Title: The Lies Between Us Author: Yolanda Olson Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance
Running away has always been something I’m good at.
I’ve run far away from home and back again thinking that each time would be the last.
But things are a lot different lately. I’ve learned that tides turn, seasons change, and sometimes, people do too.
I haven’t seen Hoyt Blackburn in a decade because I was so convinced he wasn’t worth my time anymore. I guess this is where I’ve changed since I found out that his execution is one of those inevitable things that life handed him. I can’t ever remember him being a bad man, yet I can’t shake that something isn’t right about what’s happening to him.
Maybe it’s because I miss him.
Maybe it’s because I wanna lay eyes on the man one last time.
Will he remember me? Will he even care? I don’t know; the only thing I can honestly say for sure is that there are still some secrets we have left between us that have to be spoken before he draws his last breath. Otherwise, when that day comes, they may have just killed me too.
Jori laughs, this time a good-natured laugh, and I turn back around and smile at him. When he’s genuinely happy, his smile can light up the fucking world. You can see eternity in his eyes, and everything seems like it’ll be okay, even if just for the moment we’re in.
Yolanda Olson is a USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author. Born and raised in Bridgeport, CT where she currently resides, she usually spends her time watching her favorite channel, Investigation Discovery. Occasionally, she takes a break to write books and test the limits of her mind. Also an avid horror movie fan, she likes to incorporate dark elements into the majority of her books.
Prillon warrior Thomar Arcas is the royal heir to his ancestor’s legacy of dishonor, betrayal and death. When he was captured by the Hive, some on his home world cheered. Some sighed with relief. None shed a tear.
Thomar, along with his second, Varin, break free and destroy an enemy base, barely escaping with their lives. They transport to The Colony, the last refuge for contaminated males. Upon arrival they suffer in agony, their cyborg implants fighting for control of the powerful warriors.
Defeat is not in their blood. Not in their history. Not in their souls. Unable to sever their ties to the Hive implants, and suffering unrelenting pain, the warriors are about to choose an honorable death over further disgrace; until they are matched to a human female from Earth who very much needs their broken pieces to make herself whole. A female whom they crave with an intensity that just might pull them back from the brink of death.
Danika Gray left Earth to start a new life. With every touch, every kiss, every moment in their arms she finds herself closer to the paradise she seeks. But how can she free her new mates from endless torment? Fight an enemy she cannot see?
Love and passion are her only weapons. Lust. Desire. She must surrender everything she is —give in to their insatiable hunger—in order to save them.
“Do you accept my claim, mate? Do you give yourself freely, to me and my second, or do you wish to choose another primary male?”
Ummm, no? I wanted to tell this man, whoever he was, that I had no intention of accepting his claim on anything, but the body I seemed to be occupying shivered with need at the deep timbre of his voice, my—her—core throbbed, wet with welcome.
“Yes. Yes, I accept your claim, warriors.” The voice wasn’t mine, but I felt what she was feeling. Achy. Empty, Desperate.
Loved. Adored.
Safe.
That was not me. I had felt nothing similar in more years than I cared to count.
“Hurry,” I—she whispered.
From behind me, a second male voice murmured into my ear. “So greedy, little mate.”
I had no idea what was happening, but I knew the sound of promise in the male’s voice. So did this body. A soft moan escaped from my-her throat as his hands moved from my hips to cup my breasts.
I sat on his lap. Content to be there.
Was that another man behind me?
Oh, god. Yes. It was.
I should have been shocked. Instead, raw lust flooded me and I somehow knew there were two lovers. Two males. Both mine.
“Close your eyes. Lift your arms above your head. Lean back. Wrap them around me and don’t let go.” That voice whispered in my ear again, the command one I was eager to follow.
I did as instructed, my chest thrust forward, my back arched.
“Do not move without permission, mate.”
I tried to open my eyes, but the thought carried no weight as my body was not obeying my commands, but hers. Whoever she was. She kept her eyes closed and I knew it was because her second—whatever that meant—had ordered her not to open them and she wanted to please him. Wanted the pleasure she knew cooperation would award her. Desperately.
Grace Goodwin is a USA Today and international bestselling author of Sci-Fi and Paranormal romance with nearly one million books sold. Grace’s titles are available worldwide in multiple languages in ebook, print and audio formats. Two best friends, one left-brained, the other right-brained, make up the award-winning writing duo that is Grace Goodwin. They are both mothers, escape room enthusiasts, avid readers and intrepid defenders of their preferred beverages. (There may or may not be an ongoing tea vs. coffee war occurring during their daily communications.) Grace loves to hear from readers.
Reluctant socialite Coraline Baxter longs to live a life of significance and leave her mark on the world. When her local suffragette group asks her to climb Mount Rainier to raise awareness of their cause, she jumps at the chance, even though she has absolutely no climbing experience. If she can do it, any woman can do it. And after her mother issues an ultimatum–that Cora marry the man of her mother’s choosing if she is not successful–Cora must do it. But she can’t do it alone.
Noted mountain guide Nathan Hardee initially refuses to help Cora, but has a change of heart when he sees what is at stake. He knows enough about the man Cora’s mother has chosen to know that the headstrong young woman should have nothing to do with him, much less marry him.
Climbing Rainier will require all of Cora’s fortitude and will lead her and Nathan to rediscover their faith in God and humanity. These two loners make unlikely partners in righting a wrong and may just discover that only together is the view most glorious.
I answer with a kiss. A kiss I initiate. My glasses lift up as our faces meet and I reach up to pull them off, holding the stems in my hand as it lingers at his neck.
If a kiss can be perfect, this one is, crossing time and space to pull emotional tendrils together. I’m kissing him for seventeen years of confusion and craziness, for seventeen years of rejecting a piece of me that was just fine to begin with, for seventeen years of being defined by a fellow tween’s impulsive move.
He’s kissing me back for his own reasons, and whatever they are, they’re mighty fine, as his mouth takes mine and tells it stories that make my heart smile. Hands around my waist, he pulls me close, belly to belly, my coat still on but unzipped, the press of his flat torso and muscled terrain achingly tactile. My hands go up behind his neck, fingers brushing the ends of his short hair as his tongue uses a kind of energy I have never encountered before.
Breathless, we break apart, then come together again, the world spinning slowly without us, our bodies here but the rest of us, on every plane, lost in each other.
The cool air against my lips is the first sign that he’s pulled back. I open my eyes to find him so close, staring deeply, chest rising and falling as the scent of him mingles with the frankincense and rose oil I put on earlier today.
“So?” he asks.
“So… what?”
“Is that a yes?”
“You think that was a no?” One arm still around him, unable to let go, I cover my mouth with my hand, laughing.
“I think I need a clear yes, Fiona.”
On tiptoes, I kiss him lightly, then drop back, body pulsing.
Regina Scott started writing novels in the third grade. Thankfully for literature as we know it, she didn’t sell her first novel until she learned a bit more about writing. Since her first book was published, her stories have traveled the globe, with translations in many languages, including Dutch, German, Italian, and Portuguese. She now has had published more than fifty works of warm, witty historical romance. Regina Scott and her husband of more than 30 years reside in the Puget Sound area of Washington State on the way to Mt. Rainier. She has dressed as a Regency dandy, learned to fence, driven four-in-hand, and sailed on a tall ship, all in the name of research, of course. Learn more about her at her website.
Enter to win print copies of all three books in the American Wonders Collection, a collection of nine vintage-style postcards from the parks featured (the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Mt. Rainier), and a poster that speaks to the heart of the story: The best view comes after the hardest climb.!
