"Trust Me"~ Ashe Barker Visits!

I have Ashe Barker here today with an excerpt from her newest release! It's waiting patiently in my TBR pile, but after reading her explanation, it may just move to the top!

Hi Casey and thank you for inviting me over to your blog to help get the word out about my latest release, Spirit.

Spirit may seem at first to be something of a dark tale, dealing with themes of homelessness, childhood abuse, violence. It does look at those aspects of life, but it’s also about survival, generosity, and most of all it’s about moving on. Spirit has its lighter side too, with some endearing minor characters. Look out for Ethel, the exuberant little Westie dog, and rather bad-tempered macaw. I’ll let you into a secret, Ethel is my own little dog. I just had to put her in a book somewhere. And George the parrot is inspired by my husband’s grumpy cockatiel. Most of my stories have animals in them, perhaps a reflection of the menagerie I live in. At the last tail-count it was two dogs, two tortoises, two rabbits, an indeterminate number of fish, and of course that feathered fiend. Sometimes I think I could stock my own ark.

Anyway, enough about me. Here’s the blurb…

When Matthew Logan offers a homeless young woman a bed for a few nights, he expects the girl to eat, sleep, recover from the flu, and then move on. Instead, in no time at all eighteen-year-old Beth Harte has captured his affections completely. Though Matt wants only to protect her and has no intention of sleeping with her, Beth has other ideas, and she proves to be very persuasive.

But after Beth is attacked by a friend of Matt’s and subsequently learns for the first time that Matt is an experienced dominant, she is unable to separate the man she is growing to care about from her hateful memories of previous exploitation. Confused and frightened, she runs away.

Almost six years pass before Matt sees Beth again, and in that time his vulnerable little waif has reinvented herself as an artist. Now she has a stunning proposition for him and his environmental engineering company: to collaborate on a project fusing art and science to promote one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world. But when Matt demands to know what went wrong before, she tells him the truth, both about her childhood and about his friend’s actions.

Matt is determined to make Beth’s abusers pay for their crimes, but he’s also not about to let her run away from him again. Can Beth bring herself to trust Matt despite her fears and give him the chance to love her and show her the pleasures of being his submissive, or will the wounds of her past keep her from trusting anyone ever again?

Publisher’s Note: Spirit is an erotic romance novel that includes spankings, sexual scenes, anal play, BDSM content, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.

And of course a sexy excerpt, to whet your appetite.

He reaches around me to cup my left breast, grazing my nipple with the palm of his hand. The sensitive peak swells and stiffens, then pebbles even more as he squeezes it between his finger and thumb.

"Do you like this, Beth? Do you like me to touch you?"

"Yes," My answer is more a breathy moan than an articulated word, but he seems to get my meaning. He brings his other hand around to apply the same treatment to my other nipple. He turns me to my right so I can see myself reflected in the mirrors on the front of the wardrobe, my skin pale in contrast to his tanned hands covering my breasts.

"See, you are lovely. You always were."

I lean back against him as he trails his left hand down over my stomach to feather his fingers in the trimmed curls at the apex of my thighs. "This is nice too, very neat."

"Thank you. I think."

"Thank you is good, but if I'm to tie you to those railings I really believe it should be thank you, Sir."

"Sir?"

"Mmm..." He squeezes my right nipple and the shock ricochets through me, straight to my clit.

"Oh, oh, Sir I ..."

"Nice? More?"

"Yes, more. Please."

"Please what?" Another sharp squeeze, more painful this time."

"Please Sir."

"Better." He returns to massaging my breast at the same time as he slides his left hand between my legs. I widen my stance instinctively.

Matt's fingers part my folds as he reaches further, exploring the length of my slit. I hear the sounds of my gathering moisture, and close my eyes, embarrassed. Matt angles his hand and slips two fingers inside me. My knees almost buckle, but his arms around me provide enough stability to keep me upright. Just. He withdraws his fingers, only to plunge them back into me. I let out a long, low moan, my inner muscles starting to convulse.

"So wet, so ready." He pauses, then, "So, those railings?"

"Yes?"

He slides his fingers from me and releases my breast. As he steps back I stagger as I have to support my own weight again. He leans in to murmur in my ear. "Go lean on them, fold your arms along the top. Lift your bum as high as you can."

I turn, peep up at him. "What are you going to do?"

Now that it's come to it my nervousness must be plain, written all over my face. Matt drops a quick kiss onto my lips.

"Trust me."

You can grab a copy of Spirit from wherever you like to buy your ebooks

Spirit Buy Links

Amazon US

Amazon UK

More about Ashe Barker

I’ve been writing seriously for about two years but I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, erotic and other genres. I love reading historical and contemporary romances in all pairings – the hotter the better. But now I have a good excuse for my guilty pleasure – research.

My stories are often set in the north of England where I live but I draw inspiration from all over. An incident here, a chance remark there, a bizarre event or quirky character, any of these can spark a story idea. But ultimately my tales of love, challenge, resilience and compassion are the conjurings of my own lurid and smutty imagination.

On the rare occasions I’m not writing my time is divided between my role as resident taxi driver for my teenage daughter, and caring for a menagerie of dogs, rabbits, tortoises. And most recently a very grumpy cockatiel. I’m a rural parish councillor too.

My other titles are many and varied, and include the ‘Black Combe’ trilogies, The Dark Side, Sure Mastery, The Hardest Word and A Richness of Swallows, all set in the atmospheric moorland of West Yorkshire or Cumbria and with a strong BDSM theme. My stand alone novels are The Three Rs, Chameleon, Red Skye at Night, and Faith but this list grows all the time. The Widow Is Mine is a full length medieval erotic romance which I wrote for The Conquered Brides collection. I’ve also written several short stories, including Re-Awakening, a raunchy pirate tale, Right of Salvage, and a MM story, Bodywork, which was included in the Amazon best-selling collection Brit Boys on Boys. You can find all my stories on my author page on Amazon.

I have a pile of story ideas still to work through, and keep thinking of new ones at the most unlikely moments, so you can expect to see a lot more from me.

I love to hear from readers. You can find me on my blog, and I’m on Facebook, and twitter too. And more recently on Tsu