Sydney Hall has spent her life looking for love in all the wrong places. Her world falls apart when the man she thought was Mr. Right turns out to be Mr. Couldn’t-Be-More-Wrong. She needs to make some major lifestyle changes—if she can figure out where to start.
Kain is a werewolf afraid of the vulnerability that comes with life with a pack. Nevertheless, werewolves are made to protect, and his instincts kick into high gear when he meets a bruised and battered Sydney Hall. He is determined to help her see herself as the strong woman he believes she can be.
Friendship grows as two damaged people find hope in each other. Can Sydney and Kain maintain their promise to remain friends without benefits? Or, is love inevitable as two wounded souls learn to heal together?
EXCERPT
Kain froze when he saw Sydney
and the darkening bruises marring her skin. His nostrils flared as he scented
blood and his eyes took on a familiar glimmer.
Sydney’s attention was directed
inward in her misery. She didn’t even notice the newcomer until he was next to
her.
“Who did this to you?” Kain
asked, his voice soft.
Sydney didn’t answer. She just
shook her head and sobbed harder.
Bending closer Kain placed one
finger under her chin, raising her gaze to his. His eyes flashed gold as he
exerted his will. He repeated, “Who did this to you?”
Haltingly, Sydney gave him the
information he sought. “Vince. Vince Thornton.”
With an abrupt nod Kain stood, turned,
and strode from the room.
Sydney looked at Maggie through
puffy eyes. “Who was that? Where is
he going?”
“That was Kain, and I suspect he’s
going to make Vince wish he had never been born.”
“Kain? Didn’t you—ouch—tell me
he’s a werewolf?” Sydney believed in werewolves about as much as she believed
in Santa Claus, but now was not the time for that discussion. She paused in her
efforts to get back on her feet. Talking, breathing, and moving was still a bit too much to try all at once. “Why would
he defend me? He doesn’t even know me.”
“It doesn’t matter if he knows
you or not—protecting people is what werewolves do. But, that said, Kain has a
real problem with anyone who abuses women or children.”
Jake Houser’s relief at returning home to Chicago after a business trip to Japan is short-lived when he’s involved in a horrific accident that kills his taxi driver and leaves him in a coma. As Jake’s life hangs in the balance, a beautiful young woman, Ava Andersen, comes to him and asks for his help. She must keep a promise made to loved ones, and Jake feels he must try to do what he can.
Through his meetings with Ava, he gleans bits and pieces of information…but in his temporary station between life and death, it seems there’s nothing he can do to help Ava with her quest to let her parents know what happened to her.
With the care of a young private nurse, Sara Clemmons, Jake slowly begins to recover. Will Sara help him fulfill the promise he’s made to help Ava—or will she believe he’s lost his sanity? Even Jake wonders how a ghost can communicate between two worlds…but he’s lived it, and he knows it’s real.
With Sara at his side, Jake sets out to find the people Ava held dear—and give them the message she’s asked him to deliver. For Jake, this is A MOMENT IN TIME provided by Fate… EXCERPT
The drizzle was
quickly turning to ice. Soon the parking meters, sidewalks, and streets were
covered in an icy glaze. Jake leaned closer to the front seat. They were just
blocks away from his home.
“Think we’ll
make it?” he asked the cabbie.
“Sure, bud. As
long as everyone slows down. No problem. It’s those A-holes that think they
gotta fly that cause problems.”
The words were
no sooner out of the man’s mouth when a black SUV came barreling through a red
light. The cabbie wrenched the wheel, trying to get out of the SUV’s way, but
to no avail.
Jake looked
through the passenger window and watched as the vehicle came right at them. The
cabbie’s screams mixed with his as the car made impact, T-boning the driver’s
side. The sound of screeching tires, busting glass, and twisting metal filled
the night air.
Jake felt the
cab go airborne as they flew through the air and crashed into a brick retaining
wall…
The world knew Michael Brandt as a playboy tycoon. The underworld knew him as a fierce vampire hunter. Armed with a wooden stake and superior strength, Michael targeted the most powerful overlords in a clandestine do-or-die operation…and then tabloid reporter Jessie Morgan uncovered his secret.
Only once before had Michael allowed a woman into his secret lair. Now he'd fight heaven and hell to keep Jessie from the same fate. But he couldn't fight the attraction that drew him to her like a bloodlust. An attraction that might prove deadly…or worse. For Michael was going up against the most powerful of the undead—and that vampire had his fangs bared for Jessie.
The tabloid reporter finds a bigger story than she ever imagined…the sexy playboy tycoon is a vampire hunter! EXCERPT
“Don’t you
smell that garlic?”
Now that he
mentioned it, she did. In fact, the scent was pretty strong. She hadn’t noticed
it before because she had been concentrating on getting in to see Brandt.
Jessie didn’t
have time to worry about smells. She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket
and took out the camera. She planned to get a shot of Brandt as soon as he
opened the door, then maybe aim past him to catch the other two men in her
lens, if luck was with her.
Unfortunately,
just as the door started to swing open, Ted gasped and disappeared from beside
her. She had the vague impression, seen from the corner of her eye, that he had
been jerked violently backward like a puppet on a string.
She was about
to turn to see what had happened to him when a bar of iron slammed across her
throat, cutting off her air and making it impossible for her to speak or even
breathe. Fear and surprise exploded in her brain, and for a second she couldn’t
think. Then she realized that it wasn’t a bar of iron choking her, it was
somebody’s arm. Her feet scrabbled on the flagstone walk as her attacker dragged
her backward.
As February's #blogabookscene theme is "All You Need is Love", I am sharing a falling in love moment from my contemporary vampire/cowboy romance Give Me Tomorrow. This story is set in northeastern Colorado in 1990. The hero, Jax, is on the road with his thoroughbred racehorse transport service. The heroine, Lissa, has called his mobile phone with birthday wishes...
EXCERPT (PG)
Each mile was an eternity traveled in checking and re-checking his phone for the reassurance of service. His anticipation for Lissa’s call waned as the hours passed without hearing from her. While still a long way from Omaha, he pulled into a truck stop just as his phone rang. His hopes rose in the same instant he cursed the phone’s display for only showing Incoming Call and not an identifying number.
“This is Jax. Speak your business.”
“I hear you’re thirty‐seven today.” Lissa.
“Are you there? Jax?”
Clearing his throat, he said, “Yeah. Yeah, I’m here. That’s right. Thirty‐seven. I’m getting to be an old man.”
She laughed. “You don’t know what old is. Where are you?”
“I’m at a truck stop between Chicago and Omaha to refuel and grab a bite to eat.” He rolled to a stop at a diesel pump and set the brakes. “Are you on call?”
“As a matter of fact, I am. I’m on my way to the clinic now. I’ll likely be here the rest of the night.”
“Well, if you get a chance, give me a call. I’ll be on the road.”
“All right. If I can, I will, but don’t count on it. Anyway, I hope you’ve had a nice birthday.”
“Thanks. Not much opportunity to celebrate when you’re hauling horses from town to town.” He didn’t want her to hang up, so he grasped for anything to keep her talking.
“Mandy says you’re coming to supper on Saturday.”
“Yes.”
“Good. You’ll get to meet my dad.” “Mandy mentioned that.”
“You know, calling and wishing me happy birthday makes me think you called on your personal phone instead of your work phone.”
Silence. He waited.
“You’re right. I did.”
She could have lied. He took it as a good sign that she didn’t. Jax grabbed a pen from the glove box and poised the tip over his palm. “So, what’s your number?”
More silence.
“Are you still—”
She recited the numbers.
“Got it. Thanks.”
“Don’t abuse it.”
“You don’t want me to call you?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Lissa?”
“Yes?”
Say it. Just say it. “I wish you were with me. I’ve missed you.”
Again, nothing from her end. He checked the service. Still connected. “Are you there?”
The light lilting tone in her voice made him smile. He didn’t know what giddiness felt like, but he was pretty sure it must be close to how he felt right then.
“Jax, I’ve reached the clinic. I have to go.”
“Yeah, sure. It was good talking to you. See you Saturday.”
Leaning back in his seat, he sat there staring at the center of the steering wheel as he worked her words around in his head. She admitted it. She misses me. And it sounded like she wasn’t just saying the words. She meant it. His slow grin turned to a full-blown smile.
A full thermos of coffee, an extra sandwich and chips for the road, and the tanks full of diesel, Jax hit the highway. Light‐hearted and counting off the miles, he turned up the volume on the classic country music radio station and sang his way homeward on Interstate 80. It was somewhere west of Grand Island when he realized he was in love.
This is Part 3 of my release day countdown for Give Me Tomorrow...
Give Me Tomorrow is a paranormal-lite cowboy/vampire novella set in 1990 Colorado. It releases through Fire Star Press on September 27, 2018 [Author's Note: Release day moved to September 20, 2018] just in time to kick off the October spooky reads of the Halloween season.
Lissa Price, a veterinarian, is a centuries-old vampire. Her
heart has hardened over the years out of self-preservation brought on by years
of loneliness compounded by the necessary isolation of being a vampire.
Jaxon Granger is part-owner of his family’s thoroughbred
racehorse boarding and layover facility. Bachelorhood is his religion, and
there isn’t a woman alive who can make him a one-woman man.
That is, until the woman he falls for turns out not to be
alive in the strictest sense of the word.
Excerpt
"I learned a good long time ago that horses respond well to the sound of my voice."
Jax scoffed. "You say that like you've been around for ages. You don't look more than thirty-five or so."
"Forty-one, actually, but I appreciate the compliment. It's been a long and eventful forty-one by ordinary standards. I've aged well, I guess."
The regret in her sigh made him wonder what sadness she carried in her memories. When he lifted his coffee mug, her gaze pinned him with an intensity that stopped his hand. He couldn't look away. She pulled him into her mind, claimed his thoughts as hers, and read what he was thinking. She reached inside his heart and opened the door to his deepest secrets. The room blurred. A crazy thought popped into his head that he was prey to a psychic predator. A shuddering prickle of goosebumps along his arms snapped him back to reality.
Unnerved, he fumbled his cup and tipped his chair in his hasty retreat. "I'm going to check the fire in the other room."
If Lissa replied, he didn't hear her in his flight from the kitchen. With each step from her, his mind cleared...
Part 4 - September 24th with cover reveal [Author's note: cover revealed Sept. 20]
Give Me Tomorrow will be available through Amazon.com.
This is Part 2 of my release day countdown for Give Me Tomorrow…
Give Me Tomorrow, is a paranormal-lite cowboy/vampire novella
set in 1990 Colorado. It releases through Fire Star Press on September 27, 2018
just in time to kick off the October spooky reads of the Halloween season. [Click HERE for Part 1]
While the 1990 setting for Give Me Tomorrow is far enough in
the past to have historical aspects, it is, ultimately, a contemporary story. Still,
it’s far enough behind us that we could use a little help to jog our memories. Let’s take a stroll back to 1990...
What current events did my characters Jax and Lissa talk about at the supper table or
over drinks?
What was showing at the movie theater?
What songs were on the radio?
What books were on their nightstands?
What shows did they watch on TV?
What about technology?
Motorola Microtac 9088X
c. 1989
Photo from www.webdesignerdepot.com
Here is the opening of Give Me Tomorrow:
Granger Horse Ranch – Boarding, Conditioning, and Layover Facility Platte River City, Colorado – 1990
Chapter One Jaxon Granger lurched out of a dead sleep, wide-awake and on the move with the echoes of the emergency buzzer ringing in his ears. Pulling on his jeans, he threw on a flannel shirt over his t-shirt and crammed on his cowboy hat. Alternately hopping on each bare foot, he stomped into his boots then bolted out the front door, his shirt tail flapping in the brisk, early January wind as he raced across the yard.
Bursting through the side door of the indoor exercise arena and stable, he vaulted the metal corral panels and slowed his steps as he crossed to the far side with care so as not to startle the horse his younger brother Steve held by halter and lead rope. Jax approached the horse from the near side, rubbing his hand along the big bay’s back as he moved forward with a calming touch.
Bending down, he squinted, grimacing as he inspected the gash blazing across the stud’s meaty chest and the lesser slash that went up his shoulder.
“How’d it happen?”
Mac Hartley explained, “I was making the last rounds and found him running loose. He busted up his paddock gate trying to get to a mare.”
“Doc Bohlanger coming out, or are we hauling him in?”
“He’s in Hawaii at his son’s wedding. The new vet working with him is on her way now. She’ll assess the injuries and decide.”
Jax straightened, pinning Mac with a sharp glare. “She?”
Mac’s grin widened.
“Figures.”
Mac taunted, “What’s your problem? Afraid someday you’ll have to give a woman credit for being capable at her job?”
“The last female vet Doc sent out here passed out halfway through the procedure.”
Steve argued, “Hey. That was over a year ago. It was August and hotter’n the hubs of Hades that day, and there wasn’t a hint of a breeze blowing through this building. We were all feeling it.”
“What about Doctor Prim and Prissy last spring? She got herself hurt worrying about her manicure. Doc needs to stop hiring women, and get men who can do the job.”
Steve was already shaking his head before Jax finished philosophizing. “I think you’d better reserve judgment with this one. She started working for Doc around Thanksgiving, and she’s already in hot demand with horse owners. Seems to be her specialty. I’m surprised she hasn’t shown up on your new conquest radar. From what I’ve heard, she was unattached when she moved here, but that might have changed by now.”
Give Me Tomorrow, my paranormal-lite cowboy/vampire novella set in 1990 Colorado, releases through Fire Star Press on September 27, 2018 just in time to kick off the October spooky reads of the Halloween season. Yes, Halloween is a month-long season at my house that begins with sundown on September 30th and ends at sundown November 2nd.
But more on my Halloween obsession at a future date.
Give Me Tomorrow tells the story of what happens when two mismatched people meet and fall in love despite their mutual determination to stay out of Cupid’s arrow range.
Lissa Price, a veterinarian, is a centuries-old vampire. Her heart has hardened over the years out of self-preservation brought on by years of loneliness compounded by the necessary isolation of being a vampire.
Jaxon Granger is part-owner of his family’s thoroughbred racehorse boarding and layover facility. Bachelorhood is his religion, and there isn’t a woman alive who can make him a one-woman man.
That is, until the woman he falls for turns out not to be alive in the strictest sense of the word.
Between now and publication day, I will share more about Lissa’s and Jax’s story on my Fire Star Press blogging days:
