When Noonday Ends: A Southern Romantic-Suspense Novel - Nantahala - Book Two
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Jaynee lay motionless on the hospital bed. Numerous wires leading from her body connected into several machines that created an ominous cacophony and an eerie yellowish glow in the small room. It looked like a scene from a soap opera.
Under the fluorescent lights, her skin was pallid, except around her eyes, which had splotches of crimson and were swollen and puffy. And worse, where her long, beautiful curls should be was nothing but white gauze.
He forced his legs to move to her bedside. His tears fell without restraint as he touched her cheek.
Talk to her.
He lowered his head to his wife’s ear, hoping she could hear through the bandages…and while unconscious. “I love you, Jaynee. No matter what’s happened, I love you, and I know you love me too.”
Jordan believed the words, wanted the words to be true. But he couldn’t help but wonder what was so awful that his wife would attempt to take her life.
Unless…was there something he didn’t know about her?
Thank you for reading this sneak peek. Please look for She Belongs to Me and the rest of my books at Amazon.
Sneak Peek 2
Entangled Dreams
Southern Romantic Suspense
Florida
Fourteen Years Ago…
As a child, Alexandra Nicole was a princess in a fairytale.
Her royal family would spend every Sunday on the pristine beaches of Destin together. Her father, the king, would carry her on his shoulders, pretending to be her noble steed as he pranced around at her behest. He would battle dragons, the vicious Chihuahua that chased them; conquer new worlds, also known as a sand dune further down the beach; and build elaborate castles, well actually, sandcastles.
If her father was the king, then her mother was most definitely the queen. She would laugh softly under her umbrella as she watched Alexandra and her father roll in the gentle surf. When her mother did venture into the crystal-clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico, her long platinum hair would blow softly in the breeze, her blue eyes sparkled like the water below her, and her skin glistened from the ever-present sunshine in their lives.
But alas, as in any good fairytale, everything good and wonderful must come to an end.
After the tragic accident that had stolen her mother, her father moved them away from the beaches of Destin to another beach in Florida. Cocoa Beach.
Cocoa Beach was loud, the water murky, and there were no weekend adventures as there had been in Destin.
Her father married her evil stepmother, Lilith, whom Alexandra was certain was a witch with her long, black as midnight hair and pale-white skin as if she’d never seen sunlight. Her father had admitted he wasn’t in love with Cruella, as she had come to think of the witchy woman, but that he’d wanted Alexandra to have a mother and siblings.
Well, she definitely got that.
The king started staying out later and later at night, and the princess had to do excessive amounts of chores around her new castle. Her stepmother treated her like a pariah; certainly, she’d rather have the dogs at their dinner table. Her stepsisters were ugly inside and out and were forever jealous of Alexandra and her golden-blond tresses. Anything nice Alexandra ever received mysteriously disappeared.
Alexandra knew something was wrong with her father, but she was too young to understand. Her father, forever the happy-go-lucky guy, had turned to drinking to drown his troubles.
It sounds like your typical fairytale, but it isn’t. There are no furry creatures to help the princess prepare a gown for the prom, no fairy godmother to wave her magic wand and produce glass slippers. In fact, at age sixteen Alexandra found herself living on her own with no family contact and no prospects of a healthy, normal life.
Alexandra had only one advantage, if you could call it that. Alexandra was beautiful. But so far, her beauty had not opened any doors; actually, it had only caused her misery.
The only people who welcomed Alexandra were the outcasts. The parents of other losers in school, fortunately, didn’t care who slept over and what they did when they stayed the night. So, Alexandra Nicole, now deciding to go by Nicky, as she was no longer a princess, found herself wandering from house to house throughout her remaining high school years.
And then she met him…
Thank you for reading this sneak peek. Please look for Entangled Dreams and the rest of my books at Amazon.
Book Extras
People often ask…where is that place located that you wrote about? Well, sometimes I make up a restaurant or an outdoor center like the ROCK, but other times it is a place I’ve visited…or a combination of places. Sometimes, I’ll use the outside of one place, and the inside of another place, no different from what they do in the movies.
But…if it’s somewhere you can visit, I’ve started putting together a Pinterest Page. I’ve actually had avid-reading friends build their vacation around the places I’ve mentioned, so if you go…please send a picture of you holding one of my books or the Kindle cover page to Contact@CarmenDeSousa.com. I’ll start posting them after I get a few.
http://www.pinterest.com/Carmen_DeSousa.
Before you go…
Dear friend, I hope you enjoyed When Noonday Ends. Since readers have asked to see Michelle’s story, there will be a third book set in Nantahala. And let me just say…if you think you know whom Michelle chose, you’re wrong. :) Sorry…but I am a mystery writer, so I do have a few surprises up my sleeves.
If you haven’t read all of the books in my Southern Romantic-Suspense collection, most of them have slight connections, and then in book seven—there are five right now—all the connections will come full circle.
All of the novels are stand-alone stories—NO CLIFFHANGERS—but a couple of them should be read before the follow-up novels, so as not to run into spoilers. They can be read in any order, as long as you read Charlotte 1 before Charlotte 2 and Nantahala 1 before Nantahala 2.
In order by release date:
She Belongs to Me (Charlotte 1)
Land of the Noonday Sun (Nantahala 1)
Entangled Dreams (Florida)
When Noonday Ends (Nantahala 2)
Split Decisions (Charlotte 2)
Although all of my stories have a common thread—romance, mystery, and suspense—some of my books have a supernatural edge. If you like your romantic suspense dipped in a little paranormal, please look for The Creatus Series and my Mystery Series with a Ghostly Edge.
Creatus (They Exist) The Prequel
Creatus ~ Book One
Creatus Rogue ~ Book Two
Creatus Eidolon ~ Book Three
The Pit Stop (This Stop Could be Life or Death)
The Depot (Where Life and Death Cross Tracks)
The Library (Where Life Checks Out)
You can find all my books on my Amazon Author Page.
Please…please…please…if you enjoyed When Noonday Ends, please leave a review. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a few words to let other readers know if they should download it too. It means so much to an author to hear what readers loved—even didn’t love—about a book. It’s how we grow and learn what you want to read next time…and in the case of a series, which characters you want to see more of in the next books or which ones we should knock off. :)
Thank you again!
Carmen
Table of Contents
From the Author…
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapt
er Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Epilogue
Sneak Peek 1
Sneak Peek 2
Book Extras
Before you go…
Table of Contents