Spotlight/ His Salvation by Michelle Bellon

Genre: Romance Suspense

Ten years have passed since that hot July night, when Seth McCullough walked away from Krista Chancellor, his high school sweetheart; determined to keep his dark, tumultuous past from tainting her beautiful light. He thought he had buried his demons forever when he cut ties and joined the military, but when he begins to suffer debilitating headaches, displacement of time, and horrifying nightmares, he starts to fear for his sanity. Desperate for relief and seeking solace, he takes off for Mexico only to awake one morning confused, bloody, and linked to multiple high profile murders. Suspicion grows as he realizes he is submerged in an agenda too terrifying to comprehend. Determined to find answers, Seth reaches out to the only person he has ever trusted, his old flame Krista, and together they find His Salvation.

Excerpt:

Seth noticed Krista’s shoulders were extremely pink from the full day’s worth of sun exposure.

“Dang, Kris, your shoulders got burnt today. You’re going to be sore tonight,” he commented. He had dark, olive-toned skin which tanned nicely, but Krista burned if she wasn’t careful. He had reminded her to lather on the sun block that morning, but it was only SPF 5. He had bitten his tongue to keep from chastising her.

Now he saw her skin looking angrier by the minute and grimaced, knowing she was going to be miserable by nighttime.

Krista looked down her nose at her left shoulder and gave a shrug, “Oh, well. I have some aloe stuff my mom bought me. I think I might have it here in my bag.” She reached into the bag she had plopped down next to her, and eventually pulled out a small bottle of aloe.

“Can you rub this onto my shoulders for me?” Without waiting for an answer, Krista swung her right leg over the side of the tree so she straddled it with her back to Seth, giving him access to both shoulders.

Seth, used to her bossiness, squirted some of the gel into his palm and began to delicately rub it into her skin.

“Oooh, ouch. You’re right. It’s already starting to hurt.” Krista winced.

Seth felt the cool gel warm up under his fingers against on her hot skin. Krista glanced back over her shoulder and for a quick second, locked with Seth’s intense gray gaze.

Seth stopped rubbing the aloe into her skin as something between them vibrated, humming so loud it seemed to fill the silence of the woods surrounding them. Krista leaned back into Seth’s chest, reached her left arm behind his head and pulled him to her, operating on instinct rather than organized thoughts.

Within seconds, Seth had his arms filled with beautiful, soft, Krista. Her fingers tangled in his hair at the nape of his neck and their lips met in a long awaited union. He was no longer capable of calling to memory why he believed he should be avoiding such an encounter with her. All he could do was feel.

It felt natural, when she leaned back against him, to wrap his arms around her and pull her closer. When she pulled his face toward his, it seemed as if he had made the journey a thousand times. There was nothing awkward or out of place, as he had wondered about. The moment his mouth met hers, she invited him in with a gentle parting of her lips, flicking her tongue over his. A hunger within him was unleashed and he ran his own fingers up into her hair at the base of her skull, cupping her head, tipping it back gently to take the kiss further, deeper.

The world stopped, tilted, and reversed rotation. There would be no going back. This was an irreversible revelation.