Title: HONORABLE ROGUE
Author: LINDA J. PARISI
Genre: VAMPIRE ROMANCE
Book Blurb:
As a Roman gladiator and slave, vampire Hunter Pierce only knew death and destruction. Dr. Victoria Roberts only knew love and safety, until the day her life was shattered by a home invasion that destroyed her world. With Blood Rogues continuing to menace both human and vampire alike. Tori is in danger and it’s all Hunter’s fault. To keep watch over the clever scientist, the vampire enlists her to aid in finding a cure for Nirvana, the dangerous poison creating rogue vampires. When Tori is kidnapped, Hunter faces his corrupt former master and a race against the clock to save his own life. But can a vampire who has only watched out for himself risk his life, and his immortality, for the love of a human? Can a woman who has lost everything rebuild her shattered heart with a man who thinks he hasn’t got one? Only love, trust, and an HONORABLE ROGUE can save them all.
Excerpt:
Hunter watched her work through half-closed eyes. The house seemed spotless to him, but she wiped and scoured and dusted until the place sparkled. Humans called it obsessive-compulsive behavior, but Hunter called it coping.
Pain. He understood his own but had never really considered another’s before, or that there could be such varying degrees from so many different causes. Did different causes make one type of pain less than another? No, he decided, simply different and no less hard to bear.
A load of laundry went into the washer, then she went into her bedroom. He listened to the shower run. He rose, knowing what was going to happen. In Tori, he found a kindred spirit. They both knew loss. They even shared a common pain, the loss of a loved one, though she didn’t know that yet. He knew of only one way to ease such incredible pain.
He opened the bathroom door quietly, watching steam surround her body. His heart stopped. Just that fraction-of-a-second missed beat, that jolt of awareness. All too familiar but in a different context. Always with the need, with the blood. Never with a woman, until now.
So brave to continue, to go on despite the devastation. He tried to imagine. Was it better to be so far away and not know the actual events, or was it better to have the horror happen before your very eyes? Hunter decided the best thing for both of them was to block out the pain by seeking succor. He opened the shower door and stepped inside. Droplets of hot water snaked down his skin. Every cell the fluid touched woke up, took notice, and drank in the water as he did the blood.
“Do you know how beautiful you are?”
Hunter hated painted faces. He hated the smell of makeup, cloying and stifling. Both sight and smell reminded him of the rich wives who’d paid his master for his services. Women with their fawning fingers and men with their furtive glances, they’d owned him, therefore what had been wrong had become right. But with her hair slicked back, Tori looked fresh, alive, and real. She looked right. And she smelled clean, of citrus and herbs.
Her gaze met his, searching. Her eyes were so soft, so round, they seemed infinite, yet they were filled with disbelief. Tori was intelligent enough to understand the consequences of his actions. They both knew she should push open the door and demand he step back out to drip onto the rug and shiver as the water turned cold on his skin. But all she did was acknowledge the danger. “You shouldn’t be in here.”
Even as she said the words she was working at the buttons on his shirt. He helped undo his trousers, letting them fall. She splayed her fingers across his chest, exploring, learning every muscle. He shucked his shirt and stood naked before her.
“I’ve done many things in my existence I shouldn’t have done,” he replied, deciding they were both wrong. He pulled her into his embrace. “This isn’t one of them.”
She stared up at him with the innocence of a doe and the strength of a lioness. He turned off the water and sluiced the droplets from their bodies with his hands. She lifted onto her toes to kiss him. He held back. She cocked her head, fingers caressing his cheeks, thumbs grazing his lips. By sheer will, she pulled his head closer and closer until their tongues began to mate. Each time she grazed one of his incisors, he jumped, a shiver of pleasure racing through him.
Leaning back, she broke the kiss. “That is so fascinating.”
“Mood killer,” he groused.
She laughed softly. “Never,” she whispered as she brought his head back down again. She kissed the hell out of him, and Hunter realized he didn’t want it to end.
Uh-oh.
Oh, he’d been the recipient of talented tongues. But never worshiped. No one had taken the time, not the painted patrons, the whores, not even the one-night stands. Yet each time she nibbled, each time she teased, each time her tongue snaked out to tantalize, he knew. She was taking the time to learn. No one had ever cared what he wanted or what he felt.
Not even the blood. Until now.
The revelation rocked him right down to his toes. She cared.
Hunter’s teeth clicked shut, and his breath hissed inward between them. He pulled her head away, lifted her to her feet, slid open the shower door, dried them both off with a quick swipe of a towel, and pulled her into the bedroom.
He could hear her heart racing—indeed, his was too. Her blood called to him, but this moment was about lovemaking. He pushed the urge deep down where it couldn’t get out and held on to her.
Hunter sank into sensation. Her warmth enveloped him. She growled. A roar built in the back of his throat.
Together they were lightning. Together they were thunder. Together they outshone even the gods and made a mockery of them. Together they came.
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Author Biography:
As a major in biochemistry with a minor in English literature, Linda has always tried to mesh her love of science with her love of the written word. Once a clinical research scientist, now a NJRW Golden Leaf, N.N. Light’s Book Heaven 2021 Paranormal Romance award, and the 2022 HOLT Medallion winner for Speculative Fiction, she creates unforgettable characters and puts them in untenable situations, much to their dismay. Choices always matter and love conquers all, so a happy-ever-after is a must. Linda is the current President of Liberty States Fiction Writers. She has served on the boards of other writing organizations, and loves to teach the craft of writing at workshops and conferences. She lives in New Jersey with her son Chris, daughter-in-law Sara, and Audi and Archer, a pair of pooches who had her at woof!
Social Media Links: @lindajparisi | Linktree