by Dani Collins
My heroine Melodie actively tries not to carry hard feelings in her heart. She hates her father and half-brother for all the pain they caused her and her mother, but her revenge against them is to rise above it. To be sweet, not bitter. She wants to be better than they are. She wants to create a life for herself that includes kindness and hope and love.
Roman is far more base. And patient. He has been plotting his revenge against Melodie’s father and brother since they stole his software security system years ago. The wheels have already begun turning, in fact, when Melodie comes into his home, claiming to be his PA’s wedding planner. He’s sure she’s actually an envoy for her father. He thinks they’re feeling the pinch of his maneuverings against them and have sent her to spy and steal again.
It’s not precisely coincidence that she’s there. Her father was instrumental in her winding up with this commission, but her new career is real and Melodie earnestly wants to pursue it. Her mother has passed away and all her ties to those evil men are gone. She is looking forward to living a brighter life.
Roman ruins everything. He doesn’t just get her fired and evicted, but he sleeps with her before he does it. He takes her to the pinnacle of hope, where she thinks she might even have found her soul mate, where she believes that life works out for those who work hard, then he flattens her with his thirst for vengeance.
This is the part Melodie can’t forgive. She had convinced herself only her father and brother were heartless, but Roman dents her ability to believe in men and love. Her hatred of him is cemented and he soon realizes that his attempt at retaliation has flown way off mark, into an innocent.
Which then moves to the sweetest part of a revenge romance for me: the part where the hero must make amends. Where the only way to get past the hurt is to open the wound then bring both sides together again.
Do you love a good revenge romance? What do you think makes them so appealing?
VOWS OF REVENGE
Revenge never tasted so sweet…
Calm and controlled Melodie Parnell has always wanted to experience insatiable passion. She thinks she’s found it in the bed of sinfully attractive Roman Killian. But in the sultry aftermath of their lovemaking, Melodie is catapulted back to reality when Roman reveals his true plans…to ruin her!
Satisfying the longing in Melodie’s entrancing blue eyes was a glitch in Roman’s plan. Convinced she’d been sent by his enemy, he intended to simply punish her! Except it seems that Melodie was innocent, and now Roman’s plan takes a different turn… Could his vows of revenge become vows of marriage?
EXCERPT
“Do you think I wouldn’t control this if I could? That I don’t hate you for affecting me like this?” He threw the words at her.
Her head flung back as if he’d slapped her.
“No, it doesn’t feel very good, does it?” he gritted out, skin threatening to split under the pressure of containing himself. “It’s not me doing this to you, Melodie. It’s us. I’m this close to having you against this damned wall with the entire room watching. It’s that powerful.”
“Even though you hate me.” She turned her face to the side, eyes glistening.
“What do you want me to say? That I love you?” The word caught like a barbed hook on the way out, snagging in his chest and the back of his throat. It wasn’t a word he even understood beyond its bastardized use. I love this car. I love crème brulée.
“I wouldn’t believe you if you did, but I want the man I sleep with to say it,” she said with a break of anguish in her voice. “I want to feel it. It’s the only thing that’s kept me going all those years, believing I’d make better choices with men than my mother did. I’m so lonely I want to cry, but I can’t bring myself to believe any of you anymore.” Her lips trembled. “You broke me, Roman. That’s why I hate you.”
He sucked in a breath that felt like razor blades.
“I hate being this person. I hate being skeptical and negative,” she went on, skimming trembling fingertips beneath her eyes. “I hate using words like hate.” She sent a quick, desperate glance toward the exit. “I need to go to the ladies’ room.”
Because she was falling apart.
He thought he might. Hell.
VOWS OF REVENGE can be purchased in mass market paperback or eBook format
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