SCARLETT
HOOD & THE HUNTER – The Amāre
Tales - an Editor’s
Pick from Evernight!
In
the merry village of Amāre, love isn’t just the town’s
namesake—it’s a way of life. When Scarlett Hood discovers that
her grandmother’s retirement fund has been targeted by the wolf of
Wall Street, Bernie Wolfe, the photo journalist realizes she will
need more than her telephoto lens to take him down. She’ll need
help.
Help
arrives in the unlikely Jack Hunter, the local bean farmer, who
struck it rich only to lose his golden crop to Wolfe. Now working for
the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC), Jack is on the hunt to
bring down Wolfe and Giant Investment Services. Nothing—not even
his unbridled attraction to Scarlett—will keep him from tackling
the man who stole his grandmother’s land and put him out of
business. Can Scarlett Hood and Jack Hunter team up together to bring
down one of Amāre’s worst villains and find their own happily ever
after?
Read on for an excerpt and buy links!
I clapped
my hands together and practically scared Scarlett into a sitting
position. “Okay, so I guess it’s time we get you cleaned up.”
She shook
her head, and a mess of crimson spirals moved haphazardly across her
fair face. “Oh, ouch.” She reached up and touched the back of her
head.
I was
instantly at her side. “Lie
back
down.” She gently slid on the couch. “Crap. Maybe you have a
concussion.” I looked behind me at the front door, but I knew
Granny had already left. I carefully sat beside Scarlett and moved a
wayward lock away from her face. I leaned over and started feeling
behind the back of her head. I felt her eyes on me as I groped her
head like I was checking a watermelon for freshness. I really wasn’t
sure what I was doing because suddenly touching Scarlett sent my
senses into overload. Her hair was soft and silky between my fingers.
I slowed down my rhythm and gently massaged her scalp. A low murmur
escaped her lips. I quickly glanced at her, and her eyes were closed.
I wanted to lean over and kiss her perfectly plump lips, but I
returned my focus to her head where my hands wove through her wild
hair that was a wonderland of richness. Even though she was soaked in
wine, her head smelled like lavender. Now when I looked again at her,
she looked up at me and smiled.
“I don’t
feel any bumps?” I asked as more of a question than a statement.
Scarlett’s
deep, husky laugh rose to my ears like an aphrodisiac
that sent a signal to my brain and straight to my jeans as if she had
suddenly cupped my cock. Her laughter was that enticing. It spiked a
primal desire to have her beneath me with her mouth wrapped around my
cock, which was beginning to grow as fast as my field of bean stocks.
I quickly shook my head and
jerked away from her as if from a hot flame. “Yup,” I said
brushing my hands together and trying to shake free from the heat
that radiated between us. “I think you’re A-okay. Okay-dokay.”
She looked up at me, and her
faint green eyes questioned me. “What happened?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. Just
taking Granny’s orders to get you cleaned up. So let’s get moving
and get you ready.” I hiked my thumb toward where I imagined the
bathroom was located. “I’ll start the shower, run a bath, or grab
a bucket of water from the well.” I scratched my head. “I’m not
sure if there’s running water out here. But no matter.” I
snapped. “I’ll do whatever it takes.” I pointed to Scarlett.
“To get you freshened up.” Who
am I? I sounded like
some jingle writer for a feminine hygiene commercial.
Scarlett shook her head. “But
Granny won’t be back for at least an hour.”
I nodded. “Yes, but she left me
in charge to get you cleaned up.”
Scarlett slightly raised her hips
off the couch, and her yellow skirt fell forward to reveal sheer
panties that were streaked red. But even stained in wine, it was
clear to see that Scarlett was a true redhead.
“I don’t think I should move
in my condition,” she said with a coy look on her face. “Could
you help me, Jack?”
I swallowed hard and looked at
the tiniest, barely-there
V-shaped panty that was held together by thin, pink, spaghetti-like
straps that hugged Scarlett’s narrow hips. I wanted to gnaw them
off with my teeth to get to the strip of hair that was tucked beneath
the sexy sheer. Instead, I held Scarlett in my gaze.
“Maybe you hit your head too
hard?” I said trying to maintain some semblance of control, trying
to be the good guy, trying to remember that we just met. Trying to
get a handle on a situation that was suddenly moving too fast, too
soon, and yet felt so right, which made no sense at all.
Scarlett rolled her head from
side-to-side. Locks of her hair swayed in a truly mesmerizing,
hypnotic fashion. “Jack, Jack, Jack. You over-think things way too
much. If this Wolfe guy really is so bad and I really was in harm’s
way then you just came and rescued me.” She looked up at me, and in
that look I could have shot my load.
“Shouldn’t we be living in
the moment?” Her voice dripped with sex appeal, and my mind and
body stopped working together. “Shouldn’t we forget what’s
behind us and start moving forward? I’m not usually this way, but
tonight hasn’t gone anywhere
like I had planned. I
met some Wolfe in the woods. I knew he was bad news, I knew that, but
I didn’t listen to my gut.”
For a moment anger flashed across
her face. “I should have listened to my first instinct. But I
didn’t.” She shook her head. “I did what was expected
of me. I shared my dessert. I played nice.”
Her hands were in her lap, and
she opened them like she was releasing a bomb. “And then because of
my kindness, I got knocked out by you, and now you tell me that Blue
may have lost everything?” Her voice dropped like she was about to
cry. “If we can’t save what Blue lost…”
Scarlett placed both of her hands
over her chest, and in that moment I could tell that what she needed.
What she wanted wasn’t necessarily me, but some retreat, some
reprieve, some form of escapism from everything that had just
happened. And if I could give her thirty minutes, though I hoped much
longer, of total release, what was the harm?
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Links
Pumpkin
Spice is the published author of adult romantic fiction.
Her
next Amāre
Tale, also offered by Evernight Publishing, “Goldie
Locks & The Brothers Bear” will turn another classic and give
it a naughty spin just in time to make it a November to remember!
Evernight
Publishing will also debut her upcoming Cupid romance, “The Hart
Moment” that focuses on two college professors who realize there’s
nothing academic about their sexual attraction to each other.
This
November, readers will be in for a treat when “My Midnight Cowboy”
will be tucked in stockings for Red Moon Romance’s “The
Naughty List”
anthology.
Pumpkin’s
favorite time of year is fall when the leaves are turning, the
weather is crisper and the nights are a whole lot longer.
Write
to her at: pumpkinspicecom@yahoo.com
Follow
her on Twitter: @PumpkinSpiceU2
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