Blog Tour: Stormchaser by Cherry Adair
STORMCHASER SUMMARY:
No one charters the depths of passion
on the high seas like New York Times bestselling author Cherry Adair
DESIRE RUNS DEEP
Somewhere off the coast of Greece, a
king’s ransom in gold, emeralds, and silver coins lies waiting at
the bottom of the sea. Finding this ancient treasure would be a dream
come true for marine archeologist Calista West. But that’s not why
she’s here. She didn’t climb aboard Jonah Cutter’s magnificent
yacht seeking fortune or fame. She’s come for revenge—against the
sexiest, most seductive, modern-day pirate she’s ever encountered…
Like his famous half brothers, Jonah is
a master of salvaging ships—and driving women mad with his
movie-star looks and raw animal magnetism. Tall, dark, and
devastating, he manages to make Callie forget her mission. Every
moment they share under the hot Mediterranean sun is an
erotically-charged adventure neither can resist. But when Callie
discovers what he’s really after—the lost city of Atlantis—is
it too late to change the course of her heart…or go all in with the
lover of her dreams?
The Cutter Cay series is:
"Action-packed drama." —Fresh
Fiction
"Sizzlingly sexy." —Booklist
"Enticing." —Seattle
Post-Intelligencer
HURRICANE SUMMARY:
Rydell Case’s ship is his home, his heart, and his reason for being. After his ex-wife left him—taking his brand-new megayacht, Tesoro Mio with her—she sailed off with a royal billionaire and out of his life forever. Now Ry spends his days searching for treasure—until his ship is hijacked. With the prospect of his salvage business tanking, he needs both the ship and his ex back—if only she didn’t despise him more than any man on earth. . .
When Addison D’Marco boards Tesoro Mio to find her ex-husband in her cabin, she’s furious. Ry is more handsome, more annoying, and more determined than ever. Addy can’t believe he has the nerve to demand the ship back after the way he broke her heart. With her fiancé about to board, she doesn’t want Ry back in her life to ignite painful memories and never- forgotten desires. But could it be that, amid troubled waters, Addy and Ry can salvage what they once had and have a second chance at love. . .or does fate have something else in store?
Hurricane by Cherry Adair is part of her Cutter Cay series.
ONE
The day didn’t look like second hand
revenge. Instead of ominous dark clouds hanging low over a pewter
sea, the hot Greek sun reflected glittering sapphires off the
Mediterranean. The wake of the motor launch frothed blindingly white
as it carried marine archaeologist Dr. Calista West to the megayacht
Stormchaser, anchored in open waters south of Crete.
Salt spray cooled her bare arms and
legs as the Riva Iseo cut through the dark water. The sleek, twenty-
seven foot Italian work of art, with yards of glossy
mahogany, soft leather, and sleek lines, looked like something
straight out of a James Bond movie. Expensive and ostentatious.
Draco Thanos, the short, wiry forty-
something chief engineer of Stormchaser sent to collect Callie from
Heraklion, controlled the fast tender with all the deference of a guy
handling a sleek sports car.
Callie wasn’t even sure what day it
was anymore. A short flight in yet another ostentatious, expensive
toy, a private plane from Athens. A twelve- hour flight from Miami,
an hour flight from Athens to Crete, and another two hours by luxury
tender. She was hardly at her best to deal with Jonah Cutter. Tuning
out Thanos, who’d kept up a steady conversation in broken English
for the duration, she spread her feet, bracing her hands on the rail
as they hit some chop. Her stomach did a somersault that had nothing
to do with the waves. The closer the motor launch carried her to
Stormchaser, the harder Callie’s heart pounded.
Anticipation. Fear. Excitement.
Thanos pointed unnecessarily. The
massive ship was freaking impossible to miss. “There she is.”
Callie’s fingers tightened on the rail as the ship loomed large
against a sparkling backdrop of calm azure water and robin’s- egg-
blue sky. Brilliant sun bounced off acres of white paint and gleaming
brass. Twenty, thirty mil? Callie guesstimated, put off by the
unnecessary fl aunting of the Cutters’ wealth.
“Spectacular, isn’t she?” Thanos
said proudly as he slowed the tender, angling it sideways to dock aft
next to the wide dive platform where a guy sat reading. He got to his
feet as they approached, lifting a hand in greeting. Callie waved
back.
She used both hands to tuck any loose
hair back into the neatly tucked French braid on the back of her
head, even though she knew there were none. She was too controlled to
have flyaway hair. Her penchants for order and organization were
perfect for her chosen career. She’d come by them the hard way. By
now the traits were ingrained and comfortable.
Without the fi ne cooling misted spray
of the water, and wind generated by the fast movement over the sea,
the sun beat down unrelentingly, drying her damp clothes in minutes.
“She’s something, all right.” Too
big, and far too fancy for a dive boat, but wasn’t that the Cutters
all over? A family of modern- day treasure hunters, they flaunted
their wealth like robber barons or nouveau riche Internet
millionaires, with total disregard for anyone daring their ownership
of the seas.
For a moment Callie had a niggle of
misgiving for what she was about to do. Jonah Cutter hadn’t done
anything to her personally; she’d never even met the man. Never met
any of the Cutters. But they adversely impacted people she loved.
She was uniquely qualified to balance
the scales.
Straightening her shoulders, Callie
grabbed her duffel before Thanos could reach for it. Ingrained and as
sure as her dark hair and green eyes was her in de pendence. Drawing
in a salt- laden deep breath, Callie let it out slowly as the tender
bumped the edge of the wide dive platform where the older man,
dressed in cargo shorts and a yellow polo shirt, waited to grab the
rope.
And the game begins, she thought,
braced to disembark, her fingers tightened on the bag’s handles.
Lying was against everything she
believed in. Been there, spent a lifetime perfecting the skill. Just
because she was good at it didn’t mean she liked doing it. But not
only did she have to lie through her teeth for the duration, she had
to be convincing as well.
She reminded herself that these people
were not her friends. She could not soften and bond with them.
Growing to like anyone on board Stormchaser would make what she was
going to do harder.
She’d known going in that she’d
have to keep to herself as much as possible. She was here to do a
job. Making friends would muddy the waters and certainly complicate
things. And, she admitted, make her second guess herself— which she
unfortunately usually did. She tended to overanalyze things before
jumping in. Indecision was, she knew, her worst characteristic.
Still, once she’d made a determination, after weighing it from a
hundred different angles, she tended to be like a dog with a bone
defending the decision.
Her friends tried to get her to be more
spontaneous. But it was hard for her. Every decision had
consequences, and those had to be weighed and calculated and looked
at from every angle.
What wouldn’t be hard? Pretending.
That she was damn good at. If anyone knew how to pretend, it was her.
She’d done it from kindergarten on. When she’d learned to lie for
her parents. Why they’d forgotten to sign her up for school
programs? Why they weren’t there to pick her up after school? Why
she rarely had a lunch packed, or money to buy lunch? She’d known
instinctively that to say her mama was passed out from Jack Daniel’s
would be bad, and mentioning that sometimes her dad didn’t come
home would be worse.
These circumstances weren’t the same,
but she figured she’d honed her acting chops. She could do this by
mentally tarring everyone on board with the sins of the Cutters.
Which were too numerous to count.
And by keeping as low a profile as
possible.
The gray- haired man held out his hand,
helping her from the boat to the diving platform. “Saul Pinter.”
His full, mostly gray beard was neatly trimmed. Fit and athletic, he
had a nice smile and firm handshake. “Welcome aboard, Dr. West.”
“Thanks, call me Callie.” A cursory
glance revealed the dive platform geared with the usual dive
equipment and a row of wet suits ready and waiting. At least she’d
get to do what she loved. Dive. Discover. “Is Mr. Cutter diving?”
Saul shook his head, jerking his thumb
toward the ladder leading to the deck above where they stood. “Jonah
will have seen you, and be on his way down. Heads up, he’ll meet
you halfway.”
Oh, Callie doubted that very much, but
she merely smiled as her heart thumped. Anticipation—no, dread?
After all the planning, things were finally happening. “I’m
looking forward to seeing our wreck.”
“You haven’t missed anything. We
only arrived late last night ourselves,” Saul told her, returning
to his chair and the book he’d been reading. “We’re all eager
to get started.”
Was that a jibe because she hadn’t
joined them two weeks ago? Callie mentally shrugged. Climbing the
ladder, she observed in a quick sweep the spotless decks, the
gleaming bright work and shiny brass. Stormchaser was spit- polished.
She’d heard Zane Cutter’s ship was a piece of crap, but so far
she couldn’t fault his half-brother on the maintenance of his ship.
Several men, in the whites of crew
members, leaned on the rail on an upper deck watching her curiously.
Callie lifted a hand in greeting and kept going. It was a perfect
afternoon to dive, the ocean smooth with just a slight chop. A light
breeze loosened strands of hair off her face and neck and brought
with it the faint smells of fresh paint and yeasty baking bread.
Water slapped the hull, and the sound
of voices died as the men dis appeared from view. A gull cried as it
wheeled in a perfect circle overhead, then dived like a jet, skimming
the water after some hapless fish.
There wasn’t anyone else around, and
she walked toward a set of sliding doors just as a man stepped out
onto the deck ahead of her. His face lit up as he came toward her.
Jonah Cutter. Callie stopped to wait
for him, the sun hot on her scalp, the glare off the water bright
despite her dark glasses. The opinion formed before the man even
opened his mouth. Her assessment was quick and unflattering. But then
she was predisposed to disliking him.
Cocky. Self- assured. Entitled.
Exactly what she expected. Her
shoulders relaxed. Handing Cutter his ass wasn’t going to be
difficult at all.
The Matthew McConaughey look- alike
wore blue, flower- printed Hawaiian board shorts, a too- tight red
T-shirt stretched over sculpted muscles as if it had been painted on.
She’d heard that youngest brother Zane was the vain one, but
clearly his half-brother gave him a run for his money.
Under six feet tall, sun- bleached
shoulder- length hair, movie- star good looks, and boy, didn’t he
know it. Cutter was like a peacock spreading his tail as he removed
his shades to eye her up and down.
Shorter, less attractive, and more
smarmy than she’d been led to believe. And she’d been led to
believe the worst.
Maintaining a friendly smile, she
extended her hand when he got close enough. He was about the same
height, so they were eye- to- lecherous- eye. “I’m Calista West,
thanks for including—”
“Now, aren’t you just the prettiest
addition to the team, darlin’?” he cut in with a southern drawl
and a heated look from unremarkable blue eyes. His lingering
handshake was the opposite of firm. Callie disengaged and resisted
wiping her hand on her shorts as he looked at her like a dog staring
at a juicy bone. Raking his fingers through his sunbleached brown
hair, the better to show off his physique, he gave her a wide, white
smile. “Welcome aboard.”
Never had two words sounded so
suggestive. Smoothing a hand over her tightly constrained hair,
Callie made sure the sun glinted off the plain gold band on her left
hand. Although she suspected a guy like this wouldn’t be deterred
by a wedding ring, she had other methods to repulse if the ring
didn’t work.
Copyright © 2017 by Cherry
Adair and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Paperbacks.
Cherry Adair has garnered numerous awards for her innovative action-adventure novels, which include White Heat, Hot Ice, On Thin Ice, Out of Sight, In Too Deep, Hide and Seek, and Kiss and Tell, as well as her thrilling Cutter Cay series for St. Martin's Press. A favorite of reviewers and fans alike, she lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Facebook @CherryAdairAuthor
Twitter @CherryAdair
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