Michelle Graham

Thursday, 5 September 2013

Release Party Day 4: Against the Ropes by Sarah Castille

Day Four – AGAINST THE ROPES RELEASE PARTY

Sarah Castille is celebrating the release of AGAINST THE ROPES with a SEVEN day party. SEVEN great giveaways, SEVEN different posts. Stop by all the amazing blogs participating in the party to increase your chances to win!!! Each blog will post a special AGAINST THE ROPES post all seven days (no weekend posts)

Five fun things about Makayla

1. Her favorite ice cream is Ben & Jerry’s, Chunky Monkey

2. She worries about her “muffin top”...

3. ...but not enough to stop her from sharing a box of donuts with her friend, Charlie.

4. She never thought she was sexually adventurous…

5….until she met Torment.

Blurb

He scared me. He thrilled me. And after one touch, all I could think about was getting more…

Makayla never thought she’d set foot in an underground mixed-martial arts club. But if anyone needs a medic on hand, it’s these guys. Trouble is, at her first sight of the club’s owner she’s the one feeling breathless.

The man they call Torment is all sleek muscle and restrained power. Whether it’s in the ring or in the bedroom, he knows exactly when a soft touch is required and when to launch a full-on assault. He always knows just how far he can push. And he’s about to tempt Makayla in ways she never imagined…

Contact Information

Website http://www.sarahcastille.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook/sarahcastilleauthor.com

Twitter (@sarah_castille): http://www.twitter/sarah_castille.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6920675.Sarah_Castille

Newsletter: http://sarahcastille.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=873de882785693c01f022e6a1&id=55ccf58aa3

Amazon Author: http://www.amazon.com/author/sarahcastille

Author Bio
Recovering lawyer, karate practitioner, and caffeine addict, Sarah Castille worked and traveled abroad before trading her briefcase and stilettos for a handful of magic beans and a home near the Canadian Rockies. Her steamy, contemporary romantic tales feature blazingly hot alpha heroes and the women who tame them.

Buy Links:
Amazon:

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

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PRIZES:

Against the Ropes water bottle

E-Copy of Legal Heat

Kindle copy of Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Keep Calm and Fight On T-shirt

Gold plated boxing glove key chain

AGAINST THE ROPES bracelet

$50 Amazon gift card

Partcipating Blogs

deal sharing aunt
Harlie's Books
Regina May Ross's
Read Our Lips! Book Review Blog
Erzabet's Enchantments
Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
Stitch Read Cook
Simply Ali
Tattooed Book Review
RomFan Reviews
Reviewing in Chaos
My Life Beyond Labels
A Little Fiction of Every Flavour
Musings From An Addicted Reader
Books Books and More Books
StoreyBook Reviews
Jelena's Book Blog
Scorching Book Reviews
Tiffany Talks Books
Michelle Graham, Erotic Romance
What's On the Bookshelf
Dear Brighton
Blackraven's Erotic Cafe
Blackraven's Reviews
AJ's Reading Nook
The Readers Roundtable
HEA Romances witha Little Kick
The SubClub Books

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Release Party Day 3: Against the Ropes by Sarah Castille

Day Three – AGAINST THE ROPES RELEASE PARTY

Five things about Torment

1. He has a secret kink (and it’s not sucking toes).

2. He won his first fight at the age of four and didn’t have to eat his spinach.

3. He has never once worn a pair of “tighty whiteys”.

4. He sleeps in flagrante delicto

5. He’ll keep going until told to stop **winks**

Blurb

He scared me. He thrilled me. And after one touch, all I could think about was getting more…

Contact Information

Website http://www.sarahcastille.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook/sarahcastilleauthor.com

Twitter (@sarah_castille): http://www.twitter/sarah_castille.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6920675.Sarah_Castille

Newsletter: http://sarahcastille.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=873de882785693c01f022e6a1&id=55ccf58aa3

Amazon Author: http://www.amazon.com/author/sarahcastille

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

***************************

PRIZES:

Against the Ropes water bottle

E-Copy of Legal Heat

Kindle copy of Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Keep Calm and Fight On T-shirt

Gold plated boxing glove key chain

AGAINST THE ROPES bracelet

$50 Amazon gift card

Partcipating Blogs

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, 3 September 2013

Release Party Day 2: Against the Ropes by Sarah Castille

Day Two – AGAINST THE ROPES RELEASE PARTY

Against the Ropes Release Blitz

Sarah Castille

DAY TWO

Excerpt from Against the Ropes, Chapter Ten

“Don’t you usually go to Redemption on Thursdays?”

Max presses a soft kiss to my forehead. “I wanted to see you.”

“How did you find me?” I press my nose against his shirt. The stale, musty smell of airplane cannot overpower the fresh, clean scent of his cologne or the raw essence of Max.

“Secret.”

“It’s not nice to keep secrets.” I pull away and mock a frown.

“You kept a secret from me.” His breath is hot and moist in my ear.

My body stiffens. I am keeping so many secrets from him, I don’t know which one he’s uncovered. “What secret?”

“What were you thinking when we were training at Redemption?” His eyes blaze with sensual fire and my mouth goes dry.

A thrill of excitement shoots through me. “Naughty things,” I whisper.

“Tell me naughty things.”

The DJ takes down the tempo with Alicia Keys’ “Fallin’.” A tremor shivers through me. “Like what? I don’t really do naughty talking.”

Max lifts my hand to his mouth and brushes his lips over my knuckles. “Like ‘hand.’”

“‘Hand’ isn’t naughty.” I quiver as his lips feather up my arm and tickle my elbow.

“Oh, you don’t know how naughty it can be,” he rumbles, as he peppers tiny kisses over my shoulder. “Say ‘shoulder.’”

“Shoulder. Max, what are you doing?”

He slides his hot, wet lips to the sensitive hollow at the base of my throat, sending tingles down to my core.

“Say ‘neck,’” his deep voice demands.

“Neck.” My heartbeat quickens; my lips part. We sway to the music, our bodies melded together as he plays his curious game.

He leans down and nibbles my lips, teasing them open. His kiss is soft and gentle. Sweet. But his lips are firm. “Say ‘lips,’” he whispers.

“Lips.”

Anticipation ratchets through me when he slides his hand down my body to cup my behind. He gives my cheek a squeeze. “Now, say ‘ass.’”

I shiver in response to his firm touch. On his lips, the simple word takes on a sultry, erotic flavor that sends molten heat through my veins. I can do this. I have asked complete strangers in clothing stores if my ass looks big. I often told Susie to get her ass downstairs for dinner. In the bar, I told Amanda to wiggle her ass. Once, I even called Charlie an ass. My life is full of ass. “Ass,” I whisper.

“Good girl.” His lips brush over my ear, his breath hot and moist on my skin. Suddenly, I feel very, very naughty and very, very aroused.

He runs his hand over my hips, in and out on my waist, and along my ribcage. My body trembles, anticipating where he might go next. He brushes his fingers ever so gently over the exposed curve of my breast under my dress. “Say ‘breast,’ baby.”

A soft whimper escapes my lips and my back arches, pressing my breasts against his chest. People dance around us oblivious to the blazing inferno at the edge of the dance floor, unaware that the slow, sensual brush of Max’s fingers over my sensitive skin has peaked my nipples and fried my brain. His stroking fingers have turned the ordinary into the sublimely sexual.

"I’m waiting.” His voice is soft but laced with demand.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I imagine I am diving into a pool filled with warm, decadent, dark chocolate. “Breast.” The word drops from my lips like a falling petal.

“There we go.” He spins us into a corner and under the shadow of an eight-foot bottle filled with giant pills, he tightens one hand around my waist and slides the other between us. His hand caresses the underside of my breast and then, inch by inch, he drops it down. Warm fingers brush down my sternum and press against my tummy. A firestorm of arousal courses through my veins like nothing I have ever experienced before. My breath comes in short, rapid pants. My panties are beyond soaked. My entire being is focused on Max’s rapidly descending fingers. When he brushes the tips of his fingers over my mound my head falls back and I moan.

Triumph flares in the sensual depths of Max’s eyes. “Now say ‘pussy.’”

The soft, whispered word is erotic on his lips, sending a rush of molten heat through my veins. Max presses my body against his, trapping his hand between us. He is obviously erect and this, more than anything, sends my arousal spiraling out of control.

“Maaaax,” I moan.

He cups the curve of my sex and I am gone, lost to the moment, lost to passion.

“Say it, baby.” His demanding words bring me back.

My lips part. My body burns with lust. But some part of me says it is too much. This is not me and I have been pushed as far as I want to be pushed. The DJ spins Adele’s “Set Fire to the Rain.” Max tightens his arm around me and sings the lyrics in a soft, deep voice only I can hear. His deep baritone rumbles in his chest. Slow, delicious warmth spreads through me and something strange and new penetrates deep into my bones. Tilting my head back, I look up through my lashes. His dark eyes glitter, unyielding, and yet filled with sensual promise. “Say it.”

I squeeze my eyes shut and whisper into his chest, “Not yet.”

Blurb

He scared me. He thrilled me. And after one touch, all I could think about was getting more…

Contact Information

Website http://www.sarahcastille.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook/sarahcastilleauthor.com

Twitter (@sarah_castille): http://www.twitter/sarah_castille.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6920675.Sarah_Castille

Newsletter: http://sarahcastille.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=873de882785693c01f022e6a1&id=55ccf58aa3

Amazon Author: http://www.amazon.com/author/sarahcastille

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

***************************

PRIZES:

Against the Ropes water bottle

E-Copy of Legal Heat

Kindle copy of Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

Keep Calm and Fight On T-shirt

Gold plated boxing glove key chain

AGAINST THE ROPES bracelet

$50 Amazon gift card

Partcipating Blogs

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, 2 September 2013

Release Party! Against the Ropes by Sarah Castille

DAY ONE

That day when you get lost in your own city and try to navigate your way home using a GPS purchased five years prior in a foreign country.

Yes, that was the day I was inspired to write Against the Ropes. And no, it wasn’t because I was overwhelmed with the urge to pummel Claire (pronounced ‘cleh’), the English-accented denizen of the GPS, who, instead of showing me the way home, charted a path from a garbage strewn alley in a nameless Canadian city to London, England…across the Pacific Ocean.

That said, I am no longer troubled the directionally impaired “cleh.” But that is a story for another day (PG-13 Contains Violence).

The fateful day, after choosing to forgo the opportunity to test the structural integrity of my vehicle on an ocean voyage, and having forgotten to charge my phone, as you do when planning to get lost, I drove aimlessly through the streets until I found myself in a commercial district at the far edge of the city. Despite the late hour, lights shone through the windows of one of the many unremarkable, shoebox-shaped buildings that littered the area. Low on fuel, Diet Coke and gummy bears, I pulled into the dimly-lit parking lot and pulled out my bear spray.

In Canada, one never knows when one might meet a bear.

Heart pounding, I made way to a black metal door with the letters MMA spray painted on the front. Then, pulse racing, bear spray in hand, I tugged on the door handle.

Oh, the suspense.

I found myself in a large reception area. There may have been carpet on the floor. It may have been green. It could be there were chalkboards on one wall and MMA event posters on the other. The cloying stench of stale sweat may have almost knocked me off my feet. If I was writing a book, I would give you the details—color, texture, scent, even taste. Unfortunately, all I can remember are glistening pecs, hard abs, taut bottoms (as “cleh” would say) in tight shorts and the biggest collection of man candy I had ever seen. I do remember licking my lips and they tasted sah weet.

“Um…hi.” I spoke with the eloquence of an author who has mastered dialogue technique and the thin voice of a fourteen-year-old in the presence of her middle school crush.

Six shaved heads jerked up. Six tatted and ripped bodies turned in my direction. Twelve eyes (most in pairs) studied me from beneath the fringes of lashes.

“You here to fight?” The man with the eye patch snickered.

You keep snickering and you’ll get a fight, I wished I’d said. In fact, I answered with a cowardly, “Um…no.”

“You lookin’ for your man?” Baby Blue Eyes with the lickable chest gave me a wink and I almost keeled over.

I’m lookin’ for a man and you’ll do just fine, sugar,” I didn’t say. Instead, I shook my head and gave a pathetic sigh.

“I’m lost.”

And just like that, I was sucked into the vortex of a protective alpha-male testosterone frenzy.

Woman. Alone. Lost. Dark. Needs. Help. Can’t. Resist. Must. Protect. Save. Woman.

Questions were fired at me like bullets. How did I get to the gym? Was my car working? Did I have gas? Why didn’t I charge my phone before I left the house? Why didn’t I fuel up before I started my journey? Why didn’t I have an updated Canadian GPS? Why did I have wires hanging out of my purse? Was I single?

Who said that?

Maps were drawn, fuel was siphoned, vending machines were raided, a phone charger was procured. While I waited for my phone to show the necessary two bars of power that had been deemed a requirement for my release, I was treated (and I do mean treated) to a tour of what I then knew to be an MMA gym and training facility.

Yes, there is a Santa Claus.

For the next hour, I watched sweaty, muscular men roll around on the floor, trade punches in the ring, and throw spinning back kicks across the mats. Baby Blue Eyes explained the basics of MMA fighting, the different martial arts and fighting skills involved, and the sheer athleticism necessary for a fighter to hold his own in the ring.

By the time my phone was charged, I had a story in my head. It was about a naïve, slightly awkward girl (hmmm) who found herself in an MMA club, and the fighter who wouldn’t let her go.

Finally, it was time to leave. Baby Blue Eyes walked me to my car. Then he asked for my number. But that’s another story (Rated R)