That sandpaper texture, like hard leather, of a working man's hands scraped across her skin; kneading and sliding in a slippery rhythm, but not so much so that it took away from the delicious friction, nor obscure the under lying coarseness of his touch. It seemed as if his hands were electrified. Then, the sensation shifted as the space between her skin and his buzzed and mingled in volts of passion. He held steady and torturously just out of touch while she tried to pay attention to the symbiotic flow of sparks that erupted over her erogenous zones. How was it possible that she could still feel every stroke of his fingertips, though they stood inches away from her skin? How could each manipulation of empty space give way to flutters deep down inside her? It made no logical sense, and he watched the gears turning, but would not relent in having the spell broken by an overactive mind.He pressed hard against her and her focus faltered, somewhere along the way he'd stripped do

It was a cool, windy day sometime in the spring, and a bright chorus of birds chirped in the throng of trees outside the small wooden-slatted hut. Inside it was warm thanks to the fire in the fireplace, burning strong even though it was perhaps three in the afternoon. A small spit of meat was hooked over it, stripped from a few of the meatier birds that had lived outside the hut until that morning, and the juicy smell hung in the air, scenting the place with a rich and homely aroma. A plain, flat wooden table sat near the fireplace, and across from it, a simple pot and grill of sapling twigs and were arranged ready to be used over a second fireplace. There was a plain straw bed-down in the far side, nestled between two slatted windows that were at the moment wide open, and two doors in opposing walls. One, the frontmost door, hung ajar, an abandoned woodcutting axe propped beside it. A commotion of voices and footsteps could be heard from inside.'I will not bed with you,' sa

Once she was dressed again, she checked over the room making sure it was clear of all her personal items. And her prints or scent, masked by cleaning solutions. True, the Pack knew where she lived, but they also knew better than to trespass on a Witch's property. And Pack lore held them from entering the domain of another shifter unless invited. A few might try anyway, but Allie knew how to handle herself and what she claimed as her own.Sudden knocking on her door caused her to swing her head around. No one but no one should have known where she was. A peek through the peephole, safer than giving away her presence by asking her caller to identify them self, put her looking into another eye, distorted by demagnification. A very familiar green eye."What do you want, Grey?" If he expected her to open he door, then too bad for him."A quick explanation of that very tense and heated scene I was just treated to. And to apologize if what I said upset you and made you

Elizabeth left the room and descended the stairs into the main room of the house where the family sat silently. William sat in a chair facing windows that faced the same western direction that she had been looking through upstairs. He hadn't needed to see the men from the window to know they were coming. They were nearly upon them now. Elizabeth's older nieces avoided looking at her, as she was sure their mother had instructed. She was trapped in a tortuous period of waiting, and alternated in her mind between wishing she could stop time, and wishing she could just speed it up.Elizabeth knew that everything was about to change, again. She took in everything in the small room and knew that it would be etched in her mind for the rest of her existence; the golden light that diagonally traversed through the windows over her brother's daughters, the illuminated particles of dust that danced through the air, the warm brown hues of the wooden floor and furniture throughout. Though

"Such a sharp-witted witch, with an even sharper tongue." He moved impossibly close, his face now a breath from her own. In her restrained position she had no way to move away from him, she found that she was not dissatisfied with the choice being taken from her. Elizabeth did not trust that she would have retreated from him if she had been able. His large hands moved up to frame her jaw, tilting her neck up to look at him. She found her eyes locked in on his lips, his smirk had been replaced by an intense expression of what had to be lust that made her body quake. His mouth descended to catch her bottom lip between his teeth, he bit down gradually increasing his force. Her eyes instinctively fluttered closed as all of her focus moved to the sensations being experienced by her mouth.His teeth opened to release their captive only to have his lips insist on prying her own apart. His tongue demanded entry to her mouth before she had any idea what was happening. She had never be