Hello, readers. Welcome back to the Hot Seat Series where we ask some of our favourite fictional characters some probing questions.
Join us as we welcome Levi Callister from Coming Attractions by Rosie Vanyon to the hot seat. Check out the exciting interview:
- What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Professionally, I’ve
owned a restaurant and a radio station, raced horses, dabbled in
pharmaceuticals—the legal kind—set up a shipping firm, and tried
stockbroking...among other things. I’ve been called an entrepreneur, a business
buccaneer and a financial daredevil. Heading up a film production company is
cool and I’ve kicked lots of goals in that space. But the biggest achievement? You’ll
have to wait and read about it in the next issue of Forbes.
As for my personal
life? I don’t kiss and tell. *smirks*
- What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Cooking a
delicious meal, pouring some decent wine—red or white, doesn’t matter—, sharing
it with a smart, sexy woman, then slow dancing with her in the dark kitchen and
seeing where the night takes us…
- What is your current state of mind?
My head’s all over
the place—one minute I’m laughing at childhood memories, the next I’m sorting
out the set building crew, but mostly I’m careening up and down a rollercoaster
with Cara Kelly’s name on it, plunging into scary emotional places and climbing
to the highest physical highs of my life. My hormones are in chaos. Hell, maybe
I’m having an early midlife crisis.
- What is your most treasured possession?
I love the
pewter-framed photos by my bed. They’re not professional shots, just everyday
candid pics off someone’s iPhone. But they are images of people I love. Every
morning when I wake up, they remind me what’s important––and that shapes my day.
- What or who is the greatest love of your life?
I’ve never found
true love in a romantic sense. Oh, sure, there have been women––hell, I’m a
Hollywood movie producer. I can take my pick of a thousand gorgeous starlets,
all more than willing to fall at my feet, do my bidding. Zzzz. *snores*
Then, there’s
Cara. She’s something altogether different. Tempestuous, passionate, kind,
honest and utterly delectable… There’s no denying she’s captured my
interest––and she’s hiding something… I can’t get the woman out of my head. If
I didn’t know better, I’d say I was in danger of falling for her.
But I know better.
- What is your most marked characteristic?
Physically? The
scar on my cheek. Yeah, there’s a story behind it. An ugly one that hurts to
even think about. Let’s leave it at that, huh?
- When and where were you the happiest?
I was one of the
lucky kids with an awesome childhood in a small town called Wrightville.
After-school milk and cookies. Minivan. Suburbia. I was one of four kids. My
parents stayed married, still are. Dad was a vet, Mom worked part time as a
florist. They’re retired. We ate meat and three veg every night. We went to all
the local football team’s home games. We ruled the neighborhood on our BMXs,
even my sister.
As an adult, until
really, really recently, I’ve never found anything close to that feeling of
being “home”. But “home” can’t be a person, can it? Especially not a sexy,
secretive writer who pushes all my buttons.
- What is it that you most dislike?
Failure. I won’t
allow it. There’s a clock ticking in my life that’s a very personal timepiece.
The stakes are so high that whenever I think of failing, my mouth dries out and
my pulse spikes so fast I feel lightheaded. So, I’ve stopped thinking of
failing. Ever. I just focus on winning. There is no other option.
- What is your greatest fear?
Motorcycles. I’ll
never ride again.
- What is your greatest extravagance?
- What is your greatest regret?
Two years ago, I
was riding an Aprilia RSV1000R. It was a blast to ride, all right, and I
constantly fanged it at arrest-me-now speeds, believe you me. But I didn’t get
arrested. I wish I had.- What is the quality you most like in a woman?
Secretly? Deep
down? This is off the record, right? Acceptance––I need someone who can handle
the frightened, compromising dark side of my soul as well as the more public,
assured front.
- What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
Before I’ve even
wound up the current big thing, I’m already peeking ahead to see what’s next.
It’s as though nothing quite satisfies me. Some things get close, but nothing totally
fills the hole. Like I’m hungry for some sort of fulfilment I can never get.
My mother says the
love of a good woman is the only thing that will lead to my eventual
contentment. But mom has always been the romantic sort. That kind of nonsense doesn’t
apply to real life…does it?
- What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Greed.
Ironic since,
right now, I need a mega-bucks, mega-soon. If I owned a small country, I’d
probably still struggle to foot the bill I’m facing. It’s nothing illegal,
nothing dodgy. But it’s real and it’s critical and... Look, let’s just say I’m
not exaggerating when I say it’s a matter of life and death.
- What do you most value in your friends?
All the usual
suspects like loyalty and integrity go without saying but what I really count
on is their good humor. Silliness, intelligent wit, playful jokes…doesn’t
matter which. Sometimes I take life a bit too seriously and I count on my
friends, like Otto and Selena, to coax me out of my own head. The best way to
do that is by being funny. Come to think of it, Cara’s pretty funny, too. But
I’m not sure she’s exactly my friend…
- Who is your favorite hero, fictional or real?
I really relate to
John Grisham’s heroes. For instance, in The Firm and The Pelican Brief, they’re ordinary people who have to perform heroic feats to save lives. That’s pretty inspiring. I’ve always wonder if I’d be heroic in the heat of the moment. I guess none of us ever know until we’re in that situation. But, surely, mortal danger is unlikely to come my way.
- On what occasions do you lie?
I don’t lie. In fact, sometimes I go too far the
other way and forget to be tactful and diplomatic. If I get fired up, I can be
insensitive––I just open my mouth and blurt out stuff without thinking about
how it will land.
On the other hand,
there’s some personal things that I keep to myself. That’s not lying, though.
It’s just guarding my privacy.
- Which is your favorite word or phrase?
I don’t know what
my favorite would be but while other people were saying first words like “Ma-ma”
and “Da-da”, I was saying “more” and “again”. Nothing much has
changed––especially when it comes to life’s pleasures.
- What is your least favorite word or phrase?
“Can’t.” It’s not
in my repertoire. If I want it badly enough, I can and I damn well will.
- If you could change one thing about yourself,
what would it be?
I’m the black
sheep, but not very black. Maybe a chic charcoal or a pleasant ashy gray. I can’t
change who I am but I need to find my tribe, you know? If only there was even
one person in the world who really got me. Someone who’d take the good with the
bad. Someone who’d look at me with more than dollar signs in their eyes.
Someone who could see how imperfect I am and want to be around, anyway,
Yeah. If I could
change one thing, it would be to lose the loneliness, you know? To belong.
Blurb
During a freak summer storm, screenwriter and heiress, Cara
Kelly and movie producer, Levi Callister are marooned alone for days in a
mansion used as the set for an erotic film series.
When Levi discovers Cara sleeping naked in one of the sensuously themed rooms, the two embark on a collision course that can only end up in flagrante.
Cara is a nomadic loner, too afraid to commit to family, a home—or even a potted begonia.
Levi is a player—a womanizer and entrepreneur. He needs a lot of money, fast.
So, when sparks fly between the unlikely pair both in and outside of the various sexily-decorated bedrooms, Cara can’t help wondering if Levi’s insatiable interest in her is real—or if it’s just her missing inheritance he’s chasing.
When Levi discovers Cara sleeping naked in one of the sensuously themed rooms, the two embark on a collision course that can only end up in flagrante.
Cara is a nomadic loner, too afraid to commit to family, a home—or even a potted begonia.
Levi is a player—a womanizer and entrepreneur. He needs a lot of money, fast.
So, when sparks fly between the unlikely pair both in and outside of the various sexily-decorated bedrooms, Cara can’t help wondering if Levi’s insatiable interest in her is real—or if it’s just her missing inheritance he’s chasing.
Excerpt
She was practically naked—the last pastel pink scrap of lace hid nothing. He could see, touch, taste everything. And yet there was something incredibly intimate and romantic about the slide of his fingers beneath the waistband of her panties, the slow drift of lace and fingertips over her thighs, the feel of his breath against her center.She was desperately aroused, screamingly eager, wet and hot and throbbing for him. Her clit was puckered tight and the muscles inside her were clenched with anticipation.
He let her panties slither to her ankles, clasped the cheeks of her butt, and pressed his scorching mouth hard and without warning against her wet sex. His lips were apart and he sucked her inside his mouth—the whole plump folded core of her—and his tongue probed unerringly to her clitoris. The feel of his mouth was the most incredible pressure she had ever experienced. The fast, sure flicking of his tongue inside the full suckling of his lips almost drove her out of her mind. She had not known there was pleasure like this to be had.
Her whole body was flushed with longing, her breath was growing irregular, and her pulse was breakdancing all over the place. She could feel the tantalizing edges of orgasm fluttering around the limits of her excitement. But she needed more. Something to tip her over that exquisite, elusive precipice.
“More...” she gasped, clutching at his shoulders as he pressed his face between her thighs, maintaining her pleasure. But even as she begged, she had no idea how he could deliver what she needed. His ministrations were already utterly and deliciously absorbing.
She clung to him, a single drop of perspiration trickling between her engorged breasts as she gasped her need.
“Please…” The word was thin and strangled. She wasn’t even sure what she was asking for.
He slid his right hand from her buttocks around her hip and across her thigh. With nothing more than a gesture, he commanded her thighs apart and, lost in a maelstrom of lust, she mindlessly acquiesced. She felt utterly wanton standing before this man, legs spread while he thrilled her with his talented mouth, his hand stroking relentlessly up and down her thighs.
His fingers traveled lightly, teasingly, sometimes grazing the trimmed hair at her center, occasionally brushing the fleshy entrance to her feminine core.
She could barely catch her breath now and she felt dizzy. Her throat was clamped shut and the razzle-dazzle of dancing lights behind her eyelids told her she was close to losing consciousness. She was no longer holding his shoulders for balance and encouragement. Instead, her fingers dug into his skin for support, and as a desperate plea for him to take her where she needed to go.
“Please, Levi, please...”
He didn’t hesitate. On the next upstroke between her thighs, he drove his finger deep into her sex. Plunging the digit once, twice, thrice into her soaked and scorching channel.
And then she flew apart. The orgasm rocketed through her like a searing star shower. There was no room for thought. Her release was pure sensation, so intense it was almost painful, so complete it was practically spiritual. The spasms rocked the depths of her very being and even as they began to subside, she knew what Levi had given her was a gift both precious and rare, and that the experience had changed her so profoundly there was no return.
Gently, lovingly, he helped her to the bed, easing her quaking body down on the silken covers, sliding beside her and gathering her in his arms. Slowly, as though from far, far away, she came back to herself. First she noticed the warmth of his body in the cool air of the room, the scuff his body hair against her smooth skin, the soothing glide of his fingertips over her quivering arm and her hip. His heartbeat beneath her ear was a perfect counterpoint to the rain thrumming against the window. His breath tasted faintly of mint and wine and her own musk. Her breathing slowed to match his lungs’ steady rhythm and her trembling began to abate.
“You look beautiful there,” he murmured against her hair. “Your golden hair spread all across the bed, your skin glowing, your lips swollen...”
His hands emphasized his words, stroking her body more intently as he spoke. Of their own volition, her fingers followed suit, trailing over his skin, mindlessly exploring the bulges and hollows of his body. He shivered when her short fingernails skimmed his nipple, gasped when she trailed her index finger down his hip toward the waistband of his briefs.
There was no mistaking his arousal. The thick length of him spasmed every time her hand drew close, and there was a tell-tale spot of dampness near the tip. Enjoying his responses, she teasingly drew her fingers around his belly and down the edges of his jutting hipbones, across the elastic of his underwear and up and down the arrow of hair between his navel and the stretch of blue fabric. He hissed and growled and squirmed under her ministrations.
“You are going to drive me completely insane,” he ground out, but he made no move to hurry her or change her agenda. She could see the pulse leaping at his throat, the desperate bob of his Adam’s apple, the sheen of sweat glistening on his brow.
She smiled saccharine sweetly at him and deliberately brushed her hand over the bulge in his pants.
“Really?” Cara said. She did it again. “I’m so sorry...”
“Funny, Cara, you don’t sound very sorry.”
Was he actually panting?
She quirked an eyebrow, her gaze all delighted mischief. “It’s hard to be sorry when there’s this tempting package right in front of me, just begging to be unwrapped.”
“If you’d like to unwrap it, Cara, be my guest.”
“Oh, I’ll unwrap it all right, but I like to open my presents in my own sweet time. I enjoy prolonging the anticipation.”
She scuttled up his body and swallowed his groan in her mouth from her position beside him. The taste of him was complex and addictive. His lips were clever and intuitive. His tongue was thorough and tempting. Cara felt as though she could stay here, kissing like this, lost in Levi forever.
Buy links
Coming Attractions is available from:Amazon UK
Amazon US
All Romance eBooks
Barnes & Noble
Evernight Publishing
Smashwords
Author bio
In between writing
romantic stories, Rosie Vanyon is building a house on a hillside with stunning
mountain views in her childhood home, Tasmania. She’s looking forward to
sharing her dream house with her high-maintenance dog and a couple of
naughty-but-smoochy cats. She has a Creative Arts degree and a grown-up job in
financial services. Rosie has been a writer and editor in fields as diverse as
motoring, travel and tax. She is relieved and elated to (once again) let loose
her ‘romance author’ alter-ego. At last, she is following her heart.
Links
*****
GIVEAWAY!
Make sure to follow the whole tour—the more
posts you visit throughout, the more chances you’ll get to enter the giveaway.
The tour dates are here: http://www.writermarketing.co.uk/prpromotion/blog-tours/currently-on-tour/rosie-vanyon/
Oh yes!!! I loved the blurb!! Adding this one to my TBR list!!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a fun interview. Thanks for stopping by.
Delete