✯BOOK BLITZ:✯ Whip Smart by Siena Noble {EXCERPT + GIVEAWAY!}

Whip Smart by Siena Noble

Release Date: October 22nd 2017

Series: The Loft #1

Genres: Erotica, Romance

After freeing herself from her controlling, manipulative, and so-called "dominant" ex-fiancé, 24-year-old Teresa Bodnar returns to her hometown of Pittsburgh to try and put the pieces of her shattered life back together. Stuck in a rut and determined to prove herself capable of moving on with her life, Tera makes a bold move: founding the city's first BDSM club.

But opening a club for business proves to be no small task, especially where unexpected romantic entanglements are concerned. Since first meeting at a kinky costume party, the magnetic attraction between Tera and easy-going Dominant Eric Yun has been undeniable, and yet Tera finds herself denying it at every turn. She knows she has baggage to spare, and the high-strung submissive is taking no chances when it comes to her budding friendship with the sweet and seductive Eric, no matter how tempting he may be.

Eric Yun has baggage of his own. No one knows better than he does how to hide pain behind a joke and smile. He’s spent years learning to take life in stride, and just when he thinks he has it all figured out, Tera Bodnar sweeps into his life with her big dreams, stubborn determination, and soft submissive side. He’s wanted her more than anything since they met, and now it’s impossible to get her out of his head. But he can tell she’s hiding painful secrets of her own, and the more he learns about this beautifully complicated woman, the more he finds himself revealing to her about the Eric behind the smile…

As Eric chips away at her walls, Tera learns that there is much more to this man than his mouth-watering good looks and effortless charm. She’s falling for him hard and fast, but if life has taught her anything, it’s that the harder the fall, the worse the damage, and the risk of Eric becoming a casualty in the process is just too great. But how can she hope to resist him when she can’t even escape him in her dreams?

**Note: This book is the first in a series and ends on a cliffhanger to be resolved in the book two**

Purchase: Amazon

{EXCERPT}

No sooner had I pulled the menu off the fridge than an inhuman shriek rang through the apartment. “What happened?” I asked, whacking my elbow against the counter in my rush to get back to the living room. Alexis was kneeling on the floor, frantically shaking her laptop. Pop-up after pop-up invaded the screen, while a low, whiny buzz came from the machine. My heart thudded painfully, part of me wanting to laugh with relief, while the other half still expected her keyboard to burst into flames at any second.

“Jesus Christ, calm down!” Megan crawled over to her sister and attempted to pry her hands off the computer, but the inebriated Al swatted her away in a way that would’ve been funny if my mind hadn’t been racing at a hundred miles an hour trying to figure out how to calm her down.

“What. Happened,” I repeated slowly.

“I-I was j-just looking for the English subbed NC-17 theatrical cut like you said, but… but I clicked this one video and everything started going crazy!” Alexis sobbed.

“God, why don’t you have AdBlocker?” said Megan.

Why don’t you have better bedside manner? I thought, but I managed to keep my uncharitable thoughts to myself.

“I said I have it on Amazon; you didn’t have to look it up,” I told Alexis, immediately wishing I could take it back after realizing how condescending it sounded.

“I did have AdBlocker, I swear to God!” she wailed. “Oh my God, am I having a panic attack? Is this what it’s like to be you all the time?”

I inhaled sharply, trying my best to ignore the stab in my gut at the drunken words I knew my friend didn’t mean.

“Ugh, you’re not having a panic attack, you’re just drunk,” Megan muttered. “Tell her she’s being a big baby, Tera.”

I glared at her. “Like it only matters if someone’s actually having a panic attack?” I shot back. I patted Al on the shoulder as soothingly as possible. “Here, let me see, you probably just need to shut it down…”

She shoved the laptop away from me in alarm. “No, please! Please don’t. I can’t have it break on me, I just can’t.”

Megan threw her hands up and stood. “Christ, you need an expert here? Is that what you want? Tera, why don’t you just call Eric or something, he’s a computer guy, right?”

“What? No, I’m not doing that to him.” I stood up to face her. “He’s probably just getting off work, and don’t you think he’s probably sick of being everyone’s designated ‘computer guy’?” But even as I protested, the selfish part of me was pleading for an excuse to do as Megan said.

“Why, afraid you won’t be able to control yourself if he comes over?” Megan teased, looking so damn smug.

I suppressed the urge to defend myself, knowing it would only prove her point in her mind. She knew damn well she wasn’t playing fair, but even as much as she was starting to piss me off, she did have a point: the only way to coax Alexis out of her drunken freakout at this point would be to call in an expert ASAP.

“Fine.” I spit out the word like it was a curse. I didn’t relish the thought of Eric forever seeing me as the annoying, rude girl who begged him to fix a computer problem a monkey could probably solve, but I told myself that it would be more than worth it to help Alexis. My teeth dug sharply into my lower lip as I pulled out my phone. I hoped I’d have a few extra seconds to come up with a good way to phrase my request, but Eric picked up on the first ring.

“Hello there,” he said in a vaguely British accent. I think he was going for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Something warm fluttered inside me when I heard his voice. Damn, how could he still be so suave even when he was just joking around? Did he even know he was doing it?

“Hello yourself,” I breathed. Shit, I needed to keep myself in check. I cleared my throat. “I’m really sorry in advance for ruining your obviously good mood, but I, um, kind of have a computer emergency?”

He gave a little chuckle that sent another heated shiver through me. “What kind of emergency?”

“Look, I get that people probably do this to you all the time and you get sick of it… it’s probably and easy fix, but… my friend got drunk and accidentally clicked on a bad link, and now she’s panicking and won’t let anyone touch her computer.” I held my breath, grateful not to have to ask him for this favor in person.

“Give me your address and I’ll be there in twenty minutes, tops.”

“Really? Oh.” I sighed. “Thank you so much, you have no idea how grateful I am.”

“Don’t even mention it.”

I gave him our address and hung up, taking a few seconds to compose myself before turning back to my friends. Al was in a fetal position, staring a thousands yards through her computer. Megan, now holding the half-gallon of long island iced tea, nudged her, and she held out her empty wine glass without looking up. She chugged down the cocktail alarmingly fast, hiccuping loudly before turning her blank gaze to the kitchen and starting like a deer in headlights when she saw me.

“OK. Eric’s coming over. He’s going to fix this,” I said. Al’s eyes got even wider as she nodded furiously.

“Hooray for having a man solve all our problems!” Megan said, raising the bottle as if about to drink right from it.

“What the hell is your problem?” I took the bottle from her, picked up her glass from the coffee table, filled it, and handed it to her. “You’re the one who wanted me to call him!”

“What, can’t I just vent after a long day?”

“Venting privileges don’t extend to hypocrisy.” I scooped her sweaty scrubs up off the couch. “Go put clothes on, he’ll be here in twenty.”

She grabbed the wad of fabric and skulked to her room. “Yes, Mistress…”

I shook my head; I swore someday I’d sprain my neck from all the head-shaking I did. “Thank you, sweetheart!” I called after her affectionately. I looked down at Alexis, who was nursing the last few drops of the cocktail in her glass. “You OK?”

She nodded again. I didn’t like how much she was drinking, but I didn’t think it was my place to judge, since she was the only one of the three of us who’d never been so much as tipsy in public, or made any poorer choices while intoxicated than to click on a bad link. Still, now that I’d gotten over the hurdle of getting Eric to come over, I couldn’t help but be concerned that my friend might end up doing or saying something in the presence of our criminally-attractive impending guest that she’d be mortified by in the morning.

There wasn’t much I could do to prevent that now other than to move the near-empty wine bottle and jug of pre-mixed cocktail out of her reach and to make the apartment as neat as possible. Everyone said guys were slobs, but one look around the place told me that there was no way Eric needed to see that our apartment was currently one step above a disaster zone. Books, magazines, and papers with my own shitty attempts at blueprints for the club had somehow ended up everywhere, not to mention scraps of thread and fabric from all the sewing Al had done to get our costumes for the upcoming Star Wars premier ready. Bbetween Megan’s hectic hospital shifts, Alexis putting in overtime to take a few extra days off work around Christmas, and my own time stretched thin between editing, club planning, and the liquor store, none of us had time to clean. Nothing better than a hot guy to get you motivated, I thought as I dashed to get the vacuum from the closet.

I could be almost robotically efficient when I put my mind to it, and I put my mind to it now. I swept the floor, carefully circling around Alexis and her laptop like two rocks in a zen garden, and indeed there was something oddly soothing about cleaning. It had always been that way for me, even if I didn’t always make time for it. I liked the purposefulness of it, the control it gave me over some small aspect of my life, the way I could let myself become absorbed in the task at hand and take pleasure in having done a good job at the end. But there was something else there this time: an warm, sensuous undercurrent to my growing calm as I organized the strewn papers into neat stacks and loaded the dishwasher, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I knew it had to do with the fact that my methodical cleaning was for Eric. To please him.

I knew that was the submissive side of me talking, the side of me that I needed to keep on a tight leash whenever he was around. By the time the living room and kitchen looked presentable enough for company I was warm all over, and it wasn’t just my lightning-speed cleaning efforts that had me flushed. I glanced at my phone; Eric would be there in four minutes or less, and I’d been so in the zone that I’d barely noticed that Megan was dressed and already ordering a pizza.

“Hey, should I ask for extra sausage?” she whispered to me with a wink. I raised an eyebrow, about to tell her not to do that to the poor delivery person, when there was a knock at the door. Eric was here, right on schedule… and just in time for me to realize that I hadn’t thought to put a bra on. Fuck.

Before I had a chance to decide between answering the door and running to my room to cover my perky nipples, Alexis suddenly leapt up and stumbled over to the door with impressive speed. From where I was standing, I was at the perfect angle to see Eric looking equal parts mouthwatering and totally cute in a leather jacket and red winter scarf when she opened the door… as well as her own reaction as she got an eyeful of him. Oh no. Her jaw couldn’t have been any closer to the floor if she were a cartoon character, and I could practically see here eyeballs bulging out of here head. Eric, for his part, was smiling his completely beguiling smile, dimples out in full force and somehow made even more charming by being half-covered by his scarf. I wasn’t sure if it was because of his good nature or the fact that he had to get that reaction from women pretty often that he didn’t seem particularly phased, and I wasn’t sure if it was a good sign that knowing it was probably the latter had me hot and bothered even as it raised my hackles.

“Hi, Eric Yun,” he said, breaking the silence after Alexis had had a few seconds to gawk at him. “And you are?”

“In love,” she sighed, her voice uncharacteristically dreamy, slouching against the door frame in a way that was probably meant to be seductive. Megan tittered with laughter behind me, and I could feel the blush seeping into my cheeks and something unpleasant curdling in my gut. Alcohol-induced out-of-character moment for Al or not, an unwelcome bit of jealousy still needled at me. But thankfully my common sense overrode it, as did concern for my best friend and sympathetic second-hand embarrassment for Eric. His eyes flicked over to me, and I felt guilty for not rescuing them both a moment sooner.

“Eric, this is Alexis Ortega, Al, this is Eric,” I said and I ushered him inside. “Thank you so much again for coming over, I’m really going to owe you for this.”

I’d said the words without even thinking, and the look he gave me as he took them in had my pussy suddenly throbbing and my nipples hardening even more. And the way his eyes glanced down ever so briefly told me he hadn’t missed that I was currently bra-less.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said, his voice carefully neutral even as he gave me a little smirk. I offered to take his coat, wondering if my polite tone could be mistaken for something more submissive. He shrugged out of his jacket, his strong shoulders somehow making even that innocuous action incredibly sexy.

“’Sup,” said Megan, grinning widely as she leaned against the kitchen counter. Eric waved at her, then briefly scanned the living room before his eyes landed on Alexis’ laptop on the floor. Alexis was still staring at him, but shook herself out of it long enough to pick the device up gingerly and hand it to him, like she were handing off a newborn baby. Eric raised his eyebrows but seemed to humor her as he sat carefully on the couch, Alexis sitting beside him with her leg pressing against his and her hands folded tightly in her lap in so that that had her breasts were squished together by her upper arms. He moved away from her ever so slightly, which was strangely gratifying, although I might’ve just been imagining it.

Megan sauntered into the room. “Yeah, she gets pretty thirsty when she drinks,” she laughed, trading a teasing look with me that I chose to ignore.

“Is that right?” Eric muttered as he worked his magic on her laptop. Alexis pouted but didn’t seem to have heard Megan’s comment, judging by how her eyes flitted back and forth from Eric’s face to his busy hands as she slowly bent over to pour herself another glass of wine, then nestled against him as she sat back, in a way that I’m sure she thought was subtle.

“By all means, make yourself comfortable,” he said, a cheeky half-grin lighting up his face. He glanced up at me. “It’s your house, after all. You can sit down.”

His eyes flicked up and down, and I felt my nipples tighten again. I literally need to calm my tits, I thought as I quickly sat down on the other end of the couch, putting more distance between us than Al seemed willing to give him in her fragile and star-struck state.

“There, good as new,” he said in seemingly no time at all. “Although if you really want it operating at max efficiency, I’d be more than happy to uninstall a bunch of those junk programs that come with it from the big box store.”

“Yay!” Al squealed, nearly knocking the much larger man over as she threw her arms around his neck. Eric gave me an adorably pleading look that had me smiling despite my flash of envy, though he didn’t seem to need much saving as he effortlessly and swiftly pried her hands away and placed them on her lap. Now that really made me jealous, as well as more than a little aroused. That casual display of dominance, the easy way he took control…

OK, time to jump off that train of thought. I stood quickly, paranoid that he would smell my raw lust if I stayed too close to him. “Thank you so much for coming over,” I told him emphatically. I had my checkbook ready on the coffee table, and I picked it up, determined to pay him for his time and not waste any more of it, no matter how much I wanted him to stay longer. “How much do I owe you?”

Eric shook his head as he stood up. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Please, you have to take something.” I was starting to feel antsy.

“We’ll pay you in pizza if you stick around for the movie,” Megan said far too sweetly. What the hell was she playing at? I shot her a stern look as Eric glanced between the two of us. He crossed his arms, but judging from his quick answer I wondered if it was only a token gesture.

“Depends on what movie we’re watching,” he replied, though me met my eyes as he said it.

Somehow I held back my ridiculous sigh of relief. “Remember when I said one of my favorite movies is Lust Caution?”

A dangerously enticing grin slowly spread across his face. “Am I about to find out why?”

I smiled cautiously back at him. “You don’t have to stay, I don’t want to hold you back from anything.”

“But now I’m intrigued,” he said, settling back down on the couch and throwing one arm across the back of it. “Unless that’s your way of trying to kick me out.”

My quick heartbeat was no longer due to anxiety at this point. Bad idea or not, I did want him here. “By all means, make yourself at home,” I told him, mirroring his words from earlier.

“Wait, you’re staying?” Alexis squeaked, finally seeming to catch on. Oh Lord, poor Eric would probably be fending off her drunken advances all night, but as he exchanged a what-have-you-gotten-me-into look with me as I sat down again, something more pressing that jealousy prodded at the back of my mind: what would I do when it got to that part of the movie? I did my best to shake the feeling. Maybe Eric was clouding my judgment, but I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.

AUTHOR BIO:

A proud Pittsburgh, PA area native, Siena Noble has explored and inhabited all kinds of fictional worlds through her writing since age ten. Although she’s always been a sucker for a good love story and possesses an incredibly dirty mind, she never imagined that her publishing debut would be erotic romance. What started as a silly short story idea quickly became something much bigger, a demanding Master of a manuscript whose every whim Siena submitted to.

When she’s not busy reading, writing, binge-watching Game of Thrones, or doing a million other important things, Siena enjoys traveling, archery, and getting lost in the woods (also known as “hiking”). She and her better half/writing buddy/sometimes Sir/sex muse live together in Pittsburgh. Their dream is to relocate to the middle of nowhere and build a castle capable of withstanding the impending zombie apocalypse.

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