by Anne Marsh
“That scratch of yours going to be okay?”
Cruz looked at his arm. A wolf had ripped his forearm up, but it was nothing a roll of gauze and some tape hadn’t patched up. It had absolutely not been worth going to the doctor for, plus the set of canine teeth marks would raise questions. State law required all dog bites be reported and Cruz wasn’t setting up some poor pet to take the blame for what had happened.
“She promised me a week.” There was no point in dressing up the words. After all, they were both thinking next steps with Gianna.
“Oui.” Luc hooked a cooler with his foot and nudged it closer. “You wan’ a drink?”
“Probably a good idea.” Alcohol couldn’t hurt this conversation.
Luc flipped the top and pulled out two longnecks. Extended one to Cruz. A quick twist of his wrist and he was sucking back a cold swallow.
“She’s my Blue Moon bride,” Luc pointed out quietly. “I don’ like the idea of Fate picking out females for us, but there’s no denying she does a good job. Gianna and I—we fit.”
Which left Cruz—where, exactly? On the outside, fucking looking in.
“When I first saw her, I thought I could be the wolf who was different, who gave his mate a choice about who she wanted. A chance to run, if that was her thing.”
“Gianna isn’t the kind of woman who lets a guy do anything.” Some things had to be said.
Luc nodded, looking pained. “I fucked that one up, all right. I found her and I mated her, then I walked away because that seemed like the best thing for Gianna.”
“And now that you’ve found her again, you’ve got a case of the regrets.” Tough shit. Maybe Gianna hadn’t felt the same way ten years ago in Vegas. Maybe, she’d changed and grown apart from Luc. The reasons didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was happy. And, if he was being honest, that he got his shot at making her happy.
“She’s my mate.” Luc looked straight at Cruz, not pulling his punches. “I love her. That’s how I feel about her.”
Cruz sucked back more beer. Too bad there wasn’t a fucking werewolf manual for this one. Luc’s Pack had a reputation for casual sex and sharing—at least until the guys mated, when everyone else went off-limits and they bonded with their females—and Cruz wasn’t judging that. He really wasn’t. Whatever worked between consenting adults, that was his motto. Two adults, three, multiples of whatever…he didn’t really give a damn. He’d just never imagined himself being part of a trio, and the lesser part at that.
“I wan’ my week. If she’ll give it to me, I’ll take it.”
Luc actually nodded. Whoa. “We both wan’ her—and we both wan’ her to be happy.”
“Dead right.” If she chose Luc and not him, he’d wish her well and he’d walk. Or he’d stick around and be her friend and her shoulder to lean on, if she’d let him be there for her. It wasn’t about him or even about Luc.
It was about Gianna.
“So we need to work this thing out between us.” Luc set his bottle down on the porch. Cruz got the feeling the other man might hurl the bottle out there into the bayou because he needed to break something.
“I don’ wan’ to sleep with you—or fuck with you,” Cruz said.
There was an answering glimmer of humor in Luc’s eyes when he said, “I’m right there with you.”
“So the question is: does Gianna pick one of us…or both?”
“You got a crystal ball?”
Luc flipped him the bird. “Left it in my other pants.”
“She’s not a timeshare where we alternate weeks.” That kind of attitude would be disrespectful of Gianna and he couldn’t imagine her compartmentalizing her life like that. If she loved both of them, she’d want to love both of them together. That was one hell of a thought.
“Any ideas?”
Yeah, all of which involved going after Gianna and begging. “I could do it, if it’s what Gianna wants.”
Luc’s nod was slow in coming, but it came. Maybe they both were on the same page after all. Maybe they could make this thing work. “We’d both be all about her. That sounds about right.”
The bullfrogs cranked it up, deafening the silence with a raucous storm of croaking. Those people who talked about the calm and peace of Mother Nature and being out in the bayou were full of it. There was plenty of noise, but the good kind. It almost filled in the silence between him and Luc.
Luc rubbed a hand over his head. “We’re a bunch of sorry asses. We don’ even have the girl.”
That was true. She’d walked on Luc. Fuck. Maybe she’d walked on both of them. He’d have to catch up with her to find out, wouldn’t he? Technically, if she was giving them their weeks back-to-back, his started tonight.
“We both have to ask her.”
“Oui. It doesn’t matter for shit if we like each other if Gianna’s not on board with the plan.”
“Glad to hear it.” Gianna’s voice. Coming from the dock below as Dre helped her out of a boat neither he nor Luc had seen coming. That was the problem with feelings and discussing them—they blinded you to everything else.
She smiled at them, a tentative, not-quite-sure smile, and his heart turned over.
***
Gianna had made it to her house, but floating around the place had only underscored how empty her life was. Although she’d spotted various Pack members keeping an eye on her house, she had all the space in the world there, but not the two men she…cared for. Loved? She was pretty certain that was the direction her heart was headed in.
Picking and choosing between the two of them couldn’t be as impossible as it seemed, right? One of these two guys had to be perfect for her, and yet…she wanted it all. So she’d driven out to Port Leon, found Dre, and come here. To see them both, to see where these feelings could take her.
The two pieces of her heart were sprawled on the bench in front of Luc’s house, shoulder-to-shoulder, sharing a beer. Not quite the mental image her imagination had spun up, but maybe she should have expected it. They moved apart, however, as she got closer, and Cruz patted the empty space between them. She took it, sinking into their heat and closeness. For a long time, no one spoke. The bayou got quieter and darker, the stars coming out overhead, while the occasional silverfish flip-flopped out of the water, took a look around the unfamiliar world above water, and dove back beneath the surface.
Cruz spoke first. “I’d still like that week you offered me.”
More silence followed. Luc didn’t say no, didn’t counter with an offer of his own. Then he reached for her hand, turning it palm up and placing something cool and round in it. A ring.
“I got this for you,” he said and she looked down at the ring in her hand, closing her fingers. It was old, with a delicate beauty and a patina of age. “It belonged to one of the princesses in the French court.”
“Not a queen?” she asked, trying to hold back unexpected tears.
“I didn’t think you’d wan’ a ring from Marie Antoinette. She didn’t get her happy endin’. But I was hopin’ we could.”
“The three of us? Or just you and me?”
“I love you.” He puts the words out there, plain and simple. Blunt.
She turned the ring over in her palm. It was so pretty and it represented so much.
“We’re not sure how to make this work,” Luc continued.
“But we wan’ to,” Cruz added, sounding both determined and forthright. “Boo, you got to know what you mean to both of us. I’m late to this party and Luc found you first, but that doesn’t mean I don’ feel every bit as strongly as he does. You’re a special woman and I love you.”
He plucked the ring out of her hand, sliding it onto her ring finger and rubbing his callused thumb over her palm. Easing the tension out.
“But you still want a week alone with me.”
“I wan’ a week for us, for you to get to know me. I wan’ a shot at the whole emotional enchilada. You lovin’ me and me lovin’ you.”
Luc’s arm
circled her shoulders. “We’re wolves, shug. We’re territorial. It’s not nice and I can’t dress it up for you. My wolf, he’s not one for sharin’, but if Cruz here matters to you, I’ll be doin’ the best I can to let him in.”
Cruz nodded. “This is about what you wan’.”
Heat blossomed in her heart, warmth and caring for these two men who were working it out. Because they loved her. She reached for both of them, pulling them in close.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes to both of you. To all of us.”
Hers. Theirs. Wherever this journey took them, they’d be going together.
Book #1 in a sexy new from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Anne Marsh.
After years of waiting, wolf shifter Luc Breaux finally claimed his Blue Moon bride. He expected happily-ever-after—not an ultimatum. Gianna Lynn gave him seven nights to convince her to accept him as her Alpha and mate. Seven nights in which he taught her the joys of surrender…before she promised his rival an equal shot at claiming her.
Gianna gave Luc one week to persuade her to be his mate. But, as drawn to the werewolf Alpha as Gianna is, she can’t stop dreaming about Cruz Jones, the Alpha of a rival wolf pack. Now, it’s Cruz’s turn to claim a week from her and wring a heart-stoppingly erotic submission from her.
Can Gianna convince the two shifters to share her heart, her body and a triangle in which neither can dominate? Or will it mean war between the packs?
Available December 22nd, 2014. Pre-order today!
Hide Your Virgins! Here come the Vikings in the all-new Vikings Unleashed eBook box set with 9 Erotic Romances full of the original Alpha Bad Boys, they’ll be sure to pillage your heart and steal you away in the night!
Nine brand new bedtime stories for 99 cents!
VIKING FIRE by award-winning author CRYSTAL JORDAN. Wolf-shifter Erik once betrayed the only woman he ever loved, the shieldmaiden Bryn, and it cost both their lives. Now, they serve the gods as immortal warriors, and an ancient prophecy forces them together to try to stop the coming apocalypse. What they don’t expect is for the fire to burn as hot between them as ever.
AT THE VIKING’S COMMAND by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author ANNE MARSH. A werewolf tries to protect her Pack and ends up in the arms of a ruthless Viking. Following her Viking’s orders ignites a fiery passion and fulfills her secret fantasies, but can she claim her Viking for keeps?
HEL's BELLES by DAYNA HART. Hela's one-night stand is assigned to mentor her through the creation of her new motorcycle club, but as their relationship starts to develop, the secrets she's keeping might cost her everything.
THE VIKING QUEEN'S MEN by award-winning author HOLLEY TRENT. As the newly installed queen of an enclave of telepathic Viking descendants, Tess is the final arbiter of conflicts. Unfortunately, the very first one she has to resolve is in her own bedroom. Two men would fight to the death to win her, but to gain full control of her considerable power, she must find a way to keep them both.
TAMING THE VIKING'S DRAGON by SHAWNTELLE MADISON. Only two riders can command an ice dragon…Drifa wants nothing more than to complete her training as a Woman of Frost, but she is called to help destroy an evil force fallen from the stars. Three years ago, she left Steinn behind. To fight this new foe, they must forget their differences and reunite as man and woman. But for two Viking warriors, waging war is easier than forging peace.
A VIKING'S PEACE by NYT Bestselling Author ZOE YORK. Thrown together in an intergalactic diplomatic mission, Reinn and Ashleigh know they must fight the burning attraction between them. But this Viking has finally found his mate, and nothing else matters.
VIKING'S HEART by national bestselling author LORIBELLE HUNT. Jolie Hall is ready for her life to change. Being given to a Viking to clear her father's debts isn’t quite what she had in mind, however. She can’t deny she’s drawn to Stone Ulfson, but can she believe his claim that she is his destined mate?
VIKING'S FURY by award-winning author SARANNA DEWYLDE. Magnus the Destroyer will do anything to escape prison planet Hel and punish his captors, including taking the warden's innocent daughter Mercy as collateral. Only after they crash on an uninhabited planet, Magnus learns some things are more precious than vengeance.
VIKING UNBOUND by New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author KATE PEARCE. Encased in ice, traveling through space and thousands of years adrift from his world, Viking Einarr Bloodaxe can’t help but respond to the call of his female and finally break free of his magical entrapment.
Series List
Contemporary Romance – Smoke Jumpers
BURNING UP (Smoke Jumpers, Book 1)
SLOW BURN (Smoke Jumpers, Book 2)
BURNS SO BAD (Smoke Jumpers, Book 3)
SMOKING HOT (Smoke Jumpers, Book 4)
SWEET BURN (Smoke Jumpers, Book 5)
Contemporary Romance – The Hotshots
REBURN (The Hotshots, 1)
HOT ZONE (The Hotshots, 2)
FIRED UP (The Hotshots, 3, in HOT SHOTS)
Contemporary Romance – Men of Discovery Island
WICKED SEXY (Men of Discovery Island, 1)
WICKED NIGHTS (Men of Discovery Island, 2)
WICKED SECRETS (Men of Discovery Island, 3)
Paranormal Romance – Blue Moon Brides
TEMPTED BY THE PACK (Blue Moon Brides, Book 1)
PLEASURED BY THE PACK (Blue Moon Brides, Book 2)
CLAIMED BY THE PACK (Blue Moon Brides, Book 3)
TAKEN BY THE PACK (Blue Moon Brides, Book 4)
CAPTURED BY THE PACK (Blue Moon Brides, Book 5)
Paranormal Romance – The Fallen
BOND WITH ME (Fallen, Book 1)
HIS DARK BOND (Fallen, Book 2)
SAVAGE BOND (Fallen, Book 3)
Warriors Unleashed
VIKING'S ORDERS (Warriors Unleashed, Book 1)
AT THE VIKING'S COMMAND (Warriors Unleashed, Book 2)
BOUND BY THE VIKING (Warriors Unleashed, Book 3, November 2014)
Non-Series Books
THE HUNT
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About the Author
After ten years of graduate school and too many degrees, Anne Marsh escaped to become a technical writer. When not planted firmly in front of the laptop translating Engineer into English, Anne enjoys gardening, running (even if it’s just to the 7-11 for slurpees), and reading books curled up with her kids. The best part of writing romance, however, is finally being able to answer the question: “So… what do you do with a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures?” She lives in Northern California with her husband, two kids and four cats.
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Contents
Book Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Wolf's Desire
Vikings Unleashed!
Want Free Books?
Book List
About the Author
Table of Contents
Book Description
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Wolf's Desire
Vikings Unleashed!
Want Free Books?
Book List
About the Author
ends