Thank
you, Kayla, for kicking off my WRECKED Blog Tour for my upcoming historical
romance.
It's my pleasure! You know I love your stories and a historical is even better.
On May 15th Dreamspinner Press will be releasing WRECKED, my fourth book with them—my
seventeenth overall not including free reads.
I
can hardly believe that this book is finally coming out. Editing a historical
novel of this size took a while, but not nearly as long as it took to write it!
96K is the finished length. Plenty to sink your teeth into if you’re looking
for a nice long, romantic read, if I do say so myself LOL
WRECKED had its birth in 2009 when my husband
and I went on vacation to Key West, Florida. One afternoon we decided to tour
the Key West Shipwreck Museum. I thought we would see some relics
from under the sea, but I never expected to be inspired to write this book…..let
alone find the name for my hero Rief in a video of a salvaging operation in the
80s, LOL. Did you know that in the 1850s
Key West was the wealthiest city per capita in America? That money was brought
in by salvaging ships wrecked on the Florida Reef, a dangerous occupation which
was sanctioned by the US federal courts. These hearty sailors had a reputation
as pirates in some circles, and rumors abounded that they tricked mariners into
hiring them, or even had a hand in wrecking the ships to begin with.
Talk
about a perfect setting for a romance novel!
Now
Key West is one of my favorite cities and taking the time to learn the history
of this unique place was a lot of fun. I endeavored to layer all of these
details, places, people of that Pre-Civil War era and I hope readers really get
the feeling that they are right there in Key West with Mathew and Rief. Take a
look at the blurb:
Off the Key West coast, Rief Lawson works
as a wrecker, salvaging ships and their cargo. Exiled to the outskirts of
society because of his mysterious gift of sight, Rief’s only respite from his loneliness
is painting an unknown blond man. When a merchant ship wrecks during a violent
storm, Rief rescues a drowning victim and comes face-to-face with his destiny.
It is the man from his art!
Heir to an English barony, Mathew Weston entered the merchant trade with his
greedy father and soon-to-be father-in-law. Dominated by his father and
smothered by the people around him—including his sweet but tiresome
fianceé—Mathew is terrified to follow his true desires. Marriage and obedience
seem safer than a life of secrecy and possible prison.
After the daring rescue, a fire ignites between the two men. Powerless to
resist his desire, Mathew learns what it means to be a man in Rief’s arms. With
this newfound confidence, Mathew teaches Rief through gentle touch that he
deserves the affection he’s long been denied. Yet their affair is doomed from
the start. Two desperate men, wrecked in heart and mind, must find a way to
salvage the chance at love fate has given them.
During
my WRECKED Blog Tour, I will be sharing exclusive
excerpts at all of my stops. Today I am going to start with one of my favorite
scenes, when Mathew and Rief meet face to face for the first time. Enjoy!
“Every
time I look around, I see incompetence. Torino warned us not to trust the
wreckers. Lawson even hired another diver without my permission,” Father spat,
fussing with the cuffs of his coat. “Driving the cost up, no doubt. I will not
allow these scoundrels to lessen our insurance claim. We do not need five
divers.”
Though
Mathew found it odd Father was concerned with a yet to be made claim rather
than salvaging their cargo, he was more interested in the wrecking operation.
“Why have we hired divers?”
“Yes,
the way she sits, the lower holds are still flooded and the pump isn’t keeping
up, so men swim down to get the cargo by free diving,” Mr. Kirkwood explained.
“Sounds
heroic.”
Father
scoffed and raked him with a sneer. “What would you know of heroics, Mathew?
When you’re needed to see to the safety of two ladies, you fall overboard like
a fop, then take ill. Come, Kirkwood. I want to find Lawson and give him a
piece of my mind.” He paused to give Mathew an arch of brows. “I trust you will
be returning to port with the other women?”
He
spoke so loudly a few crewmen of the Mirabella chuckled as they passed.
Mathew
felt his face burn and could not think of a suitable reply.
What
would he say anyway?
A
terrible marksman and an even worse equestrian, Mathew often chose the company
of women over his own sex. As a child it had been the opposite, he couldn’t get
enough of being around the other boys, especially the older, athletic ones. But
things changed when his body had begun to mature. He shied away from them,
preferring female companions though he had no attraction to women outside of a
general appreciation of their aesthetics and their more accepting natures. At
one time, he had attributed this propensity to never having a mother and thus
he craved female attention. But now he understood that certain men made him
nervous because he found them attractive, sensual—just the way a woman should
view men.
Snickering
to himself, Father walked off.
Mr.
Kirkwood hesitated to follow. Glancing at the sailors still chuckling, he
offered an apologetic pat to Mathew’s back. “Excuse me, Mr. Weston. I’ll be
back in a moment.” After a wan smile, he followed Father.
The respect and subsequent pitying gesture caused Mathew’s
humiliation to increase, and along with it, his temper. Angry at himself, he
gripped the railing tight once they left, the pain of his crutch digging into
his armpit and making him even angrier.
Damnation!
The last three years at Cambridge, where his friends and
peers treated him as an equal, Mathew believed he’d come into his own.
Successful in his studies and well-liked, his gait had improved, walking as
tall as his short stature allowed. He’d even found an athletic activity he
excelled at for the first time in his life, the rowing team, and he’d passed
his Tripos with first-class honors. He’d actually felt like an adult.
Like a man.
Yet the second he returned to London, one word from Father
had reduced Mathew to the same pathetic child he’d always been, yearning for
sympathy and love, but finding only scorn and resentment instead.
He gritted his teeth in frustration.
“Going back with the other women,” he muttered to himself in
a haughty baritone version of Father. “Other women, indeed!”
Just because he had feminine fantasies, did not mean he was
a woman!
“Annoying isn’t it?” a husky voice said.
Startled, Mathew’s head jerked back, and he almost fell over
in shock when he looked up into eyes he had not imagined.
Oh dear God….
Bare-chested, and looking every bit as wild as the storm that
had wrecked their ship, stood the man who had rescued him.
Rief.
Mathew’s heart skipped, and his body flushed.
Rief was even more handsome than he recalled!
Damp, sandy-brown hair brushed Rief’s neck and brow, the
whisper of sunlight peeking out of the heavy clouds revealing hints of copper
and gold where it had dried. The whites of his eyes were bloodshot and tired,
but the color of them Mathew had been unable to recall turned out to be a bit
of everything that was the tropics. Gold of the sand at sunset. Blue of the
deepest parts of the sea. Green of the shallows catching the sunlight. Whatever
way he moved, they picked up the colors reflecting around him. This was a man
born of the sea, a child of this restless land.
Mathew had to look like a fool talking aloud to himself!
How could he possibly be so absurd?
“Pardon?” he muttered, tugging on the edge of his shirtsleeve
to cover his embarrassment and overly aware of how the sun glistened on the
hairs dusting the man’s tanned muscular body—and the way the air felt much
hotter than before.
“Annoying when they talk to you like you’re a child. My
brother does it to me all the time,” Rief said. His soft brown curls luffed in
the wind.
“Y-yes, I suppose so.” Transfixed by how much wider and
taller than him Rief was, he felt like a child looking up at a giant. And why
wasn’t the man wearing a shirt? Positively distracting, that was what it was!
“Makes you want to plant a fist right in their throat,” he
said, with a sideways smirk that Mathew wasn’t sure was humor or serious. “Glad
to see you’re up and well. How’s your leg?”
“I-it’s fine, thank you,” he managed.
When Rief grinned, a solitary dimple on his left cheek undid
Mathew completely.
Is
this what a swoon feels like? Get a hold of yourself! Only women swoon!
Thank you for hosting my today, Kayla. Don’t forget
to enter to win one of the two copies of WRECKED
Deanna
Wadsworth might be a bestselling erotica author, but she leads a pretty vanilla
life in Ohio with her wonderful husband and a couple adorable cocker spaniels.
She has been spinning tales and penning stories since childhood, and her first
erotic novella was published in 2010. When she isn’t writing books or
brainstorming with friends, you can find her making people gorgeous in a beauty
salon. She loves music and dancing, and can often be seen hanging out on the
sandbar in the muddy Maumee River or chilling with her hubby and a cocktail in
their basement bar. In between all that fun, Deanna cherishes the quiet times
when she can let her wildly active imagination have the full run of her mind.
Her fascination with people and the interworkings of their relationships have
always inspired her to write romance with spice and love without boundaries.
Tags:
Wrecked,
Key West Shipwreck Museum, Key West, Pre-Civil War Key West, Florida, Florida
Reef, salvaging in the Keys, Florida Keys, Key West history, Dreamspinner
Press, Deanna Wadsworth, historical romance, wreckers, gay romance, gay,
rafflecopter, giveaway, free book, contest, new release
