$$SALE$$ Pulled Within by Marni Mann

Storms can’t last forever…can they?

For five long years, Rae Ryan has lived in a storm over which she has no control. Little by little, everything has been taken away from her–her job, her relationship, her best friend and her home. Plagued by nightmares and a terrible family secret, she carries her scars as much on the inside as she does on the outside.

Hart Booker, another disappointment from her past, returns to Bar Harbor and shelters her from the rain. He reminds Rae that forgiveness is possible, happiness can be found on the other side of darkness, and beauty rests beneath her scars. But a sinister figure lingering in the background seems determined to pull Rae back into a past she’s been trying to outrun. Can she survive the storm and become part of the light she so desperately desires? Or is she destined to remain Pulled Within?

Recommended for mature audiences due to explicit language, sexual abuse, disturbing situations, and drug use.

I pressed my fingers onto his lips, tracing their outline. I wanted to feel his unmarred skin, to be reminded of its texture. His thick, coarse stubble pricked my flesh. I covered both sides, wandering down to his chin and over his jaw.

I could feel him looking at me without meeting his gaze.

I passed over his lips again on the way to his other cheek. He kissed behind my knuckle. He gripped my waist even tighter, drawing me to him without actually moving me.

He was demanding me to beg for his mouth, and my submission would confirm his control. But there was no way I was going to bend so easily. I was going to give him the best part of me…the part that hadn’t been broken or abused. The part that wasn’t scarred. And for that, I needed to take my time.

I moved closer, my breathing becoming more rapid. The pulsing in my chest shivered through my stomach and settled in the spot between my legs. There were inches between my mouth and his…and I stopped. My eyelids shut. Air came through my nostrils, hit his face and bounced back. He was breathing just as hard as I was. His fingers would leave a bruise on my side, but I didn’t care. I wanted the pain. I wanted the mark. I wanted to look at the imprint of his desire like ink across my skin and remember this moment in the morning.

I slid another inch closer.

I knew once I tasted him, everything between us was going to change. I would move into his house. I would eventually open up, share the past that I kept so tightly bound. I knew it would be a struggle to reveal those secrets, but it didn’t seem important with his face so close to mine.

What I wanted was overcoming what I feared most.

It pushed me to press my lips to his. I thought once I gave him what he wanted, his touch would lighten. I thought everything within me would begin to unwind. I thought I’d be filled with a sense of calm, having let go of the tension that was building. None of that happened. The noise of our mouths merging, the feel of his scruff spreading over my face, the taste of his tongue - it all built up a tingling surge within me. I wasn’t leading this kiss, and I wasn’t leading the buzzing that was happening inside me.

I’d given him complete control, and it was exactly what I wanted.

What I needed.

I’m a New Englander at heart and now a Floridian, inspired by the sandy beaches and hot pink sunsets of Sarasota. As a writer of erotic romance, new adult and literary fiction, I tap a mainstream appeal and shake worldwide taboos, taking my readers on a dark, harrowing, and breathtaking journey. When I’m not nose deep in my laptop, I’m scouring for chocolate, traveling, reading, or walking my four-legged children.

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What happens when you uncover years of secrets and find out everything you thought to be true was a lie?

Drew Stevens finds her world turned upside down when her parents are brutally murdered. Soon after, she learns she inherited a property in Bar Harbor, Maine, from recently deceased grandparents that she believed had died when she was a baby.

Drew travels north to settle her grandparents’ estate, but finds more questions than answers as the truth starts unraveling. What she didn’t expect to find was Saint, whose reputation is as tumultuous as his past. But the very thing that brings them together is the same thing that keeps them emotionally caged.

With Saint's scars so deep and Drew's so fresh, can the pair heal from their painful wounds or will they be pulled beneath the darkness of their pasts?