It is my pleasure to give you an excerpt from one of my favorite series and authors today on the blog! Madly & The Jackal by M. Leighton is the third book in the Madly Series. Check it out!
How deep does love run? Deeper than the ocean?
Deeper than memory? Deeper
than magic?
Following their plan to save Atlas, Madly and Jackson return
the spirit of Wolfhardt to his prison beneath the sea. But even the best laid plans couldn’t
account for the surprises they find.
This time, Lore aren’t their only challenges.
Madly is special in ways no one could have guessed and dark forces
seek to control her. They want her
power, but first they must weaken her.
They need her beaten. Vulnerable. Near death. And alone. But
that task isn’t an easy one with Jackson at her side. The strongest of their kind, the only way to separate Jackson
from Madly is to destroy his love for her, to erase it from his mind. And his heart.
Is it possible to steal Jackson’s love from Madly? Or is their love the only truly
unbreakable thing?
EXCERPT
Opening my eyes so I didn’t have to “see” through my mind, I
found that I was nearly blind. It was almost completely dark inside the
cave. If it weren’t for the
dappled spots of pale light refracting off the waterfall, I wouldn’t have been
able to see at all.
“So, what now?” I asked, feeling pleased with myself over my
accomplishment. However, reality
was soon to intrude upon my pleasure.
“Madly,” Jackson began, his tone causing my stomach to fill
with dread. “You know our plan to
rescue Truly is out of the question now, right?”
“No, it’s not.
I know we’ve missed our meeting with Aaron, but I could try and contact
him. Or my father. We could—”
“It’s over
Madly. We’ll have to try again
later. Not only is Leviathan
looking for us, and most likely not for polite conversation, you’re not safe
down here. Not even with your
father in your own house. No one
should’ve known we were here. No
one but the four of us.”
“But who… I mean, how… we didn’t…”
“I know, I’m confused, too. But what we do know
is that, right now, the only people who can be trusted are in this room.”
I wanted desperately to argue, to defend my father
vehemently, but I couldn’t.
Jackson was right.
Something was wrong.
“You know my father would never—”
“I’m not suggesting that he’d do otherwise, Madly. I’m just saying there are things going
on down here that we didn’t account for.
Now that we have more information, we can try something else when we
bring the next Lore back. But
right now, I have to get you out of here.”
“Jackson, I can’t leave my—”
“You have to. You know that. You don’t have a choice.”
When I started to challenge that point, Jackson quickly
continued. “Not really. You’re the best chance Atlas has and
you know it.”
Feeling the hopelessness of the situation crowding in on me,
I fought the tears the prickled against my eyelids. Although I didn’t say a word, didn’t make a sound, Jackson
knew what I wasn’t saying.
“Come here,” he said, opening up arms that I could barely
see.
Emotion tightening my chest, I walked into Jackson’s embrace
and laid my head over his heart.
Within his strong hold, nothing felt hopeless, everything felt possible,
and I needed a big dose of that optimism.
As he stroked
my hair and spoke softly, I felt the world slowly return to rights.
“We’ll stay here for a while tonight in case Leviathan is
still looking for us. Then, in a
few hours, we’ll find a distraction we can use to get us past the shield. Once we’re back in Slumber, we’ll find
the next Lore and return them. By
then we’ll have a plan and we’ll save your family and the rest of Atlas.”
It sounded so logical, so simple. So…do-able. “Promise?” I mumbled quietly, knowing
he could make no such promise.
I raised my head to look up at him. He traced his fingertip from my temple
down my cheek to my lips, brushing them lightly. Bending his head to mine, he whispered across my mouth,
“Trust me.”
His kiss was like a warm breeze, barely there, and then he
lifted his head to stare down into my eyes. I couldn’t see him clearly, just the bits and pieces the
shimmering light illuminated. It
made the water droplets on his skin and in his hair glisten like diamonds, even
the ones that clung to his lashes.
“Don’t do that,” he groaned quietly.
“Do what?” I asked, genuinely confused.
“Look at me like that.”
Desire rippled through me. “Like what?”
“Like you want to lick all the water off me.”
“Is that how I’m looking at you?” I knew I was being coy.
“You know it is.”
“So what if I do?
What if I want to touch my tongue to every drop of water on your
skin? Is that such a bad
thing?” As I spoke, I leaned back
a bit further and let my eyes rove his face and chest. A single droplet ran from the hollow of
his throat down the center of his chest.
Reaching out, I caught it on the tip of my finger and stuck it in my
mouth. I heard Jackson gasp
seconds before he crushed me to him.
His lips on mine were flames that spread through me like
wildfire. His arms tightened around
me. One big hand splayed between
my shoulder blades, the other on my butt.
Both pulled me toward him, pressing me against him in the most intimate
way. I could feel his hardness
against the soft part of my belly and lava poured down my legs.
He ground his hips into mine and his moan tickled its way
all the way up my tongue, sending a shiver down my back. Reaching up, I threaded my fingers into
his short hair and held him close, wishing he could devour me, and I him. I ached for Jackson in ways I’d never
ached for anyone, ached for him in places I didn’t know could ache in such a
way.
I was panting, rubbing my body against Jackson’s when he
tore his mouth away from mine and held me at arm’s length. I could hear his heavy breathing. I could feel his desire for me like a
thickness in the air. It filled
the cave, warmed my skin.
This book is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
