Today's guest is Sherry Perkins. Her paranormal romance novel At the End of the Rainbow featured on a Blue Monday last year - and here's an excerpt from the sequel, What You Wished For - which is out now!
Strange circumstances brought Morgan Patterson from the sandy beaches of the US East Coast to rocky Northern Ireland. Some called those circumstances destiny. Morgan called it something else.
For her, it was just a college senior year abroad. Until, that is, her studies were interrupted when she met the man of her dreams. A man who took her by the hand, leading her into a world where promises were binding things, where nothing was as it seemed, and where wishing for something could get you more than you bargained for -- including killed. But it was also a world of enduring love, hidden treasures, and the chance to right the wrongs of long ago.
What Morgan called it was her kingdom. A kingdom she was willing to die to protect.
Morgan could hear Connor moving around downstairs. He was probably getting some cookies before coming to bed. The man was a cookie eating fool if ever there was one. She rolled over in the bed. He’d been to see Em earlier. Morgan had more than a sneaking suspicion she wasn’t going to like whatever he was going to tell her about that—if he managed to pry himself away from the cookies and come to bed.
Conner walked upstairs, the treads squeaking under the weight of his footsteps. When he got to the top of the landing, he leaned his shoulder against the bedroom doorway. Morgan was lying on her side, wearing one of his tee shirts and nothing else. Her pregnant belly was protruding from beneath the shirt. It was quite a lovely thing to see, but that was a thing that he never would have admitted to Em. He smiled, resting his head on the jamb.
“Are you staring at my tummy?” she asked. She stretched a little, then rolled onto her back—her hands on her stomach, and her knees spread just enough that it made him hard to look at her.
He nodded. “Sugar, I’ve something to tell you, and I don’t want you to have a feckin’ cow, yeah?”
Morgan sighed. Loudly. “Connor, we are getting married in a few days. Please don’t tell me that you slept with Em.” She stared expectantly at Connor, waiting for his answer. He had that stupid look on his face guys get sometimes when they want some ass, and Morgan had some trouble reading him because of it.
“No, it’s not that,” he said, repositioning his head against the door frame. “I’d gave you my word. I’d said I’d be faithful to you and you alone, yeah? Besides you know I’d not be able to lie to you if I’d done it.”
Morgan snickered. She closed her thighs, her knees touching but her feet splayed outward. “Of course you can. You lie to me all the time. You and Tiernan both.”
He shifted on his feet. “Naw, sugar, that much is true. Neither he nor I can lie to you. You’ve been told as much before, yeah?”
“I have been told it before. Ryan told me. Fergal said it too. But they never said why. So why is that? Why can’t you lie?”
He shrugged. “It’s not so much about the lying itself. You’ve always known we could be more than a bit manipulative—or what’s that college-girl word you like to use? Obfuscate? Yeah, that’s the word. You knew we could obfuscate. No, it’s more about you, yourself. Like a biological imperative or that.”
“Connor, you don’t even know what a biological imperative is.”
“I do know, Morgan. I’m not a fucking dunderhead, am I now? Reproducing is a biological imperative. Protecting kith and kin. Getting enough roughage in your diet. Stuff like that.” He paused and shifted on his feet again. “Lying to you is counterproductive, literally and figuratively.” He laughed. “Your productiveness, sugar, is of some importance to me. So no, I’d not slept with Em but she wanted it. She wanted it bad. Only that would be counterproductive to what I’m trying to accomplish with you, and for you.”
“What did she do?” Morgan asked.
“It’s not what she’d done. I did it. It’s what I’d done. I gave her exactly what she wanted.” He walked to the bed, sitting on the mattress at Morgan’s feet. He placed his head against her knees, then rolled his forehead against her. “Open your legs, sugar. Let me explain it to you.”
“Stop it, Connor. I’m not in the mood.”
“Sure you are, and I can prove it.” He separated her knees with his hands. kissing the inside of one thigh. Morgan relaxed just a bit. He licked two fingers, wetting them before sliding them deep inside her.
“Connor Doyle, tell me what you did. Tell me what you and Em did.”
He pushed his fingers inside her again, then again and one more time after that. “I told her what she
wanted to know. Because after I’d thought about it, pissing Tiernan around was part of your Big Plan, was it not?” He moved his fingers, feeling for the little indentation that marked her g-spot. When he’d found it, he rubbed it rather enthusiastically.
Morgan whispered something in response.
“What?” he asked, rubbing a tad more insistently.
“I said, I said don’t stop,” she murmured.
“You mean this? Don’t stop this?” When she didn’t answer, he said, “I won’t stop. Not until you tell me, yeah?” She still didn’t answer, which he took as encouragement to continue. He rubbed some more until she held her breath and arched her back, moaning loudly and wetting his fingers with her warm viscous fluid. “Morgan,” he sighed. “Morgan, Morgan, Morgan.”
“Tell me. It’s OK. Just tell me.” She reached between her legs, touching Connor on the side of his face. He leaned into her hand.
“She wanted me to tell her a secret. Something that only Tiernan would know about you and hurt him in the bargain. She wants to hurt him. She wants to punish him. But first, she wants to make him suffer. It wasn’t an altogether unpleasant proposition, yeah? Because I wouldn’t mind it so much, neither—making him suffer. Especially if he suffered because of you and me, something we’d done together.”
“What did you tell her, Connor?”
“I told her that when we were at it, you got off when I licked your calves and you watched my mouth and tongue on you.”
Buy What You Wished For at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Sherry Perkins has worked as a licensed practical nurse for more than thirty-five years and has experience in psychiatric/addictions nursing, nursing-care coordination, and risk management. She earned a BS in health sciences from Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, and has spoken at public health functions on topics such as addiction prevention and treatment, prevention of teenage opioid deaths, and connecting patients who are resistant to treatment with appropriate services.
A mother of four, Perkins lives with extended family on the Delmarva Peninsula, where she enjoys collecting shells and sea glass; reading mysteries, science fiction, and fantasy; doing organic gardening; and following the Dave Matthews Band around the East Coast. At the End of the Rainbow was the first in a series of books inspired by a visit to Northern Ireland and a yearning to return there one day.
Amazon Author Page
Goodreads
Twitter: @SherryP37399883
And email at perkins.sherry.SP@gmail.com
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