Wes stood from the barstool determined to go find Carli when she drifted through the doorway. She wore a pair of Zoe’s leggings and one of his light blue dress shirts that hung nearly to her knees. Her hair fell in damp curls over her shoulders and her feet were bare. The gorgeous sight just about stole his breath.
Her gaze hopped from Ian to him before she took the ten steps and slid into his open arms. Ian rolled the pool cue on the table and turned to lean against the edge, arms and ankles crossed and his head cocked with cool observance. One look into his eyes, however, told Wes his friend was anything but cool right now.
“Tell me,” she said gripping his waist hard, “Tell me everything will work out. Lie to me if you have to. Just promise me, please.”
Everything.
He knew what she meant. Her inner turmoil was no longer just about Romero, but about him and Ian, too. About the secrets. About the lust. And how all three of them were pussy-footing around the issue when he knew they each were thinking of little else.
Fuck. He’d put that uncertainty there. In her heart, in her shaky voice. In her eyes that stared at him with a mixture of torment and passion so vivid he could almost feel it himself. And it killed him. The last thing he ever wanted to do was add to her pain. He’d rather chew off his left arm.
But he’d done it nonetheless. There’d been no malice in his intent, that had never been his goal. He burned with a need, a powerfully strong desire to see her taken higher, so high… So beautiful. So his.
He lifted her chin with his thumb and lost a little more of himself in the depths of her sadness. Sadness he wanted to banish from her expression forever.
“I’ll never lie to you, Carli.” The ‘again’ was implied, impressed upon her with his return stare, the sincerity he passed to her with one solemn look. “You will be fine. We’ll all walk away from this, I swear to you.”
He couldn’t hold back his own needs, so he kissed her, tender and gentle. She started to respond—to open to him, to take him in—but then broke away. Her fingers went to her lips and her gaze flicked to Ian. Wes sensed her desire, but knew fear of the unknown, fear of what she really wanted, held her back. He hitched a hip on the barstool behind him and spun her in his arms. Taking a chance—hoping to hell and beyond he was doing the right thing and not scaring her—he pressed her against his chest, clutched her hips tightly and looked at his partner, his best friend over the top of her head.
“Ian, care to help me convince Carli everything will work out, that we can and will protect her?”
Ian lithely pushed away from the pool table and stepped toward them. He stroked her ebony curls and traced the soggy circles her hair left on the shirt above her breasts. He looked at Wes before meeting Carli’s uncertain gaze. “If that’s what she wants, I can.”
Screw the innuendo. Pretense between them was no longer needed. Time to lay it all on the line.
“It’s your decision, Carli,” Wes whispered in her ear, every breath rougher, hotter than the one before it. “This—right here, right now—it’s not about forever. It’s about you. We can take you away, if only in your mind, in your body. Let us show you, let us help you put the last few days—hell, the last few months—completely out of your mind.”
Category: Action & Adventure,Contemporary, Ménage a Trios, Mystery & Detective
Length: Novel Class
MSRP/List Price: $6.00
Our Cover Price: $4.00
Available Format: eBook
Description:
Carli Jacobs wants revenge. For the last three months, she’s been living in a world she knows nothing about, determined to see that the drug lord responsible for her sister’s death is held accountable. From inside the kingpin’s hideout, she seizes an opportunity to smuggle away enough evidence to put him behind bars forever. But the situation outside on the street is grim, and she finds herself thrown into a raging gun fight.
Detective Wes Lucas has no idea how he’s going to walk away from this one. In a matter of minutes, the quiet stakeout of a major drug dealer has turned into a vicious street war. With bullets flying, he and his partner, Ian Gray, are about as deep in it as they can get. And just when he thinks things can’t get much worse, a civilian runs into the middle of the mêlée. In an instant he rushes into the street, only to be thrown completely off kilter when he comes upon a terrified, doe-eyed stunner with hair the color of midnight and lips the perfect shape for…
Whoa. Untimely erotic thoughts like that will only get her—and him—killed. With the knowledge that this woman’s safety is his top priority, he pushes past the distraction, picks her up and carries her to safety. He’s floored by the heady way she looks at him, not to mention the amazing way she feels under his hands or the way she smells so damn good.
Okay, what the hell? Time to regroup. But he can’t. She’s all but sucker-punched him. God, he can barely breathe.
Later, when Carli tells them her story and turns over the evidence, the entire situation gets flipped upside down. Wes is amazed to learn of a close, personal connection he has to Carli, and it’s one he can’t let her or Ian know about. Toss that in with the fact the evidence she gave them will have the drug lord searching for her, and the stakes just went through the roof. Wes and Ian can see past her desire for retribution to the very real trouble she’s gotten herself into. They have no choice. In order to keep her safe, they place her into protective custody.
As Wes fights his attraction to Carli, Ian’s picking up on the immediate draw his friend has for the dark-haired beauty. And damn if he’s not feeling a pull toward her himself. Not that he’d ever do anything about it, not with his past heartaches, but the idea’s something he can’t readily shake.
Carli’s not so sure she can handle being stashed away with these two inimitable men to watch over her. She realizes now how much danger she’s in, but even that’s not enough to stop her from reacting to them. She’s scared to her bones, but fascinated, too. Attracted. A precarious circumstance at its best. An emotionally dangerous one at its worst.
Tension is in the air, and it’s not just sexual. Secrets are being kept. Lives are on line, and trust is put to the test. As desire rips through each of them, heartbreaking truths will be revealed and lies will be exposed.
Are the three running away from danger, or are they headed straight for it? In Wes and Ian’s quest to keep Carli safe, will she end up surrendering her heart as well?
To My Reader: Have you ever been driven by pure revenge? By searing lust? My heroine Carli throws herself into a world she knows nothing about, bound and determined to have her revenge, only to be taken away from it all by the power of lust. Would you do the same? Would you chose as Carli did?
4 1/2 Stars from Just Erotic Romance Reviews (JERR)
Detectives Ian Gray and Wes Lucas, partners for ten years, are on a routine stakeout of a deadly drug lord when everything goes to hell in a matter of seconds. Twenty of Romero DeSilva’s soldiers have them penned down with automatic weapons and back-up is still some time away. Wes spots an innocent bystander crawling across the street and had to save the beautiful fool from the cross-fire. Carli stole the thumb drive from DeSilva’s laptop, which contains the evidence to send his entire organization away for more than life. Ian and Wes take Carli into protective custody. How can Wes protect her if all he can think about is sex with her and why is he so angry that Ian seems to feel the same way about her?
In Safe Surrender, Ian’s heart is too complicated for love, which heightens the reader’s desire to reach out and heal him. He is certainly a sexy and sympathetic character. Wes is so hot and delicious that you could lick him off a spoon like some chocolate desert in the making. Carli couldn’t resist Wes any more than he could resist her, so most of the book revolves around the others keeping watch while Wes teaches Carli about the carnal aspects of love. There is nothing quite so sexy as a player who suddenly finds himself in love. Based on the book description, it is easy to guess that there is a ménage scene somewhere in the mix and it certainly isn’t disappointing. There were several intense and suspenseful scenes between the Lucas brothers and Ian, all fighting against DeSilva’s assassins. It appears that this is going to be a long and tasty series, since the oldest brother, Dean, was married in the previous book, Nameless Surrender. Safe Surrender is an entertaining and engrossing read. I loved it.
Carli Jacobs wants revenge. When her plan to bring down the drug lord responsible for her sisters death goes awry, she finds herself thrown into the protective custody of two sexy detectives. Wes Lucas and Ian Gray are determined to keep her safe. But when tension turns into passion, who’s going to protect her heart?
One brave act assures that the only safe place for Carli is in the hands of Wes and Ian (and believe me that seems like just the right place to be). There's no shortage of excitement in this story, and it comes in all types. As a matter of fact there's action, gun fights, evading bad guys, and taking refuge in the heart of one hot detective and in the arms of two.
I couldn't find anything wrong with this book. The story flowed smoothly, the editing was well done and the characters were believable. Caught from the very first, I wolfed this thing down in one sitting.
One note of caution before I wholeheartedly throw my weight behind this book. While there is a menage to this story it isn't the primary relationship or a permanent aspect of that relationship. That being said, I really loved this story. I went straight from finishing the story to search for the author's website and plan to visit more of her writing very soon.
Carli Jacobs is on the run. She just witnessed a gunfight and has nowhere to go except with Detective Wes Lucas. What started as a mission to find her sister’s killers has led her to more trouble. Meeting Wes Lucas and Ian Gray is turning her life upside down each minute. Living in a world of drugs, guns and murder has turned her into a hard woman with a thirst for vengeance. She has no idea why Wes and Ian were there but thank God they were there for her. Now she is determined to stay alive but not to lead Wes into her vengeance. Something about Wes pulls her to him in a passionate way like she has never known. Amidst the gunfight she is finding something out about herself. One being that she cannot stop her heart from falling for Wes. She’s never been passionate or sexual but something about Wes and Ian is making her very womanly. Can she find her sister’s killers before they find her again?
Detective Wes Lucan and Ian Gray are best friends and have had their share of women before. Yet none have tore them apart like Carli Jacobs. Saving her from a gunfight was the first of many problems but keeping her alive is the harder part. Ian feels something for Carli, which makes Wes wonder if the love he feels for her is real. He knows for a fact the passion is all there between them but knowing Ian is near her excites her more. Can he figure out what Carli’s part in the whole gunfight is before they both lose her in the process? More importantly can he figure out why Ian is reacting strangely around them after one night?
One thing about Kristine Daniels is she knows suspense and action with a snap of her fingers. I loved the action throughout the whole book from the gunfight all the way to the end it never stops. The chemistry between Carli and Wes is one hot thing and it will take your breath away. The thing I liked the most was through it all there is a question about Ian, like what is his story. Kristine did a great job on that making this reviewer curious of what’s next. Kristine Daniels is good at what she does. Great job.
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