Lie To Me by Tori St. Claire Book Tour

Happy July, everyone!  I’m so excited to be here today – thank you so much for letting me shang-hi the blog for a little bit.

In three days we celebrate the 4^th of July.  And without delving into the more somber side of why we shoot of fireworks, suffice it to say we celebrate independence.  Which neatly coincides with one of the theme of my new release, Lie To Me, coming July 3^rd, from Berkley Heat.

The vast majority of us take independence for granted.  But what if you didn’t have that freedom?  And I don’t mean freedom of country, necessarily.  I mean personal freedom – not to worry over who might be lurking in a corner, what will happen when you go to sleep, or even what fate you’ll suffer if your own father finds you.

What lengths would you go to, to achieve personal independence?  I tried to think of what I would do before I composed this, and to be honest, I really don’t know.  If I were being hunted and I had no place to turn, I probably would run.  Now, I’m working under the assumption that our legal system can’t help me.  So…I’d change my name (not legally so there wouldn’t be a paper trail), change my children’s names, and leave the country. If America can’t protect me from a threat, I’d get as far away as I could, if doing so kept me alive.

I’d have to go somewhere where I could speak the language though, so that would leave me in, most likely, developed nations.  Plus, while I do live on a farm, there are some conveniences I don’t want to live without – safe water being one.  A functional toilet being the other.  And I don’t want to stand out like a sore thumb.  Given that I’m *very* fair-skinned, as are my children, all those things pretty much puts me in Europe.  Maybe Australia.  Except, I have to have a passport and visa to travel, which creates the paper trail.  If I went to Europe, I could disappear more easily than if I’m stuck on an island.  (Outback not included –functional toilet issues there.)

Once I arrived where I felt safe, I’d dig in and do whatever it required to keep my children healthy and well fed.  I would do little to call attention to myself, and I would make my new life, my own.  I’d hope for the best, expect the worse, and be grateful I was alive.

These are all decisions that my heroine in Lie To Me, Sasha, experiences.  Only she’s given an out, and in what should be the darkest moment of her life, she finds freedom she couldn’t discover otherwise.  The trouble begins, however, when Alexei Nikanova, a member of the CIA’s deadly Black Opals shows up to bring her back home.  He thinks he’s doing her a favor.  What he doesn’t know is that someone else is waiting for her arrival.  Someone who wants Sasha dead.

I’m curious – what would you do if no place was safe and there was no one you could trust?  How far would you go for personal freedom?

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National Bestselling author Tori St. Claire grew up writing. Hobby quickly turned into passion, and when she discovered the world of romance as a teen, poems and short stories gave way to full length novels with sexy heroes and heroines waiting to be swept off their feet. She wrote her first romance novel at seventeen.

While that manuscript gathered dust-bunnies beneath the bed, she went on to establish herself as a contemporary, historical, and paranormal author under the pen name, Claire Ashgrove. Her writing, however, skirted a fine line between hot and steamy, and motivated by authors she admired, she pushed her boundaries and made the leap into erotica, using the darker side of human nature and on-the-edge suspense to drive grittier, sexier, stories.

Her erotic romantic suspense novels are searingly sensual experiences that unite passion with true emotion, and the all-consuming tie that binds -- love.

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A man of action…

After helping to break up a Russian human trafficking ring as part of the CIA’s elite Black Opal team, Alexei Nikanova’s newest assignment is to rescue one of the stolen women and return her to her father. When he arrives in Dubai, he discovers his target is Sasha Zablosky—a woman he knows all too well, and who has haunted him ever since their unforgettable time together in Moscow, two and a half years earlier. But he finds Sasha reluctant to leave her sheikh, the only true friend she’s ever known. Only Alexei can’t give her a choice.

A woman of deception…

With their yearning roused by intrigue, Alexei and Sasha can no longer resist temptation, and spend night after night in forbidden pleasure. Soon Alexei finds himself falling for her, even as he battles a shadowy menace to protect her. But Sasha is no innocent. She has a past darker than she could ever admit, one that Alexei could never forgive. And it is about to explode into her life once more. As the lies they tell themselves—and each other—pull them deeper into a perilous desire, what began as simple passion becomes a love certain to destroy them and end the lives of countless innocents.

Excerpt 

Warning flashed behind Alexei’s eyes, hard, cold, and dangerous.  She held his gaze, meeting him challenge for unspoken challenge. “If you’d done better research, you’d know Kadir bin Imran’s been playing both sides of your little game.”

Both men visibly tensed, their posture stiffening. Damn it. She hadn’t meant to let on that she understood what had happened with the human trafficking ring so intimately. Doing so risked revealing the years she’d spent employed by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. As a senior defensive weapons engineer, her job with the FSB hadn’t related to undercover operations—not technically, at least—but she’d been through enough training to understand the intricacies that were required to expose Amir’s human trafficking ring.

Her familiarity with the Bratva and how deep the organization ran filled in the remaining holes. All things she couldn’t risk revealing unless she wanted to spend the rest of her life in jail. If she even made it that far before her father and the Bratva found her. 

“What do you know about Kadir?” Alexei asked with frightening calm.

Sasha winced as she tried to straighten her legs, only to have her swollen ankle protest the movement. She bent over to gingerly massage the rapidly purpling skin. “He’s been trying to buy me from Saeed for the last year and a half.”

She waited long enough for the meaning to sink in before she looked up at Alexei. He exchanged a wary glance with Grigoriy, then turned a narrowed frown on her. “That’s impossible. Six months ago he—”

“Was offering a million and a half.” Releasing her tender ankle, she leaned back against the leather seats.

When those damnable light green eyes slid back to Grigoriy’s and understanding registered in Alexei’s expression, Sasha knew she’d driven her point home. But the night had been too long, too full of jubilant highs and heartbreaking lows to let the remark stand alone. In need of some way to deliver the cutting blows Alexei had meted out to her, she couldn’t resist one more barb. “Guess we’ll see what he’s willing to pay once I’m in his personal jet, won’t we?”

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Tori will be giving away a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card to one random commenter during the month of July.  Two additional commenters will receive a basket of swag.  Follow the tour – the more times you comment the better your chances of winning!  Complete tour dates can be found here.