I'm back party people! Earlier I told you all about the inspiration for my Paranormal Romance series, 'Angels Among Us'. I'm here celebrating the release of book 2, 'Tempted', and giving away an ebook copy of BOTH books, Fallen and Tempted! I thought I'd share some sweet, romantic excerpts from both books so those of you entering to win can have a taste of what you could be getting! Just a reminder: comment to win, and leave an email address so I can contact you. Hope you enjoy!
Excerpt 1 (Fallen):
They sat in
silence for several minutes. She was gazing down at him, her lips parted
slightly, her breath quickening as his hands flexed around her ankles. The
tension was palatable, and Amir could practically feel it crackling between
them. He knew what she was feeling, because he was feeling the exact same
thing. He knew what was about to happen before it happened, yet could do
nothing to stop it. He could only brace himself when Shayla practically
launched herself into his arms, sending them rolling across the carpet in a
tangle of limbs until he landed on top of her.
His head came
down and hers came up, and the two met in the middle and lips touched. It was
as if lightning had struck him, and just like his dream, he knew he couldn’t
stop now. It was too late. He was ruined. He had tasted the sweetness of her
lips and there was no going back now. She parted her lips on a sigh and met his
tongue with hers. Her hands came up to thread through his dark locks, and his
cupped her face as he tilted his head to a better angle and kissed her again.
He wrapped his arms around her, trapping her between his body and the carpet,
molding her against him. Her breasts burned his skin through the fabric of
their clothes, and her heart hammered wildly against his.
“Amir,” she
whispered, her lips coming to rest just behind his ear. He jerked and stifled a
groan by burying his face in her shoulder. Just as it had happened in his
dream, he was burning, only this time he was burning from within, going up in
flames with the heat of his own desire for the woman in his arms. In his mind
he could see the flames, hot and menacing consuming him just before he was
hurtled from grace and into the depths.
With every ounce
of his will, he pulled himself away from Shayla, untangling himself from her
arms. He fell back against the couch, one hand clutched over his racing heart,
gulping hungrily for air. Her eyes a bit glazed over and her lips swollen from
his kiss, she pulled herself into a seated position, her eyebrows pulled
together in bewilderment.
“Amir?” She
reached out to touch his arm. The light touch of her hand was enough to snap
him out of the trance he’d been in. He jerked away from the searing heat of her
touch and jumped to his feet.
“I have to go,”
he said, almost running for the door.
Her voice jerked
him back with invisible fingers. “What? Why?”
He turned to
face her, his heart wrenching at the sight of her face, confused and stricken.
“I’m sorry Shayla,” he said lamely.
“What’s wrong?
Did I come on too strong?” Shayla’s eyes widened and Amir was gripped by the
embarrassment she was feeling. “Oh God, you must think I’m some kind of slut
after the way I just threw myself at you!” She turned her back and buried her
face in her hands.
Unwilling to let
her take the blame on herself, Amir strode forward and placed his hands on her
shoulders. “No, Shayla. It’s not you. You’re perfect. You’re beautiful and
smart and funny. You’re wonderful.”
She turned in
his arms and looked up at him. “And you want me don’t you? I wasn’t reading you
wrong?”
Amir sighed. “No,
you weren’t but-“
“Then what is
it?”
“I can’t do
this, Shayla. I shouldn’t have let things go this far and I’m sorry if it hurts
you to hear that. I should go.”
“Let me make
sure I’m understanding what you’re saying,” she said slowly, backing away from
him and avoiding his gaze. “You don’t want to be with me.”
“No, that’s not
it.”
“You want to,
but you can’t.”
“Yes.”
“And whatever
the reason, you can’t tell me why?”
“Yes.”
The anger that
rose up in her was so swift and sudden, Amir barely had a chance to register it
before she exploded. “Why, Amir? Why can’t you tell me anything? Why can’t you
tell me about your job or where you come from? Why can’t you tell me about your
family? For crying out loud I don’t even know where you live!”
“It’s
complicated, Shayla. It would be hard for you to understand.”
“No, what I
don’t understand is why you’re keeping so much of yourself from me. You know
almost everything about me, Amir. Most of it without me even having to tell
you. And as deep as my feelings are for you, I can’t say I know much about you
beyond how you like your coffee and that you like classical music.”
“There are
things I can’t-“
“Things you
can’t tell me?” she interrupted with a sarcastic laugh. “As if I haven’t heard that before! What is it with you, Amir?
Do you think that acting coy will make me want you more? Is this some game
you’re playing, acting mysterious so I’ll pursue you? Because if it is I’ve got
news for you; I’m not the kind of girl to follow a man around like some
lovesick puppy. If you can’t meet me on equal terms and give as much as you get
then this is over.”
Silence
stretched out between them as they stood, each avoiding each other’s eyes. Amir
looked down at his shoes. He had wanted to end things with Shayla but he hadn’t
intended for it to be like this. Still, this was just the opening he needed to
walk away. As much as he knew he needed to, his heart still rebelled at the
thought.
“I really am
sorry Shayla,” he said again, knowing that it wasn’t what she wanted to hear
but unable to say anything else.
“Get out,” she
said, so quietly at first that Amir wasn’t sure he had heard her right. She
looked up at him finally, tears glistening in her dark eyes. The knife in his
heart twisted cruelly when lone tear trailed down her cheek. He fought down his
own tears. “Get out!” she repeated, this time practically screaming at him. “Go!”
Fighting the
urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her, he turned and reached for his
jacket. He turned in the doorway for one last glimpse of her, but she had
turned away and all he saw was her stiff, unyielding back before he closed the
door.
****
Excerpt 2 (Tempted):
Raindrops plopped onto his head and
shoulders as he stepped onto the roof. Sarah stood a few feet away from him,
her palms stretched out to catch the water drops. Her eyes were closed and her
face was tilted back to the cloudy sky. Jackson watched, his jaw slack, as she
twirled in a slow circle, extending her arms to embrace the coming storm.
His heart pounded in his chest, and his
conscience nagged him for intruding on her private moment. Yet he couldn’t look
away from her. She looked like the angel she truly was, bathed in moonlight,
her arms and legs bare in the thin sundress she was wearing, her face tilted to
the sky. His stomach clenched and his blood raced. He took a step toward her.
She opened her eyes and turned toward
him slowly, lowering her arms. As she moved toward him, he felt time slowing
around him, and realized he’d felt this sensation before so many times. He’d
never bothered to pay attention to it, chalking it up to childish fantasy on
his part, blaming it on too many slow-motion filled action movies. He would
never have attributed it to the power he'd always possessed. A power he'd never
known he had.
But as Sarah walked toward him through
the rain, he soaked in every detail. It was as if his mind wanted to remember
everything; the flow of her dress’ skirt around her knees as the breeze tugged
at it and the curling sable waves made damp by the rain, every water drop that
rolled down her face. Every detail stood out in sharp clarity, until nothing
else existed for him.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, breaking the
silence. Her wide eyes were filled with tears that mingled with the rain
running down her face.
“No,” he interjected, reaching up to
grasp her upper arms gently. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I took my fears
out on you, and you didn’t deserve that. You didn’t ask for this job, and you
sure as hell didn’t ask for me. I told you to run, to leave me alone, but you
stayed. No one stays for me, Sarah. No one ever stays.”
“Your father…” she trailed off lowering
her eyes. “I know who he is.”
Jackson’s heart dropped into his
stomach. “You do?”
She nodded. “After you left, Vivian told
me all about him. He left your mother because he was charged with guarding one
of the few portals between earth and hell. He knew he would be putting you and
your mother in harm’s way if he stayed. Guarding portals is a dangerous job.
There are Oracles, demons, and even some humans who are constantly searching
for them. They would not hesitate to hurt the family or friends of a Guardian
in order to get what they want.”
Jackson felt his head spinning with the
sheer magnitude of what he was hearing. All this time he’d thought his father
was an arrogant, heartless bastard. He’d never known anything about him beyond
the day he left. While he was still hurt and angry at his father’s abandonment,
he couldn’t help but feel pity for him. Much like Jackson, he’d stood on the
precipice, facing a choice that could change his life forever. It had cost him
his family, but contributed to a greater good beyond anything Jackson could have
ever fathomed.
“Did you know that Vivian raised me?”
She shook her head, a frown marring her
forehead. “No. What happened to your mother?”
“She ran off with some boyfriend of hers
a few months after my father left. His leaving changed her, and she never had
time for anything but herself after. I don’t think she knew about my father’s
assignment.”
“Jackson, I-“
“People have been leaving me my whole
life, Sarah,” he said. He wasn’t sure why he was saying these things to her. He
only knew that it felt right, even good to share it with her. It was a part of
him he’d never even shared with Rochelle. “I do things to chase people away.”
“No!” she protested, stepping more fully
into the circle of his arms. Her hands reached up to his face and she forced
him to look down into her eyes. “No, Jackson. You didn’t chase your parents
away. They made their own decisions.”
“Rochelle,” he said with a half-hearted
shrug. “I was so broken after Iraq that I chased her away too. And now I’m
doing the same thing to little Jack that my father did to me.”
“No,” she said again, shaking her head.
Her wet waves clung to her face and neck. “You are not alone Jackson, and you
are not broken. You have a calling now, a purpose. Accept what you’ve been
offered and fulfill your destiny. You don’t have to make the same choices your
parents did. You don’t have to be afraid or run or abandon the people in your
life.”
“I just don’t want-“
Her grip tightened on his face,
silencing him. “You will not have to do this alone, Jackson. That’s why I’m
here. I won’t leave until I’ve seen this through. I don’t care how much
quicksand you think you’re standing on, I won’t abandon you.”
Silence stretched between them as he
allowed her words to sink in. I won’t
abandon you. As he looked down into eyes that were incapable of lying, he
believed her. He believed it like he’d never believed anything else in his
life.
He brought his hand up to her cheek,
resting it there as his eyes caressed her face.
“You know, I was wrong about you,” he
said.
“You were?” she asked. Her lips parted
and he felt her rapid breath against his wrist; it pulsed with the same rhythm
as his pounding heart.
He nodded.
“Yes, I was. You’re beautiful.”
Her breath stopped, suspended between
her parted lips. She trembled as his arm came around her swiftly, bringing her
body up against his. Fear and indecision flashed in her eyes briefly, but by
the time his lips pressed against hers it was gone.
Her lips were soft and pliant against
his, but chastely closed and still as if she didn’t know what to do. Of course
she didn’t, he thought as he brought one hand to the back of her head; she’d
probably never been kissed.
The sweetness of it, the purity of the
moment touched him in ways he would have never thought possible. He allowed his
lips to linger over hers, gently accustoming her to the intimacy of his mouth
pressed to hers. As his fingers caressed the back of her neck, he gently coaxed
her mouth open with his. She trembled against him as the inside of her mouth
met his; warm, moist, heavenly. Her hand came up tentatively against chest,
burning his skin through the wet fabric of his t-shirt. Her touch burned its
way across his chest until his entire body was heated by it.
She became bolder by the second, angling
her head and returning the bold caresses of his lips with her own innocent
kisses. A primal satisfaction flared through him at the knowledge that no other
man had touched her. No other man had kissed her. At that moment he held a
pure, untouched piece of heaven in his arms.
He pulled her more tightly against him,
molding her against him. He felt every inch of her through the wet fabric of
his clothes. She shuddered against him, reaching up with both hands to grip his
shoulders tightly. He wrapped both arms firmly around her, one hand at her hip
and one at her back. He feared if he let go, she would fall at his feet.
When he’d nearly stolen her breath away,
she pulled away slowly and stepped away from him reluctantly. Somewhere in the
back of his mind he realized that the rain had stopped. His eyes remained
locked on Sarah.
She took one step away from him, and
then another. Her eyes were lowered, her lips tinged pink and parted. Her chest
heaved as she struggled for air. She raised her fingers to her mouth as she
gazed up at him, her expression of carnal bliss melting into one of pure
horror.
“Sarah,” he said gently, stepping toward
her slowly. She shook her head and took another step back.
He reached one hand out for her, but
before he could touch her she was gone. Her footsteps echoed across the roof,
the skirt of her sundress fluttering behind her. Jackson was rooted to the
spot, too numb to follow her. Seconds later, she disappeared from view, leaving
Jackson staring off into darkness. Alone.
****
Well, that's all for my second post! Come back later and check out more excerpts...you know, the R-rated kind! *wink*
About the Author:
I'm
Elise, a lover of all things romance. I picked up my first romance
novel when I was in high school and have been reading and writing it
ever since.
I
love the world of historicals starring feisty heroines. I love dark
paranormals featuring brooding other-worldly heroes. I love
writing stories about love conquering all. I love writing characters
that people can fall in love with.
I'm
a stay-at-home wife and mother of two, and wh
en I'm not reading,
writing, or caring for my family, I'm in the kitchen whipping up fun
recipes or singing my heart out to the radio!
Website: www.elisemarion.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/elisemarion86
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/elise_marion
All books available at:
3 comments:
Sounds very intriguing. Best of luck with the books.
Oh my word, the covers are STUNNING ... I could barely look away from them to read the excerpts. I'd buy them for the covers alone...
Good luck with your releases!
Both books sound great! Congrats on your release! Oh, love the covers! :) Thanks for sharing!
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com
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