My own release date! For one of my most favorite books I've ever written! How is that possible? I feel like such a goofball.
Yes, life has been super busy, the world zooming by me and I hardly realize that it's yet again another Monday, I've missed some scheduled appointment, didn't get to the gym like I wanted to, and today I realize that Broken Shine is releasing today!
Talk about feeling out of my mind.
Anyway, though, I am proud to announce the release of Broken Shine, the third in the Moonlight and Shadows series, the conclusion to the story arc, the one that pulls all the pieces together, and brings more insight to the Immortal Knights Templar.
Especially Liam
(Everyone's favorite Templar...)
Here's a blurb, and I'll post an exclusive excerpt as well:
Love will be the death of him.
Felicia Hunter earned herself the nickname Leeza early in life, and well as the reputation for being a klutz. How she landed a job in a glass store was a miracle. The bigger miracle is the mysterious designer who brings in the most beautiful glasswork she’d ever seen. Little does she know, he’s an Immortal Knight Templar.
Sir Liam has spent the last 700 years as a Knight Templar, faithful to the Balance Mandate. His charge is to protect humans from all manner mythical creatures. In the past 24 years, he’s become more attached to Leeza than his vows of chastity allow.
The closer Liam gets to Leeza, the more love and need surge through him. His feelings for her bring him to the very edge, but if she pulls him over, he may end up broken.
Content warning: This story contains unbounded passion, a little bite-and-bleed love action and a Knight to die for.
Exclusive Blurb:
A knock resonated on the inner door to her office, the one that came up from the shop.
“Come in,” Leeza said. Though she was pretty sure she knew who it was.
Sure enough, Sir Liam walked through the narrow door, tilted slightly to the side to fit through.
She could smell the cigar on him as he invaded her little office. “Hello, Sir Liam,” she said, smiling at him with her best professional expression.
“You have something for me?” His face revealed nothing. He looked as big and menacing as he had in her lawn. Maybe more so, since the small office felt much smaller with him in it.
“Yes. I don’t know what happened to these glasses,” she said, heading to the door near the hallway where the box was still sitting. “They were fine earlier, and then they just got warped.”
Liam followed her, and every sense in her body tingled—his presence enough to make her body sensitive.
Trying to ignore the overwhelming sensations, she pulled one of the bent glasses out of the box. “See, they’re just…warped.”
Liam took the glass, and when he did, his finger grazed hers.
Electricity fired through her. Not like the vibe from the lawyer guy, but something else entirely. It wasn’t the same, but more. More powerful, more mystical maybe?
Whatever it was, it was more.
It made her want to touch him everywhere. To grab his hand and start there, working her way up his body, in a slow, methodical pattern, examining every part of his skin. With her fingers, her eyes, her lips…
What was wrong with her?
She glanced up at Liam’s face.
His lips were pressed into a tight line, a little crease in his brow, like he was ready to hit something. And he was staring at her.
“Sorry,” she said, though she didn’t really know what she was apologizing for.
He closed his eyes, then opened them again, a slow blink, like he was trying to sort out his thoughts. “It is fine,” Liam said. “You just… There are things I shouldn’t be thinking about.”
“What things?” Leeza asked.
Again, the little crease revealed itself in his brow. “It is not your concern.” He shifted the box in his arms. “I will bring you new glasses.”
“Liam,” she called out as he turned his back to her.
“Yes?” He didn’t face her.
Like some unknown force propelled her, Leeza closed the gap between them, and put her hand on his back; a feather-light touch, but the muscles seemed to dance beneath her fingers, his body tensing.
Yet she couldn’t stop herself.
Each muscle, she drew a line with the tip of her finger, feeling the curve of them—how strong he was. His body was powerful, massive, a force to be reckoned with; that much was certain.
Slowly, she increased her pressure, running her hand down his spine, and touching the indentation of each of his vertebrae.
“Leeza, you shouldn’t,” he said.
But he didn’t move.
She slid her hand down to his jeans, then ran it back up, the tone of the muscles under the shirt sending shivers through her. His body was rigid, hard as marble under her fingers—she wondered if he was even breathing.
She didn’t think she was.
She touched across his shoulder, down his arm. She brought her other hand up to caress him, now both her hands running over the surface. She didn’t want to stop—she couldn’t stop.
“Leeza, please, I beg you.” Liam took a step away from her. The box dropped as he faced her, the shattering of glass a strained accompaniment to their dance.
But she was on a mission. She had to feel him, she had to touch him. The box was kicked out of the way; whether she did it or he did, she didn’t know. She just stepped into his body, her hands running over his chest. Her palms grazed his nipples, and they puckered, Liam inhaling a sharp breath.
She caressed the curve of his biceps, his triceps, his forearms, all of him, even the lines of his fingers.
He squeezed her hands, and she brought her head up to meet his eyes. They were feral, dark, like he didn’t know what he wanted.
“Touch me back,” she whispered.
“I can’t.” He didn’t let go of her.
So Leeza did it for him.
She brought their clenched fingers up to her face and ran his palm down her cheek. He jerked at first, but he didn’t stop. His warm hand slid down, his fingers caressing the corner of her mouth.
She didn’t dare move.
The urge to kiss his fingers almost overwhelmed her, but in her gut, she knew she couldn’t respond—she couldn’t do anything back, or he’d run away.
He released her hand, letting his fingers graze over her face, delicate, soft touches smoothing over her skin, feeling her. They slid up by her eyes, and she closed them, just as he passed over her lids.
It was like he’d never actually touched a woman before.
He reached into her hair, feeling the strands. “So soft,” he whispered as he stroked her locks. “I didn’t know…” He continued down the back of her head, stroking her neck, around to the front, his fingers sliding across her shoulders. Down her arm he moved, and every nerve in Leeza was on fire.
She’d never been so turned on in all her life.
His finger skimmed back up her arm, across her shoulder, pausing at the center, just under her neck, where her blouse neckline was open, revealing her skin. His focus was completely on her skin, that tiny flash where her shirt was unbuttoned, and he traced the small half-moon of the bone in the center.
She let out a shuddering breath—his touch was warm, so delicate for someone so massive. Since she’d met him, she’d wondered how someone so large and powerful could blow glass, such a fragile process. Yet feeling how his calloused finger barely touched her, she knew. He touched her with the same care that he used with the glass.
Part of her wanted to yank him to her, to wrap her arms around him and kiss him until their worlds erupted, but she didn’t move. She didn’t want to break the trance he was in. His name lingered on her lips, but she didn’t expel it. Instead, she rolled her lips into her mouth, wetting them, scraping them with her teeth, something that wouldn’t break his concentration.
Yet it did.
His gaze flicked from her neck to her lips.
One of those fingers reached up and caressed her lip, the moisture making it slide a little. He paused, his finger lingering on the center of her mouth.
And she couldn’t stop herself. She wrapped her lips around that fingertip and placed a kiss on it.
It was enough to break the spell.
He snapped his hand back, his eyes wide, like he’d been burned. “No.”
The force of his words had her stepping backward, and he grabbed the box at their feet and in a flash he was gone.
Get your copy of Broken Shine in ebook from
Once Upon A Bookstore.
