Spotlight & Giveaway: Passion and Ink by Naima Simone

Posted February 18th, 2019 by in Blog, Spotlight / 65 comments

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Naima Simone to HJ!
Spotlight&Giveaway

Hi Naima and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Passion and Ink!

 
Hiii! And thank you so much for having me here today!
 

Please summarize the book for the readers here:

Well, tattoo artist Jude Gordon–brother to Knox Gordon from SIN AND INK–meets waitress Cypress Winters at one of his favorite dive bars. They end up have a sizzling hot one-night stand. But, at the next family dinner, his stepfather invites his estranged daughter, and Jude comes face-to-face with the stepsister he hasn’t seen in 10 years–also, the woman he spent an unforgettable, dirty night with. The two fight the attraction, because giving in means not only fracturing an already broken family, but also Cypress failing her mother. Because her father has issued an ultimatum–leave Jude alone or Cypress can forgo any financial help from him to take care of her mother. An impossible choice. But leaving Jude alone might prove even more impossible. And I’m wordy… LOL!
 

Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:

This is so hard! LOL! I have a few, but the two that immediately come to mind are:

“All I can do is hold on, like a shipwreck victim clinging to a piece of debris, as he uses my body like I’m his own palm in a hand job. And I love. Every. Moment. ” and “You refused to be broken. You didn’t roll over, lay down, and die. You survived. Sweetheart, that’s not quitting or being victimized. That’s being a fighter. And you f**king humble me.”

 

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

  • One of the secondary characters, Hakim Alston, is based on my tattoo artist cousin–Hakim Alston. Yep, he made me put him in the book or he wouldn’t answer any of my research questions. Now he wants his own book. Which I REFUSE to do. I can’t write my cousin’s namesake having sex. Not gon’ happen! LOL!
  • The heroine is named after one of my Saints and Sinners street team members!
  • While writing this book, I got my eighth tattoo. From–you guessed it–Hakim. 😀
  • During edits, every time someone a character in the book said, “Hey, Jude,” my editor would “sing” The Beatles song in the comments.
  • I tried to get my sister to read this book for me, but after the first chapter she texted me and said, “WHHHHYYY did YOU have to write this book? Now I can’t read it!” LOL!

 

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

For both Jude and Cypress, they had an initial physical attraction. Because, y’know, they’re both incredibly hot people. 😀 But after that first impact, Cypress immediately noticed Jude’s eyes. She called them the eyes of a warrior angel–beautiful, but had seen tragedy. For Jude, he was struck by how she calmed his mind. She was this oasis that allowed him to forget the chaos in his life and offered him a haven.

 

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

Oh I would definitely have a Sex-and-the-City-Jason-Lewis and Mila Kunis act out the moment Jude and Cypress meet. It’s that scene where the chemistry between them is so palpable, it’s seen with just an exchange of gazes. This scene sets the stage for their relationship–combustible but with a vulnerability that has them seeking one another even as they’re afraid to admit it and reveal it. Disclaimer: Jason Lewis is just fine at the age he is now tho… 😀

Approaching his booth as carefully as if I’m balancing on a suspended tight rope above a gasping crowd, I keep my eyes on the drinks and floor, bracing myself for the impact of facing him again.
A useless effort.
As soon as I set the beer bottle and glass in front of him and lift my head, I’m ensnared. Helplessly. Powerlessly. F**king willingly.
“Thanks.” He picks up the beer and twists the cap off, and damn if I don’t find the sight of that big, strong hand with its long, surprisingly elegant fingers wrapped around the bottle. No doubt he could be both gentle and rough with those hands.
Unbidden, images of him being both with me—in me—flash through my head in vivid, technicolor, HD clarity. He could fill me with those fingers. Two of them could probably stretch me, make my neglected flesh burn. God, I want to burn.
“If you don’t need anything else—”
“What’s your name again?” he interrupts, lifting the beer to his lips, taking a sip, and waiting for my answer while I wrestle with my jealousy of a bottle getting some up-close-and-personal action with those lips.
It’s official. I need help. The kind of help that comes with a d**k and orgasm.
“Ro,” I eventually shove out. Jesus, the effect he has on me. There’s no other explanation that justifies why I almost uttered “Cypress Winters.” Giving any customer in this dump my real name is on my top list of no-nos. Right under fucking one of them. It’s another barrier I can place between me and them. And as silly as it may seem, it’s less of myself I have to give away. Ro is a costume, a mask I slip into when I enter this place.
“You’re not from here, are you?”
“No.” I shake my head. “California.” At least for the last ten years. But he doesn’t need to know my life story when this is the last time we’re going to talk unless he wants another round. “If you need anything—”
“You.”

 

Readers should read this book….

…if they want to feel. This book is definitely angsty, emotional, HOT–like the dirty kinda hot–romantic and touches on topics such as depression, suicide and sexual harassment. Readers should read this book if they want to see two people come full circle and find their own strength, too. I might be biased, but I love Jude and Cypress. 😀

 

What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?

I’m currently working on Book 3 in my Blackout Billionaires series for Harlequin Desire. I’m SUPER excited about it! Every book begins with a couple being trapped in a blackout that plunges Chicago into darkness.

In April, I’m so psyched about my older-woman-younger-man-professor-student, short story Grading Curves debuting on the AWESOME podcast Read Me Romance. In June, The Billionaire’s Bargain, Book 1 in the Blackout Billionaires series, comes out. So a ton of romantic fun ahead in 2019!
 

Thanks for blogging at HJ!

 

Giveaway: I’m offering up a $10 Amazon gift card to a commenter.

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: I hope Passion and Ink will stay on the minds and hearts of readers long after they finish it. Tell me the last book you read that lingered far after you shut off your eReader or closed it.

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Excerpt from Passion and Ink:

“You don’t belong here,” I state, my voice intentionally flat. Blunt. And truthful. She doesn’t. The impression struck me the minute I first saw her.

“Really?” She removes her hands from her pockets and crosses her arms. “And where, pray tell, do I belong?”

The sarcasm is as much of a warning to back off as her tone. Still, I ignore it. Maybe I’m purposefully trying to blow my chances of getting between her legs. Or maybe I just want to know more about her. This living, breathing dichotomy of delicacy and strength that has me more intrigued than I should be. Than I can afford to be.

“Somebody’s boardroom. Or a classroom. Or in an office with a view of Willis Tower and the skyline. That coat,” I add, nodding at her luxurious, wool outerwear that traces the sleek lines of her body and ends just above her knees. “No one who serves drinks and greasy food for a living could afford it.” I should know since I bought one similar to it for Mom a couple of years ago, and it’d set me back a cool fifteen hundred.

“There’s nothing wrong with serving drinks and greasy food,” she damn near growls. And fuck if that isn’t sexy. I want to hear that same sound wrapped around my name while her nails bite my back and her ankles ride my waist while I’m sinking balls-deep inside her.

“I didn’t say there was. Just that it isn’t you.” I move forward and gently but firmly grab her wrist, turning over her hand. Heat emanates from where I touch her. For the first time. It’s innocent, innocuous. But the pulling of my gut and hardening of my body say otherwise. As does the soft catch of her breath.

Tracing my touch over the slightly callused fingertips, I lift my head and meet her hooded gaze. This close, I glimpse the small mole that punctuates a corner of her mouth. Note the faint shadows bruising the skin under her eyes. Wonder what put them there. “These callouses are pretty new,” I murmur, continuing to trace the roughened skin. “And no doubt they match the ones on the bottom of your feet.”

She tugs back her hand, and I plow both of mine into my coat pockets. My fingers curl into my palms, trying to capture the memory of how soft and smooth her skin felt under mine.

“I thought you might need to vent about your shitty day, not my choice of career paths,” she snaps. And there are the specks of light blue. Like stars in a midnight sky.

Yeah, but as long as I’m standing out keeping her talking about herself and inhaling her flowers-and-fruit scent, it prevents me from dwelling on the job offer my brother extended this afternoon. Or the career opportunity that’s waiting on me thousands of miles away from home, the flood of texts filling up my phone even now, and the nightmare images of blood, tears, and pain that lurk in the darkness of my brain, anticipating the moment I close my eyes. Images from my past and my present.

“You have things you don’t want to talk about. Secrets.” I nod. “I get it. Sorry for prying.”

“You have things you don’t want to talk about, too,” she says softly.

Again, I nod, slower this time, part of me wondering what the hell was in that beer to have me admitting this to her. The other part…just wants her to make it better.

Apparently, I’ve lost my ball sac along with my mind.

“Look.” I rub a hand over the back of my neck, glancing from one side to the other. Maybe eying the mouth of the alley as an escape route. “Thanks for coming out here but—”

I break off, frowning as I catch the small shiver that ripples through her frame. Acting on instinct, I move forward, blocking her body from the wind with mine while shrugging out of my coat and draping it over her shoulders. I’m a born and bred Chicagoan, a Southsider, so forty degrees won’t break me. Though she has her own coat on, it’s made for a California fall, and mine will provide added warmth.

Her eyes flare, surprise and a flicker of heat sending those stars glittering again. An answering rush of desire pitches and heaves inside me.

“Tell me something you don’t want to talk about,” she murmurs, stepping closer. She tips her head back, and my gaze drops to her pretty mouth before lifting to meet her eyes.

I’m not into sharing. Hell, since I was twelve, my life has been about not sharing—

“My brother offered me a job opportunity that most people would kill for. Would be damn fools for passing up.” Shit.

For a moment, her eyes narrow as she silently studies me. “And you passed it up,” she says.

“Yeah.” And Knox’s disappointment when I turned him down still eats away at me.

“Why?”

Because for once in my life I want to be known as Jude Gordon, talented tattoo artist, instead of just “Hard Knox” Gordon’s younger brother.

Because my older brother’s shadow is a cold, lonely, invisible place to live, and lately it’s become uninhabitable.

The selfish, self-serving words shove against my vocal cords, but I push them back. Some things you can’t say aloud. They’re painful enough admitting to yourself because they sound whiney and ungrateful.

“I wasn’t completely honest with you earlier,” I rasp, needing to change the subject, to wash the bitter taste of failing the ones I love, the ones I’m supposed to protect, from my mouth. And she can do it. Her taste. Her tongue wrapped around mine. Her bare, smooth skin connected to mine by hard-won sweat. “True, when I walked into the bar tonight, I wanted a diversion, an escape. I saw you, and then wanted you. I wanted to f**k you.” I lower my head until her small puffs of breath forming soft clouds in the air ghost over my lips. “I still do.”

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

Book Info:

Blackballed from my job.

Moved back to my hometown with my tail between my legs and family issues crushing my back.

Slinging drinks in a dive bar.

Yes, the past year has been hell. So when a man who’s temptation wrapped in golden skin and sin offers me one night of no-holds barred, dirty sex, I’m all in. I deserve it.

But now those few unforgettable hours have me facing blackmail from my own father: He’ll pay for my mom’s medical bills, but only if I never again touch the man who has quickly become my obsession.

Because the man? My obsession?

He’s my stepbrother.

Each book in the Sweetest Taboo series is STANDALONE:
* Sin and Ink by Naima Simone
* Passion and Ink by Naima Simone
* The Scandalous Diary of Lily Layton by Stacy Reid
Book Links: Book Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | kobo | Google |
 
 

Meet the Author:

USA Today Bestselling author Naima Simone’s love of romance was first stirred by Johanna Lindsey and Sandra Brown many years ago. Well not that many. She is only eighteen…ish. Though her first attempt at a romance novel starring Ralph Tresvant from New Edition never saw the light of day, her love of romance, reading and writing has endured. Published since 2009, she spends her days—and nights— writing sizzling romances with a touch of humor and snark.

She is wife to Superman, or his non-Kryptonian, less bullet proof equivalent, and mother to the most awesome kids ever. They all live in perfect, sometimes domestically-challenged bliss in the southern United States.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | GoodReads |
 
 
 

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65 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: Passion and Ink by Naima Simone”

  3. Mary Preston

    “The Anchoress” by Robyn Cadwallader – a very different kind of read for me. A “quiet”, engrossing read.

  4. Diana Tidlund

    Christmas in New York anthology by Jennifer Gracen , Patty Blount , Jeannie Moon , Jolyse Barnett

  7. janinecatmom

    There was one book (it wouldn’t be nice to mention the title) that stayed on my mind after I finished it, but it wasn’t in a good way. It was because the way it ended. I read the last page and changed to the next expecting another chapter, but there was just nothing. I don’t know if this is just the author’s writing style or what, but I think the husband died. I just don’t know. I just hope there is another book that follows it to clear up this and other questions I need answering about the story.

  8. Marcy Meyer

    What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon is still in my mind. It was an amazing story.

  11. Pamela Conway

    I would say Enshrine by Chelle Bliss. J.R. Ward’s BDR books too!

  14. Staci Pope

    “Every Second in His Arms” by Debra Kayn; I’m still reelling from the way the author developed the story line through the 2 previous book in this series and wrapped everything up in this last book. I still have questions.

  23. Amy Woolard

    Secrets & Lies trilogy by Aleatha Romig stayed with me a while after I finished it.

  24. laurieg72

    Jennifer Gracen’s IT MIGHT BE YOU Nick learns about his step-family when he signs up to be an organ donor. Very touching and emotional story about acceptance, compassion, love and forgiveness.

  35. Monique D

    Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone. It’s about a sociopath, and it made me realise that I had known more than one. It’s gripping and enlightening.

  38. Cynthia H.

    Archangel’s Prophecy by Nalini Singh stayed with me. I didn’t want to read anything else but the follow up and it’s not out yet!

  40. Chris Alexander

    In the recent past, RAFE by Rebekah Weatherspoon. I still think about one of Elizabeth Lowell’s books when I’m cooking. There is just a scene that pings when I’m in the kitchen. Sherrilyn Kenyon’s BORN OF LEGEND has lingered with me forever.

  43. Kim

    There are several books which have stuck with me. The first to come to mind is Accidental Affair by Leslie McKelvey.

  46. Glenda M

    Playing for Keeps by Jill Shalvis is the most recent that I keep thinking about – in part because of the attitudes about ink and family member’s opinions. . . . It’s a long story.

  49. Terrill R.

    The most recent book that lingered long after I was finished was The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Great Hollywood saga.

  52. Dawn Strickland

    Bohemian by Kathryn Nolan still lingers with me. It is such a beautiful book.

  53. Dawn Strickland

    Bohemian by Kathryn Nolan still lingers with me. It is such a beautiful love story.

  61. erahime

    Marie Kondo’s book. Recently finished it and trying to follow her tips in organizing.