Hello and happy National Donut Day. I didn't know that was a thing until this morning. But since I'm now aware, I thought I'd share with you a scene from Bad Boys Need Love Too, where Joseph and Gage enjoy donuts together. It's NSFW, so you probably don't want to read it on your computer at work. Enjoy!

Sunday morning, Joseph woke to sunlight warming his face. He was lying on his front, his head turned towards the window. Gage lay next to him, on his front as well, his arm a heavy weight draped over Joseph’s back. He was tempted to lay there and fall back asleep to the sound of Gage’s soft snores, but his stomach was growling.

He turned over, dislodging Gage’s arm. When he was free, he sat up. His movements woke Gage, who groaned and tried to pull him back down.

“Why are you awake? It's Sunday. Go back to sleep.”

Joseph laughed. “You are definitely not a morning person.”

Gage opened one eye to look at him. “After two weeks of sleeping together, you're just now figuring that out?”

Joseph smiled. He and Gage had indeed been back together for two weeks now. They'd spent nearly every night together, splitting their time between each other's homes. This morning they were in Gage’s large bedroom. And as usual Gage was reluctant to be dragged out of sleep.

“I'm hungry.”

Gage raised his hand to rub across his stomach. “You're always hungry. Where do you put it all?”

Joseph got out of the bed. “Shut up. I want donuts.” He bent over to grab his jeans from the floor. Gage whistled.

“Oh yeah, that's where you put it all.”

Joseph turned back around to see Gage grinning at him wickedly. He arched a brow. “You complaining?”

Gage shook his head. “Hell no.”

Joseph continued getting dressed and pulled his hair back into a sloppy ponytail. “I didn't think so.” Then he cursed. “Shit, I forgot you drove me over here last night. Any chance I can convince you to get out of bed and take me to get some donuts?”

Gage stretched and pulled the covers up his bare chest. “I'm not getting up. Take the Indian.”

Joseph’s eyes popped wide. “Are you serious?”

Gage shrugged. “Yeah. I trust you. Keys are on the rack next to the garage door in the kitchen.”

Joseph grinned with excitement and started out of the room. Gage called him back.
“Hey. There's a helmet for you on the shelf out there.”

Joseph looked at Gage in surprise. “Thank you.” Gage waved him off and he went bounding down the stairs.

Down in the garage Joseph saw Gage’s three motorcycles. But he ignored two of them and went for the Indian Chief Dark Horse. He couldn't believe Gage had said he could ride his motorcycle. Joseph ran a palm over the muted colors of the headdress logo. The rest of the bike was a rich black. It looked strong and solid as it sat there, a perfect match to its owner.

Joseph swung his leg over and mounted the bike. He'd found the key and a shiny black retro-looking helmet just where Gage had said they'd be. The helmet was obviously new and fit his head perfectly. He started the bike and it came roaring to life. Wheeling it over to the garage door, he hit the button to open it, drove through, and put in the code to close it again. Joseph didn't even try to hold back his grin as the big bike rumbled beneath him. He just revved it up and drove off.

****

Gage looked towards the door as he heard Joseph coming up the stairs. He breezed into the room, bringing the scent of fresh air, motorcycle exhaust and sugar in with him. Joseph jumped on the bed, straddling his waist.

“I love that bike. The ride is so smooth and easy. And it just rumbles, deep and throaty. The power in it was awesome as I was cruising along. And the bike is just cool, especially all dressed in black like that. I swore I could hear Foghat's Slow Ride playing somewhere in the atmosphere.”

“I would say you've never had anything that powerful between your thighs, but you've had me,” Gage teased. He liked that Joseph enjoyed his bike so much.

Joseph rolled his eyes and dug into the white paper bag for a donut. He bit into the pastry and moaned. “Chocolate icing.” He licked his lips. “Yummy.”

Gage folded his arms behind his head and watched Joseph, still on top of him, eating that donut.

“Are you going to offer me any?” he asked when there was only one bite left.

Joseph looked at the piece of donut in his hand and then down at him. “Nope. You should have gotten up and come with me.” Then he popped it in his mouth.

Gage smacked him on the ass, making him jump. “If I'd gone with you, you wouldn't have gotten to ride my bike.”

Joseph grinned as he pulled out another donut, this one glazed. “Oh yeah. Forgot about that.” He held the sugary treat up to his mouth for Gage to take a bite.

They shared the next two donuts, Gage laying there and letting Joseph feed him. When the last crumb was gone, Gage reached for his hand. Pulling it up to his mouth, he slowly licked the sugared icing from his fingers. Joseph watched him with those gorgeous green eyes so he made a show of it, darting his tongue out in teasing little laps.

His eyes slid shut as Gage sucked a finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it before he bit down on the fleshy pad. Joseph made a soft little sound of surprise, his hips jerking in his lap. Gage smoothed a palm up Joseph’s denim clad thigh, feeling the warm skin and hard muscle beneath the material. He curved his hand around to cup Joseph’s ass, Joseph subtly grinding against him as he did. He called his lover's name.
“Joseph.”

When he opened his eyes and looked down at him, Gage told him what he wanted him to do.

“Take your shirt off.”

Joseph obeyed him, pulling his t-shirt over his head and dropping it to the floor. Gage traced his fingers over his well-defined abs, smoothing his palms up to the pads of muscle on his chest. Gage smiled to himself. He might hate that fancy gym Joseph went to, but he loved what it did for his body.

Gage wrapped a hand around the back of Joseph’s neck, tugging him down until their lips met. They kissed, their tongues slowly and softly playing together. Gage stroked Joseph’s ponytail, winding the curls around his fingers as he lightly sucked at his bottom lip. He pulled the band free from his lover’s hair and the silky strands fell in a dark curtain around them.

The kiss went on, sunlight filtering through the cloak of Joseph’s hair, Joseph sighing into his mouth. Gage pulled back and looked up into his lover's eyes. His pretty, gold and green eyes. He would be careful with Joseph, and never hurt him. He promised himself that. Gage stroked his thumb over Joseph’s mouth.

“I didn't think you could taste any sweeter.”

Joseph smiled. “Now are you glad I woke you up for donuts?”

Gage made a noise that was a non-answer and pushed Joseph up until he was sitting upright again. Looking down, he saw Joseph’s erection pressing against the front of his jeans. He rubbed his palm there, feeling how hard he was. Joseph bit his lip, his hips moving forward slightly. Gage watched him as he slowly popped the button loose and pulled the zipper down.

Joseph hadn't put his underwear back on before he’d gotten dressed to leave, so his bare cock peeked out from his opened jeans. Gage teased his hard shaft with one finger. Joseph pushed his hips forward more insistently this time, forcing his cock to come out of his jeans a little more.

Gage pushed Joseph up off his lap and pulled his jeans down hard to get the tight fitting material just low enough to bare his ass. He was naked, so all he had to do was shove the sheet covering him out of the way. Gage reached over to the nightstand for the bottle of lube. He covered himself in the liquid, then worked a slick finger up into Joseph to get him ready. Joseph was squirming in his lap, constricted by the jeans around the tops of his thighs.

“Gage. I can't move like this.”

Gage grabbed Joseph by his narrow hips and started easing him down his shaft. “That's what you get for wearing these tight ass jeans.”

“You like them.”

“I like the way your ass looks in 'em.”

Joseph closed his eyes and exhaled hard as Gage brought him firmly down onto his cock. “Same thing.”

Gage laughed and smoothed his hands up Joseph’s back. He was all the way inside his lover, but he didn't start moving yet. He picked the bottle of lube up and taking Joseph’s hand, squeezed some into his palm. Joseph immediately grasped his shaft and started stroking himself. Gage watched while he kept a grip on Joseph’s hips with both hands, pushing him up then slamming him back down onto his cock, thrusting his own hips up to meet him each time. Joseph couldn't move restrained by his jeans the way he was, but Gage was still enjoying feeling him clench around his shaft.

Joseph's eyes were closed, his head thrown back. A particularly long moan came from him when he squeezed his cock hard. Gage stopped moving. Joseph was still moaning and stroking himself when Gage pushed him off and tossed him to the side. He landed facing away from him.

Joseph looked over his shoulder. “Hey! What was that?”

Gage smirked. “You weren't paying enough attention to me.”

Joseph’s eyes narrowed. “You're the one started this with my pants on me so that I could hardly move.”

“That's no excuse. Show me you like what I'm doing to you. Not what you're doing to yourself.”

“You're kidding me, right? You're jealous of my hand?” he asked, disbelieving laughter in his voice.

Gage grinned. “Yep.” He yanked Joseph close against him until they were pressed together, his front to Joseph’s back. Now he pushed Joseph’s pants all the way down, Joseph toeing off his shoes so he could take them completely off. “If your hand is making you feel that good, what do you need me and my dick for?”

Joseph laughed. “You know I want it.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He grabbed Joseph’s hands, holding them up over his head, and pushed back inside him. Before he even started moving Joseph let out the loudest moan he'd ever heard.

“Ooooh, Gage! That's the stuff right there!”

Gage buried his face in the crook of Joseph’s neck, laughing into his hair. He pulled his hips back and slid back into him slowly. Joseph kept up with his obviously fake moans.
“Yeah, baby! I was so wrong to want my hand on my dick. Bad hand! Bad me!”

Gage was nearly howling with laughter now. He'd never laughed like this during sex. “You obnoxious little fucker.”

Joseph looked back over his shoulder. “I believe you're the one doing all the fucking.”

“That's right,” he said with a grin. He kissed Joseph, pushing his tongue into his mouth. He thrust into his ass hard and Joseph cursed for real that time.

“Fuck.”

Gage’s laughter was smug now as he fucked Joseph, listening to his moans change from ultra-fake to genuinely passionate. He glided into him again and again, still holding Joseph’s arms up over his head. He pressed their mouths back together, sucking and biting at his soft tongue and pouty bottom lip.

Joseph was breathing hard, writhing against him. He twisted his body, throwing his leg over Gage’s. Gage pushed his thigh between Joseph’s legs, lightly pressing it up against his balls. They were hot and swollen against his skin and Joseph groaned into his mouth as he rubbed his thigh back and forth against them.

Gage finally released his grip on Joseph’s wrists, bringing his hand down so that together they grasped his cock. They both stroked him, Joseph’s hand on top, his on the bottom, their fingers knocking together as they pumped.

“I'm about to come,” Joseph breathed out.

“Of course you are, now that you're touching yourself.”

Joseph half laughed – half groaned. Gage doubled the force of his thrusts, fucking him hard and fast, his hips slapping against Joseph’s ass. His spine was tingling, his balls as tight as Joseph’s felt against his leg.

“If you make me come first I'll let you ride the Indian again.”

He'd barely finished speaking when Joseph started pushing his ass back and forth in rhythm with his thrusts. He laughed at that quick response, but it quickly changed to a groan as Joseph pressed his ass tight against him, grinding and clenching hard on his cock. He could have held on a little longer, but he didn't.

Gage let go, relishing the feel of his orgasm tingling and racing up his shaft until he released deep into his lover. His cock was still throbbing with delicious aftershocks, but he gave his attention to Joseph, jerking him off swiftly, making him moan and come in a hot rush over their hands.

Joseph took a deep breath and let it out in a loud sigh. “Donuts, riding that bike, and sex with you. Three great ways to start the day.”

Gage lightly ran his fingers over Joseph’s hip, making him shiver. “Which was your favorite part?”

Joseph was quiet for a moment before he answered. “I'm gonna have to go with riding the Indian.”

Gage laughed and smacked him on the ass.

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I hope you enjoyed that! This little bit remains one of my favorite sexy scenes because they are so gosh darn relaxed, happy and cute. If you'd like to read more of Gage & Joseph's story, you can check out them out in Bad Boys Need Love Too.

Love,
Christa
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Visit my website: www.ChristaTomlinson.com

Authors don’t promo right now! It’s insensitive! I see this come down my timeline every time there is a major news event. But I gotta tell ya. I think telling authors not to promote is what’s insensitive. Let me break it down why authors shouldn’t be guilted into abandoning their promotional efforts when our timelines are a mess.

1) There’s been something dire happening with regularity for over a year now. 2016 was a dumpster fire. We all know it. I’ve never seen a society so eager to see the ass end of a year than I did last year. But hey, guess what? 2017 has been pretty rough too.

Soooo... When are we supposed to fit our promo in? That one Wednesday in the middle of the month where it seems like it’s going to be quiet for a few hours? When there’s a steady stream of crap, sometimes authors just have to put on our boots, wade in, and let that crap flow around us as we hold up our virtual billboards.

2) We’re not psychic. And we don’t plan our promo with only thirty minutes lead notice. Once we finish a book we work out a promo plan, book blog tours, decide on cover reveal dates and when to share excerpts. We do all of that weeks in advance.

Guess what happens if we just chuck it all to the side because the circus sideshow that is our country right now decides to put on another center ring act? No one knows about our book, which means no one buys our book, which means we don’t make any money.

Not to mention, if we’ve already booked a tour somewhere, we can’t just call ‘em up and say, “Hey! Can you hold my posts please? The world’s gone to shit again and I want to wait until the skies are clear.” Nothing doing there, my friend. Blogs and other promo sites have their own schedules to keep.

3) It's unfair to pick and choose which events are worthy/shocking/painful enough for taking a day off from promo. What’s important and sad for one person, might not be as much of an issue for others. I was sitting at my day job desk when I heard Prince died. My co-worker was unbothered. I had to get up and go in the bathroom to cry. And those roles have been reversed or shared depending on who or what is happening. I won’t get into the attention given to Western events versus non-Western. But suffice it to say, every celebrity death, political event, and social disaster touches each of us differently.

4) You are literally telling authors not to go to work. Which makes no sense. Do TVs stop airing ads for clothes, beer or new trucks? No, those ads are booked and paid for in advance and they are played regardless of what’s going on in the world.

McDonald’s doesn’t dim the light on the golden arches, Wal-Mart doesn’t shut their registers down (even though they probably only had two open) and Barnes & Noble doesn’t drape a cloth over all the books they have on display. Commerce continues. Besides, don’t you think it would be weird if authors started posting and telling other people to stay home from their jobs until the latest tragedy was over?

5) We are already awkward enough with promo. Shaming us for doing something that most of us don’t care for but is absolutely necessary for us to make any money just makes us feel even more awkward and uncomfortable. Why do you want to hurt me when I just want to bring you a good story?

6) Speaking of good stories. Sometimes we need that, ya know? On days where my timeline is filled with post after post and tweet after tweet of the latest atrocity, it’s nice to come by something that is off the subject of the moment. Whether it’s a puppy wearing a funny hat, a smoking hot person for me to drool over, or promo for a book that I can read to give me a break from watching the world burn, I want to see it.

Call it self-care, call it guilty pleasure, call it whatever you want. The point is, looking at awfulness all day is mentally draining so allow us authors to brighten your day for a moment with a pretty book cover and a catchy blurb.

So as you can see there are plenty of reasons to cut us authors some slack for doing promo when there’s yet another kerfluffle going on.

Authors, I will say this. It’s important to read the room and maybe sometimes adjust the tone. Or even acknowledge that there is an issue happening and share your thoughts or sympathy. And obviously this post doesn’t apply if there is a MAJOR EVENT. I won’t give any examples because I don’t want to speak a tragedy into existence. But other than that, we gotta do work.

Now, with all that being said, I have a .99 book sale! Bad Boys Need Love Too is on sale for .99 until this Sunday. You can also get Bad Boys Need Love Too: Nate and Bad Boys Need Love Too: Max, two novellas in the series for only $2.99 each. Authors, feel free to drop your promo in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Christa
Visit my website: www.ChristaTomlinson.com
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Bad Boys Need Love Too on sale for .99 at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Apple
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Amazon French Translation

As you may have seen, I currently have a .99 sale going on for my 2014 novel Bad Boys Need Love Too. Thanks to the sale, I’ve been thinking a lot about the story. I went back and browsed through some of the Amazon reviews for Gage and Joseph, and I burst into tears when I saw this:

***Thank you Christa for incorporating wonderful, three dimensional characters of *people-of-color*, into this exceptionally well written series. I have enjoyed all three books. Joseph, Max and Kevin were characters that made this *sista* proud, happy and thankful to spend time with. These interracial romances were handled magnificently and lacked NOTHING.***

You may have read my previous post, where I talked about the hurt and annoyance that the romance genre is so slow to get out of the homogenous state it has long been in. And also how I was worried about putting out a series with multicultural characters. So seeing that comment made me feel really good inside. I’m so pleased that I made another woman of color reader happy with my multicultural cast.

Another review I saw made me laugh with happiness. There is A LOT of sex in Bad Boys Need Love Too. And one reader really understood why. There were lots of readers/reviews who understood as well, this one just made me chuckle:
There is A LOT of sex in this book - graphic, HOT sex - but it didn't seem too much because, Hello - one of them is a Sex Addict!

The reviewer is right. Gage is a sex addict. It’s how he handles his issues – anger in particular. Gage and Joseph have sex for lots of reasons throughout Bad Boys Need Love Too, and it’s not always just about feeling good. That is their arc. We’re having sex, but why? What are we trying to say to each other while we’re tangled up in these sheets/rolling around on the floor? How do we get from banging our brains out to having an emotionally mature relationship?

It’s a rough ride for them (puns intended) as they figure it out. And every time I see a reviewer who understands that it makes me smile. I feel as though I’m looking at them through the screen like, you get me!

When a reviewer feels where I'm coming from.

So I had a lovely little trip down memory lane for Gage and Joseph. If you haven’t read their story you should totally check it out. If you have read it, comment with a picture of the cover on your e-reader and I’ll send you a Bad Boys Need Love Too cover art key chain. 

Thanks for reading!
Love,
Christa
Visit my website: www.ChristaTomlinson.com
Follow me around the internet! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads, BookBub
View my titles on Amazon
Sign up for my Newsletter

Bad Boys Need Love Too on sale for .99 at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Apple
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yajq9x3s
Amazon UK: http://tinyurl.com/y9yws66d
Amazon CA: http://tinyurl.com/y8kaaz3q
B&N: http://tinyurl.com/yafemrfo
Kobo: http://tinyurl.com/y7v4rkoe
Apple: http://tinyurl.com/y7y8oa3a
Amazon French Translation: http://tinyurl.com/y8cvk4kw
 
Don’t miss Bad Boys Need Love Too: Nate and Bad Boys Need Love Too: Max, novellas in the complete Bad Boys Need Love Too series. Visit their pages for blurbs and excerpts.