A Writer's Mind: Travel Back to Tenth Century Scandinavia in Fury of a Viking. #vikingromance

Monday, April 17, 2017

Travel Back to Tenth Century Scandinavia in Fury of a Viking. #vikingromance

Happy Spring! I hope everyone’s doing great. As always, I’m crazy busy and writing away. All sorts of fun stuff coming up. Lately, of course, my primary focus has been on Matthew, Shannon, Emily and Håkon’s story. For the first time ever, I brought together a couple who have young children. What a ride! As you can imagine, a lot more goes into it. Nonetheless, it was an incredible adventure with more revelations than most books. So lots coming together in this one. Hope you enjoy!

Blurb

Shannon usually prefers the dead to the living. But then running a funeral parlor offers a different perspective. Peace and escape. Or at least it did until the day she’s summoned by her sister to their Winter Harbor chalet in Maine. Now she knows the truth. The veil between worlds is far thinner than she thought. In fact, it’s so thin she and her daughter Emily slip back in time.

Of dragon blood, Matthew Sigdir has suffered more loss than most. A wife. Sister. Now, because of a vicious enemy, possibly his son, Håkon. Infuriated, determined to find his child, he heads north over unforgiving land. What he doesn’t expect is a twenty-first century little girl and her beautiful mother, Shannon, to join him on his quest. Nor does he expect Hel to show them favor. And there’s no turning away Loki’s daughter when she offers help. Now they have to navigate not only through the elements of a wicked Scandinavian winter but Helheim itself, the underworld of the dead.

While they travel, Matthew and Shannon are forced to face their pasts. What they left behind and all that haunts them. As they do, old wounds heal. Hope grows. Love sparks. Through it all, Emily leads them ever closer to Håkon. She’s the key. But is it already too late? Will they make it in time to save Matthew’s son? Or is the enemy one step ahead of them?

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Excerpt

Matthew nodded, more and more impressed by Shannon. He said nothing but watched her out of the corner of his eye, again taken by her appearance. Her slender body. The fine lines of her profile.

She possessed a quiet, mesmerizing sort of elegance and he found himself imagining what her dragon might look like. Would it match the sleek blackness of her hair or would it be the addictive blue of her eyes? He imagined she would make a stunning addition to his homeland as she flew over its turbulent waters, the sea spray coating her body in shimmering moisture.

“Matthew?” she said softly with that tempting tone she was so good at. It was designed to be soothing and compassionate for those going through difficult times, but his dragon heard a little something else as well. A seductiveness he was fairly certain she didn’t know she emitted. A sensuality he suspected was her inner beast responding to his.

“Matthew?” she repeated, tilting her head ever-so-slightly in question. “Are you with me?”

Oh, he was with her all right.Just in the last way he intended. A way he thought he had been able to set aside. But all he could seem to focus on now were her lips. How much he wanted to kiss them again.

“Yes,” he managed, his voice a little gruff as he became overly aware of her scent still lingering on him. “I am with you, Shannon.” He stood. “But as you said before, it is time to rest. We’ll talk more tomorrow, yes?”

“Sure, if that’s what you’d prefer.” She looked at him with concern, obviously refocused on the battle and what had happened to him. “Whenever you need to talk, I’ll do my best to listen. What you’ve experienced, what you’re going through, isn’t easy.”

Much to his dismay, sexual frustration only grew as he pulled on his tunic and boots. He didn’t want to talk but do something else entirely. And that only fed his aggravation. He should want to get to the bottom of things.

Yet his muddled mind remained focused on her scent.

Her looks.

On how she would feel beneath him.

“It’s only normal to be feeling what you are right now,” she murmured as they headed back. “It’s normal to want to find relief from all the stress you’re under.”

At first, he didn’t realize what she was talking about until he heard the switch of her breathing in the darkness and caught the sweetness of her arousal. She was catching glimpses of his thoughts and referring to his untimely lust. As they cut through a narrow corridor of rock and were forced to walk single file, his eyes dropped to her shapely backside, and he almost groaned.

Was it normal to feel so strongly about her right now? To imagine pressing her against the wall and closing his lips over hers more firmly this time? Then to fall to his knees and inhale her desire? When Shannon cleared her throat, and her heart rate increased even more, he knew for certain she heard his thoughts. And was likely even well aware of his arousal through senses alone.

Especially if they were dragon mates.

He could deny it all he wanted, but there was no mistaking the way he responded to her. The jealousy he felt not only when Kodran pulled her close but when Cameron put his arm around her. He might have a real problem. Though he assumed he was well in control of himself around female dragons, it seemed he was wrong. Because the last thing he felt when she stopped short, and he came against her back, was in control.

“What is it?” he murmured, lowering his head and inhaling the warmth of her skin. “Why did you stop?”

“I just had the strangest feeling,” she whispered.

A shiver of awareness rippled through her when his hands landed on either side of her slim waist. She liked the feeling of him behind her like this. And he liked it just as much.

“What kind of feeling?” he managed as he stepped even closer and kept inhaling. He was so aroused he could barely remember why he shouldn’t be. In fact, any sense of decency was just about gone.