NaNo Day 2:
SS-2—1574 words

You know that feeling when you finish a book and you loved the characters so much you want to immediately read it all over again? Or when you slow down toward the end (or try, anyway!) because you really, really don’t want it to end? When I love a book, I do all of the above.

So imagine how it is when you’re actually writing the book, and it’s part of a series, and you’ve come to know the characters over four books and three years. That’s what’s going on with me right now as the final book in the Receptionist series, UNLEASHING THE RECEPTIONIST, comes out. Talk about separation anxiety. I’m a basketcase! 

I still remember where I was when I wrote the first word in this series (the café at the Anchorage public library.) Of course I didn’t know it would be a series then. It was just a book written on a whim, a saucy, kinky nod to office power politics called TRAINING THE RECEPTIONIST, starring Dana Arthur and her two sexy bosses. But the characters weren’t done with me yet, and I felt called to write a sequel (RESTRAINING THE RECEPTIONIST.) And then, a wonderful reviewer wondered if I was ever going to write about the past of the two heroes, Ethan Cowell and Simon Dirk. Well, of course I was, now that she mentioned it! As soon as I read her review, I knew exactly how I wanted to reveal the secret incident that brought them together.

(If you ever wondered whether reviews influence authors, in this case it definitely happened.)

Dana, Ethan and Simon and I go way back, and saying goodbye is difficult. Those three sure know how to rock each other’s worlds, and they’ve certainly rocked mine. Here’s the blurb for the last installment in their story, as well as an R-rated excerpt. And this is me, blowing kisses to my dear departing characters.

You can tie a girl up, but you can’t keep her down…

…the Receptionist, Book 3

In the year since Dana joined Ethan and Simon’s firm, the three of them have found the perfect balance of power and pleasure in their three-way, work/play relationship. Not only that, but it’s been the firm’s most successful year financially.

Except something is missing. Her men won’t tell her anything about their past. How they met, or how they formed such an unconventional business and personal partnership. Until they start sharing their secrets, Dana fears she’ll always be the odd girl out.

Everything changes when a vengeful former partner resurfaces. Suddenly, both the business and their idyllic relationship are under siege. With a tax auditor watching their every move, the three must be on their best behavior.

Never one to back down from a challenge, Dana seizes the chance to prove herself—and finally win her sexy bosses’ full trust and confidence. Now the race is on to root the evil nemesis out of their lives once and for all—before her dream relationship cracks under the pressure. 

Product Warnings: Contains hot three-way M/F/M sex, highly inappropriate office behavior, a shocking secret, a kinky accountant and some really bad girl-on-girl porno reenactments.

 Excerpt:

On a typical workday, if I’m chained to my desk it’s with silk cords and for one purpose only—because it leads to screaming orgasms for me and my two delectable bosses, Simon and Ethan.

With one exception. Business plan time.

During business plan, I’m chained to the desk in the usual, strictly metaphorical way. You know, working. Needless to say, it’s not my favorite time of year. It’s tough to spend all day and half the night shut up inside an office with two sexy gods when neither has touched you once. But maybe that’s just me. Not every receptionist has been trained to receive pleasure as well as incoming calls.

“Dana,” said Ethan, jolting me from my sexually frustrated daze. “Can you put another pot of coffee on, luv? And then I’ll need the P&L’s again.”

I hid a sigh as I trudged to the kitchenette. “Coming up.”

At least the profit and loss statements were good. Cowell & Dirk had had a very satisfactory year. Especially if you asked the only actual employee—me. I had experienced a blissfully high level of job satisfaction since Simon had hired and trained me.

“Mu shu pork okay?” called Simon. “I’m ordering from Great Wok.”

Now that was more like it. My mood brightened as I put on the coffee and gathered up the files. I’d do anything for my bosses, we all knew that. But I certainly preferred some duties to others.

“Food’s on its way,” said Simon when I returned with the coffee pot. “If I could only tear Ethan away from that spreadsheet.” He shot me a green-eyed pirate wink. His hair was a tousled black mess, but I loved my Simon in all his moods.

I gave him a questioning glance, wanting to make sure I’d interpreted correctly. Simon and Ethan had a strange bond, one I couldn’t quite figure out even though I was closer to them than anyone. They seemed to read each other without words. Simon gave me a go-ahead tilt of his head. With his wrinkled white shirt open at the neck, he looked half-drunk, as if he’d been swilling expensive brandy all night instead of crunching numbers.

“Maybe we need to spread something else in front of him,” I suggested. I put down the files and the coffee and prowled toward Ethan, who barely looked up from his swivel chair. He wore his reading glasses, his grizzled blond head bent over the desk. I challenge you to find anyone hotter than a sexual beast like Ethan with a pair of wire rims perched on his much-broken nose.

I knew from the angle of his head that he was tracking my approach. Ethan was like a wild animal picking up scents, especially the scent of eager Dana. His nostrils flared as I came close to the desk. Read the rest of this entry »

NaNo Day 1:
SS-2—0 words

“Why do you write?”

I think that’s a question some writers struggle with answering in their own minds as much as they do answering it when someone else poses it.

The responses run the gamut from a shrug and an “I don’t know, I just do,” to, “I’m a writer; I have to write” to, “the characters won’t let me sleep.” I’m not making fun, here. I believe those are all honest answers. I know writers who get fidgety if they can’t let the words flow. I know others who say it’s a job, and has to be treated as such – but still feel over the moon after writing a tight scene or solving the crime or reuniting lost lovers.

My reasons for writing are entirely selfish. Well, not entirely – I’m more than happy to let readers in on the game, too.

It’s the vicarious thrill.

There, I’ve said it. And you know it’s true.

Who hasn’t imagined themselves as one character or another? Wanted to be Harry Potter, one day a normal kid, the next a magical defender against the ultimate evil. Or Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, who gets to eat junk all day, try to chase bad guys, and be faced with the tough decision of cuddling up with Ranger or Morelli. (Forget choosing, I say – go with both!) Or be Linda Howard’s Cate Nightingale from Cover of Night, a widowed mother of two who makes the sexy town handyman stutter with lust and love.

That’s the whole point of reading a great book – the escapism of imaging yourself as someone else, somewhere else, doing something else.

I write because it puts me in charge of the fantasy.

I’m not supermom, but I can write a character who manages to start a business, attend soccer practice, make home-cooked meals and win the love of a rock star.

I’ve never been a dancer – think more Elaine’s weird dance from Seinfeld – but one of my characters can seduce the pants off the man in her life, and take to the wild side while she’s doing it.

And no way am I a soldier on a world far, far away, but my heroine can kick asses, take names and win the love of not one good man, but two.

Now there’s living vicariously.

* * * * *

Available now from Samhain Publishing: Three Wicked Wishes

“What is your deepest, most secret, most treasured desire?”

Cassie Parker doesn’t know either when the exotic woman who materialized in her living room asks. One minute, she’s enjoying wine – a lot of wine – over reruns of I Dream of Jeannie, the next – poof! When she wakes the next morning, hung over and late for work, Cassie is convinced it was all a dream.

Until the real dreams begin. Involving David Michalek, her boss, so sexy in his Clark Kent-Superman kind of way.

David, as triumphant knight to her fair lady.

David, but two of him, as the sensual twin club owners who ask her to judge a most intimate contest.

David, this time in triplicate, the consorts of a galactic princess.

David, the man she’s fallen deeply, passionately, impossibly in love with.

And he doesn’t have a clue.

What’s a girl to do?

Too bad it’s just a dream. Or is it?

Find me at:
Website: RainaJames.com
On Twitter: @RainaJames
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