Guest blog with romance author Michele Zurlo

Michele’s highjacking my blog today, and she’s talking about her next great book, Time to Pretend. Like her numerous others, it’s sure to be a winner.

So, take it away, Michele!!!

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I like to read about different kinds of people and I become bored when plots or characters seem a little too like others from the same author.  I’ve deleted the starts to several novels because one of the characters or the plot echoed another too heavily.  I recognize that qualities I admire in a person—pieces of me—will always bleed through, but I strive to make everyone as unique as I can.   Many people have commented on the depth and layers of my characters.  I have to make them deep or they won’t hold my attention.

My latest release, Time to Pretend, took the longest to write. 

I wrestled with it for nearly a year because Daniel was so flipping stubborn.  I almost gave it up, but several readers sent emails asking for Daniel’s story, so I kept at it.  Once I found out about him and Evan, things flowed much better.  That discovery made it much easier to put myself in Alaina’s place.  Daniel’s reluctance to face his love for another man would make me sad, not angry.  I thought Alaina should be supportive.  I thought she was the type of woman who would encourage Daniel to accept himself.  It’s hard enough to come out of the closet.  It’s impossible to be happy without the understanding and support of those closest to you.  I delve into some pretty deep emotional issues here, and I hope you all fall for Alaina, Evan, and Daniel as much as I did.

Blurb:

Pretending things are perfect will only work for so long.

When Daniel’s lover has had enough of watching as Daniel messes around with myriad women, he gives Daniel an ultimatum: Find one for us both to settle down with, or we’re finished. 

 One glimpse of Daniel DiMarco sets Alaina Miles’s hormones into overdrive, but she cannot act on her feelings.  Not only is he ten years younger than her, he’s a notorious womanizer, and he’s a bit of a chauvinist.  When the tension between them escalates into one night of passion, Alaina takes it in stride.  It’s a dream come true, but it’s only one night.

 A leak in her roof forces her to have repairs done to her home.  Evan Carrico, Daniel’s best friend and secret lover, is the man for the job.  It doesn’t take long for Alaina to realize that her attraction to Evan is much more serious than it should be.

 As she falls in love with them and they fall for her, Alaina discovers their secret, but she wants to wait for them to build enough trust in their relationship to tell her themselves.  When she stumbles upon them locked in a passionate embrace only hours after a tragic event, will the explosion destroy everything they’ve built?

Excerpt:

Waving her closer, he lifted the spoon and blew on the small puddle of sauce. “Taste this. Tell me what you think.”

Flavors exploded on her tongue. Alaina couldn’t have identified them all if she tried. Her awareness of Daniel was temporarily diverted. “Wow. You really can cook.”

He lifted a brow and set the spoon on the counter. “I’ve cooked for you before, Lainie. You still doubt me?”

She shook her head. All doubt about his abilities in the kitchen fled. Daniel was a man of many layers. Part of her wanted to peel them back and get to know him in ways no one else ever had. The rest of her was divided between being afraid he would reject her once he knew the truth about her relationship with Evan and the fear of losing Evan.

Words stuck in her throat. There were so many, and yet none were appropriate. Tears burned behind her eyes. This was all too much to handle.

Confidence fled from Daniel’s stance. He pulled her close, surrounding her with his arms. Alaina lost her fight with the tears, and they leaked from her eyes. She gripped at his biceps, worrying them with desperate clenches.

“Hey, Lainie, don’t cry. Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I never meant to make you cry.” Daniel pressed urgent kisses to her forehead. He tried to tilt her face up, but she wouldn’t move away from where she buried her face in his shirt.

She wanted to tell him it wasn’t his fault. She knew he had been teasing. Their fight over their misunderstandings had been resolved before they parted ways two mornings ago. She wasn’t the kind of person who carried groundless grudges.

When she lifted her head to tell him those things, he captured her lips in a tender kiss that only brought more tears gushing from her eyes. This one simple act communicated his feelings so clearly, just as Evan’s kiss had done two nights ago.

She was trapped in a hopeless, helpless situation.

Gentle hands trailed along her hips. Heat seared her back as those hands traveled upward and moved her braid out of the way. When a second set of lips seared her neck, she realized Evan was behind her, kissing her neck while Daniel claimed her lips.

With a startled gasp, she jerked away from both of them. Her actions bordered a little on the violent side, but she didn’t care if one or both of them suffered bruised lips.

Anger made her body and her voice shake. She pointed an accusatory finger at both men. “You did this on purpose!”

Daniel held his hands up in a supplicating gesture that managed to also be condescending. “Lainie, there’s no need to get upset.”

“No need? You lied to me!” Her gaze bounced between Daniel and Evan. “You both lied to me. You used me, and you lied to me.”

Evan took one step forward, but he checked himself when she took another step backward. “Alaina, honey, we didn’t use you. We aren’t using you, and we didn’t lie to you, not really.”

“Not any more than you lied to us.” Daniel turned off the sauce boiling on the stove and crossed his arms over his chest. The popping sounds from the boiling concoction slowed and stopped.

Alaina’s sharp intake of breath should have been warning enough, but Evan shot Daniel a warning look just the same.

Daniel ignored them both. “Lainie, we wanted you to get to know us separately before you had us together.”

Her wildest dreams were coming true, but she was too angry to take solace in that fact. “Did it ever occur to you to let me in on your little plan beforehand, Daniel? You go on and on about hating women who play head games, yet this is exactly the kind of thing you bitch about.”

He took a step toward her, but she backed around the island counter. He stopped, letting her have something between them. “This is different, Lainie. We’re both in love with you. We both want a relationship with you, and I think you want a relationship with both of us, too. Why don’t you just calm down now?”

The world exploded in red as Alaina’s fists came down on the counter. She wasn’t the kind of person who yelled, but she definitely had the lung capacity when she needed the volume. “Calm down? Damn it, Daniel! You both used me for a one-night stand, and then you both came back for another night. I’ve been out of my mind, confused by the fact I was falling for both of you and afraid of hurting either of you and afraid of damaging your friendship, and you expect me to calm down when I find out you planned this all along? I’m a woman, not a blow-up doll!”

Daniel’s face had taken on that ruddy undertone it got whenever he lost his temper with her. Curiously, Evan seemed completely unaffected by their angry outbursts.

Planting his hands firmly on the counter opposite Alaina, Daniel leaned closer. “So we went about this the wrong way. It’s not like we’ve ever done something like this before. Cut us some slack.” He glanced at Evan before focusing his gaze back on Alaina. “Or at least cut me some slack. You don’t seem pissed at Evan.”

She growled, a snarling sound she’d never made. “He didn’t even know me when you invited him into my bed. At least he fell for me honestly. He treated me with dignity and respect. I’m sure this wasn’t his idea.”

Evan’s shadow fell between them, diverting the flow of anger that seemed to amplify between Alaina and Daniel. Needing to know his place in all of this, she lifted her face to meet his gaze.

“It wasn’t my idea, Alaina, but I wasn’t against it. After I met you, I was all in. I’ve never shared a woman with anyone, not even Danny, yet the idea of the three of us together just seems so right.” His blue eyes searched hers for something. “I know you’re angry. You have every right to be. Maybe we went about this the wrong way. We’re sorry we hurt you. But we’d like to ask you to put that aside for now and seriously consider having the both of us in your life.”

“You made me feel like a slut.” Hurt suffused her quiet words. Alaina no longer had enough anger to power her lungs.

Daniel’s aggressive stance relaxed. “Don’t say that, Lainie. It’s not your fault. We’re just irresistible.”

Alaina sighed at Danny’s attempted levity. Her gaze fixed on her hands still curled into fists on the countertop. “I’ve never had casual sex, not once in my entire life before I met you.”

Evan rested his hand over her fist. She didn’t unfurl it, and he didn’t force the issue. “What you have with us isn’t casual.”

Just like that, a switch was thrown in her head. She understood what they had done and what they were offering. This was her dream. This was what she wanted. It didn’t seem quite real, not yet.

Links:

http://www.michelezurlo.com

http://www.bookstrand.com/time-to-pretend

Amazon author page: http://www.amazon.com/Michele-Zurlo/e/B003EG3IOC/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1302616413&sr=1-1

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