I like to think of myself as an eclectic reader, stretching myself across all genres. For example I might read what I call a “chick flick” book by Sherryl Woods or Susan Mallery, or a hot erotic romance by Joey Hill or Regina Carlysle. Or a mystery by John Sandford. Or a thriller by Brad Thor or Vince Flynn or W.E.B. Griffin. I am first and foremost a romance addict with the requisite happy ever after, and I often wonder why men in particular don’t think it has a place in the lives of their heroes.
W.E.B. Griffin has finally given two of his heroes the opportunity for a HEA in the two series Men in Blue and The President’s Man. John Sandford gave his hero a love interest that he finally married but not until after a lot of angst through several book. And for authors like Flynn and Thor I wonder why they don’t see the necessity for their heroes to have someone with whom to decompress, a sanctuary between high octane missions.
With all that in mind, Cerise Deland and I set out to write a series of “erotic romance thrillers”, where we’d combine heartstopping action with a whole lot of heartstopping sex. And so Nemesis was born. She was the goddess of retribution, and as an international agency for protection, investigation and security, retribution is high on the agency menu.
Our heroes, of course, would have to be the typical alpha males of such stories. Good looking in a rugged way. Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound. And better in the sack than any man has a right to be.
Our heroines would have to be an equal match. Strong, confident, skilled with firearms and any number of other tricks of the trade. And equally as talented in bed, so that when they come together (pardon the pub), the explosion rocks their world.
We started with Maddie Sommers and Dan Foreman in Until the Dawn. She works in the office of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a covert agent for the CIA. Here’s a look at them:
Excerpt: Until the Dawn
He raised her hands to kiss each of her fingertips in turn. “I’ve outgrown the one-night stands, Maddie. The quick lays that leave you feeling like a cave man.” He pressed both her palms to his cheeks and his torso to hers. “I want a relationship that means something bigger. With one woman. With brains.” He smoothed her hair. “And beauty.” He kissed her eyelids. “And a body.” He cupped her ass and pushed her groin to his. “And a passion for me.”
She wound her arms around his massive shoulders and pressed her breasts against his solid chest. “I think you’ve got her.”
He threw his head back and laughed, then caught her under her legs to swing her up into his arms. “Where then, my dear woman, is your bedroom?”
She pointed the way up her stairs into the back of her house and her huge master bedroom. He carried her up and there, next to the king bed awash in linens of ivory and cream, Dan paused and set her to her feet. His hands fell over her from her throat to her shoulders, her arms and her fingertips. Those he raised to his shirt collar. “Undress me.”
She trembled. Her lips quivered. But she began to undo his buttons, loosen his tie, peel back his suit coat and drop everything to the floor. When she came to his belt, and his waistband button, she gazed into his eyes, now clouded with desire, and stopped. He stared at her. “Do it.”
She spun away from him. New spunk rising in her veins, she shrugged one shoulder to let her spaghetti strap fall below her elbow, then did the same with the other. Reaching around to her zipper, she pulled it open with a brisk tug that had her dress sliding over her breasts and her hips and pooling at the floor.
He inhaled sharply.
Naked, she glided toward him. Her breasts, full and pouting, reached toward him. Her pussy, claimed once by him tonight, she knew by the feel, was also full and pouting to have him back. She fingered her nipples for him, then plunged fingers of both hands into her full nest of curls. Who is this wanton woman, Maddie? The one who wants this man, the answer came.
She took the two steps toward his warm and reaching hands. He caught her to him, squeezing the breath from her, as he took her lips, her throat, her areola in his hungry mouth and bit her, sucked her and sank to his knees. There, he held her with both hands to her thighs as he nuzzled his face to her mound.
“Spread your legs for me, baby,” he growled at her.
End excerpt
In Until Midnight we featured Nicole “Nicki” Welles, owner of Nemesis who was introduced in Book One, and Adam Molloy, former Mossad agent who meets her under “unusual circumstances”.
Excerpt: Until Midnight
Nicole Welles drew in a deep breath, inhaling the salt-scented air and listening to the rhythmic lap of ocean waves against the sand. She consciously forced every muscle in her body to relax.
The last two weeks had been a bitch. Financially rewarding but no less than a trip to hell deserved. Nemesis had been contracted by Macmillan Global to retrieve their boss who had been kidnapped by one of the largest drug cartels and held for ransom. Since this particular cartel was known for returning their hostages more dead than alive, Macmillan wanted the boss out right now.
They’d done it. She’d led the team herself. There had been some bloodshed but fortunately not on their side. Now she was trying to decompress in a bungalow at a very private, very exclusive resort on the beach in tiny Costalegre near Puerto Vallarta.
She was thinking about heading back to the villa for a shower and turned over to fish her watch out of her beachbag when a heavy thunk! sounded behind her. Instinctively her brain registered what it was and she rolled off the lounge onto the sand, grabbing for her beachbag where her 9mm was stashed. When she lifted her eyes to see what was happening they were met by a pair of very tanned legs dusted with dark hair.
“I have a gun,” she said, pointing it upward.
“So do I.” The voice was deep and almost gravelly. “Fucking lot of good yours would do you if I planned to kill you. You’d already be toast.”
Keeping a two-handed grip on the gun, she rolled lithely to her knees and then to her feet. Inches away from her stood what she could only think of as a man who was menacingly sexy. And tall. Much taller than she was, which was a trick since she was five ten. Shaggy black hair framed a face defined by deep grooves in the cheeks, a square jaw and startling blue eyes beneath heavy brows and thick lashes.
Dressed in a loose shirt and shorts, every bit of his muscular body she could see was deeply tanned. And the gun he was holding was even bigger than hers. An Israeli Desert Eagle, one she was very familiar with.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“The man who just saved your life.” His voice was deep and hoarse as if he’d been shouting for a long time. “Who are you?”
“What do you mean, saved my life?”
He looked up and down the private stretch of beach, empty except for the two of them. As far as Nicki knew, only three of the resort’s bungalows were occupied at the moment.
“Put away your gun and I’ll show you.”
Put away the gun? She stared at him for a long moment, something weird sizzling between them, then lowered the 9mm to her side.
“That’s as put away as it’s going to get until I know what’s going on around here.”
“Come on.”
He, too, lowered his gun and closed steel fingers around her wrist, tugging her toward the thick groves of palm and coconut trees bordering the beach. Carefully pulling back a prickly bougainvillea he pointed at a body shoved against the roots of the shrub.
End excerpt:
And we have just finished Until Twilight, Book Three, in which you’ll meet Nemesis security specialist Lane Hallowell and prospective hire Isabella Sebastiani, explosive expert. Lane is in Italy finishing an assignment and told to interview Bella. They are thrown together when a series of bomb threats also effects a Nemesis client.
Excerpt: Until Twilight
He fished in his trouser pockets for some bills. He had no idea what he threw down. He could only watch this woman who possessed him. She was willowy, but well endowed. She was a dark-haired siren with onyx eyes and a carriage so regal, he had grown hard since he first saw her pausing in front of the David. Christ knew how he could even open his mouth to talk to her. And if she decided she would join Nemesis, someone had better teach him how to work with her. Because all he wanted to do was kiss her wide, sultry mouth, discover those beautiful big breasts and make her moan and twist and come loudly in his arms.
And now for all his boyish silent drooling, and all his determination to keep it professional and practical, she was leading him at a determined clip through the Piazza toward Santa Croce.
She said nothing. She didn’t have to. Her nipples were taut beneath the thin white halter dress. Her expression was closed, focused on her goal.
He could barely walk, his cock was so engorged. So erect. Damn, how far away was her apartment? He tried to remember her address from her vitae and couldn’t. What the hell. She knew where they were going. She knew what she was doing.
The smell of freshly cut leather hit his nostrils as they hurried through the narrow lanes of the tanners’ district. Wafting out of the workrooms and shops were the aromas of espresso, chocolate and freshly cut garlic. Golden rays of the dying afternoon sun warmed the buildings and the pavement as the two of them hastened past.
Just this side of the church of Santa Croce, she halted before a building with huge windows and large balconies. She stepped up to its ochre and yellow door. Digging out a key, she turned the lock and proceeded up a winding staircase. She never looked back. She knew he was there on her heels. At the third floor, she paused before another door, opened it and held it as he followed her inside.
Here in the hall made rosy by the twilight rays streaming through a large window at the other end, she placed her briefcase and her keys on a large table and turned to him.
Her expression was tight, almost pleading with him.
He understood.
And as he took her in his arms and pressed her to the wall, as he lifted one hand and dropped a kiss to her palm, her wrist, her forearm, her elbow, he whispered, “Bella mia, this was never my plan.”
Her head lolled against the wall, her lush mouth fell open. Her hauntingly lovely black eyes absorbed him. “I told myself it was not mine.”
He captured her chin between two fingers. “Once. We’ll make love once.”
She gasped, stricken.
Her disappointment broke his heart, fired his pride and made his cock harden painfully.
“This is no interview,” she demanded on a whisper as she outlined his lips with one forefinger.
“No. This has nothing to do with work.” He bent and picked her up in his arms. “This has everything to do with need.”
End excerpt
So you see, despite what male writers might think, it’s possible to have a heartpounding thriller with great romance and sex. I’m all for it.
Books One and Two are available at Ellora’s Cave (www.jasminejade.com) as well as Amazon, Sony, B&N and All Romance eBooks. Take a walk on the wild side with us.
You can find cerise at www.cerisedeland.com and Cesiree at www.desireeholt.com
Surrendering to the Right Man
Surrendering to the Right Man
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