Cover Reveal and Excerpt: Beautifully Haunted by Scarlet Blackwell

Ooh... spooky season means yummy shenanigans and the highly anticipated sequel to Highland Fling... Beautifully Haunted and we have an exclusive excerpt to tantalize you!

The Blurb:

"This desire for you, it makes me afraid. I hate that you have this hold over me.”

Dexter Summerfield hasn’t kept his promise. When he moved to the Scottish Highlands to live with Kade Macbeth, it was on the condition that their relationship wasn’t a secret. Dexter had already announced it to millions of people anyway, so what’s the big deal?

But when Dexter goes away to work, he reverts to his old way—wild partying and out of control behaviour. He misses Kade so much it eats him alive. Still struggling to accept his sexuality, he runs the risk of losing the man that means everything to him.

When they are invited as a couple to spend the night in a haunted house for a televised Halloween special, Dexter refuses to go. A disagreement escalates to a break-up. Kade arrives at Linton Hall in Whitby and encounters temptation in the form of actor Ferdinand.

Dexter has no intention of letting Kade go, but he’s in for the fight of his life at the haunted house when he has to contend with ghosts, manic pop stars, a medieval knight and being mistaken for Dracula. 

Beautifully Haunted is the sequel to Highland Fling. The two books should be read in order.

Possible spoilers:

Themes: Halloween, angst, gay for you, guilt, hurt/comfort, haunted houses.

Excerpt

"Kade and Ferdinand turned in surprise as Dexter thundered down the hallway, the polished wood reverberating under his booted footsteps. Kade had time to see Dexter’s flushed, furious face before he shoved Ferdinand in the middle of the chest, sending him staggering back into the dining room and almost knocking him down.

“Hey.” Kade put himself between the two men, grabbing Dexter’s arms.

Dexter fought him, eyes flashing wildly, and Kade pushed him back.

“Dexter, we’re about to begin shooting.” Ivan had appeared at the door. “A fist-fight is great publicity, keep it coming.” He cackled.

Dexter scowled and swung away, stalking down the hall. Kade ran after him. He gripped Dexter’s arm and shoved him towards the nearest room. Dexter grabbed the door handle, swinging it open, and Kade bundled him inside. 

The room was small and close. It contained a bed and a bureau with a jug and bowl. A piece of the wood panelling stood open at a different angle to the rest of the wall. Kade had seen these hidden structures before in other houses. A priest hole. Somewhere to hide your Catholic priest during the reign of Elizabeth Ⅰ when they were persecuted.

Kade closed the door and Dexter swung to face him, breathing hard.

“This is what I find you doing?” he cried. “Giving some guy your number? This is your idea of revenge? We’re not at fucking school, Kade!”

Kade shoved him back. “That guy told me he saw you fucking the man from the photo! In the fucking alleyway over a barrel.”

Dexter’s flushed face reddened further. He paced to the other side of the room and back. “No,” he said.

“Like you even fucking know! Every time you go out, you’re on a mission to ruin your fucking liver, Dexter! Why? Because you need to blot out the fact you sleep with a man every night?”

Dexter clenched his jaw. Kade had never seen him so livid. Apart from that first week he met Dexter when they had wound each other up into such a state, it had ended in one explosive sexual encounter after another. “I didn’t do it,” he said between his teeth. “I wasn’t even fucking capable. I was too busy puking.”

Kade turned away. “Whatever.”

“Hey.” Dexter grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. “The only one being unfaithful here is you, after I came to make it right.”

With his heart beating hard, Kade shouted, “The time to make it right is long past! You’ve had a year to make it right and you just keep on fucking it up, don’t you?”

Dexter pushed him against the wall. Kade tried to step around him and Dexter shoved him back, gripping his wrists.

“Get the fuck off me.”

“No.”

Kade fought Dexter’s grip. He pulled free, marched to the door again and once more, Dexter bundled him back. This time, he threw him face first against the wall and pinned him there with his body.

Holding his wrists hard, Dexter breathed into his ear, “Listen to me.”

 Kade squirmed in his grip. Dexter held his wrists with a force that may have bruised, but he had no intention of letting Kade walk out into that goddamn haunted house where they wouldn’t be able to deal with this for the rest of the day.

“Fucking let me go,” Kade ground out. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say.” He sounded close to tears. The heat of his lean, familiar body scorched Dexter through his clothes. He tried to focus on what he had to say but it was damn near impossible when he was this close to Kade and already getting an erection. Kade bucked back against him and Dexter nearly groaned at the added friction to his cock. He pressed harder against Kade.

“This is what you do to me,” he said into Kade’s ear. “And you think I’d actually go looking for someone else?” He rubbed his cock against Kade’s ass and was rewarded with a reluctant moan that made him throb painfully. 

“Don’t,” Kade choked out.

“How can I not? I want you. I always want you. When I’m with you, when I’m not with you, when I’m asleep.” Dexter pressed his lips to the soft, scented skin of Kade’s neck, inhaling his cologne. “You drive me out of my fucking mind with need, Kade. Even after a year. This desire for you, it makes me afraid. I hate that you have this hold over me.” His voice had become quieter and quieter and now it shook. He closed his eyes, tightening his hold on Kade’s wrists and mouthing his skin.

Kade caught his breath. “I don’t… I didn’t mean… I don’t know what you want. I don’t know how to change that. I don’t want you to hate me. You should go. We can’t carry on like this, we’ll destroy each other.” He buried his face against the wall as sobs wracked his body.

Dexter’s heart broke bruised and bleeding through his chest. He released Kade’s wrists to entwine their fingers hard, still holding Kade’s hands to the wall and kissed Kade’s tear-streaked cheek.

“I can’t,” Dexter said with his voice breaking. “I can’t let you go.”

Kade turned his head. He gave a moan as their lips met clumsily. 

Beautifully Haunted releases on October 16th and is available to pre-order today!  You can also grab it in Kindle Unlimited as soon as it goes live!