Honey House

by LAURA HARNER

  The breath slammed against my lungs, struggling to escape the self-imposed restraint I hadn’t even realized I was holding on to. I’d been treating Quinn as though he was still hurt, as though his near-death experience had weakened him. It hadn’t and I needed him now.

  A desperate desire bloomed inside me. There was no room for gentle touches or loving caresses. I wanted to feel…to know he was alive. I tangled my fingers into his hair and pulled him harder against my breasts. He caught my new sense of urgency and met my desperation with tongue and teeth.

  “Yes,” I moaned, and arched into his touch when he drew my nipple hard into his hot mouth. He pushed my breasts together, his mouth alternating working both nipples, tongue following the cleavage his hands created.

  “Oh God,” I whispered. “I need you inside me, right now,” I gasped.

  Quinn slid down my body, wrapped his arms around my legs, and draped my calves over his forearms. He muttered, “Not yet. I have to taste you first. You can’t deny a starving man.” Then his tongue slid into my pussy.

  My breath escaped in tiny, whimpering gasps as Quinn fucked me with his tongue, slick and hot, in and out. My hips moved against his mouth, and still I needed more. I shuddered, full of desire. Quinn licked me from top to bottom, long, seductive strokes. The tension from the night was melting away under his clever tongue.

  “More,” I begged greedily.

  With a small laugh, Quinn’s tongue went to work while his fingers glided, pumping, demanding. He brought me to the edge of orgasm, spilling me over, and quickly withdrawing. I wanted to whimper at his abrupt departure, until he flipped me over onto my stomach.

  There was no more teasing now. Quinn was as desperate as I was. He guided the broad tip of his cock against my pussy, and then pressed himself inside.

  A moan of pure pleasure slipped out at the overwhelming sense of completeness I experienced with Quinn filling me.

  “You’re mine, Katie. I carry part of you inside me now, you will never be able to forget me,” his voice a low growl in my ear.

  It was a completely barbaric thing to say and it turned me on to feel so possessed in the moment. His cock slid deeper, each inch stretching me, until I felt full and his hips pressed against my ass.

  “More,” I mumbled when he slowly withdrew until he was nearly out of me.

  Quinn pushed me forward onto my elbows and lifted my hips to give himself the angle he wanted. “Hold on, Katie, I’m going to fuck you now!”

  Quinn’s fingers dug into my flesh as he held my hips suspended above the bed, while he slammed into me from behind. I would be bruised from his grip, but I didn’t care. I just wanted more.

  “More,” I said again. I couldn’t get enough. I needed affirmation that Quinn was alive, and whole, and here with me.

  My back arched as nerve endings I never knew existed screamed to life, and pleasure washed through me. Slow and deliberate strokes gave way to hard and fast thrusts, and it was oh-so-pleasurable when his heavy testicles spanked me as he slammed against my ass.

  A heavy feeling began to grow in the pit of my stomach, and those unfinished waves of my first orgasm washed through me and began to build. We both made small grunting noises with the force of each stroke. I knew he was close when he lost his rhythm, but he wasn’t finished with me yet.

  Quinn slid a hand down my arm until he reached my hand. He threaded his fingers with mine and brought our clasped hands to his lips. The gentle kiss was a surprisingly sweet gesture. Then he moved us once again, placing our joined hands over my heart.

  “Come for me, Katie, love,” he whispered, his chest pressed tight against my back.

  I clenched around his cock as his final pounding strokes took me screaming over the edge. He gave two short thrusts and then he was coming with me, spilling his hot seed inside me. He bit down on my neck as hard as the first time we’d made love. I screamed again and knew he’d marked me, but any pain was lost in the waves of pleasure that shot straight to my pussy.

  When we collapsed, I thought we might sleep, but the insatiable Quinn had other ideas. He ran his hand lightly over my skin, caressing me from breasts to knees, and asked, “Are you okay, Katie?”

  The gesture sent shudders through me, but before I could think why, Quinn scooped me up and carried me to the bathroom. After carefully adjusting the water, he set me inside and then joined me.

  We stood together in the shower while I ran my hands over the unblemished skin of his chest. I’d seen the wounds last night. He had been shot. Had it really been Owen who had healed Quinn? Did I have something to do with it, as Quinn hinted last night? I realized that at this moment, I didn’t care. I was just grateful he was alive and unhurt.

  Quinn was too tall for us to fit well standing up, but when he lifted me and I wrapped my legs around his waist, we fit just right. He slid into me, hard, fast, deep. The water cascaded around us, a warm caress that made his golden skin sparkle. He filled me and then pulled out slowly, before thrusting home again. Each stroke was a slippery slice of heaven.

  Quinn’s hand dropped between my thighs and found my clit. And with a few strokes of his thumb and thrusts of his cock we orgasmed again, crashing together, shuddering hard beneath the warm spray.

  Finally sated, for a while at least, Quinn once again carried me back to the bed and lay down naked beside me, our bodies still damp from the shower. He lay on his back, eyes closed, and soon his breathing became deep and steady. I snuggled against his side, my face nestled between his shoulder and his neck, and he held me close while he slept.

  We still hadn’t talked beyond the murmurs of sex. We hadn’t discussed what happened last night. I still didn’t know what Quinn was, although I was beginning to have some idea. I finally realized why Owen’s gesture of running his hand over Quinn’s body looked familiar. I’d seen Quinn himself do it first, the night he first made love to me. He’d not been gentle that night either, and I should have been sore. Instead, Quinn had brushed a hand over my skin, and all of my discomfort had eased. Owen was one of the Fae. A fairy. Did that mean—

  I pushed the thought aside. It wasn’t worth worrying about right now. So what if I didn’t know what Quinn was? I didn’t know what I was, either. I didn’t know what the House wanted from me or what Joanne expected to happen when she’d arranged for me to come here after her death.

  Juniper Springs might pretend to be Sedona’s little cousin in all things metaphysical, but I knew that the truly unbelievable lived here. The location of the House couldn’t be a coincidence. What was it about this particular part of the world that drew so many mythical creatures? And how was it that the sheriff knows them all? Protects them all?

  This small community was the stuff of fairy tales, nightmares, and bad Hollywood movies. Werewolves, witches, and Fae…oh my! There was something here…something that tied all of the secrets together.

  In spite of so many unknowns or perhaps because of them, I needed to remember what I had learned since coming to Juniper Springs. The Honey House might be a first class bed and breakfast, but it also was the first real home I’d ever known. A home—me? Who’d have thunk it?

  With a small smile, I ran through the names: Gregory, Owen, Raymond, and Gabrielle. I suppose I needed to include Stevie now, though I’d only met him as a wolf. These were all my people, maybe even something like a family.

  Did Quinn belong with the others? Or was what I felt for him something more? When I’d thought he was dying, a terrified part of me feared he would be lost to me forever. Did that mean I—

  Steel bands tightened around my chest, and Quinn pulled me over to lie on top of his chest.

  “Mmm…Katie, love,” he murmured against the marks on my neck. “You’re thinking too damned hard. I have a much better use for all that excess energy,” he said, as his hands smoothed down my back.

  A delicious shiver shuddered through me as my mouth sought his. Yes, I wanted this…I wanted him. Quinn and I might not be the sort of people who believ
ed in happily ever after, but maybe…just maybe, we could have a happily for now.

  ~~The End~~

  About the Author

  Raised in California, Laura likes it hot, which explains why she ended up in Arizona via such diverse places as Japan, Maine, and Florida, and many more places in between. After retiring from the US Navy, she found a niche working for land management agencies, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Though she has held many jobs around the world, her favorite was working and living in Grand Canyon National Park. Working (and eating) in New Orleans was a close second. You will find many of her books are set against the rich backdrops provided by coastal Louisiana and northern Arizona.

  When asked how she started writing, Laura tells of waking on Boxing Day a few years ago, with a woman named Elena MacFarland yammering in her dreams, demanding her story be told. Despite never attempting to write fiction before that morning, Laura ignored all of the holiday visitors and the Highland Destiny series was born. She doesn’t believe it was a coincidence that the great grandmother who died when Laura was just a baby was named Elena MacFarland. Destiny does play a hand.

  Laura became a full-time writer in 2012, and now she spends her time writing, watching her Arizona Diamondbacks, and working on her very own version of the Willow Springs Ranch in northwestern Arizona. She is a multi-published author of erotic romance, mystery, and urban fantasy and her books can be found at all major online retailers.

  Connect with Laura at:

  Twitter: @LauraHarner

  Facebook: facebook.com/lauraharner

  Or even better…check out the website at: LauraHarner.com

  Also Available

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  Deep Blues Goodbye, Book One of the Altered States Series

  The world might not have been ready for vampires when NOPD Detective Travis Boudreaux had the bad taste to sit up at his own funeral, but two years later, the new cause célèbre is civil rights for preternatural beings and most humans are on the bandwagon. Except whoever is killing vampires and wannabes.

  Detective Sam Garrett hates all things preternatural. Having your undead partner try to make you his first meal will do that to a guy. One final screw-up gets Sam banished to the Paranormal Criminal Investigations Unit—the Odd Squad—under the oversight of Detective Danny Burkette.

  Now it’s up to Burkette to work with Garrett by day and Boudreaux by night as they follow a trail of clues that leads from the historic cemeteries of New Orleans to the bayous of southern Louisiana. Under the all-too-interested gaze of a Master vampire and the local werewolf pack Alpha, they discover some lessons in life—and death—take longer to learn…and not all second chances are created equal.

  Warning: In this series the vampires don’t sparkle, werewolves kill, and sometimes the men have sex. With each other.

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  Ty Hard, Book One of the Willow Springs Ranch Series

  Tyler has used Don't Ask, Don't Tell as a shield against the truth since he was seventeen. Now, Ty finds himself cut loose from his Navy career after months of rehab from a debilitating head injury. At a loss as to what to do with his life, he travels to Willow Springs Ranch in Arizona to visit his surrogate father, only to arrive minutes after his oldest friend's death. Ty must come to terms with the loss while he fights to keep the PTSD from pulling him under. The last thing he's ready to think about is his growing attraction for another man.

  Rancher Cass Cartwright's relationships never last more than a few hours, and that's just the way he likes it. Now he's in danger of doing the one thing he swore never to do: fall in love. Can Cass convince Ty to let go of his past or will sabotage at the ranch kill their love before it has a chance to grow?

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  Hold Tight, Book Two of the Willow Spring Ranch Series

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  Despite the impolite rejection, Drew knows he didn’t have the wrong impression months ago when he asked the sheriff to dance, but he never expected to have Holden’s life in his hands. Literally.

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  The problem is, Holden doesn’t consider himself in the closet…but not all secrets are created equal.

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  Rescued, Book, Two of the Three’s Allowed Series

  Elizabeth Ashford runs into the wilderness near a highway rest area, trying to escape her abusive husband before he kills her. Self-made millionaire and expert in high tech security, Michael Enwright is at the first rest stop of his long overdue sabbatical when he sees the fleeing woman and intervenes, saving Elizabeth's life, while nearly losing his own. When Michael's help is misinterpreted, he ends up handcuffed and face down in the dirt before Elizabeth can set her former lover, Sheriff Graeme Kennedy, straight. In order to protect Lizzie, Graeme is forced to work with Michael and brings both of them to his cabin for protection.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

 

 

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