Passions—and tempers—flare as one star-crossed couple gets a second chance at love.
King of Clubs
Aces & Eights #2
Sandra Owens
Releasing June 27, 2017
Montlake Romance
In the second novel in acclaimed
author Sandra Owens’s Aces & Eights series, passions—and tempers—flare as
one star-crossed couple gets a second chance at love.
Covert FBI
agent Court Gentry loves his brothers, his job, and his Harley-Davidson. Once
he loved a girl, too, but when she broke his heart, he put his emotions on
lockdown…until she crosses his path again.
On vacation
six years ago, free-spirited Lauren Montgomery fell hard for Court Gentry. She
returned home happier than ever, only to descend into a spiral of abuse by her
ex-husband, Stephan. When Stephan threatened to kill any man who touched her,
Lauren cut Court from her life—but not from her heart.
When Lauren
and Court reunite after her friend marries his brother, Court guards himself
against the person who made him feel such intense passion and pain. Except the
undeniable spark between them is impossible to contain and heating up fast. Six
years ago, it was love. Now, it’s just lust. Keeping it merely physical is a
foolproof plan…right?
When Stephan is released from prison, Lauren can’t outrun her past anymore, and Court vows to protect her. But with Lauren in imminent danger, Court must question his heart and risk his life to save the woman he never stopped loving.
When Stephan is released from prison, Lauren can’t outrun her past anymore, and Court vows to protect her. But with Lauren in imminent danger, Court must question his heart and risk his life to save the woman he never stopped loving.
Court had wanted to let
her know he was here, but Madison said if he did, Lauren would just kick him
out. According to Madison, Lauren intended to go straight to bed. He tilted his
head, listening to the sounds coming from her bedroom. She was moving around, opening
and closing drawers. She definitely hadn’t gone straight to bed. What was she
up to?
Suspicious, he waited. An
hour later, the floorboards in the hallway creaked. A dark-clothed person
walked into the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, took out two bottles of
water, and stuffed them into the backpack she carried, and then headed for the
door.
Lauren. Lauren. Lauren. “Going somewhere my little midnight ghost?”
She yelped, the backpack
falling to the floor with a heavy thud.
“Easy, G.G.” He pushed off
the sofa.
“Court?” She pressed her
forehead against the door. “Why are you here?”
“Guarding you. Going to be
kind of hard to do if you’re not here, don’t you think?” He picked up the
backpack. “Where you headed?”
“None of your business.”
She slipped around him, backed up to the kitchen light switch, and turned it
on. “You can leave now.”
“Don’t think so.” He
frowned at the sight of a gun barrel in the partially unzipped bag. He pulled
it out and held up the Glock 26, also known as a Baby Glock, preferred by women
because of its smaller size. “You planning on shooting someone?”
“Again, none of your
business.”
He shouldn’t like that
fire in those golden brown eyes so much. “I’m making it my business. Do you
even know how to shoot this?” When her gaze shifted away, he had his answer.
Christ, she was clueless. About everything. How to use the weapon she’d been
careless enough to let him find, how to disappear, and she probably didn’t know
how to fight off an attack.
What to do about that? As
he saw it, he had two choices. Either let her go and hope she somehow managed
to safely disappear or make her his project. He wasn’t stupid enough to tell
her that last part since he doubted there was a woman in the world who’d
appreciate being any man’s project.
“Are you that afraid of
him?” he asked even though he was sure of the answer.
“Feeling like a broken
record here because again, none of your business. I’d like you to leave now.”
She crossed her arms over
her chest, probably to show him she meant business. It wasn’t working since
she’d managed to push up her breasts so that the material of her T-shirt
stretched against them, leaving her nipples outlined.
He’d had those beautiful breasts in his mouth, had explored every inch of her body, had known all her sighs of pleasure. He’d once thought she loved him. Until she’d told him in a phone call it was over, not even having the courtesy to tell him to his face.
He’d had those beautiful breasts in his mouth, had explored every inch of her body, had known all her sighs of pleasure. He’d once thought she loved him. Until she’d told him in a phone call it was over, not even having the courtesy to tell him to his face.
Nor had she given him a
reason. Just, “Don’t call me again or try to see me.” That had happened only
days after she’d told him she loved him. He’d learned the hard way women
couldn’t be trusted, the first lesson on that coming from his mother. The one
time he’d forgotten that lesson had been with Lauren. But never again.
“What are you looking at?”
She lifted one arm, snapping her fingers. “My eyes are up here.”
Irritated with himself and
her, he kept his gaze on her breasts to prove… What? That he was an ass? “So
they are,” he said, lifting his eyes to hers. “Here’s the deal.”
“There is no deal, Court.
You have no say so over my life. I’ll ask you one more time to leave.”
“Or you’ll what? Call the
cops?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what
I’ll do.”
He chuckled, amused that
she had no clue she was threatening to call the police on an FBI agent. “Let’s
sit, and I’ll tell you the deal.” Ignoring the little growl deep in her throat,
he settled on the sofa. “Come on, G.G. Just hear me out.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Why? You used to like
it.” She’d been his Gorgeous Girl for six days. It must have been the sun and
beer and salty air that had tricked him into mistaking lust for love. He had to
admit the woman had a lot to do with that, too. All six years had done to her
was turn her from a cute college girl with a love of life into a beautiful
woman afraid of her own shadow. He could appreciate the physical change in her,
but he didn’t like the fear her ex-husband had put in her eyes.
And when did she have that
husband? Before he met her or after? Or even during? No, he couldn’t believe
that she would have given herself to him so freely, showing no sign of guilt
during their time together if she’d had a husband waiting in the wings. He
wanted answers and he planned to get them.
“Lauren, please. Sit and
hear me out.” Her cat jumped onto the sofa, climbed onto his lap, and peered up
at him with curious blue eyes. “See, even… Hemingway, is it?” At her nod, he
said, “Even Hemingway wants to hear what I have to say.”
Like a wary crab, she
inched sideways to the nearest chair. “You have five minutes.”
Little did she know. He
had as long as he wanted because she wasn’t going anywhere. She might not like
it, but it was for her own good. As an officer of the law, he couldn’t stand by
and watch her get herself hurt. From all the signs she’d unknowingly given him,
she fully expected bad trouble was headed her way.
“I have an offer for you.”
“I have an offer for you.”
A
best-selling, award winning author, Sandra Owens lives in the
beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Her family and friends often
question her sanity, but have ceased being surprised by what she might get up
to next. She’s jumped out of a plane, flown in an aerobatic plane while the
pilot performed death-defying stunts, has flown Air Combat (two fighter planes
dogfighting, pretending to shoot at each other with laser guns), and rode a
Harley motorcycle for years. She regrets nothing.
A member of Romance Writers of America's Honor Roll, Sandra is a 2013 Golden Heart® Finalist for her contemporary romance, CRAZY FOR HER. In addition to her contemporary romantic suspense novels, she writes Regency stories.
A member of Romance Writers of America's Honor Roll, Sandra is a 2013 Golden Heart® Finalist for her contemporary romance, CRAZY FOR HER. In addition to her contemporary romantic suspense novels, she writes Regency stories.
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