After playing around with a few ideas, this is the final cover that I created for my latest novel, A Chance Seduction. This is my favorite book that I've written, and my best, if I do say so myself. I have grown so much as an author, and it'll show in this novel. While readers have always said I definitely can tell a good story, they need a little more character development...so I feel that I delivered this time around. I've included an excerpt for you to read below as I patiently wait on the powers that be at Amazon to give the green light to start 1-clicking. Enjoy!
Excerpt:
“Didn’t your mama ever teach you that it’s not polite to stare?” Imani asked as she walked towards him.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help it; the view was too nice for me to look away. I don’t know many men who wouldn’t stare at an ass like yours,” he said in the most seductive voice he could muster up.
Imani smirked as she reached for his handheld computer so she could sign for her package. Something about knowing that Chance had been staring at her made her and that he was obviously a little flustered, made her happy.
“You’re such a smooth-talker; I’ll bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Yes…but this time, I mean it. As a matter of fact, all you really need to do is look down to see how much of an effect you had on me just now.” he responded.
Imani shifted her eyes downward. Her eyes widened when she looked at his crotch and saw the bulge pushing against his work pants. She gulped hard to keep from drooling, and without realizing it, she licked her lips. Daamnn! Why was it so hot in there all of a sudden?
“You want this?” Chance asked walking towards her.
“Yes, I want all of it,” she answered. The naughty thought she’d had in her mind slipped out of her mouth, instead, and she wished she could take her words back.
Chance laughed out loud. “I’m flattered; but I was referring to the box; do you want it here, or would you like me to take it to the back for you?”
“Oh!” She felt sooo stupid at the moment. You really need to get it together, girl. “Y-you can set it here on the table, I guess.” Did she really just tell this man she wanted his dick? She couldn’t even look at him as she reached for the box he was holding. Her fingers brushed against his as he handed it to her, and she could swear he deliberately grabbed her finger. She looked up at him, and saw the unmistakable lust in his eyes. Her breathing picked up as they stared into each other’s eyes for several seconds. She nervously licked her lips, which had suddenly become dry.
“Do you always lick your lips when you’re nervous?” Chance asked her.
“Who said I’m nervous?” Imani asked as she set the box on top of one of the dining tables. She attempted to use her nails to peel back the packaging tape from the top of the box.
“Let me help you,” Chance said. He came up beside her and removed a box cutter from his pocket. Imani admired his muscular forearms as he opened the box. She wanted to use her tongue and trace the veins that snaked down the insides of them. When he turned to face her, she got a whiff of his cologne. Curve. She recognized it immediately. Kyle used to wear that same cologne. For some reason, it smelled so much better on Chance, though.
Whenever Kyle would wear this cologne- before she found out what a snake he was- it used to instantly turn her on. There was something about this men’s fragrance that was so seductive, and those same urges she used to get when Kyle wore it, she was starting to get them now. Not realizing that she was doing it, she leaned in closer to Chance, inhaling his scent. Damn, he smells so good. She wanted to lean in closer, smell his neck, and maybe even lick it. Would he think she was weird if she did that?
“You want me, don’t you?” Chance’s deep baritone brought her back to the present, and to the realization that she really didn’t like him as a person. Yes, he was fine- nobody could take that away from him- but he was extremely arrogant and conceited, traits she hated in a man.
“No…not at all,” she said nonchalantly as she began looking through the contents of the box; trying to act as if she hadn’t wanted to jump his bones a few seconds earlier.
“Your eyes say differently; and the eyes never lie,” Chance told her.
Imani ignored him, and instead removed one of the Cabernet flute glasses from the box. “These are perfect,” she said. She let her delicate fingers glide over the narrow stem, then traced the finely cut sheer rim at the top of the glass.
“What I wouldn’t give to be that glass right now,” Chance said.
She looked at him in annoyance. “You’re still here? I thought you left.”
“You really want me to leave?” he asked taking a step closer to her. He looked down at her beautiful face. Her burgundy colored lips were slightly parted, and he could hear her shallow breathing. She looked up at him from under her big, doe eyes for a second, then dropped her gaze to his lips before looking back up at him again. She nervously looked around. He was in her personal space, and he had her body trapped between his and the table. Him being so close to her made her extremely nervous. She licked her lips again.
“I let you get away with that the last time, but there’s only so much teasing a man can take. Why do you insist on tempting me like that, Imani?”
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you mean,” she said in confusion.
“You keep licking your lips. When I see you glide your tongue across your lips, all I can wonder is what it would feel like gliding across me.”
Instinctively, her eyes dropped to the spot between his thighs again. “Oh,” was all she could say. Great minds think alike, because I wonder the exact same thing.
“Why don’t you stop playing this game, Imani?”
“What game?”
“Pretending like you don’t want me as much as I want you. We both know that‘s bullshit.”
Chance being in such close proximity to her, and the seductive smell of his Curve cologne put her under his spell. His gaze was intense, his breathing was hard and fast, and he looked as if he wanted to take her right here on the dining table. The bad part about it was, she couldn’t even lie, the thought of that excited her. She stared him in the eye, as if she were daring him to make the first move.
Luckily, the enchantment was broken when Raymond called out to her from the kitchen, freeing her from the erotic voodoo Chance had her under. She placed her hand on his chest and lightly pushed him away, putting some space between them. “Who said it was a game?” she asked as she turned and folded the flaps on the box closed. Without saying another word, she stepped around him and walked towards the kitchen, leaving Chance there with a puzzled expression. He had been sure that Imani had been about to give in and let him give her a taste of what would happen once he got her alone.
“One more thing before you go,” he called to her.
Imani stopped walking and turned to face him. “What?”
“You can have this,” he dropped his eyes towards the lower half of his body, “anytime you want. Just say the word.” He walked away before she could respond to what he’d just said. As he climbed into his truck, he thought about what had just happened. Had Imani been any other woman, they would be in her office, fucking each other’s brains out on the desk. She was definitely good at this hard-to-get game she was playing. He loved a challenge as much as the next man, but he wasn’t used to having to work this hard or wait this long to get a woman, and he was beginning to lose interest and patience with her...
