A Celebration and and Excerpt from Entranced

To celebrate my new "adult content" status, I thought I'd post a more risque excerpt than normal. This is a never before seen, brand spankin' new excerpt from Entranced, coming to Loose Id in December.

Note: If you've read the Dawn Endeavor books, you already know Jack Keiser. But the handyman is much more than he seemed. You don't have to have read anything to understand this book and these characters, but it's more fun to see Jack's progression through the other stories, I think. (Warning, this excerpt is pre-edits...)

That kiss earlier had nearly fried her senses. Pretending to be calm while her entire body yelled at her to hop on Jack and ride him into tomorrow had been the most difficult thing she’d ever done. Even now she could still taste him, a hint of hops from the beer he’d drunk mixed with his own brand of sexual aggression. All male and overpowering.

God, she’d never been with anyone so overwhelming. Beneath the flesh and blood, energy raged within him. The Source only added to his power, and she’d been drugged on him since that first hug.

Something about him intrigued her. She’d never gone for the bad boy type. Heather studied him, seeing those huge fists, the thick thighs, the broad chest, the square jaw. His eyes snapped with power, so light they looked unnatural.

“What?” he growled, watching her watch him. “Afraid now?  A little late, don’t you think?”

“Get over yourself.”

She blinked in surprise, as shocked as he by her aggression. Heather was nice to everyone. Even David and Ernst Baer, the heavy-handed creeps who’d tried to take way too many liberties at last week’s beer fest. To Ernst, she’d politely declined his company. She’d smiled at David, carefully skirted him, and latched on to Jon, who’d been walking by at the time.

But Jack confused, annoyed and scared her because he made her want him more than was healthy. More than was normal. She had a feeling that if she let him, he could disrupt her well-ordered world even more than Chronicles had. Heather knew that eventually this adventure would end. With Jack, she had the sense he’d stay with her, in thought if not in the flesh.

They stared at each other in silence.

“You know, you’re not what I expected,” he finally said.

“Oh? Care to explain what that means?”

He evaded the question. “Your brother asked me to find you. He was
worried.”

Of course, Owen would be. The control freak didn’t like that she hadn’t called when he’d commanded. She loved him like crazy, but she had to do this without his interference. He wasn’t the one to make things right. She was, because she’d been the one to read the code hidden in the book. Only she could fix what her great-grandfather had broken. She had to go it alone.

Then again, Jack could be classified as interference, and Ida had clearly inferred Heather needed him. So perhaps she wouldn’t be as alone on this trip as she’d initially thought.

“You’re pretty,” Jack said bluntly. “Beautiful, actually.” His gaze went from her head to her toes and lingered in between.

She wished to hell her body wouldn’t respond, but for some reason Jack got to her.

“But it’s more than that.” Jack rose from the couch and approached. Half of her wanted to flee, the other half forced her to remain and wait for the worst. “See, here’s the thing that bothers me. You say you can heal. Your mind is strong. But then, Owen’s powerful, so I’d expect you to be like him. But you’re more.”

“More, how?” she asked on a breath, once again too close to him and sizzling under their shared chemistry.

“What can you do, exactly? What’s your gift besides healing?” he asked and put his hand on her shoulder.

She grew wet, her nipples stiffened, and she felt herself wanting to lean into his heat. Heather licked her dry lips and tried to answer without sounding as desperate as she felt. So she’d been without a boyfriend for months. Sex hadn’t been that high on her priorities for a while. But it had never been so all-consuming a desire as it was right now.

It had to be the Source under the town influencing her arousal.

“Tell me,” he whispered. His breath fluttered over her mouth when he leaned closer.

She swallowed hard. “I told you. I heal, physically and psychically. All types of wounds.”

“So you’re empathic, then?” He put his other hand on her other shoulder and started rubbing, a gentle massage that made her boneless in seconds.

“N-no. Not empathic. I just sense the hurt and fix it.” She moaned. “Oh wow. That feels so good.”

“You’re tense.” His low voice barely registered. “Tight, smooth, and wet, I’ll bet,” he added in a growl before he kissed her again.

That first time she’d been caught off guard. As fast and heavy as their interlude in the alley had been, she thought she could have stopped him before they grew too serious. But right now, she could do nothing but follow his lead, caught up in the man touching her.

Right now, Jack didn’t feel wounded at all. He surrounded her with his raw masculinity. Consumed by his scent, she breathed him in and clutched his thick shoulders. Her lips softened under his, and she opened her mouth wider when he penetrated with his tongue and took charge.

He groaned and walked her backward until she felt the wall behind her. Jack lifted her as if she weighed nothing and wrapped her legs around his waist. One hand held her up while the other found her breasts and played. Under her sweater, he pinched her nipples, and she ground against the hard ridge of his erection between her legs, cursing the jeans that separated them.

“Need to fuck you so bad,” he muttered against her ear, then kissed the sweet spot just under it before she realized he’d let go of her breast to unsnap her jeans. He fiddled with their clothes between them while he kissed her beyond sanity.

Entranced, A PowerUp! novel

Coming to Loose Id in December