Desire & Ice: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) (10 page)
Read Desire & Ice: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) Online
Authors: Christopher Rice
Tags: #Christopher RIce, #MacKenzie Family, #Liliana Hart
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Trouble Maker
A MacKenzie Family Novel
by Liliana Hart
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Marnie Whitlock has never known what it’s like to be normal. She and her family moved from place to place, hiding from reporters and psychologists, all because of her gift. A curse was more like it. Seeing a victim, feeling his pain as the last of his life ebbed away, and being helpless to save him. It was torture. And then one day it disappeared and she was free. Until those who hunted her for her gift tried to kill her. And then the gift came back with a vengeance.
Beckett Hamilton leads a simple life. His ranch is profitable and a legacy he’ll be proud to pass onto his children one day, work fills his time from sunup to sundown, and his romances are short and sweet. He wouldn’t have it any other way. And then he runs into quiet and reserved Marnie Whitlock just after she moves to town. She intrigues him like no woman ever has. And she’s hiding something. His hope is that she begins to trust him before it’s too late.
* * * *
Rush
A MacKenzie Family Novella
by Robin Covington
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From Liliana Hart’s New York Times bestselling MacKenzie family comes a new story by USA Today bestselling author Robin Covington...
Atticus Rush doesn’t really like people. Years in Special Ops and law enforcement showed him the worst of humanity, making his mountain hideaway the ideal place to live. But when his colleagues at MacKenzie Security need him to save the kidnapped young daughter of a U.S. Senator, he’ll do it, even if it means working with the woman who broke his heart …his ex-wife.
Lady Olivia Rutledge-Cairn likes to steal things. Raised with a silver spoon and the glass slipper she spent years cultivating a cadre of acquaintances in the highest places. She parlayed her natural gift for theft into a career of locating and illegally retrieving hard-to-find items of value for the ridiculously wealthy. Rush was the one man who tempted her to change her ways…until he caught her and threatened to turn her in.
MacKenzie Security has vowed to save the girl. Olivia can find anything or anyone. Rush can get anyone out. As the clock winds down on the girl’s life, can they fight the past, a ruthless madman and their explosive passion to get the job done?
* * * *
Bullet Proof
A MacKenzie Family Novella
by Avery Flynn
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“Being one of the good guys is not my thing.”
Bianca Sutherland isn’t at an exclusive Eyes-Wide-Shut style orgy for the orgasms. She’s there because the only clue to her friend’s disappearance is a photo of a painting hanging somewhere in Bisu Manor. Determined to find her missing friend when no one else will, she expects trouble when she cons her way into the party—but not in the form of a so-hot-he-turns-your-panties-to-ash former boxer.
Taz Hazard’s only concern is looking out for himself and he has no intention of changing his ways until he finds sexy-as-sin Bianca at the most notorious mansion in Ft. Worth. Now, he’s tangled up in a missing person case tied into a powerful new drug about to flood the streets, if they can’t find a way to stop it before its too late. Taking on a drug cartel isn’t safe, but when passion ignites between them Taz and Bianca discover their hearts aren’t bulletproof either.
* * * *
Delta: Rescue
A MacKenzie Family Novella
by Cristin Harber
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When Luke Brenner takes an off-the-books job on the MacKenzie-Delta joint task force, he has one goal: shut down sex traffickers on his personal hunt for retribution. This operation brings him closer than he’s ever been to avenge his first love, who was taken, sold, and likely dead.
Madeleine Mercier is the daughter of an infamous cartel conglomerate. Their family bleeds money, they sell pleasure, they sell people. She knows no other life, sees no escape, except for one. Maddy is the only person who can take down Papa, when every branch of law enforcement in every country, is on her father’s payroll.
It’s evil. To want to ruin, to murder, her family. But that’s what she is. Ruined for a life outside of destroying her father. She can’t feel arousal. Has never been kissed. Never felt anything other than disgust for the world that she perpetuates. Until she clashes with a possible mercenary who gives her hope.
The hunter versus the virgin. The predator and his prey. When forced together, can enemies resist the urge to run away or destroy one another?
* * * *
Deep Trouble
A MacKenzie Family Novella
by Kimberly Kincaid
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Bartender Kylie Walker went into the basement of The Corner Tavern for a box of cocktail napkins, but what she got was an eyeful of murder. Now she’s on the run from a killer with connections, and one wrong step could be her last. Desperate to stay safe, Kylie calls the only person she trusts—her ex-Army Ranger brother. The only problem? He’s two thousand miles away, and trouble is right outside her door.
Security specialist Devon Randolph might be rough and gruff, but he’ll never turn down a friend in need, especially when that friend is the fellow Ranger who once saved his life. Devon may have secrets, but he’s nearby, and he’s got the skills to keep his buddy’s sister safe…even if one look at brash, beautiful, Kylie makes him want to break all the rules.
Forced on the run, Kylie and Devon dodge bullets and bad guys, but they cannot fight the attraction burning between them. Yet the closer they grow, the higher the stakes become. Will they be able to outrun a brutal killer? Or will Devon’s secrets tear them apart first?
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
By Christopher Rice
Coming February 23, 2016
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From
New York Times
bestselling author Christopher Rice, comes a steamy, emotional tale of forbidden romance between a woman struggling to get her life on its feet and the gorgeous cowboy her father kept her from marrying years before. The first contemporary romance from Christopher Rice is written with the author’s trademark humor and heart, and introduces readers to a beautiful town in the Texas Hill Country called Chapel Springs.
* * * *
“It’s a terrible idea,” he says.
“Why did she tell you?”
“Because she wants me to stop you.”
“That’s not true. I talked to her this afternoon and she told me she wanted me to go.”
“Well, she must have changed her mind,” he says.
“Well, I haven’t changed mine.”
“A sex club?” he bellows. “What are you? Crazy?”
“Since when are you so full of judgment, cowboy? I’ve never seen you in church!”
“And I’ve never seen you in a sex club!”
“Have you been to that many? Who knows? I could have a whole secret life you don’t even know about.”
“I know who you are, Amber. I know
how
you are.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Amber, you stayed a virgin until you were nineteen. That puts you in the, like, one percentile of girls in our high school.”
“How do you know that? I never told you that!”
“I had my sources.”
“You were keeping tabs on my virginity? That’s rich. I thought you were too busy starting fistfights outside the Valley View Mall so you didn’t have to feel anything.”
“And you were too busy tending to my wounds ’cause it gave you an excuse to look at my chest.”
“Get out of my house!”
“Amber—”
“Get out!”
He bows his head. A lesser man would ignore her request, but he knows he’s bound by it.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Caleb whispers. “I’m sorry.”
He turns to leave.
“You know, I forgave you a lot because you lost a lot. But don’t you pretend for one second that you joined our family with a smile and a thank you and that was that. Those first few years, it was like living with a tornado. You were
impossible!
An you were nothing like the guy I’d...”
He turns away from the front door. “The guy you’d what?”
“All I’m saying is that even if I’d wanted to…”
“Wanted to what?”
He’s closing the distance between them. Her head wants to run from him. Her soul wants to run to him. Her body’s forced to split the difference. She’s got no choice but to stand there while he advances on her, nostrils flaring, blue eyes blazing.
“Tell me why you really don’t want me to go,” she hears herself whisper. “Tell me why you—”
He takes her in his arms and rocks them into the wall, so suddenly she expects her head to knock against the wood, but one of his powerful hands cushions the back of her skull just in time.
His lips meet the nape of her neck, grazing, testing. It’s hesitant, the kiss he gives her there, as if he’s afraid she’s an apparition that will vanish if he tries to take a real taste.
He gathers the hem of her shirt into his fist, knuckles grazing the skin of her stomach. She’s trying to speak but the only thing coming out of her are stuttering gasps. She’s been rendered wordless by the feel of the forbidden, by the weight of the forbidden, by the power of the forbidden.
It’s the first time they’ve touched since that night on the boat dock, if you don’t include the light dabs of hydrogen peroxide she’d apply to the wounds he got fighting, usually while they sat together in the kitchen, her parents watching over them nervously. Twelve years living under the same roof and they never shared so much as a hug after that night, nothing that might risk the feel of his skin against her own.
And now this.
Now the intoxicating blend of the cologne he wore as a teenager mingling with the musky aroma of his belt and boots. Now the knowledge that he’d asked after her virginity years before, that the thought of her lying with another man had filled him with protective, jealous rage then just as it does now.
She feels boneless and moist. One of those feelings isn’t an illusion.
If this is what it feels like to be bad,
she thinks,
no wonder so many people get addicted.
“Tell me,” she whispers. “Tell me why you really don’t want me to go.”
“I am,” he growls.
He presses their foreheads together, takes the sides of her face in both of his large, powerful hands. It’s torture, this position. It’s deliberate, she’s sure. It keeps her from lifting her mouth to his. Keeps her from looking straight into his eyes. He’s fighting it, still. Just as she’s fought it for years.
She parts her lips, inviting him to kiss her.
“Please,” he groans. “Just, please
don’t
go.”
“Caleb…” She reaches for his face.
On behalf of 1001 Dark Nights,
Liz Berry and M.J. Rose would like to thank ~
Liliana Hart
Scott Silverii
Steve Berry
Doug Scofield
Kim Guidroz
Jillian Stein
InkSlinger PR
Asha Hossain
Kasi Alexander
Chris Graham
Pamela Jamison
Jessica Johns
Dylan Stockton
and Simon Lipskar
Table of Contents
An introduction to the MacKenzie Family World by Liliana Hart
Discover the Liliana Hart MacKenzie Family Collection
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
