Stifle (3 page)
Under that facade lay someone else
Never discovered
Not even by herself
Who was that girl bathed in blue?
Hair like a mermaid
Thoughts swirling
Lips downturned
Sad girl
Lost girl
Found girl
And didn’t even know it…”
The Watery words were for Zoe. No one else.
Sinnder
needed
her Fire. She could make him come after a thousand-year drought. He was sure of it. His famished cock pushed against his jeans. His balls ached to the brink of pain.
The toilets were right behind her. Shit, he’d lure her outside and fuck her in the alley behind Shaggy’s if he had to.
He leveled his sights on Zoe across the sea of black-clad, tattooed humanity. A growl built deep in this throat. Gavin’s girl didn’t stand a chance against Sinnder. He licked his lips. Certain he could take her with one more push of pheromones, he bee-lined through the crowd toward his salvation.
She faced the stage. Curiosity and intrigue dueled for control of her expression. Brows loosened over her eyes. Her pouty lips formed a half-smile. Gavin stepped into the light, and Zoe’s shoulders hitched suddenly.
Adoration, devotion, and shock melted across Zoe’s features. She hadn’t believed Gavin was real until now. She was seeing him in the flesh for the first time after several encounters in the Dreaming.
Sinnder’s resolved wavered. His erection deflated. He stopped in mid-step.
She loved Gavin. Not just in Sinnder’s fantasies, but in reality. The light in her eyes, the trembling arms, the single-minded intensity tightening her jaw…
Sinnder glanced at his hands. He’d been on his way to claim a woman who didn’t belong to him.
Take her anyway,
Fire whispered in his chest.
Fuck her. She wants it.
“No, she doesn’t,” he mumbled under the crowd’s screams. Sweaty bodies rubbed against his arm, ground against his limp dick. “She wants Gavin.”
Who was he to deprive her of that prize? If he seduced her, he’d be no better than Scarlet. Yes, Sinnder had destroyed his fair share of lives, but something about the way Zoe stared at Gavin moved him to have mercy. Guilt? Respect? Jealousy? Who fucking knew?
Out of nowhere, a small influx of Watery compassion crested and stifled his ever-burning desire.
Let her go,
the vestiges of his conscience begged softly.
She’d never know the sacrifice he’d made in sparing her this night of unbridled passion. An anonymous gift to her and Gavin.
As the music cranked up, the Fire of a hundred groupies surged and wrapped around him like red demon wings. Instead of imbibing in the Fire he craved, he siphoned Wyldling passion from the air, the rocking rafters, and the slashing music. Zoe struggled through the crowd toward the stage where her dream lover beckoned.
Let her keep her Fire. For tonight.
Sinnder could always change his mind later.
If you enjoyed this bit of
Just Breathe
Ephemera, check out INHALE, the first book in the
Just Breathe
Trilogy. INHALE is available in ebook and paperback formats.
Strangers in reality, inseparable in dreams...
After years of suffocating under her boss's scrutiny, whale biologist Zoe Morgan finally lands a job as director of a tagging project in Hervey Bay, Australia. Success Down Under all but guarantees her the promotion of a lifetime, and Zoe won't let anything--or anyone--stand in her way. Not the whale voices she suddenly hears in her head, not the ex who won't take no for an answer, and especially not the gorgeous figment of her imagination who keeps saving her from the fiery hell of her dreams.
Gavin Cassidy hasn't been called to help a human Wyldling in over a year, which is fine by him. Still blaming himself for the death of his partner, he keeps the guilt at bay by indulging in every excess his rock star persona affords. That is, until he's summoned to protect Zoe from hungry Fyre Elementals and learns his new charge is the key to restoring order in the dying Dreaming. He never expects to fall for the feisty Dr. Morgan...nor does he realize he may have to sacrifice the woman he loves to save an entire country.
EXHALE, book two in the
Just Breathe
Trilogy, is available in ebook format.
Her dreams brought them together, but reality could tear them apart...
The man of Zoe Morgan's dreams isn't only real, he's interested. In her. But her boss wants her too, and is leveraging his unsolicited advances with the threat of blocking the huge promotion she's after. When he places a spy on her research team, the intense stranger discovers more than he should, and Zoe fears hiding a relationship with Gavin Cassidy from her boss is the least of her worries. The whale she must protect has been marked for death, and Zoe's old enemy Scarlet is eager to deliver the killing blow. To both of them.
Australia's Sentinels must find and lock the door into the Dreaming before Fyre Elementals launch another attack on innocent dreamers. But corruption and distrust abound, and Gavin believes someone on the Sentinel council is in league with the Fyres. As he reluctantly embraces his new role as council leader, Gavin must not only keep Zoe safe from Scarlet's vengeful clutches, but organize a Sentinel defense strong enough to prevent a full-blown Elemental war--with a traitor fighting by his side.
* The author will donate all profits from sales of the
Just Breathe
Ephemera series and the
Just Breathe
Trilogy to programs that educate people about whales and the challenges they face.
Kendall Grey, word diddler and whale warrior, was born without an off-switch between her brain and mouth. She’s been called the “Flux Capacitor of Twitter” and “A little package of love all wrapped up in F-word paper,” but she’s really just a maniacal writer relaying eyewitness accounts of the rave inside her head.
Kendall lives off a dirt road near Atlanta, Georgia, but don’t hold that against her.
Cetacean Research Network - A fictional companion to the
Just Breathe
Trilogy
