Mary Hughes: French Lessons in Love--Guest Natasha Bond!

Natasha Bond is a wonderful Samhain author I met online and immediately knew I'd love her writing. Then I saw the excerpt she picked and I immediately knew my readers would love it! Check out Dracula :) (And Zorro. Yu-um.) Please welcome Natasha!

I have to admit, I’m not really a fan of traditional ‘Latin’ heroes in contemporary romance. All those Greek, Spanish and Italian billionaires don’t really float my boat... but when it comes to a French guy, now that’s a different matter!

No, make that two French hotties.

The Study in Seduction series features two separate but related books about two brothers, Alex and Olivier Lemaitre who are both into BDSM relationships. They’re not ‘Doms’ in the traditional sense because they’re not interested in living by the rules and regulations of the whole ‘lifestyle’– as they would very firmly point out to you!

What they are into is having a lot of sexy, kinky fun with partners who feel the same way.

But life’s not that simple is it? Because the two smart and sassy women they encounter, challenge everything they thought they wanted and needed in their lives.

DARK BLUE is the first book in the series and features Alex and Carla – out now. Book 2 is called FRENCH BLUE and is the story of Olivier and Lisa – published in June 2014.

Dark Blue is a Night Owl Top Pick.

The hottest lessons require the strictest discipline…

Study in Seduction, Book 1

Five years after losing her husband, Carla Jonas has finally decided to go for her dreams—all her dreams, from studying literature at Oxford to exploring a secret desire to be dominated and disciplined. A desire she never knew she had until six months ago, when a mysterious masked man pleasured her at a fetish party.

She’s stunned when she meets her new college professor. Not only is the gorgeous French academic, Alex Lemaitre, notoriously strict, this isn’t the first time they’ve met. She’d know that exotic accent anywhere—he’s her masked lover. Except he won’t even admit he was there that night.

There’s no mistaking the sexual attraction smoldering between them, and when he issues her a challenge, she’s more than up for it. Even when his unique tutoring methods drag her far beyond her comfort zone.

But as he leads her on a journey of sensual discovery, she’s not sure if any degree of submission will find its way into his guarded heart, or if she’ll end up with her own heart broken.

Product Warnings

Contains an intense relationship between a hot French professor and a smart woman who knows what she wants from him. Also features desktop discipline, fantasies fulfilled, secrets revealed, and motorbike sex.

Enjoy this excerpt from Dark Blue!

Copyright © 2013 Natasha Bond
All rights reserved — a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication

Carla Jonas set one foot in the drawing room of the swanky Victorian terrace and knew she’d made a huge mistake. She’d promised herself she would give the party a good hour before she decided whether to stay or not.

She’d given it five minutes and was ready to bail out.

Despite the magnificent chandelier suspended from the ceiling, the room was lit only by candlelight. Nonetheless, Carla could see all she ever wanted to.

On a satin couch, a chubby man in hot pants and a dog collar was feeding grapes to a woman in a latex catsuit. Over by the fireplace, a bearded nun flicked a rubber flogger at the rear of a matronly lady, and the tangle of limbs in a dark corner told her that at least three people, all naked except for their masks, were getting to know each other very well indeed.

Carla hiked up the front of her velvet basque for the umpteenth time. She’d worked hard to keep her figure, but the leather trousers that were comfortable a decade ago required a shoehorn to get into and out of. Her heels, an impulse sale purchase from a shop aimed at girls half her age, were killing her. As for the silver mask, a relic from a New Year’s Eve do, it had cut her peripheral vision to almost zero.

Which was why she felt rather than heard the bald man who’d appeared at her side. Mainly because he’d greeted her with a heavy slap across her behind.

“Ow!”

Two eyes peered out from a Dracula mask, and he swished a black cape that Carla suspected had come from his kids’ Halloween box.

“Well, hello, you. Are you ready to play?” His attempt at a sexy growl sounded more like indigestion.

“Um…I’m not sure.”

Dracula grasped her butt cheek. “Of course you are.”

“Ow!” Carla shot backwards out of reach. “I’d really rather you didn’t do that.”

“Oh, we are a skittish little thing, aren’t we? This is a fetish party, love. What did you expect? Look around you.”

She had. Too much. Glancing at the panting, giggling mass of people of all ages, shapes and sizes in various states of fancy dress and fancy undress, she just felt ridiculous.

Dracula clamped his fingers round her wrist, and Carla wrenched her arm away. This party might have been some people’s wildest dreams come true. Fine. She now knew it wasn’t hers.

“Actually, I was just on my way out. I really don’t think this is me.”

He waggled eyebrows that reminded Carla of caterpillars. “Then why are you here, you naughty little minx?”

Carla gagged as he ran a fat finger down her cleavage. In any other situation, she’d have kicked him in the nuts and called for help. Not in here. Hitting Dracula in the balls might save her from getting pawed again, but there was no way she wanted to draw any attention to herself. A dignified exit was the best she could hope for now.

“You know, I don’t really know why I’m here, and I’m not sure I should be. In fact, this has probably been one of the biggest mistakes of my life.”

Dracula’s pudgy claw clamped down on her wrist.

“Stop right there.”

Another man appeared in Carla’s vision. She had to crane her neck to take in all of him, and what she did see was dressed from head to toe in black—boots, jeans and silk shirt. His thick, dark hair was slicked back from a tanned forehead, his eyes obscured by a black silk mask.

Dracula squared up to the new man. “What’s it got to do with you, pal?”

“A lot. The lady is with me.”

That accent… It was perfect English with a hint of something more exotic. An image slid into her mind and made her want to giggle. He was the man in the mask. Zorro.

“So why don’t you just leave us to it, Dracula?”

Carla made to protest, then clamped her lips together. While Zorro and Dracula beat the crap out of each other, she could quietly slip away.

“You don’t bring your own food to this kind of party, mate, and even if you do, it’s share and share alike around here,” said Dracula.

“Firstly, I’m not your mate, and second, I never share.” Zorro sneered and very beautifully, Carla decided, transfixed by his full, sensual lips. He hadn’t resorted to silly gear either, just what he’d found in his closet, by the look of it. Wow. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted this kind of scene either and was exploring or curious like her.

Dracula stepped closer until he was face-to-chest with Zorro. “Then you shouldn’t be here.”

“You’re right. I shouldn’t and neither should my girlfriend. We’re both leaving.”

Carla turned her back and headed for the door. Before she knew it, Zorro’s arm was at her elbow, propelling her out onto the landing. She shook off his arm. Shit. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. But what a fire, her wicked side whispered. Although he made no attempt to touch her again, his footsteps followed her as she hobbled down the marble staircase that led to the foyer.

“Please don’t come after me. I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself,” she said, making it into the foyer without breaking her ankle.

“I’m sure you are. My question is, what on earth are you doing here?”

She turned, one hand on the polished balustrade to steady herself. What was she doing here? It was a question she’d asked herself ever since she’d managed to get an invite to this fetish party. It had been on her list of Mad Things to Do since her husband, Stephen, had died four years previously, along with giving up her job and using Stephen’s inheritance to go to university. In fact, it was only in the past few weeks that she’d finally found the courage to embrace the desires she’d pushed into the darkest corners of her subconscious while her husband was alive—and that afterwards she’d been too crushed by grief and betrayal to even contemplate.

This party was meant to be her first step, a safe, toe-in-the-water adventure suggested by a friend of a former work colleague.

She fished in her bag for her mobile. “I have no idea, and right now I’m leaving.”

Zorro sighed deeply, causing Carla to look at him more closely. His eyes were darkest caramel, glinting in the flickering candlelight. “Yes. I’m guessing we both thought this was a good idea at the time,” he said.

Sparks flew between them, or at least they flew from her to him. Even with the mask obscuring the top half of his face, she could tell he was sinfully gorgeous, and as for that accent, it made her want to drool. She couldn’t place it, but, judging by the tanned hand, she guessed he was at least partly Mediterranean. Automatically, she checked out his ring finger. There was no pale band where a ring might have been, though that didn’t mean he was single. She just couldn’t bear to hook up with a man prepared to hurt his partner the way that Stephen had done to her.

Down here in the hall, the situation had started to edge back into her comfort zone, and she smiled. “A friend of a friend I used to work with mentioned this place to me; now I wish she hadn’t. What about you?”

“Something like that… I can see you don’t belong here. Neither of us does.”

Though he hadn’t so much as touched her, the intense look he gave her reached out and caressed her whole body. She felt as if she had been stripped naked by his words. You don’t belong here. Neither of us does. The party had been a disaster, but meeting this man might be fate. She’d never felt such a powerful and instant attraction to a man before, not even with Stephen. Was this the moment when she would finally dare to take a chance? With this exotic stranger?