Snippet Sunday: Cirque du Minuit

Before we get to the circus yumminess, I would like to thank everyone with all my heart for your support of my new release, Command Performance, and my Comfort series in general. Your kind words, encouragement and reviews have helped me feel a real sense of accomplishment and happiness. I could not have asked for a better release day. At one point all four of the books were in Amazon’s top 100 Erotica list. Those are the types of days authors live for, believe me.

Don’t forget that Comfort Object will remain on sale until Nov. 13 as part of the Wicked Nights sale, along with several other great BDSM erotic books. Click this link to be taken to a page with more info on the Wicked Nights sale.

Now on to this week’s Snippet Sunday book! You know, I had the worst time naming Cirque du Minuit. I polled several French friends from a variety of French-speaking countries about whether it should be “de” or “du” Minuit, and got mixed opinions. I decided on the “du” simply because it was similar to Cirque du Soleil, one of my favorite real life circuses. (I’m going to see one of their shows, TOTEM, tomorrow!) Anyway, I do apologize to any readers who are annoyed by the “du”. I think the next book in the series will be called Cirque Brillante, which will preclude the need for any “de” or “du” or “de la”s. I do adore the French language…just wish I could speak it better, lol.

ANYWAY, I will admit that one of my favorite parts about Cirque du Minuit is how “rough around the edges” Theo Zamora is. I based him on a coach who used to work at the gym where my girls took tumbling lessons. He wasn’t exactly handsome and lord knows he wasn’t at all nice, but there was something about him that made you wonder what was under all that gruffness and bluster. He had a great accent…no one ever figured out where he was from. I secretly believed he was from a gypsy circus family. Here’s a snippet from one of the early scenes between him and Kelsey, when he was still in full mysterious and obnoxious Gypsy King mode.

     The door fell away from the flat of her palm and she stumbled into him with his name still on her lips. He caught her before she fell, and released her just as quickly, like it burned to touch her.

     “You again,” he said with disgust.

     Kelsey forged ahead before he shoved her out and slammed the door on her. “Where were you?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

     “Why are you here? Do you know what time it is?”

     “I’m here about her. Minya. Remember her? The memorial service was today. Why weren’t you there?”

     He stood tall, shoulders back, bare-chested, sweatpants riding far too low on his hips. He was as imposing as ever and not a bit ashamed. “I didn’t want to come.”

     “Why not?”

     “She wasn’t my family. Not even a friend. Just a partner.” He stared somewhere over her shoulder. “A slut for sex, when I wanted it. She was nothing to me.”

     “You’re a liar.”

     “Believe what you want to believe.”

     “So you didn’t care about her at all? And yet you’re holed up here, drunk and miserable, rolling around in your own filth?”

     “I showered a few hours ago!”

     Kelsey threw a look around his ransacked living room. “So you always live like this?”

     He sauntered over to his end table to pick up a cigarette. He slid her a look as he lit it behind a cupped hand, and then turned and blew the smoke in her direction.

     “Nice,” she hissed, waving the offending cloud away. “Smoking’s bad for you.”

     “So is trapeze,” he said drily. “If all you wanted to do was come over and yell because I didn’t come to Minya’s service tonight, okay. You’ve done this. You can go now. Go.” He made shooing motions at her. When she didn’t move, he dragged in another deep pull on his cigarette and regarded her through half-lowered lids. “Or maybe you’re here for some other reason. You’re horny? You like rough sex? I’m in the market for a new toy to play with.”

I almost hated to cut off there because it gets so hot by the end of this scene. Definitely one of the faves I’ve ever written. Phew…Theo does something to me, kind of like that coach back at the gym years ago. This is also one of those books with the experienced hero/innocent heroine type tropes (Command Performance and Cait and the Devil were others.) If you haven’t read Cirque du Minuit yet, you can find a blurb and buy links by clicking the book cover below.