Title: Behind The
Mask (Associates, #4)
Author: Carolyn Crane
Release Date: May
19, 2015
Category: Romantic Suspense
Buy Links:
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Carolyn_Crane_Behind_the_Mask?id=L_ltCQAAQBAJ
ARE: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-behindthemask-1810062-153.html?referrer=554c0fac2065e
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/543785
ARE: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-behindthemask-1810062-153.html?referrer=554c0fac2065e
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/543785
Book Summary:
TO SAVE HER PROSTITUTE TWIN SISTER
SHE HAS TO SWITCH PLACES WITH HER...
When her
estranged sister is won in a card game by a brutal drug cartel, Zelda knows
what she has to do: take her place. Save her. Focus on infiltrating the shadowy
group--and try not to think about why she left the spying game years ago. She’s
slept with dangerous criminals before; she can do it again.
Hugo
Martinez is one of South America’s most lethal and wanted men, a legendary
mercenary living on a windswept mountain. Even at the height of the war he
wasn’t in the habit of taking women captive, but the American whore has seen
his face. And he and the orphan boy need a cook. He shouldn’t want this woman,
but there’s something so unusual about her…
Meanwhile,
Zelda finds herself falling for her captor…but is he the killer she’s been
hunting all these years?
~~~
Hi!! Hey, thank you so much for
having me over to your lovely blog! It’s so nice to be here. Hi readers!!
Okay, I’m here with an excerpt of
my new book, BEHIND THE MASK.
In
Behind the Mask, my heroine, Zelda, masquerades as her sister, a prostitute, in
order to save her when she is won in a card game by a brutal drug cartel. Zelda
gets shuttled around and yada yada yada my hero, a retired legendary killer,
takes her captive at his home on a windswept mountaintop in South America. (To be a cook for him and a boy he cares for…at
least…errr…that’s how it starts out. And he doesn’t know she used to be in the
CIA and used to hunt him! Oops!)
**
So things are a little tense between Zelda and
Hugo for much of this book. In this scene, he’s just brought her to his home
(in South America). She’s injured from the last scene where he saved her life.
He wants to care for her. She is a little freaked that he might be this
legendary killer. And she has all these guilt issues from an old case.
He raised his
inky brows. “It was not a request. You will come over here. You will give me
your arm. You will stand here quietly as I wash it properly.”
She felt her
lips part in shock, felt heat invade her face.
“It is best.”
Suck it up, she told herself. He just wants to wash it. She forced
herself to put one foot in front of the other, senses tingling.
When she got
to him, he took her hand once again, held it gently. She was close to him
now—close enough that she could feel his breath on her ear as he growled, low
and slow, “Was that so hard?”
She had the
weird sense that he was enjoying this.
He went to
work, rather expertly irrigating the wound over the sink. She stood there,
fully given over to his strange, rough brand of care.
“You’re
delaying dinner,” she said.
“Then you’ll
cook faster.”
She bit her
lip, praying for him not to get it in his head to stitch her up, much as she
needed it. Of course he’d be good at it. Medievally meticulous, the way he’d
been with the knives on the field. He was a man into control and precision.
Hugo patted
her skin dry.
“Thank you.”
She pulled her arm, but he didn’t let go—he kept hold, studying the wound.
“This will
require a stitch,” he said. “Perhaps two or three.”
“No,” she
said.
“It is not a
matter of debate. The cut is deep.”
“Please,
Hugo,” she added softly, using his name, aware that she was pulling him, that
she could pull him, affect him. It
was a little bit of a thrill, like walking a bloodthirsty bear on the end of a
fragile silken cord.
“Do you
remember what I said? This is not a democracy.” He released her and grabbed an
ice cube from the freezer. “You will hold this to the flesh.” He pressed the
ice to her wound.
She complied,
full of disbelief and awe at the way he was steamrolling her with his
one-pointed confidence.
“Seriously,
Hugo—”
“Shhh,” he
said.
Shhh? Nobody said shhh to her. Treated her like this. Ordered her. She was the co-leader
of the fucking Associates.
He torched the
needle with a lighter, then rubbed it down with alcohol and threaded it with
green fishing line. His technique was good; he was even doing the sterile area.
He sterilized his forceps, then he took the ice from her and placed her arm
down on the less sterile side of the setup, holding it in place, angled just
so. And she found herself thinking about those black leather gloves.
“You can look
away if you like.”
Right. You
couldn’t pay her enough to look away from his hand and his beautiful confidence
and his utter commitment.
She watched
him position the needle at the end of the forceps, felt the pierce when it
broke the skin, felt it sink. He worked with steady force, pushing and then
pulling with the forceps. His technique was excellent, and little by little she
let herself relax into his hold, even into the pain. She found she trusted him.
This was a man who committed fully on the battlefield and here, now, he was
utterly invested in caring for her.
No—it was more
than that. His touch nourished her. And with a lurch in her heart she realized
that, aside from the occasional handshake, she’d barely been touched since the
Friar Hovde case. And she certainly hadn’t been handled like this. Cared for.
Her eyes felt
warm. Tearing up.
What the fuck?
She blinked.
She would not let him see her crying.
His grip
tightened on her arm as he drew the needle through. Gentle. Efficient.
Ruthless.
He made a
quick, professional knot and then straightened up and looked into her eyes. He
was silent for a long time. “It will be all right, señorita.”
She nodded, flooded
with feeling.
****
Eep!!
Read more: Links for BEHIND THE MASK are here at my
website.
http://authorcarolyncrane.com/the-associates/behind-the-mask/
Thank you so much for having me!
I am a RITA-winning author
of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and other tales of love and adventure
(and erotic & dark romance as NYT
bestselling author Annika Martin). My books have been published by Random
House and Samhain, and I also go the indie route. I work a straight job as a
marketing writer, I love to read in bed and run, I’m passionate about helping
animals, and I make my home in Minnesota with my husband and two cats.
~~~
Giveaway
Information
(1) $75.00 gift card to Amazon or Barnes
& Noble (winner’s choice & open internationally)
(32)
Digital Copies of either Against the Dark, Off the Edge or Into the
Shadows (winner’s choice & open internationally)
Rafflecopter Code:
~~~
Blog
Tour Stops
Monday,
May 18, 2015
Tuesday,
May 19, 2015
Wednesday,
May 20, 2015
Thursday,
May 21, 2015
Friday,
May 22, 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment