Today I have a fun excerpt from Draven St. James’ new release, Covert Delivery & the author is giving away an ecopy of her book to a lucky winner!

Here’s the blurb:

Aspen Starr is in a bind and not in a good way. His father is trying to use him to sweeten a business deal and being a bought boy toy holds no appeal. Just when he thinks he has no options left Sundae’s Custom Easter Baskets knocks at his door. Soon he finds himself blindly following a trail right into the path of a sexy new boss and a whole new mess of carnal complications. 

 Garren Thomas has rules and one of those is to never get involved with an employee. Easy to say, harder to enforce when Aspen is hired on. With each passing day Garren’s control slips until all he wants to do is spend his days with Aspen in his bed.

When faced with giving into his desires, Garren sees his simple life being torn apart. Can he get Aspen out of his system without losing his heart? Aspen isn’t much better off. He is drawn to Garren, but he can’t help the fear that the secrets from his past will destroy it all. As Aspen’s begins to lose himself within the confusion of sex and love one question plagues him: who sent the basket?

Excerpt:

Garren pushed away from the wall and into the light of the lobby. “Looks like I missed out on a lot.”

Aspen ducked his head and went to his desk to dig around in a drawer. The first time Taylor had sent him shopping for office supplies, Aspen had bought random sheets of kids’ stickers. On the rare occasion Taylor performed child evaluations, a little bribery to bring out good behavior never hurt. Aspen came away with two sheets of fairy stickers. “Not too much. We’re working on crowns and a new kingdom.” Aspen swerved around Garren, his eyes twinkling. “Do you want a crown?”

Garren narrowed his eyes on Aspen. He put his hands on Aspen’s shoulders to stop him and leaned in to whisper, “That was low. There’s no way I can refuse those pixies. I’m going to end up with a glittery, construction-paper crown glued to my head, aren’t I?” Aspen looked over his shoulder. “Don’t worry there won’t be glitter on yours. I’ll be the queen,” he murmured with a grin. “So you’ll need to fill the role as king.”

Garren shook his head. “You’re trouble.”

Aspen shimmied to dislodge Garren’s hands. “You just figured that out?” With a resigned sigh Garren followed him. “Girls, I found someone else who needs a crown,” Aspen declared, gesturing at Garren.

The tykes jumped up and down. Garren fought the urge to reach out and hug Aspen for giving them this moment of levity even at Garren’s expense. Aspen held out the stickers, and the enthusiasm magnified until the girls were dancing around the room. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” the girls chanted in a singsong fashion.

A softly murmured, “Oh my,” came from behind Garren. Garren turned to yet again see the shimmer of tears in Mrs. Burgett’s eyes, but a smile accompanied the moisture.

Aspen grinned back at her. “I hope you don’t mind. The girls have been fantastic. We’ve managed to make crowns and bracelets.” “Even for you, Mommy,” one of the twins piped up and ran over to Mrs. Burgett to carefully hand her the items as though they were made of glass. Mrs. Baker cradled them. “Thank you, Maryann.”

“Becca and Mr. Aspen helped,” Maryann replied. “And we ate apples and cheese crackers,” Becca added. Garren looked briefly at Aspen. He’d seen Aspen eating the same things earlier in the week.

“That was very nice of Mr. Aspen,” Mrs. Burgett said with a hitch in her voice. “But we have to go now, girls.”

“Oh,” the girls replied with exaggerated pouts on both their faces.

“Say thank-you to Mr. Aspen,” Mrs. Burgett directed. Both girls ran over to Aspen and threw their arms around his waist. “Sorry we didn’t get a chance to make your crown,” Becca said.

“That’s fine, sweetheart. I’ll be sure to make a matching one when you leave,” Aspen assured her.

“You need to make two,” Maryann interjected. “One for the big king behind you. That way we’ll know you’re helping rule the kingdom even if we can’t see you.” Garren wanted to pick the girl up and hug her. Tell her that everything would work itself out and she’d never be hurt again. While it was a possibility if Mrs. Burgett went through with the charges, he wouldn’t make promises he couldn’t keep.

“Thank you, Mr. Aspen,” Mrs. Burgett said. “You don’t know how much I appreciate you taking care of my girls.”

“You’re welcome,” Aspen responded. Maryann and Becca skipped over to their mom, and grabbed hold of her hands as they exited the office. Garren stared after their retreating backs. He grimaced at the tattered clothes and worn shoes. His jaw clenched, and he pivoted and stalked back to his office. The lump in his throat threatened to shatter his control of his emotions. He made it through the door, placed his hands on his desk, and breathed deeply. Mrs. Burgett reminded him of his mother.

Aspen lightly touched his back, and Garren jerked around to gaze at him. “I know you’ll do all you can,” Aspen confided.

“And you?” Garren cracked and cupped Aspen’s face with one hand. “You gave those little girls your lunch and made them laugh. You took away their stress and let them be kids.”

Aspen glanced away. “I did what anyone else would do. They deserve to have as much joy as every other child.”

“You’re wrong. Not everyone would do what you did. I think most would have set them in the lobby and spent the time telling them to be quiet.” Garren had seen that reality time and time again. Aspen shrugged. Garren caved and leaned in until his lips were mere inches from Aspen’s. “You are so beautiful.” Aspen didn’t back away. His breath came faster, and his eyes flashed with that same glow Garren had seen in the past.

“Garren,” Aspen whispered with a thread of uncertainty. Garren brushed his thumb over Aspen’s full lower lip, and desire zinged through his body when Aspen’s tongue peeked out to trace the path. Garren’s brain screamed what a huge mistake kissing Aspen would be, but at that point he wasn’t being ruled by his head.

———

Buy links: Loose Id

Amazon

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Draven is giving away an ecopy of Covert Delivery. Click through the Rafflecopter link below to enter to win: 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Draven St. James’ Bio:

I’m a born and raised Oregonian. I’ve traveled extensively in search of mischief and mayhem to fill my books. My ventures have been quite successful in inspiring a wealth of stories both sexy and humorous. It gives me a great excuse to do some crazy stuff in the name of research. Of course at the end of the day, coffee within reach, laptop at the ready is where I find my peace.

https://www.facebook.com/draven.stjames

https://twitter.com/DravenStJames

A colleague of mine was given a wonderful, and truly personal, birthday present last week. One of her closest friends had made her a mix-CD, of all their shared favourite songs – a soundtrack to her life. Songs from movies they’d watched together, concerts they’d attended, tracks they’d danced to at parties and in clubs, and holiday numbers too. Listening to them took her right back to times and places she’d forgotten, and made them fresh and noteworthy all over again. Music can do that.

Although I usually end up with a manuscript playlist of 12 – 15 tracks, some stick in my head during the writing process and to me, they sum up the story that I’m telling. It might be one track or an entire album, or in this case, one band in particular. I was on a Pearl Jam kick when I wrote Crash Into Love, and Jonah, my hero, has them as his favourite band.

Given To Fly was played a lot, and I know this song will always remind me of writing this story. The lyrics flow like poetry, deep and powerful:

And he still gives his love, he just gives it away

The love he receives is the love that is saved

And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky

A human being that was given to fly

~

Greg’s voice was a lazy rumble from beside me. “Let our guest choose next. What d’ya fancy, Cass?”

“Choose what?” Some weird drinking game?

“A song.” Layla jerked her thumb at Jonah. “He can play almost anything.”

Of course, my mind went blank. Everyone stared at me, expectant. Time dragged out until I blurted the first name I could think of, a band I knew Dylan loved. “Pearl Jam?”

Jonah met my anxious stare with one of his tiny smiles and then ducked his head, fingers already sliding across the strings. I recognized the song, even though I couldn’t name it.

“Good choice,” drawled Greg. I glanced at him, anxious in case he was making fun of me, but I was wrong. He tugged Kari onto his lap and nuzzled the back of her neck, humming along, slightly off key.

~

Blurb:

Cass thought spending a month at a beachside hideaway relaxing and collecting shells would be the perfect escape to finish her novel. When she meets the dark and brooding and much younger Jonah, who’s staying next door, her book becomes the last thing on her mind.

Jonah would rather stay home alone than go on vacation with his brother and their friends, but does his best to tolerate the situation after being convinced to go. But when he sees the beauty next door, he can’t avoid his attraction.

Together, they break all the rules, but will Cass be able to bring Jonah out of his shell forever, or will he leave her with only the crash of the surf to keep her company?

~

Trailer link:

Book links:

Amazon

Goodreads

All Romance eBooks

Entangled

Author links:

www.SofiaGrey.com

Catch me blogging with Allyson Lindt at www.GeminiGirls.com

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6906923.Sofia_Grey

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sofia.Grey.Romance.Author

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/sofiagrey1/

Twitter: @SofiaGreyAuthor https://twitter.com/

SofiaGreyAuthor Amazon author profile page: https://www.amazon.com/author/sofiagrey

Author bio:

Romance author Sofia Grey spends her days managing projects in the corporate world and her nights hanging out with wolf shifters and alpha males. She devours pretty much anything in the fiction line, but she prefers her romances to be hot, and her heroes to have hidden depths. When writing, she enjoys peeling back the layers to expose her characters’ flaws and always makes them work hard for their happy endings.

Music is interwoven so tightly into my writing that I can’t untangle the two. Either I’m listening to a playlist on my iPod, have music seeping from my laptop speakers, or there’s a song playing in my head – sometimes on auto-repeat.

Check out my playlist on Pinterest and listen for free via Pandora.com (Sofia Grey –Crash Into Love station)

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