Padme's Library: Jase by MariaLisa deMora

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Jase by MariaLisa deMora

Title: Jase

Author: MariaLisa deMora

Series: Rebel Wayfarers MC #4

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: May 4, 2015

Summary:
Meet Jase Spencer.

He’s just your everyday kinda guy, a hard-partying, hard-living professional hockey player. Nothin’ special.

Good-looking and ripped, the man has moves, on and off the ice. But, he’s also jaded and alone, and tired of living out of suitcases.

For as long as he can remember, hockey has ruled his life. He’s chased pucks across more than a dozen countries, and had his pick of women in any town he visits.

Then he met HER. And now, he’s about to turn his life upside down because of HER. Because he can’t get the one night of passion he shared with a smokin’ hot biker babe out of his head. Unfortunately, DeeDee wasn’t interested in anything long term, and she’s gone before he’s ready.

Life becomes complicated and difficult when Jase is traded to another team, and as he tries to settle in his new hometown, everything seems to conspire against him, determined to go wrong.

Dancing around their mutual attraction, one day he and DeeDee find themselves face-to-face and body-to-body, but will they be able to set aside their past pain and focus on the future they could make together? Can he make her reconsider her relationship fears and trust him?

Jase is on a mission to show her what they have together is worth fighting for, to convince her to take a chance on him. His attempts will bring him squarely into the path of a motorcycle club, earning him the attention of Mason, president of the Rebel Wayfarers MC.

Jase says, “Bring it on.”

You miss 100% of the shots you never take. – Wayne Gretzky

From Chapter 4, Together
Tug reached out, pulling on the waistband of her chaps, reminding her she hadn’t yet taken time to remove her leathers. Stepping backwards into his hold, she relaxed, leaning into him. “You’re sure hugging and kissing on a whole lot of men, DeeDee,” he murmured.
“They’re my boys,” she laughed with a broad smile. “I love my boys; they are all such nice guys.”
Cryptically, he said, “I don’t think he likes it much. And I know for sure he doesn’t like this.” He patted her hip, sliding his hand around and possessively spreading his palm across her stomach for a moment. She tensed. His fingers were warm and the pressure comfortable, nearly stretching down far enough to reach...
With his other hand, he reached up, taking her chin with his fingers as he had earlier and directed her gaze to the crowd near Mason’s garage, where a group of Daniel’s friends had gathered around his two brothers. Her throat closed, trapping her breath in her chest for a moment as her eyes met smoldering, dark brown ones. Jase was staring across the crowd at her.
He looked furious; she wasn’t sure why for a moment until Tug stepped back, dropping his arms from around her. The strain on Jase’s face eased slightly and he padded across the space between them, dodging around individuals and couples without seeming to notice them, eyes only for her.
“There you go,” she distantly heard Tug say and felt a little push on her ass, absently reaching back to swat the hand away. She couldn’t take her eyes off Jase. Something about the look on his face held her captive.
There was a short laugh and then strong hands picked her up by the waist, lifting her over the railing and setting her on the ground next to the porch, bypassing the stairs. Jase didn’t stop his advance until he was close enough to reach out and cup her face in his large, callused hands, leaning in without hesitation to cover her mouth softly with his own.
The noises around them fell away; it seemed as if she couldn’t hear anything except her own pounding heartbeat and the sound his fingertips made when he stroked her jawline, rasping against her skin. She gave herself into the kiss entirely, reveling in the sensations of his lips against hers, the roughness of his short beard against her skin. He glided his tongue across her bottom lip and then dipped it into her mouth to tangle with her own, the unabashed sensuality of the kiss stealing her breath.
Too soon, his lips drew away, the heat of his hands still blazing against her cheeks. When DeeDee’s eyes slowly opened, she saw he had a look on his face difficult to categorize, but if pressed, she might have said it was satisfaction. When she was in town previously, they had never gone past chaste kisses on the cheek, or a friendly arm draped around shoulders or waist. They certainly never kissed like this, with the toe-curling passion she just experienced. Short of breath, she smiled uncertainly up at him, her lips trembling. He was so handsome, with deep brown soulful eyes, and sensuous lips framed with a soft beard.

What is the biggest influence/interest that brought you to this genre?
Genre is an interesting word, because I’m told that these stories don’t fit the mold of any one, other than the overarching category of “romance”. There are erotic influences, but much more storyline than bedroom scenes. There’s a motorcycle club, but the people are more important than the politics or dynamics of the club. There is suspense and danger, but almost always at least one character gets a happily ever after in the end. So … romantic suspense? If we look at romantic suspense writers, I’d say there’re a wide range of authors that I feel have influenced me, including Stieg Larsson, Seanan McGuire, Maya Banks, and Lisa Jackson.

When writing a book, what is your favorite part of the creative process (outline, plot, character names, editing, etc)?
Plot, totally. I begin with an image in my mind of a scene, or sometimes I’ll see something and I can almost feel the click and snap as the pieces fit into place. An example would be something that happened recently. I’d been playing with the idea of a book for an extended character study, and at a hockey game one night, during the first period, they flashed a picture up on the Jumbotron. It was the 'Oblivious Cam', where they target someone who's not paying attention, and then put a timer on them until either they look up and see they're on the big screen, or someone around them brings it to their attention.
This chick was studiously bent over her phone, which isn't an uncommon sight ... but the lines her body drew in the stadium seat were taut, stressed, and when she looked up into the camera, she looked pale and shaken.
So for the next fifteen minutes, in my mind, as I frantically typed notes on my phone, she became Hope, the heroine for the book Hoss, release in November.

When reading a book, what genre do you find most interesting/intriguing?
All of them! I read paranormal, romance, mystery, suspense, history, biographies, and SciFi. Paranormal is something I circle back around to again and again, because I love the writers who allow me to suspend disbelief and just immerse myself into an alternate world, where anything is possible.

If you could co-author with any author, past or present, who would you choose?
Kevin Hearne – the man is a genius, and I absolutely love his Iron Druid series. He is also humble and real, and I think the chance to work with him would be filled with joy and laughter. Plus, the man likes tacos. ‘Nuff said!

Have you always wanted to write or did it come to you "later in life"?
Writing was not something I ever saw myself doing. I can write instructional documents, technical requirements for projects, but had never written creatively before last year. One day I woke up with a story about this chick in my head that simply would not go away. The more I thought about her, dreamed about her, filled in the space around her with family and friends, the more I became obsessed with getting her out of my head. Writing it all down seemed to help, but the story continued, scenes and characters developing in my head at a breakneck pace. I’ve likened this to being Wiley E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoon, where the anvil falls from the sky onto his head. That’s how the stories seemed to me, that they simply landed on me unexpectedly, an unlooked for blessing. Of course, my fear is that they could go away the same way, suddenly and brutally gone. Maybe that’s why I’m now always frantically scribbling notes, typing scenes, dictating character elements, because what comes to us unworked for, out of the blue, can be taken away just as swiftly, and I want to have as much of these stories out and available for my enjoyment as possible.

Author Bio:
Raised in the south, MariaLisa learned about the magic of books at an early age. Every summer, she would spend hours in the local library, devouring books of every genre. Self-described as a book-a-holic, she says “I’ve always loved to read, but then I discovered writing, and found I adored that, too. For reading … if nothing else is available, I’ve been known to read the back of the cereal box.”

A hockey fan, hiker, gamer, and single mom of a special needs son, she embraces her inner geek and has been working in the tech field for a publishing company for a couple decades.

Music is a driving passion, and she says, “I love music of nearly any genre — jazz, country, rock, alt rock, metal, classical, bluegrass, rap, hip hop … you name it, I listen to it. I can often be seen dancing through the house in the early mornings. But I really, REALLY love live music. My favorite thing with music is seeing bands in small, dive bars [read: small, intimate venues]. If said bar [venue] has a good selection of premium tequila, then that’s a plus!”