Juliana Stone

I’m so excited to be hosting Juliana Stone on the blog today!  Juliana writes fantastically sexy and emotional contemporary romance, and also paranomal romance and YA fiction.  She’s just an enormously talented and cool person.  And it’s even more exciting that she has a new book out in a brand new series!  The book is called Tucker, and it kicks of The Family Simon Series.

Here’s the blurb for Tucker:

When all hope is gone, can love still will find a way?

Tucker Simon has given up on love. After a tragedy, it’s just not in the cards for him, and he wishes his family would get off his back. He’s fine—or at least he thought he was–until a family wedding forces him to address a few things, namely his date, Abby Mathews. She’s been put in the ‘friend’ category, mostly because she deserves so much more than what he can give. But the more time that he spends with her, Tucker begins to think that maybe there is a chance for love after all…

Abby Mathews has been in love with Tucker Simon since he walked into her family’s bar nearly a year ago. But he’s got baggage and heartache a plenty. His one-night-stands isn’t going to lessen that no matter what he thinks. Tucker needs a friend, but Abby wants to give him more, and as they navigate their way through a weekend in Florida, their attraction can’t be ignored. Abby has to make a choice. Does she cherish their friendship and take what she can get? Or does she go after what she really wants, which is Tucker’s heart…

And here’s an exclusive excerpt from the book:

The smell of coffee woke Abby. A roasted blend and something else…caramel?

Or was it the smell of clean, fresh soap?

Whatever it was, it was nice, and she sighed, sinking deeper into the mattress. Inhaling that lovely scent once more, she relaxed for a moment as whatever the heck smelled so good infiltrated her nose and wove its way through her body. She was warm, heavy from sleep and content.

A noise sounded, something that didn’t belong—waves?—and she rolled over, nearly falling out of bed. For a moment, she had no idea where she was.

Pushing a tangle of hair from her eyes, her vision slowly came into focus, and when it did, her mouth went dry. It went so dry that she couldn’t swallow. Her insides quaked and fire raced across her skin.

She’d been right about the coffee. Yep. There it was, right in front of her. Great big honkin’ mug of java.

But it was attached to a hand, and that hand was attached to a muscular arm that glistened with drops of water as if fresh from the shower. Of course, there was an accompanying wide expanse of flesh and since she was weak—and let’s not forget confused—it drew her eye.

And—holy hell—suddenly, she was wide awake.

A hot thrust of lust (sheesh, was she a poet now?) had her girlie parts singing Hallelujah—shouting, praise the Lord and whispering God bless Tucker Simon.

Hot Damn, she had a freaking Baptist Choir going crazy inside her body, and Abby glanced away from his bare chest—from all that hard, damp, and defined muscle—pushing away the image of her tongue on those picture-perfect abs.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she held her breath as her mind scrambled to catch up to what her eyes had just seen. Sure, she was used to waking up with Tucker on the brain but never…never so up close and personal.

She froze. Wait. Was she still dreaming?

Cracking an eye open a smidge, Abby angled a peek and everything inside her went squirrely.

Nope. That there was one hundred percent, tanned, toned, and freaking hot Tucker Simon—prime, USA Grade Tucker Simon—and he was looking down at her with an amused look on his face.

“Morning sunshine. I’m done in the shower if you want to take a turn.”

God, he was only wearing a towel.

Slowly reality sank in, and she remembered where she was. Why she was here.

Tucker wasn’t all naked and wet and yummy because they’d spend a hot, passionate night together. Nope. That so didn’t happen. (At least not outside of her head).

Tucker was up and at ‘em because—

“We tee off in an hour so you better get your butt in gear.”

Wait. What?

“Tee off?” She sat up fully and accepted the cup of coffee, hoping the scowl she felt didn’t show. If she had her choice, she’d bury herself beneath the covers and drift off into a world of Tucker Simon dreams.

She watched him warily. Guess that wasn’t going to happen.

He leaned his hip against the table beside the bed, long wisps of gauzy material floating around him as a fresh breeze rolled in from outside. Any other guy would look like an idiot but he didn’t. If anything, the soft white texture of the material that fell from the ceiling only helped to showcase just how hard and masculine Tucker was.

Dragging her eyes from his, she took a sip of coffee and nearly choked as she forced it down.

“You need to put some clothes on.”

Shit. Did she really say that out loud? What the hell is wrong with me?

“Sure thing, darlin’. Do I make you nervous?” His tone was light—teasing even—but Abby wasn’t in the mood for it. About one second after she’d caught sight of his nearly naked ass, she’d realized that this was a mistake. There was no way she should have come to Florida with Tucker, because she was going to make a fool out of herself.

She could feel it.

And that scared the crap out of her.

“It’s not you that makes me nervous,” she retorted, trying to get her shit together. “It’s that damn towel. In case you’re not aware, it’s loose and I sure as hell don’t want to catch sight of your…”

His eyebrow shot up.

She swallowed hard. And then cleared her throat.

“Your…thingy.”

Oh. My. God.

If the floor opened up and she fell through all the way to hell she wouldn’t care. In fact, she wished it would open up and suck her into another realm, because she did not just say–

“My thingy,” Tucker said, his grin huge, his eyes practically dancing.

Abby’s scowl deepened as she slipped off the bed and moved past him, careful to make sure she wasn’t anywhere near his—

“My thingy?” he repeated.

“Well, I don’t know you well enough to call it Hank.”

See what I mean?  Juliana’s books are awesome!  And for my readers today, she’s running a great giveaway.  You could win either a kindle copy of her Barker Triplets 3 book boxed set, or print copies of off Offside, Collide, and Conceal.  The Kindle anthology is open for international giveaway; the three print copies are US and Canada only.  So everyone has a chance to win!  To be eligible, just tell us what you think about the tortured hero–does this type of hero appeal to you?  Who are some tortured heroes that you love?  One person will win either the boxed set or the print books!