I have to brag a little. Protect and Serve: Shifting Heat (the third book in my Shifting series) is coming to Changeling Press next week! May 31st, 2012 to be exact.
This series started with an idea to submit a story for the best-selling Protect and Serve multi-author series, and quickly warped into something more. The characters in the first book were so real for me, they just called out for more story.
In Shifting Forces, Aurora Monroe is mistakenly marked as mate for two paranormals: a phoenix and a gryphon shifter. Their fight for survival and the right to love–no matter what your species–pulled my heartstrings directly into more stories involving their children: Griff and Kenna.
Shifting Focus focuses on Special Agent Griff Monroe (a half-gryphon shifter) investigates paranormal crimes for the PAC. When he recruits the beautiful firefighter/EMT Sophia Lorello to help him on a case, he doesn’t know she’s a lioness when she shifts, or that she’ll do anything to keep her paranormal side a secret–even if it kills her.
And now, the third book in the series!
Protect and Serve: Shifting Heat
(Book 3 in the Shifting series)
by Cassidy McKay
Available May 31, 2012 at Changeling Press
Buy link: http://changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1838
Special Agent Rob Hunter lives to protect. After all, it’s what unicorn shifters have done since God created virgins. When his best friend asks him to help his little sister recuperate after she’s injured, Rob doesn’t hesitate. He has fond memories of the sweet little tomboy who chased after them when they were kids.
But half-phoenix Kenna Monroe has grown up into a sexy, smart-mouthed vixen with a chip on her shoulder when it comes to relationships. As an ex-cop who now leads a crack team of commandos into pockets of paranormal resistance, she needs a champion even less than she needs her childhood crush reawakening all her old feelings.
So what’s a traditional unicorn to do when the woman he’s falling for isn’t a virgin, doesn’t need protection and is hotter in bed than any sane man can resist?
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Excerpt (rated R)
“Damn it!” I rub my shin where I hit it against the coffee table. The furniture is in the same place it’s been for years, so I have no excuse. I lift my hand to tear at the bandages over my eyes, then pause, just like I have a million times already. They’re supposed to stay on at least until tomorrow, and my babysitter is anal about sticking to the rules.
“Kenna, are you okay? I heard you yell.” The steamy scent of clean man rises next to me as Hunter rushes into the living room.
“I’m fine. Will you stop hovering? I thought you were taking a shower.” I’ve been torturing myself with the tempting vision of him in there, in my shower, all naked and wet and soapy… and oh-so-close.
“I was. I thought you needed me.”
He pads back to the bathroom, and my gut twists in knots. I graphically picture one of my plush towels wandering over every inch of his hard, wet, muscled body, sliding over every ridge and into every crevice. With a hard swallow, I listen as the door closes after him, indulging in my fantasy of hot shower sex with him.
Damned overprotective unicorn. He’s been hovering since he got here, and I don’t need the kind of attention he’s been giving me. If he only had a clue of exactly how I needed him — stripped naked and in my bed — he’d run for the hills. Unfortunately, he still thinks of me as Griff’s little sister.
All in all, I suppose it’s better that he thinks of me that way. Hunter isn’t really the type for a one-night stand, and that’s all I can offer. I don’t have the time or the energy to deal with a relationship. Hell, I don’t even know the man any more. But that doesn’t stop me from lusting after him. I’m injured, not dead.
“What do you want for dinner tonight?”
His sexy voice sounds next to me, slides right into my shorts, underneath my panties and swirls between my thighs in delicious torture. I can feel the phoenix part of me stirring, heating up to his voice, just like she always did. Damned fickle beast. Not like my phoenix ever does anything useful, she just makes me emotional and bitchy, and singes my hair when I get mad.
“Kenna?”
“How about pizza?” I’ve got to keep myself under control. He’ll only be here for a few more days, then I can pray to the vibrator goddess in noisy abandon. The man has ears like a hawk, and no matter how slutty my dreams have been lately, my desperate urge to masturbate is tempered by embarrassment that he might overhear me.
“Pizza sounds good. Pepperoni?”
His voice retreats to the kitchen where I hear a drawer open. I keep the menus for local take-out restaurants near the phone, and we’ve been making good use of my mini-library. I’m afraid I’m not much of a cook even when I can see. “Sure.” Right now I’d agree to anything just to get him out of the room. My sex drive just kicked into high gear. At this rate, he’s in danger of being jumped by a blind woman. Probably not what he expected when he agreed to help out.
Purring his delicious voice into the phone, he calls for pizza delivery like he’s ordering aphrodisiacs instead of Italian food. I debate whether I can make it into my bedroom, pull my vibrator out of the bedside table and reach an orgasm before he hangs up the phone. Yeah, I’m that far gone.
“Thirty minutes or less, Kenna. Delivered hot and spicy right to your door.”
“God, I could really use something hot and spicy right now,” I mumble under my breath. I turn toward my room, determined to ease the ache regardless of the consequences, only to halt as his hand lands on my shoulder.
“What did you say?”
Lust ripples through me as the heat of his hand seeps through the thin cotton of my shirt. All the yearnings of my teenage years come rushing back in half a second. Why couldn’t I have outgrown this like I outgrew so many other unwanted things? Well, I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. “I said I could really use something hot and spicy right now. And since you don’t seem to be interested in satisfying that hunger, I’m going to my bedroom where I can shut the door and give my vibrator an extended workout.”
“Uh, Kenna…”
“Listen, Hunter, I’m a grown woman, and this is my house. I refuse to act like a nun just because you’re here. I’m not one of your government protection details, I’m not your little sister, and I’m sure as hell not a virgin!”
“But, Kenna…”
“Seriously, Rob. We both know I’m not your type. I learned that lesson years ago. So why don’t you get over your old-fashioned unicorn sensibilities and let me go before I do something we’ll both regret?”
His low, amused chuckle drenches my thighs with cream, regardless of my temper. He grabs both my shoulders and turns me slightly to the left, facing away from him. The warmth of his breath on my ear sends shivers all the way down to my toes. “Honey, if you’d let me finish, I was only going to say you were about to run into the wall. Your bedroom’s that way.” He gives me a little push and a slap on the ass, and I swear I almost stumble over my open mouth. “Let me know if you need any help with that vibrator.”
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Available May 31, 2012 at Changeling Press
Buy link: http://changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1838
Sex, Fun, Writing and Romance! 