Fiona McGier, EroticRomance Author

 Today my first-ever sci-fi romance debuts! Learning to Love involves a dystopic future (is there any other kind?) when humans have to live in domes on Earth, because the acid rain and the lack of an ozone layer mean skin cancer for anyone brave enough to venture out of a dome without protective clothing. And fertility rates world-wide have dropped so low that females have no rights to their bodies--they're owned by the state. Some have decided to brave the long travel to a new planet, and Mesa Verde was one of the first to be colonized. When Elena, a teacher, can no longer bear her existence on Earth, she pays cash bribes to all who can help her get on the next starliner to Mesa Verde, since females are not allowed to leave the planet alone. Once there, she keeps to herself, making few friends, and praying that the Earthman she had to escape from never finds her.

​Why are they green? The indigenous plants on Mesa Verde are nutritious, but have a strong chlorophyll in them that gradually turns one's skin green. The hue depends on what color your skin was to start with. But it's a small price to pay to be able to move freely outdoors.

Now available through my publisher--soon to be at all of the usual book sellers' sites. 
https://www.extasybooks.com/Learning-to-Love

There are only a couple of romance authors that I regard as auto-buy. Lisabet Sarai is one of them. From her books, I've learned to appreciate the nuances of BDSM, and to understand what it provides for participants. She also writes damn good steamy scenes! This book had everything I enjoy in her stories, including a touch of supernatural.

My review: 
Ah, the Faustian bargain! Riches and success can be yours, if only you sign the contract to give the devil your soul! After all, you don't really need it, so you'll never miss it, right?

Ms Sarai updates this to have a female romance author who dreams of the success that has eluded her. (Don't we all? Sigh...) But the devil, Mr. B, wearing a very sexy male body, turns up to offer Wendy what she's always wanted. And he immediately starts rewarding her, even before she signs the contract. Her agent calls her, telling her a big-six publisher wants to give her a huge advance for her next book. Plus there is interest in making her books into movies. Wow! But Wendy is a smart woman, and she negotiates a release clause. Not that she intends to use it--not when she's finally getting everything she's always wanted!

Mr. B helps Wendy with her love life also. She's often lusted after her agent, but thought of him as unavailable, due to their friendship. Instead, Mr. B becomes the master that Wendy didn't even know she craved. She becomes a sub who enjoys herself way more than she ever thought possible--which leads her writing to become more BDSM explicit, and concomitantly, makes her books best-sellers even in pre-sales. After a night of celebrating her, and therefore their success, she and her agent fall into bed, where she discovers he's really a dom in disguise, and she's always been in his fantasies. But she's being kept way too busy with her new life, to even have time to answer his phone calls--which she never hears, because Mr. B doesn't deem them important enough to disturb her writing time.

Wendy finds to her dismay, that she doesn't recognize herself anymore. To her horror, she realizes that she really would miss her soul, because she's already been acting like it's gone! Will Mr. B allow her to break their contract? Will she even want to? Will she choose continued anonymity over wildly rewarding success? For what? The chance of a relationship with a real man, and not the devil? Read and find out!

BUY LINK
​www.amazon.com/Damned-If-You-Do-Dance-ebook/dp/B09PSN7XGX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=9L1OHKQDWS7F&keywords=damned+if+you+do+by+lisabet+sarai&qid=1684882036&sprefix=damned+if+you+do+by+lisabet+sarai%2Caps%2C80&sr=8-1



ABOUT LISABETLisabet Sarai became addicted to words at an early age. She began reading when she was four. She wrote her first story at five years old and her first poem at seven. Since then, she has written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – over one hundred titles, and counting, in nearly every sub-genre—paranormal, scifi, ménage, BDSM, GLBT, and more. Regardless of the genre, every one of her stories illustrates her motto: Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
You’ll find information and excerpts from all Lisabet’s books on her website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html), along with more than fifty free stories and lots more. At her blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com), she shares her philosophy and her news and hosts lots of other great authors. She’s also on Goodreads, BookBub and Twitter. Join her VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh
GIVEAWAYYou could win a $25 bookstore gift certificate. To enter, just complete a short survey. (Only four questions!)
https://forms.gle/TFvmc9ZegEn4RuJr5
If you’re a member of Lisabet’s email list, your entry will count twice! Not a member? Join here:
https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh

This month's Round Robin blog hop addresses emotional pain for your protagonists--how do we help them cope and heal?
I read another blog recently that asked where all of the unlikable heroines are, since unlikable heroes are often standard issue for romances. I pointed out that I've written at least 4 heroines that I've been told in reviews are "unlikable and unrelatable." But all are acting out the emotional pain they carry with them. And in each of the books, the love they find with a good man helps them to heal. Cliché? Yes. But also a great way to bond two characters together, to heal them both.
*****************************************

In this, the 5th in my Reyes Family Romances, Catalina is a very sexual woman. She's a player, who sees no need to settle down with one man. Her boss's boss, the man who owns the paper she writes for, uses her talents to smear those he wants discredited. He tells her he'll ensure she never gets another writing job if she doesn't write what he demands. This time he wants the analyst his son saw to be destroyed, and he doesn't care if she has to make things up. The analyst is blind, so Catalina is at first at a loss, since he can't see how sexy she is. But she manages to seduce him, in a scene that some reviewers have found offensive. During the rest of the story, they fall in love, but doctor/patient restrictions demand they keep their hands to themselves. Catalina's emotional pain builds as she realizes how much she's grown to care for the doctor, and how many lies she'll have to tell, since he really is a decent man. So she writes 2 different articles, and agonizes over which one to submit--the one her boss wants? Or the one in which she wrote about the man she's fallen deeply in love with? And what will happen when the analyst finds out why she's been coming to see him? Is it worth risking any future employment, when he might not understand?
​*****************************************

In Only One Man Will Do, Alexandra is the elder of two daughters, and the one her father trained to take over his marketing firm when he retired to enjoy golfing, and his trophy wife. What he doesn't realize is how much pain he caused to Alexandra when he dumped her mother for a younger woman. She's determined to never be at the mercy of any man--like her mother, who still loves her dad. She runs the firm successfully during the week, but on weekends, she heads a biker gang that involves a few women, but lots of men that Alexandra hand-picked, using more than her hands! When an ex-KGB agent decides to try to tame her, sparks fly. Can he convince her that she only needs one man, as long as it's him? And how will the rest of the men in the gang feel about that?
​******************************************

In Her Last Resort, Stella has to kill a young man in the first chapter! She's a retired CIA agent, who wants to leave her past behind her. But someone is sending would-be-agents after her, and she's tired of all of the killing she keeps having to do. When her estranged adult daughter, a famous movie star, wants her to join her for a week at a cabin in northern Minnesota, she arrives by circuitous travelling arrangements, hoping that no one will follow her. Her pain stems from the divorce so long ago, when her then-husband forced her to choose between her family and her job. But the circumstances didn't allow her to make any other choice. Her son refuses to talk to her, and she hopes for a chance with her daughter. Luckily, the owner of the resort they stay at is a retired KGB agent, and many of his relatives that he's sponsored into the USA also have specialized skills. He can help Stella--if she'll let him. But can she learn to trust a man again?
​****************************************

Prophecy of the Mayan Undead is a compilation of the two books I originally published. Now it's a long saga. The second part involves a Chinese national female, Niu Ying, who was born during the early days of the Chinese revolution of the mid-20th century, when the 1-child rule was newly in effect. Her parents wanted to try for a son, so they sold her to the state. She's brilliant, so she was educated, but was always treated harshly by her misogynistic male colleagues who made her life hell. Then a powerful vampire decided to add her to his employees, and brought her brutally across to the undead existence--which has actually been even worse than her life was! So when she meets a blue-skinned, furry alien, who tries to get her to embrace her humanity, she's not sure she wants to, since all it's ever brought her is pain. This story is set against the backdrop of the return of another alien race, who intends to capture and take more humans to their planet as slaves. Can they be stopped?
*************************************
​As I've said in previous blogs, I don't like to write the same story over and over again. I get bored easily. In fact, when I enjoy a book by a new author, I will go check out the website. If it seems that this is the only plot the author uses, and all books will essentially be the same story with different names and places, then I don't ever read that author again. Of course, this means you never know what you'll get when you read one of my books. But you will get strong heroines, equally strong--usually beta heroes, and steamy sex scenes that will cement the relationship between them. That is always the same. Everything else will be different with each book. 
Viva la Difference!

To find out what other authors have to say on this subject, hop to the next blog. Enjoy!

Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2W9
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/
Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

Yes, the people who live on Mesa Verde turn green. It's one of the first planets to be colonized by humans seeking to escape from the Earth made increasingly unlivable by chemical pollution, lack of an ozone layer, and acid rain. Mesa Verde is a bucolic paradise, where the sun is welcoming to your skin, and the fertile ground grows plants in abundance. But the plants have a particularly intense form of chlorophyll in them, that gradually turn human skins to green. The hue varies, based on your ethnicity, but all who eat the local plants will  turn a shade of green eventually. The early colonists decided it was a small price to pay, for being able to live in harmony with nature, instead of fearing it.

This book will be available on May 26th from my publisher:
www.extasybooks.com/Learning-to-Love

Soon after that, it will be available at all of the usual booksellers, including Smashwords, the big A, and Barnes and Noble.

I don't have a cover yet, but my next new book, released on May 26th, will be Learning to Love. This is my first attempt at a sci-fi romance. I love to read and watch movies/shows with sci-fi themes, (Trekkie from WAY back!), but my muse doesn't usually give me inspiration in that direction. I could see making this book into the start of a series. But that's for another day. This story is set on a planet the human inhabitants call Mesa Verde, one of the first planets to be colonized by humanity fleeing the over-heated, death-spiraling planet their ancestors worked so hard to destroy. Mesa Verde's indigenous edible plants are a potent source of chlorophyll, so eating local foods gradually gives all human skins a green tinge.

Since this is the Steam blog-hop, I chose this scene with the heroine, who has only recently acknowledged her feelings for a young man she taught many years ago. He's been attempting to pursue her for many years, but she's always rebuffed him. Now that they have become a couple, he takes her to his parents' house for a gathering. When he's drafted to chop wood outside, she watches him through the window, admiring his sexy body.

A short time later, Dakota led the way into his family’s large cabin. His parents had raised six children, so theirs was one of the larger living quarters. It had begun as one of the cannibalized officer rooms from the starships originally, then had extra rooms added on as they were needed. The family room was in the center of the building, and it was large enough to have seating for most of the family, with children encouraged to sit on the various cushions around the room on the floor. There was a fireplace in the middle of the room, giving off heat for the entire building and doubling as a secondary cooking area.
   Elena tried to remain as invisible as possible to quiet her nerves. She was warmly greeted by a general Hello as they entered the crowded family room. Once Dakota had brought her a glass of beer, he was drafted by his father to help bring in wood for the fireplace to keep the room warm. Elena moved to the outskirts of the room, watching through the open window as Dakota chopped wood and stacked it.
   His tall, lean body seemed to be made for any physical activity he might choose. His long, straight black hair was tied back with a piece of leather that came from the same skin as the pants he was wearing. The leather of the pants hugged his thighs and butt, making her press her thighs together, smiling to herself, remembering how she’d teased him that he was purposely wearing tight pants to entice her. His dark green skin shone with perspiration as his wiry arms wielded the maul, first lifting it high into the air, then swinging it down to drive the wedge into the large hunks of tree trunk in front of him.  
   Elena forgot where she was for a moment, lost in admiring the musculature of the man whose body she was becoming so familiar with that even in a crowded room, she could think of nothing else but private moments they’d
shared. She jumped when a voice spoke close to her ear.
   “He’s quite good at that, isn’t he?” Rianna asked conversationally.
   “Um, yes, yes, he is.”
   “I mean at showing off for you.”
   Elena turned quickly to see humor in the eyes of his grandmother. She managed a small smile and a nod back.
   “He’s good at anything that involves the outdoors. That’s why he was the obvious choice to replace me as outfitter when Angelo wanted me to retire to spend more time with him and the grandchildren.”
   “He likes what he does, so it doesn’t even seem like work
to him.”
   Rianna nodded. “You’re like that also. Teaching is your passion, which is why you’re so good at it. I don’t think anyone else on this planet could get teenagers to read Shakespeare’s plays, or other works of literature, whose words are so far removed from the reality of their life here. What is that old Earth saying? Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life?”
* * *
Rianna continues to talk about why her family left Earth.
   "My family had always been healers and practitioners of the oldest pagan religion in the British Islands. We were Druids, yet unable to touch an actual tree without gloves on for fear of the sun and the acid rain. Going to see trees in the indoor arboretums was a thrill, but it was still not the same.”
   “I’ve read about Druids,” Elena said shyly. “But I didn’t know that was what you are.”
   “You teach many of the works of literature produced by Celtic writers, my dear. Shakespeare, Dickens, Tolkien. All are on your reading list, right?”
   Elena nodded.
   Rianna turned to her and smiled, the creases around her mischievous blue eyes crinkling as she changed the topic of conversation sneakily. “Do you mean that my grandson, that bad boy, hasn’t told you anything about his family yet? Whatever do you two talk about afterward? The weather?”
   Elena was broadsided by the question and felt herself growing hot, her blush beginning with a dark reddish tinge to the olive-green skin on her face and spreading downwards until even her fingertips burned. “I, uh, um--”
   “Rianna! You aren’t responsible for making the poor girl blush like that, are you?” Lalani, Dakota’s mother, approached them, holding a plate of appetizers.
   “Who? Me?” Rianna was all wounded-innocence.
   Lalani turned to Elena to speak in a conspiratorial tone. “She did the same thing to me when I first began my relationship with Erik. She said it was her way of finding out if I was determined enough to stay with him. If she could
scare me off, I wouldn’t last long. I think she just likes to embarrass people, so she never misses an opportunity!”
   Lalani turned to Rianna. “Do you?”
   Rianna threw her head back and laughed. “Of course not! But it worked, didn’t it? You weren’t afraid of me, and here you still are. Now let’s see if Elena has what it takes to join the family.”
   Lalani shook her head. “I refuse to help you torture someone my son is so madly in love with. Whether or not things work out between them, it’s up to them, not you or me, to find that out.”
   Elena smiled gratefully at Lalani.
   Rianna stuck out her tongue at her. “Fine! Elena, you go back to staring at Dakota out the window. But you’d better grab one of those napkins Lalani has to wipe the drool off your chin.”
   With a dramatic flourish, Rianna turned and headed back to the center of the room, where she quickly inserted herself into a lively debate about the best fishing methods.
   Lalani smiled at Elena, patting the back of her hand.
* * *
After introducing Elena to her mother, Beatrice, Lalani changes the subject.
   Lalani popped one of the meat rolls into her mouth before turning to Elena. “Do you want to carry this plate of appetizers out to see if Dakota is ready to take a break? You can grab a beer for him on the way out the door. I’ll bet that all of that chopping is making him hungry. But then, between you and me, just breathing makes that man hungry. I’ve never seen anyone so thin eat so much with so little evidence!”
   Elena nodded in agreement, grateful for the chance to escape the crowd. She turned to Beatrice. “Nice to meet you. If you’ll excuse me?”
   Beatrice grinned at her. “Yes, go feed your man.”
   Elena took the half-empty plate and headed for the keg to refill her own cup and get a full one for Dakota. She passed some of his nieces and nephews who were carrying wood in for the fireplace in the center of the family room. None of them seemed surprised to see her there.
   They must have been told by their parents that I would be here with Dakota. I hope they don’t think that being related to me is going to help out their grades! That Omar never does his reading homework on time. He claims he’s too busy working with his dad on the technology to produce new solar lights.
   The offending Omar nodded at her as he passed. “I’m halfway done with Hamlet, Ms. Elena. I’ll be done with it on time...maybe.”
   She gave him a stern look. “You’d better be, or I’ll make you do research, then write me a five-paragraph paper telling me what you’ve learned about time management skills.”
   He gave her a sheepish grin and continued into the cabin with his armload of wood.
   Elena stopped when she was just out of reach of the wood chips that were flying through the air from the force of the ax now being wielded by her man. Dakota looked up to give her a smile, which expanded when he saw what she was carrying.
   Yummy! He’s all sweaty and flushed. I know we had sex this morning before we got here, but I can’t wait to get him alone again! The not-so-insignificant bulge in those tight pants of his means he’s probably thinking the same thing.
   “Elena, you’re an angel from heaven! I’ve worked up a real thirst out here, and you even nabbed some of the appetizers for me.”
   He pulled her close for a quick, sweaty hug, then lifted the cup and drained almost all of the beer before he reached for a couple of the tiny pieces of seasoned meat wrapped in leaves.
   “It was really your mother’s idea,” Elena began, “because she saw that I was blushing at what Rianna was saying, so she came to rescue me. She was carrying this plate of food and suggested I might bring it out to you.”
   He nodded while he chewed. “Good old Mom! Always thinking of my stomach. She’s just happy that I’ve outgrown being the picky eater that I was as a kid. Now I eat anything that I think I can digest. And I’m even willing to try new things to see if I can.”
***
One of Dakota's nieces chats with them, then heads into the house. Dakota pulls Elena close for a kiss.
   "But tell me, were you watching me out of that window all the time I
was out here?”
   Elena looked guilty. “Uh...most of the time. Except when Rianna was embarrassing me by teasing me about drooling on myself while I watched.”
   He trailed his lips across her face to her ear, nipped her earlobe, and spoke softly, his breath blowing hot across the tiny hairs on her neck. “Why were you watching me? Did it excite you? Did it make you think of naughty things you want to do with me later when we get back home?”
   She twitched when he bit her neck. “Yes,” she stammered. She pulled his head down for a long, lingering kiss, which she abruptly broke off, pushing him back. “Wait a minute! You knew I was watching? You were performing for me? All that time, I was feeling like a voyeur, and you were posing for me? You cad! What if your nieces had seen what you were doing? How sexy you looked?”
   He popped a couple more of the appetizers into his mouth and chewed slowly, smirking at her. “They just thought I smelled bad and looked sweaty and gross. That’s what they told me when they came out for armloads of wood. Only you found it arousing, believe me. And that’s why you and I are
meant to be together. Everything about you excites me. And if even watching me work hard excites you, I’d say we were made for each other."
***
Copyright, 2023
As soon as I get the cover, I'll be putting it up and adding this book to my Standalones page. Until then, check out what other authors chose for their steamy excerpt!

This month the Round Robin blog hop topic is: Breathing Life into your Characters.

I gave my post the title I did because that's what all authors do--we create people out of thin air. I hope that my characters are real to my readers. With as much time as I spend in the heads of my people, I feel like I know them intimately. And they depend on me to allow them to live in the minds of the readers who enjoy their stories. Win-win for all of us! (In fact, I deal with that idea in my upcoming story of a romance novelist's romance, complicated by her characters who feel free to comment on her life in her mind, and insist she write them the way they want to be written.)

But how do I do this? In a number of ways. As an author, I can take inspiration for a new character from anywhere. I might see someone walking down the street and wonder about them--or catch a glimpse of a face or a physique in media of any kind. Though women are not supposed to be as visually-oriented as men are, I'm always attracted to sexy men. And they can be any race or age. What's sexy to me is confidence. I'm attracted to men who seem as if they believe in themselves, and would welcome having an equally confident woman as their mate. I create my male characters to be someone I'd fall in love with. I create my female characters as someone I'd like to be, living a life I'd enjoy.

 This isn't one of my books, but one by an author whose books are auto-buy for me. I'm embarrassed to say that I originally wanted to read this book just because the man on the cover is so sexy! I didn't even notice the horns on his  head until I started reading it. I was too lost in his blue eyes and stubble that I itched to touch. The fact that the story was engrossing helped me recover from my shame over my shallowness--LOL. And I was fine imagining what the heroine in the story looked like. After all, in a romance, the reader should identify with one of the characters in a love story--and want to be with the other one.

Besides modeling my characters on an actual physical image of a person, how else do I create them? By giving them experiences that I, or someone else I know, have actually had. For this book of mine, I used a number of anecdotes from my early life, BH (before my HEA husband.) I've changed them, of course, and imagined the story. But the essential character of the heroine is me in a past life. How does that disclaimer go? Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent--though in my books, especially this one, there isn't much innocent about my lead characters! They know what, or whom, they want, and they pursue their desires ardently.

I've done this in other books as well. One woman I know lost her husband to a terrible disease. She isn't a nurse, but she helped him face death bravely, even though they were getting divorced. I used that as a plot point in one of my books. I have a WIP that I'm working on that includes a story about what happened to a woman I know who had made the decision early on, to bring up her child bi-lingual. The father's mother was dismayed, leading to family trouble. That's only one detail out of many that helped me to create a heroine who is tri-lingual.

In my Reyes Family Romances, I write the saga of a large Hispanic family, and the romances had by the various members of the family, pursuing their own HEA. When I need for them to speak español, I've sent emails to a professor I know who taught my Conversational Spanish class, and asked him what someone might say in a certain situation. I was surprised when he told me that with a heroine named Catalina, while her siblings who are more Americanized might call her Cat, her parents, and certainly her grandparents who came from Mexico, would instead call her Cata.

 Not only are physical descriptions and realistic anecdotes from a life required, but there must also be emotions that the reader can imagine feeling themselves. How better to do that than to think of times when you felt that emotion, and channel it into your characters? So when writing my 2nd chance at love story, I mined my own memories of what it felt like to be a teenager, wondering if anyone would ever find me attractive. I remembered what it was like to feel that bi-polar emotional turmoil that has you thrilled at what life has to offer one minute-- and the next instant feeling as if no one has ever suffered as much as you.

And since I write romance, I inhabit both people in a relationship, while I write their story. In a very real sense, a little bit of me is in every heroine I write. And I fall in love with each hero I create. My husband, who reads all of my books, doesn't mind as long as I only cheat on him with my book boyfriends. Though he has joked that no man has to ask anymore, what it is that makes any woman happy. All he has to do is read a romance novel--especially one that woman wrote!
* * * *
So now that you've read my blog, hop along to the others, to find out what they have to say about this subject!

Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com
Judith Copek http://lynx-sis.blogspot.com/
Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

Diane Bator https://dbator.blogspot.com/
Dr. Bob Rich https://wp.me/p3Xihq-2TY
Marci Baun http://www.marcibaun.com/blog/

Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com
A.J. Maguire http://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/
Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea
http://www.Skye-writer.com/
Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

Time for another MFRW Steam blog hop! My fave! Where we authors who write steamier scenes in our romances, get to share some of the hot scenes our characters share with our readers.

Now on sale at my publisher only, for only $3.00. But also available at many other book sellers.

When a world-famous cardiologist has his personal life going up in flames, he seeks out the one who got away. She's tried to forget him, but he didn't get to be rich and famous by not pursuing his dreams. And she's never been good at saying No.

Scene set-up: In a flashback, Marcus is remembering scenes from their past, when he and Melanie were in college. He storms over to argue with her, because of her "wild" ways.

Marcus looked up and into her eyes.  "Do you really?  Love me, I mean?"
     She shifted nervously, but still met his eyes.  "Of course I do, you silly man."
     "Then why do you still pick up other men in the bars?"
     Her shrug was elaborate.  "Habit?  I don't know.  Maybe being too tied to you scares me.  So I do it as an act of defiance, to show you that you don't own me."
     He took her face in both of his hands, forcing her to look up and into his eyes.  "What are you afraid of?  You've owned me since the first time you touched me.  I get horny, I think of you.  I want to talk to someone who understands, I think of you.  I want to celebrate--or commiserate with someone, I think of you.  I don't want anyone else--only you.  How could you hurt me like this?"
     Tears filled her eyes, to match the tears in his eyes.
     "I didn't mean to hurt you.  I didn't really think of you at all.  I guess I figured that you'd never find out about it, so it didn't matter.  How was I to know that he was doing it to hurt you?  He used me like a pawn.  And you know what the worst part is?"  Dramatically, she paused.  "He was no goddamned good in bed.  I didn't even get to enjoy it, and it was already over.  And now I find that he got more enjoyment in the retelling and embellishing, than in the doing.  Because I sure don't remember doing any noise-making.  I certainly didn't moan or scream.  Hell, I wasn't even sure he was doing anything at all, until he started to breathe really heavy."
     Marcus leaned forward dejectedly.  "I've tried to be an understanding lover, but I'm sorry, Melanie.  I don't think I can do this any more."
     "Do what?"
     "I can't go on sharing you with any Tom, Dick, or Harry that you pick up for the night.  I don't want to make you choose.  So maybe I should just leave now."
     "Why?"  Her voice was shrill with fear.  "Don't you want me anymore?"
     Marcus moved closer before he grabbed both sides of her face with his hands again, forcing her to look deeply into his eyes.  "I will always want you.  I told you, you marked my soul the first time you touched me.  But I can't share you anymore.  It's not enough for me to be one of your men anymore.  I still don't have any more time to spend with you.  But knowing that you are with other guys is becoming more torture than I can take.  I can't think about the work I have to do, because I'm wondering who you're with, and if you are enjoying him more than you enjoy me.  This thing with Bill is just the last straw-- but it's been coming on for a while now.  I want you to belong to just me, but I feel like a shit because you never offered to do that.  I can't ask you to marry me because you've told me you never want to get married.  I can't ask you to not see other men because that's not part of our arrangement.  But I can't keep on like this.  And I don't know what the hell to do about it."
     He sighed.  Responding to the desolate look on her face, he bent his face to kiss her--to kiss away any pain he was causing her.  The next instant they were tearing each other's clothes off, and frantically grabbing and clutching at each other, kissing, biting, squeezing, breathing heavily, hearts pounding with passion not to be denied.  Once they were done stripping each other, he pulled her up to straddle his lap, and she rubbed her hard nipples against his chest, then licked and bit him, claiming him for herself.
     "You see?"  He groaned.  "You always do that to me.  I can't even think about another woman.  There's only you for me."  He spread her legs and pushed into her, without checking to see if she was wet enough to take him.  It was a tight fit, but he was determined.
     It only took a few thrusts before she threw her head back, screaming out an orgasm.
     Triumphant, Marcus ploughed repeatedly into her, all the while muttering.  "See? You're my girl.  You belong to me.  I make you scream.  I make you come.  You're mine!"
     Another wave of pleasure hit her--she screamed again.  That last scream did it. Marcus slammed himself into her so hard he knew there would be bruises on both of them.  He howled, as his orgasm gave him the release he needed--of his passion, his anger, and his frustration.  Everything else left him then.  The only emotion he felt, as always when he held her in his arms afterwards, was love.  He would die to protect this woman.  His woman.
     Gradually Melanie's breathing slowed and her heartbeat returned to normal.  Suddenly she jerked her head up to glare into his eyes.  "Hopefully I'm far enough into my cycle that I won't get pregnant from that."
     "Baby, I don't even care anymore."  Marcus panted as he spoke.
     "But I do!"  Her voice was angry.
     The sound of a key in the lock made them both start, then jump up, trying to race into her room before her roommate opened the door.  Marcus was taller and quicker.  Melanie tripped over the coffee table and fell onto all fours, as her roommate walked in, talking and looking backwards at the guy she was leading into the apartment.
     "Jesus, you guys!" she yelled, turning to look at what made the guy’s eyes widen and his lips twitch in amusement.  "Get a room.  Get into a room.  It's not fucking Tuesday.  Can't I ever get laid around here?"
     "Ooops! Sorry."  Melanie pushed herself upright and staggered, limping, picking up clothes along the way, holding them in front of her, heading in the direction of her room.  "We'll be out of the way in no time.  Marcus, let's go get some food."
     Laughing, Marcus reached over to help her walk, and they retired to her room to put on the clothes they had torn off and thrown all around the living room.  He grabbed the beers once they were dressed and on their way out of the apartment.  They finished them as they walked to their favorite Mexican restaurant.
Copyright 2021, Fiona McGier

Now keep hopping along for some other steamy scenes from other MFRW authors!

 Tropes. How dedicated are you to them? There's a funny video going around with multiple romance authors singing about how tropes rule the romance world. But do they really? Is it authors whose style you like, then you read whatever they write next? Or do you only pick authors who write, essentially, the same book over and over and over--to satisfy your desire for that trope?
Personally, I choose authors I enjoy based on reading one or more of their books. But I find that if they stick with the same trope, the same setting, just new characters, I get bored easily and decide I'm done with them. I guess I'm a mercurial reader, which makes me a mercurial author also. So according to the video, since I'm not predictable, I'll never maximize sales to dedicated readers. 
Since I spend so much quality time with my characters, living in their world and experiencing their romance with them, I want to really enjoy them. But I can't if I'm writing the same story each time. That's why my back list is so varied. I've written a series of contemporary romance featuring members of a large Hispanic family--the Reyes Romances. But I've also written a couple of romantic suspense books about the exciting lives and loves of female secret agents. Then I wrote a series set up in Minnesota's BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area,) a place I love to visit for camping. But even then, not all of the books are set in the same town, though they feature many of the same characters. And some of those characters are current or ex-spies, so that's a bit of a cross-over, with some suspense thrown into my contemporary situations. Plus I wrote a vampire saga, involving multiple romances...and a Mayan mummy who is still alive. I wrote a couple of paranormal romance books set up in a werewolf compound in northwestern Maine. And two stand-alone contemporary romances, one of which is loosely based on my own college experiences. 
So am I confusing readers, when they don't know what they'll find each time they open one of my books? Hey, there will always be strong females and sexy men who fall in love with them. And steamy scenes to melt your e-reader!
Which brings me to the first of my two new books--this one is a science fiction book set in the near future, when our poor planet has become so polluted that people are willing to buy one-way tickets to new worlds, to become colonists, just for the ability to walk outside in nature. Living in covered domes to avoid skin cancer and acid rain, is no way for my heroine to live. She yearns for something different. And the politics of earth have become so horrible for females, that she's willing to do anything to escape to a new life. I don't have a cover yet, but the book will come out in May, and the title is Learning to Love.
Here's an excerpt, from when she's being prepped for the long ride in a spaceship. I'm still dealing with a new-to-me laptop, so any formatting issues are my fault.
Elena shuddered as she felt the liquid being pumped into her
veins beginning to take effect on her blood. She knew it was
binding itself to the water so that when she was frozen in
suspended animation, the water in her blood wouldn’t freeze
into shards of ice crystals that might split open her veins.
She felt herself becoming sluggish, and extreme tiredness
crept through her body. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling,
nor was she unprepared for it—not after the long lecture on
the physical effects of cryogenics that all Starline
passengers had to attend.
   But still, the feeling was unusual enough for her to want to
distract herself from it. She tried to focus her increasingly
blurry vision on the nurse who was attending to her
preparations.
   “So, I’ve heard rumors that you guys have fun with female
passengers when we are unconscious and unable to object.”
Somewhere deep in her brain, she realized this was
probably not a good subject to bring up—not here and now.
But it was something she’d tried to put out of her mind. Now
it forced its way up and out of her lips before her drowsy
brain could stop it.
  The nurse smiled as he looked up from checking the
readings on the machine that would monitor her vitals for the
length of the trip. “Is that old bullshit still being spread around
by the ignorant, Earth-only cowards who are too scared to
think about leaving the planet?”
   Elena nodded as she realized she was beginning to drool,
and her arms weren’t responding to her brain’s orders to
move up to her face anymore.
   “Honey, once the door to your container is closed, you’re
untouchable until we reach your destination. If anyone tried
to open the door, alarms would go off, alerting everyone
aboard to a cylinder being violated. The only way to get the
door open quietly would be to wake you up, which is a time-
consuming process, so not the kind of thing most guys intent
on fondling or raping would want to wait around for. Once
awakened, you’d be able to scream and fend off an attack.”
He snickered as he wiped off the drool with the bib she’d
wondered about, when she saw it was part of the sleep
uniform.
   “Besides, after being asleep for as many years as you’re
going to be, the very first thing your private parts are going to
want to do is pee. Not exactly the height of erotica for most
of us, understand?”
   Elena nodded heavily, unable to keep her eyes open
anymore and feeling even her thoughts slow. She knew that
she was being cooled down, but the cold wasn’t making her
shiver. She felt warm and sleepy and ready for a long nap.
Even yawning seemed like too much effort.
   “How many years will I be out?”
   “Ten. I’ll take my turn being awake for the first five, then
asleep for five. By the time we get to Mesa Verde, you’ll be
the same age you are now, but I’ll be five years older. Maybe
you’ll think I’m too old to flirt with by then, eh?”
   Her brain wanted her mouth to reply that she hadn’t been
flirting, just giving voice to a concern that all Earth females
felt, bred into them from their first realization that men could
touch them without their consent because a woman’s body
belonged to the state. Fears amplified by the rumors spread
by the various Earth-only factions who were still trying to
stop others, especially females, from venturing off their
home planet for new lives. But her lips were numb, and her
tongue was a swollen lump in her mouth. Her eyes had
closed, and all she wanted to do was go to sleep.
   “Good night, honey. You won’t dream much. And you
won’t remember any of it once you wake up. Next stop for
you…Mesa Verde.”
   The nurse grunted as he pushed the heavy door shut.
   Elena wondered for a quick moment why she didn’t feel
panic at being shut up in a metal cylinder with no air to
breathe. Then she realized she hadn’t taken a breath for a
while.
   Her last conscious thought was of Mesa Verde. Where I

can have a new life. And he won’t be able to find me ever
again.
   Then she gave herself over to the warm blanket of black
velvet that encircled her, and she slept.
Copyright May, 2023 

Here's another book I've enjoyed recently. This is the third book in The Toymakers Guild series by Lisabet Sarai. Her trademark steamy scenes melt my ereader! And with this series, you know there will be debauchery of all sorts, with many combinations of sexual partners.

Gillian has been granted full status as a toymaker, which means she creates machines and various toys to satisfy the desires of their exclusive clientele. But she's presented by the Master of the Guild with a unique request--a man wants them to create a life-sized mannequin that will resemble his deceased paramour in every detail--so he gives them a picture of her. And he wants it to be fully sexually functional, as well as able to speak. Even in this steampunk setting, with brilliant engineers, this is a daunting assignment. But the Master has complete faith that Gillian can produce what their client desires, so she's put in charge of the project.

Gillian is very happy with Rafe, a fellow engineer, who shares a special connection with her, despite their both having sexual escapades with other members of their Guild. But on a trip to Paris, she meets an engineer who is in charge of the large machinery that runs the ship. His name is Jeremiah, and she feels an instant connection to him also. They have a steamy encounter in the bowels of the ship, when he volunteers to show her how the engines work. She risks bringing him back to Manderlay, to introduce him to the Master, because she suspects his engineering skills might be helpful in the Guild's work. But Rafe, who doesn't mind sharing her with others, is not happy that she has such an obviously strong connection with another man--and the fact that Jeremiah is Black causes him to use bigoted language when hurling insults at his rival.

Will Gillian be able to navigate her relationship issues, as well as produce the miracle that their client wants from them? And will this be the end of the story, or merely another fine addition to an already exciting series? I dare you to put the book down, because it's that good!

Three of my secret agent books are on sale through the end of today!
No More Secrets--FREE!
Her Last Resort--50% off, so only 99¢!
Undercover Lovers--50% off, so only 99¢!
Click above for buy links. To learn more about each book, scan the heading toolbar above my blog--click on the pages for excerpts and links to reviews.