Guest post by Alexa Bourne
Thank you to Sara for inviting me for a visit! While I’m
here can I introduce you to the Cooper brothers, Grady and Scott? They both
have the same father. There are only a few years between them. They both played
sports as kids and both have gone into some type of law enforcement. With all
these similarities, you might think these two men were very close. But you know
what? They’re not. There is so much angst between them that when they do run
into each other, barbed words fly out of their mouths in hopes of stabbing the heart
of the other. Yeah, absolutely no love here.
Grady was the first one to become a character in my book,
LIAR, LIAR. He charged right toward me and demanded I share his story.
Sometimes he was sweet and charming and sometimes he shoved right through my brain
to get his way. I have to admit writing his story was a wild ride and I
wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.
But as I put LIAR, LIAR together, Scott quietly urged me to
include him. As I wrote the necessary scenes with both brothers, Scott kept
suggesting where to take his secondary character storyline. Then, when the book
was already in edits, he convinced me how wonderful of a character he is and
how he deserves his own happily-ever-after story.
Grady, I’m pretty sure, isn’t too thrilled with this idea,
but his vicious attitude toward his brother dulled (a teeny, tiny bit) through
LIAR, LIAR. He’s willing to give his consent to me uncovering Scott’s story
just as long as he doesn’t have to take part in it. But I have a few plot
tricks in my author bag and I plan to use every one. The tension between the
brothers can still be explosive and I really, really want to play with
fire!
Blurb:
Unable to
protect her mother from her father as a child, Devin McQueen has made it her
mission as an adult to protect as many abused women and children as she can.
The rare moments she’s not consumed with work as a victims’ advocate, she
limits her involvements to safe, predictable men….until she meets bounty hunter
Grady Cooper. He is big, bold, brash, and has no problem speaking his mind.
Growing
up in a broken home, Grady realized early on that good deeds had a price.
To survive, he learned to weigh every decision by what he could gain. Unfortunately, the successful,
solitary life he’s worked so hard to create spins out of control when demons
from his past shake his confidence. His boss has given him one last
chance—bring in Devin’s latest client quickly, and quietly and maybe he’ll
still have a job. It didn’t sound unreasonable until he met Devin.
Suddenly, Grady must make a decision: save his
career or follow his heart?
Today is DAY 4 of my
LIAR, LIAR Blog Tour! Come follow me on this path, tweet about the tour and
share the details on Facebook. For each comment you make (or tweet or Facebook
post) along the way, you’ll move closer to winning one of three great prizes!
Excerpt:
If
Grady Cooper had any hope of salvaging his professional reputation, he needed
to charm Devin McQueen into giving him what she’d never given any other man.
He
tucked his keys into his cargo shorts, stared up at the five-story office
building and cursed the humidity.
And
his dilemma.
Needing
anyone was bad enough. Being forced to rely on a complete stranger to help
prove he wasn’t a menace to society was as appealing as the Red Sox using his
head for batting practice. If she refused to help him, he’d lose his job
for sure.
“That’s
not going to happen,” he whispered. He’d do whatever he had to, promise her the
world even, to get himself out of this mess and restore his reputation. By the
time she realized he had no intention of honoring his pledge, he’d be a free
man and he could get back to chasing the bad guys instead of being labeled one.
Whatever
it took.
He
pushed the glass door open and flew up the stairs two at a time to the third floor.
As he walked down the hallway, he glanced at the business names on the doors:
law offices, non-profit offices, save the bleeding heart offices. Rooms of
people he’d probably chased a bail jumper for at one time or another.
Loud
thumps filtered into the hallway from somewhere up ahead.
The
hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Trade rule number one: Always expect
the worst. Still, the noises could have been any number of things: a fallen
chair, a muffled voicemail message, boxes of printer paper being dropped. It
could have been nothing connected to this woman.
As
he got closer to the door with Soul Survivors carved on it, the name of
McQueen’s business, the noises got louder. Glass shattered. A series of thumps
passed from behind the door. A woman’s voice flew through the walls like a
high-pitched war cry.
What
if someone wanted Devin McQueen even more than Grady did?
Too
bad. He had to put his own needs first.
Adrenaline
pushed him. He turned the doorknob.
Damn
it. Locked.
He
shoved his shoulder against the wooden door. It budged. Barely. Inside, more
glass broke. A male voice growled through a string of swear words.
Whoever
stood on the other side of this door could not have her.
Grady
gritted his teeth and jammed his shoulder against the door again. This time, it
flew open and hurled him into the office.
Silence
reigned across the room. With his shoulder throbbing, he scanned the scene. One
upended chair, one thug cradling his nuts, the other, older one, bleeding from
his nose and one wild-eyed woman in the center of it all. The bleeding man had
his arms wrapped around the woman’s chest, crushing her…assets under his
forearms.
Grady bit back a grin. If this was Devin
McQueen, then some of the rumors were true. She could hold her own. But
now she didn’t need to. “What’s the matter, guys? Couldn’t find anyone your own
size to pick on?”
Decadent: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=883&osCsid=kvlpem3v3hhlkreki53dnagu46
Alexa Bourne is a teacher by day and a romance writer by nights, weekends, and all school holidays. She also teaches online classes for writers throughout the year. She writes romantic suspense and contemporary romance and is thrilled to have the chance to share her stories with readers everywhere.
When she’s not concocting sinister plots and steamy love scenes or traveling and exploring new cultures, Alexa spends her time reading, watching brainless TV, and thinking about exercising. Okay, she also spends way too much time interacting with readers and writers on social media sites. But don’t tell her editors! Find out more about her and her books on her website, www.alexabourne.com.
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