Friday, April 30, 2021

#BookBlitz...The Heavy Side...@RABTBookTours #RABTBookTours #TheHeavySide #BenRogers #Thriller #TechnoThriller


Techno-thriller

Date Published: 11-16-2019



Silicon Valley Tech meets The Cocaine Trade.




Can you program yourself into a winner?

In the San Francisco Bay Area, tech innovation is King, and money is God.

Vik Singh watched his immigrant parents work their fingers to the bone chasing the American Dream. But standing at his father's funeral, he realizes one thing - hustling will get you nowhere. All you need to get rich is one big idea.

And when he meets Los, a small-time drug lord with visions of grandeur, Vik makes a plan worthy of Jobs and Zuckerberg:

Design a drug sale app.

After all, market disruption is everything.

From his comfortable cottage in Lake Tahoe, Vik writes the code that builds a cocaine empire. When his app attracts an infamous drug cartel leader, it seems like a natural expansion move. And for a while, life is Swiss bank accounts, luxe coke parties, and falling in love with Remi, a beautiful and ballsy woman with secrets of her own.

Then he discovers he is being watched.

The DEA is closing in, the cartel is getting suspicious, and he can trust no one. As things heat up, Vik discovers the real price of easy money.

And that price could be his life.

If you're a fan of Breaking Bad, Mr. Robot, and Dark Mirror, this is the book for you. Get your copy right now!

About the Author. . .

Ben Rogers is the author of the novels The Flamer and The Heavy Side. His work has been published in The Rumpus, PANK, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Portland Review, Arroyo Literary Review, The Nevada Review, and Wag's Revue, and has earned the Nevada Arts Council Fellowship and the Sierra Arts Foundation grant. He is also the lead author of Nanotechnology: Understanding Small Systems, the first-ever comprehensive textbook on nanotechnology, and Nanotechnology: The Whole Story, both of which earned the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award from the American Library Association. He studied engineering and journalism in college and has worked as a business analyst, a newspaper reporter, a teacher, and a scientist at various labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He is currently the Director of Engineering at NevadaNano. He lives in Reno with his family.


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#BlogTour...Unholy...#UF #MM #PNR @gaybookpromo @MorganBriceBook @gaybookpromotions @morganbriceauthor

BLOG TOUR

Book Title:  Unholy (Witchbane #5)

Author: Morgan Brice

Publisher: Darkwind Press

Narrator: Kale Williams

Release Date: March 30, 2021

Genre: Urban fantasy, MM paranormal romance

Tropes: Supernatural suspense, hurt/comfort, hot sex, dark magic, evolving relationship, ghosts

Themes: Trust, the power of found family

Heat Rating:  4 flames

Length: 6 hours and 33 minutes

It is the 5th book in the Witchbane series but can be read as a standalone.

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Blurb 


Seth Tanner swore vengeance on the dark witches who killed his brother, Jesse. He rescued Evan Malone from one of the witches, and they’ve fallen in love despite the danger and chaos, going on the road to complete the quest and bring an end to the ritual murders. Their relationship is still new, tested at every turn by danger and magic.

Seth and Evan head to Charleston to stop the next warlock and save his intended victim. But this time, they’re too late. The warlock has already powered up, and he’s determined to destroy the two hunters one way or another. A deadly curse on Seth and Evan means time is running out. Can they find a way to turn the tables, or is Charleston their final destination?

Unholy is an urban fantasy MM paranormal romance with plenty of supernatural suspense, hurt/comfort, hot sex, found family, dark magic, and paranormal thrills. It is part of a series but can be read as a standalone and features an evolving, established romantic relationship with all the feels. Intended for readers 18 years of age and older.

About the Author. . .

Morgan Brice is the romance pen name of bestselling author Gail Z. Martin. Morgan writes urban fantasy male/male paranormal romance, with plenty of action, adventure and supernatural thrills to go with the happily ever after. Gail writes epic fantasy and urban fantasy, and together with co-author hubby Larry N. Martin, steampunk and comedic horror, all of which have less romance, more explosions. Characters from her Gail books make frequent appearances in secondary roles in her Morgan books, and vice versa.

On the rare occasions Morgan isn’t writing, she’s either reading, cooking, or spoiling two very pampered dogs.

Series include Witchbane, Badlands, Treasure Trail, Kings of the Mountain and Fox Hollow. Watch for more in these series, plus new series coming soon!

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#BookTour...Tell Me You Love Me...#Contemporary #Fiction #Giveaway

Tell Me You Love Me
by Kathleen Stone
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
What would you sacrifice to protect someone you love?

In 1965 April Toulane’s life is turned upside down on her fifth birthday when her mother marries a man she’s known for only two weeks. The life she’d known is forever changed with the addition of a stepfather and a five-year-old stepbrother who terrorizes her on a daily basis. After a family tragedy the young siblings are thrust into the Hollywood spotlight, surrounded by people whose very foundation is based on secrets and lies. Struggling to grow up and find their way in a world where child stars are forever manipulated and exploited, the siblings form an unbreakable bond vowing to always protect each other when the adults entrusted to take care of them fail at every turn. “Tell Me You Love Me” is the story of April and Auggie Fairbanks, the most sought after faces in show business throughout the sixties and seventies, maneuvering their way through the lies and corruption to learn the truth about their parents and searching for the love and acceptance they so desperately crave.

Kathleen has been a freelance writer since 1999 and now writes full time. Her work has appeared in Doll World Magazine, Apolloslyre.com, The Lake County Journals, Trails.com; USA Today (travel), Livestrong.com (lifestyle), Essortment, eHow, Answerbag, Examiner.com, Suite101 and YahooVoices. She is the author of the award-winning novel Whispers On A String, the Head Case Rock Novel Series (Head Case, Whiplash and Haven) and Tell Me You Love Me. She also has short stories published in the Secrets: Fact or Fiction I & II anthologies.

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#BookTour...Neo Geisha...#Steamy #Thriller #Giveaway

Neo Geisha
by Monica L. Patton
Genre: Steamy Thriller
Philomene Doucette is a made-to-order assassin, and death never looked so good. Smuggled into Japan to carry out a kill, she finds herself enmeshed in a web of half-truths and shadow agendas. When the carnage exacts a personal toll, Philomene takes it all on--like the beautiful monster she was programmed to be.

"The characters are intriguing and the storyline pulled me in from the first page. The family dynamic, power struggles, and mystery surrounding the disappearance of... the perfect concoction for a page-turner." - Sara Fields, Book Club Moderator, The Phenomenal Women Group

**Releasing this Fall!!**
Ms. Patton is the author of Love & Southern Discomfort, an engaging musical about an old-money family, told through the prism of love lost, addiction, mental illness, and a harrowing family secret. Monica toured with the Broadway 2nd National tour of The Book of Mormon since its inception in 2012 (she was the only cast member to be in the company from day one until it closed in 2020.) Ms. Patton has worked with such notables as Jesse Norman, Diahann Carroll, and Freda Payne. She covered Eartha Kitt as the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella and sang opposite Jon Secada as the Narrator in the National Tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

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Thursday, April 29, 2021

#BookTour...Southern Gentlemen #Book 3...#Contemporary #Romance #Giveaway

Honest & True
Southern Gentlemen Book 3
by Ja'Nese Dixon
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Rules are meant to be broken. But what about hearts? Is a second chance possible with this single dad and his sexy off-limits employee? Rashaad Montgomery is a divorced single dad and one-fifth of Southern Soul Houston. He's juggling the care of his energetic daughter, managing his multi-billion dollar real estate company, and fighting his secret attraction to Catrina.

Catrina Franklin loves the Montgomery family and can't remember a day when she didn't love Rashaad. She gave up all dreams of turning her childhood crush into her man when he married and had a child.  But four years ago, he filed for divorce, then six months ago, he kissed her, igniting hope and unquenchable longing.  She knew their time had finally come, but her hope was dashed again when Rashaad showed up with a date, pretending Catrina was nothing more than a family friend.

Catrina left Houston, returning only to plan the year's biggest wedding, the Montgomery Double Wedding, a contract she needs to launch her new business. Rashaad avoids the undeniable pull between them until he comes face-to-face with the very sexy Catrina on the arm of his biggest rival. The reality of his stupid mistake glares at him through her distrusting eyes. And he has two choices: walk away or prove he's the only man for Catrina Franklin.

A war is waged to prove their friends, not enemies. Each encounter, caress, and secret kiss staged to prove his intentions and love are honest and true. But when history repeats itself, they'll learn whether love endures all things.

All Yours
Southern Gentlemen Book 2
Rules are meant to be broken, especially when it comes to this curvy chef and infamous playboy. Miya Montgomery is the head chef and one-fifth of Southern Soul, a family-owned soul food restaurant. On the heels of a nasty breakup, Miya welcomes the shift in ownership and preparation for expansion. That's before her brother, Kamal, calls home, his best friend, Dean.

Dean Wellington arrives in Houston, ready to consult the Montgomery family through its management transition, not expecting Little Miya to be the curvy bombshell who steals his heart on sight. Ignoring their chemistry is impossible. Dean's sweet smile and steamy eyes scorch through Miya's clothes and her objections. However, her tattered heart is counting his casualties, refusing to be Dean's next victim.  Kamal has a strict rule concerning his baby sister: Hands off. But since when has Dean met a rule he didn't want to break. And Miya's finding it harder to ignore his independence and Southern charm.

Dean's hell-bent on making their own rules, and Miya's worried that when he's had his fill, he'll leave her with an irreparable heart. But their late nights have her willing to play with fire, praying...she doesn't get burned.

NOTE: This story was first featured as a novella in Romantically Ever After Boxed Set except this book is a full length 75k+ novel. You'll recognize the story but you don't want to miss seeing these two burn up your device. ;)

Play to Win
Southern Gentlemen Book 1
Kamal’s an ex-football player. Jayda’s a single mother uninterested in another relationship until she sees Kamal with her daughter. Every rejection will only make his victory sweeter. He plans to lick, taste, and devour her like the delicacy she is until the world, her ex, and Jayda recognize his name tatted on every inch of her curvy body.

Kamal never plays by halves, and Jayda has a thing or two to show this deviously handsome player. But when the past runs an interference, they’ll learn in matters of the heart there are no rules.

USA Today Bestselling author, Ja’Nese Dixon pens tales of romance in various subgenres, including romantic suspense and sweet romance. But her favorites are the ones that manage to keep readers sitting on the edge of their seats lying to themselves about reading “just one more chapter”.  She is an avid reader and coffee drinker living in Houston, Texas with her husband, three children, and diva dog.

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#BookTour...The Marked Trilogy #Book 1...#UF #PNR #SciFi

Darkness Made
The Marked Trilogy Book 1
by Charlotte E. Pool
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, SciFi
To become what she was made for, she must lose everything

*Urban fantasy meets paranormal romance meets science fiction in this nail-biting, heart-racing story of loss, love, revenge, and the darkness that lives within us all.*

The town of Landow, Virginia, is a tiny, quiet, suburban sort of place where nothing ever happens, and no one ever seems to leave.

Eighteen-year-old Bexley Rose is quietly resigned to her ordinary life in this infuriatingly quaint town. Aside from the car accident thirteen years ago that killed her father, nothing interesting has ever happened to her.

Enter Asher, a curious newcomer who disturbs the daily monotony of Landow, sparking whispers and rumors among the locals. A peculiar magnetism draws them together. As she spends more time with him, the list of unanswered questions about his past grows, and with it, Bexley’s unease.

But when one of Bexley’s classmates is found dead in a hotel, Bexley finally learns what Asher is doing in Landow. He isn’t human, and soon Bexley won’t be either. Asher’s people have lived in secret alongside mankind for millennia, governed by an international organization known as The Council, and now Bexley is part of their underground world. As the body count in Landow grows, Bexley demands answers. And when she gets them, she finds herself at the center of an age-old prophecy and an emerging war between species.

Charlotte Pool lives in Virginia with her husband, two daughters, and three pit bulls. She is a Cardiac Surgery ICU nurse and is currently pursuing her graduate degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner. Despite her impressive education and professional experience, she wants nothing more than to make s*** up for a living. Hopefully this book will be the start of a new adventure.

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
Signed Copy of Darkness Made
$25 Amazon gift card
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Wednesday, April 28, 2021

#BookBlitz...The Philanthropist #Book 1...@RABTBookTours #RABTBookTours #ConcreteClockwork #LauraBreck #Suspense


The Philanthropist, Book 1

Suspense

Published: March 2021


Ex-military operative Lottie Nightshade is enjoying civilian life helping her widowed sister raise three teenagers. When a last-minute job interview turns out to be blackmail, her peaceful days are over. Lottie is given two choices, and the least deplorable of them is doing wetwork for an eccentric millionaire.

Philanthropist Dane Harrington has no option but to blackmail Lottie Nightshade. Dane was contracted to terminate a bomber who threatened to level a new arena in St. Paul, Minnesota. The stakes are too high to trust the time-critical mission to anyone but a skilled operative, and Dane knows Ms. Nightshade will not do the job willingly.

When the bomber realizes he’s been targeted for extermination, the hired killer is already closing in on him. The only way he’ll live to trigger the arena’s destruction is by stopping Lottie Nightshade.

Lottie feels the bomber’s cold stare watching her every move as the timer ticks closer to detonation. When he sets off a series of explosions and people begin to die, Lottie realizes she may need to give up her own life to end the bomber’s.

Excerpt



Loud ringing jerked Lottie out of her dream. The papers on her chest slid onto the bed as she sat up and looked around for the source.

The sound came from her backpack. One of her burner phones? Lunging for the bag, she dumped the contents on her bed and picked up the live one.

“Hello?”

“Is this the woman who handed out pictures of the old man?” The female voice sounded jittery. “I have information for you, but you have to meet me right now.”

Lottie stood; the phone pressed to her ear. It had to be one of the hotel or restaurant staff she’d given Balfour’s photo to.

“Can you just tell me…”

“You promised money.” Was she crying? “Meet me at the RestRight motel downtown, room 528. I need the cash. Right now.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you, but not there.” Lottie checked the time. 9:15 PM. She couldn’t risk losing the contact, but she wouldn’t walk into a trap. “No hotel, though. Meet me inside the train station on Kellogg. You know where that is?

The woman sucked in air three times “Um, yeah, okay, where?”

“Inside the front door, to the left side there are bathrooms. The women’s room. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Hurry. Please.” She ended the call.

Lottie jumped off the bed and used her phone to call the security team. “I need a car. Right now.” She grabbed the tactical bag with her phones and guns, the rucksack with her disguises, and the cash Harrington had given her, and stuffed it all into her backpack.

“Got it.” A woman’s voice. “Head west down the alley to the fourth garage after yours, the one with the green lightbulb.”

“I need a body cam and comms.”

“Roger.”

She relayed the meeting place. “Get a team there now, the security crew. Low profile but armed.”

“Already on their way.”

She ended the call. Harrington’s team knew exactly what was happening. Did they listen in on every call she made and received?

Why hadn’t Harrington told her? Why hadn’t she realized that earlier? She should have known he’d keep her under a microscope.

Lottie stopped and breathed for a minute, checking off everything she needed to bring, everything she needed to do. Walking toward the root cellar exit, she dialed Harrington’s number on one of the disposables. After their confirmation routine, he asked, “Yes?”

“I got a tip off one of the photos. I’m going to meet her now.”

“Details.”

Lottie gave him the info as she walked down the dark alley toward the green light.

“Your body cam, they’ll feed it live to me. I have to jump.” Harrington ended the call.

Lottie stepped into the open side-door of the garage. Stone held a small device which he attached to Lottie’s waistband. “When you enter, turn full-circle to scan the room so we get the lay.” He tipped his head. “I didn’t need to tell you that, did I.”

Lottie held back a smirk.

A woman approached. “Earpiece.”

Lottie put the tiny speaker in her ear and held out her hand. “Car fob.”

Lottie slid into the driver’s seat of the pantyhose-colored car and rolled down the window. “What’s the team’s 20?”

“Five minutes out.”

The garage door rolled upward.

Stone leaned close. “We’re right behind you.”

Lottie shifted and drove out of the garage. She needed to go. Fast. Before the caller had a chance to change her mind.

As she raced along side streets, she tucked a gun into her waistband and one in her boot. She put a disposable phone in her pants pocket.

She pulled into a Security Only parking spot in front of the station and walked up the steps to the huge front doors. Running through her prep, she cleared her mind, and pinpoint focused.

“Stealthy at the front door.” Stone’s voice in her ear bud. “Caller already in the designated room.” The woman was here already.

By the time she stood outside the women’s room, she was a rock. She pushed the door open and put her foot out to stop the door from closing. She looked behind it. Nothing.

On the far side of the room, a short woman with dark, shoulder-length hair gestured Lottie into the room, her movements jerky, her eyes wild, red, like she’d been crying. She wore a baggy t-shirt and shorts, flip-flops on her feet.

Lottie went on full alert. “Pull up your shirt, turn in a circle. All the way up to your neck.” Lottie needed to check her for explosives and weapons.

She did as she was told, stumbling once, then froze and stared at something.

“Around again, please. Slower.” She performed the turn again. Her shorts were too tight to conceal anything. “Pull up your hair now and turn again.” She was clean.

Turning her body, Lottie let the camera see what she was looking at. Two toilet stalls, empty. Further into the room, two sinks on one side and on the other wall a plastic baby changing table that held a small, propped-up tablet.

No window, drop ceiling, the flimsy kind.

Lottie stepped into the room and let the door close behind her.

“You called me?”

The woman stood in front of the changing table looking at the tablet. She nodded, not looking at her.

“Tell me what you know.” Lottie kept her voice soft to calm the woman.

“He.” The woman pointed to the tablet, her hand shaking.

Shit. Was she saying the man in Lottie’s photo was someone online? This would be a waste of time. Lottie spoke slowly. “Where is the man?”

“I’m here Lottie.” A deep male voice. From the tablet.

Chills ran down her spine.


About The Author. . .

I’ve written more than 40 books in my career, and I’m very excited to have a new pen name, and a new genre – Suspense! My hot new series, The Philanthropist, features books that bring you Gripping Suspense Outside the Law. I’m sure you’ll find them as unique and interesting as I do.





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#BookBlitz...Illusion...@firstforromance @totally_bound #eroticromance #paranormal #fantasy #booklover #bookblogger #bookaddict #romancereadersofinstagram #booknerd #bookworm

Illusion by Aurelia T. Evans

Book 11 in the Arcanium series

Word Count: 85,949
Book Length: SUPER NOVEL
Pages: 304

Genres:

ANGELS AND DEMONS
CONTEMPORARY
EROTIC ROMANCE
FANTASY AND FAIRYTALES
HORROR
PARANORMAL

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Book Description

Arcanium's greatest illusion is that there’s any illusion at all…

When an old flame returns to Arcanium in the company of her own magical circus, Illumina, offering an alliance, Bell initially considers the merger an opportunity for much-needed change.

However, with Illumina comes Maya, who has lost her memories not just of Locke’s Arcanium but all her time with Bell—love, guilt, wishes, everything. Having her memories removed leaves Maya with too large a gap in her mind that she’s desperate to fill, and she knows that Bell, of all the people in Arcanium, can give her the information she’s missing.

Bell still loves Maya and spends every day trying to atone for the pain he caused her and the rest of his cast. In spite of her frustration, she’s happiest without him, without the memories that once nearly destroyed her. If Illumina is to become part of Arcanium, he has no choice. He has to keep his distance, because she doesn’t know why she should run as far away as she can from Arcanium—and from Bell.

Even so, resisting Maya is almost too much for him to bear.

Reader advisory: This book contains references to past torture, PTSD, consensual torture, self-harm through cutting and bloodplay.

Excerpt

Bell closed his eyes in the golden lantern light backstage.

When Bell let go, spread himself wide over the web of Arcanium, he was its omnipresent god and omnipotent voyeur, from the thoughts of his cast backstage with him to the audience anticipating the performances, the guests putting in their last efforts in the midway and the Skeletons settling in for their evening meal. He could see what they’d done yesterday and what they would do tomorrow. Even when he didn’t try, he had a finger on every pulse within the borders of Arcanium.

There had been nothing since Locke that had come close to taking Arcanium again. The fae hadn’t even constituted a threat. They would have left with far more chagrin if they had known how distant they had been from taking Arcanium by force. And Locke was now a red diamond on Neve’s finger, waiting for the day she was ready to kill him slowly.

Bell’s opiate of choice had always been pleasure, but his taste for violence went in and out with the seasons. He hadn’t the heart anymore for the punishment of man. He had enough of that to contend with in his cast’s memories and nightmares—but he’d rediscovered the old joy in punishing the immortals who had exploited his Arcanium, even if he had to experience the act of punishment secondhand.

Man swallowed against the apple every second they breathed, and Bell burned with the same sadistic sickness as his fireborn brethren. He kept the Ringmaster in Arcanium as much to remind himself of the line he couldn’t cross as to do the things he shouldn’t.

No one had ever told him what he could and couldn’t do. He was neither angel nor demon nor creation from dust. He had determined his own lines, chiseled his own moral code into his skin before Hammurabi had commissioned his scribes. He was free will incarnate, an agent of chaos to cast awry best-laid plans. He was his own, and so he made his world in his own image, populated it with free wills of all shapes and sizes to shape to his liking—which was often to theirs, because it pleased him to manipulate but not necessarily to control. Manipulation meant nothing without will. If he’d wanted slaves, he would have filled the circus with more convincing golems—like a flea circus of mechanical illusion but with zombies.

But where would be the fun in that?

Bell opened his eyes again, returning himself to the moment, although a blink could send him back out into the circus, forward or backward. All Arcanium and beyond was as accessible to him as the palace of his memories, but although grasping the world in his hands became easy when he made himself more of the god he was, he didn’t see much fun in that either. He made things easier for his cast and for himself, imparting skills that they hadn’t or couldn’t have learned before, gifting talent, but even the demons preferred to work for their performances. Without effort, there could be no achievement, and without achievement, no satisfaction. Pleasure, as with pain, had to be earned.

Selena wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind, her sharp smile against his cheek. She kissed him lightly. “Ready, darling?”

As a demon, Selena could twist her body into shapes that Valorie couldn’t have hoped to create. In Valorie’s case, Bell had wanted a contortionist human enough to be both awe-inspiring and credible. When Selena had offered her services as a demon, he no longer had to keep the contortions credible. He didn’t need her to inspire awe. She preferred to inspire fear.

With her black eyes, dead blue skin and blood-stained hair, she was beautiful, but she was still a demon and plied most of her contortionist trade in the Haunted Funhouse rather than in the big top. For the big top performances, she’d taken over Maya’s role as his magician’s assistant and damsel in distress—at least, Arcanium’s version of a damsel in distress, which rarely followed a traditional plot.

Selena retrieved one of the steel knives, gleaming silver as new for every performance, from the bandolier around his torso and brought it to his throat. He lifted his chin, threaded his fingers through her locked hair, breathed in her craving for impure blood. When she shifted her kiss to his mouth, he met that craving with his tongue, hissing as her sharp teeth caught him and she slid the blade over his chin. Then she kissed down to the trickle of blood and drank from the wound until he healed it under her mouth.

She fed from his corruption instead of feeding from his people or too many of his guests, and in return, she made him numb. She could render men into oblivion, but the best she could do for Bell was take both the pleasure and the pain away for a time.

Most of the human cast believed he was sleeping with Selena. Kitty knew better. Neve and Elizabeth had guessed otherwise. And, to his annoyance, Vivian suspected, although because she didn’t know, she hadn’t shared that information with Dom or Delilah. The demons and the faerie could tell just by looking at him, but they wouldn’t share that information one way or the other. A jinni’s business, like that of a demon’s, was his own.

Selena kept his secret, liked keeping secrets in general, because secrets so easily corrupted, improving the flavor of that which she fed upon. It was only apt that she’d chosen an actual lover among his humans who was as ingenuous as they came. The fact that she regularly drained Victor of corruption that he had done nothing to earn satisfied Bell.

Selena licked the smear of blood from the edge of the blade before returning it to the bandolier. Then she jumped onto his back, wrapping her legs and arms around him. She was taller than him by half a head without heels, over a head with the ones she wore for the performance, but although taking a human form limited him in many ways, it didn’t impede his strength. He caught her legs and tucked her against him as he carried her to the curtains. Chelsine would finish her fire dance any minute, which would cue the lights for Sera’s aerial act. After Sera, Bell and Selena would enter. Though Selena should have been getting into place, Sasha and Mikhail had worked their magic, as they always did, and both Bell and Selena were reluctant to part.

Bell had never been so frustrated for so long.

Selena would find her own satisfaction after the performance, as most of his cast did. Some didn’t even wait until they were out from backstage.

To be surrounded by the lust and love of his people, to feel it against his skin, against his teeth, to drink it like milk and honey, hum with the vibrations of their moans and screams, watch them dance around each other, caress, kiss, their pupils dilated and their cheeks flushed, the touch of their tongue to their lips… It was the torture of his own dungeon, to be surrounded by everything he wanted but not to partake himself, even when he was tempted.

Instead, he rested his head back against Selena’s chest as her hair draped on either side of his face.

Selena slid from his back and kissed his shoulder. “Hard out there for a demon with a soul. You, of all people, should know better than to resist. God, Bell, there are so many willing victims. Why do you do this to yourself?”

He didn’t have a word she would understand. Demons punished with ease, but they had little concept of self-punishment. The closest any of them came was limited self-denial.

“I’ll see you in the ring.” Bell would seem casual to anyone without an extra sense or two to detect the deception.

“Sure, handsome.” Selena broke away, scurrying up the ladder to the heavens, where the trapeze swings, spotlights and aerial silks lived.

Neve was his crown jewel—the Spider, a black diamond he would keep in a vault if he could, but Kitty, who reclined on the chaise longue, was the life’s blood, the very beating heart of his circus. Locke had understood that she was valuable but hadn’t understood how much, or else he would never have allowed the Ringmaster to take her for himself.

Without an ounce of magic in her blood, Kitty sensed his attention, opened her eyes and met Bell’s gaze across backstage. Though she couldn’t see it, the Ringmaster’s darkness seeped from under the curtains as he introduced Sera, but when it reached Kitty, it dissipated. She was a pink, floral oasis in a sea of smoke.

Bell sent her what love he could spare from a distance. She received it like a blanket warmed in sunlight, because she was his Kitty Cat and he could rest his head on her shoulder and hold her until the sun rose and set again. Even if she blamed him like the rest, she’d lost none of her love for him. If a human being could become family to jinn, they had bound themselves with something thicker than blood.

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About the Author. . .

Aurelia T. Evans

Aurelia T. Evans is an up-and-coming erotica author with a penchant for horror and the supernatural.

She’s the twisted mind behind the werewolf/shifter Sanctuary trilogy, demonic circus series Arcanium, and vampire serial Bloodbound. She’s also had short stories featured in various erotic anthologies.

Aurelia presently lives in Dallas, Texas (although she doesn’t ride horses or wear hats). She loves cats and enjoys baking as much as she dislikes cooking. She’s a walker, not a runner, and she writes outside as often as possible.

Giveaway

Enter for your chance to win a $50.00 Amazon Gift get a FREE romance book from the author!

Aurelia T. Evans Illusion Giveaway

AURELIA T. EVANS IS GIVING AWAY A $50.00 AMAZON GIFT CARD TO ONE LUCKY WINNER. ENTER HERE FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN AND GET A FREE EBOOK FROM THE AUTHOR! Notice: This competition ends on 11TH May 2021 at 5pm GMT. Competition hosted by Totally Entwined Group.