Excerpt Monday - Fortunate Soul

Here's a little teaser from my WIP.
BLURB:He's gone from living on the streets of London to being a member of a powerful family and a partner in the family business. While Duncan focuses more on his career and leaves too much unsaid, he may lose the one woman who was always a friend and the chance of true love.


Duncan draped his jacket over the seat of his bike while he pulled his hair into a pony tail and tied his bandanna around his head. Weariness was revealed in green eyes. He winced when Chet slapped his back walking past him.

“Does your back still hurt, Dunc?” Max asked quietly.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I think I bruised it when you took me down.”

“You want me to check.”

“Suit yourself.” Duncan raised his shirt over his head and raised an eyebrow at her.

Max knew he had scars on his body but seeing them this close gave her a knot in her throat. Some of the scars looked like they were made by fingernails others as if they were the result of a whip. One scar wrapped around his tight abs, over his hip and trailed into his pants. Disgusted with the thought he might have been telling the truth in his story of kinky sex that got out of hand but secretly hoping it was the reason. He was too nice of a person to be actually hurt by somebody.

She noticed the brown hawk birthmark on his shoulder; the same mark he shared with the all the McAlister men. Her eyes noticed a large blue-green bruise splayed across his back. She winced remembering how had Duncan had landed on the sidewalk.

“You have a nasty bruise. Do you want me to get some sports cream to put on it? It’ll help with the pain. You are going to be super tight when we get to Chicago if you don’t.”

“No thanks.” He pulled his shirt on and turned to face her. “I took some time-release capsule thing already. I should be okay. If it starts to tighten up, I’ll have you dig into your bag of voodoo and give me some mumbo-jumbo.”

“Fair enough,” then lowed her voice, “I’m sorry for flipping you like that.”

“Don’t worry about it. I figure if we ever get attacked by a vampire, I’ll dodge behind you.”

“Ha, ha.” Max faked a laugh. “Dunc?”

“Yes?”

“How did you really get those scars? And don’t give me the usual story again.”

Duncan’s beautiful green eyes turned black, his face went pale. At first Max saw pain then anger; she had never seen such a change in his easy going demeanor. His eyebrows drew together, his jaw set. Looking over his shoulder to see Matt was sitting on his machine ready to ride.

“Let’s ride.” His voice was deep and he turned with a start.

Max quickly gathered helmet and frowned at his shadow before mounting her bike.