Saturday Snippet – For Shame
Sometimes a character does something so bad or many things so bad, that you wonder how he will ever come back from that. Those tend to be the big writing challenges and the characters you end up loving the most.
Such is the case with Malcolm from my Black cougar trilogy. He’s done some pretty bad stuff. More than once and I wasn’t sure I could do his story justice. But I sat down and wrote the book and cried like a baby when I ripped his heart out and stompted on it. So lest you think he didn’t pay for his sins…he does.
This excerpt might be a bit of a spoiler but its the first really bad thing he did and the one that would torment him for a very long time.
Excerpt from Malcolm: Chey has had to reunite with Malcolm for the greater good and this is the memory that she is reliving that forever changed both their futures. It’s dark and it’s heartbreaking, but it’s real. Just as life often is.
On the drive back to Malcolm’s house at the edge of the Nantahala national forest, Chey’s skin crawled from doing nothing. She desperately wanted to glare at him, yell at him—hell, even jumping from the Jeep and disappearing into the early morning light just peeking over the horizon sounded good.
Arousal, anger and guilt were not a good combination and she needed some time to clear her head. It was the arousal more than anything that puzzled her. Her body burned for a man that was, for all intents and purposes, a criminal. The profile she’d compiled on him over the years spoke of a rebellious but loyal teenager who’d worshipped his mother. After she died, things began to change. For one, he’d met her. Unfortunately, she remembered the day as clearly as if it had been yesterday, not five years ago.
She’d crossed over into his clan’s territory on a dare and he’d hunted her. From the moment she’d scented him something shifted inside her. His presence tugged continuously at her mind. However, fear of a black cougar had practically been bred in her so she raced back to the neutral zone where she belonged. That first day she’d not seen him, but she’d known he watched her from somewhere close by. His scent enthralled her.
Chey’d returned every single night, playing chicken with a Death Enforcer. Until one night, he’d decided to capture her. He’d gone from cougar to man in an instant, pouncing on her before she even blinked. Every cell in her body had lit up that night and she’d been prepared to take him as her first. They’d wrestled and fought, scratched and bit until finally Malcolm pinned her to the ground belly down.
He’d entered her from behind in one dark, fast and thrilling thrust that made her scream from the glorious pain and pleasure. Their cries of passion and lust filled the night air until they were both lost in the frenzy. Then he’d frozen above her. He’d scrambled to his feet spewing insults she’d never expected from the man she’d inexplicably trusted. He shifted back to the sleek cougar she’d been awed by and disappeared into the woods.
Left confused and hurt, she’d curled into a ball and wept. She’d lost her innocence and ability to trust that night and all she heard in her head over and over were his parting words.
Not in this lifetime or any other would he mate with a half-breed.
For more shameful moments from intriguing characters, be sure to follow the trail:
Megan Hart:Read in bed!
Rhian Cahill
Jody Wallace
Mandy M Roth
Lissa Matthews
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Myla Jackson
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Shiloh Walker>
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane
