Today I’m happy to have Kate Pavelle to the blog with an excerpt and giveaway from her newest release Breakfall, the first book in the Fall trilogy.
Blurb:
Sexual assault doesn’t discriminate. Aikido instructor Sean Gallaway learns that when he falls prey to a violent stalker. Asbjorn Lund, a karate sensei on campus and a Navy vet, yearns to teach Sean how to survive. How to overcome. How to recover. Sean feels hunted and alone as the stalker escalates, testing his boundaries. With the entire dojo at his back, Sean resolves to play bait. He will catch the animal stalking him and reclaim his sense of self if it’s the last thing he does. Yet Sean’s hunger for justice clashes with Asbjorn’s protective streak, and their budding romance might not survive their war of wills.
Excerpt:
THE QUALITY of silence around him awakened him. Sean strained his ears in vain for familiar sounds. The car traffic of Cambridge was replaced by the gray, early morning stillness of nearby woods. There was no sound of a clock ticking, no popping of ancient radiators, no footsteps of fellow students overhead. The silence was like a blanket of cool, morning fog, comforting and private.
He turned toward the source of breathing to his right. This was Sean’s first-ever opportunity to observe Asbjorn at leisure. His eyes, deep like the ocean blue, were closed, their pale eyelashes stretching down in a graceful arc. It amused Sean to find faded, sun-kissed freckles on Asbjorn’s nose and cheekbones—a testament to his heritage as well as to his lifestyle. The scar splitting his right eyebrow was still angry and red, a reminder of his bout with Don, a fight without a victor. Sean let his gaze travel down the chiseled planes of Asbjorn’s exquisite, sharp cheekbones, his lovely and defined jaw blurred by morning stubble, his stubborn chin. Above his chin, his lips: lush and generous and tinged pink with promise.
Sean leaned forward, sharing his breath with Asbjorn, feeling the stirrings of air on his nose. He brushed his lips against the stubbly jaw with a soft caress.
Asbjorn opened his pale lids. “What time is it, Sean?”
“I dunno. Early.” Sean reached for his cell phone, only to realize it was still in police custody.
“What day is it?” The pressure-cooker of recent events had left him disoriented.
“Uh, Thursday. Thanksgiving.” Asbjorn’s voice was still clogged with sleep.
“Shit.” Sean hit his head back against the pillow. The lab. He never handed in his stupid physics lab report.
Asbjorn reached for him with his large hands. “Shh. Don’t worry about anything right now.” Asbjorn’s voice soothed him. The strength of Asbjorn’s arms filled him with strange awareness as he was pulled in closer. The warmth was comforting, and he did not resist. He felt a cool nose nuzzle his neck.
“Bjorn!”
“Hmmm?”
“You’re not helping.”
“Not helping what?”
Sean blushed. “My morning situation.”
Sharp teeth worried the tan skin of his shoulder. Soon, a warm, wet tongue laved the nibbled skin smooth again. He felt sensuous lips taste of his arm and neck, and Sean felt himself arch. His morning wood was now a fearsome force of nature.
He felt Asbjorn press into his lower back, feeling his heat and the smooth hardness trapped between their bodies.
“Good to know I’m not alone in my predicament.”
About the Author:
KATE PAVELLE is a picky woman. She liked a number of men well enough, but she fell head-over-heels in love only once. And she is still there: one man, two kids, and quarter of a century later, she explores the exploding flavors of lust and infatuation through fiction alone. Love is a power struggle and a compromise. But what if both could open a jar of tomato sauce with equal ease? What if pregnancy was never a concern? Would love between two men create a level playing field? Life and relationships are never as simple as that. Her characters brave life like a bed of roses: beauty and soft petals and hidden thorns—and perseverance. Obstacles within and without her characters result in personal growth that far exceeds a mere erection. Kate Pavelle is a sucker for a “happily ever after,” but she paints her boys as flawed and complex. If they want the love she enjoys in real life, they will have push outside their comfort zones to grasp it!
Contact Kate at http://www.katepavelle.com for more reading pleasure, or follow her on Twitter at KatePavelle.
Kenzie Cade 