Felicity Heaton's Blog, page 25

Snippet Saturday – Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 4) – Excerpt

 

Snippet Saturday is brought to you today by my paranormal romance book Her Guardian Angel, which is the fourth book in my popular Her Angel romance series. Read on for this Saturday’s snippet…

 

 

It was the location that alerted Marcus to the fact that this wasn’t his world.

A golden sunset filled the sky directly before him, the sun slowly sinking into the infinite ocean, its light rippling on the water and sparkling like diamonds. The soft sound of waves gently breaking against the pristine white sandy shore filled the silence along with the rustling of the swaying palm trees in the light refreshing breeze that came from the sea, carrying a salty tang and her fragrance.

Amelia.

She sat on a chipped white metal pole that created a railing along the seafront, separating the sun-bleached wooden boardwalk from the sand, her back to him and shoulder-length dark hair dancing as the breeze caught it.

The sound of the ocean and the warm breeze soothed away the anger he felt over Taylor and Einar’s trick on him. They had sent him into Amelia’s inner world rather than to his own. He would have a word with his old friend when he woke. This wasn’t allowing things to progress naturally at all. This was matchmaking.

Marcus walked across the boardwalk to Amelia and leaned his elbows on the metal railing that ran at waist height to him. Amelia didn’t look down at him. She continued to stare into the distance, her skin glowing in the warm light of sunset and her hair threaded with golden highlights. Marcus drank his fill of her beauty, taking his time to put her face to memory as it looked in this moment. A slight smile played on her lips, shining in her eyes, and he knew without asking that she was happy here.

It was definitely her world.

But it wasn’t her happiness that gave it away.

He hated sand.

It got in his feathers.

He looked down at himself and shook his head when he saw that he was only wearing a pair of loose black swimming shorts. That wasn’t going to happen either. Water was a pain to get out of his feathers, worse than sand, and for some reason his wings were out and he couldn’t convince them to go away.

Were they out because Amelia wanted to see him this way? This was her world which meant that in part she was controlling it, and controlling him too.

When he turned to ask her about his wings and whether she wanted to see them, his gaze caught on the skimpy black bikini top she wore. He stared unabashed at the flimsy triangles of material barely covering her breasts, his stomach tightening and temperature rising, and then slowly lowered his eyes to her hips. A short black near-see-through strip of material covered her from waist to just past her backside, tied on her hip closest to him. The light fabric fluttered in the breeze, revealing her creamy slender thigh.

“It’s peaceful here,” she said, distant sounding. “Am I dreaming?”

Marcus forced his focus back up to her face. “I do not think so. We are both awake. Taylor can make a world in which we can hide but I am not sure how long it can last.”

“I’m scared, Marcus,” she whispered and her grey eyes finally came to meet his.

“Of me?” He wasn’t sure why he said it. The gnawing feeling that she feared him now had lingered at the back of his mind since he had rescued her from the Hell’s angels and revealed his true self to her, but he hadn’t intended to say anything about it. Her look instantly softened, warming again, and she smiled.

“No. You’re the only thing that doesn’t frighten me.” She went to touch him but he shifted to one side, enough that her attempt failed, and stared at the ocean.

How could she look on him so kindly and with such compassion? She had seen him fight those Hell’s angels, had witnessed him kill without hesitation and had been covered in blood because of him. He had shown his darkest side to her and she still looked at him with warmth in her grey eyes. It astounded him and drove him to question her, to confess the things that he had done and the reason he had warned her away from him. Need burned deep in his heart, a desire to know if she really could feel something for a man like him.

“I am a guardian… but there are times when I have been a warrior…” Marcus couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He clenched his fists and stared intently at the sunset, afraid of what he would see if he turned to face Amelia. Would she look upon him with such warmth after his confession? He didn’t think so, and while he wanted to stop now before he ruined everything between them, the greater part of him needed her to know what sort of man he was and why he felt he didn’t deserve the love of such a pure and beautiful woman. She might have managed to convince herself that he had only done what was right when he had killed those demons in front of her but she had feared him at the time. He knew that. He had frightened her. Now he had to do that again so she would know him, and he would see in her eyes and hear in her voice whether she could ever bring herself to love him. “A bringer of death. I am not a good man, Amelia. I have killed many without remorse… hundreds… if not thousands.”

He uncurled his hands and stared at his palms. Hands made for killing in the name of Heaven. He had followed those orders without question, obeying his superiors, loyal to his duty and happy to carry it out. Not once in his life had he regretted the things he had done. Not until he had met her, and then he had wished it all away.

He had wanted to be a better man so she would love him.

He could see that now. For all his attempts to remain distant from her, he had fallen for her, but new to the experience, he had not realised his feelings until she had first touched him, thrilling him with little more than a brief caress and bringing him to life with emotions he had never known existed.

“If you’ve killed, then I believe you did so out of loyalty, just as Einar said about you. You killed to protect others, and to protect me. I can’t offer you absolution, Marcus, but I can forgive you for killing others in order to protect me. You are a good man. I believe that.”

Marcus looked up to find her watching him, her grey eyes not full of icy cold or hatred, but full of the warmth and tenderness that had been in her words. There was no fear in her, only a calm that he knew was real and it touched him, warming his chest and making him crave a stronger connection to her. She smiled, twisted towards him, still holding on to the railing she sat on with her left hand, and stroked the unruly strands of his hair from his face.

And he stared at her.

Awed and transfixed by the beautiful acceptance she showed towards him.

For her, he could be a good man. He could be the man that she deserved.

“Was that why you stopped me the other night when we kissed, or was it because you’re an angel and it was wrong?” She lowered her hand from his face.

“No.” His eyes followed her hand, leapt to her thigh, and then he lifted them to her face again.

There was such understanding in her eyes.

“Was it because you’ve never been with a woman?”

Marcus exhaled and stared out to sea. The sun had set and a full moon was rising in its place, beautiful as it hung over the darkening ocean.

“Einar told you?”

Amelia made a small noise and then touched his hands where they were clasped together in front of him. He looked up at her, wanting to explain and needing to ask her not to believe him any less of a man because of it, and she dipped her head towards him. She kissed him before he could utter a word, her lips soft against his, slowly shifting in mesmerising waves that drew him into responding. He leaned into the kiss, eager to taste her again and believe that this was another good sign. When she broke away, briefly resting her forehead against his before sitting up, she was smiling at him.

“I think it’s beautiful that you waited so long,” she whispered and his heart leapt in response, turning his insides with it. He stared up at her, torn between kissing her again and saying something that would bring another smile to her face.

“I never really thought about it. I never cared about mortals.” Marcus straightened and then cupped her cheek, keeping her eyes on his. “But I care about you.”

Amelia’s smile was brilliant and he thought that she would kiss him, but she slipped down from the railing on the other side, landing softly in the sand.

A mixture of light from the strings of white lights that hung between the palm trees, illuminating the boardwalk, and the moon played on her, turning her skin pale and eyes dark. It had turned dark quickly and the moon was far higher in the inky sky now. How long had the kiss lasted? It had felt like barely a heartbeat had passed but it must have been close to an hour.

She crooked a finger at him.

“I think we should swim.”

Marcus warily eyed the sand and then the water. “Unwise. I don’t seem to be able to put my wings away.”

She looked at them and his eyes widened when they shrank into his back.

“No excuses.” She reached over the railing to him.

Marcus vaulted it and looked down at the warm sand beneath his bare feet. Amelia laughed and ran down to the sea, leaving footprints in the soft sand for him to follow. He hoped his wings didn’t reappear. Just as he looked up, Amelia untied the slip of black material around her waist and tossed it aside.

A deep pulse of arousal beat through him at the sight of her in such a small scrap of fabric. Her bikini bottoms didn’t cover her buttocks at all. A single dark line disappeared between them, leaving them on display. Hell. His groin responded in an instant, cock twitching against the loose swimming trunks. He had been intent on mentioning that he couldn’t swim but the thought of playing with her in the shallows and seeing her wet all over had him striding towards the sea.

She smiled and crooked her finger again, and Marcus could only obey. He followed her into the shallows and then hesitated as a gentle wave came rolling in and the dark water reached his waist. The current wasn’t strong but he didn’t dare venture further out. Taylor hadn’t mentioned what would happen if one of them got into trouble inside this world. Would his consciousness be trapped here if he drowned?

Amelia took hold of his wrist and tried to tug him into deeper water. He stood firm and she frowned.

“You can’t swim, can you?”

“I don’t know. I have never tried.” He might be able to swim. Angels sometimes remembered how to do things that they had experienced in a previous lifetime. If he had known how to swim then, he could instinctively remember it now, but he wasn’t willing to risk drowning in order to find out.

It didn’t seem to bother Amelia. She splashed his bare chest and face, and he responded by sweeping his arm across the warm water, sending a wave rushing towards her. She ducked under the surface and the water settled around him, lapping at his waist. He turned on the spot, searching for Amelia. When she didn’t surface after a few seconds, his pulse picked up and he waded further out, fearing that something had happened.

Something brushed his backside and he turned sharply, causing ripples to spread outwards from his chest. His senses blared in warning but he wasn’t quick enough. Amelia launched out of the water, looped her arms around his neck and her legs around his hips. Her playful attack caused his heels to dig into the soft wet sand under his feet and he fell backwards, sending them both underwater.

It went straight into his mouth and stung his eyes.

He broke the surface a split-second later, coughing the vile water up, and Amelia re-emerged, her sheepish smile visible in the strong moonlight.

She swam towards him and then around him, and his anger faded away when she came to stand behind him and stroked his back.

“They’re beautiful. Are they really a curse?” she whispered, her warm fingertips tracing the wings marked on his shoulder blades.

Marcus stilled, his focus so intently fixed on her that every light touch stirred his insides, fanning his desire for her. Her breath washed over his wet skin, teasing it and he closed his eyes, wanting to absorb how he felt when she was so close to him. Warm. Hungry. Mad for her.

“Apparently so,” he said and she came around him. He caught her bare waist and drew her flush against him. She surprised him by taking hold of his shoulders, lifting herself up and wrapping her legs around his waist. He groaned and clutched her backside to support her, and then remembered the flimsy thing she was wearing on her lower half. He pressed his fingers into her bare bottom and groaned again, his body stirring and aching as he familiarised himself with her soft flesh.

“How did you get them?” Amelia leaned in and peppered his shoulder with kisses, gradually working her way along towards his collarbone and then his neck. He couldn’t think straight to answer her when she was touching him like this. It seemed like torture to have to think at all. She placed a single wet kiss on his jaw and then leaned back and rested her hands on his chest. Her pupils were wide in the low light, darkening her eyes, and he stared into them. “Well?”

She really expected him to answer.

“I got drunk and when I came around, I was sleeping face down and couldn’t call my wings. Heaven called me back to them and I discovered that someone had drawn this curse on me whilst I was unconscious.”

Her hands ran up his chest to his shoulders and then she leaned towards him and caressed his shoulder blades, her breasts pressing against him.

“That’s terrible.”

He murmured his agreement and stared at her mouth.

“It explains why you didn’t want to drink the wine. And you’re really an angel?” Her eyes searched his.

Marcus nodded.

She glanced away and a sense of sorrow flowed through him. He frowned and ducked to one side, trying to see her face so he could understand the sudden change in her emotions. Her gaze met his and the edge of hurt in it compelled him to comfort her even though he wasn’t sure what was wrong.

“What is it?” he whispered, his brow furrowing as he waited for her to speak.

“Einar said that you aren’t omniscient… or some fancy word… that you couldn’t have stopped my mother from dying… I wished that you could have.”

He did too. Watching her grieve had been one of the most difficult trials he had ever endured.

“I wish I could have been there for you.” He let the confession slip out quietly, unsure of whether it would only hurt her further to know that he had seen her suffering and had done nothing about it.

Amelia rested her head on his shoulder and sighed, her breath skittering over his collarbones. Marcus closed his eyes, leaned his cheek against her forehead, and held her close to him, comforting her in the way he had wanted to then. Waves lapped against them, rocking them back and forth. It had been a long time since he had felt such peace.

“I could sleep here, like this. It’s so hard to sleep these days.” Her words were a bare whisper and she sagged against him.

He remembered the couch in her apartment and the blanket. “You haven’t been sleeping well?”

She shook her head. “Not since that break in.”

Marcus frowned. He hadn’t thought to piece the two together. Her mother had died during a break in and one had occurred in the apartment building they shared. It had frightened her and he hadn’t noticed it. That was why her ex had shaken her up by trying to bang her door down. She had feared him breaking in and hurting her.

He wrapped his arms tighter around her and pressed her close to him, enveloping her slender form in his protective embrace. Desire to call his wings out and wrap those around her too, to cocoon her completely, ran deep in his veins but he held them at bay.

“I will never let anything happen to you, Amelia. I promised you that and I mean to keep my word.” The hardness in his voice surprised him as much as the intensity of the emotions that beat in his heart at the thought of her coming under attack and being afraid.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead, rested his lips there for a few heartbeats of time, and then drew back. Amelia emerged from his embrace, her eyes sparkling with tears. He kissed away the ones that had fallen onto her cheeks. She raised her head into his kisses, until their lips were a hair’s breadth apart.

“You really are an angel.” Her lips brushed his as she spoke, stirring his passion.

When she went to speak again, he swooped on her lips, silencing her. Her words became a quiet moan that sent a shiver through him and he held her closer, one hand supporting her backside and the other splayed between her shoulder blades.

He didn’t want to talk anymore.

He wanted to show her without words how she made him feel, how much he craved her taste and her touch, and that he needed her. He hadn’t promised to keep her safe and protect her because he was an angel. He had made that vow because he was a man, and he cared about her.

Marcus ran his tongue along the seam of her mouth and she opened to him, her tongue coming out to play with his and tease it inside. He slanted his head and claimed her mouth, plundering it with his tongue and drawing another heated groan from her. She shifted against him, pressing closer until her warm body was flush against his, driving him mad with the need to caress every inch of her, to taste her and seek out her sensitive spots with his lips. The water lapped at his waist, knocking against him, and he turned with her and carried her back to the beach.

The moment he was clear of the water, he laid her down on the hard sand and covered her body with his.

 

Did you enjoy today’s snippet?

 

Her Guardian Angel

Felicity Heaton

A love so strong it will shake Heaven and Hell.

A guardian angel dedicated to his duty, Marcus will do whatever Heaven asks of him, but even his loyalty has its limits. When his superior orders him to gain Amelia’s trust through seduction, Marcus starts to question his mission and his feelings for the beautiful woman he has watched over since her birth.

Amelia has gone from one bad relationship to another, so when a gorgeous guy moves in next door looking like Mr Right, she hopes he doesn’t turn out to be another black knight in disguise. But there’s more to Marcus than meets the eye, and when he rescues her from three demonic men, Amelia is thrust into his nightmarish world. On the run from demonic angels and the Devil himself, aided by warrior angels and their amazing women, Marcus and Amelia discover a love that will last forever.

When the strength of that love is put to the test, will Marcus and Amelia win their fight for survival against the odds or will they lose in a deadly eternal game between Heaven and Hell?

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstore USA | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble | Amazon.ca

 

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, HER DARK ANGEL, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Her Angel romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Her Dark Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #1)

Her Fallen Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #2)

Her Warrior Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #3)

Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #4)

Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #5)

Her Wicked Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #6)

 

Teaseday – Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 8) – Excerpt

 

Today’s tease comes from the paranormal romance book Hunger, which is book 8 in my popular Vampires Realm romance series. Read on for this Tuesday’s tease…

 

“You shouldn’t touch me.”

Eve frowned at those low spoken words. “Why not?”

He turned his head slightly towards her, enough that she could see he had his eyes closed, his eyebrows drawn down above them. His shoulders tensed as she pulled a long shard out of his side and she mumbled an apology.

“Because it isn’t right,” he said and she wished he would tell her straight and stop dancing around the reason.

She pulled another piece of metal out, her actions rougher this time, her irritation getting the better of her. He hissed as he sucked in a breath and blood trickled down his back.

“Sorry,” Eve said, immediately regretting what she had done. Guilt swept through her and on its heels came an instinct she fought hard to deny.

She would not lick the blood or seal the wound for him.

She grabbed some tissue and pressed it to the wound instead, and closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of all the blood on his back. She struggled against her instincts, desperate to shut out the voice that tempted her into running her tongue over Tor’s back, capturing every stray drop of his strong blood. She wanted it. She needed it.

She had to take it.

Tor wouldn’t argue.

He wouldn’t deny her. He would let her crawl up his magnificent body and sink her fangs into his throat, drinking deep of his blood. He would enjoy it.

Welcome it.

Eve turned away and shoved her palms against the cool wall tiles as her head spun, the sudden onslaught of dizziness threatening to sweep the ground out from under her and take her down to her knees.

Tor’s strong hand caught her upper arm. “Eve?”

The sound of her name in his deep accented voice sent heat rolling through her and caused her trembling to increase. Her knees turned to jelly, too weak to support her weight. His other hand clamped down on her side and he lifted her. The spinning in her head worsened and she gasped as her backside hit something hard beneath her.

“Eve?” Tor’s hands grasped her shoulders and he held her steady, and she wished she could find her voice to thank him for it. She clutched his biceps, holding herself upright on the counter of the vanity unit. “Eve?”

She nodded to let him know that she was beginning to feel better. The hunger was passing. She was winning.

She sucked in a deep breath and held it in her lungs, trying to shatter the final threads of the hunger’s hold on her.

“You need blood.” He released her arms.

Eve tightened her grip on him, fear bringing her claws out. She pressed them into his flesh, desperate for him to stay, unwilling to let him move. She couldn’t let him go for blood. She couldn’t. He wouldn’t understand.

“I’m fine.” She pushed the words out, trying to sound normal, sure that he hadn’t heard the wobble in her voice. “I think this whole evening has taken its toll on me.”

Eve risked opening her eyes and meeting his.

The ice glittering in them said he wanted to call her on her lie, that he knew she needed blood and hadn’t fed recently.

He stepped back instead and Eve quickly averted her gaze when his actions gave her a dazzling reminder that he was naked.

He raised his hand towards her face and she cursed him for it, knowing he had deliberately chosen the one he had bloodied when trying to remove a piece of shrapnel by himself. The room brightened, the sudden sharpness hurting her eyes as they changed to their true vampiric state, blazing crimson, the colour of her bloodline. Her stomach turned as her fangs dropped.

“You might be able to fool Oneiric with your lies… but you’re not fooling me. The next opportunity we get, you’re feeding.”

He turned away from her and the shower switched on, the water beating down on the plastic tray, filling the thick silence. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t feed. The very thought made her stomach rebel and bile rise, scalding her throat. She forced her fangs away and faced Tor.

“I haven’t finished yet.” She looked at all the marks on his back, each red slash calling to her, making her fangs itch to drop again and her mouth water.

“You’re done. I shouldn’t have let you touch me.” He stepped into the shower and grimaced as water sluiced over his skin. The lower half of the glass was obscured, hiding detail from her hungry eyes.

She dragged them up and settled them on his back. He carefully scrubbed the soot from his skin, taking his time around the wounds on his arms.

“Why can’t I touch you?” She threw her voice behind that question, wanting to be sure he heard it over the running water.

He paused with his hands in his blond hair, the wet strands tangled over his long fingers, filling her head with images of her hands like that. She pushed that vision out of her head. He obviously didn’t want her in that way. His eyes altered at times when he was looking at her, banked heat breaking through the ice for a heartbeat, but he had been naked around her and hadn’t shown a flicker of interest then, and something told her it was because he had drawn a line between them at some point. Since that point, his eyes hadn’t shown even a glimmer of heat.

Since the explosion and her admission that she had been betrayed and wanted revenge.

“I’m not worthy of it. You’re to be our Chosen Daughter.” He went back to washing his hair, those beautiful fingers working the shampoo into a lather, distracting her from what he had said.

Eve frowned. “A rank I don’t want.”

She knew what a Chosen Daughter was. She wanted no part of her bloodline and definitely didn’t want to help run the wretched thing.

“A rank you have, nonetheless.” Tor ducked his head under the water and turned around, facing towards her. He rinsed his hair, his eyes closed. The honed muscles of his torso shifted in a sensual symphony, luring and tempting her. He was beautiful like that. She could easily fool herself that he was human. Just a normal man. Not a killer.

Damn, she could fool herself into thinking that when he didn’t have his eyes closed. She could make herself think it when he was dispatching vampires.

He had been incredible.

Fluid. Graceful. Powerful. A predator.

Eve shook herself when he opened his eyes and they settled on her, a small frown making his eyebrows twitch. He had felt her staring and had probably detected her feelings. She shut them down and swore she would keep better control of them in the future. It hadn’t taken her long to realise how easily vampires could sense emotions in each other, especially when the other was broadcasting them loud and clear.

She looked away and scowled as her gaze hit the mirror behind her and she saw only the room reflected in it. Her vow to keep her emotions hidden shattered instantly, the reminder of what she had become cutting her to her heart. She quickly closed her eyes and clutched the edges of the counter.

Tor’s gaze lingered on her.

He was going to ask what was wrong and she was going to look foolish and weak again.

He stared at her for what felt like eternity and then went back to showering. Eve relaxed, her grip loosening, and risked a glance at him. He had turned his back again and she leisurely perused it, taking in every scar that marked a path across his broad shoulders, a trail she happily followed.

He did have a magnificent body, like nothing she had ever seen before, and the scars didn’t detract from its masculine beauty. They only added to it and the image she had of him, that of a lethal, fearsome predator, a cold killer to his bones. He was his bloodline’s name made flesh. Violent. Yet, it was a controlled and efficient violence. Methodical and calculated, expedient.

She had never met a vampire like him. If she had, she would have died and turned a long time before Adam’s betrayal.

That name sent a hot lance through her heart and she ground her molars against the pain that welled up, spreading through her veins like acid, eating away at her.

The glass door of the shower sliding open startled her and she tensed, her gaze leaping to Tor. His blue eyes were dark, ringed with crimson, and malice emanated from him again, a wave that swept over her and made her feel she should say something, that she needed to explain things to him so he could understand the emotions running rampant through her, emotions that awakened a feral, intoxicating response in him.

Tor wouldn’t settle for the surface details she had told Oneiric though. He would want to know everything and part of her wanted to tell him. She wanted to bare herself to him and show him the ugly, terrible things that haunted her.

Her deepest, darkest secrets.

 

Did you enjoy today’s tease?

 

Hunger

Felicity Heaton

Betrayed by one of her own and turned into a vampire, hunter Eve is consumed by her hunger for vengeance and has spent five years surviving hell, driven to take the life of the man she once loved. But just as she is about to close in on the hunter-turned-vampire, an event is set in motion that threatens to see him slip beyond her grasp forever—the leader of her bloodline has sent an escort to bring her to the family’s mansion. To a nest of the very creatures she once hunted and loathes.

A vampire assassin hardened by centuries of service, Tor is a man of discipline and loyalty, never straying from his mission or the rules set out for him, and has purged all his weaknesses, including his emotions.

But the moment he meets the broken, fiery female he is to escort to Oslo, something dangerous awakens in him, something possessive and powerful, and when he is pulled into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who betrayed her, Tor discovers he will do anything to protect the woman slowly claiming his heart and give her the vengeance she desires—even break all the rules.

Can Eve embrace her new vampire nature in order to have her revenge and find a reason to live again in Tor? Can Tor and Eve stop the man who betrayed her and the deaths of thousands of innocents? Or will he succeed in creating a new army of hybrid vampires who will rise up against the purebloods?

NOTE: This book can be read out of order with the rest of the series and acts as a standalone vampire romance novel

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

 

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Vampires Realm romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and some are available in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series #1)

Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (Vampires Realm Romance Series #2)

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3)

Eternity: The Beginning (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.2)

Spellbound (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.1)

Reunion (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.5)

Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm Romance Series #4)

Winter’s Kiss (Vampires Realm Romance Series #5)

Hunter’s Moon (Vampires Realm Romance Series #6)

Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series #7)

Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series #8)

 

Manday Hotties – Hot Reclining Guys

 

Good Monday Morning! It’s time for the Manday Hotties Hop! I have some yummy new mancandy pictures for you… check out these hotties…

 

Which shot is your favourite? I’m with #1 today…

 

Visit the other blogs in the hop:

 

Snippet Saturday – Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series Book 5) – Excerpt

 

Snippet Saturday is brought to you today by my paranormal romance book Her Demonic Angel, which is the fifth book in my popular Her Angel romance series. Read on for this Saturday’s snippet…

 

 

It was the Devil who took her.

Erin was sure of it.

It was the Devil who had come in the dead of night, entering the bedroom of her loft apartment like black mist to take her as she slept.

And he wasn’t red all over or had hooves and horns like in movies or fables.

He was immense, with skin as black as coal, eyes that shone red like car brake lights and the wings of a dragon curling from his back.

He had brought her here to a fiery, broken and inhospitable land where perpetual tormented screams chased every shred of calm and peace from her soul and the air was so thick with the stomach-turning stench of sulphur that she couldn’t breathe.

It was Hell.

At first, Erin had thought the whole event was a vivid and disturbing nightmare, worse than any she had experienced before, but she had hurt herself on one of the shards of black rock that formed the floor and the three walls of her cell and she hadn’t woken.

And then they had hurt her too.

The Devil had come alone at first, entering her cell to glare at her in silence and ignore her pleas to tell him what he wanted with her. Not a word had left his wide black lips. The only time she had gained a response from him was the one instance she had felt brave enough to stand up to him and had tried to force him to speak. Then, he had bared sharp crimson teeth at her and hissed. She had fallen on her backside trying to escape him, afraid that he would attack her, and had cut her palms and scraped the soles of her bare feet as she had crab-crawled away from him.

Now, he no longer came alone.

Now, she no longer feared him.

She couldn’t muster that emotion whenever he visited her. Fear had given way to anger, leaving her brave enough to face death in order to get some answers.

Two other smaller but similar creatures accompanied him. None of them spoke. They didn’t even flinch when she hit them in an attempt to make them talk and tell her what they wanted with her, bashing her fists against their thick limbs and the granite band of stomach exposed between their red-edged black chest armour and the strips that protected their hips. She wanted to punch them in the face but they towered over her, at least three feet taller than she was. Several times, she had struck them hard in the groin but each had only gained her pain rather than satisfaction. They were quick to retaliate, slamming meaty arms into her stomach and sending her crashing into the rough black walls of her prison.

Each visit lasted only fifteen minutes or was it longer? She had lost track of time in this hellish place. Minutes seemed like hours.

Erin was too tired to hit them now. Hunger had set in she didn’t know how many days or weeks ago and now she was so weak that her head swam and she spent most of her waking hours hallucinating about food. Petrified pained screams rang in her ears as she sat near the open wall of her black cell, staring wearily into the hazy fiery distance. The black jaw-length jags of her hair hung across one side of her face, stinking of boiled eggs. The smell had invaded everything. Her small black sleep shorts and tank top, every inch of exposed dirty skin, and her mind too. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the jagged wall behind her, too tired and hungry to sleep, using all of her strength to keep breathing.

They would come soon.

She hadn’t seen them in what might have been a day.

There was no sky in the view from her cell. Just an endless black vault above her, and fields of lava and brimstone as far as the eye could see several hundred feet below.

Erin inhaled slowly and smelled steak.

She frowned. Steak. She swore she could smell it.

Someone had invented a new form of torture. The scent of juicy frying meat wafted through the huge open wall and before she could consider what she was doing, she was standing at the edge of the floor and staring down into the glowing abyss. Hot air battered her as it rose from the inferno below. Her vision swam from the heat and her hunger, causing the sheer cliff face to wobble and distort.

Her mouth watered.

Her stomach growled.

The door at her back opened and she turned sharply. Her foot slipped on the loose stones at the edge.

Before her gasp could escape her lips, a man was holding her with one arm snaked around her back, bending over her. She stared down, wild eyes watching the rocks bouncing off the endless black cragged cliff and disappearing into the fiery river below. Her heart hammered erratically against her chest and she instinctively grabbed the man’s arms, desperate to save herself from following the rocks and afraid that he might drop her over the edge.

“Careful,” the man whispered close to her ear, his voice deep and exotic, sending a strange hot shiver through her. He righted her, kept one hand on her arm and led her away from the edge.

Erin stared at her handsome saviour, mind racing to catch up with everything that had happened in the past few seconds. He still held her arm, his smile perfect though lacking emotion and golden eyes bright and alluring. She couldn’t take her eyes away from them and the longer she stared into them, the more relaxed she felt.

His sensual smile widened and he released her arm, preened the longer tendrils of his black hair back from his face, and then frowned at his hand. Touching her had dirtied it. His expression curled into one of disgust and he turned his back on her.

The heavy compliant feeling that had been building inside her disappeared in an instant and the delicious scent of food assaulted her.

Her gaze snapped to the door and the source of the tempting smell.

The Devil.

He stood there flanked by the two smaller creatures like him, his glowing red eyes fixed straight at her over the head of the elegant man now strolling towards him. The two of them couldn’t have looked more different to each other. The Devil was a beast, black-skinned and huge, his massive dragon-like wings furled against his back, and his body barely covered by crimson-edged obsidian armour. The man was all dark beauty and refinement, dressed sharply in a black suit that highlighted his pale, flawless skin and glossy black hair.

The man waved his hand and the Devil held something out to him.

A tray with a very elegant domed silver plate cover on it.

Erin realised her mistake.

Not the Devil, but a servant.

Erin stared at the man as he took the tray from the beast she had thought was the Devil, removed the cover with a flourish, revealing the most amazing and mouth-watering food she had ever seen, and turned to hold it out to her.

Tempting her.

He was the Devil.

 

Did you enjoy today’s snippet?

 

Her Demonic Angel

Felicity Heaton

A demonic angel with a heart of ice, Veiron walks a dark path with vengeance on his mind. Nothing will sway him from his mission to destroy his master… until he risks his life to enter Hell once more to save a mortal female. The fiery beauty makes him burn with hungers he must battle and needs he cannot deny, tempting him to surrender body and soul to her.

Erin is convinced her refusal to do the Devil’s bidding will see her die in a terrifying realm straight out of her nightmares. The last thing she expects is the lethally sensual warrior who breaks into her cell and awakens the darkest desires of her heart and a fierce longing to know the heat of his caress.

Pulled into an incredible world where war is set to ignite and darkness is on the rise, Erin races with Veiron to escape the Devil’s legions in a journey fraught with danger and filled with passion that flares white-hot.

When Erin is faced with a life-shattering realisation and an extraordinary destiny, will their love give them the strength to battle both Heaven and Hell or will they be parted forever?

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble | Amazon.ca

 

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, HER DARK ANGEL, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Her Angel romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Her Dark Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #1)

Her Fallen Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #2)

Her Warrior Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #3)

Her Guardian Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #4)

Her Demonic Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #5)

Her Wicked Angel (Her Angel Romance Series #6)

 

Teaseday – Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 7) – Excerpt

 

Today’s tease comes from the paranormal romance book Masquerade, which is book 7 in my popular Vampires Realm romance series. Read on for this Tuesday’s tease…

 

Vivek trailed behind Sophis as she continued down the incline to the river, his gaze scanning the parked cars that lined the residential street. The lights hanging above the middle of the road were brighter here, punctuating the darkness at intervals and even reaching the pavement. A breeze swept up from the river, pungent with the scent of the water, but carrying a familiar undertone.

A vampire hunter he knew well.

Aleksis Romanov.

When had he returned to Saint Petersburg?

Vivek focused all his senses on Sophis, using the intensity of them to silently signal her. She slowed to a halt and looked back over her shoulder at him. He motioned for her to remain there and swept his senses out again. The man was on the move and not far from them. Vivek studied his surroundings, looking for possible avenues of escape or hiding places. Few and far between. The river was barely two hundred metres away and the edge of the road that lined it was even closer still. If Aleksis had his wits about him, he would be aware of them the moment he crossed the road to continue along the river. Even with their preternatural speed, they wouldn’t reach the crossroads behind them before Aleksis came into view.

Vivek caught Sophis’s arm and ran down the sloping street with her, heading towards the hunter. His senses screamed a warning at him but he kept running, silent and fast, aiming for the rear of a white van less than one hundred metres from the intersection.

Sophis gasped behind him as the dark haired man appeared in view at the bottom of the road, his hands tucked into the front pockets of his thick black wool coat and the upturned collar obscuring the lower half of his face. Vivek tugged her to one side, behind the large parked van, and pressed her against the doors. He held her there, his senses locked on the vampire hunter, monitoring him in case he had spotted them. The feel of Sophis against him, her chest rising and falling with her rapid breathing, threatened to bring back their fight and how intoxicating it had felt to have her pinned beneath him. He shoved the feelings away, locking them out of his mind along with his earlier epiphany about why he wanted Sophis off the guard, and forced himself to remain focused on the vampire hunter.

He drew a slow deep breath through his nose, catching the man’s scent. It held an underlying note of vampire. Not a weakling vampire either. It was Venia this man smelt like. Had he been fighting one of the city patrols this evening? Aleksis was foolish enough to go after Vivek’s kind, the pureblood vampires.

Back when Vivek had first encountered the man, the pure bloodlines hadn’t known of the existence of enhanced hunters. The fact that he had survived their first battle had only added to the suspicion the bloodlines had about the hunters after the sudden increase in the numbers of those capable of fighting purebloods around thirty years ago. It was only recently that they had discovered why vampire hunters had become so strong.

Someone had been playing God, tampering with their DNA to include genetic code taken from vampires. The result of the mutation didn’t give him the strength of a pureblood, but it did elevate the human to a level similar to a weakling vampire and made him more of a threat to Vivek’s kind.

When the Law Keepers had discovered this, they had created a database and given all seven pure bloodlines access so they could add information as they gathered it. It detailed known abilities and skills, marked the hunter as an enhanced or normal human, and provided locations they had been spotted. Aleksis’s name was on that register. It was proving useful even in its infancy. They had even granted the werewolves permission to use it and the dogs had provided some extremely useful information about hunters they had encountered. Allied in this war against the new threat of the vampire hunters, his kind were armed with the knowledge and the power to eradicate them before they became a danger.

Aleksis Romanov would die but not until his traits had been documented and his allies exposed.

Vivek wanted that mission.

He wanted vengeance.

Sophis stared beyond his shoulder with wide ice-blue eyes, her body trembling against his, betraying the fact that she had sensed the vampire hunter now disappearing from view behind the set of buildings to Vivek’s right and she feared him.

Aleksis Romanov would die by Vivek’s hand with the dagger he kept locked in a box in his quarters.

The same dagger the vampire hunter had used on Sophis over a decade ago.

Her shaking hand brushed Vivek’s hip as she brought it to rest over the left side of her stomach. Her skin drained of colour.

Without considering the consequences, Vivek placed his hand against her cheek and brought her head around so she faced him. Her pale eyes met his and the look in them compelled him to fulfil her silent request. It was strange to see her so afraid, so weak, and even stranger to have her relying on his strength.

“I will not let him near you,” Vivek whispered, so low it was barely audible even to their heightened hearing. “He will lead us to his fellow hunters. We must follow him. Are you able to proceed?”

She was still for a few seconds, the look in her eyes and her feelings on his senses flitting between panic and resolve to face her past, and then nodded.

Vivek lingered.

He looked at his hand where it cupped her soft cool cheek and the dark thread of blood just above his thumb. Temptation to sweep the pad of his thumb over it, to tell her that he hadn’t meant to draw blood and that it hadn’t just been because he knew the scent of it would distract him during their fight, overwhelmed him but he battled it. Sophis would never believe him capable of the feeling behind his desire to protect her. Not tonight anyway. With their fight and the sight of him with Ella so fresh in her mind, she would deny him if he foolishly tried to give her even the most miniscule clue as to his newly discovered feelings for her.

It was a risk he wasn’t willing to take, not when he wasn’t sure of his feelings himself. The fight had worked him up and the scent of her blood had driven him wild with need, and neither feeling had faded completely. He was still on edge, still hungry for blood and a battle to the death. There was a chance that anything he thought and anything he felt were just a result of that.

He didn’t believe himself capable of that sort of feeling either, at least not for Sophis.

He didn’t want to believe.

Vivek let his hand drop from her face, turned away from her and crossed the road to the other side. She remained leaning against the back of the white van for long seconds before pushing away from it. When she joined him, she wouldn’t look at him. Her now dark eyes darted around the street, touching everywhere but on him, and eventually settled on the river.

Sophis motioned for him to follow and he did, remaining close to her this time, no longer willing to risk even a few metres between them. It wasn’t only because Aleksis was a threat to Sophis, and himself. It was because he could still feel the lingering beat of fear in Sophis’s blood. She was putting on a brave face by resuming the lead but she wasn’t fooling him. Her recent ordeal with another vampire hunter hadn’t been enough to have her thinking twice about being out in the city, but the presence of Aleksis certainly was. It was only duty that kept her feet moving forwards rather than retreating to the mansion. If his presence at her side would boost her confidence and give her the strength to continue their mission, then he would stay there, close to her, and he would keep his promise to protect her.

Aleksis would never lay a finger on her again.

He would go against his bloodline’s orders to only track the hunter and gather information on him and would kill him, would watch him bleed out from a dagger in his gut, before he allowed Aleksis to even step within thirty metres of Sophis.

She must have felt his anger again because she glanced back over her slender shoulder at him, rogue strands of her long dark hair obscuring part of her face, and her near-black eyes meeting his for the barest of seconds before she dropped them to rest on the pavement and then turned away again.

His fingers burned with the memory of how soft her skin had felt beneath them.

Did her cheek burn too? Did it ache with the need to have him touch it again, just as he ached with a need to touch her?

 

Did you enjoy today’s tease?

 

Masquerade

Felicity Heaton

Ten years have passed since Sophis and Vivek, two vampires of the Venia bloodline, came close to death at the hands of twin hunters Aleksis and Izabella Romanov. The events of that night turned Sophis and Vivek against each other, shattering their close friendship and driving them apart.

Now, on the eve of a centenary Creator Day masquerade and at a time when things between them are dangerously close to separating them forever, they uncover a small army of vampire hunters in Saint Petersburg, led by their nemeses, Aleksis and Izabella.

With the safety of the rulers of the seven pure vampire bloodlines in their hands and their chance for vengeance hanging in the balance, can Sophis and Vivek face their past and overcome their differences? Will they realise their true feelings for each other before it’s too late or will the hunters finally claim their lives as their deadly plot to destroy the bloodlines unfolds?

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | Smashwords | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Barnes and Noble | Amazon.ca

 

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Vampires Realm romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and some are available in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series #1)

Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (Vampires Realm Romance Series #2)

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3)

Eternity: The Beginning (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.2)

Spellbound (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.1)

Reunion (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.5)

Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm Romance Series #4)

Winter’s Kiss (Vampires Realm Romance Series #5)

Hunter’s Moon (Vampires Realm Romance Series #6)

Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series #7)

Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series #8)

 

Manday Hotties – More Sexy Inked Mancandy Guys

 

Good Monday Morning! It’s time for the Manday Hotties Hop! I have some yummy new mancandy pictures for you… check out these hotties…

 

Which shot is your favourite? I can’t choose today. Maybe #1. But I do want to know why #2 doesn’t want me to laugh…

 

Visit the other blogs in the hop:

 

Snippet Saturday – Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 8) – Excerpt

 

Snippet Saturday is brought to you today by my paranormal romance book Hunger, which is book 8 in my popular Vampires Realm romance series. Read on for this Saturday’s

 

The hotel room smelled musty. Or that might be her. Her clothes were soaked and sticking to her skin. Tor reappeared from the bathroom and handed her a white towel robe. Eve thanked him with a smile that fell away when he turned his back on her and the scent of his blood grew stronger, thicker in the air, a tangy coppery smell that called to her.

“You’re injured.” She took a step towards him without thinking and he swung back to face her.

“It’s nothing. Just a little shrapnel.” He reached over behind him and tugged his ruined black sweatshirt off over his head. A brief tantalising flash of toned stomach muscles caught her breath in her throat before his black t-shirt fell back down to cover them. He tossed the sweatshirt and nodded towards her. “Change into that. It will make you feel better.”

Eve looked down at the robe she clutched, shame spreading through her. At times like this, she was almost glad she was a vampire and couldn’t blush. It wasn’t the thought of changing in front of Tor that would have had her cheeks heating. It was how pathetic she had been back at the airport.

She had lost it.

It was all coming back to her now in startling colour and detail. She had fallen apart while Tor had been the picture of calm and efficiency, his reactions incredible as he had swept her up against his hard, powerful body and sheltered her from the blast. If he hadn’t been there, she would have been toast.

Then, he had carried her like some knight in shining armour into the safety of the darkness and had tended to her, and all the while she had mumbled stupid stuff like a damsel in distress. She groaned internally at the way she had presented herself. When piled on top of how she had been when Tor had swept into the club and quickly dispatched her attackers for her, it made her want to bury her head in the robe and never come out again.

No doubt Tor thought she was one of those women who needed constant protection, a man on hand to do her battles for her and keep her safe.

She had kept herself safe for twenty-five years without the help of a man.

Death had torn apart the woman she had been, stripping away her strength, throwing her into turmoil. She had become the sort of weak and pathetic woman that had annoyed her when she had been a hunter.

Eve resisted sagging onto the bed and burrowing into the white robe.

She really had to man up.

Tor had offered her the shot at revenge she wanted and she was going to take it.

She was going to pull herself together and show him that she was a hunter born and bred, just as he was.

Eve turned her back on him, set the towel down on the double bed in front of her, and stripped off her jacket. When she pulled her t-shirt up, revealing her back, Tor uttered something in his foreign tongue. She shivered as his gaze ran down her spine, heating her skin, and frowned as his eyes left her. A chivalrous man? She hadn’t figured him for that type.

His boots shuffled on the taupe carpet and she continued to remove her wet things. She kicked her own boots off, struggled to get her jeans down her legs, and even pulled off her socks. She left her underwear on. A flimsy piece of protection she couldn’t quite bring herself to shed, not even when she was certain that he had turned his back to give her some privacy.

Eve donned the white robe, tied the belt around her waist and moved to face Tor.

He had turned his back. He stood facing the bathroom and her gaze immediately catalogued all the cuts in his black t-shirt. She walked forwards, her bare feet silent on the carpet, and reached towards a short gash on his right arm.

Tor tensed the moment her fingers made contact, his muscles flexing in response to her touch. She bravely ventured onwards, running her fingers down the line of the cut, one on either side of the angry wound.

“How many have metal in them?” she said and scanned his back for the worst. It was hard to tell with his t-shirt concealing them. “You’re going to have to let me take a look.”

He didn’t argue or hesitate. He grabbed his t-shirt and pulled it off, dropping it on the floor at their feet.

Eve sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of his muscular back, and not because of all the places where pieces of the jet had struck him. There were so many scars.

She absently raised a hand and ghosted it over the thick ragged scar on his right shoulder. It cut down from the delicious dip in his muscles beside his deltoid, as wide as two of her fingers together, and tapered to a point just beneath his shoulder blade, close to his armpit.

“The hunter did this?” She didn’t need to ask to know, but it felt too intimate standing like this with him, touching him in silence.

He nodded.

Eve moved a step back and assessed the new wounds, shutting out all the scars that littered his back, even the thick circular ones that sickened her. Someone had made him acquainted with holy wood and more than once. She counted at least five points where he had been stabbed with stakes and burned by them.

She shut them out, not wanting to wonder whether the same hunter who had attempted to take his arm and his life had done this grim work on him.

“You’re going to bleed when I pull these fragments out.” Eve touched one and expected him to hiss as she felt the metal buried in his flesh beneath his skin.

He didn’t make a sound. He didn’t even tense.

“You do not need to. My body will reject them.” He stepped away from her and pinned her with his cold blue eyes, no flicker of emotion in them.

“In days maybe… why live with them for days?” She searched his pale eyes but they didn’t answer her and neither did he.

Tor turned away from her and she wasn’t having any of it. She grabbed his wrist and he paused and looked down at her hand on him. His pale blond eyebrows drew down, narrowing his eyes. She wasn’t going to release him so his veiled threat was pointless.

“Why?” She wouldn’t ask him again. He had to have a reason. No hunter, no matter how hardened they were to pain, lived with something they could easily fix with another’s assistance. It was madness. The metal had every chance of burrowing deeper before his body began to heal, pushing it out. The process would be painful and drawn out over days.

Madness.

Tor lifted his icy gaze to meet hers. “It’s not your place.”

He tugged his arm free of her grip and walked into the bathroom. If he thought they were done on the subject, he was sorely mistaken.

Eve followed him into the white tiled room, avoiding the huge mirror hanging above the vanity unit in front of her. She turned to her left, towards Tor, and her eyes widened as he shoved his black jeans down, shamelessly revealing his bare backside.

Eve swiftly spun on her heel, giving him her back.

She searched for something to say and her eyes fell on the small, rather atrocious, bathroom supplies offered by the hotel. Nothing more than some shampoo and shower gel. No vanity pack. She went back into the bedroom, unzipped her bag, and pulled out her small shiny red satin bag that contained her scant pieces of make-up and other beauty items. She took out her tweezers, dumped her stuff on the bed and went back to the bathroom door.

Tor growled something dark and grunted.

Eve steeled herself, preparing for the sight of him, and then stepped inside. She frowned at him. He stood with one hand braced on the vanity and the other reaching under that arm, fingers digging in a wound on his back. Blood smeared around the wound and rolled down his fingers, dripping on the floor, leaving a stark crimson splatter on the white tiles.

“God almighty… will you stop? You’re making it worse.” She grabbed his hand and shoved it away.

He snarled at her and her heart leaped into her throat.

“I thought you were just going to let your body push the fragments out?” she snapped and ignored his answering growl. She felt the warning in that one. Her vampire instincts knew he had threatened her and meant to keep her away from him.

Eve didn’t give a damn.

She didn’t care that it wasn’t her place to help him, whatever that crap meant.

All she cared about was getting the pieces of metal out of his flesh in the least painful way and seeing he healed.

She shoved him in the shoulder. “Face forwards and shut up.”

Surprisingly, he did as ordered. Eve went to work on his back, feeling each wound and then using the tweezers to remove the metal if there was any embedded in it. She dropped each shard into a glass on the counter beside her and had filled the bottom of it before she had covered half of his back.

She couldn’t believe he had been willing to live with so many sharp pieces of metal in his skin.

“Tor?” she whispered as she carefully tugged another sliver free of his flesh and dropped it into the glass. “What did you mean by it isn’t my place? I get that you work alone… I understand what it’s like… but why refuse help?”

He lowered his head and braced his hands against the counter in front of him.

Eve worked lower and her gaze dropped to his bare backside and the twin delicious dimples above it. She dragged her eyes back up, trying to get control of herself. He had been kind enough to give her some privacy when she had been changing. It was rude of her to ogle him when he was accepting her help. She felt as if she was taking advantage of him somehow.

“You shouldn’t touch me.”

She frowned at those low spoken words. “Why not?”

He turned his head slightly towards her, enough that she could see he had his eyes closed, his eyebrows drawn down above them. His shoulders tensed as she pulled a long shard out of his side and she mumbled an apology.

“Because it isn’t right,” he said and she wished he would tell her straight and stop dancing around the reason.

She pulled another piece of metal out, her actions rougher this time, her irritation getting the better of her. He hissed as he sucked in a breath and blood trickled down his back.

“Sorry,” Eve said, immediately regretting what she had done. Guilt swept through her and on its heels came an instinct she fought hard to deny.

She would not lick the blood or seal the wound for him.

She grabbed some tissue and pressed it to the wound instead, and closed her eyes, shutting out the sight of all the blood on his back. She struggled against her instincts, desperate to shut out the voice that tempted her into running her tongue over Tor’s back, capturing every stray drop of his strong blood. She wanted it. She needed it.

She had to take it.

Tor wouldn’t argue.

He wouldn’t deny her. He would let her crawl up his magnificent body and sink her fangs into his throat, drinking deep of his blood. He would enjoy it.

Welcome it.

Eve turned away and shoved her palms against the cool wall tiles as her head spun, the sudden onslaught of dizziness threatening to sweep the ground out from under her and take her down to her knees.

Tor’s strong hand caught her upper arm. “Eve?”

The sound of her name in his deep accented voice sent heat rolling through her and caused her trembling to increase. Her knees turned to jelly, too weak to support her weight. His other hand clamped down on her side and he lifted her. The spinning in her head worsened and she gasped as her backside hit something hard beneath her.

“Eve?” Tor’s hands grasped her shoulders and he held her steady, and she wished she could find her voice to thank him for it. She clutched his biceps, holding herself upright on the counter of the vanity unit. “Eve?”

She nodded to let him know that she was beginning to feel better. The hunger was passing. She was winning.

She sucked in a deep breath and held it in her lungs, trying to shatter the final threads of the hunger’s hold on her.

“You need blood.” He released her arms.

Eve tightened her grip on him, fear bringing her claws out. She pressed them into his flesh, desperate for him to stay, unwilling to let him move. She couldn’t let him go for blood. She couldn’t. He wouldn’t understand.

“I’m fine.” She pushed the words out, trying to sound normal, sure that he hadn’t heard the wobble in her voice. “I think this whole evening has taken its toll on me.”

Eve risked opening her eyes and meeting his.

The ice glittering in them said he wanted to call her on her lie, that he knew she needed blood and hadn’t fed recently.

He stepped back instead and Eve quickly averted her gaze when his actions gave her a dazzling reminder that he was naked.

 

Did you enjoy today’s snippet?

 

Hunger

Felicity Heaton

Betrayed by one of her own and turned into a vampire, hunter Eve is consumed by her hunger for vengeance and has spent five years surviving hell, driven to take the life of the man she once loved. But just as she is about to close in on the hunter-turned-vampire, an event is set in motion that threatens to see him slip beyond her grasp forever—the leader of her bloodline has sent an escort to bring her to the family’s mansion. To a nest of the very creatures she once hunted and loathes.

A vampire assassin hardened by centuries of service, Tor is a man of discipline and loyalty, never straying from his mission or the rules set out for him, and has purged all his weaknesses, including his emotions.

But the moment he meets the broken, fiery female he is to escort to Oslo, something dangerous awakens in him, something possessive and powerful, and when he is pulled into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who betrayed her, Tor discovers he will do anything to protect the woman slowly claiming his heart and give her the vengeance she desires—even break all the rules.

Can Eve embrace her new vampire nature in order to have her revenge and find a reason to live again in Tor? Can Tor and Eve stop the man who betrayed her and the deaths of thousands of innocents? Or will he succeed in creating a new army of hybrid vampires who will rise up against the purebloods?

NOTE: This book can be read out of order with the rest of the series and acts as a standalone vampire romance novel

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

 

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Vampires Realm romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and some are available in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series #1)

Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (Vampires Realm Romance Series #2)

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3)

Eternity: The Beginning (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.2)

Spellbound (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.1)

Reunion (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.5)

Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm Romance Series #4)

Winter’s Kiss (Vampires Realm Romance Series #5)

Hunter’s Moon (Vampires Realm Romance Series #6)

Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series #7)

Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series #8)

 

Teaseday – Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series Book 8) – Excerpt

 

Today’s tease comes from the paranormal romance book Hunger, which is book 8 in my popular Vampires Realm romance series. Read on for this Tuesday’s tease…

 

Eve cast him a pained look and turned her back on him. She wrapped her arms around herself again and shook her head. She looked smaller like that. More vulnerable.

It was strange for him, but Tor found himself drawn to stepping closer to her and gently asking, “Don’t you want to see your sister?”

“I do,” she said and sighed. “I do want to see her… but I don’t know how she’ll react to seeing me again. She thought I was dead. It’s been five years, Tor.”

The sound of his name rolling softly off her tongue shocked him almost as much as the news that she had turned five years ago and hadn’t seen her sister in that time. He hadn’t known, but now that he did, he understood her reluctance to jump on a plane and meet her sister again.

It wasn’t the only reason behind her reluctance though.

He could see the cold hunger in her again as she turned to face him and her dark eyes locked with his. She hid it well, but it was there, layered with purpose and determination, and a drive that seemed familiar to him.

On top of that burning need that drove her ever onwards was one that held her back.

The need to avoid accepting what she had become at all costs. At the Vehemens mansion, she wouldn’t be able to hide from it any longer. The hunter would have to face the truth. She had become a vampire. She had become the very creature she once hunted and loathed.

Movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention to the front of the hangar. The stewardess and co-pilot placed their long dark coats over their heads to shield them from the downpour and rushed across the small strip of tarmac to the plane.

The jet’s staff made it on board.

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

Not the distance.

Not thunder.

His senses focused and everything slowed to a crawl.

A violent growl filled the silence, beginning in the belly of the jet, and grew in volume to a deadly roar. Brilliant blinding light drove the darkness back, orange and white flares stinging his eyes.

Tor reacted on instinct to the split-second warning, turning away from the coming blast.

Eve stood immobile, her eyes widening in horror as the eruption tore the Cessna apart, the inferno illuminating her face and warming her pale skin.

Tor lunged for her as the heat of the blast rolled over him and pulled her into his arms, pinning her close to his body and taking the brunt of the explosion on his back. Shards of metal sliced into his skin and flames licked at him, only his damp sweatshirt stopping them from burning him. He lifted Eve in his arms and bolted into the dark hangar, not slowing until he was close to the other end, shrouded in the shadows.

He set her down behind a stack of crates to conceal her, dropped their bags, and began checking her over, working methodically from her head downwards. His back stung, every laceration burning, but he ignored his own pain, shutting it out as he focused on Eve.

“What happened?” she whispered, her eyes glazed as she stared ahead into the darkness behind him. “What happened?”

She asked that question ten times over before he had even reached her wrists in his visual check of her.

A shudder went through her and she shook her head. She trembled beneath his fingers, her bare skin clammy and freezing to the touch. Shock, and it was hitting her hard.

“We could’ve been killed… we could’ve been killed… and I never would have had my revenge.”

Tor’s head snapped up and he stared into her wide dark eyes as she looked beyond him. Suddenly, the emotions he felt in her and that showed in her eyes made sense and he knew why they felt familiar.

He understood how powerful a need for vengeance could be. He knew how it could drive a person to great lengths, make them do things they would have found objectionable in the past, and make them live with something that would have normally torn them apart.

Eve wanted to bathe her hands in cold blood and annihilate someone. Who?

Tor took hold of her shoulders and shook her, trying to get her to shift her focus to him and come out of her trance.

“Who do you want revenge on, Eve? Could they have done this?” It had to have something to do with her. None of his enemies knew that he was here. The attack at the club had to be about her too. Someone wanted her dead. The same someone she wanted dead. “Could they have done this, Eve?”

She jerked her head up, her eyes shooting to meet his, and stared blankly at him for long seconds, shaking beneath his grasp.

She swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“Yes, they could have?” He needed to be sure.

She nodded. “I think… they sent the vampires who attacked me at One too. They want me dead.” A mirthless bark of laughter escaped her soft lips. “Feeling’s mutual. Got to make them pay.”

She began rocking and he held her tighter, tried to keep her focus on him so she didn’t slip back into shock. He looked past her, to the burning wreckage of the plane. Someone really wanted her dead.

Tor cursed.

“Why do you want them to pay?” he whispered and smoothed her tangled hair from her face, accidentally smudging soot across her cheek. “Tell me, Eve.”

Her eyes met his again and a flicker of red ringed her irises. “He betrayed me.”

Cold stole through Tor’s veins in response to the anguish in her eyes and the hurt in her voice. He clenched his teeth and suppressed his desire to growl.

He knew a little about betrayal.

Tor slung their two bags over his shoulder and lifted her back into his arms, settling one around her back and one under her knees. She sank against him, her head on his shoulder. The feel of her weakly clutching his black sweatshirt, tugging it into her fist, only served to darken his mood.

He hoofed it out of the back entrance of the hangar, pausing only long enough to scan his surroundings and ensure no one was watching them. Rain lashed down on him, soaking him in an instant, and Eve began chanting things about betrayal, revenge and the explosion, muddled things that warned she was slipping away from him again.

He held her closer to him, trying to shield her from the worst of the weather as he sprinted across the quiet airport, heading back towards the city. He slowed when he reached the perimeter fence and Eve trembled against him.

Tor looked down at her and something in the region of his heart melted a little at the sight of her soaked to the skin and clutching at him, muttering incoherent things to herself.

He needed to keep her focused and he only knew one way to do that, and it went against his nature.

He needed to talk to her and let her know that he was here, with her, and knew intimately what she was going through.

Tor swept his gaze over his surroundings, got his bearings, and began walking towards an area of Paris he had stayed in before and knew to be safe.

He drew in a deep breath, his lungs burning at the sudden invasion of oxygen after so long without him using them. He had long ago given up the pretence of breathing, but he needed air now, so he could do something else he hadn’t done in a very long time.

He exhaled hard to give himself the strength to go against his nature and do what was necessary to keep the beautiful woman in his arms with him.

“I know a little about betrayal.” The words came out quiet, a soft admission that part of him hoped she didn’t hear.

No luck there.

She lifted her head, that dark gaze landing on his face and not moving from it. It burned into him, making him intensely aware of her and every spot where she pressed against him and where his hands clutched her. He wasn’t sure when he had begun holding her so tightly, so close to him, his fingers pressing into her ribs near to her breast and into her soft supple thigh.

He cleared his throat, derailed his dangerous train of thought, and focused on their destination.

“I was betrayed by a fellow vampire once. He left me to die at the hands of a hunter.” Tor almost smiled when Eve tensed in his arms, a glimmer of fear going through her. “I almost lost my arm and came close to losing my head.”

“What happened to him?” she whispered.

“The hunter?” He frowned down at her and she shook her head, the edge to her eyes saying she knew what had happened to the man who had been foolish enough to try to kill him. She wanted to know what he had done to the one who had betrayed him. “I hunted him down, and I did what he failed to do to me. I took his life. I killed him with my bare hands. Justice was served.”

“Justice.” She drew the word out and her expression softened, her dark eyes brightening, as if she liked the sound of that.

He liked it too. He liked the thought of dishing out justice to the man who had betrayed her trust and the vampire who had done this to her, shaking her world, turning her into something she despised, even though it wasn’t his place.

The thought was sweet though and too tempting to ignore. Things that had bothered him about her fell into place like puzzle pieces and spelled out the reason behind many of the emotions he had felt in her and her behaviour.

She had agreed to come with him because she had seen him kill, had seen what kind of man he was, and had viewed him as an opportunity to seek out the vengeance she needed.

Under normal circumstances, he would have disappointed her and told her that his mission came first, but as he stared down at her, he began running through everything that had happened tonight and everything he knew about her, and normal went out of the window.

He couldn’t take her back to Oslo when she had vampires on her trail. A small voice, a tiny sliver of his heart that wasn’t dead to the world and all feeling, whispered that his concern about the safety of his bloodline wasn’t the real reason he was going to do something he had never done in three centuries of life as a hunter—bend the rules.

Tor told himself he wasn’t bending the rules. He was simply taking a different meaning from his mission parameters. He had been charged with her safety and Lincoln had warned she might need protecting from herself.

If he could help her mete out her own brand of justice, it might help her come to terms with what she was now and might help her say goodbye to what she had been in her human life.

He might be able to convince her that life as a vampire was worth living, that her new life could be something good and there was reason for her to go on.

The ferocity with which he wanted that astounded him.

Something about the determined yet delicate woman in his arms had him going against everything, every rule and every instinct.

Her dark eyes locked with his, focused and sharp, making his heart kick in his chest.

He looked away and ignored the strange feeling and reaction, shutting it down. She was beautiful, but she was a mission. Nothing more. She could never be more and he was a fool if he thought she could be. He wasn’t going to delude himself. This reaction was purely physical, a need born of a solitary life, and one he refused to act on with her. He would deal with it later. Right now, his mission was top priority.

She wanted revenge and he was just a tool she would use to achieve it. He would be that for her and nothing more. The moment she was safe from her betrayer, he was handing her over to her family and that would be that. She would become their Chosen Daughter. He would move on to the next mission and bed the first woman he came across.

“What happens now?” she whispered softly, her voice curling around him, stroking his ears and threatening to undo the work he had done to harden his heart.

Tor refused to look at her.

His eyes betrayed him and fell back to her face, taking in the luscious curves of her lips and the soft sweeping line of her jaw. He dragged his gaze away and locked it on the distance, determined not to let her bewitch him anymore.

She was a mission.

He had a feeling this was going to be the hardest mission in his long life.

It was going to push him to his limit and might just be the death of him.

“Tor?” she said in a low, cautious voice, and he pretended not to notice the way the cold abyss in his chest warmed whenever she spoke his name, unsettling him and tipping him off balance. “What happens now?”

Tor narrowed his eyes on the distance and set his jaw, dark thoughts of what was to come swirling through his mind and destroying all of his soft feelings as it painted a delicious picture, a tempting and satisfying portrayal of death.

“You get your revenge.”

 

Did you enjoy today’s tease?

 

Hunger

Felicity Heaton

Betrayed by one of her own and turned into a vampire, hunter Eve is consumed by her hunger for vengeance and has spent five years surviving hell, driven to take the life of the man she once loved. But just as she is about to close in on the hunter-turned-vampire, an event is set in motion that threatens to see him slip beyond her grasp forever—the leader of her bloodline has sent an escort to bring her to the family’s mansion. To a nest of the very creatures she once hunted and loathes.

A vampire assassin hardened by centuries of service, Tor is a man of discipline and loyalty, never straying from his mission or the rules set out for him, and has purged all his weaknesses, including his emotions.

But the moment he meets the broken, fiery female he is to escort to Oslo, something dangerous awakens in him, something possessive and powerful, and when he is pulled into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who betrayed her, Tor discovers he will do anything to protect the woman slowly claiming his heart and give her the vengeance she desires—even break all the rules.

Can Eve embrace her new vampire nature in order to have her revenge and find a reason to live again in Tor? Can Tor and Eve stop the man who betrayed her and the deaths of thousands of innocents? Or will he succeed in creating a new army of hybrid vampires who will rise up against the purebloods?

NOTE: This book can be read out of order with the rest of the series and acts as a standalone vampire romance novel

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

 

You can get your hands on the first book in this series, PROPHECY: CHILD OF LIGHT, for FREE right now on selected Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and Apple iBooks Stores. Find out more at my Paranormal Romance Ebook Offers page.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to read any of the books in the Vampires Realm romance series yet, they’re all available at major ebook retailers and some are available in paperback, and you can find the links and samples of the books at my website:

Prophecy: Child of Light (Vampires Realm Romance Series #1)

Prophecy: Caelestis & Aurorea (Vampires Realm Romance Series #2)

Prophecy: Dark Moon Rising (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3)

Eternity: The Beginning (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.2)

Spellbound (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.1)

Reunion (Vampires Realm Romance Series #3.5)

Seventh Circle (Vampires Realm Romance Series #4)

Winter’s Kiss (Vampires Realm Romance Series #5)

Hunter’s Moon (Vampires Realm Romance Series #6)

Masquerade (Vampires Realm Romance Series #7)

Hunger (Vampires Realm Romance Series #8)

 

Manday Hotties – Hot Guys Lifting Tyres

 

Good Monday Morning! It’s time for the Manday Hotties Hop! I have some yummy new mancandy pictures for you… check out these hotties… lifting tyres! Or tires if you’re across the pond.

 

Which shot is your favourite? I’m going with #1, and not just because his fly is undone…

 

Visit the other blogs in the hop:

 

Hunger Virtual Book Tour – Final Round-Up – WIN Amazon Gift Cards!

The third week of the Hunger Book Tour has ended and the tour has come to a close and I hope you’ve enjoyed all the posts, character interviews, and fun stuff. Here’s a round-up of the posts in case you missed some and more about Hunger, book eight in the Vampires Realm romance series.

Don’t forget to visit the Hunger Book Tour page to enter the Grand Giveaway for your chance to win a $50 or $25 Amazon Gift Card! – LAST CHANCE!

 

Hunger

Felicity Heaton

Betrayed by one of her own and turned into a vampire, hunter Eve is consumed by her hunger for vengeance and has spent five years surviving hell, driven to take the life of the man she once loved. But just as she is about to close in on the hunter-turned-vampire, an event is set in motion that threatens to see him slip beyond her grasp forever—the leader of her bloodline has sent an escort to bring her to the family’s mansion. To a nest of the very creatures she once hunted and loathes.

A vampire assassin hardened by centuries of service, Tor is a man of discipline and loyalty, never straying from his mission or the rules set out for him, and has purged all his weaknesses, including his emotions.

But the moment he meets the broken, fiery female he is to escort to Oslo, something dangerous awakens in him, something possessive and powerful, and when he is pulled into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man who betrayed her, Tor discovers he will do anything to protect the woman slowly claiming his heart and give her the vengeance she desires—even break all the rules.

Can Eve embrace her new vampire nature in order to have her revenge and find a reason to live again in Tor? Can Tor and Eve stop the man who betrayed her and the deaths of thousands of innocents? Or will he succeed in creating a new army of hybrid vampires who will rise up against the purebloods?

NOTE: This book can be read out of order with the rest of the series and acts as a standalone vampire romance novel

Available in e-book from:

Amazon Kindle Stores:

Amazon Kindle | Amazon Kindle UK | Amazon Kindle Germany | Amazon Kindle Canada | Amazon Kindle Australia

Apple iBookstores:

Apple iBookstore US | Apple iBookstore UK | Apple iBookstore Australia | Apple iBookstore Canada | Apple iBookstore New Zealand

Other Retailers:

Barnes and Noble | Kobo Books | All Romance eBooks | Google Play

 

Available in paperback from:

Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

 

Hunger Book Tour Dates

may – mon26th
Underworld Love Addiction
Introduction to the Vampires Realm series
may – tues27th
Fantasy is More Fun
About the Vampires Realm world
may – weds28th
The Book Nympho
Music Playlist for Hunger
may – fri30th
Mad Hatter Reads
Character Interview – Tor
may – sat31st
Pure Textuality
Spotlight/Excerpt
jun – sun1st
The Reading Cafe
Writing Hunger
jun – mon2nd
Bookin’ It Reviews
Character Interview – Eve
jun – tues3rd
I Smell Sheep
Author Interview
jun – weds4th
Paranormal Haven
Author Interview
jun – fri6th
Cocktails and Books
Spotlight/Excerpt
jun – sat7th
Booked and Loaded
About the Vampires
jun – mon9th
Sassy Book Lovers
Spotlight/Excerpt
jun – tues10th
Fictional Candy
Spotlight/Excerpt
jun – weds11th
Vampires, Werewolves, & Fairies Oh My!
Spotlight/Excerpt
jun – sat14th
Felicity Heaton’s Blog
What’s Next in the Vampires Realm Series?

Did you enjoy the tour? What has been your favourite moment?