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About Enhanced
At the Institute, they breed people like livestock. One powerful doctor decides which children get to grow up, and which will die. Losers are dumped in the savage slum outside Institute walls. Those kids never come back. Sixteen-year-old Michelle is a perfect specimen, destined for a luxurious life as a breeder. When her brother and her boyfriend are both mysteriously culled from the breeding program, she jumps the wall to find them. Alone in the ghetto, she’s in trouble until handsome, streetwise Dillon stakes a claim to her. She’s mortified by her attraction to a Normal. But the doctor is using the missing boys in a twisted experiment, and she needs Dillon’s help to stop him. Michelle must rescue the boys, but a plague is spreading, the doctor is after her, and Dillon isn’t thrilled to help find her lost boyfriend.
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Excerpt
A creaking sound came from outside, and Michelle realized that was the noise that woke her. She lay still, listening. Another creak raised goose bumps that tingled their way down her spine, and then a man’s heavy boots thudded slowly across the balcony. A shadow ghosted past the draperies. It’s a robbery. Some crazy Norm snuck over the wall, looking for valuables. Or worse, girls.
Michelle pushed off the covers and got out of bed as quietly as she could, suddenly aware of the ridiculously low cut neckline on her sheer thigh-length nightgown. Buying her first sexy nightie had seemed fun at the time. Now it was just another stupid thing to add to the list. Terror made her heart thud, but she forced her feet to carry her across her bedroom to the double doors that opened onto her private balcony.
A spark of anger caught fire in her chest and
burned there. Filthy Norm. How dare you?
In the dark, her hands balled into fists. Three steps to the door. Two. The
night breeze toyed with the hem of her gown, but she ignored it. One. Michelle
reached for the latch, her body tense, ready to run or fight. The door suddenly
flew open in her face and the intruder’s huge shoulders filled the doorway,
blocking the faint moonlight. In her shock, Michelle forgot to scream.
“Michelle,” a deep
voice hissed.
It took a
heartbeat for her to recognize him. “Brian! What are you doing here?”
“Shhh.” In a
stride he closed the distance between them and placed a finger softly on her
lips. His arm slid around her waist and pulled her to him. She felt tiny beside
him. His big hand wrapped halfway around her waist.
“Sorry I scared
you. I…I just needed to talk to someone.”
“Someone.”
Michelle repeated frostily. “At two in the morning.”
“You, I mean.
You.” Brian’s voice was hoarse with pain. “Things have been so awful lately…”
His agonized tone
melted Michelle’s heart, so she reached up with both hands to touch his face.
The stubble under her fingers made him feel like a stranger. Even his scent
smelled musky and foreign, but it sent heat down her body to the core.
“Okay, but we have
to be quiet so we don’t wake my father.” Michelle took Brian’s hand and pulled
him outside onto the balcony, where two chairs and a little round table stood
beside her cushioned recliner. Brian surprised her by taking her in his arms
and lifting her a few inches off her toes. When he sat down on the recliner, he
brought her with him, so she ended up straddling his lap in her white lace
panties. Michelle flushed, completely distracted by the feeling of his body
beneath her. With an effort, she put both hands on his shoulders and looked him
in the eye. “So, you came here to talk?”
“Yeah, but you
look amazing,” Brian rumbled, pulling her into a kiss.
A moment later, he
stood up, still holding her, and turned around to set her down lightly on the
cushion. When he turned his back to stare into the darkened grounds of the
estate, Michelle leaned back with a sigh. Damn.
He really did come here to talk.
“What’s wrong,
Brian?”
He flopped face
down on the recliner beside her, nuzzling her neck lightly with his lips.
“Nothing. Everything.”
“You don’t have to
tell me if you don’t want to,” Michelle whispered.
Brian rolled over
onto his back and pulled her head onto his shoulder. One of his hands twined
with hers. “I wish we could connect like we did before.”
Michelle smiled.
“I think you have to be born with the gene for that to work.”
Brian squeezed her
hand a little harder before he gave up and ran his fingers down her bare arm
instead. Michelle gasped a little when he pulled up the white nightgown to
stroke her sleek flank.
“Sorry,” Brian
murmured, taking his hand away. “I forget how young you are.”
“Don’t. I mean do,
forget it, please.”
He kissed her
again, but then stopped and stared into space. “You know, I fought so hard just
to survive here.”
“Survive?”
Michelle repeated apprehensively.
“You know. Beat
the tests,” Brian said bitterly. His great chest heaved under her hand as he
took a deep breath. “I made it, Michelle, and nothing changed. They didn’t even
mark the event. You’d think they’d be like, hey, Brian, you made it to eighteen
without getting culled, you can relax now. But we’re all still here, still
being tested, still trying to hang on.” He buried his face in her curls. “When
does it end?”
“I don’t know, Brian. I don’t know.” Michelle held him
in her arms and stroked his back until he left her in the gray light of dawn.
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About the Author
Courtney Farrell is a biologist who turned her love of books into a career as an author. She has written fourteen nonfiction books for young people, mostly on social and environmental topics. The first two books in her science fiction/romance series Enhanced were nominated for the 2015 BTS E-Mag Red Carpet Awards in the YA division. Courtney lives with her husband and sons on a Colorado ranch where they enjoy a menagerie of horses, dogs, cats, and chickens.
