Read an #Excerpt from The Protector by HelenKay Dimon + #Giveaway

The Protector 
(Games People Play #4)
by HelenKay Dimon
Paperback, 384 pages
Published July 31st 2018 by Avon
ISBN 0062692232

Salvation, Pennsylvania. The commune located in the small town was advertised as a modern Utopia: a place to live, share, and learn with other like-minded young people. Cate Pendleton’s sister was one of them. Now she’s dead—and Cate won’t rest until she finds out who killed her. Stonewalled at every turn, she approaches a DC Fixer for help and ends up with Damon Knox, a mysterious man with a secretive past. But Cate soon discovers that she not only needs Damon, she wants him, which isn’t good—for the attraction brewing between them will only lead to complications that can turn into danger . . .

Damon has tried to erase the hellish memories and the evil that happened in Salvation ever since he left a long time ago. Still, he can’t turn his back on Cate. As Damon works with Cate to uncover her sister’s killer, he finds himself drawn to her more and more. But how will she feel about him when she learns about his connection to the place?

Joining forces to uncover the truth, they must stay one step ahead of a cunning killer who’s bent on not being exposed.

AMAZON | B&N 

Excerpt:

A half hour later they sat in a self-professed American bistro a few blocks from Wren’s office. Damon picked it for proximity and name but if the food tasted half as good as this place smelled, he’d be happy. 
Cate looked ready to jump out of her chair.
It wasn’t even noon on a weekday and most of the tables were full. Waiters and waitresses bustled around the white and black checkered floor. From their table in the back, Damon could see it all, including the very antsy, very pretty woman in front of him.
She shiny, straight black hair fell over her shoulders. As she crossed and uncrossed her legs, her body shifted around. One minute she fiddled with her napkin, the next she wrapped her fingers around the armrests of the chair and held on as if she rode the wildest roller-coaster.
Damon wasn’t sure what was happening in her head. Probably a back and forth about him and whether he would be any help to her at all. 
He cursed Wren for putting him in the ill-fitting and always uncomfortable role of savior.  He’d spent his life disappointing people. Apparently, now it was Cate’s turn.   
She finally broke the silence on a loud exhale. “We’ve studied the menu and ordered, had a few sips of water and looked around. Would now be a good time to get to work?”
As she spoke, she pinned him across the table with a fiery look in those deep brown eyes. He’d been waiting for her to take control again, and she did not disappoint. Except for her meal choice. “You ordered a grilled cheese and salad.”
She frowned. “So?”
Her quick glance toward the door leading to the street suggested she was toying with the idea of making a run for it. Damon couldn’t blame her. He’d had the same run like hell sensation racing through him since Wren handed him her file.
“It’s a burger place. The word ‘burger’ is actually in the name of the restaurant.” Which was the main reason Damon picked this restaurant instead of something more out of the way and quiet. 
“I bet they have the unique skills required to make things with cheese.”
Sassy, verbally punching out…he liked it. Even though she looked ten seconds from punching him, his initial thought was that he liked her. She fought him, didn’t back down and bullied her way into meeting Wren – or whatever name he used when they met. She used her contacts to hunt down the one person who might help her. All smart. Those were the moves of a survivor. 
Studying her wasn’t exactly a hardship either. The file Wren handed him listed her mother’s name as Emi Asato. A single mother who put herself through college while she raised Cate and her sister. Born in Ohio to parents who came to the U.S. from Osaka, Japan, the woman buried one daughter while the other fought to find out the truth. Those facts made him respect the whole family. That kind of tenacity and strength always made him look twice.
The rest of Cate, the long legs and sexy pronounced collarbone where her thin gold chain balanced, the way her white v-neck T-shirt highlighted high, round breasts and trim waist…well, those worked for him, too. From the way she walked to the way she talked, she intrigued him. He found himself wanting to know more about how she lived and what, other than her dead sister, mattered to her. 
He appreciated every inch of her, including that big brain that she didn’t hesitate to use to best him whenever possible. That was some pretty sexy shit right there.
“Are you not a meat eater? Because that’s something I should know upfront.” The kind of thing Wren should put in her file. Damon didn’t think that was too much to ask.
As predicted she frowned at him. Shot him one of those you’re-wasting-time looks that she’d been using on him nonstop since they met. “Are you serious right now?”
“Because I eat a lot of burgers and if that’s going to offend you, I can eat something else. I won’t like it, but I will.” Her fidgeting must be rubbing off on him because he picked up his fork then set it down again. 
She leaned across the table. “How many burgers?”
Now this was a topic he could handle. Especially since she asked the question in a soft voice, as if they were sharing a secret. “Every day.”
She sat back hard in her seat again. “You do not eat a hamburger every day.”
He ignored the horror in her voice. “True. Some days I mix it up and order a cheeseburger. If I’m feeling particularly frisky I’ll have a steak sandwich.”

Games People Play Series

About the Author:

HelenKay Dimon spent the years before becoming a romance author as a...divorce attorney. Not the usual transition, she knows. Good news is she now writes full time and is much happier. She has sold over forty novels and novellas to numerous publishers, including HarperCollins, Kensington, Harlequin, Penguin Random House, Riptide and Carina Press. Her nationally bestselling and award-winning books have been showcased in numerous venues and her books have twice been named "Red-Hot Reads" and excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine. She is on the Board of Directors of the Romance Writers of America and teaches fiction writing at UC San Diego and MiraCosta College.
You can learn more at her website: www.HelenKaydimon.com

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