by Jodi Redford
Her lips moved, eyelashes fluttering. Nothing but slight muttering to his question.
Damn it. He had to call someone, and now. He leaned over her to snatch the phone from the side table. Her arms flailed. In his unprotected position, one hand connected sharply with his nose, and he grunted in pain.
Ignoring the phone for a second, he tucked her in again, holding down her arms to stop her from hurting herself or taking more pot shots at his face. “You don’t need to hit me, I’m trying to help you.”
“Bear…”
The word whispered past her lips, and Tyler paused. Leaned in closer and sniffed.
The scent of wolves clung to his waterlogged woman, but she wasn’t wolf. Human through and through, yet the fact she’d just called him a bear?
Something was happening he wanted to get to the bottom of.
“Can you hear me?”
Her lips moved steadily, drawing his attention to them. For the first time he paused long enough to look the rest of her over. Her blonde hair stuck up in spots, the pale colouring all the way to the roots. Her skin was pale as well—whether from soaking in his tub or her natural colour, he wasn’t sure. The deep red of her lips contrasted sharply against her skin, a delicate pout forming on their soft surface as she attempted to speak.
Speaking of bears, his was at full alert. The beast bumped to the surface, keen on him shifting for some reason. While he was the bear and the bear was him, there was one part of his brain that remained independent. His human side reasoning, rational. His animal side more…well, animal. Earthier and more connected to the wilder roots of shifterdom.
He understood why his bear was interested. Pretty face and pretty body, the swells of her breasts rose and fell as her breathing evened out and grew stronger. That was the reason he was staring at her chest, to make sure she was recovering from her ordeal. Not because he could see straight through the wet shirt and the bra underneath it. Not because the lush redness of her lips seemed to be reflected in the tips of those breasts…
Tyler shook his head to make his brains settle back in place.
Damn bear.
His mystery woman sucked in a deep breath, her eyes opening all the way. “Frack.”
He soothed her, attempting to keep her horizontal on the couch without actually forcing her back. “You should stay still.”
Her gaze darted over his face, and this adorable little crease appeared between her brows. “Who are you?”
Caution made him word his answer carefully. If this was someone planted by another bear clan, he wanted to know, so he used the oldest ploy in the book. His friend would understand. “I’m Justin. What’s your name?”
“Caroline.” Her eyes widened. “Why am I soaking wet?”
“I found you in my hot tub. I hoped you could tell me—”
“Oh, shoot.”
She would have surged upward, and this time he made contact, hands to her shoulders, to keep her from jerking to vertical. “Don’t. You nearly drowned. Until you remember what happened, you shouldn’t move.”
The fabric separating his palms and her skin warmed, and the scent of her skin grew stronger. She relaxed onto the overstuffed fabric as she tentatively touched the back of her head.
“I remember. I was finishing cleaning the suite and slipped on the tub.” She moved her fingers slowly but still cringed in pain. “There’s a goose egg to prove it.”
Tyler settled on his heels beside her. Cleaning staff. Okay, that was a possible solution to the question without turning this into some kind of political intrigue.
“Do you mind if I check?”
“Be my guest.” She frowned. “You’re Justin? You’re the security man for Tyler Harrison.”
Cleaning staff who knew details of the room’s occupants? Tyler returned to being suspicious all over again.
He lifted her carefully until he could examine the back of her head. “I’m checking things out in the room. Everything seemed to be in order other than you doing unsupervised synchro.”
“Can you get me out of here before he arrives?”
“You sure you’re okay to move?” Tyler helped her upright, sitting next to her on the couch. He held one arm around her to stop her from shifting from side to side.
Caroline groaned lightly. “I’ll be all right. I’m not nauseous or anything, which is good. I would hate to throw up and ruin the great cleaning job I did.”
Tyler laughed. The conversation was far more blunt than he usually got to hear from people. “Well, yes. Let’s avoid vomiting, shall we?”
It was rather comfortable sitting with her. Far more comfortable than he should be after rescuing a strange woman in a strange place. He wanted to be wary, wanted to remain alert to the potential troubles in the situation, but with her wet body cuddled beside him, his damn bear seemed to have taken control of his mind.
Her shirt had separated from the waistband of her pants, and a sliver of bare skin rested under his fingers. The sheer willpower it took to keep from stroking that soft section of skin shook him.
His human side pushed forward in defense with logic. “I should call a doctor to check you out.”
She frowned. “I’ll go to the clinic. Let’s not have ambulances at the hotel today. It wouldn’t be a great way to start things off. Might set a damper on the meetings.”
Curiousier and curiousier. “You’ve obviously worked at the Moonshine Inn for a while.”
Give her a chance to admit she knew about shifters, and the game would change all over again. A tiny bud of a notion had burst forth in the last minute, probably planted by his bear, but damn if it wasn’t a working idea.
She nodded slowly, wincing. “I’ve been on staff for nearly five years. Since before the Takhini pack bought out the previous owners.”
And there was his answer. “You know about shifters, then.”
She snorted.
His bear was far too charmed by her instant and honest response.
Caroline motioned upward. “Help me to my feet, and we’ll see how I do. Yes, I know about shifters. Half-blood family, actually. My stepdad’s wolf, so I’ve lived with pack most of my life.”
A human who grew up with shifters. This might be the solution to one of his problems during the upcoming conference days.
Not to mention a lovely distraction, as long as she hadn’t injured herself with that crazy fall.
He had her standing, his arms still around her in case she wobbled. Caroline clutched his shoulder momentarily as her knees gave way. He caught her around the waist and pulled her against him for support. She was tall enough to make him not feel quite as enormous as he usually felt around the ladies. Other than that, he was desperately beating back the bear, who had just suggested they should peel her out of her wet clothes to make sure she wasn’t hurt anywhere else.
“I think we should get that doctor in here.”
“No.” Caroline spoke firmly. “Damn, you shifters are all the same, bossy as get out. I’m fine, and I really have to leave before your boss gets here.”
His boss. Oh right, his little name game. They could drop that ploy. “Actually, I’m—”
The door opened, and Justin walked in. His best friend froze in midstep as he took in the entire scenario. From the open door, the trail of water across the carpet, the wet and disheveled woman, and Tyler himself.
Caroline swore and to his great surprise, hid herself against his side, arms curling around his torso.
Worst case of mistaken identity EVER…
God of Fyre Mountain
© 2013 Renee Wildes
Guardians of Light, Book 6
As a teacher, Maili is adept at juggling multiple tasks, but this is ridiculous. Erotic dreams make her sleep anything but restful. Her father wants to marry her off to a neighboring chieftain’s son. Her grandmother’s whispered blasphemy about doubting the gods has the local volcano threatening to split wide open.
As she prays in the temple for mercy on her grandmother, Mai
li expects the mountain to smoke and rumble. She doesn’t expect Afu himself to pop through a dark fissure and squash her flat.
The last thing Dax remembers is vowing to prevent his queen’s assassination. He wakes up in an island paradise, where the primitive natives worship the statue of a troll named Afu. And they expect him—their fyre god incarnate—to stop their cranky volcano from blowing up.
As an incentive, they’ve given him a maiden sacrifice/bride, a dark-eyed beauty who’s just as determined to seduce him as he is to return home in one piece.
While she’s less than thrilled to be traded like a chicken, one thing is certain. Dax is the man in her dreams…and she’s hell bent on making the come true. Or her people may die.
Warning: Contains erotic dreams, volcanic-hot love scenes, one edgy F/F interrogation scene and some self-loving. Also treason, black sorcery and an evil witch doctor who shrinks heads.
Enjoy the following excerpt for God of Fyre Mountain:
Maili dove naked from atop the cliff. The cold water of the deep pool felt wonderful against her hot, sweaty skin. A welcome, albeit temporary, refuge from the old gossips in the village. Despite the perilous climb and descent, this would be the logical place for them to get their water. Safer than facing the river dragons and the threat of the Kali. But for the moment, she still had it all to herself.
Betwixt her father’s plans to marry her off to Old Stone-Face and the shock of Afu’s prophesied coming, she’d hardly slept a wink. The dream had changed; it was Afu who’d taken her in his arms, captured her lips with his. Her dreams had been filled with erotic images and sensations, of heat and sweat and skin sliding on skin. The mere memory made her twitch.
Ugh. She needed to get away.
“Maili!” A familiar naked form plunged into the water, drenching her anew. Noelani surfaced, sputtering. “You must help me hide. Trade me to the Kali. I’d be better off with them than with Lanikula.” Noelani burst into tears and showed Maili her new tattoo, the sika-red mouth beneath her right ear. A way for the gods to speak to her. The mark of a witch doctor.
Maili’s heart ached at seeing the darkening bruise on Noelani’s cheek. Lanikula could be a harsh taskmistress. “There’s more to it than that. Apprentice witches learn the rituals and tattooing patterns. Soon you’ll have power unimaginable, and no one will hurt you ever again.”
“I never wanted that power,” Noelani protested. “I just want to be an ordinary village woman with a dozen kids and a loving husband.”
Didn’t look like either of them was going to get her wish. Pilipo wasn’t any gentler than Lanikula, and his fists were a lot bigger.
“I’m not performing the muliwa,” Noelani reiterated. “I’ll run away and join the Kali. I mean it. I’d rather bed a hundred smelly Kali than shrink one head.”
“Don’t be mad; that would be much worse. They’d feed you to their snake gods.” Maili shuddered. “Come on. Let’s lie in the sun and dry off. That’s always relaxing.” Maili swam over to their rock and hauled herself up to sprawl on the sun-warmed flat surface.
Noelani lay on her stomach, head pillowed on her crossed arms. “I know I need to serve a purpose but this is what they came up with?”
“At least your purpose is a true purpose,” Maili groused. “You get to help the whole village. I get to be Pilipo’s slave.”
Noelani frowned. “‘Wife’ doesn’t mean ‘slave’.”
Maili shuddered. “You haven’t seen how he looks at me when we’re alone.”
“He wants you. But that helps the whole village too. He’s agreed to lead and train our warriors if you wed him. Chieftain’s son and chieftain’s daughter, the strength of two Toka villages working together. We’ll all be much safer.”
“Not all.” Maili indicated Noelani’s battered face. “How long ’til I have a similar look? Neither one of us is suited to just giving in and doing what we’re told. I don’t know why we can’t trade places. You wed Old Stone-Face, and I’ll shrink Kali heads.”
Noelani bit her lip. “I’m not royal, and Lanikula says you’re not suitable for the power. Are you certain you’re not just nervous of the marriage bed? Don’t you find Pilipo handsome? Everyone else seems to.”
“He’s always so grim, and the least little thing makes him angry. I’ve never seen him smile. Have you? I wonder, do you think he frowns even when he’s over a woman?”
Noelani’s face flamed. “How can you say such things?”
“Don’t you wonder about what men and women do together in the dark? I caught Pilipo and Tia once. All that writhing and moaning, her legs over his shoulders and her feet in the air. Every time he thrust his man root into her, he grunted and her breasts bounced.”
Pilipo had mounted nigh every woman in the village; soon she’d be under him too.
Noelani cupped her ears. “I’m not listening to this.”
“I picture Pilipo doing that to me and break into hysterical giggles. What if we wed, and he…and I start laughing? He’s bound to get the wrong idea.” Maili covered her face.
“True. But you said you wanted children. You’re good with children.”
Maili loved teaching the village children; she yearned for her own. What she couldn’t imagine was Pilipo pinning her to his sleeping mat, grunting and thrusting betwixt her legs whilst her breasts bounced. The thought of Pilipo pounding into her, sliding deep into her body…
Mayhap she and Noelani could run off to the enemy Kali together.
“We should head back. We’ll be missed. Lanikula would be…displeased were she to have to come looking for me.”
“You go on, then. I’m going to stay longer. It’s nice and peaceful here. For now.” Maili closed her eyes. She wasn’t going back there ’til she had to.
“Don’t stay too long,” Noelani cautioned.
Maili heard Noelani move off, and then her mind drifted. She must have dozed, because she dreamt. Her surroundings changed—and she was no longer alone.
She stood naked atop a bamboo platform high in the trees. He moved behind her, warm, rough hands on her shoulders. She shivered at his touch. She leaned back against him, tilting her head as he nuzzled her ear. The brush of his beard made her gasp as he lipped her lobe and nibbled along the curve of her neck down to her shoulder. Her breasts tingled. He flicked his tongue against her skin and she whimpered, shifting against him. She raised her arm to curl a hand behind his neck, drawing him closer. Heavy, matted coils of coarse brown hair kissed her knuckles as she caressed hot, weathered skin.
Why had the erotic dreams of Afu returned?
He growled and suckled on a sensitive spot just below her ear. His hands cupped her breasts, kneading, rubbing the darkened tips. He plucked at her nipples, and a strange jolt sizzled downward. She shivered and squirmed against him, panting.
“That’s it.” His voice was a rough purr. “Feel the pleasure.”
Her body came alive under his mouth, his hands. A pulsing, needy feeling uncurled. Taking her hand in his, he guided her down to the aching flesh betwixt her quivering thighs. Their fingers slid through lush, slippery folds. She whimpered as his thumb circled a tiny point of fire, and she jerked in his arms with a moan.
“Oh, aye.” He growled. “Right there.”
She moved on his hand, her hand, need coiling tight. “Feels so good.”
“That it does.” His other hand left her breast to curl around her wrist. He brought her fingers to his mouth, licking and sucking each with thorough, erotic leisure. She shivered at the wet strokes of his tongue. A pang shot through her, low in her belly, every time he sucked. “Mmm. Imagine my tongue doing this…” His thumb circled that ultrasensitive bud.
She flushed and swelled at his touch, fluttering against his fingers.
“That feels…incredible…” Her voice was but a raw moan as she rocked against his hand, aching…yearning… A breathless need tightened deep inside. “You must cease.”
What was she saying? She’d die if he stopped.
Her eyes flew open as wave after wave of sweet sensation coursed through her, lush folds pulsing against her fingers. Not again. Her other hand cupped her breast, fingers circling and plucking at her beaded nipple, and she shuddered at the illicit pleasure. Her heart pounded. She gasped for air and rocked her hips, moaning as another shockwave zinged through her, leaving her breathless and boneless in the after wake.
She shivered at the cooled rock. A gentle breeze puffed against her sweaty skin. The sun had dropped below the trees. Goose bumps rose. The chill wasn’t all physical. Nice chieftain’s daughters didn’t dream of domineering fyre gods and touch themselves for erotic pleasure, most especially where anyone happening along could have seen her.
But it had felt so good, so real…
How could she yearn for Afu when Pilipo was her fate?
Lover Enraptured
Jodi Redford
Looks like someone’s knees are going to get a workout.
Thieves of Aurion, Book 2
Avily Donahoe has dated way too many losers trying to get over Jerrick Hunter, the man who taught her everything about the life of crime she left behind. Now he has the balls to show up and ask her to pose as his sub, complete with skimpy leather outfit, to get inside a no-faes-allowed sex club?
Oh, hell no. If anyone’s going to be wearing next to nothing, it’s going to be Jerrick…as her bitch.
Five years ago, Jerrick realized the lonely kid he’d taken under his wing had grown into a tempting, desirable woman—and he’d cut her loose. If gaining her help now means hitting his knees with a leash and a collar, so be it.
But soon their front escalates into an all-too-real erotic game where the prize is the one thing that tantalizes him beyond reason. Their hearts aren’t the only thing they’ll lose if they fail. It could mean the end of everything—and everyone—they know and love.