It's Release Day for Guarded Desire!!!

Guarded Desire Details...

NM Protectors #1

(m/f new adult, romantic suspense)

Kidnapped and terrorized, I refuse to let anyone break me. I can stand on my own, no matter what it costs...even if that cost is my life.

Elle...

I was living the life of an ordinary college coed, but that existence was blown wide open when I was kidnapped while visiting my very famous mother, rock-star, ViviAnna.

Now I’m back at college, pretending life is normal while dodging paparazzi and dealing with my face showing up regularly on the nightly news. Trying to find a new balance isn’t happening and the effort to not jump at every shadow or bump in the night is messing with my head more than I ever expected.

Jonah...

I’m a highly trained bodyguard, but that doesn’t mean I want to deal with some spoiled pop princess’s daughter, especially if she’s anything like her handsy mother.

But when I met Elle, she shocked the hell out of me. She’s nice and thoughtful with an incredible inner strength. Even more surprising...she doesn’t want me anywhere near her. But every once in a while I see a flash of fear and vulnerability that make all my protective instincts flare.

I have to protect her.

Because they never caught her kidnapper...

Note: This book is the first in a series of stand-alone, romantic suspense, new adult novels involving sexy bodyguards and the coeds they protect.

I'm trying something new with this release.

For the first 24 hours of release (until June 22nd),
the price will be $.99. 
For the week after that, it will be priced at $2.99.
Then the price will rise to its regular $3.99 price tag.
(this only applies to the ebook)

Amazon buy link

Other retailer buy link 

How about a sneak peek at an excerpt?

Chapter One

Elle

Three weeks later...

I shivered as a wave of fear rolled over me. Looking at the big windows of my penthouse loft in downtown Gran Colina, New Mexico shouldn’t affect me like this. I was safe now.

When I’d bought this loft, I’d loved those windows and all the light they infused into the apartment, but that had been when I’d lived in relative obscurity. Now after only being home for a few hours, all I could think about was how many eyes were out there, watching me through the clear glass.

And any of them could be his.

I wrapped my arms around my waist, feeling the tremors start deep inside. No, I’m stronger than this, I chanted to myself as I sank to the floor behind the safety of my kitchen island. No one could see me behind this thick wood.

I reached up and felt my way across the countertop for the remote to shut the floor-to-ceiling curtains. My hands shook so bad, I could barely hold the tiny piece of plastic to find the button. Finally, I could hear the rhythmic whirring of the motors that controlled the huge swaths of fabric shrouding my apartment in darkness so unlike the bright-shining, New Mexico sky.

But that didn’t stop his voice inside my head, mocking me. I’ll make you famous. You’ll be my most renowned creation.

I had never seen his face, and I knew that more than one cop had thought I’d made the whole thing up, but I could guarantee them that I’d never forget that creepy, sing-song voice. I could identify him by voice recognition alone. How could I forget it when it had haunted me every moment after he’d drugged and kidnapped me, making me into the very image of my way-too-famous mother before disappearing into the night.

Stop it!

Going through it in my head over and over and over again would slowly drive me insane. That’s why I’d escaped my mother’s house in Texas. I couldn’t live like this. I’d always prided myself in being strong and independent. It was time to take my life back. I wouldn’t let him steal it from me.

I called the front desk of my building.

“Ms. Wilcox, is everything okay?”

“Yes, Jennifer, everything’s fine.”

Jennifer Sloane ran security for the building, and she was tougher than any bodyguard that ViviAnna had ever hired to protect me, but since her bodyguards were usually glorified boy-toys, that wasn’t too surprising.

That was part of the reason I chose to live in this building. I liked that the head of security was a woman and tough as nails. It also meant my mom wouldn’t try to get in her pants. Thankfully, mom’s experiments with lesbianism had failed right along with her album on feminism. That awful publicity ploy had been an utter bomb.

I cleared my throat and peeked around the island to the massive, twenty-foot high windows now shrouded in darkness, but I still didn’t feel safe. In my mind, I knew the bulletproof glass would protect me, but that didn’t stop the ants from crawling under my skin.

“I’m sorry, Jennifer, I know this isn’t your area, but I was wondering if you might be able to help me.”

“I’ll do my best. What seems to be the problem?”

“I need...” My voice cracked, and I cleared my throat. “Um, sorry. I need something to cover my windows. Shutters, I think. Metal ones.” My voice wavered, and I just prayed Jennifer couldn’t hear the fear in it, but then I considered my request. Yeah, I might be becoming unhinged. I laughed a little hysterically. “I know. That sounds crazy, right?”

“No.” Her voice softened. “Would you like me to come up and check your apartment for you? I have equipment that can sweep it inside and out for bugs or any other electronic devices like cameras.”

My breath whooshed out of me, and I almost sobbed in relief. “That would be...helpful. Thank you, Jennifer.”

As I turned off my cell phone, I knocked it against my forehead. Of course, she had seen the story. Everyone in the country had seen the story. Poor, little, rich girl, kidnapped by a phantom, by someone who the police couldn’t even verify existed. It hadn’t taken long for the press to glom onto the idea that it was all a hoax.

But it wasn’t.

I still heard his voice.

I’ll make you famous.

That was the one thing I’d spent my whole life trying to avoid, and already, it was happening. In the past three weeks, my name had been in every paper, on every newscast in the country, but instead of becoming famous, I had become infamous.

I’d run home to escape it all, but as the prickles under my skin increased, I began to think that there was no escape from this living nightmare.

***

After Jennifer came and swept my loft for bugs, I managed to calm the panicked ants crawling under my skin. It helped that I’d sent an SOS out to my best friend, Trace, and he’d promised to be there as quickly as humanly possible. He’d been shooting a video for a commercial up in Santa Fe. He hadn’t known I’d be coming back today, or he would have already been here, taking care of me. I just had to survive the quiet alone for the two hours it would take him to drive from Santa Fe down to Gran Colina.

Trace had been taking care of me from the time my mother gave him to me for my fifteenth birthday. What? Didn’t everyone’s mother give her a hot, viral guy to take their virginity when they turned fifteen? Yeah, I know...totally unfair. But that’s what it’s like having grown up as ViviAnna’s offspring.

But it didn’t work out quite like she’d planned since Trace was gay, and I had no desire to shed my pesky virginity just because VA decreed it. Instead, Trace had become my very best friend, and the one person in this world who kept me safe when ViviAnna’s crazy seemed to be taking over.

Case in point...the circus my life had become in the last three weeks. Paparazzi, panic attacks, and paranoia...oh my. I’ve needed my best friend more the last few weeks than I ever had in my entire life. The problem...ViviAnna wasn’t aware that I’d never let him go after my supposed deflowering. Since he was trying to survive in an already brutal entertainment industry, he and I agreed it wasn’t worth the risk to let her know. One bad word from her could ruin him. I refused to have that on my conscience.

Instead, I’d spent the last three weeks trying to ignore the building panic buzzing inside of me to the point that I’m now having panic attacks inside my completely secure apartment.

Even that thought had my heartbeat speeding up again. Crap. I tried to gain control. Wasn’t there something on the internet about breathing into a paper bag to stop things like this?

I frantically started yanking my kitchen drawers open. Why didn’t I have any paper bags? Would recycling shopping bags work? As the spots began to encroach on my vision, I decide it couldn’t hurt. I sank to the floor and pressed my face into the recycled bag, focused on slowing down my breathing.

It felt like it took hours, but eventually, the elephant taking up residence on top of my chest began to climb off, leaving me exhausted and more than a little strung out.

I still sat on my kitchen floor, the idea of facing those windows enough to feed the tendrils of another panic attack looming.

Instead, I grabbed my cell phone and crawled across the width of my living room to the guest bedroom next to it. This room had been built as a panic room with a false wall included. But even after the wall closed behind me, I still didn’t feel secure enough. I crawled into the solid, thick wood armoire where I stored my winter wardrobe. Only as I settled inside the smaller space did I feel like I could breathe again.

I set the alarm on my phone so that I would be out before Trace arrived in two hours. He might be my best friend, but he didn’t know how deep my crazy was running right now.

No one needed to know.

Exhaustion pulled at me.

I just needed to relax and maybe take a little nap. Then, I’d feel like my normal self again...able to face the windows of my apartment. Even with the shivering, I finally started to feel myself drift off to sleep.

Wanna read more...

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