BTS Tours: Everlasting by Tmonique Stephens

Author Name:  Tmonique Stephens

Title:  Everlasting

Release Date:  July 9, 2013

Publisher:  Tmonique Stephens
Content Rating:  Heat level:   heat level 4, 4 Not PG-13 – Lots of sex but some details left to the imagination; Rating 4 M/F consensual sex. No Menage. No BMSD;

Word and Page Counts:  114,576 words 470 print length

Blurb:

Kill the beast.

Save your brother.

Win your freedom.

No problem.

Falling in love with the cop trying arrest you?

Problem.

To save his twin from death, Reign Nicolis will have to bargain with Goddess of the Dead, and once more become what he despises, El Mortem, The Scourge, a killer trained to show mercy to none. But he is haunted by those who have fallen beneath his blade. Their ghostly shapes dog his footsteps, relentless in their torture to make him suffer for what he was put on this earth to do two thousand years ago. Saving his twin ensures Reign’s enslavement to the Goddess. She may own his body, but never his heart. 

Detective Alexis Lever’s career is in shambles. Her only chance at redemption is to discover what happened to the body of Daniel Nicolis. To do that she’ll have to thwart two men: Reign Nicolis and Roman Nicolis. Both belong in jail. But one has stolen her heart. 

~ * ~

Excerpt:

Alexis parked in her grandmother’s driveway. The protective shield around her vanished. Her shoulders slumped. Keeping Reign out of her mind exhausted her more than running around New York City all night.

Stiff and sore, she climbed off her bike and stretched the kinks from her protesting muscles. A shower, food, and sleep were what she needed. Her chances of getting all three were slim.

Mrs. Kelly waved from her porch. She’d read that the elderly didn’t need much sleep, but why was the woman up so early when she didn’t have to be?

Alexis returned the wave and climbed the porch stairs. The door opened as she reached for her keys. Reign’s big frame blocked the entrance.

God, I’m too tired for this. If only she could shove him out of her way. She had about as much chance of doing that as she did moving a mountain. He stepped to the side, clearing a path into the dim recesses of the house. Sunlight filtered through the sheer ivory curtains hanging in the living room, beating the gloom back and lifting her spirits.

“Anubis.” The word hung in the air.

Alexis turned. Reign stood in the middle of the room. Hands at his sides, his body, an immense unyielding wall.

“The god in the moving images you showed me, his name is Anubis. He is a lesser god, son of SET and Nephythys.”

She noticed he snarled the last name.

“There is no love between mother and son or son and father. Daniel Nicolis is his pawn. I was sent here to stop him.” He stepped closer to her. “I apologize for my deceit. It was meant to protect.”

She studied the drawn brows above his deep blue eyes and the tight lines of his face. He seemed earnest. But then the best liars were. And if he lied about one thing, what else could he be lying about? “I’m not going to let you kill Daniel.”

“I have no intention of killing him.”

At least they got that settled. “I don’t need your protection, Reign.”

“Yes, you do. I am all that stands between you and those animals.”

There was no arrogance in his statement. Just truth. She did need him. She also needed him to be honest. “And that’s the only reason you're here? To stop the beasts?”

“I came to save my brother. But he does not need me.”

“And afterward? When we find a way to stop those things, what then?”

“…I find a way to leave you.” Tight voice, his rigid face held no emotion.

“Good. The sooner, the better,” she mumbled through the lump in her throat.

His eyes darkened, but he said nothing.

“When you leave, do you go back to Chemmis?”

A cold wave hit her. His lips thinned into an angry line and his hands fisted. He nodded once. Hmm? He held no love for the place.

“I need to sleep.” She walked around him and his fingers brushed the back of her hand. A jolt of sorrow caused her entire body to seize.

Then his fingers slipped into her palm. A dull ache welled in her center and spread to every cell, leaving a void in its wake.

The pain wasn’t hers.

Alexis canted her head at Reign. To the world, he was a six foot eight inch warrior. Deadly to his enemies and her sense of self-preservation. Still, watching his bowed head, feeling the desolation seeping from his palm into her, she saw the truth.

Their gazes locked. Longing lay naked in the depths of his eyes.

“Reign—”

He claimed her lips with a scorching kiss. Raw and hungry, her head reeled. A hand cupped her head. Another gripped her hip and gave a gentle tug. She didn’t fight him guiding her closer or the desire he ignited in her blood. His knee slipped between her thighs and he lifted her until she hooked a leg around his waist. Chest to breast, abs to abs, groin pressed against groin, she felt him lengthen. Her core blossomed. Alexis moaned and his tongue slid into her mouth. He tasted like Sunday dinner at grandma’s, Christmas morning, and Midnight on New Year’s Eve, while his body promised Disney World. His biceps flexed as his hand slid under her shirt and stroked up her back. 

She moved her hand up his chest, feeling the cotton fabric, the tense muscles beneath, and the thud of his racing heartbeat. Then her fingertips brushed the bare skin of his neck.

A bundle of conflicting emotions slammed into her. Passion warred with frustration and a simmering rage. Terror and loneliness mixed with a profound hunger and a darkness no sun could penetrate. Betrayal had tainted his memories, leaving an anger that stretched centuries. All of this was woven together by bitter regret.

Questions cleared the lust from her mind. She tore her lips away, aching from pain belonging to Reign. Briefly, his hands tightened on her body. His head dropped into the crook of her neck before she could search his face for answers. Warm breath fanned her collar. She bit her lip to keep from protesting when his hands dropped to her hips and he set her on her feet.

Alexis darted up the stairs to the safety of her grandmother’s bedroom. She stripped off her jacket and refused to think about the man camping in her living room. Yeah, right. As if she could order herself not to still taste him on her lips, remember his hands on her body and his tongue stroking her mouth.

How could she feel him, know his intimate thoughts? The good and the f’d up ones. There were a lot of f’d up ones. So many, he was a toxic stew, churning endlessly until he almost dragged her under.

Alexis gritted her teeth. She didn’t have time to decipher The Reign Riddle when Egyptian Gods roamed New York, resurrecting bodies, and wild animals were running loose. If she read it in a novel, she would’ve pitched it into the nearest incinerator. 

But those things needed to die.

Period. 

~ * ~

Review:

Coming Soon!

~ * ~

Work in Progress

EVERMORE

Book 3 in the Descendants of Ra series.

Excerpt:

MEET AVERY AND EMELINE, THE HERO AND HEROINE OF EVERMORE. BOOK 3 IN MY DESCENDANTS OF RA SERIES.

The beast backed away as if it didn’t want to fight. That’s okay, because Avery wanted too. It wasn’t that he was more deadly than the other brothers, he enjoyed it more. A part of him reveled in blood and destruction, and the gore that came with it. Avery recognized the horror dwelling within him and never let it out. But lately, after the battle at RedZone, his control was off, slipping more each day. It had to be the lack of sleep. Insomnia made everything fuzzy, except for Emeline.  The need he had for her grew each second he spent in her company along with the need to do whatever it takes to protect her.

Shadows peeled away from a corner of the ceiling and took the form of his phantom stalker. Avery glanced between her and the quimaera, uncertain as to how the figment of his imagination had come in contact with Alamut’s army.

I am Khuket. Come to me. The words filled his head like a sweet lullaby calming a fretful child. His heart and breathing slowed, thought processes turned sluggish. He climbed to his feet and stepped forward. The quimaera flanked him.

Bullets pinged against the stone. The quimaera next to him jerked. It dropped to all fours and turned in the direction of the doorway where Emeline peered around the wall, shooting.

“Wanna snap out of your trance and try saving your ass?” Emeline shouted.

His phantom shrieked.

Emeline glanced up. Her eyes widened. “What the hell is that?”

She saw her—it! The quimaera charged after Emeline. She ran around the corner, out of his eyesight.

Stay.

The voice filled his head, sapped his will. He wanted to obey, needed to. The core of fury in the center of his swelled, stretching the cage he placed it in. Khuket crept closer, dark bands flapping around her undulating form. Her eyes were too large in her pasty face. Yet her allure captivated him. She wrapped herself around him, her lips brushed his cheek, leaving an icy trail to his mouth. He wanted to taste her, breath in her chaos and have it mingle with his fury.

You are mine.  Her lips moved without a sound. Avery’s head tilted down, then up in agreement. The tight control he had asserted over himself failed. Unabated fury singed his nervous system and coursed through his veins. The power intoxicated him. He had forgotten how good this felt. Invincible. A scream swept through his foggy brain.

Emeline!

Shots fired. Avery yanked himself out of the phantom’s tight embrace. In a blink he was in the hallway. Emeline lay on the ground, the quimaera hovering over her, its mouth open, its teeth centimeters away from her skin. He leaped, arms extended, ghostly claws tipped the ends of his fingers. He landed on top of the scaly back and thrust his claws through the armored hide. The beast reared back, violently twisting and turned as it tried to dislodge him. Its tail beat against him, but Avery wouldn’t let go. It launched itself into the nearest wall.

Avery clung, he wouldn’t let go and the exoskeleton took the brunt of the force. He climbed up the animal’s back, hooked his arm around its neck, and dragged his claws across the beast’s vulnerable throat. It dropped. He went down with it. Another slash and the head lifted from the shoulders. He tossed it and rolled led to his feet in front of Emeline. “Are you hurt?”

She lay against a stone column, breathing hard. Her gaze skimmed over him. He could imagine what she saw, though fear didn’t show in her eyes.

“Don’t worry about me. Worry about them.” She pointed to the remaining quimaera coming up behind him… and the phantom.

~ * ~

Bio:

I wrote my first novel about a reporter and a hockey player after the U.S. hockey team won gold in the 1980 Olympics. I love writing flawed characters who reflect the emotional baggage we all carry. I write complicated stories for complicated people. Paranormal romances and fantasy novels are my favorite genre. I'll read anything about fairies, demons, or angels, but I also enjoy Stephen King and Preston and Childs.

I'm hooked on 'Yes to the Dress', Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Arrow. I can't get enough of these show!

I was born in St. Thomas USVI, but grew up in The Bronx, New York one mile from Yankee Stadium. I love SyFy, the History channels, and Asian cuisine, but my heart and stomach longs for anything from the Caribbean.

Author Links

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TmoniqueStephens

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Tmoniquebooks

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Email: Tmoniquebooks@gmail.com

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Website:  http://www.Tmoniquestephens.com

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