Here is an excerpt
from Samuel - his book is Titled *My Heart's Passion*
Chloe had been driving for
what felt like years—or weeks at the very least. Her
eyes were gritty, her arms and legs ached from being cramped
in her small car for hours and hours with only toilet breaks.
She desperately wished for a decently cooked meal, and not
drive-thru rubbish.
Ten minutes ago she had just turned onto the gravel road her
directions stated ran past the outskirts of the park. From
what Mary said, ten miles up this main road was the turn-off
to Artemais and William’s house. About a mile before
that was a much smaller dirt track leading to a narrow, winding
road that split. Left was to Dominic’s cabin, right
was to his brother, Samuel’s cabin.
The throbbing ache behind Chloe’s eyes grew worse as
she strained to catch a glimpse of a sign. Sighing, she pulled
her small car over off the road. With one thing after another,
it had taken her forever to get on the road. It would be beyond
stupid if she crashed her car into a tree less than ten miles
from her destination.
It was already past midnight, another twenty minutes to stretch
her legs and relieve herself wasn’t going to make much
difference. Besides, her needs had passed beyond urgent about
an hour back.
The full moon hung so low and bright in the sky she decided
not to take her flashlight with her. Pulling her huge coat
from the back seat, she locked the car and looked left and
right. The woods were far more dense on the left. Knowing
she would only be going fifty feet or so into them, she wrapped
herself up in her coat and headed towards them, eager for
$any sort of break to stop the monotony of simply driving
along the road.
When her small car was only just barely out of sight, she
stopped and looked around the moonlit woods. It truly was
beautiful. The moonlight and stars above glowed down onto
the earth, as if bathing it in its safety and care. The forest
felt alive. Small animals made noises, owls hooted, and Chloe
could almost feel the tension and life hidden beneath the
surface.
Smiling, she stretched her legs and rubbed her eyes, taking
a few more steps into the woods, being careful not to stray
too far.
Maybe ten, maybe fifteen minutes later as many of the kinks
as she could fix had left her legs. At least her more immediate
problem of her filled bladder was also taken care of.
Her back still ached from all the driving, but at least her
eyes had adjusted to the beauty of the woods and felt slightly
less gritty. Reluctantly, she admitted to herself she would
a) freeze to death and b) be eaten alive by bugs if she simply
lay down in this beautiful woodland area and fell asleep.
Deciding to try and remember the placement of this beautiful
spot to re-visit later, Chloe began to turn back to her car
when she caught the white glow of another human. Startled,
Chloe stopped. Thinking it must be another person, maybe lost
in the woods, she was about to call out and offer help, when
the man turned around and she recognized who it was.
$Samuel.
He was so handsome it was hard to catch her breath for a moment.
His chest was bare, giving off a pale glow from the reflected
moonlight. Even though he had a light tan, in the silvery
moonlight he looked ghostlike, pale. Her mouth dried up, and
Chloe couldn’t move her eyes, even when he began to
unbuckle and remove his jeans.
Her lust-numbed mind briefly wondered why the hell he was
standing in the middle of the forest, stark naked, but she
was enjoying the view far, far too much to be too bothered
by it.
Chloe rested against a convenient tree, licked her lips and
prayed he would stand like that for another twenty minutes
or so while she looked her fill. He really was a most stunning
man. Why the hell hadn’t some lucky woman snapped him
up yet?
He obviously hadn’t seen her yet, and she liked that
just fine. Being able to watch him without him knowing of
her presence made her feel decadent, naughty. His shoulder
length dark brown hair glowed darkly in the moonlight, caressing
his shoulders in a flirty way she briefly envied.
Why was it men’s hair always behaved, no matter how
badly they treated it, yet women would pamper and coddle their
hair from age about ten onwards, yet it $never did what they
required from it? Men with long hair never had bad hair days.
Or bed hair. Chloe smiled as she mentally recited the indignities
women put up with.
The thought of bed hair briefly sidetracked her, however,
and made her wonder how Samuel would look, rumpled, first
thing in the morning after a long, intense night of loving.
The mental pictures whizzing through her mind had her blood
heating and the chill of the night air suddenly became a much-needed
breeze rather than a freezing wind.
Far too soon for Chloe’s liking, Samuel started stretching
his muscles and shimmering.
$Shimmering?
Chloe rubbed her eyes, damning how tired and worn out she
felt after a full day of driving. If the gorgeous hunk in
front of her was shimmering she must be far more tired than
she realized. Maybe she should just bunk down for the night
in her small car.
One minute Chloe was rubbing her eyes, hoping to re-focus
on all that gorgeous naked masculinity, the next she was staring
open-mouthed at the largest wolf she had $ever seen.
The wolf was huge, far larger than the few specimens she had
watched at a safe distance behind a fence at a zoo or parkland
reserve. Chloe frantically looked around for where the naked
Samuel could have disappeared to.
He was nowhere to be seen.
$That so did not happen. I’m over-tired. Or over-stressed.
Or something. No way in Hell did Samuel just turn into a wolf
before my very eyes.
Too panicked to think about anything except the instant denial
hammering in her brain, Chloe stood rooted to the spot.
When the wolf-Samuel—$he is so not that wolf, her brain
injected—turned to stare directly at her, then sniff
the air, Chloe couldn’t help the girlish gasp that escaped
her lips.
$Oh shit, he’s scenting me.
Unsure and uncaring where the thought came from, Chloe tried
to gather her wits.
The wolf silently padded over to her. Frozen in terror, Chloe
mentally begged her legs to run, to move. Never in all her
years had she felt so terrified she could not move. She had
always been in full control of her body. She didn’t
enjoy the feeling of helplessness her terror caused her.
In less than a minute, the wolf had come right up to her.
Yet it was not growling, its hairs were not raised in anger
or threat. Chloe blinked, totally confused.
Why wasn’t the animal threatening her?
Like a gigantic dog, the wolf stuck its muzzle into her hand,
making her pet his head. Despite herself, Chloe felt the warm,
silky fur covering the giant beast. For the barest moment,
wolf and woman stood in the woods, frozen together.
When a piercing howl broke the silence of the night, Chloe
snapped back to reality.
She was standing in the middle of the woods petting a wolf.
$Bad idea girl, the big bad wolf ATE Red Riding Hood’s
grandmother.
Jerking her hand back from the silky head of the wolf, she
turned and fled back to her car.
For a few paces the wolf loped after her, as if they were
playing a game of Chase. As her car came into view, she continued
running, panting for breath and the wolf fell behind. Digging
her keys from the pocket of her coat, Chloe rushed to open
her door. Jerking it open, she was about to jump in, when
some niggling sensation made her pause and turn back.
The wolf stood there, on the edge of the forest line. Fierce
and proud, he stood watching her. Woman and beast stared at
each other for a moment, while time seemed to stand still.
Chloe was scared, but unafraid at the same time. It was the
strangest sensation. Not once had the beast growled at her,
threatened her in any way, yet he was a wild beast, who hunted
and killed smaller animals. And when that wolf in the distance
had howled, she had felt very much lower on the food chain.
Coming to her senses, she sat climbed into her small car,
closed the door and roared the engine. Dirt spewing everywhere,
she made a 180 degree turn, coming perilously close to a number
of trees, and headed back out of the forest.
Driving as fast as she dared, she headed back down to the
main freeway, as far away as possible from the strange sensations
that Samuel and that wolf had invoked in the forest.
Here is a prologue
from Samuel - his book is Titled *My Heart's Passion*
“Are you sure you and
Dominic don’t mind?”
Mary laughed huskily.
“Chloe darling, I’m still feeling like a newlywed,
even after six months. The last place Dominic and I want is
to be within spitting distance of his nieces, nephews, and
siblings. They’re a great bunch, and we certainly love
them to bits, but someone is always dropping around, interrupting
us at delicate moments to have a chat with us, or to play
a game of Chase or something. We’re only going away
for four and a half days, and we’re only renting a cabin
30 miles on the other side of the park—but trust me,
no one is going to disturb us and we can have some fun before
bub arrives, and we $can’t make polite or even half-believable
excuses any more.”
Chloe grinned.
“One last fuck-fest before you become responsible adults,
hmm?”
Mary laughed.
“Who said anything about being responsible, Chlo? I’m
only talking about having a baby—not starting a career
in politics or something.”
Chloe rolled her eyes and heard an answering snicker from
the other end of the line. They might be on opposite sides
of the state, but Chloe shared a special closeness with her
cousin. They were best friends as well as family.
“Anyway,” Mary continued, “I think you’ll
enjoy the break—after six months of standing in as a
high school teacher anyone would need a break. Just don’t
complain to me when all the rugrats over here insist you play
games with them. They’re darling children—but
they’ll drive you nuts if you let them.”
“I think I can handle a handful of over-enthusiastic
kids after subbing for six months and coping with thirty barely
pubescent teenagers in a cooking class. As long as the kids
don’t start a food fight we’ll get along just
fine.”
“A long weekend away, hopefully hidden in the cabin,
might give you the time you need to think about where you
want to go now.”
Chloe sighed.
“Mar, please don’t start on that again. You know
I don’t want to study any more.”
Chloe’s refusal to keep a steady job, what she liked
to refer to as her “itchy feet” was a running
joke between the two of them. She couldn’t bear the
thought of bogging herself down in more studies. Instead,
she had taken the first available job after graduating high
school.
Moving from job to job, Mary had shown constant astonishment
at her innate skill to pick up jobs with ease, and then finding
something different to do.
“Well, some time out in the cabin might be helpful to
you. Take a break and you can think about things and read
to your heart’s content. I’ve already mailed you
the keys, so we’ll leave very early tomorrow morning.
You can move in anytime after about eleven tomorrow morning.
Those keys should arrive first thing tomorrow morning, and
once they arrive you can start that awful drive. Don’t
forget Dominic, the lazy ass, hasn’t fixed the lock
as of yet. It might stick a little, so don’t be afraid
to jiggle the key. He swears to have it fixed by the time
we leave, but I’m not holding my breath. Oh, and one
more thing—”
“Mmmm?”
“Be careful in the woods Thursday night. It’s
the full moon.”
“Oh. Right. Sure.”
Chloe wasn’t really sure what more to say. She believed
Mary, who insisted Dominic was a werewolf. Yet at the same
time, she didn’t believe her. It was rather confusing
and she didn’t think about it much. Mary had assured
her they weren’t the werewolves of movies—insane
killers and feasters of flesh. But rather, insisted they were
mostly normal men, who happened to turn into wolves and run
around in the huge National Park on the evenings of the full
moon.
Chloe didn’t like to think of it any more than she wanted
to think about Dominic’s brother, Samuel. She had been
Mary’s bridesmaid, and Samuel had been the groomsman.
She had spent most of the wedding avoiding the drop-dead handsome
man.
It had been the strangest feeling, walking down the aisle
ahead of Mary, feeling proud and sad at the same time. She
was overjoyed for Mary finally finding the love she deserved.
Yet, having her brother and cousin moving to the other side
of the state to be with this family had made her feel slightly
odd.
She was happy for them, but sad at the same time. She wasn’t
sure what she thought of the large, boisterous family. She
certainly liked them, but also resented them slightly. That
resentment ate at her and made her feel awful and mean.
She had been determined to like and get to know the family
her cousin was marrying into, and had been doing an admirable
job—until she had met the elusive Samuel. Standing next
to Dominic, in a navy blue suit just like his brothers, he
had taken her breath away.
Taller by a few inches than Dominic, he was lean and athletically
muscled. His shoulder length hair had been restrained into
a short ponytail. Staring at him, he made her heart stutter
out an unusual rhythm, and, temporarily, she wondered if she
would faint from lack of oxygen.
Quickly snapping back to reality, she continued to her designated
spot a little faster than the priest had asked. Watching Mary
walk down the aisle, her face alight, looking beautiful in
her wedding gown, Chloe forgot Samuel and concentrated on
her cousin.
The rest of the afternoon, however, hadn’t been so easy.
Samuel hadn’t been an easy man to ignore, sadly for
her peace of mind. They had politely conversed through a number
of light, non-committal subjects such as the weather, and
didn’t Mary look stunning, throughout the small reception.
Yet the underlying sexual tension between them had been almost
impossible to ignore. She was sure he felt it too—yet
when he made no mention of it, she stubbornly refused to bring
it up either.
Chloe had quickly left the following morning after helping
Mary pack for her brief honeymoon. She had been trying desperately
not to think of Samuel ever since.
Somewhere inside her, she was honest enough to acknowledge
that part of the reason she accepted Mary’s invitation
to spend the extended weekend in the cabin was the potential
to meet up with Samuel again—maybe to try and sort out
the strange chemistry between them.
Chloe had no intention of fucking him out of her system—look
where that had got Mary! Married to the man.
Yet for six interminable months as she taught twelve and thirteen
year old children to bake cookies and muffins, and safely
use an oven and burners, the wretched man had hovered around
the edges of her thoughts, teasing her at odd moments and
causing more than a few nights of intensely erotic dreams
and consequential early-morning cold showers.
More and more she had found herself thinking of him last thing
at night and would wake up with him on her mind early in the
morning.
It was slowly driving her insane and ruining her for other
men. She had finally had enough. She didn’t have a particular
plan, but her plans rarely panned out anyway. She would simply
wing it, like so much of her life.
“Helloooo, you still there? Have you even heard a word
I’ve said?”
Chloe cleared her throat.
“Umm…sorry. I was zoning.”
Mary sighed.
“Just remember to be careful driving over, okay? Go
grab a pen and paper, brat, I’ll give you detailed,
explicit instructions so even you couldn’t get lost.”
Laughing, Chloe stretched for the pen and pad of paper she
always kept near the phone. If nothing else, four days in
the secluded cabin would be perfect for her to catch up on
her reading. Her pile of books-to-be-read had dramatically
increased over the last six months, threatening to take over
her small room.
Jotting down directions and odds and ends she thought of to
pack, Chloe smiled at her cousin’s thoughtfulness. Even
if she didn’t manage to talk to Samuel, an extended
weekend of rest and contemplation was exactly what she needed
to recharge her batteries.