A warm welcome to author Tal Bauer joining us today here at Love Bytes to talk about their new release Enemy of My Enemy , book 2 in the The Executive Office series.
Tal brought guests with them for an interview , shares an excerpt and there is also a giveaway to participate in!
Welcome Tal 🙂
President Jack Spiers with Nancy Connors, TNN
Chapter Fourteen Extended Scene, Enemy of My Enemy
Nancy Connors: Welcome, President Spiers, and thank you for agreeing to this interview.
Jack: I’m happy to be here and delighted to chat with you today. Let’s dive in. I’m looking forward to this.
Nancy Connors: Mr. President, so much has happened in your life, both personally and professionally. You lost your wife when you were a young man—
Jack: I like to think I still am a young man!
Nancy Connors: *chuckling* Of course. *Sobering* Her loss, though, was devastating for you.
Jack: *nodding slowly*
Nancy Connors: And so you dedicated your life to politics in her memory. And you became the President of the United States.
Jack: *smiling* There are a couple big steps in there that you glossed over, but yes. I worked hard to become the president, and a major motivator in pursing political office was to honor my wife’s memory. To strive for the changes the world needs so that we, as a country, don’t throw lives away in war again. That we build a safer, stronger world, united.
Nancy Connors: And then, you nearly lost your presidency, and your life, in General Madigan’s attempted coup.
Jack: General Madigan surprised us all, and it wasn’t just my presidency that was almost ruined, it was the world. Make no mistake, General Madigan would have unleashed terror across the world. Great Americans put a stop to his machinations, but he is still out there. We will track him down though, run him down to the ends of the earth and bring him to justice.
Nancy Connors: And, Mr. President, I have to ask. In the middle of everything. All of this. In the middle of your life devoted to your deceased wife, in the middle of a coup against you, you say that you have found love again.
Jack: Yes.
Nancy Connors: You announced to the world that you had fallen in love with someone who had become your best friend. With the head of your Secret Service detail, and a man. Ethan Reichenbach.
Jack: *tight smile*
Nancy Connors: You stunned the world, Mr. President.
Jack: *chuckles*
Nancy Connors: You have never discussed your sexuality, Mr. President. There have been lots of questions. Rumors. Accusations. Some claim that you have hidden your homosexuality for your entire life. In your one statement, when you revealed that you and Mr. Reichenbach had become intimate, you stated that this was something unexpected, and it was a surprise to you. So, Mr. President. How do you define your sexuality? How do you define what you and the first gentleman have together?
Jack: Nancy, I’ve been lucky enough to find love twice in my life. First with a woman, my wife, Captain Leslie Spiers. And then I discovered love again with a man, my best friend. Ethan Reichenbach. *smiles* Finding love with Ethan was a process. It was…a discovery of who I was, and who I was capable of loving. *beaming* I couldn’t be prouder, or happier, to be with who I am and to be with the man I love.
Nancy Connors: Wow, Mr. President. That is a powerful statement.
Jack: It is, and it’s one I’m proud to make. Falling in love with Ethan was like opening up a part of my soul. Exploring the true depths of my heart, and seeing how much love I was capable of. And, as for what you said earlier, about what some people claim about my past. I’ve never before considered being with a man. Never felt any attraction to a man. I haven’t been hiding anything.
Nancy Connors: Then, what happened here, Mr. President? How did you fall in love with your best friend… a man? This is something that I don’t think a lot of people will be able to fully understand. Help explain it to them.
Jack: I think it a lot of little things that all came together. Ethan quickly became my best friend, and I know that, in and of itself, was…not quite proper. We were skirting the rules quite a bit. But, I was drawn to him. Wanted to make him laugh. Wanted to see him smile. Thought about him all the time. *smiles* I thought it was because he was my best friend. But he was feeling the same way, and then… He kissed me.
Nancy Connors: He kissed you first?
Jack: *nodding* Everything changed after that. I panicked. Didn’t know what to do, or what to think. I rejected him, at first. But it was like that kiss had unlocked something inside me. Suddenly, I could see the two of us growing even closer. I already loved him as a friend. Suddenly, I was imagining loving him as a man. As a lover. And I took that chance. *smiles* And I’m so happy I did. I discovered so much about myself. The depth of love in my heart. And, I discovered that I am bisexual. And so, in answer to your—and everyone’s—questions: I am bisexual. I am proudly bisexual. I am proudly in love with Ethan, just like I was proudly in love with my wife.
Nancy Connors: I understand that you have another announcement you wish to make, Mr. President.
Jack: Yes, thank you, Nancy. I’d like to….
Please check out Enemy of My Enemy, released from Ninestar Press on October 24th, for more!
Title: Enemy of My Enemy
Author: Tal Bauer
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: October 24, 2016
Pages: 287
Cover Artist: Natasha Snow
Book Blurb
Fifteen years from now, an affair rocks the world.
Two men commit to their impossible love.
One general is determined to destroy them both..
President Jack Spiers and former Secret Service Agent Ethan Reichenbach throw caution to the wind, committing themselves publicly as the first out male lovers and partners to occupy the White House. Jack moves Ethan into the Residence, but as Ethan settles into his new role as first gentleman of the United States, not everyone is thrilled with their choices. When it seems like the world turns against them, Jack and Ethan must turn to each other, finding the strength together to press on.
In the chaos, Jack’s relationship with the Russian president, Sergey Puchkov, grows closer, and the two nations find themselves working almost as allies. But President Puchkov has secrets of his own, secrets that could rip everything apart. And Ethan steps back into the action with Lieutenant Adam Cooper, taking charge of a covert kill team tasked with hunting down General Madigan once and for all.
But Madigan is elusive, and his dangerous reach is long. He strikes at Jack and Ethan from the shadowy corners of the globe, unraveling their entire world. As the mad general draws new allies together, he is single-minded in his quest to destroy the only two men who ever beat him.
He will stop at nothing until Jack and Ethan are shattered men, worlds apart, and struggling to get back to one another.
And after that, Madigan’s true revenge begins…
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Tal Bauer © 2016
All Rights Reserved.
Eyes slid sideways, the staff from the East Wing of the White House all seemingly hovered in the lobby, waiting to catch a glimpse of Ethan as he entered.
Ethan pushed through, nodding and giving his best tight smile to the crowd.
“Relax,” Daniels breathed at his shoulder. “You’ve got your constipated agent face on.”
Ethan threw a glare Daniels’s way.
“These are your people now.” Daniels’s eyebrows arched high as he nodded to the mass of humanity.
His people. Jesus. The office of the first gentlemen, all his. Swallowing, Ethan tried to smile again, though he couldn’t fight the nerves clutching at the back of his throat.
Daniels stayed by his side as he escaped up the stairway to the second floor of the East Wing. On the quieter second floor, the office of the first gentleman made its home. Oil paintings of former first ladies hung on the walls, and at the end of the hallway, a large corner office overlooking the Kennedy Garden, opposite the Oval Office, sported a shiny brass doorplate, reading, “First Gentleman, Ethan Reichenbach.”
“Fuck me,” Ethan breathed. Just last Monday he’d been moody and grumpy with Jack on their nightly Skype call, bemoaning his exile in Iowa. He’d been frustrated, missing Jack and Levi and Scott and everything about DC, and Jack had offered him the impossible.
He’d dismissed it out of hand; he didn’t want to be a freeloader. The first gentleman earned no income. It was a ceremonial position only. He’d be an anchor on Jack’s neck. An albatross. They were trying to stay out of the public’s eye, not catapult into it. There had never been an unwed first gentleman before, and certainly not a gay first gentleman. The whole idea was a disaster. He’d already done too much damage to Jack’s presidency.
On Wednesday, he’d flown to DC, stood in the Oval Office, and told Jack he’d take it. He’d resign from the Secret Service and move back to DC, ending his exile. He’d move in with Jack. They’d build a life together. No looking back.
That new life started immediately. They’d danced the night away at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, and Ethan had torn up his return ticket to Iowa. Thursday he’d faxed in his resignation. Friday he and Jack took an early day, spending the weekend ensconced in the Residence as Pete released the announcement to the world.
And now, this.
It was almost too much. Ethan turned away, breathing hard as Daniels gripped his shoulder again.
“This is history, man.” Daniels smiled, warm and bright, and Ethan’s nerves screamed. “I’m so damn proud of you.”
Damn him. Damn Daniels. Ethan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and opened them to glare hard at Daniels. “This is insane,” he grunted. “I don’t deserve this. I’m not this guy. I shouldn’t be here.”
“That’s exactly why he fell in love with you, and why you are here.” Daniels gave him a gentle shove, pushing him down the empty hallway to the office that bore his name. “Get going. Your staff is waiting inside.”
His staff. Jesus.
The heavy white door whispered over plush carpet as he entered his office. Inside, one man and four women rose together from two pale-blue silk couches facing each other before a large desk. They smiled and waited, silent.
He froze until Daniels jabbed him in his kidney. Ethan strode behind the couches to the wooden chair sitting, obviously, for him. He nodded to his staff and tried to smile. “Good morning. I’m Agent―”
Clearing his throat, Ethan quirked his eyebrows at his staff as Daniels grinned from the back of the room. “Sorry,” he said. “I’ve got to get used to dropping my old title. I’m Ethan. Ethan Reichenbach.”
The smiles from his staff were indulgent, grins and nods that told him that yes, dummy, they knew exactly who he was.
“Please, sit.” He fumbled a bit, waiting for his staff to sit and then remembered that they were waiting for him. A bobbing half stand, and then he sat, embarrassment burning his cheeks as he tried to clear his throat again and bear it.
Daniels covered his grin with the palm of his hand and looked away.
“Can you all tell me a little bit about yourselves?” Ethan nodded as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and tried to sit comfortably in the ornate—but heinous—chair.
“Mr. First Gentleman,” said an older woman with short red hair curled into wide, fluffy rolls perching around her face like a football helmet. “Let me be the first to greet you with your new title.” She smiled warmly at Ethan, her hands clasped in her lap and ankles crossed just so. Her immaculate red suit was pressed and starched, and a string of pearls hung at the hollow of her neck, just below a fold of aging skin starting to sag.
Mr. First Gentleman. Jesus. He flushed from head to foot and squirmed.
“Please, Mr. Reichenbach will do just fine.”
“Mr. First Gentleman,” she gently corrected him with an incline of her head. She would have been a socialite contemporary of Nancy Reagan and carried herself with a class that proved it. “My name is Barbara Whitley, and I am the White House social secretary. I serve at the pleasure of the office of the first gentleman.” Another warm smile and Barbara’s head tilted. “And please let me say that I am absolutely delighted to be working for you, Mr. First Gentleman.”
The gentleness radiating from Barbara calmed Ethan, just a touch. “Forgive me, Ms. Whitley. I may have protected the president, but I’m not up to speed on the full breadth of your duties.”
“I am responsible for the planning of all social events at the White House, in coordination with you, of course. From something as simple as an afternoon tea all the way to a full state dinner.”
Jesus. That was a big job. Ethan blinked. “I have to admit,” he said, shifting in his seat again, “I’m not really one for afternoon tea.”
Tal Bauer writes LGBT fiction and romance, bringing together a career in law enforcement, trauma medicine, and international humanitarian and disaster relief work to create dynamic, strong characters, intriguing plots, and unique, exotic locations. Tal’s stories weave together pulse-pounding adventure, cunning intrigue, and sweeping romance. Tal is a member of the Romance Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America.
Check out our events calendar for information on additional blog stops for Enemy of My Enemy and other upcoming releases!
Congratulations on your new release Tal. I haven’t read the first book in the series but it is in my TBR and the new one is on my wish list.
havent read this series yet but they sound great
I have Enemies of the State on my Kindle for quite a while but haven’t got started on it yet! *face-palm* I shall have to rectify this soonest – adding the sequel to my TBR, too; it sounds really intense.
Congrats on another new release, Tal.
Enemy of the State is waiting for me on my Kindle. Looking forward to reading it!
I loved Enemy of the State and so looking forward to reading Enemy of My Enemy! I enjoyed the intrigue and the inside look at the secret service and how they do their job on a daily basis.