Deception
(Southern Comfort #3)
by
Lisa Clark O'Neill
Contemporary
Romantic Suspense
Categories:
Action/Adventure,
Mystery/Thriller
Publisher:
Lisa
Clark O'Neill
Release
Date: June
4, 2013
Heat
Level: Steamy
Word
Count: 103,000
Description:
Samantha
Martin’s carefully reconstructed life is teetering on the edge of
disaster. After surviving an abusive childhood, Sam is only months
away from completing her hard-won college degree when she gets
devastating news about her brother. Donnie, her protector and best
friend, lies in a coma in a Charleston hospital.
Sam
struggles with the question of who shot her beloved brother as well
as the monumental expenses of his ongoing care, and in desperation
seeks ready cash by agreeing to act as the “entertainment” for a
local man’s bachelor party – where to her everlasting
mortification, she encounters the one man who’d ever meant enough
to her to break her heart.
Forensic
artist Josh Harding recognizes the butterfly tattoo on the curvaceous
hip of the wig-bedecked stripper. After all, he’d spent hours
sketching her lovely figure while a student at the Savannah College
of Art and Design. Now here she is, eight years later, and it becomes
clear that Sam is in trouble. Seemingly unrelated threads weave into
a pattern surrounding her and her brother. Exposing criminal
enterprise among the upper echelon of local society and the shocking
truth behind the city’s most famous murder, the unexpected
connections that neither Josh nor Sam saw coming draw them both into
a tangled web of love and Deception.
Warning:
This title is intended for readers over the age of 18 as it contains
adult sexual situations and/or adult language, and may be considered
offensive to some readers.
Read an excerpt:
“You ran.”
Thinking that he was
still upset about her car’s breakdown, she crossed her arms as he
strode toward her. “No, I walked, actually.” He inched closer,
and she backed up, rear end hitting the counter. He dropped his
coat, literally tossing it on the floor, and she worried about his
coherence. “Are you okay? Because that jacket’s not a rental.”
She motioned to the crumpled garment, which lay like a fallen
soldier on the field.
He kicked it to the side.
“Eight years ago.” The tie hit the floor next, and Sam eyed its
fluttering descent. “You ran away from Savannah.”
Sam’s eyebrows shot up
as the first cufflink fell, skittering under the cabinets with a
metallic clang. “You ran away from me.” Off flew cufflink
number two, another kamikaze victim of the conflict. Josh was either
mad or maybe… hot. Sometimes tuxedos could be uncomfortable.
Although it wasn’t that warm in the room.
Then her brain registered
what he’d just said.
“I…” Sam watched
the other little monogrammed circle roll off to join its comrade.
What the hell had they been serving at that reception? “I ran from
you?”
A sock went flying over
her shoulder.
Well, she guessed she
had. But what did that have to do with anything? Unless he was
feeling guilty because he realized she’d been in love with him at
the time. Was still in love with him now. Maybe he was upset about
their current situation. Maybe he thought that she should leave.
Although how that translated into him taking off his clothes she
wasn’t entirely sure.
“Oh, God, Josh.”
This wasn’t the conversation she’d meant to have with him. She’d
simply wanted to let him know that she was okay with his lifestyle,
but it looked like she’d opened a different can of worms. “Look,”
she lifted a hand to her temple, “what happened back then is
totally irrelevant.”
“I beg to differ,” he
said, his beautifully tapered fingers working the buttons on his
shirt. “What happened in the past is completely relevant. It laid
the foundation for what’s going to happen tonight.” An
increasing swath of skin was revealed by his busily marching fingers.
Sam tried not to get distracted by The Chest.
“What?” She peeled
her eyes away, confused.
And the fact that he was
now half naked wasn’t helping matters.
“Um, Josh, I’m not
sure if you, uh, maybe, swam in the champagne fountain or something,
but maybe we might want to have this conversation tomorrow. After
you’ve sobered up.”
A feral look came into
those sparkling baby blues and Sam grasped the sink behind her.
Because his hands were now attacking his pants. She was happy he was
comfortable enough to disrobe in front of her, but it sort of drained
the blood from her head.
Was this some kind of
test?
Could she resist jumping
her hot, naked homosexual friend amidst the rubble of formalwear
blitzkrieg currently littering his kitchen?
Truthfully? Probably
not. Although she’d pull a Geronimo and give it a good effort.
But then Josh blasted
through whatever fortifications she’d erected by dropping a lethal,
unexpected bomb.
“I’m not drunk,” he
said, releasing his zipper. Pushing his pants down his muscled
thighs. “And I’m not gay.”
No. He certainly wasn’t.
The state of his silk boxers gave credence to that.
Sam’s eyes boggled as
she confronted the hard evidence, while her rioting hormones shouted
thank you, God.
But all these years…
how was it possible that she’d been wrong?
She raised her gaze to
his in amazement.
He met it with a
triumphant smile.
And then he was on her,
the very naked skin of his chest pressed solidly against her T-shirt.
She could feel his heat through the threadbare cotton and her nipples
puckered in response. Then his lips took hers in a hungry caress that
was more ruthless than she would have expected.
Not that she’d been
expecting any caressing at all.
His hands slid down her
hips, taking their measure as they passed, to grip her rump in a
possessive squeeze that left no doubt as to his intentions. Lights
exploded inside her head, tiny white starbursts of disbelief. And
when he lifted her a few inches to press his erection firmly against
her, liquid heat pooled between her legs.
Her body was at once
alive with sensation and yet paralyzed by shock.
Available
at:
About
the Author:
One
fine day in the not-too-distant past, Lisa Clark O’Neill left
Wittenberg University with a BA in English, which she promptly
neglected. After working as an interior designer, decorative artist,
and Montessori art teacher (there may have been a BA in art as well,)
she finally settled into the role of mother to two very fine
children.
However,
two years of doing the stay-at-home-mom brain cell melt drove her to
pull out a pen and one of her old college notebooks.
That
turned into six manuscripts.
Lisa
spent subsequent years avoiding housework by burying her nose in just
about every romance novel she could get her hands on, after
completely falling in love with the genre. Her own work falls into
the romantic suspense sub-genre, with strong comedic undertones.
Lisa
currently lives in the Atlanta area with her family, her dog, her cat
and her daughter’s pet rabbit. When she isn’t attempting to keep
the rabbit from eating the woodwork, she’s hard at work on her next
novel.
Connect
with Lisa Clark O’Neill
Giveaway Info:
Prize is 10 eBook copies (1 each to 10
winners) of "Deception (Southern Comfort #3)" from Lisa Clark O'Neill.
Contest is tour-wide and ends July 5.
Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
