In the Author Spotlight

Alisha Rai

Ann: Hi Alisha! Thanks for being In the “Author Spotlight” this week.

Alisha: Thanks Ann! I’m honored to be spotlighted. Spotlit. I love it all!

Ann: So, tell us what’s happening with you.

Alisha: Well, my day job is kind of seasonal (florist), so I just finished up Easter, next weekend we have prom and weddings, and then Mother’s Day, for which I will crawl into a cave and not emerge until the 12th of May. Good times. I’m enjoying the business-and the money-while it lasts, though, since the summer means a flat line for us. Other than that, I have two family members getting married this summer, so I’m busy helping them plan.

Ann: What do you have gracing the virtual bookshelves?

Alisha: My debut novel, Glutton for Pleasure, released last month! So exciting. It’s a ménage with a pair of hunky twins and the shy chef they fall for.

Ann: What other saucy tales are you cooking up for us?

Alisha: Right now, I’m working on Devi’s sister’s stories; I’ve finished the rough draft for Rana, and outlined Leena. Rana was complicated, so I’m going to let her simmer for just a bit.

In the meantime, I just finished a tale about a hermit who lives in the woods and a naked, injured cutie who tumbles onto her doorstep. Keep your eyes out for it.

Ann: I see you love to cook and your heroine is a head chef. Will characters from your other books love the kitchen just as much as you and your heroine from, Glutton for Pleasure?

Alisha: You know, I gave my latest project to a beta reader, and the first thing she did was e-mail me back to ask: “why do all your heroines love to cook so much?!” I found this funny, as the heroine was the aforementioned hermit, and the food was not the focus of the story at all. I suppose I do tend to stick it in subconsciously.

In Leena’s story, she does not cook, at all. When you grow up in a restaurant, I guess you either lean one way or another!

Ann: What was the defining moment when you realized you wanted to be a writer?

Alisha: Gosh, I don’t think there was one. I feel like I’ve always been writing. When I was little, I used to tag along to my dad’s office. He never had crayons or markers, so I couldn’t draw. He used to give me a pen and paper and tell me to write him a story.

I’ve known I wanted to be a romance author since I was about fourteen though. There’s no other job where you can dream up perfect men AND happily ever afters.
Ann: When you write do you do a detailed outline before you get started or do you have the idea then just 'fly by the seat of your pants?

Alisha: Er, what’s an outline? When I start a book, I do know who my characters are, what the conflict is, and how it will resolve. Everything else gets filled in as I go along.

Ann: You have just won five thousand dollars! But...you have to spend it all today. What will you buy?

Alisha: Oh gosh, I’m a total techno geek, so I would probably go on a spree at Best Buy or something. I need a netbook or two, a dedicated e-reading device (financial concerns have kept me away from that delicious red Sony). From there, I’d run over to the toy store to go on a buying trip for the various children who seem to be running all over my house. And then? The grocery store, for the makings of a full course gourmet meal for my friends and family. I’m talking name brand ingredients here, none of the generic crap.

Just in case you think I’m being too selfless, there’s totally a pit stop to the Coach store somewhere in there.

Ann: You’re snowed in for a week in the Swiss Alps. You’ve enough firewood and food to get you through the blizzard waging outside. What are three things that you would have to have with you?

Alisha: Do I have electricity? In that case, my computer (can’t live without it, and then I’ll have a DVD player and an e-reader), my babies (pure entertainment value), and lots of chocolate and marshmallows. Cause, um, calories you consume while you’re snowed in don’t count.

Ann: What favorite movie; or T.V. show makes you hunker down on the sofa and settle in for the night?

Alisha: Lost! I love that show so much, despite all of its WTFery. Though I’ve never been so desperate for a series to end, so I can find out what the whole deal is.

Ann: By day you’re a florist. By night you’re a writer of sexy, curl your toes stories. What other things do you enjoy doing?

Alisha: Reading! Of course. I also love to knit and crochet, and really just curl up on the couch with the people I love. I’ve never been an exciting person, I guess ;).

Ann: Please share a favorite quote with us.

Alisha: I absolutely adore kid’s movies, so my favorite quote in the world comes from Horton Hears a Who: “In my world, everyone’s a pony, and they eat rainbows, and poop butterflies!” If you haven’t seen it yet, you probably won’t quite get it.

Ann: Thank you so much Alisha for sharing with us today.

Alisha: Thanks Ann, for having me! I love to hear from my readers, so if you’d like to chat, please visit me on the web at http://www.alisharai.com/ or e-mail me at alishawrites@gmail.com

Ann: You can also visit Alisha at http://alisharai.wordpress.com/

Featured Title:

BLURB:

They’re craving something sweet. She likes it spicy.

Devi Malik knows how to heat things up. She does it every night as head chef in her family’s Indian restaurant. Her love life, though, is stuck in the subzero freezer. Now, with a chance to fulfill a secret fantasy with her long-time crush and his brother, it’s time to put her desire on the front two burners.

For Marcus Callahan, a love-’em-and-leave-’em attitude isn’t only a necessary evil of their kink. It’s a protective device. Lately, though, his brother Jace has been making noises about craving something more.

Jace’s dissatisfaction with their lifestyle grows with every glimpse of sweet little Devi. Yet Marcus is too haunted by the pain of their shared past to give love a chance.

Despite their reputation for vanishing with the dawn, they discover one night with Devi isn’t nearly enough. And Devi finds herself falling in love with two very different men.

It’ll take more than explosive sex to light up the shadows surrounding the Callahan brothers’ secrets. But Devi’s never been afraid of the dark…

Warning: This title contains two sizzling men for the price of one, ménage a trois, oral sex, anal sex, fun toys, great food, and creative uses for syrup and dressing rooms.

EXCERPT:

Excerpt contains strong sexual language and profanity. Please do not read if you are under eighteen or easily offended.

"I didn’t hear you knock.”

Devi spun around, her hand pressed against her chest. “Oh. Marcus. You startled me.”

“I was in the garage.”

He stood in the kitchen doorway in only a pair of unsnapped jeans. A sexy smear of grease highlighted his rock-hard abs. Involuntarily, her gaze slid over his bare chest, the arrow of hair that trailed into his open jeans. She was suddenly all too aware of the little toy she wore, forgotten while she’d toured the house.

“Um, Jace told me to just come on in. He’s upstairs, showering. I hope that’s okay.” He didn’t say anything. “I like your house. Or what I’ve seen of it.”

“Take off your clothes.”She blinked. “Wow, you’re not one for social niceties, are you?”

“Are you hungry?”

“Not really.”

“Do you want a drink?”

Devi slicked her tongue over her lips. “No. I’m good.”

“Good. Take off your clothes.”

“Marcus.” She frowned, though she really wanted to laugh.

“I want to see if you’re wearing the stimulator.”

“I said I would, and I am.”

“You wore it from the minute we dropped you off?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Devi stared at him, confused. “What?”

He grinned and slid his hand into his pocket. The first gentle vibration had her legs stiffening in shock. The little box came alive, rubbing against her already-stiffened clit like the finger Jace had likened it to. She relaxed and allowed the slow pleasure to sink into her bones. Marcus didn’t allow her time to appreciate it, and he must have turned a dial up somewhere, because the vibrations against her over-stimulated clit increased in their intensity. She moaned and leaned against the couch, her legs boneless and incapable of supporting her weight.

A low male chuckle reached her. “I think we can believe her.”

She opened her eyes to find Jace standing in the room as well. Clad only in a sexy pair of black boxer briefs, water still glistening on his chest and hair, he watched her with a small smile and narrowed eyes already heated with lust.

Just as her climax yawned before her, the soundless stimulation ended. “What are you doing? Turn that back on, this instant.”

Marcus tsked and walked forward until he stood right in front of her. “Didn’t we discuss you giving us orders?”

Heat rose from his body. All of the relentless unappeased desire from the day welled up inside of her. She frowned at him. “I was about to come.”

“We don’t want you to, yet.”

“I don’t care,” she said waspishly. “Turn that damn thing on again or one of you fuck me here.”

Amazing how a couple of days of ceaseless pleasure could lower her inhibitions—she felt no hesitation in making the demand.

“No.” With that simple announcement, Marcus startled Devi by scooping her off her feet.

She shrieked and grabbed on to his shoulders. No one had carried her since she’d been a small child. Pudginess had crept up on her at a young age, so even her father had declined picking her up. “I’m too heavy for you. Put me down.”

He ignored her and spoke to his brother. “Where are the supplies?”

Supplies?

Jace studied her with predatory interest. If she hadn’t already been soaked, that look would have done it. "In my room.”

“Did you hear me? I’m too fat to be carried around like this.”

Marcus walked out of the room and back into the grand entryway. He glanced over his shoulder. “I think the toys were a bad idea. They’ve made her way too contrary.” He jostled her until she tightened her arms around his neck in reaction.

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here. Wreck your back, see if I care. And the toy doesn’t make me contrary. Hours of sexual deprivation make me contrary.”

“Then you should be nicer to the men who are going to end that deprivation,” Marcus explained patiently. “In the meantime, why don’t you pretend your hero is carrying you off to be properly ravished instead of worrying about your damned weight?”

Devi paused. He had a point. Once she thought past her sexual frustration, of course. She relaxed into his arms. “Sorry. I’m not a very good heroine, I guess.”

He handled the dark stairs with ease, not even breathless. He turned right at the top of the stairs and entered a tidy bedroom lit by soft track lighting. Peripherally, she got the impression of heavy wooden furnishings and a huge four-poster bed. Marcus looked down at her, his face cast in shadows. “That’s okay. I’m no hero.”

She slid her palm over his jaw, the slight stubble catching on her skin. “I think you’re doing a pretty good job.”

Devi caught the hardening of Marcus’s jaw under her hand. “Then your judgment sucks.”