Coup de Grace by Lani Lynn Vale Pages: 316
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Also by this author: Execution Style, Charlie Foxtrot, Right to my Wrong, Shock Advised, Hail No, Beard Mode, Lights To My Siren, Fear the Beard, I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie , I'm Only Here for the Beard, Dragons Need Love, Too , Oh, My Dragon, Kevlar To My Vest , Keys To My Cuffs, Life To My Flight , Hissy Fit, Talkin' Trash, Lord Have Mercy, Hide Your Crazy, How About No, I'd Rather Not, Make Me, Sinners are Winners, If You Say So, Just Kidding, Herd That, Fries Before Guys, Crazy Heifer, Maybe Swearing Will Help, Keep it Classy, Chute Yeah, Get Bucked, May Contain Wine, Jokes on You, Somethin' About That Boy, Join the Club, Any Day Now, Say It Ain't So, Officially Over It, Nobody Knows, Depends on Who's Asking, Repeat Offender, Conjugal Visits, Jailbait, Quit Bein' Ugly, Doin' a Dime, Kitty Kitty, No Rep, Gen Pop, Jerk It, Inmate of the Month , Chalk Dirty to Me, Shakedown , Always Someone's Monster, Make Me Your Villain , Rattle Some Cages , Get Tragic , Strange and Unusual, Suck This, Never Trust the Living, Nobody Cares Unless You're Pretty, Good Trouble, Cute But Psycho, Annoyed At First Sight, The Voices Are Back, Special Kind of Twisted, I'll Just Date Myself, Fun House, Freak Show, Show Off, Clown Motel, Big Nick Energy, Sold to the Circus, Killing Booth, The Fool, No Cap, I Can't Even, Thirst Trap, Clap Back, Rent Free, Time To Bounce, Yolo, Stay Toxic, Hey Daddy, Walking Red Flag
Goodreads
Michael was that guy. The one that everyone was cautious of. Maybe it was the tattoos. Maybe it was the way he gave off a 'don't screw with me' vibe. Maybe it was because he just told them to leave him the hell alone. Regardless, people gave him his space. He was screwed up, and everyone knew it. He got tattoos because he liked the pain. He was standoffish. He didn't have many friends outside of work. And the only thing he had going for him was that he was a good cop. Everyone wondered about him, but no one asked. The only one that didn't treat him as if he was screwed up was Nikki Pena, a woman that he couldn't have. Nikki was that girl. The one that everyone loved. The one girl that he'd destroy if he let her have her way. What did she want? Him. But, he couldn't give her him. She didn't deserve what it would take to be with him. So Michael would suffer in silence...or so he thought. The woman who loved him had different ideas.
Coup de Grace
Lani Lynn Vale
Coup De Grace is everything I love about a Lani Lynn Vale book. Action? In spades! Hot, steamy romance? Oh yeah. Characters you care about? Yep, they’re there too! I thought the plot of this was fairly predictable. You know Michael doesn’t want kids, so of course, Nikki would end up pregnant. However, not being surprised by the plot didn’t detract from my enjoy of this book at all. Coup De Grace is the finale for this series so you get everything wrapped up and its beautiful. You know when you finish a series and you sigh and smile? Yep, thats exactly what I did. I love this series and throughly enjoyed this final book. I am looking forward to new books and series by Lani, who has quickly become one of my ‘auto buy’ authors. If you haven’t started this series, you really need to.
[bctt tweet=”Coup de Grace is everything I love about a Lani Lynn Vale book! “]
POV: Dual
Tears: No
Trope: Surprise Pregnancy, Mortal Peril, Second Chance
Maya Banks, Susan Stoker‘s SEAL series (another fav of mine!), Harper Sloan‘s Corps Security series, Kaylea Cross‘s Marked
[bctt tweet=”Lani Lynn Vale has quickly become one of my ‘auto buy’ authors!”]
From Coup de Grace by Lani Lynn Vale
Taking my two coffees, I walked back down the hallway to the ER. When I turned the final corner that would take me into the ER, I ran straight into a brick wall of flesh.
Instinctively, I lifted my hands up to save the coffee, and inadvertently padded my collision with my breasts which pressed up against a hard, well defined chest. They instantly pebbled.
“Oh!” I said in surprise.
“Fuck,” a deep voice hissed out, hands moving to my hips to keep me steady.
That voice always had the capability to send shivers down my spine.
“Michael,” I breathed, smiling timidly at him.
“Nik,” he sighed. “Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
Bringing my cups down, I stepped back, and instantly regretted the loss of his heat.
I knew, though, that the longer I stayed there touching him, the harder it’d be to move away.
“I got you this,” I said, shoving the coffee in his direction.
He caught it before I could spill it all over his chest, but to be honest, his shirt really couldn’t get much worse.
Not with the massive amount of blood I could see soaking it.
He’d have to throw this one away.
It may be black, but there was no way he could get the blood out of this one.
The white lettering that designated him a KPD officer was stained red, and I had a feeling that it wouldn’t come out. Not with any amount of scrubbing.
“Thanks,” he said, sounding surprised.
“You look like you needed it,” I muttered, walking around him to the door that led into the ER.
He smiled sadly.
“‘Preciate it,” he muttered, staring at the coffee like it was the answer to all of life’s questions.
Seeing him like that made me remember the last time he’d done that.
It’d been at a SWAT meeting that’d turned into an impromptu party when I’d shown up with a box full of tamales from my mother.
***
Two years ago
“Holy crap that man’s freakin’ hot!” I said to my best friend in the whole wide world.
Georgia was freakin’ beautiful. Just as beautiful now as she had been when she’d left.
And I’d missed the absolute crap out of her.
Georgia smiled over at me.
“Which one?” She asked cheekily.
I knew that was right.
They were all overly hot.
Except my brother. He was just my brother, and eww. That was just wrong to think of that… on so many levels I couldn’t even list them all.
“Everyone but Nico. He’s ugly,” I told her.
She gave me a roll of her eyes. “Your brother is beautiful, and you damn well know it.”
I shrugged.
“I was talking about Michael,” I stated, watching as he leaned forward on his chair and laced his fingers between his knees.
Georgia rolled her eyes.
“Why are you always going for the bad ones?” She asked, forcing a beer in my hand.
I blinked.
“I don’t like beer,” I said, extending my hand to her, as well as the bottle.
She gave me a pointed look. “Go take it to him. He asked for it.”
Butterflies started to churn in my belly, and I smiled at my best friend. “I love you, you know.”
Georgia’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “Don’t make me cry. Take it to him before I do.”
Sticking out my tongue, I walked across the space separating Georgia and me from the men.
I knew he’d clocked me from the moment I left Georgia.
He wasn’t so much as watching me, as he was aware of me.
When I arrived at his side, he turned his face up to me and looked at me, not smiling.
“Your beer?” I offered it to him.
He took it from me carefully. So carefully that he didn’t touch a single piece of my skin in the transfer.
“Thanks,” he muttered, smiling half-heartedly. “’Preciate it.”
I had seen him before. Noticed him at SWAT events. Watched him while visiting my brother. That was the night I became aware of him.
That I became obsessed with him.
That was the night that my world changed, and I wished upon a star, while standing under the star-lit sky with Michael next to me.
Hours after handing him that beer, he told me about his ex-wife. About his job. About how his wife blamed him for not wanting kids, as for why she’d cheated on him.
That was the night I fell in love with him.
Head over boot heels.
***
“Do you need some clothes?” I asked softly.
He shook his head. “No. I’m gonna go straight to the station and change into my workout gear. Thanks for the offer, though.”
Smiling, I punched in the code that would get me through the door, but stopped when Michael called my name.
“Nikki?”
I turned to find him staring at me.
His eyes full of pain.
“You…you want to catch dinner and a movie this week?” He asked hopefully.
I blinked, then a small smile split my face. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”
He nodded, turned, and walked out of the building. Not once glancing back.
And there I was left in the hallway, practically bouncing on my toes in excitement.
Then I turned around, and the smile slowly fell from my face when I saw Joslin standing there, her eyes full of fire.
Choosing to ignore her, I walked past her with a muttered, “Excuse me.”
But I knew that wouldn’t be the end of it.
Not even close.
Lani Lynn Vale is married to the love of her life that she met in high school. She fell in love with him because he was wearing baseball pants. Ten years later they have three perfectly crazy children and a cat named Demon who likes to wake her up at ungodly times in the night. They live in the greatest state in the world, Texas. She writes contemporary and romantic suspense, and has a love for all things romance. You can find Lani in front of her computer writing away in her fictional characters world…that is until her husband and kids demand sustenance in the form of food and drink.
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