Broken Shine by Candice Gilmer
Copyright 2009 Lyrical Press, Inc.

  • Broken Shine
  • Candice Gilmer


    • Liam forced himself to squeeze the hand cut-outs on the cardboard box before lifting it out of the trunk.

    What in the Heavens was she doing here?

    This was bad. This was so very bad.

    His heart hammered in his chest. He would take Marge out and beat the ever-loving-werewolf right out of her if he thought he could get away with it. There was an extremely simple reason why he never dealt with Felicia, or Leeza, as she liked to be called, when he brought in his glass.

    The woman made him crazy.

    And now he had to deal with her. A few weeks before, when he’d been forced to talk to her on the roof, he knew the strange sensations she created in him were getting worse—his whole body felt on edge, and it had taken a week to get over it.

    Fortunately, the number of mythicals that needed taken care of had been high enough he could take his frustration out on them.

    Liam watched her. He didn’t interact with her.

    That was the rule. He ordered himself to take the items inside and leave. Speaking wasn’t necessary, being nice wasn’t necessary, anything that would make him stand out in her mind was unnecessary.

    He just needed to get out of here as fast as he could.

    He had a dozen things he could go beat up as soon as he left.

    Because he damn sure didn’t want to deal with the rush of feelings inside when he looked at her. This was worse than when she’d caught him on the roof. If that had been hell on his equilibrium, this was going to be sheer torture, the likes of which he hadn’t experienced in seven hundred years.

    He inhaled a breath, reminding himself of his promise. In and out. That’s all he had to do.

    He pulled the box out, careful of everything in it, and headed back to the shop.

    Feelings were irrelevant. He had a job to do.

    And it wasn’t to moon over some human female that would be dead in fifty years.

    He reached the door, and just as he was about to balance the box on his hip, the door popped open, Leeza holding it so he could come inside.

    Naturally she couldn’t hold it open like a normal person and come outside. She had to stand inside the shop, propping it open with her arm, half-standing in the doorway.

    Liam scowled.

    He barely fit through the door as it was, and now he had to squeeze through with the box, and get by her?

    Oh, this just kept getting better and better.

    Liam started to force himself through the door, hoping to use his body to push her back into the store and away from him.

    Not that it worked.

    She stayed there, holding the door open, and Liam, try as he might, couldn’t seem to get past her without brushing up against her.

    “Oh, sorry,” she muttered, but the slight graze was enough for him to know that she wasn’t sorry one bit—her emotions and thoughts spread out before him like a picture, and for the first time in his seven-hundred-plus years of life, Liam saw himself through the eyes of a human female who was in heat.

    Liam grabbed her, pulling her against his body. His arms wrapped around her, swallowing her frame as their lips crashed together, their heads rocking…

    The vision continued in detail, powerful and complete.

    This was bad. This was so very bad.