The formal release date is June 15th, but Siren Bookstrand is accepting preorders.
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After accepting a movie role, Charlene Paige, worries she might be the next rising porn star. On reflection, that might have been safer.
Cover by Jinger Heaston
Blurb
Stuck in Rio and desperate for cash, Australian backpacker Charlene accepts a minor movie role. When her co-star, Hollywood hunk and serial womanizer, Jonathon Deveraux is abducted from the set she turns to his older brother for help.
Oscar winner and Hollywood good guy Jacob Deveraux is a recluse. However, when his brother goes missing, he agrees to help the hapless backpacker who appears to have been deceived into taking a movie role so that Jonathon could woo her into his bed. The more determined he is to keep his distance the more he is drawn to her. When it becomes obvious his bother’s kidnapping is designed to punish Jacob he worries Charlene may be next. Despite his best efforts to keep her safe she is grabbed off the street. Can he find and save his brother and Charlene or will he lose another woman he loves?
Excerpt
Further along the pier, she could see a boat that dwarfed most of the others. Perhaps he was there schmoozing with whoever owned such an exquisite and expensive vessel.
A man stood on deck, and Charlene walked a bit closer to get a better look. He wore a pair of faded cut off camouflage pants, a tatty white wifebeater, and had a navy blue bandana wrapped around his head. Dark brown hair hung below his headgear and ended just below his ears. The way he was dressed, along with the scraggly goatee and moth-eaten moustache, gave him the appearance of the hired help or a hobo who had stumbled onto a super yacht. He carried a tall glass, resplendent with a red cocktail umbrella, and had a book tucked under his arm. Apparently he was right at home. She stopped and stared up at him, a smile of recognition on her face. Did she dare disturb him? Taking her chances, she cupped her hand to her mouth and yelled up at him.
“Excuse me.”
He stopped midstride and leaned over the side.
After a quick glance up and down the jetty, he pulled his sunglasses down his nose and frowned at her. “What?”
Not the most promising start, but now she had his attention, she may as well continue. Charlene shielded her eyes, so she could see him better, and smiled.
“You’re Jacob Deveraux, aren’t you?”
The crease between his eyes and the lines in his forehead deepened.
“Who wants to know?’
“Sorry, I’m Charlene Paige. I’m looking for Jonathon.”
He rolled his eyes and snorted with disgust. “You and every other hot-blooded woman on the planet.”
Without so much as another look in her direction, he stepped away from the edge of the vessel.
Charlene took a step closer. She desperately wished she had engaged her brain before opening her mouth. After being determined not to have Jacob meet her as Jonathon’s latest bed warmer, she had all but introduced herself as such.
“I will admit I was paid for spending the morning in bed with your brother, but I can assure you he left my arms as frustrated as he arrived.”
Jacob stopped and stared down at her. “Paid? Are you saying you’re a hooker?”
She shook her head. She obviously hadn’t improved his initial opinion of her, but at least she had his attention. “No, he didn’t pay me enough for sex. In fact, I didn’t get paid anywhere near what I’m worth. That’s why I need to speak to him.”
He leaned on the railing and raised an eyebrow. “And yet he tells me he never has to pay for sex.” He chuckled. “So, are you saying he took you to bed, but left you financially and physically unsatisfied? Because he assures me no woman ever leaves his bed unfulfilled.”
“Believe me, I was in no danger of being filled with anything.”
“Resisted his charms, did you? You must be stronger than most women, unless you’re a lesbian. Are you a lesbian?”
Charlene laughed. “No, an Australian.”
A smile teased the corners of his mouth. “I wonder if you’re all immune? Maybe I should ship him to the antipodes for his own good. It would be his own personal hell. However, I still don’t understand why you would be looking for a man you apparently have no interest in.”
“How about you let me on board so I can explain? Instead of me yelling loud enough for the world and his wife to hear.”
With a shrug, he nodded toward the front of the boat. “Meet me further along.”
Charlene walked down the jetty and waited for him. When he offered his hand, she accepted his assistance and climbed on deck. She looked up at him before she claimed her hand back. His sunglasses now hung from the front of his wifebeater. He pursed his lips and moved them from side to side as he seemed to size her up. She met his gaze and held her breath. The rest of the female population might go weak at the knees at the sight of Jonathon, but now she had met them both in the flesh, Jacob won the beauty contest hands-down. Even with his bohemian gypsy hair and beard. His eyes and hair were darker, his cheekbones more defined, and his lips were like a soft pink Cupid’s bow just waiting to be kissed.
Without a word, he turned and started to walk back to his chair, and the drink and book he left behind. Glad to have passed muster, she followed along. The front view of him was lovely, but she had no complaints about the rear view either. She gazed at his body, admiring his strong muscular shoulders and upper arms. Her attention moved to his suntanned lower legs and bare feet, then back up this body. His pants were too loose to give any indication about how shapely his rear end might be, but he was a man who obviously worked out, so she imagined it would be as toned as the rest of him.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Drink?”
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