I Can't Believe It's Been 10 Years!

 

aaaaaaaaaah check out that homemade cover LMAO. Yesterday was my 10 Year Authorversary.

I still cannot believe that:

1. It’s been 10 years

2. That I am a full time author now

3. That I am a USA today bestselling author with multiple books that have been bestsellers on Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo as well as hitting the top 100 on Amazon.

4. The number of authors I used to think it would be SO COOL to meet one day that I now call my friend

5. That I’ve written for 2 out of 3 of the multi-author series that I dreamed of being a part of! 1001 Nights is the last one I have to try and get into LOL.

6. That Tamora Pierce knows my name. I still shout that at random intervals. Just because it brings me joy.

Along with over 50 indie books, I've also published 2 books with Cleis Press thanks to my amazing agent Myrsini.

This has been an absolutely insane, wonderful, and humbling journey, helped out by SO MANY people that I’ve met along the way. I am incredibly honored at the number of phenomenal authors that I am lucky enough to know and call my friend. I feel so lucky to have such an amazing, supportive family who all know what I do and cheer me on, and IRL friends who do the same and are happy to be my emotional support people when I have to do an in-person event.

I’ve also been blessed in the people I work with, my PA Renee Brooks, my ‘work wife’ Veronica Adams from L Woods PR, and this year I’ve also started working with Kiki and Jill from Next Step PR (I never thought I'd have one set of people I'm working with much less two!). I’m part of the Dirty Daddies Party Room, Historical Harlots, and Club Risque admin teams, thanks to the amazing authors who included me and have helped me grow in that way.

I’m also incredibly lucky to have an amazing team of Alpha readers – Candida, Marie, Marta, Annie, Karen, Nick, and Katherine. Their contributions to my books have made such a huge difference, always for the better. And of course, without Katherine, who knows if I would have started publishing at all?!

I could not do this job without the support of my husband, who still calls me ‘meal ticket’ but then does an incredible amount of unseen work for me that makes my life so much easier and allows me to focus my attention on the creative portion of my job.

I'm also blessed in my readers. So many who are willing to be on my ARC team or leave me reviews regardless, who share my posts on social media, who talk up my books, and who get excited with me over things like this!

This journey has been so much more than I could have imagined when I first started publishing 10 years ago and I can’t wait to see what the next 10 years hold!

Thank you all SO much

Teaser Tuesday - the Watch Dom

 

“Still drooling over Master Law?” Rae elbowed her in the side. Dressed in a pink and green tutu, which matched the two green braids amid the many long brown braids, and a pink bra, she looked as if she could be on her way to a rave right now. The bright neon colors were gorgeous against her brown skin, and Iris had a moment of stark envy. Neon colors like that always washed her out.

“I am not drooling,” she responded indignantly. As if she would ever drool over a man. Salted caramel butter bars, sure. Men? No. Not even Jason Momoa. “I am lusting from afar on my completely inappropriate crush, with no drool involved.”

Even as she joked, a niggle in her stomach made her squirm uncomfortably. While she might joke about it, she wondered if there was more beneath it than she wanted to admit. Like, yeah, she had a little crush.

It had turned out Law wasn’t the unreasonable hardass he’d made himself out to be. When she’d put in the effort, he actually noticed. Praised her for it, even. It might be sad that something so little could make any kind of impact on her, but it did.

While he might have called her ‘trouble’ a month ago in Patrick’s office, he’d been willing to let his perception change once he saw her trying. That was really rare in her world.

“He is hot,” Avery said, glancing over. “I don’t usually go for bald guys, but he pulls it off.”

“Yeah, he does,” Domi joined in, causing Mitch to frown. “He’s like a sexy Filipino Mr. Clean, but with facial hair.”

“Hey, I’m right here. I can hear you.”

Giggling, Domi tipped her head back at her boyfriend with his full head of blond hair.

“That’s what you get for insisting on coming to ladies’ night.”

“Nick will be here when he’s done for the night,” Avery said encouragingly, patting Mitch on the shoulder. He looked as though he was considering going all Dom on Domi’s ass. It kept her on her toes that he could flip a switch, just like that, and suddenly, her bratty mouth was in trouble.

On the other hand, Iris had a feeling Domi liked to provoke it. She might look like a pixie, so petite and cute with a riot of dark brown curls, but she was a total brat when she wanted to be.

She exchanged a look with Rae, the other single in their group. They were happy for Domi and Avery, but Iris felt a bit of envy. She wasn’t sure she would find what they had here at Stronghold. Even though she and Andrew had agreed to come on opposite nights when they wanted to scene, his friends were still always around. While she got that he didn’t want her to go to clubs where she might not be as safe as she was at Stronghold, it was almost too safe at Stronghold.

Being a sub for the Dominance class had been nice because it had been at Marquis, and she hadn’t been around her big brother’s friends, who had a bad habit of coming over to talk to her when she was in discussions with a prospective Dom. Except they didn’t really come over to talk to her. They came over to talk to the Dom who had approached her, and it wasn’t as though they were trying to chase him off, but that’s what ended up happening every time.

It was a little demoralizing.

Rae’s problem was she totally had a thing for Mitch’s friend Brian but wasn’t willing to admit it. Brian was one hundred percent a Daddy Dom, and Rae insisted she had no interest in a Daddy Dom, even if she dressed like a baby girl whenever she was at the club. It was too bad because Iris thought they’d make a good couple, but it wasn’t her business.

“Are you two crazy kids planning on playing tonight?” she asked Mitch, distracting him from his contemplation of whether or not to Dom out on Domi.

“Yes.” He tugged one of Domi’s curls, pulling it down and letting it go, so it sprang back into place. “I’ve reserved one of the rooms, but she doesn’t know which one yet.”

“It’s the interrogation room,” Domi said, a little smile curving one side of her lips.

“It’s important to maintain an aura of mystery to keep the relationship interesting,” Mitch said a little louder, acting like he hadn’t heard her.

“It’s the interrogation room.”

Mitch got a little louder.

“Which is why I make sure to regularly surprise Domi.”

“It’s still the interrogation room.”

“Are you two going to the interrogation room tonight?” A smiling face appeared behind Avery but not Nick—Brian quickly followed by Mitch’s friends, Kincaid and Zach, who were holding hands. Though Iris noticed Zach glanced over at the Lounge area, where Amy was sitting and chatting with her friends Caroline and Morgan.

“No.”

“Yes.” Domi grinned when Mitch grabbed a fistful of her hair, bending her head back so she was forced to look up at him. The move also made her breasts move within her corset.

“It’s not the interrogation room, little brat, and you’d better watch it, or you’re going to get more than you bargained for tonight.” The threat was made with a growl.

Rae and Iris sighed simultaneously. That was hot.

Spy Season is Here!

Dear Readers who've supported our Sunflower Season charity anthology to raise money for Ukraine, AMAZON LOST YOUR PRE-ORDER!

If you've pre-ordered the set via the Kindle store, that order has been cancelled by Amazon.com and won't be fulfilled or charged. We're working to get it back up again, but even if we do it won't be the original book / preorder link so you'll need to re-order.

It's awful - and none of the 70+ authors involved, including me, can believe it either.

Amazon made a mistake, and can't (or won't) rectify it.

So $20,000 of generous reader donations to charities for Ukraine have been LOST.

If you'd still like to support charities in Ukraine and read 70+ historical romances now, we'd really appreciate your help.

You can purchase the set from other reputable e-book retailers (links are below) - and just a reminder that if you have any kind of apple device, you can get it through Apple Books on that device!

Thank you again for all of your generosity.

ibooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1616339819

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sunflower-season-sabrina-jeffries/1141292297?ean=2940166239617 

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sunflower-season

Heres the original blog post that was supposed to go up today:

When the news broke about Ukraine, and the continued stories of the awfulness that the people there have been subjected to as war rolls through their country and civilians are deliberately targeted, I know that so much of Romancelandia wanted to know what they could do to help. One of the awful things about war is that it drags on, not for days or weeks, but for months and sometimes even years.

Which meant that authors were able to put together anthologies for Ukraine knowing that when the books released, when the royalties came in, there would still be that need for relief. That children and people would still be in danger and suffering.

And that's part of why I'm so glad to announce the release of Sunflower Season. Over 70 historical romance authors came together for this effort, because we wanted to help and we knew there would still be a need.

I wrote a whole new story for it, a prequel story to A Season for Spies which will be releasing later this year. If you want to know more about Evie & Anthony's past, you do not want to miss out on Spy Season, which is exclusively available as part of Sunflower Season. Their story and so many other wonderful books and stories have been made available and all proceeds will benefit Ukraine relief.

Teaser Tuesday - Law & Disorder

 

Another Teaser for Law & Disorder! I can't believe it's only a few weeks away!

******

Iris

“He’s staring at your ass,” Amy whispered to her.

“He is not.” Iris straightened and glanced over her shoulder. Her Watch Dom was saying hello to Master Asad, not looking at her ass. She looked back at Amy, scowling, and the blonde spread her hands wide.

“He was looking, I swear. He watches you a lot when you don’t realize.” Amy’s smile was mischievous.

If she was someone else, Iris might not have believed her, but Amy was nice, even if most of her friends weren’t. Iris tried not to judge Amy by her friends since she was hardly one to talk. Besides, she was pretty sure Amy’s niceness was exactly how she’d gotten caught up in that particular group of Stronghold subs—she was too nice to break away from them.

Iris snorted.

“That’s because he’s sure the second he takes his eye off me, I’ll get into trouble.” Something flipped in her stomach—she really didn’t want to get into trouble.

Every night, at the end of her shift, when she’d done a good job, Master Law told her she’d been a good girl in that gruff way of his. Sure, he’d said it almost suspiciously the first few nights, but now he just said it, and every time it happened, it was the best moment of her day.

There had only been a few days when she’d missed the mark. Though when he’d threatened to spank her for pouring a drink out on Chad’s lap, it hadn’t been her worst moment.

The worst day had been when she’d mouthed off to her brother—who’d deliberately been a dick—and Master Law had just shaken his head and looked away. No ‘good girl’ that day. No praise. No reaction.

Iris was willing to be very, very good if it meant avoiding another day like that.

“You’ve barely gotten into trouble all month,” Amy replied, shaking her head. “By now, he should know he doesn’t need to worry about that. The only times you do something are when it’s deserved.”

Warmth filled Iris’ chest, and she smiled. It was nice to have that acknowledged. Why was it so much easier for women to notice her effort and praise her? Master Law was the only one who seemed to notice out of the Doms. Her brother sure as hell didn’t. He’d spent his whole life only paying attention to her when she was affecting him, which hadn’t changed now that they were adults.

“I’m trying. Only a few more days and I’m free of my Watch Dom.” Oddly, she would miss it. She’d been pissed when she’d realized Patrick had assigned Master Law to keep an eye on her, but with every ‘good girl’ she’d received, she was a lot less mad about it.

What was she going to do when it was gone?

Oh, go cry about it, why don’t you?

Yeah, melancholy was not her normal state.

“Who are you hanging out with tonight?” she asked Amy.

“Morgan’s coming by soon, and I think Zach might be in later, but I don’t know if he’ll be available to scene.” Though Amy’s expression didn’t change, there was something in her voice whenever she said Zach’s name. She was still wearing another man’s ring on her finger, and she was devoted to her fiancé. Iris’ understanding was Amy only scened platonically because her fiancé was completely vanilla but knew about her kink and was ‘understanding.’

They weren’t polygamous, so that was one really understanding guy, or he didn’t care about Amy. Iris hoped it was the latter because she was pretty sure Zach was in love with Amy, and he was a nice guy. He also had a boyfriend, who didn’t mind that Zach and Amy scened together, and Kincaid was definitely completely in love with Zach.

Kink was very complicated sometimes.

“Great, well, I’ll be right back with your drink.” She gave Amy a smile and straightened. Back to work.

She had a ‘good girl’ to earn by the end of the night.

******

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Teaser Tuesday - Spy Season

 For the upcoming Sunflower Season anthology, 70+ historical romance authors have contributed stories and all proceeds will be donate to Ukraine relief. My story, Spy Season, is going to be part of the anthology and it gives us a gimpse at Evie and Anthony's much-hinted at mysterious past (my Deception & Discipline series just in case you haven't read them =) 

Here's a little sneak peek at Spy Season:

Anthony

Feeling the beauty’s resistance fade as she submitted to him, a carnal desire, unlike any Anthony had ever known, filled him. She was like an unbroken horse, a purebred, and well worth the time it took to tame her. While he had often indulged in games of control and domination and submission, he’d never been particularly drawn to the women who were a challenge.

But this woman? She was challenge incarnate, and mastering her felt far more satisfying than he would have believed.

With their tongues tangled, he thrust his hips with long, slow movements. Her heels dug into the small of his back, encouraging him, spurring him forward, as did her passionate response to his kiss. When he felt her hesitate, he pressed forward, impaling her with his cock and rubbing his groin against hers to stimulate the little button of pleasure located at the apex of her womanhood.

She shuddered, her hips thrusting up to meet him, rubbing even more firmly against him.

Anthony released her lips and moved his mouth back down over her neck. Her gasp as he nipped at her tender flesh, biting down only a little, and the way she clenched around him, drove him onward.

“Oh!” She writhed beneath him, her hands pressing against his as if she was trying to move them to touch him, but he kept them pressed down, enjoying the feel of her struggling against him.

Pushing her hands above her head, he moved them together, so he could hold down both wrists with one hand. Her eyes popped open, and she glared up at him, but the confliction in her gaze was clear. While she very much liked what he was doing to her, she didn’t want to like it—he didn’t know which excited him even more.

Normally, Anthony preferred women who wanted to submit, who let him take control easily and without objection. This wildcat was nothing like that, yet he found the difference to be wildly arousing rather than putting him off.

He thrust in deep again, leaning in to use his weight to pin her to the bed.

“Tell me you want me.”

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?”

Anthony laughed. She really was challenge incarnate.

“Of course I would, which is why I said it. Now, if you want me to fuck you, tell me.”

He rotated his hips, grinding his pubis against hers, and she shuddered, hips lifting. He stopped, and she mewled in protest, her eyelashes fluttering before she glared up at him again. Grinning, Anthony dipped his head and nipped her collarbone. She gasped, and clenched around him.

“Tell me, minx, and I’ll make you scream with pleasure.” Lifting his head, he stared down at her, and she glared up at him as her jaw worked. The fury in her gaze at being denied was as hot as her passion.

*****

Preorder your copy now!*

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Apple

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*not yet available on Google Play, but it will be!

Throwback Thursday to The Venus School

 TBT! - The Venus School #tbt

So, when I threw it back to Forced Bet I talked about how I always forget that it was my first book... that's because I always think that The Venus School was my first book!

Like Forced Bet, The Venus School was originally a Literotica story and there were some very invested readers (*cough* Katherine Anderson *cough*) who were commenting on every chapter of the story and then when it when it was done I received several emails asking me if I could turn it into a book so they could own it. Just in case something ever happened to the website or something. And I said, sure, let me look into this self-publishing thing...

And then for some reason I released Forced Bet first lol. But The Venus School came out only a month after. Then everything just kind of kept rolling along and here we are.

This story was inspired by an amazing book called The Madame X School of Sex (unfortunately no longer available for purchase anywhere that I can find). In Madame X, a boss finds out that his assistant is going to the school and he's inflamed with jealousy. He used to be an instructor there, so he pulls a favor and returns to claim her.

The book was hot AF. My only problem with it was that the heroine only made it to ONE class before he claimed her and it was a massage class! Where, of course, he was the one giving her a massage. Super hot, sure, but I had been SO excited to read about all the sex classes!

Since I had already started writing on Literotica I realized, hey, I started writing for the website so that I could write the things I wanted to read and I really want to read about the classes, so why not make my own school of sex? And I can make it a love triangle so that she's not going to get claimed too soon!

Because, it being me, I still wanted that HEA.

So I started writing and posting each chapter to the website, and watched as Team Justin and Team Chris formed in the comments. At the time, I didn't know who Jessica was going to choose, I was just enjoying writing the story. Then, this one commenter kept popping up (*cough* Katherine Anderson *cough*) who begged me not to make her choose.

My brain went whaaaaaaaat?

But around that time, purely by chance, I also started reading Lexi Blake and Shayla Black's Masters of Menage series which had heroines getting their HEAs with not one, not two, but THREE heroes. And I realized oh... she doesn't have to choose.

The series on the website actually had three endings. One for Team Justin, one for Team Chris, and one for the readers who had started rooting for Team Both. When I got the emails asking for a book version, I was like you know... I could easily keep this story going past the school.

After reading Masters of Menage I had moved on to Bianca Sommerland's Dartmouth Cobras series and I loved the drama in her books around the heroine having more than one partner. That felt very real life to me and I wanted to explore it for Justine, Chris, and Jessica. Also I had moved on to reading Lexi Blake's Masters and Mercenaries series, Kallypso Masters' Masters at Arms series and Cherise Sinclair's Shadowlands series and the idea of a BDSM club had gotten stuck in my head, as well as a bunch of new characters.

I wanted to connected the club and characters I had in my head to Justin, Jessica, and Chris. Because Justin and Chris needed friends and Olivia was growing in my head already as well. Plus I wanted someone for Hilary.

So I published the book and changed the ending so that things could continue after they got home, which I felt was the more realistic ending anyway lol.

The cover has been through a few incarnations over the years and it'll probably go through another change eventually, though I love my lingerie covers lol.

If you haven't picked up The Venus School yet... this first book is still 90% smut since it was originally on an erotic@ website lol. There's a smidge of plot. Most of the plot starts in the second book though.

Teaser Tuesday: Disorder

 

Here's a little tease from Law & Disorder which releases on June 21st! CLICK HERE to grab your copy for the special preorder price =)

******

Iris

Hello again, consequences of my own actions… how I loathe thee.

Slumped in the chair in front of Master Patrick’s desk, arms crossed over her chest, Iris felt like she was in high school, sitting in the principal’s office all over again. She’d spent an awful lot of time there as a teenager, and she didn’t like it any better now that she was an adult. Schoolgirl role play was probably never going to be her fantasy for that reason alone.

Though, the fact that she had absolutely no attraction to Master Patrick might have something to do with it. But she did have an absolutely unwanted attraction for the man standing next to him, scowling like he was her 11th grade history teacher and she’d just thrown a spitball at him. Why she found Master Law so hot when he could be such an uptight prick, she had no idea, but he made her tingle in all the right places even when he was lecturing her.

And man, did he lecture her a lot.

Which was also her own fault, since she’d been volun-told to be a submissive for the Dominance 101 class. It was supposed to remind her of all the things she’d learned in her Subbie 101 class. The upside was she’d met some new friends. The downside was that she’d been reminded on a weekly basis just how attracted she was to Master Law, who only noticed her when she was acting up. Though, that did seem to be her lot in life… men who only cared about her behavior when she wasn’t behaving.

“Iris, I thought we talked about this.” Master Patrick – she made the point of thinking about him with his honorific when she was at Stronghold, and not as her big brother’s friend Patrick – ran his hand over his bald head, rubbing the back the way he did when he was extra annoyed but trying to be calm. “You cannot interrupt people’s scenes, even if you don’t like what’s going on in them.”

“I’m sorry,” she muttered. She really was sorry, this time. The Dom hadn’t deserved the way she’d yelled at him. Humiliation kink was not her thing, but she shouldn’t have interrupted the scene. She got it. And she really hated having to have it rubbed in her face that she’d done the wrong thing with the best of intentions.

Again.

She was never going to like humiliation kink, but next time she’d remember to look and make sure the submissive really wasn’t okay with it before she jumped in. Probably.

“If you were anyone else, we’d be having a discussion about kicking you out right now.” Master Patrick’s gaze met hers and Iris sat up straight in her chair. He wouldn’t… would he? “The fact is, I have been far too lenient with you because you’re Andrew’s little sister.”

“You aren’t going to actually kick me out, are you?” she asked worriedly, and she saw his gaze soften.

Others might look at the kink club owner and find him intimidating – considering he was well over six feet tall and built like a linebacker, plus the scar that ran down his face thanks to a childhood incident involving his best friend and some swords – but Iris knew he was a teddy bear. It didn’t hurt that his submissive, Lexie, had a soft spot for Iris, but Lexie wasn’t here right now and she couldn’t help but wonder if that was deliberate.

Behind Patrick’s chair, Master Law shifted his stance slightly, but she didn’t look at him. If she saw hope on his face it was going to crush her. It wasn’t that Iris wanted to be bad or that she didn’t want to be liked, it was just something that kept happening. And Mr. Burly, Brooding, and Hot really got under her skin.

“I’m not kicking you out,” Patrick said, and Iris sagged back down with relief. Patrick raised his eyebrow at her. “But you’re running close to your last chance, no matter who your brother is.”

Yeah, that was bullshit and they both knew it. Andrew would throw a fit if she was kicked out and ended up going to some of the other local clubs, where he wouldn’t know whether or not she was safe. For that matter, she was pretty sure Lexie would throw a fit.

But the fact that he was willing to say it meant he was down to his last nerve with her, and the last thing she wanted to do was cause an issue between her brother and one of his friends. Andrew already thought she was a fuckup of massive proportions, no matter how hard she’d tried to clean up her act, she didn’t need to give him more ammunition.

“Okay, so what now?” she asked, pressing her fingers together nervously in her lap.

Master Patrick leaned forward, holding eye contact with her. His dark face was serious, without a hint of humor or his hidden teddy bear interior. If he wanted to make her nervous, he was doing a good job.

“You’re going to spend the next month as a server at Stronghold. For free. You will not be allowed to scene. While you are there, you will spend one hour of every shift watching scenes in the Dungeon and taking notes on what is happening in the scene and how the submissive is reacting. Not how you are reacting, how the submissive is.” Master Patrick’s lip quirked slightly when she made a face, but she didn’t protest.

The ‘punishment’ was more than fair, and it fit the crime, as it was.

If Iris had paid more attention to how the submissive was reacting to the name calling from her Dom, rather than just hearing the words and seeing tears, she might not have jumped in. Because the submissive had been way more embarrassed by Iris interrupting the scene than she had been by being insulted.

“Yes, Sir,” she said, nodding.

“You will not interrupt any more scenes. If you do see a submissive in distress, you will get a Dungeon Monitor. And you will listen to and respect all of the dominants in the club.” There wasn’t any discernible change in Master Patrick’s voice or his demeanor, but suddenly he was very much Master Patrick and Iris felt herself sitting up straighter without thinking about it. Some Doms could have that effect.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Now get out while I have a discussion with Master Law.” Patrick waved his hand at her, the switch flipping back off again as soon as it had flipped on.

“Thank you, Sir.” Iris bounced to her feet and booked it to the door before he could change his mind. Unfortunately, she wasn’t fast enough to outrun the sound of Master Law’s furious exclamation as the door to Patrick’s office started to swing shut.

“Are you serious, Patrick? That girl is nothing but trouble.”

Iris winced, pressing her lips together against the emotion that suddenly welled in her chest. It wasn’t like the first time she’d heard someone say that. It wasn’t even the hundredth.

So why did it hurt so much more to hear Master Law say it?

Her mood, which had been a lot lighter after she realized Patrick wasn’t going to kick her out or go to her brother, plummeted.