Shifter Romance to Melt Your E-Reader and Warm Your Heart
Underground Heat
By Ann Gimpel
Dream Shadow Press
155K words
Release Date: 1/25/16Genre: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set featuring shifters
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Book Description:
Underground Heat is an action adventure, paranormal romance boxed
set containing three full-length books. It’s the entire Underground Heat
Series.
Once respected members of society, shifters are running for their lives. Devon’s been a cop for a long time. He has shifter blood, but not enough to change into anything. His latest assignment is Kate. From the moment he sees her, he can’t get her out of his mind. But she’s the enemy he’s sworn to eradicate. As he tracks her, the line between hunter and hunted explodes into fiery attraction. If their passion doesn’t save them, it’ll doom them forever.
Max leads a dangerous double life in a futuristic California that’s almost out of resources. If Audrey could finesse it, she’d go to work helping the shifter underground. The only sticking point is Max. She’s been in love with him forever. If she joins the underground, she believes she’ll never see him again—but that’s because she has no idea he’s the head of it. After a second attempt on his life, Max faces critical choices. He can’t believe Audrey’s behind the assassination attempts, but everything points her way. Will he follow his head or his heart?
Head of the shifter underground’s security force, Johannes has his hands full. He’s the most compelling man Daria’s ever met, but he’s also stubborn and arrogant. Her cat thinks he’s their mate, but if Daria had her way, she’d run hard the other way. Just her bad luck, a series of lethal attacks keep her square in his gunsights. Johannes is desperately attracted to Daria, but anything beyond sex isn’t part of his life plan. He has his reasons. They’ve served him well, and he’s not changing them now.
Kate Roman sauntered down
Telegraph Avenue, the sounds of the constant Berkeley traffic loud in her ears.
The city had banned hovercraft when air quality got so bad people needed masks
to venture outside. The air still made the back of her throat burn, but at
least her eyes didn’t tear up.
She pushed her dark glasses up
her nose and wrapped a colorful scarf more tightly around her hair. Someone was
following her. She’d caught a whiff of something unusual with her feline senses
half a dozen blocks back. Her perceptions weren’t as sharp in her human form,
but they gave her a definite edge. Who was back there? Try as she might, she
couldn’t identify their scent. She didn’t want to stop and turn around. So long
as her pursuer thought himself invisible, he—or she, or it—wouldn’t do anything
rash.
She hoped.
Her heart beat a little faster.
No cause for alarm. Not yet, anyway. She worked as a sex surrogate, and there
had been hundreds of clients over the past several years. Her hair was
unmistakable with its bright red tone and warm, golden streaks. Clients
sometimes trailed after her. Too shy to approach directly, yet drawn to her
because of the best—sometimes the only—sex they’d had in their lives, they just
liked to be close. Even though they had no idea she was a shifter, it played
into the equation too. Humans were attracted to her animal energy.
Shy clients were one thing. The
other options were scarier. Humans had made a big push to get rid of shifters.
Because killing them outright would’ve engendered a great hue and cry from personal
rights groups, they’d been imprisoned in droves. Conditions were so deplorable,
many of her kin had died. Others were desperately ill. Apparently the personal
rights groups weren’t into visiting prisons to check on things. Disgust twisted
Kate’s features into an annoyed scowl.
Appalled by what was looking a
lot like the beginning of genocide, she’d joined the shifter underground, a
group masterminding escapes for those like her. Of course, the escapes were
only the first step. Once out, shifters almost always needed medical care. They
had to be hidden until their magic recovered enough to shield themselves. Many
opted for dramatic plastic surgery to obliterate any trace of who they’d been
when captured.
Kate blew out a tense breath.
She had three post-surgical shifters concealed in the basement of her home in
the Berkeley Hills. A coyote, a mountain lion—like her—and a bear were
sequestered behind a hidden wall panel. She hadn’t expected them to stay quite
so long, and her pantry was almost bare. She glanced at her wrist computer and
clicked a few keys. Ration Coupons flashed on the screen, followed by the
numerals one and zero.
Shit.
Even if the food was only for
her, ten coupons wouldn’t buy much more than a day’s worth, and her account
wouldn’t be replenished for another four days at the beginning of the next
month. No way around it. She needed to put in an emergency call to the
underground, once she got to her office where no one could hear. They had code
words for everything, but still…
Kate tilted her head back. Her
nose twitched. Whoever was behind her was closer. Not much, but a little.
Should she turn around? She glanced at the cross street. Another half block and
she’d be at her office. Someone jostled her shoulder. She pulled back, wary of
a trap. Kate strengthened the illusion that softened her lengthened incisors
and muted the sharp angle of her cheekbones and jaw.
“Sorry,” a man muttered and
pushed past.
She stared after him and
reached out with a dribble of shifter magic, exhaling sharply.
Just a human. Damn! Definitely
not who’d been following her.
Garden-variety cops had
genetically-altered enhanced abilities. They smelled different. Trackers, elite
police squads targeting shifters, had their own unique scent. She pressed her
tongue against her teeth, thinking. What she smelled behind her was different
from either of those. Did that mean it wasn’t a cop—or a Tracker?
Not necessarily. He could be
using one of their tricks to mask his spoor. Her throat tightened. She tried to
swallow, but her mouth was too dry.
Enough excitement for one
morning.
Kate lengthened her stride,
loped across the street, taking advantage of an amber light, and took the steps
to her office in a renovated Victorian two at a time. She ran her palm over the
keypad. The electronics hummed, and the door clicked open. Safely inside, she
shut the door and reset the lock.
Annoyance tinged with fear made
her stomach roil. Against her better judgment, she turned and peered through a
frosted glass side panel next to the thick, carved oak door. Eyes narrowed, she
used her feline vision to take a good, hard look at who was walking down the
sidewalk. After a couple minutes of nothing, she chided herself for being
paranoid.
Kate was about to turn away and
get ready for her first client when a man caught her attention. Boy, did he
catch her attention. He was tall, maybe six feet four, with broad shoulders and
slender hips. Form-fitting jeans, a knitted dark blue top, and a brown leather
vest showcased his body as if they’d been made just for him. Well-muscled arms
and thighs rippled beneath his snug clothing. Maybe because of her work as a
surrogate, Kate focused her gaze on his crotch.
Wow.
If he looked like that soft,
he’d have a hell of an erection. Waist-length black hair swirled around him.
Dark eyes, set in Native American bone structure, stared right at her building,
almost as if he sensed her looking at him.
What was he? Human, but not.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t identify much. Wood and glass absorbed most of her
magic. Kate moved away from the window. Heat poured through her. Her nipples
pebbled into hard points. Whoever was out there was the most sexually-charged
man she’d ever come across. Was he the one who’d been following her?
She snorted. Part of her hoped
he’d been tracking her—she itched to jump his bones. In spite of being aroused,
she felt edgy. He could be a member of the elite Tracker hit squads targeting
shifters. Her underground organization had received intel the enemy was using
more sophisticated strategies to trap them.
If
they start using sex, we’re done for.
Her lips curled into a wry
grin. Shifters loved sex. It was a weakness from their animal sides.
“No,
it’s a strength,” the
mountain cat who lived inside her commented smugly.
“Hold
on, sweetie. You’ll get your fix soon enough.”
“I
don’t want human sex,” her
cat complained. “Find a shifter for us.”
“Enough
of this. I have to get ready for my first client.”
Her cat grumbled.
Kate smiled indulgently. She’d
dreamed her bond animal like all shifters did when they hit puberty. The animal
had picked her, but she’d sealed the deal by accepting it. The cat was a part
of her, but its own entity as well. That included having opinions that
sometimes diverged from hers.
She consulted her wrist
computer. Not much time to spare. Kate walked through her spacious office.
Furnished with late nineteenth century antiques to match the building’s
architecture, it was a homey place with overstuffed floral couches and chairs
and golden oak tables. A small computer desk allowed clients to enter their
personal data—or as much of it as they were comfortable divulging. Unlike the
world’s oldest profession, men actually needed a doctor’s referral to see her.
Kate liked it that way. She’d never had problems with any of her clients. The
doctors screened them for diseases before sending them, which was another plus,
though not exactly necessary. Virtually all the men who came through her door
were virgins, and she was immune to human ailments.
A lush bedroom with a
four-poster bed and an inventive assortment of toys sat behind the front
office. Off to one side was a marble-inlaid bathroom featuring a sunken tub big
enough for two, with Jacuzzi jets. Mirrors lined the walls. The gleaming gold
fixtures and green-veined marble glowed invitingly. Water was good for
loosening up nervous clients. Her first task was getting them used to being
naked.
She ducked into her private
quarters—a small room off the bedroom—dropped her bag in a corner, and stripped
off her street clothes and shoes. Pants were a no-no in her business. She
needed skirts with nothing under them, in case a client got hard, and she
needed to move fast. Most of the men who visited her had erectile issues.
Either they came too fast, or they couldn’t get hard at all.
She pulled a teal jersey top
out of a drawer and tugged it over her head. The soft folds of the fabric
molded to her body. No bra. Looking at the curves of her breasts was good for
clients. She traced the outline of a nipple through the silky fabric. It
stiffened instantly. A vision of the man in the street slammed against her, and
her nether regions flooded.
Kate grinned. She felt sorry
for her first client. She’d probably attack him before he even got his clothes
off.
She stepped into a black skirt
with an elastic waist and grabbed a hairbrush. Red-gold curls cascaded nearly
to her waist. A smattering of shiny lip gloss and she walked into the bathroom
to check her appearance. Perfect. She looked about twenty-five. Good for when
she needed to play the innocent in seduction charades. She blew a kiss at the
glass. Not bad for a three-hundred-year-old shifter.
Three
hundred six, her inner
voice corrected. Kate laughed. She wasn’t exactly immortal, but she’d live for
hundreds more years before her face betrayed any sign of age.
The front bell chimed. Hector
was right on time. Bare feet pattering over the thick, Oriental carpet in her
front office, Kate strode to the door and peered through the safety viewer. She
rolled her eyes. He’d brought flowers. She waved her palm over the electronically
controlled lock, and the latch clicked open.
“Hi, gorgeous.” Hector stepped
inside and waited for her to lock up before handing her a bouquet of
expensive-looking hothouse blossoms. She laid them on a side table. They’d keep
for an hour out of water.
“Why, thank you. They’re
lovely. Hi there yourself, handsome.” Kate smiled at him. She liked Hector. At
forty-five, he’d decided it was time to find a wife. Problem was, he’d spent
his entire life locked behind a computer screen and had no idea how to even say
good morning to a woman, let alone ask for a date. All his sexual experiences
had been with his hand until he tried to hire a hooker and failed miserably.
He’d come while she was unzipping his pants and hadn’t been able to get hard
again.
He shook light brown hair back
from a high brow. His hazel eyes shone with pleasure. He wasn’t bad looking,
but he needed to get outside. His skin was pasty white and his body soft. She’d
suggested he join a gym and walk at least half an hour out-of-doors every day.
She wondered if he’d taken her up on either suggestion.
His hand snaked out and curved
around one of her breasts. She glanced between his legs, pleased to see the
swell of an erection. Good. He wouldn’t make her work very hard today. Kate
cocked her head to one side and pressed her breast into his hand. “Business
first. That will be five hundred credits.”
His eyes widened. “You’re
giving me a break today.”
“Not really.” She cupped his
hard-on. “Looks like you won’t need much from me.”
Color stained his fair cheeks.
“Funny thing. It got hard when I was on the bus. Just thinking about you…” His
voice trailed off.
“That’s the way it’s supposed
to work. Pay up, so we can get those clothes off you.”
He went to the computer, bent
over, brought up his account, and transferred money into hers. The printer
whirred. She grabbed the piece of paper, tore off one end, signed it, and
handed it to him.
He came around behind her,
closed his hands over her breasts, and nibbled her neck. “Mmm, you always smell
so good.”
She leaned against him for a
moment, then led him into the bedroom and closed the door. One of the best
things about being a surrogate was she trained her clients to do exactly what
she liked, while cautioning them that part of lovemaking was communication.
What she liked might not work for a different woman.
She turned toward him. His
shirt and sports coat lay on a chair and he’d stepped out of leather loafers.
His fingers were busy with the fastenings of his slacks.
“Pretty good progress,” she
said, flashing him a warm smile. “First time you came here, it took me most of
the session to get your shirt off.”
He shrugged. His pants pooled
around his ankles. He stepped out of them and shoved his boxers down his hips.
Kate felt her eyes widen. He was more than ready. Not just hard, but a drop of
semen glistened in the center of his glans.
“Do you want to undress me?”
she asked.
He closed the distance between
them, put his arms around her, and kissed her. She kissed him back, aware of
her own arousal. Hector didn’t have much to do with that. But he’d give her
something to think about other than the wonderfully seductive stranger she’d
seen through her window. She pressed her breasts against him and thrust her
hips against his hard-on.
Hector broke their kiss. He slid
his fingers under her top and tugged it gently over her head. His gaze locked
on her breasts before he took them in his hands. He twirled her nipples just
the way she’d shown him. He’d been surprised when she told him women could come
just from that.
She curved a hand around his
erection. It bucked in her hand. He hadn’t had problems with premature
ejaculation the last few visits, but he seemed more excited today. “Do you need
to be inside me?”
His breath came fast. “Could I?
All I’ve thought about is—” His cock jumped in her hand again. Fluid leaked
from it. She rubbed it around the velvety top with a gentle fingertip.
Kate backed toward the bed.
“How do you want me?”
His gaze sought hers. “Could
you be on top? I’ve done like you said, you know, playing with myself and
fantasizing.”
“Sure.” She waited for him to
lie down. Kate got a condom out of the night table drawer, opened the wrapper,
and rolled it onto him. She straddled him and lowered herself onto his shaft.
He groaned. She took care to keep her hips still. “Tell me when it’s okay to
move. Open your eyes. Look at me. Think about breathing. You can control this.”
The line of his jaw clenched,
and then softened. He cupped her pussy in an outstretched hand. Tentative at
first, he rubbed her clit when she pushed into his hand. Her muscles closed
around his cock. He rubbed harder. She laid a hand over his to show him the
rhythm she needed.
“Is it okay if I make you come
this way?”
“More than okay.” With her
fingers atop his to guide him, he rubbed harder and faster over her sensitive
tissue. She knew she was moving around his erection, but hoped he had enough to
think about besides coming that he’d be able to control himself. “I’m going to
take my hand away. Now you do the same thing.”
“Like this.”
“Um-hum.” She felt a familiar
tightness, tried to hold back so she could savor things, but it was too late.
She came, shoving her pussy against his hand. A vision of the gorgeous man
she’d seen in the street danced behind her closed lids.
Deep in her mind, the cat
purred, “Yesssss. Find that one for us.”
Kate shushed it.
Hector had learned well. He
kept moving his fingers until her hips quieted. “Wow. That was amazing,” he
crowed. “I got to watch you come. Your nipples got really hard, and you’re all
rosy.”
“And you didn’t come yourself.
Even better.” She laughed. “Is it okay if I move now?”
“Will I be able to make you
come again?” She heard a hint of masculine pride in the question.
“No question.”
He held out his arms. “I want
to feel your breasts against me.”
She lowered her torso until it
touched his. “Very good. Asking for what you want is important. Women aren’t
mind readers. Put your hands on my hips. Move me the way you want to be
fucked.”
“What about you?”
“I had a turn. Besides, you can
always touch me or lick me.”
“You haven’t taught me about
licking.” His voice had a catch in it.
“Well, if we don’t get there
today, there’s always next time.”
He gripped her hips. She let
him control the movement, pleased it took him several minutes to come. Once his
cock was through spasming inside her, she moved off his body and went to get a
warm, wet cloth from the bathroom. By the time she returned, he had the condom
off. She held out her hand. “I’ll take it. Here.” She handed him the cloth,
dropped the condom into a waste can, and slid into a robe.
A disappointed look washed
across his face. “Is our time up?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“How many more visits do I
have?”
“Not sure. Just a minute, I’ll
look.” Kate padded into the outer office and clicked a few keys on the desktop
computer. She was also buying a little time. Clients frequently got too
attached, which was why she never told them up front how many visits had been
authorized. Sometimes, even if they had several more sessions, she’d hedge,
call their MD, and cut them off.
The truth was, Hector didn’t
really need her anymore. Seven visits had cured both his impotence and his
problems with premature ejaculation.
“Good thing you asked.” She
breezed back into the bedroom, smiling brightly. “We’ve run through your
sessions.” He looked so crestfallen, she went to the bed, sat on the edge, and
took his hands in hers. “Hector. You got what you needed here. You can make
love with anyone now. You don’t need me anymore.”
“But I thought—I mean, I
hoped…” Color crept up his chest to his neck and face.
“Aw, honey. Everyone falls in
love with me. It’s natural. I’m the first woman you had sex with.” She patted
his hand. “I guarantee you I won’t be the last. Try asking that cute brunette
you told me about out for coffee.”
“Can I come back if I get into
problems?”
“Sure. I’ll square it with your
doctor.”
“Really?” He smiled. Hector was
decidedly handsome when he did that.
“Really.” She touched a finger
to his chin. “You’re quite the hunk when you smile. Remember to do it more
often.”
He dressed quickly, and she
ushered him out the door. “Thanks again for the flowers. And best of luck, not
that you’ll need any. You’ll make some woman very happy.”
She closed the door, locked it,
and looked at the time. She needed to call the underground about groceries,
change the bed, and take a shower. It would be tight, but she was pretty sure
she could work everything in before Todd showed up in half an hour.
Kate
glanced at the calendar in her wrist computer. Good. Only two clients today.
Worries about her three houseguests ate at her. It was better when she was
home. The shifters in her basement were vulnerable by themselves.
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