Book Hook -- Unwanted Vows
/In honor of our Military Service Members this month, my Book Hook is from Unwanted Vows. The story of a wounded warrior who comes home and builds a new life for himself... with the woman who broke his heart. They are at odds now, but still bound by a love that seems to have crossed the years and the separation. <3 Morgan and Sam, two of my favorite characters.
~*~*~
Morgan released the safety on the gun and pointed it at the floor.
Vandalism on a construction site was nothing unusual.
But this kid won dumbest delinquent of the century—having his lights on, no stealth at all, just tromping around making enough noise to raise the dead.
Morgan could give him a few lessons.
“Now,” he started. And the kid turned and ran for the door. “Fuck.”
Morgan was fast even with only one leg, and he leapt and brought the intruder down. He thumped the kid against the floor once, which made him moan. Morgan lifted him by the scruff of his dark hoodie and set him on the straight-backed rocking chair in the corner. Skinny kid, taller than he’d thought.
With his eyes finally adjusting to the darkness, he frowned.
That face.
“Look. I’m sorry. I didn’t think anyone was here.”
Holy Mother. The voice was female and as familiar as his own. Samantha Hollister sat in front of him, stark fear in her shadowed eyes.
Years of friendship came flooding back. Days at the creek. Afternoons with the whole gang, eating Mrs. Hollister’s cookies on this very porch. Working together in the afternoons, and her sweet young body, his for one summer before…
He shook off the memory of her touch even as his body responded to it. The good was so easily followed by the bad and a burst of anger dammed the flood of memories. “Why the hell did you run? First lesson in breaking and entering, never run. Jesus, I could have shot you, Samantha.”
He wouldn’t have…but he could have.
Morgan hopped over to his bed and sat. With jerky movements, he disengaged his .45 and locked the safety. The gun went back up on the windowsill above his cot, and he reached under the bed for his leg and strapped it on below his knee. “Nothing to say now, eh?”
“Are you going to tie me up?” Her voice shook.
He couldn’t quite see her in the dark. “Tie you up?” He shook his head… then thought about tying her up. He cleared his throat. “What the F? Why would I tie you up?”
She paused, and the quiet caught his attention before she blew out a breath. She’d be licking her lips, a nervous habit he remembered well. “Oh, um. Just…the sound of Velcro. I thought. I wasn’t sure. Maybe you were going to call the police and wanted to restrain me until they got here.”
But he was caught up in the memory of her lips. He remembered a lot of things about Samantha. And the resentment he’d buried years ago rose from its perfectly happy resting place.
He’d asked her to wait, but she’d left and gotten married instead.
He got up and grabbed a pair of shorts from the dresser and put them on over his boxers. “Not this time, sweetheart. That’s just me, putting on my leg.”
~*~*~
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