“Sex. Candy. More” by Carlene Love Flores

Dear Erotica For All followers,

My name is Carlene Love Flores and I am a blusher.

Stefan Calderon scares that pink right off my cheery little face most days. Which made writing his story daunting. I won’t lie. I put it off and put it off and put it off. It seemed to him, I’m sure, that everyone else in the Sin Pointe family was getting their books. When one was finished, I’d hop onto someone else in the musical family. I went so far as to write the band’s personal assistant and webmaster’s stories, even the Opening Act, before finally pulling on my big girl author panties, and sitting down to give it a go with Stef.

The four books in the series leading up to Stefan’s are sexy, intimate and darker stories about good yet misunderstood men and women testing their limits. Stefan’s story would be no different. I knew this. The questions would be similar. If they’re bound to hurt the ones they love, is the right choice to stop loving? In the official series free read, Touch of Sin, loving Mrs. Right means the hero risks sacrificing his band’s second chance. Is there shame in choosing love? I’ve seen too many people with good hearts go down because of the shame heaped on top of them. These stories are for them and anyone who identifies with that feeling. But did my naughty bass player have enough of a story to be worth telling? Did he have something worthwhile to risk? I didn’t think he had an ashamed bone in his body.

I was wrong.

I realized that I was the one who was embarrassed.

I was the one who was afraid of the things he might say. Afraid I wouldn’t be able to write his very blunt words. And so I shied away from taking the time to listen.

Realizing I was coming off as someone who was ashamed woke me up and made me start paying closer attention. This wasn’t really the case and I had to make sure he knew that. I had a hero waiting patiently who I had to prove that to.

Luckily, Stef wasn’t offended and forgave me.

I was playing catch up and watching an episode of The Tudors one night in early 2014, when the character of Thomas More said “If you cannot be good, then you should be the least bad you can be.”

Stefan was in my head chuckling in that instant. And although at this point I’d managed to get a fair chunk of his story written, I knew his book had to start with that quote. In true Stefan fashion, he started twisting it around and came up with his own quote for the end of the book, his own take on Sir Thomas More’s.

So could I do Mr. Sinfamous himself justice?

I guess I’ll let you be the judge of that.

I’m smiling right now because when I sat down to write this post, he got one of those wicked grins on his face. “What Stefan?” I asked.

“I was just thinking that you should always share your candy,” he said to me.

“Why is that, Stefan?” I asked, wanting to remind him he didn’t like sweet stuff.

“It tastes best on someone else’s lips,” he said to me then kissed my cheek and whispered that I should try it out on hubby tonight. “Tell that to your readers.” Stefan, ever helping his fellow romantics.

Sure, he’s a relentless flirt. Yes, he’s the erotic to my romance. I knew that much from the bits and pieces where he’d shown up throughout the series. I guess the issue was that I thought that’s all he was for a very long time. I didn’t know how I could help him by writing his story. I didn’t know what else there was to the man who up to that point had shown me that he had a penchant for red heads who wore red lipstick and red thongs. His “Triple Red” as he called it.

As happily ever afters go in this business, I can happily say that Stefan Calderon was more. So. Much. More.

So now I’m curious, when’s the last time someone surprised you in a good way? I’d love to hear about it.

*****

Excerpt:

Wow. Had Will pegged this perfectly or what? Stefan was determined not to hear her. What hurt Dani most was how his confidence had been shattered by a ten minute conversation in a silly rose garden.

She didn’t even remember that she’d just been crying and the wetness on her cheeks surprised her when she wiped a piece of hair from her face. “But you come back. And when you do, you bring the best laughs and joy with you. You bring yourself.”

“No, don’t do that. Don’t make me out to be some good guy, Dani. It’ll only hurt you in the end.” He paused and then stabbed her with a look sharper than steel. “You sucked my cock good last night, but that doesn’t mean you own me. I don’t owe you anything.”

Her face flamed with sheer anger. She nearly spit the word asshole right back in his face but remembered Will’s warning. She could be just as stubborn. “Try again. I did suck your cock good and no, you don’t owe me anything. But you will hear me out. You know who else leaves their loved ones behind? How about soldiers?”

“That’s different and you know it.”

“How so? They stay gone for months. Thom gets one two-week break half-way through his year-long tour. He comes home one time, Stefan. In an entire year. How is that different than what you do?”

Stefan looked like she’d shot him. He held his hands over his midsection and hunched over before he righted himself again.

“I don’t know. It just is. I’m not laying my life on the line for anyone.”

“But you’re putting it on hold so you can make all those people who love your music happy.” She wouldn’t stop now. “I bet if you were with someone, you’d find a way to see that person, no matter how far away you were. And I bet that person would be thankful, and…” Her eyes welled up with tears again. “So very happy for each moment, no matter how short or how much time passed between visits. Or how big of a mean jerk you could be sometimes.”

The amount of time he stayed with his head bowed down killed Dani. Losing him in a couple days hadn’t hurt before because she realized she’d held out hope that things would work out between them. That her Superman would figure it out and fix it all. He’d invite his mom to Nashville and Dani too. All she needed was an invitation and his ability to wait two measly months for her to arrive.

“Stefan, look at me.”

She waited patiently.

“I’ll just hurt you, Dani. Don’t you get it? I fucking love you and I’d hurt you.”

Her breath tunneled around her lungs and her knees threatened to give out but she wouldn’t stop until she’d convinced him he would not do that. Not if he … not if he loved her. The way she loved him back.

“Why do you keep saying that? Leaving, when it’s your job, doesn’t hurt the one you love.”

Her mind was nearly useless after his use of the L word. Maybe he was trying to tell her he wouldn’t be faithful.

“You don’t understand me, Dani.”

“Then help me out here. Are you saying you’d sleep around on the road? Is that some inevitable part of you being Stefan Calderon, bass player?”

Crap. He wasn’t answering her.

“Fuck, I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve never been tested like that.”

“What the hell do you mean?”

Again he went silent. And this time he got up out of his stool and walked to the sink. As if they hadn’t just been in an industrial sized conversation, he reached up and pulled a glass from a cupboard and filled it with water. He guzzled the entire thing down then filled it up and walked back over to her. He set the glass down in front of her, nudging her hand which she realized was in a tight fist.

“Fighting can’t be good for the baby. Dinner’s getting cold. Let’s eat. Then maybe we’ll talk more.”

Maybe we’ll talk more? Who did he think he was? Ending their discussion like that. But her chest had tightened and she knew he was right when she took in a deep breath and felt the built up tension leave and her body relax back to normal.

She hated that he was right. But if he thought she wouldn’t fight for him, he was dead wrong. She took the glass of water, emptying it then handed it back to him.

“What did you get?”

She could play nice while they ate. He loved her.

Stefan brought their plates over. He sat down across from her and stabbed a peapod and a chunk of pink salmon, shaking his head as he bit the food from the fork and chewed. He stabbed another and another bite.

Whoever had made this man, had gotten so many things so very right. No matter that all those things combined made her absolutely crazy.

He loved her. He’d said so.

She chewed, and tried not to cry smile.

*****

Blurb:

Sin Pointe front man Stefan Calderon is playing a very dangerous game and his mom’s live-in caretaker, Dani Foster, just landed right smack in the middle of it.

Practically strangers when Stefan rolls into his small hometown looking to patch things up with Mom, his and Dani’s worlds collide with a hot and intense hook up. He knows right away this woman will make the perfect partner for his two weeks in town. But when she realizes whose son he is, and what he’s there to do, sexy times come to an abrupt halt.

That is until they come up with a solution. Rules. Every game needs them. The question isn’t if they’ll break them, but when and how hard.

It’s a wickedly delicious game, one neither of them intends to lose.

Sin Pointe Book Trailer Series http://youtu.be/1rfMHnkmZ14

Available at Evernight / Amazon / All Romance eBooks / BookStrand

*****

About the Author:

Carlene Love Flores is a fan of the stars (especially Orion), music (especially Depeche Mode), and her traveling family (no favorites-she loves them all). These inspire her intimate romance stories.

If she could touch someone’s heart with writing the way others have for her, she’d say there never lived a luckier girl.

Website  http://carlenelove.com/
Twitter  https://twitter.com/cloveflores
Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/carlene.l.flores
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6887320.Carlene_Love_Flores

*****

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