Wednesday, June 8, 2011
New Release: Night and Day
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Larkin Day thought she was a hardened cop until she found out what lurked in the night.
When Larkin watched her partner die it was one of the worst nights of her life. They said it was an addict strung out on drugs, but they were all wrong. No addict did things like that to a human body. It was no addict that attacked her on that roof. When Keaton Knight broke into her apartment, he confirmed everything she saw. Gremlins. It was unbelievable; it was something out of the movies. Now she's in a fight to save New York City from things that should not even exist. Alongside a man who makes her body sizzle with ever touch on her skin, Larkin knows she and Keaton are like night and day. Can they come out of the darkness together after the horror they must face?
EXCERPT:
They took portions of each dish and ate in companionable silence. Keaton watched Larkin take a sip of her beer. Her lips wrapped around the smooth glass top of the bottle, and he felt his temperature shoot up a few degrees.
"What?"
Her question broke through his thought of what else her lips could do. He stuck a forkful of rice in his mouth and spoke around it. "Hmm?"
"You were staring at me."
"Oh, sorry. My mind must have wandered."
"Uh-huh." After a few moments, she asked the question he knew was coming. "How long have you been doing this…I mean chasing those things…gremlins?"
Keaton answered readily. "Since I was around ten years old."
"My God, you were a child. Who would make you do such a thing?" she asked, compassion and outrage in her voice.
"No one made me," his tone became hard as granite. "Those things killed my mother and sisters. My dad and I took it upon ourselves to hunt them into extinction."
"Oh my God, I'm sorry. What happened? No, don't tell me, it must still be painful for you."
"It's okay, Larkin." Keaton sent his mind to a cold, detached place he used when he spoke of his family's death. "It was raining hard that night. We had a line of storms move through. There were caves close by, but we never knew about it. The rain drove them out because of flooding, and they were looking for new shelter. They found it in our barn. My sister had some kittens that lived out there and because of the rain and the lighting, she thought they would be scared or drown." With every word he spoke, Keaton felt himself being pulled back into the nightmare; his voice was distant even to his own ears.
"My dad and I were trying to get the rest of the animals to high ground and my sister cried, begged, and pleaded to go get those cats until my mother relented. My mom got my other sister to help, and the three of them went through the rain to the barn and ran straight into those bastards. Over the thunder we heard their screams. By the time we got there, they were all dead…eaten. They had gone after the horses first even the fucking kittens…" Keaton took a deep breath; he unclenched his hands and tried to calm down. The hurt was still there, burned into his memory. He remembered his father dropping to his knees in the blood and hay; the torn bodies of his family thrown around like rag dolls, the taste of bile in his throat as his dinner came up until nothing was left—the same dinner his mother had prepared only an hour earlier.
It took a few more calming breaths before he could speak again. "From there, my dad, well, he knew no one would believe us. He didn't want people seeing his family like that. We burned the house and the barn and said they died in the fire. From then on, we hunted those things and killed them all, and we continue hunting them to this day."
"How old were they?"
Keaton swallowed the lump in his throat. "My sister, Emily, was five, my other sister, Jennifer, was fourteen."
"Where's your father?" Her soft voice made him look up to her face. In her eyes she had unshed tears, and her bottom lip trembled with the urge to cry.
"He's gone too; he was a stubborn man and went after a nest without me. They killed him before I got there. That was six months ago." He didn't want her to see how much it still hurt, how much it almost broke him to carry his father's corpse from that fetid warehouse, to know he was the last one left.
"Oh Keaton, I'm sorry." This time tears did fall from her eyes and spilled on her smooth, milk chocolate cheeks.
"Hey now, don't cry." He got up from his seat and pulled her into his arms. "My dad knew what he was getting into. I'm thirty years old. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I think, in a way, he wanted to die like they did."
"I'm, still sorry… I can't seem to stop crying because…well `cause Carmine's kids don't have a dad now and…and it tried to eat me!" Larkin hiccupped and began to cry in earnest.
He had no idea what to do with a crying woman. He barely had time to get laid every now and again from whatever local girls in whatever dive bar in whichever town he landed in. How was he supposed to deal with an emotional woman? He patted her back and shushed her. That only made her cry harder, and the front of his shirt was becoming increasingly damp.
Keaton did the only logical thing that came into his head. He raised her face to his and took her lips in a kiss. Whoa big mistake! he thought when her lips opened under his and invited his tongue inside. Heat rushed to his groin, making him hard against the soft fleece of the sweatpants. He pulled her closer to him and rubbed his body against hers, causing her to moan softly. Thoughts about comforting her were gone. All he could do was revel in her taste. Her tongue darted into his mouth and sampled him. A half growl half groan echoed in the back of his throat. She pulled him closer. Her hands slipped under the edge of his shirt and caressed the bare skin of his waist before sliding up his chest. Wherever her hands touched, they left a trail of heat that made him contemplate throwing her down on the hardwood floor.
He tore his mouth from hers. "Okay baby, this is getting real hot, real fast, and I don't want to take advantage of you."
Larkin's breath was coming in short, little pants; her hands were still under his shirt and now circling the tiny buds of his nipples. The sensation made him ache and forget he was trying to be noble.
"Do I look like anyone could take advantage of me, Keaton?" she asked breathlessly.
"No, but you got attacked tonight. You're vulnerable." He tried not to feel her hands go down his stomach and cup him through the material of the sweats. His breath hissed from his throat as her firm touch made his cock even harder. It throbbed in her grasp.
"Okay, let me put it this way, let's go to my bedroom and take off our clothes and see where this goes. I don't usually do this, Keaton, but right now I just need to feel something other than fear."
She didn't have to say another word. He scooped her up and moved across the room in quick strides. In the bedroom, he put her down long enough to take the large, furry ball that was still lying in her bed and deposit him outside the door. The cat showed his disapproval with a loud, low meow. Keaton grinned as the cat sauntered away with his head held high.
"Yeah well, you be that way. I'm still way happier than you right now." He closed the door to the bedroom and went back to his luscious dessert that was now spread naked on the bed, calling him with one sexy finger.
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