From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: Excerpt of Defender by Diana Palmer

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Blog Tour: Excerpt of Defender by Diana Palmer

Author: Diana Palmer
Publisher: Harlequin
Date of publication: June 28, 2016

The man who shattered her trust is back to protect her… New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer delivers a breathtaking story of second-chance love.

When Paul Fiore disappeared from Isabel Grayling’s life, he told himself it was for all the right reasons. She was young and innocent, and he was her millionaire father’s lowly employee. Three years on, Paul is the FBI agent assigned to Isabel’s case. Too late, he realizes what life in her Texas mansion was really like back then—and how much damage he did when he left.

Once love-struck and sheltered, Isabel has become an assistant district attorney committed to serving the law, no matter how risky it gets. But right now, the man she can’t forgive is the one thing standing between her and a deadly stalker. She knows Paul won’t hesitate to protect her life with his own. But if she can’t trust herself to resist him, how can she trust him not to break her heart all over again?

Excerpt:

Just as Paul’s hand moved the soft cotton fabric of her shirt higher, his mouth poised over hers, his dark eyes burning with desire, sirens became audible, moving closer to them.

He felt as if he were coming out of a trance. He looked down at what he’d done and flinched. What the hell had he been about to do? His face contorted as he pushed Isabel up from the seat and turned away while she frantically worked at putting her bra back on.

A police car pulled up beside them and a tall policeman got out, noting the shattered glass of the back window and the small limb that had done the damage.

“Are you folks okay?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah, thanks,” Paul said, breathing in deeply. “I thought we’d bought the farm,” he added on a chuckle while he tried to divert the officer’s attention so that his hunger for Isabel wouldn’t be visible. He turned to her. “You okay, Miss Grayling?” he asked formally.

“I’m…fine,” she said. “A little shaken, that’s all.” She smiled for the policeman and looked around at the shattered back glass. “We were lucky,” she added when she noticed the devastation all around them.

“Very lucky. NOAA’s calling it a downburst,” the policeman said. “Did a lot of damage on this city block and just swept right over everything else.” He shook his head. “Go figure.”

Paul got out of the car, his hunger finally tamed by doing math problems in his head. He grimaced when he saw the back windshield.

“I guess I’d better get her home and call the insurance company,” Paul said. “She’d just signed up for law school, too.”

The policeman smiled at her. “I’ve got a son who just graduated from it,” he confessed. “He’s going into corporate law.”

“I’m going to get a job with the Jacobsville district attorney’s office when I graduate,” Isabel said shyly. “I’ve been plaguing them for years.”

He laughed. “Not a job many people want. But good luck to you.” He shook his head as he surveyed the damage. “Need to go to the emergency room? We can take you over, if you want,” he added, indicating his partner, who was standing by the patrol car.

“I’m fine. Not a scratch,” Isabel said. She couldn’t look at Paul. “My nerves are pretty raw, that’s all.”

“Mine, too,” Paul said with a grin. “The car should be fine, once I remove the tree from it,” he added with pursed lips.

“Let us help you with that.”

The men got the limb out of the back window and one of the officers wrote up some notes on the damage for the insurance company. Paul said he’d get back with them about a copy of the report in a few days. Then he got Isabel back into the car, cranked it, waved to the police officers and started back toward Jacobsville.

Isabel was too shocked and uncertain to speak, and Paul was too angry at himself.

He turned on the radio to listen to the news, which was just reporting the damage in the small area where the downburst had happened. He kept it on and remained doggedly silent all the way back to Comanche Wells while Isabel stared out the window and ground her teeth at a moment that would live in her mind and her heart as long as she drew breath.

About Diana Palmer

The prolific author of more than one hundred books, Diana Palmer got her start as a newspaper reporter. A New York Times bestselling author and voted one of the top ten romance writers in America, she has a gift for telling the most sensual tales with charm and humor. Diana lives with her family in Cornelia, Georgia.

Connect with Diana

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Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Diana Palmer’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, June 6th: Stranded in Chaos

Wednesday, June 8th: Stuck in Books – excerpt

Thursday, June 9th: Reading Reality