BLURB:
“I never thought
it would go this far… that a man with such terrible secrets would steal my
heart and make me want him so much, when his life of danger and lies should
have made me want nothing more than to turn and run. I understood him, you see.
I knew that beneath all of that money and power, and yes… violence, was a man
in desperate need of love. So desperate that he took from me something I wasn’t
ready to give: my future.”
Brielle Dalton
thought the few months in Vegas she needed to finish her dissertation would
also be a chance to have some fun before ‘real life’ took over. But she never
counted on meeting Cristos Vicario, the irresistible but troubled owner of the
Adagio casino. The attraction was instant and all-consuming, but in the
beginning neither knew that their lives had crossed before, and the result had
been nothing short of tragedy. By the time Brielle discovers who Cristos really
is, and what he has done in a reckless attempt to keep her, it’s too late.
She’s already in too deep.
On
Alpha Males… by Kella McKinnon
Women love alpha males, myself included. I probably wouldn’t want to have to deal with
one in my everyday life (okay, I know
I wouldn’t), but in my personal fantasies and my favorite romance reads, yeah,
Alphas reign supreme.
In my newest novel “In Deep”, the heroine is an
anthropologist, and she acknowledges that although she’s a modern, liberated
woman, she still swoons for a powerful, take-charge kind of guy, and she
attributes her reaction to biology. More
specifically, the biology we’ve inherited from our distant ancestors, who lived
when life wasn’t quite so easy as it is now, and the only career path for men
or women was basically to do whatever it took to survive another day. In all of those thousands of years before
grocery stores and the criminal justice system, what kind of man would a woman
be looking for?
I’ll tell you what I’d be looking for… the biggest, baddest guy around. The one that could ward off an attack from a
rival tribe and still bring home a nice juicy slab of meat for dinner. He would do anything to protect his woman,
because he recognized her value as his mate and the mother of his children: the
next generation. Sound familiar?
Now, we women are more empowered than ever. We don’t need a man to protect us or hunt for
our dinner. But there’s still a little part of us that appreciates the alpha
male. We can’t help it; it’s in our
DNA. Is that why we love those
domineering, take-charge, possessive heroes?
I think so…
EXCERPT:
In
Deep
I
turned to Cristos and offered him a casual smile. He was watching me, his expression unreadable
at the moment, which bothered me. I’m
usually very good at reading people.
It’s second nature to me, so much so that I often don’t even know how I
do it, so I felt a little bit blind when it came to this man. And of course when people are very hard to
read, they usually have something to hide.
His stoic silence was making me squirm, so I made an attempt at
conversation.
“Thank
you… for taking me to dinner. Where are
we going?”
His
expression relaxed into a devilish smile.
“My pleasure, Brielle. And it’s a
surprise.”
He
shifted his body a little so that the length of his thigh was pressing against
mine. A jolt of heat raced through me at
the contact, but when I looked up again, he was gazing past me and out the
window, so I couldn’t tell if he’d done it on purpose. I had the sudden, disconcerting urge to crawl
into his lap and rub up against him.
Just thinking about it was making my heart beat faster.
“We’re
almost there”, he said.
“Already?”
He
laughed. “Vegas is a small city. Were you hoping the ride would last
longer?” He pressed just a little bit
closer, and I tried to scoot a bit farther away so that I didn’t suddenly lose
my mind and actually crawl onto his lap.
The way my body was reacting to him, it was a distinct possibility, and
I needed to be careful or I was going to end up looking like either a slut or
an idiot, neither of which was flattering.
His
hand came down gently on my thigh and my breath hitched in my throat. “Are you sure you’re not afraid of me,
Cariño?”
He
was looking at me with those sexy eyes again, and I felt like I could fly. “No.
I’m not afraid of you,” I said with a little laugh.
“Good. If it’s not fear I’m sensing from you, then
it must be desire.” His voice was deep
and just a little husky. He was so near,
so real, so hedonistically male.
I
could only stare at him for a long moment, during which Dante opened the
partition to announce our arrival, breaking the spell I had apparently fallen
under. Be careful, Brie, or you’ll end
up hitching a ride home with his personal assistant later.
The
car pulled to a stop at the curb, and Dante came around to open the door for
us. Criss got out and then reached for
my hand. I slipped mine into his and
that same thrill went through me at the contact. His grip tightened. I stepped out onto the curb, and was shocked
to see several people with cameras raised in our direction. Dante stepped protectively between us and the
crowd, and Criss took my arm.
“Ignore
them, Brie. Just keep walking.”
I
did, and within moments we were inside a posh looking restaurant, and being
shown to our table as Dante disappeared toward the car.
Once
we were comfortably seated at an intimate corner table, I leaned closer.
“Does
that happen all the time? The
photographers?”
He
shrugged as he opened the wine list and perused the pages. “Sometimes.
Other times I manage not to be noticed.
It just goes with the territory.”
“Oh…”
His
eyes flicked up to mine. “Don’t worry,
Dante will keep them from bothering us during dinner.”
He
signaled the waiter, who hurried over to our table. “A bottle of your best red, please. And ask the chef to prepare something special
for us tonight.”
The
waiter’s eyes practically sparkled as he gave a little bow and headed for the
kitchen. No doubt he was anticipating a rather large tip.
Criss
turned his full attention to me, leaning his elbows on the table and casually
running one finger over his full bottom lip.
“Alexis tells me you’re a student in anthropology.”
His
eyes, god… they burned right through me.
I had to clear my throat a little.
“Yes, I’m just finishing up my Ph.D., which of course is why I’m here in
Vegas.”
“Why
anthropology? It’s kind of unusual,
isn’t it?”
I
smiled, my love for the subject undoubtedly shining through. “It just comes naturally to me, I
suppose. I’ve always loved to study
people, figure them out, their motives and interactions. I sort of have a knack for understanding all
that on a really basic level that most people never see. It’s fascinating to me, always has been.”
He
leaned closer and gave me a dark smile, his lips curving up dangerously. “And are you going to figure me out,
Brielle?”
“I
don’t know”, I said quite honestly. It
was already obvious to me that the man ran pretty deep, and I had a very hard
time reading him. The one thing I did
know for sure is that if I let him have the upper hand with me, this spark we
seemed to have would go nowhere. If I
fell into the mold he made for me, I was certain he would use me up and then
walk away. He would probably do that
anyway. That must be the way he had always managed to avoid relationships,
because women tried so hard to become what he wanted them to be.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself. Though I used to work in Boston in the biotech
industry, I’m now loving life on a small farm in New England where my husband
and I are raising our three children and lots of animals. Between taking care of chickens and goats and
shuttling the kids to dance class and piano lessons, I find the time to pursue
my own interest: writing. I relish
creating stories and bringing my characters to life on the written page, and
each book is a labor of love.
I’m passionate about the
romance genre because of the emotional journey a well-written novel can take
the reader on, and my goal with each of my books is to do the same for my
readers. I would love to hear from you
at kellamckinnon.com, or kellamckinnon@gmail.com.
GIVEAWAY:
Prizes for the tour are as follows:
• One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
• One randomly chosen host will receive a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Living on a farm in New England with the chickens and the goats and writing romance novels sounds kind of idyllic to me! Although, I'm sure the day-to-day reality doesn't always seems very "romantic." LOL
ReplyDeleteYou kind of have to take the 'idyllic' where you can get it, but it is lots of fun! As for the romance, we do have a ram who thinks he's Casanova.
DeleteThank you so much for hosting!
ReplyDeleteKella :)
I like the excerpt!
ReplyDeleteTrix, vitajex(at)Aol(dot)com
I liked the excerpt
ReplyDeleteI like your Guest Post, Kella!
ReplyDeleteInteresting excerpt
ReplyDeletei liked the excerpt
ReplyDelete