Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂
Heedless by Shannon McKenna Series: The Hellbound Brotherhood #4
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: December 4, 2020
Point-of-View: Alternating Third
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 308
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Whatever it takes to protect her...Security expert Nate Murphy came to Shaw's Crossing to kick ass and help the Trask brothers fight off their enemies. He didn't expect to get knocked off his feet by the elusive, gorgeous Elisa, the mysterious woman who works in Demi's restaurant. Elisa's holding something back...something big. Nate's a Marine and ex-bouncer whose specialty is breaking heads...but the fear in Elisa's eyes makes him want to crush whoever put it there. If only she would tell him the truth...
Secrets and lies...
Elisa Rinaldi is on the run from a killer. She doesn't dare expose him because he's holding her little brother captive. Hiding in the mountain town of Shaw's Crossing had seemed like a good idea at the time, but getting attached to the people there was not...particularly the hard-eyed, hard-bodied Nate Murphy. Because her new friends have big troubles of their own, and their trouble makes a lot of noise. Things have gotten messy in this town, with cops and media coverage everywhere. If she shows up on TV or online, she's dead...and so is her beloved brother.
Elisa has to leave Shaw's Crossing-after a parting gift to herself. One unforgettable night with Nate, and she'll do the right thing...even if it breaks her. The passion between them leaves Nate gasping for breath. Then Elisa vanishes. Nate can't rest until he finds her. He means to solve her problem once and for all...by any means necessary.
Elisa will risk everything to protect the man she loves, but Nate just won't back down. Now danger is coming from all sides, while her mortal enemy is playing a game of cat and mouse...
And the stakes are both their lives...
Excerpt
Nate had to go back a few times, to check on the water and gauge the temperature. In between times, he slid right back into the warm bed and wound himself around Elisa’s slender, silken one. So lithe and strong. Those beautiful, plump, perfectly shaped tits. So perfect for his hands, his mouth.
His dick was in a perpetual state of frantic eagerness whenever she was in his line of vision. Or his thoughts, for that matter. And the touch of her skin made his heart thud and his whole body instantly overheat into a thrum of raw need.
Wait. He had to pace himself. This wasn’t about him. He had to make it perfect for her. It was the iron-clad rule. Forever and always.
When the tub was finally full, he turned to find her already in the bathroom door, winding that long, night-dark curly mass of her hair into a thick messy knot on top of her head, and securing it with the black elastic tie she’d used for her braid.
He was speechless, his entire brain busy processing the sensory input of her naked beauty. Her eyes fell to his erection, and she gave him a teasing smile, her eyebrows going up. “Oh! So it’s that kind of bath?”
“It’s just a bath,” he assured her. “Any kind of bath you like. I don’t want to overdo it.”
“Speak for yourself, buddy.” She stalked past him, stroking his chest and arm as she went by, and her slow, teasing touch buzzed against his nerves like electricity.
He followed, helpless and dazzled. She moved like a queen. Regal, lofty. He could stare at her elegant back forever. The little wispy dark curls at her nape.
Nate stepped in front of her and went in first, down the steps and to the bottom of the hip deep tub. He held out his hand. When she took it, the contact was a soul touch. A mark of divine favor, and she was a goddess with the power to bless and transform him. To change his fate forever.
He couldn’t even pretend not to look at her. From her bold eyes and face and her body’s stance, she silently commanded it.
He took the opportunity to memorize every tiny perfect detail. The curly wisps of dark hair clinging to her cheekbones, the secret, mysterious smile in her golden eyes, the flushed, sexy lips. So full. Their beautiful, sensual shape.
She already acted so differently with him, after only a few hours of being lovers. Since they met, he’d admired her beauty and wanted to know her secrets, but she’d kept him at arm’s length. She’d struck him as fragile, brittle. Hunted.
She didn’t seem that way anymore. She felt her power now. He saw it in her eyes, in the tilt in her chin, in the way she held her shoulders. She flaunted her body as she descended slowly into the water, and sank down onto the bench, the steaming water now up to her collarbone. “Thank you,” she said demurely.
He followed her lead, and sat down next to her. But the natural magnetism of their bodies just pulled him toward her until their thighs touched.
“Is the temperature OK?” he asked. “It’s not too hot?”
“It’s perfect,” she said. “It’s delicious. Just like this.”
They floated there for a while, and he reached over, sliding his finger into her hand. He felt almost, oh God forbid, shy. He fished awkwardly for something to say.
“So, Gina says there’s a strip mall about twenty miles down the highway,” he said. “There’s an electronics store with gaming stuff there. I checked, and the site says it opens at nine. Plus there are clothing stores, so we can outfit you.”
“Don’t worry about that,” she said. “I’ll get my stuff back from Demi’s apartment if I survive. A change of clothes is the least of my worries right now.”
“You shouldn’t have to wait,” he said stubbornly. “We’ll just grab a few things.”
“Very nice of you, but not necessary,” she told him. “Is this part of your seductive lover-boy routine? Buying me fripperies?”
“No, just a simple to-do list,” he admitted. “I’m not the crafty scheming type.”
She floated out into the middle of the tub and spun around to face him, smiling into his eyes. “You’re sweet, Nate,” she said. “Did you know that?”
“No,” he said, bemused. “Not particularly.”
She surged forward and cupped his face in her hands—and kissed him.
God. He was so primed, he could have come then and there. By a hair, he fought it down, breathing it down, fists clenched. Her lips were so soft and sweet. A tender, velvety hidden secret that only he was privileged to know. It humbled him.
Her hands splayed over his chest. So trusting. The points of her nipples touched his chest, ever so slightly. Tiny twin kisses, every point of contact a bright glow of hyper-awareness.
Kissing her made him want to be worthy of her. To be better than he was.
Then she was on his lap, straddling him. Knees perched on the bench, right over his stiff, aching cock. Her body undulating against him with a sigh, the water heaving and sloshing around her shoulders. Inviting him to take whatever he wanted.
What, was this some sort of test of his resolve? Damn. He made a low sound, a groan of frustration, and lifted her gently up, holding her suspended in the water.
“Take it easy,” he complained. “We shouldn’t do it again so soon. You should rest. Take it easy. You’re killing me.”
“Am I?” Her small, secret smile drove him nuts. “Talk about mixed messages.”
“Don’t tease me,” he pleaded. “It is really fucking hard to say no to you.”
“So don’t,” she said. “If it’s hard to say no, it should be easy to say yes.”
She reached down to caress his dick. That twist-squeeze-pull, from root to the head, made him shudder and gasp. “What a waste of a beautiful hard-on,” she said. “Say yes, Nate.”
The water sloshed heavily as she stood up. Pink from the heat. Gleaming.
She sank down facing him on the top step, which was barely covered in water, and fixed her big, dreamy eyes on him, red lips parted, eyelashes tangled with drops of water. Trailed her hand down slowly. Over her breast, over her belly, and then lower, to the whorl of dark silky hair on her mound.
Her legs opened. “I just feel so hot,” she whispered. “But poor me…it looks like I’ll have to take care of this all by my lonely self, right?”
“Holy fuck,” he groaned. “Really? You’re going to do this to me?”
“Well, technically speaking, it’s something that I’m doing to myself,” she mused. “What choice do I have, if I want this orgasm? And I do want it. I want it bad.”
He watched, hypnotized, at the stunning spectacle of her pale skin, her gleaming, luminous hot pink folds sensually caressed by her long, slender fingers. Parting herself, opening, showing him all of it. Her golden eyes were half-lidded, lost in a sensual dream. Completely unself-conscious. Owning him, taunting him, toying with herself. Watching him watch her, with that seductive smile.
He liked that energy. Playful, strong. Enjoying her pleasure. Egging him on. Fucking with his head, in the best possible way. It was agony, and he loved it.
“So strange,” she said, in a dreamy tone. “I don’t even know the person I am right now. You have the strangest effect on me. I go all naughty sexpot. I feel like some sort of celestial deity. Bow and tremble before my power, mortal.”
“I’ve always trembled before your power,” he said. “I felt it all along. You’ve just been a little distracted lately, so you haven’t felt it yourself.”
She laughed at that, but the it petered out, breathless, as she took her own sweet time. Eyes closed, head thrown back. Strands of her hair had tumbled loose, floating in the water, waving like seaweed. Lost in her pleasure. Unguarded.
She went rigid, and then he watched as pleasure rippled through her, shaking her like a storm wind. So fucking gorgeous.
And that was it. She’d won. Whatever might have remained of his self-control vanished. He didn’t even remember why he’d been trying to hold back.
Water sloshed over the edge of the tub as he reached for her.
The Hellbound Brotherhood
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Sunday Spotlight: January 2021
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About Shannon McKenna
I started writing my first romance novel in secret. I was working a temp job in Manhattan at the time, supporting my music habit (details on that secret double life here) and even if there was nothing for me to do, I still had to look busy. But I hated wasting time, and I needed to round out my singing career. Most artists choose a practical Plan B to back up their improbable Plan A. Not me. "Long Shot" is my middle name.
So I set up a Document 2 with a fierce looking spreadsheet on it. If the boss du jour walked by, I switched screens. When the coast was clear, I went back to my story. One stern fact I learned from that experience is that you need more than just stolen crumbs of time and attention to make the magic happen. I also learned that every little crumb helps. Life is full of these little contradictions.
It wasn't until I moved to southern Italy (details of that long shot here) that I was really able throw my weight behind the writing. There I was, not a word of Italian, no job, no clue, just long, quiet days alone with nothing to do and no excuses. I finally slogged my way to the end of the short category romance that I’d been dinking around with for years. Kensington accepted it, bless them, and I had my start. I wrote four more category romances for that line before I got the chance for a place in an anthology of erotic novellas for the new Brava imprint. Then came my first single title novel, Behind Closed Doors—and my writing career took off.