The Heart of the Hunter by Natalie-Nicole Bates
After a devastating accident,
Barret Atkins has accepted a quiet, solitary existence. His life is turned
upside down, when he finds the badly injured Kansas Smith, left for dead in a
case of mistaken identity. As Kansas begins to recover, Barret must face some
deep scars of his own. When the couple begin to fall for each other, their
lives spin into a revival of past hurts, jealousies, and betrayals, causing
Barret to put a halt to their budding relationship.
Barret’s hesitation causes his best friend-turned vicious rival,
Duncan Craig, to pursue a friendship with Kansas. Where will this leave Barret?
Can they all hold on long enough to escape Kansas’s attacker, and will they
ever conquer their own inner demons intent on keeping them apart?
Excerpt:
On Saturday morning, Kansas could wait no
longer. She could no longer live under the same roof with a man she was deeply
in love with without telling him how she felt, and finding out once and for all
how he truly felt about her. Now she stood leaning back against the counter
sipping a cup of coffee, her stomach ached from nerves for what she was about
to do.
Most of the night she was awake
rehearsing speeches on the same theme--confessing her love to Barret. Now all
her carefully rehearsed words failed her.
Barret sat at the kitchen table in
t-shirt and jeans, absorbed in the newspaper. A shadow of a beard emphasized
his maleness.
Setting the cup on the counter, she took
the few steps to stand beside the table. “Barret, why don’t you like me?” she
blurted, immediately wishing she could bite back her words.
Looking up from his newspaper, his
eyebrows slashed together. “Excuse me?”
Confusion consumed her, and she felt
trapped and exposed, hesitant to continue. When he stood, she wanted to shrink
away from him.
“Whatever gave you the idea that I did
not like you?”
The demanding look in his blue eyes only
made the words harder to form. Finally, she found her voice. “I love you, and
you don’t love me,” she finally admitted.
His shoulders visibly stiffened and the
color drained from his face. Obviously, she caught him off guard. “I...I do
love you, Kansas. But...but I don’t love you like you mean,” he stuttered.
Her heart sank heavily in her chest. She
raised her chin and looked back at him. She had to know. “What is it about me
you don’t like?”
“I like everything about you, Kansas. No,
I love everything about you,” he told her as he planted his hands firmly on her
shoulders causing her to want to crawl out of her skin and away from his touch.
She’d said way too much, and upset their whole stable situation.
Finally, she looked into his confused
eyes. “I’m sorry, Barret. I just couldn’t go on like this. Just tell me what it is
about me that...” her voice trailed off as she slowly came to terms with the
fact that he didn’t love her as a woman.
Lifting her chin, he forced her to make
eye contact with him. “Listen, angel, it’s not you, you’re absolutely perfect,”
he told her, and smiled a smile she knew was forced.
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve
ever seen, and you’re an amazing person. You can have any man you want, but I’m
not the right man for you,” he said gently.
Continuing to maintain eye contact with
him, she decided she wasn’t going to allow him to get off with such a broad
response “Why?” she demanded.
“The accident changed me, Kansas. I’m not
the same man I was before it happened, and I’m glad for that. You wouldn’t have
liked me then. I was an arrogant, self-absorbed bastard, and now I’m not sure who
I am anymore, or what I really want. But I do want you to know that if
things had been different, and I wish they were...”
Finally, she could take no more. “I got
it, Barret,” she said shaking loose of his grip and turning away.
“It’s just the hero thing, Kansas. You’ll
get over it. You think you love me because I saved you that horrible day in
that swamp. When some time passes, you’ll realize you’d never be happy with an
almost forty year old detective. You would only resent me for taking you away
from your old lifestyle.”
She whirled to face him, her hands on her
hips. “Why you arrogant… You don’t know me at all!” Finally, she lost the
battle not to cry and tears poured freely down her cheeks. “I thought we were
so close, but I guess I was completely off base about that. I don’t care about
money or scars! I only care about you! We could have been so happy--”
The doorbell rang cutting off Kansas’s
words and she felt some relief that it had interrupted her intense venting. She
felt like such a fool now.
About the Author:
Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author.
Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian
and Edwardian era photography and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes
her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia.
She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next
book and adding to her collection of 19th century post-mortem photos.
Giveaway:
Natalie-Nicole
Bates is giving away a $15.00 Amazon Gift Card during her tour! For a
chance to win please fill out the Rafflecopter below.
Thank you so much for hosting The Heart of the Hunter at your fabulous blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me in your street team Natalie.
ReplyDelete