Yes, Jasmine Walt runs a blog hop all about sassy heroines.

I figured that this was right up my alley.

Without any further ado, here’s an excerpt from my latest story Last Call: Denouement:

Rick’s battered kidneys protested when he bent over, placing his palms on the thin mat covering the floor. He gritted his teeth as he fought to ignore the bruise growing near his spine.
Knowing that Jen would be here soon had left him distracted and open. A truly terrible thing when Mina needed something to punch. She had pounded on him mercilessly every time she slipped past his guard.
Suddenly weary of the potential incoming storm, he stood to glance at her in the mirror and had to choke back a laugh. Her gaze was obviously glued to his ass.
“Hey, lady, my eyes are up here.”
Her olive face flushed a deep red. “Oh, gods.”
This time the laugh escaped, and he turned to her. “That’s the third time tonight. What’s up with you?”
She covered her face with her hands for a moment, then laughed, as well. “Just feeling… lonely.”
Rick’s humor vanished. He had wandered directly into dangerous territory. “You don’t have to go in to work at night. You should call off and go out with Jen and me.”
She gaped at him for a moment, then shook her head, leaving a strand of black hair stuck to her sweaty cheek. “Really? How are you going to broach that subject? ‘Mind if my ex-girlfriend, who I live with, tags along with us on our first date in three weeks? I noticed her checking out my ass earlier, and I think she needs to get out of the house’.” She rolled her dark eyes. “Are you trying to get dumped?”
He shrugged, fighting the growing embarrassment. “When you put it that way…’
“Besides, it’s only two hours. If I don’t hear of anything worth hunting, Matty already made plans for me to third wheel with him and Dean. It’s movie night.” Her eyes twitched, and Rick pulled her into a hug.
She clung to him for a moment, but pushed away with dry eyes. “You stink. You should hit the shower before Jen gets here.”
He grabbed her thin shoulders. “Mina, this is me.”
She might have rolled her eyes again, but a smile winked across her lips. “I’ll be better on the twenty-sixth. You know that.” She pulled in a deep breath, resting her hands on his forearms. He kissed the top of her head, and she went rigid.
Rick sighed, knowing she was thinking of the Trojan again. “He’s coming back, Mina. He loves you.”
Her eyes screwed shut and she swallowed hard. Rick pulled her into another hug. For a moment, he wished things had worked out between them. It wasn’t that he still wanted her. In fact, after the break up, they’d fallen into the old sibling-like relationship with only a few bumps. When those bumps left the occasional bruise, she glossed it over with humor.
Same as me.
Still, he couldn’t wait for the Trojan to prove him right. Rick knew the man would be back for Mina. Days like this, though, when she was lonely and miserable, he wished he’d been who she wanted. He hated seeing her cry.
“Thank you,” she said into his chest. “For everything.”
“Just three more days and then Christmas is over.”
She walked away with a nod, wiping at her eyes, finally. “I know. And I’m doing better than last year.”
Rick found a laugh at the memory. “Yeah, I don’t think Sam could handle another drunken holiday.”
She snickered as she tossed him a cold water bottle from the mini-fridge. “He should have known better than to try and go shot for shot with a werewolf.”