Fat Tuesday Giveaway by Ally Blue

It’s Mardi Gras, woop! I always loved Mardi Gras growing up. I grew up in Mobile, AL. We had a couple weeks worth of nightly parades, followed by a day-long celebration downtown (including lots more parades) on Mardi Gras day. We even got the day off school. It was like that all along the Gulf Coast. Moving up to the North Carolina mountains and learning that Mardi Gras wasn’t such a big deal to everyone was a HUGE culture shock to me. LOL.

Anyway, since I’m still up to my eyeballs in burning hot deadline lava this evening, I decided to celebrate Mardi Gras this year by having a spontaneous book giveaway. Yay! Since the book I’m currently working on, Demon Dog (Mojo Mysteries book1) stars Adrian and Greg from Love, Like Ghosts, I am going to give away an electronic copy of Love, Like Ghosts to one winner in the format of the winner’s choice.

To enter, just leave a comment saying you’d like to be entered in the contest. If you have trouble commenting, email me instead (ally AT allyblue DOT com, no spaces) with FAT TUESDAY GIVEAWAY in the subject line and something in the email body telling me you’re entering the contest. I’ll pick a winner next week by assigning each entry a number and using a random number generator.

And now, here’s a quick excerpt from the book for anyone who hasn’t seen any of it before :) Happy reading and good luck in the contest! Unlike Mardi Gras Kitty, you will have NO regrets!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buy Love, Like Ghosts
Check out the rest of the Bay City Paranormal Investigations series.

Truth. Lies. A century-old mystery. What a tangled web…

A Bay City Paranormal Investigations story.

At age eleven, Adrian Broussard accidentally used his mind to open a portal to another dimension. Now, ten years later, he’s successfully harnessed his strong psychokinetic abilities. In the process, he’s learned the lessons which have become the guiding principles of his life. Absolute truth. Absolute control. Always.

Sticking to his personal code of ethics has never been a problem, until two chance meetings—one with a hundred-year-old ghost, one with a handsome, very-much-alive man—turn his orderly existence upside down.

Having grown up in a family of paranormal investigators, Adrian is intrigued by the spirit of Lyndon Groome and determined to solve the mystery of his death. Greg Woodhall, however, affects Adrian in unpredictable ways. Not only does his every touch challenge Adrian’s hard-won control over his abilities, his company quickly becomes a light in Adrian’s lonely life.

As the mystery surrounding Lyndon’s death turns sinister, Adrian’s relationship with Greg deepens into something serious. Something Adrian wants to keep. But intimacy isn’t as easy as honesty, and when the heart’s involved, the line between right and wrong can blur.

[Warning: This book contains a gory ghost, a haunted castle, nerdy college parties and gay sex enhanced by psychic powers.]

* * * * *

Adrian arrived at Groome Castle before anyone else on Friday afternoon. With a thought, he turned the front door lock, went inside and headed straight for the tower room.

The place felt empty. He sat with his back against the wall to clear his mind and try to call Lyndon to him.

He knew he shouldn’t. But he couldn’t seem to help himself. If anyone had asked why he’d felt the need to come up here and seek out Lyndon, he wasn’t sure he could’ve given a reason. All he knew was he’d woken with the burning need to tell someone all about the best night of his life, right down to the last delicious detail, and the only person he felt that comfortable with—other than the subject of his rhapsodizing—was the man whose spirit haunted this room.

Adrian drew a slow, deep breath and blew it out. As his body relaxed, he allowed his mind to open. “Lyndon? Are you here?”

For a moment, nothing happened. Then a tingle of energy raised the hairs on the back of Adrian’s neck. Warmth washed through him, the air around him swirled and Lyndon’s bloody form wavered into existence. The big, translucent eyes stared right at him, making him feel like he’d been pinned to the wall.

He smiled. “How do you do that? You’re a ghost, I don’t even know how aware of me you are, but it feels like you’re poking through my brain with a stick.”

Lyndon’s mouth opened. Adrian sat forward, doing his best to stay relaxed and breathe normally.

The pale lips formed a single syllable. Adrian couldn’t make it out, nor could he hear Lyndon’s intent in his mind.

He shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me. Can you try again?”

If a ghost could have sighed, Adrian figured that’s what he would have heard at that moment. Lyndon floated toward the southeast window and hung there, his form now so insubstantial Adrian could barely see it. An aching sadness weighed on Lyndon’s energy, so that Adrian felt his own shoulders bowing under it.

I guess maybe now’s not the time to tell him about Greg. Adrian let out a quiet laugh. As if it wasn’t pathetic enough that he’d come up here to gush to a ghost about his hot date in the first place, now the ghost didn’t seem to be in the mood to listen.

Planting his palm on the floor, Adrian pushed to his feet. He walked over to the window where Lyndon’s barely visible outline hovered, leaned against the sill and peered out. A stretch of scruffy grass sloped away from the castle’s outside wall toward the forest about thirty or forty yards away. Through the trees, he could just make out the nearby park. If he opened the window, he’d probably be able to hear the laughter of the neighborhood kids playing. He wondered if any of the children who surely snuck onto the castle grounds from time to time ever looked up here and saw Lyndon gazing down at them.

Adrian glanced at his watch and groaned. The cast and crew would begin arriving soon to prepare for opening night of the haunted house. He had about five minutes to get out of the castle and far enough away that no one would suspect him of breaking and entering.

Most likely no one would care. They might not even notice. After all, the three or four sets of keys changed hands often enough that the group sometimes had trouble keeping track of who had them on any given day. But the last thing Adrian wanted to do was draw attention to his abilities, so avoiding the possibility of discovery altogether seemed the best course of action.

He pushed away from the windowsill. “I need to go, Lyndon. I’ll come see you again soon, okay?”

The silence in his head remained unbroken. Feeling unaccountably discouraged, Adrian cut himself off from the waning flow of Lyndon’s energy and headed for the stairs.

The haunted house is going to end in a couple of weeks, he reminded himself as he descended the steps. There won’t be any reason to come back here after that. What if you haven’t learned anything by then?

Adrian stopped, one foot on the step behind him and a hand splayed flat on the stone wall. He pictured Lyndon’s sorrowful specter in his mind and knew he wouldn’t stop pursuing the truth just because he no longer had a legitimate reason to be here. Locked doors couldn’t keep him out. He would have to be careful, that’s all. He could do that.

And to think, not so long ago you swore you’d never come up here again. He let out a soft laugh. Funny how a taste of an old mystery could change his mind so completely.

Adrian took the narrow footpath winding through the woods behind the castle to the small neighborhood park a few minutes’ walk away. With a quick glance around to make sure no one saw him, he climbed a short flight of wooden steps onto the sidewalk and started along the main road back toward Groome Castle. Marisa’s brand-new electric SUV passed him on the way. She stuck an arm out the window and waved. He waved back, smiling.

When he entered the castle again, several of the tech crew and actors had arrived and were helping Marisa set up. Adrian looked around, heart thumping. Just when he thought Greg hadn’t gotten there yet, the man himself rounded the corner from the main hall. Their gazes locked, and Adrian’s knees nearly buckled.

Greg’s face lit up. He strode across the floor toward Adrian, grinning ear to ear. “Hi, Adrian.”

“Hi.” Adrian mirrored Greg’s smile. Just the sight of him made Adrian’s stomach flutter. “You ready for tonight?”

“Looking forward to it.” Greg wound his arms around Adrian’s neck and molded his body to Adrian’s. “I missed you.”

Before Adrian could process what was happening, Greg leaned in and kissed him. Adrian’s psychokinesis flared in response.

Behind Adrian, the front door squeaked open and banged shut. “Hey, get a room!” a male voice bellowed.

Adrian broke the kiss, shooting a look at the boy who’d just entered. “Um. Not here, okay?”

Surprise and a bit of hurt shone in Greg’s eyes for a moment before his usual teasing smile hid them. “Sure. Sorry.” He dropped his arms and stepped back. “I should go start getting ready anyhow.”

Adrian grabbed Greg’s hand before he could go anywhere. “Wait.”

Greg’s eyebrows went up. He glanced at Adrian’s hand clutching his. “What?”

What, indeed? Adrian had no idea. He only knew that he longed to kiss Greg again, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it right here where anyone might walk in and see. It made him feel like a sideshow exhibit.

What they needed was privacy. Turning his hand in Greg’s, Adrian laced their fingers together and led Greg through the foyer toward the hallway to the bedrooms. He managed to avoid looking at any of the people they passed on the way.

Not that it mattered. After the show he and Greg had put on in the foyer, anyone who’d seen them knew where they were going and why. In fact, the couple of students who’d witnessed that kiss probably thought Adrian and Greg were finding a nice, quiet place to have sex. Adrian winced at the thought. God, if his cheeks turned any redder his face might burst into flame.

He didn’t turn back, though. His entire body ached with a desire stronger than any he’d ever felt, and he intended to slake what he could of it now. If a kiss was all he could allow himself yet, then that’s what he’d take. So far he’d found kissing Greg orders of magnitude more exciting than even the best sex with Christian, so the prospect was hardly a disappointment.

As they passed the bathroom, Greg yanked Adrian inside and kicked the door shut behind him. Adrian didn’t even bother to argue with his choice of private space. Dropping Greg’s hand, Adrian slid one arm around Greg’s waist, fisted the other hand in his hair and let Greg pick up where they’d left off. Greg’s head tilted, his mouth opened wide and his tongue twined with Adrian’s. He grabbed Adrian’s ass in both hands and thrust his hips forward, and Adrian felt Greg’s hardness push against his own.

Adrian’s powers, already roused and quivering, exploded like a silent bomb. It took every ounce of his severely strained concentration to channel the wild energy into something harmless and pleasurable so it didn’t shatter every window in the castle. He managed, barely. Invisible fingers caressed his face and neck, twisted in his hair, slipped beneath his shirt and down his pants to glide a delicate touch up the sensitive skin of his cock. Greg whimpered, and Adrian knew he’d felt it too.

Through the haze of need in his brain, Adrian wondered what Greg thought of the mysterious touches, if he connected them with Adrian at all or if he believed some unseen but lustful entity inhabiting this room had decided to molest them.

They jumped apart when someone pounded on the door. “Hey, hurry up! Other people need to get in there too, you know.”

“Yeah, just a second,” Greg called back. His voice sounded rough and breathless. He gazed up at Adrian with a sly smile. “So. I guess you’re not much for PDA, huh?”

“Not really.” Cupping Greg’s face in both palms, Adrian kissed his forehead, his nose, his chin. “Even if I was, I couldn’t kiss you in public. You get me too excited for other people to be watching, if you know what I mean.”

Greg laughed. “Yeah, I noticed. And it’s mutual, by the way, which is pretty amazing because it’s been a long time since any guy’s been able to get me hard with just a kiss.” He gave Adrian a swift, chaste peck on the lips, then pulled out of his arms. “I don’t suppose it would do me any good to ask if we could just suck each other off real quick?”

The idea tempted Adrian more than he liked. The scary thing was, he might’ve said yes if whoever was waiting for the bathroom hadn’t chosen that moment to bang on the door again and demand that they come out right now. Greg glared daggers through the door, and Adrian let out a silent sigh of…relief? Annoyance? He couldn’t decide, and how weird was that?

Adrian let his arms drop. “We need to go.”

“I know.” Greg’s voice emerged sharp and tense. His expression softened when Adrian flinched. Reaching up, he raked his fingers through Adrian’s hair. “I know,” he repeated in a gentler tone. “Just…please promise me that if we keep seeing each other, you’ll eventually take me to bed. I can’t take getting these little tastes without knowing I can have the whole enchilada at some point, you know?”

Adrian blushed, shocked in spite of himself. “Oh. Um. Wow.”

“I’m sorry. I know that probably sounds crude to you, but I’m just being honest here.” Greg stared into Adrian’s eyes with an openness that Adrian found at once refreshing and uncomfortable. “I like you, Adrian. A lot. That’s why I’m willing to wait for you. But I desperately want to have sex with you, and I want you to promise me you’ll be ready eventually. If you can’t promise me that, please tell me now.”

Because if you never want to have sex with me, I won’t keep seeing you. Greg didn’t go so far as to actually say it, but the words were there between the lines. Adrian thought he should feel indignant about that. Trapped, maybe. After all, he could argue that Greg was trying to coerce him into sex when he didn’t want it.

There was only one problem with that argument—he did want sex with Greg. Wanted it so badly his blood sang with it.

So do it, the Sean-faced demon in his head goaded him. For once in your miserable existence, just damn well do what makes you happy. What are you so afraid of? Your powers? Look how well you controlled them just now. Practice makes perfect, and how are you gonna practice if you never do anything?

Adrian smiled. Scary how much sense Sean-demon made sometimes. Even scarier how the possibility of sex with Greg seemed so much more important than any of Adrian’s fears and neuroses.

Looking Greg squarely in the eyes, Adrian nodded. “I can definitely promise you that.”

The movie-star smile that already had Adrian hooked lit Greg’s face. “Good.” Leaning in, he planted a soft, lingering kiss on Adrian’s mouth. “I can’t wait,” he whispered as they drew apart.

“Neither can I.” Clutching Greg’s hand in his, Adrian flung the bathroom door open, lifted his chin and stalked out past the line that had formed while they’d been inside. With any luck, no one would notice the swelling in the front of his jeans or the loopy grin on his face.

Written by Ally Blue

Ally is a rich and famous author of hot gay manlove. She travels the world in her private jet, being waited on hand and foot by her team of pretty young men who bring her umbrella drinks and make out for her pleasure . . . Okay, so that's her dream life. Her novels of Manlove & Angst are mostly written in her living room, in between working at the Evil Day Job and doing Mom Stuff. Oh, the glamorous life of an author!
Visit The Author's Website

Tags: BCPI, contest, giveaway, Love Like Ghosts, Mardi Gras