Our newsletter winner is…Debbie Skinner! Congratulations, Debbie! Please email me at info @ cynthiaeden.com to claim your prize (and I sent you a note!!).

My latest “Dark Obsession” tale is available now–NEED ME is up at all digital retailers.

The cops think that Julianna Smith is a murderer. No one will listen when Julianna claims she’s innocent, and as the suspicions mount against her, only Julianna knows the truth…a killer is hunting her. Somewhere in the darkness, a stalker is closing in and preparing to deliver a final justice that she can’t escape.

He’s her only option.

Devlin Shade isn’t a man who trusts easily, and when Julianna Smith walks into VJS Protection, he’s well aware of her reputation—the sexy blond could be a cold-blooded murderer. Only when he looks at her, cold is the last thing that Devlin feels. There’s an instant attraction between them—hot, fierce, primal.  And he agrees to take her case. He’ll be her bodyguard. He’ll keep her safe from the enemy hunting her, and he’ll also find out the truth about the mysterious Julianna.  If she is a killer, he’ll turn her over to the cops himself.

She can’t let him get too close…

Julianna knows that she is walking a dangerous line with Devlin. She never expected to want him so much, and as they grow closer, she realizes that he’s working to uncover her secrets.  But the secrets that she carries are worth killing for…and she can’t let anyone discover the truth, not even Devlin.

Killer or victim…

Soon the thin line between right and wrong is blurred. For Devlin, the case becomes personal, and all that matters is Julianna—keeping her safe and stopping the stalker who is on her trail. As he slides deeper into Julianna’s dangerous world, Devlin’s own darkness rises up. He’s played the good guy for so long, but now his mask is falling away. He isn’t controlled, he isn’t safe, and when Julianna is threatened, he will cross any line to keep her safe.

NEED ME.

Some needs can push you to the edge of sanity…

***

And here’s an excerpt to get you in the mood for the story. I hope you enjoy it!

***

“I’m not guilty.”

He shrugged. “I’m not on your jury, so it’s not my place to say.”

His words hurt her.  Why she should be surprised he thought she was a killer, Julianna didn’t know. Plenty of people had thought and said the same thing. That she was a calculating woman who’d taken herself a rich husband. She’d bided her time until she was legally set with his money, then she’d brutally killed him.

If only people knew the truth about her dead husband.

If only they knew the truth about me.

“Until the real killer is caught, I do have to worry about the possibility of spending the rest of my life in jail.” And that couldn’t happen. She’d already lived too long in a cage. She wouldn’t be doing it again. Even Sophie didn’t know that Julianna had made plans…escape plans. If things started to look too dark, she was going to vanish.

And, lately, with fear crowding ever closer, vanishing had started to look like the perfect choice.  I just don’t want the world to remember me as a killer.

“You want me to catch the real killer?” Devlin asked, cocking his head a bit as he stared down at her.

Her hands lifted and curled around his shoulders. Why was she touching him? Julianna wasn’t sure, but she just tightened her hold on him. “No, I want you to keep me alive.  He’s after me. I know he is, and I want to hire you as my bodyguard.” Money wasn’t an issue for her.  Not anymore.

For just an instant, the past swam before her. That terrible morning when she’d woken on the floor of her living room and found her husband’s dead body right beside hers.  His blood had soaked the carpet. It had been under her body. On her.

Everywhere.

Devlin’s gaze slid over her face. Slowly. As if he were taking her in.  Julianna was far too conscious of her fingers on his shoulders. Of his body so close to hers. Of—

“Do you always get what you want?”

Her brow furrowed.

“Do you always…” Devlin continued, voice roughening a bit, “use your body to get what you want?”

Her mouth dropped open in shock, then immediately closed as rage swept through her.  “I’m not using my body.”  She jerked away from him. Sophie had been so wrong about the guy.  Going to Devlin had been a huge mistake. He wasn’t the man she’d thought, not at all.

Julianna rushed for the door, but Devlin caught her before she’d taken more than a few steps. He curled his fingers around her shoulder and spun her back to face him. “Every news story says that you’re a femme fatale. The woman who seduced billionaire Jeremy Smith and convinced him to marry her after a whirlwind courtship.”

She was the one who’d been seduced.  And trapped.

“And then you come in here, offering to pay anything if I help you.”

Her chin shot up. “I was talking about money. Any amount you wanted. I wasn’t talking about paying with myself.”  And she hurt right then. Why, Julianna didn’t know. He wasn’t the first person to hurl insults at her. “Despite what you might think, I’m not a whore, high-priced or otherwise.”

His fingers slid down her arm.  “My mistake.”

“Yes,” her voice had turned icy, “it was your mistake. But it was mine, too. I never should have come here.  I’ll find someone else.” She gave him a curt nod. “Forget you ever saw me.”

She turned on her heel and once more aimed for the door—and freedom.

“Forgetting you won’t be easy,” Devlin said. “No hope of that.”

***

NEED ME is available for the Kindle and the Nook. It is also available for Kobo, iBooks, All Romance EBooks, and Google Play.

Enjoy your Tuesday!! I hope you have a great day.

(And if you have a chance, head over to my Facebook Page–I’m giving away fun prizes all week to celebrate the release of NEED ME!)

For my Harlequin Intrigue fans…SECRETS is available today (in print). SECRETS is book 2 in the “Battling McGuire Boys” series…

In a world of lies, he’s the only man she can trust

Navy SEAL Brodie McGuire’s orders were clear: Get the hostage out alive. After spiriting Jennifer Wesley to safety, their terror and need ignited into passion. Mission over, haunted by memories of their night together, Brodie didn’t expect to see the Louisiana society girl again. Then she showed up at McGuire Securities.

Six years ago, Brodie saved Jennifer’s life. Now she needs his protection again. But he has no idea who she really is. On his family’s Texas ranch, attraction flares, taking them over the edge. As Jennifer’s violent past explodes in the present, she has to find a way to earn Brodie’s trust before her deadly secrets get them both killed.

***

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

A ghost from his past had just walked right through his office door. Brodie McGuire shook his head, an instinctive response, because he could not be seeing that woman. There was no way she was standing there. No way.

Usually she only appeared in his dreams.

She couldn’t have just walked into his office at McGuire Securities. She was far away, some place safe and no doubt with—

“We have a walk-in appointment that I was hoping you could handle,” Brodie’s older brother, Grant, told him. “This is Jennifer—”

“Wesley,” Brodie finished, then cleared his throat because that one word had sounded like a growl.

Grant’s brows climbed. “You two know each other?”

Yes, they did. Intimately.

“Well, that just makes things easier.” Grant flashed a broad smile. “Ms. Wesley, I will leave you in my brother’s capable hands.”

Brodie realized that he’d leaped to his feet as soon as he’d gotten a look at Jennifer.

Grant glanced over at him, a faint frown on his face.

Brodie offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile as he hurried around his desk and toward Jennifer.

Grant hesitated a moment more; then he slipped from the office. The door shut quietly behind him, and, just like that, Brodie was alone with the woman who’d been in his dreams for far too long.

Brodie almost reached out and touched Jennifer, just to make sure she was really there, but then he remembered the way desire had burned so hot and wild between them before.

To play it safe, he tucked his hands in his pockets and just inclined his head toward her. “Been a long time, Ms. Wesley.” He was impressed that his voice came out sounding so calm.

Her laughter sounded the way he’d thought it would. Sweet, light, musical. She hadn’t laughed when they’d been together in the Middle East. She’d been far too afraid for laughter. He’d hated her fear, and he was damn glad to see her like this…happy.

“And here I was worried you wouldn’t remember me,” she murmured. Her smile flashed, a wide, slow smile that made her deep brown eyes light up. “But I really think you can drop the ‘Ms. Wesley’ part, don’t you?”

Then she made a terrible mistake. She came forward and wrapped her arms around him. Her scent, a light lavender, drifted in the air as she hugged him. He probably shouldn’t have wrapped his arms around her and hugged her so tightly. Probably shouldn’t have inhaled her scent so greedily. But he did.

She fit against him, perfectly so. He’d thought that before, on that long-ago night.

Jennifer eased back and stared up at him. “You haven’t changed. You look exactly the same, even after all this time.”

He’d changed plenty. Most of those changes were on the inside, though, because he was good at keeping his mask in place. Brodie forced himself to let her go, when he wanted to hold on to her tightly.

That part hasn’t changed, either.

***

While the print version is available today (you can find it at your favorite bookstore), the digital version of SECRETS will be released by Harlequin on 3/1/15.

The January newsletter winner is…

Hazel Barnes!

Congrats, Hazel! Please email me at info@cynthiaeden.com to claim your prize.

I’m excited to say that WANT ME is now available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and All Romance Ebooks!! (The book is still processing at iBooks and Google Play, but it will be live there soon, too!)

Here’s the blurb for WANT ME:

She doesn’t play it safe…

Sophie Sarantos has a weakness for dangerous men. She doesn’t like safe lovers—she likes men with a wild, rough edge.  But Sophie may have attracted a lover who is too dangerous, even for her.  Someone is stalking Sophie, slipping into her home, watching her day and night. The stranger seems to know all of Sophie’s darkest secrets, secrets that should never be revealed.

Out of options, Sophie turns to ex-solider Lex Jensen for protection. Lex is part owner of  VJS Protection, Inc., and Sophie hires him as her bodyguard.  She thinks Lex is one of the “good guys” out there, but she couldn’t be more wrong.

He doesn’t play at all…

Lex has his own secrets. Dark, deadly secrets.  And as his feelings for Sophie grow, Lex knows that he is going to have to stop pretending to be a gentleman and, instead, he’ll have to show Sophie who he really is. A man trained to kill. A man too used to evil. A man who will take any risk…as long as he can claim Sophie.

Because there is one thing that Lex wants in this world…one person he desires above all others…Sophie. And no one will hurt her, not on his watch.

***

WANT ME is the second book in my “Dark Obsession” series.  WATCH ME (book 1) was released in December, and NEED ME (book 3) will be available in February. Each book features a different hero and heroine–all stand-alone titles.

If you want to read an excerpt from WANT ME, you can check that out here.

Enjoy your weekend!!!