Spotlight & Giveaway: Contracted to Her Greek Enemy by Annie West

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Annie West to HJ!

Hi Annie and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Contracted to Her Greek Enemy!

 
Waving to you all from DownUnder. It’s lovely to be here.
 

Please summarize the book a la Twitter style for the readers here:

Who better to play the part of his girlfriend than a woman who hates him? Damen knows Stephanie will never target him for marriage, but their passion is an unexpected complication…
 

Please share the opening lines of this book:

‘I’ve had enough, Damen. I can’t stand it anymore. I feel like running away.’
Damen’s eyebrows rose. Clio wasn’t the sort to run from trouble. ‘It can’t be that bad.’
Wrong response, Nicolaides!

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

• I loved writing this story because every day I got to visit Greece and even tour some favourite Greek islands on a luxury yacht – only in my mind, but still, it was fun!
• I adore this cover, not just because it’s pretty. The dress Steph wears is actually one she wears in the book – yay! Bright blue halterneck complete with a crystal collar.
• This story includes a fake relationship. I love those stories but for them to work for me I need a really compelling (and preferably not selfish) reason for the characters’ pretence. If I hadn’t found that good reason I wouldn’t have been able to write the story.
• I wrote this book in direct response to reader feedback on ‘Wedding Night Reunion in Greece’. Steph and Damen are the bridesmaid and best man to the bridal couple in that book and readers wanted to know what happened to them. It was fun writing the storyto find out! (Don’t worry if you haven’t read ‘Wedding Night Reunion’ – they’re both stand alone reads).
• Some time ago I wrote a book with a Greek hero called Damon (The Savakis Merger). As I wrote this new one I had to keep checking my spelling to ensure I wrote Damen instead of Damon. Now I know to be extra careful about naming secondary characters, in case they end up with a story of their own!

What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?

It’s a case of instant attraction, strengthened when they each see in the other someone loyal and honourable. Until something happens to turn these almost-lovers into enemies. Now neither trusts the other and it’s a sparking battle of wills to see if they can get through their two months together.
 

Using just 5 words, how would you describe Hero and Heroine’s love affair?

Fated
Fun
Intense
Glamorous
Passionate.
 

The First Kiss…

One of the fun things about writing this story is that Steph insists that Damen isn’t allowed to kiss her. Once he’s agreed he has to find a way to ensure Steph wants to kiss him! Fortunately for both of them he succeeds. Here’s the beginning of that scene:

Steph’s chin shot high. ‘You’ve got an ego the size of the Aegean, Damen Nicolaides.’
‘It’s not ego, Stephanie. It’s facing the truth. The same truth I faced ages ago. I want you, Stephanie, and I’ve given up pretending not to. You want me too.’
‘In your dreams.’
‘At least in my dreams I get to have you, Stephanie. There you’re always willing and eager in my arms.’
Heat saturated her from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet. He dreamt of her? Just like she dreamt of him? Had he lain awake last night too, imagining what it would be like if they shared that big bed looking out over the sea?
‘Nothing to say, Stephanie?’
She opened her mouth then shut it. Bandying words with him was too dangerous. Every word he spoke tapped into the secret channel of desire within her that she’d tried and failed to dam.
Damen stepped closer and her chin rose as she held his stare.
‘You don’t get anything in this life playing safe, Stephanie.’
‘But you don’t get burned either.’ She hadn’t planned to answer but then the words were out, revealing things she’d tried to hide. The yearning. The combustible heat within. The weakness.
Yet, instead of triumph, Damen’s expression held understanding.
‘Sometimes,’ he murmured, ‘playing with fire has compensations.’
He paused, watching her. Stephanie almost wished he’d reach for her, touch her and make the doubts disappear. Make it simple by stripping away her defences. But he didn’t. He met her gaze gravely, not trying to hide his hunger. Not trying to hide anything. The silvery moonlight revealed features stark with longing but not a man who’d try to force her.
‘If you’re brave enough to take the risk.’
Steph tried to summon outrage, to be annoyed that he thought her a coward, just for being sensible. It didn’t work because the pressure didn’t come from Damen. It came from inside herself.
All her life Steph had played safe. Working, saving, planning for the future. Keeping herself to herself rather than venture into the wild realms of passion as so many of her peers had done. There’d been no boyfriends, no lovers. Just a man who’d duped her into trusting him only to steal from her. And now Damen, who turned her inside out so she hardly recognised herself or what she felt.
She’d tried safety and it hadn’t worked.
What did she have to lose?
As the thought surfaced the voice of reason screeched inside her brain, listing all the reasons this was dangerous.
For once Steph ignored the voice of reason.
‘There’s something I want.’ Her voice held a strange, flat note, as if her heart weren’t racing or her breaths coming in short gasps.
‘Anything I can help with?’ He didn’t move but somehow he seemed nearer, the air thickening between them.
Steph unfolded her arms and let them hang by her sides. ‘I’d like you to kiss me. On the lips.’

Without revealing too much, what is your favorite scene in the book?

I don’t think I can choose a single favourite scene, but here’s one of my favourite bits of dialogue!

‘I was hoping to get to know you better. Spend some time together.’
‘Together?’ Steph couldn’t believe it. Did he really think she’d be sucked into falling for his macho charisma again? Couldn’t he comprehend how thoroughly she detested him? ‘You have to be joking. I wouldn’t spend time with you if you offered me a million dollars.’
A heartbeat’s silence, a tic of pulse at his temple, just time enough for Steph to wonder how far her strident words had carried. She was turning towards the path back to the wedding when his voice halted her.
‘Then how about for two million dollars?’

Readers should read this book …

For a sighworthy escape. This is a tale of unwilling attraction, with a pair who got off to a bad start and are now enemies, forced to spend time together. During that time they discover their dislike fades as admiration and attraction rise. If you like simmering sexual tension, snappy dialogue, a touch of Cinderella and a handsome Greek tycoon who’ll sail with you around the Greek islands, this is one for you.

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have planned?

My next book (in July/August) is ‘Claiming His Out-of-Bounds Bride’. Olivia is about to make a marriage of convenience for the sake of the family business and her future career, but when she’s jilted just days before the wedding it’s her ex-fiance’s brother who steps in to take his place. Alessandro Sartori is tall, dark and disapproving, and has always rubbed her the wrong way. Until they marry and she discovers Alessandro’ had kept his distance was because he was attracted and didn’t want to poach his brother’s woman.
After that, I hope will come a follow up story to ‘Revelations of a Secret Princess’, a royal story with a fun twist. Keep your fingers crossed my editor loves it!

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

Giveaway: World-wide giveaway – the winner will receive signed paperback copies of both ‘Contracted to Her Greek Enemy’ and the earlier linked story ‘Wedding Night Reunion in Greece’.

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: Do you like covers that reflect a scene in the romance you’re reading? Does it matter if the characters on the cover don’t look like the ones in the book, or do you just like an attractive cover?

 
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Excerpt from Contracted to Her Greek Enemy:

To help a friend, Damen needs a pretend girlfriend for the next couple of months. He’s fixed on Steph, a woman who distrusts him, as being the perfect person for the role. They’d once shared an attraction and he knows her dislike of him means she won’t try to turn a make-believe relationship into something more. Steph agrees unwillingly but personal circumstances make his offer of cash impossible to resist. But she has conditions:

‘Done.’
Her eyes widened and he fancied he read surprise there. And nerves. Why? Because she’d hoped he wouldn’t agree? Was the offer of two million so alluring she’d been persuaded despite her better judgement?
Now he was being fanciful.
‘One other thing.’ Her gaze settled near his ear.
Now he was definitely intrigued. Despite the disparity between them, in wealth, power and physical size, Stephanie always met his gaze.
This condition she’d left till last was vitally important.
‘No kissing.’
Finally her eyes locked on his and a sizzle pierced Damen’s belly, driving down like a hammering pile driver. Then the connection severed and she stared at his ear again.
‘Sorry?’
‘You heard me.’ She dropped her arms to her sides then almost immediately refolded them. ‘I’ll play your girlfriend in public, but I won’t kiss you and,’ she hurried on as if expecting him to interrupt, ‘I won’t have you kissing me. No lip locks. I want that spelled out in the contract.’
Damen lifted an eyebrow, intrigued. ‘If we’re lovers people will expect us to be intimate and show affection.’
Her flush intensified. Damen’s curiosity deepened. Was she annoyed or embarrassed?
‘Intimate in private. In public there are ways of showing affection without kissing.’
Damen shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘I’m paying you an enormous sum. I expect you to be completely convincing.’
‘And I will be. I just won’t kiss you.’
‘For religious reasons? Health reasons? I can assure you you’re not going to catch some terrible illness.’
She unlocked tightly crossed arms and spread her hands. ‘Because I don’t care to, okay? Once was more than enough. I won’t repeat that mistake.’
Damen was about to say it hadn’t felt like a mistake. In fact their kiss had moved him in ways he wasn’t used to.
That in itself was reason enough not to say it.
He frowned. ‘Then how do you intend to persuade people we’re lovers?’
She made a vague gesture. ‘By hanging on your every word. Looking into your eyes. Snuggling up—’
‘Snuggling? So we’re allowed to touch?’
Stephanie’s mouth thinned and Damen suspected she stifled the urge to swear.
‘Don’t be asinine. Sarcasm doesn’t suit you.’ She shook her head and those lush curls brushed her cheeks. ‘There are ways of signalling attraction and intimacy without—’
‘Putting my lips on yours.’ He watched her blink and something inside shifted.
Did this woman have any idea how provocative, how downright dangerous, it was to throw down an ultimatum like that? Especially to the man paying such a price for her company?
It was more than an ultimatum. It was a challenge.
Damen didn’t back down from challenges. He won them.
‘Prove you can be convincing as my lover or the deal is off.’
Damen saw dismay flicker in that bright gaze. Was she going to renege?
Disappointment stirred.
He’d imagined, after the way Stephanie Logan had once stood up for her friend Emma, defying both him and Christo to keep her secret, and the way she’d lambasted him after he’d abducted her, that nothing could daunt this woman. Now he read something in her expression that made him doubt. Maybe he’d misjudged—
She stepped towards him, so close he caught the scent of sun lotion and vanilla. That vanilla fragrance stirred memories of her in his arms, kissing him with a fervour that shredded his control.
Damen was still grappling with that when a small, firm hand closed around his bare forearm, curling loosely yet seeming to brand him. A shiver of something disturbingly like delight reverberated through him.
Stephanie leaned in, her eyes a golden brown that for a change looked soft and melting rather than distrustful.
He liked that look. Very much.
Just as he liked the way her lips parted as if being close to him affected her breathing.
Damen realised his own lungs were working harder. In anticipation, he told himself. If she couldn’t convince as his girlfriend he’d have to find someone else.
He didn’t want anyone else.
The unsettling notion stirred then was squashed as Stephanie moved nearer.
Sweetly rounded breasts jiggled a hair’s breadth from his arm as she rose on tiptoe. She was so close he felt her warm breath on his face. It should have been a mere waft of air. It felt like a deliberate, sensuous stroke of her fingers. Her lips formed a pout that turned her mouth into an invitation to kiss.
Damen didn’t bend his head. He stood, waiting.
He didn’t have to wait long. She planted her other hand on his chest, over the spot where his heart accelerated to a quicker beat. Her fingers splayed, slid across the contours of muscle, then stopped.
She blinked and he had the impression she was as surprised by that caress as he was.
Damen expected her to pull away but she leaned still nearer. Delight surged as those brown eyes locked on his in clear invitation.
‘Damen,’ she murmured in a throaty voice that belonged in the bedroom. Her fingers walked up his chest to the open neck of his shirt. Soft fingertips flirted against his collarbone and his flesh tightened.
Something jolted through him. Delight? Anticipation? Both?
He reminded himself this was a game, a test. It wasn’t real. But his body ignored logic. Heat trailed low in his groin.
Stephanie leaned still closer, her full breast warm and intoxicatingly inviting against his arm.
‘You have no idea,’ she whispered, so close that they breathed the same air, ‘how very, very alluring I find…’
Damen inclined his head, drawn to those luminous eyes fringed with lush dark lashes. And more, by the conviction she’d finally put aside her dislike, giving in to the attraction that had connected them from the first.
Her fingers on his lips stopped him just as he heard ‘…your two million dollars.’
Abruptly she was gone.
Damen chilled. It felt like she’d cut him off at the knees.
He’d issued the challenge. He should have known Stephanie Logan would accept it and shouldn’t have let himself get distracted. She wasn’t the sort to back down.
Or, apparently, to give up the chance of a couple of million.
His lips twisted. He needed to remember that. No matter how sweet he’d once found her. How he’d respected her loyalty to her friend even as he’d cursed her obstinacy.
She was doing this for money and far more convincingly than he’d thought possible.
An undercurrent of doubt channelled through his belly. His hackles rose.
She’d only done what he demanded, prove she could play the convincing lover. Yet, looking into that pretty face flushed with satisfaction, he was irresistibly reminded of another woman who’d been all too convincing at feigning ardour and even love.
A woman who’d almost wrecked his life and who’d been the catalyst for his greatest regret.
‘How’d I do?’ Stephanie stuck her hands on her hips, looking up expectantly.
Did she expect applause?
Grudgingly Damen realised she probably deserved it. She didn’t care for him but he’d insisted on a demonstration of fake affection. It was unreasonable to feel betrayed by how well she’d pretended.
‘Well enough.’
She frowned but Damen wasn’t going to heap praise on her ability to lie.
The muffled voice of his conscience said he was unreasonable. He’d be lying about this fake relationship too. At least Stephanie was upfront about her motives.
Yet it took an effort to shake off his dissatisfaction as he looked into her features, again wearing that familiar, guarded expression.
‘So we have a deal?’
‘I’ll have the contract drawn up straight away. With the specifications you requested.’
Half the money in advance. And no kissing.
Maybe it was his unsettled mood. Maybe it was annoyance at how she’d dredged up negative memories. More probably it was the way she’d bruised his pride, being immune to him when just months ago she’d been eager for his touch.
Whatever the reason, Damen found himself adding a mental corollary to their deal. He’d stick to their bargain but he’d make Stephanie Logan regret her no kissing rule. In fact, he’d make it his business to ensure she too felt this tingling dissatisfaction that their affair wasn’t real.
He’d seduce her into wanting him again.

Excerpts. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

“I wouldn’t date you for a million dollars.”

“How about two million?”

Stephanie Logan would love to throw Damen Nicolaides’s outrageous proposal that she pose as his girlfriend back in his face, but the truth is she needs his money to save her family.

The arrogant Greek seduced and discarded her once before, so Steph makes sure their contract says Damen can’t kiss her again! But she might soon regret that clause. Because trapped in paradise with her enemy, his all-too-potent chemistry is pushing her ever closer to breaking point!
Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Goodreads |
 
 

Meet the Author:

USA Today Bestselling author Annie West loves writing passionate, intense love stories. She has devoted her life to an in depth study of tall, dark, charismatic heroes who cause the best kind of trouble in the lives of their heroines. Creating heroines who are a perfect match for those strong, stubborn men is one of her all time favorite things. As a sideline she’s also researched dreamy locations for romance, from vibrant cities to desert encampments and fairytale castles. She lives on the east coast of Australia and her favorite things are books, good company, good food and travel. ‘Contracted to Her Greek Enemy’ is her 40th book for Harlequin!
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