Title: Primal Obsession
Author: Susan Vaughan
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Thriller
Book Blurb:
After hitting rock-bottom, former Major-Leaguer Sam Kincaid returned home to guide canoe expeditions in the Maine wilderness. He needs to make this gig a success. He can't let himself be distracted by an ambitious, obsessed female, even if she's sexy, witty and smart.
Annie Wylde, an investigative journalist, embarks on the canoe trip to keep a promise to her friend, murdered by a notorious killer called the Hunter. She struggles with nature’s challenges and fights her attraction to Sam, considering him just another egotistical jock.
When the trip turns deadly, they realize the Hunter has followed Annie into the wilderness. With her life on the line, Sam faces the challenge of his life because she’s become much more than a client to him.
Excerpt:
ANNIE WATCHED SAM melt into the trees.
She’d expected him to hassle her about her tent site, but his reticence continued. His whole demeanor changed. No flirting, no double-entendres, no devilment in those burnt-sugar eyes.
Forced retirement from the Major League had hurt deeply. She imagined the headline: Wild Pitch Ends Promising Career. He suffered a loss of identity, a wound more painful than physical injury. So he had to prove himself again.
She slipped her tablet into her tent and followed Sam.
The path wound through fragrant cedars on the spit of land and came out on its west side. Sitting on a slab of granite, Sam gazed at the river and the green mountains beyond.
She ought to leave him to brood. Approaching him would send the wrong signals, would make him think she cared. She didn’t care. In spite of his charm and intelligence, he was too macho. And too bound up in his problems. Still, she’d figured out something he should know.
“You might as well come sit down. Gonna be a great sunset.” Without turning toward her, he patted the flat granite beside him.
“How’d you know I was here?” The rays of the lowering sun washed the few clouds with shades of mauve and rose. Odors of campfire smoke and grilled chicken drifted on the air.
His laugh was a deep masculine rumble that tingled through her. She clenched her teeth against the attraction.
“Your stealth wouldn’t give old Thoreau’s Penobscot scout any competition. Too much noise. How’s the arm?”
“Aches a bit, but the swelling’s going down. Lucky I brought the meds. I’ve learned from a lifetime of Mother Nature’s tricks.”
“Look at that sky. Makes up for a lousy day.” He stretched out his long legs and slung an arm around her shoulders.
“You’re wasting time brooding about that lousy day.” Damn, she liked the feel of his arm around her. She ought to remove it.
“Who’s brooding? Now you’re a mind reader?”
“Goes with the territory. I’m a journalist, remember?” She scooted aside, shrugging away his arm.
He rubbed his scarred hand. His lack of reaction to her rebuff was one more indication of his dark mood. “Damn, how did we wander so far off course? Should have practiced more with the compasses. Did I check the calculations? Hell, I don’t know.”
He’d shaved after washing in the river, and his smooth, strong jaw was close enough to touch. One deep dimple was close enough to explore. Sparks zipped over her skin.
Before his clean masculine scent and the sunset’s romance reduced her to his sex slave, she’d better get to why she came. She slipped her bushwhack notes from her pocket. “I know why our navigating put us in foul territory today.”
A grin lit his handsome face. His eyelashes lowered as he clasped her hand and brought it to his lips. His mustache tickled her palm. “Mmm, I love it when you talk baseball.”
“Seriously, Sam.” She ought to pull away, but his big blunt fingers felt too good, scars or no. “See the erasures in these last two compass readings? That 60 should be 100 due east, and the 100 should be 120. Someone changed them.”
“You’re saying—”
“Your guiding expertise is not in question.”
The smile beaming from under his sexy mustache licked her with heat. She wanted to test the texture of that mustache. So thick, so luxuriant. Would it feel bristly or soft against her face?
“Princess, you’ve saved my day.” His gaze perused her face, settled on her mouth. Had he read her thoughts? He pulled her against the hard wall of his chest and lowered his mouth to hers. “A quick smooch won’t do it.”
She would’ve protested, but his tawny eyes and sun-warmed scent mesmerized her.
His lips met hers with light pressure, warm, tender. The sensations surging within her were anything but tender. She forgot about breathing, about ever breathing again, forgot everything but the heat between them.
He moved against her, the friction coursing ripples of fire through her. He caressed, he stroked, he savored, flicking his tongue across her lips until she opened to him.
“Oh, yeah!” He took the kiss deeper, spearing his fingers in her hair, holding her in his heat.
The silken sweep of his mustache added a new kick to her already hypersensitive senses. He tasted spicier than the barbecued chicken and hotter than the sun’s rays spearing them. She reveled in him—languid heat, lean strength, and liquid passion.
As colors swam in her head, she floated inside the sunset. Desire melted her limbs, made her want more, more....
Sam ended the kiss with a soft brush of lips.
She sucked in air, stunned at the sparks tingling through her. Her head wobbled on rubbery neck muscles. When she could finally focus, she saw smug male satisfaction written on his face. “Sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Sure of you.” His voice was husky. “I just hit a double-bagger. I’m in scoring position.”
Her heart fluttered like a wild bird in her chest. She peeled his arms away and managed an unladylike snort. “Scoring position? You never got to first base, slugger.”
“A matter of time.” He trailed a finger along her lower lip. “The only reason I didn’t slide home is the fans in the stands.” He jerked a thumb toward the campsite.
Her body still pulsed with desire, but she shook her brain clear. Denial wouldn’t work. If the kiss had continued, they’d have been naked. And he knew it.
Better revise. Any more kissing and her heart would get tangled with her libido. Disaster. “We have a new problem. You know that. Someone deliberately changed my bearings.”
“So we would go the wrong way.” His brows drew together, sprouting wild hairs like exclamation marks. “Who the hell would throw us that kind of curve ball?”
“Exactly. And why?”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
· Amazon ebook : ASIN: B0BS4K5HP5 ; https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Obsession-Susan-Vaughan-ebook/dp/B0BS4K5HP5?ref_=ast_author_dp
· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/primal-obsession-susan-vaughan/1100071214?ean=9781509249145
What makes your featured book a must-read?
“Add up hunky hero, strong heroine and creepy villain, all heading for a desperate face-off, and you've got the perfect romantic suspense.” – Joyce Lamb, author
Ex-pro athlete turned Maine guide. Smart-mouthed reporter. Then the woods turn deadly. Intensely romantic thriller”-The Romance Studio
Giveaway –
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Open Internationally.
Runs January 6 – January 14, 2025.
Winner will be drawn on January 15, 2025.
Author Biography:
Occasional bouts of insomnia led to Susan Vaughan's writing career. When she couldn't sleep, she made up stories to fill the long dark nights. Her stories throw the hero and heroine together under extraordinary circumstances and pit them against a clever villain. A former teacher, she is a West Virginia native, but she and her husband have lived in Maine for many years. She is the author of 16 novels and two children’s books.
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