Tara Quan’s Operation Owl Tour of the Capital – Butterfly Pavilion
I owe Evelise a huge thank you
for hosting me today. Because of my impending move to Rome, I may soon
experience a prolonged Internet blackout and have therefore prescheduled all my
stops. My latest multicultural romance from
Decadent Publishing comes out July 15, 2014.
For up-to-date buy links as well
as a chance to win a $25 gift card, drop by my website: TaraQuan.com/Owl
In honor of the place I consider
home (what the government terms the National Capital Area), I’m dedicating the
posts on this tour to Washington, D.C. and its surrounding suburbs. The
romantic comedy I’m very blatantly promoting is set entirely in the US capital.
A Beyond Fairytales adaptation of The Owl by Brothers Grimm, Operation Owl features a geeky hacker
hero and his bookish best friend. They team up to expose a cyber conspiracy at
the heart of the US government and end up indulging in some other equally
exciting activities.
Waypoint: Butterfly Pavilion
No place in D.C. comes remotely
close to being a Tropical Paradise (the title and setting for my lovely
hostess’ Decadent Publishing release), but there is one stop I highly recommend
for a (very artificial) taste of nature. Located on the second floor of the
Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian’s Live Butterfly Pavilion features a
nice collection of tropical plants and close to 30 varieties of butterflies.
After paying a small fee, you
can walk into a glass-enclosed humidified garden filled with tropical flowers.
There are so many winged creatures fluttering about that you’ll usually find at
least one member of your party with a butterfly hovering over their clothes
(especially if they’re wearing bright colors). If you don’t want to fork over
the cash for a ticket, you can still watch the butterflies from outside. Photography
is allowed, and this is one of those occasions when the video camera function
on your phones might come in handy.
Either way, it’s a fun
air-conditioned stop along the National Mall, and a nice way to temporarily
avoid the crowds that seem to form around the dinosaur exhibits and Hope
diamond.
And thus concludes my Capital
Area tip for the day. Follow along at TaraQuan.com/Owl
as I continue my tour at the blogs of some awesome romance authors.
Operation Owl
Five years ago, Maya Jain kissed
her best friend only to have him run out of her dorm room and leave the state.
When he shows up in Washington, D.C., a wanted fugitive sought after by every
branch of the US government, she can’t bring herself to ignore his plight. As
their physical relationship picks up where it left off, she decides it’s time
to make him see her as more than the bespectacled, bookish girl he once called
“Owl.”
After being accused of espionage
and treason, Zack Strong needs a forensic accountant to help clear his name.
Not knowing who he can trust, this white-hat hacker has no choice but to ask
his former best friend and math tutor for help. Together they unravel a cyber
conspiracy at the Barn, an NSA facility tasked to intercept electronic
communications. But as they traverse the nation’s capital to avoid capture,
Maya insists on letting their simmering sexual tension take its natural course.
Even though he’s never been able to shake the memory of their one kiss, he refuses
to let her give up her life for a man with no future.
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Comedy, Multicultural
Inspired by a Grimm’s fairy tale, Operation Owl is a multicultural romantic comedy featuring a pair
of best friends—a geek hero and bookish heroine—who work together to expose
cyber conspiracy at the heart of the US government.
Excerpt 1 (Sexy)
Hesitating at the threshold of stalker-like
activity, the logical part of his brain made one last-ditch attempt to stall
his fingers. This wasn’t acceptable behavior, not by any stretch of the
imagination. He should wait and see what happened. If push came to shove, he
could always abandon his post and knock on her door.
But he’d been sitting there for
ages, an abnormal amount of time for anyone to spend in the bathroom. She could
have passed out in there, and then where would they be? His brain’s paranoid
frontal lobe ended up winning the battle. He needed a quick peek, a brief
glance to confirm her location. If the trick gave him a glimpse of her in the
shower, the curtain would obscure his view. If he saw even a hint of skin, he’d
shut the damn feed off. No harm could come of this.
He accessed her webcam and
turned it on. As luck would have it, the computer was angled at the open
bathroom door, the only part of her apartment he couldn’t see into from the
street. With the wall-to-wall mirror completely visible on screen, it wouldn’t
be hard to ascertain her presence. A few keystrokes allowed him to enhance the
high definition feed and zoom in. A light coating of condensation blurred the
reflection by a fraction, but the open doors allowed most of it to dissipate.
The reflected image was clear enough to make out shapes and colors.
The footage presented a profile
view of Maya lying in a bathtub. Since he could only make out her face, neck,
and left arm, he didn’t see an immediate need to cease and desist. Her head
rested against the tub’s lip, cushioned by her long, dark hair. With her eyes
closed and lips parted, he couldn’t tell if she was conscious. What if she had
slipped in the shower and hit her head?
He cranked up the microphone’s
sensitivity. The great thing about modern-day computers was their much-improved
capability to process audio and video. As soon as she made a sound or moved,
he’d stop watching.
A soft, throaty moan crackled
over the speakers. Her left hand lifted in the air before clenching over the
side of the tub. Her back and neck arched.
“Shit.”
Slapping down his laptop screen, Zack leaned
back against the leather headrest and massaged his temples. Struggling not to
draw any conclusions, he muttered, “Don’t go there, man. Just don’t go there.”
About Tara Quan
Globetrotter, lover of languages, and romance author, Tara Quan has an
addiction for crafting tales with a pinch of spice and a smidgen of kink.
Inspired by her travels, Tara enjoys tossing her kick-ass heroines and alpha
males into exotic contemporary locales, fantasy worlds, and post-apocalyptic
futures. Armed with magical powers or conventional weapons, her characters are
guaranteed a suspenseful and sensual ride, as well as their own happily ever
after.
Thanks for having me over, Evelise!
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