When I set out to write Brickell Avenue Ambush, I knew the heroes were going to be very different from the kick-ass, take no names heroes of Lost in Little Havana. Ricky and Mariela are ordinary people pulled into an extraordinary situation where they will be forced to not only fight for their own lives, but possibly also save the lives of dozens of other people. The book is also kind of a second-chance-at-love story, but not in the traditional way. Mariela has only recently escaped an abusive relationship and has to learn to trust men again when Ricky comes into her life. I loved exploring how Ricky and Mariela navigate their growing attraction in light of Mariela’s past. This Teaser Tuesday I’m sharing an excerpt from one of their first encounters in the book. You can download Brickell Avenue Ambush at https://amzn.to/3C9ld3f.
Excerpt
“YOU’RE A GOOD daughter. A good person,” Ricky said, sensing that she had some doubt about her dream of bringing her family back together again.
Her lips twisted up in a half smile and she did a little laugh. “Jorge didn’t think so.”
“Jorge is an ass,” he said and brushed a whisper-soft kiss across her cheek and then down to lightly trace the edges of her lips.
It was a kiss of promise, of invite. He wanted her to accept him and what might be possible between them.
She leaned into him, opening herself to him. Her lips on his, tentative at first, but growing more mobile, more intense, as they kept on kissing until he needed her closer. Needed to feel her, her heartbeat against his, racing as his was.
He leaned back onto the arm of the sofa, urged her to come with him, and she crawled into his lap, her center over him. Over the growing hardness at the feel of her against him.
Breaking apart from her only long enough to say her name, almost as a prayer, he cradled her back in his hands as they kissed over and over.
He opened his mouth and accepted the slide of her tongue, tasting her, a mix of the Scotch and sweetness. Mariela’s sweetness, he thought with a groan as she shook in his arms.
He didn’t want to misread the signals so he shifted away the slightest bit, and husked, “We can stop whenever you want.”
“I don’t want to stop,” she said and stroked her hand across his cheek before tunneling her fingers into his hair and urging him into the kiss again.
