It’s Monday and we thought it might be nice to start the day with a sexy excerpt!
I am so excited to share Kir and Cassie’s story! I knew the second I wrote Cassie into book one—HIS TO DEFEND—that she and Kir were meant to be together. (Even if both of them were too stubborn to go with the flow their first time around.) In this excerpt, they’ve both finally overcome the bulk of the fears that have kept them apart for months. And that opening? The risk Cassie’s finally willing to take in taking things back to a personal level? Well, that’s all Kir needs to claim his woman! I hope you enjoy and pick up your copy of HERS TO TAME today!
Still watching him from the far side of her tiny living room, Cassie dove right in. “You were right. About your family, I mean. They’re not at all what I expected them to be.”
Kir rounded the kitchen counter, but did so slowly to give her time to say what she needed to say.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “Sergei’s a pretty scary-looking guy when he’s not smiling, but tonight went much different than I thought it would.”
“I’m glad you see them as I do.”
“I do. I get it now.” She stepped a little closer and laid her purse on the coffee table, the gesture tentative. “But you still can’t tell me that Sergei and those of you who work for him play by the rules.”
There it was. The truth of the matter laid bare, yet with care and deliberation. Which was fine by him. “We play by the rules—our own.”
“Kir, your rules don’t count were the law is concerned.”
He inched closer, more aware than he’d ever been in his life of the importance in how he traversed the next few moments. “You report on reality every day. How often does the law get it right?”
Her gaze shifted to the side and grew distant, that agile mind of hers clearly evaluating the question he’d posed. Given the frown that deepened with each subsequent second, he’d struck a powerful point.
Kir closed what was left of the distance between them and cupped the sides of her arms. Beneath his palms, her skin was pebbled with goose bumps. He smoothed his hands between her elbow and shoulders and lowered his voice. “My family helps those who need help. Yes, we also further our business interests whenever and wherever we can, but we do not do it on the backs of those who want no part in our work. We do not hurt innocents or force people to our will—not unless their actions threaten those under our protection.”
“And what happens to the people who threaten those under your protection?” The way she whispered her question it seemed as though she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted the answer.
“It depends on the transgression.”
“Your own brand of justice. Judge, jury and executioner.”
He anchored his hands at her shoulders, held her stare and gave her the truth. “You met Sergei tonight. You met his wife. The child he’s accepted as his own. The kind of people he surrounds himself with. I followed him to this country because of who he is. Because of his vision—not just for personal success, but for bringing back old traditions that once served communities in a positive way.
“Yes, we are bratva. Mafiya, if you want to call it that. But, in the right hands, who’s to say that our brand of justice is wrong?”
She held her silence and studied him. A bit of shock at his boldness definitely painted her expression, but there was consideration, too. A woman reevaluating decisions made and future possibilities.
He slid his hands inward, teasing the line of her collarbone with his thumbs. She had amazing skin. So soft. Like the softest powder and silk combined. Never had he enjoyed touching a woman so much as when he’d lain with her. The feel of her beneath his hands and her uninhibited response.
“I understand your fear,” he said. “All you’ve known are the movies you’ve seen and reports in the news. But my family is not like any other.” A few more inches inward and his thumb grazed the fluttering pulse at her throat. His was just as ragged. Unsteady and quivering at the mere thought of the words still poised on his tongue.
He forged ahead anyway. Honored the instinct pushing him to take and claim what was his. What something in him had always recognized on the most primal level. “You are a part of it now.”
She trembled, and her breath hitched, eyes widening like that of a startled doe even though hunger and need burned behind them. “That’s the part we need to talk about. We were just supposed to be partners. I was going to help you and look for stories along the way.”
“I changed my mind. You will not help me on this matter any longer. We will not be partners.” He couldn’t help himself anymore. Didn’t want to. Had kept himself in check and lied to himself and her long enough. He slid one hand upward and cupped the back of her head, the other coasting down her spine and pulling her flush against him. “You will be mine.”
He kissed her. Swallowed her startled gasp and reveled in her taste. In the sweet give of her lips beneath his as she slowly surrendered, and the soft press of her body.
This was why her denial had cut so deeply. No matter how his mind had spun it to cushion his ego after the fact, their connection was electric. Powerful as only something this natural could be. There was no awkwardness. No feigned response or tepid reactions, but an intrinsic connectedness that both rattled and awakened him.
He fisted his hand in her hair, the barbarous need to feel her bare skin against his and her arms and legs coiled around him as he took her more incentivizing than a gun pressed against the back of his head.
But he couldn’t go there with her. Not yet. Not until he knew she was with him. That she understood what she was stepping into and who and what he really was.
[Kir] broke the kiss and rested his forehead on hers, praying for control. For the right words and actions.
“Kir.” His name on her lips was a plea, her breath just as ragged as his own. She pulled her head away from his and met his gaze. “We need to talk about this. What you’re suggesting…it’s too fast. We barely even know—”
“Did you feel that?” His lips hovered close to hers. “How it felt to have your mouth against mine? How your body’s still shaking from a simple kiss?”
She licked her lower lip, a hesitant yet deliciously tempting act that stoked his barely contained control. If the subtle move hadn’t given away her thoughts, the wide dilation of her pupils and how heavily her eyelids hung would have answered for her.
“I know that I have never felt that response with any other woman,” he said, rather than give her what they both wanted. “I know that we see eye to eye on many issues, and that you are as driven as I am to succeed at whatever you do. I know that we both have pasts that fuel our desire to prove ourselves. That I find your mind as intoxicating as your body, and that I could listen to you talk about anything for hours. Time will fill in the details for me, but right now, you are clarity enough.”
A shaky breath whispered past her parted lips. “You can’t mean that.”
“I never say anything I don’t mean.” He pulled back enough to make sure she saw every bit of his expression. The truth of his words echoed behind his eyes. “I made a mistake letting you walk away from me the first time. I will not make that mistake again and I will not stop until you agree. You and I will be. The only unknown is how long it will take for you to accept and surrender to what is inevitable.”
About the Book
Title: Hers to Tame, NOLA Knights, #2, by Rhenna Morgan
Book Description: Book two of NOLA Knights, the heart-stoppingly sexy spin-off series by Men of Haven author Rhenna Morgan
As an avtoritet for the most powerful crime syndicate in New Orleans, Kir Vasilek doesn’t act without purpose, doesn’t speak without thought and never, ever loses his cool. The lives of his brothers, his family, depend on it. But then Cassie McClintock strolls back into his life, and staying cool is next to impossible. Cassie was the one who got away—and Kir is willing to break all his own rules to keep it from happening ever again.
It’s one thing to report on the Russian mafia; it’s quite another to sleep with one of them, especially one as dangerous, and as sinfully sexy, as Kir Vasilek. Even though the information he once provided helped make her career—and the memory of his touch still keeps her up at night—Cassie knows too much about his world to go down that path.
But when Kir reaches out for help after a rival family comes for one of his own, Cassie doesn’t want to say no, either to investigating a gruesome murder or to the heat that pulls her right back into his arms…and his heart. Taming Kir—and helping to save the family she’s come to call her own—is not the story she thought she’d write, but it’s the one she’s determined will get a happy ending.
Hers to Tame is the highly anticipated follow-up to His to Defend. And don’t miss Roman’s story in Mine to Keep, coming soon from Rhenna Morgan and Carina Press.
About the Author
A native Oklahoman, Rhenna Morgan is a certified romance junkie. Whether it’s contemporary, paranormal, or fantasy you’re after, Rhenna’s stories pack romantic escape full of new, exciting worlds, and strong, intuitive men who fight to keep the women they want. For advance release news and exclusive content, sign up for her newsletter at http://RhennaMorgan.com. You’ll also find all of her social links there, along with her smoking hot inspiration boards.
Social Media Links
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Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8596977.Rhenna_Morgan
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