More Reviews...and I feel like teasing you : )

So, I'm including a little more of Remember Me below...

I'm so excited about the Atlanta's Heroes series. Here's hoping my editor is, too, LOL!! Wouldn't that be a great New Year's gift? Maybe we'll have something more to celebrate during out Valentine's launch party for The Perfect Daughter.

Did I mention that the bookclub copies of The Perfect Daughter are out, and evidently being read quite avidly. Over the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, the Amazon.com sales of my back list shot through the roof--the two other "daughter" books, The Unknown Daughter and The Runaway Daughter, topped Amazon's Superromance series bestseller list, and The Prodigal's Return got as high as #10 on the overall series list, with Nora Roberts all around me. Can't tell you how amazing it is to see folks digging your book enough to start looking for other novels.

Even the Romantic Times reviewer who's had difficulty getting excited about my emotional, angsty romances is getting on board the Love Machine this time around. Here's what she has to say:

"Anna DeStefano's The Perfect Daughter (4 stars) offers an insightful look into the realities of dealing with tragedy. Her characters are well drawn, and her dialogue sparkles."

Wow! I sparkle ;o)

If you can't wait until Valentines Day to read The Perfect Daughter, you can get you copy now. It's up on eHarlequin, and they're shipping my books out to eager fans even as we speak (even though I don't even have my author copies yet). Here's the link. Be sure to let me know what you think, if you take a sneak peak!

http://store.eharlequin.com/t2_book_detail.jhtml?PRODID=13733&_requestid=3363

If you do, I'll just have to reward you by including more excerpts of upcoming books, as fast as I can write the proposals...

Here's another nibble of Remember Me. We're picking up mid-scene, where we left off on Monday. There are two more scenes to go...so stick close...you never know when I'll throw something else out here...or pics of the Valentines party prizes...or news of chats and other online fun coming as soon as I FINISH THIS BOOK ;O)
***********

"It's okay," he whispered close to her ear. "Try to relax. You're safe now."

It took every ounce of strength she had left, but she willed her body to still and her eyes to open. To focus through the blinding light. A tall figure towered over her.

Blue, shapeless shirt.

Blue mask.

Bluer eyes.

Honest eyes.

Safe.

Her mind rebelled from the thought. She tried to jerk away, but his gentle touch stopped her. That and the weakness stealing through her body.

Their gazes collided. He smiled behind his mask, his expression kind. Caring. She hadn't had either in a long time. She was certain of it, even though little else made sense at the moment.

"We've given you a sedative," he explained. "You should be feeling it soon. Try to relax. No one's going to hurt you here."

Her instinctive laugh became a moan.

He studied the whirring and beeping monitors she hadn't noticed before, his eyes frowning. His hand moved to the whatever bandage seemed to engulf half her head, pulling it back so he could check beneath.

"You've got one minute to get her under," he said to someone she couldn't see.

Blackness reached for her again.

His hand smoothed against her forehead, magically easing the pain. She blinked away the shadows, focusing on his eyes. Their blue was shot through with a steel-like, determined grey.

"Help me," she begged. "You have to help me get out of here. We need to go..."

"Go where?" he asked. "We, who?"

The breath clogged in her throat at the question. Adrenaline grounded her more firmly in the present, forcing a moment of clarity.

But there was nothing there. No answer to his question.

She couldn't remember.

God! She couldn't remember anything!

Nothing but the gun pointing at her, and the screams. But who had been screaming? Who had been clinging to her hand?

"Oh, my God!" She struggled to sit up, the result a pitiful display, since she could no longer feel her body.

She had to get out of there.

"I have to go back, before he--"

"Go back where?" He cupped her shoulder to still her struggles against the straps holding her arms to the table. Took her hand and softly squeezed her fingers. "There's nowhere to go right now. Let me take care of you, then we'll figure out the rest. It's going to be okay."

He was a surgeon, she realized. The room beyond him, an operating theater.

"You've received quite a blow to your head," he explained. "And you need immediate surgery. But you're safe. You're not alone. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

A mask was placed over her face.

"Breath normally." He nodded to someone standing behind her, then smiled back down. "Let yourself fall asleep. I promise, I'll be here when you wake up. Trust me."

She was in bad shape.

She'd seen the truth in his eyes. In the barely controlled urgency behind the orders he'd calmly issued. The right side of her head felt like it was on fire. The nightmare was real. She could die. But worse, she'd...failed...at something. And now...

Now someone she cared about deeply, someone she couldn't remember, was in danger, and she couldn't help.

Please, she begged him with her eyes.

"It will be okay," he promised, his gaze serious but confident. "Trust me."

And she did.

She shouldn't.

She couldn't.

She hadn't trusted anyone in...she didn't know how long. But it felt as if it had been a long, long time.

But as the anesthesia rolled through her, enticing her to let go, a feeling of security cloaked her as well.

She could finally stop running. Running from what, she had no idea.

But just this once, she could stop.