Love Spanks 2014 - Fatal Desire - where some vampires love to kill.... #LoveSpanks #Vampires #Spoiler

Welcome to Love Spanks 2014! Chances are you’ve tasted us and collected the recipes on Ana's blog, so now you get to sample free stories from thirteen top F/F authors (and me). Please visit Governing Ana for the prize list, sign-up sheet, and free books. You can win from a prize pool valued at over $1,000, including a Kindle Fire or Nook HD! (Neat, huh?)

Many authors will also be offer a contest on their individual blogs (like me).  Your comment on their blogs automatically enters you in both the main contest and the individual contests!

What’s the catch?  Absolutely nothing!  We love writing for you and want to thank you for your readership.  Perhaps someone might get a spanking or two, but that’s a reward rather than a catch, right?

How do you play?

1.    Visit each blog between Friday, February 7 and Sunday, February 9 to read the posted stories and excerpts.

2.    Leave a comment answering the story question on each blog.  You will receive one entry per blog for the grand prize drawing.  You will also be automatically entered in that author’s individual contest, if she has one. (And I have one.)

3.    If you have visited all of the blogs, visit Ana’s blog (URL for Governing Ana below) to sign up for FIVE bonus entries to the grand prize.

4.    Deadline is midnight EST (UTC -5) on February 9!!

5.    If you successfully completed a previous challenge (Spank or Treat 2013, Spankee Doodle 2013, Love Spanks 2013, or Spank or Treat 2012), you may add “VIP” to your comments.  You will earn THREE bonus entries toward the grand prize.  (Yes, we will be doing this again.  Yes, if you successfully complete the Love Spanks 2014 challenge you can become a VIP for our next activity!)

6.    If you are a F/F author or thinking of becoming one, please add “FF” to your comments. That way, your name will be entered in the special F/F author prize drawings.

7.    Visit any of the participating blogs on Friday, February 14 to find out the lucky winners.  Will it be you?

For more information, updates, and a list of participating authors, please visit Anastasia Vitsky’s blog.

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Now for my story.  First of all, I want to put the record straight (no pun intended).  I write M/f romance.  However, I also support gay rights and marriage equality, so I often have gay characters in my books, especially those with plots that revolve around the theater.  I do realize that's a bit of a stereotype, but it's also true to life.  The following excerpt is from Part One of Fatal Desire, my vampire romance sequel to Mortal Illusions.  It's a pivotal scene that I'd classify as a spoiler. I'm not sure this book will ever be published, since it's sitting on the back burner in a different state right now, so I decided to post this scene because it's in keeping with this year's Love Spanks F/F theme.  I also removed a lot of the history from the excerpt in order to make the Love Spanks word count, but the characters and their motivations all remain the same.  That said, if you like vampire romances and think you might like to read the book one day, I'll give you a question you can answer without reading this excerpt.  Setup: A group of strangers are locked away in an English Castle for a "haunted weekend" and one of the guests has been found dead in her room under very suspicious circumstances. My SPOILER excerpt follows between the red dividers.

           Juliette gazed warmly at Amanda.  "You are a true friend to help me in this way."  Stepping closer, she held out her arms.  "We are best friends, yes?"

           With a small nod, Amanda clasped the other woman's hands and received a tender smile before Juliette drew her in close for a hug.  When Amanda tentatively returned the embrace, Juliette grasped Amanda's face between her palms.  Her eyes aglow with passionate longing, the Frenchwoman leaned forward and kissed Amanda lightly on the lips.

           Amanda had heard Europeans were more 'touchy-feely' than Americans, but something about Juliette's kiss made her want to back away.  However, when she tried to disengage from the clench, Juliette curled her fingers in Amanda's hair.  "You are so young and innocent.  It has been so long for me that I can no longer recall ever being as you are."

           Despite her unease, Amanda gave a small laugh.  "I may be naive, Juliette, but I believe I'm several years older than you.  How old are you?  Twenty?  Twenty-two?"

           Juliette's laughter pealed forth with amusement.  "Ahh, you are most delightful, ma cherie.  I suspect you and I could be better than best friends.  Perhaps lovers, if you will allow."

           Her stomach lurching into her throat like the floor had suddenly given way beneath her; Amanda shook her head and stepped back.  "I'm sorry, Juliette, but the invitation to share my room was nothing more than an offer of friendship.  If I led you to believe otherwise, I apologize.  You may be an amiable, caring young woman and a devoted lover, but I prefer men."

           Juliette closed the distance between them.  "How can you deny the pleasures of Venus if you have yet to experience what she offers, eh?  You think you know all about passion and desire now that a man has thrust himself between your legs?  Bah!  Men have only the crudest understanding of sex, while a woman understands what another will find pleasurable."  Juliette stroked a slender finger along the curve of Amanda's cheek.  "Men make love like brutish, rutting beasts compared to the tender touches a woman uses to tease delicate, female flesh."

           Shuddering, Amanda retreated another step.  "I believe all individuals have the right to choose their course in life.  If you prefer women to men, I wish you much success and happiness, but I do not swing that way.  I'm sorry."

           Except rather than step back, Juliette moved closer and put her hands on Amanda's arms.  "Ahh, but you need not do anything, ma petite, except close your eyes and let me show you how beautiful we can be together."

           Amanda drew back, but Juliette pursued and pressed cool lips against Amanda's firmly clamped ones.  A subtle shift of air accompanied Marcus's flash into the room as Amanda pushed Juliette away and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

           "Back off, Juliette.  I said no, and I meant it."

           Juliette appeared crestfallen.  Then with unexpected speed, she yanked Amanda close and wrapped an arm around her neck, pressing Amanda's spine to her front.  Though Amanda detested being held that way by anyone, her small cry of surprise quickly morphed into a gasp of fear when a sharp, thin knife pressed against her throat.

           "Your stubbornness is most unfortunate, ma chere, for if you will not join me, you shall have to join the others--in death.  Though perhaps not right away."

           Amanda was struggling to understand what Juliette meant when Marcus spoke.  "Let her go, du Marchand.  She is not the one you want.  Hurt her, and I will not hesitate to rip you apart."

           "Ahh," Juliette murmured, pressing a light kiss to Amanda's ear.  "The hero charges to the rescue.  However, you are wrong, monsieur.  I do want Amanda, and I intend to take her--willing or otherwise."

           "That would be your second mistake."

           "And what, if I may ask, would you consider my first?"

           "Coming here in the first place."  He regarded her evenly.  "You are not my child.  I would have sensed it if you were.  So, who made you?"

           Amanda struggled to wrap her mind around this surreal conversation.  Juliette was a lesbian vampire?  Why had no one discovered that fact about her before now?

           Juliette's hold tightened.  Not so much to choke as to remind Amanda who was in charge.  "Tell me, ma petite," she whispered in Amanda's ear.  "Did your lover happen to mention he was once married?"

           Her throat compressed, Amanda gave a slight cough.  Juliette loosened her grip, but kept the knife pressed to Amanda's neck.  Then the arm, which had so recently restrained Amanda in a choke-hold, drifted lower to rest in the curve below her breasts.  When Amanda didn't reply, Juliette's fingers cupped Amanda's left breast, while her thumb dragged back and forth across its nipple.  Amanda stiffened, but Juliette's caresses persisted.  "My question was not idle, cherie.  I await your answer."

           "Yes," Amanda finally managed to squeak.  "He told me."

           "Good," Juliette murmured, lowering her thumb.

           Due to their blood connection, Marcus's rage burned through Amanda like liquid fire.  Realizing her lover's thinning restraint was close to snapping, Amanda sought to mask her own reactions to prevent him from pouncing prematurely.  Her life depended on it.

           "Did he also confess what he did to her?" Juliette inquired, her tone far more casual than her embrace.

           "No," Amanda answered truthfully.

           "I see," Juliette purred.  "Did you think Amanda might not understand, Aularius?  Is that why you kept your deed a secret from her?"

           Though Marcus's demeanor remained impassive, Juliette had clearly touched a sore point with him.  "We had other more pressing matters to discuss, but I fail to comprehend how my relationship with Josette might possibly matter to you."

           "Do you?" she asked silkily.  "We were lovers, Aularius.  Your wife preferred women to men, and me to you.  Did you not realize that?  She would often tell me how you made her feel defiled and afraid, while I made her feel worshiped and safe.  She loved me."

           "Josette was renowned for loving a different person each week, du Marchand.  So, what makes you think you were anything special?"

           Juliette hissed, and the knife at Amanda's throat pressed in a little deeper as Juliette's nails dug into the flesh below Amanda's breast.  Amanda stiffened and drew in a quick breath at the sharp, stinging pain, but gave no other reaction.  Marcus arched one eyebrow to indicate he wasn't fooled, though he understood her message, and the heat of his anger eased a fraction.  She had made the right call.

           "I suppose you say such things to lessen your feelings of betrayal by the woman you married," Juliette murmured, soothing Amanda's chest with the tips of her fingers.  "You may have been her sire, Aularius, but you were never her favorite."

           Marcus shrugged.  "So, who made you?"

           Juliette's fingertips traced an idle pattern along Amanda's rib cage, rubbing the silk of her peach blouse. "You do not know her.  She, too, died during the revolution, though not at your hand."

           What did that mean?  Amanda scowled at Marcus, but he didn't meet her gaze.

           "Were you mortal or already transformed when you made Josette's acquaintance?" he inquired, his tone a model of casual conversation.

           "Ahh.  I was vampire when we met."  Juliette's hand shifted back to Amanda's breast, which she stroked again with her thumb.  "We were two of a kind, although I never understood how she could stand being with you."

           "No.  I am sure you could not."

           "So," she whispered in Amanda's ear, "your brave, handsome lover did not tell you how he callously took his wife's life, did he?"

           Unsure if Juliette was lying, Amanda gazed at Marcus, but his focus remained fixed on their adversary.

           Annoyed by Amanda's silence, Juliette gave her nipple a pinch.  "Did he?" she asked more sharply.

           Amanda jerked and hissed, then forced herself to relax again.  "No," she answered, trying to keep her tone and expression even.  "He did not."

           "This man you claim to love decided his wife was unfit to live, and since he made her, he determined he would be the instrument of her destruction."  Juliette began tracing small circles around the edge of Amanda's sore breast as she spoke.  "I can remember it as if it were yesterday.  Paris was hot and humid in July of 1793.  Uncomfortable for the undead, but almost unbearable for mortals."  Juliette's fingers clamped down on Amanda's nipple; hard enough to make her draw a sharp breath, then she lightly raked her nails across the tender area until it peaked. "Lovely," she murmured with an approving smile before she placed a kiss at Amanda's temple.  "Most responsive."

           Amanda wanted nothing more than to be free of the other woman, but her body responded, despite her mind's rejection.  She closed her eyes and tried not to move when Juliette's hand slipped inside her pants to rest above Amanda's pubic bone.  Amanda cast a surreptitious glance at Marcus, and if looks could kill, Juliette would have been staked to the ground.  Convinced any protest on her part would only spur the gladiator into reacting, Amanda held her breath.  But that wasn't what Juliette wanted.

           "Part your legs for me, ma petite, so I may pet you properly while we talk."  Amanda separated her feet a few inches.  "More," Juliette whispered in a silken command.  "Wide enough for my hand to fit between your lovely thighs, yes?"

           Swallowing, Amanda complied, then closed her eyes again to hide her revulsion from Marcus.   "I will make you wet for me, cherie," Juliette purred.  "You may not think you want this, but your body says otherwise.  Ahh, there is your little bud of desire," she murmured when Amanda jerked and gasped in reaction to her touch.  "I think I shall play with her for a bit while I finish my story, and you will let me because you know I can bring you pleasure.  Yes?"

           "Yes," Amanda replied, fighting back tears of humiliation.

           "Perfect, my little flower.  I shall show you the true meaning of ecstasy, and you will come for me as your lover looks on."  When Amanda made no reply, Juliette's fingers gripped Amanda's sensitive flesh and twisted while the knife at Amanda's throat pressed even deeper.  Amanda bit back a cry of pain.  "Your response, ma petite, should be, 'Yes, Mistress. I will do whatever pleases you.'"

           Amanda swallowed down her nausea.  "Yes, Mistress.  I will do whatever pleases you," she echoed in a weak voice, hoping more than anything she lied.

           "Excellent.  I shall continue.  The King was dead and the Queen was imprisoned in the Temple Tower in the Marais.  A few weeks earlier, her eight-year-old son had been taken away to be turned into a proper little revolutionary soldier."  As she spoke, Juliette's fingers soothed the spot they had so cruelly pinched, and began stroking Amanda with a firm rhythm.  To her horror, Amanda's body tensed with need.  She didn't want to respond, but she was growing moist and in a moment, she would begin grinding her pelvis in time with Juliette's knowing caresses.  Juliette continued talking as if she remained unaware of Amanda's internal struggle, however, the increased pressure of her fingers told Amanda the Frenchwoman knew exactly what effect her stroking produced.  "Tell me, m'sieur, did you release the blade that decapitated your wife, or did someone else perform that bloodthirsty deed for you?"

           Her brain fogged by a haze of undesired pleasure, Amanda opened her eyes to find Marcus staring at Juliette without answering her.  Unable to help herself, Amanda groaned and pushed back against Juliette's shoulder as her body betrayed her, then with a small cry of release she gave the other woman the response she sought as a burning, red haze pervaded Amanda's mind.  Marcus.  Her livid lover took a step forward, but she raised a hand to stop him.  If he interfered now, Juliette would kill her--literally.

Yes, I know I cheated by ending there, but I was only allowed 2000 words.  So, for my prize, I'm offering one eBook copy of any one of my five books.  Rather than detail them here (since you already have enough reading to do) I'll provide you with links where you can read about them at your leisure.

For excerpts to Mortal Illusions and Deadly Enchantment, please visit: http://www.kathrynrblake.com/booksreviews.html

For 18+ only excerpts to Arrested by Love, A Dom's Dilemma and Acting Lessons, please visit:

http://www.kathrynrblake.com/spankingromance.html

To enter, just leave a comment here telling me what sort of romance you enjoy and why.  Doesn't have to be complicated, just write in your comment saying whether you enjoy hot steamy historical romances because they get your juices flowing, or sweet, romantic contemporaries because they make your heart lighter.  In as many words as you want, tell me what your favorite type of love story is and why.  Don't worry.  I won't tell anyone you secretly enjoy purple alien BDSM breeder stories. Honest. (P.S. Don't forget to leave your e-mail address so I can contact you.)

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you enjoy the Love Spanks experience.  Now click on the Love Spanks badge in my sidebar to visit the other authors and see what goodies they're offering.  Go on.  Shoo!