Saturday Snippet

Today’s topic is rain on me. I’m taking that to mean an emotional scene. Thought this might be a good time to give you an early look at NO TURNING BACK, the start of a new contemporary series that comes out in March 2013. This is an unedited excerpt. It drops you in on Declan, the son of a con man, and Leah, the daughter of a victim of one of dear old dad’s first cons. Needless to say Declan and Leah have some family baggage to wade through.

“Do you really not understand?” she asked. “There are people in this town who will make it impossible for you to stay.”

“You mean your father.”

“For one, but your dad screwed a lot of people here. He was the favored hometown boy who promised them a financial wonderland and then ripped them all off. He broke their trust in the most fundamental way.”

“I’m aware of his sins.”

“He came up with a scheme, got people to invest, got my father to invest town funds. Then Charlie took off.” She held up a finger as the words kept rolling out of her. “But not before cleaning up the tracks behind him. He destroyed people and some families lost everything.”

Declan’s blank expression never wavered. “Noted.”

“The police chief is itching to get his hands on you. I wouldn’t go even one mile per hour over the speed limit, if I were you.” Lounging against the bar with his ankles crossed and his lips flat, Declan refused to get it. No matter what argument she used, he discounted it and her fury spewed. “Wake up. You can’t be this nonchalant about all of this.”

“You know what I am, Leah?” His voice was so soft, so deadly flat as he pushed off from the bar and came to stand next to her. His hand rested inches from hers on the back of the chair. “Tired to being judged by Charlie’s actions.”



The brakes slammed somewhere in the back of her head. Declan was furious. She could see it in the line of his mouth and boiling fire in his eyes.

She backed up until the curtains brushed against her hair. “I didn’t-”

“You did.” A nerve ticked in is cheek. “The man abandoned my mom. After the first few years, Charlie didn’t even bother to come around for visits and he never sent money. He left a legacy of shit and I’ve been shoveling it ever since. So, when you crawl up on your high horse and look down on me, I don’t exactly get worried about it because, you see, I’ve lived with that kind of condescending bullshit my whole fucking life.”

His voice shook as he spoke, low and subtle, but she heard it. When he stopped talking, his anger continued to shake the room. Tension rolled off his stiff shoulders and slammed into her, stealing her breath with its force.

“You want me to feel guilty.” She whispered the phrase because he was right there, just inches away, leaning over her and closing in without moving.

“I want you to understand you weren’t the only one who’s lived with Charlie’s mess.”

“I get that you’re a victim.” One of the hundred, possibly thousands, Charlie left in his wake.

“I refuse to accept the label and all the dysfunction that goes with it.”

Maybe survivor was the right word. This could be the greatest, most convincing con of his life, and part of her wanted to believe that he was just like his dad so she wouldn’t care, but she couldn’t muster the skepticism. A piece of the hate wall she’d erected against Declan slipped and shattered.

“Why are you really here? Tonight, in my house.” She could smell the soap in his skin, something with a hint of lime, and see the way his dark hair curled at the ends. His mouth was so close. His body next to hers until it blocked her view of the kitchen beyond.

His gaze traveled over her face and landed on her mouth. “I don’t know.”

“At least that’s honest.” Her voice sounded breathy. She tried to inhale deeply through her nose to keep from gulping for air.

“You didn’t know I could be honest?” There was no anger in his voice but there was something else. The

slightest shift until his breath blew across her cheek.

The air crackled and whatever was jumping back and forth between them had her head pounding. She had to move.

“Okay, stop. Let’s back up a second.” She slipped around the chair and kept walking around the table. The man had her literally running around in circles in her own dining room. “I get it. I don’t know how much to believe or what to trust, but I can see that being Charlie Hanover’s kid would suck.”

“Just a little, yeah.”

“So, let me help. Let’s work out a reasonable solution.”

She was so busy noticing his sudden smile that she missed the following. The goal was to get to the kitchen, maybe keep her hands busy with drinks or something else, but he stood in front of her, hovering over her with her back against the wall and his hand balanced right next to her head. She couldn’t sneak around the corner to the bedroom, which was probably a good thing because that room needed to be off-limits. But she couldn’t run either because she’d lost feeling in her legs.

“What if what I want from you has nothing to do with the house?” He was close enough for her to see the faint white outline of a scar along his jawline.

She balled her hand into a fist to keep from touching it. “You don’t-”

“Don’t tell me what I want or think. Every time I’m near you, you tick me off.”

“Well, that’s lovely, isn’t it? We could resolve that problem by staying away from each other.” She put her hand against his chest to push him away. His heart hammered under her palm.

“Not going to happen.”

“I get a say in this.” Not that she intended to use a veto right now.

He leaned in with his entire body. Only her hand separated them as his mouth brushed up the line separating her cheek and her ear. “Then tell me to stop.”

___________

Remember to check out the other authors’ snippets:

Rhian Cahill

Leah Braemel

Mari Carr

Shiloh Walker

McKenna Jeffries

Taige Crenshaw

Lauren Dane

TJ Michaels