Tag Archives: Suspense

Phoenix Rising Blitz

Phoenix Rising banner

 

Phoenix Rising cover

Action, Adventure, Techno-Thriller, Suspense, Sci-Fi, Military Thriller,
Conspiracy

Date Published: May 2023

 

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

 

Unveiling the latest sensation in the world of Short Form Novels: Phoenix
Rising by Mark T. Wellington!

 

This high-octane, adrenaline-pumping thriller will transport you to the
year 2035, where mind-controlled space-age drones reign supreme, and one
man’s quest to save the world takes an intensely personal turn.

Immerse yourself in the gripping story of Tony Simmons, a fearless Air
Force major with the extraordinary ability to control three of the most
powerful drones ever created – the Devastators. When his family is
kidnapped, and he finds himself betrayed and hunted, Tony is forced to push
his powers to the limit in a desperate race against time.

Phoenix Rising is the perfect embodiment of the Short Form Novel,
delivering a relentless, fast-paced narrative that will keep you on the edge
of your seat from start to finish. Mark T. Wellington masterfully weaves a
tale of suspense, intrigue, and heart-stopping action, combining futuristic
technology and geopolitical complexities with raw, human emotions.

In this compact literary masterpiece, every page is packed with tension,
danger, and unexpected twists, as Tony navigates the treacherous world of
betrayal, espionage, and simmering romantic tension with his colleague,
Adrianne. As the line between reality and fabrication blurs, Tony must
unravel the shocking truth behind the conspiracy that threatens his life and
the safety of his family.

 

Don’t miss out on this exhilarating new addition to the Short Form Novel
revolution! Grab your copy of Phoenix Rising today and join Tony Simmons as
he battles insurmountable odds to save his family and uncover the sinister
truth that lies beneath the surface. Are you ready for the ride of your
life?

 

About the Author

Mark T. Wellington

Mark T. Wellington is a US Air Force Veteran with the Electronic Security
Command who held an SCI/SBI Top Secret clearance—his experience in the
military has given him the tools to tell exciting stories. His expertise in
cyber and electronic warfare, as well as his practices in Krav Maga and
kickboxing, inspired his turbulent and exciting novel, Phoenix Rising.

A citizen of the world, Mark’s passport is a mosaic of global experiences.
He has journeyed from the bustling streets of Istanbul to the steep inclines
of Mount Everest, and from the historic heart of Berlin to the vibrant
culture of Barcelona. Having resided in six different countries, he has
absorbed diverse cultures, engaged with intricate art forms, and navigated
awe-inspiring landscapes.

Despite his technological acumen and AI engineering expertise, he is never
one to be confined within the digital realm. His creativity spills over into
his passion for scuba diving, rock climbing, and racing, each providing
unique inspirations for his storytelling. Moreover, his interests in
cooking, gardening, and painting reveal an individual who fully embraces the
blend of art and science, making his work as varied and colorful as his
life.

With his extensive world travels, deep technical expertise, and unbounded
creativity, Mark is a true renaissance man, promising many more exciting
stories to come.

 

Contact Links

Author Website

Twitter

Facebook Group

 

Purchase Link

Amazon

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Phoenix Rising Blitz

Filed under BOOKS

The Bathhouse Teaser Tuesday

The Bathhouse banner

 

The Bathhouse cover

It Should Have Been You, Book 2

Gay, Multicultural, Romance, Suspense, 2nd Chance Romance

Date Published: June 30, 2023

Publisher:  Changeling Press

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

 

Reed Barton is a millionaire who can have anything he wants, except the one
thing he desires most. His first love. He’s spent years trying to
recreate the night they met in a San Francisco bathhouse. The image of the
beautiful Filipino man who took his virginity is never far from his
thoughts.

Reed’s life is turned upside down when his long-lost love reappears
— and not in a good way. Joseph Castro is not quite what he seems. Time and
experience have changed both men, and there’s no going back. But
maybe, together, they can go forward.

 

Excerpt

This e-book file may contain adult scenes and language which some may find
offensive and which is not appropriate for a young audience. Changeling
Press E-Books are for sale to adults, only, as defined by the laws of the
country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely,
where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

 

All rights reserved.

Copyright ©2023 Gale Stanley

Reed Barton had last minute jitters about going to the bathhouse. The men
might be old and creepy. His visit might get back to his family. The list
went on, but they were just excuses, soon cast aside in favor of discovering
what he’d been missing.

Nineteen, almost twenty, and still a virgin. He had little experience with
sex. Educated at authoritarian male boarding schools, there wasn’t
much time for fooling around. Lessons started early and finished late, and
afterwards the boys were kept busy with homework, sports, and dinner until
bedtime. Still, he’d witnessed a few incidents. He’d seen one
boy sucking another’s penis in the bathroom. At the time, Reed had
been appalled, but titillated as well. He pictured himself on his knees,
forced to suck another boy’s cock, and longed for the reality, but no
opportunity presented itself.

In college, Reed felt the inexplicable draw of chemistry, but only toward
other men. To his family he presented a picture of heterosexual
“normalcy” but in fact, he took to visiting a bar where gay men
hung out. He engaged in several hurried blowjobs in the bathroom, but
nothing more. One of his nameless encounters told him about the bathhouse.
Bathhouses had once been a rite of passage for gay men, but many had closed
through the years. Somehow, this one had survived and Reed was determined to
take advantage of whatever it had to offer.

The taxi deposited Reed in a downtown Frisco area known for muggings. Many
of the buildings were abandoned and there were no signs or addresses.
Confused, Reed questioned the driver. The man pointed down an alley and held
out his hand for the fare.

A few working streetlights cast eerie shadows as Reed entered the back
street. He felt uneasy, but the sense of danger excited him as well.
He’d always been tempted by the forbidden.

A sudden downpour pelted Reed with stinging drops. He picked up his pace,
ignoring the beer cans and fast food containers underfoot, and spotted a
heavy wooden door with a small sign affixed to it that read Rock Hard Gym.
Relieved, Reed pushed the door open and entered a small foyer.

A young man sat behind a window. He scrutinized Reed carefully before
selling him a membership. “Do you want a locker or a private
room?”

“A locker. I don’t know how long I’ll stay.”

“Fifteen for the membership. Five for the locker.”

Reed exchanged a twenty-dollar bill for an ID card, a white towel and a
plastic wristband with a locker key.

“There are condoms and lube in the locker room.” The clerk
buzzed Reed through another door.

The heady scent of sex intoxicated him. He didn’t care that the
floors were old and slippery with water and body fluids. The lockers were
rusty and the walls badly in need of paint, but Reed couldn’t see past
the naked male bodies.

Men stood, sat, and lingered in stages of undress, manspreading on changing
benches, tiny towels intentionally parted. Reed found it hard to look away
from the smorgasbord of flesh so openly exposed.

While searching for his locker, he became aware of the lingering looks he
attracted, but none of the men appealed to Reed, not even in the dim
lighting. He wanted to explore and he made quick work of undressing.

Wrapping the towel around his hips, Reed left the locker room. There was a
gym, small and ill equipped, but a gym nonetheless. Reed bypassed it.
Straight ahead he encountered an area where men of all ages and sizes, naked
except for their towels, stood around and watched gay porn. He watched the
film for a few minutes, then he moved on, entering a series of corridors
where men prowled the hallways looking for acceptable partners.

He passed door after door, some closed, many open. Grunts echoed from the
shadows. Reed caught glimpses of men grinding and thrusting. Moans filled
his ears. Hushed words, frightening and thrilling. Blood rushed to
Reed’s dick. It was electrifying to be surrounded by so much
sex.

Reed stepped around men who didn’t care about getting a room. Heart
pounding, he watched them giving blowjobs or having anal sex in the hall. A
few invited him to join in, but he wasn’t ready — yet.

About the Author

Gale Stanley

Gale Stanley grew up in Philadelphia PA. She was the kid who always had her
nose in a book, her head in the clouds, and her hands on a pad and
pencil.

Some things never change.

 

Contact Links

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Instagram

Pinterest

Goodreads

 

Purchase Links

Amazon

Publisher

B&N

Kobo

Smashwords

Thalia

Vivlio

iBooks

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on The Bathhouse Teaser Tuesday

Filed under BOOKS

Giant’s Garden Teaser Tuesday

Giant's Garden banner

 

Giant's Garden cover

(Celtic Magic, Book 4)

 

Action Adventure, Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Women’s Fiction, Romance,
Suspense, Urban Fantasy

Date Published: June 16, 2023

 

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

 

A grant to do doctorate work in a bleak corner of Northern Ireland is Penny
Gallagher’s last chance to find her wings and break free of her
oppressive industrialist boyfriend.

When she finds her time there has been engineered for her boyfriend’s
profit, it takes a voiceless giant of a man to help her discover her own
magic.

 

Giant's Garden paperback

Excerpt

Copyright ©2023 Siondalin O’Craig

 

Penny

The Giant’s Causeway

Sean Feeney took another long drag from his pocket flask. Heavy gold chains
around his wrist grated against the flask’s metal rim. Penny Gallagher
watched him sway unsteadily in his skinny designer jeans and black Converse
high tops.

He reached out and draped his bony arm around her shoulders. She
couldn’t tell whether it was to keep himself from falling over or an
awkward maneuver meant to be making a pass at her.

She hoped it was the latter. First off, they were standing at the top of a
cliff. Not just any cliff, but a bare, windswept cliff tumbled with black
hexagonal stone columns jutting out into the North Channel of the Irish Sea
between the north coast of Ireland and the west coast of Scotland. If Sean
dropped onto those lichen-pocked rocks it would mean a fatal mess involving
a lot of paperwork and long, dim conversations with uniformed authorities.
And if I fell… no, she told herself firmly, we’re not going
down that line of thinking right now.

Secondly, she hadn’t gotten laid since James Carbill threw her over
six months ago for some new interior designer he had fallen for. And to tell
the truth, she had not been laid decently for months before that.
James’s steel-blue eyes had started wandering elsewhere long before
that ugly day when he’d told her that she needed to move out of the
Beacon Hill apartment he had been keeping her in, and that both of her
positions — as his personal assistant, and as his sexual partner and dinner
party arm candy — were terminated effective immediately.

James had softened the blow a bit by pulling some strings to secure this
grant so she could finish her doctorate degree in psychology from
Boston’s Fauntel University, and that’s how she wound up
standing on top of a windy cliff, watching Sean’s long, shaggy blond
hair blow into his eyes, which were fixed vacantly on the horizon.

She reached up to her shoulder and twined the fingers of her right hand
with Sean’s, hoping to lower the odds that they’d both go off
the cliff. The smell of salt spray on stone mingled with alcohol fumes. She
reached for his flask with her left.

“Give me a hit of that,” she said, raising her voice over the
wind. “You can’t have all the fun yourself.”

He handed her the flask absent-mindedly, its cap dangling from a little
silver chain. She took a swig. Smoky, peaty whiskey seeped into her tongue
and the flesh of her throat, straight into her bloodstream. She would swear
it never even hit her stomach.

“All this,” Sean said, gesturing broadly with a wobbling sweep
of his arm. Penny braced her feet, but they did not topple over. “When
you write your… your… thing.”

“My thesis.”

“Your thee, your thing. On all this. You’ll make millions of
dollars. We’ll all make millions of dollars. Because everyone will
want it.”

Penny took another hit of the whiskey. It felt mellower this time, as if
she and the whiskey were getting acquainted. “No one ever made
millions of dollars on their psychology doctorate thesis,” she
said.

“Oh, but you will.” Sean turned around, his face close to hers,
and poked her hard in the chest with the point of his index finger.
“You will. I will. Everyone will. Because this,” he swept his
arm out again along the horizon, “this is the Giant’s Causeway.
You’ll write about why it makes people feel so good — you feel good,
right?”

Penny nodded skeptically. He didn’t wait for her response before
rambling on.

“Because it makes people feel so good that they will all want to live
here, and I’m selling my land to the American developer who will give
them all a place to live. And everyone else will too. Just as soon as you
are done.”

Penny smirked and shook her head. It’s true that her doctorate
proposal had talked about the intersection of landscape and psychology, and
the grant that James had helped her secure had sent her to this bleak,
forsaken, vertical drop-off to write about it. But in point of fact, she had
not yet started writing, and now that she was here, she could not for her
life figure out what to write about.

“Sean, you handsome devil,” she said. “It’s a pile
of rocks.” Basalt, she noted to herself, recalling one of the
guidebooks she’d read on the plane. Lava from a volcanic episode,
cooled slowly, formed hexagonal columns. Why do people find the myths more
interesting than the science?

 

 

About the Author

 Siondalin O’Craig writes romance with the slow burn of a peat fire on
an autumn night deep in the woodland hills. Sip a glass of Irish whiskey,
turn the page, and let the magic overtake you. Siondalin lives in the
mountains of New England where she walks under the trees celebrating the
wheel of the year, grows a luscious garden full of magical herbs, and plays
a wicked Irish fiddle. Follow her on Facebook and email her at
siondalinocraig@gmail.com to sign up for her newsletter.

Publisher on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: @changelingpress

 

 

Preorder Today

 

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Giant’s Garden Teaser Tuesday

Filed under BOOKS

Walker Teaser Tuesday

Walker banner

 

Walker cover

(Iron Tzars MC)

Contemporary Romance, Suspense, Motorcycle Club, Age Gap

Date Published: June 9, 2023

 

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

Blossom — My life is about as complicated as it can get. To fulfill his
political aspirations, my stepfather has decided to sell me to a man who can
take him to the governor’s seat. He’s always been abusive,
demanding I be perfect in public, silent in private, and obey him in all
things. After we moved to Evansville, Indiana, I spent months trying to find
the perfect protector, looking for the biggest, bravest, meanest man I could
find. Then I meet Walker from the motorcycle club, Iron Tzars. He’s
everything I need, everything I want, and nothing I can handle. But
he’s the one. And I’m determined for him to make me his.

Walker — I’m emotionally unavailable, a mean bastard on the best of
days. Serving my country as a Dog Handler for the Army, finding explosives
meant to kill my fellow soldiers and innocent people, left me with emotional
scars I never thought I’d get over. I lost my fiancée, my
partner, and my ability to empathize with anything. Hell, I even refused to
name the dog that took up with me and refused to leave, simply calling her
Dog. Then this lost little waif worms her way into a compound full of
hardasses who never allow outsiders. Of all the men in this club, the little
fool sets her sights on me. Time to set her straight. Only, I might have
gone too far. If Blossom doesn’t survive this, it’s on me. And I
might have accidentally fallen for her.

 

WARNING: Graphic violence, adult situations, and references to human
trafficking and domestic abuse that may be triggers for some readers.
Features a grumpy hero and a feisty heroine. Eventual happy ending and NO
cheating, as always.

 

 

Walker paperback

 

 

EXCERPT

Copyright ©2023 Marteeka Karland

 

Walker

Downing the shot of Jack I’d just poured for myself, I did my best to
ignore the feminine laughter coming from the other side of the clubhouse
common room. Blossom Evergreen was a fucking trial to the most patient of
men and a pain in my fucking ass. She was always there. Always right in my
line of sight or upwind of me so I had to smell that clean, fresh scent that
always clung to her. Reminded me of spring flowers or some fucking
shit.

A crash followed by a startled yelp had me pouring another drink. The woman
was also the biggest klutz known to man.

“Sorry!” The lyrical sound of Blossom’s voice shot
through me and went straight to my cock. Even knowing she’d likely
plowed over some club girl.

“Watch where you’re goin’, bitch!”

“I’m so sorry, Star! I’ll clean it up.”

“Damned straight you will!”

“Cut it out, Star!” Another club girl came to Blossom’s
aid. I knew better than to look. If I did, I’d be obliged to step in,
and if I did, every fucking club girl East of the Mississippi would be all
the fuck over me. Any hint of interest in a woman by any of the brothers
brought them in droves. They were very territorial of the unattached men in
the club.

“It’s all right, Didi. I was at fault. I’ll clean it
up.” Blossom’s voice was subdued now. Almost subservient.

“You cut it out too, Blossom! She plowed around the corner right into
you! This ain’t your fault.”

“If she hadn’t been making a nuisance of herself, tripping all
over herself and everyone else to try and get close to Walker for two
fuckin’ months, the club’d be a better fuckin’
place!”

“You don’t like it here, say the word, Star.” Atlas, the
sergeant at arms for the club, said. “I’ll be happy to take you
out.” He didn’t even stop as he passed. Just laid down his edict
and kept going. There was no doubt he’d follow through. And the
follow-through meant the woman wouldn’t be leaving. No one left Iron
Tzars. Member, old lady, prospect, or club whore. They all knew it and
respected it. Which was good. Last thing I wanted to do was to have to come
to Blossom’s defense and encourage the girl further. Because Star was
right. Blossom was making a nuisance of herself.

“Don’t listen to her,” Didi encouraged. “Come with
me. I’ll take you to the old ladies.”

“You don’t have to do that. I don’t want anyone giving
you grief, Didi.”

Didi laughed. And no. Her laugh didn’t affect me the way fucking
Blossom’s did. And who named their kid Blossom Evergreen anyway? The
woman was a walking menace, and for some stupid reason my dick had zeroed in
on her and was growing increasingly demanding.

“Don’t worry about her. She’ll fall in line just like
everyone else. The patched members run a tight ship. You don’t get in
here unless you know the score.”

Except, I didn’t think Blossom did know the score. She wasn’t a
club girl, or an old lady. She was the friend of all the old ladies. Which
made her someone we protected since it would upset the women if something
happened to their friend. It also made it difficult for everyone to figure
out exactly what her position in our midst was. No one knew quite what to do
with her.

I knew what I wanted to do with her. It involved spanking her ass, then
fucking it. Neither of which was the best idea, or one I welcomed. I hated
being around people, and Blossom Evergreen wasn’t the type of woman to
have a casual hook-up. She hadn’t made a move on any of the brothers.
Hadn’t made a move on me, though it was painfully obvious she wanted
to. Given the fact any woman I fucked had to be able to hold her own,
including taking what she needed instead of pussyfooting around, Blossom was
definitely not a woman I wanted to get mixed up with.

Didi looped her arm through Blossom’s and walked her over to three of
the women in the club who’d been claimed by members of Iron Tzars.
“Stay away from Star,” Didi said as they approached the table.
“She won’t do anything while you’re near the guys, but
she’ll chew you up and spit you out if she catches you by
yourself.”

“Who will chew her up?” Winter raised an eyebrow while her
sister, Serelda, leaned forward, her attention on the club girl.

“Star. Most of the club whores, really.” Didi smiled, but gave
the old ladies a solemn look. “She staying with anyone?”

Iris shook her head. “No. But she’s with us. You tell the girls
she’s off-limits.” The president’s woman was growing into
her role. She didn’t often give orders, but when she did, she expected
them to be obeyed. I had to admire her for that. All of them, really. They
never backed down from anyone. Not anymore. Bellarose hadn’t been with
Atlas that long, but given she was the daughter of Alexi Petrov, no one was
worried she’d have problems holding her own. Alexi being a one-third
owner of Argent Tech and the acknowledged leader of the Shadow Demons. No.
Bellarose would probably think club girls beneath her. If she chose to put
one in her place, she’d do it hard. Winter and Serelda were especially
aggressive. I didn’t know their stories, but I could tell by the scars
on each woman they hadn’t had it easy. They also didn’t bow down
to anyone, especially a club whore.

Didi grinned. “Happy to. I happen to think the world of Blossom, and
she’s too sweet to tell them where to get off.”

 

About the Author

Erotic romance author by night, emergency room tech/clerk by day, Marteeka
Karland works really hard to drive everyone in her life completely and
totally nuts. She has been creating stories from her warped imagination
since she was in the third grade. Her love of writing blossomed throughout
her teenage years until it developed into the totally unorthodox and
irreverent style her English teachers tried so hard to rid her of.

 

Author’s Instagram and Twitter: @MarteekaKarland

 

Publisher on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram: @changelingpress

 

Pre-Order Today

 

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Walker Teaser Tuesday

Filed under BOOKS

Atlas Teaser Tuesday

Atlas banner

 

Atlas cover

Iron Tzars MC, Book 4

Motorcycle Club Romance, Age Gap, Suspense

Date Published: May 12, 2023

 

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

 

Bellarose — My drive to my new job didn’t go as planned. Me and my
“photographic memory” got lost, ending up on a private road in
the middle of Nowhere, Indiana. Worse, I got a flat. And it was getting
dark. When a dangerous, sexy biker stops to help, I’m not sure if
I’m fortunate or not. Double that when I find myself mashed against
said dangerous, sexy biker with him kissing me like he wants to devour me.
Then things get really weird.

Atlas — I’m in so much trouble. Not only in the girl in my care the
most enchanting woman I’ve ever encountered, she’s the daughter
of one of the richest men in the world who happens to also be one third of
the Shadow Demons. Which means, that kiss I stole might have signed my death
warrant. Every instinct I have is telling me I need to call in my brothers
to get her out and end the operation I’ve been deeply embedded in for
months. But my little hellion has other ideas. I just hope we haven’t
waited too long. If I have, we’re both dead.

WARNING: Graphic violence, adult situations, and references to human
trafficking and domestic abuse that may be triggers for some readers. Happy
ending and, as always, no cheating.

 

Atlas paperback

EXCERPT

Copyright ©2023 Marteeka Karland

 

Atlas

What a fucking mess. This fucking club in Terre Haute was rotten to the
fucking core. I knew enough about it to make it implode with all the secret
deals going on inside, but I hadn’t been given the go ahead from
Sting, our president. Iron Tzars was an old MC, dating back to World War II.
Back then, they’d been off-the-radar Nazi hunters. Meaning, they
killed any they found and didn’t ask permission from anyone to do it.
Now we hunt down pedophiles and human trafficking rings. Occasionally we
infiltrate domestic terrorist organizations, but most of those are on the
government radar, and we let the FBI and ATF do their thing. This bunch,
however…

They were as sadistic a bunch as I’d ever seen. Not only did they
have their hands into the obligatory guns and drugs, the women and girls
they took weren’t trafficked. Oh no. They kept them. Used them. It had
put me in a tenuous position because I couldn’t keep my cover at the
expense of innocents. With the help of my brothers at Iron Tzars, I’d
managed to pull all of the underaged girls out — there weren’t many,
thank God. There were two other women still in the compound. One was happy
to be there. Said so herself as she took one man after another with a smile
on her face. The other one… wasn’t in good enough shape to
express her wishes.

That had been two months ago. Nothing had changed except I’d gotten
the leader of this bunch to leave the unwilling woman alone. It
wouldn’t last long, though. The willing woman was fast becoming an
unwilling woman. Which meant I’d run out of time.

I drove down the road back to the compound. The bike I was on was an older
chopper, but it was still a Harley, if heavily customized. It wasn’t
my own bike, but I tried to still treat it with respect. The meeting
I’d just had, the plans being put into action, had me on the extreme
edge. Which was likely why I nearly missed the woman crouched on her knees
beside a new-model Ford on the side of the road.

I swerved, and I thought I heard her scream. Pulling over to the side of
the road, I looked back over my shoulder. She was flat on her ass, gasping
for breath. When she glanced in my direction, she scrambled to her feet and
snagged the tire iron next to the car, holding it like a baseball bat.

With a scowl, I turned the bike around and drove the hundred feet or so
back to her car before stopping and shutting it off.

“Did I hit you?” Despite my worries, I never wanted to hurt an
innocent. The mere fact I hadn’t seen her until I was right on top of
her showed how distracted I’d been. A mistake like that could get me
killed in this fucking club.

“I — I…”

“Come on, girl! Are you hurt?” I snarled the question like a
demand. Which it was. She took a step backward and rounded the back of the
vehicle, putting the car between me and her.

“Don’t come any closer! I know how to use this!”

I couldn’t help but snort. “That thing probably weighs more
than you do. Now, tell me if I hit you with the bike, li’l
bit.”

She shook her head slightly. “No.”

I glanced at the driver’s-side rear tire. Sure enough, it was flat.
“Do you need help?” Again, she shook her head but didn’t
relax one bit. I sighed, scrubbing a hand over my beard. I didn’t need
this. Not now. “Look. We got off on the wrong foot. I shouldn’t
have snarled at you. I didn’t think I’d hit you, but even if
I’d clipped you, you could have been hurt. It scared me as much as I
scared you. Now. Are you sure you’re OK?” I tried to soften my
tone when it wasn’t my nature. Women usually looked at my size, tats,
beard, and muscles and ran straight into my arms, begging for a hard
fucking. I had no interest in any woman who didn’t.

“I’m fine.”

I barked out a laugh. “I hate it when women do that, girl.
You’re not fine. I scared you to death.”

“It’s all right. You said it scared you too.” Her voice
was soft and lyrical, wrapping around my insides like silken ties. What the
fuck was wrong with me? I wasn’t hard up for female companionship. In
fact, until I’d been planted in this fucking club, I’d had a
different woman practically every night. More than one sometimes. Now, a
little bit of timid innocence was burrowing inside me within a few seconds?
Fuck…

“Not the point.” I raised my open hands in a non-threatening
gesture. “At least let me change your tire. Can I come
closer?”

Finally, she lowered the tire iron slowly. “I suppose so. If
you’re sure you don’t mind.” She was so small I had doubts
she could hold the damned thing for much longer anyway.

“I don’t mind at all. It’s the least I can do for nearly
running you over. Besides, I don’t leave women alone to fend for
themselves. No matter how much they don’t trust me.” I’d
meant the last to be a small joke. To lighten the mood. Because the fear on
her face in the fading light hit me viscerally. I didn’t like her
thinking I’d hurt her or meant her ill will. That was the last thing I
wanted after what I’d been through the last few months.

“I appreciate the help.”

I knelt by the car, positioning the jack properly before inserting the jack
handle and cranking to raise the car. “What are you doing on this
road? It’s pretty out of the way. Not many folks live around
here.” Because the club I was currently embedded in kept everyone out
of their territory through terror and destruction.

“I got turned around,” she said as she squatted beside me,
holding the lug wrench at the ready. “I realized I was in the wrong
place when the road went from four lanes to two. I don’t remember
passing another road, but I might have missed it.”

“Where you headed?”

 

 

About the Author

Erotic romance author by night, emergency room tech/clerk by day, Marteeka
Karland works really hard to drive everyone in her life completely and
totally nuts. She has been creating stories from her warped imagination
since she was in the third grade. Her love of writing blossomed throughout
her teenage years until it developed into the totally unorthodox and
irreverent style her English teachers tried so hard to rid her of.

Contact Links

Author on Facebook

Author on BookBub

Author on Instagram

 

Publisher on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter:
@changelingpress

 

Pre-Order Today

 

RABT Book Tours & PR

Comments Off on Atlas Teaser Tuesday

Filed under BOOKS