Mandy M. Roth's Blog, page 76

Misfit in Middle America by Mandy M Roth

Paranormal Romance

Police Chief Adam Sisel has problems. He’s got three dead bodies, a murderer on the loose, a teenage son who’s as Goth as they come, an estranged wife, and the hots for a woman who doesn’t seem to know he exists. At some point, something has to give, and when it does, he finds out there is more to the tiny town of North Maple Ridge than meets the eye.

Warning: This short story was previously published at another house. It has been expanded by 6k words and now contains Beth’s POV. This short story contains graphic violence, explicit sex, adult situations, extreme gore, and is not for the faint of heart.

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Misfit in middle America

Mandy M. Roth

Dedication:

To my mother who never once stopped pushing me to dream regardless what I was doing, and who told me that little girls can grow up to be whatever they want to be.

To my stepfather, who dedicated thirty years to law enforcement and who has been a member of our family for eighteen of those. And to my father whose scary movie marathons helped me to grow into the freak I am today.

Chapter One

Adam

North Maple Ridge—a tiny town, tucked safely away in the middle of nowhere America. Bad things didn’t happen here. I’d know. I’d been the chief of police for ten years. I’d brought my son here with the knowledge hateful, ugly crimes didn’t reach this far into oblivion. The carnage around me provided how very wrong I’d been. This was worse than anything I’d seen being a big city detective.

I’d known Jonathon Williams since I’d come to town. Never did I dream that accepting the job of chief of police in a tiny, rural Midwest community would amount to this. If Jonathon’s brother, Robert, hadn’t been a witness to the crime, I’m not sure I’d have believed the body was Jonathon’s. It was mutilated, torn to shreds. We’d need to wait for official word from testing, but I knew in my gut the remains were human and they belonged to Jonathon.

The boy had grown into a man before my eyes. It seemed like only yesterday he was coming over to build a fort with my son, Justin. I could still hear the two of them smacking sticks together, pretending to be defending the universe from evil invaders. Now only silence filled the air. I’d have given anything to hear the echoes of past play, of excited children, innocent of all evil.

Jonathon, two weeks shy of his nineteenth birthday, was now dead. His life senselessly cut short, and it was my job to figure out who or what did it and why.

“It’s days like this that I hate my fucking job,” I whispered as I walked back to my SUV. Jonathon wasn’t the first victim. At the rate things were going, he wouldn’t be the last, and I was no closer to an answer than I had been weeks ago when the first killing occurred.

“Chief, do you need to see anything else, or can we bag ’em up?” asked Officer Braun. His light brown hair was cut close, as was often the case with new officers. Many thought it gave them a certain look, an extra edge of authority. Others just wanted to be sure that their hair was regulation so they went overboard. Braun struck me as the latter. He was a pleaser—the type of guy who always wanted to make someone else happy but always fearful of taking the lead.

He was new to police work. He’d only been in it a year now. The pay here was decent but he could have done much better in the city. His father had been an officer with our department and that meant something. These people tended to keep things local. Bringing me in as chief had been a big deal. For nearly a year it was all anyone seemed to talk about. Thankfully, those days had passed. Now, the only topic on anyone’s mind was the murders.

Braun looked a little green. I couldn’t say I blamed him. The prospect of bagging up a body that’s in pieces will make the best of men fall to their knees. This wasn’t our first and I feared it wouldn’t be our last, so I nodded my head for him to finish up.

Might as well learn to handle it now, I thought to myself as I walked away.

I opened my SUV door to head to the Williams’ house to inform them of their son’s death. Robert would need their support now, and I was pretty sure Mr. Williams would be able to offer it. Mrs. Williams, on the other hand, would more than likely be too distraught over the loss of her oldest boy to be much good to Robert. The boy had managed to survive a brutal attack and make it to the highway to flag down help. The paramedics were amazed that he was doing as well as he was. He’d lost a ton of blood. If he survived the night, it’d be a miracle. The last thing any of us wanted was for the Williams to have to bury both their boys.

“Excuse me, Chief Sisel, can I ask you a few questions?” I heard Beth Murray’s voice before I saw her. I thought about jumping in my SUV and driving off, but that would only add to the hysteria. Plus, I’d look like a pussy. The last thing I wanted to do was be cornered by her. Beth was the town’s lead reporter. Come to think of it, she was the town’s only reporter.

Pushy, demanding and sexy as all get out. Just being near her had a tendency to make my dick hard. Hell, thinking about her did the trick. She and I had a history of not seeing eye to eye. I’m not sure how it was we’d gotten off on the wrong foot but it had happened.

She’d been born and raised here, and she knew everyone. I knew that she’d gone to some fancy college on the east coast for a while, but after graduation, she headed home. I wasn’t a native here, but I knew the area’s appeal. I also knew that in Beth’s world I was a primary source for fact verification and that was it. If the town had had automated police records, I was sure she’d never bother to speak to me. She’d skip me and look it up herself.

“You can ask,” I answered succinctly. “Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.”

“I’d expect nothing less, Chief,” she said, a forced smile pressed to her lips. “I’ve learned to lower my expectations when dealing with you.”

I wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not. I watched her coming toward me with her blue jeans and tan sweater on. My gaze scanned the length of her body. I wished she’d wear clothes that fit her better. The ones she had on were too loose for my liking. Of course, if I got a say, I’d say she skip the clothing altogether.

I’d accidentally seen her once wearing a tiny black bikini. Well, wearing most of it that is. She was sunbathing in her backyard and I had responded to a call about a missing dog. I leaned over the fence to see if he’d run that way and found Beth lying there with the strings undone, leaving her pink nipples partially exposed to me. I could still remember the curve that her hip took, and the way her navel wanted to poke out, but didn’t. She wasn’t stick thin like so many women were now. Maybe if she showed off her figure a little bit more, it’d hide the fact she had some serious personality quirks. I doubted it though.

By the looks of her now, she’d been awakened out of a deep sleep to try to get the scoop. I had to laugh when I saw tiny wisps of her blonde hair come loose from its hair tie. During the day, she was always so put together, but in the middle of the night, she was as real as the rest of us. That was good to know, although I had fantasized many a night that she slept in tiny black silk panties with a garter belt and fishnet hose. But hey, what guy didn’t think about that?

Beth was nine years my junior, but it didn’t stop me from thinking about her—obsessing to be exact. Karen, my wife, had been gone since Justin was three. She said we’d married too young, and she needed her freedom. I agree, we did marry too young. We were both just eighteen when she got pregnant. She saw it as the end of our lives. I viewed it as the beginning. It was hard for the first couple of years. Damn hard.

I’d enrolled at the academy and was taking classes all day and working security at night. When I wasn’t at school I was working. It was hard for us, but I knew it’d be better on us in the long run. Two weeks after I started my first police job, Karen walked out on me. She dropped Justin off at the sitter’s and I hadn’t seen her since. Now, Justin was about to turn eighteen and getting ready to graduate, and I was chief of police. Maybe it had been for the best that she’d left.

As I watched Beth come closer to me, I wondered why I wasn’t dating more. I wasn’t old by anyone’s standards. I’d just turned thirty-six and had a better build than most of my son’s friends. Still, I didn’t feel right dating. Karen was gone, and I didn’t love her anymore, but I’d never gotten a divorce. At least I hadn’t yet. It hadn’t seemed important to me. My job consumed most of my time, and Justin was too high a priority to make room for a woman. I wasn’t a monk either. I’d had sex since Karen walked out on me, but I’d never had a relationship. Until Beth, I never thought I wanted one. Something about that feisty little blonde made me want to force her to commit.

My mind raced back to a week earlier when I’d run into the city for a seminar. It was a two-day planned event that left me having to get a hotel room for the night. A few of us had decided to go to a bar for a drink. I ended up meeting a hot little number whose boyfriend was out of town for the weekend. I could still feel her lips around my cock. She was one of those women with extra full lips. The kind that make you wonder what sort of work she had done to achieve such perfection.

She spent most of the night on her knees making remarks about how ‘gifted’ I was. I nearly grinned thinking about it. She’d been one of the rare few who begged me to come all over her face. I did, of course.

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Civil Twilight (Project Exorcism) by Mandy M Roth

Futuristic Sci-Fi Shapeshifter Vampire Paranormal Romance

Linked to the following Project Exorcism Books: Paranormal Payload, Force of Attraction, and Point of No Return

Stegian is a man held prisoner in his own body by a demon. A demon hell bent on ridding the planet of all Janelles. He rules by fear and he rules well. But, when a mysterious, gorgeous woman arrives late one night, tempting him, claiming to want to save him from himself, everything changes. He longs for her and wants to believe her words are true—that she can separate him from the vampire he carries within. Dare he hope? Dare he believe?

Jacquelyn Janelle is no longer held to the same rules that apply to her people. She’s ascended and gained valuable insight into the universe and its plans for one thought lost to evil. More than that, she’s fully aware who he is to her—her true mate. She’ll stop at nothing to assure she saves him, even if it’s from himself.

Warning: This novella contains explicit sex and violence. It is a story about redemption against all hope and about how love can transcend time and space. Plus, it has hot sex scenes for those unconcerned with the frilly stuff.

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Civil Twilight

Mandy M. Roth

Author’s Series Note

Each book in the Project Exorcism series is written to stand alone; however, I do recommend reading them in order to maximize reading pleasure. To aid any who have not, as of yet, read the other books, or any who are simply looking for a refresher, I thought this introduction might help.

Series background: Twenty-third century—Man has long since achieved space travel. Almost all planets in the known universe are part of the Commission, an intergalactic governing body that oversees the well-being of all within its quadrants.

Supernatural creatures were discovered among us in the twenty-first century and witchhunts quickly began to rid Earth of them. A battle broke out and Earth’s human population dropped. In the end, humans were victorious, but only because a few select figureheads in the supernatural world agreed to the terms of a peace treaty. The terms were simple. The supernaturals were to be escorted off planet Earth and relocated on other planets, ones that were not part of the Commission’s territory. Ones that were agreed upon ahead of time, and ones on which the supernaturals would not be a threat.

Thus began Project Exorcism. Five vessels set out on this mission. Only one arrived at its chosen destination. The others were thought lost during the meteoroid shower that occurred shortly after takeoff. Man now faces a new threat, only they are unaware of it. By shipping the supernaturals off, they unknowingly gave them access to other planets’ resources, including added magikal abilities, the ability to breed with their inhabitants, and so very much more.

Prologue

Nearing planet Sargaidia, onboard one of the Project Exorcism vessels, year 2056…

Vessel sirens continued to blare, announcing what Stegian already knew, the ship was in trouble. It had gotten swept into what he could assume were stellar remains. The ship had been plagued with issues since its launch. Stegian knew why. Those who had forced his kind from Earth cared little about their safety, only that they left the planet. The brains behind Project Exorcism had thought as far as getting supernaturals off the planet and out of the range of Earth. They’d sworn in negotiations that the planets they’d sought out were safe havens and new starts for the supernaturals. It, like everything else, had been lies. He was sure of it. He’d been a fool to believe them—to think mankind had an ounce of decency left in it.

Now, countless light years from home, their ship was damaged because of stellar remains. The pilot of the vessel swore the anomaly was rare and not showing on his instrument panel. Stegian believed the young vampire. He had nothing to gain by lying. He was as trapped on the ship as the rest of them were. Problem was the young vampire wasn’t as trained as he should have been. None of the supposed pilots were. They’d been put through a crash course on the matter prior to their departure. As had all members of the crew.

Stegian scanned the panels, doing his best to assess the damage to the ship. Two of the port side thrusters were completely gone and failing to respond in any way. Already the ship had begun to list to one side, something it should never do—that much he was sure of. It wasn’t like space travel was totally foreign to him. He, like any other well-to-do resident of Earth, had visited other planets for vacation—though he was careful to select ones that didn’t have much in the way of sunlight. Being a vampire left him unable to wake in the sun’s rays. He missed it but couldn’t dwell, not when the ship he was onboard was in such dire jeopardy.

Varying people on board moved quickly from location to location, none seeming to know what to do. Pandemonium broke out. Several of the banshees onboard continued to wail, as if everyone around them wasn’t smart enough to figure out people were going to die. They didn’t need a supernatural alarm stating the obvious. A shifter spun quickly, knocking one of the banshees out cold. Stegian wasn’t big on violence but even he’d wanted to silence her.

People rushed around like mad as the ship pitched hard to the right and then shook violently. He had to reach out to steady himself or he too would have fallen, like so many others had. Sirens blared and alert lights beeped. The computer continued to read out different, yet equally as depressing outcomes.

“We’re gonna die,” one of the men yelled.

Another snorted. “We’ve been as good as dead since the day they loaded us onto this ship like cattle,” another returned.

Stegian staggered towards the control panels. The young vampire pilot was hurt and currently having his wounds tended to. While he would eventually heal, there was no fresh blood at the ready so the medical staff needed to try to stop the rapid rate of his blood loss. A fill-in pilot, one with limited training, was doing his best to gain control of the ship. It wasn’t working.

“Life support systems are down,” Stegian said, remaining calm in the face of certain death.

“I can try to land it,” Yunoc, the young male shifter who was doing his best to pilot the vessel, said. “At our excepted rate of entry and with the velocity we are traveling at, there is a good chance we could burn up in the atmosphere.”

“Do your best,” said Stegian, bracing himself in the co-pilot chair. A planet came into view and Yunoc focused on aiming the craft in that direction. “No promises.”

A natural leader, Stegian was often who the people aboard the spaceship turned to. He’d been instrumental in negotiations with the humans on Earth and had done his best to prevent anymore loss of lives due to ignorance and fear of supernaturals. “Try to land us.”

He sucked in a hasty breath and prepared for rapid decent. It came with a vengeance. He was thrown free of the pilot area and slammed face first into a wall. Pain exploded throughout him, and he was fairly certain he’d broken multiple bones, and they hadn’t even impacted yet. It came with a shuddering, thundering thud and all around him went black for a moment.

Stegian pushed off of the unforgiving inner shell of the vessel he’d been banished to one year prior. The smell of smoke and charred remains coated the area. While he didn’t quite know the extent of injuries on the ship, his senses told him they were grave and many. As if the ship’s crew hadn’t been through enough already.

He snarled at the thought of the ignorant humans who had herded him and the other supernaturals like cattle onto the vessels, hoping to rid Earth of them for good. Their fear of what they did not understand prompted sanctions and even saw death squads coming to be. These squads had one mission, find and eliminate supernaturals. Stegian and a few select other figureheads had tried to reason with the humans. He’d tried to make them understand they did not have to live in fear of them. That supernaturals would police themselves as they had always done, but his pleas fell upon deaf ears. Soon, backlash from the death squads rippled through the supernatural community and attacks on humans began. From there, it was all downhill.

Now, one year later, but in truth, many a light year later, thanks to the courtesy of accelerated speeds and state-of-the-art highly efficient thrust-to-weight ratios, Stegian and his people were far, far from Earth and its reaches. They were, according to his calculations, far off their original course as well.

They’d encountered meteor showers shortly after departing Earth and had never quite been able to get their navigational maps back up and running to standard. No surprise. It wasn’t as if the people running the vessel were top notch. They’d been lucky to have anyone on board who could pilot the ship. Two of the vessels the supernaturals were herded upon had men who had to be trained on the spot to fly them. It wasn’t as if humans would risk or give up their valued human, qualified pilots.



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Excerpt: Daughter of Darkness by Mandy M. Roth

Daughter of Darkness by Mandy M. Roth

Paranormal Dark Fantasy Vampire Romance

Good or Evil? How’s a girl to choose?

Gwyneth Stevens, born of magical descent and raised by humans, fully understands that creatures of the night exist outside of books and movies. When her job leads her to Necro’s Magik World & Supernatural Theme Park, she meets Pallo, an Italian vampire so captivating, so perfect and so familiar. Before she can fully explore her feelings for him, fate steps in, bringing with it a sexy bounty hunter who makes Gwen’s insides tighten and her body burn. Caleb instantly lays claim to her heart.

Torn between her love for two men, Gwen finds herself caught in a triangle shrouded in passion, lust and immortality. In a world where humans live in ignorance and supernaturals are a sub-culture, anything is possible.

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Prologue

I lay in the field of flowers taking in the glorious scents. Violas were littered around me acting as a warm blanket to shield me from the cool night. The beauty of the shades of glowing purple and yellow pulled me to them. I plucked one up, put it to my lips and took in a deep breath. Their fresh scent soothed me, making me feel at one with the earth.

Small white clouds formed against the sharply contrasting royal blue sky. I traced the edges of one with my fingers. I wanted to reach out, grasp it and cuddle it to my body.

Rolling onto my stomach, I propped my chin up with my arms. My hair got caught under my elbow, and I freed it to relieve the tension on my head. From the corner of my eye I caught the fluttering of a small butterfly. It hovered above me a moment and I put my hand out towards it. Perching lightly upon my wrist, it sat motionless.

The white cottony clouds that I had been so desperate to hold turned gray. Suddenly, the sky grew dark and ominous. A crackle of thunder made the earth beneath me vibrate. Wind circled around me, pulling at the tiny blue sundress I wore.

There was a sharp pain in my wrist. I looked down—a gold snake lay in place of the butterfly. Like two tiny daggers, its fangs were firmly planted into my skin. Most people would flick the thing off, right? Well, I’m not most people. Besides, this wasn’t my first go around with the dream. I’d been having the dream long enough to know what was to come. I braced myself. The ground below me gave way and I found myself spiraling into a bottomless pit. Darkness surrounded me, and I knew better than to bother to scream.

The familiar sound of a woman’s voice whispered to me. “You are the balance. You will bring light to the darkness.”

Chapter One

I pulled up outside of the main gate. The blood red sign that stood high in the air read “Necro’s Magik World & Supernatural Theme Park”. I hated the idea of being here but you do what you have to do to make a living. Prior to working as assistant to the City’s Chief Paranormal Prosecutor, I hadn’t been able to keep a job to save my life. I’d tried a little bit of everything, from being a marketing director to stripping.

Hey, a girl’s got to make a living, right?

My friend Sharon got me the job at the Paranormal Regulators Law Offices. She’d worked with my boss and now ex-fiancé, Ken, enough to pull some strings and get me an in. He hired me as his personal assistant, sight unseen. After a year of working for him, he caught on to the fact that I had some special skills. I wasn’t your ordinary girl next door—hell, I didn’t even qualify as human, though my exact label escaped even me.

Focusing on the task at hand, I took a look around Necro’s Magik World. It had only been open for business six years, but in that short time frame had managed to corner the market on ticket sales for theme parks. Someone had come up with the brilliant idea of having a theme park that revolved around the supernatural. By doing this the area had become a Mecca for the undead and magikal creatures. At the park, demons didn’t have to hide who they were. They were able to live among humans without fear of persecution and mass pandemonium. I’d even seen some of the “employees” walking around downtown one night. No one looked shocked to see a vampire roaming the streets—they just ran up and asked for his autograph.

Teenagers were heavy into imitating the undead, and of course, dead attire was all the rage. I wondered if creatures of the undead ever thought of sending thank-you notes to rock stars that ran around looking like death on stage. The more I thought about Hollywood and rock stars, the more I wondered how many of the images weren’t an act. I knew that there had to be a few celebrities who fell into the category of supernatural, I just didn’t know which ones they were.

Necro’s Magik World was huge, or so I’d been told. While the park spanned over four hundred acres, it wasn’t all developed yet since they’d left room for expansion. They’d picked the location wisely. They were close enough to the city to generate business, but far enough out to remain secluded and away from the watchful eye of others. People were eating up the idea of a supernatural theme park to the point that various spin-offs were popping up all around the world. There were restaurants, clothing stores, and, believe it or not, websites and social networking sites all devoted to helping the living challenged or human alternatives find love and happiness.

A computer literate vampire, funny thought. I still had issues text messaging on my phone and here they were surfing the net.

The park only operated during nighttime for obvious reasons. I didn’t know too many vampires willing to sit out in the sunlight to greet guests. Here’s your ticket, excuse me while I burst into flames.

I still wasn’t sure about the outfit I had chosen. I’d decided on a pair of dark blue flare bottom jeans that made my legs look longer and at five foot five I took all the help I could get. I’d debated on wearing long sleeves or short because of how cool the summer nights could get, and finally settled on a red short-sleeved top. I’d chosen jeans because I always felt most comfortable in them. I’d also been told that red brought out my best features—my eyes and my hair.

I was ticked I hadn’t brought a brush with me. I’d left the house in such a hurry that I hadn’t taken time to blow dry my hair. I fumbled around in my purse until I found a hair tie. Gathering up the front and sides of my hair, I pulled it loosely behind my head. Wrapping the tie around it several times, I did a quick check. Little black wisps fell from it and framed my face. That was just the way I liked it. I’d been thinking of cutting my hair off again. It seemed rather silly because every time I did it, my hair grew back to just above my rear end within two months. My hair liked to be that length and didn’t take kindly to my attempts at doing anything else with it.

Being awakened out of dead sleep by Ken’s phone call did not suit me. I looked like crap. Sure, I was grateful he’d ended the nightmare I was having, but peeved he’d wanted me to go out in the middle of the night to question a master vampire.

I touched my face and decided I didn’t have to fuss with much. I’d been blessed with flawless skin. It was, however, rather pale. I tried tanning beds and hitting the beach every day for a summer, but I couldn’t get myself to burn, let alone tan. I did my best to make up for the lack of color by adding a touch of blush to both cheeks and some lip gloss to my lips. I was so sick of everyone asking if I had collagen implants. I wanted to get a t-shirt printed that read, “Yes, I do see the light of day, and yes the lips are real too”.

Grabbing my purse from the passenger seat, I fumbled through it until I found my eyeliner. I was big on the whole lining of the top lid with black craze. Prior to its recent revival, I’d been seriously out of date with the look, but did it anyway. I loved the way it brought out my eyes, and I was into retro.

Satisfied it was as good as it was going to get, I got out of the car.

When I swung the door shut I thought the car had finally had it. It was an ‘84 Thunderbird and it had seen better days. The roof was dented beyond repair and it had no floor in the back right passenger side. Every time it rained, my seat ended up soaked because the seal on the door was missing. I tried to remember to lay a towel on the seat when I got out, but every now and then I would forget—resulting in a wet butt. My absolute favorite thing about the car was that I had to use my best judgment to find the right gears. When you put the car in park, you were really in reverse and when you put the car in reverse, you went forward. Parking had always been a guess because the spot for it was somewhere above the letters on the dash. The only thing the car had going for it was that it was paid for and it still ran. I was worried about getting my student loans paid off before I bought a new one. I figure I’ll be paying for my loans until I die at this rate, and considering the fact I’m pretty sure I have Fae blood in me that’s funny. Most Fae are immortal creatures of magik. The banks would just love me!

I walked towards one of the ticket booths. It was made to look like a mausoleum. Gray granite rock covered it and mythical creatures were carved into its molding. The boy sitting behind the counter resembled a zombie. The makeup slathered on his face gave him the appearance of rotting flesh and his costume looked as though he had just crawled from the grave—just looking at him made me smile. I assumed they had real zombies working here, but this kid was obviously not one of them.

“Ticket please.”

I tried not to laugh. He sounded so ridiculous. The makeup and wardrobe were one thing—the overdone enunciation of his words was just too much.

“Gwen Stevens. I’m here to speak with Pallo D’Alessandro.” I had to bite my lip to keep from busting out laughing.

He didn’t look amused as he turned to pick up the phone. He hung up and glanced back at me. “Mr. D’Alessandro will see you shortly. Go through the red doors and downstairs. Someone will meet you there.”

Giving him a nod, I headed in the direction he had pointed.

A gigantic limestone building loomed before me. The gray stone exterior formed a sharp contrast to the small, landscaped flowerbeds that lined the walkway leading up to it. They were full of what looked to be lemon verbena and green sage. I thought it odd that someone would grow only herbs in a spot made for flowers. Stone gargoyles stood in the center of each bed. I really didn’t like the idea of being at a place where they prided themselves on scaring the shit out of you, but Ken needed information… bad. I really hated the fact that I was his “girl Friday”.

It only took me a few minutes to reach the red doors. Standing around for a bit, I waited for Sharon or Rick to show. I’d already been at the park for half an hour so I decided to give them another fifteen minutes. Sharon was usually late. She seemed to be on a whole separate time schedule. At the office, we referred to someone who was late as running on “Sharon-time”. Rick, on the other hand, had a military background and was always five minutes early. The fact that he wasn’t here yet should have really bothered me, but it didn’t. I was getting pretty brave in my old age, or pretty stupid, depending on how you looked at it.

My patience level was low considering I’d gotten little sleep due to my-oh-so pleasant dream. The fact I was standing out here in the dead of night waiting for the people who should have been handling this themselves didn’t help much either. I gave up and used my cell phone to try to reach Sharon. I got her voice mail, so I left her a message telling her I was going to go ahead in and I’d talk to her later. I also informed her that if I didn’t call her back in an hour I was probably dead. That was my way of making light of the situation, but my gut told me that there was some truth to the comment.

I glanced up at the red door. The last thing I wanted to do tonight was go into a room full of vamps, but if I didn’t go now I’d lose my nerve. I turned the knob and pulled the door open.

Instantly, I was hit with the smell of dampness. Glancing around, I tried to get the nasty taste of stale air out of my mouth as I got my bearings. I stood at the top of a stairwell, which was lit by several torches sitting in sconces along the wall. The walls were stone and looked like the inside of a castle.

No, make that the entrance to a dungeon.

I wasn’t sure how anyone who owned and operated a multimillion dollar business ended up in a basement, but I trudged onward anyway. When I reached the end of the staircase I found myself in front of a large, heavy, metal door. The medieval theme was getting old, fast.

I knocked and the door opened quickly. A man stood there silently looking at me. His six foot five frame took up most of the doorway. White waves of hair spilled onto his shoulders and large green eyes stared back at me. His face was soft, with baby fine features. The sweet smell of honey filled my head.

I’d heard vampires smelled nice but this was ridiculous. I wanted to lick him just to see if he tasted as good as he smelled but I held back.

Good girl.

He was dressed like he’d just fallen out of the eighties. I half expected him to claim he was the guitarist for one of the big hair bands and not really a vamp at all. He had on black, painted-on leather pants. His white shirt hung loosely from his body and gaped open to the middle of his stomach. Even in the poorly lit stairwell I could see how smooth and pale his skin was. When I glanced back at his face, he was staring at me wide-eyed. He appeared puzzled and a bit surprised. Imagine that—I put a vampire off guard.

“I’m Gwyneth Stevens. Kenneth Harpel sent me down to speak with Mr. D’Alessandro.” I extended my hand to him but he just stared at it.

A few seconds went by in silence. I had the strongest urge to bolt back upstairs and out the door.

“Please come in,” he said, stepping to the side. “We do not get many new visitors here. I apologize for my lack of manners.”

I’d never met an honest to God gentleman before, so it took me a moment to respond. “Thank you. I’m sorry for coming at such a late hour, but Lydia phoned our office requesting I meet with Mr. D’Alessandro tonight.”

His green eyes widened. “Yes, Lydia, umm, come in please. I will get Pallo for you.”

“So, do you have a name or is Def Leppard mega-fan all right by you?” My voice dripped with sarcasm that was coated in a healthy amount of nerves as well.

“I am Caradoc.” He seemed taken aback by my attempt at humor.

“Caradoc, the name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Should it?” he asked as I walked past him.

“No, I guess not. I just got the feeling I knew you from somewhere.”

Caradoc led me into a room with a large stone fireplace in it. Two red sofas sat across from each other. They were trimmed with beautiful gold leafing that made your eye follow the s-curve of the feet. A massive Serapi rug covered the floor. Cherry end tables flanked each end of the red sofas. Candles sat on them and dripped wax down onto the rich wood. I had half a mind to walk up and put a coaster under them to protect the integrity of the tables. I got the feeling that no one else here cared, so I let it be.

The room had several doors in it. I had no clue where any of them went, so I kept my back near the exit. I didn’t like leaving myself vulnerable, but the room didn’t leave me many options.

“Please have a seat.” Caradoc motioned to one of the couches. “Can I offer you anything to drink?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. I was afraid to say yes and get a big glass of blood, and afraid to say no and come off as rude.

He winked at me. I wondered if he was flirting or just had something in his eye. My money was on hair spray—that was of course if he held true to his eighties ensemble. “Would you like a glass of iced tea?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Please make yourself at home.”

I watched him exit out the door to my right and sat with my hands folded on my lap. I turned and stared at the large fireplace. Tiny pixies and faeries were embossed in it. They were all naked and each one wrapped itself around the one below it. Standing in a Master Vampire’s living room alone when he obviously had a thing for naked creatures of magik wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had.

Gulping, I rubbed my palms across my jeans, trying my best to keep the nervous sweat that was building to a minimum.

The place let off a strange vibe, yet, oddly it felt more like home than the apartment I’d been living in for the last two years. I’d been in the place for less than fifteen minutes and I already felt like I could throw my feet up on the sofa and kick back awhile. I resisted the urge.

“Sorry to interrupt you, but Pallo will be with you in a moment.” I didn’t sense anyone in the room with me so I was caught off guard. When I turned around Caradoc was standing behind me. He bowed his head slightly. “Forgive me, I did not mean to startle you.”

“No, you’re fine. I’m sorry.” I felt a little silly with a man bowing in front of me so I put my hand out to him. If Sharon were with me, she would have shot me dead on the spot for being careless and trusting a stranger who also happened to be a vampire. I didn’t feel that he posed any threat to me.

The door to my left opened and a man entered. He looked to be in his early twenties but I knew that if he was a vamp he was more likely to be in the hundreds. His hair was short and blond with pink tips. It appeared as though he used gel to spike it. He wore black from head to toe. He had on a t-shirt, jeans and pair of army boots. He definitely had the James Dean look down pat. When he saw me, he froze in place. Gee, I was having that effect on a lot of people lately. He opened his mouth and stood silent for a second. As fun as it all was, I didn’t want to play the game anymore.

“Mr. D’Alessandro, I came here to speak with you regarding the hellhound homicides.” My ability to be all work and no play came so easy. I expected him to start pouring his heart out about what they knew. What I got instead was his face looking even more shocked.

“Blood and sand! Caradoc, she thinks I’m Pallo. What the hell’s going on here? If anyone should remember him, it’s her,” he said, his voice thick with a British accent as he pointed at me.

Shoot. I thought he had to be the head guy—guess I was wrong. That didn’t happen too often, so I was a bit nervous. I usually just knew things that other people didn’t. It had always proved to be an asset until about thirty seconds ago. Suddenly, it seemed rather useless now.

Caradoc stepped forward. It was clear he didn’t want to touch me and that was just fine by me. “I’m sorry, Ms. Stevens.” He put a lot of emphasis on my name and stared hard at the James Dean-looking vamp.

“This is Jameson. Master Pallo will be with us momentarily.”

Jameson, James Dean? I shrugged and laughed in my head at the irony. Jameson approached me with speed that no human possessed and extended his hand to me.

“Nice to meet you, Ms. Stevens.” With the amount of attention they were giving my name, I was beginning to wonder if they thought it was an alias. Yes, often I run around giving bogus names—geesh. Besides, I would have come up with something more original than Gwen. “Faerie with attitude” had a nice ring to it.

“Nice to meet you too, Jameson,” I said. His hand was cool to the touch. I pulled mine away slowly.

“James. I go by James.” He smiled wide at me and I saw no fangs. I’d never actually met a vampire up close before. I always assumed they walked around with these huge dog-like fangs showing. Guess I was wrong—again.

“Can either of you fine gentlemen tell me where Mr. D’Alessandro is? I’d love to spend another hour being stared at like a circus freak, but a girl’s got to get her beauty sleep you know. So, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, can someone find Mr. D’Alessandro for me?” I turned to face Caradoc. I could sense that between the two, he was higher up on the seniority ladder, but I wasn’t sure by how much.

“He cannot help you find him, but I am sure I can.” The deep exotic voice ran over the room and covered my body. It was familiar to me, soothing, sexy. I turned, expecting to see someone I knew.

A man walked out from behind James. He was around six feet tall and had a head of loose brown curls that hung almost to his shoulders. The guy leaked sexuality. Prior to this meeting, I hadn’t known that was even possible. His face looked as though it was chiseled from stone. His pale skin had only the faintest hint of coloring. He had a strong chin with a small dimple in it, and his lips were full. They looked soft, kissable.

I let my gaze slowly fall down his body. He wore no shirt. His shoulders were broad, and from where I stood it appeared as though tiny freckles covered them. Muscles rippled down his stomach, forming a six pack and forcing my eyes lower. He wore a loose pair of black pants that I wished were invisible. They looked to be pajama bottoms, but I wasn’t sure. I was too busy staring at the way his chest went from being completely bare to the start of tiny black hairs from his navel area down. He wore his waistband extremely low and I was positive he wasn’t wearing any underwear.

I glanced down towards the floor and saw that he was barefoot. I did a quick second look at his body as I retraced my steps back to his beautiful face. The most intense pair of crisp, dark-brown, almost black eyes stared back at me. When I was finished mentally undressing him, I noticed the expression on his face. Gee, what a shocker. He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“Would you guys please tell me if I have a huge horn sprouting from my forehead?” I was tired and I was sure it was pushing at least three in the morning.

Caradoc spoke first. “No, Ms. Stevens, you’ve not sprouted a horn as of yet. Why do you ask? Is this something we should watch for?” His sincerity made me burst out into laughter. James and the mysterious tall sexy vamp laughed as well.

“Everyone I’ve met so far has stood there staring at me like a deer caught in headlights. What gives? Where is Mr. D’Alessandro?”

“I am Mr. D’Alessandro,” the drop dead gorgeous one said. “Pallo is fine. I am sorry if we’ve upset you, but you remind us of someone we once knew.” He tossed his hair out of his face with his hand and stepped towards me. “My apologies for looking like I just rolled out of bed, but I have been sparring in the gym. I wasn’t expecting any visitors.”

Sparring in the gym? The very thought of it made me drool. Was going weak-kneed and passing out an option? I hoped so, since it was exactly what I felt like doing.

When Ken told me that I was going to meet Mr. D’Alessandro, I pictured a six hundred year old vampire who still spoke like he was in the Old World. Pallo didn’t seem much into using contractions, but his English was perfect, accented slightly, but perfect nonetheless.

“I’d have thought that Lydia would’ve told you I was coming. She phoned and requested that someone be sent down immediately to speak with you. Two others were supposed….” I didn’t finish my last sentence. I wasn’t sure it was wise to spill the beans about being here completely alone with no sign of backup coming. My patience level was growing very thin. The only thing that helped me keep my grip was that I was surrounded by three of the sexiest men I’d ever had the pleasure of laying eyes on. Did I also forget to mention the fact that they could probably kill me before I knew what hit me?

Sexy and deadly, just the way I like them.

The room fell silent. Caradoc and James exchanged glances. Pallo was the first to break the silence. “I have not had a chance to speak personally with Lydia in some time now. My apologies. Please stay. I will answer whatever I can Ms…?”

“Ms. Stevens. Thank you.”

“Yes, of course, Gwyneth Stevens. I have seen your name in the Nocturnal Journal recently for your office being involved in the breakup of a Ghoul-fighting ring.” He took a step towards me, “Most impressive indeed, Gwyneth.”

This poster child for the “dead and doable” saying my name made me want to melt, and in some ways I did. I’ve heard that vampires could persuade members of the opposite sex to fall for them with ease. Knowing this should have prepared me for the way I was starting to feel, but it didn’t.

It would be easy to get lost in Pallo’s alluringly dark eyes. I wanted them to be looking down at me, staring at me while his body moved in and out of mine. I wanted to run my fingers through his wavy brown hair, to hold it while he brought my body to its climax. I wanted him now. I had to concentrate on not leaping across the room and straddling him. I pushed the desire down and for the first time felt how strong his pull was. Thankfully, I was stronger.

“Why are you fighting me?” Pallo asked.

“What do you mean?” I thought I’d play the dumb blonde routine for a minute.

“You are trying hard not to come near me, like I mean you harm.”

I guess the dumb blonde routine doesn’t work well, especially when you’re a brunette. “Look, no offense, but you could be a homicidal maniac for all I know. After all, you are a—” I stopped short of saying vampire.

“True. But why would such a lovely young woman come alone to a maniac’s house in the middle of the night?” His smile was so sexy that I had to fight with myself not to jump his bones then and there. Of course, I was willing to settle for a dry hump.

“Okay, you’ve got a good point. I must be crazy to come down here with a room full of vampires anyway, so why even bother with the shenanigans?”

“The ‘shenanigans’ you refer to were merely a test. I do not want any of my staff revealing information to someone not associated with the likes of us.”

I was well beyond the point of feeling the need to be polite. “Well, I’m so happy that I passed your little Club Bloodsuckers initiation test, we can gather around and throw up gang signs later. Right now, I would really like—”

His hand came up suddenly, motioning me to stop. Surprisingly enough, I did. He must have thought my last comment was amusing because he laughed. It was quite possibly the most perfect laugh I’ve ever heard.

“Well I’m so happy to be your entertainment for the evening, thank you, and good-bye!” I headed towards the door. Pallo stepped in my path. Under normal circumstances a vampire standing in front of me would scare the hell out of me. This time it just pissed me off.

He stepped close enough for me to touch. He put his hand out and brushed mine. I flinched a little. Even though I’d mentally psyched myself up for meeting vampires, I couldn’t bring myself to not be scared of what they could do.

I began to pull back, but his touch felt familiar to me. Sensual. Inviting. He lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it gently. Warmth flowed over my body. Suddenly, my insides felt like a thousand tiny fingers were moving throughout me, caressing me. Pallo’s hands never left mine, yet I could have sworn that he’d just rubbed my most vulnerable spots. I felt it again, the feel of fingers caressing between my legs. I gasped and my body reacted to him. Damp, and breathless, I felt my hair lift up and I saw his do the same. I yanked my hand back, as if I’d been scorched.

“Nice to meet you too,” he said, grinning at me. He’d planned that!

I smiled back, trying to look nonchalant, as if this sort of thing happened often. “Do you do that to all the ladies?”

He leaned in so close that I thought he would kiss my neck, or worse yet, bite it. I put my hands up and touched his chin. His skin was so smooth. Ken had always had a five o’clock shadow by ten in the morning. This guy was like touching a porcelain doll’s face. His cool breath ran over my neck. I wasn’t sure my legs were going to hold out if he got much closer.

Falling on my ass in front of the sexiest man I’d ever seen was not on my to-do list.

“That is reserved for the beautiful ones. And in my two hundred and seventy-five years on this earth I have only met two worthy of that show,” he whispered, his sweet breath promising of endless passion between the sheets. Moisture pooled between my legs and while the idea of a hunky stranger making me cream myself was a favorite fantasy of mine, I thought it unwise to do so with a vampire.

I gave his chin a little push, and he stepped back.

“Can we just get down to business?” I asked, feigning annoyance, but wanting another hair-raising experience. Who wouldn’t?

“I will get down whenever or wherever you would like, Gwyneth. You have but to ask.”

My heart skipped a beat. I was so mad at myself for letting this two hundred and seventy-five-year-old corpse smooth talk me. But God, he was a good-looking corpse. I moved closer to him, filling the tiny gap between us. Two could play that game. I slid my hand across his chest. I really hoped this plan didn’t backfire. If it did I would probably end up dead—so what the hell. They could write, “She couldn’t beat ‘em, so she caressed ‘em” on my headstone. All would know I died a happy death.

I like to think of myself as being semi-attractive, and if he insisted on playing the Mr. Sexy game, I’d play along and then get the hell out of there. I knew before I touched him that he had two tiny scars under his right nipple. This didn’t surprise me. I figured I could have caught a glimpse of them—he did have his shirt off after all. But I knew how he had gotten them.

“Been avoiding picking fights with sailors I hope? It always ended so nasty for you.” Words came into my head and they fell from my lips. I was used to getting random visions of events in peoples’ lives, but this was different. No vision had come to me. I just knew this to be true. I couldn’t explain it. I pulled my hand away from him quickly, completely freaked out.

He looked a little shocked, then smiled. I was beginning to really like that devilish grin, and was dangerously close to naming it his wet-panties smile.

“Yes Gwyneth. I learned my lesson.”

“A punctured lung will do that to you. It’s a shame that it took that to prove it to you.” I grabbed my mouth. For some reason, in my head, I thought this would solve my problem. I never claimed to be smart—just semi-attractive.

Pallo leaned into me, brushing his lips over the back of my hand. My knees grew weaker. Six months without sex had taken its toll on me. “Yes, one can learn almost any lesson if pain is involved.” His deep voice moved over me, around me, through me, caressing me to my core.

Oh, he was good!

He shrugged and smiled. He definitely knew something I didn’t, and he wasn’t about to let on to what it was. The cocky routine was beyond annoying. I was flirtatious by nature, but this was getting on my nerves. I wanted to ask about the hellhounds and go. I wanted to leave this place and never look back. I wanted to run my hand over his chest again and pray that he decided to flex for me. Hey, cut a girl some slack—it’s not very often that the poster boy for every woman’s deepest sexual desire takes an interest in you. The desire won out. I felt his smooth chest one last time and stepped back.

Pallo reached out and touched my hip. I pushed his hand away lightly, unsure who I trusted less, him or me. He smelled good enough to eat and that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to swallow him up. Problem was, I knew what this guy was, and he would think of me as the main course.

Nevertheless, I wanted to know how it felt to have his body pressing against mine. I could feel his lust for me as well. I knew he was thinking of more than just pressing himself against me. I could see it in the way he smiled at me and in the way he moved. His movements were like ripples in water, so smooth, so sure of where they were going, so full of purpose, so making me horny.

I shook my head and cleared my naughty little schoolgirl thoughts. “I’m sorry, but I really just wanted to get some information in regards to some hellhound related incidents that we’ve had recently.”

That a girl—keep focused on work and not on Pallo’s glorious body.

He smiled, and I could tell that he wanted to pursue this newfound attraction more, but when he spoke, he’d apparently decided against it. “What is it that you want to know?”

I was shocked. He was going to give me some answers. “Well, for starters, do you know where we can find the Keeper of the Hounds? He’s managed to elude us so far.”

I caught James giving Pallo an odd look out of the corner of my eye, but decided to ignore it. Pallo’s head fell back slightly and he began to laugh. The sound of his laugh wrapped around my body and made me tingle in places that I didn’t even know I had. I shuddered and fought to maintain control. “I’m sorry, Pallo, but I really don’t see how people being slaughtered by some crazy guy and his puppy slackies is amusing.”

He glanced at me and grew quiet. “I am sorry. It is just that you seem very confident the Keeper is male. Are we really so destructive that you would automatically assume it was our doing?”

“I’m lost—you mean as a vampire or as a guy?”

“I am referring to men in general, Ms. Stevens.”

“Well, sorry to disappoint, but I really don’t have a low opinion of men. I’m not one of those women who run around all day male-bashing. I think you’re… err… they’re just great. I’m just going off of the information I was given, and sources on the street are saying male, so that’s what I’m sticking with.” My tone was definitely harsher than I had wanted it to be, but I was exhausted and horny—never a good combination.

Pallo appeared very smug and sure of himself. He kept pushing a strand of his curly hair behind his left ear. Never in my life had I thought such a scene would be erotic. It was. “Your informants are wrong and I would be very reluctant to listen to them further.”

As great as that sounded, the reality was that informants were getting harder and harder for the PR Dept. to come by. They were disappearing left and right, never to be heard from again. The few that Ken had left would have to do, simply because there were no others to turn to. I got the sense that Pallo picked up on this, because he motioned for James and spoke to me. “Come here tomorrow at dusk and I will tell you more about the Keeper of the Hounds.”

“Can’t we just do it tonight?” No part of me wanted to come back to this place again. There was some sort of funky sexual vibe that seemed to cling to the air and I was afraid it was catchy.

Pallo smiled and motioned upwards. “I’m afraid Mother Nature’s rising sun will prevent me from going into further detail with you tonight. Please come by tomorrow and I will speak with you then. James will walk you to your car, Ms. Stevens.” With that, he turned and walked out of the room.

Hmm, so much for good-byes. Secretly I was hoping for another handshake. Touching his skin made me feel alive. It was official—I really, really needed to get laid.

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Stick a quarter in a guy and he’ll be my bitch

I’ve always liked this song. I don’t know why it appeals to me so much. Maybe its the idea that I could stick a quarter in a guy and he’ll be my bitch. [image error] I thought I’d share it with you. Plus, I get to think about my fantasy of the coin and bitch scenario. What? I have fantasies too you know. My question to you is, what is the first thing you’d have your coin operated stud do? Sadly, in real life it for me it would be “paint my house” or “clean the garage”. Nope these are not special ways to say fuck me like an animal.

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Excerpt: The Enchantress by Mandy M Roth

The Enchantress by Mandy M Roth

Daughter of Darkness 2

Paranormal Dark Fantasy Vampire Romance

When the Siren calls, the men follow. Led by the song of the Enchantress men will do almost anything, including kill the one they love.

When Caleb is called away to track the Enchantress, Gwen is left in the hands of her new best friends, Caradoc and James. Sick, and alone, Gwen finds herself plagued by bizarre dreams involving Pallo and robed monks. The dreams take on a sexual nature, and when Gwen is left mating with Pallo’s vampire side, she finds out things are not always as they appear.

Rating: This story contains mature situations, paranormal elements, graphic violence, gore, strong language, explicit sex, the loss of child, and a women’s love for multiple men. It is not intended for the faint of heart. Author recommends reading The Gwyneth Stevens Series in order of release.

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EXCERPT

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Chapter One

I looked at the giant hole in the ground and stood silent. I’m not sure there is a good word to use when you think that someone’s fallen off the deep edge—in an ‘in love’ kind of way. Pointing it out almost seems cruel, especially when you’re who they are in love with.

I couldn’t believe I’d let Caleb talk me into this. We’d been dating for a couple of months now. It felt more like a lifetime, after all, this wasn’t my first go round with him. I had been betrothed to him over two hundred years ago. Yeah, I know, that definitely takes the prize for the world’s longest engagement.



I stood on the edge of the missing earth and peered into the hole. It was huge. You could easily park at least two cars in it. “I thought you said you were making a tiny Koi pond,” I said, looking down at Caleb. He stood in the bottom of the hole holding a yellow-handled shovel, pitching dirt up and over his head. I watched his muscles harden with each movement he made. His back rippled as the sun glistened off his sweat. This was being done strictly for my benefit and I wasn’t about to start complaining. Although, I would have preferred to have those muscles sweaty and taut above me. He could have dug the hole without any physical labor on his part whatsoever.

Caleb and I are both faeries. I don’t mean faeries in the little pixie type with wings that grant wishes way, or follow boys from Nevernever Land way—I mean faeries as in tall, or at least Caleb was tall, slender, longhaired and pale skinned.

If Caleb had really wanted to, he could have used his magikal power to remove the soil from the ground, and be done in a matter of minutes. No, he had insisted on taking the hard way. He’d been digging the darn hole now for the last two weeks. I knew that he wouldn’t dare risk someone seeing him use magik, even though we were in the middle of nowhere. I didn’t think that a deer on the property would notice a little shift in the wind, or care, but Caleb wasn’t one to take chances. He was conservative by nature and it suited him.

Someone had to balance us out.

I got the feeling that standing shoulder deep in a hole, with a shovel in his hand, made Caleb feel as though he had a purpose. His chosen profession was bounty hunter to the supernatural. If any sort of spook, undead, or out of the ordinary criminal was on the loose, Caleb was the man they called. Bounty hunting is extremely dangerous, but pays well. He loved his job and had been forced to cut his hours back to hang around and baby-sit me.

There had been several attempts on my life a little over two months ago. I’d been attacked by two vicious and smelly trolls. One of the nasty varmints managed to sink its ragged, rotted teeth into my shoulder. Apparently, a troll’s bite is venomous, and packs a hell of punch. It would have killed me if Caleb hadn’t shown up when he did. I was still thinking of starting a campaign to get trolls listed as one of the world’s most deadliest creatures, but that would mean exposing humans to the reality of their existence—no thanks.

Caleb had been tracking the trolls into this realm. He was curious as to why they were coming here at all. They weren’t known for leaving their rat infested swamplands often. When he saw them attacking me, he figured it out real quick. They had been sent to kill me. The acting head of the Fae Sorcha, had ordered my death.

Hey, I could be as much of a pain in the butt as the next gal, but wanting me dead seemed a bit extreme. I am biased, I know, but still.

Turns out Sorcha had her reasons. She wanted to kill me before her son and I could meet. She wanted to make sure that he didn’t end up with me. As far as Sorcha knew, I was just a reborn faerie out to trap her son in a loveless marriage.

Yeah, reborn, I know crazy life, huh! It was a huge shocker for me too. It was still a little hard for me to deal with, and I had found out about two months ago. From what they tell me, I had once lived for over a hundred years on this earth, never looking a day over twenty, and now I was back. The only major difference, physically speaking, was that my eyes had been violet before and now they were navy blue. That was close to two hundred years ago. I know this because I was starting to have more and more memories of that life coming back to me. Not all were pleasant.

Being hunted down by Sorcha’s henchmen threw me for a loop, I had no idea that she even existed, let alone had it in for me. Did I forget to mention that Sorcha is Caleb’s mother? Oops! Sorcha hated me from the day I was betrothed to Caleb. That had not happened in this lifetime, it had happened in the last. Hating someone for close to four hundred years was a long time to hold a grudge. I had to hand it to her, she was persistent. I’m sure that bottling up all that hate for so many centuries was not healthy.

I looked down at Caleb, digging in the hole. I couldn’t figure out how I’d been so lucky to get him. He was a vision of beauty, his six foot four frame was well defined, he was thin, but not too thin, his long shiny-blonde hair hung to his waist. It was smooth and straight. I was so envious of his hair. I had to laugh at the fact that my boyfriend had better hair than me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been blessed all right, but I unfortunately didn’t get to be a blonde bombshell. Genetics dealt me long wavy hair that was black as night.

Yeah, Caleb was beautiful, a little too beautiful. It didn’t matter–every bit of him was man, you can trust me on that. I know this because we had sex the first day we met. No, I don’t normally run around having sex with strangers, but he wasn’t a stranger. We had been together for a hundred years once, so that had to qualify for something.

“Are you going to be doing that all day?” I asked, missing his touch. He’d been consumed with getting the old farmhouse fixed up. It was his new mission. He was one of those people that always needed to be doing something constructive or they’d go mad. I was the complete opposite. I could sit for hours on a rock, observing the wonders that nature had to offer, and never once feel guilty about it.

Caleb glanced up at me. Dirt was smeared on his forehead and cheek. I snickered, and watched him wipe his dirt stained hand across his cheek, effectively blackening out the side of his face. “I’m sorry. I just want to get this filled with cement, before the weather gets too bad. I’m pushing it enough as it is doing it this late in the year. I want you to have this, Gwen. Let me do this for you, then we can sit out here, listen to the water roll over the rocks and maybe,” he wiggled his eyebrows and gave me a half-cocked smile, “we could do a little something else out here as well.”

How could I argue with that? Caleb’s forest green eyes held such love, I wanted to jump down into the hole and kiss him, but getting out would be an issue for me. Standing at only five foot five made it hard to get in and out of there without the aid of a ladder. He was making it seven foot deep, because the Koi needed it deep to survive the harsh winter. I think he did it just to tease me about how short I am.

When Caleb started to help me fix up my farmhouse, we’d bought a bunch of remodeling books and magazines. We sat together, cuddled in our bed flipping through the pages, picking things out that we liked. I had stopped at a picture of an attractive white home, with a large man-made water garden in front of it. I looked at all of the magnificently colored pond lilies and large multi-colored fish. It seemed so peaceful, so serene. The next day I woke to find Caleb missing from the bed. I went searching for him, and found him out behind the house, digging a hole in the ground. He had the magazine opened to the page with the water garden. My heart melted. He was making this for me.

“Well, do you at least want some lunch?” He hadn’t eaten breakfast and it was pushing two o’clock. I didn’t want him getting run down. He had to work this weekend. I hated the idea of Caleb leaving me to head off to wherever it was he went. His job was dangerous, and I worried sick about him the entire time he was gone.

“Gwen, I’m fine sweetie, don’t worry about me. I’m just about done for the day.” He tossed more dirt over his head. I hated this, I knew that he was doing this for me, but I wanted to see him. I wanted to spend time with him before he had to leave.

We’d only been ‘back’ together for two months, but already I felt attached to him. My body ached while he was away from me. I missed his smell—he always smelled so fresh and clean, like the morning air after a rainfall. I had often wondered if they could bottle the smell of him and mass-produce it. Women would dig it—I’m sure.

The wind around us picked up, it sent dried orange and brown leaves scattering about the yard. Caleb didn’t seem to notice, or care about the weather cooling down, he still ran around with no shirt on and a pair of jeans most of the time. It was forever summer to him. I often wondered if he was running a core body temperature that was twenty degree hotter than most. He had that Californian beach-babe thing going and I couldn’t help but love it.

I, on the other hand, had packed my shorts away for the season and pulled out my winter clothes. I was always cold lately. I pulled the sleeves of my Cappuccino colored acrylic sweater down, and over my hands. I had a white knit shirt underneath, but I was still chilly. I coughed a little. Great, I hoped I wasn’t getting a cold. I hadn’t really ever had one before, but I’d seen my friends and coworkers fighting them off. All the phlegm, hacking, and headaches, no thanks I’d pass.

Caleb looked up at me. “Gwen?”

He was always so concerned about me. He was convinced that his mother would never stop trying to sabotage our relationship. I didn’t worry about that too much. I figured my father would look out for us. He was, after all, the King—and no Caleb and I are not related. Sorcha, Caleb’s mother only stepped in to lead in the absence of my father.

Under normal circumstances, Sorcha was just the head sorceress for my father. He took her on for this duty when he saw that she had a young son. Instantly he arranged a marriage between the two of us. I was only days old, and he had only seen me once. Not a good way to start out I know, but things had changed this time around, they were better.

Caleb gave me another questioning look.

“I’m fine. I swallowed some dust or something, really,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. I didn’t want him to feel like he had to stay home with me. Caleb enjoyed his job, and I didn’t want to take that from him. Besides, James and Caradoc were coming up to stay with me for the weekend. It would be great. They’d turned into two of my best friends in a relatively short period of time. They were both vampires, but that didn’t faze me a bit.

I’d slept with their Master, Pallo, about two months ago. Yep, same time I starting seeing Caleb. Walking in and meeting Pallo had changed my life forever. He had been what jogged my memory of my life before. I had been in love with him hundreds of years ago, when he was still human. I’d even left Caleb for him, well not for him, but for another vampire, yeah, I know, I was totally screwed up in the head. What do you expect? I am, after all, the daughter of the King of the Fae, I’m bound to have some hang-ups.

The phone rang, and I headed into the house to grab it. I ran through the kitchen door and almost knocked a can of paint over. It seemed like Caleb was tackling a project in every room of the house. He had taken all of the kitchen cabinet doors off and sanded them down. He was now in the process of putting another coat of white paint on them. I had to admit, they looked great, like they were brand new. I just wished that he’d finish one project before moving on to the next.

I snatched the phone off the wall. “Hello?” I said, a little out of breath.

“Gwen? Are you alright?”

“Ken!” I was happy to hear his voice. Ken was my boss, and my ex-fiancé. There was a time not long ago, when the sound of his voice made me nauseous—that was when I was still operating under the assumption that he had cheated on me. I had gotten over that, now I just missed him. He’d been distancing himself from me. I could hardly blame him. Things in my life were pretty screwed up right now. “Yeah, I’m good. How about you? How are you doing?”

“Good. I’m doing good. I finally got all moved into my new place. It’s nice, I like it,” he said, his voice low. He was keeping his emotions out of this, I could tell. I also noticed how Ken didn’t offer to show me his new place. I knew that his new little sweetie, Beth, had been the realtor who helped him find it. I’d had issues with Beth from the moment he told me about her. She was the realtor who took us house hunting when we were engaged. How convenient for her that Ken’s apartment had been destroyed by hellhounds, and that his fiancée had left him.

“Sounds nice…How is Beth doing?” I hit myself on the forehead. Why in the world did I bring her into this? Ken had every right to be dating other people, but it didn’t lesson the pain any.

I pictured his athletic body wrapped around hers and it made me sick. I could see Beth running her fingers through Ken’s dark blonde hair. Last time I’d seen him he had finally let it grow out from the crew cut he had always worn. It looked good on him. I bet Beth really liked it too.

“Beth’s fine, but that’s not what I called about,” he said, voice flat.

“Well, what did you call about, Ken? It’s obvious you really don’t want to be speaking to me, so what gives?”

“I just needed to call you and let you know, that you don’t need to come back in.” He was getting at something I was sure I wouldn’t like.

“I told you I’d be back in on Monday.” I’d been his personal assistant for two years. I was his right hand-girl. He never did anything without my approval. I knew that my taking personal time, and telecommuting from home had put a burden on him, but everything was still getting done.

“No, Gwen, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

I stood there playing with the phone cord, and my stomach tightened. “Ken, are you letting me go?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice void of any emotion.

My cheeks flushed. I wasn’t hurt. I was pissed. “Well, thanks for having the balls to tell me over the phone instead of in person. I really appreciate hearing it this way. You should have sent me a letter so you wouldn’t have had to speak to me at all. But, I’m probably not worth the price of a stamp, so…” I was furious with him. I didn’t care about the job, that wasn’t it at all, and I didn’t need the money. I’d saved enough over the last few years to get by. I cared about how hard he was pushing me away.

“Gwen, don’t be…”

I cut him off. “What don’t be what? Don’t be mad that someone I care about hates me, or don’t be mad that I still care about you?” I put my hand over my mouth. Did I really just tell him that I still cared for him? What the hell was I thinking? I had Caleb now, and he had Beth.

Ken fell silent on the other end. I didn’t really expect him to say anything, although, a just kidding, you’re not fired would have been nice. I stood there for a second longer then hung up on him. There wasn’t really anything left for me to offer that would be considered polite, so it was better this way.

If you can’t say anything nice…

I walked over to the fridge and took out the pitcher of lemonade. I wanted a glass of wine, but the lemonade would have to do. I set the pitcher on the counter and grabbed two glasses down from the shelf. As I walked back towards the freezer to get ice, the phone rang again. I knew it was Ken calling me back. I didn’t want to talk to him. I’d let the machine get it. I grabbed a handful of ice out of the icebox and dropped it into the glasses. The plunking sound was a nice distraction from the nagging feeling of loss that threatened to consume me.

The phone had just stopped ringing when Caleb walked in the back door. I listened to my voice greeting the caller. It was coming from the answering machine in the hall by the front door. When the machine beeped, I looked up at Caleb. I wanted him to be digging out in his hole again. I didn’t want him in here with me right this minute.

I heard Ken’s voice on the machine. “Gwen, don’t do this. I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time with everything still. I just need some time. You’re not fired, I’m sorry, I just thought… I don’t know what I thought, pick up please…I know you’re there, Gwen? I still have feelings for you, too…Maybe you should take a few more weeks off…I can’t do this right now…I love you too much to watch you with someone…” the machine beeped and stopped recording.

I stared up at Caleb. He stood very still. I’d never really got the expression about hearing a pin drop until that moment. He looked down at me and I could see the anger on his face. “What the hell was that about?”

I tried to avoid eye contact with him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but I didn’t want to lie to him either. “I love you,” was the best I could come up with.

He reached out and took my hand in his. His hand was rough from all of the manual labor he had been doing. It didn’t matter to me that he wasn’t as smooth as he’d once been, I’d take him anyway, so long as he was with me.

“Gwen, don’t do this, please,” he said, his hand tightened around mine. I looked up at his face. The moment I saw his green eyes, I couldn’t help myself; I started to cry.

Prior to finding out about my past, I was normal, well as normal as a faerie living among humans could get. I didn’t have multiple men at one time. I hadn’t even had sex for six months before I met Caleb. Ken had been the last man I’d been with, and we’d been engaged. Since I began to remember bits and snippets of my past I started to have uncontrollable desires, and I didn’t like the new me one bit.

Caleb pulled me close to him. His body was sweaty, but still smelled wonderful. I took a deep breath in and let his scent calm me. I let him hold me tight against his chest. He was warm, and lately I had been cold all the time. I let my head rest against him, and he stroked the back of my head gently.

“Marry me, Gwen, marry me and this will all stop, I promise,” he said gently to me.

I kept my head buried in his chest. How could he be so sure, how could he know that I wouldn’t leave him again for another man? That’s exactly what I’d done to him my last time on this earth. I couldn’t even think about committing to him, then destroying him like that again. I was having a hard enough time liking myself lately, doing that to Caleb would kill me, I was sure of that.

“I can’t,” I said, between sobs. His hands tightened in my hair—he was just this side of pulling it.

“You mean you won’t.” The hurt in his voice was evident. I wanted to comfort him, but I was crying too hard. I wasn’t going to be much good in the consoling department when I was sobbing like a baby. I went to pull away, but Caleb held me tight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get you all upset. I’m sorry.”

“I love you Caleb. I love you so much!” I yearned for reassurance that he wasn’t mad, and that everything would be all right. I couldn’t imagine my life without him. He had become everything to me. I wondered if we’d been this way before, and if so, why did I leave him? I wasn’t sure I’d ever know the answer to that.

He kissed the top of my head. “I love you too, Gwen, I love you too.”

I slid my arms around his back and hugged him tight. He was so warm, so loving, do different from any other man I’d ever had in my life. He bent down and touched my forehead lightly with the back of his hand. “Gwen, you’re ice cold. Are you alright?”

I smiled, and felt the tears starting to dry on my face. It was a little like having one of those facial masks drying on you, only without the luxury of being able to peel it off, and as far as I know any exfoliating qualities. I did my best to wipe my cheeks before pulling Caleb’s face down to mine to kiss his lips. The salt from my tears pressed into both of our mouths. I pushed my tongue in, diving, digging for his. When I found it, it was warm and wrapped itself smoothly around mine.

My body burned to be with him, to have him hold my naked body in his arms. I knew he had to get cleaned up and get ready to go, but that didn’t change the fact that I still wanted to lie with him before he left. I loved him so much, and didn’t want to think about the possibility of the last time we talked ending in a fight. His job was dangerous, and there was always a very real chance that he wouldn’t come home. I’d thought that I’d lost him once and that was more than enough to not want to go through it again.

“Gwen, I’m calling Mark, I can’t go in with you like this.” He walked around me and headed out in the hall to use the phone. Mark was his partner. I’d never actually met him. I’d heard Caleb talk about him a few times, but that was it. I asked about him once, but Caleb just told me that in their line of work, the less people knew about them the better. I wasn’t sure I agreed with that, I mean, he was putting his life in this guy’s hands. Didn’t I have the right to at least meet him? Caleb didn’t seem to agree with me on that one.

I didn’t want Caleb to stay home on account of me. He loved what he did. I could always see a spark in his eye when he returned home after hunting down some crazy creature. He loved to tell me all about his adventures. I usually sat there with an aching pit at the bottom of my stomach every time he went into detail about being in danger, but I kept a smile on my face all the same. Caleb was a thrill seeker, that much was plain to see.

“Caleb!” I called after him. He turned around and looked at me. “Hey, I’m fine, you go. Besides you’ll ruin my weekend movie marathon,” I said, grinning at him.

I knew that James would be stopping at the video store before he and Caradoc came. James and I had taken to watching movies. We’d become our own two man critiquing team. Two fangs out or down. It wasn’t the best rating system, but it worked. Besides, James may be the only person more jaded than me. I couldn’t be sure, but maybe. Last week had been our ode to the eighties. We’d spent the weekend watching teen flicks that dealt with serious issues, like paying your paper carrier on time, turning sixteen, and spending a weekend in detention. It was very stimulating.

Caradoc, one the most serious vamps I’d ever met, refused to sit with us and stare aimlessly at the television screen. He always wondered off into the woods or brought a few books to read. I’m sure that he thought James and I were childish. Even though I’d just turned twenty-five, Caradoc still had me by about three hundred years or so, give or take a little.

James on the other hand was a smidge younger than him. He kept his hair cut short, and bleached it blond. I had to laugh every time I saw him spreading hair gel through it to spike it up. I think, no I know, he owns every black t-shirt ever made, and he rarely incorporates color.

Caleb walked over to me and touched my head with the back of his hand. “Gwen, you’re really cool, what’s going on? You’re still taking your pills, right?”

The pills he was referring to were my birth control pills that a Fae doctor, Dr. Brown had prescribed for me. The word Fae, means elf, faerie, or magikal creature. I had to hunt around for a doctor who specialized in this. Going to a normal doctor would have been too risky. Ordinary everyday people didn’t know that faeries, vampires, and other creatures of the night were real, and it had to stay that way.

I had no idea what was in the pills, but they were the equivalent of taking three normal birth control pills at one time. I had to take them twice a day because I was a Fae and was in the reproductive prime of my life. No one knew how long I would remain fertile, it could be hundreds of years, or it could just be a few weeks. It could end tomorrow and revisit me again in a hundred years. There was no rhyme or reason to it all and it made it hard to prevent unplanned pregnancies.

Caleb and I had agreed not to have a baby right now. I could have already been close to popping one out right now if I didn’t take the pills religiously. We were matches, and in the life of a faerie, you only got a few of those. A match was someone whose essence was complementary to you, thus possibly producing a healthy offspring. My female Fae body would be very selective on whom it would allow to impregnate me. I never actually got a list of prerequisites for the guy to posses, so I wasn’t sure who all fit the bill. I knew that Caleb did. He wanted to marry me and have a family, I knew that, but he also respected me enough to not push it.

“Yeah, I’m still taking the pills, so no, I’m not pregnant,” I said to him. I noticed his eyes staring down at my stomach. He looked disappointed. My gestation rate was a bit more accelerated than a human was, so if I were to become pregnant I would show in a matter of weeks. I felt bad for letting him down, but this was my body, and right now, I did not want to have a baby.

He looked up at me and knew that I’d caught him fixating on my stomach. He smiled slightly. “I was just…”

I finished it for him. “You were just hoping that I had decided to surprise you. Well I didn’t, sorry.” I hated being like this with him. “Look, I’m sorry, but do you really think I want to get pregnant and watch you head out that door hunting some lethal demon, only to never come back through it? Do you think I want to raise a baby by myself? Is that it? God, Caleb, get real, you can’t expect me to do that, you can’t expect me to say, hey let’s do it, gee we’ve only been a couple for two months, but let’s start a family anyways. Oh, then after I have a perfect little version of you I can sit around and spend the rest of my life mourning the man I loved and lost every time I look into his eyes. I’m not cut out to be a mother. I can’t even take care of myself. I’m a mess and you know it!”

My temper was flaring. I had a nasty one and he knew it. He was always saying how much like my father I was. I wouldn’t really know since the man didn’t raise me. I was raised by two wonderfully loving humans, not the King of the Dark Realm. I’d have to take Caleb’s word on issues that involved my father.

Caleb reached out to touch me. I pulled away from him. “Gwen, I didn’t mean that, and if you don’t like what I do, why didn’t you just say something? I’ll stop, I’ll quit right now, if that will make you feel better about us. I’ll do anything you want, you just have to tell me what the hell it is that you want. I’m not like some, I don’t read minds.”

I rolled my eyes, I didn’t want him to do that, I didn’t know what I wanted anymore. I just knew that I didn’t want to fight about this again. “Forget it, I’m fine. Go, you need to get cleaned up.”

He reached out and grabbed me around my waist. Before I could protest, he’d picked me up in his arms. I grinned from ear to ear. He could always make me smile, no matter what. It was a gift that few possessed. He carried me up the stairs and to our bedroom. We had taken over the master bedroom and he was in the middle of tearing down the wallpaper. The walls looked like something had been clawing at them, shreds of paper hung loosely to the floor. I laughed at the state of the room as he tossed me down on the bed gently.

His hands slid up and under my sweater. He traced his fingers over my silk bra lightly. My nipples hardened. He bent down and kissed me, my mouth welcomed his. I loved kissing him, I loved tasting him—I couldn’t get enough of him. His scent was manly, woodsy, rugged. Faeries came by their smell honestly. I tended to smell like a touch of lavender, and Caleb smelled like the fresh morning dew. It could be traced back to the first faeries who were in charge of watching over all things in nature.

Caleb’s fingers slid under my bra strap and caressed my breast. I reached down and started to pull on the button to undo his jeans. I undid it and slid my hand down the front of his pants. I don’t think the man owned a pair of underwear. I asked him about it once, and he joked that he was always ready for me this way. I had to laugh, he was right. I touched him and ran my fingers over his velvety smooth cock. I always loved the fact that he took no time at all to be ready for sex.

“I can’t get enough of you,” I said, trying to take him in my mouth. He pushed me back gently and laughed.

“No, you can’t get enough sex period. It’s the nymph in you. Your Grandmother was a nymph and you seem to have inherited their appetite for sex.”

“Mmm, would that make me a…?”

I stroked his shaft faster and he grabbed my hand, pulling me away from him gently. “Yes, Gwen… that’s exactly what it makes you,” he said, teasing me.

“Then what’s that make you?” I asked, trying to take hold of him again. He shifted slightly and I grabbed him tight.

Caleb lifted my shirt and sweater up, exposing my stomach and chest to him. “That’s easy…a fool for loving you.”

I continued caressing the length of him—feeling him growing in my hand. He was so hot. It felt good against my cold hand. I wanted to pull him out and bring him to me. I wanted to enjoy him before he left for the weekend. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as me.

I pulled my sweater off and lay back. Caleb always liked me to lay back and let him see me. I didn’t bother questioning him about it anymore. I just did it. He traced the mounds of my breasts, and ran the tips of his fingers down my rib cage. I pulled my arms in, trying to avoid being tickled any further. He grabbed my wrists and put his entire body over mine, leaving my hands to be pinned above my head.

Caleb’s hands were twice the size of mine. He had an unfair advantage in the bedroom. I was no match for him physically, and he knew it. He held both my wrists together with just one of his hands, and used his free one to keep tickling my ribs. My body burned for his. I wanted him to take me, to make love to me, and not be gentle, or playful.

“Caleb…”

He nuzzled his face into my neck. I felt the tiniest start of a beard. It still surprised me each time I felt it. He was able to grow one, but it would take a long time. He seemed to think I’d like him with facial hair. Maybe I would.

“What?” he asked, as he licked the side of my neck.

“Please, Caleb!”

“Please, what?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. He was going to make me say it, even if it killed me. I gave in. “I want you inside me.”

He made a small purring noise in my ear. It sent my body into a state of lust for his. I tugged on his earlobe with my teeth and begged him to enter me—to take me and not to be gentle. I wanted it hard, and I wanted it now.

“Say that you’ll marry me, Gwen, and I’ll give you what you want.”

“Caleb.”

“An bpósfaidh tú mé?—will you marry me?” Caleb asked. Hearing him utter those words in Gaelic make my chest tight, and my body ache for him.

His fingers slid down, into my hot channel, and found how very much I wanted him. He held them there and continued to taunt me. He dipped one in, moved it around, caressed me, and then pulled it back quickly, teasing me.

“Marry me, Gwen, and I’ll give you this and so much more for all eternity.”

Could I see myself spending forever with him? Yes, surprisingly enough, I could.

“Yes, Caleb, I’ll marry you.”

He plunged his fingers into me and I cried out. He smeared my juices on his shaft and thrust into me in one fluid movement. I screamed out and bucked against his hips in an attempt to take all of him within me. He strained, trying to keep from hurting me. He knew that his size sometimes made sex uncomfortable for me, but today I didn’t care. No, I wanted all of him in me now. I bit at his chin and he slammed his body into mine.

His mouth came down on mine and we shared a magikal moment together. I felt his power, part of his core, enter me, and mine him. It was the way that faeries sanctified their bond—reaffirmed their commitment to one another. Humans used diamond rings. Faeries used raw power. I had a piece of Caleb now, and he me. When we officially wed, we would surrender our powers over to each other fully, and they would merge forever.

As our powers joined, my orgasm ripped through my body. I contracted around him as he pumped in and out of me. It was his turn to cry out as he emptied his seed into me.

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Pen Name Excerpt: The Bet by Kennedy Kovit

M/F Contemporary Western Erotic Romance

Blazing Hearts Series, Book 1

Tyson is a man with a dark past and he isn’t much on wagers. But when his best friend bets him that he can’t romance the pants off their boss’s daughter, he can’t resist. See, he’s had the hots for Ms. Lexie Garnes for years, but she was too young to act on it. Now that she’s a college graduate, and more than legal, he’s all in. Tyson can’t hide his feelings for Lexie any longer. With a bet on the table, he has no choice but to man up and find a way for her to accept him and his kinky bedroom tastes.

Lexie is glad to be back down south. Her time away did her good but made her miss home. Middlefield may lack excitement, but it has something Boston never did—Tyson Morrows. Her father’s ranch foreman is sexier than ever and suddenly seems to have eyes for her. Is this too good to be true? Will his commanding hands in the bedroom prove to be too much for her and what will happen when she learns he only made his move because of a bet?

Rating: This novella contains steamy sex scenes, a hero who is all about getting the heroine into bed and teaching her things good girls just shouldn’t know, and a couple who has had feelings for one another a whole hell of a lot longer than they’re willing to admit. This novella isn’t for everyone, and if you don’t like your sex dirty, your men alpha, and your women willing to learn, then this isn’t the book for you.

EXCERPT

Must be 18 years and older to read. If not, please leave the site.

Chapter One

Not too big. Not too little. At least as far as small towns went. That was Middlefield. The town wasn’t huge, but it was decent sized when comparing it to other small towns. Used to be so damn tiny it didn’t warrant mention on a map. When they’d finally gotten listed on one, they’d had a town celebration to mark the occasion. Truth was, they tended to have a celebration for just about everything. The next one was to race armadillos of all things. Everyone would gather to watch it. It was just the way of things in small town America.

The evening sun beat down on everything, scorching the earth dry and making all the lawns turn brown and wither up. Already the month was behind on rainfall and it wasn’t as if they weren’t dry enough this time of year. If they didn’t get rain soon it would be a big issue. Some farmers were planting crops with the knowledge they wouldn’t take with the lack of rainfall, but they needed to collect on the insurance money. It was hard to make a living off the land, but it could be done.

Tyson Morrows hung his black Stetson on a branch near him and pulled his black t-shirt over his head. He discarded it behind him on the same low hanging branch that now held his hat, which one would be hard pressed to find him without. The shirt was from one of his favorite bands. He’d decided to think of the band only in terms of its glory days, not what it had become. He wasn’t sure how he felt about its frontman now being a judge on a reality TV show. He wasn’t much into television and for sure was not a fan of reality TV. Didn’t really see the point. If people wanted to see real life he thought they should just go out and live it. Not sit on their duff watching it play out on a screen.

Tyson fit the mold of so many men in the area. He liked pickup trucks, jeans, t-shirts, cowboy boots, meat and potatoes, and classic rock with some country music thrown in for good measure. Try as he might, he found it fit him, and he wasn’t one for putting on a false front. He’d made an effort to be less country when he was on a work trip to Boston, but that had proved to be an epic failure so he stopped nearly instantly.

Funny how the Boston women fawned all over him the minute he put his cowboy hat back on and stopped giving a rat’s ass about how much he was standing out there. The only regret he’d had about his time there was not following through on his original plan—not stopping in to pay a visit to Lexie Garnes. She’d taken off four years back to attend some fancy university there. He never could remember which. All the fancy ones seemed to run together. All he knew was she didn’t belong there. She belonged in Middlefield with him.

His chest tightened at the thought of her. She wasn’t far away anymore. Much to his surprise earlier in the day, she was home. His blond hair fell forward into his face, partially blocking his view. The sweat from working outside all day clung to him as he unbuckled his belt and then unbuttoned his jeans. He lowered them, his gaze on the lake and the sun as it began to lower on the horizon.

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Mating Behavior

 

Paranormal Shifter Romance

Mating Behavior by Mandy M. Roth

Wolf shifter Alan has a problem—he wants his best friend Katie in the worst sort of way, but Katie’s human and for a shifter male to choose a human for a mate is a death sentence—for both of them.

Katie is so in love with her best bud, Alan, that she can’t see straight. Problem is, Alan doesn’t seem to see her that way. All she wants is for him to tear her clothes off and have at her but, sweet, reserved Alan would never… or would he?

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Excerpt:

Alan Becker stared over the orange glow of the campfire at the angel before him. She was tired, as he expected she might be when he’d called for a break. With his supernatural strength, Alan’s endurance was off the charts in comparison to that of a human. Katie had no idea he wasn’t like her. Hiding the fact he’d not broken a sweat or gotten the least bit winded on the hike thus far had been hard enough. The angel, who now looked to be on the verge of nodding off, was pushed beyond her limits. It damn near tore his heart out to see it. Katie hadn’t complained once so far on the trip and that made it all the worse. It was his place to take care of her.

They’d stopped long enough to eat and for her to warm up. As much as he disliked the idea of starting even the smallest of fires, which they would sit by for an hour or two at best, Katie needed a break from the hike.

Her unruly, dark brown hair naturally went to blonde surrounding her face, falling from her knit cap. Katie didn’t seem to notice or care as she tucked her knees to her chest and rested her chin upon them. If Alan didn’t know first-hand how cold Katie got, he would have thought the thick mittens and sweater she wore were overkill considering just how mild the March weather was. He’d been shedding layers most of the day and even now, as the sun hid on the other side of the mountain causing the temperature to drop, he was hot. Hot because of what he truly was—more than human but not quite a complete animal—and hot because of who he was with, Katie.

He grit his teeth as his cock dug painfully at the confines of his jeans. It seemed to be in a permanent state of arousal around Katie. The girl needed only to exist to make his heart flutter and his pulse speed. The urge to leap forth, do a partial shift and claim her as his own reached levels Alan wasn’t sure he could sustain without a meltdown. He swallowed back a lump in his throat, positive his tongue was swelling at almost the same rate his cock was.

Damn her for looking so tempting.

In truth Katie was layered up to the point her sexy, petite frame was unrecognizable, but he could see those big brown eyes reflecting pools of firelight back at him. The very thought of those eyes staring up at him as Katie took his cock in her mouth had Alan biting back a moan. She was passionate about everything in her life and he had little doubt she’d be a pistol in the bedroom as well. He could almost feel her nails digging into his back as he rode her into oblivion.

He clenched his fist, trying to wash the erotic images from his head before he lost control of himself. “Hungry?”

I know I am and it’s not for food.

She nodded. “A little. How much further do we have to go?”

The weary tone of her voice sobered him instantly. “Depending on how long we rest here for,” he ran a hand over his scratchy chin, “I’d say we should be to our campsite a little before nightfall. Unless you want to go straight to the cabin?”

Katie rubbed her mitten-covered hands over her legs. “You mentioned the old wolf dens near the spot your dad used to take you camping.” The slight pull of her mouth told him just how exhausted she was. Katie had been elated at the idea of seeing dens, even ones that were no longer in use. Seeing her weak smile was all the heads-up Alan needed to know she required rest. “I’d love to camp near them.”

“Anything you want,” he said, doing his best to ignore the way she bit at her lower lip.

Anything you want? What? How can I be whipped when I haven’t even sampled the goods?

He groaned and then coughed in a quick attempt to hide it. Alan wasn’t the type of man who followed a woman around aimlessly, bending to her every whim. Well, at least he never thought he was the type to do that. Katie had a way of leaving him tongue twisted and his chest tied in knots at the idea of her being unhappy. Only Katie possessed that certain something that left him longing to touch her, or to even be in the same room with her.

Alan poked the fire with a long stick for a while, unsure how much time had passed, and pretended to be more worried about keeping the fire going than the fact Katie was now watching him closely through tired eyes. She watched him often when she assumed he wasn’t looking. He used to wonder what she was thinking, but anymore he had to fight to keep from tackling her to the ground and sinking his cock into her. She had no idea his feelings ran so deep. Hell, up until he’d caught the scent of another man on her some six months ago, he didn’t even realize what he felt for her was so intense.

Jealousy is funny like that.

Alan had thought she was a fling. Minus the actual sex part, of course. A temporary obsession because she represented everything he couldn’t have—a beautiful, intelligent, human female for his own, to take as his mate, his wife and the mother of his children.

Temporary my ass. I’ve been hot for her for years.

The pack had a strict no-mating-with-humans policy and anyone who didn’t adhere to it found themselves on the receiving end of what they could only hope was a quick death. Not to mention the human involved was sentenced to death as well. Humans were to have no knowledge of their kind.

End of story.

No exceptions to the rule.

The council members had laid the laws of the pack down long ago and each generation followed it to the letter. Any who didn’t paid the ultimate price. He’d seen a werewolf punished for crimes against the pack when he was just a boy and the memory stuck with him. Seeing a man hung naked by his feet from a tree and ripped to shreds by shifted wolves wasn’t something he was ever likely to forget.

While Alan was more than willing to forfeit his own life for a night of passion with Katie, he wasn’t ready to sacrifice her life as well. Granted, he wasn’t heavily active in any pack, not even the one he lived closest to now, but still, going against the grain was deadly. Shifters of any kind were more common than humans would want to believe. In the city he bumped into at least one shifter a week. Hell, he’d even had a house party once and one showed up. The chick had been some sort of cat shifter and looked as if she wanted to gouge his eyes out. Being part wolf left the feeling totally mutual, so Alan didn’t take it to heart. Though, he did have his carpets and furniture steam cleaned to get the smell of cat out of them once she was gone. There was really nothing worse than cat hair stuck to his suit, then his sofa, then his bedding. Sleeping with her would have at least given a good reason for it. As it stood, the bitch just seemed to shed a lot as she’d wandered around his place snarling.

If he did give in and claim Katie as his own, the risk of another shifter discovering what he’d done was too great. If they caught the scent of his mark, it would only be a matter of time before news of his deed reached the head of the local pack. Within an hour, someone would be sent to eliminate Katie.

I won’t risk her.

Katie’s eyelids drifted downwards and she rocked slightly. Afraid she might fall face first into the fire, Alan drew upon his supernatural speed and moved next to her. Had she been awake, he would have never risked moving even a tenth as fast as he could. There would be no explaining away something like that. It wasn’t like he could slap a pair of glasses on and assume a new identity, or rush through a telephone booth to shift forms.

Real life wasn’t like the movies. And secret identities required more than capes. They required never revealing one’s self.

Alan pulled Katie into his arms, inhaling her sweet scent and groaning inwardly as his cock twitched. It had been a long hike up the mountain. He could hear her tiny breaths as she’d hiked behind him, smell the light sheen of sweat upon her skin and vividly picture himself licking it off her.

She hadn’t slept well the night before, tossing and turning before waking with a scream lodged in her throat. She then went on to obsess about his safety, doing a complete head-to-toe check over him prior to leaving for their camping trip. It was cute in a “fuck I’m hard again” kind of way.

Alan had tried to talk Katie into letting him drive his SUV, but she’d insisted on roughing it. That was almost laughable. Katie was a city girl, having only experienced nature while visiting a strip of grass labeled a park. Dragging her into the Tennessee Appalachian Mountains in search of red wolves was ludicrous. These mountains, the ones his father often brought him to, were downright dangerous, regardless of the fact they were no longer frequented by weres—just regular wolves. And even those had been reintroduced to the area because of hunting and other environmental factors.

Alan hadn’t really turned his back on his father’s pack so much as he shunned the idea of being part beast, part man. Sure, by all outward appearances he was human and he wasn’t a slave to the cycles of the moon like some werewolves, but that didn’t make being what he was any easier. The memory of looking at himself in the mirror, after a night of feeding off deer while in wolf form, still disgusted him. It had been over fifteen years since he’d last set foot in the mountains, and as much as he hated to admit it, he missed it. He missed the fresh air. The freedom to shift at will and run wild. Having others around who understood what his body was going through. But mostly, he missed the bond he’d once shared with his father. The minute Alan refused to accept what he truly was—a werewolf destined to one day be on one of the ruling councils—his father took it personally, turning his back on Alan and the “human” life he wanted so desperately to lead.

Alan graduated, went off to college and never looked back. His mother called often enough, doing her best to make small talk—all the while the unspoken hints that she wanted him to find a nice she-wolf and settle down hung in the air between them. At times it was so thick he screened his calls, unable to hear the disappointment in his mother’s voice when she asked if he’d claimed Katie yet and he said no. Confessing Katie was human wasn’t something Alan wanted to do. It would crush his mother.

So far, Alan had become quite the accomplished liar in regards to Katie and his mother. He managed to sneak in affirmations of his mother’s suspicions of Katie being a shifter as much as possible, while leading Katie to believe his mother had little to no interest in his life so she would stop asking to meet her.

If news spread back to the pack that he was practically living with a human female, and had been for the last several years, they’d naturally assume he was fucking her. They’d also assume she knew his secret. Katie would be in danger and that wasn’t something Alan would ever permit.

Katie blinked up at him as he rocked her gently before the fire. “Mmm, why aren’t you tired?” She stretched. “You know, you’re in incredible shape and I have yet to see you workout. Is this how you do it? Do you sneak away and hike when I’m not looking? Your backpack weighs a ton. I tipped over trying it on, remember?”

I’m not tired because I have you in my arms and I’ll be damned if I sleep the moment away.

He shrugged and let a lazy smile dance over his face as he remembered the stunned expression on Katie’s face as she fell over, hitting the ground under the weight of his pack. Her shoulders had been pinned to the ground by the straps, reminding him of a turtle on its back. It also left her in prime position to receive him, so as funny as it was, Alan had no choice but to get her off the ground quickly or chance mounting her.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s all this fresh air. And I wouldn’t suggest trying to slip my pack on up here. If you tumble, you may never stop.” He chuckled even though for one brief second the threat of her doing just that hit him hard. Overreacting seemed to be reserved for anything to do with Katie. With anyone else in life, Alan could really give a shit. He had to take a calming breath and remind himself that Katie was safe.

Katie purred as she stretched against him. The very sound drove spikes of need through his system, leaving his skin prickling with the urge to shift into wolf form and forever claim her as his own. He tipped his head back, trying, and failing, to block the scent of honeysuckle and roses—the scent of Katie. She fit in the crook of his arm, her body molded to his, reaffirming what the man in him believed, she was made for him.

If only that were true.

Alan steeled himself against her allure and eased her to the ground, careful to pull her backpack close to act as a pillow. “Rest for a bit while I finish checking the map and repacking the gear.”

“No, I want to help,” she said, her voice slurred with sleep.

The tiniest of laughs escaped him. “As fun as watching you try to figure out what package of dried goods goes where is, I’m going to pass. Take a quick nap. There’s nothing else you can do to help, Katie, so rest.”

“Okay, I’ll just rest for a minute.”

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Excerpt: Bella Mia by Mandy M Roth

Bella Mia by Mandy M Roth

Daughter of Darkness 3

Paranormal Dark Fantasy Vampire Romance

The sins of our past are never far behind…

On the run from two men who want her, Gwyneth Stevens finds herself at the door of a third-Giovanni Baldassare, master vampire and former henchman of her father, the King of the Dark Realm. When Pallo and Caleb resurface, all

hell breaks loose and old habits die hard. Out of time and places to hide, Gwen must face her destiny head on if she ever hopes to find happiness. Can the triangle of lovers make welcome a newcomer, or will the group succumb

to old enemies resurfacing and centuries-old grudges, allowing history to repeat itself?

Rating: Carnal. This story contains mega hot alpha heroes who aren’t about to take no for an answer, a gutsy heroine, a woman torn between multiple men, chilling villains, sizzling sex, and violence. It is not intended for the faint of heart. Author recommends reading the series in order of release.

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EXCERPT

Chapter One

“Check mate,” Giovanni said, his voice smooth.

I stared across the chessboard at him and rolled my eyes. “There’s a shocker!”

He’d beaten me three times in a row, somehow perfecting the art of annihilating his opponents in the shortest amount of moves possible. No surprise, he’d had almost five hundred years to master the game of chess. I’d had less than thirty. Guess who was better.



Twirling the end of his long, black hair, he gave me a wicked little smile. It was entirely too sexy, as I’m sure he already suspected. “I could let you win next time.”

I had a sneaky suspicion he had tried to let me win the last one, which had ended in much the same fashion as the rest—me as the loser.

“Oh, yeah, I want a pity win, thanks … but, no.”

He laughed and stood with the same grace he had in all his actions. He put his hand out to me, his gaze darting over my body as he pulled me up to him. My long burgundy, belled slacks gave the look of a skirt and the flow of a gown. My overly exaggerated breasts were pushed up towards him in the matching corset top. I looked like I could be starring in a late night soap opera.

For the supernatural and super horny.

Giovanni glanced down at the mounds of white flesh and bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment of my beauty. No, I wasn’t being cocky. He’d done it so many times over the past four months that I was used to it. Trust me when I say getting used to being treated like a queen is friggin’ awesome.

The first time he’d acted like that, I’d stopped and made a point to question his behavior. He simply explained he was paying his respects for being allowed to be near me. I laughed him off, thinking he was joking. I mean, come on, who would buy that response as the right answer?

Giovanni was one I was never able to read well. I knew all about him being a big-bad-vampire and I knew all about his role in killing me my first time on this earth. That was over two-hundred years ago. Wait, it gets even more confusing. He also played a key role in saving my life on two different occasions this time around.

Warning: Concentrating too hard on my own life could lead to an aneurysm.

Being reincarnated was hard enough to live with. Try adding the fact that ninety percent of the people I knew in my past life were immortal and still around. Apparently, I had a history, sometimes sordid, with each of them. Yeah, I was beginning to think I’d make a great movie of the week. If I was lucky, someone famous would play me. Doubtful though.

“Dance with me, Bella.” He made no attempt to hide his accent like so many vampires I know did. Giovanni had lived most of his life in Italy and made no bones about it. He was what he was and that was that. I admired him for it.

“Who is this?” I was curious as to what composer I was listening to now.

“Busoni,” Giovanni said, as if this one name declaration would sum it all up for me. I smiled and gave up trying to figure it all out. I decided to enjoy the moment. “Busoni, had a tremendous range of expression, would you agree? Not to the extent of many of the masters, but I enjoy him all the same. Pity he had to die. Such a mortal thing to do.”

I nodded, unsure what, exactly, I was agreeing to and smiled again. I wouldn’t know range of expression if it bit me in the ass. I also found little shocking about his comment on mortals dying. It was a sad truth. Giovanni was full of many of those.

For the first time in a long time, my smiles weren’t forced. Giovanni made me happy. Italy made me happy. It felt like home.

I let him put his hand on my waist and take my other in his. He led us across the marble floor in such a perfect, fluid motion that it felt as though we’d been doing it for centuries. Perhaps we had. My memories of my past life were sporadic at best. Whatever was happening between us seemed right.

My heels clicked along as I let myself be swept up in the moment. Giovanni had a way about him. He was sophisticated, yet full of humor and charm. He was so very different from the men I’d left behind four months earlier. He was also a great deal more dangerous. Maybe that was part of the lure.

He spun me around and around. Lifting me off my feet, he continued around once more before setting me back down gently. When he was finished, I was left dizzy, breathless, and clinging to him. I knew he enjoyed being this close to me. I enjoyed it, too. More than I should but it was hard not to appreciate the feel of his toned body pressed to mine. We’d been staying together for the last fourteen weeks and in that time he and I had never had sex or even shared a kiss. Horny didn’t even begin to cover my body at present.

There’s only so much Italian stallion a gal can take before she’s biting her lip and thinking of easing her own sexual frustration.

Giovanni was turning out to be someone I enjoyed spending time with. He’d been gracious enough to take me away from the chaos of my father’s–King Kerrigan, Leader of the Dark Realm–home. My father had been well meaning in his attempts at throwing an extravagant engagement party for me, but he hadn’t been aware that circumstances had changed. Caleb, the man I had agreed to marry, and I had had a falling out. My father especially liked Caleb, because he, like me, is a faerie. Being intimate with a faerie is a feeling that cannot be duplicated even with the most loving of partners. As much as Caleb and I seemed perfect for each other, the engagement went sour fast. He’d been running around town with other women and I’d been sleeping with other men. One man in particular that I’d chosen to share myself with had upset him—Pallo D’Alessandro.

Pallo happened to be a master vampire and longtime on and off again boyfriend of mine. Did I forget to mention that Giovanni sired him? You know what they say about the webs we weave.

“What would you like to do today, Bella?”

Giovanni had made sure to set it up so that I didn’t have to do anything on my own if I didn’t want to. It sounded very glamorous in the beginning, until two women showed up in my bathroom trying to clean me. I had had to draw the line and set limits then. After a two hour limit setting session Giovanni seemed to understand I didn’t mind living my own life or bathing myself.

“I don’t care. You decide.”

“My dear, Bella, everyday it is the same. I ask what you want and you volley it back to me.”

“Volley? My, aren’t we the hip vamp? Are you taking notes on how to sound like you come from this century?” I batted my lashes. “Oh, I want to see them.”

His smile widened. “Shall we try horseback riding again?”

I let out a long, exasperated breath. “The horses are scared to death of you. Why don’t you get some sort of demon-breed? Maybe they’d be less skittish.” The last time we’d attempted to go for a ride Giovanni had sent the horses into a dither. They were beside themselves with fear. They could sense he was a vampire and they were not cool with that. Hell, I wasn’t always cool with it either. Couldn’t really blame the things. Our planned night out ended up with me coaxing an upset horse back to its stable while trying to convince Giovanni that, no, I really didn’t need his help.

“How about tennis… would you like to play?”

This was going nowhere fast. “I don’t know how to play. Maybe, if you did you could teach me.”

Laughing, he threw his hands up. “Arrèndere—I surrender. It is up to you, Bella.”

“Can I ask you something?” I hedged, unsure how much I wanted to push him because I was positive his answer wouldn’t be to my liking.

“Of course.”

“Why is it you have a pool, a tennis court, horses and all this other stuff if you can’t, or don’t want to use them?”

A slight smile appeared on his handsome face. “I told the people who took care of this property that I wanted it kept up to date. They followed my orders.”

“That part I get. It explains some of the stuff, but not the horses.”

Coming close to me, he touched my cheek and his soft hands ran over my skin lightly. “Bella, it is you who liked horses. I simply continued to keep them around after you were gone. They reminded me of you. I used to watch you care for them and go for morning rides to see the sun come up. Though, I was not able to accompany you due to obvious reasons, I did so enjoy knowing you were happy.”

I didn’t know what to say. He’d kept a stable full of horses around for over two-hundred years because I’d liked them? It was too much even for me. I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d kept a room of the house stocked full of my old clothes. Over the years he’d picked up things here and there that reminded him of me, even though I had been long dead. It wasn’t very endearing. It was weird.

“Giovanni, you’re creeping me out again.”

“I do have a tendency to do that.”

A nervous laugh escaped me as I glanced around the large sitting room. It was beautiful. In fact, it was the most beautiful room I’d ever been in. It wasn’t just that he had decorated it in antiques that seemed very touchable, it was how much time he’d put into every piece of furniture and artwork that went into his home. He seemed to have a thing for deep, rich colors in the main living area and more subtle ones throughout the rest of his home.

My gaze wandered to the fresco of Jesus tending his sheep. The irony of the devil having Jesus hanging on his wall was not lost on me. A vampire with the desire to have a holy figure depicted in his home—just another example of Giovanni’s quirks. Part of what made me like being around him so very much. It was also something I’d miss.

I looked back at him with a heavy heart. “I’m going to have to go home soon.”

There. I had said it out loud.

He moved his long black hair over one shoulder and began to take his jacket off. The man wore designer suits almost every day. I wondered if he wore designer underwear, too. Shocked to find myself thinking about him sexually again, I couldn’t pull my eyes away as his long, pale fingers unbuttoned one of the three buttons of the single-breasted black jacket. He casually tossed the jacket onto the sage-colored chair behind him. My cheeks flared red because only yesterday I had been picturing him nude in that very chair. The soft feel of the velvet and the ornate features matched him, so well. Having him waiting naked in it for me seemed like the perfect fantasy.

Giovanni was doing the most casual of things, yet I couldn’t seem to tear my gaze from him. His matching black button up dress shirt was open, down to his mid-chest. My toes curled at the thought of touching him. I was shaken. I’d gotten used to looking at men bare their chests to me since I’d known Caleb and Pallo. Caleb was a fan of the no-shirt look and Pallo liked to show his chest off through the wonders of designer clothing. Giovanni was a lot like Pallo in that respect, but he seemed to think more was better. I had seen him once in a mesh black shirt. It showed off his tanned and toned upper body, but I’d never seen him in anything quite that revealing again.

Moving onto my tiptoes, I tried to sneak a peek into his shirt. He caught me doing it and smiled.

“You have only but to ask me and…”

I put my hand up to stop him from going any further. I’d been the one to insist sex stay out of our relationship, but being next to an Italian stud twenty-four hours a day could make a nun second guess herself.

I’m certainly no nun.

“No. Really, I’m good. I was just wondering about something.”

He walked over to the side table and poured two glasses of wine, keeping his back to me. I knew it was on purpose. His tall, toned frame and long hair made him slightly androgynous from the backside. Thankfully, his shoulders were wide and his face masculine or people would begin to wonder.

Giovanni turned and handed me a glass of red wine. As I took it, my body reacted to his touch, heating, tightening, aching for more. Yanking my hand away, I gave him a nasty look. “I thought I told you not to use your vamp-mojo on me.”

His black eyes softened and the corner of his mouth dropped into a frown. “Bella, I am not using any mojo on you. I promise you that.”

If he was telling the truth, then I was in deep shit. Having feelings for him could be deadly. I knew that for a fact. I set my glass of wine down and walked towards the stairs. “I need some time to myself.”

What I really should have said was that I needed to put distance between us.

He put his glass in the air and nodded to me. “Of course.”

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Soft Release (Kindle Only) Strength in Numbers by Reagan Hawk

Strength in Numbers (Strength in Numbers Series)

by Reagan Hawk

Soft Release (Buy Kindle Early – Jan 15 2013)

Official Release Date April 20th, 2013

NOTE: Strength in Numbers Book One was previously released under the author name Mandy M. Roth



M/F/M and M/M/F Threesome Erotic Sci-Fi Alien Romance

Born into a life of sexual servitude and trained to please men, Sempia believes her fate is sealed—her virginity auctioned off to the highest bidder then life as a sex slave. She never dreamed her childhood sweetheart would resurface in her hour of need…or that he would be the winning bidder.

Now a seasoned warrior, Eterin is nothing like the boy she remembers—he’s all man and wants to possess her at all costs. But much has changed in the years they’ve been apart. Eterin has a new man in his life—one who wants to share them both. Sempia finds herself at the mercy of two incredibly hot and horny intergalactic outlaws who are dangerously close to stealing her heart.

Rating: Contains hot, hot, hot sex, an alpha male shifter, a delicious devi, adult language, and violence.

EXCERPT



Must be 18 years and older to read. If not, please leave the site.

The thunderous roars of the crowd shook the very ground she stood upon. So many had gathered to lay witness to the evening’s festivities, celebration of the coming of the equinox, that it was nearly impossible to get an accurate head count. Varying moons surrounding the planet held their themed tributes for the festival. The moon she was on was for one purpose and one purpose only—sex. All Sempia was sure of was that she was the starring act on this night. It was she, a prized virgin from a line of sex slaves, who was to be auctioned off to the right bidder. Her hymen would be broken by the winning bidder and her slave note would then belong to him as well.

The entry of a sex slave onto the market and the taking of her virginity was a show many sought to see. They took great pleasure in watching the slave being serviced by many before vaginal insertion occurred by the man who would be her keeper. Much time and effort went into the preparation of the event and additional sex slaves were used to add bodies to the mix, increasing the show’s appeal. The extra slaves were ones who had reached a certain status among coliseum goers. In some odd way, they had become celebrities of sorts to many. She could only dream of achieving such a status.

Long ago, she’d dreamed of a different life. One where she led a household of her own, greeting her bonded mate when he came in from a long day of labouring. A life where she would be thought of as more than property, but instead loved by one man—a man she’d selected already. He’d hardly been a man when she’d dreamed the impossible. He’d been a boy, barely older than her at the time. He too had been low-born, his options limited. They had been born to a life of servitude. And Sempia had wisely schooled herself to focus only on the future available to her, not the one she’d first dreamed of.

She had vowed to make the best of this life forced upon her. It would take her many years of sexual serfdom in an arena setting to win over the crowds in such a way. The odds of the person who purchased her note allowing her to continue in such a venue were slim. Most sex slaves were purchased for personal use and to be used to service the needs of those close to the owner.

Already the act, which would culminate with the taking of her virginity, was underway. She wasn’t involved in the beginning portions of it. The crowd-pleasing regulars were used to get the masses eager for more and on the edges of their seats. She had to admit, they did their duty well. From her vantage point, just off from the staging area, the crowd appeared very pleased. They seemed taken with one of the alien species brought in to spice things up. It was hard to blame them.

Sempia tried to look away but couldn’t as the Mantovian alien stood before the women in the ring. He was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. He had a row of four cocks between his legs, lined up vertically. They seemed to have a life of their own. Each one moved in a different direction, like tentacles. There was no mistaking the mushroom-shaped head on each of them. The rest of the Mantovian’s body was a pale shade of blue, most likely having something to do with the fact he originated from planet Mantovia, which was almost entirely covered in crystal-blue water.

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A hard look at my books

Will be going through sales and unit numbers for series/titles this weekend. Am going to have to make some hard decisions about some books/series–seeing if they’d sold through (sold back what was spent on them to publish–editing, art, formatting, time, etc). I’m going to sob like a baby about a few I just know it but unfortunately I have to focus on series and books that do sell. On a good note everyone who helped with the Project Exorcism Series and helping to bring attention to it to get it more sales–you’ll be very happy to know it WORKED! Sales increased for the entire series!!!!!! I’m thinking of asking for help on my Prospect Springs Shifters Series (Blaze of Glory and Parker’s Honor), Sacred Places Series (Sacred Places, Goddess of the Grove, Winter Solstice), Warriors of Darkness, Wicked Lucidity and Valkyrie Series. Its amazing what you all can do when you set your minds to it and I’ve said it before, without all of you I’d not even be here. THANK YOU!

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