Tuesday, July 8, 2014

What's new with Marie Harte


BENDING THE RULES

Bending the Rules

Book 5 in the Wicked Warrens series
~

Release Date: July 1, 2014
ASIN: B00K1WUBK6

A Novel

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | ARe | Samhain
 
A little southern charm, and a Yes, Mistress, goes a long way

Rex Samson is at the top of his game. His business is booming, his family loves him, and there’s not a woman—or man—he can’t charm. Until he meets Natalie Wielder, a tough-as-nails city planner who doesn’t fall at his feet. She’s firm, sexy, and exactly what he needs. A woman to put him in his place.


Nat has better things to do than play with the mayor’s golden boy, but orders are orders, and she accompanies him to a mandatory social function. To her shock, she thoroughly enjoys herself…and breaks rule number one—No dating the enemy.

Rex is charming, sexy, and fun to be around. Even a brief encounter with a sexy stranger can’t put her off memories of Rex’s smile. Except her sexy stranger and Rex turn out to be the same man. Now her secrets are exposed, his are shockingly arousing, and her policy on not mixing business and pleasure—rule number two—has gone by the wayside.


What else can she do but say yes when Rex has no problem letting her take the lead in bed? Before long, she knows she can’t live without him. But Rex’s kinky proclivities mirror hers—neither of which are good for her career. Loving him might mean losing what she’s worked so hard to attain. But soon she’ll have to figure out what’s important in life. Her rules, or love?

Warning: Contains a successful, carefree hedonist who wants to be dominated, and a sexy, career-minded vixen who is more than willing to oblige. Not one drop of vanilla in sight. Enjoy!


EXCERPT
 
Nat sighed when she saw the fifty emails she’d gotten while she’d been handling Mike’s slack. She hated inefficiency with a passion. Why couldn’t everyone work as hard as she did? She got things done, on time every time. But at the rate she had to save everyone else’s ass, she worried she’d grow an ulcer.

Plunging back into her day, she made phone calls, worked on Derrick Warren’s laughable changes to the budget on the new convention center, wrote a note to call Harper to deal with it—thank God at least her assistant knew how to make things happen—and darted back and forth between emails and her current project.

She pointed in the direction of the knock on her door. “Yes?”

“Well aren’t you sweet.” That deep, husky southern drawl had the effect it no doubt intended.

Nat tensed, stopped working, and looked up at the model southern boy she’d done her best to ignore earlier. Talk about the Monday from hell.


No man should have a face that handsome, eyes that rich a brown or hair so dark it looked blue-black in a cut that probably cost as much as one of her car payments. She’d seen him and Ty Burnell hanging out in the mayor’s office earlier, chatting with each other. Though she didn’t know Ty personally, she liked what she’d heard about him. The man had money coming out the wazzoo but didn’t act like it. Unlike Mayor Tom Jessup—one of the Good Ol’ Boys who looked on most women as ornaments to fuck or impress.

She pitied that man’s wife. And his son, because if Josh Jessup thought he could handle her job, he had another think coming—namely, her foot up his ass.

She sighed. “What can I do for you Mr.…?”

The man took her question as an invitation and closed her door behind him, then sat across from her desk. He wore a charcoal suit with a white shirt and snazzy blue tie. The guy looked like a million bucks, and that wasn’t counting the outfit. Where did they make men like this, anyway?

“Rex Samson, at your service.” He nodded, then winked. “And you’re Natalie Wielder.”

“Thanks for filling me in.” Her natural sarcasm never seemed to turn itself off. A testament to her acumen in her job that she’d never been fired for it.


Rex laughed, a deep chuckle that invited her to join in with the merriment. God, this guy was too much for her to handle on a good day. Certainly not at ten o’clock on a Monday morning before she’d had a cup of coffee.

“You’re a real smartass. No wonder I’m in love.” He patted his heart, and her own took a dive.

“Is there something I can help you with, handsome?” There. I admitted it. Now go away. I’m busy. Too busy to wander down the wrong path. Again.

He grinned.

Yes. Very, very busy. Rex seemed way too chummy with the mayor for comfort. A potential adversary, at the least.


“I’ll bet there’s a lot you could help me with, sugar.” No ignoring that innuendo. “But I actually came in here for a reason.” He stared around her office, then brought his deep brown-eyed gaze back to her.

“O-kay. The reason?”

“I need a date.”

“Try a dating service .”

“Next week. The Savannah River Club. Lots of networking to be done, and I need someone savvy about city politics who’ll look good on my arm.” He smiled at her.

“And?”

“And that’s you, sugar.”


“Okay. First of all, my name is Natalie, not ‘sugar’. You can call me Natalie or Ms. Wielder.”

“Not Nat?”

“Nat is a name I reserve for my friends. Since I don’t know you, I can’t exactly call you a friend, can I?”

His slow smile turned her on, and for that reason, she hardened her resolve.

“In addition, I don’t know why you’d want me when there are dozens of well-connected people out there who’d love to be called ‘sugar’ and hang off your arm. Sorry, I’m busy. As in, I work for a living.”

“Ouch. You have teeth.” His smile faded as he looked her over a bit too thoroughly for her system to handle. His sly grin told her he no doubt noticed her nipples rising through her thin blouse. “But I like ‘em feisty. So, I’ll pick you up at six next Wednesday?”


“I’m pretty sure I just said no.”

“But sugar, I work for a living too. And the mayor said you’d be happy to escort me. I’ve been so busy with business that my social calendar is all but empty. Consider this a favor for your boss. You get to keep an eye on me and get him off your pretty little ass. A win-win.”

She blinked. “He’s not on my ass.”

“But he’d like to be. I think we both know what kind of man Tom Jessup is.”

She hadn’t expected Rex to be so honest about the mayor. “Oh?”

He snorted. “Everyone knows he’s a womanizing dickhead with a history in this town. Got elected because folks loved his daddy, and his momma makes a killer Red Velvet cake.”


Nat grinned. “Michelle does at that.”

“You have to go to this thing anyway. I know. So you might as well go with me.” He paused.

“Unless you’re married or have a boyfriend I don’t know about?”

“You know nothing about me.”

He smiled, like a cat who’d just consumed, feather by feather, a canary. “I know you have to go to next week’s gala. I know you don’t have a significant other, or you’d have said by now.”

“I don’t have a boyfriend. But you didn’t ask if I had a girlfriend.”

“Do you?” He looked intrigued by the idea.

She sighed. “No.”


“Too bad.”

She’d been asked out before, but never by a posh southern charmer in her office. How surreal. “Is this a joke?”

“Nope.” He stood and stared down at her. “I need a date. I like you. So I’ll pick you up?”

“Hold on.” She stood as well, frowning. “I don’t know the first thing about you. And I—”

He shocked her by leaning over her desk and putting a finger over her lips. “Hush, sugar. You can look me up online. I run S&F. You know, the best microbrewery in the South? Anyhow, I have people who can vouch for me. And I have something you want.”

When he didn’t take his finger away, she pretended to nip it. To her bemusement, his eyes darkened in what looked like lust as he pulled his hand back.

“Oh, a biter. I knew it.”

Copyright © 2014 Marie Harte
All rights reserved — a Samhain publication

And don't miss the rest in the Wicked Warrens series!

ENJOYING THE SHOW
CLOSING THE DEAL
RAISING THE BAR
MAKING THE GRADE


by Marie Harte

Copyright © 2014 Marie Harte
All rights reserved — Samhain Publishing


     Tied and True


 

A MAJOR DISTRACTION

A Major Distraction

Book 3 in the Good to Go series
~

Release Date: July 8, 2014
ASIN:
B00LLKI2N0

A Novella

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes | Kobo | ARe
 
An unexpected show of pleasure and a lot of kink go a long way to throwing two combatant souls headlong into love.

Major Brad Cava has watched his siblings fall in love. He tried marriage once—it didn’t take. He’s not looking for love, just some fun with women who know the score. He’s been in a dry spell for a while, which must be why that smart-aleck at work, Ms. Genevieve St. James, is looking so good. Granted, she’s just his type. She has long, wine-red hair, knockout curves in all the right places, killer green eyes and a brain to go with the body. But she sets his teeth on edge with all her professional dictates and attitude at the office.


Genevieve has no idea why Major Annoying, as she likes to call the sexy Major Cava, is always on her mind. When she inadvertently catches her new mystery neighbor pleasuring himself, she automatically thinks of Cava. To her mortification, she finds out Major Hottie and her exhibitionist neighbor are one and the same. Before long, she’s learning there’s much more to Brad than an amazing body, charming wit, and dictatorial tendency at work.

They find themselves falling hard for each other. Until something strange happens at work, and Genevieve is blamed for things she didn’t do. Brad doesn’t seem to trust her, and she has to wonder if the love she’s beginning to feel is one-sided. When the truth comes out, Brad has to has to figure out if he can risk it all again for a woman. Has he learned from his past, or is he doomed to make the same mistakes again with a woman he can’t help loving?


EXCERPT
 
“Hey, Ms. St. James. I put that system change request on your desk,” one of the sergeants said.

“Thanks.” She moved past the Marine to get more coffee. Already noon and she’d been too busy to grab more than one cup. Her caffeine threshold hadn’t been close to being reached.


After filling up, she added cream and sugar, took a sip, and sighed.

“Figures. I’m looking for you and you’re in here goofing off.”

She tensed at the familiar growl. Turning, she pasted a sweet smile on her face. “Major Cava. What a lovely surprise.”

To her bemusement, he smiled instead of frowning at her. That was a new one. “You know, St. James, if you were less of a miserable perfectionist, we might just get along.”

“Funny how the thought of us being besties is enough to get me through the rest of my day without killing myself.”

Someone cleared his throat behind her, and she turned to see Colonel Drey standing there with a wide grin on his face.

She felt her cheeks heat. “Oh, uh, hello, sir.”

“Genevieve.” He nodded at Major Cava. “Brad. I need you two in my office in ten minutes.”

“Yes, sir.” Brad grabbed a cup and stared at her.

“I’ll be there, Colonel.” Genevieve nodded, and the colonel left. To Brad, she scowled. “What?”

“You’re in the way.”

She stepped aside, brushing by him. She had the bad luck to breathe him in when their bodies touched, and hers went into immediate lust overload. Cava wore some kind of subtle cologne that made her want to lock him in a dark closet and do bad things to him.

Yikes. After seeing that sexy show last night, she blamed her libido for choosing the wrong man to notice.

“What’s that look?” he murmured as he poured himself coffee.

This close, she could see his eyes weren’t a dark brown, but an amber. Like whiskey—sharp, strong, and with bite.

“Just curious as to what you wanted.”

He took a sip of coffee, watching her all the while. Damn the man for having a perfect mouth too. Genevieve had a sudden urge to watch him sip from her.

“Now that’s a loaded question.” He held up a hand. “Before you report me to HR for harassment, I should tell you I want you…to fix the problem I identified last week.”

She frowned. “I thought Marcy had already taken care of that.”

“Marcy? Oh. Well…” He looked uncomfortable, which surprised her.

“What?”

“Never mind. I’ll fix it myself.”

Before she could ask him anything more, he darted around her. Then she remembered a piece of gossip she’d tried to ignore not long ago. Apparently Marcy and Major Cava had dated a time or two long before Genevieve had arrived on station. Though their courtship hadn’t lasted, anytime Marcy caught sight of him, it seemed to Genevieve at least, the woman did her best to catch his attention. Nothing more had ever been said about them, and Cava acted with all professionalism and decorum whenever they dealt with each other.

But still… Genevieve never had that kind of problem because she didn’t dally where she worked.  Kind of hard to have a problem when you never dally anywhere, her annoyingly honest conscience reminded her.

With a sigh, she grabbed her coffee and returned to her desk. After seeking out one of the sergeants to fix another problem in record time, she hotfooted it to the colonel’s office.

And her aggravating day went from bad to worse.

 ***

As if thinking about him when she shouldn’t wasn’t bad enough, now Genevieve had to work on a project with him?

As she drove home after her worst day at work since arriving in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, she realized she recognized the SUV in front of her. The dark blue vehicle belonged to the man burrowing under her skin like a tick. Major Cava drove over the speed limit all the way…home?

He parked next door to her, and she pulled into her driveway blocked from his view by her house. She parked the car and sat, pondering the implications of her knowledge. Naked guy jerking off next door. Brad Cava lived next door. God, let him have a roommate. Please.

Before she could fully fathom how bad it would be to have him living so close, he pulled open her door. “Were you following me?”

She stepped out of her car and had to push his chest to get him to move back. Again, unfortunate that he smelled like sex and temptation. And now she knew his chest felt like iron. So not helping her tone down her attraction. “I happen to live here.”

He blinked down at her. “You do?”

“Yes. I do.”

His eyes narrowed. “When did you move in?”

She prayed her cheeks didn’t look as hot as they felt. “Yesterday.”

“Yeah? I didn’t see any lights.” Great, now his cheeks looked pink.

“The electricity was powered back on today. Made it hard to move around last night, so I slept downstairs on my couch.” Oh yeah, totally not anywhere near that upstairs window watching you pleasure your fine self.

He seemed to relax, and then he grimaced. “You’re my new neighbor?”

Insulted by his reaction, she glared at him. “If I’d known you lived next door, you can bet I’d have passed on the lease.”

“You can’t be any worse than the last guys, I suppose.” He sighed. “Just keep the noise down and have your boyfriends park in your driveway, not in front of my house.”

“Why? Does your roommate need the extra space?” Please say yes so I know I wasn’t ogling you yesterday…

“Nope. It’s just me.”

“Terrific.” Oh hell. Her lust skyrocketed, and her ability to be distant around the man threatened to crash and burn, big time.

Copyright © 2014 Marie Harte
All rights reserved, Fated Desires Publishing


 
And don't miss the rest in the Good to Go series!

A MAJOR ATTRACTION
A MAJOR SEDUCTION


by Marie Harte

Copyright © 2014 Marie Harte
All rights reserved — Fated Desires Publishing

Good to Go



No comments:

Post a Comment

Leave a comment!

Life's Too Frantic

So I haven't been around to blog since late November early December, I hope you all are doing well. I am keeping busy wi...