~ THE SUSPENSE OF SWEET TREASON ~

Today I have the great honor of handing over my blog to author Gail Ranstrom.

WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN THEN

Hindsight, they say, is 20/20. I’m inclined to agree. But how can we benefit from it if we don’t get it until it’s too late? Well, we just have to believe it’s never too late. Whether we’re 19 or 90, we can still learn from our past and adjust our sails for the future.

I think we see traces of this in the old women who sit in their rockers and say outrageous things. They’ve finally learned, or decided, to say what’s on their minds. Sometimes it slips out in unexpected ways and we all giggle and think what an eccentric old granny is. Or was she just sitting there and suddenly thought, What the heck. If I don’t say it now, I never will. And what can I say but, Keep it coming, granny! and give her a high five?

So now I’m somewhere in the middle and wondering what advice I wish my mother had given me, and what advice I’m going to give my grandchildren when they’re old enough to hear it.

I think I’m going to say, Be brave! Be fierce! Be kind. Be who you are and stay true to yourself. Live and love intensely. Stand up for what you believe in and never cower to a bully. Never give up and never give in. Be proud but never so proud that you cannot admit when you’re wrong. In that order.

Good advice? Or a recipe for disaster? I don’t know. But I intend to live the rest of my life that way. And if experience teaches me anything different, I’ll adjust my sails yet again.

So what do you know now that you wish you knew then? What advice will you, or have you, given your own children or grandchildren?

BLURB~

Passion and deadly secrets…

On the run from British troops, American Revolutionary War spy Ryan Straughn forces Emily Nevins to hide him on her English farm. But Emily already keeps secrets that could mean her demise if discovered. Nevertheless as the long night wears on, attraction sizzles and they give in to unexpected passion, sure they’ll never see each other again…

Deception and desire…

A chance encounter in London society stirs heated memories of their sensual night together. They begin a heady dance of suspicion and desire. Though sympathetic to the struggling Colonists, Emily cannot trust a traitorous spy who may expose her dangerous intrigues. And Ryan risks his very life by trusting a woman privy to his true loyalties. But they are unable to deny their need for one another, even as Emily’s secrets are about to be exposed, and the noose around Ryan’s neck grows tighter.

Betrayal and love…

And now someone has discovered both their secrets. The price of silence? Betrayal. Of their causes, their love, their futures. In the end, lives will be lost and sacrifices made. Their choice is impossible. Which will they surrender—their lives…or their hearts?

EXCERPT~

The stranger lowered his head further to leave a path of soft insistent kisses from her earlobe to the well of her shoulder blade. The sensation was like nothing she’d felt before—intimate, urging, almost desperate. Heaven help her, Emily wanted more. He slipped his hand down her back, molding her against him. The hot, hard bulge pressing against her belly ignited an answering heat in hers. Naughty. Wicked. Exciting…

He asked a question, his voice a deep vibration that reached to her toes. Her very flesh tingled, sending shivers of delight through her. Her breasts ached and became exquisitely tender. She gasped as he drew her even closer, his large hands moving along her spine.

“Yes…,” she sighed, affirming her suspicion that this man’s arms would be heaven.

“Sweet…” His voice was hoarse with desire as he lifted his head to speak as he brushed across her lips. “Are you the most courageous woman I know…or the most reckless?”

Reckless. Unconscionably reckless…

He nudged her robe open with his chin and lowered his mouth to the slope of one aching breast. She caught her breath and choked back another gasp when he captured one tingling crown with his lips and tugged gently. She tangled her fingers through his dark hair to hold him close. The sensation was so foreign, yet so completely delicious, that she wanted it to go on forever. She sighed. “Tell me your…name, sir, that I…may know who my dreams…”

“You mock me?” he growled.

She gave a soft, husky laugh at his pretended outrage.

The deep vibration of his voice against her skin sent shock waves along her spine.

“By all that is holy…I must be mad! Were it any night but tonight, I’d sweep this desk clear and take you here and now.”

Emily fervently wished it were any other night. She’d have yielded him anything—everything—when he nibbled a greedy path back up her neck and cherished the tender flesh at the hollow of her throat before lifting his head.

He brushed tendrils of hair back from her cheeks with this thumbs. “Now that you’ve seen my face, my only safety—and yours—lies in the fact that you do not know who I am.”

She did not bother to deny his accusation. But betrayal had been the furthest thing from her mind. She caught her breath on a gasp as he slipped his hand up her bare thigh, exposed in the gap of her robe.

She struggled free of his arms and moved away, fighting to regain her composure and recall the true nature of this man.

Blood-red splotches on his shirt sleeve reminded her that this man had murdered someone this very night. She would be fortunate if she escaped with her life. She pushed him away to gather her robe more closely around her. This had to end before she forgot herself again. She was breathless when she spoke. “Your ten minutes are up, sir. If you are a man of your word, you will leave.”

ABOUT  GAIL RANSTROM~

Gail has been a seamstress making waitress uniforms for a German Beer Garden, Inventory Clerk at the UofM, an Advertising Account Coordinator and PR writer in a crazy high pressure office, and a Commercial Property Manager in the Los Angeles area. In between, she’s partnered in an Antique business—don’t ask her about Antique Auctions.

Finally, she was tempted by a vocation where she was in control of the next crisis, and could solve it, too—writing. She is the author of ten novels, three novellas and a brand new release, SWEET TREASON, from Entangled Publishing.

You can find Gail at:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

You can find SWEET TREASON at:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo Books

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