It’s the Hot Paranormal Nights Blog Hop! This summer we’re celebrating things that go bump in the night. What are your favorite things that go bump in the night? Leave a comment and your email address for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card. Click the Hot Paranormal button above to visit all stops on this hop and enjoy!
Two of my favorite things that go bump in the night? One Dark Alley and a Drafty Old Place.
Excerpt from Falcon’s Angel, A Cardiff Novel Book 1
One Dark Alley in Naples, Italy…
What the hell?
Something flitted overhead, darker than the darkness in which he now stood alone. He pointed the Glock upward even as a figure walked up the side of the building. It looked like a black cloud but more solid than it should be.
Before he could get off a shot, the darkness disappeared over the side of the roof.
Staring at the dead end in front of him, Falcon put his gun away. No doors or windows on either side.
Where is the guy? Must be a hidden door somewhere, he’d check it out later.
Falcon turned back toward the girl. Beyond her, across the street, the man he had been chasing got into a car.
“No way,” he murmured as the car sped off. No way could the man have gotten past him in the alley.
The girl had both arms wrapped around the violin case in front of her. She was leaning against the church wall, crying.
A street lamp flickered on above them, belatedly bathing the passage in revealing light. She did not seem to realize that he was there.
“Did he hurt you, Signorina?”
She looked up. He lifted his gaze from her heaving chest.
“Grazie,” she whispered, wiping her face with the back of her hand. She shook her head. “I am fine.”
There was blood on her closed fist.
“Are you hurt?” He moved closer.
She moved her hand behind the folds of her skirt and backed into the wall.
He waited, leaning his hand against the wall above her head, inhaling her perfume. A beguiling combination of … amber, apples and musk. The scent suited her, organic, delicious. He wanted to lift her skirt right now and take her against this wall, those long legs wrapped around him.
Angelina examined the buttons on his shirt that were in such close proximity. Stepping away from him would be cowardly, and he would guess she was made of sterner stuff. When she looked up it was with the defiance he expected from a cornered tigress.
He held her gaze, reaching behind to bring her fist out from the folds of her skirt.
The bloody gold in the center of her palm was a heavy medium-sized loop engraved with a stylized dragon. She had pulled it from the man’s ear and he had not made a sound.
“A memento?” He whispered in English close to her lips.
“I don’t want it. You can have it,” she answered in her native tongue. Now, that was the truth. Her British accent was tinged with a weary sadness. He wanted to pick her up against his chest and carry her home.
She had courage. Even while his mind worked to figure out what her role was in the mystery of the Stradivarius, he admired that.
He couldn’t leave her alone now. Not on a street where men escaped him when cornered in an alley and black clouds slid up church walls.
***********
Excerpt from Love Entwined, A Cardiff Novel Book 2 Available 9/9/13 from Liquid Silver Books
A Drafty Old Place in North Yorkshire, England…
Across the green was the mansion. The floodlights lit up the old limestone, making the imposing high stone walls seem even older than they were. Large bay windows dotted the beautifully preserved façade.
My dream house.
She turned to Roman, who stared at her.
“What is it?”
“This is…” She could not speak, should not speak the words in her mind, and returned her gaze to the window. “It is like an ancient monument.”
He looked over her shoulder. “This drafty old place is over two hundred years old.”
He stopped when she wanted to hear more, anything that would explain why her dream house was here in England, why she was here, why they were both here together, she and her dream lover.
He was watching her again.
She sat back and tried for a lighter tone. “So many windows must bring warmth to the interior in the summer.” She had only just arrived and was already being seduced by the thought of summer in the English countryside.
The car drove up a road as wide as a two-lane highway in New York City. There was a hush over the place that drew her and with it came a deferential awareness.
St. Clair Manor was encapsulated in its own golden age, as if it preferred the gothic influences of the Georgian era.
Amelie shifted on the seat. A manor couldn’t prefer anything. It wasn’t alive, after all.
She was holding her breath and let it out slowly. Now the dark windows of the manor seemed to be eyes focused on her, hundreds of them, witnessing her arrival.
Stop giving yourself the creeps, Amelie.
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37 responses to “Hot Paranormal Nights Tour – One Dark Alley and A Drafty Old Place”
i love romance novels because it’s fun to read and i can meet many handsome men from romance novels ;p
thx u for the giveaway…
Oh, the worlds we can visit!
That tingle you get when you imagine your own first love or similar experience. steph from fangswandsandfairydust rafflecopter STEPHANIE
That’s the best. 🙂
I love paranormal romance in particular for the magic. Life is full of so much unhappiness and we are never guaranteed anything positive; people will say you make your own happiness, you can do anything, etc., but there are always mitigating circumstances that can prevent you from having that happily ever after. Books can give you what life cannot. And that makes up for so very much. michelle_willms@yahoo.com
Exactly. 🙂
I love the vulnerability and loyalty of angels and shifters in paranormals!
vitajex(at)aol(dot)com
I am fascinated by the shifting theory. I love the fantasy of it!
I don’t believe in Romance, per se. But I do love the sweet things men say to get a woman into bed;)
cc_clubbs at yahoo dot com
I know! And you believe them even if it’s just for a little while. 🙂
I like the fact that I can spend time with men who I don’t want to hit in the head with a bat.
Oh, a good spanking now and then can’t be all bad. 🙂
The happy ending!
Thanks for the chance to win!
I love romance because sometimes you just need something to make you feel good and romance usually ends with a happily ever after. Who doesn’t love those? Thank you!
I love all the courting that finally leads up to that steamy scene in the bedroom or wherever they happen to be when they get to it.
I love the happy ending 🙂
I get absolutely none from my husband (he’s so unromantic is kinda sad sometimes), that I grab a book and just float away for a little while.
I love the happy ending and escape into another world.
Mel
Bournmelissa at hotmail dot com
I love the Happily Ever After , sometimes you just need to experience some romance that maybe life is not giving you.
Rafflecopter Name Dawna Newman
I love the HEA in romances.
Vampires are my favorite things that go bump in the night!
Thanks for the giveaway!
pinkbonanza{ AT }gmail{ DOT }com
The happily ever after aspect and the fact that love conquers all no matter what, is what I like most about romance novels.
My favorite paranormals are vampires. And I love romances because of happy endings.
My favorite thing about romance is that it gives you hope that you can conquer anything and I love happy endings of course!
I just love that everything ends like it’s supposed to – the strong protective (when need be) man and the heroine who is feisty but loving are my favorite. thanks! heather1974 at gmail dot com
I love the chemistry between the couple and I do like a happy ending but I also like realistic ones as well 🙂 It depends on how the story goes.
It’s all about the HEA!
Thanks for the amazing giveaway!
elizabeth @ bookattict . com
I love paranormal romance for the extraordinary creatures & situations.
I love it when the men finally realize they love their woman! *sigh*
Reading about romance…you get to feel the cloud nine, the angst, and everything in between!
Nothing beats the paranormal.. so many ways to write about it.. and catch an audience. 😉
vals_hemi at yahoo dot com
I love pretty much all paranormal creatures, and I love the way love grows in romance.
Thorton12 at hotmail dot com
I love romances for the HEA endings because lots of times you don’t get it in real life.
sstrode at scrtc dot com
I enjoy love-hate relationships and love triangles. Anything that causes lots of conflict, lol. Thanks for the giveaway!
mearles1982(at)hotmail(dot)com
I love the happy ever after endings in romance. Thanks for the giveaway!
bhometchko(at)hotmail(dot)com
My favorite things about romance…all the feelings and emotions it brings out.
weres and vamps! – regnod(at)yahoo(d0t)com
Thank you all for participating in this hop! It was so much fun. 🙂
Congratulations Eva M. You are the winner of my site’s prize for this hop!
Enjoy 🙂