Malek and Gina are two vampires with big problems and pasts they can't let go of. Malek has never dealt with and accepted the death of his first mate, Carmen, and Gina has never been able to let go of the pain she suffered at the hands of her first mate, an abusive half-Dacian named Arman. But now that Malek and Gina have met, they had better start getting over their pasts, and fast, because Gina is Malek's new mate, and she's on the run from a pair of Dacian hunter-assassins out for blood vengeance.
Neither Gina nor Malek are eager to see her fill the role of mate, but biology and Mother Nature don't want to hear their excuses. The longer Malek and Gina fight the bond between them, the more they will suffer. Will they be able to get over their painful pasts and accept the healing they can give to each other before it's too late, or will they wait too long and lose each other forever?
I'm so happy to be back on Pimpin' Reads. Thank
you for having me. Let's get right to it and start with an excerpt from Return
of the Assassin, book five in my All the King's Men Series:
Thank you Donya for sending us this Excerpt
Malek choked back his emotion.
Somewhere between Micah's office and the thick
concrete column he held Gina against, Malek's reserve had broken. Just that
quickly, Gina had skinned him, cleaned him, and thrown him on the grill, making
short work of all that remained of his denial that she was his mate.
In a blink, she had disarmed him. Only a mate
held such power over a male.
Had it been Gina's ruthless verbal assault all
the way down the stairs that had finally broken through his walls? Or the
mention of her former mate and what he had done to her, which sparked Malek's
need to protect her? Had it been her confession that she had heard his
proclamation in her cell weeks ago? Or was it the simple truth that she was, in
fact, his mate? And, as such, she had tremendous power over him?
How about all of the above?
What torment had she suffered at the hands of
that half-Dacian bastard she had been mated to before? What had he done to her?
And how had she survived? He pulled back, and his gaze ranged her face. Such
beauty, such fire. She stole his breath, and he swayed from her heady scent. He
would treat her like a queen. His queen. And he would revere and bow to her
command every day, tend to her needs, care for her, and protect her with his
life if he had to.
What was happening to him? He couldn’t move,
couldn’t breathe. In her bewitching way, Gina drew him in. She was a blossom,
and he was the honeybee eager for her nectar.
But what he had said that day in her cell was
still true. He wasn't worthy of her. She deserved more than he could give. As
much as he wanted to be her everything, he knew he couldn't.
His resolve waned. He could no longer deny how
much he wanted Gina, but he still couldn't have her. It would be unfair to
claim her as his when he still clung to a ghost. Carmen still held him in the
past. Carmen still possessed half his heart, which meant he couldn't give all
of himself to Gina. And she deserved all of him, not merely a part.
Sacrifice replaced anger. Compassion replaced
aggression. Gina had already suffered enough pain at the hands of another, and
all Malek could offer her was more of the same. With his heart in two places,
he could never give her all of him and would always pull her to him then push
her away, just as he had done from the moment he saw her in Micah's office. She
would be a Ping-Pong ball. Back and forth, back and forth. He would constantly
fight himself to reconcile the two halves of his heart into one, and that
wasn't fair to her. To try and make a life with her under such circumstances—to
cheat her out of a full life with someone else who could give her his whole
heart and not just half—would be selfish. Not only that, it was degrading and
disrespectful to her.
What was happening between them could never be.
He simply couldn’t let her into his heart. Not because he no longer wanted to.
Because, damn him, he did. But how do you let someone into your heart when half
of it still lies with another?
In a blink, the reality slammed him with a pain
more brutal than what he'd suffered so far, because this pain came with clarity
of mind, body, and soul. He would always cause Gina pain. It was inevitable.
Even if he claimed her as his mate, he would always hurt her. Why? Because a
part of him—the part still attached to Carmen—would always drive Gina away.
Frowning, he looked down and stepped back. “I
can’t do this. I’m sorry, but this can’t happen, Gina. No matter how much I
don’t want to, I will always hurt you.” He turned, lowered his head, and walked
away, a man defeated by himself.
In Return of the Assassin, I've written a story
about two characters, Malek and Gina, who are carrying heavy emotional baggage
that prevents them from opening up to the love between them. For them, the
challenge is in letting go of the past so they can embrace the present and
future, which is easier said than done, because they're also running out of
time. Malek will eventually die if he doesn't accept Gina, and Gina has two
vicious vampire hunters out for her blood. Add to that one spurned female, and we've
got a fireworks show of dangerous possibilities. And if initial reader response
is any indication, I predict readers will need a box of Kleenex to read this
one. I have yet to talk to one reader who didn't cry while reading this story.
But don't worry, everyone gets what they deserve. Return of the Assassin is a
romance, after all.
Before I go, let's have a round of Get
to Know All the King's Men, which I'm conducting on several stops
along my tour, where I ask a randomly selected character from the series a
question. Today I'm going to pick on Trace. Everybody loves Trace, and since
his book comes next, let's see what he has to say, if anything.
Donya: "Trace, if you could travel back in
time, which period of history would you choose and why?"
Trace switches the match stick between his lips
to the other side of his mouth and shifts his pale green eyes uncomfortably.
With his darker skin, bald head, and unusual eyes, Trace is really magnificent
to look at. He uncrosses his sculpted arms and plucks the match stick from his
mouth. "I'd go back to when my mother died and save her." He bites
the end of the match stick again, closes his lips around it as if he's chewing,
and then gets up and walks away. That's my Trace, a man of few words and always
a mystery.
Buy Links
Two Grand Prizes will
be given away at the end of the tour, drawing to be held on Christmas Day
(Merry Christmas!).
The first name drawn will have their choice of the
following two prizes, and the second name drawn will receive the other. The two
prizes are valued at $210 each and include:
Grand Prize #1:
Coach bag and a $50 Amazon gift card *image of coach purse is as close to the giveaway as possible. Donya had it wrapped at the store.
Grand Prize #2:
The newest version of the Kindle Paper White, leather cover (winner's choice of
color), and an AKM blanket
There was a lot of hoopla surrounding the series and the NEW television production by the STARZ network. This is when I decided to open the book and read it for myself.
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