About The Fire Inside
Written by Julia Talbot
113 pages / 37000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-768-8, 1-60370-768-9
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc, epub, Sony-optimized pdf
Nick is just a working man, trying to get his job done. When a routine job goes sour, though, he knows just who to blame; the guy who threw himself in front of Nick's car. Ty.
Ty's in trouble, and he's hoping Nick will help him. He's not sure what forces brought them together, but he knows they're meant to be, and he's willing to use his talent for generating heat to keep Nick at his side, ready for more of his special gifts. And ready to defend him from anyone who wants to hurt him. Will these two be overcome by the fire inside?
Review
CB Potts, author of Recovery and Recovery Ranch, writes: Having super
powers is not necessarily super...at least not for Ty, the hot-headed
(and hearted) hero of Talbot's latest novel, The Fire Inside. A
cinematic, four-color romp, The Fire Inside evokes a strong feel of
comic book adventure paired with romantic sensibility. Nick, a gun man
on a mission, finds himself the inadvertent rescuer of Ty, who's on the
run for his life. Passion quickly blossoms -- in scenes that are so
erotic, so smoldering, that 'hot' doesn't even begin to touch it -- and
the two men bond far more deeply and with far more explosive
consequences than any one could have imagined.
A secondary romance, between hit man Devon and his companion Aidan,
develops in an intriguing fashion. Devon seems convinced that he has the
upper hand and is ultimately in control of everything: reality seems to
be somewhat different. Talbot's created an interesting pair here:
elegant and eloquent while completely capable of functioning as
soul-less killing machines, it's a glimmering dark diamond of romantic
possibility.
Set in an imaginative world, where magic is unremarkable in one town yet
scandalous in another, The Fire Inside offers tantalizing glimpses at
intrigue and power plays: wheels are set within wheels, and nothing is
as simple as it might seem. Action packed and fast paced, Talbot's work
will leave the reader breathless.
Sample
Goddamn it, Nick hated it when he was out on a job and it started fucking raining. All that moisture made the roads slick as snot, all of the oil and grit beading up like little pond scum monsters, out to get his ass. The car slid around the corner and into the alley like a first baseman sliding into third, all steam with a lot of weight behind it.
The tinted window slid down at the barest touch of his finger, and Nick checked his target. Fucking perfect. All he had to do was pull the trigger. The target was in plain sight, and nothing blocked his aim. With any luck, everyone would think the guy was just a victim of a gang bang drive by.
Just as he took a deep breath and let half of it out, his finger starting to squeeze the trigger, something hit the hood of his car. Hard.
"Shit!"
Nick stared through the rain-dappled windshield, right into scared eyes staring back at him.
"Help me, please?" the kid shouted, banging his hands on the hood again. "They're gonna get me."
Fuck a duck. Nick didn't know who the kid was, and he didn't give two shits who "they" were. All he knew was that the kid's banging and screaming had sent his target skittering into the dark beyond the alley like a giant cockroach.
Goddamn.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kick your ass, kid," Nick growled through the open window.
"Because I need your help!" the kid replied, slip-sliding around to the window and reaching through to touch his arm.
The touch burned like fire. Literally. Nick felt blisters rise on his skin, the edge of his shirt sleeve smoking.
"Jesus!" He jerked his arm away from the hot touch, sticking it out to let the rain fall on it. "Look, I'll give you a ride, okay? Just don't touch me again."
He got a panicky idiot look from big brown eyes before the kid nodded and slipped around to the passenger side. The kid buckled up and grabbed the 'oh shit' handle. "Can we go? Now?"
Nick spent a second studying the kid, who wasn't as young as he'd thought originally. It was the shock of messy brown hair and big, almost black eyes that made the guy look like an underage anime character. Close up, though, the guy had to be in his mid-twenties, and hard up, from his too-skinny, rough clothes look.
"Please? Go!"