Uncover Me
by Linda Barlow
Publication Date: August 18, 2014
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Suspense
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Synopsis: ELLIE:
All I did was take a few pictures. I didn’t realize I was witnessing a crime.
I was hoping for a kick-ass adventure when I set off on my dream vacation. Instead, I’ve fallen in with a ruthless band of thieves.
Kidnapped, bound, and ordered to submit, I’m stuck on a yacht with a sun-bronzed pirate who caught me photographing his antiquities-smuggling operation. He doesn’t want me tagging along any more than I want to be here. But that hasn’t stopped him from finding a use for me.
NICK:
She thinks I’m hard-assed. Dominating. Cruel. But I’ve got a dirty job to do. It has required months of scheming, a billionaire’s yacht, and a shitload of priceless stolen artifacts.
I’m not about to be distracted by one inconvenient redhead. Even if she is supremely fuckable and oh-so-sweet when I have her on her knees.
She probably doesn’t realize it, but I’m doing my best to protect her. There are guys here a lot badder than me. But I can’t allow her to mess up my plans. There’s no place in my life for softer emotions, and no space in my body for a heart.
UNCOVER ME is a contemporary romantic suspense novel with a touch of darkness. Intended for mature audiences.
Excerpt
“Don’t shoot!” Putting down my camera and raising my arms over my head, I stepped out from the olive grove into the sun. “Lutfen,” I added, the Turkish word for please. “I’m a tourist. Do you speak English? I’m sorry if I’m trespassing, but I thought this was public land.”
It sounded ludicrous, but with my heart thudding and my stomach so cramped I thought I might double over and collapse before he could bother to shoot me, it was the best I could come up with. He was advancing again, his hard face expressionless, his eyes narrowed to slits as they flicked over me, taking in my appearance from my long, ill-kempt hair to my new leather boots.
His gaze lingered for an instant on my breasts and hips. As he closed in on me, I could see that his eyes were light green, the color of tropical seawater. Beautiful eyes, thickly fringed with gold-tipped lashes. Yet for all their beauty, they were mercilessly cold.
He was five yards away, then two, then one. He stopped. The gun, a large ugly pistol, was pointed dead at the center of my body. If he shot at this range, he couldn’t miss, nor would I survive. “Please,” I said again, lips trembling. “No English? French, then?” My French was not terrific. “Je suis americaine.” Instinct warned me not to try Turkish—an American tourist wouldn’t speak more than a polite word or two of that language. “Je suis une touriste. Comprenez-vous?”
“Who are you and what the fuck are you doing here?” he said in English.
“Thank god, you do understand me. It would be stupid for you to shoot me just because we couldn’t communicate.”
He must have found this answer flip, since he reached out, caught my wrist and jerked me against his body. My yelp of surprise died in my throat as one hand captured my arms behind my back while the other held the barrel of the gun to a point just below my left breast. His touch was both impersonal and professional. It didn’t hurt, but this wasn’t reassuring. If he had to kill me, he would do so swiftly, with a minimum of fuss.
“You have five seconds to explain yourself.”
“I was camped here.” I nodded in the direction of my pack. His English was more than excellent; it was perfect. He sounded as if he might be British, although there were American inflections, too. “I had trouble with my bike. I couldn’t make it to the official campgrounds.”
“You were photographing us.”
“I was photographing the coastline. Not you.”
“You expect me to believe that?” He kicked at my camera, which rolled over in the dirt. Inwardly I winced, and would have cried out “Don’t hurt my camera,” if it hadn’t seemed a frivolous concern, given that he was probably about to end my life.
“That’s a telephoto lens, so cut the lies.”
About Linda Barlow
Linda Barlow is the author of 23 novels in various genres, including family sagas, historical and contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic romance, and general mainstream fiction.
Publishers have included Doubleday, Dell, Penguin, Warner Books, New American Library/Signet, Berkley/Putnam, Silhouette and Harlequin. Her books have been translated into approximately 20 foreign languages.
Her romances have won numerous industry awards, including the Rita from Romance Writers of America (1989), Best New Historical Romance Author from Romantic Times (1986) and a Lifetime Achievement award from Romantic Times. She also contributed two essays to Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, a collection of scholarly essays on the enduring appeal of the romance. This book won the Susan Koppelman Award for Excellence in Feminist Studies of Popular Culture and American Culture in 1993.
Linda is now indie publishing and loving it! She is updating her backlist and writing new novels, too. The first book to be rewritten and indie-published is the new edition of her classic historical romance, Fires of Destiny, which was a finalist for the Rita Award in 1987 (available now!).
Linda served as President of Novelists, Inc. in 1992 and did two three-year terms on the Executive Council of the Authors Guild in the 1990s. She was Romance Writers of America’s keynote speaker at the annual conference in 1989.
When she is not at her computer writing, she is likely to be reading. She can’t imagine what her life would be like without books!
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