Today it’s my pleasure to welcome over Damian Jericho,
author of Forbidden Gems I, Hasty Introductions and Forbidden Gems II, Carnivores.
Forbidden Gems I, Hasty Introductions
Genre: Erotica/Supernatural Erotica/
Dark Erotica
Date of Publication: February 17, 2015
ASIN: B00S71GSEG
Number of pages: 46
Word Count: 12,148
Cover Artist: Xio Axelrod
Book Description
It’s an unusual night at the museum. The legendary Pazuzu
gemstones are making an appearance, in the company of the man who discovered
them: the almost equally legendary Argent Leeds.
Mara, a young intern, expects nothing more from the evening
than a chance to get a glimpse at the almost mythical stones. What she gets is
a private showing, and a great deal more: the beginning of an erotic journey
unlike anything she could have ever imagined.
Forbidden Gems is a six part serial. It begins here.
GIVEAWAY: Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter after this post
for a chance to win. Prizes include 2 ebook copies of Hasty Introductions and 2 ebook copies of
Carnivores.
Excerpt
He said, “I wonder, before we allow Mrs. Toomes the use of
her office again, if you could do me one favor. I’d like for you to think about
the gemstone you touched.”
“The blue sapphire?”
“The sapphire, yes.”
“You want me to think about it? That’s a strange request.”
“I know. Just picture it in your head. Close your eyes if
you want.”
This is weird, she
thought. But she did as he asked, shut her eyes and thought back to Saturday
night. Not the part where Argent had her pressed up against a glass display
cabinet—that was something she almost couldn’t stop thinking about—but the part
before, when he had taken the sapphire from the cabinet and slipped it into her
hand. The memory came easily enough, as if this was something that was always
buried at the edge of her memory just hidden behind thoughts of Argent and everything that happened later. But she could recall exactly how warm the
sapphire had felt, and how smooth it was in her palm.
Did it glow? Or had that been a trick of the light?
She could feel it in her hand again, the sense memory was so
strong. And just as soon as she imagined she was holding it, she felt something
else. Something sudden and urgent was uncoiling itself inside her, beginning
with a shiver that traveled up her back to her scalp and down to her
fingertips, echoing through her and turning into a dull throb in her groin.
She opened her eyes and looked at Argent, who seemed to be
aware of exactly what she was feeling, even though she’d barely moved.
“Argent, what is this?”
“No, don’t stop. Keep thinking of it,” he said.
It was as if she had no choice but to obey his request, and
as she closed her eyes again, the memory of the sapphire filled up her thoughts
completely.
Blue, so blue.
The gemstone was in her hands again, but now she was
caressing it and sliding it across her skin, over her chest and down her naked
stomach. It was a memory of a thing that had never happened, yet it felt as
real as anything that had happened,
and she didn’t know anymore how to tell the difference. And as she slid the
sapphire down her stomach and past her wet lips and into her, she didn’t care
because it felt real.
Also real was the rush of wet heat in her crotch that turned
into a pounding need, as if the gemstone was still inside her and vibrating in
time with her body. As if they were becoming a part of each other.
And she was about to burst. Her nipples, which had become
exposed nerves, rubbed against the inside of her bra and ached to be bitten and
pulled, and she yearned to reach out and grab Argent and pull him onto her.
Instead she dug her hands into the soft leather of the chair and let out a little
moan.
Think of the stone,
she reminded herself, and there she was again in her falsified memory, naked
and leaning up against the wall pushing the blue sapphire in and out of herself
and then running the slick stone back up her chest.
Her legs were opening. She couldn’t stop them. Sapphire blue
was everywhere and everything, and her hands wanted to let go of the chair, and
she couldn’t let that happen, but she couldn’t stop them either somehow. She
was so close.
“I can’t . . .” she whispered, even as she
trembled from another shiver and fought just to stay upright and keep her hands
where they were. It was a losing battle, because in her memory was the notion
that the stone belonged back inside her, and so she spread her legs and thrust
it as deeply as it could go. And then her hand—the real one, that was holding
on to the chair desperately—let go and she was shoving it between her open legs
and pushing her fingers in as far and as hard as she could through her jeans.
She came violently and suddenly, like something physically
snapped inside her vagina and spilled out hot oil that ran all the way up to
her face. Her head tilted and her back arched, and a scream began to slide out
of her throat when Argent clapped his hand over her mouth to muffle the sound.
“It’s okay,” he said soothingly. “Settle down now. Settle
down.”
The orgasm dug in and held her body rigid for what seemed
like minutes before subsiding. She sagged into the chair, pulled her hand out
from between her legs, and leaned against Argent, who was kneeling next to her.
“I’m all sweaty,” she complained quietly. “What the hell
just happened to me?”
“Research,” he said.
“I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” he said. “But I want to. Do you?”
Let’s Interview...
What
inspired you to write this book?
I didn’t know if I could.
I’ve been writing for some time (under a different name) in
a range of other genres, but I’d never tried erotica. I’m most effective when writing as a dare,
essentially. If I don’t know for certain
whether or not I’m capable of it, I feel like I have to try.
What made you choose the main
setting for your book?
The main setting for Forbidden Gems is “a city”. I don’t ever specify which city it is,
because I wanted the story to retain a sort of mythical quality. It also freed me from worrying about—for
instance—describing the city’s archeological museum inaccurately.
Tell us a little bit about the
conflict in your story.
On the surface, this is a familiar story: a young ingénue
attracts the attention and affections of an older, extremely wealthy and successful
man. But there is a matter of the rare
gemstones he has, and the possibility that these gemstones might have a
mystical quality to them, and the further possibility that the successful man
is somewhat more dangerous than he seems.
The conflict is between the heroine Mara’s sexual desire and
the realization that she is losing control of herself, possibly due to a
supernatural influence she can’t entirely bring herself to believe is
real. That conflict gets pretty dark and
extreme by the end of the book.
What sort of personality does
your heroine have?
Mara is intelligent, rational and independent. That probably describes a lot of heroines,
though, so let me try a little harder.
She’s the girl everyone is in love with and nobody thinks they have a
shot with, someone who knows she’s attractive but doesn’t thinks much about
that or use it to her advantage. She’s
openly disdainful of people who see her as a woman first, and a scientist
second or third. She doesn’t know how
special she really is.
Did you enjoy writing one scene
above all the rest? If so, share.
I have three answers for this one. Forbidden Gems is a serial, and all of the
episodes have already been written, so if we are talking about the story as a
whole, there was one section I particularly enjoyed writing, only because it’s
utterly outrageous. Book four has the
beginning of… well, it’s a dungeon orgy scene.
A really long dungeon orgy scene.
It’s so long half of it is in book five.
If we are talking about the first two serial installments,
there is a scene in the first book in which Mara is talked into a state of
arousal, and in the second installment there is that dinner scene…
How long have you been writing?
How long have you been published?
This is Damian Jericho’s first published work. Under my other name I’ve been a published
writer for fifteen years. I’ve been
writing all my life.
What genre/genres do you prefer
to write? Are there other genres you’d like to write in the future?
I don’t know if prefer
is adequate. I enjoy writing stories,
and those stories inevitably cross multiple genres, whether I fully intend for
them to do that or not. Forbidden Gems,
for instance, is likely classified as erotica of the non-romance species, and
further as supernatural erotica, dark erotica and erotic horror. I didn’t intend to cross into any of that
territory, it’s just where the story ended up going. I’m sure I’ll write other genres in the
future, both because I have to keep challenging myself and because I never know
what genre I’ve actually written until it’s done.
Forbidden Gems II, Carnivores
Genre: Erotica/Supernatural Erotica/
Dark Erotica
Date of Publication: March 3, 2015
ASIN: B00SE2JJP8
Number of pages: 47
Word Count: 13,101
Cover Artist: Xio Axelrod
Book Description
While sorting through the archeological findings from one of
Argent’s digs, Mara makes a surprising discovery, one that might connect back
to the gemstones. Eager to share what she’s found, she meets Argent for a
private dinner in an exclusive club, and ends up sharing a great deal more when
clothing becomes entirely optional.
Forbidden Gems is a six part serial. The journey continues
here.
Available at Amazon
Excerpt
Mademoiselle Alleman was an alarmingly thin older woman who
resembled an unusually fleshy species of bird but who had at her disposal a
dazzling array of high-end designer products that were so high-end Mara had never heard of any of them before. This was
not, she granted, an ideal litmus test given her historical lack of funds and
parallel lack of fashion knowledge. She knew what she looked good in, and she
knew what fit, and for any additional details, she usually leaned on her
friends.
The mademoiselle—she did not appear to have a first name—was
seemingly happier to meet Mara than anybody had ever been to meet her ever, and
while Mara was pretty sure Alleman greeted everyone with the same extraordinary
level of enthusiasm, it rang so true she was happy to imagine this woman had
been waiting for Mara all her life—or if not her, then someone just like
Mara—to come along and try on some of the clothing she had lying around that
was all about exactly the right size.
They began simply enough, by making sure the criminally
short black dress Argent had picked out for her was properly sized. Mara
thought it was a perfect fit—better than any other outfit in her wardrobe
already—but the mademoiselle disagreed and ended up taking in an eighth of an
inch at the waist and lowering the hemline by a quarter of an inch.
“You will see, chéri,” she said. “It will look perfect.”
It looked pretty
perfect already, Mara thought. But she wasn’t the expert in the room.
Underwear came next, and that was just sort of strange. Mara
had never had a personal shopper for outerwear before, but she liked the idea
of it immediately. But Mademoiselle Alleman, a woman old enough to be her
grandmother, had opinions on what underwear Mara should be wearing with the
dress, and nobody was pretending this was going to be anything other than fuck-me underwear.
“I think Monsieur Leeds, he will like these very much,” she
said, holding up a thong that was essentially three strings and an eye-patch.
In the mademoiselle’s French accent, the suggestion sound perfectly normal,
which made Mara wonder if her accent was even real or if she just used it to
make these moments slightly less weird.
“It’s not very much of anything,” Mara said, “so yes, you’re
probably right.”
“It is more than nothing, and that is the point, dear.
Nothing is only nothing. Nothing is not mystery. This is mystery. Small mystery, but still mystery, and not nothing.
It’s what you choose not to show that makes them want you. So you try these.
And . . .” She grabbed a lacy push-up bra that appeared to be a
solid match. “And this.”
Mara stepped behind the privacy screen—they were alone in a
shuttered, private shop so there was no particular need for a full dressing
room until such a time as Chalmers decided to check in from the car or
something—to change into the lingerie.
“Have you known Mr. Leeds for long?” Mara asked.
“You suppose I know him?” the mademoiselle countered.
“Perhaps I do not. He is a man who wishes to pay for your wonderful new
clothing, is that not enough?”
“But you do know him.”
“Yes, chéri, Monsieur Leeds and myself are familiar with one
another. It has been five years, I suppose.”
“Does he send all of his women here?” Mara asked, realizing
after it had already been said that it came off as a little bitchy.
“Oh, haha. No, you misunderstand, chéri. You are only the
second of his, his women as you say, to come here. The first was from five
years ago, and Monsieur Leeds and I have remained acquainted through social circles.”
“So there was another woman, but five years ago?” Mara
asked. She was now blatantly digging for information but didn’t seem to have
any patience for a more nuanced approach.
“It has been since three years,” Alleman answered. “But
Monsieur Leeds has, I’m sure, told you of her by now.”
“He has not,” Mara admitted. “But I haven’t asked. I’m not
even sure if we’re dating, Mademoiselle Alleman, or if that’s what people still
do. We’ve never really talked about
that either.”
“It is just the sex, then.”
“Mademoiselle!”
“It’s better if it’s the sex first, chéri. Love, romance,
relationships—these are confusing. Sex is simple. Now you must be changed.
Please. Show me how they fit.”
About the Author
Damian Jericho is the pen name of a best-selling
sci-fi/fantasy novelist who tragically does not have a name that is half as
interesting as ‘Damian Jericho’. Both of
them reside in the Boston area and one of them is real.
Posts
3 comments:
Thanks for the great interview!
--Damian
Such an eye-catching cover! :)
My pleasure, Damian. I'm reading Forbidden Gems now. Really enjoying it. :)
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