ONE MORE NIGHT WITH YOU
Blue Dynasty #5
Lisa Marie Perry
Releasing March 1st, 2016
Harlequin Kimani
Former DEA agent Josephine de la Peña loved Zaf Ahmadi once—and she's got the bullet scar to prove it. No wonder she holds a grudge against her hacker ex. But now, just as Joey's preparing for a new job with the Las Vegas Slayers, Zaf reappears, insisting she's in danger. The sexual pull between them is still as intense, and liable to hurt more than any gunshot.
Even if Joey could forgive him for the botched drug bust that got her injured, Zaf can't forgive himself. Obsessively hunting for the criminals who killed his cousin warped his judgment. To protect Joey, he suggests he pose as her boyfriend. As long as he can keep emotional distance, he can keep her safe. Until the case presents him with a choice: pursue the vengeance he craves—or try to turn one smoldering night into so much more…
“Shy,
Zaf?”
He
didn’t find the boldness in her tone authentic but accepted the words as a
gauntlet thrown. He wasn’t shy; he was desperate and venturing into trouble he
couldn’t mend.
Zaf
leaned, angled his head, and she met him halfway. Her glossy lips were slippery
under his kiss, teasing him as if she was flicking a feather across his face.
“Can’t
seem to make a solid landing there, can you?” she uttered against his mouth.
The almost and not
quite and close misses were a game to her.
But
not to him. For Zaf, this was life and death.
“Joey…”
“Shh.
Tell me something. You hacked Willa Smart’s company to get to me. Was it for
this, for a kiss from a woman you used to screw?”
He’d
done it because he was her protector. Compromising a matchmaker’s compatibility
program was the means he’d taken to fulfill his obligation to her. Even if he’d
lost his morality, he still possessed a sense of duty—whether he wanted it or
not. “You were more than that. You’ve always known it.”
“Have
I?”
The
love that had once breathed between them had been inconvenient and confusing,
yet the realest element in either of their lives. It had struck them
unexpectedly. Neither was willing to let it go, and for that they were both to
blame. Because something that good couldn’t last. Not for people like them
who’d done what they had.
“I
got to you because I’m on a job,” he told her. Yeah, it was a vague
explanation, but he wouldn’t divulge particulars now. “The kiss is because I
can’t fight it. I’ve thought about you constantly since that night. It hasn’t
been never-ending death, but it’s been a never-ending mindfuck.”
“They
put you down, didn’t they? DC?”
“It
needed to happen.”
“Down
deep, Zaf. You didn’t turn up at your parents’ place in Jersey or even in
Pakistan. There was talk that you were dead but I didn’t think that. I knew you
wouldn’t get time, either, that they’d rather have you on reserve than in a
cell. About a year after… What I’m trying to say is I tried to bring you back
and I couldn’t find you.”
His
mind spun through the past five years. The US government had dragged his ass up
for a few missions that needed a sharpshooter of his caliber on the front line,
but had thrown him back afterward at his request. He was freelance—off record,
off the FBI’s payroll, damn near a ghost. He wanted it that way.
“Why’d
you want to bring me back?”
“To
ask you why you went dirty. You cut a deal with those bastards when I thought
we were on the same side. You killed me when you turned, damn it.”
So
she still believed he’d defected to the drug-funneling terrorists he’d been
quietly hunting since they’d captured, tortured and murdered his cousin eight
years ago. The feds hadn’t gone out of their way to clean up his image, but
what did it matter now? There was so much that Joey didn’t know. But she’d been
a thread in a web that was bigger than DEA and even now it was necessary to
lead her with lies.
“The
kiss,” she said finally as fresh tears welled. “Don’t fight it.”
There
was something he didn’t altogether trust about her spurring him on, but as he’d
said—he couldn’t fight it. Nor would he try. Giving her what she provoked, he
let go of her hand to hold her head steady. She yielded, opening her mouth to
bring him home.
BUY NOW
Enter to Win a $10.00 Amazon Gift Card
and Print Set of the Blue Dynasty Series (1-4)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Lisa Marie Perry
encounters difficult fictional men and women on a daily basis. She writes
contemporary romance fiction with plenty of sizzle, energy and depth. Flawed,
problematic, damaged characters are welcome. Her tales feature exciting
multicultural mash-ups, sexy guy-next-door heroes and powerful larger-than-life
alphas who are brought to their knees by the love of complicated women.
According
to Lisa Marie, an imagination is a terrible thing to ignore. So is a good
cappuccino. After years of college, customer service gigs and a career in
caregiving, she at last gave in to buying an espresso machine and writing to
her imagination’s desire. She lives in America’s heartland and she has every
intention of making the Colorado Mountains her new stomping grounds. She drives
a truck, enjoys indie rock, collects Medieval literature, watches too many
comedies, has a not-so-secret love for lace and adores rugged men with a little
bit of nerd.
1 comment:
Thank you for hosting ONE MORE NIGHT WITH YOU today!
Crystal, Tasty Book Tours
Post a Comment