Feral Need and an Evernight Publishing Birthday Bash!

So today's a very special day around these parts.  There are two folds here, one being that it's Evernight's third birthday! *Cue the music and fireworks*  Second, I've officially passed the one year mark for being published!  WHOOT!

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Celebrate like a ROCK STAR because Evernight Publishing is THREE!

In three short years, Evernight has grown by leaps and bounds thanks to readers like you! Evernight is pulling out all the stops and throwing an extreme BIRTHDAY BASH BLOG HOP in your honor!

That’s right! It’s Evernight’s birthday but YOU get the presents…

Prizes include:

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Kindle Paperwhite

Kobo Touch

$100 Evernight and Amazon Gift Certificates

Mega Evernight Swag Pack

Plus, each author on the hop will offer his/her own special prize!

As an author, I’m thrilled to share my stories with you and Evernight helps make my books shine! Here’s one reason why I love Evernight Publishing:

It's given my boys a chance to grow, and a home to tell their stories.  In book 1 of the Justice Demon series, Feral Craving, we were introduced to the boys and followed Bari and Mackenzie's journey through finding each other and discovering their love.  

Book 2, Feral Need, Mike discovers that his mate, Samantha, can't remember who he is...and worse, lusts after his best friend!  Two is comfortable, but is three a crowd?

I decided to include a quick scene on when Mikhail and Samantha first met.  I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I did.  I put it at the bottom of this post only because it's a little long, about 1300 words.  

For this hop, I'm offering two prizes of your choice: 
1) A signed copy of Feral Craving in print, or an ebook download.
2) Two books from the swag grab bag, which include various authors I've picked up at conferences over the year.


What you need to do:
- Comment below, after the scene, and give me your thoughts for what you think took the "boys" so long to get to Mikhail.  You can make it anything you want, just make sure you leave your email address as well!

Mike shifted in his seat, his ass doing its latest impression of falling asleep, something he hadn’t really had to worry about since the last war. There was something to be said though, about the fact that the plastic straps imitating the bottom of a chair were more comfortable than the seat in a two hundred and twenty plus thousand dollar Humvee. Then again, the whole point in those vehicles was keeping one’s ass alive, bullets away from vital body parts, and getting a security response team from point A to B using the least amount of energy as possible. 

His blackberry buzzed in his hands.

Keep your pants on, Mikhail. We’re stuck in traffic but will be there in a jiffy.

Fucking Tyler, what a dick. He keyed in a response.

Hey asshole, you told me you’d be here an hour ago. I could have been doing better things than sweating my balls off.

As if it’d taken offense, the sun pulsed a heat wave down his neck. Like the swamps of Louisiana, salt-tinged liquid rolled down his back. It was a weird time of the year, the moment where the City didn’t know whether it wanted to be summer or fall, hot or cold, sunny or cloudy. Of all the days he’d been caught in the sun, he wore a black long sleeve Henley and a pair of thick, dark jeans.  And of all the times, his damn team was running behind, on the other side of the bridge in good old beautiful, less-crowded, less-crazy New Jersey. 

“Well how about boxers or briefs?”

“Neither.  Commando.”

That got his attention.  Mike shifted and glanced up from his blackberry, seeking the source of such conversation. Two women—one blond, one brunette—were taking their seats at the table next to him.  Engulfed in their own conversation, they didn’t look over or stop their debate, even though he was completely caught in the workings of a female mind. Not to mention, two very fine female bodies.

“Commando?! Really?  But doesn’t it make you wonder why or how they can stand having their...their…you know—”

The brunette laughed, a tinkling carefree sound, at the blonde’s question before speaking. “Come on Aimee, think about it. Easy access. That’s the end of debate on that.”

Mike’s lips quirked at the brunette’s answer. He cut his gaze over to Aimee as a dawning expression crossed her face.  She flushed and he saw the moment she got what the other had been stating. Her cheeks pinked, the color matching closely to the silk shirt she wore, and her mouth dropped open to form a little o. 

“Sammy!” Aimee leaned forward and asked in a conspirator whisper, “Does Steve? You know.”

“Sammy” leaned back, crossed her long legs, which drew her short skirt up.  His attention immediately dropped, riveted on the exposed skin. Her voice, smooth like whiskey cut through and grabbed him by the balls.  “Yes.  But you see, Steve has that advantage…being a guy and all.”

His brows lifted.  The advantage?

Aimee interrupted the question in his head.  “What about you?” He glanced over at Aimee and dropped his blackberry, now forgotten, on the table.  Who could concentrate when there was a conversation like this?

Sammy’s low laugh rolled through the air and his mouth watered at the sound. A long, sweaty night with dark chocolate rolling over hills and valleys, across hips and between thighs...

“Same.”  Sammy’s stare held her friends before she lifted her sandwich and took a bite. The sight of her lips wrapping around the bread gave him a moment of green envy. He wanted to be that sandwich. Wanted to feel the plump, pink flesh trail over his skin, soothing, cooling, sucking…

Aimee’s quick inhalation of breath pulled him from his wayward thoughts. “You can’t be serious. You always wear skirts.  What if a big wind came by? The entire City would see.”

Again, that husky laugh rolled over his skin.  “Aimee, come on. Nice girls finish last. You know that.  Men like a little naughtiness mixed in with class.”

Mike tilted his head at this and nodded.  It was true.  Could they be discussing what he thought they were? He stared at her Sammy’s thigh again, wondering if beneath the few short inches of cloth was anything covering her treasure cove of pleasure? Just the thought of no barriers had the heat from above seeming much cooler than his body temperature. A furnace of lust sparked through his body so quickly he almost fell from his chair.  Instead, he gripped the frame and willed his body to sit still. 

“Nice girls do not finish last, Samantha.” Aimee lifted a chip and bit down, the sound crackling through the air.  Her eyes glazed over, getting lost in thought. They were bright blue, her eyes, the color of the sea on a nice summer day. He studied her features.  A perk little nose was set against porcelain skin.  Her skin was flawless—beautiful being the word—and topped with perfect reddened lips.

Naughty or nice, Mike?

He couldn’t choose.  Sammy, or Samantha--which was it?—snapped her fingers in Aimee’s face, breaking the spell. 

“You’re daydreaming again.”

Aimee scoffed, the sound dismissive.  “That’s another thing I don’t get.  What exactly is daydreaming?  I’m awake aren’t I?  Why call it dreaming? When you sleep at night, is it called night dreaming?”

An amused looked passed over Samantha’s face.  “Well if you want to get all technical about it, what category would you put wet dreams in?”

“Sam!” Aimee’s face turned bright red and Mike suppressed laughter, biting down on his tongue to hide his amusement.

“Aimee!” Samantha mocked, then leaned forward. “Stop being such a prude.  I mean you have had a wet dream before, right?”

Aimee’s silence said it all.

Samantha’s eyes widened; the gray standing out in stark contrast against her olive complexion. “Oh my –“

“Keep your voice down, Sam!”

Aimee glanced around frantically and Mike turned his head away, concentrating on the street so she wouldn’t catch him staring. 

Because he was.

Hushed whispers, so low he couldn’t make out what was said, carried through the crowd. He strained to hear Samantha and Aimee, found himself tilting his head toward them. 

“I don’t know, Sammy.  Men are so damn complicated.”

He snorted, catching the attention of patrons nearby, including a brief glimpse from Samantha and Aimee.  He picked up his blackberry and flashed a grin, pretending to check emails.

Men complicated?  Have they listened to their own conversation?

“Not if you get on their level.  You just need to keep things simple and physical for them.”

He almost groaned, but didn’t want to draw more attention.  Keep things simple and physical for men?  Did these women realize just how confusing they actually were?  He started compiling a list in his head, all arguments about how puzzling women were. Mike decided it was time for a male perspective to enter the picture of this little debate these two women were having.  He had spent entirely too long waiting for his team to get there, and from the looks of things, it didn’t seem as if they’d be there anytime soon. This would provide him with the perfect opening to make his own determination on who finished last—naughty or nice—after he got Samantha’s number. There was something about the beauty—Steve in the picture or not—that he didn’t want to let go of.

Mike pushed his chair back, vaguely listening as they continued in their debate.  He stood and took a step toward the two women who had captured his attention for the better part of thirty minutes.

“Well what about Vampires?”

His steps faltered.

Vampires? Oh, fuck no.  If there was one thing guaranteed to send a demon running for the hills…

“What about them, Aims?”

“Do you think they can get AIDS from sucking infected blood?”

He stopped and stared at Aimee, shock rolling through his veins.  How in the world did she change gears so fast? How in the hell did Vampires get brought up?  Samantha’s husky laughter reached him and he turned. Her gray gaze lifted and met his, amusement dancing in the beautiful orbs.  One perfectly arched brow lifted as she caught him staring. 

A beat passed, two—his chance flying away.

A second dark brow lifted and he suddenly found both females looking at him, questions formed on both their faces. 

He cleared his throat and turned, walked the other way.  There was no way he would enter that conversation.  Maybe it was true, he thought.  Men were from Mars and Women had to be from Venus because they both two entirely different languages.

Now....don't forget to post your response below for your chance to win with me.  And...here's where you enter to win the Grand Prizes for Evernight using Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s the perfect time to buy the Evernight titles on your TBR list, as well as new gems you find during the event, because Evernight’s entire backlist is on sale at evernightpublishing.com and allromanceebooks.com through October 7th!