"Gloriously
suspenseful...magnificent reading...Martin is superb."
--RT Book Reviews
What is your favorite scene in Against the Sky?
I love when Nick and Samantha are on the run from the
Russian mob
Do you share
any personality traits with Samantha Hollis?
Samantha enjoys gourmet food and nice hotels. I guess that’s something we share. She’s also tough when she has to be. I’d like to think I could be that way if it
became necessary.
Will you give us a little insight into
your hunky main character, Nick Brodie
Nick Brodie is an ex-Anchorage homicide detective. He’s determined to give up that life and do
something that doesn’t involve blood and murder. But when his young friend, Jimmy, gets into
trouble, Nick is the kind of guy who has no choice but to help him.
What type of
hero do you like best?
I like a true Alpha Male, a guy who is tough on the
outside, but has all the good stuff on the inside. I like a man who is capable and protective. A guy will has high moral values but the
courage to do what he has to.
What appeals
to you most about your chosen genre?
I like the challenge of working with two different plot
lines, the romance between the man and woman, as well as the suspense. I like keeping all the balls in the air then
finally getting them to fit together.
The Book
ALASKA
In America's last wilderness there are no limits to what a man can do.
In America's last wilderness there are no limits to what a man can do.
For
detective Nick Brodie, that means keeping the perps off the streets of
Anchorage 24/7. Nick has never backed down from danger, but after the
horrors he's seen, he's definitely in need of a break.
Samantha
Hollis never thought she'd meet anyone like Nick, especially in a place
like Las Vegas. But after one reckless, passionate night, she discovers
the charismatic stranger is everything she wants in a man. But can he
ever be anything more than a one-night stand?
When Nick
invites her to Alaska, Samantha decides to find out, never guessing the
depths she'll discover in him or the tangle of murder, kidnapping, and
danger about to engulf them both. . .
Amazon | B&N | IndieBound
________________________________________________________
Enter the AGAINST THE SKY Contest
________________________________________________________
Enjoy an Excerpt from AGAINST
THE SKY
By Kat
Martin
Chapter One
Samantha had almost reached her door
when she saw a man walking toward her, tall and heavyset, weaving a
little. His suit was wrinkled, his brown
hair mussed and falling over a wide forehead.
Obviously he was drunk.
She didn’t like the leering grin that
appeared on his flushed face as he spotted her and staggered in her
direction. Samantha opened her purse and
began digging frantically for her key card.
She was still searching when the man stopped in front of her.
“Hello there, sweetheart. Aren’t
you a pretty little thing?”
She ignored him, kept on digging,
couldn’t find the damned card, prayed she hadn’t left it in her room.
“Not talking, huh? I’m Howard.”
He stuck out a meaty hand she ignored, finally let it drop. “Want me to help you find your key?”
“No, thank you.” For once, she wished her purse wasn’t so big.
“Say, why don’t we go downstairs and
have a drink? There’s a lot of great
restaurants in the hotel. What do you
say I buy you dinner?”
His words were thick and a faintly
slurred, though Samantha didn’t think he was quite as drunk as he had first
seemed.
“I have plans.” Like a soak in the tub and an early
evening. “Please leave me alone.”
Pain-in-the-ass Howard’s bushy
eyebrows went up. “No reason to take
that attitude.” He started crowding her,
forcing her back against the door. She
wasn’t very big and he towered above her.
He moved closer, knocking the shoes
she had taken off to soothe her aching feet out of her hand. “Come on, what do you say?”
“I told you to leave me alone.” Samantha set her palms on his thick chest and
tried to push him away. “If you don’t
leave, I’m going to call security.” She
pushed, didn’t budge him. “Please--I’m
just not interested.”
“Come on, sweetheart, it’s only a
drink.”
He had her completely boxed in against
the door, and though her heart was thrumming away, she was more angry than
scared. There were hotel cameras
everywhere. In another second, she was
going to scream.
She might have done it if good ol’
Howard hadn’t suddenly been jerked away like a puppet on a string and slammed
hard against the wall. In an instant, he
was facing the opposite direction, spread-eagled, legs splayed, one of his
beefy arms forced up behind his back.
“Time to go home, buddy. The lady has other plans.”
“What business is that of yours?”
Her rescuer, tall and broad-shouldered
with wavy black hair, cranked the arm up higher, drawing a hiss of pain. “I told you the lady has plans.”
“Don’t hurt him,” Samantha said. “He’s just drunk.”
The most amazing blue eyes she had
ever seen swung in her direction. “He a
friend of yours?”
“Heavens, no. I was just trying to open the door to my room
when he walked up and started accosting me.”
The black-haired man turned back to
good ol’ Howard, who seemed to have realized the game was up. “Thanks to the lady, I’m letting you go and
not calling the hotel police. If you’re
smart, you’ll walk away, go back to your room and sober up.”
Howard stiffened. The arm behind his back got cranked a little
higher. Howard hissed and nodded.
“Smart move.” Easing up a little, her rescuer released him
and stepped away. With a last angry
glance, Howard moved off at a loping stagger down the hall, heading back the
way he had come.
“You okay?”
Dear God, the man was handsome. With his blue eyes, high-cheekbones, and
straight nose, he was one of the best-looking men she had ever seen. The shadow of a late-afternoon beard along
his jaw gave him a slightly dangerous appearance that only made him more
attractive.
She managed to drag her gaze away from
those arresting blue eyes and found her voice.
“Thanks to you, I’m fine. Are you
a policeman or something?”
“Used to be. Nick Brodie.
Glad I could help.”
She smiled. “I’m Samantha Hollis. You came just in time. I really appreciate what you did. Most people would have just kept walking.”
“Not where I come from.”
“Really? Where’s that?”
“Alaska.
Up there, people help each other.
Sometimes it’s a matter of life and death.” He looked her up and down. “You aren’t very big. That bastard was twice your size.”
“As I said, he was mostly just drunk.”
“I guess.”
Trying to ignore the nerves she was
beginning to feel, she grabbed the purse slung over her shoulder and started
searching again for her key. She could
feel those amazing eyes regarding her with interest.
“I hope I don’t sound like the guy who
just left, but is there any chance you might like to join me for a drink?”
Surprise had her eyes flashing back to
him. “Seriously? You’re here by yourself?” Impossible, she thought, for a man who looked
as good as he did.
He shrugged a set of impressive
shoulders. He was wearing jeans and a
crisp white shirt, his hair curling slightly over the collar.
“I needed a break,” he said. “Besides, my brother bought me a plane
ticket. I didn’t have much choice. How about that drink?”
She should probably say no. She wasn’t going to give him what he most
likely wanted. On the other hand, a guy
who looked the way he did wouldn’t have much trouble getting laid.
And she did owe him for coming to her
rescue.
Samantha looked up at Nick Brodie and
smiled. “You know, after my wrestling
match with King Kong a drink really does sound good.”
Nick smiled broadly, all white teeth
and sex appeal. The bottom dropped out
of stomach. Oh, my. Maybe she was making a mistake.
“What are we waiting for?” Nick
said. “Let’s go.”
Nick wasn’t sure why he’d asked her to
join him. He wasn’t really looking for
female companionship. Or maybe he was,
but hadn’t found anyone worth the effort.
He’d come to Vegas to get away, see the city that had always intrigued
him, relax, maybe gamble a little--not too much.
Samantha winced as she shoved her feet
back into her high heel shoes, and he remembered seeing them in the hall in
front of her door where she had taken them off and dropped them.
He was afraid he’d scare her if he
suggested she open the door, go in and get a different pair, but he wanted her
to be comfortable.
“I got a hunch those shoes are hurting
like hell. Why don’t I wait for you by
the elevator? Give you time to go in and
change?”
The smile she gave him was so full of
gratitude he figured he’d scored another point--besides the one he’d gotten for
pulling that big bastard off her.
She opened her purse, found the key
she’d been searching for, flashed it in front the lock and opened the
door. “Thanks, Nick. I’ll be right there.”
He frowned. The lady was way too trusting. He could have pushed her inside and done any
damn thing he wanted. He thought she
would have learned her lesson with the bruiser who’d been manhandling her.
His frown slowly faded, replaced by
another smile. In an odd way, he found
her naiveté refreshing. Still, if he got
a chance, he’d talk to her, make her understand the need to be careful with
strangers. Clearly, his cop instincts
hadn’t faded, probably never would.
Time ticked past. Standing next to the elevator, he checked his
watch. She’d been gone fifteen minutes
when he spotted her coming down the hall.
She’d changed out of her pale peach linen suit into a short black skirt,
pink and black top, and another pair of heels, just as tall but open-toed and
apparently more comfortable.
“Thanks for waiting,” she said. “I’ve been working all day. It feels good to get into something that
isn’t wrinkled.”
His eyes ran over her. “You look fantastic.” Damned if she didn’t. With her heart-shaped face and warm brown
eyes, he’d thought she was attractive.
Now he could see she was way more than pretty, with a great figure,
curves in all the right places, just a hint of cleavage above the neckline of
her blouse. She had taken the clips out
of her hair, letting the springy light brown curls that hung down her back
tumble softly around her face. He wanted
to grab a fistful, to see if it felt as silky as it looked.
About Kat Martin
For New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin, a career
in real estate led her down the road to romance.
Through real estate, Kat found her own perfect match--her husband, Western
author Larry Jay Martin.
"We were on opposing sides of a transaction--I represented the seller and
he represented the buyer," Kat recalls.
A short time after the two became acquainted, Larry asked her to read an
unpublished manuscript of an historical western he'd written. Kat fell in love
with both the book and the author!
"It was quite a romantic story," she admits. "I'd still like to
see it get published." Then, after doing some editing for her future
husband, she thought she'd try her own hand at writing.
Kat moved on to become the bestselling author of over fifty historical and
contemporary romance novels. To date, 15 million copies of her books are in
print, and she's been published around the globe, including Germany, Norway,
Sweden, China, Korea, Bulgaria, Russia, England, Estonia, Lithuania, South
Africa, Italy, Poland, Thailand, Portugal, Turkey, The Slovak Republic, Spain,
Argentina, Estonia, Czech Republic and Greece.
When she's not writing, Kat also enjoys skiing and traveling,
particularly to Europe. Currently, she's busy writing her next book.
