Victoria Sue is here today to promote her latest, 'Five Minutes Longer'! See our review here! She also stopped by with Exclusive Excerpt and a Giveaway!
Exclusive (NSFW) excerpt.
Finn rounded the corner of the stairs and stopped in shock. Talon sat on the floor, his back propped up against Finn’s apartment door, with Finn’s bag from the plane resting beside him. Talon’s head was lowered, and he hadn’t looked up when Finn turned down the corridor, but somehow Finn knew Talon was very well aware he was there. So why wouldn’t he acknowledge him?
“Oh cool, thanks.” He took a step closer and fished for his key.
Talon opened his eyes and looked straight at Finn, and Finn came to a sudden halt. Desperation. Sadness. Futility. All those and more in the blue eyes that stared nearly unseeing into Finn’s. Something had happened.
Finn swallowed and took another step. “Want a coffee?” he asked casually, and Talon heaved himself upright. He didn’t reply, but he followed Finn inside. Finn walked straight into the kitchen and waved at the stool. “Take a seat.”
He opened two of the wrong cupboards before he found the coffee. Talon still hadn’t said a word, but Finn was never one to talk when he was nervous. Talon sat and didn’t seem like he was in a hurry to leave. Finn could wait. He got two mugs and the cream and sugar out, and then stood awkwardly silent while it brewed. Finn turned to confirm Talon wanted it black as he had in the diner, but the words dried in his throat. Talon had silently slid off the stool and stood so close, Finn took a step back when he turned around.
“What happened?” he asked, his fingers itching to touch Talon’s bent head.
Talon sighed and took the coffee from the counter. “We were too late.”
Finn sipped his own, but when there didn’t seem to be any more info coming, he said, “Drew said it was at a school.”
“I’ve never known a kid not to wake up with it, ever. It always happens overnight. But this one, he was playing ball and got into it with some other kid because he cheated. There was a fight, and he pushed him.”
“Who? The enhanced did?” Finn asked.
Talon rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Yeah. Except the kid he pushed flew back straight into a brick wall and demolished it. He’s currently in Tampa General with severe head injuries. They’re not sure he’s gonna make it.”
“What happened to the other kid?”
“The cops arrived at the same time as the kid’s parents. Apparently they live close, and the dad works nights, so he was home. By this time the kid was nearly hysterical. The teacher was trying to calm him down, and she told us the mark just grew before her eyes as the kid was crying. He wouldn’t let anyone near him, just kept screaming for his mom.” Talon looked up again, and Finn’s heart seemed to tighten at the hollowness in Talon’s eyes.
“And his mom and dad came?”
Talon nodded. “The kid was distraught. He was crying and shaking, and the mom and dad arrived. His mom called his name and started to go near, and then he looked up when he heard her. She just screamed, and the kid cried and ran toward her. The dad….” Talon stopped, his throat working. “He pushed him away,” he whispered. “Told him not to come anywhere near his wife. Said he had to stay back. We arrived at the same time as the cops, and they took him out without giving us a chance to talk to him.”
“Took…. You mean they sedated him, don’t you?” Fuck, it sounded like they shot the kid.
Talon nodded. “But he wasn’t completely out straight away. Crying desperately for his mom, and his dad just turned to the cops and told them to take him away. That he was no son of theirs. That they had to take him because he was never coming in their house ever again.
“There was nothing I could do,” Talon said. “I thought Gael was gonna kill the dad. I had to get the team back.”
“What will happen?” Finn asked in horror.
“State takes them. The ones who no one wants. The ones who are thrown away.”
Finn felt his own eyes burning, and he blinked.
Talon shook his head as if in complete disbelief. “That’s why this unit has to work. We have to show we’re not monsters. We have to show we don’t need locking up. We could start all sorts of outreach programs—go to schools, even.”
Finn closed the gap between them. He had no thought except comfort, except showing this man who hurt so badly that not everyone condemned them. He put his hand out to touch Talon’s shoulder without thinking, and Talon raised his face. Finn stopped. Something changed. He couldn’t swallow in his closed throat. The blue in Talon’s eyes deepened and seemed to draw him in. His warm breath ghosted over Finn’s lips, and Finn’s heart seemed to slow.
Talon moved. Not so much moved as launched himself at Finn. It was only Talon planting his arms around Finn’s back that kept Finn upright against the onslaught as Talon’s mouth savaged his.
Finn was stunned, reeling. He froze for a second, and then as he felt Talon react to his immobility, just as Talon stiffened and Finn knew he was about to step away, Finn’s lips seemed to remember what to do, how to respond. He couldn’t help the grunt as he latched onto Talon and feverishly hung on in case Talon thought he wasn’t interested.
Talon responded just as desperately, and Finn felt his feet almost clear the floor as Talon dragged Finn’s body against his. Finn arched as Talon threaded his fingers through Finn’s hair and bent his head. Kissing didn’t come close to the way Talon possessed Finn’s mouth. He bit and pulled at Finn’s lower lip with his teeth, and the groan that reverberated in Talon’s throat traveled to Finn’s cock.
Finn held on and tugged at Talon’s hair, desperate for him not to move. Desperate for more. Never in his wildest fantasies had anything like this happened.
Then Talon moved his hand to the front of Finn’s jeans, and Finn whined an urgent warning. His cock throbbed and pulsed, and he was desperate to feel Talon’s fingers. Finn arched against Talon, blood pounding in his ears, blood pounding in his groin. He just needed…. Talon slid his hand down the front of Finn’s jeans and cupped his cock through his boxers. Finn tried to pull away, tried to break the kiss, or he would come in his jeans. Talon just growled, and the sound went straight to Finn’s balls.
“No.” Talon nearly shouted the word and pushed Finn away.
Finn’s knees gave out, and he staggered before collapsing on the floor. He blinked, completely dazed.
“I can’t. I’m sorry.” Talon dragged a hand through his hair, gave Finn one desperate look, and strode to the door. He banged it shut behind him.
Finn raised a shaky hand to his swollen lips. What the fuck?
He got to his feet and winced. He needed a shower. He didn’t even know where to begin sorting all that out in his head, but in his limited experience with hand jobs, he’d just had the best sex of his life, and he never even removed his clothes.
What the hell did that mean for work tomorrow?
Talon Valdez knew that when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced are viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency.
Years later he gets a chance to set up a task force of enhanced to serve in the FBI, but with one proviso: each enhanced must partner with a regular human.
Finn Mayer dreamed of joining the FBI since he was fourteen and made every possible sacrifice to make it happen, including living with his selfish mother and bullying homophobic brother and never having a boyfriend. But his undiagnosed dyslexia stopped his aspirations dead in their tracks. His last chance is to partner with Talon, an enhanced with fatal abilities who doesn’t trust regular humans with their secrets and wants Finn to fail.
Four weeks to prove himself to the team. Four weeks for the team to prove itself to the public. And when another group threatens their success—and their lives are at stake—four weeks for them to survive.
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See our review of Five Minutes Longer HERE.
Thanks for the excerpt, the book sounds great!
ReplyDeleteI loved the excerpt Victoria. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteSounds really good; Thank you, Victoria!
ReplyDelete