Day 16 – July Fever – Trish McCallan and the Red Hot SEALs

1 blog + 31 authors = 31 Days Of Hotness

When you mix hot Navy SEALs with paranormal romance, you have a sure fire recipe for a great novel, and that’s exactly what Trish McCallan did with Forged In Fire. I’d like to welcome Trish to July Fever

She’s giving away a signed copy of Forged in Fire to one lucky winner. To enter the draw, simply leave a comment and your email address.

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Right off the bat I want to apologize to the readers of this blog and admit that this blog post is going to consist of an excerpt, mostly because I am brain dead. I mean seriously, I’ve apparently killed all my brain cells during the past few days, because when I sat down to write this post, literally no ideas came. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

To give you some background, I’ve been writing 10-12 hours a day because I have revisions due on Monday, which I have been scrambling to finish in time. PLUS—I fly out on Tuesday for RWA National. These two events back to back would have been bad enough, but my golden retriever Bubbles decided to come into season three weeks early and I had to run her over to the owners of the dog she will be breed to—which is six fricking hours away. (sob) And then there was the hideous experience of shopping for five business/casual outfits and three evening wear outfits for a plus sized woman. ((shudder))

So—suffice it to say—I have no blog post.

I do, however, have a sizzling hot excerpt from my double RITA nominated romantic thriller, Forged in Fire.

Enjoy!

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Once the table was cleared, the food put away, and the dishes stowed, Beth had no excuse other than procrastination to avoid Zane. So when he headed out to the garage with an armful of empty beer bottles, Beth followed him.

She caught up with him next to a silver Lexus as he dropped the Coors bottles into a recycle bin against the wall. He straightened and turned to her, his gaze guarded.

“We need to talk.” She worked at keeping her voice steady, nonconfrontational.

He didn’t move, just watched her with absolute stillness. “I’ll be bunking with Mac and Rawls.”

That stopped her, but just for a moment. She hadn’t expected anything less. Zane wasn’t the kind of man to sneak his way into her bed. “This isn’t about the sleeping arrangements.”

Something flickered in his eyes.

“What did Mac mean about that soul mate thing?”

Zane’s face went blank. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

“I think I do.” Beth chose her words with care. “I think you have unrealistic expectations. I think you’re building a relationship in your mind that doesn’t exist in reality.”

“Nothing’s going to happen that you don’t want to happen.”

She didn’t doubt that, actually. But that was the whole problem with sexual heat. You wanted it while the flames were churning. It was afterwards, when the flames gutted, that the regrets set in.

“Just so we’re clear. I have a job I love. A home I love. Local friends I love. I’m not looking for a long-distance relationship.”

Frustration slipped through his eyes. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. I’m not asking you to make choices.”

Not yet, maybe. “So you’re just looking for a vacation fling, a roll in the sack, and then we’ll go our merry ways?”

His eyebrows snapped together. “Hell, no.”

“Then you aren’t looking for any relationship at all?” She asked point-blank.

This time the frustration touched both his face and eyes. He swore beneath his breath. “You know better than that.”

Yes, she did, which was the whole purpose of this conversation.

“Look,” he said, raking a hand through his hair. “Let’s take this one step at a time. We’ll worry about the hows when we get to that point.”

When they got to what point? After they were emotionally invested? When a split would cause untold pain? The thought of never seeing him again already brought a twinge and she’d only known him a matter of hours. How much more would it hurt to lose him after a couple of days? Weeks? Months?

She needed to nip his expectations in the bud. Quickly and cleanly. “Look, I’m already involved with someone, okay? Seriously involved. I’m not interested in a relationship with you.”

A thundercloud rolled into his eyes. “Bullshit,” he bit out. “You wouldn’t have used your tongue on me like that if you were seeing someone else.”

Beth’s eyes widened and then narrowed. How incredibly crass. “I was imagining I was with him,” she snapped.

“Really?” A muscle in Zane’s cheek twitched. He took a step toward her, the movement blatantly threatening. “Are you thinking about him now?”

Okaaaay, claiming a prior relationship was obviously the wrong tact. She watched in alarm as an expression of pure possessiveness slipped over his face.

“Noooo.” She took a cautious step back.

“Good.”

He moved so fast she didn’t have time to react. One moment he was facing her, the next she was locked in his arms—crushed against him. His rock-hard chest burning through her clothes.

He took her mouth like a marauder. His lips hard. Insistent. His mouth opened over hers. The tip of his tongue probing the seam of her lips—a silent demand that she let him in.

And she wanted to. Oh Lord, did she ever want to. She wanted to taste him, drown in the rich headiness of him, wallow in that sexy male musk his skin emitted. Her muscles were already softening, her breasts swelling, her nipples pebbling. Tingles and chills swept her spine. But the very strength of her hunger brought a spurt of unease.

This was exactly the kind of reaction—the kind of chemistry—that got a person in trouble.

So she braced herself and clamped her lips together, a silent denial.

A low growl rumbled up his throat and throbbed against her lips like a threat, but he broke contact and eased back.

Beth relaxed. Clearly he’d gotten the message. Except he leaned down and nipped her bottom lip. Not enough to sting, just enough to send a message—along with a rush of blood to her head—just enough to let her know that…yeah…he had no intention of playing by her rules. She tried to pull back, but he lifted her and turned, pinning her against the SUV, the thick column of his arousal pressing hard against her belly…which…really…she should not have found so sexy.

This time the growl that broke from him held a predatory rasp. He nipped her bottom lip again, then caught the sensitive flesh in his teeth and tugged. A hot rush flooded her veins.

He nipped again. Harder. A sensual sting that shot straight to her throbbing nipples and liquefied the moist heat between her legs.

Dear Lord.

She sucked in a shocked, aroused breath. His tongue surged in before she could rectify the mistake. And good God, he used his tongue with the same finesse as he’d used

his lips. Stroking, rubbing, and prodding until her blood whipped through her veins in a frenzy. She lost track of where they were, what she’d been trying to accomplish, and what loomed ahead.

The fireworks of before were nothing compared to the sensual storm he dragged her into this time. In seconds he had her weak, clinging, the heat boiling through her as though someone had dialed her internal thermostat to scorching.

She swallowed a whimper as he pulled back.

He caught her chin in an iron grip and forced her eyes to meet his. The gaze staring back was hard, determined. Lethal. “You can fight what’s between us all you want. It won’t change a thing. You’re mine. And sweetheart, you don’t want to bring another guy into this, not unless you want to watch him bleed.”

“Excuse me?” The chills and tingles vanished as though she’d been dowsed in ice water. Beth’s jaw would have dropped if he hadn’t had hold of her chin.

A wave of intense disorientation swept over her. For a moment she was convinced she was dreaming. That she’d fallen asleep while reading one of JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood paranormal romances and had inserted herself into a dream based on the book. Any moment now he was going to start growling Mine Mine Mine and let loose with some spicy bonding scent. Or flash a massive set of fangs.

Except…if she was dreaming, wouldn’t he be a jacked-up, massively muscled vampire warrior rather than the testosterone-laden, far-too-alpha—but human—pain in the derriere?

She concentrated on the hard fingers under her chin, and the sense of disorientation dissipated. Oh no, this was real. And it just went to show that literary

escapism did not translate well into reality. The last thing she needed, or wanted, in real life was a bonded alpha male. Romantic fiction aside, they were serious jackass material.

“You’re mine,” he said again, his voice flat, yet in that you-just-need-to-be-reasonable-about-this tone that men had been driving women crazy with throughout history.

She told herself she shouldn’t even respond to that insane claim, but the words just burst out. “I am not yours. You don’t even know me.”

He gave her a hard, confident smile. “I know you weren’t thinking about anyone else while your tongue was wrapped around mine.”

She choked. Okay, this was getting them nowhere. She pushed hard against his chest, relieved when he loosened his arms and stepped back. God only knew what might have happened if he’d decided to push the matter—she had no self-control when it came to the man.

As she straightened her clothes and willed her overheated body to chill out, she avoided his satisfied expression and tried to convince herself that she hadn’t just lost about a million miles in ground.

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Forged in Fire – blurb

Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

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Buy Forged in Fire from AMAZON: Link

Next in the Red Hot Seals series will be Forged in Ash – coming early 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Trish McCallan was born in Eugene, Oregon, and grew up in Washington State, where she began crafting stories at an early age. Her first books were illustrated in crayon, bound with red yarn, and sold for a nickel at her lemonade stand. Trish grew up to earn a bachelor’s degree in English literature with a concentration in creative writing from Western Washington University, taking jobs as a bookkeeper and human- resource specialist before finally quitting her day job to write full time. Forged in Fire came about after a marathon reading session, and a bottle of Nyquil that sparked a vivid dream. She lives today in eastern Washington. An avid animal lover, she currently shares her home with three golden retrievers, a black lab mix and a cat.

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Please join me tomorrow, when I welcome JJ DeBenedetto to July Fever