A BLOG STOP for the NICE GIRLS WRITING NAUGHTY Holiday Treats Event…
featuring the hero of my brand-new series…EVREST CIMARRON
It’s the most magical time of year–and on behalf of myself and all the other Nice Girls Writing Naughty group, thank you for joining us on our special Blog Hop Event to honor the season! We’ve all been asked to select a hero we’d love to lick like a candy cane–which was a damn easy choice for me this year. I have a confession to make: my heart has been stolen away by the “new man” in my life: King Evrest Cimarron.
Yes–I said KING Evrest. He is the “Sex on Two Legs” ruler of the fictional island kingdom of Arcadia, where I’ve been mentally living while creating the first book in my new series, INTO HIS DARK. I won’t give a lot away, but suffice it to say that during these cold winter months, you are going to LOVE visiting Arcadia: a lush island paradise that has closed itself off to Western visitors–until now.
If you think Arcadia sounds like an incredible place, wait until you meet Evrest. Not only does he have a tendency to suck the air out of a room with his allure and presence, but he is deeply passionate about being a good ruler and a good person, period. He is often conflicted about putting his own needs above those of his family or his people–which presents quite a problem once he meets Cam Saxon, the production manager for the first Western film crew to ever visit the island.
Cam and Evrest battle their attraction to each other, but their intentions backfire on them in nights of passionate combustion that have left my fingers scorched while writing their scenes. Let’s just say Ev is a man of many…untapped needs…in many parts of his body and soul. And Cam cannot help but crave to meet those needs, and be the woman who sneaks beneath the shell he must show so much of the world all the time.
As their love grows, so does the tumult across Arcadia, where old-school loyalists war with a younger guard who long to see their kingdom move beyond the past and into a brilliant new future. Thought this all sounds a bit like an epic-reaching novel with lots of flowery language, let me reassure EVERYONE that my love of present-day snark and pop culture remains very much intact. I’m not even done with the book and have managed to sneak in references to Doritos, Nutella, and at least three designer shoe brands.
I hope that you totally dig INTO HIS DARK, as well as all 3 books of the Cimarron Series! Here’s a juicy snippet to give you a taste of what Evrest and Cam are going to be like…
“I…have another question now.” Amazing. The words sounded so normal but felt so different. As if I’d meticulously planned every syllable. Or dreaded them.
He couldn’t have looked more pleased. “Of course. I remain at your service.”
“Maybe not after this.”
“Fortune favors the brave, Camellia.”
I looked away and wanted to laugh. Fortune favored the brave, but what about the curious who were stupid about respecting boundaries? I didn’t have to ask this one.
“Are you really not sleeping with anyone in the Distinct?”
Shit. I’d asked it.
I couldn’t help peeking back up. Both his brows were doing a high jump but the corners of his mouth were headed the same direction. I stared a little longer. Hell. Amusement really suited his face. Warmed its harder angles and emphasized the sensuous curves of his lips.
At last, he lifted his chin a notch and spoke past his soft smile. “Yes. It is true.” A weighted pause passed. “Does that alter what you think of me?”
The hesitation in his question…it was tough to decipher. Though his face didn’t surrender an inch confidence, the query itself said something. But what?
Despite his caginess, I answered honestly. “It makes me more fascinated by you, if that’s what you mean.”
“Fascinated?” It wasn’t rhetorical. He truly didn’t understand.
I was in super direct mode, so an incredulous laugh spilled out. “Oh, God. Guess I backed myself into this one.” I glanced up, the giggle gone. “But you’re not going to make me explain it, right?” His concentration only deepened. “Oh, come on. Ugh; all right. So…you are getting those needs met…yes? From someone, somewhere? It’s not like you have to tell me. I was just a little curious about who the lucky wench is. Or maybe…wenches.”
“Wenches?” His expression finally changed, though I couldn’t interpret the reason for his weird grimace. Had I insulted him or confused him?
“Sorry if that rankled. But Evrest—come on. You have to get it.”
He looked around as if “it” was a real item. “Get what?”
“I meant you have to understand what I’m referring to.” I sighed heavily, taking the opportunity to plead the universe for the right words. Dammit. Honesty looked like my best course again. “You’re the walking justification for girl wet dreams, okay? You’re like sex on two legs. Two really nice, tall, drool-inducing legs, I might add.”
His brows furrowed. “Thank you. I…think.”
His perplexity made me curious again. And utterly beguiled—though I forced myself to ignore that part. Forced. “Now tell me you know all this, too. You grew up in a vacuum but you didn’t go to school in one. Someone has told you all this before, right? Maybe a few hundred someones?” When his reaction returned to the valley between inscrutable and unreadable, I released another sigh, searching for patience. And a safe escape from this landmine of a conversation. “Well, like I’ve been trying to say, it’s none of my damn business. So—”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Is it none of your business?”
His voice dropped as he spoke it. Descended right back into that intimate murmur he’d used with me that first night in the ballroom, a tone that felt specially modulated just for me. Silly fantasies. Dangerous thinking. Stop it. Like that was going to be possible, when the man casually opened his program as a guise for reaching over and covering my wrist with his beautiful long fingers…finding my pulse point with effortless speed, and tripling its tempo with just one brush of his thumb.
“Evrest—”
“What if I want it to be your business?”
I swallowed again.
So did he.
And inside an instant, he took over everything again. My plane of vision. My pounding blood. My lungs, my limbs…my sex. It all careened over me, through me, consuming me—
Until he stopped the world stopped again.
For me.
With me.
Yes. Yes…
INTO HIS DARK will be released on February 3, 2015. Hope you enjoy!
