Synopsis
“I’m a monster, Eva. There’s no saving a monster. But I love that you want to try.”
Luca Minaldi is rich, powerful and mesmerizing. He’s also a reclusive enigma. He lives in Malta, a fairy-tale place filled with sunshine and sea, beauty and secrets. And Luca’s darkest of secrets is the best-kept of them all.
Eva Talbot moves to Malta to finish her doctoral dissertation in Psychiatry. When she meets Luca, there is a very real and instant attraction that she has never felt before. But even still, she senses the darkness that lives within him.
Eva is hired to care for Luca’s mother, a woman who suffers from dementia. It is Luca, however, that Eva will eventually risk everything to save… as the legacy that plagues him continues.
As the darkness swirls ever more tightly around her, Eva realizes that no matter how hard she tries, she might not be able to save Luca without losing herself.
Eva and Luca are thrust into a world where their love is tested and darkness reigns. Amid chaos and treachery, love and hate, Luca and Eva learn one important thing.
Love is dangerous.
But it also might be the one thing that can save them all.
*******
The Minaldi Legacy consists of two parts, part one: Of Blood and Bone and part two: Of Darkness and Demons. It contains adult themes and content.
Excerpt & Teasers
He gazes out the window for a scant moment more, seemingly deep in thought, before he crosses the room to me. He kneels in front of me and looks into my eyes. In this moment, he is as vulnerable as I’ve ever seen him, as I’ve ever seen anyone. He’s completely open to me, hiding nothing.
I want so desperately to kiss him.
“I can’t,” I tell his dark eyes, praying that I don’t fall into them. “I want to kiss you right now. But I can’t. You’re my patient. There are ethics…”
Luca shakes his head, his hands on my knees and his gaze upon mine. “You aren’t my doctor, Evangeline. You’re my friend. I’m simply talking to a friend who wants to help me tonight. You’re not licensed to practice medicine in Malta, remember? So where does that leave your ethics?”
He smiles wolfishly and waits without moving. He’s offering himself to me. I know that. And it is against his better judgment. He has told me that, as well. Yet here he is, on his knees in front of me.
I suck in a breath and inhale the air that is so charged with everything that Luca is.
Whatever that is.
It’s dangerous on many levels. I know that.
I reach out unsure fingers and trace the top of his shoulders, moving over the contours. They are so broad, yet so slender at once. He’s perfectly built. Strong, lithe and powerful. I drop my head. I know that I don’t want to resist him anymore. For the first time in my life, I’m going to do something that my heart wants to do, not what my head tells me to do.
I grip him tighter with my fingers and pull him to me. He folds in between my knees, pressing me to his chest. I can hear his heart thumping rhythmically against mine as my fingers linger on his warm back.
He dips his head and presses his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes. His are a smoldering and stormy black.
“I’m afraid to get close to you,” he tells me. “I’m afraid for you.”
“I’m not,” I whisper. “I’m not afraid of you. Kiss me, Luca.”
Even I can hear the thick desire in my voice and Luca hears it too.
He groans and covers my mouth with his own, muffling the sound with my lips. He is pressed so close that he seems to absorb me. Every plane of his body is against every plane of mine. I don’t know where he stops and where I start, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is him and me and this.
I can’t breathe as his fingers run along my arms, down over my back and further to my hips and then he pulls me up, into him. He grips me tightly, his hands cupping my behind before lifts me, laying me on the thick rug on the stone floor. He hovers above me, brushing the hair from my eyes before he is once again in my mouth, my tongue mingling with his. We both taste of Scotch, but his taste is exquisite. So hot and primal and Luca.
I don’t care what the future brings. As long as there is this.
So I tell him that and he groans again, into the side of my neck. He kisses me there, brushing his lips along my skin, inhaling me as though I am the most fragrant thing that has ever existed. His breath is warm on my neck.
I arch into him and he melts into me. He is hard. Every bit of him is hard. I can feel it, can feel him. The tip of his erection pushes against the juncture of my thighs, against my damp panties. He pulls off my skirt, then my panties and I am exposed to him as his hand slides against the softness of my thigh. The cool air brushes against my hot flesh and I almost shiver. I can feel the rigidity of his penis pressing against me, but he withdraws it and I want to whimper.
But it is replaced by his fingers. Long and strong, he plays me as deftly as he played the ivory keys of the piano. An ache spreads through me, radiating from the lowest depths of my belly. I suck in my breath and push against his hand, my hips moving in an age old rhythm that comes as naturally to me as breathing.
“I want to see you,” I murmur against his neck, before I nip at his earlobe, pulling that delicate skin lightly in my teeth. Luca sucks in his breath and takes a step away, staring down at me as he purposefully removes his shirt and tosses it onto the floor.
His biceps are lean, yet bulging and muscular. His chest is perfectly chiseled. Each muscle rippling into a perfect V that points to his crotch. My heart is pounding and I watch his long fingers as they unbuckle his belt and then he steps out of his slacks. Then his underwear.
His hard erection is standing at full attention, curved against him, evidence that he definitely wants me. He is magnificent.
My breath is frozen now, while his is harsh and ragged.
Holy hell. His is the most beautiful male body I’ve ever seen, absolutely perfect in every way.
The energy between us is intense, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I can’t help but to reach down and grasp his hardness, sliding my fingers along it, listening to his sharp intake of breath as I touch him. I can’t help but smile.
He’s hard for me.
This is for me.
Giveaway
2 winners will win 2 signed copies of the Minaldi Legacy
About Courtney
Courtney Cole is a novelist who would eat mythology for breakfast if she could. She has a degree in Business, but has since discovered that corporate America is not nearly as fun to live in as fictional worlds. She loves chocolate and roller coasters and hates waiting and rude people.
Courtney lives in quiet suburbia, close to Lake Michigan, with her real-life Prince Charming, her ornery kids (there is a small chance that they get their orneriness from their mother) and a small domestic zoo.
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