Fourteen Months, One Photo, And A SEAL Who Refused To Quit
Dear Reader,
Clash Landing didn't begin with a plot for me. It began with a feeling. I wanted to climb inside Mako's head, my former SEAL, and live what he was living.
The thing I was chasing was craving. That deep, visceral kind that swells in a man for months before he's ever close enough to touch the person he wants.
And I refused to let it resolve quickly. The instant Mako finally reaches Erika, he slams into a wall.
Yes, reaches her.
His mission is to bring his teammate's missing sister home alive.
For fourteen long months he followed her trail around the world with a crumpled photograph of Erika riding in his pocket. Really picture it. A man built to charge straight at danger, guarding one worn 4x3 inch photo through every mile. On paper the assignment was clean and simple. Find her, bring her home, keep her breathing.
But the search slowly hardened into a fixation. He'd catch himself imagining how those eyes would look turned his way, what her voice might sound like in the quiet after dark. Piece by piece he built a whole future around a woman who had no idea he existed. Obsession is the honest name for it. And by the time he tracked her down, I'm certain it had already tipped into love.
Then they finally stood face to face.
This is the part I loved sinking into.
Dr. Erika Cerna has no intention of playing anyone's damsel. She doesn't want saving. She's doing dangerous, meaningful work of her own, protecting human trafficking victims, and she won't be handing her life to some growly operator just because he shows up with a jaw like that and heat in his stare. Her code name is Artemis, goddess of the hunt. That one struck me like lightning while I stood watering my basil, and the moment I read what Artemis truly represented, I was floored.
Divine insight? I couldn't say. But it suited her right down to the letter.
I got a little giddy over it. That's what tends to happen when I'm deep in the creative zone.
So every bit of hunger Mako had been storing away crashed head-on into a woman determined not to be caught.
That collision is the beating heart of the book, and it was a thrill to write, because Mako is a SEAL down to the bone. Stubborn. Relentless. Protective far past the point of reason. He was sure he could win her heart, if only she'd hold still long enough to let him. But he knew the order it all had to happen in.
Save her first. Finish the mission.
This is romantic suspense, so naturally the climb is steep, nearly impossible with killers dogging her every step and not one reason for her to trust a stranger.
She doesn't believe a syllable of why he claims to be there.
And she's sharp. She's tough. She's spent her whole life surviving entirely on her own.
Picture that clash…
Watching him earn it is exactly what makes the payoff so sweet.
Here's a man who wanted her before he'd ever heard her say his name, forced to prove himself the hard way, one dangerous step after the next.
No shortcuts allowed. She makes him earn every last inch.
That's what I was reaching for the whole way through. Not a tidy little romance where two people meet cute and settle into place. This is a story of protection and craving with the obstacles stacked sky-high: explosions, a plane crash, dangerous rebels, and a woman on a mission of her own.
Are you up for the adventure?
Mako and Erika's story is Clash Landing, and you'll find it on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited.
Stay adventurous, friend. Jenna Gunn