Memento
Mori
Masters
and Mercenaries: The Forgotten, Book 1
By
Lexi Blake
Coming
August 28, 2018
Six men with no
memories of the past
One leader with no
hope for the future
A man without a past
Jax
woke up in a lab, his memories erased, and his mind reprogrammed to serve a mad
woman’s will. After being liberated from his prison, he pledged himself to the
only thing he truly knows—his team. Six men who lost everything they were. They
must make certain no one else gets their hands on the drugs that stole their
lives, all while hiding from every intelligence organization on the planet. The
trail has led him to an unforgiving mountainside and a beautiful wilderness
expert who may be his only hope of finding the truth.
A woman with a bright
future
River
Lee knows her way around the Colorado wilderness. She’s finally found a home in
a place called Bliss after years lost in darkness. The nature guide prefers to
show her clients the beauty found in the land, but she also knows the secrets
the mountains hold. When she meets Jax, something about the troubled man calls
to her. She agrees to lead him to the site of an abandoned government facility
hidden deep in the forest. She never dreamed she was stepping into the middle
of a battlefield.
A love that could heal a broken
soul
Spending
time with River, Jax discovers a peace he’s never known. Their passion unlocks
a side of himself he didn’t even know he was missing. When an old enemy makes
his first move, Jax and River find themselves fighting for their lives. But when
his past is revealed, will River be caught in the crosshairs of a global
conspiracy?
* * * *
EXCERPT
“This place is beautiful,” he said
when she hesitated.
She nodded but didn’t move from her
seat. “I love it here. I went to college in Denver, but I always missed this
place. When I was younger, my dad had a house in Creede. He started the
business there, but when he could, he moved us out of town. My dad was a loner,
I suppose. Creede has a population of four hundred and Dad thought that was way
too many people.”
“I know the feeling. I lived in
London for a while. That was definitely too many people.” He kept his tone
even. It was odd. Now that he was here, that hunger he always felt was tempered
by her fear. He’d thought he would take anything offered to him, but he
couldn’t having met her. If the blonde had offered herself up, he would have
turned her down. Over the two hours they’d sat in the booth, eating fried food
and drinking beer, he’d figured something out. Some people were more special
than others. River was special. He should be more cynical. He could hear Damon
Knight telling him to be cautious, but he couldn’t make himself do it. Perhaps
it was the fact that he didn’t have a long well of history to draw from and to
teach him that this was likely a mistake.
It didn’t feel like a mistake.
“Wow. I’ve never been farther than
Kansas City.” She still wasn’t moving and her voice had taken on a tremulous
tone.
His heart constricted, and it was
surprisingly easy to not listen to his dick. His dick was pleading with him to
get aggressive. His dick was trying to convince him that if he could get inside
her, she would accept him.
Yeah, he wasn’t going to listen to
his dick.
“If you’ve changed your mind, I can
call my brother to pick me up. I have a phone and so does he. His number is
programmed in. I don’t want to scare you. I had a good time talking to you
tonight. It was one of the nicest nights I’ve had in a long time.” Ever. It was
the best night ever. It was the first night he felt normal, though he wasn’t
exactly sure what that word meant. Comfortable was a better one. That tight
feeling in his chest had eased as he’d sat in the booth with River and Tucker
and Heather.
Although he’d hated lying to her.
She finally turned, looking at him.
Her eyes shone in the moonlight. “You mean that, don’t you?”
He wanted to touch her. He’d had to
force his hands not to move toward her all night long. The most he’d allowed
himself was to have their hips and shoulders touch as they’d sat next to each
other. He’d decided it had been a good thing he’d sat next to her because he
was fairly certain he had a case of Big Tag’s crazy eyes, and she would have
seen them had he sat across from her.
“I do mean it. Please don’t get me
wrong. I want you. I would like nothing more in the world than to take you into
that cabin, lay you out, and make a feast of you. I want to kiss you and when I
say that I don’t merely mean your lips. I want to put my mouth all over your
body. But more than I want that, I want you to like me.” It was important
somehow. He wouldn’t see her after tonight, but he couldn’t stand the idea that
she was afraid of him.
Everyone was afraid of him.
Everyone he knew was waiting for his powder keg to blow, but he’d sworn to himself
earlier in the evening that it wouldn’t blow around her. He would protect her
even if it was only for one night.
NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.