Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and spotlights upcoming releases that we are eagerly anticipating.
Like in my In My Mailbox post, I'm saying this again: This is my first time to do such meme. Haha! Can you now see how a noob I am? :)
So for my "Waiting on" pick is Killing Sarai by the NYT best-selling author J.A. Redmerski... Just because I can't get enough of bad-ass books like this one. ;)
KILLING SARAI
Release date: June 20
The Blurb
Sarai was only fourteen when her mother uprooted her to live in Mexico with a notorious drug lord. Over time she forgot what it was like to live a normal life, but she never let go of her hope to escape the compound where she has been held for the past nine years.
Victor is a cold-blooded assassin who, like Sarai, has known only death and violence since he was a young boy. When Victor arrives at the compound to collect details and payment for a hit, Sarai sees him as her only opportunity for escape. But things don’t go as planned and instead of finding transport back to Tucson, she finds herself free from one dangerous man and caught in the clutches of another.
While on the run, Victor strays from his primal nature as he succumbs to his conscience and resolves to help Sarai. As they grow closer, he finds himself willing to risk everything to keep her alive; even his relationship with his devoted brother and liaison, Niklas, who now like everyone else wants Sarai dead.
As Victor and Sarai slowly build a trust, the differences between them seem to lessen, and an unlikely attraction intensifies. But Victor’s brutal skills and experience may not be enough in the end to save her, as the power she unknowingly holds over him may ultimately be what gets her killed.
This is their story…
Exclusive excerpt from Aestas Book Blog
The flash of a silver blade catches my eye. I panic when I glimpse the knife in his hand and start to twist my body awkwardly. But he holds me down, putting the weight of his hand on the small of my back, the hand with the knife wrestling with my left shoulder.
“What are you going to do?!” I shriek.
“Victor, no!”
I thrash around more violently, trying to roll over onto my back so that I can get up. Suddenly he’s lying fully on top of me, and his closeness, the warmth of his breath on the side of my neck, takes my breath away. My entire frame solidifies beneath him and then begins to relax, melting into his body as his voice dances along the shell of my ear.
“I will be gentle,” he whispers and my skin shivers from my ear down the full length of my spine.
He presses himself into me from behind, his hardness obvious behind the thin layer of his pants that separates us.
“I promise,” he says onto my ear. “But it has to come out. Do you understand? Do you trust me?” He presses his hips toward me again and I feel me moving against him involuntarily. I shut my eyes when the tingling sensation between my legs moves through my back and into my eyelids.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I trust you."
“Good,” he says softly and slowly raises himself off of me.
I remain very still, thinking so much more about Victor and what he just did to me than the more imperative threat. A part of me doesn’t even care about what he’s going to do, that he’s about to cut into me with a knife, that it’s going to hurt like hell. And perhaps that’s the only reason he did what he did, knowing somehow that he could control my mood, my emotions, with the hope that he might touch me more than he already has. I feel like a toy and Victor knows every button on me which to push, to touch, in order to make me do whatever he wants, feel whatever he wants me to feel. And I don’t mind. I don’t know how he did it, but I don’t mind at all.
“Bite down on the pillow if you have to,” he says.
I reach up and grab the nearest pillow towards me, crushing it against my chest. I squeeze my eyes shut tight.
Another exclusive excerpt from Vilma's Book Blog
She gets up from the bed and my head falls to the side to see her as she approaches. Not knowing what to do, unable to read her because I’m confused by her actions, I don’t speak. She lies down beside me. Her knees are drawn up and pressed together, her hands hidden between them, and she looks at me.
“You should get back into your own bed,” I say.
“I just want to sleep here. It’s not what you think. I’m just afraid.”
“You fear nothing,” I say, looking back up at the ceiling.
“You’re wrong,” she counters. “I fear everything. What tomorrow will bring and if I’ll be alive to see the end of it. I’m afraid of Javier or anyone else coming through that door and killing me in my sleep. I’m afraid of never being able to live a normal life. I don’t even know what normal feels like anymore.”
“There is a stark difference between fear and uncertainty, Sarai. You fear nothing but are uncertain of everything.”
“How can you believe that?” She seems truly confounded by my assessment of her.
I look at her and answer, “Because you didn’t go to the police. Because you made no effort to contact anyone else that you knew and you have had dozens of chances to do so. Because you got back in the car. With me. A killer. Because you know that I will kill you without thinking twice about it and I would not be remorseful, yet you’re lying next to me. Here in this bed. Alone and willingly.”
I reach over and pull the gun from the floor beside the bed and before she knows what’s happening, the barrel of it is pressed underneath her chin, forcing her head backward. I push my body against hers, our shoulders touching, the weight of my gun hand held up by her chest. My eyes study hers, the question and surprise within them, although faint. I look at her mouth, her soft and innocent lips pressed together gently.
I lean over and whisper onto the side of her mouth, “Because you’re not shaking, Sarai.” And then slowly, I pull the gun away, never removing my eyes from hers.
“I am not Javier,” I say. “You are mistaken if you believe you can manipulate me as you did him.”
She appears offended, though it’s very faint in her eyes, I see it. It is exactly the reaction that I wanted. That I needed, to know that the accusation is untrue.
Without argument, she looks away from me and rolls over onto her other side. She doesn’t get up and move back to her bed.
And I don’t force her.
“I wasn’t with Javier willingly,” she says with her back to me. “I don’t have any reason to manipulate you.”
A minute of quiet passes; only the shuffling of feet moving down the carpeted hallway outside the door disrupting it.
“I’m glad you came back,” she says softly. “And Victor…I should tell you, I’ve been a liar for the past nine years of my life. Everything I said and did and expressed was a lie. I like to think I’ve mastered it by now.” She pauses and I don’t have to wonder long where she’s going with this. “I’ve noticed that every time you talk to that man, Niklas, about me, that you’re lying to him.” She cranes her head backward to see me behind her. “Thank you for helping me.”
And then she turns away again and says nothing to me for the rest of the night.
RELEASE DATE: JUNE 20, 2013
On release day June 20th, KILLING SARAI will be ON SALE for $1.99 for Amazon Kindle and at Barnes & Noble for Nook! One day only, folks! So snag your copy on the 20th before it goes up to regular price on the 21st!
No comments:
Post a Comment