This week I’m happy to chat with Emma Ray Garrett. The lady and I go way back. She’s an amazing woman with an incredible talent at spinning tales of the action adventure persuasion. Her characters’ relationships are nothing short of explosive in their intensity and she rocks it consistently. I am proud to call her friend and am squee-ing at the fact that she was willing to talk to me about one of my favorite series to date…Pret Ops.

Identity is your newest release with Changeling Press. Let me tell you, it’s SMOKIN’ hot. I’m completely in lust with both of the men. *WEG* So tell me, what was it like revisiting your Pret Ops world?

I had a blast falling back in love with the Recondite Corp. One of my fav genres is military fiction, so being able to mix elements of that with erotica, and some thriller tossed in for good measure, was absolutely fantastic

All the Pret Ops books are novellas, have you thought about doing a full length book?

I have, yes. Short books can be a lot of fun, but I know this world has so much more detail to share with readers. I’m not making any promises, LOL, but I do hope one day to write a full length Pret Ops story.

What made you choose Cole and John, after all they share the same last name and were foster brothers for a time?

LOL, true. They were as close as any brothers could be after Cole came to live with the Marshall’s. But much like Nat and Stas – from “Familiar” – there was never any familial feeling between the two men. Cole took the Marshall last name when he turned 18 as much out of honor and thanks to the Marshall’s, as to signify starting out adult life a new man. He was putting aside the really, really bad things from his childhood and embracing the healed, strengthened man he’d become with the Marshall’s.

I adore polar bears (secret weakness…shhh don’t tell anyone). What was the most challenging part about writing a polar bear and seal combination?

Pondering the mechanics. The Pret Ops world follows certain scientific principles of our own world, so I had to figure out a way to make a polar bear shifter happen AND understand how the combination would pan out. I had a ton of fun with it, btw, and I love the added tension between Cole and Lucia. Mortal enemies and all, LOL!

In Identity you introduced us to a new division. Would you like to tell us more about it?

Sure. Cyber Operations is the unit John and Cole Marshall have put all their spare time into for the last decade plus. Cy Ops specializes in computer/internet crime involving preternaturals – whether as victims or perpetrators. I am such a tech freak, I’ve been thinking about this branch of the Corp nearly from the beginning of the series. I mean, super men and women kick ass and take names, but they’re just as vulnerable to cyber wars – perhaps more so because they have more to protect – as the rest of us. I really wanted to know about the people in the Corp who ride the line of exposure more than any of the rest of the Pret Ops world and that’s where Cy Ops began. The first book in the Cy Ops series should be out later this year

Would you be willing to share a juicy excerpt with us?

It would be my pleasure!

Due to the nature of the incredibly lusty and deliciously decadent excerpt, I have to ask you to please click to read more. All content is © Emma Ray Garrett. Click for more at your own risk…*WEG*

“Don’t run, Lucia. It only makes me hungrier.”

Cole’s words reached out to her like fingers, trailing over her body, making her shiver hard. She hit the stair access door, fumbling for the knob. The door opened with a whoosh and she charged through, hesitating a moment at the first riser to look back at Cole.

He wasn’t chasing her. He stalked her. His lithe body moved with sure, steady grace. He seemed to vibrate with power. A kind of strength, a resolve, Lucia couldn’t ignore. But she wasn’t about to be caught so easily. Though his eyes were black with his animal’s magic, she knew their potency had nothing to do with true hunger and everything to do with taking her body. Problem was, a tiny place inside her realized when he finally caught up with her, it’d be more than her body Cole Marshall took.

Breaking eye contact, she fled, fast as her legs would take her. Up the stairs, up and up, to the top floor where she knew John waited. The toe of her shoe stubbed on a step and she tripped up the last few stairs. She heard Cole approaching above the rasping sounds of her own breathing. Shoving open the stairwell door, she hurried to the apartment and burst inside, panting, palms pressed to her racing heart.

“What the hell?” John jumped up from the sofa and whirled at her entry.

“Cole,” she panted. “Coming.” She didn’t have breath or moisture in her mouth to say more. Spinning on her heels, she leapt for the door, throwing locks as soon as her fingers touched them.

“Lucia, what happened?” John’s pulse beat harder at Lucia’s flushed face and harsh breathing.

“He’s hungry.” She turned to face John.

The blush rising from her chest slowed his heart rate, briefly. She wasn’t terrified, as he’d thought at first. She was aroused. “Do you really think that door will stop him?”

As if in answer, Cole’s knuckles rapped against the wood. “Little seal, little seal, let me come in.”

His adaptation of a favorite children’s-story line almost made her laugh, it was so surreal. She looked into John’s face, trying to read his thoughts, but the big man only grinned. When Cole knocked next, he did so hard enough to rattle the door in its frame and Lucia jumped about a foot. She hurried to John, dashing behind him, putting his massive body between her and the bear outside the door.

“I’d rather he didn’t break the door in.” John’s words were filled with good humor and said barely a moment before exactly that happened.

The crash of wood against plaster rang in Lucia’s ears, an erotic knell clanging she was trapped. Even if she’d been blind and deaf, the scent of Cole’s arousal rolled into the room on a wave of masculine pheromones and base intent potent enough she doubted John’s nose, were it only human in skill, could miss the aroma.

“Hey, John.” Cole cocked his head at his friend.

“Cole. What’s up?”

The look in John’s eye said he clearly knew exactly what Cole was up to and he was plenty interested in joining him. Cole’s cock twitched, becoming painfully engorged. He’d been hard as stone before he’d kicked the door down, but with the end of the pursuit at hand, and with the big man obviously ready to play, Cole wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep his cock imprisoned in jeans.

“I’m looking for our little Selkie. Have you seen her?”

The very unladylike snort emitted from behind John clearly said Lucia wasn’t impressed with their byplay. She stepped around John, hands on hips. “You know I’m here. No doubt you can smell me.”

Cole took a long, deep breath. “Oh, yes. Delicious. I’ll just bet you’re creamy from our little chase.”

The light humor Cole and John’s banter raised dissipated with the carnal words. Lucia shivered and instinctively started to retreat, despite having no escape, but John’s strong hands, then his powerful frame, stopped her. He enveloped her from behind, taking her wrists in his hands and bringing them around her back, between their bodies. He wasn’t hurting her, but there was no escape, either.

*** blog: emmaraygarrett@wordpress.com website: http://www.romance-the-night.com/emma_ray_garrett/mainindex.htm

HOLY WOW. I love author shout outs LOL.