AXEL'S OBSESSION by Teirney Medeiros

AXEL'S OBSESSION by Teirney Medeiros

Jolene Victor has lived her entire life haunted by the curse on her family. It has been foretold to bed a man will result in an obsession that can only end with her death. And she's survived it - until now.

Enter Axel Danvers, a man plagued by his own past and guilt, returns home to claim Danvers Island as his own. One encounter with the mysterious Jolene draws Axel into the storm that's been brewing for years. Someone else is watching, and he's hungry for revenge. Can Axel put the past behind him? Can Jolene survive Axel's obsession?

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Excerpt

Not wanting to hear anything else but Axel’s wife, Jolene pulled out her cards, shuffled the deck restlessly. “I’m tempted to look.”

“You know not to.”

True. She could read another’s fate, but not her own or that of her family members. It was tradition. With each new day and the different choices people made, their fates changed.

The last of her tea gone, she stood up, stretched. “I’m going to go for a walk. Think for a while.”

Her Grand Mama’s assent was buried in the kitchen cabin, a muffle Jolene barely heard. Outside, the familiar sounds of the island surrounded her. She wouldn’t go far, just enough to clear her head. Intrigue sat on her shoulders like a crouching tiger.

Lost in thought, a shift in trees made her snap around. Immediately she went into the fighter’s stance Axel taught her, but Jolene blocked her face with her fists and lowered her center of gravity.

“Good job. Quick reaction,” he said, his voice hard.

Axel. “Shit, you scared the hell out of me.”

“What are you doing out here at night by yourself?”

The cabin still in sight, she didn’t see how it could be so wrong. The anger that flowed from him beat at her with its strong fists. Instinctively, she backed away from him. “I’m fine,” she said, her voice thick with a mixture of happiness and sadness at the same time. He looked so beautiful, standing in the half-light of her front porch. “What are you doing here?”

His sweat pants and jogging shoes belied his easy, alert posture. The squared shoulders, tilt of his jaw as he scanned the area. “I wanted to make sure you’re alright.”

Jolene didn’t know how to deal with the tension between them. It felt so foreign, so wrong, to be angry with him. Or have him be angry with her. There seemed to be an invisible wall, and neither one of them could cross it.

“As you can see, I’m fine.” Her body ached for his. “I’ll make sure I’m up early tomorrow.”

Not able to withstand his cold shoulder anymore, Jolene ran her hands back through her loose curls. “How do we get past this?”

His bare chest captured her attention for the smallest of seconds, but long enough to make her want. She wished she’d never found that diary, but then again, it was coming all along. She just thought she’d have more time with him.

“I don’t know. You kept something important from me, and I can’t trust you. At least, not with . . .”

“Your heart?”

The strangled cry that left her throat sounded like someone else’s. She couldn’t fathom it came from her. Strong in her own right, Jolene never begged. It wasn’t a part of her makeup, and yet, he made her want to.

The shuttered look that fell of his granite face made Jolene shrivel up. He paced a few turns, faced the direction of his home. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

The distance between them growing with each step he took, Jolene couldn’t find the words to call him back. What would she say? Love me? Or would she just throw herself at him, give her body to him shamelessly as she did the other times? She deserved more than just a good fuck. And a bodyguard.

“Good night, Axel,” she whispered. Her words were carried to him on a soft wind tainted with jasmine.

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IVORY'S ADDICTION by Teirney Medeiros

IVORY'S ADDICTION by Teirney Medeiros

Social worker Ivory Black has seen the effects of addiction too many times to count. The latest: A baby girl whose mother died in an overdose. What would have been an easy case turns into a fight for her heart when bad-boy Jax Morgan enters the picture.

As the only living relative, Jax is by law, the child's assumed guardian. As Ivory struggles to open Jax's cold heart to the child, and keep her own protected from him at the same time, Jax is dealing with severe PTSD. Addiction is never pretty, but Ivory can't stop wanting Jax.

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Excerpt:

“Is there anything else?” Her hands turned to butter, and she gripped the cup in her hands tighter. She didn’t dare raise it to her lips otherwise Jax would know just how nervous she felt.

“Not about Ashley.”

Appearing to be cool, calm and collected, he leaned against the high back of the barstool, but at the slightest movement, Ivory knew the man would coil into action. “I want to know more about you.”

“Me?” Ivory’s droll tone earned her a disapproving bearing of his teeth.

“I think that’s what I just said.”

She closed her eyes and tried to shut out the sound of the loud jukebox and raucous patrons. She focused on staying calm because if she didn’t, she might bolt for the safety of her Jeep. She wasn’t quite sure if she needed to be safe from the patrons at the bar or from Jax and his pheromones.

He studied her, his thick fringe of eyelashes lowered slightly, and Ivory felt a curious tingling ascend her spine. “Are you always rude?” she asked.

Jax’s lips pulled into a smirk. He tapped his finger against the bar in time with the hard rock. “I don’t see many people, babe, except through the end of a scope.”

A chill crashed over Ivory. A scope, as in sniper’s rifle? She clenched her drink harder. More than the little bit of knowledge he’d given her, the alpha male sitting next to her made her body react in a way she hadn’t let herself feel in a long time. Not since college. She felt heat coat her stomach, flames lick the center of her core in time with the rips of a guitar. She sensed his need and her body responded. The last time she’d given herself to a man, he’d broken her heart.

He leaned in, the heat of his skin so close her flesh grew warm. She drew in the scent of his cologne, something airy, like cool water. How could a man be so hot and cold at the same time? She bit down on her lip.

His smirk continued to taunt her. “Don’t worry, Miss Black. I don’t bite” He took a sip of his drink then pushed the glass away. “Unless you ask me to.”

He rose to his full height, tossing down a few bills. “Trixie, for both our drinks, and you,” he called out, his deep voice loud enough for the woman heard him from the other end of the bar.

Ivory felt too hot as he stood, gripped her elbow, and steered her toward the door. The light pressure of his fingertips against her elbow burned all the way to her core. She clenched her thigh muscles against the growing need. She never had a one night stand in her life but Jax could make her want it. Oh, God, he could make her want to do things she had never wanted to do before and that was the problem.

Outside the bar, the sudden quiet made her ears ring. Instead of leading her toward her Jeep, he pushed her deeper into the shadows. Ivory dug her feet in, but he tossed a look over his shoulder. He propelled her toward the wharf, the docks.

The smell of dead fish didn’t bother her, but the man taking her away from the safety of light and her car did. She felt around for her weapon again. “Where are you taking me?”

“I need some air.”

Ivory yanked on her elbow and pulled her arms out of reach. He stopped half-way down the dock, turned to face her. Ivory tilted her head back, stared up into those blazing eyes and nearly melted. Had a man ever wanted her the way she sensed he did? The way he looked made her toes curl, her womb throb.

How could he make her feel this way with just a look? On principle, she didn’t even like the man. She had no respect for anyone who could turn a back on a child. On top of that, he killed people. He killed people. Ivory took a step back.

“Going to run?”

Ivory felt for her 1911 again, confidence in the cold piece of steel strapped to her body making it easier to breathe. Her lungs seemed to work again. “I don’t run, Captain.”

“Jax.”

Ivory notched her chin up at him, clamped her lips shut. He took a step forward, and they danced that way. She retreated. He advanced. She felt the rough wood of a fishing shack at her back and glanced up. No lights. No one around. The bar music vibrated on the wind. If she screamed, no one would hear her. But oh, man, she really did not want to.

Even though she’d trained in all forms of martial arts over the years, thanks to her absentee father’s monthly stipend, taking down the six-four giant with a body of iron would be hard for her. If he pinned her, would she even be able to get to her gun? Would she even want to? Her thoughts chased themselves around and around until he placed two massive palms on either side of her body, his cool breath smelling slightly like liquor.

Despite her growing apprehension, her body continued to groan in need. She hadn’t been with a lover since Nathan. She needed release, and Jax seemed to want to give it to her. Her nana’s voice echoed through her mind. Don’t give it all away on the first date, Cha-cha.

Ivory’s breath came rapidly. He leaned in close, and his breath fanned her ear, which sent signals of pleasure racing to her brain. She jerked at the torture of him so close, the heat invading her clothes despite the cool night.

“What do you want from me?”

Jax nipped at her lobe. “I think you know want what I want.”

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to give it to you,” Ivory shot back.

Jax lowered a hand to her waist and pulled her against the hard wall of his body. A very specific bulge burrowed against her stomach. Her knees turned to jellyfish. His wide palm splayed against her back, then slid under her jacket to the skin beneath. The heat seared her flesh, and to her horror, she whimpered.

“I’m not going to take you,” he murmured.

He licked the bundle of nerves just behind her earlobe, and Ivory sank her nails into his shirt, astonished to feel the fire and granite of his chest, the ridges and valleys of his pectoral muscles. It had been way too long without sex, and now she found herself ready to give herself over to a stranger, on the docks no less.

“At least, not tonight,” he rumbled seconds before he licked a scorching path up her neck, pressed her harder against him.

Ivory wrapped her arms around his back, tired of the game he taunted her with. “I don’t even know you,” she panted.

“Baby, you’re going to know me, real well. That’s a promise.”

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