Have you read a rugby league romance?

I guess most of you have heard of one of Australia’s favorite sons Russell Crowe. Well Rusty loves the sport of rugby league so much he bought his own team. Now I’m not in Mr Crowe’s pay bracket so was never likely to match his efforts and purchase a team of my own ““ and probably for the best given Australia’s strict sexual harassment laws! So I did the next best thing, I created my own team of deliciously sexy footy players through the pages of my m/f contemporary erotic, League of Love series. All books are set in Sydney, Australia.

My family are all footy fanatics, my grandfather played the game at the highest level and my sister was one of the first female rugby league commentators in Australia. She came up against some serious opposition when she tried to do postgame interviews from the dressing rooms.  Having been married to a professional player I had the advantage of some personal insight into the life of a rugby league star and I used some of this knowledge when writing my League of Love series.

A few facts about rugby league players that you don’t really need to know!

While not all players have movie star good looks they all have super fit bodies and usually biceps to drool over.

Most players retire before age thirty.

Rugby league players wear little or no protective gear, just nice tight shirts and shorts that show off all those muscly bits ““ definitely eye candy.

Players give back to their communities. They visit children’s hospitals, support various charities like animal welfare, how gorgeous seeing the guys playing with those cute animals but I really love the work being done to encourage school literacy skills. Listening to players read books to kids is just awesome.  http://www.rloc.com.au/default.aspx?s=rugby-league-reads

Caitlin’s Hero, the first book in my series, stars Brodie James. Brodie is a serious and responsible kind of guy, captain of the team and all round role model. His respectable life is thrown into chaos when he meets Caitlin. Sparks fly and gossip runs amok as Brodie’s bitter ex-wife and opportunistic journalist join ranks to tear the couple apart.

Caitlin’s Hero is available for  99c at most outlets thanks to the Totally Bound (previously known as Total-E-Bound) Focus on Firsts Promotion.

Falling for him is easy. Dealing with his high-profile life””a life deemed public property by his fans and the press, plus an ex-wife out for blood””now, that’s the hard part.

Twenty-year-old Caitlin Walters was living a normal life. She attended university, socialised a little and had a good relationship with her mother and stepfather. But when her parents are tragically killed in a car accident, Caitlin’s life is forced to change. The once carefree girl becomes sole guardian of her stepbrother. Giving up her university course to support and raise eleven-year-old Riley, Caitlin struggles to deal with her new responsibilities.

Her job, singing at a local Italian restaurant, brings Caitlin some peace. On stage, she leaves her life and its troubles behind. Feeling comfortable and sensuous, she is like a siren calling out to lost souls. It’s on one of these nights that Caitlin begins a romance with Australian Rugby League captain, Brodie James. Brodie, not content with his so-called perfect life and struggling with commitment issues following a disastrous marriage, falls hard for Caitlin.

The relationship does not run smoothly for the self-sacrificing Caitlin, as she learns how to deal with Brodie’s nasty, jealous ex-wife, a muck-raking reporter and intrusive but well-meaning rugby fans. Along the way she makes new friends, and awakens the untapped sensual desires of the woman inside.

Excerpt from Caitlin’s Hero.

Brodie James was tired. Not sleepy, but that bone-deep, weary kind of tiredness that made you feel as if you were dragging yourself through life. He was feeling all of his thirty years at the early morning recovery session.

Yesterday’s game had been a hard-fought grind, ending disappointingly in a loss for Brodie’s Sydney Jets. Brodie’s battle-fatigued body reminded him painfully of every tackle and knock it had taken. It wasn’t just the game, though. Brodie could not pinpoint what it was that was making him feel so old and jaded. He was living the dream. This was the life he had worked so hard for. He was playing rugby league at the top level.

Brodie had lived and breathed rugby league from the time he could hold a footy. He was good“”some even said the best. Brodie didn’t go much for that sort of talk, though. He was successful, sure. His thirteen years at the top level were testimony enough. He had captained his club, state and country, and earned a good living doing what he loved. What more could he want?

Maybe that was exactly the issue. What more did he, Broderick Patrick James, want from life?

Just thinking about it gave Brodie chills, and that wasn’t because he was waist deep in a swimming pool. These recovery sessions were just a part of the routine that was Brodie’s life. He had to contend not only with his aching muscles, but with the antics of his younger teammates as well. Full of the exuberance of youth, these pups were good at riding him about his age. They respected him, though, despite their good-humoured cheek, and they were keen to learn all they could from him.

As his teammates laughed and horsed around, Brodie’s attention was drawn elsewhere. She was here again. Brodie had seen her swimming laps at the pool many times. Something about the way she walked, or stood, or swam caught his attention. Maybe it was how her elegant arms seemed to effortlessly slice through the water.

He had watched, fascinated by the way that, no matter how hard she tried, she never completely managed to corral that red mass of curls under her swim cap. There were tendrils always haphazardly poking out. He wanted to tuck them away for her just so he could feel their texture. He wondered what her hair would feel like up against his chest“”a bad move on his part. His body had an immediate reaction to the sexy thought, forming an ill-timed lump in the front of his tiny swimming briefs.

For a chance to win an e-book copy of one of my League of Love stories just leave a comment. Have you heard of my favorite sport before maybe watched a game. Did you know the US has a team playing in the 2013 World Cup?

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