by: Livy Hart
Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
Release Date: May 30, 2022
Publisher: Entangled: Embrace
Amazon | Paperback | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Goodreads
A little hate goes a long way…
I’ve got ninety-nine problems and my brother’s snarky, smart-mouthed best friend Sam is tangled up in every last one of them.
When it comes to firefighter Sam O’Shea, absence—and a regime of tactical avoidance—has been working for me just fiiiine. But when the audition of a lifetime falls in my pathetically broke lap, and he’s the only one who can help me land the job, I’m willing to make a deal with the devil if it means I can kickstart my career as a narrator for audio books.
The problem? We’d have to actually do the job. Together. And then we’re told it’s for an erotic romance. Narrating steamy lines in a tiny studio with a man who lights a fire under your skin? An occupational hazard. Accidentally inciting a town scandal when your erotic audiobook clips wind up on the radio? A crisis. And falling for the one man I promised my brother—and my heart—I wouldn’t touch?
A disaster—and temptation—I can’t resist.
Thank you so much!
Talk Flirty to Me is a story about two exes, Piper and Sam, who narrate a steamy audiobook together. Sam also happens to be her brother’s best friend.
Piper already had her dating-my-brother’s-best-friend moment seven years ago, and it ended badly. So working with Sam at all, let alone on a steamy audiobook, is not the wisest decision. But they both have something to gain from the arrangement, and are stubbornly convinced it’ll be totally fine.
What could go wrong, narrating erotic romance with your first love (who you sort of want to punch in the face)?
I’m guessing plenty. Tell me about Piper and Sam.
At the start of the story, Piper Bellini (24) has recently moved back home with her giant, rowdy Italian family to help her mother while she figures out her next career move. Breaking into the voice acting industry has been an uphill battle. She’s your sarcasm-as-a-shield type, but at her core she’s a selfless nurturer who really just needs a win. Being financially unstable as a result of working in a creative field has taken its emotional toll, and she’s almost ready to throw in the towel. When this audition presents itself and Sam offers his help, she’s just desperate enough to accept. In life and in love, she sometimes makes the wrong choices, but for the right reasons.
Firefighter Sam O’Shea (26) is an earnest overachiever who wants to belong. His parents are emotionally distant and he grew up best friends with Piper’s brother Caleb. Sam longed for the type of big, close family Caleb and Piper have (the Bellini family has eleven kids). As a firefighter running for mayor, he’s doing the absolute MOST in this book— gotta fill those emotional voids somehow! He’s the Energizer Bunny in charming human form.
Why does Piper dislike Sam so much, I mean he’s involved in all of her ninety-nine problems? And is the feeling mutual?
Once upon their high school experience, Sam and Piper were a couple. They never planned for it, because Sam didn’t want to cross the line with his best friend Caleb’s little sister, but it happened. When it came time for Sam to go to college, Piper didn’t want to hold him back. The breakup was messy and blew up his friendship with Caleb.
Sam and Caleb have just restored their friendship, seven years later. Thus it is an incredibly inconvenient time for Piper to move back to town, as beautiful and infuriating as ever, needing help. But Sam couldn’t help but offer his assistance, with a few conditions. And Piper couldn’t help but accept, with conditions of her own. Their working and personal relationship may be contentious, but the attraction and interest hasn’t faded over time.
What was your favorite part of Talk Flirty to Me to write?
I adored writing the voice acting scenes, especially the one in Piper’s closet studio. It’s two people denying their massive attraction to each other, in a tiny, insulated space, reciting the campiest romance lines you can imagine (think horny Princess Bride).
Tell me about one of your favorite scenes from the book, and why is it a favorite?
Piper and Sam do a fine job of not touching each other, until they are thrust into the cramped backseat of a mini-van on a stormy night. It’s a snapshot of their dynamic— teasing and tense. He thinks he wants to get a rise out of her, but really, he just wants her. The feeling is very mutual. Almost kisses and close calls are my favorite things to write.
At what point did these characters and their love story become real for you?
Sam took a little bit of coaxing, but when I wrote the chapter where he told Piper they got the gig, he suddenly made perfect sense to me. Piper in all her sarcastic glory was real to me very early on, which made it fun to draft.
Their love came alive when I wrote their first tortured kiss, and then knocked me out (in a good way) during the epilogue. Not just because “aw, happily ever after” but because that particular moment came to me fully formed and played out like a movie in my mind. Everytime I read it, I happy-sigh.
Was there a time during the writing process that you were really surprised by the story or the characters?
The story, as I initially saw it, had a lot more actual voice acting and script content embedded. But I was so desperate to get back to Sam and Piper’s real-life drama, I had to cut a few!
What do you most want readers to take away from reading Talk Flirty to Me?
I hope readers walk away amused at the absurd and moved by the sincere. Falling in love can be painful, soul-affirming, and life-altering. But it can also be fun and light— and maybe a little ridiculous, in the best way.
Livy, thank you so much for taking the time to answer so questions for me.
He takes his position at the mic, tugging me with him as his hands tighten around my waist. I short-circuit at the touch, incapable of forming a response. Reading is the only thing I can manage to do. My script is almost resting on his chest. I don’t know how I make it through my lines at all.
On his turn, his tone is so loaded I feel the blood heating in my veins.
“‘To be fair, it was I who was in a compromising position. I believe it looked…a little something…like this?’”
He puts his left knee to the floor, followed by his right. He’s kneeling in front of me like he’s worshiping at an altar, his head tilted up and lips nearly parted. I drop my arm to the side, and the script slips out of my hand. The pages flurry as they fall through the air until it hits the ground.
He slides his hands from my waist to my lower back. My body is so tightly wound up under his touch my skin might be vibrating.
All I can do is nod. Yes.
He drags his fingers over the sides of my hips, slowly passing over the fronts of my thighs before exploring down my legs. His eyes never leave mine, and I don’t think I could look away if I wanted to. I’m transfixed. All I can do is watch as he exhumes this ravenous need for him I buried long ago. I had forced myself to forget the feeling of wanting him, and now he’s on his knees, unearthing it with two bare, careful hands.
He reaches the spot just above my knees where my dress ends and fans his fingers over warm skin. Heat radiates from every touch point, sizzling up my legs. He must know what he’s doing to me or he wouldn’t be looking at me like that, with bottomless green eyes that are equal parts wicked and remorseful. If he can stoke this kind of feeling in me with the brush of his fingertips, I don’t stand a chance against his touch. But I want it so badly I struggle to stay still. I want him to grip. Press. Push.
“Say something,” Sam says, voice scratchy and low. “Please. I need to hear your voice.”
“Why?” I manage, my breathing jagged and uneven. “So you can hear what you’re doing to me?”
“Yes,” he growls. “Hell yes.”
His words push me toward an invisible precipice. My thoughts are a hazy mess, but my body is prepared to form a silent coup if I don’t get my hands on him.
“Tell me you don’t think about this.” He nudges the hem of my dress up a few inches. “My hands on you, doing the things our characters get to do.”
Heat spreads between my legs like a lit fuse. All I can think about is how badly I want him to touch me. I feel like Victoria at Laz’s teasing hand.
“I think about it,” I admit, breathless. I look down at his lips and feel a phantom pressure on my own. I take in the line of his neck, remembering the salty taste of his skin from when I used to kiss and suck until he bruised. He’d always do the same to me, and I’d secretly revel in the proof that our stolen nights together in my room were real. The impulse to taste him is so strong I bite my tongue. “I shouldn’t, especially while we’re working. But I do.”
“What exactly do you think about? Don’t hold back.”
On his turn, his tone is so loaded I feel the blood heating in my veins.
“‘To be fair, it was I who was in a compromising position. I believe it looked…a little something…like this?’”
He puts his left knee to the floor, followed by his right. He’s kneeling in front of me like he’s worshiping at an altar, his head tilted up and lips nearly parted. I drop my arm to the side, and the script slips out of my hand. The pages flurry as they fall through the air until it hits the ground.
He slides his hands from my waist to my lower back. My body is so tightly wound up under his touch my skin might be vibrating.
All I can do is nod. Yes.
He drags his fingers over the sides of my hips, slowly passing over the fronts of my thighs before exploring down my legs. His eyes never leave mine, and I don’t think I could look away if I wanted to. I’m transfixed. All I can do is watch as he exhumes this ravenous need for him I buried long ago. I had forced myself to forget the feeling of wanting him, and now he’s on his knees, unearthing it with two bare, careful hands.
He reaches the spot just above my knees where my dress ends and fans his fingers over warm skin. Heat radiates from every touch point, sizzling up my legs. He must know what he’s doing to me or he wouldn’t be looking at me like that, with bottomless green eyes that are equal parts wicked and remorseful. If he can stoke this kind of feeling in me with the brush of his fingertips, I don’t stand a chance against his touch. But I want it so badly I struggle to stay still. I want him to grip. Press. Push.
“Say something,” Sam says, voice scratchy and low. “Please. I need to hear your voice.”
“Why?” I manage, my breathing jagged and uneven. “So you can hear what you’re doing to me?”
“Yes,” he growls. “Hell yes.”
His words push me toward an invisible precipice. My thoughts are a hazy mess, but my body is prepared to form a silent coup if I don’t get my hands on him.
“Tell me you don’t think about this.” He nudges the hem of my dress up a few inches. “My hands on you, doing the things our characters get to do.”
Heat spreads between my legs like a lit fuse. All I can think about is how badly I want him to touch me. I feel like Victoria at Laz’s teasing hand.
“I think about it,” I admit, breathless. I look down at his lips and feel a phantom pressure on my own. I take in the line of his neck, remembering the salty taste of his skin from when I used to kiss and suck until he bruised. He’d always do the same to me, and I’d secretly revel in the proof that our stolen nights together in my room were real. The impulse to taste him is so strong I bite my tongue. “I shouldn’t, especially while we’re working. But I do.”
“What exactly do you think about? Don’t hold back.”
Purchase Talk Flirty to Me from:
Places to find Livy Hart:
enjoyed the interview
ReplyDeletedenise
Thank you.
Delete