Genre: Contemporary erotic romance
Publisher: Grey Ink
Press
Date of
Publication: Aug. 27th, 2013
Word Count: ~55,000
Cover Artist:
Melody Simmons of eBookindiecovers
Book Description:
One fateful tail-bender leaves Mara Colgen with a hard-on for
Jace Mathews which is not how Mara anticipated meeting the hottest man alive.
Or, rather, one crappy afternoon bodyguard Jace gets a rude awakening when some
cutesy blonde rear-ends his beautiful truck. Now he’s really in for it. Mara’s
pretty, funny, and has the greatest job in the world…
She is a sex toy operator.
Just those three words send Jace into a dream-like coma plagued with erotic imagery featuring the spunky sex toy operator. As luck would have it for Jace, nothing’s easy. Mara comes to him with a problem…one he cannot refuse to help her out with. Someone strange keeps calling Mara, she thinks someone’s been in her house, and worse Jace might be thinking the same thing. Mara needs help and Jace finds he’s the right man to lend a (strong) helping hand—so long as they seal the deal with more than a kiss.
She is a sex toy operator.
Just those three words send Jace into a dream-like coma plagued with erotic imagery featuring the spunky sex toy operator. As luck would have it for Jace, nothing’s easy. Mara comes to him with a problem…one he cannot refuse to help her out with. Someone strange keeps calling Mara, she thinks someone’s been in her house, and worse Jace might be thinking the same thing. Mara needs help and Jace finds he’s the right man to lend a (strong) helping hand—so long as they seal the deal with more than a kiss.
Excerpt:
Mara
Colgen slammed on the brakes but it didn’t matter. Her little VW Bug barreled
into the beautifully shining black truck.
The
air bag exploded, slamming her head backward and making everything all fuzzy.
“Huh?”
she mumbled, blinking slowly.
A
high-pitched sound rang in her ears and slowly solidified like someone turning
a dial up. That ringing became her horn which was constantly wailing. A glance
out of the broken windshield made her breath catch.
A
tall, gorgeous, way-too-muscled-to-be-real man was reaching under her hood
looking pissed off. Hot and pissed off. Why hello, gorgeous, her
feminine side purred. He did something under the hood and her horn stopped
blaring. Her eyes flared. He fixed it. She liked this man already. Any man who
was handy with cars was handy in the bedroom, or at last that’s what she’d
heard. She eyed his hand, totally not creepy, and saw no wedding band on his
finger.
His
eyes met hers. Yep, he was very pissed off. He looked down right violent. Then
he threw open her car door and got in her face. All she saw were pretty eyes.
The kind that almost looked blue but were really more gray than blue. He had a
black ball cap pulled low over his eyes, a white t-shirt, jeans, and boots. And
he was glaring at her.
“Ahem,”
she cleared her throat. “I’m very sorry about all this. Your truck was
very...nice.” She attempted a smile.
His
eyes narrowed in an are-you-shitting-me look. “Lady, what the fuck’s the
matter with you? How did you not see me? My truck takes up most of the damn
road.” His eyes flicked down to her lap and his jaw actually snapped to the
side. She could hear it crack. “Fucking texting. You little bitch, you know
that’s against the law for a reason right?”
Her
jaw fell open in shock but before she could respond to his name calling he
threw his hand up in her face. Actually threw his hand up. In her face.
“Don’t
wanna hear it, lady. Get your license and registration. I’m callin’ the cops.”
He
left before she could form a reply. Only after he wasn’t in her face could she
take a calm breath. “Well that didn’t go well, Mara.” She giggled a little, an
involuntary response that she swore couldn’t be helped, and grabbed the
necessary items he’d ordered her to get. She met him at his truck as he was
getting off the phone.
“They’ll
be by soon to make a report.”
“All
right.”
He
went back to the back of his truck, shaking his head. From his profile she
noticed he had a hard, sleek jawline covered in rough stubble several days too
thick, and hollowed cheek bones. He had a hard looking forehead.
He
was mumbling under his breath about women drivers and texting. That’s where she
had to stop him. Hot or not, he was wrong about her.
“Listen
here, hot cakes, I wasn’t texting. I don’t text.”
His
eyes snapped to her, looked her body up and down then he cocked a brow. “Oh
yeah? Well I don’t believe that bullshit for a second.”
“I
was actually on the phone,” she corrected.
He
threw up his arms, shaking his head. “That’s illegal in this state, lady.”
“Oh,
I’ve upgraded from bitch. Very nice.” She couldn’t help smiling at him.
His
brow pinched forward. “Now is not the time for jokes. You just wrecked my rear
end.”
Speaking
of, her gaze fell down to his ass and verified that indeed it looked as hot as
the rest of him. Mmm, mmm, good as her friends would say.
“Excuse
me, did you just check out my ass?”
She
made a perfect oh did I just do that? face. “Maybe.” She cocked her
head, gauging his response.
He
looked like he might say something, then shook his head. “If you think being
cute with me is gonna get you out of this then you’re shit out of luck.” He
took out his phone and started snapping pictures of the wreckage. She quickly
did the same, since he just reminded her she should be doing that.
Standing
next to him trying not to smile, and utterly failing, she snapped pictures for
her insurance company. “So you think I’m cute?”
“What
the fuck?” Shaking his head, he made some noise between laugh and disbelief.
“Hand over your license and registration.”
Snickering
at his cop-voice, she handed him the docs. He looked them over, paying special
interest to her driver’s license. She knew what he’d find there: 5’5”, brown
eyes, blonde, and a weight she refused to even think aloud. Not too shabby if
she did say so herself. Which she did often while checking herself out in the
mirror after a shower.
“Oh
just a sec,” she said, suddenly remembering. She grabbed her business card out
of her wallet and handed it to him. “Here’s my business card. Keep it. In case
there’s any problems along the way. I’ll be sure to fix your truck. I really am
sorry. If it helps, I’ve only been in two accidents before.”
He
took the card but didn’t look at her. “Two? Lady, you make that sound like it’s
not a lot.”
“It
isn’t.”
“You
know how many accidents I’ve caused in my life? Zero.”
“Well
aren’t you fancy.” Her lips twitched again. Who knew teasing such a big, sexy
man would be so much fun.
He
sent her a withering glare then looked down at her card. It was a light pink
with red, fancy lettering. “Mara Colgen, sex toy operator...” he said the words
slowly as if not understanding them.
“Yes.”
Honestly, one of her favorite parts about having her job was the reactions she
got when people found out.
“You
are a sex toy operator,” he said again.
“Mmhmm.
Sure am.” Another winning smile. He didn’t even lift his gaze from the card.
“Tell
me darlin’ what does that actually mean?”
Oh,
now she was darlin’? Oh how her position had moved up in the world. She was
bitch only five minutes ago. “Well, as you can see from that card I work at Aphrodite’s
Love and we are one of the biggest designers and distributers of adult
sex toys. I’m a tester. I also help the production team tweak designs and
things like that.”
“You...”
he scratched the back of his head, flicked his gaze down her body again, then
continued in that slow, measured way. “Your job is to try out sex toys for a
living?”
- Where
did you get the idea for the novel?
I had a flash in my mind of the car accident in chapter one. Our
heroine, Mara Colgen, answers a disturbing phone call and ends up rear-ending
our hero Jace. From there things get wild, funny, dark, and sexy. I love it so
much.
- Your
title. Who came up with it? Did you ever change your title?
I came up with the title. This was one of those books where I
knew right away what the title was. JACE. It just fits this book perfectly. I
did struggle over the series name—Bodyguards for Hire. I stuck with it because
I do think it all fits perfectly. This series is about some sexy bodyguards,
after all.
- Which
came first, the title or the novel?
The novel.
- Since
becoming a writer, what’s the most exciting thing to ever happen to you?
Have fans and fan-mail. Like whoa. Still stuns me.
- What
book are you currently reading or what was the last book you read?
Currently reading Kresley Cole’s Macreive. I love KC so much!
- What
was your first book that you ever wrote (very first one you wrote, not
published)?
I’ve begun many stories that never made it to the “book” level.
Meaning I didn’t finish most of them. I have lots of half-stories like that.
The first story I completed—as in had a beginning, middle, and end—was
Capturing Jeron. That was also the first book, or novella, I published as well.
- What
is your writing process?
Chaos? It feels chaotic but I know I look calm and collected the
whole time. I plan out my book/series a bit laying out characters, settings,
story, etc. I then estimate my word count in order to finish the book by my
deadline. I write, write, write. I do not edit the first time, not really. On
new work days I read what I wrote the previous day. That’s when I clean up the
text, rewrite/fix things that I know changed (IE: they were driving in a car at
the beginning of the scene but became an SUV at the end). I change those things
then dive into the next chapter!
- Who
are your favorite authors of all time?
Kresley Cole, JR Ward, Nalini Singh, Michelle M. Pillow, Lisa
Kleypas, Sarah MacLean, Jennifer Ashely, Nathalie Gray
- At a
book signing, do you just sign your name or do you write a note? How do
you come up with stuff to say?
I’ve never been on the other side of the table so I don’t know.
Maybe someday. J
- What
is something people would be surprised to know about you?
I do not own a car and never have. I also rarely drive.
- How
do you react to a bad review?
I don’t. I received so many in the beginning that I’m thankful
now for it. That helped me to overcome the criticism and understand it as well.
I focus on the positive ones; they’re the reasons I keep writing. I understand
well, since I’m an avid reader, that not every book is for every person. I
don’t take it personally.
- How
did you celebrate the sale of your first book?
I high-fived my husband and clapped a little. Lol Nothing fancy.
We were too broke to celebrate.
Thank you so much for the fabulous interview! I had such a great
time. Happy reading!
About the Author:
Open up one of my novels and you will find hot, erotic stories that will make you laugh out loud, cry, and fly through the pages. I write addictive love stories and I hope you like them.
Visit my website to learn more about my books at www.tagrey.com
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