Title: No Angels for Christmas
Author: Petie McCarty
Genre: Contemporary Romance with Suspenseful Elements
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Book Blurb:
No Angels for Christmas . . . a cozy romantic mystery with suspense from The Mystery Angel Romances series. An angel hidden in every book waiting for you to figure who . . .
Child psychologist Rachel Kelly isn't quite sure how to handle the situation with her newest client -- a six-year-old boy who says he can talk to angels and one is coming to help Rachel. She already has her hands full of trouble this Christmas season, and things quickly take a turn for the worse when a stalker crashes Rachel's Christmas party and takes her young clients hostage.
Police negotiator, Lt. Jake Dillon, walked away from his fiancée Rachel when she suddenly balked at having kids. His kids. Yet when the hostage crisis erupts, Rachel calls Jake first. Now he has a choice to make -- stand back and wait for the cavalry to save Rachel or step in and try to save her himself. Time is running out, and Jake may be their only chance for rescue.
Unless Rachel's little angel-spying client is telling the truth…
Book 3 of the Mystery Angel Romances—The Angel and the SEAL—will be released on June 5, 2019
Excerpt:
Jake stood at the exit, plastic bag in hand and staring at her with nary a smile.
Dark circles loomed beneath his eyes. Hadn’t he been sleeping? His hair looked tousled like he’d just run his fingers through it, and his clothes had a mussed appearance.
He looked spectacular to Rachel.
His eyebrows rose. He was waiting for her.
She pushed her cart slowly forward, taking deep breaths to keep her heart from pounding so loud Jake could hear it.
“Since this isn’t our Publix, I’m assuming you stopped on your way home from work,” Jake said when she reached his side.
Our Publix? Did he even realize he’d said that?
“You’re right,” she replied. “So why are you here?”
“My apartment’s just around the corner.”
Ouch.
That simple statement shouldn’t hurt—she knew his apartment was near here—but it did. She nodded.
“I’ll help you out.” He gently nudged her hands off the cart handle and took over, setting his own bag on top of her stack.
Rachel paced alongside the grocery cart as they moved through the electronic door and knew a moment of joy that her parking spot lay at the far end of the lot. She would have a few extra moments to be with him. How pitiful was that? She eased a step closer, anxious to inhale his unique scent of soap, aftershave, and pure Jake.
He glanced over and caught her staring. Heat rushed to her cheeks, and she hoped he didn’t notice the flush.
“Jake, look out!” She grabbed the cart to stop it just short of a car backing out.
He gave her his sexy crooked Jake-smile. “Guess I should keep my eyes on the road.”
Her heart ka-thumped inside her chest. “At least until we get to the car.”
His smile went to an all-out grin.
Had she just flirted with him? Had it been that easy to get past her trauma for a few brief minutes?
Far sooner than she would have liked, he stopped the grocery cart next to her Honda and helped stow her bags in the trunk, leaving his in the cart.
“Thanks for helping me,” Rachel told him.
“I’m glad you decided to stop at this Publix tonight.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. I’m glad I got to see you.” Jake grazed a knuckle gently across her cheek leaving a streak of tingly nerve endings in its wake.
“But I thought you wanted . . . I mean, I haven’t heard from you . . .” She cleared her throat. “. . . in a long time. I thought you might’ve . . .”
Why couldn’t she finish a sentence tonight? Bad enough she felt pathetic, now she sounded pathetic.
“You thought I might’ve what?”
She swallowed hard. “Might’ve found someone else by now.”
He studied her for a long moment. “After all we meant to each other, you thought I’d go right out and grab a new girlfriend, just like that?” His mouth tightened to a thin line.
She hadn’t meant to rile him. The last thing she wanted to do was fight with him. Without thinking, she reached up and brushed two fingers gently across his lips, wanting that sensuous mouth to smile at her again.
She startled him, and he jerked at her touch. She whisked her fingers away. “Sorry. I don’t want you to be mad.”
His gaze trapped hers, his pupils expanding until little of the brilliant green remained. “There’s no new girlfriend, Rachel,” he said gruffly.
“No?”
He slowly shook his head, his all-dark eyes tracking hers. He seemed closer than he’d been a minute earlier.
She exhaled hard. “Not yet anyway.”
He frowned.
Why had she said that?
“No, not yet,” he said flatly.
“I’m glad,” she said quickly.
Screw pride.
“Are you?”
He was definitely closer now. If she eased forward just a few inches, she could press her lips to his, feel that certain sizzle that always flared when they touched. But Jake had walked out on her. His move. Though she ached with the need to hold him, if only for a second.
“Yes. Very glad. I don’t want you to find someone else—”
His lips brushed hers into silence—sweeping gently across as though seeking permission—the touch just light enough to make her lean in for more. He didn’t miss the movement and kissed her again, his lips settling on hers and nibbling at her lower lip.
The sensuous teasing had her knees growing weak, and she grabbed the placket of his dress shirt to steady herself.
He didn’t miss that movement either, and he cradled her cheeks in his big palms to deepen the kiss.
Suddenly lightheaded with desire, she twisted her knuckles into his shirt to keep him close. She didn’t care if they were kissing in front of God and everybody. If Jake wanted to throw her down here in the middle of the Publix parking lot, she was ready. She could always shop at Winn-Dixie.
Buy Links:
Free to read on Kindle Unlimited!
Giveaway:
I’m one of the authors participating in the Spring Into Freebies Giveaway and you can win an e-copy of No Cowboys No Angels (Mystery Angel Romances #1).
Runs April 1 - 30 and is open internationally.
Winner will be drawn May 1, 2019.
Author Biography:
Petie spent a large part of her career working at Walt Disney World—"The Most Magical Place on Earth"—where she enjoyed working in the land of fairy tales by day and creating her own romantic fairy tales by night, including her new series, The Cinderella Romances. She eventually said good-bye to her "day" job to write her stories full-time. These days Petie spends her time writing sequels to her regency time-travel series, Lords in Time, and her cozy-mystery-with-romantic-suspense series, the Mystery Angel Romances.
Petie shares her home on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with her horticulturist husband and a noisy Nanday conure named Sassy who made a cameo appearance in No Angels for Christmas.
Visit Petie's web site online at http://www.petiemccarty.com or her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/petie.mccarty.
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