Death brings would-be country singer Tessa Owens home from Nashville to
her native Ozarks. But she’s not planning to stay. She turned her back
on the old ways of life in the modern world long ago. But she didn’t
expect to meet her first love, Lucas Rowlands, at the visitation.
Seven years wasn’t long enough to forget him and sparks ignite when they
meet again. Even worse, Tessa learns Lucas isn’t the simple country
farmer she left behind but the sin eater, an ancient position handed
down to him from his grandfather. She still plans to make tracks back
to Music City USA but when Lucas falls ill, Tessa can’t bear to leave.
As she struggles to understand Lucas’ life and role as a sin eater,
Tessa admits she loves him and there’s no doubt what he feels for her.
But even if she’ll give up her country music dreams, there’s no way
Tessa can become the sin eater’s wife, especially not when Lucas knows
he won’t make old bones. The devil wants Lucas’ sin-heavy soul and if
they don’t come up with something, Lucas is hell bound on an express
ticket. If there’s any chance at a future, it’s up to Tessa.
Teasin time!
“Hello, Lucas.”
Her voice came out hushed, like school kids whispering in a library. “It’s been
a long time.”
Lucas Rowlands
grinned with a naughty smile she remembered very well. He
looked the same, overlong brown hair lit with blonde highlights, dark blue eyes
and a lean build. “I hear you’ve been living up to Nashville all this time,” he said.
“I have,” Tessa
replied. “I live there now.”
His eyes locked
on her face and she couldn’t look away, mesmerized by his steady gaze.
“Guess you ain’t
famous just yet.”
Face to face,
toe to toe, she remembered more than she wanted. His presence, his physical
proximity exuded power, so much so the fine hairs on her arms came to
attention. “No,” she said, her voice husky. “I’m not. What are you doing these
days, Lucas?”
“I do as little
as possible,” he said with a sassy grin. “I raise cattle and more than a little
hell at my granddad’s old place. I live in the old house and mostly do
what I want.”
That sounded
like Lucas, she thought. “Are you married?”
“Nope and I don’t plan to get that way. What
about you, darlin’? Do you have a husband and kiddies in a little house over
there on the Cumberland River?”
He stood close,
heat radiating from his skin as it moved over her in waves. Tessa
grew too hot, overheating so much she thought she might faint. His questions
irked her, though she couldn’t say why.
“No,” Tessa said.
If she didn’t get some fresh air now, she would pass out. She
stepped forward, prepared to head for the back door. Luke took her hand instead
and kept her in place.
“Where are you
going? We haven’t had time to catch up or talk about old times.”
His voice
affected her like cheap strawberry wine with a giddy rush powerful enough to
tilt her off balance.
“I need some
air,” she whispered. “I’ve got to go outside.”
Lucas put his arm around her. “Let’s go then.”
He pressed through the crowd with a fake grin
plastered on his face, exchanging a few nods and howdys. She allowed him to
take her through her aunt’s kitchen, aware the women putting out food stared as
they passed. In the backyard, Tessa staggered over
to a plastic lawn chair and sat. Cool breezes flowed down the hills
behind and she inhaled deeply. After a few minutes, she sighed.
“Better?” Lucas
sprawled in a chair across from hers and watched with a frown she might’ve once
believed came out of concern.
“Yes, thanks.”
“What the hell happened
in there? You didn’t use to be such a wimp.”
“No.” Funny
she could sing on any stage, hobnob with some of the remaining greats of
country music, talk with today’s chart toppers, handle the meanest drunk in any
bar and attend any event and never lose her cool. But
come back to the hills and she lost it in her aunt’s house, among her own
folks, thanks to Lucas Rowlands. “I’m okay now, though.”
He offered a
hand so she could rise and Tessa accepted it.
Before she had time to think, Lucas
drew her into his arms like a spider catching a fly and put his mouth down over
hers. She struggled, protested until his heat
fired her and ignited all her old passions. Tessa kissed him back with the same
unholy fire. Sweet little charges of electricity ran
over her sensitive skin and when his tongue entered her mouth, she would’ve
squealed aloud except she couldn’t, there wasn’t space to make a sound.
Pleasure from
his mouth expanded lower and spread heat through her in waves. A dim
sense Tessa should protest, should push him away hovered at the edge of her
consciousness but everything felt too damn good to stop. His
lips evoked the past, stolen kisses and heady delights she recalled much too
well. If someone, she never could be sure who
it was, had not thrust their head out of the back door and called, “Lucas, it’s
time.”
Tessa might’ve
let him do more than kiss her there, in the backyard, with her kinfolk and most
of the rural community steps away. The
reality check jarred her back to consciousness as he released her.
“I’ll see you
later,” he said with a playful swat at her rear as he vanished into the house.
Tessa watched
him go, divided between longing for more kisses and anger that she’d let her
guard down so easily. Lucas was the last person she expected
to see and before she could ponder why he’d come to Uncle Cal’s
private family visitation, the back door swung open.
“There you are!
You need to come in now, we’re about to get started.”
“Start what, Aunt
Vernie?”
Her aunt ducked
her head. “I had the sin eater come. You know what a wicked man Calvin could
be, how mean he was. I just hated to think he might spend all eternity in hell
so I decided to do it the way folks did back a few years. Truth
is they do it more now than you’d think now that we got us a sin eater again.”
“You’re joking,”
Tess said. This sounded insane. Clearly she’d left the real world
behind in Tennessee
and ended up here on the set of The
Twilight Zone.
Aunt Verna folded her arms across her
chest like fresh laundry. “I’m not, Tessa. You’ve been away too long. That’s why I
had them bring Cal
back out here from the funeral home. Today’s for the sin eater, the family,
and close friends. It’s visitation, too, but this is the
most important.”
Blog Schedule is HERE
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About the Author:
Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy writes romance about
everyday people often caught up in extraordinary circumstances. Her titles
range from contemporary to historical to time travel and sometimes stray into
the paranormal. She is a native of the historic city of St.
Joseph, Missouri, a jumping off
spot for countless wagon trains in the days of the old west and where outlaw
Jesse James met his death. She now lives in a small Ozark town in what passes
for the suburbs. As a member of Romance Writers of America, Missouri Writers
Guild, and the Ozark Writers League, Lee Ann pens a weekly column for the local
newspaper. She has served on the local library board and arts council. As a
member of the Rebel Elite team, her upcoming releases will shift to exclusive
Rebel in 2013. Lee Ann is also one of the short list of Rebel authors named
Best of 2012. She was also among the Best of 2011. She’s married with three
children and one spoiled Jack Russell terrier.
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Thank you
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