Unleashing Seduction (MFM)
Seducing Them book 1
Blurb: When Jasmine Picton’s car breaks down in the desert, Hunter Wishram, the middle one of five werewolf shape-shifter brothers, and his best friend mechanic Damien Hall, have no idea why she’s there. But they do know they want her to stay—with them, preferably in handcuffs. Jaz likes what’s she’s seen of the desert, and of the men.
Jaz is traveling though Nevada looking for unregistered graveyards for the Cemetery Trust to list. It’s one way to keep her huge dog, Phideaux, in kibble, and it’s like a never-ending vacation for herself. Well, mostly it is, anyway. Except when Phideaux has an encounter with a rattlesnake.
Hunter and Damien take Jaz out to the old Junctionville cemetery. It’s a chance for them all to spend time together and get to know each other better. Besides, maybe she can even use it for her job. Of course, Phideaux comes with them as well.
Buy link: http://www.bookstrand.com/unleashing-seduction
STORY EXCERPT
Hunter looked up from the engine he was servicing in the garage when a woman screamed out something about Fido. There was no car pulled up at the gas pumps and he hadn’t heard a vehicle, so how did a woman get here?
He grabbed a piece of rag to wipe his greasy fingers and walked to the open door of the garage. A large old car was untidily parked half in the entry to the gas station, the driver’s door wide open. He turned, slowly scanning the area in a full three sixty degree search until he saw her running out into the desert after a huge dog.
Damien came and stood beside him, also wiping his fingers. “Where did she come from?”
Hunter pointed to her car.
“It doesn’t look like an electric car, so why didn’t we hear it?”
Hunter shrugged, and turned to go back inside the garage. Presumably she’d sort out whatever was the problem with her dog and they’d find out after that. Likely she’d move her car across to the gas pumps while she was here, although it was strange she hadn’t done that before letting the dog out of the car.
Just then they heard frenzied barking and the woman started screaming again. Hunter whipped around and saw her holding the dog’s collar, trying to drag him away from something. But the pooch was enormous and she was no match for him.
“Rattler!” he said dropping the rag and starting to run. Damien was right behind him. “Have you still got a couple of doses of antivenin in the house?”
“Probably.” He and his brothers were far too smart to get bitten. A city woman though, and that gigantic dog, were likely to do something stupid. Maybe already had done something stupid. “Fuck.” He ran faster, pounding across the desert toward them and wishing he’d thought to bring a spade with him to cut the head off the snake. If it was a snake. But that was the most likely scenario.
As he got closer he could see the dog was facing off against a rattler, just as he’d guessed. The snake was standing almost as tall as the dog, swaying his head trying to mesmerize the mutt. The woman had her arms around her pet, and was clearly trying to drag him away, but the animal was much bigger than her and had dug his claws into the rocky desert soil, determined to frighten the snake.
Right now it seemed to Hunter that it was a Mexican standoff and none of them were going to win.
Sensing Damien beside him he said, “I’ll snatch the woman. You grab the dog.”
Hunter changed the direction of his approach, curving the line of his arrival slightly so that if he fell over when he grabbed her she’d fall backward, away from the snake, not forward or sideways closer to it. Then he put on a burst of speed and launched himself at her, wrapping his arms around her slender body and lifting her off the ground, then rolling so he’d land on the hard rocky soil, not her.
She screeched and kept hold of the dog’s collar, refusing to let go, but his strength was enough to surprise the mutt into movement.
Damien reached for the dog at the same time as he snatched the woman, and they all rolled backward away from the rattler in a tangled mess of limbs and paws.
Out of nowhere, like something from a bad movie, came the command, “Freeze!”
Ignoring it, the woman tried to push him away from her, but Hunter had recognized Nyander’s voice and guessed what was about to happen. He held her tightly against his body, subconsciously aware of her soft curves and hot skin even as a single shot broke the silence.
He jumped to his feet, leaning over her, keeping his hands on her arms and said, “Don’t go near the snake. A rattlesnake has a deadly bite for up to three minutes after it’s dead.”
Paying no attention to his words, she jammed her elbow into his ribs and yelled, “Phideaux!”
The dog barked reassuringly and Hunter straightened up properly looking all around. As he’d expected, Damien had a firm grip on the dog, although he was still sprawled on the ground, partially over the animal. Nyander was standing over the rattlesnake, watching its body twitch. The head was mostly shot off the body but it was still wise to wait a few minutes before touching it.
The woman crouched down next to the dog, holding its head and looking into its eyes. “Buddy, that was a fucking stupid thing to do. Don’t ever scare me like that again, okay?”
“What you did was pretty damn stupid as well,” said Nyander.
Keeping one hand on the dog’s collar—as if that’d stop such a powerful beast—she looked at the three of them.
“Who are you? Where did you all come from?” she asked.
“It’d be kind of cool if you answered that question as well,” replied Damien.
Yeah, that what he thought, too.
Buy link: http://www.bookstrand.com/unleashing-seduction
