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Refuge in his Arms
Even in her sleep, Mackenzie Kilpatrick remembers this is a dream she has dreamed before. She snugs her forehead against Sid’s neck and inhales his familiar scent. His strong arms clasp tightly around her, pressing his heartbeat through the thin cotton t-shirt. She strokes the back of his neck as her face nestles in the curve of his shoulder.
The dream shifts and changes. Sid’s husky voice comes from a distance. “Get out of L.A., Mac. Get out now.”
“Sid?” She strains with her dream-shout. “Sid!”
He stands in front of her, his close-cropped hair caught under his camo hat, his tanned forearms framed against his dusty uniform. Behind him, bare gray mountains rise high along the horizon. The armored Hummer sits several yards away bristling with weapons and antennae. Other troops duck as gunfire explodes around them. Sid stands there unflinching like he always does, staring at her from the shadow of his hat brim.
She knows he is dead.
Then she’s awake, gasping, tears on her face, her throat tight in the contortion of dream screaming. She throws back the covers and sits up in the dark room. The dream has never been like this. She draws a shaky breath. The digital clock readout says 5:40 a.m.
An hour later, Mackenzie’s parents call from Oklahoma warning her that overnight, the sun has ejected a massive solar flare that’s hitting Earth. Her phone stops working mid-call. The television sputters and goes to static. With Sid’s dream warning and her parents’ plea for her to come home, she throws things into her car, loads up her dog Captain, and starts out of the drive.
She’s halfway out of the garage when the ground shifts. Walls tumble, cracks open in the street, and she barely makes it to the other side of the freeway when a traffic jam from hell stops her. She sees a way out—if she can maneuver down the sidewalk. Then she’s stuck. And there’s this guy waving his arms, shouting.
This guy…David Evans…not a man she would ever want to know. But there he is in all his devastating, overpowering presence leaning in her passenger side window telling her what to do and here she is stuck between a fence and a light pole, and well, it could actually be the end of the world.
The dream shifts and changes. Sid’s husky voice comes from a distance. “Get out of L.A., Mac. Get out now.”
“Sid?” She strains with her dream-shout. “Sid!”
He stands in front of her, his close-cropped hair caught under his camo hat, his tanned forearms framed against his dusty uniform. Behind him, bare gray mountains rise high along the horizon. The armored Hummer sits several yards away bristling with weapons and antennae. Other troops duck as gunfire explodes around them. Sid stands there unflinching like he always does, staring at her from the shadow of his hat brim.
She knows he is dead.
Then she’s awake, gasping, tears on her face, her throat tight in the contortion of dream screaming. She throws back the covers and sits up in the dark room. The dream has never been like this. She draws a shaky breath. The digital clock readout says 5:40 a.m.
An hour later, Mackenzie’s parents call from Oklahoma warning her that overnight, the sun has ejected a massive solar flare that’s hitting Earth. Her phone stops working mid-call. The television sputters and goes to static. With Sid’s dream warning and her parents’ plea for her to come home, she throws things into her car, loads up her dog Captain, and starts out of the drive.
She’s halfway out of the garage when the ground shifts. Walls tumble, cracks open in the street, and she barely makes it to the other side of the freeway when a traffic jam from hell stops her. She sees a way out—if she can maneuver down the sidewalk. Then she’s stuck. And there’s this guy waving his arms, shouting.
This guy…David Evans…not a man she would ever want to know. But there he is in all his devastating, overpowering presence leaning in her passenger side window telling her what to do and here she is stuck between a fence and a light pole, and well, it could actually be the end of the world.
267 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2017
1 person want to read
About the author
Lizzie Ashworth
39 books123 followersUntil recently, sex scenes in most books erupted behind closed doors. Why? Why was (and still is in some venues) it acceptable to describe the details of violence, hate, fear, anger, and greed, but not the details of touch, desire, and love? I feel fortunate indeed that now sex scenes keep the bedroom door open, show readers the tingle of flesh, and follow through to the heavy breathing, sweaty finish. It's about damn time.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 29, 2017
This book solidly combines one of my favorite topics of all time - disaster porn and romance. Take the romance out of it and this book was a solid disaster adventure, fraught with tense moments and thankfully not too much all humans are awful moments - add back in the romance and it complemented the story quite nicely, imbuing it with just the right amount of emotional turmoil and enough sexual chemistry to make it sizzle.
By the end, I was yearning for more - Author, give us more Mac & David!
By the end, I was yearning for more - Author, give us more Mac & David!
August 23, 2018
The story starts when Mac wakes up to find the world coming to an end. A warning from her dead husband in a dream and a call from her parents, gets her into her car with the intention of getting far away from LA, hoping to get to her parents in Oklahoma.
Except that all electronic machines, including cars, stop working! She' stuck with a devastatingly handsome stranger with a devil-may-care attitude who is the opposite of the husband she lost. However, their attraction to each other cannot be denied. As they try to navigate the new undesirable place their world has become, and find somewhere they belong, survival instincts take over.
The author does well in getting reader into her characters' heads to understand where they are coming from and what motivates them; their inner struggles make then empathetic as they grow over the course of the story.
I won't lie. I'm not a huge fan of dystopian tropes, and I got a little tired of the one disaster after another, but it was also what made it easy to understand how Mac and David (and everybody else must have felt). David and Mac had great chemistry even when they were denying it. Their eventual submission to their desires was more than satisfactory!
I'd have liked to know what happened to Mac's parents. I'll leave it at this since saying more would mean dropping spoilers.
If you enjoy end-of-the-world storylines, likable character's with great chemistry, and hot sex scenes, then this one's right up your alley
Except that all electronic machines, including cars, stop working! She' stuck with a devastatingly handsome stranger with a devil-may-care attitude who is the opposite of the husband she lost. However, their attraction to each other cannot be denied. As they try to navigate the new undesirable place their world has become, and find somewhere they belong, survival instincts take over.
The author does well in getting reader into her characters' heads to understand where they are coming from and what motivates them; their inner struggles make then empathetic as they grow over the course of the story.
I won't lie. I'm not a huge fan of dystopian tropes, and I got a little tired of the one disaster after another, but it was also what made it easy to understand how Mac and David (and everybody else must have felt). David and Mac had great chemistry even when they were denying it. Their eventual submission to their desires was more than satisfactory!
I'd have liked to know what happened to Mac's parents. I'll leave it at this since saying more would mean dropping spoilers.
If you enjoy end-of-the-world storylines, likable character's with great chemistry, and hot sex scenes, then this one's right up your alley
December 27, 2017
I'm a sucker for any dystopian future type story (even if it's very near future), so this book was going to be a hit with me, no two ways about it. Lizzie Ashworth creates complicated characters in a short amount of time that come together (somewhat against both their wills) in a crisis to survive. Even without the romance this would be a great book, so all that is really just an added bonus!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews