To Capture A Highlander's Heart: The Wedding Night, Breaking Out SEALbook 6 and Other Releases

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of To Capture A Highlander's Heart: The Wedding Night. March 21st is just 3 weeks away.  So please share it with all your friends and relatives.

Here's the blurb: 

Highland warlord Gabriel Campbell plans to wed Grace MacNab, but is stunned to learn the banns have been challenged on the grounds Grace is a lady by birth. They cannot marry under the king’s law without permission.

The man Grace fears most has come to Caisteal Sith to force her into marriage. And there are others eager to offer for her in exchange for access to the charter the king’s regent has given her, but she’s in love with Gabriel. Though she doubts the depth of Gabriel’s feelings, she’s convinced he’s still the best man to lead her clan and fulfill her heart’s desire.

Can the two stand together to fight tradition and win? Or will their chance at happiness be forever out of reach?

Here's another excerpt to wet your appetite:

“They have been cut from the same cloth. Lady Mary and Grace have a way of standing their ground, as though their feet are planted deep in conviction, although they never raise their voices.”

“I wouldna say never. Do ye not remember when Mary decided t’ separate Alexander’s head from his shoulders, and mine, with the wooden service from the aumry?”

Gabriel chuckled. “Aye, I do. But she would take a pike to anyone else who threatened him.”

“Aye, she would. And in the next moment heal the hurts of those with whom she is most angry.” He touched the small scar over his eyebrow.

Gabriel smiled at the memory. He had seen the injury when first it had happened. A wooden bowl had grazed Duncan and split the skin. Lady Mary bandaged the gash after she had calmed, and apologized most sincerely.

Gabriel stepped away from the wall, and Duncan fell into step beside him. Gabriel wondered at the other man’s purpose for inviting him to walk the battlements since he did not seem eager to walk them at all. There was more to it than just a wander down the many memories they shared. And there were many.

His life had been entwined with Lord Alexander’s since he was a boy. Because of his strength and size, there had never been any other path to him but to raise his sword in defense of his country and his clan. Alexander himself had trained him. He had never wanted more than that before. But he wanted it now. He would be grateful to be able to stand next to Grace in whatever way he could, and serve her as a husband.

Duncan laid a hand on his arm midway down the planking between the north and south towers. “There is something I wish to share with you, Gabriel. I wouldna treat your loyalty to our clan, to all of us, with anythin’ less than the respect it deserves.”

’Twas bad news, then. There had not been time for the regent to address the petition Lord Alexander had sent. But what else could it be?

“Should the Regent rule again’ you, my father has asked Grace to consider marrying me to ensure the area remains friendly to the Campbell clan. In return, we would offer our protection to her clan.”

Grace was right. Whenever there was a bit of unprotected land about, there was always someone anxious to claim it.

This was his clan.

He had sworn fealty to Laird Campbell and loyalty to Lord Alexander.

But to see the man next to him holding his Grace, serving as her husband…

He braced his hands against the top of the stone and bent at the waist while a war of emotions raged through him. His cheeks burned with anger hotter than the fever from which he had just recovered. A knot the size of a clenched fist lodged in his throat.

It was several minutes before he could speak, but he could not look at Duncan, for fear of losing his composure and possibly doing something he might later regret. “Does the laird mean to ask me to step aside?”

“Nay. We are all hopeful the regent will rule in your favor, Gabriel. Father has written a letter commending your service to our clan and to the Bruce. He has stated his support of your marriage to Grace.”

Gabriel nodded. The tightness in his chest began to recede, and with it the sense of betrayal. “I have written my own letters to those I have served with in the past and asked their support.”

Duncan slapped him on the back. “Good. In order for you to wed Grace, the regent will also have to offer you a knighthood or more. He may also ask for you to adopt her clan as your own, and for you to take the MacNab name.”

He thought about the sacrifice. He would be losing a part of himself, a source of pride that was woven into the fabric of his being, as tightly knitted as his kilt. His blood was Campbell. But had Grace not accepted the Campbell clan with an open heart? Would their children not be a blend of MacNab and Campbell, and carry the blood, the heart of both clans. “There is naught I wouldna sacrifice to stay with my lady, Duncan.”

Duncan nodded. “Even a blind man can see Lady Grace’s feelings for you, Gabriel. They are as fierce as Mary’s for Alexander. At the moment Grace canna see beyond that. But there are other concerns.

“The MacNab clan isna large enough to protect itself against an outside attack, and, though they have Drummond as their leader in other ways, he canna train them to wage battle, Grace’s place is at the head of their clan. There is no doubt you could be the leader they need to take his place. Once the regent meets you, ’twill be up to you t’ sway him to that same belief.

Duncan looked at him now. “As soon as you are strong enough, we will all accompany you to Edinburgh to meet with him face to face. Lady Mary has suggested two days hence.”

Gabriel remembered many months before Artair saying Grace would need him to fight for her one day. He had not understood what he meant at the time, but he did now. “I will be ready.”

***

I'm hard at work on my next SEAL book BREAKING OUT Book 6 of the SEAL Team Heartbreakers.  Ensign 'Doc' Zach O'Connor's Story.  

Here's an unedited excerpt: 

The drone of the C-130 transport hummed against the bottoms of Ensign Zach O’Connor’s feet, the sound so loud it made talking without the com system inside his helmet impossible. That was if he wasn’t busy sucking in the pure oxygen. The first part of the dive he’d be falling fast and it would ward off the bends. 

The neoprene suit he wore beneath his flight suit held the heat in and protected him from the falling temperatures outside the aircraft as it climbed to their target altitude. He rubbed the duct tape with which he’d sealed the seam between the wrists of his flight suit and his gloves. The wind could be an icy bitch and cause frostbite on even a thin strip of exposed skin.

Their jump schedule had been zero three hundred to simulate a night insertion, but they’d gotten a late start lifting off the tarmac and now fought the clock to get this practice dive behind them before sun up.

Without the focus of a mission pressing, it was still a dangerous part of training and the men were quieter than normal. Everyone was attentive to their gear. Each of them carried seventy pounds of equipment, everything they’d need in a regular mission.  

Once they exited the aircraft, the trip down would be a long slow float to the ground. With Hawk in the lead, they’d follow him down to the coordinates in the desert.

“Five minutes,” the pilot’s voice came over the com system.

Lieutenant Hawk Yazzie signaled for the team to take their jumping positions then check their gear.  Zach checked his oxygen flow, placed his goggles over his eyes and took his position behind Bowie, Ensign Dan Rivera. ‘Greenback’ Oliver Shaker settled in behind him and the rest fell in. Hawk walked down the line and got the thumbs up from each man before returning to his position at the head of the line again.

“Twenty-five thousand feet and holding. Thirty seconds out.” One of the flight crew took a position next to Hawk and prepared to close the ramp once they had all deployed. The crewman pushed the release. A loud buzzer sounded and the cargo ramp cranked open. The wind swept through the interior of the C-130 like a cyclone, tugging at their clothing and dragging at them. The dark sky shown purplish blue. The sun, a promise just beneath the horizon, cast a dusky glow.

The pilot’s voice fed through his helmet. “Almost over the drop site. Five seconds.”

The wait was the worst part. Five seconds seemed like an hour when you had yourself psyched to jump.

“Jumps a go.”

Hawk showed no hesitation as he rushed forward and fell into midair.  His chute deployed five seconds later. Bowie followed.

Zach’s heart raced as fast as the air whirling around him. He didn’t allow himself to think about everything that could go wrong, only the things he was trained to do. With a running jump, he dropped over the edge of the platform. He waited five seconds then deployed his chute. The impact of his parachute opening called a halt to the seventy pounds of drag his gear created,  drove his harness straps up into the bends of his legs and whipped his body upward. He grunted in pain and breathed an oath. Damn he’d be feeling that for the next couple of days.

He looked down and saw the indistinct shape of Bowe’s parachute below him. He checked his altimeter and GPS. It would take some time to reach the ground and they would travel thirty miles, manipulating the air currents.

“Sound off,” Hawk’s voice came over the com.

“Alpha 2, on course,” Bowie answered.

“Alpha 3, on course,” Zach said.

‘Greenback’ Oliver Shaker, ‘Lang’ Chief Petty Officer Langley Marks, ‘Bullet’ Seaman Jeff Sizemore, ‘Box’ Seaman Jack Logan, and ‘Celt’ Seaman Kelsey Tyler sang out in turn. Everyone was in position and doing well.

If someone wasn’t, there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot they could do about it. They’d never locate him in the dark. It would be up to the team member to fall back on his training and deal with it. They had to maintain radio silence unless they were reporting information about the dive. If it were a mission, he’d be going over all the things he needed to do when he landed and keeping an eye peeled for trouble below. As it was, a hundred things flitted through his mind that had nothing to do with the dive. He needed to do some work on the boat. And call Kathleen, his sister, to come over for a meal sometime this week since it had been almost three weeks since they’d seen each other. And how pathetic was it that his sister was the only woman in his life at the moment.

Lately, he’d been filling his off time with work on the apartment, the boat, anything to hold the emptiness of his life at bay. His teammates shared their families. His brothers, sister and parents shared their lives with him through calls, letters and emails. But his military calling was his life and lately it just hadn’t been enough.

But he’d learned through experience that he couldn’t be romantically involved and do the job. So what was the answer?

Hawk’s voice came over the com. “There’s a cross wind at nineteen thousand feet. You’ll need to adjust your heading.”

Zach caught the cross wind and pulled on the handles on either side of his chute correcting his course. He checked his altimeter and GPS.  The dull gray glow of Hawk and Bowie’s chutes were still aligned with his as he followed them down. He tilted his head back and caught a faint glimpse of Bullet, Box and Celt’s position. His chute hid greenback and Lang’s places in the stack.

Around Zero five-forty the sun rose above the desert horizon like a yellow-orange ball and for several moments, Zach was mesmerized by the pinkish yellow streaks painted across the sky. The distant mountains, barren knolls, turned gold.

“Doesn’t get much better than that,” Hawk murmured. “Transport is ten miles ahead.”

Twenty minutes later Hawk came across the com again. “There’s a strong hot air downwind over the landing site. Be prepared for a rough landing.”

From his position above, Zach watched Hawk land with his normal badass control, downwind or not. He scooped in his chute. Bowie landed two minutes behind him. Zach prepared himself for the sudden rush of the ground beneath his feet and thought he’d manage to touch down in as decent a descent as the others until a quick rush of hot air filled his chute and lifted him back up, carrying him thirty feet further. The chute curled over him dragging him forward. His feet brushed the hard packed sand and he stumbled over a small rock, lost his footing and plowed into a waist high boulder hip first. He yelped in pain as he dropped and fell. He rolled onto his back the chute still dragging at him, his arm tangled in the lines. “Fuck me!” He tugged the oxygen mask from his face and let loose a stream of words his Irish Catholic mother would have washed his mouth out for.

Bowie ran across the sand and brush to where he lay. “Jesus, Doc. You okay?”

“Yeah.” The weight of his gear felt as heavy as the boulder he’d just plowed into. Fuck no, he wasn’t okay. He’d have the imprint of his side arm stamped on his hip like a tattoo. His left leg was numb.  He needed to check and see if there was damage to his weapon.

Concentrate on the immediate problem. He untangled his arm from the parachute lines and Bowie grabbed his chute and started rolling it up so the wind couldn’t catch it again.

Zach rocked to get to his feet, the weight of his gear making it difficult. His left side was numbed by trauma, but it was going to start aching like a son of a bitch in about five minutes. Hawk and Greenback loomed over him and bent to grip his hands. He braced his good foot and they levered him to a standing position. He gritted his teeth to keep from groaning aloud as the first spike of pain hit him. He still had a job to do. He was the medic of the team. He needed to look out for their welfare. “Did everyone get down okay?”

“Yeah.” Hawk’s features were sharp with concern. “Everyone else is fine. Drop your gear and we’ll get you to the transport,” Hawk ordered. The truck sat a hundred feet away. This was going to hurt. In fact, the whole rocky, bumpy trip in the back of the truck was going to be a bitch.

****

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt. My target date for release for Breaking Out will be the first week in June. I had hoped for May but I always think my story is going to take less time to write than it does so I'm building in some extra time for editing. 

I wanted to share a very talented writer with you. Cherie Marks.  She writes contemporary romance and urban fantasy.  I love everything she writes. She has a very distinctive voice. So check her out. By the way, the book is only $.99 right now so snap it up!

Here's the blurb: 
Janna Thompson believes she’s going downright mental. In the past few weeks, she’s seeing things no one else can see and can’t shake an ominous presence. Yet, when a hot cop with a protective instinct moves into her apartment building, things might be looking up.

Cade Lanter is no ordinary being. The son of a human policeman and a Queen of the Fae, he lives in the mortal world for now. When an enemy of old threatens the balance of both the human world and Eiru, Land of the Fae, he must fight the would-be usurper in the human realm. Of course, that might require more focus than he can muster lately since a certain, sexy neighbor keeps him distracted.

Their two, unlikely worlds collide when he becomes The Fae Next Door.

READ AN EXCERPT HERE AND CHECK OUT HER OTHER BOOKS. You won't be sorry.

Read on!

Teresa Reasor