Spotlight On: The Secret Library Series by Xcite Books

 

The Secret Library is a new range from Xcite Books which will appeal to the female romance reader market. Each book contains three specially commissioned novellas guaranteeing a satisfying and varied selection.

The story content is relationship led with a strong alpha male hero, a level of conflict and a climactic, explicit ending.

The covers are deliberately designed without visual imagery to be discreet. These books could be comfortably read in public, given as gifts and left on a bedside table.

The Secret Library contains six books with three erotic romance novellas in each:

Traded Innocence – Toni Sands, Elizabeth Coldwell and K D Grace
Silk Stockings – Constance Munday, Jenna Bright and Lucy Felthouse
One Long Hot Summer – Elizabeth Coldwell, Penelope Friday and Shanna Germain
The Thousand and One Nights – Kitti Bernetti, Primula Bond and Sommer Marsden
The Game – Jeff Cott, Antonia Adams and Sommer Marsden
Hungarian Rhapsody – Justine Elyot, Charlotte Stein and Kay Jaybee


The books were released from April until June, and will be available in print and eBook format from Xcite Books, as well as other book retailers.

Today I have an excerpt from "The Game", by Jeff Cott, a novella from the book of the same name.

Book Blurb (from Amazon):

Three passionate novellas from The Secret Library range that offer essential, sensual reading.

The Game – Jeff Cott

The Game is the story of Ellie’s bid to change from sexy, biddable housewife to sexy dominant goddess.

Ellie and Jake are a happily married couple who play a bedroom game. Having lost the last Game Ellie must start the new one where she left off – bound and gagged on the bed. As she figures out how to tie herself up before Jake’s return from work, Ellie remembers the last Game and has ideas for the new one. Jake is immensely strong and loving and has seemingly endless sexual stamina so the chances of Ellie truly gaining control look slim. Although she has won the Game on occasions, she suspects he lets her win just so he can overwhelm her in the next. She has to find a way to break this pattern.

But does she succeed?

One of Us – Antonia Adams

Successful artist Natalie Crane is midway through a summer exhibition with friend and agent Anton when Will Falcon strolls tantalisingly into her life. After a messy divorce, a relationship is not Natalie’s priority. Anton takes an immediate dislike to the shaven-headed composer, but Natalie is captivated. He is everything she is not: free, impulsive and seemingly with no thought for the future. He introduces her toDorset’s beautiful coves and stunning countryside and their time together is magical.

Things get complicated when her most famous painting, a nude self-portrait, is stolen and there are no signs of a break-in. When it’s time for her return toLondon, Will doesn’t turn up to say goodbye, and she cannot trace him. Anton tells her to forget him, but she cannot. Then she discovers the stakes are much higher than they first appeared.

Taste It – Sommer Marsden

Jill and Cole are competing for the title of Best Chef. The spicy, sizzling and heated televised contest fuels a lust in Jill she’d rather keep buried. She can’t be staring at the man’s muscles ... he’s her competition! During a quick cooking throwdown things start to simmer and it becomes harder and harder for Jill to ignore that she’s smitten in the kitchen. Cole’s suggestive glances and sly smiles aren’t helping her any. When fate puts her in his shower and then his chivalrous nature puts her in his borrowed clothes, there’s no way to deny the natural heat between them.

THE GAME
By: Jeff Cott, Antonia Adams, Sommer Marsden
Publisher: Xcite Books
ASIN: B00822060C
Genre: FICTION,ROMANCE, EROTICA
Format: EBOOK
Length: 434 KB
Release Date: MAY 1, 2012

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 EXCERPT 

The Game

by Jeff Cott

Part One

Chapter One

ELLIE WAS FIRST HOME from work. Jake wouldn’t be in until late so she had the early evening roughly planned, shower, snack, a movie she’d saved. It was Monday. Jake had been in sexual overdrive all weekend so she had no expectations. When he got home, a glass of wine together perhaps and then drift off into Tuesday.

But in the lounge, the picture on the wall told her immediately that the evening was going to take an entirely different course. Jake had changed their wedding photo to one of just him.
This was the signal for the start of the Game.

He smiled at her from the photo, wet blond hair curled by the ocean, the ocean itself roaring behind him and the smile on his face a subtle blend of triumph and achievement.

She sat on the edge of the sofa. It had begun. A sticky note on the TV said, Home at eight. She had a couple of hours. There were few rules. Whoever controlled the Game got to choose when to call Game Over. The next Game they’d agreed would always begin where the last one had ended.

Ellie’s heart was pounding. She’d ended up bound and gagged on the bed.

She had been yearning for the picture to change ever since – not that there was anything wrong with “wedding photo” Jake but the salt of the man who could tame the ocean was a missing guest and though she loved both the man she’d married and the man who dominated her – she also wanted to dominate him. But she had to win the Game first.

Ellie went to the bedroom. On the bed, the same black bra and pants she’d “worn” at the end of the last Game, a pair of handcuffs, the scarf he’d gagged her with, a blindfold and a snake’s nest of luggage straps and old ties. He must have set all this up after she left for work.

It dawned that she not only had to tie herself up before he got home she had to work out how to do it.

His timing irritated her. This was Monday and there would be only limited time to play. It was work for them both tomorrow.

She gathered her thoughts. Declining was an option simply by changing the photo back. This would be accepted without discussion but it would still remain his turn to swap it and call the next Game some other time. She dismissed the idea.

Toast and orange juice would do for a meal. A bath would be better than a shower giving time to relax and remember exactly how she’d been tied at the end.

In the bath she encouraged flashbacks from the previous Game.

All the sex over the weekend had been because he wanted her to start sexually exhausted, a condition seemingly unknown to him. She rarely got a glimpse of his penis unless it was erect. If he thought she was sexually exhausted he’d got it wrong. This time, if she could get the upper hand, he’d discover what the word sated meant.

Relaxed, ready and naked, confronted by the array on the bed, she quickly went to work. It all had to be done in the right order so that she could finally handcuff her hands behind her.


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Did you like the excerpt? Grab the book, it's available now. Enjoy!