Dark ‘N’Stormy is available for pre order now, and its release date is MARCH 29th
Dark ’N’ Stormy (3)
Twenty-three-year-old
Finn enjoys playing the field, but when a one night stand turns into something
more, Finn is ready to jump on the relationship bandwagon.
Thirty-three-year-old Julia Royston is everything Finn desires—blonde, sexy,
and naughty in bed. But this love thing isn’t as plain sailing as he’s seen
advertised. While Finn puts his past behind him, Julia’s rears its ugly head
and Finn’s carefree life turns dark and stormy.
Buy Links:
iBooks
Nook
Kobo:
Amazon
Excerpt
Another
lightning flash lit up the dark street, its sudden brightness highlighting a
car parked near the side of the road. Impatient motorists honked and yelled as
they tried to pass. Out on the sidewalk, a bedraggled woman wrestled with a
wheel jack. As Finn moved closer, she kicked the tire in a temper and threw
down a wrench. She was wetter than he was.
He stopped
beside her and yelled over the thunder. “Flat?”
She wiped the
water from her face and nodded.
“Give it
here.”
He scooped up
the wrench from the ground and she handed him the jack. Finn set to work. He
had the car up in no time, but the wrench wouldn’t budge. The two of them
leaned on it, their slick bodies pressed together as they tried to force the
nuts to move. With a sudden give, they fell against the car.
“Damn it.”
Finn helped her up off the sidewalk.
He heaved off
the tire and rolled the spare from the trunk. Hoisting it into position, he
tightened the nuts. “I’ll dump this in your trunk.”
“Thanks so
much.” Her voice got lost in the traffic.
“No problem.”
He wiped his hands down his pants and smiled at her. “Oh, I know you, don’t I?”
She must have
had the same ah-ha moment because she smiled, “You’re the guy from the rink?”
“Yeah, Finn.
Finley Martin.” He reached out his hand.
She pointed to
her car. “Please, let me take you home. You’re drenched.”
“It’s okay, I
don’t live far.”
She put her
hand on his arm. “I insist.” The warmth of her fingers tingled across his skin.
Goosebumps spread outward from her touch. As another brilliant flash lit up the
night sky, she gestured at the car again. “I won’t take no for an answer.”
Her
rain-soaked blouse was almost transparent, her lacy underwear on full show. The
tight skirt stuck to her shapely thighs. He couldn’t help staring at her
attractive and wet body. Oh, what the hell, she’s fit and he
was soaked.
He climbed
into the passenger side, and she ran around to the driver’s door. She flicked
on the heater, setting it on high to deal with the condensation. She pulled
down the sun visor and peered into the vanity mirror. Wiping the wet strands
from her face, she laughed. “I look like a drowned cat!” She flicked the visor
back into place. “You said your name was Finn?”
He nodded,
averting his eyes from her see-through blouse.
“I’m Julia
Royston.”
Finn’s teeth
chattered. “I appreciate the lift, Julia.”
She signaled
right and turned. “I live a few streets away. Let me get you some dry clothes
before you freeze.”
Finn lived
less than a mile away, but he kept that information to himself.
His eyes roved
over Ms. Royston again. This could be interesting. “That’s very nice of
you, ma’am.”
A few minutes
later, she turned into a quiet dead-end street and pulled up outside a smart
townhouse. “This is it.” She shouted over the pounding rain. “Give me a second
to open the door.”
She scrambled
out the car and raced up the path. Finn followed her; a few more drops of rain
wouldn’t make any difference. She struggled with the key in the lock, and he
put his hand over hers to help turn it. The door swung open and they fell into
the hallway, dripping gallons of water over the shining hardwood floor. Julia
slammed the door closed behind them and leaned against it laughing.
Her long blond
hair hung in limp rattails. The tailored blouse no longer offered any useful coverage.
She reached for the buttons and peeled it off her shoulders. As she dropped it
to the floor, she shucked her skirt too. “You better take yours off. You’ll
catch your death.”
Finn needed no
second invitation. He tugged off his tee and threw it onto the wet pile of
clothes on the rubber mat. While he dropped his shorts, Julia flicked off her
heels and peeled down her pantyhose.
Unable to
believe his luck, Finn faced the almost naked woman. Her underwear was as
translucent as her blouse had been. The sound of the storm disappeared. He
swallowed hard. Man, his day had turned around. Julia threaded her
fingers through his and led him upstairs.
Behind the
Cocktail Series
I began
writing the Cocktail Series on a
whim, after never having written anything more than a grocery list in my life.
I excitedly rattled off 140k words over about a three-month period and then sat
back and thought, what the hell shall I do with it now? Quite by accident, I
was reading a book and in the acknowledgements in the back, the author
mentioned wattpad. So I investigated and then I spent a month plucking up the
courage to put my very raw manuscript up there. I also spent several weeks
constructing the worst cover imaginable in the totally inadequate program of
Powerpoint! Yes, well, the least said about that the better, especially as I
moonlight at making covers for people now- in photoshop now, not powerpoint lol.
I can feel my cheeks reddening at the thought of it.
Despite the
horrendous packaging, I was over joyed when my first reader left me an awesome
comment, a few days later I was amazed that more than ten people were reading
my book. That was it. I was hooked. One year later more than 170k people had
read Lemon Drops And Love and as I was in the middle of writing book two. I
decided to put that on hold and give Lemon Drops a thorough edit and see if I
could publish it.
Since those
days I have written just about one book a year for this series- in between, I
write a fantasy series. From the start, I wanted the series to be a good old-fashioned
Happy Ever After romance, however, I also wanted it to be so much more than
that.
I love reading
books that emotionally ring me out, and I love hot and sexy books. Gripping
realistic characters are a must, and I wanted my women to reflect the real
world- sometimes they have times when they are insecure and appear weak, but they
also have a huge strength within them that they can draw upon. As my checklist
for must haves in my series grew, the one thing I wanted to do was to include a
real, not so pretty social problem in my tales.
So that is what I did. Sometimes people find
they can’t read my books because of the subjects matter- domestic abuse, infant
mortality, grief, peer pressure, domestic violence against men- they are not
the easiest subjects for some to read about, but that is ok. It was a choice I
made, because my characters had pasts that weren’t always pleasant, or perfect.
Pasts that may have sent them spiraling downward. But, all of my characters
find a way through, and all of them find their happy ever after.
One other
thing I felt compelled to do was to allow several of my characters to speak. In
each book you will hear from several points of view. Yes, even from those that
you may not wish to hear from. In Lemon Drops And Love, giving Carl Frasier his
own voice was a bit of a gamble. For some people it paid off- he is the villain
they love to hate, and while his thoughts are disturbing I felt allowing his
character to speak was something that had to happen. For others, getting inside
Carl’s head is too much. For those people, I apologize but there are evil
people out there that do despicable things and they impact the rest of our
lives, and unfortunately they like to make themselves heard.
Dark ‘N’
Stormy came about when a reader messaged me to say how much she loved Ice Cold
Mint Juleps (Book 2). In our back and forth conversation, she commented on
Finn, Ash Cooper’s housemate. While she loved his characterization, she made an
off hand remark about ‘knowing his sort’ and thinking he was too much of a ‘player’
to be trusted. I told her the next book in the series was to be Finn’s story
and she said, “Huh, you sure that’s wise? I’m not sure I could ever fall in
love with that guy.” Well that was a challenge I set out to win.
At that point,
I had no idea what Finn’s book was going to be about. I just knew Jen had to
love Finn by the end of it. Now it’s finished, I think Finn is my most favorite
character to date. He has certainly gone through the greatest transition, and I
hope when you all read it, you will agree with me.
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR
Social media Links:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/angelastevens13
Instagram:
angela_stevens_author
No comments:
Post a Comment