Feature Post & Giveaway: Inside Bet by Katie Porter

Writing military when you’ve been in the military…

By Katie Porter

You’d probably think that having been in the military gives an author a leg up when it comes to writing military-themed romance, right?

Nope. It makes it harder.

I swear! The biggest problem? I know how easy it is to screw up. I’ve been the reader happily immersed in a good romance only to make huge squinchy face when they get something wrong. Usually it’s something that seems like it should be oh-so-basic. Once I was reading a romantic suspense with a female Army Warrant Officer. I was so excited. I mean how many warrant officers do you get a chance at? And then the author described the heroine in uniform—with the long, long braid that fell down her back.

I almost died of frustration. Keeping a female’s hair tied up nice and neat and off their collar is one of the basic rules across all the branches.

To make it even worse, we decided to write a series called “Vegas Top Guns,” set at Nellis, which meant we’d write Air Force pilots. Oh my.

I was in the Army four years and then married to a soldier. I knew very, very little about the Air Force and even less about pilots! It was time to research. A lot.

I had a bit of a leg up because we decided to write these books while my husband was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. I got a little bit of a crash course in how the Chair Force—ahem, Army prejudice showing there—and my husband worked with pilots. (Not fighter pilots, though.) I was able to ask him questions and see real hangars and lots of other stuff that didn’t actually make it into the book because I might have gotten in trouble! (Whenever there was a possibility of revealing information I shouldn’t, I always erred on the side of vague.) And beyond that, there was more research of the rather typical portions.

I hope what I brought to the entire Vegas Top Guns series is a good sense of the military world. It’s different from the civilian one, filled with camaraderie and a level of closeness that comes from knowing everyone around you is “on the same team.”

A sharp knock clicked on the driver’s-side window, only inches from his head. Jon kept his reaction down to a fast jerk.

Major Ryan Haverty and Captain Leah Girardi stood outside his door, wearing matching expressions of amusement.

Sighing, Jon pushed the ignition button and lowered the power window. “You two have a problem?”

Ryan leaned a forearm across the top of the car and bent to bring his head low. The man was such a beef-fed All-American. Tall as a house and almost as sturdy. “No, mon ami. Not at all.”

Leah grinned and blew air kisses. Her dark hair skimmed straight back from her face and wound into a bun that met regulation. For now. Off-duty hours would find it a mess. “Oui, oui,” she whispered like a breathless Marilyn Monroe.

Fuck. They’d heard him speaking French on the phone with Heather.

He kept his posture loose in the leather bucket seat, then smiled. “If your only intent is to give me a rash of shit, can we get on with it pronto? I’ve got to turn in my inventory. I’m getting out of here on time, hell or high water.”

Of course being on the same team means you get to give your teammates heck whenever you’d like! But you’ll love the way Jon and his buddies support each other when the chips are down—and you’ll have to read Inside Bet to get the good stuff.

Up next for Katie Porter, the co-writing team of Carrie Lofty and Lorelie Brown:

Now that both RT BookReviews 4½ Star Top Picks DOUBLE DOWN and INSIDE BET have been released, we're looking forward to the September 25^th arrival of HOLD 'EM, featuring wild child Leah and a surprising reunion with a fellow pilot. The final two installments of the "Vegas Top Guns"  series will follow in 2013.

November brings the m/m Christmas-themed CAME UPON AMIDNIGHT CLEAR, and in January, LEAD AND FOLLOW will launch the five-part “Club Devant” series of erotic multi-partner romances set in a hot New York City burlesque club.

Where to find us:

http://KatiePorterBooks.com

Twitter: @MsKatiePorter

Or individually: @carrielofty and @LorelieBrown

We'd like to give away a copy of DOUBLE DOWN or INSIDE BET (winner's choice) in any format. Just answer the question: What’s your favorite branch of the military and why?
 

Thanks again to Hanging with Bells for featuring Katie Porter and Inside Bet!

Inside Bet

Book 2 in the Vegas Top Guns series

Author:  Katie Porter

Publisher: Samhain 

Release date:  August 28, 2012

As assistant director in an accounting firm, Heather Morris is at the top of her game. Her straight-laced colleagues wouldn't believe the secrets she hides: her wild teenage past, work-of-art tattoo and nipple ring.

Her orderly life veers off course when she's approached at a wine tasting by an arrogant pretty boy with a dirty mind and a hardcore dangerous profession. She finds herself tempted to step outside her respectable façade for some well-deserved excitement.

Captain Jon "Tin Tin" Carlisle knows women. Loves women. One glimpse of the nipple ring under Heather's conservative blazer lights up all his instincts. He's stumbled upon a rare treasure: an exotic beauty with a sexy laugh and a taste for dares.

After a red-hot hour of roulette, their simmering attraction bursts into an exploration of mutual passion that tests even Jon’s erotic limits. Soon he craves something he's never desired before. More. But for Heather, more means trusting, and trusting leads to trouble.

Now Jon must decide if the best sex of his life is worth chancing his heart on a woman who shields hers so well.

Warning: Contains hot power play featuring a fighter pilot who comes from old money but knows all about bringing the dirty. Also: a nipple ring, sex on the hood of a hella sweet sportscar, and one teensy, tiny, wickedly naughty fluid exchange.

Find Katie Porter on the web: 

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