Today’s round of snippets is all about the bad boys. They’re sexy as sin and know it. They wade into danger with a flare. They tempt good girls into doing very naughty things. My favorite bad boy is Quentin. In this scene the heroine meets him, up close and personal. Enjoy!

Post a comment today, and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a free download of any of my backlisted Ellora’s Cave books!

“…congratulations to Ms. Devlin for creating a masterpiece. This story has all the elements that a Gold Star book has in it. The novel has intense suspense that was thrilling and delightful…”
~Gold Star Award, Susan Holly, JERR

“… LOVE BITES is a delicious, emotional romp of a story, a tale that builds powerfully on the old, often-used love triangle and succeeds beautifully in creating something new and exciting.”
~Ann Leveille, Sensual Romance

On the trail of a serial killer, vampire Quentin Albermarle is mistaken for the killer by a police special task force. Once the smoke clears, Quentin finds himself in a delicious position-atop one of the unit’s crack officers, Darcy Henry.

In need of Quentin’s access to the vampire sub-culture, the task force leadership invites Quentin to join the crime unit as a special advisor, much to the chagrin of the men in the unit, and especially, of Darcy.

A no-nonsense cop with no time for romance, Darcy suddenly finds herself embroiled in a steamy love triangle between her mortal partner, Joe, and the handsome vampire. Going from abstinence to wantonness, she is unable to resist the two men’s relentless seduction or her own sensual curiosity about a vampire’s special “kiss”.

When the real killer threatens the life of someone close to her, Darcy makes a choice that forever binds the three of them together.

“He’s coming in. Get ready,” Joe’s voice jerked Darcy Henry to wakefulness.

Berating herself for dozing off during a stakeout, she fumbled for the switch on her night vision goggles. Instantly, the landscape before her was awash in shades of luminescent green. She scanned the water’s edge. The crests of the ebbing tides rolled onto the beach, unbroken by any sign of “Bat-boy.” Had she already missed her opportunity?

“Where do you see him?” she whispered into the mike on her headset, glad the roar of the incoming surf masked their voices.

“Ten o’clock. Get cocked.”

She reached for her crossbow and drew back the linen cord with both hands and latched it in the spring clip. Then she slid a steel-tipped arrow onto the track. Sighting down the shaft of the arrow, she braced the bow in her left palm and dug her elbow into the sand. With the stock snug against her shoulder, her right forefinger slid around the trigger and she turned her sights back to the water’s edge—just in time to see a tall figure stride out of the surf.

He fit the description of the new vamp in town she’d purchased from the barman at the “blood bank.” Only the barman hadn’t filled in all the details. Darcy stiffened against her body’s sudden surge of attraction and firmly reminded herself the vamp’s body was like any other man’s. Yeah, right.

Her gaze flickered over him, inventorying his characteristics—for her After Action Report. Broad-shouldered, leanly muscled, just over six feet tall. Blond, she could tell, despite the fact his hair was plastered to his head. Handsome, too. With broad prominent cheekbones, a longish straight nose, and lips that appeared permanently curved in a smirk.

Unable to resist the temptation, she adjusted the lenses of her goggles to zoom, and her gaze slipped lower. His package was as fine arriving as his ass had been going into the water. His long, uncircumcised cock dangled between his legs. Something not mentioned in the barman’s description—and definitely not something that would make it into her AAR.

“Cease!” Joe said, impatience clipping his words. “A civilian’s in your line of sight.”

Darcy lowered the bow, cursing under her breath. “Where? And how the hell did we miss that?” she whispered angrily.

“She had to have been here when we arrived,” Joe replied. “If I hadn’t seen her hand rise above the dune…” Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s winners (I decided to choose 2) are named at the bottom of this post!

I’m a blog-hoppin’ babe!

I’m going to be doing some blog hops in the coming weeks to celebrate the releases of three books: Fournicopia, She Shifters, and Cowboy Lust! Be sure to stay tuned to this blog, my Facebook page and Twitter, for news about where I’ll be.

Today, I’m at Fictional Candy. Be sure to drop by to enter to win a free book. I’m talking about titles. And you know I have fun with those!

Live radio chat this week!

Yeah, I’m doing a live web/radio chat on Thursday. And I’d love for you to tune in, and if you’d like, phone in questions. Ask me anything. I can plead the 5th if I think my answer will get me into trouble. 🙂

Here’s the link so you can learn more: BlogTalkRadio

Two books releasing this week!

Both books release, officially, on Tuesday, July 10th, although She Shifters is already shipping from Amazon!

Click on the covers to read an excerpt or for “buy” information! And if you happen to head to Amazon to take a peek, please “like” and “tag” the books. If you’re amenable to posting a review, I’d be forever grateful too!

The Pretty Pendant Contest continues!

Don’t forget! Every comment on this blog until July 17th counts as an entry in the contest. Two luck winners will get a pendant! Check here for details: The Pretty Pendant Contest

* * * * *

Sunday Report Card

This week has been stone-cold crazy!

* I wrapped up all the editing for the short stories I included in my draft of Smokin’ Hot Firemen for Cleis Press. And no, I can’t tell you which stories made my first cut, because Cleis gets the final approval. There were soooo many great stories I had to leave out due to word count issues. I also wrote my short for the collection, “Johnny Blaze.” It took me months to come up with an idea, but between all the hoopla over the Magic Mike film and my own daughter insisting I should tell the story of her 18th birthday party at a male strip club, I created the perfect tease of a story.

* I finished the final draft of Laying Down the Law—my next Western for Samhain—and shipped it to my editor! It’s the first of a trilogy of TripleHorn Ranch stories, has a very exciting suspense plot, and no, sorry pervs, not a ménage.

And now, I’ve moved on to the next big book. A sexy BDSM novel set in southern Louisiana. I have the rough of the first chapter complete. This week, I’ll be adding pages to that WIP (Work-in-Progress), and maybe playing with a short story, as well as tackling deep edits for a book my sister and I co-wrote that we’ll publish with Samhain. Have a taste for wealthy Texans and romantic comedy? Well, you’ll just have to wait.

And that’s all folks. I’m housesitting for my daughter while her family’s in DC. Other than taking care of her 4 dogs and 4 cats, I’m treating this time like a retreat—nothing by writing. Be thinking of me, my stubby fingers curled over the typewriter…

Have a great week! ~DD

The Pretty Pendant Contest

What can you win?
Two people will win their choice of a domino pendant from among those offered below! (Psst! My dd and I made them.)

How can you win it?
Post a comment on any blog posting until the contest ends. Each entry counts as another chance to win!

This contest ends July 17th!!

A Question

Need a question to get this party started?

What is one piece of advice that you wish you could pass along to everyone else?

[Sorry—photos removed!]

Bad Boys = Real Good Men

There’s just something about a bad boy, isn’t there? A dark-n-dangerous man, tall, handsome and covered in tats just gets my libido going and my juices flowing. I completely lose my head, and my mind is over run by images of me doing bad, bad things with the bad, bad boys.

And I put every ounce of my intense yearning into the hero of my just-released Ellora’s Cave novel, His Forbidden Submissive.

Brock Michaels is everything I’ve ever wanted in a bad boy—the heroine too. He wears his tats like a second skin. He doesn’t take shit from anyone. His shaved head makes me want to rub my hands over all that sexy smoothness and direct his mouth to, um, certain places on my body…

Oh, and did I mention he’s a Dom too?

Mmm. Am I the only one who just shivered? Don’t lie! You know you want some of that! How could any hot-blooded woman not? Which begs one question.

What is it about bad boys that draw us in like kids to a candy store? I have a few ideas…

Bad boys are confident and adventurous. They’re a challenge to even the most headstrong woman. And oh god, they ooze masculinity like a marathon runner oozes sweat, and bad boys can turn that oozing masculinity into a string of perfect words so intensely perfect they could quite easily charm the panties of a nun. But most importantly, in my opinion, bad boys are broken—and we want to fix them.

Okay, okay, I know they’re not really broken. It’s just a perception thing. They’re thugs, they’re outsiders. In other words, they’re not what society “says” is normal or politically correct, and they don’t care. It’s that aspect that makes them more addictive than crack.

At least for me. *grin*

But what do YOU think of bad boys? Do they make the private places between your legs do funny things? Or do you give a wide berth when you see a leather-clad, tattoo-sporting hottie heading your way?

Let me known and you’ll be entered for a chance to win a copy of any book from my backlist. (Click here to go to my book page.)

Later, Lovelies!

~Brandi

His Forbidden Submissive, out NOW from Ellora’s Cave!

On July 10th, FOURNICOPIA will release to the world! And I can’t wait for you to read it! I haven’t had so much fun with a series in a while, and you will see why!

Imagine it… FIVE lusty, hard-bodied cops—best friends with very few sexual inhibitions and a taste for kink. I introduced my Fabulous 5 in Five Ways ‘Til Sunday. Not a subtle title at all, is it? In this next installment, the same to-die-for men are challenged by one among them to help him with a fiery Domme.

Yes, we finally make it to theBDSM club, La Forge!

But that’s what’s coming. If you haven’t read the first book, you’ll want to read it so you know what came before. Click on the covers if you’re ready to order Five Ways or place Fournicopia on Pre-order!

Here’s what Five  Ways was all about…

“A really well written, hot, steamy and at times funny book that I have no problems recommending to anyone. A little of everything to suit everyone, no matter what your tastes or fantasies!” 5 Stars, Scorching Book Reviews

“FIVE WAYS ‘TIL SUNDAY was an awesome read…” 4.5 Stars, Night Owl Reviews

“Delightfully quick read, you are so consumed in the story it is difficult to put it down…” Sensual Reads

Sometimes a man’s just gotta call for backup…

Marti Kowalski is all wrong for Officer Jackson Teague—he just won’t listen to reason. She didn’t finish high school, runs a bar. Has a tattoo and a blue streak in her hair. Yet he still wants to marry her? She can’t say she’s not tempted, but she’s got a bucket list to complete before she ties the knot.

Not just any bucket—more like a fifty-five-gallon drum of sexual wishes so explicit, there’s no way one man, even Jackson, can fulfill them all.

When Marti turns him down again, Jackson doesn’t give up, he insists on knowing why. That’s when she shows him her list. He takes it, thinks about it—and calls on the only men he can trust: four buddies from his academy graduating class.

Between the five of them, he’s sure they can come up with a plan to check off every item on her list in one wild, wicked weekend. That is, if she has the nerve to follow through—and if he can bear to share her.

Warning: Five men on a mission to break down the resistance of one determined woman. Author suggests readers keep their significant others on speed dial. Not responsible for accidental 911 calls.

Marti Kowalski waved a hand blindly behind her at her desk, swiping the inventory sheets she’d slaved over for two days, and her telephone, to the floor. She didn’t care about the mess—or by the crunch—the loss of her phone. Right this moment, she had Jackson where she wanted him—too far gone with want to worry what damage he might cause.

His body was hard; his expression carved to a lustful edge, which promised the kind of sexy interlude she preferred—something spontaneous and surprising.

Even after all the months they’d been seeing each other, he managed to surprise her. Like now. He’d pulled her from the door of the ladies’ restroom and goose-stepped her with her arm bent behind her back to the manager’s office, growling menacingly into her ear about the wicked things he’d do to her.

Ma’am, keep quiet and I won’t hurt you.

She’d shivered at the menace in his voice, but he’d rubbed her hip gently to remind her this was just a game. She had to hand it to him. He knew what made her hot.

Jackson bent her over her desk and shoved up her blouse. His head ducked to pluck a nipple with his lips, and then he bit it.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” she gasped, her fingers digging into the rigid Kevlar armor he wore beneath his dark shirt. “You’re on duty. Thought you didn’t cross that line when you’re wearin’ the uniform.”

His head reared back. His dark eyes flashed. “Shut up, ma’am. You draw any attention, and I might have to get rough.” Read the rest of this entry »

The best laid plans…

Thanks so much for having me here, Delilah!

I’m perked to be here with you all today. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty hyped-up over all. This is a very exciting time in my life. You see, my kids are grown and stepping out into the world, and that means my husband and I are empty-nesters for the time in our marriage… Uh-huh. Life is good.

But all these changes have me thinking about plans in general. At last, my husband and I are making plans for just the two of us. We chuckle because it seems our children’s plans change with the wind, but that’s to be expected at their age. When I think back on who I was and what I thought I wanted when I was in my early twenties, I marvel at how far I strayed from my plan.

Here are a couple examples:

The plan: Marry somewhere around twenty-five, first kid by twenty-eight, done having kids by my early thirties.

The reality: At the age of thirty-two, I married a man with two children from his previous marriage and raised them as my own.

The plan: To become super-business-woman like Tess McGill in Working Girl and live the big city dream with Harrison Ford.

The reality: I stumbled into a career I didn’t even know existed when I was in my twenties and married a small-town guy from the south who bears a striking resemblance to Sheriff Woody from Toy Story.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. At. All. Although my life has taken a different path than the one I envisioned when I was a young adult, I have no regrets. So far, it’s been pretty darn awesome. That realization got me thinking about how lucky I was to have the nerve to jump out of line.

By letting go of “The Plan”, I lived my life instead of programming it.

The conflict between dreams and reality is a central theme in most of my novels. In Contentment, Tracy Sullivan almost flushes her idyllic life down the toilet because she can’t let go of her old dreams. Commitment was the story of Maggie McCann, a woman who discovers unanticipated happiness in a change of plan. Spring Chickens focuses on a couple brave enough to take a chance on a second chance at happiness. Even my paranormal romances, Paramour and its sequel Inamorata, feature characters who must learn to let go of the past in order to move forward.

Was it my plan to weave a common theme through every novel I’ve written thus far? *snort* Not at all. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even realize that I had until I was explaining the premise of one of the books to an acquaintance this past weekend. How cool is that?

Tell me, what plans have you changed when the prospect for something different came along?

I’d be happy to give one commenter their choice of any story from my backlist (including the steamier stuff I write as Maggie Wells,
but you have to promise not to tell my mom).

If you’d like to check them out, here are the links to my webpages:
www.margaretethridge.com
http://maggiewells.weebly.com/

The winner of Kate’s contest is…mylilypad! See note #36 in the comments! ~DD

Release Day—DREAM BOUND is out!

Delilah, I really appreciate your invitation to blog—today is pretty special because I’ve got a new book out: Dream Bound is the first of the two book Dream Catchers series. The final story, Dream Unchained, will release in November, but Dream Bound is another one of those stories that started with an idea that sort of took on a life of its own.

I was thinking about that tonight, and I realized that in all of my stories for Kensington’s Aphrodisia imprint, I’ve started out intending to write a totally sexy yet traditional romance—Aphrodisia is, after all, an erotic romance imprint. What I don’t actually plan, and what always seems to happen, is the various relationships that aren’t in the original synopsis I send to my editor!

When Kensington bought the Wolf Tales series, my editor knew she was getting into a story line with same sex relationships. I hadn’t planned to write the stories that way—they just sort of happened within the context of the Chanku characters and their powerful libidos. When I wrote the novella that introduced the Dream Catchers series, I gave my editor a brief synopsis about a young computer geek in 1992, in the Silicon Valley, who falls for a woman who is literally the product of his sexual fantasies. Zianne is also an alien, and her story is the basis for the entire series.

What I didn’t expect was the hero, MacArthur Dugan, and the relationship that developed between him and Nils “Dink” Dinkemann, his childhood friend who has remained his best buddy into young adulthood. Dink is openly gay, but Mac isn’t, though Mac is aware Dink has loved him for years. It’s something they both sort of ignore as best they can, but bringing Zianne into the relationship changes everything.

When I was writing the story, I realized that the sexual dynamic between the two men was every bit as powerful as what I was writing between Mac and Zianne, which, of course, led to a really sexy scene with Dink and Mac, and then an even hotter one with the three of them together. Thank goodness my editor is open-minded enough to go with whatever I send her, because I don’t think she was expecting the Mac/Zianne/Dink part of the story, which of course carries over into Dream Bound and Dream Unchained.

In my convoluted manner (and no, my books are actually a lot better organized, but when I blog I sort of let my thoughts wander and you get whatever dribbles across the page…) I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t intentionally sit down and say, “Okay, I’m going to write a book with forty gazillion sex scenes and they’re going to include every combination known—or unknown.”

What I do is sit down at my computer and start a conversation with my lead character, and I essentially let them tell the story. I have no idea that Mac really wanted to experience sex with Dink, or that Zianne was interested in sex with two men. I ran into the same thing with the Dream Team, the six young men and women who are brought together by Mac Dugan in 2012, twenty years after Zianne disappeared (after the novella ends) but since she was traveling through time to see Mac, it’s only been twenty-four hours for her.

It’s been two decades for Mac while he struggles to develop the technology and raise enough money to mount a rescue of his beloved alien lover. Well, when Dream Bound starts, he’s got the money and his satellite array is built, and he’s bringing together his team. But Dink comes back into his life, too, and the story once again took off in some directions I wasn’t planning on. I do hope you’ll give Dream Bound a chance. I’m really pleased with the way the story came together—it was one of those that felt as if it was meant to be written, and it was a nice break between my Wolf Tales/Sexy Beast stories, and the new Chanku series, Spirit Wild, which will debut next May. I just turned the first book, To Love a Dark Wolf, in to my editor on Friday.

And yep, that one’s got a same sex relationship I didn’t see coming, either. You’ll get to see Lily Cheval all grown up, and I discovered that Anton is a wonderful father, but he’s also a pain in the butt at times. It was wonderful, going back into that world and reconnecting with characters who are like old friends.

Do you ever have that happen? Get so caught up in a fictional character that they’re like real people to you? Happens to me all the time—I think it’s the very best part about being an author. Well, that and meeting readers. Definitely love that part! And if you’re going to be anywhere near Anaheim, California on July 25, the humongous book signing for the Romance Writers of America National Convention will be going on. From the RWA website:

Romance Writers of America is pleased to announce that the 2012 “Readers for Life” Literacy Autographing will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center, which is conveniently located next to the Anaheim Marriott (RWA’s conference hotel). RWA would like to thank Avon Books for generously underwriting the event, which takes place Wednesday, July 25, 2012, from 5–8 p.m. PT in the Ballroom (third floor) at the convention center.

Now that my public service announcement is over, if you leave a comment, you’ll be entered for a chance to win both a copy of DREAM BOUND, and a really cute little stuffed squirrel. And if you’re going to be in Anaheim, please let me know. I love the chance to actually get to meet my readers!

Buy Dream Bound at:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million