Sunday Smooch with guest-cat Avril Tremayne

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


But first, we wanted to wish everyone a special Mother's Day. It can be a tough day for those who've lost their beautiful mothers, and you're in our thoughts, as is everyone who's marking this day. We hope you fill it with loved ones, and make some great new memories - or look back on old ones that warm your heart.

Today we have a smooch  from a guest LoveCat - the awesome, RuBy winning, Rita-nominated Avril Tremayne but first we have two smooch winners to announce!

... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Laney4. Can you please contact Helen Lacey to receive your Kindle copy of THE CHILD BETWEEN THEM. 

And the winner of Clare Connelly's last Sunday Smooch (a signed paperback of HER WEDDING NIGHT SURRENDER) is Mary Preston! Mary, can you please email Clare with your postal address?

And now, here's Avril! *round of applause* *much excitement*...

Authors generally don’t like identifying their favourite book…but I’m not one of them! I knew The Dating Game was special the moment I started writing it, because the story immediately flew out of my head and onto the page. I laughed, cried, sighed, gasped and shivered all the way through, and at the end I knew it was the best thing I’d ever written. I’ve never been more desperate to have a book published – and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy because it was book 2 in a series, and the first book, Kiss Don’t Tell, had already had twotraditional outings. (Let me tell you, it’s not easy to sell a previously published book to a publishing house, but I prevailed!) Vindication came when The Dating Gamebecame a 2018 RITA finalist.

The story…

Swoon-worthy artist David takes one look at pixie-sized PR manager Sarah and knows he needs to paint her. Problem is, Sarah’s best friend Lane has already called dibs on him and Sarah’s brother Adam (who’s in love with Lane) sees him as the enemy. A tricky situation, but Sarah figures if anyone can tell her why her dating life is so abysmal it’s him, so she does a business-only deal with him: a portrait in exchange for dating advice. Alas, things go off the rails from her first ‘test date’ with a colleague of David’s when the post-date critique session leads to a kiss comparison …

As David stared down into Sarah’s big blue eyes, common sense nudged at his frontal lobe, telling him he was making a mistake. But it was no match for the roar of blood in his veins urging him to prove he was nothing like that anaemic fedora-wearing fucker Craig.

David had the moves, he had the technique, and he had the control to employ both with clinical accuracy. He could get a woman halfway to orgasm from one kiss if he chose to. And at that moment, he chose to, goddammit.

He wrapped his hands around Sarah’s upper arms, and the frailty of her, the ease with which he could circle her arms with a hand apiece, sent the warning whispering through his head again: mistake. For a split-second he hesitated—but then Sarah swayed towards him, her eyelids fluttered closed … and taking her mouth became his sole focus. Her breath hitched, and he fucking lovedthat sound, the vulnerable anticipation of it. When her teeth bit and released her bottom lip, it was the final trigger; he might slow things down, but he wasn’t going to stop.

He drew her in so their chests were just touching, just—God, the torture—and put his mouth on hers for a long, long moment as he absorbed the feeling of having her there. Half of him wanted to slam her against his body and go for broke—the crazy half. The other half, the part of him that was still sane, was scared he’d hurt her if he let himself lose it; she was so damn small.

So he reined himself in hard, comforting himself with the knowledge that there was no need to rush, that it would go further when the time was right, that he could take the time to savour this first real taste of her. He rubbed his mouth softly, inexorably, against hers, waiting for a sign that she was ready for him to go deeper.

It came, the sign, almost immediately. A soft hum that had her lips puffing open. David sucked her top lip into his mouth, using lips and teeth and tongue to explore and taste. She moved impatiently against him, trying to get closer than he would allow, nudging her mouth against his, urging him on, urging him … in? Yes, in. Ahhh, God, yes. He wanted in. In the next second, his tongue was inside her mouth, licking deep and sure, and she was curling her own tongue around his, and it was thrilling the hell out of him. Harsh breaths mingling, bodies twisting, her hands gripping the sides of his T-shirt in greedy fistfuls.

In the midst of it all, he became aware of her thigh sliding up his own, like she was climbing him. Climbing, Jesus God! Well, he could help her with that. He pulled her closer, plastering her against him at last, keeping her right there as he battled to control himself … But it was a lost cause; he was going to explode if he didn’t get her edged into a more strategic position. He slid his arms around her, held her closer still, closer dammit, for a red-hot minute, then slid his hands down to grip her bottom. He lifted her against him until the juncture of her thighs was right there, where he needed it, where he was aching, throbbing for her.

Her hands were in his hair now. He wanted to rip the dress off her, tumble her to the couch, shove himself so deep inside her she’d never forget it. He hitched her again, rubbed against her to the point of lunacy, took a hurried step towards the couch. He was going to have her, take her, right now.

Avril is giving away an e-book copy of Kiss Don't Tell, the first book in this captivating series. To be in the draw to win, answer this question: Have you ever had dating advice from a friend? Did it steer you right or wrong?