Title: No Angels for Christmas
Author: Petie McCarty
Genre: Contemporary Romance with suspenseful elements
Book Blurb:
For Christmas, she wants her sweetheart back . . . Rachel Kelly isn't quite sure how to handle her newest therapy client—a six-year-old boy who says he talks to angels. And one is coming to help Rachel. She has her own troubles this Christmas season. Recently separated from her boyfriend, she still loves him but has no idea how to get them back together. Police Lt. Jake Dillon has his heart broken when his fiancée Rachel calls it quits, but when a stalker crashes Rachel's Christmas party and takes her young clients hostage, Jake is the first person Rachel calls. Time is running out, and Jake may be their only chance for rescue. Unless Rachel's new angel-spying client is telling the truth . . . No Angels for Christmas . . . a cozy romantic mystery with suspense from The Mystery Angel Romances series. An angel meddles in every story, waiting for you to figure out who . . . Series 1st Place--2019 Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewer's Choice Awards
Excerpt:
Late in the afternoon, Rachel stepped up to Jake’s apartment door and took a deep breath. Jerry Munson had been a good friend of Jake’s, and she knew Jake would be devastated over Jerry losing his hostages in Buckhead yesterday. Jake had a new partner too and may not want to confide in the guy.
Jake would need to talk to someone about the Buckhead crisis, and she intended to offer her shoulder to lean on. He may not want to see her, but she had to try. For one day, they could set aside their troubles, and she could just be the friend he needed.
She had gone by the station to check on him, when she finished her last session, and had been shocked when Alice told her he’d called in sick, almost as shocked as Alice had been to see Rachel show up in Jake’s office.
Now she second-guessed all her good intentions. What if Jake really was sick? Should she leave? Should she still offer her help?
She raised a finger to press his doorbell, and the front door jerked open. Startled, she jumped back.
“Are you gonna ring the damn bell or just stare at it all afternoon?” a grizzle-faced Jake asked.
His hair stuck out all over, and he had a two-day growth of beard that gave him a dangerous look, compounded by the black tee shirt and sweats he wore.
He bent down until they were nose to nose. “Well?”
“Oh. Um, y-yes, I was going to press the bell, but now the door’s open.”
He straightened, his expression grim. “First Wally and now you.”
“What?”
“Wally came by earlier to save me from my depression.” He stepped back and held the door wide. “I assume that’s why you’re here. You coming in?”
“Oh. Yes.”
Her heart thumped so hard she feared he could see the pulse in her neck vibrate with each beat. He looked so sexy all rumpled up like that, and her fingertips tingled—needing to touch him anywhere to complete the connection.
She stepped past him and reminded herself she was only here today as a friend and a counselor.
“You’d only come to my apartment if you thought I was sick or needed help, right?” Jake asked, reading her thoughts.
“Yes. I mean, no.” She turned quickly to face him and caught the flash of pain in his eyes. “I mean, I—”
Pain from the Buckhead crisis or pain from her?
“Which is it?” he asked flatly.
She should have known he wouldn’t make this easy.
“I went by the station first.”
That apparently surprised him. He recovered quickly. “I’m still waiting for the why.”
“You called in sick. I wanted to see if you needed—”
“Needed what, Rachel? You?”
He closed the door, and the room suddenly shrunk. And grew dark. All the blinds had been pulled, and the only light came from the nearby television.
“I thought maybe you’d need to talk about—”
She stopped. He had taken two steps closer, and she couldn’t think. She took a deep and very audible breath.
“You’ve never been at a loss for words before, Rachel.”
“We’ve never been broken up before,” she blurted.
His eyes widened noticeably, then darkened. At least she thought they did. Tough to tell by TV illumination.
“You’re right,” he said hoarsely. “How do you like it?”
“I don’t.”
“Me neither,” he growled.
Stay on track. Remember why you’re here.
“Jake, I came by to see you because of the Buckhead crisis.”
“I figured as much.”
She could’ve sworn he looked disappointed for a fleeting moment. That gave her the courage to go on. “To offer my shoulder—”
“To cry on?” he sneered.
“No! To lean on. Please don’t be ugly.”
“I can’t help it. You broke us up.”
Incredulous, she gaped at him. “Me! Must I keep reminding you? You left me.”
He closed the distance between them, so close she could feel his body heat.
“You let me leave,” he said gruffly.
“I didn’t—”
“You let me leave,” he repeated, his face but inches away.
His unique Jake scent wafted over her. She wanted to smother in it. She wanted . . .
“I didn’t want you to go,” she whispered.
He caught her to him in a fierce embrace. No gentle kiss this. It spoke of need and anger and desperation. His. Hers. She didn’t know for sure. Didn’t care. She wanted to cry from the relief of having his arms around her again.
She knuckled her fists into his warm tee shirt and tried to yank him closer, but the shirt was old and stretched unmercifully. His lips smiled against hers as he grabbed a breath and then kissed her again, his tongue sweeping in to tangle with hers.
She could die from his wonderful familiar taste. She savored, remembered, stored for later. Giving up on the shirt, she wound her arms around his neck to tug him closer, to pull him into her if she could.
Suddenly, his hands at her hips pressed her back, and she shamelessly hung on tighter. He reached up and worked her hands free, then kissed each one.
His eyes had gone black. No doubt a reflection of hers.
“Like coming home, isn’t it?” he rasped, his voice so hoarse it came out as a whisper.
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No Angels for Christmas is Book 2 in the Mystery Angel Romances series. These stand-alone love stories—cozy romantic mysteries with suspense—come with different characters, but each has a guardian angel hidden in the plot, and it's up to the reader to figure out who . . .
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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 an opinionated Nanday conure named Sassy who made a cameo appearance in No Angels for Christmas.
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