#CoverReveal BOND, Pierce Securities #6 by Anne Conley

Title: Bond

Author:  Anne Conley

Cover Design: LoveBooks Promotions

Photographer:  Jeffrey Todd

Model:  Stanley Fields

Blurb:

This has to be one of the weirdest relationships on the books.

Deena Rae is a loner—a strong, independent woman who needs nobody. There is the possible exception of Mr. Fine Ass, with whom she’s begun a strange courtship. He’s certainly a nice diversion from her new job with Pierce Securities and her first solo gig with the company.

Slade is in debt to a man nobody wants to owe, his sperm donor just died, and somehow, Deena Rae knows the half-brother Slade’s never met. He can’t keep his eyes off his gorgeous bitch of a neighbor who keeps her drapes open, even when she’s “entertaining.” He’s told her, though, he’s a train wreck and they shouldn’t get involved.

Deena Rae is riding Slade’s train all the way to the end, whether she likes it or not. Slade is working for her mark, and her mark suddenly wants her dead.

And Slade’s the man who’s got to do it.

Unedited Excerpt (rated PG-13 for language):

“What are you doing in here, Ginger?” His rough growl in her ear sent a shiver of goose bumps racing up her spine.  Deena Rae bristled at the Ginger comment, but squirmed to get out from under him.  It was no use.  She was stuck.  His grip tightened on her wrists, as his legs wrapped around hers to still them.

And his other hand roamed.

His breathing was ragged as his hand explored more than was necessary to make sure she wasn’t packing heat, which she was, but didn’t think they were in the right position for him to find it.

“You know what they say about curiosity and shit.”  She shrugged, going for flippant, even as her heart raced.  Problem was, she wasn’t really scared anymore.  She should have been, but Deena Rae couldn’t muster the fear she needed to fight back.

His hand was definitely doing more than looking for weapons, if the growing length at her backside was any indication.  Each piece of her lock-pick kit was tossed into the immaculate carpet by her head.  Serial killers were clean, she reminded herself, trying to gather the terror she knew she should be feeling.  Why wasn’t she feeling it?

“How did you get in?”  His breath was hot in her ear, and if she wasn’t mistaken, his lips brushed it.  She was on fire.  Thank God he wasn’t looking at her face.

A soft chuckle escaped her.  “Would you believe you can learn anything on Youtube?”

A rumble of accompanying laughter came from his chest, pressed against her back, but he raised himself and with very little effort, had her flipped under him.

It wasn’t like she was fighting Mr. Fine Ass, but she was a tall woman.  At five foot ten, she’d always wanted a man to handle her, like, well, like a man.  Rick sure as hell wasn’t up to the task.

But now she was face to face with him, she couldn’t really breathe.  And her arms were still pinned at her head.

His face was fucking gorgeous.  A small scar under his right eye.  Deep brown eyes the color of teak wood.  Full lips.  Chiseled cheekbones.  Dude could be a model.

One of his crazy eyebrows was quirked up, wrinkling his forehead slightly.  “Are you trying to come on to me?  If so, this is a bit out of the ordinary.”  He was relaxing his body on top of hers, even if he still held her wrists in a death grip above her head and had a massive growing bulge still pressing against her thigh.

“I’ve never been accused of being ordinary,” she breathed at him, wondering where the hell all the air in the room went to.  Her heart was still pounding in her chest, and her breathing was hard and heavy.  She knew her breasts were practically in his face, but to his credit, he wasn’t looking.  But they were certainly pressing against his ever-so-hard chest.

His eyes flickered from her eyes to her lips, and his free hand twined through a tendril of her hair.  When they finally snapped back to her eyes, they were filled with resolve.

“This is bad timing, Ginger.  My life is a train-wreck right now, or I would give this a go.”  He smirked as he pressed his bulge into her thigh.  “But you really should just stick to your Tuesday Night Specials.”

Since he was relaxed, she whimpered a bit, pretending to pout while biting her bottom lip, watching his eyes snap back to her lips.  Using the distraction, she wound her legs around one of his, and rolled, effectively pinning him under her.  

He let loose of her arms, and grabbed at her hips as she stood.

“Wow.  That’s cocky, Mr. Fine Ass.  But I hate the name Ginger, and train wrecks aren’t my style.”  She managed to get out of the door with a little dignity even though she was embarrassed to have gotten caught, and was ridiculously turned on. 

But she’d managed to walk out of there with the upper hand, and that was what was important, right?

Links:  

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Other books in the series on Amazon:  http://amzn.to/2osL5Ui

Other books in the series on Amazon UK:  http://amzn.to/2osLpm1

Hub-meister is reading books!

So, a while back, my husband found out how much I paid to have Craze narrated, and that I was planning to pay that much again, but was hesitant to go through the entire auditioning narrators process again.  He said, "I'd like to try it."

Now, at first glance, that's an awesome statement, right?  My husband has a sexy voice (I'm biased, I know, but his mom agrees, so that makes it legit, right?), and any support from spouses is welcome, right?

But... And this could be a huge but...

My husband is dyslexic.

And that never came up in his discussion of reading this book, not once.

When we first met 18 years ago, it was a huge deal to him.  It was a stigma, a 'condition' he had.  No movies with subtitles, period, no reading, nothing.  Granted, that's been years ago, and he's gotten better about using it as an excuse.  He doesn't carry his spell check thing around anymore, and he rarely checks his phone's autocorrect to make sure he doesn't "look stupid."

Now, he is buying a new (used) computer, a microphone, recording software, and watching all sorts of videos ti get ready to poduce my audiobook.  I finally asked him, "HOW do you plan on doing this?"  I was careful.  He's always been ridiculously supportive of my writing, even when he didn't approve of the subject matter.  He beta reads for me (listens), goes to events with me, and talks me up to anyone who will sit still long enough about my books.  So I didn't want to do or say anything that would make him think I didn't believe in him, too.  Because I do.

God, I really do.  I believe in all things hub-meister.

But I was afraid that this little foray into reading aloud would be frustrating to him, and re-awaken all these feelings of insecurity he had when I met him.

You know what?

Nothing.  When I asked that question, he looked at me like I was nuts.  "HOW do you plan on doing this?"  His response was, "I'll read it.  Then edit the reading."  Like I was the dumb one.

O-o-Kay.

And you know what?  It's taken a while.  But he's reading my books.  I listen to him read outside the door to his office.  I haven't listened to much of it yet, because I'm waiting for his final product to listened to in a large chunk, but what I have heard is amazing.  And professional sounding.

And amazing.

I know, I'm probably gushing a little.  But I didn't know what the heck I was doing with my first narrator.  My second one, I loved, but got a lot of negative reviews.  This has taught me that I don't know what I need to know to pick a narrator.  And hub-meister is free, willing, and doing a fantastic job.

We decided he could learn what to do with Falling For Heaven, a book that's sort of a give-away for me.  I wrote it so long ago, I don't even care what it sounds like.  I know that probably sounds awful, but that's the truth of it.  I'm just happy that he's finally found something concrete he can do to take ownership in our business.

When he finishes with Falling for Heaven, he will start working on my Pierce Securities series, and we'll go from there.  For now, though, he's doing an amazing job.

Y'all want to hear the first chapter?

https://soundcloud.com/anneconley/fallingch1

Release date will come shortly.

Book Covers and the artists who create them...

Recently, I bit the bullet and bought another piece of cover art from Eric Battershell, because dayummm...  I can honestly look at his photos all day long (and have).  I know that the cover isn't the end-all-be-all of the book, (ideally the actual story is) but a great cover will make or break a book, and in my experience, when it breaks, it breaks into a zillion pieces.

So far, each one of my Book B!tches books has a cover image from Eric, as well as a Pierce Securities book (Murmur).  I didn't specifically go looking for him, but Eric's pictures are amazing.  They set the tone of my books perfectly, and I haven't regretted using him yet.

The picture I bought last month will go on book #3 of the Book B!tches series, Hunt for Love.  That book is hopefully coming late 2017.  I still have some Pierce Securities books to release first (I know that made some people happy).

And check this out.  I have a cover model for the rest of those, too.

A bartender at my local bar is gorgeous, muscley, and totally willing to be my bitch--er, um, cover model.  I had a shoot with him in early March, and am hoping to finish out the covers for the Pierce Securities series, add a cover for book #4 in the Book B!tches (Fostering Love), and even some extra surprises I have planned for 2018.

Since a good cover is the biggest expense of publishing, and there's a big stink causing lots of drama about stock art happening on facebook (I'm not sure what it's all about, I try to avoid that drama shit), I prefer to use models when possible.  That way, I get original artwork for my covers, and by luck of the draw, most of my models (not all) have busted their book cover cherries with me.

So, I have a model, a photographer who is super excited to not be taking portraits, and more ideas than I know what to do with.

All so I can send some greatness to my designer.  James Price with AEP Book Covers (www.theauthormarket.com) is amazingly good-natured with all my man-candy.  I imagine him in all his bearded glory, after a long day working on airplanes, rolling his eyes at my emails with tales of damsels in distress, the alpha males who save them, and the attached eye candy, all while fighting off four kids and doing stuff for his wife, too.  He really would rather be doing Horror covers, but he's amazing, nonetheless.

Anyway, since I have now either bought or am in the process of buying all my cover art for the foreseeable future, I feel like I've paid off a credit card bill.  I still have to pay for editing and formating services as well as the actual design work for the cover, but the art
work itself is the most expensive if I'm not using stock art.  So I feel golden.

Since this year's sales have been slower than usual, I'm trying to figure out a way to afford stuff.  Now, it's time to cut costs.  I can't cut in the cover department, nor with most of my publishing expenses.  However, I am cutting advertising and other costs, so stay tuned this week for something I'm hoping will tide me over a bit.  :)

Until then...