Shift
Happens (I Heart Shifters, Book 1)
Christy
Gissendaner
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal
Romance
Publisher: Etopia Press
BLURB
Ellie Reynolds runs a nail salon
that caters to shifters of all varieties. The proverbial shift hits the fan
when billionaire mogul Jackson Lawrence walks in the door and offers Ellie two
million dollars to sell her shop. Ellie has no intention of selling out,
especially to someone who plans to bulldoze her shop to the ground and replace
it with a fast food joint. Their battle of wit and will is brought to a sudden
halt when Jackson’s enemies appear, throwing them into a fight for their lives.
Jackson believed he'd left violence
behind when he resigned his position with the Blood Wolves, a secret shifter
military group, but someone wants his company's cyber invention and will stop
at nothing to get it. He didn't mean to drag Ellie into his mess, but he’s
willing to do anything to protect her and the firewall his friend
created...anything
except fight his attraction to the outspoken redhead he's suddenly responsible
for. Jackson soon learns Ellie is hotter than he first gave her credit
for...like dragon hot...and life is about to get a whole lot more interesting.
Sometimes shift happens when
you least expect it.
EXCERPT
Rain kept up a staccato
rhythm on the tin roof, and her supersensitive hearing picked out every drop.
She’d never be able to sleep like this, not while her mind was racked by
thoughts of Jackson. The situation was laughable. She should be more worried
about her safety and instead all she could think about was the fine-looking man
in the room across the hall, like the perfect dimples in his cheeks when he
smiled really big, or the perfect symmetry of his gorgeous face. And that ass.
She could bounce a quarter off that ass.
She groaned as the
familiar heat filled the place between her thighs. She needed something to take
her mind off Jackson.
Milk. That’s what she
needed. A nice, cool glass of milk.
Well, what she really
needed was her vibrator, but it was at home, tucked safely away in her drawer
under a bundle of handmade scarves that she’d bought and never worn.
Ellie slid out of bed and tugged the hem of the
too-short nightgown. She’d picked out a size eight when she was more like a
twelve, so Jackson wouldn’t know her true clothing dimensions. When he’d gone
to pay for the items she’d chosen, he’d merely lifted an eyebrow but wisely
chosen not to say anything.Could she help it if she’d been born with a fondness for sweets? Blame Nana’s genes, not her own lack of will.
Speaking of sweets,
cookies would be nice too. She wondered if Jackson had any in the cabinets. He
seemed to keep the Montevallo home stocked with foodstuffs since they hadn’t
had to stop for groceries.
A few minutes later,
with chocolate chip cookies clutched in both hands and a mug of milk hooked
around her thumbs, she crept back down the hall toward her room. She bent her
head to take a bite of a cookie and lost her grip on the drink. She cursed when
the mug fell out of her hands. The milk spilled across her toes and the ceramic
shattered when it hit the wooden planks.
“Ellie!” Jackson jerked
his bedroom door open and appeared in the doorway, disheveled and entirely too
yummy. He wore nothing but boxers and oh geez, he had a six-pack. A perfectly
lickable six-pack that made her mouth and sex water. She hoped she wouldn’t
drool, although it was a distinct possibility.
“I’m sorry for waking
you.”
Jackson ran a hand over
his shorn hair. “Fuck. I thought they’d found us.”
“Nope, just the cookie
monster.” She held up the cookies in her hands and grimaced. How embarrassing.
“Want one?”
He came forward until
their toes touched. Hers, milky and chilled. His, warm and dry. She wanted to
feel her feet wrapped around his beneath the covers. She wanted to feel
everything of his beneath the covers, actually.
His thumb brushed the
corner of her lips. “Chocolate,” he explained right before he licked his
finger.
Damn her knees. Useless
joints that they were. “Umm.”
And damn her larynx for
not working properly.
His gaze dropped and she suddenly realized she
was in the too-short, too-tight nightgown. Her boobs stretched the cotton
material and she didn’t need to
look down to know she
was nipping. If she turned around, he could probably tell she wasn’t wearing
panties. She’d never been so self-conscious before, but never had she been in
the presence of a hot-ass canine shifter who was practically naked.
Jackson’s expression
turned predatory. His cheeks seemed to hollow out, becoming more pronounced,
and his nostrils flared as if he’d caught a whiff of something. Perhaps it was
her. The quick shower she’d taken had been hours before. Then again, no
panties. Perhaps he smelled her scent. She clamped her thighs tight together
and prayed he didn’t laugh. The situation was embarrassing enough without
suffering unrequited lust.
“Ellie.” He spoke her
name again, but it was low-pitched and soft.
Oh God. She wanted to
eat the cookies in his bed. But later. Much, much later. “Yeah?”
“I owe you something.”
He slid a hand around her waist and cupped the upper swell of her butt. His
fingers spread out in a proprietary manner, as if he was sure of his welcome.
“I wanted to wait until all this shit was over, but you’re killing me. I can’t
hold out any longer.”
Neither could she. She
went up on tiptoe and puckered her lips. He stared at her as he traced the seam
of her lips with his index fingers. “I think you misunderstand the type of kiss
I want from you.”
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