Blurb:
Space Wars, 2
Lies kept them apart. Fate brought them together.
Bracken Kauller has been unlucky in love. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped his family from trying to push women his way. He learned long ago that life is easier when he stays on his ship and out of their path. Bracken is a loner, but when trouble starts to brew on his vessel he needs an expert he can trust.
Sadie Monterey is smart, driven, and successful. But she doesn’t have it all. The only person she’s ever loved has seemingly made it his life’s mission to avoid her. Then circumstances throw them together in a life-or-death situation. The threats are mounting against them, and time is running out. Bracken needs her help, but can she trust him? Can she afford not to?
Be warned: BDSM, anal sex, sex toys, spanking
Excerpt:
He stared at her long enough to make her mildly uncomfortable. “Thank you, Sadie,” he said in a low, intimate tone. Reaching out, he took the data pad from her fingers to pass off to a junior officer. “Let’s get going. We need to do this quickly because I have a feeling we’re going to need every damn advantage we can get.”
“Yes, you are.” She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. Going through her mind was everything she needed to do. “And if they are using the new class of ships there is a kill switch that I hid inside of them. They don’t know about it. Not even the people on my team know about the kill codes. It’s something that I put into place with everything that I’ve designed for the last fifteen years.” She had been a child prodigy, able to create programs for ships for as long as she could recall. It had been the one and only way to escape the machinations of her mother to try to get her sold off, married off, whatever.
“Let’s keep that as a last resort. I’m not putting you in any more danger than you already are, Sadie. I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to keep you here and safe. Putting you on a moon base is just begging for an assassin to take you out when you’re not looking. Not even you can watch your back every moment of every day, no matter how much you would wish otherwise.”
“I’ve learned a lot over the years. I’ve learned how to protect myself and hide in plain sight.” She’d been doing it for the last six years, since she had been attacked and permanently disfigured. “Your sisters have the gift of being able to go about in the world without a care. I’m not. I never have been.” She was one of the original families’ descendants, one of the few Craegin that still had diluted Imarian blood in her veins, her family having intermarried far more often than not over the generations. Not something she was proud of and likely why her father had been as crazy as he was. “I don’t need a moon base for the kill switch. I just need to be within range and an amplifier dish.”
“If I had a bloody opinion on those females I’d lock them up in a dungeon and keep them from wreaking havoc on the world. Unfortunately only my father sides with me. Mother doesn’t see it as an issue.” He put his hand on her back as they walked through the corridors at a quick pace. In the lift he keyed in their destination before turning to look at her. “Once you’ve done this we need to have a talk. Frank, open, no more hiding, Sadie. You up for it?”
“Depends on what exactly it is that you wish to discuss. If it’s to lecture me, again, then I believe I’ll pass on that conversation if you don’t mind.” There was only so much that she could take before her heart would break. “Your sisters are only on your case as much as they are because your mother and father have forbade them from marrying until you have married. Just saying.”
“Which is utter crap,” he said. “I don’t lecture, Sadie. I pass out useful pieces of information that I believe someone could use. But to put your mind at ease, this isn’t a lecture of any sort. Truths, and nothing but truths. That’s it. I’ll tell you some truths I know, and you try and come up with excuses and blow me off yet again.” He gave her a tight smile and spun as the doors opened. Stepping to the side, he waved her out into the corridor.
He really didn’t know her at all. That much was far more apparent with each moment she spent with him. Perhaps her heart and soul were wrong; they had to be. People who belonged together didn’t act as they did to each other.
Once more his hand landed on her back to guide her through the ship to do what needed to be done to keep him and his crew safe. When they reached engineering he stayed close but didn’t crowd her. Bracken did ensure that none of the crew came wandering over to see what she was up to, mainly by planting his rather large frame between her and everyone else.
Settling into the seat before the console, Sadie pulled open the backdoor she had built into the systems and began to go through the programming. Finding the key code she needed, she just smiled. “There you are,” she said and removed the line of coding that would communicate back to the home world. “There.” She turned and looked up at Bracken. “Armory next, please. Then communications, medical and the science labs. That should take everything out so that they can no longer eavesdrop upon you or your ship.”
And so it went with each area that she had told him about. Together they traveled the ship from end to end, her removing codes as she did so. Once that was finished they were outside of hydroponics. “Now what?”
“Now we talk.” His hand landed on her arm, this time in a firm grip. Hard enough to hold her but not to bruise. Apparently he wasn’t taking any chances in her going anywhere but where he wanted.
It was the stupidest thing ever, and she chastised herself immensely when his hand landed upon her arm. The moment that he squeezed she felt her panties get wet. The touch was firm but not painful. It was the touch she had craved from him all of her life, oddly enough. She allowed him to lead her. She allowed him to take her through the ship as he wished.
Buy Links:
Evernight ~ Bookstrand ~ Amazon (US) ~ All Romance
Author Bio:
Having been a lover of the written word all her life April has always wanted to expand her horizons and write something that could be shared with the world. Only one thing held April back, the fact that the letters and numbers mixed and jumbled more often than not. Diagnosed with Dyslexia when she was eight years old April had to work her butt off just to be able to keep up with the other kids in reading and writing, so her love for fictional writing was tossed to the wayside for the moment.
Time marched on, as it always does, and she forgot her childhood dream of becoming an author and instead focused on what she had to – creating a career for herself.
As the endless waves of time passed the shores became less rocky and more sandy, a place where she could find an even foot. That and Microsoft invented Word. Hallelujah.
This is where April began her journey into the written world, the world that her imagination had been ceaselessly creating for her entire adult life.
Now she has been given a chance to let her literary wings unfold and fly, thanks to her amazing publishers.
Now its time to let the dream take flight and watch it soar!
Author Links:
Website ~ Evernight ~ Secret Cravings ~ Bookstrand ~ Amazon ~ All Romance
A Great New Read 
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