She loves him. He rejects her. So what does he expect her to do? Walk away?

Sir Durham’s Disarming Asset (Scarlett Affairs Book 7) debuts 9/17/26!! 

Get it for 99 cents now!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCRXDL2S

Book 7 of 7: Scarlett Affairs

 

When Rafe Durham rescued a young lady from prison, he planned to nurse her back to health. Not discover she is the very air he breathes.

 

Sir Raphael Durham is a man on a mission. He not only catches spies and consults his Government about policy, but also he has, over the years, rescued women. From family, vices, opportunistic men—and even from themselves. Most have survived. A few have questioned his wisdom. Some have refused his help.

 

But one young woman whom he spirits away from the bowels of a Paris prison does more than that.

 

Near death and savagely abused, Zephora Butler accepts all Rafe does for her and fights to recover her senses and her health. She is an American with guts and gusto. 

His ‘Lady of the Winds’ as he calls her, whisks away the storms of his past and infuses fresh air to his ordered life. She is undoubtedly the most courageous, obstinate woman Rafe has ever known.

 

And when she makes it clear to him that she loves him, how can he deny he adores her?

But when he does, what does he expect her to do?

Walk away?

Romance for the thrills! History for the drama!

 

We read romance for the joy of falling in love. But we read historical romance for the drama of living in different era. 

In my new series, SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I give you sixteen spicy historical romances. Each one will come with a kick of loads of accurate historical detail. The agents of merchant Scarlett Hawthorne will fall in love not only amid actual events, but many will participate and solve mysteries many experts ponder even today.  

Sweeping you first from London to Paris during the years Bonaparte ruled, I am tickled to open the series by a trip down the road to Malmaison and show you the problems of navigating Josephine and Bonaparte’s court. The intrigues of spies, ambassadors, merchants, military men and the women who loved and aided them create a canvas of actual events that shaped the fate of millions. 

Over the years of Bonaparte’s rise and reign, espionage agents of all nationalities tried to stop him. Many failed. 

Like the attempt in LORD ASHLEY’S BEAUTIFUL ALIBI to abduct Bonaparte in June 1800. A few succeeded, like the attempt of the British government to plant agents throughout the Continent during the peace of the Treaty of Amiens. 

Some of these events were documented, like the abduction of the duc d'Enghien. Others still remain mysteries, such as the identity of the mysterious English woman who for decades sent thousands of coded secrets home to London. And the lady who stole documents from Talleyrand in Vienna during the Congress of 1814. 

In SCARLETT AFFAIRS, I take you to those cities that live in our history books—and palaces, churches and streets I have walked. They are places that exude their own charm—and hold for the people of that time secrets and challenges for agents of all countries. 

You will go to the tunnels beneath Compiègne and to the palace where Napoleon took his second wife and within minutes of arrival escorted her to their bedroom. You will go to Reims, where kings were crowned, and enter the caverns of St. Denis in Paris where they were buried. 

You will go to the church in Varennes where gendarmes captured Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and sent them to Paris to die. You will go to Baden where a greedy German margrave sold out his subjects to Bonaparte for land and money. You will track Bonaparte and his aide Caulaincourt as they race away from Moscow and are tracked by agents all the way to Paris. 

I will also take you to other seemingly insignificant places that really existed. A public bath house, the smelly abattoir of Montmartre, then south to the huge fortress of Amboise and the vineyards of the Loire. To Verdun where the citadel becomes the prison for hundreds of British trapped inside France by the wily new emperor. 

A panoply of stories, the series will be a rich discovery of the challenges of fighting an enemy while falling in love with one irresistible person. I hope you enjoy them all, from this first search for a missing friend, to the action-adventure of saving an entire family from death, to the rewards of stealing Bonaparte’s gold and more. 

Through each story, one man and woman will try to save the world from a despot—and save each other and the love they treasure above all else. I hope you have enjoyed your tour of Paris and northern France in this first novel of the series. Come with me as I take you to those times and places where kings walked, Bonaparte reigned and where espionage agents of my fictitious merchant Scarlett Hawthorne will attempt to topple the little general while they fall delightfully in love.

BUY LINK: https://amzn.to/4clTGvi

Have you heard the one about the butler who saves his very ditsy employer? He and she have a new look!

Many years on the shelf often mean a new look for a book is a great idea! Here for my romcom series, DELIGHTFUL DOINGS IN DUDLEY CRESCENT, are the first 3 new covers in an expanded 6-book event!

Always a bit of fun, an employer and her servant can get down to it...and here they do.  

Book 1: She's a liar...but he doesn't care! 

 

Book 2: She had him at "hello!"

Book 3: She could run...but from him she could not hide!

Kissing is not permitted! A nibble of my new cherry!

A nibble!

Yes! 

 https://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Beautiful-Alibi-Scarlett-Affairs-ebook/dp/B0CSTSTYNQ

Excerpt, Lord Ashley’s Beautiful Alibi, All rights reserved, Cerise Deland. Copyright 2024.

“We must stop,” Augustine murmured, though like a besotted girl, she arched her neck to give him greater access. She could not wish him gone—and oh, how she wanted him to stay and give her more of his lips and his arms and the stories of his childhood. Through those brief tales, he had become a boy, a solemn and vital person whom she could trust for the moment, for the task, for her needs. But no more. Not a bit more….

He lingered, his lips on her throat and her shoulder as he seemed to inhale every essence of her. With a small blessing of his open mouth to the hollow of her throat, he drew back.

He took his time, his enchanting ice grey eyes examining her. With deft moves, he fluffed the ruffle at her bodice and pulled down her skirts over her knees.

“Thank you,” she said with a true smile, though she breathed rapidly, in no way recovered from his thrall. “We have done a good job of displaying our interest in each other.”

“Have we?” Ashley’s bass voice was gruff, the question in his voice asking a thousand more things than the obvious. 

She nodded, hiding her gulp. “Yes, just now, two have come to the doors and left.”

“Polite of them,” he said and cupped her cheek. “We cannot go in yet to the salon.”

“No?” Her mind was too full of him, her question too whimsical.

“You are flushed. And I am not fit to face anyone.” His brows rose by little degrees to reach the black shock of hair that had fallen—with her help she was sure,—over his broad brow.

She giggled.

He rolled his eyes and hands on his hips, considered the stars.

“How long do you need?” Lured, she glanced down. My, my. She flashed him a wicked pout.

“Hours, if you keep that up! You may not have had lovers, darling, but you’ve learned how to entice a man!”

BUY LINK:  https://www.amazon.com/Ashleys-Beautiful-Alibi-Scarlett-Affairs-ebook/dp/B0CSTSTYNQ

Collette Cameron's new Earl of Scarborough! A treat!

When a woman desperate for a job saves the life of an earl…
… both of their plans for the future are thwarted.

He’s eccentric and society-shy…

There’s no polite way to describe Ansley, Earl of Scarborough’s obsession with schedules and inflexible routines. Unfortunately, he’s also in need of a wife, which forces him squarely in the midst of the society he can scarcely function in. If only he dared to ignore the haut ton’s censure and claim the lovely, wholly unsuitable Willow as his own.

She seeks a governess post…

Up from the country, Willow Harwood must quickly secure a governess position and save enough money to return to America. Only, her plans are foiled when she rushes to the rescue of a devastatingly handsome earl in the process of being robbed. Though he’s far above her station, she can’t fight the irrepressible attraction she feels toward him.

Neither is prepared for the upheaval to their lives when she reluctantly accepts his offer of employment…as his housekeeper. Nor can either predict the mayhem that follows when a lord who disdains society and a country miss with no experience plan a haut ton Christmastide gathering.

This charming Regency holiday historical by a USA Today bestselling author will make you smile, laugh, and sigh with contentment as you witness the sweet and tender love growing between Ansley and Willow.

If you enjoy reading entertaining Christmas, class difference, strong heroine, and lovable rogue stories with a dash of romantic humor and heart-warming emotion, then you’ll adore Collette Cameron’s enthralling WICKED EARLS’ CLUB SERIES. Buy EARL OF SCARBOROUGH and settle into your favorite reading nook for a page-turning escape into a Regency world adventure you can’t put down.

Though part of a series, this book can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.

CHECK OUT COLLETTE’S OTHER SERIES:
Castle Brides
Heart of a Scot ~ Coming soon!
Highland Heather Romancing a Scot
Seductive Scoundrels
The Blue Rose Regency Romances: The Culpepper Misses
The Honorable Rogues

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XMG2LCB

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/earl-of-scarborough-collette-cameron/1133400782?ean=2940163181698

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/earl-of-scarborough

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=UeetDwAAQBAJ

iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/earl-of-scarborough/id1479294740

Silver Foxes do it better! A nibble of my new Christmas cherry with older hgeor and older heroine!

SNOWED IN WITH A ROGUE and Cerise DeLand's Christmas Series on KU

AUNT GERTRUDE'S RED HOT CHRISTMAS BEAU stars and older hero (A silver fox!) and his older heroine (a silver lady!).  He appears first October 7 in SNOWED IN WITH A ROGUE! That is a wonderful box set with stories by seven terrific authors!

I hope you will enjoy them all...and especially my guy, the Duke of Harlow! He is the father of the Marquess of Tain, who is the hero in THE MARQUESS'S FINAL FLING, out the same day, October 7!

Here is a nibble of my newest cherry!

Copyright 2019. Cerise Deland. All rights reserved.

“You may go, Nan,” she told her lady’s maid. “I’ve no need of my wrapper. I go straight to bed. You should, too.”

The servant bobbed and turned for Gertrude’s sitting room door.

AMAZON KU

But when she opened it, Simms stood there. His hand in the air, ready to scratch the wood to ask for entry, he quickly recovered his aplomb. The butler was new to Gertrude’s employ, efficient, worldly and no more than thirty years of age. Intriguing for a butler of his extensive experience to be so less than fifty, but Gertrude had not debated his background. She’d hired the man. Handsome as sin with ink black hair and flashing silver eyes, he had an air of no nonsense, a bevy of friends at Prinny’s Royal Pavilion and an odd penchant for quoting Shakespeare. Gertrude valued him. A wise and interesting choice to head her household. Even if, at the moment, he appeared to be rather disheveled. Odd that.

“Yes, Simms.” She swished her long unbound silver hair over her shoulder and pulled her green velvet robe close to her throat. “What is it?”

“My lady, we have a new arrival. I knew you’d wish to greet him.”

Him? Her heart did a girlish pitter-patter. “I wish to welcome any guest, Simms. Who—?”

“The duke of Harlow, Madam.”

She shivered in delight. “I will be right down, Simms.”

AMAZON KU

“No need, my dear Gertrude!” The bass voice was one of command, a man who knew his authority and seized it. Yes, it was Harlow! Expertly attired in a winter clawhammer and woolen breeches that hugged his sturdy frame, he glowed from the brisk winter air. His hair, black as sin with those devilish streaks of white at his temples, proclaimed his age more than the ruddiness of his cheeks. Most of all, what declared his youthful intentions were his turquoise eyes that twinkled in mischief. 

Simms stepped aside.

And Harlow filled her doorway.

 She grinned and extended both hands. “Your Grace. How wonderful to see you here.”

He walked right in, nodding in dismissal to Simms and her maid. Then he reached out to grasp the door and shut it upon them both. “How wonderful to be greeted. By a lady in her nightgown, too. Love the dishabille, my dear.”

“You rake!” She chuckled. And blushed. What a man to so commandeer the room! In front of her butler and her maid, too. My, my. “Harlow, I’m thrilled!”

“Are you, my darling?” He strode close, sent one hand up to capture the wealth of her hair and curled an arm around her waist. Crushing her against his rock-like form, he brushed his firm lips across hers and seized her mouth in a ravenous kiss. When he broke away, she was breathless . “I’m here to claim the joys of the Season—and you. Will you have me?”

Opium? A gift for your fiancee if you are a British merchant in Shanghai? No! Fu Dogs and...

From approximately 1820s until Mao Tse-tung and his communist friends took over in China in 1949, opium was a major influence on Chinese politics. British merchants—and Americans along with other foreigners—traded in the poppy and its products. Why? It was an unequal trade and financed what might have been a losing trade out of China. Complicated but true.

So in my next novel, SCANDALOUS HEIRESS, my hero is a British merchant who lives in the British canton of Shanghai. He does not deal in opium, and in fact, refuses to, understanding the disastrous effects on any human who uses it.

But he is about to get married. (Like you do in a good romance.) And he wants to give his fiancee gifts that are useful, decorative and evocative.

What does he give her?

A kimono from Japan. (Why Japan and not China? Because in the 1880s, kimonos are the rage from the newly opened and modernizing island country. He has many stocked in his factories in the East London docks.)

Fu dogs.  Why? Fu dogs are Guardians of home and hearth. You will also see them at entrances to palaces and temples. They bring good luck, peace, serenity and protection.

Chinese silk wallpaper. The Chinese were expert makers of beautiful yards of highly colored wallpaper. This picture is my own and I took it in Ham House south of London. The silk is faded and the curators of the house have darkened the room to protect the fragile fabric. Yet you can see that what once was red is now a different color.

He also gives her cultured pearls from China. These were developed since the Sung dynasty in China and are still popular today.

SCANDALOUS HEIRESS, Book 4 in popular THOSE NOTORIOUS AMERICANS series, debuts February 4! But it is on pre-order now for 99 cents. Regular prince will be $3.99!

BUY LINK TO AMAZON!

My AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE for all in this series!

HOT TARGET, one scorching #military #romance by @JordanDane excerpt!

Available only on Amazon

 Outside Havana, Cuba

Five years ago

Rafael lay sprawled on his belly in the gritty dirt for hours, enduring the cool darkness before dawn to the now sweltering heat of the midday sun. He offered up his body to anything that crawled or slithered. With a single-minded purpose he remained as still and unmoving as the boulder he hid behind, dressed in camouflage tactical gear—BDUs, boonie hat, and boots.  Not even the heat or the sweat trickling down his neck distracted him.

His unwavering discipline kept him rooted to the land. This had to work.

Rafe cleared out every last cent of his savings—after he’d lost all hope for his future—to pay for his covert drop and extraction so he could bring his weapon into Cuba. Without an official stamp in his passport, there would be no record of him entering or leaving the country.

When he heard the sound of a vehicle in the distance, he knew his sacrifice had come down to this moment. His eyes shifted toward the horizon and his throat wedged tight. He fought the emotion that welled inside him as he shouldered his suppressed .300 Winchester Magnum. Rafe stared through the Nightforce telescopic sight with his eyes trained on the dirt road below his position.

Please let it be him. 

Not many used this desolate acreage of private ranch land, except for the man he dared to hunt. A truck barreled toward his position and kicked up clouds of dust. As he peered through the scope, adrenaline raged through his veins. Stay in control. Don’t lose it now. He’d come too far to fail. Rafe had his egress routed, but if he didn’t take his target out, he didn’t care what happened to him.

The truck would soon be in range. Rafael slipped on his ear plugs and checked for wind, spying the inconspicuous ribbon he’d tied to a downrange branch at dawn. He adjusted the knobs for windage and elevation and took the safety off his sniper rifle. His hand reached for the bolt action and he chambered a round.

One shot. One kill.

He relaxed his body and took a deep breath before he let it out slow. Rafe hardened his expression as callused as his heart had become. He lined up the man’s face until it centered in the floating crosshair of his scope—Adiós, cabrón—and without hesitation he squeezed the trigger.

The man’s head spattered red mist and brain matter onto the windshield. The back of his head severed from his neck. Target down. Confirmed. After the truck veered left and lunged into a ditch, the man’s dead weight landed on the steering wheel. The abrasive sound of a horn cut through the late afternoon air.

Rafael lay motionless and glared at the dead man through his scope. Time drained away and he could not move. Tears welled in his eyes. He expected to feel something. It was over, wasn’t it? His body shook and he fought the urge to puke.

You gotta go. Now.

It took everything he had to get off the ground and stay focused on his egress. He’d have to get to his extraction point and out of Cuba fast before authorities found the body. Out of habit, he policed his brass, grabbing for the spent shell casing ejected from his .300 Win Mag, but something made him stop. He stared down at the brass in his hand. An impulse gripped him hard. Maybe the urge came from his unrelenting respect for justice.

He’d built a career in law enforcement with the Chicago police department, his latest assignment in SWAT, special operations. Being one of the good guys was all he ever wanted to be, but today he shattered everything he ever stood for.

He’d killed a man in cold blood.

In a slow and deliberate gesture, Rafe wedged the spent casing into a notch on the boulder like an artist signing his work. He didn’t care what happened to him—not any more.

Hot Target

When Rafael reaches out to his sister for a job, Athena Matero—a founding member of the private security agency, the Omega Team—can’t help but be protective of her younger half brother. After a tragic hostage rescue and its aftermath, Rafael Matero turned into a solitary loner, only surfacing to fulfill his duties as team leader for an elite SWAT sniper unit with the Chicago Police. Athena decides to fast track his application by vetting him on the job—a mission to Havana Cuba to investigate a cold case murder.

But when the old murder is linked to the shadowy death of a powerful drug cartel leader, Rafael is burdened by a terrible secret from his past—and an unrelenting death wish—that puts him at dangerous odds with Athena and her team. He believes he’s beyond saving, but that doesn’t stop Jacquie Lyles from trying.

Jacquie sees something in Athena’s mysterious brother that touches her heart. Chivalrous and brave, Rafael is as rare as a unicorn in her life as techno computer geek and white hat hacker for the Omega Team. After she joins the team on its mission to Cuba, she uncovers Rafael’s shocking burden and it breaks her heart.

Rafael stands in the crosshairs of a vicious drug cartel—powerless to stop his fate—and his secret could put Athena and her team in the middle of a drug war.

Tough Target

Coming May 2016

An Omega Team Novella – Amazon Kindle Worlds

Novella 2 of 3

By Jordan Dane

Target Rich

Coming July 2016

An Omega Team Novella – Amazon Kindle Worlds

Novella 3 of 3

By Jordan Dane

About the Author

Bestselling, critically-acclaimed author Jordan Dane’s gritty thrillers are ripped from the headlines with vivid settings, intrigue, and dark humor. Publishers Weekly compared her intense novels to Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner, and Tami Hoag, naming her debut novel NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM as Best Books of 2008. She also pens young-adult novels for Harlequin Teen. Formerly an energy sales manager, she now writes full time. Jordan shares her Texas residence with two lucky rescue dogs.

Connect with Jordan Dane:

Social Media Links:

Website  HYPERLINK "http://www.JordanDane.com" http://www.JordanDane.com

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Thriller/Crime Fiction Blogs:

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What does Cerise's Marquess Cameron look like? MASQUERADE WITH A MARQUESS out now!

We imagine what heroes look like and drool over delicious descriptions of their features. Long ago, when I first began to write about Victor Cameron, the Marquess Cameron, I found a picture of a marvelous Italian male model.
Here he is.
http://lookbook.nu/marianodivaio
This is fabulous Mariano Divaio.
I thought his brooding looks, especially in this photo, typified Victor not merely in looks but in temperament.
In MASQUERADE WITH A MARQUESS, Victor lives alone and with another birthday to be celebrated, he is pressured by his step-mother to marry. It is the farthest thing from his mind.
But when Contessa Sophia di Contini shows up impersonating a maid, Victor recalls one night when they were together in Italy. One night in each other's arms. One night after which Sophia betrayed him...or so he always assumed.
Now she's in England, searching for treasures stolen from her family by Pauline Bonaparte. And Victor is wary that what she will steal will be his heart...again.
MASQUERADE WITH A MARQUESS is #3 in my Regency Romp series. I hope you enjoy this...and looking at Victor/Mariano!!!

Amazon   ARe   NOOK   KOBO   iTunes

This SEAL's pride was his grit. THE LION #military #romance #specialops OMEGA TEAM FB Party

Feb. 18 FB PARTY 

Be here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1674209029502298/

Mike Lyons’ pride was his success as a SEAL. Focused, driven, he put duty first…until an IED changed all that. Rebecca Tierney was the woman he always left behind…until he had to protect her from creeps who would rob her of her life.

THE LION, OMEGA TEAM, Crossover to Scorpian, SEALed Securities, Inc.

Former SEAL Mike Lyons goes to work locking down bad dudes, State-side, for the Omega Team. His PTSD is his biggest enemy but he’s doing an A1 job….

Until Grey Holden of Omega assigns him to protect the woman Mike has always left behind.  Mike’s on point for the mission but questions if Rebecca Tierney will give him a crack at a happily-ever-after.

Becka nixed hope for any long-term relationship with Mike long ago. Too bad she’s never been able to nix her love for him. When he shows up and carries her away Tarzan-style, she’s determined to chill.

But old habits die hard.

Even though mixing business with pleasure would be the worst thing they could do.

THE LION, Kindle World

A NIBBLE of THE LION!

Copyright 2016, Cerise DeLand. All rights reserved.

The shop door snapped open. The bells above the frame rang in an awful clatter.

And in walked Mikael Lyons.

Becka laughed. Am I dreaming?

But she wasn’t.

Mike stood, surveying the art gallery like a man with a mission. Focused, pointed, his gaze swept the large display floor jammed with furniture and paintings, sculpture and china, ancient, modern, all of it fit only for the upper one-percent’s purchase.

She shot from her chair. What was he doing here?

She hadn’t seen him since they’d argued and parted last summer after that summary meeting in the State Department. Days after the end of their Paris job. The end of our two-month affair.

She sucked in a breath, wrestling with her memories of how scrumptious The Lion had been as her lover. Instead, she zeroed in on what had happened to him after he’d left her on the sidewalk last summer holding pieces of her heart in her hands. His grandmother had notified her the day she’d gotten word of his injuries in Afghanistan. The elderly lady had faithfully kept her up-to-date about his wounds, his hospitalizations, his PTSD. Oh, but he looked so good now. The shock of sun-kissed hair, streaked with bronze and gold. The enormous shoulders tucked into a steel gray suit that fit his broad chest and powerful arms like a well-tailored glove. The height, six-four or more. Comforting to stand next to. Maddening beautiful. A little thinner than when they’d rolled around in bed together last July before they returned Stateside and he’d left for the mission that changed his life.

His neon blue gaze locked on hers. A ghost of a smile crossed his chiseled lips. And then he moved. Like quicksilver, he wove through the maze of furniture. His stride was long. His goal clear. He’d come for her.

Why?

Why now?

Today?

Panicked, she remembered the flash drive. The green bar on the screen moved an iota more. Almost done.

Mike rounded the doorway to her office. Up close he looked pained. But furious. At her? Really? What had she done?

“Come with me,” he said in that bass voice that reverberated inside her like the roar of the huge male lion at the Washington zoo. He could say her name and her insides got all mushy. With that voice torrid in her ear, he could tell her fairy tales and she’d believe in Hansel and Gretel and reindeer that flew because stars always exploded when he was near.

“What are you doing here?” she asked him, confused. He’d stormed away from her last summer, warning her yet again that he might not return. And he’d been prophetic, coming home from the mission to Kandahar badly wounded.

“I’ll tell you. But you have to come with me now.”

“Where? Why?” She shot a glance at her drive. Done! She grasped it and yanked it from the computer. Then she dropped it in her skirt pocket.

“Can’t explain. Need you to walk out with me.”

“No.” If she did that, if she stayed with him for more than five minutes, she’d hop into bed for a damn luscious lay—and then he’d be gone again. Messing up her life. Always. “Never.”

He winced, bared his teeth and shook his head. “Either you come quietly or I take you.”

She seethed. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Right now? I’m the guy who’s saving your pretty ass. So come quietly or you won’t like what happens.”

“No?” She folded her arms and glared at him. “Well, now hear this—“

“No time.” He stepped forward, hauled her into his massive arms and anchored her head with one meaty hand. “Kiss me, baby. Like there’s no tomorrow.”

There never has been. “You’re crazy if—“

“Crazy is my forte,” he crooned, turning her so her back was to the shop floor. And then he crushed his mouth to hers.

She was gone to heaven. His lips were hot as August, his demand heavy and urgent. She loved him rough and ready. She loved him tender and teasing. She loved him and part of her wanted to linger here, kiss him back, forget why he came and destroyed her. Again.

She pushed at his chest.

Why bother? With a man this freaking size, what woman had a chance? Not me. Never me with this man.

He pressed his thumb over her swollen lips. “Look like you want me. Hate me, but want me.”

Like that wasn’t the truth.

“Listen to me, Becka. Fast. You have documents?”

“What?”

“Documents? Sensitive?”

“Y-yes. How do you know?

“Tell you later. I’m assigned to help you.”

“Like we did in Paris?”

“Exactly like.”

“I have them.” She sidled closer to him, whispering, “On me. But I’m not going with you, Mike. Every time I do, I get myself in a helluva bind. I won’t do it again.”

He took her by her upper arms and gave her a little shake. “I have no time to argue with you. There’s a gunman out there. Maybe headed this way.”

Her jaw dropped. But her old Langley training kicked in. “What’s going on?”

“Dunno.”

“But—"
"Okay then.” He picked her right up off her feet and hauled her over his shoulder. “We’ll do this my way.”

 One hand to her ass, he pivoted and threaded his graceful way double-time through the tables and chaises, the mirrors and marbles.

As he passed Vince, her boss, and the senator, he said, “Thanks, got what I came for.”

“Rebecca?” Vince followed behind Mike.

She glimpsed his feet tracking her. She tried to raise her head, but all she could do was watch the beautiful muscular play of Mikael Lyons’ fabulous glutes. She suppressed the urge to laugh and indulged the need to bitch. “I’m fine, Vince. I know Superman, here. He’s harmless as a pussy cat.”

“For that,” Mike growled when they were on the sidewalk and he ran up Wisconsin Avenue with her ingloriously over his shoulder, “you will pay.”

WATCH THE TRIALER FOR THE OMEGA TEAM! Omega Team Trailer!
Buy all the novels in the exciting Omega Team Kindle World! Omega Team Kindle World

Who is Cerise?

Cerise DeLand loves to cook, hates to dust, lives to travel—and write! Publishing award-winning novels for more than 3 decades, she is #1 Bestselling Regency Author of spicy romances starring dashing heroes and sassy women.

Find Cerise:

Cerise DeLand's Website

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