How could I let him go? #PNR #Shifter #MFRWHooks

Welcome to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop! We have, as usual, lots of great books for you to check out. You’ll find links to all the participants’ posts at the end of this one.

I just released a new scifi romance last Friday – you can find outmore here – but I posted an excerpt to for Charity Sunday as well, and I don’t want to bore you...! So today I’m going back to my recent paranormal romance The Eyes of Bast. Here’s a snippet I haven’t shared anywhere else.

Blurb

Trust your heart. Follow your dreams.

When instinct tells Shaina to visit the feral cat trap she’s set in Central Park, she listens to that inner voice. She discovers she’s caged a magnificent black tom, but the cat inexplicably vanishes after she tends to his wounds. Seeking the missing feline, Shaina encounters instead a handsome stranger whose slightest touch sets her body on fire. As the day dawns after a night of ferocious passion, her mysterious lover is forced back into his true shape—the tomcat she rescued.

Born a cat, Tom was transformed into an unwilling shape shifter by a sorceress who craved a human plaything to satisfy her perverse lusts. Centuries old and irresistibly powerful, Delphine Montserrat will stop at nothing to find her runaway familiar. Shaina vows to do whatever is necessary to defeat the vicious but seductive witch and save the man she believes is her soul mate—even though it might mean losing him forever.

The Hook

“I sense her more clearly when I’m in feline form.” Sitting cross-legged on the carpet opposite me, Tom gnawed at the last of the buffalo wings I’d ordered from Herb’s Barbecue around the corner, then tossed the bone into the cardboard takeout container. After our last frenzied coupling, we’d both been ravenous. “I felt her, close by, the day I ended up in your cage.”

Guilt rocketed through me as I recalled his terror at being restrained. “I’m so sorry. I work with a shelter that helps ferals around the city. We trap, vaccinate, and neuter—” Sudden horror choked me. What if I hadn’t discovered Tom’s secret?

He recognized my distress and reached out to stroke my cheek with slightly greasy fingers. A now-familiar surge of desire pulsed through me, even with this minimal contact.

“It was not your fault, Shaina. I know you meant well. However, confinement in the cage kept me in my cat form even after nightfall. I believe she is more aware of me in that shape as well. I bit my leg in the hope that the blood scent would mask mine.”

“That awful wound was self-inflicted? Oh, God, Tom…” I drew him against my breasts and, naturally, his lips sought mine. Tabasco and brown sugar flavors mingled with his usual wild and earthy taste. My sex felt sore and inflamed after his most recent ravishment, but that didn’t stop me from craving the sensation of his relentless cock pummeling me again. However, with something like resignation, he pushed me away. Residual arousal rippled along my skin.

“Tom?”

“I’ve got to go. Every minute we are together increases your danger. She’s somewhere in this city, seeking me. She’ll find me, before long. She’ll find us and when she does, she’ll punish you as viciously as she will me.” With a grace that almost made me sob, he rose to his feet and headed for the bathroom. “If you’ll lend me some money, I can be on an outbound bus in a couple of hours.”

I followed him, standing in the doorway as he splashed water on his face and under his arms, then patted himself dry with my towel. Despite his washing, his musky odor filled the tiny cubicle. I ached to hold him tight, to never release him. Still, I knew that he wouldn’t lie to me. He wanted to stay with me. I had no doubt of that, could feel it in my very bones. But he didn’t dare.

I watched, feeling totally helpless, as he dressed himself in the jeans and jersey he’d worn that evening we’d met in the park. Had he left them here? I couldn’t recall. All that I remembered was that incredible sense of connection—physical, emotional, spiritual. How could I let him go?

 

Find all the buy links for The Eyes of Bast here.

I do hope you’ll visit the other MFRW authors joining in today’s Book Hooks.

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