-Tell us about your first book in the series. What would readers find different about the first one and your most recent published work?
NA: The first book in the Heirs of Damon series is Seducing the Enemy. I think it’s not all that different from Stripping the Billionaire, which is the last book in the series. The line editing was done differently, so the prose doesn’t rely as much on rhythm to convey emotional power, and the hero is a bit more traditionally alpha, but the plot structure and characterization is quite similar.
NA: The first book in the Heirs of Damon series is Seducing the Enemy. I think it’s not all that different from Stripping the Billionaire, which is the last book in the series. The line editing was done differently, so the prose doesn’t rely as much on rhythm to convey emotional power, and the hero is a bit more traditionally alpha, but the plot structure and characterization is quite similar.
-Did you always planned to write Benjamin Damon’s story?
NA: Yes, Ben was the fourth Damon nephew, so I always knew I’d get to his story eventually. He had a minor role in Seducing the Enemy, where he talked to Harrison (the hero of that book) in the black moment, and I always knew I wanted a matching scene in Ben’s book, where Harrison talked to him in his black moment. I really like how it worked out.
-How would you describe this series to someone who has not read any of the books but is intrigued by the concept?
NA: The Heirs of Damon books follow the four nephews and heirs of a rather eccentric billionaire who wants to live like an 18th century lord of the manor and puts a lot of pressure on his nephews, leading them to the plots of the four books. The books are romantic and amusing and a little bit steamy, with a lot of heart.
NA: Yes, Ben was the fourth Damon nephew, so I always knew I’d get to his story eventually. He had a minor role in Seducing the Enemy, where he talked to Harrison (the hero of that book) in the black moment, and I always knew I wanted a matching scene in Ben’s book, where Harrison talked to him in his black moment. I really like how it worked out.
-How would you describe this series to someone who has not read any of the books but is intrigued by the concept?
NA: The Heirs of Damon books follow the four nephews and heirs of a rather eccentric billionaire who wants to live like an 18th century lord of the manor and puts a lot of pressure on his nephews, leading them to the plots of the four books. The books are romantic and amusing and a little bit steamy, with a lot of heart.
He won’t trim his beard, he mostly talks in grunts, and he’ll hardly emerge from his cave of an apartment. Ben might be a grumpy mess, but she kind of likes him anyway. She’s not attracted to him, of course. Not at all. Those stray feelings are merely a fluke. She’s looking for a man who has it all together, and Ben isn’t even close.
Benjamin Damon is heir to a billion-dollar corporate empire, but he has put his family and that whole lifestyle behind him. No one knows who he is now—not even his pretty princess of a neighbor who refuses to leave him alone.
When she ropes him into taking her with him to work on his mother’s historic Savannah home, he knows it’s a mistake. Mandy represents the world he’s tried so hard to escape, and he can’t let one woman strip him of the new man he’s tried to become. The more he’s with her, though, the more he wants her. Despite his best efforts, he’s falling for her hard—and dreading the day she finds out all of his lies.
EXCERPT:
Instead of taking the hint that he should leave, he came over and sat down on the edge of her bed. His beard and hair were disarrayed, but there was something masculine, powerful about the breadth of his shoulder, the lines of his bare chest, the way his lean abdomen tapered down to the waistband of his shorts.
When her body began to like the look of his body, Mandy realized it was really not a good idea for him to be sitting on her bed this way.
He was still focused on the conversation, though. “I don’t think there’s anything silly about missing your parents. I don’t think it’s wrong to cry about them sometimes.”
For some reason, his sympathy and understanding prompted another surge of emotion. She twisted her face to control it. “Thank you. I think I’m a pretty happy person in general. You know? I have a good life. But I don’t know if I’ll ever feel as safe and content and connected as I did with them.”
For some reason, his sympathy and understanding prompted another surge of emotion. She twisted her face to control it. “Thank you. I think I’m a pretty happy person in general. You know? I have a good life. But I don’t know if I’ll ever feel as safe and content and connected as I did with them.”
She sniffed and blotted at her eyes with the back of her hands.
Ben moved over in the bed so he was propped against the headboard. Then he pulled her under the crook his arm. “I know,” he murmured. “I know.”
She huddled against him, taking comfort in his warmth and his strength. Even the beard didn’t feel scratchy as it rubbed against her skin. It was softer than she’d expected.
“Sometimes I’m just…lonely,” she admitted, feeling like she could speak the truth right now. In the dim room. With Ben. She felt like she could be heard. Understood. Safe.
“I know.” He was stroking her bare arm and her hair now
“I have great friends. I have nothing to complain about. But I think that’s why I’m so focused on finding a husband. Because I want to…I want to feel that way again. Sometimes, I’m just…lonely.”
“I know.” He tilted his head down to nuzzle at her hair. “So am I.”
The vulnerability in the words surprised her, since Ben was never vulnerable. She looked up toward his face, and was surprised to see something on his face that looked like hunger, longing, need.
She’d never seen anything like it.
Her breath hitched. “Ben?”
“Oh, Cupcake,” he murmured with a rasp in his voice.
Then he was tilting his head down even farther and meeting her lips with his.
It wasn’t like the little kiss from the day before—that had been light, almost playful.
This was deep immediately, hungry immediately. She opened her mouth to his as a wave of intense need overwhelmed her.
She needed Ben. Needed all of him. She needed his understanding and his strength and his humor. This connection she was feeling with him. She needed his warm presence. His body. So much.
His tongue explored her mouth as he eased her down onto her back, moving over her with an urgent entitlement that thrilled her.
“Mandy,” he murmured, lightening the kiss so his lips were just playing against hers for a few moments. There was a palpable tension in his body, though. “Mandy, please tell me if you want me to stop.”
It was too fast. A little voice in the back of her mind was screaming that this was too fast. She and Ben weren’t ready for this yet. But the rest of her drowned out that little voice with a desperate, needy desire she’d never felt before.
“Oh, God,” she gasped, reaching around to run her hands up and down the strong planes of his back. “I don’t want you to stop. Please, don’t stop.”
AUTHOR INFO:
Noelle hand wrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn't stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.
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