One of our favorite authors is Vivian Arend. In her new book High Risk she introduces us to the men and women of Lifeline and rescue team. This is a story with heart, impact, and lots of sexy times…this is a Vivian Arend book after all 🙂 Viv has graciously shared with us an excerpt of High Risk.Â
The sunshine beckoned, so she exchanged her travel clothes for running pants, adding a water bottle holder. Becki was debating gloves or no gloves—temperatures were still nippy—when there was a knock on the door.
She peered out the security peephole and nearly died.
Marcus.
His face had matured. She’d thought him handsome before, all those years ago, but at thirty he’d still been young. Not babyish—that word would never have crossed anyone’s mind in describing Marcus—but more like unrealized potential. Now? His cheeks and jaw were firmer, his blue eyes just as alert. Small character lines extended from the corners, and she wanted to touch them. To smooth away the crease marks between his brows.
His shoulders were as wide as she remembered, his open jacket stretched over a firm chest. Her mouth went dry recalling exactly how firm his body had been. Was.
He knocked again and she jerked into action, even as memories tumbled in her brain.
As the door opened, Marcus dragged on his best manners. See, David, I can be something better than an asshole when I want to be.
He pinned his smile in place as he spoke to the woman slowly coming into view. “Rebecca James? I don’t know if you remember me . . .”
A rock slide couldn’t have hit with more impact. Even knowing she was going to be there didn’t reduce the shock. The face before him wasn’t only pretty, it was familiar. Very familiar. He hadn’t seen it in real life for years, but he’d seen it plenty in his mind.
Her eyes lit for a split second before her smile faded, as if she weren’t sure what to do next.
He sure the hell didn’t.
“Hi, Marcus. Nice to see you again.” She straightened, clutching the front of her water bottle holder. “Are you visiting David?”
“I live here.”
“In Banff? Since when?”
“For the past four years.” He gestured into the room, still reeling from the shock. “And you’ve gone back to your student days.”
Suddenly that was the worst possible thing he could have said, because all he could picture was her naked and spread before him—on the bed, in the giant tub at the Banff Springs Hotel. Up against the wall, her skin slick with moisture as he pinned her in place and rocked his cock into her willing body again and again.
One wicked weekend. Taking him and breaking him apart with her sensuality.
He was staring—he knew he was. But her lips were still firm, that hint of mischief there as she smiled. While her dark brown hair was pulled back into a tidy ponytail, his mental images were of it tousled around her head as he held himself over her, intimately connected. The curves of her body were clearly visible under her tight running outfit, and he had the urge to strip her and see exactly how well his memories lined up with the new reality.
The door shifted position and Marcus snapped his gaze off her hips, where he’d been momentarily trapped.
Her smile had gotten bigger. “Seems you haven’t changed much.”
LIFELINE: an elite search-and-rescue squad based out of Banff, Alberta. Specializing in high-risk rescue missions, this team goes wherever the job takes them…
Rebecca James was once revered for her devil-may-care attitude and backcountry survival skills. But ever since she lost her partner in a fatal accident, patches of her memory have been missing. And until she can recall those final, tragic moments before the accident, she can’t move on.
Since Marcus Landers was permanently injured during a mission, all his energies have been focused on his Lifeline team. When Becki—whom he had an intense affair with seven years ago—arrives in Banff, he’s inspired to reignite the spark they once had. Their mutual ardor slowly awakens Becki’s dormant, haunting memories.
New truths surface until Becki must at last confront her greatest fear. Remembering the past might mean a future without the man she loves…
Her books are always a must read for me.