by Sable Sylvan
“Now, Brucie, have you properly introduced yourself to our guest?” asked Zach.
Bruce looked at the crowd, shrugged his little koala shoulders, and shook his head. Natalie swore she could watch his lips form an upside-down U.
“Well, is that any way to show our guests a nice time? Show our guest some of that Southern, south-of-the-equator, hospitality, Bruce,” said Zach.
Bruce held out his little koala paw.
Was this actually happening? Was she gonna shake hands with a koala? Natalie took the small paw in her hand and shook it…
…And as she pulled her hand away, Bruce kept a grip on it!
The crowd laughed. Bruce wouldn’t let go of her hand.
“I think he likes you,” said Zach, and as he did, Bruce hopped up into Natalie’s lap. He sat up, like a little teddy bear, and waved to the crowd. “Have you ever held a koala before?”
“No, never,” admitted Natalie.
“What’s he feel like?” asked Zach.
“He’s…” started Natalie, before petting Bruce and choosing her words. “Softer than anything I’ve felt. Really warm, too. And…he smells minty, like that stuff my mom would put on my chest when I’m congested.”
“That’s the eucalyptus,” said Zach. “Koalas love eucalyptus. We can’t get enough of the stuff.” As Zach said that, he opened one of his khaki pockets and took out some eucalyptus. He started munching it once he was done. The crowd couldn’t help but laugh.
“I’d offer you some, but it’s poisonous to humans,” said Zach. “But, you can feed some to Bruce.”
Natalie took some leaves in her hand from Zach and fed them to Bruce. Bruce looked up at Natalie with his cute teddy bear eyes as he nibbled at the leaves, his little koala nose tickling the palms of her hands as he picked the eucalyptus leaves up with his rough little pink tongue. It was hard to believe that what could be the world’s cutest animal was also a big hunk of man-meat like the one sitting across from her. The koala flapped its big ears, and Natalie melted. The cocky man who had grabbed her like a caveman was able to be this adorable? Shifters really were something else.
“Koalas aren’t really bears,” said Zach. “At least, not formally. Do you know why koalas are called koala bears?”
“I can’t say that I do,” admitted Natalie.
“Because we do have some similarities,” said Zach. “Furry, four-legged…and the shifters…well, we’ve got something in common with bears.” Zach got up and faced the audience and unbuttoned his shirt slowly. Music started playing, an EDM version of ‘Waltzing Matilda.’ Bruce got up and off of Natalie’s lap and walked to the side stage. Nobody was focused on Bruce. Zach’s show was the real attraction, not the nature lesson.
However, from where Natalie was seated, she couldn’t see the frikkin’ chest! She knew that’s what Zach must’ve been referring to. Koala shifters must’ve had mate marks on their chests, just as other bear shifters had pectoral mate marks. But, with Zach putting on a show for the ladies in the audience, there was no frikkin’ way for her to see his mark.
“Get out of those thongs and into your thong,” came a booming voice with a thick Australian accent.
Natalie turned. Coming from the side-stage was Bruce, in his human form! Unfortunately for her, he was wearing clothes. He was in a pair of dungaree jeans, dark brown worn cowboy boots, with a black shirt on top, button-up, with the sleeves, rolled up to his elbows, revealing his sensual forearms.
Chiseled jaw. Five-o-clock shadow. Ashy blonde hair sticking out…of a hat with corks around it? The corks were hanging off the thick brim of the hat, from strings. Natalie noticed they were all champagne corks.
Bruce made his way over to Natalie. She noticed a mic on his pocket. He put a hand on her shoulder.
“Get it? Thongs, thongs? It’s an Aussie joke. We call flip-flops ‘thongs’ down under. But enough about that. You done learning about our slang and our shifts?” Bruce asked Natalie.
Before Natalie could answer, the crowd gave a resounding, “Yes!”
“Well, then, I have something far more interesting ready for you all,” said Bruce, as Zach waved and headed off-stage, not bothering to get changed. A stagehand, who looked like a lion-shifter, came from off stage to clean the clothes up.
“As you know, Australia has plenty of gorgeous cities,” said Bruce. “Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide…but while Zach, a Sydney boy through-and-through, might see his wildlife at a zoo, men like me, jackaroos, or as you Yanks call’m, cowboys.”
At that, the crowd hooted and hollered, and Bruce tipped his hat, taking it off at the same time.
“We see a lot more animals, and in the wild,” said Bruce. “From the kangaroos of the savannah around Uluru…” Bruce motioned to the big rock shown on the screen.
“…To the koalas of the Australia savannah’s eucalyptus forests,” said Bruce, as the background changed to show a deep dark eucalyptus forest. “We jackaroos see a lot of animals that you might not know about. Echidnas. Emus. And even…drop bears.”
“Drop bears?” asked Natalie. “What are those?”
“Drop bears are a relative of the koala,” said Bruce. “Drop bears and koalas look the same on the outside, but when a drop bear opens their mouth, you can see their razor-sharp teeth, which inject their prey with venom.” Bruce flashed her his gorgeous white teeth.
“Now, they’re called drop bears because they drop on their prey,” said Bruce. “They’re carnivorous, of course.”
“Uh-huh,” said Natalie, focused more on Bruce’s hot bod than the words coming out of his luscious pink lips.
“You’re really lucky you don’t have them in Seattle, or else you’d really have something to worry about,” said Bruce. “But if you ever visit Australia, all you need’s a strong jackaroo like me to protect you.”
Just as Bruce said his last line, something came out of the rafters. It was small, furry, with brownish-gray fur, and a bright red mouth and sharp gnashing teeth, making a sound like a combination of a duck, a rabbit, and a wolf. Its paws were extended and aimed right at her.
Natalie couldn’t help but scream. A drop bear? In Seattle? What the heck was Bruce gonna do to protect her?
Little did Natalie realize that it had turned out that Diane was right.
Fate was going to drop someone into her lap.
In fact, Fate just had.
Sneak Peek: “The Cinderella Cook-Off”
My dear readers,
I’m pleased as punch to announce a brand new Sable Sylvan series, “The Feminine Mesquite”. A family rivalry between the Texas Quincys and the Norwegian Scoville Polar Clan makes this series extra spicy. This series has everything you know and love from a Sable Sylvan series: bear shifters, BBWs, fairy tales, and true love. This series takes it a step further. It features BBWs, BBQ…and BDSM.
Each book in “The Feminine Mesquite” is a full length 25,000 word novella with no cliffhangers and a guaranteed happy ending with no cheating. Each book features one of the wealth Scoville polars and a curvy Quincy sister finding true love in a very spicy world. Of course, there are curvy gals, delicious food, and some very spicy bedroom scenes (although this is not a BDSM romance series, as the romance is not focused around BDSM, and the BDSM is pretty light).
Book 1: The Cinderella Cook-Off
Book 2: Beauty And The BBQ
Book 3: Spicy Beauty
Book 4: The Matchstick Grill
Book 5: Little Red Hot Sauce
You can find the first book in this series, “The Cinderella Cook-Off”, on Amazon on March 17th. The rest of the books are
Best of all, specially branded Sable Sylvan hot sauce, produced by Mo Hotta Mo Betta, in five flavors related to the books, will be available on Zazzle upon launch. Five brand new teas (watermelon decaf herbal tea, mint green tea, lemon black tea, raspberry black tea, and peach black tea) will also be available via Adagio.
Yours,
Sable Sylvan
Bears + BBWs + BBQ + BDSM
= Too Hot To Handle!
The last thing that the curvy Quincy sisters expect is to meet their rivals, the Scoville brothers, in the flesh at the reading of their grandfather’s will. What the heck are a bunch of Norwegian billionaires doing at a fair in the middle of Texas? Planning a corporate takeover, of their family’s hot sauce company, The Quincy Sauce Co. These shifters have another thing coming if they think that these BBWs are about to give up their family’s recipes without a fight, and the eldest Quincy and Scoville siblings become arch rivals…with an undeniable primal attraction to one another that they can’t explain.
Hot sauce hotties and ice-cold shifters…
What the heck do a bunch of Nordic polar bear shifters know about running an American hot sauce company? Well…more than meets the eye. With a history tracing back from before the East India Company, all the way to the Silk Road and the Viking Age, these shifters know everything there is to know about the spice trade. What they don’t know is how to woo a mate. That’s right, from the moment that the eldest Scoville brother, Herbert ‘Herb’ Scoville, sees the curvy heir to the Quincy Sauce Company, Alice ‘Allie Penny’ Quincy, he knows that this firebrand is a special woman. Herb loves the hunt, and he’s never failed to catch his prey…but Alice is no ordinary woman. She’s as saucy as her family’s hot sauce, and she’s not going to give up the recipes to the sauces that Herb claims her grandfather stole from his that easily. When Alice suggests a cook-off at the Bright Star County Fair, it’s on. Herb’s got his eye on the prize…and the trophy doesn’t look half bad either.
Just who does this billionaire think he is, turning Alice on like a propane grill…
From the moment Alice sees Herb, she knows he’s everything she doesn’t want in a man. He’s pompous, gets what he wants, how he wants, and he’s competitive to a fault…so why does she feel a link to him that she just can’t ignore? His steely grey eyes remind her of a night filled with masks, ballgowns, ratty sneakers…and neck ties and belts wrapped around her wrists and the bedposts of a certain hotel room, in a certain city, on a certain night that seems to be so far in the past that it might as well be a fairy tale. Herb looks just as good in a custom tailored European suit as he does shirtless, handling a grill with a finesse that nearly rivals hers, but this polar has more than just a hot body to offer. The only thing hotter than their sauces is their banter, but Alice’s heart belongs to another…a shifter whose name she doesn’t even know. Can she learn to let go of her past, or does Fate want her to keep nursing a broken heart? Will Herb take away Alice’s pain…or will he take away her grandfather’s legacy?
Small towns and billionaires don’t mix like sweet tea and lemonade…
These billionaires have never been denied anything before, solving every problem with a credit card or check, but to earn the trust of the curvy BBW Mesquite sisters, they’re going to have to earn the love of their small town. Instead of using what’s in their wallets, they’ll have to use what’s in their hearts. Can the Mesquite’s sisters hot sauce melt their cold Nordic hearts, or will they have to heat them up in the bedroom? These shifters are going to have to learn their lesson the hard way, the hot way, the spicy way…if they have any chance at all of understanding The Feminine Mesquite.
The Quincy sisters sat on the couch inside the law firm. While some places in the Northeast would kick their clients out after a meeting, things were different down South, where hospitality was still important. Their grandfather’s lawyer had insisted they compose themselves before they headed out. The hot Texas sun shone down on them through the large stained glass window, and because all five sisters were wearing all black, they felt even hotter. Even though these five were used to the heat, they still weren’t used to the loss of their last grandparent, their father’s father, Elijah Quincy.
“I can’t believe Pop-Pop is gone,” said Savina, the youngest, wiping a tear from her eye.
“He wouldn’t want you to be sad,” said Alice, the eldest, offering Savina a tissue from her purse. “After all, you’ll be going off to college this week. You’ve gotta keep your chin up. That goes for you too, Abby.”
“At least the four of us will have our studies to keep us occupied,” said Abigail, the second eldest. “I’ve got my senior thesis to work on, but you’re going to be here, alone.”
“Oh, I won’t be that alone,” said Alice. “After all, I have the kitchen and the shop to run now. The four of you have got to focus on your studies, and yes, Addy and Kai, that goes for you too.”
“We’ll visit over breaks,” promised Addison, the middle sibling.
“You’ll see Dad often, won’t you, Allie?” asked Cayenne, a.k.a. ‘Kai,’ the second youngest. “I’ll make sure to call him at least once a week.”
“Yeah, I’ll visit Dad,” promised Allison. “Pop-Pop lived a long life, a good life. We have to make sure that we continue his legacy, all five of us.”
“You sure you want to share his gift to you with us?” asked Cayenne. “After all, you are the sole heir to the Quincy Sauce Company.”
“Before Pop-Pop passed, he had a conversation, in private, with Dad and me,” said Alison. “I didn’t bring it up at the time because I didn’t want to worry the four of you. This was when he was first diagnosed with lung cancer, and we were hoping the chemo would work. He told me that he had intended to leave the company to all five of us, given that we are his only grandkids, after all. But, the lawyer said that, because the four of you are still in college, owning part of the company would interfere with your financial aid.”
“It would?” asked Savina.
“Yeah, by the time Mom and Dad were helping you with your forms, they had already done them four times,” said Addison. “But, I remember when we were filling mine out, they asked us to disclose what assets we personally owned.”
“The more you own, the less aid you qualify for,” explained Abigail. “That’s why it makes sense for Alice to be the sole heir. She’s graduated, so she doesn’t have to worry about financial aid.”
“Don’t worry,” said Alice. “As soon as each of you graduates, you’ll get a share of the company, so that we end up with twenty percent each, one fifth per sister. That’s what Pop-Pop wanted to have happen eventually.”
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay running the company on your own?” asked Abigail. “I could take the year off, help you get into the groove.”
“No, you need to graduate,” insisted Alice. “After all, how hard can it be to run a hot sauce company?”
Five men entered the room. Tall, blonde, they were all wearing suits, and Alice didn’t recognize them. She knew everyone in this small town. After all, there were only a few thousand people living in Fallowedirt, and she would’ve remembered these guys. Each of them was exceedingly handsome, with blonde hair in varying shades. The tallest was toned, but strangely pale. When was the last time she had seen a guy that pale? It was hard to avoid the sun in Texas. Shouldn’t he at least be a little tan?
The men walked towards the front desk, and the tall, toned man spoke for all of them. The other four were standing by quietly, but their presence was still intimidating. Alice heard their voices raise. Who the heck did these guys think they were, coming in here and treating the paralegal so rudely?
Alice got up off the couch.
“Alice, what are you doing?” asked Cayenne.
“I’m about to give these men a piece of my mind,” said Alice, a hand on her hip, as she shimmied over to the desk. “Excuse me. Excuse me!”
“We’re in the middle of something,” said the man, turning to face Alice and looking her over.
Alice felt the man’s eyes eating her up. He felt predatory, but at the same time, he wasn’t scaring her. He had an accent. It sounded British, but there was something else there. Alice couldn’t tell what it was. German? Dutch? Swiss?
“Who do you think you are, talking to her that way?” asked Alice. She looked over the man. Tall. Blonde. Broad-chested, muscular…and pale. He wa
s very pale. Where the heck was he from where they didn’t have sunny days all the time? His designer suit made him look sophisticated, like one of those Yankees from upstate who passed through town and stopped for gas or the New Yorkers she’d met during a New Year’s Eve party in Times Square she’d gone to back in college when staying with a friend from New England over a winter break.
However, his body had a primal aura of masculinity, his muscles pressing against the slimmer cut designer European suit that only served to make him look even sexier. Alice had never understood the appeal of a man in a well-tailored suit before, but now, she definitely would have a thing for sartorially educated men. She just had to make her body resist having a thing for this one. Why did she want nothing more than to lean into his body, which was strangely familiar to her?
“Again, it’s absolutely none of your business,” said the man, turning to face the secretary again.
“Excuse me, it is my business,” said Alice. “If I didn’t stand up and say something when I saw something wrong going on, well…then I wouldn’t be Alice Quincy!”
“Alice Quincy?” said the man, turning to face her. “Well, speak of the devil. I was expecting someone a little more…masculine.”
“Masculine?” said Alice. “What the heck is that supposed to mean? You wanna explain what the heck you’re talking about?”
“The name’s Herbert, Herbert Scoville. Friends call me Herb, but, trust me…you and I won’t be friends,” said Herbert. “I came here looking for an ‘Al Quincy,’ and assumed that they’d be an Albert, not…”
“Not, what, a woman?” asked Alice.
“Well, honestly, no,” said Herbert.
“Well, what do you want with me? Spit it out,” demanded Alice.
Fiesty. Curvy. Sassy. Under any other circumstance, Herbert would’ve listened to what the head in his pants was telling him to do, but, he hadn’t come five thousand miles for a quick lay.
