Her finger just brushed the trigger before the gun was knocked fiercely from her hands and clattered across the floor.
No.
“Stop shooting,” the male voice rasped.
Something registered. That the voice was familiar, but rational thought disappeared as her assailant grabbed her around the waist and dragged her against him, forcing her body against a solid wall of muscle and man. Her scream of rage started to morph into terror, and she increased her energy in fighting him.
Despite the strong fingers that manacled her wrists, she tried to use her elbows to drive into his ribs, but he quickly subdued her. He put her into a position that made her helpless to fight back.
“Stop fighting me, Masterson.”
Even as realization clicked into place at what he was—exactly who he was, she knew she’d failed. She’d completely choked. And this was so much worse than if he had been an intruder with a sinister purpose.
“Take a deep breath.” The rough, familiar voice of her fellow P.I.A. Agent confirmed his identity. Darrius Hilliard.
Oh God. Grace went limp against him and bit her lip, unable to hold back her sob of frustration. Of relief.
He held her for a just a moment, his arms closing around her almost in comfort, and she instinctively melted into him and clung to him. He was safe, not some bastard who’d come to hurt her.
“You’re okay.” His gruff voice soothed, and the hand moving down her back reassured. “Just…hang on a moment.”
And then he let her go so he could move away, and her legs could no longer support her.
Grace sank to her knees, burying her face in the palms of her hands. Her breathing was still erratic and shaky. The seconds ticked by and her pulse slowed once more, and she came fully back to reality as he turned the lights on.
Agent Hilliard’s footsteps approached once more, but she resisted the urge to look up. She couldn’t bear to see him staring down at her with pity and shock.
This was bad. This was really bad. Tears burned behind her closed lids and she drew in another ragged breath.
She’d always been so composed, so determined to prove herself as an agent and keep her shit together. Being new, and the only female on their team, she’d worked her ass off to earn their respect. And she’d had it, until she’d made one fateful choice.
And now Agent Hilliard had seen her like this. Vulnerable. Paranoid. Weak. It had been a reaction left over from the emotional trauma of the experiments. Understandable, she could rationalize that, but humiliating all the same.
Dammit, why had he come here today? Why now?
Get yourself together, Grace.
She slowed her breathing and waited until the tears that threatened finally dissolved. Then, forcing her expression into complete indifference, she lifted her head from her hands.
Agent Hilliard’s expression was definitely not one of pity. He didn’t even look uncomfortable. Instead there was a gleam of amusement in his dark, coffee-brown eyes, and his mouth was curved into a smirk that had her blinking in dismay.
“Hey, Masterson, while you’re down there…”
The Hob
Dana Marie Bell
Robin Goodfellow has met his match.
The Gray Court, Book 4
When the Black Queen kidnaps one of the White Queen’s nephews, Robin Goodfellow is sent to ensure that the young prince safely returns to the bosom of his family. True to his role as Oberon’s Hobgoblin, he is ready for anything…except meeting his truebond, the very delicious, very human Michaela Exton.
Michaela has dreamed about a flame-haired rogue named Robin Goodfellow since she was a little girl, but everyone knows Puck doesn’t really exist. In real life, it’s a dark-eyed man named Ringo who makes her heart beat faster.
She is closer to her dream man than she thinks, and nobody knows it better than Robin, who wears the guise of Ringo. But there’s competition for her love in the form of Lord Raven, who holds a secret that will rock the foundation of Robin’s world. As a Black Court delegate does the unthinkable, leaving an enraged, grief-stricken Robin hanging onto his humanity by a thread, only Michaela has the power to bring him back from the killing edge—if she survives.
Warning: This book contains explicit sex, graphic language, Robin Goodfellow and… Really. Do I need to say any more?
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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
The Hob
Copyright © 2013 by Dana Marie Bell
ISBN: 978-1-61921-381-4
Edited by Tera Kleinfelter
Cover by Angela Waters
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: January 2013
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
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
About the Author
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The Hob (The Gray Court 4) Page 25