Liv Olteano's Blog
August 7, 2018
Star-Crossed Lover: Out Now!
Star-Crossed Lover (Dreamcatchers #2)
by Liv Olteano
Published August 7th 2018 by Dreamspinner Press
Genre: MxM Adult Paranormal Romance
A love worth crossing the stars for.
Taka has been a dreamcatcher and part of Team 32 for over six decades, but nobody has tempted him like Ginger—a dancer at club Zee. Too bad dreamcatchers aren’t allowed to have meaningful relationships with regular people. His willpower proves a finite resource, though, when a mission at the club means spending much more time around Ginger.
Ginger’s infatuation with Taka is unwavering. When he proves to have some paranormal skills of his own, he earns himself a place on the team—if he wants it. His decision will change his life—not to mention Taka’s—irrevocably.
But living in the now could prove an issue for a man who has as much history as Taka. Can Ginger’s determination help him make his way into Taka’s heart?
Excerpt:
” “When I first looked into your eyes, I simply knew you were it for me. I could see it as clearly as I can see you now, standing in front of me. I’ve been looking for a home, and you’re going to be it for me. And I think you’ve been yearning for that too. I want to give you everything you could ever hope to get from a relationship. I’ll do everything in my power to show you just how perfect I know we can be for each other.”
“And you see it all so clear?”
“I do. I’ve learned since I was a kid to trust what I see. You’re my truth, Taka. You’re the truth and home of my heart. And it’s my honor to show you that I am yours.”
I felt light-headed. “I’m the older, more experienced one here. Wasn’t I supposed to be the one who’s super certain about everything?”
“Maybe you’ve met your match, Mister Know-It-All.”
”
Want to read Chapter 1? Check out the book on the Dreamspinner Press site (Link) and hit the Read an Excerpt button right beneath the cover xD
Giveaway:
February 21, 2018
Lover, Lover: Out Now!
Lover, Lover (Dreamcatchers #1)
by Liv Olteano
Published: February 20th 2018 by Dreamspinner Press
Genre: MxM Adult Paranormal Romance
Twin souls reunited.
Drew’s always been a fighter: first in martial arts competitions, and now as a dreamcatcher—keeping the people of Seattle safe from spaga attacks that would drain their life force in their sleep. All he has to do to become a full member of Team 32 is complete his first mission.
But the first person he must defend is his ex, Angelo… the only man Drew ever loved, even if he was the one to leave. Drew never got over Angelo, and it seems Angelo might feel the same, despite the heartbreak he suffered at Drew’s hands.
As the chase after a powerful and resourceful caster hits close to home, old feelings resurface. But if Angelo learns of the dreamcatchers, he’ll be a target for the spaga. And how can he trust Drew now that Drew’s keeping bigger secrets than ever?
Excerpt
“Angelo turned to look at me. “When I said we should do something fun and exciting, I admit I didn’t quite have this in mind.”
I grinned. “All the better.”
“This is insane.”
“Yeah.”
“I love it!”
I leaned in and kissed the side of his neck. “I hoped you would.”
“Ready, guys?” said the security expert.
I looked at Angelo’s body, clad in a bodysuit and harnessed as it was, all colorful and topped with that helmet. “You look adorable.”
He stuck his tongue out at me. “You look ridiculous. But I still love you.”
“I love you too.”
We wrapped our arms around each other and when we heard “Go!” jumped off the Space Needle.”
Want to read Chapter 1? Check out the book on the Dreamspinner Press site (Link) and hit the Read an Excerpt button right beneath the cover xD
Giveaway
June 15, 2017
Thirteen Mercies, Three Kills: Out Now!
By Liv Olteano
Editions: ebook, paperback
Published: June 13th 2017 by Harmony Ink Press
Genre: FxF New Adult Dystopia / Romance
Watching her father’s termination, twenty-year-old Cristina Mera Richards decides to kill the reaper Edgar Verner. Verner is the resident alkemist of New Bayou, though, and since alkemists are immortal, killing him won’t be easy. But the harvesters are destroying the hovertown one citizen at a time. Edgar Verner must be stopped.
Cristina Mera has a gift for seeing and hearing ghosts. She escorts souls out of bodies ravaged by the withering sickness, taking away their pain. Her gifts are unique. Once it’s clear she’s a changeling, Verner becomes more than interested in having her by his side.
Mysterious Wanderer Alkemist Nikola Skazat is the solution to Cristina Mera’s problems—a delightful and charming one, since Nikola is a woman unlike any Cristina Mera has ever met. Becoming Nikola’s apprentice instead of Verner’s finally gives Cristina Mera the opportunity she needs to save her hovertown. It also puts her heart in high gear, gives her butterflies, and just might get her killed.
~ Goodreads
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Excerpt:
Chapter 1
“It was night. It was always night.
Since the Final War, the skies had been covered in thick clouds that allowed no light to pass through. The Outside air was poisoned. The Old World was covered in a thick layer of soot. A dead world rotting away under a coat of darkness. And we had killed it, history said. Now we were dying too. Or would have been were it not for alkemists and their hovering platforms that housed us and filtered the air that we breathed. The alkemists had saved us, the story went. But in order to be saved, people had to make sacrifices.
In our town, New Bayou, the sacrifices consisted of terminations, soul extractions, becoming golems, paying fines for negative float factors, and allowing the hover platform resident alkemist to be our lord and ruler. Our resident alkemist had declared that civilized towns had to have a mayor, senators, and policemen. But what our authorities did was anything but civilized.
We had traditional times of day and night that followed the cycles we were told existed back when the sun rose and set. Clocks told us what time it was, and we used terms like “day” and “night” for the endless darkness of the skies. We separated time into hours, weeks, months, and years, though nothing much ever changed except for the citizens of each platform. Or at least on ours. We didn’t travel often between platforms. It was too risky to try.
Today was a termination day. It was staged as a grand event, always. People gathered in the town hall, in the terminations room, specifically, to witness the sacrifice citizens were making for the greater good. Or the punishment inflicted on those found guilty of a crime. At least once a week, a dozen citizens at a time were terminated. Sometimes the authorities required more or settled for less—it all depended on how much float fuel the engines needed.
Death lounged against the window frame. It seemed eager to pick up the dozen souls still residing in the bodies lined up. Max Richards—my father—was among them. The sacrifices stood proud and brave, condemned while their runes shone in bright colors nobody besides me and Death itself seemed to see. The rune tattoos were supposed to give them strength, courage, and quiet of the mind while they waited. Nobody wanted to have a restless soul right before termination. It might change the float factor of their soul and make their sacrifice futile. Of course no one wanted those dozen souls to have anything but positive float factors.
I thought those runes were simply signs of condemnation. Death was death, as far as I was concerned. It wasn’t a brave sacrifice or a glorious gesture. It was simply the parting of the soul from the body. And regardless of the runes, that parting was a painful event.
This batch of terminations was a strange mix of criminals and volunteers. Strangest of all was the fourth volunteer from the right—my father. My heart beat violently, and I looked him straight in the eye. There should have been some sort of emotion in those beautiful gray eyes, but they looked blank. He stared back at me, unreachable, as much a stranger now as he’d been for too much of my life. It made sense, after all, that he’d be a stranger in the hour of his death too. I loved my father the way one loves art: as a concept, for its execution, and from afar. My love for him was a cold kind of love that unsettled the heart, neither tender nor comforting. I liked to think he loved me the same way. It was better than the alternative… that he didn’t love at all.
Edgar Verner—our resident alkemist—walked around the flock of victims, thick-lens goggles hiding his eyes. His presence was insulting in a way I wasn’t allowed by law to even contemplate, but I did contemplate it, felt it and fully embraced it in my heart. I hated Verner because I saw so many of his victims’ ghosts still ambling about the hovertown. Sometimes he deemed souls as having negative float factor after having extracted them from the body, so he didn’t consume them. He simply freed them, left them to wander, lost and terrified, without a body. Once extracted by the alkemic device, a soul was stuck among the living. Nobody had told me so, and I had no way of asking, but I was sure the cupola under which we lived also kept souls within. It seemed to me releasing those extracted souls was an act of pure malice. He had to know they suffered once released in such a manner. I knew they suffered. I heard their wails of fear and despair. And I hated him for it. I hated him even more for having consumed some of the souls himself. He was a reaper, a soul eater, a monster. The town could sing his praises all it wanted. It was easy to. The town couldn’t hear the wails of the ghosts still around. And they wailed on and on, seeming to have no notion of time or place, and no consolation.
I glanced at Death as it sat there and I wondered how it felt about the competition. It stared back at me like we were old friends. In fact we were acquaintances, if I had to find a word for it. We’d seen each other over the last ten years on multiple occasions—never chatted, though. Death never had a thing to say. Perhaps it knew no language, and little need did it have to use one. Its actions spoke loud enough. Just like Verner’s, I thought bitterly, though he chose to speak.
In the crowd of witnesses, I stood numb, oddly detached from the moment. Every now and then my gaze slid back to Death as it lazed against the window. Hair tumbled from its head like a tangled river of blood. Its face, hair, and attire flickered in and out of view. When it grinned, a void opened up on the brink of its lips. It regarded me with holes for eyes.
Silence reigned like a curse over the room, thick enough to choke. Verner pointed slowly to the first victim in the row. The young girl was probably no older than me—I thought she was too young to be terminated. But then again, there never was a good time to die. Was she a volunteer at such a young age? Perhaps a criminal? My stomach seemed to crawl up into my chest.
Death chuckled and took a step closer. The alkemic device in Verner’s palm looked deceptively delicate and beautiful. The thin iridium spokes, nicely held together by a matching iridium frame, held a crystal in place. It was quite a tiny, lovely thing—lovely and deadly. It shone with a rainbow of colors as it began to suck out the girl’s soul. A mirroring pull in my own heart made my skin crawl. My soul seemed eager to abandon ship.
Death frowned and wagged a finger at me like a mother chastising her child. I swallowed thickly as black-cherry hair overlapped the rivers of blood gurgling from Death’s head. Its eyes seemed green for one terrible moment. The face cut my breath short. Of all the times it could have done so, it chose this particular moment to flash at me an image of my dead mother. Was it a twisted sort of kindness on its part to show me the one I’d loved the most and whom it had taken away?
Verner sucked in the young soul through his mouth like a mist of colors that he breathed in. The device in his palm slowly shut down, the crystal’s eerie glow dying out. He licked his lips and grinned.”
Want to read Chapter 1 entirely? Visit Thirteen Mercies, Three Kills on Harmony Ink and click Show Excerpt to read it!
Giveaway
June 17, 2016
A King and a Pawn: Out Now!
By Liv Olteano
Editions: ebook, paperback
Published: June 17th 2016 by Dreamspinner Press
Genre: MxM Adult PNR Mystery/Suspense
Bert Cooper’s life used to be great, until his sister turned out to be a traitor. Now Bert feels the whole pack looks on him with doubt and suspicion. To prove his loyalty, he volunteers to be the first ambassador at Fey Court, gathering information to finally solve the Leader Murders and punish those plotting against the Council and community. At least, that was the plan….
When Bert meets Sir William Matthew Sims, Court Interrogator, and one hell of a sexy man, life becomes a balancing act. And when the Fey King is assassinated, things become really messy.
Pack politics, fey politics, treason, suspicions of treason…. Bert has to choose between being ruled by his fears or standing up for what—and who—he believes in. And it might just break his heart.
~ Author
Dreamspinner Press | Amazon[image error] | B&N | AllRomanceEbooks | OmniLit | Kobo | Book Depository![KingAndAPawn[A]_FBbanner_DSP](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1465901648i/19413273._SX540_.jpg)
Excerpt
He walked toward me slowly, his hands still at his back. For a moment I contemplated stepping out of his way, though I could see no outward sign of aggression or violence in his demeanor. But I was a beta in my pack, even if it was the beta of a ballsy alpha like Weiss. My natural instinct was to bow to someone’s intense vibe of authority. And without a doubt right now Will exuded shitloads of those vibes. My heart was pounding in earnest, the plug inside my ass making me tingly all over and lusty.
“Say you needed a friend at Court,” he whispered when he was but a breath away from me. “Say you needed one desperately. What would you be willing to do to gain such a friend?”
I swallowed hard. “Depends.”
“On?”
“Loads of things. How much I liked that person, how badly I needed their friendship, to what end.”
He chuckled. “I like your thinking, Bert. I find I like you, all in all. And you know what?”
“What?”
He leaned in even closer, rubbing his lips against the shell of my ear. “I think you like me too. Do you?”
I nodded because I couldn’t help myself. And I was hard at this point, so there was no use in denying it.
“Good. I’m glad to hear that,” he said, stepping away. His hands had never left the small of his back. “Now a lot depends upon what’s written in that file. And upon my direct testimony. Should the file say there are traces of the drugs from last night in your blood, it would prove you’d been a victim of the attempt just like everyone else. My testimony would show just to what degree you were affected.”
“And why would that be relevant?”
“Events took place last night. Unfortunate events. Decidedly unfortunate.”
“You mean aside from the guests being drugged?”
He nodded. “Let’s say your life hung in the balance. And let’s assume how much of a friend I decide to be to you could either make or break your case.”
A cold chill went down my spine. “What the fuck are you saying?”
He smiled. “I think you know. Don’t you, Bert?”
“No, I fucking don’t!” I shouted and just made a go at him.
I’m not sure what I was thinking. I don’t think I was thinking. Rage just exploded inside me and then outward, controlling my body. I wanted to slap that smug look off his face. I wanted to mess up his hair, at least; I was almost convinced it would annoy him more than a slap to the face.
But I didn’t. He easily spun me around and planted me face-first against a wall, my arm twisted to keep me in place. I growled, the loud sound booming against the walls of his office.
“Yes,” he said directly against my ear. “This is the temper I expected of you. This is the intensity you were supposed to display. Yet I can’t read it in your emotional grid. So tell me, growling beauty, what is it that’s messing with my reading?”
I kept growling for a moment so I wouldn’t seem shocked silent by the question. I’d screwed up in two fucking days. In two fucking days I’d given away the fact I had some sort of antireading thing going on, which would mean I had something to hide. And this was most definitely not the right time to be discovered as a liar.
“What’s going on? What do you want?” I asked, trying to tone down the rising panic.
“I’m sad to say the Fey King is dead. He was assassinated sometime between last night and the early hours of this morning. Until matters are cleared up, everyone with opportunity is a suspect. Newcomers, and outsiders to boot, are at the top of everyone’s list, as you might imagine.”
The blood froze in my veins. “You’re shitting me. The King is dead?”
“Very much so.”
“Maybe it was natural causes,” I said halfheartedly.
“It wasn’t. Are you calm enough to discuss this like adults now?”
I nodded and he let go of me, stepping back. He walked over to the edge of his desk and perched on it.
“You’re telling me I’m a suspect in the Fey King’s assassination?” I asked in a faint voice.
“Exactly. So as I was saying earlier, you do need a friend right now. You need me as your friend. What are you willing to do in order to get that?”
My stomach tightened painfully. “What would you have in mind?”
He smiled.
Giveaway
June 3, 2015
A Counselor Among Wolves: Out Now!
By Liv Olteano
Editions: ebook, paperback
Expected publication: May 8th 2015 by Dreamspinner Press
Genre: MxM Adult Paranormal Mystery Romance
Five dead leaders, their bodies arranged in a pentagram. Treason, lies, and backstabbing. A make-believe affair that turns into a real mating.
Timothy Sands is a PBI counselor, half-fey, half-elf, with a secret crush on Herman Weiss, PBI director. As a new chapter is added to the Leader Murders, it is Weiss’s responsibility to investigate what seems an impossible-to-solve case. The other problem? Weiss is suffering from rages, and his only salvation lies in Tim’s emotional-grid-balancing skills. They only have to pretend to be a couple for Tim to use his talents, and he owes Weiss a big favor. Piece of cake, right?
The fey might be involved in the Leader Murders. Someone on the Council might be their ally, and another prominent PBI figure looks more and more suspicious as they investigate. The stakes are upped when Timothy’s father, the Fey King, threatens to leave the Council destitute if they don’t hand Timothy over to him. Weiss’s brilliant solution? Mating Timothy and forcing the Council into protecting him.
There’s only one small hitch in that plan: instead of protecting one, the Council might decide to get rid of two.
~ Goodreads
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| B&N | ARe | Kobo
Excerpt
He looked up, those gorgeous eyes focused on me like lasers. “Until we sort this out, Sands, you’re my new partner.”
No freaking way. “What?”
“You heard me,” he grumbled. “In case I get a rage, you have to be there to prevent me from lashing out. We both know you can, as fey.”
Of course he had to use the right word now that he was angling for something.
“And we both know I’m not allowed to,” I added, shaking my head. “The Fey Act prevents us from exercising our… special abilities on Council territory. Going against that would make me a criminal before the Council. I might like you alive, but I like me alive even more.”
Weiss stood to his full, impressive height and stepped close to me. I expected some sort of intimidation act. He was Weiss after all—that came to him naturally. His hulking shape loomed over me, his breathing becoming the only thing I could hear. I swallowed and fought the urge to run the hell out of there.
“Look up, Edelweiss,” he almost purred.
The tone was so incongruous with everything Weiss was that I did look up, wide-eyed. All the better, since him standing and me sitting gave me an almost cruel close-up with his crotch.
“There’s an exception from the Fey Act,” he said, grinning crookedly.
“What?” I screeched, shaking my head.
“Think about it, it would fit. You’d watch over my temper, make sure I won’t do anything I’d regret later. Buy me enough time to find out what’s going on,” he added, his gaze turning sad.
This was just too much. “Is this a prank?” I asked incredulously. “You can’t be asking me to hook up.”
He grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet. “Listen, Edel. If you report me, they’ll put me down. You know they will—it’s the law. The Council can’t afford to do me—of all people—any favors, not after Amanda. They won’t invest the time to look into it. What they will do is write it off as terminal rages and cap me. I’m not asking you to hook up. Just pretend that we’re together for a while… until we figure out what’s going on with me. If we can’t find anything that can be solved in a couple of weeks, I’ll go to the Council and turn myself in. Please,” he whispered. “Do it for Alf at least, if not as a favor to me.”
I gulped. “That’s low, Weiss, bringing your seven-year-old into it.”
His gaze darkened. “If I get a rage when he’s around….” He trailed off and shook his head. “I’m asking you to prevent me from killing innocents. Begging isn’t my thing. But I am begging you to help me now. I’m that desperate.”
“Must be. Nobody ever comes through the door unless under dire circumstances,” I said flatly. “There are other fey around. You could hook up with one of them—for real. They’d level your emotional grid on instinct. Why do you need me?”
“Because I trust you,” he stated simply. “And so does the Council. Trusting someone new would be… difficult right now, for everyone.”
“I understand that, but if you got a fey to fall for you for real, then—”
“Then I’d make the same mistake I did with Amanda,” he said, looking down. “I may have been an idiot then, but I’d like to think I’ve learned some lessons from the whole fucking ordeal. You’re my only option, Sands.”
Weiss leaned in closer, too close. His scent invaded my lungs, the warmth of his body bringing sweat to my temples again. Blood pounded through my veins, the illusion I could somehow, by some miracle, get to touch his lips getting me high. I focused on my thoughts, ignoring my body. This was when it really mattered that I didn’t give myself away. This was when I had to stand my ground, not let my private desires get in the way of my ethics. Ethics were important for a therapist… but Weiss wrapped his arms around me slowly, as if giving me time to bolt. I didn’t try, I didn’t move… I didn’t even dare breathe, waiting to feel his arms close around me. I hated myself instantly for it, but after years of dreaming, and hoping, and stealing glances… the man of my hot, sweaty dreams was going to hold me.
“If I have to actually seduce you, then I will, Edel,” he whispered with a grin in his voice.
I flattened my lips. “Oh, because I’m that easy, you think?”
He chuckled in a self-deprecating way. “Because I’m that desperate.”
My heart broke a little. Of course he’d think seducing me was such a terrible task that he’d only resort to it out of sheer desperation. I tried to hide my hurt feelings, brush them under the carpet. I looked down, hoping my gaze wouldn’t give me away. “You’re not my type,” I stated coldly.
“You were Travis’s boyfriend for a while there, so I know you like the leader type.”
Shit, this was just what I needed. His mentioning Travis didn’t help at all with my conviction to not do this. I’d broken up with Travis because I’d realized I was actually pining away after Weiss the whole time Travis and I were together. Either Weiss knew, or his killer alpha instincts were pushing him in the right direction. If I balanced his emotions without us being a couple officially, the Council would find out. They had fey consultants to keep an eye out for anyone fiddling with emotional grids. They’d take me in, PBI counselor or not. And Weiss did have a point on the trust thing. He’d have to trust some stranger with a secret that would get him killed, were it to get out.
When alphas got terminal rages, it wasn’t treatable. Their hormones turned them into wild, senseless monsters—they had to be put down, for everyone’s sake. A raving mad Weiss would be even more dangerous than anyone. His family was known for their incredible genes and strength. The thought alone gave me the chills. If the Council got wind of this, they’d put him down—no doubt about it. I couldn’t, in good conscience, turn down his plan, not under these circumstances. Not when a seven-year-old kid—whose mom was going to be executed this week—depended on him.
Weiss was all Alf would have. I couldn’t allow the poor kid to become an orphan. Nobody would ever take in a Weiss alpha-to-be, and we all knew Alf had the alpha hormones. Weiss had gotten him tested. Only a matter of time before the kid reached adulthood and the hormones started flooding his system. I couldn’t just leave Weiss to his
fate, not when he’d saved my life five years ago. Not when the thought of a world without him strangled me.
I looked up. “Don’t try to pull that crap with me. I’ll help you because, despite this bastard move of yours, you’re a good guy. I’ll help because you have a seven-year-old son who’s about to lose his mother, and you’re all he’s got. I’ll do this because it’s scientifically interesting to explore the case. But don’t think you can sucker me into it with a grope or a fuck. I can help you right now because I’m half fey. That also means I know when you’re pretending…. I know what you feel as you’re feeling it. You can’t bullshit me, Weiss. And stop calling me Edel.”
He chuckled darkly and took two steps back, assessing me with more interest than he’d ever shown. “Well, go figure. Little Edel has some teeth of his own, and he knows how to bite.”
“I don’t think that pissing me off is what you should go for right now.”
“Maybe not. But it’s fun.”
“Get out of here, Weiss. Go home, think on this until tomorrow morning. If you’re set on going ahead with it, we’ll start this show then.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and cocked his head to the side. “Oh, no. You’re coming home with me. Don’t look so stricken, we’ll just pretend to be a couple. But we won’t pretend the being together part. We are going to be together, all the time, from now until we figure this shit out. I can’t take the chance of a rage happening when I’m at home.”
I shivered. “You mean you want us to be nose to nose 24-7? Are you insane?”
He snorted. “I don’t think therapists are allowed to use the word. Not nose to nose literally, unless your magic trick requires it?”
“We don’t have to be too close, but in the same house for sure. I’m not strong enough to pull it off over long distances,” I begrudgingly admitted.
It wasn’t something to be proud of. The whole couple dispensation had been given in the Fey Act because being involved with someone made fey balance their lover’s emotional grid on reflex. We couldn’t really help doing it for our lovers—those we actually loved, to be precise. It didn’t matter where they were. But for a long-term singleton fey like me, it was a rusty skill to balance emotional grids. My balancing muscles were dusty and flappy from lack of use. The fact I had a crush on him did help, though I hoped he didn’t know about it. But it would still be hard work for me.
“There you go,” he said. “You’re coming home with me until we solve this shitty situation.”
“You mean you want us to actually live together while we’re pretending?”
He nodded.
“Starting tonight?” I asked in a faint voice.
He nodded again.
“It won’t look good. You’re still officially with Amanda, even if her execution is just around the corner.”
“You think anyone will be outraged because I’m betraying her? If anything, it will show my pack that I still have some sort of balls. They might start doubting that fact after what Amanda did. Besides, a mating is just like a human marriage. Putting an end to it officially is more of a technicality when it’s clear everything is over. It doesn’t keep some from moving on. It wouldn’t keep a werewolf alpha from moving on. It won’t.”
“You’re going to use a fling with me as proof of balls? Seriously?”
“Actually, I’ll be using it as my chance to keep breathing. But if my pack thinks I’m over Amanda, I certainly won’t mind it. Nobody will. And it won’t look like a fling at all.”
“Sweet flapping wings, what have I gotten myself into?” I muttered, shaking my head and looking at him.
“You’re saving my life, Sands. Shitting around aside, I’ll owe you big time. I’m sure it’ll come in handy to have the PBI director at your mercy,” he added.
I breathed out slowly. “Yeah… I can just picture you being at my mercy, totally in character for you.”
He laughed—loud, full, and rich. The sound made my heart jump in my throat, and I found myself shaking my head and smiling. I allowed warmth to spread through my heart for a moment. Looking on the bright side, I’d get to spend a lot of time with my crush. He was probably annoying, had smelly morning breath, and farted while he slept. After a week or two of that, I’d finally get over him. And I would earn a lot of favors from him in the long run, provided he didn’t end up dead during this experiment—and didn’t get me killed either. I knew just the thing his support would work wonders on. He wouldn’t like it, I was sure, but that was the funny part about favors: once you owed them, you had to deliver.
All I had to do was spend all of my time with a man I’d been fantasizing about for years, balance his emotional grid, and not give away my stupid crush. How hard could that be?
September 3, 2014
A Tooth For a Fang: Out Now!
By Liv Olteano
Editions: ebook, paperback
Published: September 3rd 2014 by Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Adult MxM Paranormal Romantic Mystery/Suspense
Three days. Three dead bodies. One newly turned, broken-hearted lycan tracker to figure out the connection.
The one summer Rick Barton takes a vacation, all hell breaks loose. Running from an abusive relationship leads him into the arms of hard-nosed lycan Travis Chandler, who gives him little choice but to become a lycan too and join the Paranormal Bureau of Investigation. Out of options, Rick joins the weird organization, expecting some two weeks of training and an adjustment period. Tough luck, he doesn’t get either. On his first day, his new partner offers to promote him to field agent if they get mated – less time wasted on training, more time on the field, and considering Rick is the only tracker the Bureau has on hand when a wave of strange murders hits the community, time is of the essence.
Someone’s killing the leaders of the paranormal world and mutilating the bodies. Investigating and tracking clues is enough of a challenge, and Rick must contend with an impatient Council, Travis’s advances, and actually adjusting to being a lycan. Only one thing is certain: Rick’s new life promises plenty of interesting adventures—as long as he can survive.
~ Goodreads
Dreampsinner Press: ~ Ebook ~ Paperback | Amazon | ARe 
Excerpt
“Hey,” he said.
I looked up at him, the deep tone of his voice making the little hairs on my nape stand up on end. Goddamn, he had the sexiest voice I’d ever heard.
I smiled. “Hey.”
His eyes were almost scary intense as he stood there before me and gazed down into my eyes. Most guys would feel awkward about prancing around in snug Speedos and talking to someone who’s sitting down right in front of them. This guy had no issue whatsoever with it. Why would he? He was a god of summer, with the skin and the eyes and the package to make it work.
The longer we stared at each other, the bigger his grin grew. Those lips had a wicked effect on my pulse. My heart began to pound. And the more awkward I felt, the more he seemed to get off on it. Whatever this guy might’ve been thinking, I wasn’t a blushing virgin. Or at least I wasn’t a virgin, with the heat and all I couldn’t tell if I was blushing or not. Hell, who even cared? I sure didn’t.
“So,” I said in a strained voice, “how was the water?”
He hummed a bit, as if he was thinking on that. It was water. How difficult could it be to say something about it? Instead of saying anything, though, he reached out a hand and kept it that way until I grabbed it. He got me up to my feet, gave me one of those blinding grins, and began walking toward the water and dragging me along.
“So you’re one of those ‘show, don’t tell’ kind of guys?” I asked as calmly as I could.
He chuckled. “Definitely.”
***
I must have passed out again, because I woke up in a hospital room. I looked around while a vicious headache stabbed at my brains. Everything hurt, even breathing. The light pouring in from the window was harsh on my eyes so I looked away. Which was when I decided I was hallucinating again, because there he was, my hottie, sitting on a chair by me bed,
grinning and looking decidedly self-satisfied. He wore no white coat, and I was disappointed since he looked so hot in hallucinations.
“Hey, sleeping beauty,” he said.
I frowned. “Only an asshole would comment on the looks of a guy in the hospital.”
“Well, you’ll probably decide I’m a complete asshole in about a minute.”
Weirder and weirder. “Why would I decide that? How did you get here anyway, we never even exchanged names. You’re a doctor or something?”
He leaned forward in the chair, setting his elbows on his knees. Then he looked at me. My bed was higher than his chair and bent as he was, I was looking down. I got a small measure of satisfaction out of it for some reason.
He half-smiled. “I’m Travis Chandler, and you’re Rick Barton.”
I tried to get up on the pillow, though every fucking muscle rebelled against me. “How’d you know my name?”
He sighed, leaned back in the chair, and crossed his legs. “Cause I know you, Rick. In the interest of full disclosure, I also know you just got fired, broke up with your sugar daddy—good decision, he’s an ass, by the way—and you applied for a position via the Special Work Forces. Congrats, you’re hired.”
“Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on, Travis Chandler. He was my boyfriend, not my sugar daddy, and why the freaking fuck do you know any of that?”
He chuckled, that dark kind of rumble he’d done in the water too. It sent chills up and down my spine just like it had then. Only now, without the haze of a hard-on, it was less seductive and more along the lines of scary.
“Stop laughing, asshole,” I gritted out squinting my eyes.
Those black eyes turned toxic again as he looked me straight in the eye. “There, see? I’m an asshole already.”
Giveaway
! The winner must either have or get a free DSP store account, tell me the email associated to the account, and the ebook will magically appear on their shelf 
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September 18, 2013
Sandstorm Heart: out now!
Ron Vid is a Celian soldier with some personal demons. Hoping for respite, he deserts his squad and leaves his planet. Working as a mercenary on Asai, planet of sand and wind, he has a reprieve, until the Haffa named Zaoh joins the mercenaries.
Celians and Haffas have a history of strife, but when Ron and Zaoh are paired on a mission, their chemistry crackles. After they fight together for survival, it’s clear Zaoh wants Ron. Zaoh can be a fierce and dominant lover, but Ron’s secrets, and his fear that the Haffa might uncover them, could keep Zaoh from getting his man.
ISBN-13: 978-1-62798-158-3
Pages: 128
Cover Artist: Brooke Albrecht
Categories: Novellas, Science Fiction, BDSM/Kink, Liv Olteano, Space Files R by Liv Olteano
Dreamspinner Press | Amazon | AllRomanceEbooks | OmniLit | Barnes&Noble
Excerpt
Prologue
I HATED Ami’s base. A barren, arid planet made of rocks and dust. Probably why he made it his home base—a strategic move. The place was fitting in many ways. The days had a habit of trickling together into nondescript mush since I’d been here.
Furious winds raised sandstorms. They were choking monsters that grated into your lungs and scratched at you from the inside. Howling wind was the background music to my every day. At night, it came in particularly handy—it woke me from fitful dreams. I had an odd love-hate relationship with Asai, the planet of wind and sands.
I took in all that emptiness as I looked out the window. My home planet, Kator, was rich in vegetation. It had silky, rich air. Not even wars could diminish the luxurious beauty of the world Zaoh and I came from. The Haffa territories were jungle, untamed and irresistible as he was. I sometimes dreamed of him being born of brutal wilderness and the sky, of stars beyond the horizon and the taste of cold rain.
Zaoh didn’t seem to notice the dust storm. He practiced his sword mastery smack in the middle of it. He glided between blurry particles and slid into the wind, his strong body slick in its moves. My eardrums pounded and I couldn’t breathe. It had nothing to do with the damned dust. My heart lurched into my throat and struggled there, cutting off air.
“Come back to bed, gorgeous.”
The chokehold broke as I looked back at Ami. He lounged in bed, sprawled in outmost debauchery… beautiful in ways I’d known nothing about before meeting him. The soft azure of his skin glistened with sweat and radiated with inner light. It contrasted the glum of everything around. He was breathtaking when well fed with energy. Hard not to be in awe of him, really. Lithe and nimble, sporting the face of innocence but with the unmistakable air of wickedness, Ami ran a finger down his neck. On the way down, he grazed a pebbled nipple and poked at the delicate line of his hipbone. Trailing even lower, it ran around his beautifully hard member. His mismatched eyes were hot and beckoning as they fixed on mine. His lips parted in invitation as he squeezed his balls hard, hips twitching.
“Come back to me,” he rumbled. “Feed me, gorgeous.”
I smiled and padded away from the windows. Providing Ami with the nourishment his empath skills demanded was a pleasure through and through. The sash still clung to my fingers, and he grinned. I paced around the bed, inspecting him with my best commander face on. The way his pupils blew out each and every time, remnants of the power-vibe came to surface helped balance me.
“On your back, Ami. Hands and feet stretched up.”
Brilliant eyes glazed over as I tied his wrists and ankles together. While turning him on one side, I smacked his perky ass cheeks, the first couple of times softer but harder with each new slap. He squirmed and moaned as the rich sound of skin slapping skin filled the room. Just his moans had me fully hard, and that was not even counting the glowing navy of his ass as spanks kept raining down. I found throbbing insides as I entered him again. It didn’t take long to have him coming all over his chest and the bed. I pumped brutally for my own release. Reaching it was less fulfilling than I’d hoped, but it kept some of the darkness at bay. It didn’t work to be picky, that much I’d learned. We outlaws had to take our joys where we could find them.
Thoughts of Zaoh didn’t leave me for more than a few seconds at a time, though, regardless of what I did. As I poured the remains of my rational thoughts into Ami, one image coiled tight around my gut—Zaoh dancing in the winds, slick and deadly in his every move, gliding between particles of dust from the storm raging inside of me. And he mastered it just as easily as he did his swords and knives.
There was nowhere to hide from the piercing purple eyes, the constantly straight line of his lilac lips, or his impressive presence. I carried him inside, tucked neatly into the deepest recesses of my mind and soul. He lurked there for the chance to badger my sleep. It made no difference that I’d left Kator, run from my demons… useless. Everything was useless. There was no way to outrun what you carried inside. I was obsessed with him. A sickening mix of admiration, debilitating hate, and crippling desire slapped me in the face each time I saw him, even from a distance.
I closed my eyes and the winds picked up. They rushed around my heart and grazed it raw. It wasn’t the sandstorm outside that plagued my every waking hour. It was the one I carried inside that would bury me alive.
Chapter 1
MY MIND was made up—Ami was a complete bastard. It had nothing to do with our history and everything to do with right now.
Sitting there with the rest of his top picks wasn’t my idea of a good dinner. And yet there we were in all our glory. No way could I eat. Food refused to pass beyond my lips. Burning purple eyes had my ears buzzing. I felt him watching me across the table. Zaoh’s presence overwhelmed me even without looking at him.
The azure devil in front of me grinned and licked his lips. “Don’t like your dinner, gorgeous?”
“It’s fine,” I grumped.
Long fingers aimed a fork at me, his motions eerily graceful. “Fine? I don’t give my champions ‘fine.’ I give you stupendous. Maybe it’s the company you don’t like?”
I choked on water, sputtering like a fool. “You trying to kill me, Blue?”
He chuckled, mismatched eyes turning warm at the nickname.
Beside me, the famous space thief and troublemaker extraordinaire, Camelia D, snorted. That was, by large, her basic response to life. “Something’s ruining your mojo, admit it,” she muttered.
“My mojo is fine.”
“Like the food, fine?” she asked, batting long eyelashes.
Oh, they were such a riot. They begged to be put out of their misery. I contemplated the thought for a couple of moments, but taking out my fellow mercs wasn’t much of a smart move. Ami’s protection made our band of misfits into an operating unit. Without his connections, I suspected all of us would likely meet swift and unsavory repercussions. Our previous lives weren’t exactly badge-of-honor material. I didn’t have to like him, though, not right then. Ever the perceptive empathic bastard, he blew me a kiss. I tossed a bread roll at him.
Smacking it away with ease, he put on the serious face. “I’ve got a mission, kids. Bet that’ll cheer you up, Ron. Won’t it?”
It most certainly did. I spread my lips into a smile, my mood getting better as quick as a lightning bolt. A mission was exactly what I needed, a break from Asai and its turbulent sandstorms. A breather from the mojo-breaking elements on it. It had to be a one-gun mission, though. Being stuck with Camy in the tight space of a ship was a mixed blessing. I refused to contemplate the merry band getting any bigger. Going out with Zaoh wasn’t even an option—I’d made that perfectly clear to Blue the moment the Haffa came in. So far, my opinion had been taken into consideration, thank the stars.
Ami pushed his plate away and took a few sips of wine. He gave each one of us a cursory look and smiled. “Major cargo escort. Don’t get excited, Camy, it needs finesse. No explosives or any of that shit. I’ve had it with your dramatic exits. For a renowned thief, you sure do make a blasting mess of a merc.”
Her lips pursed. “Kiss my ass, pretty boy. Those fucktards shot at me. What was I going to do, smile my way out of there? Maybe let them ruin my ship, like someone here did? Either I blew them up or they’d blow my ass into stardust.”
“Lovely visual, baby. But you’re grounded. Too big a mess and too recent to go out yet. I’m still talking those idiots down from you blowing their mother ship to smithereens. Though in your defense, anyone stupid enough to get their main blown by one unruly merc deserves what’s coming to them.”
Camy’s fiery green eyes squinted and she threw a hand-wipe at him. “Unruly my ass.”
He grinned. “Especially that. We’ll get to the bottom of it together, though, no fear. Besides, if you’re so full of pent-up energy, we both know I can always use a boost. You’re grounded. The boys get to go out and play.”
I did my best to show no disappointment. Escorting cargo was as much of a mission as washing my mouth. But it meant I could be away for a while and that was good news. I had to take it. “I’ll go, Blue.”
He inspected me for a moment then nodded. “Fine, gorgeous. All yours.”
“Great. What am I escorting and where?”
“Private commission. What I do know is you have to get it through Zax zone.”
Zax zone sounded promising. Those bastards didn’t know how to do anything but fight. Maybe I’d get some collateral action, the real kind. Truth be told, I was itching for some real excitement. We all were, most likely. Ami bitched about it to high heavens, but then again, he had been the one to handpick each of us as his guns.
I nodded, fingers rapping against the table. “When am I leaving?”
“As soon as you’re ready. You’re meeting your contact on Kalvaria. And be sure to keep your trigger-happy finger in check. I don’t have a current accord with that station. If you get caught, you’re on your own.”
The rap of my fingers turned louder. “I’m not a kid, Blue.”
“Of course not, gorgeous. But I’m not gonna lose any of my top guns just because you’re bored when nothing blows up.”
I grinned. “Well, if blowing is what’s on your mind—”
He smacked my hand.
Ridiculous. I wasn’t trigger-happy or explosions-addicted—that was Camy’s field. Probably going in all smooth to steal stuff frustrated her raging-bitch side. Now that she could blow up things, she went to town with it every chance she could possibly summon. I wasn’t that dramatic. Well, there had been that one incident…. Completely unintentional. It wasn’t my fault the bastards felt compelled to shoot me down. I was just trying to escape with their cargo. I took a pod to escape. It had been a close call—an even closer call when Ami found out his favorite ship got blasted into oblivion. I thought he’d chew my ass out that time, but he got over it by the time I pushed him down on his bed. Blue was forgiving like that. It made working for him especially fun for a while there. Besides, regardless of who went out, it was mission complete and really good profits for him. He just loved to nag and bitch.
I was bored. That was why I’d asked to go. When the body wasn’t busy, the mind took revenge. We were creatures of action, Zaoh and I. Kator had been at war for centuries. Fighting was the only thing we really knew. Both Celians and Haffas, though different in oh-so-many ways, were the same in one regard—we were brought up with the fight in our hearts, thrumming through our veins. No home-base pets, not really. And while the Celian part was more civilized, Haffas were truly wild creatures—impossibly strong and brutally determined. I’d seen a Haffa of Zaoh’s size take down up to five of our Celian soldiers with ease. I’d seen Zaoh himself take down close to a dozen. He hadn’t been public enemy number one on our side of Kator for nothing.
When I didn’t have a mission, I missed being part of the troops back home. But every time I got close to Kator, those damned images blasted through my mind… probably a good thing I was declared a deserter, to be executed on the spot if caught within Celian territory limits. Pathetically, the only flavor of home was Zaoh—part of the reason I’d left it to begin with. But he didn’t know that. And it was in my best interest to keep things that way.
Besides, I wasn’t a soldier anymore. I was a merc now, part of Ami’s top guns. The Amaari was legend even on Kator. His negotiator abilities were second to none. If you wanted something, you got him to get it for you. Ahlen Zari was the second-best choice; the bastard had no finesse, though. Ami was a smooth operator. His guns were always drawn but never blazing. And now I was part of that arsenal, just like the Haffa, because of whom I’d given up my previous life. Just like the vivacious Camy D, a tall and lean creature who came with one of our new ships. As in, she dashed out of it in the hangar and tried to off us all. And loot the place. Ami was so touched, he took her in on the spot. She was a magnificent thief, capable of stealing the sugar from your cup of tea if you didn’t keep a close enough watch. Sadly, she turned out to love blowing things up too. Ami’s reputation as smooth operator was slowly dwindling away. We were turning from smooth operators into guns blazing, but still top dogs. That was what really mattered after all—being top dogs.
I got up, happy to finally have a reason to stop pretending to eat. Zaoh shot to his feet to block my way. My lungs squeezed tight as soon as I was face to face with the purple hell of his eyes.
“You weren’t dismissed, Vid. Sit back down.”
I gritted my teeth and turned in Ami’s direction. “We done here? I’ve got to pack my shit if I’m going out.”
“Go ahead, gorgeous. I’ll wait for you in the hangar.”
Stomping to my room, I tried to shake off the memory of those purple black holes. It was a bad thing to think about. Getting away from Asai would be pointless if I carried the mess with me out to space.
A second set of steps thudded behind. Decisive but not rushed, they sounded closer and closer, so I stopped. For some reason I couldn’t turn around.
“Commander Void.”
Blood rushed away from my extremities and into my head all at once. How did he know about that nickname? No way he’d just used it by chance. A cold sheen of sweat covered my palms. “I’m no commander anymore,” I gritted out through clenched teeth.
“Should I call you Deserter Vid, then? More fitting?”
Zaoh’s gravelly voice sounded vaguely amused, almost playful. Maybe Ami had told him. If I knew about him becoming a traitor to the Haffas, maybe he’d found out about me too. Only I had a reason to know about him. A personal reason. Perhaps he had one as well. Perhaps he knew it had been me commanding the troops that caught him and his sister…. My mind said to calm down, to rein in my pulse.
I turned around halfway, still not facing him. “So you’re Traitor Dem, then?”
Tense silence fell between us. It was a cheap shot. He wasn’t really a traitor while I was a deserter. It would have been better to turn around and leave. My feet refused to respond, though. They were glued to the floor. His simple presence messed with my wiring. I gravitated toward him so strongly it was a constant conscious effort to pull away. To what end, I didn’t have the vaguest—about both impulses.
“At least I didn’t leave my troops by choice,” he finally said.
No, he hadn’t. His sister had been killed in interrogation. After that, against all odds and beyond any possible logic, Zaoh Dem had escaped Celian incarceration. The reasonable conclusion was he’d sided with us. So Haffas declared him traitor and condemned him to death as soon as he returned to his base. Of course, the man escaped their captivity as well, maybe helped like he’d been to escape ours. He was resourceful like that. No way to get him under control unless he felt like playing nice. Ami was delighted to tell me and his other mercs that particular personality trait the evening he brought Zaoh in. A whole fucking universe at his disposal, and the bastard had to end up where I was. What were the odds?
I cleared my throat and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my khaki overalls. “Had something to say to me, other than that?” His heavy boots had a considerable distance between them. I imagined him standing there, tall and strong, sort of majestic. I didn’t dare to look at him as I waited for an answer.
He seemed to ponder on it, tapped the tip of his boot a few times. “Despise Haffas so much you won’t even look at me?”
I smiled tightly. “You’ve read me wrong. Buried my war with Haffas a long time ago.”
“Just despise me, then?”
“Not at all.”
He took one step closer, small but significant to my pulse—it skyrocketed. “Then look at me.”
I had to use all my willpower to find his eyes with mine. The brutal force of his gaze struck me worse than I’d expected, but I held strong. “Well? What is it? Wanted to get chummy?”
He snorted. “Don’t overestimate yourself. Just letting you know we’re on this mission together.”
No. That little azure bastard wouldn’t dare.
August 26, 2013
Sandstorm Heart will be published Sept 18!
I’m thrilled to finally tell you that the second Space Files R story, Sandstorm Heart, will be out Sept 18. I’m thrilled and cannot wait for you guys to meet Ron and Zaoh. They were very fun to write and I hope they’ll be super fun to read 
Ron Vid is a Celian soldier with some personal demons. Hoping for respite, he deserts his squad and leaves his planet. Working as a mercenary on Asai, planet of sand and wind, he has a reprieve, until the Haffa named Zaoh joins the mercenaries.
Celians and Haffas have a history of strife, but when Ron and Zaoh are paired on a mission, their chemistry crackles. After they fight together for survival, it’s clear Zaoh wants Ron. Zaoh can be a fierce and dominant lover, but Ron’s secrets, and his fear that the Haffa might uncover them, could keep Zaoh from getting his man.
ISBN-13: 978-1-62798-158-3
Pages: 128
Cover Artist: Brooke Albrecht
Categories: Novellas, Science Fiction, BDSM/Kink, Liv Olteano, Space Files R by Liv Olteano
I’d label it as more of a D/s space opera with kinky smoking hot sex, but I wrote down the categories you find it under on the awesome DSP site too, just in case
And since I can almost read it in your eyes you want a better look at the smexeh god on the cover, I present to you for your viewing pleasure the epic smexeh:
I know, right? You’re getting the urge to go out into the desert and seek this smexeh out, I know I totally got that urge… xD
March 19, 2013
The Heracian Affair: Out now!
The Heracian Affairby Liv Olteano
Even years after Rizzo Berg’s lover and Dom died in combat, the memories torment him. Following a particularly disappointing date, Rizzo goes to sleep in his apartment only to wake up on a spaceship with tall, gorgeous, alien Captain Conrad D’Ollet of Heracia, a man so deliciously dominant Rizzo’s knees turn to jelly.
Apparently the Heracians need help, and Rizzo is a humanitarian through and through. Spending more time around Conrad is totally not one of the reasons he wants to lend a hand.
Soon Rizzo finds himself completely conquered and blissfully owned. But neither he nor Conrad is willing to risk his heart, let go of the past, and dare to believe in a future that won’t end in catastrophe.
ISBN-13: 978-1-62380-435-0
Pages: 131
Cover Artist: Brooke Albrecht
Categories: Novellas, Science Fiction, BDSM/Kink, Liv Olteano
Dreamspinner Press | AllRomanceebooks | Amazon | Omnilit
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March 6, 2013
The Heracian Affair will go on virtual tour :D
The Heracian Affair
Even years after Rizzo Berg’s lover and Dom died in combat, the memories torment him. Following a particularly disappointing date, Rizzo goes to sleep in his apartment only to wake up on a spaceship with tall, gorgeous, alien Captain Conrad D’Ollet of Heracia, a man so deliciously dominant Rizzo’s knees turn to jelly.
Apparently the Heracians need help, and Rizzo is a humanitarian through and through. Spending more time around Conrad is totally not one of the reasons he wants to lend a hand.
Soon Rizzo finds himself completely conquered and blissfully owned. But neither he nor Conrad is willing to risk his heart, let go of the past, and dare to believe in a future that won’t end in catastrophe.
Adult MxM Sci-Fi, BDSM/Kink
Novella, ebook, 131 pages
Expected publication: March 20th 2013 by Dreamspinner Press
There'll be all kinds of stops and fun stuff going on, and if you're a book blogger host of theirs run over and sign up for it here. I'll keep you posted when the fun starts so you won't miss a thing.
In the meantime, I can chew on my nails, lol. This is the longest month ever. You know what I mean, right? Can't wait for March 20!
In the meantime...
*assumes meditation pose*
