Excerpt from A Guardian's Heart

A Guardian’s Heart
Guardians of Light, Book 1
Renee Wildes
Urban Fantasy
$ 3.99
Amazon TBD
Kobo TBD
Champagne Books

Strength can be drawn from pain…if the heart can heal faster than it bleeds.

Excerpt:

Dara trembled, realizing she was sprawled across Loren like some tavern wench. The effort it took to meet his heated gaze… Fine brows slanted over wide leaf-green eyes pupiled like a cat’s, set in a pale aristocratic face. She glanced at his hands gripping her upper arms. Fine artisan’s hands with sword calluses, they held like bands of steel, but so gently ’twas nigh a caress. His body warmth was impossible to ignore. She shifted. Unable to hold his gaze, Dara dropped hers—to his mouth. She blushed.

His lips curved in a wry smile. “Now you become shy?” White teeth flashed. “Your hands have already been all over my body.”

Dara groaned and closed her eyes. Her cheeks flamed.

“Look at me, Dara.” Loren slid his arms around her body.

She tingled at his touch. Restless. Achy. “I can’t.” She hated this breathless dizziness. “Whatever you’re thinking, cease.” He was so warm. She feared making a fool of herself and melting against him. The old wives whispered of faerie enchantments; did that happen here? She felt bespelled. She wasn’t some weak woman to soften over a man, as any villager could lament. “You were much less intimidating flat on your back and weak as a kitten.”

“Intimidating you find me? Prefer me flat on my back in your bed? You have me now.” He brought her braid around to his nose and inhaled. “Sunshine and ferns.”

Self-preservation urged Dara to stop him before he did something neither of them could undo. “Loren—”

“Dara Kahn Androcles, protect me you did with your life’s blood. You are neither indestructible nor immortal. They might have killed you.” His hand, still wrapped with her hair, raised her chin ’til her gaze met his. “You must look at me while I speak these next words.”

Dara couldn’t tear her gaze away. The room spun and receded ’til all her world was Loren. “Don’t look at me like that.” The weight behind his words crawled under her skin, into her mind.

“My life I owe you. Life-debt. I bind myself to you. Whenever, whatever your need, to you I shall come. To you do I answer with sword, bow, or blood. My life for yours. My soul to yours, until our last breath.”

The world shifted. Deep as a prayer, more profound than a spell, his words settled within her. Dara couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her head buzzed. Her mind tried to wrench itself from the binding, recognizing it for what it was, but the rest of her trembled, in thrall to his eyes, to his voice. She had no idea how to counter him.

Loren’s eyes gleamed at her. “Never again shall you be alone. You are mine, in this lifetime and the next. I shall ever be yours, for always. We are one.” With agonizing slowness, he drew her head down ’til her lips brushed his.

His kiss was shocking in its gentleness. As soft as morning dew, it implied, it coaxed, and she was lost. She melted into his heat and swooned against him. With a sigh, she yielded to his lips and returned the kiss. Warmth filled an emptiness she’d not known ’til now that she possessed. Loren had bound them in spirit; where did she end and he begin? He hovered on the edge of her mind, in her heart, in her blood. A part of her flowed into him, with her surrender, with her every breath.

He broke off the kiss. Dara raised her head to stare down at him. “What’ve you done?”

Excerpt from Storm Child

Storm Child
Hobohemia, Book 2
K. M. Tolan
Fantasy
$3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

Being a steam child was supposed to be fun.

Excerpt: 

The large man pulled a red fire ax from hooks over the rear door. Dark smoky tendrils oozed from his eyes. “Big Mike gots Red.”

“What am I supposed to do?” she cried, following him out the front door.

He kicked at the ballast and swung the axe as if it were a marching baton. “You gonna let ’em take Big Mike away, Red?”

The question dragged itself over the red coals of hurtful memories. The seething black fog enveloping Big Mike’s body reached deep within her. Rage lifted Red into the sky in front of him. An unrelenting anger brought bright flashes to her eyes and transformed her hair in a crackling blue nimbus.

“They’re not taking you from me,” she thundered. Nobody’s going to do that to me again. Ever.

“No!” Glory came to her side in a rush of wind, the girl’s eyes frantic behind her square glasses. “Red, what are you doing?”

Big Mike hefted his axe with a laugh. “We take ’em together, Red.”

Glory tugged at Red’s shoulders. “Don’t listen to him! He’s trying to make you mad. Make you into something worse.”

Max skidded to a stop on the caboose’s porch and gaped up at her. “Think she’s already worse.” He ducked back inside, slamming the door shut.

Glory struggled to stay in place as winds rattled the ballast beneath them. Her tears sparkled in the lightning of Red’s growing fury. “We’re supposed to go to Topeka.” She sobbed. “You’re going to hear that bell and be happy. Red, please stop! Storms blow away and die. You don’t want to die, do you?”

Red glared beyond her friend to where the marshal and his deputies stood on the tracks; their advance halted at the sight of her. “I’m not the one who’ll die.”

She hissed, her mind afire with the heady realization that those yegg and their master feared her. Roaring with all the pent-up anger she possessed, Red swept Glory aside and launched herself at those awful men. The maelstrom of her emotions kept pace, rising in a whirling column of stone torn from the roadbed.

Now her enemies ran for their lives. The sight of men scrambling like ants only served to goad her temper with a giddy sense of power. She reveled in her newfound might, just like Big Mike said she should. Fine. Let those bad men shelter themselves in those flimsy little cars. She was strong now. Strong enough to tear those coaches into kindling. Nothing would save them.

Except something did. Their savior wasn’t Glory. She couldn’t even hear her friend’s entreaties over the roar in her ears. But Red heard the tinkling glass when Law Keeper’s lamp shattered, and saw the engine’s light extinguish as the locomotive rocked helplessly in her winds. Hurt an engine? Her?

This isn’t supposed to be me! Red wailed, cringing from the monster she’d become. Frigid blasts of fear washed over her to chase away the lightning in a moment of terrible realization. She’d become yegg.

Red screamed. Frantic, she ripped away the anger fueling her whirlwind as one might cast off burning clothes. Naked, she staggered back to the caboose where even Big Mike took shelter. Glory, however, remained outside, grimly hanging on to the porch railing. Her friend stretched out an arm with a wrenching cry.

Red reached for Glory’s grasping fingers, but couldn’t focus. Couldn’t even find her own hands. More than just the winds flew off into the night. She was being torn apart as well. “Help me!”

New Releases! Three New Fantasy Novels for Your Delight!

Rush

E. Jourdan Lewis
YA Paranormal Romance

$3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

In a world where humans are below Shifters, a tiger falls for a human girl. To love her is to kill her.

Rush, a tiger shifter with an abusive Alpha, finds himself wishing for more with Jane, a human. The kind of “more” everyone warns them against. Jane may be the love of his life but if their secret is discovered by his Alpha there’ll be more than hearts at stake. There will be blood.



Storm Child
Hobohemia, Book 2
K. M. Tolan
Fantasy
$3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

Being a steam child was supposed to be fun.

Red was meant to live a carefree life among the great steam locomotives as one of Hobohemia’s mischievous steam children.

She leaves her human body behind, but not her childhood demons. A gypsy blessing becomes an unintended curse, releasing an unbridled power inside her making Red an unwilling weapon in the hands of others eager to wield her anger.

Before she can stop them, she must first defeat herself.



A Guardian’s Heart
Guardians of Light, Book 1
Renee Wildes
Urban Fantasy
$ 3.99
Amazon TBD
Kobo TBD
Champagne Books

Strength can be drawn from pain…if the heart can heal faster than it bleeds.

Dara Khan Androcles was trained from childhood to be a healer. But as a demon-possessed invader threatens Safehold, and she defends a wounded warrior on the battlefield, her hidden inner dragon thirsts for blood.

When she lifts the warrior’s blond, blood-encrusted hair away from his ear, she discovers he is more than King Hengist’s outlander ally. He is an immortal. The elven heir to the throne of Cymry.

Loren ta Cedric senses something different about flame-haired, falcon-eyed woman who saves him. A healer, wreathed in raw, dark power, who wields knives with deadly skill. A mortal who prays to the Lady, not the human gods. Now he owes this thoroughly distracting female a Life-Debt. Which, in the heat of their flight to Loren’s homeland to raise an army, somehow becomes Lifemate.

Dragon-human and elf, peasant and prince—logic says they have no future. Yet the power of their unlikely bond could be the only thing that saves their world from a demon poised to tear it apart.

Savvy Saturday: Interview with Renee Wildes, Author of New Release, A Guardian's Heart

Hello all and welcome back to Savvy Saturday! Today we have new author Renee Wildes here to tell us a little bit more about her new book, and her life as a writer. Wildes has her new book, A Guardian's Heart, coming out Monday!

1. When and why did you begin writing?

I first began working on A Guardian's Heart in 2002. I kept having visions of a redhaired woman in a burning room. When I discovered she SET the fire, I had to know why! My writer’s group was like, “Run with it” and so I did!

2. Tell us your latest news.

Signing the Guardians of Light series to Champagne after the demise of Samhain Publishing. Also working on a sci fi romance series, Seduction by Starlight, and also contemporary paranormal shifter romances set in Kootenai National Forest.

3. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

My late Grandma Jeanne first called me a writer when I was 6, penciling horse stories (ala CW Anderson “Billy & Blaze” style). I was the only student in school with a MAXIMUM word count.

4. Do you have a specific writing style?

I grew up reading Mercedes Lackey, and am a huge Joseph Campbell groupie, so I tend to write lyrical, slightly archaic prose that lends itself well to fantasy romance set in a Dark-Ages-type fictional world.

5. How did you come up with the title?

A Guardian's Heart perfectly describes my Cinderella heroine Dara – half-human/half-dragon, healer/warrior/fire mage, peasant/princess

6. Is there a message in your novel you want readers to grasp?

You live by the choices you make – there’s no such thing as pre-ordained destiny. Love is the ultimate playing-field leveler – it can overcome all barriers, will ultimately defeat hate. Good can and will triumph over evil for those who work to make it so.

7. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Coming up with various unique cultures, ceremonies, and spells. I love intricate world-building, and can get lost in the research and creative minutia.

8. What was the hardest part of writing your book?

I struggle with smooth transitions between scenes, and have a bad habit of editing as I go, which makes me a slow writer (but a CLEAN writer!)

9. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

The old adage of “I dare you to do better.” My Grandma Jeanne listened to me lament over how the books I was SUPPOSED to read were too easy, so she told me to write my own. I’m a Taurus – we never back down from a challenge!

10. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I’m definitely a plotter rather than a pantser, but to trust my characters and let them live their own story – not to be so controlling, but to observe and record.

11. Do you have any advice for other writers?

Write what you want to read; write what you love. Don’t try to fit a mold or write to market. Write from the heart, and you’ll touch the hearts of other readers.

12. Do you have anything specific you want to say to your readers?

Thank you for embracing the Guardians of Light magic, and I hope you’re inspired to shine your own unique Light in this world. May the Light never fall before the Darkness!

13. What inspired you to write your first book?

I loved fantasy and romance, but when I started no one was combining the two together. I decided to fill the gap. Now, there are all kinds of fantasy romance authors out there, but 20 years ago, no so much. I wanted heroines who DID stuff, who got to rescue the prince and slay demons and save the world. I wanted heroes who could appreciate a strong woman and weren’t intimidated by her.

14. Can you share a little of your current work with us?

A Guardian's Heart  – Chapter One – Scene 2 – Uncut

Sifting self from pain, Loren began trance-healing. Banisha verilli far. Gloria verilli far… Breathing and pulse decreased. Blood flow slowed. Seeping wounds clotted together.

He summoned strength from pain and followed its path through his body, checking his injuries. He bled from a half-dozen sword cuts. The worst? A deep laceration in his upper right thigh from an unhorsed Boar’s attempt to confiscate the bay mare. An arrow pierced his chest just below his right collarbone. He sighed. He would heal in time without scarring.

But, Lady, it hurts.

He examined the grove with a practiced eye. He liked not this exposed position in unsecured territory. A twig snapped. A young woodsman approached from the battlefield. Grief and black rage hammered into Loren. The lad—no beard growth—must be half-mad with it. Loss, despair… The dark emotions threatened to drown Loren, and he fell out of trance to shield himself. Watching the other approach, he edged his sword closer.

The lad staggered toward him, not visibly injured, but with such gaping wounds to his soul Loren wondered at his ability to function at all.

“Looking for you.” The lad eyed the bronze sword in Loren’s hand and spread his hands out in a conciliatory gesture. “I’m a Safehold healer.” He took in Loren’s position at a glance. “You know hazel healing. You don’t follow the One Truth.”

Pity. Desire to help. Truth-hidden…not so worrisome. Who in these dark days had naught to hide?

The lad knelt beside him in the damp leaves and cradled Loren’s head in his lap. His slender fingers ran over Loren’s battered body with gentle thoroughness. Sense-casting followed the arrow’s path; Loren shuddered at its touch. This human used the anathema of blood magic as part of him, natural as breathing. The dark shimmering stole Loren’s breath as it coursed through him. His seeming dissipated.

Without the seeming, the lad would see what he was. Nonhuman. Only King Hengist of Riverhead, his one real friend among Arcadian mortals, knew who he really was. Followers of the ascending One Truth would burn Loren as demon born. No nonhuman was safe from the cleansing fires of religious fanaticism and racial supremacy sweeping these lands. Hengist’s stewardship maintained a fragile truce of tolerance under secret cloaks of seemings, but Loren held no illusion what would happen should Count Jalad of Westmarche prevail.

The lad traced pointed ears beneath tangled hair. “You’re no riever. You’re Elder.”

Loren tapped his chest, struggling to make the lad understand. “Loren…” His hand dropped. True names held power, but no harm divulging his first name. It was common enough in Cymry, the Realm of the Dawn.

The lad’s eyes welled. “Lady, for the lives he saved today, may he enter the Hall of Fallen Heroes.”

How did a human know of the afterlife but not how Warriors of the Light got there? How did he know the ritual words? Loren’s suspicion grew. A human wielder of blood magic communed with the Lady of Light, an ancient Elder deity banned by most humans? There was no taint of evil about the lad, but dark fire’s unmistakable touch was upon him.

A mystery.

15. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

No, it’s a purely fiction twist on Cinderella. I wish I was that bold and daring!

That's all for today folks! I hope you enjoyed learning about Renee Wildes, and remember to check out her new book, A Guardian's Heart, available for preorder at the Champagne Bookstore.

Savvy Saturday: Exclusive Excerpt from Upcoming Book, A Guardian's Heart

Hey Savvy Saturday'ers! Check out this super awesome sneak peek we have for you this week from the upcoming paranormal romance, A Guardian's Heart, by Renee Wildes.


Excerpt
Dara trembled, realizing she was sprawled across Loren like some tavern wench. The effort it took to meet his heated gaze… Fine brows slanted over wide leaf-green eyes pupiled like a cat’s, set in a pale aristocratic face. She glanced at his hands gripping her upper arms. Fine artisan’s hands with sword calluses, they held like bands of steel, but so gently ’twas nigh a caress. His body warmth was impossible to ignore. She shifted. Unable to hold his gaze, Dara dropped hers—to his mouth. She blushed.

His lips curved in a wry smile. “Now you become shy?” White teeth flashed. “Your hands have already been all over my body.”

Dara groaned and closed her eyes. Her cheeks flamed.

“Look at me, Dara.” Loren slid his arms around her body.

She tingled at his touch. Restless. Achy. “I can’t.” She hated this breathless dizziness. “Whatever you’re thinking, cease.” He was so warm. She feared making a fool of herself and melting against him. The old wives whispered of faerie enchantments; did that happen here? She felt bespelled. She wasn’t some weak woman to soften over a man, as any villager could lament. “You were much less intimidating flat on your back and weak as a kitten.”

“Intimidating you find me? Prefer me flat on my back in your bed? You have me now.” He brought her braid around to his nose and inhaled. “Sunshine and ferns.”

Self-preservation urged Dara to stop him before he did something neither of them could undo. “Loren—”

“Dara Kahn Androcles, protect me you did with your life’s blood. You are neither indestructible nor immortal. They might have killed you.” His hand, still wrapped with her hair, raised her chin ’til her gaze met his. “You must look at me while I speak these next words.”

Dara couldn’t tear her gaze away. The room spun and receded ’til all her world was Loren. “Don’t look at me like that.” The weight behind his words crawled under her skin, into her mind.

“My life I owe you. Life-debt. I bind myself to you. Whenever, whatever your need, to you I shall come. To you do I answer with sword, bow, or blood. My life for yours. My soul to yours, until our last breath.”

The world shifted. Deep as a prayer, more profound than a spell, his words settled within her. Dara couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her head buzzed. Her mind tried to wrench itself from the binding, recognizing it for what it was, but the rest of her trembled, in thrall to his eyes, to his voice. She had no idea how to counter him.

Loren’s eyes gleamed at her. “Never again shall you be alone. You are mine, in this lifetime and the next. I shall ever be yours, for always. We are one.” With agonizing slowness, he drew her head down ’til her lips brushed his.

His kiss was shocking in its gentleness. As soft as morning dew, it implied, it coaxed, and she was lost. She melted into his heat and swooned against him. With a sigh, she yielded to his lips and returned the kiss. Warmth filled an emptiness she’d not known ’til now that she possessed. Loren had bound them in spirit; where did she end and he begin? He hovered on the edge of her mind, in her heart, in her blood. A part of her flowed into him, with her surrender, with her every breath.

He broke off the kiss. Dara raised her head to stare down at him. “What’ve you done?”

***

A Guardian's Heart is available for preorder at the Champagne Bookstore. 

Savvy Saturday: Sneak Peak at What's to Come

On this weeks Savvy Saturday, we thought we'd give you a little sneak peek at what's coming up. We have a lot of new authors here at CBG, and we can't wait to show you what they have! Remember, you can always check out what's new at the Champagne Bookstore.

January, 2018

Title: Into Nostra, Book 2 of The Pact
By Brantwijn Serrah

Blurb:

Deals with the devil always have their price. Problem is, the devil collects with interest.

Serenity Walker thought she had the upper hand when it came to her partnership with a demon. D'aej was dangerous, but he was always on her side. Then an old friend lifted the scales from her eyes and Serenity saw her contract for what it truly was: imprisonment. Bloodshed. Evil, done by her own hands.

Now Serenity must pay for her ignorance, and work harder than ever to fight a demon who can use her body, fool her senses, even twist every thought in her head. Only one sorceress has the power to teach Serenity what she really needs to know...a sorceress possessed by a fiend even bigger and badder than any Serenity has seen before.

March, 2018

Title: Love on Lido Key, Book 2 in the Keys to His Heart Series (Tentative release month)
By Meg West

Janie Alexander never expected to find herself widowed at age twenty-seven--nor did she ever dream she might find her second husband by fulfilling her promise to her first husband to watch the sunset every night on Lido Beach. All would be bliss if only her former in-laws--and her new love Nick's boisterous Greek family--would mind their business. . . .

Title: The Reluctant Empress
By Teresa Howard

It is YA Science Fiction with Romantic elements

Ninallia is young, young and desperate. She sells the only thing she owns to save her family, her body. Believing family lore that they descend from royal blood, she agrees to become a surrogate for an infertile couple.

Ninallia’s world is turned upside down when the Emperor and Empress are assassinated, and she discovers that the child she is carrying is the heir to the throne.

May, 2018

Title: Crossroads, first of the Of Heaven and Hell series. (Tentative release in May 2018.)
By Hannah McKee

Blurb:

Craving a normal existence, half angel and half demon Mika Addo hides in plain site as a human. She goes to graduate school and even gets engaged to the man of her dreams. She can’t escape her heritage, though, and soon finds herself on a mission to rescue her family. With archangel Javed at her side, Mika must battle angels, demons and her own fate as she determines exactly what she is meant to be.

Excerpt from Goblin Fires

Goblin Fires

Chronicles of the Four Courts, 1

By Brantwijn Serrah

Paranormal Romance/Lesbian/F-/F

$3.99

Amazon: http://goo.gl/nZxnnn

Kobo: https://goo.gl/5W6vur

Champagne Books: http://goo.gl/zcjLxy

A Fae Knight's life belongs to the Monarchies. For Reagan, a life is a small price to pay for the princess she loves.

EXCERPT

The fairy ring in Central Park stood near the zoo, a short walk from the scene of the accident. We attracted too many curious onlookers until Erin started warding them off, casting glamours and illusions around us to help avoid notice. At a snap of her fingers, whimsical misleading birds took flight from the hedges near us, and women’s skirts fluttered up as though a wild breeze caught them. Startled shouts erupted from the park-goers and all eyes were drawn away from us.

The ring, as I said, belonged to our House, a Ring of Herne: small white toadstools under a shady oak, dotting the ground in a rough and playful circle. It would open into the deep realms of the Goblin Court.

Normally Finn and his Ladies would not be welcome to cross over into Herne’s part of Thairy without express invitation; it violated the strict laws of fae etiquette, and faeries were unforgiving where custom and courtesy were at stake. Ceridwen led our party though, which would be permission enough.

My princess entered the ring and invoked a thinning of the veil, imploring the spirit guards of the gates of Annwyn to let us pass. We gathered in the ring with her, and as she beseeched them, the day appeared to darken by degrees, as though the sun were going behind a thick cloud cover. Then it kept getting darker, then darker still, until it might as well have been night around us. The air changed from the lovely springtime brightness and warmth to cool, brisk autumn chill. The scent of turning leaves and damp soil surrounded us, perfumed with more distant notes of baked apples and sweet wine. There were other smells, death smells, graves and ghosts and wild things.

Then we were no longer standing in Central Park, New York. We were in Annwyn, a close and shadowy realm, the lands of the Tylwyth Teg and the High King of Goblins.

My home.

The fairy ring transported us directly into the High King’s orchards, outside the castle of Arawn, former King before Herne. The gray stone of the ancient fortress rose up against a bruised sky, solid, indomitable, eternal. The moon, golden and far larger than it would ever be seen from mortal Earth, hung in the night behind the castle like a leering jack-o-lantern.

Puca, once again in the diminutive form of the impish cat, assumed the lead immediately, scampering up the path to the fortress gates. Finn followed and Nineva stayed close behind him. Erin began to go up as well, but stopped when she saw Ceridwen hesitate, waiting for me.

The moment we’d stepped over into Annwyn, I’d dropped to my knees to press my burning palms against the soil. The very air soothed the iron blaze a little, like Erin’s magic, leaching the pain away with slow relief. The surge of fear, anger, and violence began to wear off a little, but I could still feel the thump and roil of animal power in my blood, the hunger of a tigress running hot in my veins.

This is what it meant to be a child of The Morrigan, the war goddess. We weren’t made to be great artists or musicians or muses or sorcerers. I couldn’t hope to master the craft of enchantment like Erin or play the poltergeist like Oberon’s jester Puck. I had a depth of my own power: the power of a fighter, the magic of war. The blessing my Unbridled nature afforded me, the power I had sworn in the service of High King Herne and his daughter. It bled through me, a raging, thrilling power. Sexual, almost: wild, hungry, predatory, and strong.

Excerpt from Serena's Fall

Serena’s Fall

By M. K. Smith

Urban Fantasy

$5.99

Amazon: http://goo.gl/Avp6j8

Kobo: https://goo.gl/IBBpPo

Champagne Books: http://goo.gl/GJIZTE

Heroes don’t do self-pity. Heroes get the job done.

EXCERPT 

I couldn’t stand still. I paced alongside the boxes and ran my nails down the cardboard. If I were a cat, my hair would have stood on end, and my tail would have twitched.

Chloe said nothing. Her eyes darted between Rachel’s and mine but couldn’t find a place to land.

I waited for her to say something brilliant, but I didn’t expect anything would make me want to be part of her Alice in Wonderland insanity. This was Morían. Morían Le Fey. The walking genocide who painted the White Isle in blood, broke the flow of magic, and decimated every Fey clan this side of the veil in a single night—oh, and started a war that killed millions of humans.

Sure, we’ll handle her.

Heat radiated out from my core, and my skin tingled as if I were breaking out in a cold sweat. But Water Fey didn’t sweat. I tugged at my corset and wished I had laced tighter. We didn’t stand a single chance in all the nine hells at fighting one of the most powerful Fey in history.

“Well, I’m listening. But this is beyond crazy. We’re eighteen years old, not one hundred eighty. We’re barely old enough to even have powers by Fey standards. And the Incarnates, the most powerful Fey from each clan, who stopped her last time were thousands of years old.” I hoped I wasn’t sneering too loud.

Rachel ignored me and threw her best you’re wasting my time look at Chloe. “So, where is she staging her comeback?” Her tone said she wasn’t expecting much of an answer.

“The vision’s…complicated.” Chloe focused on Rachel, with less naked hostility, but her voice rose sharply. She chewed her bottom lip. Complicated my ass. She was hiding something.

“So you don’t know.” Rachel went right for the kill. “Was it even your vision?”

Chloe stomped her right foot. “Yes. It was.”

The proximity alarm sounded in my head. Crash imminent, I decided to speed it up so I could go home. Chloe’s moment to take the lead had passed. If she had straight answers she would have spoken up by now. She had to be hoping we could roll back to the days when—details irrelevant—we’d have done anything for each other.

Those days were gone.

Excerpt from Unscripted

Unscripted

Duty Bound #1

By J.S. Marlo

Contemporary Romantic Suspense

$4.99

Amazon: http://goo.gl/WTKQrS

Kobo: https://goo.gl/PtTZir

Champagne Books: http://goo.gl/yhbVY8

"Shaped by fire. Bound by duty. Driven by love." Riley's tumultuous life rivals the television scripts she writes for Wild Rescue.

EXCERPT

Technicians strapped explosives to a red vessel anchored some eighty feet out on the lake, and with each deadly charge added on board, trepidation coiled Riley's stomach into a tighter knot. She hated explosions and fires.

On shore, Blythe had donned a fire suit under his yellow jumpsuit and was busy applying a thick layer of fire-retardant gel on the exposed parts of his body to prevent burns when he jumped from the burning vessel.

During their long ride in the car, they'd discussed the intricacies of the scene, but he didn't mention performing his own stunts until they reached the lake. The stunt hit too close for comfort. She should have swallowed her pride, refused the assignment, and let Paul handle the outdoor shooting.

On her left, Martin rubbed his hands together as he trampled the grass at the edge of a gravel path. "This will be spectacular." In the heat, sweat beaded on his forehead. "The weather is perfect."

The cloudless sky melted into a shimmering lake surrounded by a young, verdant forest. Along the tree line, orange barricades prevented a handful of curious fans and onlookers from approaching the site.

Moored to the pier, a rubber dinghy waited for Blythe. Martin signaled for the actor to board and for the pilot to proceed.

Cameras rolled, capturing behind the scenes footage that might one day make unforgettable memories or great bloopers.

Positioned at the stern, Blythe untied the ropes securing the dinghy to the pier then reeled them in as the pilot turned the engine on.

Farther out on the lake, a ladder ran down the side of the red vessel.

The dinghy skimmed over the surface of the water, and when it pulled alongside the vessel, Blythe stood and gripped the ladder. At the bow, a black and white flag flapped in the wind.

In her mind, Riley reviewed the scene. The engine explodes while Blythe is at the helm, and he jumps off before the fire engulfs the entire boat.

As the dinghy moved away, Blythe climbed on board. A sudden explosion rocked the lake and tore the red vessel apart. His body flew into the air.

A scream escaped her throat, and amidst the mayhem, she ran toward the shore.