Giveaway and Excerpt: Cruel Obsession by J.L. Black and C. Hallman

Cruel Obsession
C. Hallman, J.L. Beck
(The Obsession Duet, #1)
Publication date: February 28th 2020
Genres: Adult, Romance

We were only kids when I made the vow to protect her.
First from the monsters hiding under the bed and then the ones roaming the world freely.
My obsession with Dove wasn’t normal, it toed the line on psychotic but my love for her overshadowed that. I’d killed, destroyed and hurt those that had done her wrong. I’d watched her for years wanting to claim her but refusing too. I was both her guardian angel and the demon lurking in the shadows.
She was mine, even though she didn’t know it yet.
I had planned to let her live her life, while I watched from afar.
Until one night, everything changed, and I was forced to kidnap her.
She doesn’t remember me.
She begs me to let her go.
But I can’t. I won’t.
There are things she doesn’t know. Secrets I cannot tell her but one thing is clear.
I’ll die before I ever let her slip through my fingers.
**This book is not suitable for all readers due to violence, sexual content, and mature themes.**

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Please, don’t, please…” I start to beg.
“Shhh,” he murmurs softly. The man’s face is millimeters away from mine, and I can feel his harsh heartbeat through the thin material of his shirt, the clean scent of soap invading my senses.
He releases his hold on me, but I’m still trapped between him and the wall with nowhere to go. No escape. Fear wraps around my throat like a shackle. Lifting a hand to my trembling face, he cups my cheek and gently swipes away the tears. I wasn’t even aware they’d started falling from my eyes.
“I would never ever hurt you. You are way too important to me, Dove. You have to trust me, I promise everything is going to be okay.” He tries to soothe me, but not a single part of me believes him. My mind is racing, and I have a thousand questions. Why else would he break into my house and attack me if he wasn’t going to hurt me? How does he know my name? And most importantly, why am I important to him? He must have the wrong person. This is all a big misunderstanding.
I’m shaking now, consumed with fear, and my vision is blurry with tears.
“Stop,” he orders, slamming a fist into the wall beside my head. His voice is harsh and only makes me cry harder. He seems to grow frustrated by my failure to listen and releases a hard sigh a moment later. “I didn’t want to have to do this to you… but you’ve left me no choice.”
He takes a step closer, and we’re so close now that we are chest to chest. Our faces are only inches apart. My eyes are in line with his full lips, and that’s when I realize just how much taller he is. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him reaching for something, and I know this has to be it. The end is near, after all I’ve been through in my life, this is how it’s going to end.
“I’m sorry,” I whimper, and even in the face of death, I’m unable to stop the tears from coming. I want to fight, but it’s as if there isn’t anything left in me.
I’m barely hanging on, barely breathing, barely here. I flinch when he leans into me and buries his face into my hair. The action is so intimate, and when I hear him inhale sharply like he’s smelling me, a shiver skids down my spine.
“No, it’s me who is sorry, Dove,” he whispers against my ear a moment before I feel a pricking sensation against my neck and something cold entering my skin.

Author Bio:
J.L. Beck is a USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR, she has written over fifty different romance novels. She started her journey of writing back in 2014 and hasn't slowed down a second since then.
She's captivated by real romance, and loves reading about strong "ALPHA" males, as well as sassy heroines that know or may not know what they want. She is best known for delivering a happily ever after but has ended things on a cliffhanger a time or two.
When she's not typing away at her next book you can find her being a mom to her two adorable kiddos and wife to her high school sweetheart.
She's obsessed with Starbucks, social media, and is definitely more of a dog person than cat.

Author links:
Goodreads / Newsletter / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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Born and raised in Germany, Cassandra moved to the United States when she was eighteen. She always had a love for reading, that love slowly transpired into writing. She put fingers to the keyboard and started writing about the dark side of romance.
Cassandra is one half of the international bestselling author duo Beck & Hallman, who are most knows for the writing the Northwood University series.
The pair also write under the pen name Jenna Reed.

Author links:
Goodreads / Bookbub / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram