Sophie laughed. "It's very nice." She turned to Cade. "Let me know what my half is so I can reimburse you."
She turned to go back inside and Jackson stopped her. "Your half? No, this trip is on us. You are our responsibility and we will take care of you."
She faced him fully and said, "I don't think so. I am not your responsibility. I take care of myself."
She went back inside and saw her suitcase sitting by the front door. She grabbed her case and went into her room, shutting the door behind her. One minute they had her body flooding with desire and the next, they set her teeth on edge. She sat down on the end of the king-sized bed and frowned. She had to find a way to deal with these feelings before they got out of control. She decided distraction was one way to go and so she stood up to begin unpacking.
Jackson banged his hand against the railing on the balcony. "Why does she have to be like that?"
Cade chuckled. "What, you expected her to bow down to both of us and be a good little mate?"
Jackson growled, "Well a little bending would be nice."
"We need to give her some time. It wasn't that long ago she was held against her will and then I'm sure it was more than a shock to find out she was staying on a ranch with Otherkin and all that that entailed," Cade drawled.
"I know, I know." This wasn't the first time Cade had said these things to Jackson, but he was getting more frustrated. Sophie was his mate, his and Cade's, and they needed to claim her. The mating heat was riding both of them.
"Look, we should use this time in this romantic city to woo her," Cade said matter-of-factly.
"Woo her?" Jackson asked. "Did you just really say that?" He began to laugh.
Cade punched him in the arm. "Shut up. I'm going to order us a late lunch." He walked into the main room and picked up the phone.
Excerpt from Weekend Surrender
The Surrender Series Book One
by Lori King
Rachel slammed the closet door behind her as she emerged dressed in her sexiest, country cutie clothes. Her stonewashed blue denim miniskirt barely covered the bottom curves of her ass cheeks. It was paired with a man’s red and blue plaid dress shirt, and the shirttails were tied just under her perky B-cup breasts. She left the buttons open so her tits were clearly visible rising out of the top of her blood-red satin pushup bra.
Her tanned midsection was completely bare except for the crystal belly ring that dangled in her belly button. From the back she knew the view would be of the half dollar size daisy tattoo she had gotten when she turned eighteen, just above the top of her black belt. The hand-tooled leather was clasped between her hips bones, with a large belt buckle in the shape of a star. On her feet were a pair of black cowboy boots with silver embellishments, and her long, slim legs were bare.
She was dressed to kill with every intention of causing a few heart attacks tonight. Her chestnut brown hair hung down to the middle of her back in large wavy curls, and she ran her fingers through it carelessly as she walked.
Her makeup was applied with precision so her oversized chocolate brown eyes were nearly as prominent as her blood-red lips. She had always hated the fullness of her lips, but men seemed to love them. Mitch always called them dick sucking lips.
She hated Mitch now.
Mitch deserved Connie Sanders. The bleach blonde tramp had been trying to sink her claws into Mitchell Edwards for more than six months, and she had finally gotten her way. Well screw them both. If plastic boobs, and a spray-on tan was what Mitch got off on, then he deserved Connie.
Rachel was going to go out and find a man to fuck her heartbreak away. She wanted raw, dirty, raunchy sex. Not the soft, gentle missionary sex Mitch seemed to favor. She wanted to be shoved against a wall, or held down by her wrists as a large muscular man devoured her completely. That’s why she created this plan.
It was a Friday night, and that meant a packed house at Robin’s, the local bar that Rachel had waited tables at through college. She had met Mitch there, and he would no doubt be there tonight playing darts with his cronies, while Connie giggled and preened over a watered down margarita. So in order to prove to the world that Rachel Lia Morgan was completely and utterly over her ex-boyfriend, she was going on the prowl on his turf.
There were usually dozens of hot men at Robin’s on the weekends. All of the local ranchers and ranch hands from the outskirts of Stone River usually hit the bar on Friday night looking for some action. Never before had Rachel considered indulging in a one-night stand, but tonight was her night.
She spritzed a little bit of her favorite perfume on her throat, and then grabbed her small purse. On her way out the door she noticed her cell phone was blinking with a missed message. She climbed into her silver Ford F150 as she hit the play message button.
“Rach, I know you don’t want to talk to me, but I want to apologize. I didn’t mean for you to find out about Connie like that…Rach? Please call me so we can talk this out. You can’t just throw two years out the window. I made a mistake, damn it—”
The voice clicked off as she hit the delete button, and dropped her phone back into her purse. Mitch could beg and plead all he wanted, but she had already made her peace with their breakup. She wasn’t interested in his excuses anymore. She turned the volume up on her truck radio, so Miranda Lambert’s tune “Mama’s Broken Heart” blared out the windows into the night, and headed toward her freedom.
The bar’s parking lot was packed with work trucks. With exception of only a handful of cars that probably belonged to the female patrons of the bar. Rachel backed her truck into a small parking stall at the back edge of the lot, right next to a black Dodge Ram Quad Cab that looked like it had rolled off the lot and onto the ranch just a few hours ago. Realizing she had parked rather close to the truck, she carefully opened her door, and slipped out into the small space.
A large masculine hand covered hers, where it rested on the top edge of her truck door, and she gasped.
“Sunshine, if you nick my new truck with your door, I’m going to have to spank that cute little ass raw.” The voice in her ear sent a shiver over her skin, and she flushed at his words.
She turned her head to see who was behind her that would have any right to speak to her like that, and she nearly groaned out loud when her brown eyes met those of Parker Brooks. Parker Brooks was one of the four Brooks brothers who owned Brooks Pastures-a local cattle ranch. The four brothers shared two things in common, their love of ranching, and their smoking hot good looks. Dark hair, dark eyes, long lean muscular cowboy bodies, all tucked up under a cowboy hat. It made Rachel’s blood sing just thinking about the four of them.
Excerpt from Rescuing Charity
Isle of Paradise Book Three
by Marquaylla Lorette
Charity woke to the sound of banging above her. Her vision was a little blurry when she first opened her eyes.
Damn that was the worst dream I have had in a long time, Charity thought as she blinked a few time trying to adjust her eyesight.
When Charity lifted one of her legs, she felt a tight squeeze on it and heard a jingling sound. Charity immediately set up to investigated what was going on as she reached to the other side of the bed searching for Trevor.
Fuck it wasn’t just a dream, Charity thought as her vision became clear and she noticed where she was at with the chain attached to her right ankle.
I need a hot shower, but I don’t want any of them walking in on me while I am naked. I am going to shower while they are doing whatever it is they are doing up there, make me something to eat, and get the hell out of here, Charity thought as she stood and made her way toward the shower.
There was already a change of clothes in the front of the shower with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a large and small towel, and some soap.
Ugh, I need to wash my hair and there is no shampoo here, Charity thought as she searched for some shampoo until she found it under her clothes.
Charity turned on the water and stripped out of h
er clothes as quickly as she could. She jumped into the shower not bothering to check the temperature. She wasn’t going to be in there long any way. She lathered up the small towel left for her and quickly washed her body and rinsed off. Charity contemplated whether or not to wash her hair for a second before deciding to, since she didn’t know when she would get the opportunity for this again.
Her mind went back to yesterday’s events and the conversation she had with the shifter she thought was Aishe. As Charity replayed the conversation over and over again in her head she realized it wasn’t Aishe just by the words the person used. Over the years she had held countless conversations with Aishe through her mind when she was teaching her. How to control one of her powers her parents had no clue about. Through those conversations she got a sense of who Aishe was and how she worded her phrases differently than others.
Charity’s mind snapped back to the present when she noticed the banging had stopped. She had no clue when the banging had actually stopped so she wasn’t about to take a chance. She stepped under the water for just a second to get out as much soap as she could in the short time she had. She suddenly jumped out of the tub when she heard footsteps descending on the stairs. When she jumped out her right leg landed on part of the chain. She caught the side of the tub with her left hand to prevent herself from falling over. Her foot was pounding from excruciating pain, but she knew she didn’t have time to concentrate on the pain. The footsteps were getting closer and closer to where she was, causing panic to well up in her chest.
Charity knew she was running out of time so instead of drying off she threw on her clothes as quick as possible. She quickly jumped on the bed and waited for them to enter. Charity breathed a sigh of relieve when she heard the car start up and them pull off instead of entering the room she was in. She quickly jumped up and made her way across the room looking for anything to help her get the chain off her foot. She knew if she didn’t get the chain off her foot before she found out how to escape, the escape would be no use since she was still magically chained inside.
As she continued her search, Charity became dizzy from lack of food, causing her to dismiss her search. As she made her way to the small kitchenette Charity thought this was all too convenient. She wanted to know who had a room in their basement with everything a person would need to survive for weeks, maybe even months.
Charity took enough eggs, bacon, and broccoli to last her all day out of the refrigerator. She put on the oven to three fifty and grabbed a bowl. First she cooked the bacon and then whisked four eggs in the bowel. After the eggs were whisked, she threw the bacon, broccoli, some season, and some cheese in the same bowel as the eggs and put it into the oven.
Charity continued her search as her food was cooking since it would take thirty minutes or so. There were boxes behind the door on the other side of the room that she hadn’t had a chance to search through yet. As she was searching through the boxes she found a toolbox but she noticed it was locked. Her eyes lit up as she pulled it open using her shifter strength, breaking open the lock.
Inside of the toolbox was a hammer, a hand drill, three flashes lights, which would come in handy since the windows were blacked out. A push drill, a hand brace, a pruning saw, and sickle. Some of the tools could be used as weapons against her kidnappers and the others would help dig her way through the wall. After breakfast she was going to start digging into the wall behind her bed just in case they came in while she was asleep. Charity picked up the tools and walked over to the bed. She lifted up the mattress and carefully placed the tools on the box spring. Just as she was dropping the mattress down the timer on the stove dinged.
Charity came up with an escape plan as she ate her breakfast. Just as she was putting away her dishes something told her to check her phone. She reached into her bra and pulled out her phone, and was surprised to see another text from her mates. She had put her phone on silent so her kidnappers wouldn’t find it and hid it in her bra. She went to the door and pressed her ear to it, listening for anything that would alert her to someone being close. When she heard nothing, Charity clicked on the message she didn’t want to get caught reading it.
From: Trevor Sent: 11/6/2013 6:00 pm. They have done something 2 ur scent 2 confuse us. We’re workin’ on something 2 reverse it. Don’t worry babe we won’t stop till we find u.
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