A coffee addict and cat lover, Iris Morland writes sexy and funny contemporary romances. If she's not reading or writing, she enjoys binging on Netflix shows and cooking something delicious.Stay in touch!irismorland.comIris Morland’s MermaidsNewsletter Facebook Twitter BookBub Goodreads Instagram
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.Someone to Watch Over Me (The Thorntons Book 5)Published by Blue Violet Press LLCSeattle, WashingtonCopyright © 2017 by Iris MorlandCover design by Resplendent MediaAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Blood, sand, heat. It smells of copper and he can’t see anything in front of him. He shouts, hoping he’s not the only survivor, and he hears a groan through all of the noise. He wonders if his eardrum is blown from the blast.He follows the noise. It’s instinctual at this point. He wonders if he imagined it when he can’t find the source of the sound. Then: he sees something. He kneels next to his comrade, gently turning him over. He doesn’t know if his friend is dead. When he hears him choke and gasp, he realizes he’s alive.But given the wound in his belly, he will be dead within minutes.He tries to get his friend up, get him help. He can’t die out here when they’re going home in a week. Not like this. His friend has a new baby girl and his wife needs him—Another blast rocks him. He collapses onto the sand, hits his head on something hard and painful, and it all goes black.Seth Thornton barely caught the scream in his throat as he woke up. Thrashing under the too-heavy bedcove
Seth considered Heath DiMarco, whose expression looked very much like he’d enjoy throwing Seth out on his ass. Seth had known that Rose’s last name had rung a bell, but he’d been so wrapped up inherthat he’d never considered that she had an older brother.An older brother who was currently bristling with protective instincts.Heath was shorter than Seth, but Seth had a feeling the elementary school teacher had more to him than he let on. Despite his glasses and his quiet demeanor, something lurked beneath that calm façade. Seth had encountered too many men trying to hide their darkest parts not to recognize it now.Seth had met Heath a handful of times when Heath had joined the Thornton brothers for drinks. Heath had been a good friend, especially to Harrison, and to Harrison’s wife, Sara, when she’d begun teaching at Fair Haven Elementary. Seth knew little about Heath, though, and since he’d been gone from Fair Haven for so long, he was at a loss at how to respond to He
“Shh, Bea is napping,” Lizzie cautioned as she let Seth in. “She should be up in a half hour, though.”Seth wanted to tease his twin sister about how much she’d changed in the last year—who would’ve imagined Lizzie worried about waking up a baby?—but considering what his sister would do to him if he woke up the baby…“Trent’s at La Bonita until this evening. How are you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”“It’s been a week, Lizard.”Lizzie, with her dark hair and bright green eyes, looked like one of the Thorntons, although she and Seth only resembled each other in their hair and eye color. She was the opposite of him in every other way: slender and of average height, she was quite a bit shorter than him and had been since he’d outgrown her in junior high.Despite having given birth only two months ago, Lizzie looked radiant. Tired, definitely, and a little harried: her hair was frizzy, and Seth saw what looked like spit-up on her t-shirt, but she was happy. After a long
Seth had stared down the barrel of a gun many times, but never had his potential assailant been a beautiful woman. A beautiful woman who also happened to be his neighbor.Oddly enough, he didn’t feel afraid having Rose point a gun at him: he felt pride. She knew how to handle a gun, and her stance bespoke a woman who had done a lot of practicing with the weapon in her hand.It also told him that she’d gotten the gun for a legitimate reason.He kept saying her name, calmly, slowly, until she returned to herself. He saw a flash of something—embarrassment?—in her eyes before she finally put down the gun and set it aside.At his request for whiskey, she frowned, but she allowed him to come inside without further comment. Callie growled low in her throat; Seth gave the dog a wide berth. He knew what German shepherds could do when protecting their masters. There was a reason the military used them so often.“I just have rosé,” Rose said, a slight smile plying her lips finally.“Appropr
“Hey Rose, can you get my table?” Rebecca asked, her expression harried. Rebecca had just started at The Fainting Goat, and she tended to get overwhelmed easily.Rose waved a hand. “Go take a break. I’ll take care of them.”Rebecca sent her a grateful look and sneaked to the back, where she’d stay until Trent noticed one of his latest waitresses had disappeared. Rose enjoyed working at the local bar: Trent and his assistant manager, Landon, were fair, although they expected their employees to work hard and follow the rules. Rose had been astonished when Trent had told her that not only did his staff receive more than minimum wage, but they kept the tips they received.Rose had almost jumped at the chance when Trent had called her and told her he had a position for her.Despite the decent wages and tips, it still wasn’t a ton of money. Although Fair Haven was a far cry from being as expensive as Seattle just south of them, the cost of living was high. Thus the reason why Rose had an
Seth hated the dreams the most.They always started innocuously enough: he was back in the deserts of Afghanistan, the heat and the sand palpable. He heard his fellow soldiers laughing and joking around as they returned from some mission. Seth had moved up the ranks to corporal by the time he’d gone on inactive duty, and although he hadn’t been in charge of anyone, he had acted like a mentor to the newbies by the time he’d started his second tour.In this dream, Seth watched as his best friend and fellow corporal Max Meyers waved at him to join him. They were in the middle of the desert, and Seth didn’t know what Max wanted to show him. He jogged up to Max, who pointed to something in the sand.“I can’t see anything,” Dream Seth said, confused.Max grinned. Max had a smile that you’d never forget, his teeth crooked yet his grin infectious. He was the jokester of their group, always trying to keep people’s spirits up. Seth had found Max annoying when he’d first joined, but through s