Title: Captured Hearts
Author: Anna Hague
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Book Blurb:
In his secret world, Jamey Marcum had to make difficult choices. Choices that often changed others’ lives. Now he’s made a decision to change one more life. Allee Jones.
Allee Jones is the perfect target. No family. No friends. No one will miss her if she never shows up to her job again. Because of her anxieties, she is a social pariah.
When Jamey abducts Allee, he never imagined she would be the one to slip into his sealed heart, but emotions could get both of them killed. Still, he delivers her to a ruthless woman who enslaves Allee to the whims of deviants and predators in a hidden Pacific Northwest location housing dozens of abducted women.
In the midst of the nightmare she faces, Allee must decide to trust her abductor or face certain death. She can't explain the odd connection she's made to the man who grabbed her off the street.
Together they must fight each other’s demons to face their undeniable desire, exposing even more of Allee's secret afflictions.
And neither are prepared for the challenges that reach far beyond what transpired between them.
Terror, guilt, forgiveness, and love all collide on a path to an uncertain future.
Excerpt:
To control her flailing, Jamey wrapped his arms around her body.
She reared at him with the back of her head, striking him in the eye. He moaned from the stabbing pain, but he shifted his grasp to hold each of her wrists, keeping her in a tighter grip.
She struggled, fighting him with all of her strength. “Let go of me, let go of me!”
Jamey’s grasp was too strong for her to break free.
She kicked, connecting once with Jamey’s shin. He let out a yelp of pain, and then maneuvered his own leg in front of hers, blocking any more attempts at kicking.
Eventually, she stopped the struggle, too exhausted physically to continue.
Feeling her weakening, he loosened his grip—just rubbing her arms, as she no longer fought him.
Allee took several deep, but ragged breaths. After the third breath she whispered, “Can I go for a walk…alone?”
Jamey stopped massaging her arms, but he put his hands on her shoulders. “Will you take Spencer with you?”
She didn’t answer, but nodded.
Spencer witnessed the whole event, at first barking his displeasure at their combative state. But when the screaming stopped, he tentatively wagged his tail.
Jamey released her.
Allee walked down the path that led to the lake. Spencer followed close on her heels.
Jamey closed his eyes, realizing he was trembling too. He now had a better understanding of what their lives would be. Mark had been right to question if he knew what he was up against, but Jamey wouldn’t abandon her, especially now when he saw how she couldn’t control her emotions and how much pain she was in.
She disappeared from his view, so Jamey walked slowly into the house, now feeling the throbbing pain of her kick more than ever. Touching his eye, he knew tomorrow he would wake up to a black-and-blue one. He closed the heavy oak door, and then leaned back against it. The weight of their clash pushed him down until he sat on the floor.
He rested his head on his knees motionless for several minutes until his own tears began slowly trickling down his cheek. He didn’t know if he was crying for himself or for her. The exhausting days of work coupled with the lack of sleep and now Allee’s meltdown had culminated in his own mini meltdown. What was he thinking? Mr. I Can Fix Anything had no idea how to soothe her problems. Being shot, stabbed, and other life-and-death situations meant nothing. None of his training helped now, because he shattered his number one rule—don’t get emotionally involved.
All those years, nothing was never personal. But now, Allee was very personal.
An hour later she returned.
Jamey was at the kitchen counter peeling potatoes for dinner.
“Can I help you?” Allee’s voice shook with emotion.
Her eyes were red. Her normally perfectly brushed hair was a mess. Jamey even saw a few bits of dried leaves and pine needles tucked in a few strands. She must have been lying on the ground somewhere.
“Sure. Why don’t you slice up these tomatoes and cucumbers?” Jamey handed her a knife and went back to the potatoes. They wordlessly worked together until he noticed a tear creeping down the side of her face. He stopped what he was doing and quietly said, “Allee, not for a minute did I ever think this would be easy for you or me. Our relationship will be difficult at best, but we’ll get through it. We can do this.”
“I’m sorry. I try to stop my reactions, and I can’t. My anger just won’t stay inside. I don’t want to do that to you.”
Jamey went to her wrapping his arms about her slight body this time for comfort and not control.
She turned into his arms—the tears flowed freely. Jamey caressed her hair, picking the leaves from the blonde strands as she silently cried into his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” he whispered. He wanted her to release her pain to him so he could absorb all of the horror he caused. Her body pulsed tense and tight. After a while, he felt her start to relax, but he wasn’t naïve enough to believe that was the end.
“I’m strong enough to take it.” He continued to find bits of the outdoors in her hair. “Although, I have a really nice bruise on my shin now and probably will have a black eye in the morning,” he added to lighten the mood.
She looked up at him.
He smiled. “You are not as weak as I thought.”
Now he knew what could happen, but she needed him he convinced himself. Who was he fooling? He wanted her.
She pulled away from his embrace, and they both went back to cutting and slicing. “I take it you don’t really cook, do you?” Jamey asked.
“Does microwaving a frozen dinner count?”
“Not around here.”
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Author Biography:
Anna Hague spends part of her days in the writing cave creating her own spin on love stories. The other part of her days, she is a free-lance sports reporter crafting stories about a variety of athletic events including high school, college, and professional level sports.
She’s had the fiction bug her whole life, but in 2015 decided, “It’s now or never.” In November of 2016, her contemporary novel Captured Hearts debuted.
Anna reads all sorts of love stories, and she writes the same way. She recently published an erotic romance series with Wild Rose Press and has published the contemporary romance Heart Series and opened up the paranormal Storm Canyon Series with the first book Thunderstruck.
Her motto: Creating different paths to love because different is the only way I know.
She is a member of the RWA and the Indiana RWA. Anna lives in Central Indiana with her husband, three parrots, and two dogs.
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