“There isn’t anything wrong with you, Shay. You’re just scared to put it all out there for someone because you don’t want to be rejected again. But this isn’t a hallucination caused by castor oil and cabbage fumes.” He voiced the explanation echoing in her head. “Deep in your soul, you know that. You just don’t want to admit it because then you’ll have to accept this.” His gaze locked with hers. “You’ll have to accept me.”
“W-what are you?”
“A werewolf. I think.” When she gave him a puzzled look, he added, “I used to be a full-blooded werewolf, but now I’m something different.” He gave her a brief explanation about Viv and the struggle and the vampire bite. “Now I’m something different. Half-werewolf, half-vampire.”
“That’s crazy.” Even as she said the words, her mind rushed back through the past week and everything started to make sense. The furry picture of him in last week’s newspaper. The unnatural glow of his eyes. The way he seemed to read her every thought, sense her every need. The wild, incredible, earth-shattering sex…
She saw him poised above her, his eyes gleaming, his fangs glittering…Her imagination, or so she’d thought.
“I always knew there was someone out there for me. I’ve been searching for my mate for three years now.” His gaze locked with hers. “I’ve been searching for you, Shay. I love you.”
“This can’t be happening,” she said again, denial rushing as fast and furious as her heart. “This can’t be real. You can’t be real.”
He opened his mouth and a growl vibrated the air between them. His eyes glowed purple then the pupils shimmered to a bright, intense yellow. His fangs grew longer. His features shifted. His hair started to grow.
She heard the scream from far away at first. But it quickly grew louder until she realized that it was her own. The floor seemed to tilt. The smell of castor oil and cabbage burned her nostrils.
She had the brief thought that she was about to faint. A crazy thought because she didn’t cry, much less crumple into an unconscious heap. That only happened in books and movies.
This only happened in books and movies.
She had one last glimpse of Matt, his body morphing and changing, and then everything went black.
10
NO WAY WAS HE A WEREWOLF. Or a vampire. Or some weird cross between the two.
No way.
That’s what Shay told herself when she opened her eyes a little while later to find herself tucked safely in her bed, with Matt nowhere in sight.
Things like that…They just didn’t exist.
Even so, she kicked off the covers, pulled off her sweats and spent fifteen minutes doing a frantic search over her naked body for bites. She didn’t find any. A discovery that sent her straight to the fridge for a pint of Chunky Monkey.
Not that she was disappointed.
Hardly.
The last thing she needed was to turn into some guy’s chew toy. A crazy, disturbed, warped guy who actually thought he was a bonafide werewolf. Even worse, he was convinced he was a werewolf who’d been bitten by a vampire.
And she thought she’d reached her lowest moment whipping a bunch of meatballs at what’s his name? Talk about a headline waiting to happen: My Hot Night with a Werewolf.
Forget losing her customers. They’d cart her off to the funny farm for damned sure.
Forget it. Forget him.
She tried. She really did. She gave up the ice cream and headed into the shop the next morning. She spent Saturday doing inventory and sending out post-cards to her client list. But no amount of work could make her forget the night before. It played over and over in her head like a broken record, taunting her, reminding her until she finally admitted the truth to herself—he was a werewolf, all right.
A werewolf hellbent on finding his one and only.
She’d seen the sincerity in his eyes and heard the conviction in his voice.
He loved her.
Even more, she loved him.
The realization hit her later that evening as she locked up the salon and headed home. She stood in her living room and stared at the stack of journals on her bookshelf and her heart lodged in her chest.
He’d taken one.
While that fact should have made her incredible uptight and insecure, it didn’t bother her now. She wanted him to read her stories. She wanted him, period.
It didn’t matter that they hadn’t dated for months, taken long walks in the park or gone on romantic picnics. Deep in her heart, she knew. She’d known the moment their eyes had met outside of the Piggly Wiggly. It had been an attraction more intense than anything she’d ever felt before.
Because it was more than attraction.
It was the real thing. Deep down, ’til death do us part love.
She loved his strength and his passion and the fact that he knew her every thought, her every weakness, and loved her in spite of them.
And it was high time she showed him just how much.
MATT WAS STANDING ON THE FRONT porch when Shay pulled up in front of the cabin. She knew the moment she saw the expectant look in his eyes that he’d been waiting for her, his senses tuned to the surrounding forest.
Because he was more than a man.
Her hands tightened on the steering wheel for a brief moment as a wave of hesitation swept through her. She had to be crazy to be doing this. At the same time, she’d waited her entire life for just this moment. This man. And no way was she letting her inhibitions get the best of her.
Leaving the lights on, she killed the engine. She gathered her courage, took a deep breath and opened the door. A few seconds later, she stepped into the blaze of headlights. Her gaze locked with his and she reached for the hem of her T-shirt, pulling it up and over her head. Trembling fingers worked at the catch of her bra, freeing her straining breasts. The scrap of lace landed at her feet. Her jeans followed until she stood in nothing but her panties and a slick layer of perspiration. She hooked her thumbs at the waistband and pushed them down. The silk slithered down her legs and she stepped free.
The warm night air whispered over her bare shoulders and breasts and she fought the instinct to cover herself. She was determined to show Matt the real woman just as he’d shown her his true self.
“I love you, Matt,” she murmured. “I still have a zillion questions about all of this, about you, and I’m scared to death, but I love you anyway.”
She barely managed to blink before he reached her. Strong, muscled arms wrapped around her and drew her close as his mouth captured hers in a deep, thorough kiss that sucked the air from her lungs and made her legs tremble.
She clutched at his shoulders. Denim rasped her sensitive breasts and thighs in a delicious friction that made her tremble and clutch at the hard muscles of his arms.
Strong hands slid down her back, cupped her bottom and urged her legs up on either side of him. Then he lifted her. He cradled and kneaded her buttocks as she wrapped her legs around his waist and settled over the straining bulge in his jeans.
As anxious as Matt was to sate the beast that lived and breathed inside of him, he’d been waiting for this moment—for her—far too long to have it over at the flick of a zipper. He wouldn’t scare her off and risk losing her.
He wouldn’t.
He gathered his control and his body shook from the effort. “I want you so much,” he murmured. “I don’t know if I can hold back.”
“I don’t want you to hold back. I want all of you. Werewolf. Vampire. It doesn’t matter. I love you both.”
Her words whispered through his head and sent a rush of joy through him. An emotion that quickly faded into a wave of passion when she rubbed herself against him.
“Please.”
He carried her inside to the bedroom, stretched her out on the bed and flipped on the bedside lamp. “I want to see you this time. I want you to see me.”
And then he kissed her, hard and deep and urgently. His tongue tangled with hers, stroking and coaxing until she whimp
ered and tugged at the waistband of his jeans. He shed the denim, slid on a condom and settled between her legs. His weight pressed her back into the mattress. His erection slid along her damp cleft, making her shudder and moan and arch toward him. And then he plunged, fast and sure and deep, burying himself to the hilt in one luscious thrust that tore a cry from her lungs.
She wrapped her legs around him, the motion lifting her body so that he could slide more fully inside of her. He started to move, building the pressure, pushing them both higher, higher, until her climax hit her. Sweet, dizzying energy rushed through her and into him, feeding the hunger.
She milked him and he closed his eyes against the incredible sensation. But it wasn’t enough. The more she gave, the more he wanted. Hunger gnawed at him, pushing and pulling inside of him until he felt her fingertips on his face.
He stared at her through a rich purple haze, seeing every feature so clearly. Her lush mouth. Her heavy-lidded gaze. Her flushed cheeks.
“All of you,” she murmured and she arched her neck in silent invitation.
He dipped his head and sank his fangs deep. The red heat filled his mouth and desire speared him.
Her fingers plunged into his hair and she held him close as her lifeblood pulsed through his body. His own orgasm hit him hard and fast and he bucked, spilling himself inside the woman beneath him.
When he finally pulled away and collapsed next to her, she snuggled up against his body, happy and content and his.
His woman.
His mate.
“That was pretty incredible,” she murmured into his shoulder. “Is it always that intense?”
“I don’t know. You’re my first bite.”
She raised her head and stared down at him, into him, and if he hadn’t known better, he would have sworn she could see his every thought just as he saw hers.
“Your last bite,” she told him, love shining in her gaze.
He grinned. “Possessive, aren’t we?”
“And demanding. I want my journal back.”
“Is that so?” He touched her nipple, rasping the edge until she caught her bottom lip. “Maybe we can work out a little trade.” And then he dipped his head and captured her lips in another deep, seductive kiss.
IT WAS STILL DARK WHEN SHAY opened her eyes to find Matt sleeping soundly next to her. She touched the prick points at her neck and a rush of desire bolted through her. When he’d drank from her, it had been the most erotic thing she’d ever felt. And the most intimate. She felt connected to him now. Really and truly connected, as if they were one. His heart beating in her chest. Her blood flowing through his veins. One.
She barely resisted the urge to snuggle up next to him. There would be plenty of time for that. An entire future, she realized. But she had something much more important nagging at her at that particular moment.
She pressed a kiss on his shoulder, climbed from the bed and walked into the living room. After rummaging in her purse, she found a pen and notepad and settled on Matt’s couch. And then she started to write.
“WHAT’S THIS?” SUE ANN ASKED when Shay showed up on her doorstep later Sunday morning and handed her a small spiral notebook.
“Something sweet, sexy and romantic,” she told the newspaper editor. “It’s for tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day feature.” And then she turned on her heel and headed back to Matt’s place for the first day of the rest of her life.
Her future.
MY HOT NIGHT WITH A WEREWOLF by Shay Briggs.
Shay stood on Matt’s front porch early Monday morning and stared at the front page headline.
“I thought you said you wrote a fictitious piece for the paper.” Matt came up behind her and slid an arm around her waist. He wore nothing but a pair of jeans and a smile as he nuzzled her neck.
“What can I say? I was inspired by true-life events.” Not that anyone in town realized that. They thought Shay had written a sexy piece of fiction. At least that had been Sue Ann’s take when she’d called Sunday afternoon gushing about the story. She’d ran with it for the Valentine’s issue and Shay had gone from columnist to feature writer just like that.
She thought of her empty schedule at the salon and the uncertainty of her future as the resident beauty expert. Particularly since she’d heard a rumor yesterday that half her clients were gravitating toward the hair salon which had started offering waxes and facials. The piece of FYI hadn’t bothered her near as much as she’d expected it to.
Because she didn’t love the citrus scrubs and the peanut butter wraps half as much as she loved writing. And while she hadn’t managed to save her career, perhaps she’d found a new one. One that made her as happy as the man standing beside her.
“Nice pic,” Matt murmured, drawing her attention to the photo at the far corner of the page that featured Shay in the parking lot of the Piggly Wiggly the day she’d spotted Matt for the first time. Her eyes sparkled and her face glowed. She looked happy.
“I don’t remember anyone taking a picture.” Her gaze zeroed in on the credit. Photo by U.R. Luckyday.
A smile tugged at her lips as she remembered Ulysses and his timely entrance into her salon the morning she’d been moaning to Sue Ann. He’d been the one to spark her interest in Matt’s hair secret in the first place.
U.R. Luckyday.
The truth crystalized as she looked at the by-line. She knew then that Ulysses wasn’t an ordinary photographer. There was something special about him. Not that she was speculating on what the something special was. She wasn’t questioning fate. She was accepting it. Relishing it. Loving it.
She was loving Matt.
“It’s the happiest Valentine’s Day of my life, too,” he murmured, reading the thoughts that whispered through her head. And then he gathered her close and kissed her.
And they lived sexily ever after…
ONCE UPON A BITE, in a small Texas town, there lived a beautiful maiden to whom beauty meant everything. Until the day she met the savage beast. He was ferocious and deadly and did his best to scare her away. She fell head over heels in love with him despite his fanged and furry status and they settled down together and lived happily ever after.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-2481-4
Copyright © 2009 Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
Dead Sexy
Copyright © 2007 by Kimberly Groff
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Copyright © 2008 by Kimberly Groff
A Body to Die For
Copyright © 2008 by Kimberly Groff
Once Upon a Bite
Copyright © 2009 by Kimberly Raye Groff
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
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