by Larissa Ione
Now, there are outside forces conspiring against us. Maybe we should’ve known better? Maybe not. Even with the protection from Wade Rycroft, bodyguard for McKay-Taggart, I still don’t feel safe. I won’t let him get hurt because of me. All I know is that I want to hold on, but know the right thing to do is to let go…
* * * *
His to Protect by Carly Phillips
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Talia Shaw has spent her adult life working as a scientist for a big pharmaceutical company. She’s focused on saving lives, not living life. When her lab is broken into and it's clear someone is after the top secret formula she’s working on, she turns to the one man she can trust. The same irresistible man she turned away years earlier because she was too young and naive to believe a sexy guy like Shane Landon could want her.
Shane Landon’s bodyguard work for McKay-Taggart is the one thing that brings him satisfaction in his life. Relationships come in second to the job. Always. Then little brainiac Talia Shaw shows up in his backyard, frightened and on the run, and his world is turned upside down. And not just because she’s found him naked in his outdoor shower, either.
With Talia's life in danger, Shane has to get her out of town and to her eccentric, hermit mentor who has the final piece of the formula she’s been working on, while keeping her safe from the men who are after her. Guarding Talia's body certainly isn't any hardship, but he never expects to fall hard and fast for his best friend’s little sister and the only woman who’s ever really gotten under his skin.
* * * *
Rescuing Sadie by Susan Stoker
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Sadie Jennings was used to being protected. As the niece of Sean Taggart, and the receptionist at McKay-Taggart Group, she was constantly surrounded by Alpha men more than capable, and willing, to lay down their life for her. But when she visits her friend in San Antonio, and acts on suspicious activity at Milena’s workplace, Sadie puts both of them in the crosshairs of a madman. After several harrowing weeks, her friend is now safe, but for Sadie, the repercussions of her rash act linger on.
Chase Jackson, no stranger to dangerous situations as a captain in the US Army, has volunteered himself as Sadie's bodyguard. He fell head over heels for the beautiful woman the first time he laid eyes on her. With a Delta Force team at his back, he reassures the Taggart's that Sadie will be safe. But when the situation in San Antonio catches up with her, Chase has to use everything he's learned over his career to keep his promise...and to keep Sadie alive long enough to officially make her his.
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Hawkyn
A Demonica Novella
By Larissa Ione
Now Available
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From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Larissa Ione comes a new story in her Demonica Underworld series…
As a special class of earthbound guardian angel called Memitim, Hawkyn is charged with protecting those whose lives are woven into the fabric of the future. His success is legendary, so when he’s given a serial killer to watch over, he sees no reason for that to change. But Hawkyn’s own future is jeopardized after he breaks the rules and rescues a beautiful woman from the killer’s clutches, setting off an explosive, demonic game of cat and mouse that pits brother against brother and that won’t end until someone dies.
Aurora Mercer is the half-wytch lone survivor of a psychopath who gets off on the sadistic torture of his victims. A psychopath whose obsessive psyche won’t let him move on until he kills her. Now she’s marked for death, her fate tied to that of a murderer…and to a sexy angel who makes her blood burn with desire…
* * * *
A blast of heat roared through the house, and the temperature shot up at least twenty degrees. Aurora always kept the house at a sixty-five degrees at this time of year, so the instant jump to summer temps was like stepping into a dry sauna.
“How the is he doing this?” Hawkyn’s raw curse bounced off the walls. “He’s going to force heat exhaustion and then take you while you’re too weak to fight back. We need to get you out of here now.” He slid one warm hand down, his fingers skimming lightly over her jaw and lower, to the sensitive skin on her neck. “With your permission.”
Blinking, momentarily confused, she watched him flick the pink tip of his tongue across a fang. Oh, right. He could feed from her to recharge. Take her blood with those huge, gleaming canines.
She waited for the revulsion to kick in, but something else happened. Something…hot. Hotter than the serial-killer induced heat that was testing the limits of her deodorant.
There’s a serial killer outside.
The sudden thought came with a blast of memories, of Drayger with the scalpel that made tiny, stinging cuts. Of sharp things and his laughter and pain—
“Will it hurt?” she blurted.
“I’ll make it feel good, I promise.” A fresh blast of heat drove up the number on the thermostat near the door to 103. “But we need to hurry.”
She nodded, and his emerald eyes darkened, holding her gaze prisoner as he lowered his head. Gently, he tilted her face to the side and opened his mouth over her throat, and she shuddered with a mix of anticipation and trepidation.
She’d only dated a handful of men in her twenty-six years, wasting most of them on her high school sweetheart, a human who had never known the truth about her. If he had, he might not have cheated on her during their junior year in college. Then again, maybe he enjoyed her curse of flatulence he came down with every time he kissed a girl.
The other guys had come after the breakup, mostly rebound dates she’d used for sex. Wytches needed to discharge their energy often, either with sex or magic, and she’d gone through an extended anti-magic phase for a while. But not one of those men had made her nervous the way Hawkyn did.
Granted, none of them had fangs. Nor had they been supernatural beings, let alone angels. And none of them had looked like Hawkyn, with his six and a half foot, thickly muscled build, a cocky smile that radiated confidence, and intelligent eyes that she doubted missed anything.
Hawkyn’s breath whispered over her skin, and she shivered as her anxiety became excitement. As his tongue flicked across her vein, she even had to hold back a moan of pleasure. When his fangs sank into her flesh, the mild pinprick gave way to a shocking spear of ecstasy that went straight to her core.
His arm slipped around her, bracing her body against his big one as he disengaged his teeth and repositioned his mouth. She let herself go, sinking into him as he swept her up and then settled them both on the couch so she was straddling his lap.
He took slow, easy draws, one hand holding her head in place, the other gripping her waist, settled tamely above her hipbone. His pinky finger wedged between her waistband and her sweater, and consciously or subconsciously he was stroking skin, his touch adding to the heat that was building inside and out.
A drop of sweat trickled down her temple, and she glanced at the thermometer. 115 now.
Shifting slightly, Hawkyn let out a groan and swept his tongue over the punctures in her throat. She felt no pain, only a pinch and tingle that told her the holes were sealing themselves.
“Are we done?” she whispered, making no move to climb off him. She wasn’t even sure she could. Her bones felt like noodles and her muscles like water.
“Yeah,” he said roughly, tucking her head into the crook of his neck and shoulder. “I just need a minute to clear the fog.”
“I get that,” she murmured into his shoulder. “Because I feel like I drank a couple of Long Island Ice Teas spike
d with some kind of super-aphrodisiac.” Reluctantly, she pushed herself up, just in time for another heatwave.
125.
“Come on,” he said, lifting her off him. “We’re going someplace much cooler.”
“And where’s that?”
He grinned as he flipped the duffel into the air with his foot and caught it in his hand in one easy motion. “Hell,” he said, taking her hand. “We’re literally going to hell.”
A Special Note from Larissa
I hope you enjoyed this journey between worlds, which includes not only the Demonica and Masters and Mercenaries universes, but the very tasty universe of Suzanne Johnson as well. See, for those who don’t know, my inspiration for Suzanne D’Angelo was a very dear friend, USA Today bestselling cookbook author Suzanne Johnson. An amazing cook, Suzanne has also teamed up with Lexi Blake to create recipes and stories from the Masters and Mercenaries world, so be sure to check out those works. And if the dishes in Her Guardian Angel tempted you, hold onto your halos and horns, folks, because we have a very special treat coming for you in the winter of 2018! Scroll down for Dining with Angels: Bits and Bites from the Demonica Universe!
Southern Bits & Bites
Southern Kid Bits & Mom Bites
Southern Bits & Bites: Our 150 Favorite Recipes
Writing with Lexi Blake
Master Bits & Mercenary Bites~The Secret Recipes of Topped
Master Bits & Mercenary Bites~Girls Night
Writing with J. Kenner
Bar Bites: A Man of the Month Cookbook, Coming May 15, 2018
Writing with Larissa Ione
Dining with Angels: Bits and Bites from the Demonica Universe, Coming November 6, 2018!
On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,
Liz Berry and M.J. Rose would like to thank ~
Steve Berry
Doug Scofield
Kim Guidroz
Jillian Stein
InkSlinger PR
Dan Slater
Asha Hossain
Chris Graham
Fedora Chen
Kasi Alexander
Jessica Johns
Dylan Stockton
Richard Blake
BookTrib After Dark
and Simon Lipskar
Table of Contents
Book Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three