Love in the Light (Hearts in Darkness, #2)(63)
Smiling, Carly slid herself in front of Dare, pinning her body between his and the hard wooden counter. Her eyes were full of heat and need. “I could drop to my knees right here. Suck you off. Let you f*ck my face. Or we could go upstairs, baby. Whatever you want.” With the hand not stroking him, she wrapped an arm around his neck, her fingers playing with the long strands of his hair. “You seem … tense, upset. Let me make you feel better?”
And now, on top of everything else, he had a warm, willing woman wanting to make him forget all his troubles. So, yeah, he should’ve been content.
Dare emptied his glass and slammed it down on the counter. Fuck it. Grasping her face in his hand, he trailed his thumb over her bottom lip, stroking, dipping inside so she could suck on his flesh. “Always did love that mouth,” he said.
She grinned around his thumb and nodded, then she slowly slid down his body.
Dare closed his eyes, wanting nothing more than to lose himself in the moment, the sensation, the physical. But his gut wouldn’t stop telling him that some part of their recent troubles were going to come back and bite them in the ass. The past had a way of doing that. Which was why Dare always kept one eye trained over his shoulder. But this particular past was only days old and way bigger than their typical fights. Along with the SpecOps team operating out of Hard Ink, the Ravens had played a role in taking down longtime enemies and Baltimore’s biggest heroin dealers—the Church Gang. In the process, they’d exposed an international drug smuggling conspiracy involving a team of former soldiers turned hired mercenaries and at least one three-star, active-duty general. The Ravens had initially come into the fight as hired help, but they’d soon taken up the cause as their own when Harvey and Creed had been killed.
Given all that, Dare had a really f*cking hard time believing the dust would just settle and life would go back to normal without any blowback.
As Carly got into a crouched position at his feet, Dare opened his eyes and tried to shake away all the churn and burn in his head. But then his gaze snagged on a girl in the doorway across the room. Clarity stole over him, pushing away the fog of lust and the haze of troubled thoughts. The girl had the longest blond hair he’d ever seen, like some fairy-tale princess, or a f*cking angel. Pale, small, almost too beautiful to look at. She stood out so starkly that it was almost as if she glowed in the dim room. Like a beacon. Bright and shiny and new.
One of these things is not like the other. And it was the timid beauty wearing too-big clothes and no makeup, hovering on the edge of the room.
And Dare wasn’t the only man who noticed.
Coming April 26, 2016
About the Author
Laura Kaye is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over a twenty books in contemporary romance and romantic suspense. Laura grew up amidst family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses, cementing her life-long fascination with storytelling and the supernatural. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.
Visit Laura Kaye at http://www.LauraKayeAuthor.com/
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Acknowledgements
As my first published book, Hearts in Darkness will always be special to me, which makes the publication of Love in the Light special, too. When I wrote Hearts in Darkness in 2010, I never expected to write more about Caden and Makenna. The story came to me with a happy-for-now ending that left it up to the reader’s imagination what happened to them after their night in the elevator. And for a long time, that was all there was for me. I saw pieces of their future, but no story. And then one did the story came to me. I saw it all. Every up and down. And just how far down those downs would be. By that time, I was getting frequent questions from readers—will you ever write more about Caden and Makenna? In fact, that has been the single most frequently asked question I’ve received from readers over the entire course of my writing career.
And so Love in the Light was born.
Caden and Makenna are some of my favorite characters I’ve ever written, and I hope you love their journey in this book. Because this book is first and foremost for you, the readers, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for loving these characters the way I do.
Next I need to thank my best friend and fellow writer, Lea Nolan, for encouraging me, brainstorming with me, and reading the book with such a thoughtful eye. Christi Barth, Jillian Stein, and Liz Berry also deserve thanks for reading the book and letting me know what they thought—together, you all gave me the courage to let this one out into the world. Thank you!
I must also thank my family, for making it possible for me to carve out the time to get this done. I love you all so much! ~LK