Kindle Edition
Download to your Nook (eBook)
Amazon
Lynn Crandall
Category:
Romance
Publisher: Crimson Romance
ISBN-10: 1440586047
Type: Fiction
Pages: 233
Copyright: Oct. 6, 2014
ISBN-13: 9781440586040
Price: $4.33 (eBook)
The office manager at Aegar Investigations and owner of cat rescue Cats Alive, Michelle Slade struggles to keep together the life she’s forged since the one she knew shattered five years ago on the night she was raped. Private Investigator Casey Mitchell tries to help her while he faces his own issues -- he’s been trained his whole life to keep his were-lynx identity and his colony of were-cats protected, but he now struggles with terrible aloneness.
A paranormal romance, Secrets follows the story of a wounded heroine, Michelle Slade, and a guarded hero, were-lynx Casey Mitchell.
Someone is making homeless cats disappear and Michelle Slade wants to put a stop to it. The office manager at Aegar Investigations and owner of cat rescue Cats Alive, she struggles to keep together the life she’s forged since the one she knew shattered five years ago on the night she was raped. She couldn’t have predicted that the rape’s impact would reach into her present life and put a strangle grip on all she holds dear, thanks to the evil machinations of powerful businessman, William Carter.
When Michelle’s problems with Carter escalate, friends rally to help her, with private investigator Casey Mitchell at the top of the line. When Casey finds his investigation takes him down a very dark path of diabolic and life-threatening research conducted by Carter Enterprises, he attempts to keep his work life and his private identity as a were-lynx separate. However, though he’s been trained his whole life to keep his identity and his colony of were-cats protected, he now struggles with terrible aloneness.
As they are thrown together to save the missing cats and remedy worse problems, Michelle and Casey can triumph and find true love, or lose everything.
Excerpt
Casey sat up in bed, the dream he’d been having still alive in his head. He rubbed his hand through his hair. Sweat beaded on his forehead. “Oh, my God.” His heart thudded hard and fast in his chest. He glanced at the clock on his nightstand, sucking in deep breaths of air. Four in the morning. Loneliness heavied his heart.
The dream had been so real, so terrifying. So unusual.
He set his feet on the cold wood floor and sat still on the side of the bed. He took in the room, his room in his house, and sorted through the images in his dream as his body reactions calmed.
He was accustomed to dreaming as his lynx form. Dreams of running through fields with the speed and exhilaration of freedom made frequent nighttime appearances. But this, this dream made him shiver. He dropped his head in his hands and lived through it again.
He saw himself standing in his human form with Michelle in her backyard. Darkness enveloped them comfortably and above a starry, moonless sky contained their moments of shared solitude. He’d brought her warm hand to his lips, the scent of her skin heady and alluring. She’d laughed, delighted when he pretended to take a delicate nibble of her skin.
Casey balled his hands. The moment of togetherness in the dream thundered through him as he revisited what happened next.
He’d lost control. He’d done the unthinkable. He’d shimmered, right in front of Michelle, into his lynx form. Horrified, he’d stood there as his purest self and her screams echoed fiercely against his heart.
3. Alone with her buzzing brain, Michelle let the possibilities of problems with her new
home expand. How could anything be wrong? She’d done all the right things. It had to be
a mistake. It dampened her excitement for getting settled in. The home held so many
good memories of growing up and being a family—Michelle had lived there into her
teens before her parents sold the house and moved into a bigger one across town. The
thoughts of losing it churned inside her gut like a bad cheeseburger from a fast-food
place. The home would be her haven, her safe place, a place where she could keep out the
fears that had invaded her life that fateful night.
She shuddered, letting the various versions of emotions floating by from passing
people pass through her. As a highly sensitive person, or HSP according to the experts on
the subject, she was still learning not to let emotions of others swamp her. She could feel
the anger, just know it wasn’t hers to act out, her counselor told her. Funny how much the
chaos of emotions floating around felt like hers. She didn’t mind being abnormal, with
her premonitions and high sensitivity, but it did bog her down at times.
It was one of those times, months ago, when she and Casey sat in a booth together at a
fast-food restaurant and the wailing of a small boy about his food sent Michelle into a
sobbing ball, that she’d told him her secret, her premonitions and sensitivities, known
only by those close to her. When she’d shared it with Casey, he’d never blinked. He
simply questioned about her experiences in great detail, trying to understand. His interest
had warmed her heart and it had felt good to be forthright about her strangeness. A smile
lifted her lips as she remembered his teasing about having to wear aluminum foil on his
head around her.
|
