Familiar Stranger

  “FAMILIAR STRANGER contains a novel idea that’s brilliantly    executed.  The characters are fresh, as is [Hauf’s] story, and    readers won’t want to put this one down.” — Romantic Times  Bookclub, 4.5 stars, Top Pick!

 

 

Moonlight stole across the side of his face.   The man’s square jaw pulsed. Hair cropped military short hardened his stern features even further.   Menacing, his expression screamed.  

Yet those eyes.   They were blue, maybe, hard to determine in this subtle light.   He held her stare, for a few seconds longer than a stranger should.   And in those seconds, his eyes glinted.   And that glint snuck into Mersey’s being and glittered darkly about her wanting heart.  

Yes, wanting.

Mersey Bane believed in love at first site.   A girl had to believe in something.   Because that portent her mother had made years ago about there being but one man for her?   Not so much belief in that.

She stepped forward, and stretching up on tiptoes, kissed him.   A bold move, but it felt decadently dangerous and right.   She couldn’t get enough of his rugged sensuality.   Danger exuded from him.   Exhilaration shimmied through her veins.   There had to be more, so much more to fill her fathomless want.

“Mph,” he muttered against her mouth.   He pushed gently, his wide hands spanning the girth of her ribcage.   “Miss?”

“Mersey,” she said on a sigh.   Clinging to his shoulders, she had to hold herself up to meet his mouth for another quick kiss.   “Didn’t catch your name, stranger.”

“I–”  His body stiffened within her greedy, exploring grasp.   “Can’t do this right now.”

The hard steel of the huge rifle he held banged her elbow as he drew it high and stretched out his arm, over her head.

And then, he pulled the trigger.