Ocean's Touch

by Denise Townsend

  “But nothing is ever everything,” Dylan warned. “Things will happen—misunderstandings, grievances, hurts. And sometimes they’ll seem bigger than what’s good. But that’s only if you let them be”

  “What about his parties? The women?”

  Dylan chuckled.

  “That’s going to be a conversation you two need to have. Your Alex will never be a boy scout, lass. But he wants you, and he knows things need to change in his own life to have you. Just be sure of what you want, and try to be sensitive to the life he’s led. And don’t forget our lovemaking,” Dylan warned. “Things aren’t always black and white, especially when it comes to desire and sex. There may be people with whom you can have what the three of us had last night, satisfying both your desires. Just be open, and keep talking, and try to be honest with yourself as well as with him.”

  Meredith nodded at Dylan’s words, although she couldn’t help but smile as she mentally applied them to her own life.

  “Teddy’s mother is going to be at constant risk of a heart attack if I really do take up with Alex.”

  Dylan laughed. “Yes, well, sometimes even Dragons meet their match. And I don’t think you have to worry about if Alex takes up with you. I think the issue’s going to be whether he can keep up with you.”

  Meredith laughed again, delightedly.

  “I have become rather fierce,” she mused, blushing red at her own audacity. “Almost as fierce as you,” she said, raising her fingertips to touch Dylan’s beautifully fey face. Her selkie kissed her fingers lovingly. Then, suddenly, he was standing, pulling her robe off and his skin on before picking her up in his strong arms.

  “I think it’s time for a swim,” he said, and then he was racing down the beach, holding her tight. Meredith squealed with joy, gasping as they hit the water hard. They swam for at least an hour, frolicking like the two gray seals they’d seen before. Eventually, as dawn was breaking, Dylan brought Meredith back to shore. His lips found hers in a gentle kiss before he pulled back to gaze deeply into her eyes.

  “It’s time I took my leave,” he said. “The sea, she calls me. And you need to get back to your man.”

  Meredith smiled, her feelings torn between happiness at knowing Alex was waiting for her and sadness that Dylan was leaving. She stood on tiptoe to wrap her arms around his neck.

  “Thank you. For everything,” Meredith whispered, pouring into him her feelings of gratitude, affection, and the peace he’d help her discover within herself.

  “Thank you, lass. You’ve made me remember why I love life,” Dylan said, before finding her lips for one last, lingering taste. Then he stepped away from her, swatting her gently on the behind. “Get you going,” he said. “You’ll get cold without me.”

  She walked up the beach a few feet, to where her robe lay abandoned. Meredith put it on, and then turned back to Dylan.

  “You will visit?” She asked again.

  “Aye,” Dylan assured her, letting her feel his honesty. “And if I find you wearing a bloody turtleneck, it’s going in the fire.”

  Laughing, Meredith pulled her robe tighter against her, to keep out the cold and her sadness.

  “Then I’ll see you soon,” she said. “This isn’t good-bye.”

  “It isn’t,” he agreed. “You’re a beautiful woman, Meredith. In heart and mind, as well as body. Never forget that. And if Alex ever does, we’ll be having a wee chat.”

  With those words, Dylan straightened his shoulders, pulling his sealskin tighter around him. His dark eyes grew even larger and darker in his face as his second form crept up his body. Suddenly, there was no longer a man standing before her, but an impish looking seal. The creature nodded his head at her in the seal approximation of a wave, and then splashed through the shallows and into the sea.

  Meredith watched Dylan go, her emotions a firestorm within her. When she could no longer see his sleek, muscular body in the water, she turned and walked up the beach. At first, her steps were heavy with sorrow, but they lightened as she walked.

  By the time she’d crept back into Alex’s bedroom, she was smiling.

  Hanging the robe back in its proper place, Meredith climbed into bed with Alex. She snuggled up to him as he cracked an eye open before gathering her close.

  “You’re freezing. And wet. And salty,” he added, after kissing her neck experimentally. “What were you doing?”

  “Swimming,” she replied. “I’ll explain it to you after we’ve had coffee.”

  He frowned at her before looking around.

  “How could you have gone swimming? And where’s Dylan?” Alex asked.

  “He’s gone,” she said, a note of sadness creeping into her voice. “He had to go home.”

  “Where’s home?” Alex asked, running his hand down Meredith’s side before trailing his fingers back up her front. His hand found her nipple and plucked gently as he licked her neck again, enjoying the taste of the sea on her skin.

  “Later. We’ll talk about Dylan later,” was her only reply.

  At least verbally—physically, she let her own hand drift down his stomach toward Alex’s hardening cock. He gasped as she took him in her still-cold hand, stroking him gently.

  “I’d rather we concentrated on us now,” she said, remembering Dylan’s admonishment to be brave. Luckily, Alex was more than happy to oblige, and he seemed equally eager to concentrate on her. In fact, he might have even been more eager. After they’d kissed and touched and sighed and gasped and moaned in each other’s arms, Alex paused.

  Looking down into Meredith’s flushed face, his hips tight against hers, his cock so close to where she wanted him, Meredith wasn’t necessarily in the mood for conversation. But Alex wanted to talk.

  “I do love you, you know,” Alex told her, his voice halting. He knew how to give a woman an orgasm in minutes, but these were words he found utterly intimidating.

  Meredith looked up at him and smiled.

  “I know you do. And I love you too.” Then she wriggled her hips a bit closer to him, in a clear reminder that they were in the middle of something.

  “I want to marry you,” Alex continued, oblivious to her hints. Meredith’s heart bloomed forth with a combination of happiness and exasperation.

  “Make an honest woman of me?” she quipped, reaching down to take his hard length in her hand and rub him against her wetness. Alex gasped, dropping his head to her neck as pleasure racked his body.

  “Only a little bit honest,” he replied, his voice hoarse. “Maybe not all that honest, in fact. But I do want to marry you.”

  Meredith laughed, pulling Alex close against her with her arms, then wrapped her long legs around his hips to pull him inside her. They groaned together as his cock found home.

  As they made love, Meredith remembered Dylan’s words. She remembered to cherish every second, filing these moments away for the future.

  Meredith realized then just how lucky she was. Unlike poor Teddy, she had another chance at love. And so she kept Alex’s eyes locked with hers, letting all of her happiness in discovering him, her joy in that moment, and her fierce hopes for their future shine through her gaze.

  And she thanked her stars again for everything she’d learned from Dylan. She may not be an empath, but he’d taught her well.

  Shuddering in pleasure underneath Alex, Meredith consciously opened her heart as wide as it would go, feeling herself love and be loved in return. While she didn’t know what her future contained, she knew it was hers.

  And Meredith intended to live every minute of it.

  About the Author

  Denise Townsend is a fantasy of salt, sea air, and sun-kissed skin. She was born to tell sensual stories that explore female sexuality and strengths. To find out more about Denise, visit www.denisetownsend.com.

  Meeting your soulmate? Great. Preventing your possible murder? Even better.

  True Colors

  © 2011 Thea Harrison

  Alice Clark, a Wyr and schoolteacher, has had
two friends murdered in as many days, and she’s just found the body of a third. She arrives at the scene only minutes before Gideon Riehl, a wolf Wyr and current detective in the Wyr Division of Violent Crime—and, as Alice oh-so-inconveniently recognizes at first sight, her mate.

  But the sudden connection Riehl and Alice feel is complicated when the murders are linked to a serial killer who last struck seven years ago, killing seven people in seven days. They have just one night before the killer strikes again. And every sign points to Alice as the next victim.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for True Colors

  Don’t move. Stay perfectly still.

  The enormous monster plunged through the apartment with the lethal speed of a stealth bomber. A Molotov cocktail of pheromones and Power spewed through the blood-tainted air, the classic signs of a strong male Wyr in a rage. Alice clung to her perch, her heart knocking so hard she thought it was going to burst out of her chest. Had the murderer returned?

  Then the monster slowed. Alice heard him utter vicious curses under his breath as he came upon Haley’s still-warm body. Alice took the New York subway daily to work. She thought she had heard it all but she learned a few things as she listened to him. Did he curse because he saw the murdered woman for the first time, or because he realized he had made some kind of mistake?

  Alice had only just arrived at Haley’s apartment herself. She had found the door open and rushed inside to discover that her friend’s body had been laid out on her bed. Haley’s torso had been cut open, organs strewn across the flowered bedspread like a child’s abandoned toys.

  Alice had gone numb at the sight, the normal cool gentle logic of her mind seizing in shock. Then she had heard someone running up the stairs. She had barely gotten to her hiding place before the monster appeared. If he was the murderer and he had returned to clean up some clue he had left behind, neither Alice nor the police would know what it was now.

  He prowled through Haley’s home in complete silence. Alice couldn’t even hear the soft pad of footsteps. Her awareness of him was excruciating, as though someone had stroked the flat of a razor blade along her bare skin with the smiling promise of a cut. His presence was a violation of Haley’s private space. He paused not two feet away from Alice, so close she could see the pocket of his worn leather jacket out of the corner of her eye and hear the almost imperceptible sound of his steady breathing.

  She wanted to scream and strike at him. She wanted to run away and dial 911. The shadowed apartment hallway was a million miles long, the open front door too far away for her to make a run for it and hope she wouldn’t be noticed. She didn’t dare move, did not dare even shift her gaze for fear a glancing light might reflect off her eyes and give her position away. She hardly dared to breathe. The only thing she could do is taste the air and know that, if nothing else, she could recognize this man again by his scent. Underneath the scent of violence, he smelled warm and clean. If they were in any other kind of situation, she would have found his scent sexy. She fought the sudden urge to vomit.

  Wait. If she could scent him, then what kind of trail had she left behind? Could he scent her as well? Would he be able to recognize her again, too? Oh gods.

  Ocean’s Touch

  Denise Townsend

  A lonely widow and a handsome artist have a chance for happiness…with the help of a sexy selkie, that is.

  After the death of Meredith’s husband many years before, she allowed his legacy to take over her life. A shell of a woman, she finds little joy in her day-to-day tasks. Drawn to her pain, the empathic selkie Dylan knows she’s ready to live and love again, and he knows that he’s just the man for the job.

  As Dylan draws Meredith out of her shell, he realizes that to truly free her, he needs to help her accept her budding love for Alexander, an artist who challenges Meredith on every level: intellectually, emotionally and sexually. To achieve a true happy ending, Dylan must help his chosen humans break down their emotional barriers in order to grab the happiness they so deserve.

  Warning: This book features a lonely widow, a hot artist waiting in the wings, and the sexy selkie who brings them together…in every possible way.

  eBooks are not transferable.

  They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

  Cincinnati OH 45249

  Ocean’s Touch

  Copyright © 2011 by Denise Townsend

  ISBN: 978-1-60928-880-8

  Edited by Heather Osborn

  Cover by Valerie Tibbs

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: December 2011

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  About the Author

  Also Available from Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  Copyright Page