Guest Author: Annie Nicholas – Greener Grass and Other Things (+ a Giveaway!)

Who has never experienced the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome?

I doubt there is many. It seems natural for any creature to strive for more or to desire better. Why would supernatural beings be any different?

My succubus, Pia Blyton, was sent to human school so she’d learn to fit in at an early age. Her parents didn’t foresee that it would seed desire in their young daughter’s future. Being surrounded by people who could share love showed Pia that there could be more to a relationship besides sex.

But is the grass greener? Her people view love as a weakness, something to be exploited. If she opens herself up to those possibilities will she prove them right?

Blurb:

After almost dying of starvation to remain faithful to a mortal lover, succubus Pia Blyton now shields her heart by feeding solely on men she won’t fall for. The only trick is, to create energy to survive, she must achieve orgasm. At least that rules out bad sex with her three lovers. Too bad she’s a sucker for falling in love.

When her demon lover doesn’t arrive for their arranged rendezvous, Pia is forced to ask her vampire lover to step in before her energy becomes dangerously low. In return he demands a favor and Pia finds herself in the hotel suite of the mysterious Valerio Hunan, who seduces her with a devastating kiss. Too late Pia learns he’s an incubus who wants to lure her into marriage—a marriage without love.

As an incubus used to bedding a variety of succubi, Val doesn’t understand Pia’s yearning for love. He needs a succubus wife to provide him with a steady source of energy. But he wants Pia for the passion and renewed interest in life she makes him feel. Can Pia convince Val that sex isn’t just for survival and love is for more than the weak?

Excerpt:

I gazed at the cars speeding by on the highway.
He squeezed my hand. “What ghosts am I battling, Pia? It’s not fair to expect me to fight for you and not tell me who I’m against. What drives you to these extremes? What has your father so tied in knots when it comes to you?”
“A human male.” I sensed Val grow stiff next to me. “Oh, I don’t love him anymore, but there was a time when I thought the universe revolved around him. Looking back, I see how young and stupid I was. I just don’t want to repeat my mistakes.” The quiet grew heavier as Val waited. I could escape by running out of the car into traffic but even that would be temporary. Eventually, I’d have to talk about it.
He gave me a small reassuring smile. “We were all young once.”
“I never liked feeding from strangers. Impersonal sex left me feeling cheap and empty. To support the need I dated mortals. I was just reaching my maturity and didn’t understand how out of control the need could get. I met Pierre in college. He was a medical student and I was on my way to dropping out.” I had to smile. “He was smart and kind and all the right things a girl could want. I fell hard. We moved in together. My family never knew. They assumed I was still living in the dorms at the college.” It was only after everything fell apart and I was tied to the contract with Sin that my father confessed he’d known. He once loved a mortal too in his youth, before he’d met my mothers, and had learned the value of caring for someone else. But he’d grown up in harder times and developed a stronger soul than mine to deal with the heartbreak.
I was feeble. My mistake had harmed so many, including my father. He blamed himself for my near death experience. That’s how Sin was able to make him sign that contract, proving to my father that love really was a weakness. Guilt now drove Dad to hover and shelter me.
Five years later, those emotions had faded but I should have known better. “I tried really hard to be a good girlfriend. I only fed from him.”
Val gasped. “Pia.”
“I know, I know. Stupid. It almost killed me. But he didn’t know what I was and our laws said I couldn’t tell him. He would have seen it as cheating, so I tried for our sake.”
Shaking his head, Val stayed quiet but his disapproval was evident.
“I lasted almost a year. I’d lost weight and was weak. He thought I was sick and kept trying to take me to doctors. Obviously, I couldn’t control it anymore. He caught me with the mailman.”
“Pia.”
“Oh no, don’t stop me now. You wanted to know. It gets worse. The mailman was married, but what mortal can resist a starving twenty-something succubus? He never had a chance.”
Val hung his head.
Oddly, incubi and succubi took marriage very, very seriously. It was an unwritten rule not to feed from married people of any race. “I broke three people’s hearts that day. I never heard from Pierre again and I never went looking. Shame sent me away. I left the city and hid from my family, refusing to feed.”
I smoothed my unwrinkled dress with trembling hands. “We done? Can I drive now?” Heat sizzled through my ears as my disgrace was laid out before him. “Am I taking you home?”
With a finger under my chin, he guided my face toward his. He gave me a chaste kiss. “I think I understand now. You’re walking a fine line.”

Purchase:  Kindle | Nook | Carina Press

Annie Nicholas
www.annienicholas.com

Giveaway: Annie is giving away one digital copy of Starved for Love to one lucky winner.  Leave a comment on this post, along with your email address, no later than7:00pm on Tuesday, October 7th to enter to win.

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