My Sexy Saturday #14: Captivations

The challenge this week was to come up with something about a kick-ass heroine. While I write primarily in the m/m genre, that doesn't mean I don't have some of those sexy ladies lurking in the corners!  So, here goes!

Today's excerpt comes from a WIP called Captivations, which was being serialized at one time, but is on hiatus now. The main story is about two vampire brothers who own a night club in New Orleans - Avery and Ben Deacon. Jillian is sent by the Church to be their new daykeeper, which doesn't sit well with Avery. Let's just say these two are at loggerheads with one another. Until this scene.  Jillian has left the club and taken refuge in an old French bakery. Avery goes out in the rain, seeking her. Enjoy! Don't forget to check out the other authors in the blog hop!

Her logical mind made the leap, damning her treacherous heart for having dared to hope. Something must have happened, something he needed her help with. That had to be it. She masked her disappointment with difficulty, waiting for him to instruct her to come with him, to tell her she was needed back at the club. If she’d been thinking more clearly, she’d have realized that a phone call would’ve taken care of that a lot more easily than chasing after her in the rain.

He said nothing of the sort. Instead he took a step toward her and she heard the last words she’d ever expected to hear coming from his mouth.

“Jillian, I’m sorry.”

And then he held his arms open to her, and she followed her instincts and her heart, rather than her common sense, and she fairly leapt across the distance that separated them—to him.

Jillian was surprised at the tenderness of his touch, his lips caressing rather than consuming, his arms wrapped about her in a protective embrace.  Their breaths mingled as they drew back just enough to look into one another’s eyes.

She didn’t know exactly what was going on between them, but Jillian knew that there was no place that she’d rather be but here, in Avery’s arms. When her brain tried to insert logic into the equation, protesting that she’d only known him a day, and a short day at that, and she was just here to do a job for him, she shut it off. As well as any anger she’d been holding at him.

“We need to talk,” he whispered, his fingers ghosting over her cheek, stroking her ear, his beautiful dark blue eyes intent upon her.