I’ve chosen many of my favourite scenes from my paranormal romance books and posted them this weekend for you all to enjoy, but they’ve all been from my previous releases.
Since we’re in the final day of my Birthday Bash event, I thought I would select a scene from one of my future releases, and the one that I just had to choose for my final favourite scene was a moment from Seduce, the third book in my Vampire Erotic Theatre series that is due for release in late June.
If you’ve purchased Crave, then you’ve probably already read the first chapter in Seduce as it appears in the back of the ebook. I’m going to post the second chapter as my favourite scene. There are other moments that might deserve to be the star of this special post but those would give too much away about the book… so without further ado, here’s a sexy scene from Seduce!
Sera paced in front of the black stage in the empty theatre. She had arrived a full thirty minutes early for her appointment. An appointment she hadn’t realised she’d had. Callum hadn’t specified a time for her interview. He had just said to come by when the theatre was closed. So she had.
The woman who had shown her into the theatre had been very kind. One of the staff based on her short black dress that revealed far too much leg and bosom. Sera reminded herself that she couldn’t really judge the woman by the clothes she wore. After all, it was her uniform and Sera herself was trying out for a position as some sort of on-stage whore. What on Earth must the woman have thought of her? Perhaps Sera should have asked to interview for a position as one of the staff. Cleaning seemed infinitely more appealing, and possible for her, than being a performer in the shows. Antoine still would have met with her so they could sign her employment contracts. Was it too late to change her mind?
She continued her pacing, her eyes roaming over the deep red velvet curtain that closed off most of the stage, leaving only a strip of painted black boards around three metres deep exposed, and twirled her long blonde hair around her fingers. It was so quiet in the theatre that even her breathing sounded loud in her ears. How much longer did she have to wait?
And why were they interviewing her in the theatre itself?
Elizabeth had said they would take her to one of the meeting rooms or the offices to interview her. That was what she had gone through to get her position at the theatre decades ago. Sera shook her hands at her sides and blew out a sigh, trying to shake off her nerves. Maybe none of the offices were vacant tonight or they wanted to give her a tour before the interview began. That seemed plausible.
One of the sets of double doors at the back opened and a bright beam of light cut down the length of the theatre to her. She shielded her sensitive eyes with her hand and squinted so she could make out if someone was there.
Her heart stopped.
The doors closed.
Antoine strode down the aisle, long legs carrying him easily at a brisk pace, as handsome as ever in his silver-grey tailored shirt that emphasised his build and clung just right to his muscles, hinting at how delicious his body would look if he were naked. His black tie, crisp black trousers and polished leather shoes perfected his image of a businessman but made him look decadent and alluring at the same time.
Behind him walked the immense male vampire that she knew from the performances. Victor. His normally thick dark hair was gone, shaved to his scalp, giving him a menacing air as he followed Antoine, dressed in a tight black t-shirt and jeans.
Were they just passing through?
Her heart started again at a pace.
Please, God, say they were just passing through.
Antoine shoved his fingers through his deep brown hair, the action screaming of irritation as much as his scent on her senses. He was annoyed about something. Was he angry with Victor for some reason?
Sera moved aside, keeping her back to the stage so they could easily pass her and go about their business. She tried to keep her eyes downcast but they refused to do as she ordered and snuck to Antoine, meeting his icy gaze. The warm lights from the stage lit his face, chasing the shadows away and giving her her first real glimpse of him. He was so handsome regardless of the darkness he emanated and the coldness in his eyes. He looked like an aristocrat, princely with his straight nose, defined jaw and perfect bone structure. Did he resemble his brother, Snow? She couldn’t imagine the devastating effect the two together would have on the female aristocrats at social gatherings.
Her heart did a flip in her chest.
Antoine alone had a devastating effect on her. She could be strong, had taken to life as a vampire with surprising ease according to her sire, and had a flair for luring male prey that she still couldn’t quite believe. She wanted to be that confident, sexy, attractive woman around this man, but whenever she set eyes on him, her heart trembled like a timid thing in her throat, her palms turned clammy, and she wanted to bolt. It was only the deep pounding need he stirred in her, the intense inferno of arousal that flooded her veins like liquid fire whenever she was near him, that kept her feet in place. She wanted this man.
It went beyond natural desire, or at least what she had experienced in the past. No man had ever had such a startling effect on her. It was soul deep, more than just a carnal longing. It was as though her very happiness depended on her being in this man’s strong arms.
He stopped right in front of her.
“Sera, I presume?†he said and her bones melted at the sound of his deep voice pronouncing her name.
She nodded and held out her hand. He raised a dark eyebrow in her direction and didn’t take it. She lowered it again, feeling like a fool for thinking he would touch her, a turned human, and for the first time since she could remember, her gaze didn’t want anything to do with him. She stared at the red carpet beneath her feet. What in God’s name was she doing here? This was all going to go horribly wrong. She was going to end up getting her heart smashed by this man.
Confidence.
Elizabeth had pounded that one word into her head more than any other. She was beautiful, alluring, sexy, smart and funny, and more than that, she was warm and caring. She was a confident woman. She was. Sera clung to her sire’s words about her, trying to believe in them. They ran around her mind and she felt their effect, felt the confidence begin to flow through her.
Sera managed to convince her eyes to shift up. They didn’t make it to his face. They stuck on his tie. Shiny black paisley contrasted against the matt black of the rest of the tie. It was fascinating. Truly. That was the only reason she was looking at it and not resolutely into his eyes as she had planned.
He huffed.
“Well, let’s get on with this. I have other matters that require my attention and the night is not growing any younger.†He sat down in one of the front row seats.
Sera glanced at Victor, and then at Antoine. This change required a whole rethink of her plan. She had expected Callum to be the one interviewing her, not Antoine, so she hadn’t exactly put on her best clothes. Her casual blue baby-doll t-shirt and jeans probably made her look like a commoner to this man and she wished she had listened to Elizabeth and worn the red dress her sire had picked out instead. And she still wasn’t sure why Victor was present. Was he here because, in the absence of Callum, the elite vampire she had met last night and who Elizabeth had told her dealt with sourcing performers, Antoine needed someone more intimate with performers to help him?
Victor peeled off his tight black t-shirt to reveal the ropes of hard muscle that lined his stomach and the twin slabs of granite that was his chest.
Sera’s cheeks flushed.
Oh. Lord have mercy. Victor wasn’t here to help with the interview.
This wasn’t an interview at all.
It was an audition.
Her heart thundered. Her limbs shook.
Panic prickled down her spine.
“Is there a problem?†Antoine said with a frown, his annoyance turning his scent bitter. She knew he could sense all of her feelings and smell her fear, and she tried to get a grip on her emotions, but they bombarded her.
Was there a problem? Was there ever. She hadn’t expected she would have to perform with someone and she definitely hadn’t anticipated that such a performance would take place in front of the man who was her reason for doing this whole crazy thing in the first place.
“I thought it was going to be an interview. My sire said she had an interview with Callum.†Her voice trembled. Good God, could she sound any more weak and feeble? Suck it up or this whole ridiculous affair was going to be over before it even started. Such a powerful man would want nothing to do with a weak female. She pulled in a deep breath and held it but it did nothing to calm her growing panic.
Antoine huffed again. “We might have done things that way eighty years ago, but we do things this way now. So, begin.â€
He waved towards the stage. Victor obediently leapt up onto it. Sera remained firmly rooted to the spot on the red carpet between the stage and Antoine where he sat in the middle of the front row, her gaze fixed on his. The coldness in his pale blue eyes was fathomless but mixed in with it and his scent was increasing irritation. If she didn’t do something soon, he was going to toss her out on her backside for wasting his time.
She could do this. She would take it slow and pretend that Victor was Antoine, and come up with a new plan while she was at it. If luck was with her, she could conceive something before things went too far. Just how far was he expecting things to go?
Before she could ask, Victor’s hands were under her arms and she was on the stage. Her knees almost gave out when he released her and she wobbled.
Antoine sighed again and raised the stakes with a pinch of the bridge of his elegant straight nose.
“Not wise to keep the boss waiting,†Victor whispered into her ear, his cool breath tickling her neck, and she shivered.
He pressed the full length of his body against her back and her eyes widened as the hard bulge in the front of his black jeans pushed against her bottom. Heavens. She swallowed. Trembled. This was not happening. Antoine couldn’t possibly expect her to perform with this man. She had seen him on stage, witnessed the sort of debauchery he did with women, and the size of his thing. He would break her.
What alternative was there? Either she performed or she ran like a chicken and lost her chance. Antoine would never look at her again. Hell, she would never be able to look at him again. She had said that she would do whatever it took to make him belong to her and she couldn’t back down now that another challenge had presented itself.
She had come here to seduce Antoine.
Seduce him she would.
Fear crawled through her.
She wasn’t ready for this. He was going to laugh at her.
Antoine cast a critical eye over her and then waved towards Victor. She yelped when his hands came to settle on her waist and he nuzzled her neck.
“Come on, sweetness, play with daddy.â€
Gross. It was hard to resist the urge to elbow him in the stomach and kick him in the shin.
“Your fifteen minutes just became ten, Sera. Am I wasting my time here?†Antoine said and she shook her head. She could do this.
She broke away from Victor and turned to face him. He was handsome but she felt no attraction to him. How was she supposed to do anything with a man whom she didn’t find attractive?
“I am very busy, Sera. Start.â€
She jumped at the word and wished Antoine would stop using her name. Whenever he rolled it off his tongue in his exotic mixed accent, fire flashed through her body, heating her blood, and she wanted to close her eyes and do wicked things.
Maybe she needed him to say it more. Maybe if he kept saying it, she would find the courage to do what was necessary.
Ten minutes.
Even that sounded like a lifetime.
Her gaze flicked over Victor. He was already topless and the large bulge in his tight jeans confirmed that he was already hard. Where was she supposed to start?
Removing his jeans seemed like a good place.
She stalked over to him, doing her best to look sultry, her gaze locked with his. Victor smirked at her, so obviously assured in his charms and looks. She wanted to roll her eyes and tell him that he wasn’t her type, that when she looked at him, she was really imagining Antoine. She ran her fingers over the ridges of his torso, his skin cool beneath her fingers, and tilted her head back and held his dark gaze as she undid his belt.
Sera stepped back and tugged it hard, pulling it through the loops in one fast motion. Too fast. The flamboyant rise of her arm as the end came free caused the belt to whip across Victor’s chest, leaving a red streak on his skin.
He growled at her.
She curled up on instinct and leapt backwards, dropping the belt.
Antoine looked thoroughly unimpressed when she risked a glance in his direction.
She tried to claw things back by doing a sexy little shuffle across the stage, her mind racing to remember the moves that Elizabeth had shown her and all the things she had witnessed in this theatre.
On this very stage.
A stage she was now performing on even though she had promised herself it would never come to this.
Sera tackled Victor’s jeans, popping the buttons while clumsily kissing the whip mark across his chest. She gasped when the final button gave and his rigid cock sprang free, already eager for her. Her heart bolted into action again, galloping so quickly she felt dizzy.
She looked at anything but his erection, battling her nerves and panic again. It was just sex. Sex on a stage. Sex on a stage in front of a man whom she really desired and whose opinion of her was probably rapidly sinking into seeing her as just another whore for his theatre.
What the hell was she thinking?
Sera squeaked when Victor pulled her blue baby-doll t-shirt over her head, catching her blonde hair and yanking it at the same time, and exposed her torso to the chilly air of the theatre.
Antoine sighed and stood.
It was over.
He was going to tell her thanks but no thanks and kick her out for wasting his time.
“Leave,†he said and she grabbed her t-shirt off Victor and went to put it on. “Not you.â€
Sera froze, clutching the t-shirt to her chest. Victor casually buttoned his jeans, shot her a smile, and then dropped down off the black stage. He sauntered towards the doors at the edge of the theatre, opened them and disappeared from view. Sera remained paused on the stage, waiting for Antoine to throw her out.
“I am not looking for solo acts, but clearly this is your first time on stage. Do you feel you can perform now?â€
Sera didn’t know what to say. He wasn’t kicking her out? She swallowed and faced him. He was serious. He had made Victor leave so she would feel more comfortable, and she did. Being on stage in front of him still felt wrong, but the thought of performing for him alone had a strange appeal. If she had ever wanted a chance to seduce him, they didn’t come more perfect than this. She could do this. She could tease him with a slow reveal of her body to his eyes only, and from there it would only be a small step to other more wicked things. She was sure that once she was nude, bared for him, that the feel of his gaze on her would give her the confidence to take things further and really perform for him.
And she was sure that performance would give her the chance to crack the armour around his heart.
What had looked like it was going to end in disaster was now looking as though it was a chance at victory.
A chance that she wouldn’t squander.
Sera nodded and dropped her t-shirt.
Antoine’s gaze flickered down to her bra-clad breasts and then he sat back in his red velvet chair in the middle of the front row and stretched his long legs out.
His eyes held hers, cool blue and beautiful, fixed on her with such intensity that her cheeks heated with a blush.
He waved his hand.
“Perform for me then.â€
Seduce is due for release on June 23rd 2012.
There are currently two highly erotic and emotionally charged books out in the Vampire Erotic Theatre series:
Covet
They’ve burned for each other for two years, the forbidden attraction between them growing each night. Now resisting the sinful desires of their hearts is becoming impossible.
Javier knows better than to succumb to his hunger for Lilah. The mortal female belongs to a powerful aristocrat patron of Vampirerotique, the theatre he runs with three other vampires. A single touch is all it would take to break the sacred law of his kind, sentencing himself to death, but his passion for her has become too fierce to ignore and he will risk everything to make Lilah his.
Lilah has fought her desire for Javier since arriving at his theatre as a servant but each glance he has stolen, his eyes promising pleasure that will satisfy her longing for him, has chipped away at her defences and she can no longer deny her need and her forbidden feelings for the powerful vampire male.
When they find themselves alone in a private box during one of the erotic performances, will they surrender to their passion and live out their wildest fantasies in a night of wicked pleasure or will the threat of Lilah’s master keep them apart forever?
Click here to read an excerpt from Covet
Only $2.99 from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
US / World | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
Apple iTunes / iBookstore:
US iTunes | UK iTunes | Australia iTunes | Canada iTunes
The following retailers:
Barnes and Noble Nook | Sony Reader Store | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Crave
His mind has been set on his work for the past one hundred years. Now a forbidden beauty has stolen his attention and is threatening to steal his heart too.
Callum has come to the city of romance on business, not pleasure, but when he sets eyes on a gorgeous werewolf in a nightclub, he can’t ignore the dark carnal craving she ignites in him. His work for Vampirerotique, the erotic theatre he runs with three other vampires, can wait. The only thing that matters now is satisfying his sinful hunger for a woman who most vampires would consider an enemy.
Kristina is on the run from her pack. Her alpha is intent on forcing her to bear his child and she’s not about to live through the same nightmare as her mother had. When a tall, dark and sexy vampire catches her eye, she can’t believe the ferocity of the desire he unleashes in her or the fact that she enjoys the feel of his eyes on her and his silent pursuit of her in the clubs each night.
When Kristina finally gets a taste of Callum in a forbidden kiss, will she be strong enough to resist the allure of the vampire and his offer to share his bed for a week of unbridled, wild sex, or will she surrender to her own craving for the safety and passion she finds in his embrace?
Click here to read an excerpt from Crave
Only $2.99 from:
Amazon Kindle Stores:
US / World | UK | Germany | France | Spain | Italy
The following retailers:
Smashwords | All Romance eBooks
Crave will be available soon from BN Nook, Sony, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore / iTunes.
