Hello, all! I hope everyone's getting revved up for the holidays. I certainly am! For those who follow my Vikings, there's a little something festive on the horizon...
Coming November 29th
Now available for pre-order.
A Viking Holiday
The MacLomain Series- Viking Ancestors' Kin
A Novella
Having time travelers in your life isn’t always
easy. Given that he’s said goodbye to several of them over the past few years,
Sean O’Conner knows that better than most. Now his best friend Megan has
returned from tenth-century Scandinavia to modern day Maine. Not only has she
aged over twenty-five years, she hasn’t traveled through time alone. Her
troublesome daughter Svala is with her.
Of dragon blood and proud to be Viking, Svala
Sigdir has no use for the twenty-first century and makes it evident to all
around her. Even so, she will protect her mother at all cost. Meanwhile, she
needs a man. Sean to be exact. Despite his aversion, she is determined to make
him hers.
Svala might be after him, but Sean wants nothing
to do with her. At least that’s what he tells himself as the holidays arrive
and he struggles to keep peace in what’s become a battleground instead of a
festive Winter Harbor home. At his wit’s end, he finally calls on an old
friend’s help. Or so he had hoped. Cast beneath the spell of a powerful
Scottish wizard determined to protect his Viking Ancestors, Sean and Svala go
on an unexpected yuletide journey. As it turns out, there’s only one way to
break free from the spell. A life-altering choice that might very well cost
Sean both his sanity and his heart.
Excerpt
Svala wrapped
her fur cloak around her shoulders and started to breeze past them as she eyed
his crew mate. “So you’re New England ’s
finest, are you?”
“Naw.” Nick
chuckled and nodded at Sean. “Most ladies think he is.”
“Hmm, I’m not
sure about that,” she said before she started down the hallway.
“I don’t think
so.” Sean grabbed her wrist and stopped her. “Nick, go make sure none of the
guys head this way. Tell them I’m catching a rat or something.”
Svala winked.
“Or a dragon.”
“Where you
gonna hide her, Cap?” Nick kept grinning. “She don’t
look like the type of woman who’ll keep hidden if she’s decided otherwise.”
Svala cocked a
grin at Nick. “I think I like you.”
“I know I like you, beautiful,” he
returned.
“Just make
sure no one heads this way, Nick,” Sean reiterated. “And I’ll make sure Svala
stays hidden.”
“I betcha
will.” Nick chuckled as Sean pulled her toward the meager sleeping quarters.
“I am not
staying down here.” Svala started to fight him. “I want to be on deck. I want
to help you fish.”
“Hell, no.”
Sean grabbed her before she could bolt in the opposite direction. “My men won’t
be able to concentrate on work with you around.”
Her eyes met
his. “Then you must not lead them well if they are so easily distracted.”
It felt as if
the narrow hallway only grew smaller as her eyes pinned his…as he remembered
with vivid clarity how she’d felt against him last night. “You know damn well
the effect you have on men.”
“I did not
dress in modern day clothes.” She pulled the cloak off her shoulders. “See, I am dressed like a Viking again.”
His eyes fell
to the fur-trimmed, leather tunic. To her
unmistakable curves. He swallowed and tore his eyes away. “What difference does
it make? You’re still trouble.”
“Only when I
dress like a modern-day woman, yes?” Svala cocked her head. “That is why you
fought for me last night, is it not? Because you desired me in those clothes?”
She frowned. “Now I am not wearing them. You will not desire me so they won’t
either. There will be no trouble. You will not be ashamed of yourself.”
Sean had no
idea what to make of her logic. “I’m not ashamed of myself.” But he had been
when he overreacted last night. “And trust me, sweetheart, it doesn’t matter
what you’re wearing. You’re gonna distract my men.”
She didn’t
press closer, but her words made the hallway seem even narrower as she
murmured, “Am I distracting you now, Sean? Is that why you seem so convinced?”
When they hit
a small swell, he braced his hand against the wall beside her head and bit back
desire. “Just do as I ask, Svala. I don’t need any trouble, okay? Not with my
men.” He ground his jaw. “This is my livelihood. Please don’t screw it up.”
Shockingly
enough, Svala looked as though he’d slapped her. “That’s not why I’m here,
Sean…” She trailed off, clearly upset before she gathered herself. “I just
wanted to see you fish.”
“Commercial
fishing isn’t like normal fishing.” He shook his head. “There’s not much to
see, really.”
Except when
the nets came up. That feeling of excitement and expectation before they found
out how big a load they’d caught.
He had no idea
what to make of the look on her face. She was vulnerable in a way he’d never
seen her. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, not sure what to say, still confused about
why she hadn’t already traveled back in time. “Maybe I can take you out fishing
another time?”
“Maybe,” she
said softly, her eyes alarmingly gentle as she stepped close. “So how are you
going to keep me entertained while you hide me away?”
Ah, there she
was. The little Viking he knew so well. Except this time he wasn’t stepping
away.
Something
about having her on one of his boats, on his turf, on the high sea…was
different. Somehow, though it was on his territory, they had found common
ground. The sway of a ship. The pulse of the ocean beneath them.
“Sean,” she
whispered, clearly sensing a crack in the wall he’d kept between them. Slowly,
inch by inch, she unzipped his jacket. “If I understand things correctly, you
aren’t needed for hours yet. Why don’t we use that time in a pleasurable way,
yes?”
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