13 Paragraphs from Sherry’s Wolf

On or around March 25, I’ll be posting the .pdf version of my free read Sherry’s Wolf here on my blog. It will go up on Smashwords at that same time, and from there it will go to other online bookstores. It will be a free read, but Amazon requires a price of at least $0.99 to post a book there. They will price match the lowest price, but that might take a while so I won’t upload to Amazon until later in April. The smart thing would be to get it from Smashwords or here on my blog. I hate the idea of people paying even $0.99 for something that should be free, especially something that I want to be a thank you to my readers.

Here are 13 paragraphs from Sherry’s Wolf. Enjoy!

     Stag settled into one of the hard wooden chairs beneath the window. Taye joined him, still holding his book. “My mate,” Stag answered gloomily. “She wants me to wait until summer to kiss her again.”

     Taye’s brows rose. “You kissed her?”

     “Last night.” Heat poured through his body when he remembered the feel of her tongue playing with his. “I went too far and now she’s running scared.”

     Taye ran a thumb over the spine of his battered paperback. “Did she like your kiss?” he asked carefully.

     “Yeah.”

     Stag was sure of that. She held onto his wrist in a grip so strong she’d used it to lift her mouth closer to him. And she hadn’t stopped him sooner, even though she said she should have. Most telling of all had been her scent. It had been heavy with desire. Yeah, she liked kissing him. It was only the memory of a dead husband that made her stop.

     “She liked it. I think she liked it too much. She told me to go back to the Clan until Christmas. She’s scared, Taye. She said I scared her.”

     Taye was kind enough to not remark on the shame that flooded Stag. The sharp scent of it was strong in the air. He held up his book. “Same thing happened to Dante when he was courting Lady Amber.”

     “Who?”

     Taye waved the book. “Dante the pirate fell in love with the Governor’s daughter but he couldn’t have her, see, because she was a lady and he was scum. So he kidnapped her and took her on his ship and set sail. He teased her with kisses every day until she fell so deeply in love that she agreed to marry him. And they lived happily ever after.”

     Stag eyed the faded cover of the book. The title scrolled over the top of the page in fancy letters: The Black Dragon’s Woman. A kneeling woman, whose strange dress was falling off her shoulders, clung to the leg of a bare-chested man. The woman had her head tilted back, staring up at the man in doe-eyed adoration. The man had one fist clenched on the rail of a ship, staring out to sea like he didn’t even notice he had a woman kneeling in front of him. They were apparently caught in a strong wind, since their hair and clothes streamed behind them.

     “No offense, Taye, but that picture is disgusting. I don’t ever want to see Sherry kneeling in front of me.”

     Taye’s smile was dreamy. “There’s things a woman can do on her knees in front of a man …” He cleared his throat. “The thing is, Dante took his woman away from everyone else. In his cabin they were alone and no one interrupted them. They didn’t have any distractions while they fell in love.”

     “Taye, that’s just a book. It’s not real. And, um, what does a woman do on her knees …? No, don’t answer that!”