Guest Post with Author Ruthie Knox and Giveaway

Today I would like to welcome back to RFTC author Ruthie Knox  Ruthie is celebrating the recent release of Flirting with Disaster, book 3 in her Camelot series and has stopped by to chat all about her newest hero. Please give Ruthie a warm welcome.

USA Today bestselling author Ruthie Knox writes contemporary romance that's sexy, witty, and angsty—sometimes all three at once. After training to be a British historian, she became an academic editor instead. Then she got really deeply into knitting, as one does, followed by motherhood and romance novel writing. Her debut novel, Ride with Me, is probably the only existing cross-country bicycling love story. She followed it up with About Last Night, a London-set romance whose hero has the unlikely name of Neville, and then Room at the Inn, a Christmas novella—both of which were finalists for the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award. Her four-book series about the Clark family of Camelot, Ohio, has won accolades for its fresh, funny portrayal of small-town Midwestern life. Ruthie moonlights as a mother, Tweets incessantly, and bakes a mean focaccia. She'd love to hear from you, so visit her website at www.ruthieknox.com and drop her a line.

Places to find Ruthie:

| Site | Blog | Facebook | Twitter |

Meet Sean Owens, Your New Book Boyfriend

Oh, no, no, you say. I don't need a new book boyfriend. I already have one, and oh, oh, he's dreamy. Those eyes. That hair. The smile, oh my goodness, and the dirty talk? Yeah, no. I'm good, Knoxie. I'm good.

And I grin at you, knowingly, and say, I know you think so. I'm sure that guy is great. But this guy I have for you is . . . different. Hot. Smart. He's . . . well, look. He stutters. And he's a reformed hacker, except not all that reformed. And he's living in his mom's house . . . okay, he's kind of squatting in his mom's house, because she died and he can't deal with it. Also, he won't speak to the heroine.

Now you're running away, and I'm chasing you. No, no! I'm shouting. Don't go! It gets better, I swear! Because Sean Owens, Your New Book Boyfriend, is actually a very successful, strong, in-control guy. Except around Katie Clark, which isn't even his fault because he had a crush on her back in high school, when he was a hopeless loser. Okay, truth be told, he sort of still has a crush on her, and he resents her for it. But—

I'm out, you say. I mean, geeks maybe, but resentful silent crushes? Have you lost your marbles, Knoxie?

I'm grabbing your arm, and you're like, Baby, don't even try that crap with me, and I'm all, No, it's not like that, I swear! And right when you're at the door, about to leave, I flip open the book to a dog-eared section about a third of the way through, and I start reading you this bit aloud, in my awesome Sexy Reading Voice:

“What are you reading?” Katie asked.

He handed her the book and started the engine. It was called The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and it had a pensive man with a robot arm on the cover.

“Sci fi?”

“You say that like you're s-saying, `K-kiddie p-porn'?”

Katie laughed, flipping through the pages as he pulled out of the parking lot and headed back onto the freeway. The paperback was old, yellowed at the edges, and it had the silverfish smell of a book that had been shelved for years. “Sorry. Not my favorite genre. I think it's the covers. Robots and boobs don't do it for me.”

“There aren't any b-boobs on the c-cover,” Sean said.

“No, but that makes it the exception to the rule.”

“Granted. But c-covers aren't everything. It's a good b-book. The moon is a c-colony of the earth, and this sssupercomputer becomes intelligent, so they make it the leader of a revolution. Everybody talks this ssslang language, too. Pretty c-cool.”

“I'm not sure `cool' is the word you want.”

He glanced at her and gave her one of those slow smiles again. One of those smiles that made her stomach flip over and her heart start beating too fast. Yowza.

“`P-pretty c-compelling,' then,” he said.

“`Compelling,' I'll believe.” She flipped the book over and opened it to the last page.

“Wuh-what are you doing?”

“Reading the ending.”

Sean tried to snatch the book from her hand, but she held it out of his reach. “D-don't do that.”

“Why not?”

“It sssspoils the whole b-book.”

“No, it doesn't. I like knowing how everything's going to come out. Then I can read the story without all the anxiety.”

“Anxiety is p-p-part of the experience.”

“Not for me.” She finished reading the last paragraph and went back to his dog-eared page at the beginning. “You're not very far. I take it you've read it before?”

“Yeah. I found it in my m-mom's house. My old c-copy from high school.”

Katie dropped the book in her lap, liking that it was his from back then. Liking that he'd wrapped his big hands around it a minute ago. “I suppose you're right. The cover could be worse.”

“The c-covers don't t-tell you anything, anyway. Some of that stuff you read at work looks pretty trashy, and it still m-manages to hold your attention.”

That stuff you read at work. Oh, not good. Not good that he was turning out to be the sort of person who noticed things. Wedding rings and erotic novels.

What would she know about Sean if she'd only been more perceptive? He hadn't shaved this morning, and she hadn't realized a stubbled dimple was sexier than a regular one. Now she did.

“I'm not sure what books you're talking about,” she said, leaning forward to turn down the heat controls for her side of the car. It was too warm. She peeled her sweater over her head and tossed it onto the backseat. Underneath, she wore a white camisole top and a red bra. She hadn't anticipated taking the sweater off, so she hadn't bothered to match the bra to anything. The straps showed, and the cups peeked out from the low neckline of her shirt. Parisian Katie said, Et alors?

“That b-book about phone sex,” he said. His voice had dropped to a lower register, and even though he kept his eyes on the road, her bare skin tingled as if he were looking. “The bondage one.” He paused, then added, “The one with the three-way.”

Oh, mama, the one with the three-way. “I never thought anybody paid any attention to what I was reading.”

Sean glanced her way, and the mischief in his eyes made her breath catch. She remembered that look from the aftermath of the kiss, and remembering it made her remember the kiss, and remembering the kiss made her pulse pick up and start throbbing in some very personal areas.

“I p-pay attention to everything.”

“But how do you know what's in my books? Did you read them?”

“I read a lot of books,” he said. Which wasn't any kind of answer.

“I hadn't pegged you for the sort of guy who reads erotica. Isn't that in violation of the Man Laws?”

“Is it?” He rubbed his fingers along his jaw, then asked, “What do you read those books for?”

“Same reason anyone does, I guess.”

“Are they your ffantasies?”

“Some of them,” she said. “Not all.”

His hands on the steering wheel drew her eyes. He had such big hands. His nails were blunt and short and unpretty. Rough hands. Hands that had gathered her close and held her in place when he took that kiss.

“Have you ever been with a man who d-did those things to you?” His voice had turned husky and dark. “Talked dirty to you? Spanked you? Tied you up and sspent hours figuring out how many ways he could make you c-come with his tongue?”

“No.” She put as much scorn into the word as she could manage. As if scorn could protect her from the way he was turning her on. Or prevent him from knowing he was doing it.

It was no use. Sean turned to look at her, and he smiled the wickedest smile she'd ever seen. A smile that said he knew exactly what he was doing, and he'd known all along. “Sounds like the guys you've been with have been reading all the wrong books.”

She closed her eyes and gave herself a moment to die.

Then she opened them, picked his book up off her lap, and said with all the nonchalance she could muster, “What are you saying, I should go out with a guy who reads sci-fi?”

“You c-could do worse.” Leaning forward to turn up the music, he asked, “What did you get me to eat?”

She reached blindly into the grocery bag on the floor in front of her seat and pulled out a can of Pringles.

“Thanks.” He took the can and started to eat them, and she began to wonder if she was insane.

That conversation—it hadn't been a normal conversation, right? There had been sexual overtones. She couldn't have imagined them, because he'd definitely mentioned making her come with his tongue—or someone doing that—and it had definitely made her want to unzip her jeans and stick her hand down her pants. She was wet and restless and keyed up.

Sean was eating Pringles.

Damn the man.


And then you hug me in a nice, tight make-up hug, and you go buy the book because you need some Sean in your life. You do.

Shh. Trust me.

In the latest eBook original novel in Ruthie Knox's scorching-hot Camelot series, a no-strings fling looks an awful lot like falling in love—or flirting with disaster.

Fresh out of a fiasco of a marriage, Katie Clark has retreated to her hometown to start over. The new Katie is sophisticated, cavalier, and hell-bent on kicking butt at her job in her brother's security firm. But on her first assignment—digging up the truth about the stalker threatening a world-famous singer-songwriter—Katie must endure the silent treatment from a stern but sexy partner who doesn't want her help . . . or her company.

Sean Owens knows that if he opens his mouth around Katie, she'll instantly remember him as the geeky kid who sat behind her in high school. Silence is golden, but he can't keep quiet forever, not with Katie stampeding through their investigation. It's time for Sean to step up and take control of the case, and his decade-old crush. If he can break through Katie's newfound independence, they just might find they make a perfect team—on the road, on the job, and in bed.

Purchase: | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes |

Check out the Camelot series:

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Check out whats up for grabs.

Up For Grabs:

• 1 lucky person will win an eBook copy of Flirting with Disaster

To Enter:

• Please answer a comment/question for Ruthie.
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form.

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