Sunday Snippet: Slow Heat by Lorie O’Clare

Today’s snippet comes to us from a new to me author Lorie O’Clare, and I have to say that based on this snippet from her latest release I’m going to be reading her backlist. 

Micah picked up her car keys she’d left on his coffee table and opened his front door. He watched her almost run to her car. His dick was hard watching her perfectly shaped ass sway as she walked away from him. He’d wanted to grab her hair, feel how soft it was in his fingers, and tug on it until she completely submitted to him.

Maggie hadn’t denied his comment about their lust being off the charts. That had made his blood boil through his veins. She desperately wanted control, probably because she had it in her everyday life. That life was gone to her, at least for the time being. He was in charge now, of her, and her future.

She wasn’t going anywhere. Micah waited until she reached her car then turned into his house. He endured the pain of walking with a stiff dick into his kitchen. Then, grabbing two business cards from the small stack he kept by his napkins, Micah wrote his number on the back of one of them.

When he was at his front door again, Maggie was standing at her driver’s side door. He couldn’t read her expression but waited until she looked up, over the roof of her car, and stared at him. Micah held up her keys. She exhaled noticeably and dropped her head, letting her hair shroud her face.

By the time he was eighteen, Micah’s father would tell him there were few men out there who could read another at a fair distance. He said Micah had that gift. Micah wasn’t sure if he’d call it a gift, but he detected Maggie’s embarrassment as he crossed his yard. She raised her head when he neared the back of her Civic Hybrid.

“Thank you,” she said, holding her head high as she reached for her keys. Maggie didn’t move from her driver’s side door.

Micah pushed the button on her key holder and unlocked the car. It was new, possibly less than a year old. Maggie dressed well, too. He wasn’t sure how much a bookkeeper for a night club would normally make, but he intended to find out. He also planned on learning where Maggie lived. If she had a nice house he would definitely say she was living beyond her means, unless somehow those means had been padded. But looks were often deceiving and he wouldn’t judge her yet.

Micah stepped into her space, forcing her to take a step backward and opened her door. “This is my number.” He handed her both business cards and still held her keys. “Write your number on the other card for me, unless you have a business card.”

“I don’t.” She pulled a pen from her purse and used the top of her car to write her number on the back of her card. “Do you charge by the hour, by the day?”

“Neither.” He took the card, studied her penmanship for a moment, then slipped the card into his pants pocket. “I’ll be in touch soon after I look into a few things.”

Maggie shoved her hair behind her shoulder and faced him. “Okay, so I’ve hired you, right? Is this our verbal agreement?”

“Yes.” He wasn’t sure why he added, “I’m not much into paperwork.”

Something shifted in her expression at his comment. It didn’t surprise him much that a bookkeeper, legal or illegal, would prefer things in order and documented. Micah had lived a lifetime of not documenting anything. “I’ll do some checking around and be in touch with you in a day or so.”

“If I don’t answer leave voicemail. I don’t know how long I’ll be with all of my family.” She tilted her head, studying him. “Do you come from a big family?”

“No.” He didn’t really come from a family at all. His father and uncle had trained him more than raised him.

“Oh.” She said, nodding once. There wasn’t approval, or disapproval but she shifted her focus from his face quickly.

Maggie wasn’t trying to divert her reaction to him not having much family. They weren’t in the confines of his small living room anymore. But even outside, with the entire neighborhood, and all ofLos Angelesbeyond that, the sparks of need still clogged the air around them. It was a bit too strong for Micah’s liking. The urge to reach out and touch her damn near overwhelmed him.

There was still time to back out of this. Tell her no, go back inside, and continue with life as he had for the past three months.

Her next comment floored him. Micah hadn’t pegged Maggie as being so forward. “I’m not going to have sex with you,” she said and stared up at him with those sultry bright blue eyes of hers.

Micah was well trained and quick on his toes whether on a hunt, or dealing with an unpredictable, gorgeous lady. “Is it because I don’t have a strong family name?” he countered. “Or because I’m not Catholic?” he added to throw her off. His Saint Michael pendent suddenly seemed heavier against his chest.

“No.” Her fingers fluttered around her hair. “No,” she repeated. “It’s just that you said inside…” Her words tapered off. “I mean that the way you touched me,” she tried again.

Micah took advantage of the moment. Reaching out, he ran his fingers over her silky smooth hair. He managed not to suck in a harsh breath, but Maggie didn’t. She gasped, and froze.

“I would never do anything you don’t want me to do,” he whispered, and handed her the keys.

In the high-risk world of bounty hunters, one falsely accused woman is searching for justice—and one truly arresting man is feeling the heat…

            As a new employee with KFA, the King family’s bounty-hunting agency, Micah Jones feels like he’s a perfect fit. All he has to do is remember…capture, don’t kill. He also needs to keep a low profile so his past life won’t catch up with him. But his latest assignment—to bring in a night-club owner suspected of money-laundering—heats up fast when he meets the “brains” of the outfit: an irresistibly beautiful bookkeeper who’s resisting arrest. In fact, she’s so determined to prove her innocence that she tries calling 911 to report thugs posing as bounty hunters are raiding her night club. Micah wrestles her to the ground before she can make the call, which was his first big mistake. Maggie O’Malley feels a bit too good underneath his powerful body.

Held for questioning but released by police, Maggie O’Malley is still a person of interest. Maggie is interested in Micah Jones—in his services. With his iron-hard muscles and tough-guy exterior, the Harley-riding bounty hunter is just the man Maggie needs to track down the real crook at the club. A slow-burning attraction ignites a firestorm of insatiable desire—until the secrets of Micah’s past are exposed. Explosive passion now must prove stronger than a history so terrifying it might haunt them forever…