Guest Post & Giveaway with Laura Kaye!

Please welcome back to the Nest, author Laura Kaye! 

(My review of the first book in the Vampire Warrior Kings series can be found here and my review of book 2 is directly below this post, here.)

Top Ten Reasons to Fall in Love with Nikolai Vasilyev

Today I’m very excited to be at Reading Lark after Dark to celebrate the release of my dark vampire romance, Seduced by the Vampire King. This book is the second in my Vampire Warrior Kings series from Harlequin Nocturne—definitively not your mother’s Harlequin! *grins* (The first book, In the Service of the King, released in February.) And, since I adore heroes, I thought I’d share the top ten reasons I think you just might fall in love with mine:

10) Nikolai is tortured by the guilt of his brothers’ deaths. He believes his own failure of leadership and honor caused their deaths, and not he feels unworthy of leading his people. He believes he deserves the pain he feels.

9) He is protective of those he loves and selfless to a fault, denying himself the things he needs so he can give what he believes everyone around him requires.

8) He’s has a warrior’s heart…and body. A warrior who bears the marks of centuries of warfare. A fighter who does what has to be done. He’s a bad-ass, take-no-prisoners, hold-nothing-back kind of soldier.

7) He’s tattooed. If you guys know me at all, you know I love heroes with tattoos. And Nikolai’s body bears multiple fascinating inked marks of his royal status and position. You’ll enjoy discovering them one inch of skin at a time. Yum.

6) He has long hair. Long hair on a guy just kills me. And what I love even more about that hair is how much he loves the heroine stroking and tugging it, how it’s the one soft part on a guy who is otherwise all rough edges and sharp angles. Gah.

5) He lives in a massive, ancient mansion. Vasilievskoe is the setting for most of the story, a real abandoned mansion about an hour’s drive east of Moscow, Russia. I am completely fascinated with the sheer number and former glory of the literally hundreds of abandoned historical castles and mansions that still exist today all over Russia.

4) He’s a king. A freaking king, people. Before you even get to the body or the fangs or the man within, his rank is an aphrodisiac all itself. Plus, he’s an ancient king living in the modern era, and it’s a mix of history and modernity that is so sexy. AND, he’s so tortured, he believes himself unworthy of the position, and that makes me just ache for him!

4a) He has fangs and he knows how to use ‘em! (AKA, he haz skillz!)

3) He knows what he wants, and what he wants is Katherine Bordessa. The possessiveness that floods through him shocks even Nikolai, especially when he discovers another vampire has lent her some clothes. I. Love. That. Scene.

2) He’s a skilled lover (AKA, he haz skillz part deux!). Just ask Katherine Bordessa. Whether he’s claiming her in a dungeon cell or in his bed, he knows how to please. Me likey!

1) He’s freaking gorgeous, from his golden hair, to his sapphire eyes that flare with preternatural light, to his tattoos, to the incredible muscles covering every inch of his body.

Need more convincing? Read on…

Excerpt – so, since I teased you with it, I thought I’d share a part of the another male’s clothes scene! Enjoy!:

Nearby, the plumbing whined. Someone was running the water. Nikolai backtracked and turned down an adjacent hallway. Light shined from under the door of the lone guest room in his part of the manor.

He was going to kill Mikhail.

Before he even thought to do it, he found himself standing in front of that door. Her door.

Oh, what the hell was he doing?

He should apologize. Rationale squarely in place, he rapped his knuckles against the heavy panel of wood. Again. No answer. “Katherine?”

He knocked his head against the door. Deep need rose within him, to lay eyes on her and reassure himself she was okay. She’d been attacked, bitten, kidnapped and imprisoned. Not goddamn likely she was okay. And that wasn’t even considering what had happened between them, which had been phenomenal until he acted like a son of a bitch. The urge to see her made it hard to breathe.

He pushed through the door and called her name again. Two things struck him simultaneously: soft splashes of water from the direction of the open bathroom door and a stack of clothes on her bed.

Inside the room, her sweet-blooded scent infused the air and reawakened his cock, reminding him of his unsated arousal from before. Each breath pulled more of her into him, until he ached to penetrate her in return, in any way she’d allow. In every way she’d allow. Prickles on the skin of his right palm made him fist his hand.

His breath coming faster, shallower, Nikolai stepped over her discarded clothing to the bed and quickly flipped through the pile of fabric—robe, T-shirt, sweatshirt, sweatpants. All Mikhail’s.

An image flashed into his mind. Katherine, wearing Mikhail’s shirt and sweatpants, so big on her she had to roll them at the waist and ankles. Katherine, wearing Mikhail’s clothes.

Another. Male’s. Clothes.

Nearly blind with a possessiveness he had no right to feel, Nikolai grabbed all the clothes and stalked out of the room. Bursting through the door to his apartment, he chucked everything in the general direction of the nearest trash can. He whipped his robe off the back of his closet door and ripped a few articles of clothing from a drawer. He wasn’t even aware he’d returned to the guest room until her scent invaded his brain.

Nikolai glanced up, and found himself looking into Katherine’s startled pale blue eyes.

So, what do you think? Did I convince you to fall in love with Nikolai, even the smallest bit? Tell me what about him appeals to you most and I’ll offer a GIVEAWAY! One commenter will win an ebook of Seduced by the Vampire King! Good luck! And thanks for reading!

Laura Kaye

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About Seduced by the Vampire King:

Book 2: Vampire Warrior Kings Series

American exchange student Kate Bordessa has fled to Russia to escape her family's hopes that she'll become one of the Proffered, human women who feed and mate with elite vampire warriors. But when she stumbles upon a wounded vampire in the streets of Moscow, she's instinctively driven to protect him--and feels an undeniable spark of desire.

Grieving over the deaths of his brothers, Vampire Warrior King Nikolai Vasilyev has thrown himself into battling his enemies, focused only on vengeance. Until the attack that brought him to Kate. Their sexual attraction explodes into a night of uncontrolled passion--a night that marks them as mates. Is their connection strong enough to convince them to embrace a destiny neither of them was expecting?

About Laura Kaye:

Voted Breakout Author of the Year in the 2011 GraveTells Readers’ Choice Awards, Laura is the bestselling and award-winning author of over a half-dozen books in paranormal, contemporary and erotic romance. Hearts in Darkness is the EPIC eBook Award Winner for Best Novella and HOLT Medallion Award of Merit Winner for Best Romance Novella, Forever Freed is the NJRW Golden Leaf Winner for Best Paranormal of 2011 and is a finalist for two GDRWA Booksellers’ Best Awards, and North of Need, the first book in the Hearts of the Anemoi series, is a finalist for a FF&P PRISM award, was named GraveTells’ Best Book of 2011 and won their 5-STAR Gold Heart Award, and won Sizzling Hot Read of the Year at Sizzling Hot Books. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.