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Top 5 Ways To Frustrate An Alpha
Billionaire Bad Boy
In my new release The Billionaire
Bachelor, our hero Tag Crane is having one heck of a time getting heroine
Rachel Foster to comply. His tried-and-true tricks simply don’t *quite* break
down this particular woman’s defenses. Which means Tag shrugs and wanders off
to find a new woman to tempt, right…?
WRONG!
You know when an alpha guy finds
The One, even if he doesn’t know she’s it for him yet, he digs in and tries,
tries, and tries again. Which brings
me to the Top 5 ways to frustrate an alpha!
Many of these Rachel does without
even trying…
.5. Don’t let him pay your way. Alphas, especially rich ones, love to lavish gifts upon
the object of their affection. If you want to frustrate him right down to his
expensive shoes, insist on buying your own dinner. In Tag’s case, he won this
battle, but it didn’t stop Rachel from arguing. Points: 1
.4. Insist on working.
Tag invites Rachel to Hawaii under the guise of consulting on his latest bar upgrade
for a Crane hotel on Oahu. But when he gets her there he decides he’d rather
play than work… Rachel makes sure she puts in her hours whether he likes it or
not. Points: 2… but -1 because she definitely makes time for play!
.3. Resist his advances. Playboy Tag Crane knows his way around a woman—and how
to woo one. But whenever his cocky charm makes itself known, Rachel is sure to
laugh it off. At one point, she lies and blurts, “I’m not the least bit
attracted to… what you have going on.” Points: 3. Well played!
.2. Don’t react the way he expects. When Rachel opens her front door one evening to find
Tag standing outside of it, he lays a long, delicious kiss on her lips. When
she doesn’t respond by climbing him like a cat on a curtain, Tag is completely
confused. He even thinks to himself “SURELY, she liked it?” Throwing him
off-kilter comes naturally to our wily heroine. Points: 5
.1. Don’t spell things out for him. Alphas think simply. In The Billionaire Next Door,
Rachel uses the phrase “Me-Tarzan, You-Jane” to describe his techniques. The
best way to frustrate an alpha? Keep him guessing… You won’t only frustrate
him, you’ll fascinate him. And once
he’s fallen head over money clip, he’ll come running and fight to win you. Points:
10.
Jessica
Lemmon – The Billionaire Next Door
1.
A la
Twitter style, please describe your book in 140 characters or less.
An alpha billionaire playboy becomes hopelessly intrigued by his
downstairs neighbor… but none of his typical moves are working.
2.
Where did the inspiration for this
book come from?
Tag Crane
was directly inspired by Brock O’Hurn. When I stumbled upon his Instagram feed,
I was hopelessly intrigued. I knew I had to come up with a story about a
long-haired, hulk-like, bearded, kind, and fun man. The Brock of my imagination
was my muse. He even earned an acknowledgement mention! If you’d like to browse
my Pinterest board for this book, you can find it here.
3.
Are there certain characters you
would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?
I love my
billionaires, but I’d absolutely love to go back to Evergreen Cove and write
some more bad boy books. I receive questions about Evan and Charlie, Sofie’s
sisters, Officer Brady Hutchins, and Asher’s ragtag misfit band all the time. I
miss the whole gang!
4.
Do you have any advice to give to
aspiring writers?
Write and
keep writing. It’s generic, but nonetheless true. I dedicate a portion of my
website to a section I call “So You Wanna Write” and keep it stocked with tips,
links to the blog I wrote while working toward becoming published, videos, and
craft book recommendations. If you’d like to stop by and see it, you can click here to visit.
5.
Is there anything that you would
like to say to your readers and fans?
THANK YOU.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Because of you, I get to do what I love, which
is let my imagination run wild. You allow me to entertain you and be funny, but
also pull your heartstrings and make you cry. You gift me your time, and on
this earth—in this life, there is nothing more precious than that commodity.
“This is so
much colder than a cab,” Rachel said through chattering teeth. The bar was
probably fifteen blocks from the apartment. What was she thinking agreeing to
walk? She couldn’t feel her nose.
“But
cleaner,” Tag said. She was currently taking two steps for every one of his,
given his gait was longer than hers, even at a leisurely pace.
“I do
better when it’s a nice, even seventy degrees.” She buried her chin in her
scarf as she watched her boots cut through the gathering snow. “I guess it’ll
be a few more months until we see milder temps.”
God. She
was hopeless. Walking down the sidewalk next to a gorgeous guy and talking
about the weather. But Tag didn’t balk.
“I like
extremes,” he said, as if this was perfectly acceptable conversation. “If it’s
hot, I like it really hot. If it’s cold, there’d better be snow or it’s a
waste. I like the ocean because you can’t see the end of it. If I’m in a
forest, I prefer one filled with massive sequoias.”
“Because
you can relate to them,” she teased. “Giant.”
He turned
his head and smiled and she admired straight, white teeth surrounded by a
golden brown beard. He’d pulled his hair down and the light brown waves fell
haphazardly over his black coat. Which was so sexy she couldn’t think.
Especially since there were snowflakes in the strands. Not that she could blame
them. Nestled warmly in those locks wasn’t a bad place to imagine being.
Again, she
wondered at her attraction to him. Though he did kind of look like Thor, and
while she wasn’t a die-hard comic book fan, she could appreciate the actor in
the movie.
“How tall
are you?” she asked, mostly to stop her inane train of thought. The more she
was around him, the less she understood her basal reaction to him.
“Just under
six-six. You’re what? Five-five?”
“Yeah.
How’d you do that?”
He shrugged
and looked ahead, but she didn’t doubt how he’d done it. He’d likely honed his
carnival skills and was stellar at guessing weight and height. It wasn’t hard
to imagine him using his intuition to figure out a woman’s weak points so he
could attack where she was most sensitive. He’d probably had a ton of practice.
Was that
where her concern was coming from? That he’d find her weak spots and use them
against her? That’s what Shaun had done, she thought with a token amount of bitterness.
“How’d I do
what?” A puff of air came from his lips, buried in his beard. She’d never liked
facial hair. Until now, apparently.
“How’d you
guess my height?” she shot back, feeling peeved more with herself than him.
Lack of sleep, or maybe too much, she wasn’t really sure what to blame her
reaction on now. “How’d you know I was a businesswoman before? I’m a great
bartender, by the way. I was a bartender for longer than I worked in
marketing.” She pushed her hands deeper into her pockets, lamenting not
bringing her gloves with her. Her hands were freezing.
“Just
observant. I’m good with people,” he said.
She
absorbed that for a few seconds.
“What
exactly do you do in Guest and Restaurant Services?” She air-quoted those
words, which brought her bare hands from her pockets. He noticed.
“Where are
your gloves? Do you realize it’s February in Chicago?”
“I forgot
them.”
Tag stopped
walking, a deep sigh working its way from his wide chest as he tugged off his
gloves.
“I’m fine.”
But he wasn’t listening. Once he’d had his baseball-mitt sized gloves off, he
lifted her smaller, freezing hands to his mouth, cupping them in his palms, and
blew on them to warm her fingers. He did this the way he did everything else.
Slowly.
Intentionally.
And looking
right at her.
He brushed
his lips over her knuckles as a drove of chills shot down her spine and legs.
She became fascinated by how soft his beard felt against her freezing skin, and
then those chills were replaced with heat. Pooling in her belly, between her
thighs, and infusing her face with color.
“Thanks,”
she muttered when he let her go. She stuffed her hands into his gloves—they
were warm, and after his personal attention, so was she. They finished their
walk to Crane Tower, and once they were in the lobby, she put that together
with Crane Hotels. “You’re pretty brand loyal aren’t you?”
“Honey, you
have no idea.”
Rachel is a hilarious and feisty heroine. She's struggling with her life at the moment, having broke up and quit her job all while hiding that information from her family because she doesn't want to have to go back home. So when a customer she's gotten to know well invites her into his home as a dog sitter while he's away, she can't turn it down. Little does she know what will come her way by taking the job.
Tag is an Alpha Male who is used to women falling at his feet and doing as he says. He's intrigued by Rachel at first sight, but when she doesn't act in the typical regard with him, it further intrigues him. He's currently twisted up by his job, especially now that his father is retired and looking to him to keep things with their empire steady.
I loved ther interactions between Tag and Rachel from the start. The banter between these two is great and their chemistry is smoking. I love that they don't really know what to make of the other at first, because it made things more fun. I adored Rachel and her hilarity, she really comes across as a girl I'd want to hang out with, she was down to earth, and a little confused about how to proceed with her life. Tag also won me over pretty quickly, he was genuine and it was fun to watch him out of his element trying to win over "The one".
The Billionaire Next Door features a hot alpha Male in Tag, who will suck you in and keep you on your toes, but don't discount the sassy Rachel. This book is full of humorous moments, a romance that comes unexpected to two people who meet by chance, and find within each other something they didn't even know they wanted. I love how Jessica Lemmon gives us these characters who fit a mold, playboy billionaire, and yet alter them so each has their own unique characteristics and charm. Though they are similar, I love how each of them deliver their own different twist on the theme and look forward to watching them succumb to the love of the right woman.
