Sinful Cravings
Lake City
Stories
Book 2
Annie Nicholas
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
Date of
Publication: August 11, 2014
Word Count:
50,000 word
Cover Artist:
Kanax
Book
Description:
Pia Blyton, a
succubus, isn’t ready for an official engagement since her skillset consists of
setting kitchens on fire, singing at vampire hellholes, and most
embarrassingly, she recently passed out in bed while feeding Valerio Hunan, the
most eligible incubus in Lake City. Yet somehow he turns a blind eye to all her
faults and still wants to set his marriage tattoos on her wrists.
The compulsion
to have sex forces their people to have unconventional relationships. Every
three days, she has to orgasm creating energy to survive. She can’t even live
off bad sex. Unlike her, Val can’t feed off just anyone. He consumes the energy
only a succubus creates and his hunger isn’t on a clock. Most incubi feed
legally by luring multiple succubi into marriage with money and power. Val had
caught Pia by the heart strings. Sneaky bastard.
When his food
supply suddenly stops, he’s faced with starvation. Despite Pia’s adoration,
she’s not an all you can eat buffet. He would suck her dry of all her life
force within days. In order to save her, Val forces her to leave. With nowhere
to go, Pia ends up at the last place she wants to be—her parent’s home, with
nothing but her pink suitcase and a list of all her failures.
Pia needs to
pull on her big girl panties and figure out why Val’s energy supplies have
stopped arriving before he kills some unsuspecting succubus. But the demon
inside Val is closer to the surface than either of them realize. When Pia
leaves, the only thing on its mind is tracking her down and dragging her back
into its bed where she belongs...even if it kills her.
Excerpt
One
John
snatched my offending finger and kissed the tip. “You were worried?” A shy
smile tugged at his lips. No fair.
I
yanked my hand out of his grasp. “Of course I was. It’s not like I have suitors
waiting in line.” My excuse for worrying sounded thin but I didn’t want to give
John the wrong impression. Caring about my suitors was dangerous and falling in
love against the rules. Emotional detachment had to be maintained to protect my
fragile heart and to ensure my relationship with Val would work. For an
incubus, he was oddly very possessive.
“You
could have anyone you wanted. You just don’t—”
“Want
to.” I finished the old argument between us.
“So.”
He stared at his shoes. “You met my brother.”
“Yeah,
I did. He wants to suck my soul out of my body like a juice box.” I set my
hands on my hips and gazed out at my parent’s wooded property. Val was
wandering out there under the bare branches. Somewhere.
“Sounds
like Amel.” He twisted and followed my gaze. “Did he come looking for me here?”
“No,
I used the locket you gave me last Winter Solstice.” I scowled and leaned
closer so he couldn’t escape my glare. “You didn’t tell me that wasn’t your
name.” When pressed the locket would say something and it turned out to be his
brother’s name.
His
shy smile became a grin. “I didn’t say it was either.” The dumbass’ smile
faded. “Wait. You tried to summon me using that name?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah.”
Instead of my sweet John appearing in the pentagram, his pissed off big bro
showed up and let’s just say he wasn’t happy about it.
“The
city is still intact. Did your father defeat him?”
My
eyebrows shot up. Dad? Beat a Mazzikim demon? “No.” John feared my father like
no one else. That he stood on our doorstep showed how much he wanted my
forgiveness. But Dad wasn’t a warrior. Zur-Sin, my vampire suitor and co-ruler
of Lake City, however was not only a warrior he also practiced black magic.
“How
exactly are you still alive?” His whispered question took me by surprise.
“Sin
blood bound him.”
The
blood drained from John’s face.
Reflexively,
I reached out and steadied him. “John, where have you been?”
“Yes,
John, where have you been?” Val strolled around the corner of the house, hands
in pockets, and looking quite warm in just a suit. Incubus powers?
I
jumped at his voice, an undeserved wave of guilt crashing over me as I released
my hold of John’s elbow. Our people didn’t practice love. They saw the emotion
as a weakness and I could see their point. Falling in love with a human had
almost killed me a few years ago. Sex equaled food for my people and fidelity
couldn’t be part of the equation.
My
parents managed to have a beautiful four-way loving relationship. Well, until
now, with a fourth wife on the horizon. After being raised in such an
environment why wouldn’t I crave to have the same? I smiled at Val and held out
my hand.
He
was willing to give me everything, even his heart, but unlike me he’d been
raised in a cold, sterile traditional succubus household. He wanted to love me,
he just didn’t know how.
When our hands touched, I half expected to see
sparks of desire dance between our fingers. I met his pale blue stare and my
stomach fluttered. Would he ever stop affecting me this way? “John, this is
Val, my fiancé.” Valerio Hunan had recently moved to Lake City. After a
whirlwind courtship over a few days, I agreed to an engagement. My stomach
rolled as I recalled why he’d dragged me here today. He wanted my mothers to
force me to pick a date so we could publically announce our families uniting.
We
had only been living together for a few weeks. In a hotel room no less. His
wives hated me. What was the rush?
“Fiancé? I thought you didn’t want to ever get
married, Pia.” John’s gaze traveled from Val to me and back again.
“I’m
beginning to believe the same thing.” Val murmured under his breath.
I
could kick John where the sun didn’t shine. “Shut up. A lot’s changed since you
left me high and dry on my day three. So why don’t you answer my question
before I ask Val to drag your scrawny ass to your big brother.”
About
the Author:
Annie Nicholas
writes paranormal romance with a twist. She has courted vampires, hunted with
shifters, and slain a dragon’s ego all with the might of her pen. Riding the
wind of her imagination, she travels beyond the restraints of reality and
shares them with anyone wanting to read her stories. Mother, daughter, and wife
are some of the other hats she wears while hiking through the hills and dales
of her adopted state of Vermont.
Annie writes for
Samhain Publishing, Carina Press, and Lyrical Press.
Website: www.annienicholas.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/annienicholas
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3132972.Annie_Nicholas
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/annienicholas
/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/yt8Kv
Tour giveaway: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba112ffc749/
$50 GC to Amazon
or BN- Winner’s Choice
1 comment:
beautiful cover! :)
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