The Hand He Dealt by Tanith Davenport - Print Release Time

I previously featured this book on my blog, but this past week it was finally released in print.  So if you're looking for a steamy read be sure to add this to your list.

The Hand He Dealt
by Tanith Davenport
ISBN: 978-0-85715-570-2
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Publisher: Total-e-Bound

Book Description:

Nobody can beat Astra Scott in playing the hand she’s dealt.

Astra Scott likes to live life to the full. A sorority girl and Gaming Management student, she spends her days studying and practising guitar, and her nights partying or working at the Fountain Casino, where she has an internship as part of her final semester. The only blot on her landscape is Ash Drake, her best friend Sasha’s boyfriend. Arrogant, physical and blond, Ash has never forgiven Astra for her rejection months earlier and enjoys annoying her at every turn.

But when Astra’s boyfriend Harry reveals a shocking secret, Astra responds in the only way she can think of: by finding a way to take on a more attractive, masculine role in the relationship. Her experimentation with sex toys finds a surprising outlet in Sasha, but when Ash discovers their secret and wants to get involved, Astra finds herself torn between dislike and desire…and as their undercover relationship grows, Astra finds herself falling in love, a path she feels can only end in heartbreak. For Ash may be the only man whose own fantasies are a match for hers, but can she knowingly steal his affections from her best friend?

Reader Advisory: This book contains one scene of pegging/strap-on penetration and scenes of ménage and FF intimacy.

Ebook link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1244

Print Link: http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=1380

EXCERPT 1:

Two hours later, and Astra stood in front of her bedroom mirror, holding in one hand the toy she had bought from Amy’s Delights.

Rubber underwear was laced through her fingers, a small plastic remote control dangling below on the end of a long cord. And attached to the front—

Well.

It was a strap-on.

It was a strap-on dildo.

And it was purple.

A purple length of shiny plastic. A perfect simulacrum of a veined, circumcised penis, five inches long and of a thickness Astra considered average, just the right width to wrap a hand around.

She stared at her reflection for a long time, contemplating the dildo, before slowly drawing it back towards her body, holding it against her stomach.

No.

One foot through the straps, two feet…rubber caught against denim-clad legs, but after a moment’s struggle the strap-on dildo was in place, and Astra’s image stood in front of her, the purple dick jutting out in front like the hilt of a sword.

Slowly she rotated her hips, watching the dildo glide from side to side, before stopping abruptly with a giggle.

Shit. It looks like a fucking light sabre.

Watching herself in the mirror, she closed one hand around its length, giving it a tentative stroke.

Nothing. Unsurprisingly.

She tried it again, this time holding the remote control and flicking the switch. A sudden buzzing, accompanied by a muted vibration through her jeans, made her jolt sharply.
Interesting.

Flipping the switch again, she rocked her hips slowly, her eyes glazing. In her mind formed a picture of Harry’s smooth back and bare buttocks, thighs parting to receive her, Harry’s voice gasping, begging for more, more, please, more…

Oh.

The switch snapped off.

Astra eyed herself coolly, squaring her shoulders, her legs automatically widening into a masculine stance.

EXCERPT 2:

A third red-backed card flipped over on the green baize. The ten of hearts.

“Twenty-four. Bust.”

With a scowl, the man pushed his chips to the centre of the table and got up to leave.

“Too bad,” Astra called after him. “Have a good night.”

It was four in the morning and the casino was closing. Around the room, the croupiers were clearing their tables and preparing to leave. Astra’s table was the first one closed—as the lights began to snap off she was already halfway to the door.

She passed another croupier, an attractive blonde, just unhooking her coat, her forehead smeared with blood, and she paused.

“Hey, Becky? What happened to you?”

The girl scowled. “Some jerk threw a glass at me. Think he just lost the expense account.”

“Ugh. Men.” Astra could taste the bitterness in her words. “They’re all pricks.”

The cold air hit her like a wall of ice. The skies were still pitch-dark. The night was clear, starlit, the edges of the full moon sharp. Streetlamps spilled pools of light across the sidewalk as Astra started the long walk home.

Thank God she didn’t have an early lecture.

Across the street, shouts and raucous laughter filled the air as the door of a neon-fronted bar opened and a group of twenty-something men fell out. Astra’s stomach twisted as a painful image forced its way into her mind.

Are you out tonight?

She dropped her head, fighting against the picture that haunted her. Oh God, she was beginning to hate this walk home. The surrounding dark engulfed her like a wave, weakening her, dragging her down.

Every time you do this, I lose another part of you, something I’m afraid to forget.

Her feet knew the way home as well as her mind did.

I can’t remember the scent of your hair.

It was amazing how quickly the sidewalk was passing.

I can’t remember the feeling of your breath on my neck.

It really wasn’t such a long walk after all.

She broke into a run, one hand over her face, tears choking her. Astra stumbled up the main road through the campus and into the Omega Zeta sorority house. She dashed up the stairs to the first floor, dived into the bathroom and locked herself in a cubicle.

It was stupid to feel this way. Stupid. But the aching feeling of loss was rarely absent these days.

She had only herself to blame. She had been too intelligent, too arrogant, to believe she could lose herself in the intense gaze of a pair of blue eyes. Too clever to recognize her own weakness in the face of a cheeky smile.

Fuck. The door had opened. She wiped her face and stepped out of the cubicle, her carefully-crafted neutral expression dissolving when she saw the girl turning away from her reflection.

“Sash.”

“Astra?” Sasha looked her up and down in concern. “Are you okay? What’s…”

“Don’t ask.”

Sasha nodded slowly and turned back to the mirror with an assumed casualness.

“Oh—by the way. News.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“It’s Ash.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“He knows.”

Astra caught herself in the middle of a third “Oh yeah?” and stepped behind Sasha. Their eyes met in the mirror.

“What?”

“Ash knows.”

Astra leant back against the row of sinks and ran her hand through her hair in shock.

“Ash… Fuck.”

Author Bio:

Tanith Davenport began writing at the age of sixteen as a way of utilizing her ability to drift into daydreams at any hour of the day or night. Her interests range between rock music and modern cinema to medieval literature and classical singing. She loves to travel and dreams of one day taking a driving tour of the United States, preferably in a classic 1950s pink Cadillac Eldorado.

“The Hand He Dealt” is Tanith’s debut novel and was released by Total-e-Bound Publishing on 13 June 2011.

www.tanithdavenport.blogspot.com