A TALENT FOR TROUBLE
By
Landra Graf
Please welcome my pal Landra Graf to the blog. She's got an exciting new release, A TALENT FOR TROUBLE, and is doing a Rafflecopter giveaway to celebrate. The prize is a $10 Amazon gift card. (The Rafflecopter link is below.)
Want to read more? Here's the blurb and a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite!
Blurb:
Drug runner Emilio Morales is one deal away from being the sole runner from Earth to the upper planets—until his partner attempts a double-cross. Now, Emilio’s stuck in a disabled spaceship with an unpredictable, attractive female who’s willing to help him out if he’ll assist her in retrieving her ship from an impound facility.
Drug runner Emilio Morales is one deal away from being the sole runner from Earth to the upper planets—until his partner attempts a double-cross. Now, Emilio’s stuck in a disabled spaceship with an unpredictable, attractive female who’s willing to help him out if he’ll assist her in retrieving her ship from an impound facility.
Antonia ‘Toni’ Smith is sick and tired of being beholden
to men. The only way to guarantee freedom is to get back her bootlegging ship
to run her own business again. When Emilio kills her ticket out, she’s forced
to rely on him for assistance. Emilio, the most wanted and annoying man in the
solar system, is a sexy-as-hell means to an end.
But every plan the duo makes falls apart and every day
they spend in each other’s company increases the tension between them.
With the death toll rising and their defenses low, can
Emilio and Toni get the happy ending they want, without falling for each other
in the process?
Excerpt 1:
He poured himself a glass. Turning it slowly, spreading the liquid up the sides and back down, he noticed he wasn’t alone. “Can I offer you a drink?”
He poured himself a glass. Turning it slowly, spreading the liquid up the sides and back down, he noticed he wasn’t alone. “Can I offer you a drink?”
“No,” a sultry feminine voice responded. “There’s nothing
over there isn’t made in the still or fermented in a barrel.”
“Suit yourself.” Emilio turned and took in the view.
Mother Mary.
The woman, a vision of sin, stood angled toward the fancy
window display where three floor-to-ceiling panels showcased the twinkling
view. She wore a glimmering red dress, which sparkled even more as she turned
toward him. Her hair was a pale-white blonde, short and framing her face,
giving it a distinct diamond shape. She’d be labeled gorgeous, more than the
word could construe, with her eyes the color of whiskey—and not the cheap stuff
in his glass. No, the full-bodied swirling amber and caramel colors.
“What brings you to Casa Manolo?” He swallowed a little
more whiskey than he intended and did his best to sound suave, but the words
came out more like a croak.
“Nothing that concerns you.” The dismissal paired with a
smile, a little thing revealing flawless teeth. He glanced down at her one note
of defiance—boots. Grav boots to be exact, black and fierce. A deep,
soul-encapsulating need clamped onto his brain, a need he’d waited years to
experience. This was the woman he’d been waiting for. The type he’d always
wanted. The one he’d call his.
He walked closer, eager to see if she took a similar
interest in him. “Oh? Well, I’m happy to make this visit less business and more
pleasure. Your name is?”
The words escaped his mouth as he glanced at her
lips—expressive, full and waiting for his kiss, even when those same lips
uttered, “Too expensive for you.”
Excerpt 2:
Emilio watched her like a hawk. “How the hell do you know
how to do that?”
“I captain a ship. Most people don’t just get to run a
vessel because they win it gambling.”
“So, you’ve heard of me?” He winked at her.
She groaned. “Yes, by reputation alone.”
“All good things?”
“If you call being a ladies’ man who attracts desperate,
scar-loving station-clingers a good thing.” She left out the rumors of his
bedroom prowess. Because she’d turned over a new leaf. No sex, no men and
definitely no crazy stuff.
“I can tell from your expression you’ve heard other
things.”
How easily he’d read her since the moment they’d faced off
on Casa Manolo bugged her as well. She focused on the piloting. “Maybe that you
won a fancy ship in a poker game.”
“Better to win one than lose one,” he replied.
The words stung, the sharp pain taking up residence
somewhere in the center of her chest. Why
am I attracted to him again? “You know what they say on Mars…can’t win big
if you don’t risk big.”
“Mars girl, eh?”
Toni gave a single nod.
“Makes sense why you’re crazy.”
She wanted to take offense at his shocked tone,
dismissive like so many of the men she’d met over the years. The way the upper
planets still regarded woman as objects more often than as productive members
of society drove her nuts. “Don’t let this dress fool you.”
“It’s doing everything but fooling me,” he retorted with
a smirk.
Author Bio: Landra Graf consumes at least one book a day, and has always been a sucker for stories where true love conquers all. She believes in the power of the written word, and the joy such words can bring. In between spending time with her family and having book adventures, she writes romance with the goal of giving everyone, fictional or not, their own happily ever after.
Author Bio: Landra Graf consumes at least one book a day, and has always been a sucker for stories where true love conquers all. She believes in the power of the written word, and the joy such words can bring. In between spending time with her family and having book adventures, she writes romance with the goal of giving everyone, fictional or not, their own happily ever after.
Click here for the Rafflecopter Giveaway!
