Lightning crashes.
The tower falls.
Rachel Ferrer thinks she’s already hit rock bottom, but then the ground crumbles beneath her feet. Alone, she is finally forced to face the darkness she’s been avoiding. Rachel doesn’t dare hope the spark of light in the distance might include Nicolas, even when she can’t forget the feel of his lips on hers.
Nicolas Rivera has always been the stable one. He is who others come to when their worlds shatter, but suddenly his life is the one in ruins. He doesn’t hope to connect with Rachel in the aftermath, but he discovers her in the last place he expected to. Uninhibited at last, the electricity between them finally ignites.
Is their flame enough for Rachel and Nicolas sift through the rubble, rebuild, and finally emerge, together, into the light?
Absolution is Volume 2 of the Lightning Crashes Duet and should be read after Temptation. Melt into this forbidden, slow-burn duet with a guaranteed happily ever after today.
Dex took a long swig of his beer. “For you, maybe.” Then he lifted his chin in a nod to someone behind Rachel, and she wondered who else she’d have to entertain. Before she could turn around, the backs of two knuckles traced down her arm, from shoulder to elbow.
Rachel knew who she’d find just from the spark of electricity that travelled up her arm and zapped her straight in the heart.
“Nicolas,” she said, not quite believing what her body was telling her, but there he was, standing a head taller than her after she’d jumped to her feet.
He wore a ghost of a smile as he said, “I know you’re hanging out with your friends, and I’m the last person you want to see, but I just wanted to say hello. I—” He ran the hand that had touched her arm through his overlong and surprisingly curly hair, and a part of Rachel deep inside, a part that she hadn’t realized had been holding tension, finally breathed.
“It’s so good to see you!” she said and flung her arms around his neck. Would she have done that if she had been entirely sober? Probably not. But it didn’t make it any less satisfying when he closed his arms around her waist. “I have missed you so much.”
“Have you?”
Rachel pulled back just far enough so her intertwined fingers would catch behind his neck, and so she could look him in the eye. “Of course.” She cupped either side of his face with her palms and stared up at him. She could feel his blush rise in his cheeks at her attention, but that only encouraged her more. She slipped up onto the toes of her tennis shoes and placed a short, sharp smack of a kiss on his nose.
“I hadn’t heard from you,” he said as his hands squeezed her sides, and she had the urge to press into him, but resisted, suddenly becoming self-conscious that her reaction to him had been too exuberant.
“Likewise.” She took a step back, maybe allowing her hands to travel down the tiers of his shoulders before she stopped touching him altogether. His hands fell away from her too, but they still stood close enough that she could feel the heat of their physical attraction crackling in the air between them.
Broke and widowed, Rachel Ferrer has already lost so much that when her tarot reading roommate pulls The Tower card, Rachel isn’t phased. What are upheaval and chaos when the worst had already happened? When Rachel’s late husband’s childhood best friend, Nicolas, reappears in her life and brings a handsome friend along with him, Rachel forgets the cards. She takes a chance on Blake even though she can’t stop thinking about Nicolas. It isn’t settling if the person you want is married, right?
Nicolas Rivera has always been a man of faith. His marriage and his job at the church have been his pillars, but when the foundations of both begin to crumble, doubt and a forbidden attraction tempt him to seek comfort in the one woman he shouldn’t go anywhere near.
Nicolas and Rachel have been on the periphery of each other’s lives for years, but as circumstances push them together, lightning crackles between them. Will they be able to resist the electricity or will they get burned by Temptation?
Temptation is the first volume of The Lightning Crashes Duet. Volume one is a slow-burn forbidden romance that ends on a cliffhanger. Volume 2, Absolution, will be available April 20th, 2021, complete with all the happily ever afters.
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nice excerpt
ReplyDeleteSounds intriguing!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new release Marla, the book sounds fab.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the excerpt
ReplyDeleteNice to meet you, Marla! Absolution sounds like a great book for me! Thanks for sharing and good luck with the tour and your book!
ReplyDeleteNicolas and Rachel are an interesting couple! I would love to read their story!
ReplyDelete