N. N. Light
- Mar 20, 2023
- 4 min read

Exclusively on Yonder! Damned, Sexy, and Hunted by Linda J. Parisi #romanticsuspense #yonder

Title DAMNED, SEXY, AND HUNTED

Author LINDA J. PARISI

Genre ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

Publisher CITY OWL PRESS

Book Blurb

Andrew Jackson “Jack” Kent’s on the hunt for white collar criminals, and as a private investigator he always gets his man. Except in this case it’s a woman, the brilliant cellular kineticist Dr. Morgan Mackenzie, whose next thrilling discovery is—him.

On the run from her employers with the formula for a priceless but deadly diet drug, Morgan agrees to a night of pleasure with the outrageously sexy stranger. But when she leaves the next morning, Jack won’t let her get far, and that’s when she realizes a horrible truth. Her cowboy on a white horse isn’t a hero after all. He’s part of the posse.

Yet when Jack goes to turn Morgan in, he learns who the real criminals are, and suddenly, it’s a race against time to find a murderer before they’re killed themselves. To do that Jack needs to convince Morgan he’s on her side. Even though she doesn’t trust him, Jack is a drug she can’t resist, leading her to find out that more often than not you're Damned If You Don't fall in love.

Excerpt

He brushed her forehead with his lips. “Stay with me tonight.”

If she did, she wouldn’t get much sleep that was for sure.

Another kiss. “Please.”

Most men wouldn’t ask. However, Jack wasn’t most men. Her arms tightened around his shoulders. Her mind, that ever-practical organ, shouted warning after warning. Her ears refused to listen.

One enchanted evening. One fairy tale night.

She lifted her chin and he leaned down to kiss her gently. When he let go, she was done. Toasted. Damn that grin of his. There was no use fighting the inevitable. Pulling his head down to hers she figured, what the hell, she had only one life to live.

A sharp pain pulled Morgan out of a deep sleep. She tried to move and found her hair caught beneath a casually thrown arm on the bed. A casually thrown—what? Memory flooded her. Heat filled her cheeks. Morgan rolled over, wincing as reality slipped a stiletto between her third and fourth ribs. Everyone had the right to indulge in a fantasy and Jack was the best fantasy she’d ever had but not any longer, not when reality waited right outside his door. How could she have been so stupid?

On the one hand, she’d fallen into the mantrap and thought things through with the lower half of her body. On the other hand, if loving Jack really were stupid, she’d stay a dunce for the rest of her life. Her only regret was the hurt she was going to cause him.

Sure, last night was all about the sex. But unless she was totally brain dead, she got the message that he cared, enough to make sure that she was going to have to crawl out of this hotel room and not walk.

Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn. Why now?

Because it’s better to have lived and made love than not to have made love at all.

Morgan rolled over and began easing herself out of the bed so as not to awaken him. Even in his sleep, he didn’t seem to want to let her go. He finally turned on his side and freed her so she could slip out of the bed. She picked up her clothes, piece by piece, and tucked her memories deep inside her heart. She would pull them out later. If there was a later.

Luckily, her clothes were at least semi damp so she could slip them on without making a racket. She crept back out of the room and stared at the bed as the door shut ever so slowly, branding him in her mind. As quietly as she could, she let the lock click into place, leaning her forehead against the wood once the latch closed. There would never be another night like this. Ever.

Morgan rolled her suitcase down the hall and went down to the lobby floor. She used the main bathroom there to clean up, the water washing away his scent, his mark on her, but it could never wash away the stain of her mark on him. Remorse was an emotion she wasn’t allowed. Another reason why the seeds of vindication were going to grow into the fruits of justice. Once those fruits ripened, they were going to taste really, really good.

Thirty minutes later she was dressed and ready to leave.

She glanced toward the hotel from the parking lot. Good-bye, Jack. Thank you.

She imagined when he woke up he wouldn’t return the sentiment.

* * *

The man in question, however, had been up from the moment she awoke. As soon as her door closed, he jumped out of bed. Jack paced back and forth like a caged tiger begging to be set free. However, freedom is a relative term. One neither of them, he imagined, would be able to enjoy. He picked up his phone and hit speed dial. “Damn it, Sam,” he muttered as his phone rang and rang. “Pick up.”

“Hello?”

At last. “Where the hell have you been?” Jack bit out.

“F--- you.”

“The feeling’s mutual. I have about ten seconds. The ferry. Lewes, Delaware.”

Dead silence greeted him but he knew his partner was already sitting up on the edge of his bed wide-awake. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve got her.”

Read chapter one in the Yonder app

https://m.yonderstory.com/titles/1188

Trust me, you’ll be as hooked as we are!

Yonder app on Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yonder-fiction-books/id6443445446

Yonder app on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.webtoons.yonder