Saturday, November 24, 2018

Welcome Desiree Holt to the Reading Nook

Please give a warm welcome to author Desiree Holt, who joins us at the Reading Nook today. Check out Radish, an app that you can download to your phone and read stories in bite size pieces. Her Hide and Seek is up there now. The first three episodes are free, after that 25 cents each. 


Anything can happen when you let your guard down....

After receiving a violent threat on the heels of her father’s disappearance from the town of Arrowhead Bay, Devon Cole fears for her life—until Vigilance, a local private security agency, steps in to shield her from danger. 

Although she isn’t usually quick to surrender her freedom, she has no problem stripping her defenses for her new sexy bodyguard....

Tortured by the painful memory of lost love, Logan Malik is determined not to risk his heart again. So when he’s tasked with watching over Devon day and night, he’s focused on doing his job. Day is no problem, but as tensions rise at night, nothing can protect them from giving in to unbridled passion....


Excerpt:

She didn’t know all that much about it, but she was pretty sure most bodyguards didn’t become intimate with their protectees. There was something deep here. She’d never believed all those stories about people meeting and their chemistry was hot enough to light up the sky. Not until Logan walked into her life. So now what? What did he expect? What did this mean to him?
Drive yourself crazy much, Devyn?
“Devyn?” Logan’s voice cut into her reverie. “You okay there?”
She looked up, afraid she was blushing. From the look in his eyes she was sure he knew exactly what she was thinking.
Crap!
She gave herself a mental shake. “More than.”
She picked up her tablet that she’d brought into the kitchen with her, thinking to distract herself. She wanted to check her email while they ate but first she wanted a look at The Bay Bulletin, Arrowhead Bay’s daily online newspaper. Every Wednesday a print edition came out for those still addicted to paper, but for a newspaper on a shoestring budget this worked very well. She looked at the front page and groaned.
“Damn. I could have figured this.”
Logan put down his mug. “What’s the problem?”
“I’m front page news in Arrowhead Bay.” She handed the tablet over to him. “I guess I’m a local celebrity.”
Local woman accosted on highway,” he read. “You could have figured that. Not much else going on around here.”
“No kidding. Marybeth Hughes who runs the paper scrapes up every last detail of anything she gets a smell of. And this is big time for her. I’ll bet she was a big gossip in school.”
When Logan finished reading he looked over at her. ““They’ve got a big article on your dad’s disappearance and the boat fire, too. One good thing, though. This might make people more alert as far as strangers around here are concerned.”
Devyn lifted an eyebrow. “You’re kidding, right? This is the start of snowbird season. Strangers will be swarming everywhere, all the time.”
“One good thing.” He tapped his finger on the screen. “There’s a description of our two friends from the highway based on what you told Sheri. If the jerks happen to see that, maybe they’ll change their minds about hanging around. They won’t want to chance being recognized.”
Logan finished his coffee and handed the tablet back to her. “Enough. Put this away until later. I think we should head down to the marina. I want to see what’s going on today and look around. And I also think we should check out Lady Hannah. We couldn’t take a look at her yesterday, as crazy as things were. I’ll call Avery on the way and she if our agent she planted there picked anything up.”
“Okay.” She swallowed. “I’m almost afraid to see what we find out.”
“Whatever it is,” he pointed out, “it’s better than not knowing anything.”
“Okay. You’re right.”
“Listen.” He leaned forward. “I don’t want you to—”
“Stop.” She said the word louder than she intended. She didn’t want to hear his apology or his explanation of the rules regarding bodyguards, if that was what he was getting ready to say. So she’d misread him. Big surprise. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say a word. We can just forget the whole thing, okay?”
She popped the last bite of toast into her mouth, concentrating on it as if it was the most important thing in her life. She waited for him to say something. Anything. But he just sat there, silent, drinking his coffee, watching her. Finally he set his mug down.
“No. We’re not forgetting anything.” His mysterious eyes studied her. “First, I need you to know that I never do this. Ever. I have a code where clients are concerned.” He delivered the words with a hard edge.
Devyn didn’t think that was news. She was pretty damn sure Logan Malik didn’t make a habit of this, yet here they were. She wanted to think this was special, that he hadn’t just felt sorry for her because of her unfortunate circumstances. That look in his eyes, the way he touched her…
No, she could be practical about it and let him off the hook, if that was what he wanted. She just wished…
“Of course. I understand.” She wet her lips. “So it’s forgotten. Okay?” She’d figure out how to make herself forget it.
“You’re misreading me, Devyn. I don’t want to forget it.” He focused on her, his eyes boring into her. “And correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think you do, either. Right?”
Devyn looked across the table at him. That same pain she’d seen for a fleeting moment was back in his eyes, but there was something else with it, too. Something she couldn’t define.
“No.” She said the word in a quiet voice.
“So please don’t jump to conclusions.” And there was that look again, pain blunted by intense desire and hunger. “I want—” He stopped. “I think—” Another pause. “Later we’re going to have some wine and talk.”
“You don’t have to make excuses to me,” she insisted. “It’s alright.”
“No, it isn’t, and no excuses. When I say we’re going to talk, I mean it. And then we’ll see where this takes us. There are things I need to tell you.” He blew out a breath. “But later. Just understand there’s no forgetting. At all.”
“Alright.”
She’d hold on tight to that until they had a chance to talk. She’d never been hit so emotionally by something before and she wanted to know that this was more than a roll in the hay for Logan. That he broke his own personal code because he felt something very special for her.
When she looked across at him his eyes were like twin lasers boring into hers, heat and hunger and something else flashing in them. Then, as if a broom had swept over his face, that same implacable expression swirled into place. His game face. He took a swallow of coffee and set his mug down.
“Let’s get going.”
She carried[JB1]  her plate and mug to the sink, stuck her dishes and Logan’s in the dishwasher and dusted her hands together. When she turned she found herself body to body with him.
“Um, excuse me?”
She looked up at him. Bad move. The look he gave her felt as if it went clear through her. Their gazes locked for a long moment. There it was again, that mixture of pain and desire.
“Never mind. Let’s go.”
“Let me get my purse and the keys.”
Logan was waiting for her in the foyer. “All set?” She nodded. “Let’s go.”
He checked everything on the new alarm system, punched in the code and guided her toward the garage with his arm lightly at her waist. As soon as she had climbed into his truck and the garage door behind them rolled up, her entire body tensed.
What if someone was out there waiting to shoot at them again? What if the black SUV was out on the road? What if—”
Oh, for god’s sake. 
But she’d been attacked on the road[JB2] [JR3] , she and Logan had been shot at and someone had blown up Princess Devyn. This is stupid, she told herself. They had a state of the art security system in the house, and the bodyguard of her dreams beside her. What could happen?
Logan backed out of the garage, pressed the remote to close the garage door and headed down the driveway. He paused at the foot of the driveway and she watched him scan the area.
He glanced over at her and covered her hands with one of his, giving her a gentle squeeze with his fingers.
“We’re good, Devyn. Nothing remotely visible out here. This is just force of habit for me. The one time I don’t do it will turn into a disaster. Okay?”
“Okay.” She blew out a breath. “I want you to know I am not some Silly Millie given to fainting spells and all that. I don’t know what Avery or Sheri has told you about me, but I handle my life pretty well. I even own my own business.” She smacked her head. “But of course you know that. Avery probably sent you a file on me that even includes my birthmarks.”
He glanced over at her, the corner of his mouth quirked in a tiny smile. “Birth marks? I’m not sure I noticed any.”
The same heat she’d felt earlier surged in her cheeks.


About the Author

USA Today best-selling and award-winning author Desiree Holt writes everything from romantic suspense and contemporary on a variety of heat levels up to erotic, a genre in which she is the oldest living author. She has been referred to by USA Today as the Nora Roberts of erotic romance, and is a winner of the EPIC E-Book Award, the Holt Medallion and a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice nominee. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The (London) Daily Mail, The New Delhi Times and numerous other national and international publications.
Desiree loves to hear from readers. www.facebook.com/desireeholtauthor www.facebook.com/desiree01holt
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