A Month to Remember and a Time to Move Forward by Sam Cheever

May is a month of new beginnings. It's the start of a new growing season...a reboot of the time of year when heat, sun, and the bounty of summer paint us in a golden glow. It's also a time when we honor the past and those who have been important to us. Mother's Day. Memorial Day. 

For me, this May is both a beginning and an ending. It represents a bittersweet moment in time, wherein something which has been a staple in my writing career for 8 years will become a shiny jewel in my backlist...another notch in my writer's belt. 

This May I release the final novel in my 8 book Honeybun Heat romantic suspense series. 

I started writing the series in 2008 and, like me, it has changed over the years, growing and molding to match the personalities of each Honeybun brother and his Honey. My skill as a writer has definitely changed, hopefully improved. But aside from the technical aspects of each Honeybun Heat novel, there's an emotional attachment that will probably never happen again. I've grown along with the Honeybuns, learned how important family and love and emotional support can be. Each brother has forged a spot in my heart that nobody will ever be able to replace. They're like old friends...ex-lovers...and I'll miss their self-deprecating humor and their undying devotion. 

It's been a long, fun ride. One I'll always cherish. But all things end in time and the fertile soil left behind by those endings enables something new to sprout and thrive. 

This May marks the end of an era for me. The Honeybun era. But starting next month, a new era is born. What will my next project entail? Who knows! I have some idea of the elements that will make it work: Love, friendship, mutual support and hot men. LOL But the details are still developing in my mind. The world is my oyster. And I intend to snarf it down!

Honeybun One and Done will release on May 29th. I hope you'll join me in embracing this final episode of a fun and exciting series!

 He’s a ONE and DONE kind of guy. Can she live long enough to find out if she’s the ONE?

Percy Honeybun and his honey, Brita Muldane just can't catch a break. They've danced around their relationship for years, unable to find a way to make it work. But their lives are intertwined through family and friends and they're just as unable to break completely away from each other. Maybe what they need is a life changing event to help them break through. Or maybe the life-shattering event they suddenly find themselves in, will end up breaking them instead.

~~*~~

She paced the length of the two cars and back again, her temper popping like firecrackers on hot pavement. She couldn’t believe they’d made her stay outside. Her life…her livelihood…though she couldn’t remember being a cop…were on the line. Not theirs.

She’d be recognized, Alf had said. She was all over the news, Clovis had said. They’d clam up if they recognized her, Percy had said. Hinks had added that they’d call the police and he’d no longer be able to help her.

She frowned, shoving at the niggling thought that they all made good points… But rage made reasonable thoughts churn like acid in her belly. She wanted to be in there when they talked to Mary Tyler. She needed to see the woman’s eyes, hear the tenor of her voice. She needed to either tick Mary Tyler off the list or move her up a notch. She needed to do it herself. 

She couldn’t trust anybody else to do it right. Especially a bunch of men she didn’t know. Or did she? Alone, in the safety of her thoughts, she could admit to herself that there was something between her and Percy Honeybun that transcended memory. Something warm and tangled that turned her gut to melted butter when he looked into her eyes or touched her skin.

Her body seemed to recognize him. Even if her mind didn’t.

A ticking noise had her jumping, her gaze whipping around. She waited a beat, finally expelling a soft breath when she realized it was just engine sounds from the cooling SUV. Glancing toward the asylum doors, she bit her lip, wondering how long they would be inside.

Maybe she should join them whether they wanted her there or not. The chances of the woman recognizing her were almost nil. And even if she did…

She made a sudden decision—going with it before she changed her mind. She opened the door to Percy’s car and reached inside, grasping the Colts ball cap he’d dropped in the console between the seats. She’d just give them another officer’s name.

It would be okay.

Backing out of the car she straightened, dropping the hat over her head.

A soft breeze slipped through the tree overhead, its wide branches dancing shadows over the car. A separate shape flickered through the shadows and she blinked.

There was a whisper of sound and she instinctively started to duck. Something whipped over her head, tightening around her throat and catching her right hand in its grip.

She slammed up against a body, wide and soft, whose breath wheezed past her face, thick with the scent of garlic and beer.

The wire around her hand and neck tightened, the heavy body behind her shifting to put more leverage on the garrote.

Icy fear warred with the white-hot pain of the wire slicing through skin and she fought desperately to pull air into her lungs as the thin metal compressed her throat with brutal efficiency.

Stars burst before her gaze. Her limbs weakened from lack of oxygen, eyes bulging, and her mouth opened on a silent, breathless scream. Her lungs burned. Panic softened, muted under impending death. She sagged toward the ground, her gaze skimming over an enormous pair of white sneakers as she fell. Her brain cataloged the detail, knowing as she did that it would be useless. The sneakers were nothing special. Cheaply made and colorless except for one tan shoe lace. Yet something about them triggered a memory.

Her thoughts flickered away, lost in the haze caused by lack of air.

Someone shouted in the distance and the thin band of metal holding her upright gave way, letting her slide bonelessly toward the ground.

She gasped in a breath which passed through her throat like razors, tearing and burning as it went. Another breath allowed her lungs to fully inflate and fear prickled over her skin as her mind started to clear.

Footsteps pounded closer, stopped, and a deep voice said her name, a caress…an urgent prayer.

She looked up, saw his handsome face, the dancing shadows flickering over his strong features, highlighting the worry painted there. “I…” She swallowed, coughed, her hand wrapping around her throat. “I’m okay. He crossed the street…” She lifted a hand in the direction she’d heard him go. “That way. Go…” She succumbed to a bout of coughing that had him hovering closer, pulling her into his arms.

“I need an ambulance now!”

She blinked, shaking her head, then realized he wasn’t talking to her. He was on his phone. “No, go get him! It was probably the killer.” Her voice sounded like she’d been screaming for hours while smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey sours.

Percy grabbed the hand she placed on his chest and pulled it to his lips. He closed his eyes as he kissed her palm. “Dammit, Brit! He almost killed you.” A violent tremor worked its way through his hard, sexy form.

She nodded, laying her head on his chest. He wasn’t going to leave her. She knew that with the certainty of a woman who’d been with a man for years. He would never leave her side, even to catch a killer. Because he’d left her for just a few minutes and she’d nearly died. 

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