Wallpaper 1024x640

As usual, there are sizes that will hopefully fit both your widescreen or standard screen computer. Enjoy and feel free to share with your friends!

1024 x 640

1024 x 768

800 x 500

800 x 640

1152 x 720

1280 x 1040

1440 x 900

On a side note, I am currently in Kansas City, MO for the Romantic Times 30th Anniversary Booklovers Convention. If you’re there with me, find me! If you’re not, might want to keep an eye out for drunken social media posts, because we all know that what happens at the convention…ends up on Facebook. :)

The Games Facebook Plays

I’m taking time away from my works-in-progress to write this public service announcement, mainly because I’m pissed as hell. I think both writers, and readers will agree with me.

I’ve suspected it for awhile, and observation has proven it, but now, it seems to have reached an all new level. I’m talking about Facebook’s practices, and though it sounds melodramatic, its greed. Here’s what I’m talking about. On PAGES, not personal profiles, but those pages that you can LIKE rather than FRIEND, Facebook likes to encourage the page owner to spend money to make sure the page’s posts are seen in their follower’s News Feeds. I’ve noticed that posts with a LINK in them get hidden from view unless I promote them and pay Facebook to show them in News Feeds, whereas status posts with no link don’t. Take a look at the two screenshots below and you will see a glaring example of this. The post where I shared the link to a blog which will lead outside of Facebook has 1 VIEW over an hour.

FB Page Post with Link

 

 

While I was there sharing the link shown above, I had also posted just a normal status update. As you can see below, the post where I just typed in a comment with no link has 168 VIEWS in the same amount of time that the post with the link received only 1 view.FB Page Post without Link

Now I understand that  FB wants to keep users on their site, and sending them to outside links doesn’t do that, but come on! 1 person vs 168 people is a huge difference. And the fact they are willing to show it to more people (see pic below) if I “Boost” the post with cold hard cash makes me feel like I should be wearing some sort of “protection” while dealing with FB, because it really feels like I’m getting screwed here, and not in a good way.

Boost FB Post

I apologize for the rant. I just wanted everyone to be aware and to understand when they see me get creative in my Page posts. Things like the below, where I try to trick FB by hiding the link in an all-text status update. Apparently it works. As you can see, this post has 119 view in 16 minutes. Amazing and infuriating all at the same time.

Tricking FB

Classic Romance Tropes ~ the tortured hero

Jack Red Hot & Blue Book 2Tortured heroes… women love them. Maybe it’s something about their dark brooding nature. Maybe we want to be the one woman to save them from themselves.

Apparently I am not immune to the tortured hero myself since it seems I keep writing them into my books.

Jack Gordon from my Red, Hot & Blue series was probably the first one for me. He grew up with a single mother after his drunk of a father left, but he and his brothers kept themselves on the straight and narrow. Now, Jack is in the military, basically a happy guy, but circumstances lead to him still being tortured. He’s watching his best friend TREY hook up with the woman he loves and Rough Stockhis older brother JIMMY is missing in action during an undercover op in Kosovo.

I torture my cowboys as well. Mason from ROUGH STOCK is the quintessential dark brooding cowboy, which made him the perfect counterpart for Clay, his happy-go-lucky best friend. When Mason and Clay find themselves both in love with same girl, Mason really has something to brood about until they try to figure out how to make this strange three-way relationship work.

The Naughty Billionaire's Virgin FianceeThen there are those broody billionaire heroes. They’re handsome and rich, but not happy. He’s looking for the one thing money can’t buy—love. I’ve got one of those too! Keep your eye out in May for THE NAUGHTY BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN FIANCEE where I take the old classic Harlequin-esque billionaire/secretary trope and turn it on its ear.

There are too many more tortured heroes in my backlist, and in upcoming releases, to mention in one post. I do suggest you keep your eye out for “TWO FOR THE ROAD”, my novella releasing in the Kensington Aphrodisia anthology IN A COWBOY’S BED, on preorder now for release this July. There you’ll find another dark, brooding, but oh-so-sexy pair of heroes as I get back to my cowboy threesome roots with this story. Ben and Ned will capture your hearts, just as they capture the heroine’s.

So what say you, readers? Tortured heroes… love em? Hate em? Are we tired of them or will they always have a place in our hearts?

Note: The originally scheduled Tortured Heroes Blog Hop was officially canceled by the organizer however I’ve noticed some bloggers have still posted their hop posts.

Tortured Hero Blog Hop