Authors: Laura Harner
Honey House (26 page)
We still hadn’t talked beyond the murmurs of sex. We hadn’t discussed what happened last night. I still didn’t know what Quinn was, although I was beginning to have some idea. I finally realized why Owen’s gesture of running his hand over Quinn’s body looked familiar. I’d seen Quinn himself do it first, the night he first made love to me. He’d not been gentle that night either, and I should have been sore. Instead, Quinn had brushed a hand over my skin, and all of my discomfort had eased. Owen was one of the Fae. A fairy. Did that mean—
I pushed the thought aside. It wasn’t worth worrying about right now. So
what
if I didn’t know what Quinn was? I didn’t know what
I
was, either. I didn’t know what the House wanted from me or what Joanne expected to happen when she’d arranged for me to come here after her death.
Juniper Springs might pretend to be Sedona’s little cousin in all things metaphysical, but I knew that the truly unbelievable lived here. The location of the House couldn’t be a coincidence. What was it about this particular part of the world that drew so many mythical creatures? And how was it that the sheriff knows them all?
Protects them all?
This small community was the stuff of fairy tales, nightmares, and bad Hollywood movies. Werewolves, witches, and Fae…oh my! There was something here…something that tied all of the secrets together.
In spite of so many unknowns or perhaps because of them, I needed to remember what I had learned since coming to Juniper Springs. The Honey House might be a first class bed and breakfast, but it also was the first real home I’d ever known. A home—me? Who’d have thunk it?
With a small smile, I ran through the names: Gregory, Owen, Raymond, and Gabrielle. I suppose I needed to include Stevie now, though I’d only met him as a wolf. These were all my people, maybe even something like a family.
Did Quinn belong with the others? Or was what I felt for him something more? When I’d thought he was dying, a terrified part of me feared he would be lost to me forever. Did that mean I—
Steel bands tightened around my chest, and Quinn pulled me over to lie on top of his chest.
“Mmm…Katie, love,” he murmured against the marks on my neck. “You’re thinking too damned hard. I have a much better use for all that excess energy,” he said, as his hands smoothed down my back.
A delicious shiver shuddered through me as my mouth sought his. Yes, I wanted this…I wanted him. Quinn and I might not be the sort of people who believed in happily ever after, but maybe…just maybe, we could have a happily for now.
~~The End~~
About the Author
Raised in California, Laura likes it hot, which explains why she ended up in Arizona via such diverse places as Japan, Maine, and Florida, and many more places in between. After retiring from the US Navy, she found a niche working for land management agencies, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Though she has held many jobs around the world, her favorite was working and living in Grand Canyon National Park. Working (and eating) in New Orleans was a close second. You will find many of her books are set against the rich backdrops provided by coastal Louisiana and northern Arizona.
When asked how she started writing, Laura tells of waking on Boxing Day a few years ago, with a woman named Elena MacFarland yammering in her dreams, demanding her story be told. Despite never attempting to write fiction before that morning, Laura ignored all of the holiday visitors and the Highland Destiny series was born. She doesn’t believe it was a coincidence that the great grandmother who died when Laura was just a baby was named Elena MacFarland. Destiny does play a hand.
Laura became a full-time writer in 2012, and now she spends her time writing, watching her Arizona Diamondbacks, and working on her very own version of the Willow Springs Ranch in northwestern Arizona. She is a multi-published author of erotic romance, mystery, and urban fantasy and her books can be found at all major online retailers.
Connect with Laura at:
Twitter:
@LauraHarner
Facebook:
facebook.com/lauraharner
Or even better…check out the website at:
LauraHarner.com
Also Available
Forbidden Love
Detective Danielle Delacroiux is one kick-ass detective with the Généreux PD, and she's got a murder on her hands. By all accounts, Crease Martin was nothing but a homeless drunk and a lousy informant, but Dani counted him as one of hers. Now she'll stop at nothing to find his murderer. With a red silk handkerchief under the body as her first clue, Dani wants a quick break. When a handsome stranger practically strolls up to the crime scene, Dani can't help but notice his expensive Italian suit, red silk tie, and empty breast pocket. Could he be who she's looking for?
Dani is less than impressed when Mr. tall, dark, and yummy is introduced as the newest lawyer in town, and even worse, he's another of the Charbonnet offspring. The deadly feud between the Delacroiux and Charbonnet families goes way back, and there is one thing she knows without a doubt. If Hawk Charbonnet committed this crime, she'll be damned if his connections will do him any good. She'll happily lock his arrogant ass in jail for the rest of his life. Which would be a shame, because she had to admit, it was a fine-looking ass.
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Altered States, free prologue for the Altered States Series
New Orleans Police Detective Sam Garrett can't believe his bad luck when he's assigned to investigate a string of gay-bashings turned deadly in the French Quarter. Especially when he realizes Travis Boudreaux, his new, hot, and most-likely-straight partner, plans to use him as bait. The worst part? They’ve got no back-up because the rest of the city is preoccupied by another series of killings — the victims drained of blood.
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Deep Blues Goodbye, Book One of the Altered States Series
The world might not have been ready for vampires when NOPD Detective Travis Boudreaux had the bad taste to sit up at his own funeral, but two years later, the new cause célèbre is civil rights for preternatural beings and most humans are on the bandwagon. Except whoever is killing vampires and wannabes.
Detective Sam Garrett hates all things preternatural. Having your undead partner try to make you his first meal will do that to a guy. One final screw-up gets Sam banished to the Paranormal Criminal Investigations Unit—the Odd Squad—under the oversight of Detective Danny Burkette.
Now it’s up to Burkette to work with Garrett by day and Boudreaux by night as they follow a trail of clues that leads from the historic cemeteries of New Orleans to the bayous of southern Louisiana. Under the all-too-interested gaze of a Master vampire and the local werewolf pack Alpha, they discover some lessons in life—and death—take longer to learn…and not all second chances are created equal.
Warning: In this series the vampires don’t sparkle, werewolves kill, and sometimes the men have sex. With each other.
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Ty Hard, Book One of the Willow Springs Ranch Series
Tyler has used Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a shield against the truth since he was seventeen. Now, Ty finds himself cut loose from his Navy career after months of rehab from a debilitating head injury. At a loss as to what to do with his life, he travels to Willow Springs Ranch in Arizona to visit his surrogate father, only to arrive minutes after his oldest friend's death. Ty must come to terms with the loss while he fights to keep the PTSD from pulling him under. The last thing he's ready to think about is his growing attraction for another man.
Rancher Cass Cartwright's relationships never last more than a few hours, and that's just the way he likes it. Now he's in danger of doing the one thing he swore never to do: fall in love. Can Cass convince Ty to let go of his past or will sabotage at the ranch kill their love before it has a chance to grow?
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Hold Tight, Book Two of the Willow Spring Ranch Series
Sheriff Holden Titus had organized his fresh start down to the last detail. Except for the part about the bomb that blew his plans all to hell. Now he’s running out of time, without a job, without a home, and struggling to get back on his feet. Literally.
Despite the impolite rejection, Drew knows he didn’t have the wrong impression months ago when he asked the sheriff to dance, but he never expected to have Holden’s life in his hands. Literally.
Thanks to some meddlesome matchmaking, the two men are now temporary housemates at the Willow Springs Ranch and Drew is determined to help Holden heal, both physically and emotionally. Even if it means he has to drag the other man kicking and screaming to physical therapy…and out of the closet. In fact, that might be kind of fun.
The problem is, Holden doesn’t consider himself in the closet…but not all secrets are created equal.
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Rescued, Book, Two of the Three’s Allowed Series
Elizabeth Ashford runs into the wilderness near a highway rest area, trying to escape her abusive husband before he kills her. Self-made millionaire and expert in high tech security, Michael Enwright is at the first rest stop of his long overdue sabbatical when he sees the fleeing woman and intervenes, saving Elizabeth's life, while nearly losing his own. When Michael's help is misinterpreted, he ends up handcuffed and face down in the dirt before Elizabeth can set her former lover, Sheriff Graeme Kennedy, straight. In order to protect Lizzie, Graeme is forced to work with Michael and brings both of them to his cabin for protection.
Now Graeme finally has Elizabeth under his roof, right where he's always wanted her. So why is he jacking off to visions of the drop dead gorgeous and take-charge Michael? Some things never change.
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