Tia Louise's Blog: ONE TO BLOG - Posts Tagged "romantic-suspense"

UNDER THE LIGHTS
by Tia Louise
(c) TLM Productions LLC, 2018
(LIVE on Amazon; FREE in KU!)

Lara

We’re interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Rosa steps back to open it, and my eyes rise to meet… beautiful blue.

“Roland sent me to…” Mark’s voice cuts off as he takes in my appearance. Then it drops to a whisper. “You look—”

“I’ll check on Molly,” Rosa steps to the side and pushes past him out the door.

She’s gone, and we’re alone in my room. His reaction makes my stomach tighten, tingling heat rises up my thighs, centering in my core. I look away, reaching for the barrette and unfastening it from my hair. One tug and a dark curtain falls across my hot-pink cheeks and exposed breasts.

Mark’s breath is audible. “God, you’re so beautiful.”

My shoulders tremble. I want him to see me—I want only him to see me—but I’m not used to the power of my body. I’m intimidated by its effect on men.

Blinking up, our eyes meet, and his are dark, drinking in my breasts, my legs, my bare pussy hidden behind the dark heart.

“I wish…” His voice trails off.

My voice is barely audible. “What do you wish?”

Navy eyes blink to mine, and the hunger there makes my knees weak. “I wish you were mine. Only mine. I wish I could touch you. I wish I was a rich man, so I could take you far from here.”

“Only fools make wishes here.”

His head moves side to side, and he smiles. “Oh, beautiful girl, I’d trade being a fool here with you for a lifetime anywhere else…”

* * *
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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT
HIT GIRL
By Tia Louise
© TLM Productions LLC, 2018

Molly

I realize it’s Shooter, and I scoot back again, on my guard. Our eyes lock, but she’s unarmed. She’s not here to hurt me. Still, I watch her. My hunger is momentarily abated, and I’m ready if she tries anything.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask.

She shrugs, stepping to the side and looking around my small prison. “We’re the same. We’re killers, hackers… I’ve watched you for years, tracked you. You’re one of the best.”

“Thank you.” It’s a tight reply. All my muscles are tense, ready to react.

“I consider myself one of the best.”

I nod, taking another bite of food. “Noted.”

Turning on her heels, she crosses her arms and faces me, frowning as if she’s trying to figure out a complex problem. “Why did you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Why did you kill those men? They were lowlifes, criminals with no connections, no payoff.” She takes another step, studying me. “You’re clearly smart. Why take a chance like that? Why gamble your freedom for no reward? Are you an adrenaline junkie?”

“You want to know why I didn’t just hack into a bank and steal a bunch of money. Move to Indonesia and live like a queen on an island in the south Pacific?”

“Basically, yes. You could do that.”

My eyes move from my hands clasped in my lap up my arms where tiny silver scars stripe my skin. “Being a hacker didn’t come first for me. I became a hacker so I could find the men who raped me when I was thirteen.”

Shooter’s arms move. She tightens them higher over her chest, but she doesn’t interrupt me. She wants me to keep going, so I do.

“We ran away from New Orleans to escape our abusers. We ran all the way to France… but I couldn’t escape what happened to me. I couldn’t remember the details, but the feelings would bubble up. They would rise to the surface of my skin and burn until I let them out.” Shooter is the first person I’ve spoken to so plainly about why I cut my skin. I never told Joshua. I never even told Stas…

“Killing helped you to stop?”

“Stas… the old man helped me stop. He taught me to meditate. He taught me to confront the feelings and name them, give them a place, and let them go. He taught me self-defense, so I would never be a victim again.”

She’s thinking about what I’m saying. Her heels make sharp clicking sounds as she paces the concrete floor. “But it wasn’t enough. Meditation, self-defense, they weren’t enough.”

“I guess I’m not as enlightened as I ought to be. The only way I could stop feeling their hands on my skin, their breath on my neck, was to make them stop breathing altogether.”

You could hear a pin drop it’s so quiet in the room. It’s not an uncomfortable silence. It’s more a respectful silence. The silence of two people who kill for a living acknowledging their truths.

“My little sister was shot in the head at a bus stop. She was on her way to school, second grade, and some drug dealer wanted to send a message. Annie just happened to be in the way of his gun.”

I bend my legs, placing my hands on top of my knees. Not everyone has a reason to carry a gun, to hunt down the people who wield ultimate power over the lives of the helpless.

We do.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“It was a long time ago.”

She goes to the door, and I wait as she slides the latch. “I didn’t tell you congratulations. I guess this adds a new layer of difficulty to your chosen profession. Or maybe it changes things.”

My voice is quiet. “It changes everything. My quest for revenge doesn’t matter anymore.”

“So you’ll walk away?”

“If I get that chance.”

She nods, and I think she’s about to leave. Instead, she hesitates. “Is there anything you’d like? Anything you want to know?”

I didn’t expect her to say this, and a thousand questions flood my mind at once. “Is anyone looking for me?”

“Not yet.”

The door opens with a jerk, and she steps out.

“Wait,” I call. “One more thing.”

She puts a foot inside my room again. “What?”

My brow furrows, and I look down. “This might not be something you can tell me. If it’s not, I understand. Renee said something… about my mother. She said she knows who she was.” Swallowing the pain in my throat I continue. “If you could tell me who I really am… It’s something I’ve always wanted to know. I’d like to know before…” I don’t know how I want to finish that sentence.

Shooter thinks about my request. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re good, Hit Girl. Your story deserves a better ending than dying alone in an underground cell.”

“Maybe I’ll get one.”

* * *
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★★★ EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT ★★★
UNDER THE LIGHTS
by Tia Louise
(c) TLM Productions LLC, 2018

Lara

We’re interrupted by a soft knock at the door. Rosa steps back to open it, and my eyes rise to meet… beautiful blue.

“Roland sent me to…” Mark’s voice cuts off as he takes in my appearance. Then it drops to a whisper. “You look—”

“I’ll check on Molly,” Rosa steps to the side and pushes past him out the door.

She’s gone, and we’re alone in my room. His reaction makes my stomach tighten, tingling heat rises up my thighs, centering in my core. I look away, reaching for the barrette and unfastening it from my hair.

One tug and a dark curtain falls across my hot-pink cheeks and exposed breasts.

Mark’s breath is audible. “God, you’re so beautiful.”

My shoulders tremble. I want him to see me—I want only him to see me—but I’m not used to the power of my body. I’m intimidated by its effect on men.

Blinking up, our eyes meet, and his are dark, drinking in my breasts, my legs, my bare pussy hidden behind the dark heart.

“I wish…” His voice trails off.

My voice is barely audible. “What do you wish?”

Navy eyes blink to mine, and the hunger there makes my knees weak. “I wish you were mine. Only mine. I wish I could touch you. I wish I was a rich man, so I could take you far from here.”

“Only fools make wishes here.”

His head moves side to side, and he smiles. “Oh, beautiful girl, I’d trade being a fool here with you for a lifetime anywhere else…”

* * *

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UNDER THE LIGHTS
by Tia Louise
(c) TLM Productions LLC, 2018

Lara

I cross the space to him, not waiting for him to come to me. He smiles and pulls me close, and I sigh at the feel of the hair on his chest tickling my sensitive nipples.

“You feel so good,” I whisper.

“Aren’t I supposed to say that?” Large hands move from my waist up the sides of my back, scratching my sensitive skin with his bandages.

His lips touch my neck, and the light scruff on his cheek sends thrills radiating to my core.

“I don’t know,” I whisper, every inch of me burning for his touch.

“I’d planned to invite you to my place,” he says against my skin, and I shudder.

“There isn’t time.” I hold his cheeks so I can find his delicious mouth.

Our kisses are hot and wet. I kiss him slowly, tasting his sweetness, fresh water, a hint of mint. He kisses me deeper, holding the back of my neck as he guides us to my small bed.

Gently, he lays me on my back, spreading the robe apart and running his eyes down the length of my naked body like a caress. I wriggle out of the velvet, an ache spreading in my core, a deep need I never knew existed.

He toes off his boots, first one, then the other, his eyes never leaving me. I slide my palms over my stomach, up to my breasts, circling and holding them as his hands work at the waist of his jeans.

“Shit, Lara,” he groans. “What are you doing to me?”

I don’t know. I only know my body craves touch, his touch. My hands slide down to cup the need I feel between my thighs. He hisses, watching my fingers slowly circling, and when he shoves his jeans down, my breath catches.

My eyes widen.

He’s huge, long and thick.

“Mark…” His name escapes on a sigh, and he fists his cock, sliding the dampness over the tip and down, causing my insides to clench...

* * *

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SAVE ME
By Tia Louise

Chapter 1: Jessa

The metal bar cuts into my sternum. I’m lying flat on my stomach across a network of steel twenty feet above the concrete floor, and my last chance to anchor my safety line is gone.

Our mark and his men slowly fill the open, warehouse. Every move is a potential echo, and these guys are edgier than sinners in church. Lifting the rifle, I slowly exhale through the pain of the sharp beam against my skin. A bead of sweat trickles from behind my ear down my neck, and my heart hammers in my chest.

Just get this shot off, Jessa.

Half the battle is in the mind. Mind over matter. Mind over pain. Mind over balance. With slow, deliberate motions, I adjust the position of my M14 rifle. The movement causes a wobble to the left. Fear shoots through my veins. A fall from this height would be fatal.

The low voices of the men grow louder, and I quickly push the fear out of my brain to focus. This isn’t my first rodeo. Closing one eye, I take aim on the leader, but a fight breaks out. Two of the men are shoving each other against boxes of paper.

Looking up, my eyes flicker across the metal network just below the ceiling. Mace is at the far side of the warehouse holding a UMP-45. The sound suppressor adds six inches to the tip of his submachine gun, making it just visible from my location. He’s watching me. Our eyes meet, and even at this distance, I know he’s worried. He can see I’m in trouble.

I can’t stay in this position much longer. I’ve got to get this shot off, take out as many of them by surprise as possible, and hope I can catch myself when I fall. The scope is at my eye, and my finger is gently squeezing the trigger. The Barracuda is in my sight…

TICK! TICK! TICK!

With the silencer on, the blasts of my gun sound more like an air rifle, but the effect is far bloodier.

“What the FUCK!” One of his capos dashes forward just as their leader falls.

Turning the gun, I continue firing as my body wobbles violently on the beam. Another goes down… another… it’s not enough. They’ve spotted me, and now the return fire has begun. Sparks fly around me as the bullets ricochet off the metal girders.

My gun falls from my hands as I lose my balance. “NO!” I scream involuntarily as my body slips off my perch.

Twisting my torso, I flail my arms around, stretching and reaching for the metal rod on which I was just lying. My fingernails scratch on the surface just as it slips out of my grasp…

White fills my vision. I’m going down. It all happens so fast, and just like every cliché I’ve ever heard, my life flashes before my eyes.

I remember being eighteen and seeing my grandmother killed in the crossfire of a drug war. I remember my tears and vowing to dedicate my life to hunting down the men responsible for her death.

I see myself at the academy, a young recruit. I see myself meeting my friend and tech guru Christine, and how she was just as green as me those first days. I remember confiding in her how I didn’t believe I could ever combine my passion for my work with falling in love, starting a family. I remember her arguing with me that we could. She could, I’d thought…

Then I remember the first moment I saw Mason “Mace” Moscaretti, standing in the rubble of a Colombian drug compound, looking like the sexiest G.I. Joe I’d ever seen. He changed everything.

Tears are in my eyes as I brace for the slam of concrete that will end my life. We never had time to make a baby…

* * *
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PRINCE
by Tia Louise
© TLM Productions, 2016

Zelda

“Let’s say you and me do some good old-fashioned f---ing, Zelda Benedict.”

I blink fast, away from his gaze. “I can’t,” I whisper, even though my insides are liquid, and my lips heavy with desire.

“Sure you can,” he whispers, leaning forward to cover my mouth with his.

Fingers thread into the sides of my hair, and his kiss is even more passionate than before. It’s hungry and demanding, and I’m losing the fight this time.

Cal doesn’t gently request, he invades, pillaging my senses. We lean back on the couch, and he’s above me, moving my mouth with his. I’m not stopping him. I’m desperate with desire. My hands are on his neck, and I’m kissing him back, hungrily keeping time with his movements.

He pulls away, and a little noise of disappointment comes from my throat. It makes him smile as he reaches down and lifts me off the couch.

“Don’t worry, sexy. I’m nowhere near finished with you tonight.”

“Cal…” My brain is fighting with me to get control, but he tosses me onto the bed, pulling his shirt off in one swift move.

My protests die when I see his bare body. He’s ripped and golden, beautiful, lean and muscular, and his light brown hair is tousled and tempting. My eyes trail down the lines of his stomach, getting tangled in the V at his hips, and all rational thought vanishes.

“Now you,” he says, climbing on his knees beside me on the bed.

He takes the hem of the shirt I’m wearing and lifts it over my head. My instinct is to cover my bare breasts, but he catches my arms.

“No way,” he grins, leaning us back on the bed. “Your tits are far too gorgeous for you to hide them.”

My face heats, and I start to laugh. “Stop it.”

He leans over me, then lowers gently until our bare bodies are stomach to stomach, skin against skin. We both exhale a groan.

“You feel so good,” he murmurs, moving his lips over my shoulders.

I can only whimper, “So do you.” I am so screwed right now...

* * *
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