Spotlight & Giveaway: Darkest Night by Megan Erickson

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Megan Erickson to HJ!

Hi Megan and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Darkest Night!

Please share a few Fun facts about this book…

DARKEST NIGHT is a bit of a… well dark and intense book, although there are moments of lightness. However, I actually had a lot of fun writing it. Maybe it’s because I know what was going to happen, haha. So here are some fine fun facts about the book from when I was writing it:
 

• Fiona, the heroine, has a dog. He’s a German Shepherd mix and I really love him. (Spoiler right away: the dog lives. No worries about that.) But I didn’t know what to name him! So I polled my readers’ group and a dear reader who I finally met in person this year suggested the name Sundance, since the dog is Fiona’s sidekick. It’s also super appropriate because I love Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it in more than one book.
• Jock was actually inspired by my love for Kristen Ashley heroes. If you haven’t read a Kristen Ashley book, do it! Anyway, Jock doesn’t speak in full sentences and he’s emotionally closed off, but once he finds his woman and commits, he’s all in. I really adore him and he’s one of my favorite heroes I’ve ever written (I say this a lot after I write a book, but my heroes just keep topping each other! Well not actually topping. Well some of them do. Anyway, moving on…
• This book has my favorite consent scene I’ve ever written. Fiona has an abusive past and Jock is patient with her the first time they are intimate. To be honest, I was super proud of him for being so careful with her, and I was really proud of Fiona for going after her man!
• There is a scene where Fiona mentions the movie Armageddon and how she cries every time it’s on. That’s all me. Nothing makes me ugly cry like that movie! When Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck… well you know!
• This series has been important to me because I love teaming up women who fight together and aren’t trying to compete against each other or tear each other down. In Zero Hour, the women of the team were the ones who put the lives on the line, and I repeat that theme in Darkest Night.

 
This excerpt is the beginning of the consent scene I mentioned. I love these two!

She ran her lips along his jaw line, nipping at his short beard. Then she planted her hands on the bed and leaned down, so close that all she could see was the swirling blue of his eyes. She licked her lips. “I like touching you.”
“I like you touching me.” He was looking at her lips.
“Should I kiss you?”
“Do you want to?”
She nodded and chewed the inside of her cheek.
The corner of his mouth tilted up. “Then yeah, babe. You should kiss me.”
What if she was a shit kisser? What if she knocked his tooth out? Bit his lip? Sucked on his tongue too hard—
“Thinking too much. I can practically hear it. Time’s up.” He placed a hand on the back of her neck and drew her forward until their lips touched. That was it, Then he stopped, only to mumble against her, “Don’t think. Just kiss.”
She closed her eyes and pressed her lips against his. For a moment, there was no movement, just this chaste kiss. Jock moaned and opened his mouth and then swept his tongue across the seam of her lips. She felt like a virgin as she gasped, and he surged inside.
He plundered her mouth, conquering it, taking everything she had and making it his, and she loved every single minute of it. She curled her hands into his shoulders, pressing closer, losing herself in the kiss, in their duel of tongues, in this wonderful man who made her feel so fucking precious.
Her head spun, her clenched stomach unfurled, and those butterflies that had been locked inside flew away. She felt…open. Gutted. Uncaged.
He broke the kiss first, breathing hard, and pressed his forehead against hers. She lifted her fingers and placed them on his damp, swollen lips, wanting to confirm that that had happened. They’d kissed. He’d owned her.
He pressed kisses to the tips of her fingers, blue eyes boring into hers. “That was some kiss.”
It was, but that had probably been beginner’s luck. She had no idea how to do any of this, and her inexperience shamed her. She tried to cover it up with a joke. “I’m sure that’s what you say to all the—”
“Don’t,” he barked out firmly. “Do not bring anyone else into this. Do you understand? There is no one else here. It’s just you and me. And Sundance in the bathroom.”
She swallowed. “Okay.”
“Okay.” He folded his arms behind his head again. “You want to keep on exploring, you go ahead.”
Oh goody, yes, she wanted to do this. She wanted… She shifted so she sat on his thighs, and his eyes darkened a bit as she ran her fingers down his stomach, his bellybutton, to that trail of hair leading into his pants. “Can I—?”
“Whatever you want.” His voice was strained, veins in his arms bulging.
This was hard for him, she realized, to lay back and let her do what she wanted. He probably liked control in bed, but for her, he was allowing her to lead as best as he could. “Are you sure this is okay?”
“Babe, I’m good. I’m lying in bed with your hot body straddling me. I just had the best kiss of my life. And if I’m reading you right, you’re about to free my dick that’s threatening to tear through my fly. I’m fucking good. Trust me.”
Okay, well that said it all. She pursed her lips together and tried not to laugh, but the giggle burst out anyway. He rolled his eyes, but she could see he was amused too, his face flushed, his lips curved upward. “Great, now you’re laughing.”
“You’re funny.”
“No one has ever called me funny.”
“Well, maybe they never saw you like this.”
And just like that, his smile froze and then his face softened. “Ain’t that the truth,” he said under his breath, so low she barely heard him. Then he nodded. “Go on then. Explore.”
 
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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Giveaway: Print copy of Darkest Night (Wired & Dangerous) by Megan Erickson

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Book Info:

DARKEST NIGHT, book 2 in Megan Erickson’s romantic suspense series about hackers, will be available on July 31, 2018.

Bodyguard Jock Bosh has one job: keep Fiona Madden safe. Safe from the men who’ve been hunting her. Safe from the bastard responsible for ruining her life. And with the attraction sizzling white-hot between them, that means keeping Fiona safe from him too.

Fiona has spent the past decade on the run. Her survival is the single greatest weapon she’s had against the men out to destroy her. Until Jock. Now, with him by her side, she finally has a chance to bring them down. But when her enemies make their next move and Jock puts himself in the line of fire, Fiona realizes that there’s more at stake than just her life-she’s also risking her heart.

Book link: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/megan-erickson/darkest-night/9781538743928/
 
 

Meet the Author:

Megan Erickson’s books have a touch of nerd, a dash of humor, and always have a happily ever after. A former journalist, she switched to fiction when she decided she likes writing her own endings better. She lives in Pennsylvania with her very own nerdy husband and two kids. Find out more about Megan and her books at www.meganerickson.org.