Excerpt: Blood and Chaos

For your reading pleasure, a steamy excerpt from my newest release!  Blood & Chaos is a paranormal erotic romance with danger, intrigue, humor, BDSM, a sexy, kick-ass vampire and an accident-prone heroine not safe to be let out on her own.

This novella appears in the third volume of Lust, a paranormal erotic anthology. Lust in Tooth & Claw is now available on Amazon.

We’re hard at work on the fourth volume, a winter-themed read hot enough to melt the iciest of, er, hearts. Watch for it in November.

It is a profound honor to work with such a talented group of independent authors on the Lust anthology. Those featured so far: JD Carabella, Jacqui Greaves, Ina Morata, Katherine Nevitt, Essemoh Teepee, and of course, me.

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In Blood & Chaos, we meet Clara Randall, a young woman with a big problem: Vampires keep attacking her. They haven’t killed her yet, but a girl’s luck has to run out some time. Max Forsyth is a vampire on a mission: never let the blood lust get control. He can protect Clara from other predators, but can he protect her from himself? Even the gods are betting against them.

And now, on to the excerpt…

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Clara looked around the comfortable room after he set her on his bed. Modern oak and metal furniture, cream carpet, a fan set in a high ceiling. The whole thing overturned her mental expectation of a dark lair.

When her eyes got back to his face, Max was smiling. “No coffin, no boards over the window. Not what you expected?”

She’d never been able to hide what she was thinking. “I like it.” She moved into a cross-legged position. Sitting on the bed, with him standing in front of her, made him even taller than usual. Having to tilt her head back made her aware of her bare throat, the way her breasts pushed out against her shirt. The shiver of vulnerability tightened her nipples.

His gray eyes ghosted from her eyes to her nipples and back again. “I’m glad. Do you know what a scene is?”

Well, then. He was just going to dive right in. She nodded, the pit of her stomach starting to ache with excitement.

“You already know I’ve not scened for a couple of years, and this is your first time, so we’ll start slow for both our benefits. Since you’re familiar with the stoplight system, we’ll use that one. Tell me what green means.”

Oh, a quiz. She was good at quizzes. “Keep going.”

He gave her an approving smile. “Good girl. Yellow?”

Anyone else calling her a good girl would have gotten a snarky ‘woof.’ When Max said it, she wanted to rub against him and purr.

“Slow down.”

He prompted, “Or you need to talk about what’s happening before we proceed. Red?”

“Stop,” she said. “Everything stops. I can’t do anymore.”

“Good girl,” he said again.

A ball of warmth settled at the bottom of her stomach. “Are you going to bite me?”

“No,” he said in immediate refusal. Then, “Why? Do you want me to?”

Struggling to sort conflicting emotions, she shrugged without answering.

“Clara. If I ask a question, you answer. Communication is essential.”

She tried to put her thoughts in order. “I don’t know. In books, getting bitten is really good, or really painful. It hurt a lot when Vittorio tore at me.” She shrugged again. “I can’t help being curious if a regular bite is different.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

She flinched.

“Sorry.” He touched her cheek. “Poor choice of words. I don’t plan to venture far enough tonight to strain my control. However, better safe than sorry.” He pulled out his phone and pressed buttons, then handed it to her. “Here.”

Shaking her head, she erased the 9-1-1 he had entered. “No. What if I accidentally called the police? You could get in trouble. Besides, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

“If we’re both wrong? We’re not going to rely on your bizarre luck to drop the bedframe on my head.”

She thought for a moment. “I could put Liz’s number in? I texted her your address already.”
She squeaked in surprise when he pulled her onto his lap for a sudden, hard kiss. “That, young lady, is perhaps your first demonstration of common sense.”

She stuck her tongue out, then gave a muffled yelp when he caught it between cool fingertips. “Careful,” he warned. “Disrespect of your Dom is neither recommended nor tolerated.”

When he let go, she melted against his shoulder. “That was so sexy.”

He chuckled and kissed her nose, then became serious. “Let’s discuss the scene. I want to spank you—.”

At the word ‘spank,’ she breathed a fervent “yes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Glad as I am for your enthusiasm, let’s agree on two things. First, do not interrupt. Second, don’t agree to something until you’ve heard the extent. Your safety is my responsibility, which means you need to understand and agree to what happens.”

She straightened up and gave him solemn eyes.

“I’m going to administer a bare bottom spanking, until your arse is pink.”

She giggled at the word arse, then, at his stern look, forced herself to be serious. “How much spanking is that?” When she bit her lip, he teased it from under her teeth, then rubbed the spot she had bitten.

“It varies by person. If you’re done before I am, that’s what safe words are for.” He waited, then prompted, “Clara. Do you agree?”

“Oh,” she said. “Um, I wasn’t sure if you were done. That’s going to be the scene? Okay, yes, I agree.”

“You look disappointed. You were expecting more?”

“Are we going to h-have sex?”

“That would be a bit more than a taste,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but, don’t you want to? You said you haven’t, so I thought, what you said earlier, maybe you did? Only maybe not with me. I know I’m not pretty, and there’s scars, so you probably won’t want to.” She hunched her shoulders and stopped talking.

“Hey.” He put a finger under her chin. “Clara. You’re lovely. Luscious lips, gorgeous eyes. I can’t get your arse out of my mind.” She blinked up at him, stunned that he’d thought about her butt.

“You’re also a virgin, and this is going to be an intense experience for you. Doms do not always have sex with their partners, unlike what you may have read in fiction. I’ll get satisfaction from spanking you, and it’s going to be enough of a challenge to control myself, without adding an orgasm to the mix.” She had almost gotten up the courage to ask if he would reconsider, when he clarified, “By which I mean my own orgasm. I intend you to have at least one.”

It felt like everything down there was swimming in wetness. “Oh,” she whispered.

“Have I made you wet, kitten?”

“Uh huh,” she said, then put a hand over her mouth. “You’re using Dom mojo, aren’t you?”

“Quite a lot of it,” he agreed. “I’m going to spank you while you’re over my lap. If the position hurts your hip, do not tough it out. The only pain I want you to feel is what I choose to administer. Understood?”

“Yes.” The word was more of a moan.

He lifted her up and set her on her feet by the bed. “Do you need to go to the bathroom?”

She shook her head, arms crossed over her chest in a sudden flare of nerves. This was about to get real.

“Clara.” For a moment, he reverted to the gentle Max who had bandaged her up the night before. “You may be intimidated, even scared at times. I’ll push you to get those reactions because I’m a right bastard that way. However, you have ultimate control through your safe words. I’ll check in with you, ask your color until you’re sick of the question. Be honest with us both.” He waited a beat, then said, “Now. Strip.”

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Updated Oct 9, 2016: Max competed in a Battle of the Beasts contest on the PNR Lovers website Oct 3-7. Thank you to all of the readers who voted for Max on their site! Congrats to the lucky winner of the signed electronic copy of the novella, complete with a brand-new, never-before-seen cover.

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Read the first six chapters here! (The link opens an Amazon preview window.) Lust in Tooth & Claw contains a quartet of novellas, is free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers and is available exclusively on Amazon. In its 300 pages, you’ll find BDSM, dark erotica, shapeshifters, the Fae, vampires, and a splash of romance.