tour for The Asset by Anna del Mar

The Asset
Wounded Warrior Series
Book One
Anna del Mar

Genre: Romantic suspense,
Contemporary romance,
Military romance, SEAL romance.

Publisher: Carina Press

Date of Publication: February 22, 2016

eISBN: 9781459293526
ASIN: B01765RJI2

Number of pages: 336 pages

Word Count: Approx. 95,000

Anna del Mar’s explosive, sexy debut novel in the Wounded Warrior series, perfect for fans of Lisa Marie Rice and Lora Leigh—the story of a woman desperate to escape her dangerous past and the navy SEAL who would lay down his life to save her.

Book Description:

Ash Hunter knows what it is to run. A SEAL gravely injured in Afghanistan, he’s gone AWOL from the military hospital. Physically and mentally scarred, he returns home to his grandmother’s isolated cottage—and finds a beautiful, haunted stranger inside.

Like recognizes like.

Lia Stewart’s in hiding from the cartel she barely escaped alive, holed up in this small Rocky Mountain town. Surviving, but only just. Helping the wounded warrior on her doorstep is the right thing to do…it’s loving him that might get them both killed.

Soon, Ash realizes he’s not the only one tormented by the past. Pushing the limits of his broken body, testing the boundaries of her shattered soul, he’ll protect Lia until his last breath.

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Short Excerpt for The Asset by Anna del Mar (900 words)

Chapter One

My finger twitched on the trigger as I stared down the barrel of my shotgun. A stranger stood on my stoop. The mere sight of him shoved my heart into my throat and sent my brain into default. I widened my stance, tightened my grip on the gun and aimed at the stranger’s chest. No way. He wasn’t going to take me alive.

A sharp bark startled me. The largest, darkest, most handsome German shepherd I’d ever seen stood next to the stranger, head tilted, ears forward, nose quivering in the air. It uttered a quiet whimper and padded over to me without a trace of aggression, circling me once before it leaned against my legs.

I kept my shotgun leveled, but I spared another glance at the stunning dog. The plea in his eyes tempered the adrenaline jolting through my body, reined in my runaway heart and gave me pause to consider the stranger before me.

Framed by the Rocky Mountains and the lake, the man at the threshold blocked the morning’s gray light and cast a huge shadow over my little porch. Raindrops tapped on his leather jacket, dripped from the rim of his cap and ran like tears down the sides of his face. Despite the exhaustion etched on his features, his glacial blue eyes narrowed on my gun.

“That’s a pretty old Remington,” he rumbled. “With the damn safety off, no less. Who the hell are you expecting, Jack the Ripper?”

“Stay back.” I forced the words out. “I’ll shoot if you come any closer.”

“Damn it, girl,” he said. “If you want us to leave, just say so.”

The scowl on his face contributed to his dangerous appearance. So did the scruffy beard and the shaggy hair sticking out from under his baseball cap. If he hadn’t come all the way out here to get to me—and that was still a big “if”—what on earth was he doing here?

I couldn’t see any weapons on him. Was he a drifter? He didn’t look dirty, but a metallic scent wafted from him, an odd, ripe trace I couldn’t place.

He must have seen my nose wrinkle. His whole body stiffened. He drew taller than six feet by several inches, but it was the outrage I spotted in his eyes that reinforced my fears.

“Aren’t you a spitfire?” He pulled out a rumpled piece of paper from his pocket, balled it and dropped it at my feet. “Secluded, cheap and quiet, that’s what the ad said. But I don’t think you want to rent out a room, at least not to me. Come on, Neil,” he said to the dog. “Let’s leave this little hellcat to count her bullets.” He touched the rim of his baseball cap. “And a good day to you, ma’am.”

He braced on a pair of sturdy crutches and hopped down from the stoop. Crutches? I should’ve noticed those before. The sable shepherd looked up at me, then nuzzled my hip and trotted off after his owner. The rubber bottoms of the man’s crutches stabbed the ground as he shuffled to the black truck parked in my driveway, a supercharged Ram 3500 that matched its owner’s brawn.

I exhaled the breath I’d been holding. Bad guys didn’t knock at your door. They didn’t back down, attack while on crutches or hobble away after they came for you. They didn’t call you ma’am, either. I picked up the crumpled paper and flattened it against the stair’s wobbly baluster. It was indeed the one flyer I’d dared to post at Kailyn’s convenience store, printed on pink paper, complete with the ten tear-off rectangles that listed my cell phone number.

The ad. My brain came on line. He was here about the ad?

Crap. Terror had a sure way of wiping reason from my mind. The ad talked about a stone cottage but didn’t include the address. True, mine was the only stone cottage around. Still, my stomach churned.

I stared at the paper in my hands. He’d taken down the ad. Now I had exactly zero chance to rent out the room, which also meant that, since I’d have no money to make the rent, I was going to lose my little stone cottage. I was going to be homeless and I’d have to move on. Again.

But I liked it here. The place suited me well. People in this secluded valley were nice and I’d managed to build a semblance of a life hidden out here. And what about my little friends out back? Who’d take care of them if I wasn’t around?

The pound, that’s who.

I took a deep breath and looked down on my flannel pajama pants and my extra-large sweater. With my hair up in a messy tail, I was pretty sure I looked like a gun-toting, gray-eyed witch, brimming with hostility. I’d just scared away my first and only customer.

A top-notch German shepherd like that couldn’t belong to a crook. It was obvious that the owner took excellent care of his dog. If that wasn’t enough, the man got around on crutches. He couldn’t hurt me and, if he tried, I wouldn’t need a shotgun to defend myself. I’d just have to trip him.

God, the things I thought about. Was I going to live in fear forever?

Yes, I would, but living in fear was better than not living at all. 

Teaser Scene:

When Ash and Neil went out for their evening walk, I slipped on a T-shirt and my old pajama pants and arranged my pillow and blanket on the couch. I was in the process of starting a fire in the living room’s hearth when they came back. Neil made a straight line for me, splayed on the ground and, pawing the air, flashed his belly.

Ash’s stare shifted from the couch to me. He sighed, stepped to the couch and, after bundling my pillow and blankets, threw them over his shoulder and started up the stairs.

“Hello?” I followed him. “That’s my pillow.”

“You’re not sleeping downstairs.”

“Who gave you the power to decide where I sleep?”

“Reason and common sense.” He plodded to his room and, without hesitation, added my blankets to his bed and propped my pillow next to his.

“Ashton Hunter,” I said. “You’re definitively crossing a line here.”

He flashed me a stoic look. “Then can we please cross it quickly?”

About the Author:

Anna del Mar writes hot, smart romances that soothe the soul, challenge the mind, and satisfy the heart. Her stories focus on strong heroines struggling to find their place in the world and the brave, sexy, kickass, military heroes who defy the limits of their broken bodies to protect the women they love. She is the author of The Asset (Carina Press), the first novel of her Wounded Warrior series and three other novels scheduled for release during 2016.

A Georgetown University graduate, Anna enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, and the sea. Writing is her addiction, her drug of choice, and what she wants to do all the time. The extraordinary men and women she met during her years as a Navy wife inspire the fabulous heroes and heroines at the center of her stories. When she stays put—which doesn’t happen very often—she lives in Florida with her indulgent husband and two very opinionated cats.

http://www.annadelmar.com/pages/home.html

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Interview with Anna del Mar

As a kid did you write or make up stories?

All the time. In fact, I have a blurry memory of me at four or five, closing a story book and telling myself: “Hey, I could do this. I could tell stories to other kids.”

Where does most of your Character inspiration come from? Do some qualities of your characters come from people you personally know? And what was the inspiration for your book?

My romances are inspired by real people, the men and women I met while I was a Navy wife. So yes, many of characters are influenced by my friends, neighbors and peers, the silent heroes and heroines I was so fortunate to meet when I was part of the military community.

More specifically, my Wounded Warrior series draws inspiration from the military heroes who have given so much for our country. The series is about strong, self-reliant heroines struggling to find their place in the world and the brave, skilled, sexy military heroes who challenge their limits to protect the women they love.

Just to give you an example, the first novel of the series, The Asset, is about Lia Stuart, a woman desperate to escape her dangerous past and Ash Hunter, the Navy SEAL who would lay down his life to save her. Ash is also on the run, from his superiors, but worse, from his uncertain future. When we meet him, he has just bolted from the hospital, suffering from a crippling infection and PTSD. Along with his trained service dog, he flees to his hometown to the isolated lakeside cottage where he confronts Lia’s shotgun and the limits of his broken body.

But when Lia risks her life to care for Ash, he discovers that he’s not the only one suffering from PTSD. Together, Ash and Lia have to defeat the evil that threatens to destroy their lives as they struggle to heal, not only Ash's broken body but Lia's shattered soul.

What I love about The Asset is that it is a story about hope, courage, resilience, redemption and love’s extraordinary healing power. I’m really awed by the wounded warriors returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think these men and women and the families that support them are amazing. Their strength in the face of adversity, their determination to reclaim their lives and their resilience are extraordinary. I hope that in The Asset, Lia and Ash honor their stories.

What is your favorite spot to write?

I have a cozy writing studio with a door that can be closed if necessary, where I’m surrounded by some of favorite books, pictures of my family and mementos from my travels. I’m afraid my desk is a bit of a mess most of the time, piled high with stuff. But, hey, it works for me.

What advice would you give budding writers?

Write with passion, purpose and power, and keep writing all the way to The End.