Book Information
Title: Smoldering
Passion
Passion Series,
Book One
Can be read as a
stand-alone
Author: Adriana
Kraft
Publisher: eXtasy
Books
Publication Date:
April 7, 2023
Length: 70,259 words
Genres: Erotic
Romance, LGBT Romance
Pairings: MF, FF,
FFF, FMF, MFM
Tags: Contemporary,
Menage, Bisexual, FM, FF, New York City, struggling artist, age gap
Heat rating: four
flames
Blurb
Her
passion smolders. Will it ignite?
When art
student Melissa Hopkins finally unpacks the two boxes her Aunt Phoebe
left for her and sees Phoebe’s black and white photos, it’s like
opening Pandora’s Box. A simple quest to find a new job morphs into
an about face—not just in her art, but in her career and personal
life. Short on funds now that her graduate stipend is ending, she
applies to work where Aunt Phoebe once worked: a center for sexuality
and sex studies.
Sworn off women
after a disastrous relationship, Center Director Harry Gage ignores
the danger signals and hires the striking young woman who reminds him
of his former lover. Her air of innocence will captivate center
viewers, so he’s sure she’ll be a hit on camera. What he’s not
prepared for is how she pierces his heart.
When the sparks
flare up, is it love or just sex—and what must each of them risk to
find out?
Buy links
https://books2read.com/u/3nDdOe
https://www.extasybooks.com/Smoldering-Passion
Excerpt
Melissa stood and
rotated her shoulders. She had to get out of her apartment. It was a
beautiful day, and she didn’t want to spend it all inside.
She grabbed her keys
and some cash and headed down the stairs to street level. She walked
briskly, suddenly knowing where she wanted to be.
Shortly, she turned
in at the entrance to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and slowed her
pace, pausing to watch the ducks in the Japanese water garden. This
was space for relaxing – for breathing deeply, soaking in colors
and breezes and scents. The riot of spring blooms was long gone, and
summer was at its peak. She headed for the Shakespeare Garden and was
relieved to find a shady bench empty in a secluded corner. Daisies,
black-eyed Susans, and daylilies formed a casual cluster in yellow,
white, and orange beside the bench. Further off, some taller mauve
blooms she couldn’t name were full of butterflies, and a
curly-headed toddler ran up to them laughing gleefully. The child’s
parents stood nearby, holding hands, happy, as if they had no care in
the world.
Melissa shook off a
wave of loneliness. She waited till the family left and headed across
the broad open meadow toward the rock garden, stopping to watch more
children playing tag and hiding behind shrubs and bushes. An artist
had set up his easel next to a large, tall tree that had one
out-of-place, low-slung branch reaching several yards straight out,
parallel to the ground. She could easily imagine relaxing under the
protective boughs, but she knew better than to disturb his scene or
ask what he was seeing.
The hairs on the
back of her neck prickled. She stopped and turned around. Nothing
seemed out of place – the children were still running with abandon,
lovers walked hand-in-hand stopping for brief kisses – there! A man
stood on a distant knoll watching where she stood. A hat pulled low
on his head served almost as a mask.
She cocked her head
to the side. Harry? She jogged toward the small hill. The man
turned and scurried over the rise. When she crested it, there was
nothing but trees, bushes, and flowers. Not a single person was in
the little glade.
Harry was really
getting to her. Now she was seeing him where she knew he never would
be. She laughed freely and headed back to her apartment. Harry
probably never left Manhattan.
* * * *
Not
looking back, Harry scampered toward his car, parked a couple blocks
away. That was close. What would he have said if she’d spied him?
He didn’t often hang out in Brooklyn – though that had been
changing of late. Brooklyn seemed quaint compared to Manhattan, but
it was where she lived.
What would Melissa
have said if she’d caught up with him? Would she be pleased to know
he’d followed her? Or would she be frightened?
He chuckled. He
didn’t think she’d be frightened. Maybe mad as hell, but not
frightened.
Guest Post
Do you love New
York or hate it? I love it. Our newest release, Smoldering Passion
(Extasy Books, April 7, 2023), pulls together some of what my
husband and I love best about New York and pays tribute to a favorite
aunt of mine. It’s no accident that we placed our fictional Center
for Sexuality and Sex Studies in a vintage Greenwich village
Brownstone, where everything we love about the city is easily
accessible.
We gave our
heroine, Melissa Hopkins, a Brooklyn apartment and neighborhood based
on our son’s just after college – upstairs over a laundromat, not
far from what was once Dodger Stadium/Ebbets Field. The neighborhood
is polyglot, full of deli’s, coffee shops, shoebox restaurants, and
specialty grocery stores from almost any cuisine. It’s also in easy
walking distance of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. One of my favorite
scenes in Smoldering Passion takes place in its Shakespeare
Garden, where I’ve often sat and watched the crowd.
Somewhat older
than Melissa, hero Harry Gage is the director of our fictional
Center. A Manhattan snob, he takes a dim view of pretty much any
place that isn’t Manhattan, Brooklyn being near the top of his
list. He lives in a high-rise condo apartment with floor to ceiling
windows overlooking Central Park. We took advantage of that window
for another of my favorite scenes.
When the story
opens, Melissa is an art student working on her master’s degree,
and she needs a job. She’s technically very proficient in her art
medium but has been told she lacks passion. She answers an ad for a
research worker at Harry’s center – where her aunt used to work.
We’ll let readers decide if Melissa succeeds in unlocking her
hidden passions – we think they were smoldering all along.
Passion is
exactly what prompted my favorite aunt to pursue a groundbreaking
career in sex studies and erotic art and to champion women’s
rights, and this series is dedicated to her memory.
Author Bio
Adriana Kraft is
the pen name for a married pair of retired professors writing erotic
romance and erotic romantic suspense together. We like to think we’ve
broken the mold for staid, fusty academics, and we hope lots of
former profs are enjoying life as much as we are.
Having lived in
many states across the Midwest, we now make our home in southern
Arizona, where we enjoy hiking, golf, and travel, especially to the
many Arizona Native American historical sites.
Together we have published more than fifty romance novels and
novellas to outstanding reviews. Whether readers open our romantic
suspense or our erotic romance, they can expect characters they care
about, hot sex scenes, and a compelling story.
Author Links
Blog:
https://www.adrianakraft.com/blog
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