"You're here because I want to touch you."Beth Jacobs spends her days slogging away in a corporate "fish bowl," as the hard-working assistant for one of North America's youngest dot-com billionaires. Aleksander "Z" Zavtra is the definition of dark and dangerous with a sexy Eastern European snarl. He's also ruthless. Curt. Exacting. An infuriating man she loves to hate. While Beth hardly sees him, it's as if he's always watching her . . .
Z doesn't do romance. But he never expected to be captivated by a whip-smart, fiery assistant who just so happens to share an uncanny resemblance to the beautiful face that haunts his dreams. He craves Beth. He wants to stroke her skin, to feel her heat beneath him. And what Z wants, he gets. And for one weekend, the lines between employer and employee are blurred as Z and Beth give themselves completely to the dark pleasures they've both been dreaming about.
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What's five facts about yourself?
1. I’ve visited every continent except Asia
2. I’m a Virgo but can’t keep a clean house to save my life.
3. While I’m an avid reader, I LOVE watching serial shows with my husband. Favorites include: Vikings, Game of Thrones, Mad Men (I’ll miss you Don Draper) and Orange is the New Black.
4. I have a thing for grey characters (as evidenced from my show choices). I’m always fascinated by a world that’s not black and white.
5. I prefer green M&M’s. They really do taste the best.
When do you find the time to write?
By never sleeping. Joking! Sort of. I write after my kids go to bed. I write in the morning before my kids wake up. Soon we’ll have Baby #3 so I’ll probably be writing standing up rocking an infant in a sling. Writing to me is part of my mental health program…if I don’t get words out, I get a little batty. No one wants their mama batty.
What's your favorite part about being an author?
Looking at a finished book and thinking, ”Whoa, I made you. Those words…I wrote those.” It always surprises me.
What inspired you to continue the Sideswiped story?
For me, New Adult is about authenticity. I wanted to show realistically what happens when you fall in forever love at an early age. What might you be forced to give up? Where should compromises be made? I met my own husband when I was twenty-one and struggled with many of these issues. If I have a “book of my heart” at this point, it would be Sideswiped. There’s a lot of me and my feelings (although fictionalized situations) in that book.
Why did you go to Australia and how did it influence you to write the series?
I wanted to challenge myself with writing a New Adult and at the time, most stories were American-set. I fell in love during a study abroad trip to Australia. It’s where I met my husband and it changed the entire course of my life. So I wanted to explore that rush of giddy love you can have in a foreign country, and then, because I’m a cruel and twisted person, put that love to the test. Throw in geographic distance. Career choices. Visa issues. All the real life icky stuff that forces a couple to decide if what they have is real or a fantasy. I really made Bran and Talia earn their happy ending J
Thank you for answering my questions Lia!
I actually got to meet Lia Riley at a book signing. I told her I felt like I was in Australia after reading her books and she told me she lived there (which makes sense). She also told me she did her best to make it feel authentic. I told her I couldn’t tell if it was or wasn’t. I felt completely absorbed in that country. I wished I asked her about her OCD issues since some of it was written in Talia’s personality. Next signing! More Photos HERE
“Kiss me,” I challenge him. He twists around words and dances from truths. But he can’t evade body language.
He gazes at me as if I’m something he’s never seen. “I tell you how I did a terrible thing, and you offer a kiss.”
“There is much you aren’t saying, so maybe we need to streamline the conversation. Your lips touching mine. What could be simpler.”
For once, I have taken him by total surprise.
“Or more destructive,” he says.
“You kiss me with your eyes every time you look at me.”
“Ah.” He goes utterly still then. “Very well, then. Yes. I think I understand.”
“I want you to do it,” I say softly, reaching out my hand. “Please. What can I call you? Aleksander?”
“No, that’s what he used to call me, the bastard who was my father. At boarding school, I was Sander, and that, too, never felt right, not exactly.”
“So what do you prefer?”
“Call me whatever you like. You are the exception to my rule. The exception to all my rules.”
“Why?” My voice is breathless, more than a little unsteady.
“If I knew that, I’d be a wiser man than I am now.” His eyes close and his next breath is long, slow, and shuddering. “If I kiss you, will you hold still?”
Hold still if he actually kisses me? The idea of his full lips slanting on mine, his hard chest pushing insistent against my breasts is enough to make me writhe all on its own. “No.”
His gaze snaps to mine.
“How can I promise such a thing? After all, a kiss isn’t one-sided, at least not a good kiss.”
He stands, wiping his hands on his suit pants, his shirt a little wrinkled.
He walks to the window and looks out at nothing but night, seeing only his own ghost face reflection, and my own behind him. He places a hand on the glass and the heat from his skin heats the pane. When he turns, it remains, a foggy imprint.
I move to the end of the bed, hang my feet off, the robe slipping off one shoulder.
He is there then. I don’t even have time to register movement. He braces his hands on either side of the mattress, on the outside of my thighs, and there is no more oxygen in the room. The flame in his expression has sucked it all out.
His lips crush mine as if time has run out. We don’t have the night, or the hours left to the weekend. There is only and ever this moment. No play-acting or showing off. No coy moves. It’s need, pure and raw, urgent and fierce. His lips are cooler than I imagined. A distant place in me registers that thought. Cool expect there is his tongue, easing against mine, and the contrast makes me sigh.
The moments when I realize I exist are infrequent. Flashes of realization that I am alive, and this is an actual life that I am living and for those few precious moments I’m on the outside, looking at my whole world and seeing it not for what it normally feels like, an all-consuming crushing adventure rather than a spider’s web tangling me.
And that’s what this. His lips. My lips. Nothing else is touching. Not hands or bodies. Not even our faces. Only our hungry mouths.
He gazes at me as if I’m something he’s never seen. “I tell you how I did a terrible thing, and you offer a kiss.”
“There is much you aren’t saying, so maybe we need to streamline the conversation. Your lips touching mine. What could be simpler.”
For once, I have taken him by total surprise.
“Or more destructive,” he says.
“You kiss me with your eyes every time you look at me.”
“Ah.” He goes utterly still then. “Very well, then. Yes. I think I understand.”
“I want you to do it,” I say softly, reaching out my hand. “Please. What can I call you? Aleksander?”
“No, that’s what he used to call me, the bastard who was my father. At boarding school, I was Sander, and that, too, never felt right, not exactly.”
“So what do you prefer?”
“Call me whatever you like. You are the exception to my rule. The exception to all my rules.”
“Why?” My voice is breathless, more than a little unsteady.
“If I knew that, I’d be a wiser man than I am now.” His eyes close and his next breath is long, slow, and shuddering. “If I kiss you, will you hold still?”
Hold still if he actually kisses me? The idea of his full lips slanting on mine, his hard chest pushing insistent against my breasts is enough to make me writhe all on its own. “No.”
His gaze snaps to mine.
“How can I promise such a thing? After all, a kiss isn’t one-sided, at least not a good kiss.”
He stands, wiping his hands on his suit pants, his shirt a little wrinkled.
He walks to the window and looks out at nothing but night, seeing only his own ghost face reflection, and my own behind him. He places a hand on the glass and the heat from his skin heats the pane. When he turns, it remains, a foggy imprint.
I move to the end of the bed, hang my feet off, the robe slipping off one shoulder.
He is there then. I don’t even have time to register movement. He braces his hands on either side of the mattress, on the outside of my thighs, and there is no more oxygen in the room. The flame in his expression has sucked it all out.
His lips crush mine as if time has run out. We don’t have the night, or the hours left to the weekend. There is only and ever this moment. No play-acting or showing off. No coy moves. It’s need, pure and raw, urgent and fierce. His lips are cooler than I imagined. A distant place in me registers that thought. Cool expect there is his tongue, easing against mine, and the contrast makes me sigh.
The moments when I realize I exist are infrequent. Flashes of realization that I am alive, and this is an actual life that I am living and for those few precious moments I’m on the outside, looking at my whole world and seeing it not for what it normally feels like, an all-consuming crushing adventure rather than a spider’s web tangling me.
And that’s what this. His lips. My lips. Nothing else is touching. Not hands or bodies. Not even our faces. Only our hungry mouths.
SERIES
Carry Me Home #3.1 (Novella) - AMAZON
Into My Arms - AMAZON
Upside Down Purchasing Links
Twenty-one-year-old Natalia Stolfi is saying good-bye to the past-and turning her life upside down with a trip to the land down under. For the next six months, she'll act like a carefree exchange student, not a girl sinking under the weight of painful memories. Everything is going according to plan until she meets a brooding surfer with hypnotic green eyes and the troubling ability to see straight through her act.
Bran Lockhart is having the worst year on record. After the girl of his dreams turned into a nightmare, he moved back home to Melbourne to piece his life together. Yet no amount of disappointment could blind him to the pretty California girl who gets past all his defenses. He's never wanted anyone the way he wants Talia. But when Bran gets a stark reminder of why he stopped believing in love, he and Talia must decide if what they have is once in a lifetime . . . or if they were meant to live a world apart.
Side Swiped Purchasing Links
It was only meant to last the summer . . .
Talia Stolfi has seen more than her share of loss in her twenty-one years. But then fate brought her Bran Lockhart, and her dark world was suddenly and spectacularly illuminated. So if being with Bran means leaving her colorless NorCal life for rugged and wild Australia, then that’s what she’ll do. But as much as Talia longs to give herself over completely to a new beginning, the fears of her past are still lurking in the shadows.
Bran Lockhart knows that living without the beautiful girl who stole his heart will be torment, so he’ll take whatever time with her he can. But even though she has packed up her life in California and is back in his arms for the time being, she can’t stay forever. And the remaining time they have together is ticking by way too fast. Though fate seems determined to tear them apart, they won’t give up without a fight—because while time may have limits, their love is infinite . . .
Inside Out Purchasing Links
When Talia first moved from California to Australia to study abroad, she never dreamed she'd find the love of her life. Bran understands her like no one ever has before. And despite the numerous challenges they've faced, they've always managed to figure out how to stay together. But this time they'll face their toughest hurdle yet. Is their love strong enough to keep them together?
When Talia first moved from California to Australia to study abroad, she never dreamed she'd find the love of her life. Bran understands her like no one ever has before. And despite the numerous challenges they've faced, they've always managed to figure out how to stay together. But this time they'll face their toughest hurdle yet. Is their love strong enough to keep them together?
WITH EVERY BREATH by Lia Riley (December 29, 2015; Forever Trade Paperback)
BREATHE DEEP . . . AND JUMP IN
At the ends of the earth, Patagonia is a land where ambition trumps reason and the savage summit of La Aguja lures the most determined climbers. It's also the last spot a "play-it-safe girl" like Auden Woods expects to find herself. But she'll lace up her brand-new hiking boots and do whatever it takes to secure a dream job at an adventure magazine . . . even if it kills her. And it just might. When disaster strikes, her only chance at survival comes in the form of the surliest, sexiest mountaineer ever to come out of Scotland.
At the ends of the earth, Patagonia is a land where ambition trumps reason and the savage summit of La Aguja lures the most determined climbers. It's also the last spot a "play-it-safe girl" like Auden Woods expects to find herself. But she'll lace up her brand-new hiking boots and do whatever it takes to secure a dream job at an adventure magazine . . . even if it kills her. And it just might. When disaster strikes, her only chance at survival comes in the form of the surliest, sexiest mountaineer ever to come out of Scotland.
After a climbing accident cost him his brother, professional mountaineer Rhys MacAskill is at the end of his rope. Redemption is not in his future. That is, until a terrifying storm blows a budding journalist into his tent and it's up to him to make sure they both survive until morning. Despite the demons weighing on him, Rhys can't resist the temptation of the charming American and one wild night just isn't enough.
Auden and Rhys soon learn there are no shortcuts as they navigate their way between life, death, and atonement, and discover something they never expected-love.
After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, Lia Riley scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. When not torturing heroes (because c'mon, who doesn't love a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs, daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern California.
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