COMPETITORS!
Author: Susanne Marie Knight
Genre: Paranormal Suspense
Available electronically at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com
Price: $4.99
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BLURB:
AN IMPOSSIBLE MEETING: Vivianne Quinn is staying at
her brother’s apartment to recover from a personal tragedy. Her visit is
anything but tranquil, for soon a serial killer targets her as the next victim,
she has to “babysit” a valuable artifact, and she falls in love with a stranger
who is unlike anyone she has ever met. How will Vivianne react when she finds
out just how different he really is?
NEANDERTHAL’S NEMESIS: It’s common knowledge that
Neanderthals are extinct, vanished from the face of the planet about 30,000
years ago. What remains a mystery is how or why this sudden disappearance
occurred. Sometimes, however, common knowledge can be wrong....
SCENE
SET-UP
Against her own inclination, Vivianne agreed to take
care of a cat for the stranger she'd just met, Max.
EXCERPT:
A knock sounded at the door. Her
hand still fanning her camisole up and down, Vivianne stepped over to the
entrance and opened the door. “Gosh, Fran, that was quick--”
Instead of Fran, over the threshold
stood Maximilian Vogelherd, his deeply green eyes taking in the sight of her
exposed, bare stomach.
“Do you like things slow, then?” he
lifted his lips in a deliberate smile, which heated her body’s thermostat even
further.
“Oh! Oh, hi. I, um, thought you were
my neighbor, Fran.” Vivianne hastily dropped her camisole top... and her wits,
as well.
He filled the weakly lit landing
with his massive form--muscular, brawny, solid, and powerful. Still clad in
those stonewashed jeans, he’d changed his tee shirt to a ribbed black sweater.
In one hand he held a pet carrier and the other gripped a shopping bag probably
filled with cat supplies. His eyes seemed illuminated from the faint overhead
bulb, and he leisurely swept his gaze from the mane of her ponytail, down to
her collarbones, over her now-covered hips, to rest on the coral-pink polish of
her toenails.
“May I come in?”
Unfreezing her limbs, she fussed
with her hair to make sure it covered her scar, then she sprang into action
because the unmistakable sounds of the bachelors’ door opening rang out into
the corridor. If the Pardos had been interested in how she was dressed when Mr.
Greenley had called, they’d most likely shake their jowls a-plenty on seeing
her scantily clothed with such a virile male visitor.
“Yes, please!” She urged Max inside,
then hurriedly shut the door. Outside, the Pardos’ door opened, closed, and the
men’s footsteps shuffled past on the tiled floor.
Phew! Just in time.
But now here she was, in close
quarters, cramped in her tiny hallway with this colossal hunk of a guy. Her
mouth dried, and she swallowed several times before saying, “You’re early.”
Max took a step closer, which caused
her to flatten against the wall. Her body temperature rose even higher. “Eins
is impatient to meet you, Vivianne.” A “wah” noise came from inside the
carrier, as if to confirm.
“Um, why don’t you, um, come into
the living room and get the cat out while I, um, change.” Her brain sluggish
again, she started fanning her camisole until she saw the gleam in his darkened
eyes.
“Don’t bother to change on my
account.” He set the shopping bag down, then curved his fingers around her
bare, upper arm. “Come, let me introduce you to Eins.”
The touch of his hand actually
seared her, only it wasn’t an uncomfortable sensation. She almost felt like
she’d been branded by some type of sweet embrace.
How foolish of her. She pulled away
and, despite the dry heat still baking the apartment, almost ran down the
hallway into the living room.
“Here, you take the cat out and
I’ll--”
Somehow, step for step, he managed
to keep up with her, which must have been a tricky task for such a large man.
He reclaimed her arm, then set the carrier down on the sculpted carpet.
“First you make Eins welcome in his
new home, ja?”
Torn on what she should do, she bit
her lip. True, she was in her pajamas, but everything that should’ve been
covered was covered. However the thin cotton material made her feel like she
was wearing next-to-nothing--which she was, for she had relinquished the
additional protection of undergarments. Standing next to him, she was aware of
her nipples’ hardening and a puddling of moisture between her thighs.
“Um, okay, quickly, then I’ll--”
Kneeling, Max smoothly eased her
down so she was also sitting on her heels by his side. “Here, we open
together.”
He reached over for the latch, his
arm inadvertently--or not--brushing against her breast.
Dizziness rocked her and fuzzy words
invaded her mind, this time without the usual headache. As erotic tingles
danced throughout her body to settle heavily in her feminine core, she licked
her lips. His woodsy scent filled her veins and heated her blood even further,
while his glowing eyes seemed to promise an endless pool of delights.
What in the world was happening to
her? She didn’t want this attraction, and yet had no power to stop her body’s
reactions.
“Max?” she whimpered, almost
pleading for him to stop the assault on her senses.
“Vivianne,” he breathed, turning her
face toward him and cupping her chin in his extremely large hand.
It was as if the veneer of civilization
had been stripped away and all she had left were primitive, basic emotions. She
wanted him to kiss her. And she wanted, needed, even more than that. Her
traitorous body eagerly prepared for the age-old union between a man and a
woman.
From a distance, she heard a baby’s
cry. “Wah,” it insisted, over and over again.
Vivianne blinked, and as if she had
awakened from a spell, turned away from Max to focus on a very large, sealpoint
Siamese cat rubbing against her hip.
“Wah,” Eins persevered, obviously
craving her attention. The cat blinked his own large blue eyes at her and
purred with contentment.
Omigosh! This cat saved her
from making a horrible mistake!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Happy Reading!
Susanne Marie Knight
Read outside the box:
award-winning Romance Writing With A Twist!
