The HBS Author's Spotlight SHOWCASES Jessica Lauryn's New Book: Dangerous Ally.
Jessica is the Top Selling Author of the Romantic Suspense Series, The Pinnacles of Power.
Dangerous Ally
The Pinnacles of Power Series Book 4 - Edition 2
Author: Jessica Lauryn
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For five lonely years, diamond smuggling kingpin Lucas Ramone has hidden himself from the world. With a father who has baited him all his life, made a game of trying to trip him up at every turn, Lucas will do whatever is necessary to protect what is rightfully his. What he isn’t prepared for is Lilah Benson…
Upon accepting a job in the home of her sister’s maniacal ex-fiancé, reporter Lilah Benson believes she has finally found the perfect way to make her mark on the world. Exposing the criminal endeavors of Lucas Ramone won’t soon be forgotten. But as she comes to know the man who was supposed to be her adversary, Lilah is tempted by a passion far stronger than the desire to see her name in print…
Power and control are tools of survival, critical in a world of thievery and deception. Lilah, an innocent in a world of criminals, may be the one person capable of bringing Lucas to his knees. But Lucas will stop at nothing to keep his empire secure.
He will have it all: His Fortune, His Legacy, and Lilah Benson in his bed…
Excerpt from Dangerous Ally
Feeling the warmth of tears in her eyes, Lilah rose from the table. She never became so emotional over nothing. What in God’s name was wrong with her?
Lucas’s strong hand came against her shoulder. She didn’t pull away. In fact, she had the strangest urge to just lean into him, like somehow, he would take away all her doubts.
“Lena’s happy in her life with her children, and with Alec Westwood. I’d never begrudge her that. All I ever wanted was her happiness.”
The way he said the words, she almost believed them. He seemed to care, or at least, maybe was trying to be a better person.
“You’re trembling.” He reached in before she could stop him. His finger brushed her quivering lip.
Her instinct was to smack his hand. But the tingling sensation racing from mouth to spine kept her in place. Lucas’s touch was so soft. It made her crazy. She was consumed by the strongest desire for his lips to be where his finger was now.
He took her wine glass and held it out to her. “Here,” he said. “This’ll calm your nerves.”
Senses returning with a bang, Lilah held up two hands in protest. “Are you trying to get me drunk?” she snapped, not entirely sure whether it was him she was angrier at or herself.
“Am I that obvious?” Lucas laughed as if the whole thing was funny and set the glass back down.
She enjoyed being in the company of a monster—there was nothing lighthearted about it!
“I’m guessing you’ve probably been down this road too many times, hmm?” Lucas replaced his hand on her shoulder.
“What road would that be, exactly?”
His eyes looked into hers. “I’m sure I’m not the first man who’s tried to get you into a relaxed state, Lilah.”
“Actually—” Lilah hesitated, not wanting to get so personal yet feeling she could probably tell him anything and he’d somehow understand. “It’s been a long time, longer than you’d imagine. After I finished college, I had every intention of becoming a journalist, meaning I’d be out most of the time chasing a story despite whatever danger came with it. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, for as long as I can remember.”
Lucas nodded, coming closer. “You must have been very persistent. It takes a good deal of perseverance and sacrifice to become a success at such a young age.”
Lilah sure knew that. While her friends had been enjoying their last semester of college, she’d been frantically gathering writing samples, sending them out to every newspaper who would give her the time of day. But had her father noticed? Even when she became one of the youngest reporters at the New York Times, he’d barely raised a brow. Deep down, she knew this was why she’d accepted Raphael’s offer, even in spite of the danger that came with it. A story about Raphael Ramone’s family laundry wasn’t going to impress Blake Benson. But exposing Lucas’s diamond smuggling operation would be a print-worthy unearthing that would win her father’s admiration as well as her first Pulitzer.
She lowered her gaze. “I haven’t given up anything so wonderful.”
Lucas lifted her chin. “But if it came to that, do you think you’d be willing to make that sacrifice, give up something you want—maybe something you want more than anything—to attain some ultimate level of self-victory?”
A chill came over her at his words. Lilah stepped back, unsure of what had just happened but wanting desperately to pretend it hadn’t.
Lucas cleared his throat. “Let’s get some air, shall we?”
Something she needed desperately. She followed him to the balcony, welcoming the cool night breeze as it caressed her hot skin.
“It’s beautiful here,” she said, hoping very much to steer the conversation in a new direction.
“It is.” Lucas came beside her, bracing the rail with one hand. He slipped an arm around her back.
His body was warm, like a furnace, and he felt strong, as if he spent his days loading lumber instead of dabbling away at a computer.
Lilah shivered, goose bumps forming along her arms. It felt so nice being close to Lucas, too nice. Maybe she’d just stay there with him a few minutes longer. They weren’t exactly hurting anyone by being in each other’s company.
Lucas leaned into her, speaking in a tone she could only describe as husky. “Those men you never met,” he said, “that was their loss.”
Lilah blinked, keeping her eyes on the night sky. “Please. A man’s the last thing I need in my life.”
“Are you sure about that?” Lucas asked, his warm breath coming against her ear. “Or is it possible you’ve been hiding behind your work for so long, you don’t even know how things could be?” His palm brushed her bare shoulder as he turned her to face him. “No one knows what it’s like to be hidden from the world more than I do, Lilah. You can trust me on this. I think we’re more alike than you realize. And it’s possible we’re both missing out on something incredible.”
She didn’t push his hand away as it cupped her cheek, or his arm as it encompassed her waist. No, she let him do what he wanted. She wanted him to touch her.
Author Genre: Romance, Mystery & Thrillers, Contemporary
Website: Jessica Lauryn
Twitter: @JessicaLauryn_
E-Mail: romancebyjessicalauryn@gmail.com
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Amazon Author Profile
Author Description: An author of Contemporary Romantic Suspense, Jessica Lauryn is most intrigued by dark heroes, who have many demons to conquer...but little trouble enticing female companions into their beds! She feels that the best romances are those where the hero is already seducing the heroine from that first point of contact.
In Jessica's debut series, The Pinnacles of Power, five troubled bad boys: Ryan, Alec, Colin, Lucas and Jack must let go of the mistakes of their pasts as they battle the dangers surrounding an underground organization called Project Gemstone. Each man crosses paths with a strong, feisty heroine who has the ability to capture his heart and change the course of his life forever. Ryan's story, Dangerous Secret, kicks off the series in the picturesque town of North Conway, New Hampshire.
Jessica is a proud member of both Romance Writers of America and her local chapter, New Jersey Romance Writers. When she's not writing, she enjoys listening to as much 80's music as possible, keeping current with the story lines on Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless, shopping for the latest fashions and the prettiest of antiques, and taking long walks in nature where she can daydream about anything romantic. Though she resides in New Jersey, her heart belongs to the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire.
Author's Book List
A Passionate Play
- The Rabourn Theater 1On the heels of a major performance, theater actress Alicia Coleman is attacked in an alleyway. She is struck over the head with a pistol and the blow causes her to lose her memory. Injured and afraid, Alicia struggles to remember the details of her life. The only person who appears to know who she is, is the man she fears may also be her attacker.
In the midst of several attempts to escape, Alicia comes to know the man whose home she awoke in and realizes the two of them share a complicated past. Though Nick refuses to tell her much beyond her first name, a series of dreams in which he and she are sharing a lot more than the second story of a secluded mansion cause Alicia to suspect the most outrageous of possibilities, that the man holding her prisoner may actually be her lover. Proving her theory true may be her only chance of keeping her attacker from coming after her a second time.
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Dangerous Proposition
- The Pinnacles of Power 3In the course of one disastrous evening, diamond smuggling kingpin Colin Westwood learns his best recruit is missing in action, and the man has been keeping a secret--he has a twenty six year old daughter. Determined to protect his identity, Colin vows to find the young woman, and keep her silent at any cost. Intrigued to learn she is actually the attractive woman he caught sneaking around in his bedroom, he makes Julia an offer. Come to New York City with him to search for her missing father...as his mistress.
When Julia Dyson learns her father has been abducted, she believes his hidden profession may be to blame. But when she discovers a man's name in her dad's caller history, a man suspected of shady business activity and also her teenage crush, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She confronts her father's presumed abductor, resulting in an unforgettable kiss, and a dangerous proposition indeed.
Though becoming Colin's mistress could be her undoing, Julia must choose--give in to her desires, or protect her already-broken heart…
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Dangerous Proposal
- The Pinnacles of Power 2For ten agonizing years, Alec Westwood has been keeping a secret from the world. At nineteen, he nearly committed the most horrific of crimes--murder in cold blood--and narrowly escaped the assignment with his life. When a stunning young woman crosses his path wearing the insignia for the organization that recruited him, he vows not to let fate get a second chance. But when the enchantress gives him a kiss that leaves him spellbound, Alec realizes the power she holds is greater than all his strength and fortitude combined.
On the run from her psychotic fiancé, Lena Benson is determined to forge a new life, even if it means befriending a witch, and practicing the craft of the devil. But when her new friend Jack tells her to stay away from Alec Westwood, the man she believes her fiancé hired to track her down, and the handsome stranger she kissed in a tavern, Lena decides to take matters into her own hands. Alec may be charming, but she's calling the shots this time, even if it means resisting the man responsible for giving her the most intimate kiss of her life, a man whose eyes and touch rob her, literally, of sense.
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Dangerous Secret
- The Pinnacles of Power 1Abigail MacKenzie has been trying to put her father's tragic death behind her.But when a handsome stranger produces a random clue about her father's shooting, hopes of finding her father's killer come flooding back to the surface.Abigail is determined to get justice for her dad, even if it means learning the secret of a man with eyes that cut straight through the wall around her heart.
After making a mysterious discovery that costs him his job, Ryan Newberry is happy to accept any position he can get.But when he realizes that one of the employees who'll be working under him at the Washington Valley Hotel is Abigail MacKenzie, the sweet girl he met weeks before, he fears the past might be in danger of repeating itself.Ryan only hopes that his desires for his new front desk associate won't lead both of them down a path of danger from which he won't be able to protect them. ** A BookStrand Mainstream Romance
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A Sultry Performance
- The Rabourn Theater Series Book 3Chris Gordon, stage manager at Rabourn Theater, suspects his late wife's hit and run was never an accident. He believes the man she was having an affair with, Oakley Sutherland, was responsible and he vows to get Evelyn justice, igniting a plot to ensnare Oakley, working through Oakley's fiancée, Victoria.
A well-known exotic dancer by night, Victoria Morrow has been fighting to make a better life for herself, and she won't be taken advantage of. But when the most handsome man at Rabourn Theater takes an interest in her, she finds herself spiraling down a path she never expected to. Can Victoria resist Chris's charms? Or will both of them fall prey to the danger that lurks in the wings?
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