Charmaine Ross will be awarding a copy of the e-book Take Me As I Am (international) to three randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.
Oooo – That is a cringey question. No-one wants to revisit something bad like that – do they? Well, the answer is yes, I have told a lie and when I do that, I don’t tell anyone what I’ve done! I usually lie to either save someone’s feelings, or to protect my children in some way. I don’t do it maliciously, but I do think about it a lot and it does eat me up from the inside for a long time afterwards, good intentions or not.
Mostly I lie to my husband about how much things cost. Men – they really have no idea. LOL
In Take Me As I Am, my heroine, Kate, has a secret she has only told her best friend. She has had an emotionally abusive childhood and her sister ran away from home when she was only sixteen. Her parents wrote off Kate’s sister and forbade Kate to find her, but now that she is an adult, she has hired a private detective to find her sister which she has kept from her over-bearing, unforgiving father. In the book I try to make Kate reach some personal decisions – does she choose to do things that are true to herself, or does she live a life that pleases her father.
Plus, she desperately falls in love with her sexy landscaper, David, which she knows her father won’t approve of. Kate has some pretty major decision to make. Luckily she has found David who is the best man for her. She’s just got to have the guts to stand up for the things she wants in life, otherwise she’s going to lose everything.
In this book, I wanted to turn the tables on the rich man / ordinary gal plot and so made my heroine a billionaire’s daughter, having been groomed for luxury and educated in the best schools money could buy, and my hero a sexy, hard-working, yet salt-of-the-earth man. My favourite scene is when my hero strips off his shirt in the summer sun, my heroine can’t ignore the sizzle in her blood or the voice in her head that tells her that what her body wants is a bad idea. A very bad idea.
Add in some sexy spice, some differences of opinion, undeniable physical attraction and you have ‘Take Me As I Am’.
Thank you so much for having me here and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a bit about me. As a thank you to your readers I’m offering two free fun and flirty novellas on my web site when you subscribe to my very sporadic email. I also have free sample chapters on my web site. It’s worth a look@ www.charmaineross.com.
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Forget the whole billionaire tycoon thing: Kate Moore is a billionaire’s daughter, and she knows first-hand that they’re not all romance novel worthy. Her father is brilliant, inflexible, and brutal – and nothing she’s ever done has been good enough for him. Her one chance to take over the massive Moore’s Hotel Corporation is restoring the run-down Burnham Beeches in beautiful Sassafras to its former glory. To that end, she hires David Wright, a talented landscaper with an unparalleled eye for beauty and an unparalleled talent for distracting her from her goal.
David really needs this job. He needs the contract, the Moore’s name on his portfolio, and the money to pay for his ailing father’s health. Everything he’s worked for is now within his grasp, and he’s going to reach for it with both hands. What he doesn’t need is the diversion, or the temptation, presented by his new boss.
Neither David nor Kate are free to follow their own desires, but they’re powerless to fight their growing attraction. But they come from very different places; perceptions will have to crash, misconceptions will have to collapse, and they will have to face their own personal challenges before they find their space to meet in the middle.
David really needs this job. He needs the contract, the Moore’s name on his portfolio, and the money to pay for his ailing father’s health. Everything he’s worked for is now within his grasp, and he’s going to reach for it with both hands. What he doesn’t need is the diversion, or the temptation, presented by his new boss.
Neither David nor Kate are free to follow their own desires, but they’re powerless to fight their growing attraction. But they come from very different places; perceptions will have to crash, misconceptions will have to collapse, and they will have to face their own personal challenges before they find their space to meet in the middle.
Excerpt
Kate peeked out from her office window. David had done a lot in the past few hours, having marked out the skeleton of the garden. Unfortunately, the piece of ground he’d decided on meant he was all she could see when she looked out of the window.
She would catch herself, lost in thought as she watched his lithe movements outside. Every so often he would call out an order to his brother, Jack, as he’d introduced him, who would follow the instruction. Kate studied them both, comparing brothers. Jack was as lean as David, but he wasn’t as tall. David a little darker with hair and skin tones. They looked similar, had distinct physical family traits, but he hadn’t captivated her as much as David had.
Captivated. Was that what she was? As much as she pulled her attention back to the computer screen, her eyes kept returning to the window, as though they had a mind of their own. Each time she did, she’d notice something new about David. The way his calf muscles contracted when he bent, and the way his biceps seemed to burst when he carried something heavy. The way his skin glowed with sweat in the midday heat. His brother wasn’t as fit, or as lean. Or as tanned. Or half as masculine. Kate bit her lower lip until it hurt.
Kate wondered if he would feel as hard as he looked. Would his skin be warm to the touch? Hot? Would each ripple of muscle undulate as smoothly beneath his skin as they looked?
Would she burn if they touched just skin to skin?
Kate sank her chin into the palm of her hand, feeling her lower belly melt. As she watched, David reached to the hem of his fitted T-Shirt and pulled it over his head.
She stopped breathing.
She didn’t have to imagine his muscles any more. They were superbly on display. He was lean. Fit. And had a six pack to prove it. He had the perfect frame, broad shoulders, a clean chest that showcased perfectly sculpted muscle. Not the type that was designed in a gym, but the kind that was created from daily physical labour. His chest tapered into a trim, flat stomach. A hollowed line ran from the centre of his torso beneath his waist-band to much lower parts of his anatomy. A fiery thrill ran up Kate’s spine.
‘Who’s the hunk?’
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
My first foray into romance was as a fourteen year old where I fell hopelessly and eternally in love with my hero as only a teenager can. Instead of watching movies and staying up late, I would go to bed at eight thirty and continue my very romantic, very safe, love affair.
Since then, I have fallen in love with many heroes, some less safe than what my teenage brain could possibly imagine. After earning a Fine Art’s Degree, a Diploma of Secondary Education and a Diploma of Marketing, I worked as a Graphic Designer in various advertising agencies as well as in-house marketing roles and am currently involved with digital marketing and everything web in my current position. But I always return to writing.
Although I have travelled, I always return to my home town of Melbourne and live with my husband, two children and two cats in the ferny-greens of the Dandenongs. If I'm not working on my latest romance and falling in love with yet another hero, you’ll find me reading, watching and basically indulging in my addiction to any story on any media type I can get my fingers on.
Check out my web site to download and read two fun, flirty novellas - the best news is they're free - plus free chapter downloads from all of my books, as well as updates on my latest news @ www.charmaineross.com
Website: www.charmaineross.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/CharmaineRossAu
Facebook: www.facebook.com/charmaine.ross.01
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/charmaineatt/
Contact information:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Hi Louise, Thanks so much for hosting me :-) It looks terrific. Cheers, Charmaine xx
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