Genre: Paranormal, Multicultural
Length: Novella
Available from Cobblestone Press: http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/pearl.htm
Author Website: www.LeilaBrown.com
Blurb:
Allyson Grey is a take no prisoners type of cop. After a strange encounter with a woman at a flea market, followed by an encounter with a tiger shifter, Ally will do whatever it takes to protect the innocent.
Prince and tiger shifter, Jorel isn’t there for the innocents. He’s there for her. Ally is the one woman that possesses his heartstone and Jorel must take her back, willingly or not, to his world. Has Jorel bitten off more than he can chew?
Excerpt:
“I don’t care what he says. I am not going to a royal dinner. I am not leaving this room. If he doesn’t understand tell him to come down and I will say it to his face.” She had no desire to sit down with him or anyone else. What she wanted was to go home. Point blank. End of story. He didn’t honestly think that moving her into his suite was going to endear her to him, did he?
The slip of a woman bowed to her and hurried out of the room. Ally flopped back on the bed. She’d been through the room several times already and there were no hidden passageways. No secret compartments. No way out.
Besides the door. Which boasted to guards. A tiny piece of her felt happy that they deemed her such a threat that they beefed up the guard. It didn’t even matter if she did escape. She had no idea of how to get back to that spot in the woods where he’d dragged her from the park.
Two loud thuds in the hallway knocked her from her small pity party. What the hell was going on? She ran over to the door and peeked out. Both guards lay on the floor. Shit. Either somebody was trying to help her or she was triple fucked. Either way she wasn’t about to sit back and wait for whoever was coming to show up. She opened the door wide enough to slip out. She craned her neck to look down both directions of the hallway. Empty.
Right or left. Not that it freaking mattered. Left. She’d try left. Ally raced down the corridor sliding to a stop before she rounded the corner. She did another quick peek. Empty again. Everyone must be at that royal dinner. She ran down that hallway and right into Jorel as he rounded the corner.
She tried to backpedal away from him but his hand snaked out and grabbed her before she could get away. Fire licked her shin when he touched her.
“Where the hell are your guards?” He marched her back to her room. He stepped over the slumped her guards. “What the hell did you do to them?”
“Nothing. They were like that when I opened the door.”
He eyed her suspiciously but didn’t say anything else about the guards.
“So where were you going in such a hurry. I was told you refused to come to dinner.”
“I was leaving.”
“We’ve been through this. You can’t leave. You do and we both die. That heartstone ties us together. Whether we like it or not.” From the slight upturn of his top lip he didn’t like it anymore than she did.
As soon as her eyes connected with his her mouth went dry and she found it harder to breathe. Her nipples tightened and she wanted to scream her disbelief. She couldn’t want him. Not in that way. She couldn’t be that crazy.
“Look. I have no clue as to why you’re doing this. I’m sure there are tons of women like you who would want to be tied to you. Unfortunately I’m not one of them. I don’t need and don’t want to be tied to anyone.”
“I thought we could go the easy route. But it looks like your determined to do things the hard way.” The way he said ‘the hard way’ she had no doubts about which way he truly wanted things to go.
She’d played right into his hands and hadn’t even known it. Moving around she put the bed between them. “You knew I wouldn’t come down to dinner with your family. You planned it. Planned this. I wouldn’t be surprised if you took the guards out and were waiting for me to run into you.”
He laughed at her. A sound that was far too appealing. “Sorry to disappoint, but I was coming to tell you that if you don’t eat with me you don’t eat.”
“Fine, I’ll starve.” She tried not to stare at his face which meant her eyes were glued to his chest.
“It’s too late for that. Having this separate room was a privilege. One you didn’t appreciate.”
“Meaning what? I’m going to sleep where the servants sleep?” As her words said those words a whole different senario played out in her head.
“No. You’ll be sleeping with me.” His words silenced her.
Ally couldn’t think of a snappy comeback. She was completely floored by his pronouncement. Sure he’d said they were tied and he acted like eventually they would have to sleep together. But she didn’t really think he would push her into it. Take away her choice.
“You can’t do that.” She watched him raise his eyebrows at her words.
“Why not? My family is law here. And by the law, you belong to me.” A smile played at his lips.
“I told you Tigerboy, I don’t belong to anyone.” Before she realized it she’d jumped at him. Her arms were outstretched and she hands were poised to rake down his face and pull skin with them. She could’ve ran fast, jumped harder, but her heart wasn’t fully in it.
He caught her hands right before they reached his face. “Temper, temper.” He pulled her down wrapped his arms around her and twisted her so her ass hit against his cock.
She bucked and moved. Pressing against him trying to get leverage to pull herself away from him or hit him hard enough that he let her go. Neither happened though.
“If I were you I’d stop that.”
“Good thing you’re not me.” She thrashed harder. The hard feel of his erection poking her in the back just made her fight more.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Even as he said the words liquid heat poured through her clothes.
“Did you just jack off on my back?” She stopped moving out of sheer disbelief.
“Nope. That’s something else.”
She heard his words but her brain got foggy. Too foggy to continue to fight. Right now her body was heating up in all the wrong places. What the hell was wrong with her? She didn’t want him. Couldn’t want him.
“Stop that.” He growled into her ear.
Without thinking about it she’d arched up into his erection and rubbed back and forth. There was nothing about that movement that screamed let me go. That had been more like a ‘I want to fuck you’ kind of movement. And fucking was definitely something she did not want him thinking about.
“If you do it again. I won’t be responsible for what happens.”
She caught herself doing it again. The scent of him filled her nostril. He smelled so damn good. It was making her mouth water. Maybe she should move again to see what he would do. Do it! Do it! Her body craved his touch. Starved for it. Her pussy muscles clenched with thoughts of him flipping her over and punishing her in the most delicious of ways.
No. No. No. She did not want him that way. He’d done something to her. Changed her.
“What did you do to me?” Her voice was weak with the strain of holding herself still. A battle she was quickly losing.
“I didn’t do anything but try to give you a chance to get used to being my mate. But no. You had to fight it. Had to rush things.”
Rush what? He leaned down and his hard erection bumped up against her ass. Her control on her overactive libido slipped. Her body stopped listening to the small voice in the back of her mind. She had to touch him. Had to rub against him. Not doing so was almost painful. More like a dull ache that eventually encompassed your entire mind so that you could no longer distract yourself from the feeling.
Jorel flipped her around and she opened her arms and legs to him. She’d fight with him later. Right now she wanted, no needed, to feel his hard flesh pressed against hers. Even as she ran her hands along his back she starved for a more intimate touch.
She leaned up and pulled what was left of her t-shirt over her head. Then shimmied out of her pants. Her bra and panties hit the floor next. The only thing in between her body and his was on thin layer of clothing. His.
“Take off your clothes.” Even to her own ears her voice was raw with need. What did it sound like to him?
He reared up and quickly disposed of his clothing. The sight knocked the breath from her lungs. His skin called to her hands. She curled her hands into tight fist. Where the hell was her self-control? This was worse than throwing herself at him. She was practically mauling the man.
As he pulled down his black-leathered pants she bit her lip. The pain kept her locked in place. The insanity of her desire was almost overpowering. When his erection sprang free of the constraining fabric, she lost all competent thought. She needed to touch him. Feel him. Taste him. If she didn’t her heart would stop. Her lungs would explode. She would simply cease to exist.
When she wrapped her hand around his straining penis, Jorel felt like his knees would give out. He hadn’t had a woman in over a month and this one was more than appealing. Looking down he watched in fascination as she licked her lips before guiding the head of his penis to her mouth.
Holy Moly!
