Hiya guys! We have Victoria Sue popping in today with the fabulous cover to her upcoming release Five Minutes Longer. We have a short intro from Victoria, a fantastic excerpt and a brilliant giveaway, so check out the cover, enjoy the post and leave a comment to enter the giveaway! <3 ~Pixie~

Five Minutes Longer

Victoria Sue

Talon Valdez knew that when he transformed into an enhanced human, his life and his dreams were finished. Reviled, mistrusted, and often locked away, the enhanced are viewed as monsters, despised by the public, and never trusted to serve in the military or any law enforcement agency.

Years later he gets a chance to set up a task force of enhanced to serve in the FBI, but with one proviso: each enhanced must partner with a regular human.

Finn Mayer dreamed of joining the FBI since he was fourteen and made every possible sacrifice to make it happen, including living with his selfish mother and bullying homophobic brother and never having a boyfriend. But his undiagnosed dyslexia stopped his aspirations dead in their tracks. His last chance is to partner with Talon, an enhanced with fatal abilities who doesn’t trust regular humans with their secrets and wants Finn to fail.

Four weeks to prove himself to the team. Four weeks for the team to prove itself to the public. And when another group threatens their success—and their lives are at stake—four weeks for them to survive.

Victoria Sue!

“Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.”

Who doesn’t love a hero? I’m constantly fascinated with people who aren’t supposed to be but turn out heroic anyway. Five Minutes Longer is just that. Talon is an enhanced human and despised as a monster by his family and society, and Finn, a regular human whose undiagnosed dyslexia meant his poor grades wouldn’t normally make the cut for the FBI.

This is my first publication with Dreamspinners, and I am all sorts of excited for you to read their story.

Excerpt

Talon stared down at the sleeping young man. He was too damn good-looking for his own good, for starters. He’d noticed his dark green eyes last night when he first looked at him in Tony Gregory’s office. That was before they widened with shock when he saw Talon’s mark. He didn’t want to wait around to see the look of shock turn to one of disgust—or worse, pity.

He wasn’t sure which was harder growing up: the looks of fear on people’s faces or the do-gooders who decided he was mentally subnormal and always talked really slowly and carefully to him.
Finn moaned and moved restlessly. Talon stood there, leaning casually against his spare bedroom door, sipping his coffee. The other full mug of coffee sat steaming next to the bed. Finn’s nostrils had flared a couple of seconds ago as the coffee aroma settled in the room. Talon took another sip and winced as the hot liquid stung his cut lip. He flexed his sore arm carefully, thankful it was only Finn who was having physical tests today and not him.

At some point around 5:00 a.m., when Talon woke to find Finn completely passed out in the chair next to the bed, he had stared in astonishment. No only had Finn interrupted his beating without taking one look and getting back in the elevator, but he also challenged six armed men. Either he was one of the bravest men Talon had ever met, or he was incredibly stupid. Talon was leaning toward the incredibly stupid.

Gregory told him that Finn had been awake for nearly thirty-six hours by the time he arrived in Tampa, but the guy had absolutely no situational awareness. He never stirred once when Talon lifted him out of the chair and tucked him into his spare bed. Talon would have to get him cured of that straightaway.

Talon smiled sardonically to himself. At around the same time as he carried Finn to bed, he decided he deserved a fair shot, and he wasn’t sure who would be the most surprised when Finn woke and he told him that.

A fair shot at getting into Quantico, he hurriedly corrected himself. He still hadn’t changed his mind about working with regular humans.

Talon wiped the smile off his face as Finn stirred and blinked sleepily. “Coffee’s there,” he said mildly, somewhat satisfied as Finn started a little and opened his eyes wider to look at him. The green in his eyes was as dark as he remembered.

Finn stared at him, clearly not knowing what to say, reached for the coffee, and then took a sip without looking. “Eww,” he said, looking at his cup as if Talon had given him dishwater or something.

“Don’t like coffee?” Talon drawled, not really giving a rat’s ass.

“Have you got any cream or sugar?” Finn asked hesitantly.

“No,” Talon said shortly, trying not to roll his eyes. He waved to the door next to the window. “Shower’s in there. I got your bag from the truck. We leave in thirty minutes.”

Finn blinked again and stared at Talon. “Are you all right?” he blurted.

Talon paused just as he was pushing himself off the wall to go back to the kitchen. The question threw him. “I’ll live,” he answered and shut the door behind him as he walked out, probably a little harder than he intended.

He walked into his small kitchen and drained his coffee. He’d already called Gregory, and they found the cameras in the parking garage had been tampered with, which meant inside access. Gregory was uncomfortable, but it was clear he thought what Talon already knew. The guys who beat him up were cops. Cops or agents. The field office shared the same secured parking as the local sheriff, and a lot of them were friends. He wasn’t surprised. He’d been used to that sort of hate and discrimination since he was twelve. It shouldn’t shock him anymore.

Gregory didn’t even bother asking if Talon was going for treatment somewhere. He knew better. His rapid healing ability was one of the few benefits of being an enhanced. He still broke bones, and it wasn’t some amazing shit that could heal in a few hours or anything. He’d broken his tibia once and his arm twice, maybe a few ribs when he was sparring with Vance, another enhanced. Those bones completely healed in less than three weeks, and the injuries he got last night would barely put a dent in his stride.

He wasn’t stupid, though. He knew it would have gotten a lot worse if Finn hadn’t intervened. Talon was angrier at himself than he was at the goons with the bats. He was careless. He was furious at the FBI for foisting off some substandard schoolboy on him and wasn’t concentrating when he stepped out of the elevator. The first blow was to the back of the head, and that was the only reason they got the drop on him.

He heard the shower stop and grunted. Finn, at least, took his instructions to hurry up seriously.

Five minutes later Finn appeared in the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and his towel draped over his shoulders. He was carrying his rumpled suit jacket. “Have you got anything I can clean this with?”

Talon blinked and had to unglue his tongue from the roof of his mouth. He stared at Finn’s chest. Solid muscles but slim. The guy looked in reasonably good shape. Fuck. His life would get immensely more complicated if he was attracted to Finn. Talon shifted his weight from one foot to the other and took another gulp of his second cup. He forced himself to look at the jacket. He could see the blood stains—his blood—on the sleeve.

Finn looked up at him, obviously wondering if he was being ignored. An angry flush crept up his neck. “Never mind,” he said in resignation and turned to go.

Talon reached out and caught his shoulder. Finn stiffened, and Talon dropped his hand. “We’ll drop it off to get cleaned on the way in. It’s Saturday. Wear jeans.”

Finn turned around suspiciously and eyed Talon’s own denim. Then he shrugged.

They both heard Finn’s stomach rumble in the quiet kitchen, and Talon watched in fascination as Finn’s face turned pink. “We’ll get some breakfast on the way,” he said as Finn disappeared back into the bedroom.

Talon swore again to himself. Finn was greener than his yard. He hadn’t shown any sense thinking he could take six assailants on. A stranger just touched his shoulder, and he didn’t object. He let someone carry him to bed without waking up, and he blushed. Real, honest-to-God blushed. Like some teenage girl. He also didn’t come up to Talon’s shoulder, and the sight of him walking around in his boxers made Talon want to pick him up and take him back to bed, or the shower, or any available surface that was convenient to bend him over.

Talon was so screwed.

About Victoria

Victoria Sue… Wrote her first book on a dare from her hubby two years ago and he says he has regretted it every day since. Loves writing about gorgeous boys loving each other the best—especially with either a paranormal or a historical twist. Had a try at writing contemporary but failed spectacularly when it grew four legs and a tail. Loves her wolves! Is an English northern lass but is currently serving twenty to life in Florida—unfortunately, she spends more time chained to her computer than on a beach. Loves to hear from her readers and can be found most days lurking on Facebook.

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Giveaway!

Win an ecopy of one book from Victoria Sue’s backlist!

(Just leave a comment on this post telling Victoria what you think of her new cover!)

(Ends when Victoria says it ends!)

(Winner will be picked from the comments at random by Victoria Sue)