Exclusive Excerpt – Relentless by Lauren Dane

Posted May 4, 2009 by Holly in Reviews | 5 Comments

Later today Lauren Dane will be here talking about characters and her Federation Universes series. To give you a little preview, here’s an excerpt from Relentless, available tomorrow from Berkley.

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Laughing, Abbie waved at her siblings as she entered her building, her arms filled with bags from their day of shopping and a lovely dinner with her parents. The tension between Abbie and her father had continued but for once, her mother had absolutely refused to tolerate it and had browbeaten her father into behaving.

So she had leftovers enough to last several days as well as a new set of sheets for her bed and a new sweater to beat back the chill in the air. Georges had brought a friend by to introduce to her. The effort was so transparent it had amused her. And it was time to move on. She had to stop mooning over Roman Lyons so she’d accepted the rather sweet dinner invitation. She had nothing to lose.

But he stood there, leaning against her door, head down, a bag at his feet. Roman Lyons, a man not really tall, about a head or so above her own, but so big it felt as if he stole all the air in the hallway.

She stopped, unable to not take him in with something fairly close to wonder that something so masculine and sexy actually existed and that he’d been naked in her arms.

When he looked up, those eyes of his locked onto hers just before a long, slow perusal of her body. There was something in his gaze, hot, predatory, something else, anger perhaps?

“I didn’t expect…um, how long have you been waiting for me?”

She bustled past, trying to balance her keys to unlock the door. He growled low in his throat and took them from her, unlocking her door and opening it so she could get inside with all her things.

The click of the locks sounded, tugging deep, as if he unlocked something within her as he locked the door to the outside.

She put her things into the cold box and then turned to face him. “Why are you here acting all broody and silent? If you’re angry at me, I deserve to know why.”

“I can’t stay away,” he said simply, voice taut.

“And that makes you angry? Because I have to tell you something, that you’d be angry because you’re attracted to me, makes me angry!” She threw her hands up. What did he want from her? And why did he have to smell so good?

“I need a drink.” He dropped the bag he’d brought in and scrubbed his hands through his hair.

“What the seven hells is wrong with you?” She approached him, looking up into his face. “Are you all right?”

The heat in his eyes flowed into something else. Anguish? Sadness? “I don’t know how to ask this and I can’t keep myself away anyway.”

She froze, her fingers still sifting through his hair. “What is it? You can talk to me. You’re really beginning to worry me.”

He began to speak but then shook his head and before she knew it, he’d wrapped her in his arms and pulled her to him, bringing his mouth down to crush over hers.

His taste raced through her, chasing away her doubts like smoke, intoxicated her, blurred everything around the edges.

He made her forget everything, made it difficult to recall just what their differences were. It was dangerously erotic.

He ripped his mouth from hers, panting. His eyes flashed, filling her with an edgy pleasure/fear. Not fear that he’d harm her physically but that she had no idea where this was headed. It probably wasn’t good and yet she had no intention to stop it.

“I want you. Abbie, can I have you?”

Words flitted from her brain, leaving her able to only nod in response. He made a sound, low in his throat, all sex and need. It rode her spine, flowed into her body until she could do nothing but writhe against him as he moved a bit back, awaiting her answer.