Hi everyone,
Happy May! Believe it or not, it's been a year since I released my contemporary wrestling romance, A Deceptive Match. Here's a look at the making of the book and a steamy excerpt.
A Deceptive
Match
Falling for
the wrestler she had been assigned to interview wasn’t part of Danni’s plan,
until Vinnie Valentine pinned her heart in a flash.
Disgruntled
with her job as the office assistant for a national sports magazine, Danni
Stone impersonates a reporter to prove herself to her boss. Her assignment?
Spend thirty days on the road with Vinnie Valentine, a sexy professional
wrestler.
Life isn’t
going well for the Heavyweight Champ. Vinnie is struggling with a manipulative
boss, prepping for the most important match of his career, and feuding with his
arch-enemy, Thorn. The last thing he needs is a nosy reporter following him
around—even if she is hot.
Thrown
together in close quarters, Danni can’t help falling for Vinnie, and she
unwittingly becomes a key player in his title match. Their mutual attraction
grows, and late one night, they give in to the lustful feelings they’ve been
fighting.
As their
relationship deepens, Danni considers telling Vinnie her secret. But before she
can confess the truth, Vinnie discovers she isn’t the reporter she claims to
be. Her lie threatens to ruin everything between them. Will their relationship
be destroyed by her deception or will their love win out?
* * *
Wrestling has always been a part of my life, so it was only natural that one
day I’d write a book with wrestling as the backdrop. But this book is different
from all of my other books because the entire story came to me in a rather
unusual way—in a dream.
One morning I
woke up and said “Uh-oh!” and grabbed the pen and paper next to the bed. I knew that if I didn’t immediately
start writing down everything in my head, it would be lost forever. So I sat
there, furiously scribbling the outline. At this point, it was just the bare
bones of the plot and the characters, but I knew I was onto something.
Over the
course of the day, more bits and pieces came through. Now I had a subplot,
secondary characters, and knew more about what was happening in this wrestling
romance that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. I was fortunate enough to
actually “see” the book in my head like a movie—some scenes were missing, but I
had a clear picture to work from.
People who
have read the book and know about my love of wrestling always ask me the same
questions: Which wrestlers are the characters based on? How do you know all
this stuff? How much of it is real?
It’s easier
to answer the second question first. Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to
be on friendly terms with a bunch of wrestlers. My husband and I would go to
matches and hang out with the guys after the shows. (No, I wasn’t a ring rat.)
I picked up a lot of terms and got a real feel for what they did and how they
experienced life on the road.
At the time,
the thought of being a writer never even crossed my mind, so I had no idea that
one day I’d use what I learned in a book. When I got the idea for A Deceptive
Match, I was able to incorporate much of what I knew into the plot through
Danni’s point of view.
The male
characters in the book (Vinnie, Ev, Thorn, and Nick) aren’t based on any one
wrestler or any real person. I specifically made sure that Vinnie and the
others aren’t linked to real wrestlers, because it would take away from the
story. Like characters in any book, I invented whatever quirks, flaws, and
backstory I needed to help move the plot along.
And how much
of it is real? Well, anyone who knows anything about wrestling can tell you
that it’s technically termed “sports entertainment” for a reason. But that
doesn’t discredit all the training, hard work, and other sacrifices the
wrestlers go through every day. A Deceptive Match touches on the subject of
what’s “real” and what goes on behind the scenes that most fans are unaware of.
Here’s a steamy excerpt:
Danni hurried
down the hall to the locker room. She hadn’t meant to be late picking up Vin
tonight, but the moron lot attendant wouldn’t let her back into the parking
area. She pushed open the locker room door and rushed inside. “Vin, I’m sorry
I—”
Her tote bag
slipped through her fingers and dropped to the floor. Vin stood less than three
feet away, soaking wet. A white towel barely covered his waist.
“Oh, my God!”
Her entire body flushed as a tingling sensation built deep in her belly. Vin
was practically naked and dripping wet from the shower.
“I…um…you’re…I…oh
God,” she muttered and whirled around. Why wasn’t he saying anything?
Vin’s warm
hand settled on her shoulder. He gently turned her to face him. Beads of water
dripped down his chest, and she longed to lick them away. “Um…you…you’re wet.”
She glanced at the towel and prayed it would fall off his waist.
“And you’re
not?”
She squealed
as Vin drew her to his chest. His mouth covered hers, and she lost all sense of
reason.
A wet heat
built between her legs as Vin’s tongue entered her mouth. She clutched him
tight and dug her fingers into the solid flesh of his back and ribs. He smelled
like soap and water and yet there was a hint of something manly, musky about
him.
Vin moaned
and cupped her buttocks through her sundress, melding her body against his. A
high-pitched mewing sound escaped her throat as a long-denied lust flared
within her. Was this really happening? She’d had this fantasy for so many
nights, would she wake up and discover it was only another erotic dream?
She slid her
hands down Vin’s flat stomach to the edge of the towel. For a second, she
hesitated, unsure. Did she dare do what every instinct commanded? Vin’s tongue
plunged deeper into her mouth, wordlessly urging her on…
* * *
I enjoyed
creating the characters in this wrestling universe, and as I was writing, I
fell in love with Everett, Vinnie’s best friend. I knew I had to tell Ev’s
story and give him his own book, so I wrote A Secret Match. That book is all
about Everett, but Danni and Vinnie play supporting roles in the storyline.
Although the books are connected, they each stand alone as individual reads.
I hope
romance fans and wrestling fans alike will check out A Deceptive Match and A
Secret Match. They’re a good blend of action, drama, romance, humor, and spicy
love scenes.
Happy
Reading!
Kelli
Order your
copy of A Deceptive Match here:
Next week,
I’ll share a look at the follow-up book, A Secret Match.
Happy
Reading!
Kelli
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