Guest Author TINA DONAHUE!
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Please welcome my talented and vivacious author pal Tina Donahue and celebrate her new release LUSH VELVET NIGHTS. Contest Alert! Be sure to leave a comment!
Best~Adele
*****
Rooting for the Underdog. . . by Tina Donahue
*** Before I start this post, let’s get to the important stuff – yeah, I’m hosting a contest today. Details at the end of the blog!!! ***
Having perfect people makes for a boring story. But mix things up a bit by having the hero or heroine mess up badly and suddenly we’re interested. Suddenly, we’re saying, ‘hey, I’ve done that…I hope s/he fixes it.’
I used that kind of reality to bring the characters together in my latest release Lush Velvet Nights. Adriana is lonely and hires escorts because, frankly, she thinks they’re the only men who will notice her. However, she’s really interested in Nathan, a hot, alpha male who’s the union attorney for her employees. When he happens upon her and the escort…well, sparks begin to fly, along with fists.
To show you what I mean here’s an excerpt (blurb first, so you know what the story’s about).
BLURB:
When wanton desires & love demand all…
During the day, Adriana’s a lonely corporate heiress, helming a supermarket empire. At night, she hires escorts, scripting provocative fantasies of kidnapping, lust, submission and endless longing. It’s all she has to excite her until she meets Nathan Wynn. Tall, blond and muscular—like a modern-day Viking—Nathan’s a labor relations attorney representing Adriana’s union employees. His imposing presence intensifies her basest desires.
When he protects her from an escort he believes is an attacker, she knows he’s wonderfully dominant and unrestrained. Fascinated by Adriana’s underlying sensuality, Nathan brings her to his secluded mountain estate, determined she submit fully to his hunger. At a gentleman’s club, he makes certain she denies him nothing. Engaging in a seductive sexual journey, Nathan’s caught off-guard by his stunning need for Adriana. An attraction he fears because of past events in his life. A growing emotional connection she will not let him deny.
EXCERPT: (PG version - In this scene, Nathan has just slugged an escort he believed was trying to kidnap Adriana (her fantasy BTW)…this is where the fun begins).
The corners of Adriana’s vision dimmed. Heart pounding, she dragged her eyes from the escort to Nathan. He flexed the fingers of his right hand, no doubt hurting from his punch. His left held his cell phone.
“You all right?” he asked her. Hastily, his gaze traveled her length. His thumb hovered over the keypad’s numbers.
Her voice croaked, “Who are you planning to call?”
“Police. Stay right where you are,” he barked at the escort, “or I’ll pound you into the pavement.”
Oh god, no. Adriana rushed to Nathan’s side. Hand on his, she begged, “Don’t call the police. Please.”
His face lifted from their joined hands. Confusion washed over his features. “Why not?”
The escort groaned. Startled, Adriana looked over. Dressed in solid black, the same color as his shoulder length hair, he could have been a fallen angel ready for the pleasures of hell, or a model in an exceptionally wanton Calvin Klein advertisement.
The young man tongued the left side of his perfectly sculpted mouth and gasped. “You SOB!” he cried, his words lisping from his injury. His free hand flapped.
The movement reminded Adriana of a little girl’s reaction to a painful boo-boo.
“You broke my tooth!” he moaned. “I’m gonna sue you!”
“You do that,” Nathan said, his tone unimpressed.
The escort snarled, “To hell with you. And you, you witch,” he growled at Adriana. “You said you wanted this. I got it in writing from the agency. I’m gonna sue you too. I have an audition next week and now I won’t be able to keep it!”
Cringing, Adriana’s hand slipped from Nathan’s. She wrapped her arms around her torso in a futile attempt to protect herself from his questioning expression and the escort’s verbal blows.
The young man tongued his broken tooth. On his newest moan, Adriana whimpered. Nathan asked, “Do you know this nitwit?”
“To hell with you!” the man shouted.
Cheeks stinging with heat, Adriana forced herself to look at Nathan. His unruffled expression should have calmed her. Instead, it made her angry. Did he think she did stuff like this all the time? Didn’t he have the decency to appear shocked? “Don’t call anyone.” Her voice was surprisingly even. “You can go. I’ll be all right. Excuse me.”
She went to the escort. Instantly, he pulled his knees up to his chest, his feet protecting his body from the pointed toes of her high heels. Adriana’s heavy sigh mingled with his newest moan. “I’m sorry this happened. I didn’t know anyone would see you coming up behind me to uh…”
“Kidnap you?” he offered in response to her mortified silence. “Because I was following your idiotic script?”
Briefly, she closed her eyes. “Please go to the ER. Have your agency send the bill to me.”
“Are you nuts?” His perfectly trimmed brows drew together. “I had an audition for catalogue work next week. My agent said it was in the bag. Now I won’t make it. Without that gig, I won’t have enough cash to pay for my newest headshots or rent. I want more than a trip to the ER and dentist.”
Of course he did. “I’ll have my attorney take care of everything. He’s still in the building.” She spoke even faster. “You’ll get a settlement. No need to call your own attorney who’ll want fifty percent or more to negotiate this. Let mine handle it and you’ll get the entire amount. All you have to do is forget this ever happened, all right?”
His beautiful features got downright ugly. “Maybe I don’t want to forget it. Maybe I want to tweet TMZ and all the other entertainment news outlets and let them know what happened. It’d make for great publicity.”
Adriana’s stomach churned. However, her brain worked like a ruthless CEO. She made her voice firm, deadly, just like her father’s. “And let everyone know what you do for a living when you’re not modeling? Doesn’t the LAPD frown upon that? Won’t your real livelihood prove a risk to those in the modeling and film industries? Won’t they be reluctant to hire you because of it?”
He clenched his jaw until the pain proved too much. Blood drained from his face. “Get your attorney down here. Have him take me to the ER. Now.”
“You’ve made the right choice, Mr…” She paused, not knowing how to address him. “What should I tell him your name is?”
Gingerly, he probed his bruised jaw with the tips of his fingers. “Max Stone.”
“I meant your real name for the settlement.”
His face scrunched with his new wince. “Ed Marpole.”
Turning her back to him, Adriana pulled out her cell phone, speed-dialed Steve and flinched at Nathan watching. He hadn’t left? Why?
“Hey,” Steve said, answering on the first ring. “What’s up?”
She turned her back on Nathan and edged to the left so she wasn’t facing Ed. “I need you to come down to the parking garage. There’s been an incident.”
Ed barked a sarcastic laugh. “Like hell! It was an attack!”
Steve spoke hurriedly. “Who’s that? Did you run over someone?”
Adriana strode past the escort and Nathan, halting as she saw her purse on the garage floor. Her X-rated lingerie hung over the side. She didn’t recall dropping the handbag. Pivoting, she walked in the opposite direction, her voice low as she told Steve what happened and what he needed to do. Deliberately, she hadn’t mentioned Nathan by name, calling him a Good Samaritan instead.
Steve’s initial silence made her panting breaths sound all the louder. “Whoa,” he whispered as if he didn’t want Meghan to hear. “I didn’t know you were into hiring, uh…”
“I probably won’t be anymore. Please get down here now.”
“On my way.”
“Alone,” Adriana added quickly. She didn’t want Meghan to witness this fiasco, the only way the girl would ever know what happened. Steve wasn’t about to talk, and in her heart, Adriana knew Nathan wouldn’t either. He wasn’t that kind of man.
“Sure thing,” Steve said. “Hold on for a sec. Meghan,” he said to the girl, his voice fainter as he spoke to her.
“I need to check something out. I’ll be right back.”
“No you won’t,” Adriana warned.
He mumbled into the phone. “Yeah, I know.”
On the other end of the call, Adriana heard the sound of a door shutting and faint pounding noises as though Steve tore down the hall to the elevators.
His voice huffed, “I’ll call Meghan on the way to the ER and tell her we’ll pick this up tomorrow. I’ll have security lock the office.”
“I love you, you know that, right?”
“I will if you don’t make anymore cracks about Rogaine.”
“Then quit asking me if my bun’s too tight.”
“Never.”
Smiling faintly at his teasing, Adriana ended the call and returned to Ed. “He’ll be down in a minute. Here, let me help you.” She offered her hand.
The muscles in his jaw tensed. “Stay away from me, you crazy—”
“Fine, okay, I got it.” Hands lifted in surrender, Adriana backed away.
“And that goes double for you,” he ordered Nathan.
Adriana’s eyes darted to him.
Nathan regarded Ed as he would a vile specimen in a lab. His voice cut across the empty space, his tone dark and intimidating. “Keep talking to the lady like you have been and I may forget my manners. Got it?”
Ed fell silent at Nathan’s threat.
Adriana’s throat tightened with gratitude, while renewed shame made it difficult for her to breathe. He’d protected her so easily, and in doing so he’d learned about her secret life. Why couldn’t he have just left? Why did he have to see her like this?
Tears blurred her vision. Defeated, she went to her purse, shoving the lingerie inside.
*****
From there, Adriana’s and Nathan’s romance takes off. The mess-up with the escort and her embarrassment gives her a vulnerability that was endearing to me, and from the fan mail I’ve received, to many readers.
Buy link:
http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-8298-50-lush-velvet-nights.aspx
Website:
Now for the contest. Leave a comment and you’re entered – that’s all you have to do! I’ll choose a winner at random July 1. The prize is one of my books, including: Adored (ebook); Deep, Dark, Delicious (ebook); Close to Perfect (mass market paperback); Bad Boys with Red Roses (trade paperback) and Take My Breath Away (trade paperback).
Winner within the continental US will have her choice of any of the five books. Winner outside the continental US has her choice of one of the ebooks.
