Shoot to Thrill will appear in the Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance in May, 2010. I love the cover.
Here’s a snippet, not edited yet so subject to tweaks/alterations in final form:
Shoot to Thrill
copyright 2009 Charlene Teglia
Mammoth Book of Special Ops Romance
all rights reserved
“All right over there?”
“F-fine.” Miranda forced the word out, then shook her head and abruptly flipped over, facing Gabriel. “Actually, no. I’m not all right. I’m jittering like a junkie going cold turkey, my body feels like lead, and my brain keeps replaying the worst parts of the last few weeks plus bonus extras of what might have been.” She sucked in a breath, expelled it, and reached for her shirt before she thought better of it. She peeled it up and over her head, then unfastened her pants and began wiggling out of them.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting naked.”
“That’s not a good idea.”
“It’s the best one I’ve got.” Miranda finished pulling her feet free of entangling cloth and pressed her nude self up against his fully dressed form. “We’ve both had a lousy day. Tomorrow might be worse. If they catch me, they’re not just going to shoot me. They’re going to have fun with me first. I can either lay awake for the rest of the night thinking about that, or I can give myself something a lot more enjoyable to focus on.”
Gabriel’s arms closed around her in a move that might have been intended to hold her still. “You don’t have to have sex with me to distract yourself. We can talk.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk. I need to do something. Think of it as stress relief. Or a bonus for a job well done.”
“Dr. Gray.”
“Nice distancing technique,” Miranda muttered. She groped for buttons and zipper, dealing with them with more brute force than dexterity. “My name is Miranda. And I don’t want to be professional or reasonable right now so you can save yourself the effort of appealing to my title.”
“This isn’t happening.”
“Yes, it is.” She finished unfastening and bared some skin to press hers against. Warm. Human. “You want it, too.”
“I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.” But he didn’t try to push her away.
“I’m not going to have regrets tomorrow. You can’t tell me you have everything but condoms in that bat utility belt of yours.”
“Bat utility belt?” He let out a laugh, then sobered. “Miranda.” He moved to rest his forehead against hers, keeping his hands still. “Did they hurt you?”
“Not like you mean. Not while they needed me for their plans. But I knew everything would change the minute I became disposable. And Gabriel, there were a lot of them.” A shudder wracked her. “It would’ve gone on and on forever before they killed me. If they killed me.”
“You’re sure this is what you want?”
She nodded. “I’m sure.” She could doubt a lot of things, but she knew to her bones that she needed this, needed him.
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