Hot Romance Author Tina Donahue Guest Blog & Contest!!

I am so pleased to have Tina Donahue taking over my blog today. She is going to talk about her newest release, In His Arms and she’s having a really fantastic contest!!!

The First Stirrings of Love

In every romance novel, there comes a scene – whether it’s quiet or filled with tension – when the hero and heroine share something so emotional readers understand that the couple is falling in love.

It doesn’t have to be a kiss or anything sexual. It can be a look, a touch, an embrace or simply conversation. Sometimes that’s more satisfying than full blown sex.

In my upcoming erotic romance In His Arms, Summer and RJ face many perils, including their growing desire for each other. About midway through the novel, an event happens that Summer believes will cost RJ his life. He survives, and their shared moments afterwards stirred me greatly, showing their beginning emotional connection. To illustrate what I mean, here’s the blurb and an excerpt from that scene.

BLURB:

Owned by one man, loved by another. . .

Abducted and delivered into sexual slavery, Lori has surrendered her will in order to survive. For more than a decade, she’s been known as Summer, a lovely submissive, her owner’s possession until he gives her to his newest lieutenant, a mysterious man called RJ. Commanding and virile, RJ dominates without cruelty and possesses without threat, engendering a mixture of safety and passion. In his strong arms, Summer enjoys carnal pleasure she’s never known and tenderness she’s craved. In his heated gaze, she experiences a sense of recognition she doesn’t immediately understand until it proves dangerous in a way she could never have imagined. Bound by desire and their growing love, RJ traverses the shadowy world of human trafficking, risking all for Summer’s freedom only to learn she harbors a fateful secret that threatens to tear her from him, leading to an irrevocable event that risks both their lives.

EXCERPT:

Side by side, she and RJ went through the house to the front door, saying nothing, not even looking at each other, aware of the cameras recording their actions and words.

Outside, a gust of clammy wind tangled her hair and whipped her dress against her stinging buttocks. She endured the pain, knowing it wasn’t nearly as bad as RJ’s. He breathed sharply a couple of times as though his bruised body had gotten the better of him. When one of Anthony’s men drove up in the golf cart to take them to the guesthouse, he seemed visibly relieved.

Inside their home, Summer took his hand, leading him to the bath. There, she turned on the water in the tub, deliberately speaking in her normal voice so Anthony’s men could hear. “A warm bath will take away some of your pain.”

She went to the shower next, putting the water at its hottest temperature, turning on all the heads. “Damp heat will also help.” She flipped the switch to the exhaust fan, knowing it wouldn’t be enough to combat the rising plumes of steam. They fogged the mirrors and the lens of the camera.

Protected finally from Anthony and his men’s scrutiny, she placed her hands on RJ’s shoulders. With a light touch, she directed him to the toilet seat and spoke in a lowered voice further masked by the shower’s pounding spray. “Sit.”

He didn’t resist. Back slumped against the tank, he stretched out his long legs, resting the heels of his boots against the tile floor. She went to the medicine cabinet and selected a bottle of peroxide, cotton swabs and antiseptic ointment.

Returning to him, she soaked the cotton with the peroxide and warned, “This might sting a little.”

RJ grabbed her wrist, stopping her from touching his split lip, and spoke in an equally quiet voice. “Then don’t do it.”

She allowed the cotton swab to drop from her hand and sank to her knees at his side. “The cut should be cleaned. I’ll blow on it so the sting’s not so bad.”

RJ lowered his head and laughed softly, the sounds halting, but sounding so boyish and sweet. She smiled. “What’s so funny?”

“Aw God.” He groaned and laughed, then groaned some more. “You’ll blow on it so the sting’s not so bad?”

“Do you want me to use my hairdryer instead?” She continued to tease, speaking just a shade above his renewed laughter. “Are you afraid I’ll spray saliva on you?”

“Stop.” He cupped her face in hands. “I can’t laugh anymore. It hurts too fucking much. Are you trying to kill me?”

Her smile collapsed. She kept her voice scarcely above a whisper. “How bad is it? Did Hogan break one of your ribs? You’re breathing funny.”

His hands dropped from her face, falling to his sides. He tilted his head back until his chin pointed at the ceiling. “I always breathe funny when I’m aroused.”

Summer caught herself before she laughed. He behaved like a typical man, pretending nothing was wrong, his body could take anything. Gaze lowered, she lifted the edge of his sweater past his fly, above his belt and up to his pecs. A mournful gasp escaped her lips at his battered flesh, the large mean bruises on his belly and ribs.

“I’m all right,” he said in a voice graveled from the hurt. “Nothing’s broken.”

“How can you be so sure? Let me call Anthony so he can get his physician out here.”

“No. Just drop it.” His quiet voice hardened. “And don’t you ever again get yourself hurt to protect me, do you understand?”

Her face grew even more heated at him realizing the cause of her actions. “I don’t mind.”

“I do. What Hogan did tonight was nothing. Believe me, I’ve been through worse.”

“In prison?”

His eyes opened. He brought down his head and looked at her through the thickening steam, his expression a warning not to ask anything else.

Summer didn’t heed it. She had to know about him. She wanted to know about him. It would be all she had to hold onto once she returned to Anthony, either because he demanded it or she’d run away from RJ. “How much time did you serve? What were you convicted of?”

Something passed across his face. Averting his gaze, he made his tone sharp, an admonishment for her to back off. “You don’t want to know.”

She did and she sensed it wasn’t murder. Burglary maybe. Or robbery. But not cold-blooded murder and not human trafficking. There was something about him—an inherent decency that precluded such horrendous crimes. She’d seen the look on his face when Anthony caught Nicky’s arm and demanded the little boy’s silence. At that moment, Summer knew RJ would have killed Anthony if he’d dared hit the child.

Truly vicious men didn’t act like that. To them, anyone was fair game. The younger and weaker the victim, the better they liked it.

I’m not into your new jail bait, he’d told Anthony. I want a woman, not a girl.

He seemed to want her, really want her for reasons Summer couldn’t fathom and didn’t want to question.

She bent her head to his torso and kissed his belly and ribs as gently as she could. Moving her face up to his, she smelled scotch on his breath and whispered in his ear, “You should leave. You can leave. Don’t stay.”

He made no comment. Summer moved back and met his eyes, so stunningly blue, so beautiful. So closed to her now, the bond they’d begun to form with his laughter and her teasing already absent.

“Why do you want to stay with him?” he asked, his voice as low as hers had been so he wouldn’t be overheard.

She had no immediate answer she could confess to him or a lie he’d believe. It wasn’t because she wanted it. She had no choice in the matter.

“He brutalizes you,” RJ said. “He hits his kid.”

“No.” She shook her head so quickly the ends of her hair slapped her cheeks. “He’s never hit Nicky. Mina wouldn’t allow it.”

He countered, “She seemed incredibly docile to me. The proverbial good wife.”

Glancing over, Summer grabbed another cotton swab, soaking it with peroxide. With her palm on the side of his face, she murmured, “Keep still. Let me clean your lip.”

His nostrils flared with the sting of the peroxide. She cleansed the wound as best she could and murmured, “Mina’s not Anthony’s wife.”

RJ swallowed hard, then breathed as deeply as his bruised ribs would allow. “Fiancée then.”

“She’s not that either.” Summer dabbed a bit of the antiseptic ointment on his lip. “Don’t lick that off, it tastes like crap.”

He grinned until the pain in his jaw stopped him.

Lightly, Summer touched the bruise and told him what she should not. “Anthony and Mina can’t get married.”

From this scene forward, the pair tumble hopelessly and dangerously into love.

In His Arms will be available September 3

Buy Link: http://www.jasminejade.com/ps-8593-50-in-his-arms.aspx

Email: tina@tinadonahue.com

Website/blog: www.tinadonahue.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/tinadonahue

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000458023097

To celebrate the upcoming release of In His Arms, I’m offering a contest today. One lucky commenter will have her choice of one of my following books**:

1. Lush Velvet Nights – ebook
2. Adored – ebook
3. Deep, Dark, Delicious – ebook
4. Close to Perfect – mass market paperback
5. Bad Boys with Red Roses – trade paperback
6. Take My Breath Away – trade paperback

** Winner chosen at random. Winner in continental US has her choice of one of the six. Winner outside continental US has her choice of one of the ebooks

Contest ends Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at Midnight

Tina Donahue is a multi–published novelist in contemporary, historical and erotic romance. Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, Romantic Times and numerous online sites have praised her work; she has reached finals and /or placed in numerous RWA–sponsored contests. She was the editor of an award–winning Midwestern newspaper, worked in Story Direction for a Hollywood production company, and is currently the Managing Editor for a global business document concern.