These books just get better and better.
Read this excerpt from The Rise. Come see what Alexa and her monster, along with Kayden have been up to. Nelly has been very busy also!
No spoilers here. Just a tease for you.
I don’t have the cover to show you just yet but read this!
Scene from Book 3: The Rise
Set to be released on September 25, 2012!
ALEXA
I stood beside the Mercedes my friend Tommy had lent me, my hands clenched into fists at my sides, watching the numbers on the gas pump roll up. We were still two hours away from our destination; from Nelly. We had pushed on as far as we dared before stopping to fill up the empty tank. As anxious as I was, I might just rip the nozzle out of the tank without letting it fill. Time was ticking and ticking.
Kayden had gotten out with me, even though I had jumped out before the car had come to a complete stop and rushed to get this inconvenient task accomplished. He had probably needed a break from my Mother. I knew I did. I didn’t disagree with anything she was saying, but that didn’t mean I wanted to hear it right now.
I watched the numbers on the pump roll and roll. I could feel Kayden’s eyes studying me.
He was leaning back against the Mercedes, his left arm slightly raised because of the bullet wound he’d received back at Dangeon. A slight sheen covered his handsome face, his arms and neck. He should be resting right now, recovering. He hadn’t uttered a word of complaint.
When he took my hand I sighed at the comfort he gave me, releasing a tense breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding. I did my best to keep a neutral face, to not let all of the emotions I was feeling leak out there. Not that it made any difference. Kayden knew I was afraid, terrified even. Of course he did. He could see it as surely as I could see the tension in his muscles and the perfect lines of his face.
“She’s going to be fine,” Kayden said, his deep voice softened to a rumbled whisper. I pulled my gaze away from the rolling pump numbers and looked up into his golden eyes. I found a bit of peace there, but only a bit.
“She’s probably asleep in her dorm room right now,” he continued, speaking gently. “Safe and sound. We have only been gone a couple days. Nelly’s a smart girl. She wouldn’t get in any trouble. She’s probably just as worried about you right now.”
Kayden pulled me to him with his good hand, and I laid my head against his chest. I listened to his heartbeat. Slow and steady. “I know,” I said, releasing another heavy breath. “So why do I have the awful feeling that something’s happened? That we’re going to be…too late? I could barely bring myself to say those two words. They came out sounding the same as they felt: choked.
Kayden said nothing to that. I felt my heart drop, took a step back, my eyes returning to the rolling gas pump numbers. Kayden reached into the pocket of his jeans and produced a tiny leather box. He held it out to me. I stared at it. “I never gave you your birthday present,” he said, and his voice sounded strange… apprehensive, almost.
I looked up at him and found that he could not look back at me. For just a tiny moment, my worries melted away and a small smile touched my lips. My big, strong Kayden looked…nervous. It took me a moment to recognize it. It was an expression I had never seen him wear.
I took the box and pulled back the lid. My breath caught in my throat. Inside, set in black velvet was the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. Rose gold, topped with a sphere of diamonds so brilliant that the stones caught bits of light even on this dark night and threw rose gold tinted light every which way. 
Finally, I choked them back and cleared my throat. My words still came out a little rusty. “Thank you,” I said. “It’s beautiful…like a tiny sun.”
Kayden took the ring from the box and took my hand. I felt my knees loosen. “Well,” he said, his slight Scottish accent seeming to caress the word. I stared into his eyes, the color of a lion’s, and wondered at how such a fearsome creature could purr so sweetly. “I’m partial to silver myself,” he continued, running those lion’s eyes over the silver on my skin. I shivered. “But it has been in my family for over two hundred years. My father gave it to my mother, my grandfather to my grandmother.”
He slipped the ring on the third finger of my left hand. It fit so perfectly on my finger, and somehow, even amidst all the jagged and discolored scars that my hand had picked up over the years, it managed to look…right. Just right. I choked back more tears. I have no idea why I felt like crying.
My monster, quiet for once in what seemed like an eternally long time, either had nothing to say, or was graciously allowing me this moment. Either way, I was grateful.
I stared down at my hand. Took a deep breath, opened my mouth. I had no idea what was going to come out. “I-I…belong to you,” I whispered, and the words were a slow thought, processed as they were spoken. They held no question.
Kayden’s hand came up and tilted my chin back. I stared at my lion; his golden skin, his carved muscles, the strong line of his jaw, and those eyes. A tear escaped my own. It rolled down my cheek, warm and wet.
Kayden’s rough but gentle thumb brushed it away. “Yes, my Warrior,” he said, “and I you.”
More tears joined the first. Kayden pulled me into his arms again, and I sank into the strength of them. I lay my head on his chest, drying my eyes on the soft fabric of his gray t-shirt. I felt him rest his chin on the top of my head, the short hair of his beard pleasantly prickling me. For a moment, all was okay. Right with the world. Just right.
But of course, because it was my world we were talking about here, it was only a moment.
Then I remembered something that sent a pang of guilt through my stomach. Then I remembered Jackson.
I didn’t wasn’t to hurt him. Jackson had always been good to me, had saved my ass more than a couple times. He loved me. And I loved him. But…
Not in the way I love Kayden. I don’t love anyone the way I love Kayden. I love him as much as I love Nelly. Well…almost.
I would have to tell Jackson about us. He deserved to know. That made my heart hurt.
I took a step back from Kayden, who studied my face as I did so. “Kayden,” I began, then realized I didn’t know what to say.
A small, rare smile played at his lips. “You’re worried about him,” he said. It was not a question.
I hesitated, then gave a small nod. “He’s my friend,” I said lamely.
Kayden nodded once in return. “Which is why haven’t killed him,” he said, his golden eyes never leaving mine. His brow furrowed for a moment, and those lion’s eyes went distant, hard. “I came close once,” he admitted.
I raised a brow at that. Kayden chuckled, a soft, deep rumble that vibrated in his chest. “That night I saw you two outside of your dorm room. He had his arms around you, and you were…it took a lot of self-control to keep myself from ripping him away from you and snapping his neck.”
A small laugh bubbled up from my throat, and it sounded odd. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed. “How romantic,” I said. I tried for a grin, and succeeded only partly. I remembered that night. It seemed like it had been ages ago now.
“So you were waiting for me,” I said, “I knew it.”
Kayden’s hand came up and rested on my cheek. “Alexa, I have been waiting for you for a very long time.”
I leaned forward. I didn’t care if my Mother was probably watching us through the car window. Kayden drew me to him like a magnet. I was through resisting the pull. Just before our lips touched, the gas pump beside us clicked off.
In a blur of motion and slammed car doors, we were back in the Mercedes and peeling out of the gas station lot. I removed a cigarette from my pack and placed it between my lips once we were back on the highway. The fact that Kayden had moved the same way I had, so quickly and uncaring of witnesses, to get back in the car, not even taking a tiny moment to let our lips meet told me one thing: he was as worried as I was. He had the same bad feeling I had. I didn’t want to believe it. I had no reason to believe it. But Kayden felt it, too.
Nelly was in trouble.
Let’s hope we’re not too late, Warrior.
I cringed. Lit the cigarette, crushed it between my teeth. My monster felt it, too.
Oh wow! I am so ready for more Alexa and Kayden! Miss Nelly also!
To read more about this go here.
You can read my reviews of Blood Warrior and Half Black Soul (Books One and Two of the Alexa Montgomery Saga) by clicking on the title below.
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