KB Alan

As I mentioned earlier, I have one book out on submission, but another one that I’ve finished the rough draft and have decided to self-publish. It is set in the same “world” as my contemporary menage, Perfect Formation. Unlike PF, this book is not about three people making a relationship, but the hero and heroine do enjoy some serious sexy-times with the hero’s best friend when he comes to town. They even manage to surprise themselves with it, and kind of surprised me, as well. But I’ll let you find out about that when it comes out 😉

I haven’t written the official blurb, at least not a draft that you’d actually want to read, so I’ll just tell you about it. In Perfect Formation, you met Taryn and her guys, Caleb and Richard. Taryn owns a coffee shop, called Grounded, in North Fork, Massachusetts. One of her employees is Emma, a student at the nearby college.

Emma is in her last year of school, and she plans on heading back to Northern California when she’s done, to be near her family and their store, which she intends to work at. Since she’s been away at college, she’s discovered her submissive side, and enjoyed playing at a BDSM club. She’s on her way to visit Boston, with a trip to her club, of course, when she’s pulled over for speeding.

When Drew pulls Emma over he notices that she’s wearing a BDSM symbol on her necklace. As a Dom, he knows what it means. As a cop, he knows he should ignore it. Luckily for us, he just can’t quite manage to walk away.

Of course, you’ll get to see some of Caleb, Richard and Taryn, but I think you’ll fall for Drew and Emma, and I know you’ll have a soft spot for Drew’s friend Toby, when he comes to visit.

If you’re a fan of Pinterest, I made a board as I was writing Perfect Alignment and you might enjoy seeing some of the pics.

I’ll have the cover posted soon, and then a release date!

Those lovely folks over at Excerpt Monday are promoting Bound by Sunlight and some other great looking May and June releases. For them, I’m posting the excerpt from Bound by Sunlight, for my regular readers, I say go check out the other new releases, I will be! 😀

Excerpt from Bound by Sunlight

“You’ve never been bound?” he asked, picking up the straps of her tank top.

“No.” It was more of a breath than a whisper, but he seemed satisfied with her answer. She felt a soft spark against her shoulders and looked down. He’d severed the straps of her top, which were left to dangle above her breasts. Magic. He’d used magic. A tiny niggle of fear tried to work its way through her. He seemed to know and brought his warm hands back to her face, tilting her head up enough that she knew she was supposed to meet his eyes. Why did she find that so difficult? She forced herself to follow his unspoken demand.

“I will not harm you tonight. Not with magic. Not with anything else. I will bring you pain, but only as much as will pleasure you. Do you understand?”

She saw patience and assurance in his eyes, wondered what he saw in hers. Shame washed through her now—that she had come to him so unprepared, unworthy. He shouldn’t have to deal with a novice when he was used to those at the club. His fingers on her chin tightened.

“Do you understand?” he asked again.

“Yes.”

He knew there was more, she could see it in his face, see him trying to figure it out. As long as he didn’t ask, she wouldn’t have to admit to her insecurities. He cocked his head as he studied her.

“What distressed you now?”

She wanted to look away. The feeling of easy surrender had vanished. But she had to answer him. Had to keep meeting his eyes. Not just because of the compulsion, but because she had asked for this. Asked him to help her. He deserved to have as much of her courage as she could muster.

“I’m sorry. I’m not very good at this. I don’t know what to do.”

“You don’t have to know what to do. That’s what I’m here for. You’ll do what I tell you, when I tell you. Won’t you?” His voice was hard, uncompromising.

“Yes.”

“Then there’s nothing for you to fail at. It’s my responsibility to make sure this goes right, not yours. Your only responsibility is to tell me if I go too far.” He stepped closer, allowing his heat to envelope her. She felt moisture gather in her pussy and it got a little bit harder to draw breath.

“Let’s start over.” He pulled her chin up higher now that he was closer to her. Her neck ached a little at the strain. It felt…good.

“Do you believe that I won’t harm you, even though I have every intention of bringing you pain?”

“Yes.” She didn’t know why, and it might be foolish, but she believed him. It was the reason she was here.

He rewarded her with a small kiss to her lips. She opened for him but he drew away. She sighed.

“Do you believe that I will bring you pleasure?”

“Yesss.”

This time he smiled as he kissed her. She tried to chase his lips, but his hands kept her in position.

“Do you understand what you’re supposed to do?”

Uh oh. What was she supposed to do? Hadn’t he just told her—oh.

“Yes.” Another kiss, she wanted another kiss. A real one this time, damn it.

“Tell me.”

“Whatever you tell me to do.” She parted her lips in preparation. She would have to be fast this time.

“And?”

No kiss? What was he doing to her?

“And…umm. Oh, and use my safe word if you go too far.”

“Good girl.” He met her lips with his, but it wasn’t gentle this time. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, taking what she had tried to take, giving what she needed. She whimpered when he pulled back.

“Tell me your safe word again.”

She didn’t want to, didn’t want to ever say that word again. He seemed to understand.

“Choose another word. It doesn’t need to be that one. Shouldn’t be something you don’t want to say.”

“No, it’s all right—”

His fingers tightened against her skin again, reminding her who was in charge. He wasn’t asking. He was telling.

“I, maybe…Snowball!” God, all she could come up with was her childhood cat’s name. Was he smirking at her? She narrowed her eyes at him but his face had gone expressionless again. He leaned down and gave her another quick kiss. Then he let her go, stepped back, taking his heat with him.

“If you use your safe word, I’ll stop what I’m doing so we can talk about it. Don’t be afraid to use it, it doesn’t mean I’m going to send you away.”

She managed to nod her understanding.

“You have a lovely body.”

She didn’t. Her size eight curves weren’t quite proportioned the way she’d like and—

He smacked her ass and she jumped as much as the chains would allow, which wasn’t much at all. Why she should be shocked she had no idea, but she looked at him for an explanation.

“You.” He put his hands on top of her head then ran them over her face, rubbing her eyebrows, exploring her cheekbones, tickling her ears and caressing her chin.

“Have.” Her skin tingled as his hands moved down her neck to her now heaving chest.

“A lovely.” His fingers molded to her breasts, giving a sharp, barely painful squeeze before continuing their journey.

“Body.” He reversed his hands so that his fingers led the way over the curve of her stomach to the juncture of her thighs. He folded his hands along the curve, careful not to touch the part of her that needed touching the most.

“Oh,” she managed to whisper. Her whole body shuddered at his intense look and careful caress. The desire in his words and his eyes did more to relax her than anything else he could have done. She didn’t realize how worried she’d been about the fact that by presenting herself to him, rather than having him choose her, she would have a hard time believing he wanted this, even a little bit.

She looked down at her top. He was running a finger down its center, from neck to hem. As his finger slid past, the fabric parted, splitting down the middle. It was almost like a breath of heat, but maybe she was imagining that. It didn’t take long for the whole top to fall away.

Her naked breasts were damp with sweat, her nipples somewhat swollen. He ignored them and brought his finger to her pants, performing a similar magic to remove them in less than a minute. He took a step back, observing her dressed only in plain cotton panties. It looked as if he was fighting a smile. She tried not to blush and failed. Why hadn’t she dressed up for him? She had the clothes, had been provided with the types of outfits that were supposed to entice him. Black leather, lace garters and more. Much more. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them, but she would have felt like a spy wearing them, like a fraud. So she’d come in the most Kyriana-like clothes she had.

He walked behind her, hooked a finger in the waistband and snapped the elastic against her skin. It didn’t hurt, but it startled her. She hung her head as she tried to fight off the shame and misery working their way through her.

“Just checking to see if your name was embroidered in the back.” His teasing words were spoken against her neck. She choked on her laugh as his lips moved down her neck to the top of her spine, where he bit, hard.

Today’s the day! I’m so excited (can you tell? lol). I loved writing this book. It came to me and wouldn’t let go, which was exactly what I needed at the time. I’d been working on Keeping Claire but had trouble with the direction I wanted to go in. Or rather, Claire wanted to go in. I stopped and started and restarted just short of a million times. Also, I was driving myself crazy with trying to do things the way I thought they should be done. Not that anyone was telling me that, just that I was trying to be more organized and do everything the smart way. I finally told myself to shut it, but it took a while for me to listen. See, Mom, I don’t listen to myself any better than I listen to you! Actually, at this age, I probably listen better to you than to myself.

Wait, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah, poor Claire. Anyway, I got the idea for a woman who sneaks into a Dom’s room, wearing her pajamas. Don’t ask me why, this is how my brain works. I had to figure out why. Turns out, she had a pretty good reason. So Kyriana came into being, but she needed just the right guy. Luckily for me, er, I mean her, Connul is the kind of Dom who knows exactly how to take care of a woman, and once she becomes his woman, stand back!

The book is set in a world exactly like ours, except that magic exists. Mages are not terribly common, but neither are they a secret. Like anyone else, they come in all shapes and sizes, and fill the spectrum between good and evil. I tried to come up with some names that would show the slight otherness of the world, without being too wacky. Kyriana’s name actually came from a character in my very brief college foray into roll-playing games. I think the original Kyr was an elf, but this one is just a human caught up in a situation that she has no weapons to fight against. Until she finds Connul. Connul’s brother Dain, and sister Sasha, make an appearance, and I might as well tell you now that I liked them a lot so I wouldn’t be too surprised if they start clamoring for their own stories soon. We’ll see how that goes!

So, I’m going to shut up now, and go buy a copy of Bound by Sunlight, because I’m just dorky enough to do that. I can’t help myself, I’ve loved buying books at Ellora’s Cave for a long time now, and this one has my name on the cover! That just never gets old. 😀

Don’t forget that I’m giving away a copy at both Christine D’Abo’s blog and The Blackraven’s Erotic Cafe!

So close! Bound by Sunlight will be out tomorrow, and I’m so excited to share it with you. But more on that tomorrow. Today, I have a contest link. Fellow Ellora’s Cave author Christine D’Abo is celebrating her tenth EC release on May 21st, by inviting 10 EC authors (+1 to grow on! ) to share their stories and give away lots of prizes, on her blog. She was kind enough to put me down for tomorrow, so I’ll be giving away a copy of Bound by Sunlight on release day. Be sure to check that out tomorrow, but don’t forget to head over today, and the next ten days for lots more great stories and prizes.

Here’s the schedule:

May 11 – Jennifer Leeland

May 12 – KB Alan

May 13 – Amy Ruttan

May 14 – Aileen Fish

May 15 – JK Coi

May 16 – Rhian Cahill

May 17 – Emma Petersen

May 18 – Nina Pierce

May 19 – Lissa Matthews

May 20 – Tory Richards

May 21 – Christine d’Abo

Good luck!

UPDATED: The Blackraven’s Erotic Cafe has an interview with me up, and they’ll be giving away a copy of Bound by Sunlight.

I think this is the first time I got my cover before my blurb 😛
What do y’all think? I like it!

I’m very excited to announce that Bound by Sunlight has been accepted by Ellora’s Cave! It’s a BDSM paranormal. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times on the blog, and am thrilled it’s going to be published. This is the story that got me back to writing when I’d gotten a bit stuck in the head. Er, you know what I mean. I wasn’t even sure I’d ever send it out to anyone, I just wanted to get back to writing and get these characters down on paper. I really fell in love with the characters and their story, and was so happy with how it turned out. Of course, that didn’t make me less nervous about submitting it, but there ya go.

It’s set in a world that is basically the same as ours, except there are mages – those born with the natural ability to work magic. The hero, Connul, is a mage, but also a BDSM Master. An expert at wielding a whip, a paddle, or his bare hand. Whatever it takes to send his partner into ecstasy, which is how he draws in power. And conveniently (lol) is just what the heroine, Kyriana needs. She’s trying to get away from her boss, an evil mage who’s set his attentions on Connul, and has put a spell on her. She needs Connul to help her break the spell, and the fact that it’s best done while naked is just a bonus. 😀

I’ll get a real blurb written one of these days and put it up. Also, I’m going to post something from BbS for Excerpt Monday next week.

It’s been a while, so it feels extra great to be able to say that I’ve hit the end on a story, Bound by Sunlight. Of course, really that’s just the first draft, so now I have to go do some revising, find someone to critique it and is willing to tell me if I’m off my rocker or if this story is workable, revise it again, then submit. I’m going to give it two weeks to percolate before I go back to do the first round of revisions.

In the meantime, I’ve returned to a piece I’ve been working on for a while, Keeping Claire. I started and restarted this thing four or five times. At one point, when I wasn’t sure quite what I wanted to do with it, I started Bound by Sunlight. Then I went back and forth on both of them for a while before BbS took over. Now I’m excited to get back to Claire and Ryan, and though they keep throwing me curve balls, I’m pretty sure I know what’s going to happen to them. Poor Ryan’s just bungled big time, and I’m looking forward to how he’s going to get back on Claire’s good side. She’s had a tough life and her patience is pretty thin, so he’s going to have to work his butt off. I can’t wait. 😛