Saturday Snippets–First Pages: Saving Maggie

@GlenysOConnell

 

Saving Maggie is the first book I had published through Crimson Romance, part of Adams Media/ F+W Media, and also my first experiment with adding a touch of paranormal to my romantic suspense. I loved it!

This book came from another confluence of What If’s?

What if a woman found her mind linked to that of a psychopath – and what if the lost souls of his victims called to her to find them and bring them home?

What if that psychopath thought this was a sign she was to be his forever?

What if a woman running from her past finds that the only way to save the man she loves is to stand up and face a madman – and risk losing her own life?

BLURB:

Newspaper reporter Maggie Kendall has a psychic gift - or a curse: The missing violently dead call for her to find them. Her ability incites a serial killer to play games with her, sending her an invitation in a pink envelope every time he kills and daring her to find his victims.

But when the killer moves the bodies without leaving a trace, Maggie is denounced as the worse kind of charlatan - a psychic fake who feeds off the pain of other peoples’ tragedies.

Just the sort of person that Detective Joshua Tyler hates the most. He’s been hounded by reporters and fake psychics since his emotionally disturbed wife disappeared two years earlier. He reacts angrily when Maggie offers a message from his wife. But he can’t help being attracted to her even as she infuriates him.

The killer believes that Maggie is that one special person he’s been searching for - someone who can read his mind. Only her death can bind them together forever.

Maggie knows he’s going to kill her, and she knows why. But how can she make Tyler believe her? She needs him to join her in a race against an experienced and determined killer to save her life . . .

Sensuality Level: Sensual

FIRST PAGE:

The woman in the sexy little red convertible looked perky from behind. Her glossy long hair was pulled up in a careless ponytail and swayed from side like a cobra charmed by an Indian flute as she bopped to the music from the car radio.

Even at a car’s length away, the driver behind her thought this was the sort of hair a man could run his fingers through and grasp playfully. He wished now he were piloting his own expensive roadster rather than the sedate brown sedan he’d rented especially for this trip. His own car was the sort that would impress the kind of girl who drove a bright red convertible with the top down on a windy spring day.

He imagined himself overtaking her, seeing her look over at him, her eyes widening in admiration as she took in his expensive ride and wealthy, groomed good looks.

Then she’d remember him and smile…

He gunned the accelerator and with a disdainful purr the rental spurted forward, pulling alongside her. He glanced over, hoping to catch her eye. But she stared straight ahead, singing along to some mindless pop music and oblivious to his look of longing.

He didn’t matter to her. She didn’t remember. She didn’t smile.

Irritated now, he jabbed the accelerator and zoomed past her. He knew soon they’d meet again.

Then he’d refresh her memory.

* * *

Maggie Kendall was just leaving Fried Heaven with two cups of the diner’s delicious coffee balanced in her hands, when a tall, dark-haired stranger pushed open the door so suddenly that it caught her, and hot coffee sloshed wetly down the front of her white silk shirt.

“I am so sorry!” His handsome face flushed with embarrassment as he grabbed a wad of paper napkins from a dispenser on the nearest table and began to mop at the spill. His touch on her upper breasts was electric—it sizzled all the way down to her toes, leaving her breathless. Brushing his hands away, she snapped: “You’re making it worse. My office is just across the road and I can clean up there.”

The man snatched back his hand as he realized the inappropriate intimacy of his touch. Blushing, he tossed the damp napkins onto a table and jammed the offending hands into his suit pants pockets. “I…at least let me pay for your dry cleaning,” he stammered, but Maggie was already halfway out the door.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” she muttered, avoiding his gaze. A second later she was gone.

 

***Saving Maggie is available as a stand alone read here or on your Amazon site or at Crimson Romance’s site here. You can also find it in a super bundle of ten books from Crimson Romance called Running to Love. You can see both books on Amazon, too!