Trust Me by Ella Sheridan
Southern Nights #2
Publication Date: 1 February 2015
Genres: Romance, Suspense
A woman on a mission…
Maddie Baker spent four years seeking vengeance against the man whose abuse destroyed her life. That search has led her to a small town outside Atlanta and a missing teenage girl. Nothing will stand in the way of her mission, including a jackass of an ex-soldier who reawakens emotions best left to die. A man on the hunt…
Jack Quinn learned to recognize trouble in the marines, and he sees it in Maddie the minute he lays eyes on her tending bar. Her secrets are hidden deep, but secrets are his specialty, and peeling away her barriers only makes him want her more. He’ll do whatever it takes to get her to trust him with her body and her heart. An old threat whose time has come… Staying hidden kept Maddie safe, but the search for justice will bring her into the open and face-to-face with her treacherous past. Risking her life is one thing, but risking her heart is another. In love and in danger, she must trust Jack to lead her—and pray they both come out alive.
Excerpt:
They played Mexican standoff until she finished in the sink. When she turned off the water and reached for a towel to dry her hands, Jack was right there.
She stared at the towel in his hands, water dripping from her fingers onto the floor. Without waiting for her to decide, he reached out and grasped one hand between his. Maddie startled, stepped back, but though she pulled, he refused to release her hand. As he rubbed the towel over each finger, her palm, the back of her hand, he watched her eyes dilate, her breathing quicken until he wondered if—and kind of hoped—she might pop the single shiny button holding her vest closed. Her surprise kept her compliant as he switched hands, drying the other one and enjoying the look of hunger barely shimmering across her face.
The moment didn’t last, though. As if finally realizing what was happening, Maddie snatched her hand back. “Don’t.”
“Why not?”
She didn’t answer. The stubborn press of her lips holding back the words made him want to kiss her, to break through that ironclad control until all the reasons for her withdrawal, all the secrets she held, spilled out. Maddie was a woman with a lot of secrets, secrets that kept her apart from life. He’d simply have to peel them away one by one until nothing was left between them but skin and sweat and sex. And God, he couldn’t wait for the sex.
He leaned forward, deliberately invading her space, warming her skin with his breath. “Maddie—”
Swiping her hands on her jeans as if Jack had somehow contaminated her with his touch, Maddie turned away from him. “I’m headed out, Tommy Ray.”
The older man grunted a reply as he lifted the tray of food for the poker gang. “Drive safe.”
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Jack told her.
“No.” She kept walking. A leather backpack, worn with use, waited near the back door. Maddie slung it onto her shoulder without a backward glance.
Jack followed her out the door. “It’s not optional, so stop arguing—if you ever stop arguing.”
“I don’t.”
“Is that supposed to scare me off?” he asked. The hot Georgia night immediately beaded sweat on his brow. He swiped at it, ignoring her ignoring him. “I’m the kind of guy who loves a challenge, you know.”
About Ella Sheridan
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