Forbidden Fruit, my erotic contemporary romance, is slated for release next week. I received the cover art today.
Blurb:
Ashlynn Sweeney has been in love with Reese for ten years, which would be no problem were he not her stepbrother. Being near him is unbearable, but Ashlynn likes to think she plays it cool, and his living on campus definitely makes life easier.
When Reese comes home for spring break, Ashlynn does her best to avoid him. Yet temptation’s hard to resist, and discovering the object of her affections masturbating to pornography is about as tempting as it gets. Though she flees before they can lock eyes, Reese isn’t about to let Ashlynn off that easily. Instead, he suggests they watch the rest together.
Ashlynn’s low on options. She can either face the forbidden with her head held high or brace herself for uncomfortable family gatherings. Either way, her life’s about to change...she just doesn’t know how much.
Excerpt
Ashlynn turned to continue downstairs, but something caught her ear. She paused once more. The sound was nearly indiscernible, so soft she thought she’d imagined it until it came again.
A very womanly moan.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me," she muttered, turning on her heel. If Reese had brought a date into the house right under her nose . . . .
Though, she reminded herself, Reese had every right to his personal life. It wasn't as though he knew his stepsister secretly pined after him. In high school, Reese had entertained a parade of girlfriends, all of whom had seen his room at one point or another. Ashlynn hadn't subjected herself to much emotional torment then, but she had endured more than one tearfully sleepless night imagining him with other girls. On the surface, her stepbrother had every right to bring over a girlfriend. Hell, Ashlynn could bring home someone, too. They were both legally adults, after all. The time for sneaking around had officially passed.
On closer inspection, though, Ashlynn noted a definite absence of real-life girly sighs coming from Reese's room. The womanly sound she'd heard came from the television, which shouldn't surprise her. Reese was a healthy, red-blooded male and she knew he had a penchant for jerking it whenever the mood took him. Considering he’d recently turned twenty-one, the mood likely struck quite often. When they had actively shared a roof, she had lurked outside his bedroom during his private time. Listening in was a sick fetish, she knew, but nothing got her hotter than hearing his voice whimper and moan as her mind filled in the blanks of what her eyes couldn't see.
Apparently, old habits die hard.
"I'm sick," Ashlynn murmured, wandering toward her stepbrother's door. "I need help because I'm sick."
As she drifted closer, the sounds on the television became more prominent, and the cheesy music and the heavy moans left little room for mystery.
Porn. She'd never watched porn, but she had enough street knowledge to know what it sounded like. Plus, and more to the point, Reese was a confessed porn aficionado, though she'd never caught him in the act. Perhaps he watched it muted whenever the folks were around. If that was the case, he had not muted it today.
And for whatever reason, he also hadn’t closed the door all the way.
Just walk away. Turn around and walk away.
But she couldn't just walk away.
Also, I received word today that Original Sin has been selected as a finalist for the
ARe Just One Bite contest! The story will be made available on October 1st as a FREE READ, and best of all, readers will be able to vote for their favorite among the 32 finalists.
This short is a Lucifer-centered backstory to the Sinners and Saints series. It's around 3k in length. The second book in the series,
Sinfully Scandalous, is slated for release soon from LSB. Book One, Lost Wages of Sin, is currently available
here.
Once the story is made available, I'll post a link to it and to the other 31 finalists.
