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May 95 min read

Just Call Me Confidence by Stella Grae is a Celebrate Mothers Bookish Event pick #eroticromcom #romcom #steamyromance #giveaway



Title: Just Call Me Confidence

 

Author: Stella Grae

 

Genre: Erotic rom com

 

Book Blurb:

 

Jenna Craig is a 40-year-old freshly-minted “hot momma” looking for a little love in her post-divorce life. After a night out with her cougar tribe, she wonders whether she’s still got “it”—the double-takes from the college clowns at the bar quickly put her doubts to rest. Though she may be alone, she knows she’ll never be lonely.

 

Jenna’s newfound confidence is buoyed by some swim club eye candy: Travis the lifeguard. Hot trysts in the locker room leave her wondering if she might want something more. When her naughty, new boy toy introduces her to his friend, Collin, Jenna is engulfed with waves of emotion that she thought she had left behind. With two younger men vying for her heart, will she choose the perfect guy for right now, or the man who could give her another shot at love?

 

The experienced Ms. Craig is certain of one thing: She better bring the confidence to make her decision—or risk losing it all.

 

Excerpt:

 

I hold my breath and walk into the club. My skin swells with goose bumps and I hear the catch in my own nervous voice.

 

Inside these four walls I could meet my fantasy, my desire, and maybe even my destiny. Or, maybe just a really good time--just for tonight. I can do whatever I want to do because tonight, I’m free--in so many ways.

 

The bass pumps through my body while I scan the men and women, grinding in slow motion waves. A fever breaks out all over my body with a sudden mist of sweat collecting in the small of my back and between my breasts. I want that to be me.

 

My mind suddenly takes a Debbie-Downer side trip: Am I still young enough, hot enough, and savvy enough to start over? I know I’m not the prettiest woman out there, but that’s not what entices a man and keeps him coming back for more. It’s strength and substance, and those can only come from confidence, which is derived from experience. I have interesting sports stories. I can intelligently discuss, and have an opinion about politics, economics, and social issues. I’m educated; I have a real job. I’ve traveled, and I can cook. I’ve had a wide variety of experiences, which makes me interesting, and sexy-as-hell confident.

 

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I can screw without hang-ups, unlike many of my younger sisters-in-arms. And apparently, that makes me hot, especially to the under-thirty-and-male crowd.

 

The guys here are too young to understand the difference, though, but I think, that’s kinda liberating…no explaining my past, no worry about the future. It’s all about the here and now. YOLO…

 

I laugh and smile, getting a secret thrill out of the college-aged guys sitting behind my friends and me, rubbernecking on us. The brown-haired clown in the group hijacks me with his hazel eyes and mouthes, “Call me.” Keep the drinks coming fellas, maybe you’ll get lucky, and you’ll definitely go broke trying.

 

My face aches from smiling so much. I think tonight proved something I’ve forgotten about myself. When I get a whistle or a double-take, or even a lingering look, I know I cannot deny it: For better or worse, I still have it. Just call you, huh, baby? Just call me confidence.

 

                                 ***

 

I have seen Collin at swim practice before; he is blond like Travis, but taller, thinner. He hides his blue eyes and dimples behind thick, darkly framed glasses and bangs that fall to one side of his face. He’s not the kind of guy who necessarily gets a lot of second looks, or at least, I never gave him one until the night fickle fate walks him my way.

 

I am sitting beside the basket of kickboards, and he struts over close to me, grabbing up an armful. I sense someone staring at me and as I look up at this man our eyes lock and he smiles at me…a smile and a moment I simply cannot drive out of my mind.

 

Without his glasses, I swan dive into his beautiful, confident blue eyes. And he continues staring, bundling up the kickboards in his arms all while devouring me with his sexy grin, even after I stupidly let my eyes dart away from our electric communication.

 

At the end of practice, our eyes tangle again, and I fixate on him; he looks away quickly, surprised that I give game. Without knowing anything at all about him, I know the kind of man he is: the kind that doesn’t mince his words, but is gentle; the kind who takes control of the room and of any situation; he is the kind of man who sparks a wildfire in me from which I simply cannot abandon; the kind of man I decide, then and there, that I simply must have.

 

And, there is clearly a spark between us--pheromones, errant molecules, an involuntary, uncontrollable collision between souls, the two of us picking up on the same erotic vibe--whatever is to blame, it’s an inexplicable passion between strangers that can usually only be satiated one way.

 

Every week I anticipate his eyes roaming to find me, his desire dripping all the way down my body, wrapping it in his hot snare. We share intimate moments, both of us pleasuring the other with a tacit white hot public passion.

 

Usually he just stares intensely, but one night, he bird-dogs my walk around the opposite side of the pool, and quickens his pace to meet me--face-to-face--the momentum and courage building in his eyes is thick, touchable. Our eyes collide again and he softly whispers, “Hey.” I give him the same. It’s not much, but it is enough. I want more.

 

Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):

 

Goodreads:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What makes your featured book a must-read?

 

Just Call Me Confidence is a must-read for all the women who’ve lost theirs along the way to becoming a wife and mother. No matter your season of life or whatever era you’re in (hello…swim romance era!) this book will be the perfect companion to the pool or beach—you add the eye candy.

 

Giveaway –

 

Enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card:

 

 

Open Internationally.

 

Runs May 7 – May 14, 2024.

 

Winner will be drawn on May 15, 2024.

 

Author Biography:

 

Stella Grae is an unassuming English professor, copyeditor, and copywriter living in Lexington, Kentucky. She’s the author of the short story “Power Play” that was originally published in the website erotica journal Oysters and Chocolate. In her spare time she enjoys sipping on bourbon, nibbling cheesy grits, and philosophizing about love and sex in her blog, “Bone Up,” which can be found on her site stella grae…along with other sexy tidbits.  Just Call Me Confidence is her first erotica novel.

 

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