ALREADY GONE
BLURB:
A decade after Logan
walked out on Maddy, he returns, and emotions long banked surface, then
everything becomes complicated and dangerous.
DEADLY PURPOSE
BLURB:
Thrown together, and
neither is happy about it, Meg and Declan navigate their unwanted growing
attraction as they fight to keep Meg alive.
Excerpt from DEADLY PURPOSE:
Who was occupying her father’s
cabin?
The surly face of a bearded man was
not what she expected. Tall and long-limbed, his wide shoulders filled the
door. Furrowed brows shadowing dark brown eyes and a scowling expression did
nothing to alleviate the feeling that she’d awakened a bear in its den. And a
hungry bear at that.
“What do you want?”
About the same time he growled out
the question, the warmth hit her. It emanated from inside the cabin and felt
like a thick blanket pulled fresh from the dryer and wrapped snugly around her.
She wanted to slip past him and find a place to lie down for the next week or
so. Someplace out of the way where she could ignore him until she felt better
and could deal with his intrusion.
He stepped forward and wariness had
her taking a step back before she recovered herself. Grow a spine. Don’t cower.
Stand up for yourself.
He stepped onto the porch and pulled
the door shut behind him.
Meg suppressed a groan at the loss
of warmth. Gathering her resolve, she asked, “Who are you?” At least her voice
sounded strong. “And what are you doing in my cabin?”
“Not your cabin. You must have
missed a turn. Go figure out where.” He reached back to lay a hand on the
doorknob.
“This is my cabin. You need to
leave.”
He gave her a once-over before
locking his gaze on hers. “I know what the owner of this place looks like, and
you don’t fit the bill. Go away.”
“If I go away, I’ll get the sheriff
and let him deal with you. I don’t think he’ll tolerate squatters in these
mountains. I’ll give you ten minutes to get your things around, then you’re
gone.”
“Go for it, lady. We have a police
chief, not a sheriff, and cell coverage is spotty up here. By the time you get
into town, it’ll be dark. Chief Gallagher is too smart to bother with this
right now. He’ll tell you to get a room at a motel somewhere and figure it out
in the morning.”
She sized up the man. With his tough
build, he wouldn’t be easy to budge. This was not how she envisioned her day
ending. She tightened her arms around her middle to stop the shiver snaking up
her spine. A glance out from under the porch showed fat snowflakes wafting
softly from the sky. She’d never seen snow falling before. Watching the drift
of hazy white made her head swim.
“What the hell?” She jerked back
when strong hands gripped her elbows, backing up her breath in her lungs. “What
are you doing? Let go.”
“Then don’t act like you’re going to
pass out.”
“I’m not going to pass out.” She
pulled against his hold. “Hands off.”
He released her, putting his hands
up like he was calming an emotionally disturbed person. The headache brewing at
her temples spiked.
“You on something?”
Either irritation made his voice
gruff, or it was his natural tone. She gave her forehead a surreptitious rub,
not bothering to verbalize a response.
“Look at me.” He cast his gaze over
her face. Only full, sensuous lips softened the rough planes of his face. He
raised a hand and she backed up. A fuzzy sensation crowded at the edge of her
brain, reminding Meg of when she’d suffered a concussion after being beaned in
the head by a softball pitch.
“Steady there.” He held up a finger.
“Without moving your head, follow my finger with your eyes.”
She looked him straight in the eye.
“You know what you can do with that finger, don’t you?”
Only the slight crinkling at the
corner of his eyes gave her any indication that the comment had struck home. He
laid the back of his hand against her forehead. She didn’t jerk back this time,
but it was a close call.
“You’re not high, you’re sick. Your
skin is hot to the touch.”
AUTHOR Bio
and Links:
National
Readers’ Choice Award winner for her novel, Solitary Man, Diane Benefiel has
been an avid reader all her life. She enjoys a wide range of genres, from
westerns to fantasy to mysteries, but romance has always been a favorite. She
writes what she loves best to read – emotional, heart-gripping romantic
suspense novels. She likes writing romantic suspense because she can put the
hero and heroine in all sorts of predicaments that they have to work together
to overcome.
A
native Southern Californian, Diane enjoys nothing better than summer. For a
high school history teacher, summer means a break from teenagers, and summer
allows her to spend her early mornings immersed in her current writing project.
With both kids living out of the house, in addition to writing, she enjoys
camping and gardening with her husband.
Diane
loves hearing from her readers.
BUY
LINKS:
ALREADY
GONE
DEADLY
PURPOSE
Giveaway:
Flash Point + Dead Giveaway to 2 winners
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