In Deep and In Deeper
by Kella
McKinnon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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.
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:
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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.
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