Bad Vibes

Bad Vibes by J.D. Faver will give you good vibes.

When government agent Mike “The Iceman” Burke invades her South Padre Island turf, Deputy Darla Calhoun is assigned as liaison officer to his team. Her skills as a sniper come in handy when a gang of human traffickers strikes close to home, kidnapping local women including her best friend. Darla is recovering from her husband’s suicide and trying to be a good parent to her twin sons. The ICE assignment takes her out of her misery and plunges her into a dangerous mission and a steamy affair. Mike and Darla tear up and down the Intracoastal Waterway in search of the kidnappers and the captive women while Rafael and Javier conduct their own investigation. Will they rescue the captive women or will the kidnappers slaughter them as they have done in the past? Two teams race to find the answers before it's too late.

Excerpt:

Back on the boat, Darla had fallen silent.

Mike watched her grieve for her missing friend. He’d known in an instant that the two cases had to be related. The likelihood that Salvador Obregon was the common denominator between the two criminal activities was too great to overlook.

Mike had questioned Darla about the run-in her friend had with the Obregons before her disappearance.

He remembered the tall, slender woman from the birthday party. Large, deep blue eyes and a tumble of honey blonde curls had made an indelible impression.

Darla was upset with him. He couldn’t say angry. She had to understand that they were on an assignment and that he received his orders from a higher authority.

She was used to operating as a member of a smaller, less intricate team, where they could fly by the seat of their pants and make split-second decisions. Where one man could give them the go-ahead and they didn’t have to go through a complex chain of command.

Mike gazed at her sadly, a knot in his gut. She doesn’t understand.

She’d heard him say that the helicopters had located a probable boat holding the kidnapped women out in the Gulf, and she’d wanted him to go there immediately in case her friend was on board.

He sighed and went to stand at the railing beside her. Together, they gazed at the sun setting behind the sand dunes.

She glanced up at him and then down at the water.

Mike cleared his throat, wondering if this might be the right time to discuss his feelings as Freddy had suggested. Not even close.

When she spoke, her voice was small and tight. “I’m so worried about Cassie. She’s such an amazing, wonderful person. I just can’t stand that she’s missing and that Salvador Obregon might be involved. I won’t be responsible for myself if something really bad happens to her.”

Mike put his arm around her and stroked his fingers over her hair. He dropped a kiss on her head and heard her sniff. Guess she’s not that mad at me.

He took a deep breath. “Darla, I care about you. I don’t want you to think that this thing between us is something that I take lightly.”

She gave out a little one-syllable laugh.

Not the reaction he’d expected.

“This ‘thing’between us? What does that mean?” Her voice had an edge to it.

Mike drew another deep breath and turned to her. He grazed his fingertips over her cheek. “I’m trying to tell you that I love you.”

She started to say something, but he cut her off with a kiss. He tried to show her how he felt with his kiss. He might not have the right words, but surely she could tell how he felt.

She pulled away, to look up at him. “You love me?”

He quirked a smile at her. “Yep. If you’re just toying with me, you’re going to break my heart.”

“You love me?” She repeated.

“Honey, I love every little atom of you. If you don’t love me, it’s okay, but I had to tell you how I feel.”

She frowned at him. “Well, of course I love you. How could I help myself?”

Mike’s face split into a wide grin. “Really?”

She nodded, her frown turning into a flicker of a smile as she buried her face against his neck. “I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but if you love me, Mister ICE Man, could you please find my friend Cassie?”

 

Here is the buy link: http://www.amazon.com/BAD-VIBES-Romantic-Thriller-ebook/dp/B009LYM3ZQ/ref=la_B0050KEWMM_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1349917628&sr=1-4

The Pendant's Promise

In The Pendant's Promise by Judythe Morgan, a teenage girl fabricates a marriage and widowhood because her baby's soldier father is MIA in North Vietnam, but when he turns up twenty years later at her daughter’s wedding, the fiction shatters her comfortable world.

Can a love, sidetracked by war, be rekindled when the child born from that love feels betrayed? Or, will Lily’s original, well-intended lie mean losing her daughter and the only man she’s ever loved?

 

Excerpt:

From the night of her daughter’s engagement party, Lily’s gone out on the veranda to escape the crowds and gather her wits after seeing Ace for the first time in twenty years…

 

Closing her eyes, Lily saw Ace that night in 1966, the perfect model of military grandeur in his custom-tailored dress blue uniform. The gold band of color down the trousers accentuated his long legs. His service and medal ribbons, “fruit salad,” testifying to his bravery. Even now, the image sent heat through her body.

 

 

Other remembrances winked brightly in the starry backdrop of the night sky. Ace driving her the sixty-five miles to U.N. Village from Walker Hill. Stepping out of the vehicle and the heel of her shoe catching on the jeep’s raised frame. Falling against his chest with a thud. His arms had tightened around her. She circled his neck, pulled his lips to hers for a kiss full of promise and passion. Cocooned in the crook of his arm as they walked toward her apartment, she’d wanted to stay forever.

 

 

“I know what you’re thinking.” Alex’s voice hurled her back to the present. With his hand braced on either side of his hips, he leaned against the ornate concrete railing that edged the long rectangular veranda, dominating her view.

 

 

Lost in that other time, she hadn’t noticed he followed her outside. Like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar, she raised her eyes. “Really?”

 

 

He moved forward, slowly, deliberately, the smile on his lips spread to a sensuous flame in his eyes. When his shoes almost touched her bare toes, he hesitated a moment before he bowed, as if he thought she might jump up and run back into the house—or perhaps giving her the opportunity.

 

 

Lily remained frozen, caught in the swirling emotions of the past and the present.

 

 

He fanned her hair through his fingers. Then slid his index finger under her jaw and tilted her face up toward his. Slowly he lowered his chin, offering her another chance to scoot away if she’d wanted to.

 

 

She didn’t.

 

 

She parted her lips slightly, taking in a small breath as his mouth touched hers. She thought he’d end it there, but she was wrong. He sat beside her, cupped his hand at the back of her head and let his lips play against hers.

 

 

Her body turned liquid. He kissed her once more, fiercely, before he straightened, resting his forehead on hers. “I’ve waited a long time to do that.”

 

 

She lifted her hands and pushed him away. Fighting for control, she toed into the shoes she’d removed, and slid sideways off the marble top bench to stand with her back to the porch railing as he had done. She hoped the distance would clear her clouded head.

 

 

He studied her. “Same bombshell as that night in the parking lot of your U.N. Village apartment, wasn’t it?”

 

 

Because he was right, she determined to keep her tone and her attitude light. “As kisses go, it was good. But it was, after all, just a kiss.”

 

 

“Like hell it was.” He grasped her upper arms. His bare hands on her flesh sent a tingle racing up her arm. “Don’t deny it.”

 

 

Lily wanted to move away, but her feet remained as though set in the cement floor. She fought the urge to sway into his chest. “Okay, maybe I’d give it a nine point five rating.”

 

 

He didn’t smile. His hands slipped up her arms and drew her closer. “Felt like a ten to me. Perhaps I need to try again.”

 

 

As his head lowered, Lily caught a brief glimpse of Margaret Cabot in the open French doorway. “Your mother’s over there. I think we’re being summoned.”

 

 

Alex groaned, but dropped his hands.

 

 

When they turned to walk back inside, Mrs. Cabot was gone.

 

 

His attention the remainder of the evening was charming and disorienting. He toyed with her determination to avoid contact by frequent touches—a guiding hand in the small of her back, long, warm fingers wrapping around her forearm or clasping hers. Each touch sent tiny electric charges reminding her of how it had been and hinting of what could be.

 

 

Lily strained to stay focused as he escorted her through the engagement party crowds, introducing his friends. When he went for drinks, she considered escaping, but he’d only find her, so she waited.

 

 

Once the truth came out, he wouldn’t want to find her.

 

 

The Pendant's Promise by Judythe Morgan is available at:

Paperback   http://www.amazon.com/Pendants-Promise-judythe-morgan/dp/0615645917/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344788798&sr=1-1&keywords=judythe+morgan

Kindle  http://www.amazon.com/The-Pendants-Promise-ebook/dp/B007ZU71N2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1337480662&sr=1-1  

Nook    http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pendants-promise-judythe-morgan/1110816095?ean=2940014437769

Smashwords for Apple, Kobo and other electronic formats:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/157996

 

To the Rescue

 

 

Here's the first kiss from my romantic suspense To the Rescue:

Amy pushed through the crowd of gyrating twenty-something dancers, desperate to reach the club’s exit. Ford had seen her. He’d followed her inside and he meant to kill her.

But the costumed crowd, the strobe lights and the smoke-filled air of the Mardi Gras Boogie Club disoriented her. Where was the damn door?

Suddenly something heavy cloaked her shoulders and a man blocked her path. Startled, she stared up at the stranger. Her heart tripped. Was he a stranger?

Whisky-brown eyes caught the pulsing reflection of a nearby strobe light as he leaned close to her. Fear locked Amy’s throat as he gripped a handful of the jacket he’d settled over her shoulders and tugged her into the shadow of the circular staircase leading up to the balcony lounge.

“My name is Jacob Kissman, Ms. Bartlett,” he said, his voice deep enough, his mouth close enough, to carry over the loud music. His lips curled into a naturally sexy grin as he slapped a floppy feathered hat on her head. “I’m a United States Deputy Marshal and I’m here to protect you.”

Something about this stranger’s handsome face nagged at her memory but Amy couldn’t quite catch it. And his words—

“MacKay is heading toward my position at the staircase.” The man looked beyond her as he spoke into a slender headset hooked over his right ear. It was almost hidden in the dark waves of his hair. “I’ve got Ms. Bartlett. Move in.”

Before Amy’s fear could give way to relief that a lawman had come to her aid, his warm eyes focused on her lips. He gave a little shrug. “All in the line of duty,” he said and then he pressed his mouth to hers.

The throbbing music, the pulsating lights, the taste of sweet coffee and man…sensations overwhelmed her. They smothered the fear that had plagued her since she’d seen her ex-boyfriend, Ford MacKay, murder his accountant two months ago.

It was all too much. Out of a sense of self-preservation, Amy focused on the one thing that could possibly ground her. The kiss.

To the Rescue is available in print or ebook at the following booksellers:
Ellora's Cave: http://www.jasminejade.com/p-4408-to-the-rescue.aspx
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/To-the-Rescue-ebook/dp/B003370IWW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1349191173&sr=8-2&keywords=to+the+rescue+thackston
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/to-the-rescue-thackston?keyword=to+the+rescue+thackston&store=allproducts
and other fine book etailers.