Exclusive + Giveaway: When I First Saw Red (Soldiers & Mercenaries) by Kasia Bacon


We're so happy to have today's visitor! Give a round of unicorn hoof stomps for Kasia Bacon! Kasia visits with many goodies including an exclusive excerpt from her new upcoming short novel, When I First Saw Red--extended from a flash fic from our 2018 anniversary and a pretty cool giveaway! 
Don't miss our 4 <3 review HERE
Take it away Kasia!

Hello!

I hope everyone is feeling well and staying safe! I’m popping in today to tell you about my upcoming release titled WHEN I FIRST SAW RED.



You might remember the little flash fic I wrote for a visual prompt during the Unicorns’ Anniversary Shenanigans a year and a half ago. Time flies! Meanwhile, that piece has grown into a short novel. And it’s coming out next week on June 5th!

Since Boy Meet Boy Reviews might be considered somewhat of a fairy godparent to Red’s story, it’s only fitting to announce here that WHEN I FIRST SAW RED is now available for pre-order on Amazon! Check out the blurb:
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RED:
Lázhien’s human. A common Imperial soldier. And my soulmate.
How could fate get it so wrong?
The demon in me craves this bond with every shred of his being. He pushes me to accept it. This time I won’t yield to his demands.

LÁZHIEN:
Red’s a lust demon, a whore and a stuck-up snob.
The most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. Pain in the arse. And he hates my guts.
I’d be an idiot to pursue him. Yet something about him compels me to make him mine.

When I First Saw Red is a complete and standalone short novel with an HEA ending, featuring a couple of reluctant fated soulmates—a demon and a human—trying and failing to defy destiny.
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PRE-ORDER NOW!


Amazon UK

How about a little excerpt to mark the occasion? Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom for the giveaway!

EXCERPT


 “Come in,” a clipped voice called from the other side of the door in response to my knocking.
My gullet constricted as I turned the handle. Thanks to the gods the creaking of the old hinges muffled a loud gulp that escaped me.
The room proved to be a well-lit suite, larger and fancier than I’d expected. I assessed my surroundings within a quick couple of glances. Vases of fresh flowers and bowls of fruit here and there introduced splashes of colour throughout the space, which was filled with sparse but fine furnishings. A healthy-sized blaze crackled in the tiled fireplace. The vibrant wall-to-wall rug reminded me of the exotic hand-woven textiles I’d encountered during my deployment in the South Isles.     
There he stood by the vast four-poster bed—the object of my lecherous thoughts. My tormentor, who’d inspired dozens of ferocious wank sessions over the previous week. A true miracle I hadn’t chafed myself raw. 
He was barefoot again. I wondered if he had an aversion to footwear. His glossy, vibrant hair—fashioned into a tousled plait and tied with a dark ribbon—splayed down his chest on one side, reaching his waist. I couldn’t fault the manner in which his white unbuttoned shirt and snug breeches revealed more than they covered.
My heart fluttered in my chest, frantic like a trapped bird. 
He snapped shut a silk painted fan he’d held in his hand and cast it aside, eyeing me in silence as he crossed his arms over his chest and propped one hip against the pillar.
I wouldn’t have called his demeanour friendly. For whatever reason, he’d agreed to the engagement, but his body language couldn’t have screamed fuck off any louder. 
His puzzling attitude agitated me on the spot, just as much as his looks enthralled me.
“Good evening,” I said, rougher than I’d intended, addressing him in Common Elven. Not that I counted on dazzling him with my linguistic ability, mind you. Or proving myself less of an uncultured ignoramus than he’d likely taken me for. Nothing like that. At all. “I’m Sergeant Jhagán.”
After a small pause, which he devoted to giving me an appraising squint, he granted me a regal head tilt in the way of a greeting.
Heavenly gods almighty.
The clench of my jaw brought on a feeling of fullness in my ears. Who the fuck did he think he was? The Emperor receiving homage? I couldn’t believe the snooty Elfling arse. And speaking of arse, didn’t it make me a bigger one since I’d financed this sorry venture with recent card winnings, a pawned family heirloom and an advance against my next three wages? Less than two minutes in, I already found myself spinning in the same cycle of intermittent fury and desire I’d experienced around him on the previous occasion. Because yes, I wanted to kick him in the groin with my reinforced leather boot. And then kiss him senseless.
Not knowing what to do or say felt foreign to me. Irritated by my sudden diffidence, I stepped farther inside—uninvited—and threw a pouch stuffed with coins onto his dresser. It turned out a thousand-worth of silvers made one hell of a clank landing in a pottery dish. 
His eyes slitted. “How predictably vulgar,” he said in the most cut-glass accent I’d ever heard.
Out of nowhere, I appeared to have developed a severe teeth-grinding habit. Did he try and test my patience on purpose? I wasn’t savvy on brothel etiquette, but his behaviour hardly struck me as customer-centred. Why the hell were his services held in such high regard if he treated all his patrons like dirt? Or was it what kept them so keen? Either way, I shouldn’t have thought him adorable when he glared at me in distaste, his perfect, slightly upturned nose wrinkling and his lashes throwing long shadows over his cheekbones. Desire zigzagged down my spine. Unable to speak for the next few moments, I focused on calming my quickened breathing. 
He continued standing perfectly still, ever-so-mocking and enragingly self-possessed, never averting his eyes from mine. “What would you have of me, Sergeant?”
I didn’t like the way he emphasised my rank. Neither did I appreciate the blasé note to his tone. My nerves strummed with tension. Stupid disappointment knotted my stomach at the reminder that he saw me as just another patron. And one who made his skin crawl more than others, at that. After rubbing shoulders—and more—with the nobles, being saddled with a grubby soldier like me must’ve felt like a demotion to him. Yet clearly, my coin didn’t smell offensive to him.
Since I didn’t answer, he appeared to have grown impatient and broke the silence. “Let’s get right to it,” he said with a pointed look, indicating the evident hard-on that stretched the seam of my crotch rather obscenely. “You seem roaring to start.” 
Heat rose to the nape of my neck, but my uneasiness hadn’t affected my nether regions. I didn’t go on wasting time fretting over my performance. Oh fuck, no. I couldn’t wait to lay my hands on the cheeky bastard. To dig my fingers into his hips. To force him down, face-first into the…
I wasn’t quick to anger, but he seemed to excel at exasperating me. I sucked in a deep breath. Before we got to the meat of the matter, the situation required a slight redefinition.
It took two strides for me to face him up close. A childish pissing contest or not, the way I towered over him pleased me. “What I’d have of you, Red,” I said, pronouncing the last word in Imperial Common instead of using his Elven name, “is to stay quiet. And wiggle out of those togs in a flash.”
An ironic smile tugged at his lips, and he nodded as if in agreement with himself. “A savage, naturally. As befits a soldier.”
I tried to rein in my frustration along with my arousal. My endeavours to do so had yielded no success. I reinforced my earlier instructions with a quirk of an eyebrow and a jerky gesture that never failed to work back in the barracks. 
That got His Royal Arseness’s attention.
Without looking away, he proceeded to peel the shirt off his shoulders, every deliberate move uncovering more and more of his pale, flawless flesh to my hungry gaze. 
By then, my own skin had flushed with warmth and tingled all over. I caught myself shivering in anticipation. I didn’t bother to hide my reaction.
Unhurried, he yanked at the drawstrings of his trousers. The fitted fabric put up only brief resistance.
“That’s enough,” I barked before he could pull his trousers past his mid-thighs. To my satisfaction, my well-practised sergeant’s tone made him blanch. The way the garment restricted his movements appealed to me. All of him appealed to me. Including his bared cock—a slender, veiny perfection. Which was the opposite of flaccid.
Well, fuck me sideways. How about that?
The ice prince turned out to be quite rigid indeed. In all the right places, too. I could’ve made an effort to conceal my knowing smirk. I didn’t.
“The oil’s by the bed stand,” he said in a dry tone, no doubt irritated at the evidence of his own interest poking into the air. He shifted and made to position himself face down on the bed, providing me with a good view of his exquisite, round globes.
I clenched my teeth again. This time, to prevent my load from blowing.  
So he expected me to fuck him from behind with no further ado. Did that hurt my feelings? Not really. Honest to the gods, I wanted nothing more than to cover his lean frame and crush him flat into the mattress while pushing inside him raw. To hold him beneath me and ram into him, taking my week-old frustration out on his arse. I would’ve been within my right, as I’d paid damn well for the privilege. But doing the very thing he anticipated from a savage rubbed me the wrong way. 


BOOK SALE ALERT



To celebrate further, I discounted the first book in the Soldiers & Mercenaries series.

DON’T FIGHT THE SPARK—a complete and standalone story featuring a different couple—is now priced at 99c / 99p on Amazon and Amazon UK! Snatch it up now!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QQNP96D

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QQNP96D

If you’ve read and enjoyed DON’T FIGHT THE SPARK, you’ll be pleased to know I’ve written a humorous EXTRA SCENE to it. It’s available for free to the members of Bacon & Elves, my author group on Facebook. You can join it here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/baconandelves/

GIVEAWAY 



This super cute key charm, featuring the characters from WHEN I FIRST SAW RED: Ōkkanȏ and Lázhien, is up for grabs! Enter the Rafflecopter to try your luck. I’ll post the prize internationally. All the best!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/0b3638e9183/?

Giveaway is open until June 5th, 2020 Midnight EST! Shortly thereafter, we will contact a winner!

Please respond to the winning notification within 48 hours or we will choose another winner. Good luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


A linguist and an avid reader with a particular fondness for fantasy and paranormal genres, KASIA BACON lives in London with her husband. When not tearing her hair out over a translating project, she writes stories about the shenanigans of emotionally constipated assassins and sexy Elves. Otherwise, she can be found shaking her loins at a Zumba class, binging on anime or admiring throwing knives on Pinterest. A lover of MMA and Muay Thai, she also enjoys nature and the great outdoors. She dreams of becoming independently wealthy, leaving the city and moving into her wooden mini-manor—located in the heart of stunning forests resembling those of the Elven Country depicted in her tales.

Find Kasia online:

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