Jaguar
by
Kayden McLeod
Kayden McLeod
Genre:
Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Romance
Life
seemed so normal before I met the perfect guy. Then everything
changed.
seemed so normal before I met the perfect guy. Then everything
changed.
Sun,
swimming and camping is the picture perfect vacation for Katrina. She
needs a break from what has become her everyday life. She meets
Kalvyn, tall, dark, with captivating green eyes. The attraction is
instant, highly sexual, skittering on the edge of dangerous. In her
heart, she knows there is something about Kalvyn he isn’t saying.
When strange sighting of wild cats in the campgrounds, her life falls
to shambles, and she has nowhere to turn. Kalvyn tries to protect
her, but what man can protect the woman he loves, from himself?
swimming and camping is the picture perfect vacation for Katrina. She
needs a break from what has become her everyday life. She meets
Kalvyn, tall, dark, with captivating green eyes. The attraction is
instant, highly sexual, skittering on the edge of dangerous. In her
heart, she knows there is something about Kalvyn he isn’t saying.
When strange sighting of wild cats in the campgrounds, her life falls
to shambles, and she has nowhere to turn. Kalvyn tries to protect
her, but what man can protect the woman he loves, from himself?
Excerpt:
Excerpt One
He circled me, and I rotated with him. “Come now, Katrina. Tell me, have you ever done anything truly exhilarating, pushing past your limits until you couldn’t see them anymore? Something that made your heart race, adrenaline pumping through you?”
The naughty answer that flashed in my mind never left my mouth. But it flashed in my eyes. My cheeks burned. He threw his head back and laughed.
“Okay, perhaps the wrong description. Ever jumped out of a plane?”
“Hell no.”
“Bungee jumped?”
“Now you’re just teasing me.”
“True. Okay. Realism I can do. Ridden a roller coaster?”
“No. I don’t trust those things.”
He stopped. So did I.
“Is there anything you do trust?” He said. Yeah, Lola. But that went without saying. “It’s time for a change, Katrina. It’s time for you to step out of your suffocating box. Life isn’t life, until you live it.”
“By jumping off of a cliff?”
“For you, baby steps are necessary.” He turned me around and pointed over the edge. “To feel the wind running through your hair, caressing your skin. The freefall is how you break free from oppression.” He wrapped his fingers around my wrist, and walked around me. “Take a leap of faith. Find your freedom. Live.”
Oh my God, he pouted. He actually stuck out that temptingly full bottom lip and batted his eyelashes!
“I’m afraid of heights.”
“Ahh, fear. Mankind’s greatest crippling block. Fear is of the unknown, until you crash through barriers, take fate by the hair and make her your bitch.”
Now that’s a visual for you.
“And if I break something?”
“We’re hitting deep water down there, not concrete. I wouldn’t ask you to do something, if there was a chance you would hurt yourself. I’ve jumped much higher.”
“Only you could make a rational argument out of this.”
“Is that a yes?”
“If I die, I’ll kill you.” No, the contradiction was not lost on me.
“I will keep you safe, Katrina. I gave you my protection. That is no small thing.”
I rolled my eyes to hide my nervousness. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
“I promise you won’t regret this.”
I snickered. “You promise a lot.”
“I never break my promises. Once you get to know me, you will understand what honor and integrity mean to me.”
I swallowed. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s plummet to our impending death before I lose my nerve.”
“My, my. I think I am insulted with your pessimism. Tomorrow, we shall work on that.”
He didn’t give me a chance to reply. He yanked on my arm, and we ran at the cliff full speed.
Excerpt Two
“I don’t get what he sees in you,” Bianca snapped.
I didn’t either, but I wasn’t about to be forthcoming with that information. Not with her. “To be fair, I don’t understand what he saw in your either.”
“Have you actually looked at me?” Her hands fluttered around her like broken butterflies. “Every male wants me.” She snickered. “Bet you can’t say the same.”
No, I couldn’t. “What do you want Bianca?”
She leapt to her feet. The fragrance of peach body spray choked me. Moderation much? “To make sure you know who Kalvyn Colbane belongs to, and it certainly is not and never will be you. Stop wasting both of our time. He will tire of you, and guess where he’s going go?”
“China to get away from you?” I mumbled as I sorted through the nonperishables, coming up with coffee. “And you are quite mistaken. You don’t own him. Or hasn’t he made that clear enough? He is a human being, his own man, and adult. No one is owned by anyone.”
She doubled over in laughter. “Oh, little, young, insignificant human, how little you know.”
“I don’t need to know, to understand a couple of things.”
“Like what?”
“Like, it seems the only person who might even like you, is whoever this Sadie is. That includes Kalvyn, who does everything he can to avoid you, and forget you exist. Or haven’t you noticed?”
“You don’t know anything.”
“Really? Carmen made it quite obvious she’d rather break your face than look at you. No one tried to settle her down. That tells me more than any words can. In fact, I think Syber and Quinn would pay for front row tickets to that main event. You don’t have many friends here, yet they seem to like me just fine. So take your pissing contest, and get the fuck off my campsite.”
In a blink, Bianca was in my face. She snarled. Her brown eyes glowed. Damn, were those fangs peeking out from her lips? No, couldn’t be. In her spiked heels—what woman in their right mind wore heels camping—she towered over me. I really needed caffeine. “Or what, little girl?”
In a blink, Bianca was in my face. She snarled. Her brown eyes glowed. Damn, were those fangs peeking out from her lips? No, couldn’t be. In her spiked heels—what woman in their right mind wore heels camping—she towered over me. I really needed caffeine. “Or what, little girl?”
Oh, hell no. Little girl? Bullshit. “Get your crammed-into-a-push-up-bra tits out of me face,” I snapped. “Even if I swung that way, yours would be the last I’d motorboat.”
Her mouth opened, closed. Good. However, she did not step back.
“You talk big, but you got anything to back it up, bitch?”
“Yeah, me.” Lola stepped out of the tent.
“I’d take you both down without breaking a sweat, or a nail.”
A fistfight with Ms. Barbie? Great. That’s what everyone needed to do first thing in the morning. I would, if she threw the first punch, or in her case, slap. But, Lola would get involved, and that I couldn’t allow. An idea popped into my head. A downright evil one at that. “I’d love to see you try, with me being under Kalvyn’s protection and all.”
The earth stopped rotating. I swear.
“What did you just say?” She choked.
“You heard me, Bianca,” I said. “And you know what that means.”
The fight drained out of her. “I do, but the question is, do you?”
The crazy possession in her eyes pissed me off. Her having the audacity to show up at the lake, then hang around here, like she had the right to. As if she thought she could push me around.
I saw red. And I liked it.
“Of course I do. You saw us this morning. I saw you. Out on the rocks. What do you think we did all night?”
I took a step, and she took one backward.
Lola whooped just as a beautiful Ford F-150 screeched to a stop across from us. Kalvyn all but leapt from the truck, a bag in one hand, and a tray of coffee—see, the man is a god—in his hand.
I barely registered his presence though my desire to tear Bianca a new one. “All alone, out of the lake. Wet, barely clothed. You really think Kalvyn wants you? If he did, why was he doing with me, with you just down the road from his tent? Grow a brain, get a clue. Leaves Hell’s Gate and think about that for a while. Stop throwing yourself at a guy who couldn’t give a shit about you. It’s pathetic.”
“Bianca, ten seconds to get the fuck out of here,” he growled. “If I see you near Katrina again, I will make you pay for it.”
She whirled. “You gave her your protection?”
“Yes, I did. Five seconds.”
“You never gave me a formal proclamation!”
“I gave you much more than what you deserved, and you know it.” He gritted his teeth, which were a whole lot sharper than they were a minute ago. “Three seconds.”
She didn’t twitch a muscle. Lola was enthused with her touchdown dance, and not paying attention.
Kalvyn’s entire demeanor changed. Suddenly he was all animal, completely capable of cold-blooded murder. I gaped at him as Bianca stomped from my campsite, toward the general direction of Sadie’s. He watched her go.
Excerpt Three
I wiggled, and he purred. The power I had over him sexually, tantalized me. I soared far above the plaguing darkness, or perhaps, a different darkness. One filled with lust and need.
“You seek to torture me.” He sighed. “I merely teased you in return. How idiotic of me.”
“I think it’s a perfectly legitimate question.” I half turned, but his hands clamped down on my hips.
“Out of respect for my sanity, please stop moving.”
Not a chance.
“Why would you want me to do such a thing?” I licked my bottom lip.
His eyes glittered dangerously, something wild and free moving behind them. “You know damned well why. Don’t act all innocent.”
I placed my hand over my chest in mock fluttering. “I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about.” I shifted again, leaned back against his arm, and stretched my legs out in front of me, propped on the underwater bench.
He splayed his hands on the edge of the rub, and clamped down. “Naughty, very bad girl.”
Oh yeah, that’s the way to get me to stop. I held dominion over him, and I liked it. Loved it. This was right. He was mine. Primal instinct—or whatever you wanted to call it—rose up and screamed for release. Take him. He is yours.
He stopped breathing. “You’re staring at me.”
“I always stare at you.”
“Not like that.”
“And how is that, pray tell?”
“Like you’re starving, and you’re about to eat me.”
Now where had I heard that before? Oh yes, Lola’s description on how he watched me.
Kayden
McLeod is a paranormal and fantasy author, who dreams big, and writes
bigger. She gets her inspirations from all manners of life and events
that surround her. She is best known for her paranormal books, the
Coven Series. Now, she embarks on new adventures in the dark world of
Shadowdyn, found in the pages of the Demon Queen Series. As well, she
has started to write her first YA fantasy books under the name Kinsey
Knight.
McLeod is a paranormal and fantasy author, who dreams big, and writes
bigger. She gets her inspirations from all manners of life and events
that surround her. She is best known for her paranormal books, the
Coven Series. Now, she embarks on new adventures in the dark world of
Shadowdyn, found in the pages of the Demon Queen Series. As well, she
has started to write her first YA fantasy books under the name Kinsey
Knight.
She
is an award winning Cover and Graphic Artist, and the co-owner of
Otherworlds Publicity. In the past, she's completed cover
art for a variety of publishers, although her freelance makes up
most of her portfolio.
is an award winning Cover and Graphic Artist, and the co-owner of
Otherworlds Publicity. In the past, she's completed cover
art for a variety of publishers, although her freelance makes up
most of her portfolio.
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for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
Great excerpt
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