About
RIGHT THROUGH ME:
Stranger,
speak softly...
Biotech
tycoon Noah Gallagher has a deadly secret: his clandestine training
as a super-soldier gives him abilities that go far beyond human. Yet
he's very much a man. When Caro Bishop shows up at his Seattle
headquarters with a dangerous secret agenda, his ordered life is
thrown into chaos. Caro is a woman like no other—and her luminously
sensual beauty cloaks a mystery he must solve.
Caro's lying
low, evading a false charge of murder. She means to clear her name,
and she'll do whatever it takes to survive—but seducing a man like
Noah is more than she bargained for. His amber eyes have the
strangest glow when he looks at her—she could swear he sees the
secrets of her heart. The desire smoldering in Noah's eyes awakens
her own secret hunger, but Caro has to resist his magnetic pull.
Anyone close to her becomes a target. The only right thing to do is
run, far and fast, but Caro can't outrun Noah's ferocious
intensity—or deny the searing passion that explodes between
them.
Nothing else matters—until a vicious enemy bent on the
ultimate revenge puts his murderous plan into play. Noah and Caro
must battle for their lives...and their love...
Exclusive
Excerpt:
Welcome to the
secret and dangerous world of The Obsidian Files!
I love stories
about people forced to widen the idea of what it means to be a human
being, as well as stories about what it would be like to be
superhuman. Now that the technology to augment, enhance, even design
human beings is becoming an accepted reality, it fascinates me even
more.
My hero, charismatic biotech tycoon
Noah Gallagher, has a deadly secret—he’s more than human. As a
teenager, he was swept up into the Obsidian program, a plan to create
super-soldiers using gene splicing and nanotech. Noah led the other
modified kids in a desperate rebellion. They barely escaped with
their lives and went deep underground.
Now, years later, Noah’s crew now
hides in plain sight, careful to mask their uncanny abilities. All
except for breakaway element Mark Olund, a psychopath who uses his
abilities to enrich himself. Mark is a threat Noah’s group, so
when Mark’s mistress, Caro Bishop, suddenly shows up near Noah’s
Seattle headquarters working as a bellydancer, Noah’s sister
decides that they need a closer look at her. Preferably one using
Noah’s enhanced eyes.
But Caro has a secret, too. She’s
running away from a false charge of murder. Mark Olund killed her
boss, and has been hunting her relentlessly ever since. She’s the
only one with the biometrics to open a safe that will unleash a
terrible weapon onto the world.
This nightmare has to stop, one way
or another. If no one else can help, she’ll do it herself. But in
the meantime, a girl had to eat and pay her rent and bus fare. She’s
been bellydancing to survive, and this gig seemed just like any
other—until she set eyes on the mind-blowingly handsome recepient
of her dance . . .
Caro narrowly missed slamming her hip
into the table. For the third time.
Look away from the guy, for God’s
sake. Get a grip. It’s just a dance.
But her gaze kept getting sucked back
to Noah Gallagher, the birthday boy. Ultra-powerful CEO of the
oh-so-myserious Angel Enterprises, cutting-edge biotech firm.
The man was gorgeous. Barrel chested.
A dense slab of muscle. Short hair showed off the sharp planes and
angles of his face, a wide, strong jaw. He wore shaded glasses, but
he’d taken them off a few seconds into her bellydance, and it was
incredibly hard to stay focused on the music and remember her moves
while being examined with such blazing intensity. It made her lose
the thread.
To say nothing of her physical
balance.
Holy flipping wow. They said he
was turning thirty-two today, but he seemed older, or maybe it was
just his expression. Each time she twirled, she snagged a new yummy
detail. The shape of his ears. Thick, straight dark brows. Sexy
grooves framing a stern, sensual mouth. Sharp cheekbones. His face
was a taut mask of tension. But it was his eyes that really got to
her.
His scorching laser focus made her
temperature rise. He looked like he’d tear you to pieces if you
gave him any trouble, despite the elegant suit that sat just right on
his huge shoulders. He didn’t laugh or look embarrassed like most
men did when surprised by a bellydancer. He just sat there, with the
charged stillness of a predator poised to spring. Radiating a subtle
sense of danger.
Her smile faltered as she shimmied and
spun. Suddenly, she was hyper-conscious of the erotic allure of the
dance. She always tried to keep things as light hearted and playful
as possible, but his silent, very male sexual energy made it feel
deadly serious. As if they were alone, and she’d been summoned for
a private, uninhibited performance designed to drive him crazy.
Oh my. What a stimulating scenario
that would be.
She was actually getting aroused. For
the love of God. Rising panic began to shred the sensation. Enough of
this ridiculous crap. She had to get out of here, and fast.
Finish the dance. You need the
cash. He’s only a hot guy, not a celestial being. You’re freaking
yourself out. Chill. Usually she spread the wealth, bestowing
flirtatious smiles on everyone, but no one made a sound. Tension was
thick in the air. No laughter, no snickering, no whistles.
Who cared. Her mind was fully occupied
with the task of not gaping at Noah Gallagher’s godlike hotness.
This is Caro’s first inkling that
all is not exactly what it seems at Angel Enterprises. She has no
idea that they know who she is, and still less that they are
wondering if she is Mark Olund’s spy. But really, all she can think
about is Noah.
Toughen up, cupcake. Take back the
power. This was a tough crowd, maybe, but everything was
relative. The people in this room weren’t trying to frame her for
murder, kidnap her or kill her. And she certainly had the birthday
boy’s full attention.
So she’d play with it. That man
needed to be humbled. To worship at the feet of her divine
awesomeness. She’d dance like she’d never danced before, blow his
mind, and melt away, forever nameless. Leaving him to ache and
writhe.
That’s right, big boy. Prepare to
suffer.
The dance was ending. Caro sank to her
knees, arching back in a pose of abandoned sensual ecstasy as the
music reached its climax. Stretched before him like a sacrificial
virgin on an altar.
Take me, I’m yours.
The pose felt obscene, but only
because there were other people in the room. If there hadn’t been,
it would have felt right. It would have felt . . . hot.
Caro rose slowly to her feet. Noah
Gallagher didn’t applaud.
He just stared as if he wanted to leap
over that table and pin her to the ground.
Tension built. The othe people in the
room looked up, down, anywhere but at her. Caro smiled brightly. Not
fair, to throw an innocent performer into the middle of someone
else’s big fat faux pas and make her swim in it. Bastards.
So what. She’d stay dignified. While
running for her life, fighting the powers of darkness, scrambling for
money. Even if it involved putting on a scanty costume and shaking
her booty for rude or indifferent strangers.
Or else one single intense, lustful,
smoldering stranger.
Caro has been alone with her
problems for so long. She’ll scramble to keep anyone else from
getting punished by the toxic mess that is her current life, but she
can’t resist Noah’s smoldering, magnetic gaze. Aside from how
drop-dead hot Noah Gallagher is, she’s intensely drawn to the
strength she senses in him. A strength that could withstand even
problems as big as her own.
Still, all Caro dares to hope for is
one secret night. That’s the extent of her self-indulgence—but
Noah has other ideas . . . and he’s willing to protect what he
loves . . .
I hope you enjoy the mysterious and
exciting new world of the Obsidian Files as much as I loved creating
it! There is still so much yet to discover, so happy reading!
About
Shannon McKenna:
Shannon
McKenna is the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of fifteen action
packed, turbocharged romantic thrillers, among which are the stories
of the wildly popular McCloud series. She’s also the author of the
upcoming OBSIDIAN series, the first of which, RIGHT THROUGH ME, comes
out in July of 2016. She loves tough and heroic alpha males, heroines
with the brains and guts to match them, villains who challenge them
to their utmost, adventure, scorching sensuality, and most of all,
the redemptive power of true love.
Since
she was small she has loved abandoning herself to the magic of a good
book, and her fond childhood fantasy was that writing would be just
like that, but with the added benefit of being able to take credit
for the story at the end. The alchemy of writing turned out to be
messier than she'd ever dreamed, but what the hell, she loves it
anyway, and hopes that readers enjoy the results of her alchemical
experiments. She loves to hear from her readers.
Giveaway:
2 winners will receive a $10 Amazon Giftcard & 2 winners will receive an e-copy of choice from Shannon’s backlist!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Murder Mezzo Forte (Lamplighter Mysteries, June 2016)
