“Is that a banana in your pocket or are you happy to see me, Galen?” Devin’s amused timbre carries through the darkened living room, stopping me in my tracks. Being caught by my friend and mentor with a raging erection is mortifying to say the least. Although he’s not responsible for changing me, he has been my sole source of guidance over the last ninety-odd years, and he doesn’t ever let me forget that fact.
“What the fuck are you doing here, you wanker?”
He raises an eyebrow as he switches on the lamp. “Looks to me like you’re about to be the wanker.”
Embarrassment floods me. I’m like a horny teenager who just discovered his dick. “I don’t know what’s going on. I was hunting, I saw her, and then…this.” I gesture to my crotch.
Devin shakes his head and mutters, “Lucky bastard.”
“Not lucky enough.” I let out a sigh and rake my hands through my hair. “I let her go.”
My friend stares at me, his face a mask of indifference. “Well, I need to hunt. I haven’t fed in almost a week, but being the considerate friend I am, I stopped by to see if you wanted to come with me. Do you need to take care of your…problem? Or can we go?”
The desire for Reese still burns in the back of my mind, but as I think about feeding, I can feel the bloodlust building inside. “Let’s go.”
Reese
It’s official. I’m the worst at one-night stands. There I was, beautiful man ready to fuck me senseless, and I chickened out. Why is this so hard for me? I’m twenty-three. No one is still a virgin at twenty-three anymore, right? Except for me.
Lying stretched out in my bathtub, I listen to the latest smutty romance novel I downloaded on audiobook. The heroine is just about to give it up to the biker bad boy, and all I can think about is Galen. He was mesmerizing. The things I wanted to do to him played over and over in my mind. Things I’d only ever read about.
A sharp knock on the bathroom door has me pulling the curtain around the tub and sinking lower to hide beneath the bubbles.
“Reese? Can I come in?” Trisha calls through the door.
“Only if you bring more wine.”
She laughs as she steps inside the steam-filled room. “On it, boss.”
Through the sliver of space between the curtain and the wall, I see her grab my empty wineglass from the little table next to the tub and silently bless her.
“So? It didn’t go as you planned?” Her tone is casual but curious as she returns and places a full glass within my reach.
“I think I’m broken.”
“Maybe he just wasn’t what you were looking for?”
“Did you see him? He’s what every straight woman is looking for. He even had an accent.”
She sighs and takes a seat on the closed toilet before turning off my audiobook. “God, for a virgin, you really like the sexy books.”
“Research,” I say before taking a gulp of my wine.
“I think what you need is some hands-on research at this point. What happened? Things looked pretty intense between you when you left.”
Remembering the heat in his gaze sent a shiver through me. “I don’t know. I got in his car, I swear, he was going to seal the deal right there, but then I panicked. It seemed like it was going so fast.”
“Sweet Reese, guarding her flower.”
I fight off the frustration that wells up inside me. “That’s not it, and you know it. I’m not saving myself, I just haven’t taken that step.”
“Yet.”
I nod. “Yet.”
It’s not that I don’t want to have sex. I’m more than ready. There just hasn’t been that … spark with anyone. I want passion and fireworks when I finally give it up. But, maybe that’s not how it really is. Then again, what happened between Galen and me had been the epitome of passion. I had thought my knees were going to give out on more than one occasion during our makeout session on the sidewalk. Just thinking about his hands in my hair, the press of his thickness against my core, the way he murmured my name …
“Reese? Hello?” Trisha is still here. Shit. She’s talking to me, and I’m fantasizing. What is wrong with me?
“Sorry, I must’ve dozed off,” I lie, thankful the shower curtain is covering me.
“Don’t fall asleep in the bath. You’ll drown yourself, and then where will I be?” She yawns and lets out a sigh. “Anyway, I’m heading to bed. I’ve got rehearsal in the morning and a date tomorrow night.”
I pull the drain plug from the tub and tell her good night, all while trying to rid my mind of thoughts of Galen’s expert tongue in my mouth.
Waking the Watcher
Sneak Peek
Their Siren (Daughters of Olympus Book 1) by Charlie Hart & Anastasia James
Their Siren
Chapter One
Harlow
I can’t stop staring at it. The fact I have it at all is kind of insane considering my aversion to needles. My mom will flip out, but then her face will break into a big grin once she realizes what kind of tattoo I chose.
A seal surrounded by blue crashing waves.
It is pretty much perfection.
And covers most of my right thigh. It’s a big tattoo for my first one, but I didn’t want to half-ass it. Mostly because my resolution for my twenty-first birthday is to stop being scared and to start going all in. With my life, with relationships, with my job. I’ve been living in shallow water and I’m tired of it.
I want to dive. Deep.
I look up at the white moon, full and swollen and casting a glow over the dark ocean. My feet sink into the sand at the shoreline, and I know being here, at this moment, is no coincidence. The smell of the saltwater feels like home.
My mom always told stories about how I was born from the sea... literally. No one knew who my biological parents were; they found me on the beach--this very beach--and her stories eased the worry in my heart of not belonging. My mom always whispered You belong to the ocean, but you’re growing up on dry land.
As a child, it comforted me... but now I’m all grown up and I just wonder, where do I come from?
It’s that pit in my belly that’s always empty. That hollow in my heart that never seems to fill.
My phone buzzes in the back pocket of my cut-offs. Pulling it out, I see that it’s Chloe.
Smiling, I answer the call. “Should I come? Are you all checked in?” I ask.
“No,” she groans. “It was false labor. I’m on my way home now. Sorry, I ruined your birthday.”
“Oh, shut up,” I tease my best friend. Never in a million years would I expect her to apologize. “That’s ridiculous.”
“You were supposed to have my moral support tonight. Did you cry the whole time?”
I hear Enzo in the background asking me to send them a photo, and the other guys are shouting as well, asking to see. Chloe has four men who she’s in a committed relationship with, and she’s pretty much my hero when it comes to following her heart and not giving a damn what the rest of the world might think.
“No,” I tell her. “I was badass.”
She snorts. “I’m not saying I don’t believe your badassery, but Harlow--,”
I cut her off. “I was. I’m turning a new leaf, Chloe. This new me is totally hardcore.”
“Send me a photo. We’re dying to see.”
I put her on speakerphone and try to get a good photo of my thigh.
“Are you sad that you aren’t in labor?” I ask as I snap a few pictures.
“I think the guys are more disappointed than I am. Once Pearl is born everything will change, you know?”
“I know, sweetie,” I say. “But you are going to be an amazing mom.” Chloe has voiced her nerves a lot recently, and even though she has a rock-solid support system, change is hard. I can’t even imagine being a mother. “Okay, I sent one. Did you get it?”
“Uh, just a sec. Oh, Harlow!” she screeches. “It’s amazing. The waves look so perfect. And the seal’s eyes are seriously haunting. Your arti
st did amazing work.”
“I know. It’s better than I expected.”
“Now I guess you have to be badass this year with your little spirit animal always with you.”
“Exactly.”
“Hey,” she says, her voice full of irritation. “Where are you, Harlow?”
“Just headed home.”
“Liar. I see the sand in this photo. Are you okay?”
“It’s just the beach.”
“Not just any beach. Harlow, it’s the beach.”
I sigh, my heart constricting. Chloe is the first friend I’ve ever been so vulnerable with; so honest. Everyone else thinks I’m just the outgoing, fun one. Truth is, overcompensating for what I’m not is my greatest accomplishment.
Not exactly something to brag about.
Someone left me here, not knowing who would find me.
I swallow, not wanting to cry. But the truth of my beginning always makes my eyes well up with salty tears. It makes my belly ache and reminds me how empty I feel inside.
My parents may have found me... but that means someone else left me first.
“You sure you’re okay? I can come right now.”
“I’m fine,” I say, wiping my eyes. “You just left the freaking hospital. Go home and rest. I’m leaving now too. I just needed to see it, you know?”
“I know.”
Desperate to change the subject, I say, “Hey, let’s do dinner tomorrow night, okay? You will die when you see the ring my mom gave me for my birthday. It’s beautiful.” I look at the ring on my finger. It’s a gold band and looks antique. It fits on my middle finger perfectly. My mom said she’d been saving it for me since the day she found me.
To say it’s an emotional birthday gift is an understatement. I’ve had it a handful of hours, yet it’s already my most prized possession. It was with me, in the basket, when I was found.
“Can’t wait,” she says. “And you know what, Harlow, you’re beautiful too. Inside and out. From my experience, it doesn’t matter where you came from, it just matters where you go.”
Her words are perfect, and I want to hold onto them, tightly. But it’s hard to stop believing the story we always tell ourselves. That I’m not enough.
If I was... why would my birth parents have let me go?
“Thanks,” I say, knowing I’m getting emotional and not in a place to get that up close and personal over the phone. I don’t know why her words reach so deep inside me, but they do. It’s funny how some people can know you your entire life, but not really know you at all, and then other people fall into your lap and see you exactly as you are.
Or even, as you could be.
“You’re a good friend,” I tell her. “And you’ll be an even better mother.”
“Love you, birthday girl,” she says, and we hang up.
I consider getting back in my car, but then I look toward the water.
It calls to me.
It always has.
The sky is filled with a trillion stars, the moon heavy overhead and the crash of the waves matching the ebb and flow of my emotions today.
I look out, and my breath catches.
A seal bobs his head, swimming so close that I worry about it. But the seal’s eyes meet mine... and I’m not being dramatic when I say this: they pierce my heart. They are big, brown, and soulful.
I spent my life wondering where I came from and with one look, the seal seems to answer all my questions.
I belong out there.
With him.
It scares me, the way the animal makes me feel. Seen in a way I don’t understand. I swallow, stepping back, not even realizing I’ve walked into the water, up to my knees; so lost in a trance, so utterly mesmerized. But it is hard to move, it’s like the sand is tar and I’m caught in the pit.
I stumble to my knees, my feet seemingly locked into place. But I know that going into the ocean, alone at night, is nothing but idiotic.
I need to get away from the water.
But the seal doesn’t leave. It barks, and as crazy as it sounds, I swear he says to come closer.
Even though I keep trying to move my feet backward, away from the water that seems to have tethered my ankles into place, I can’t.
I try to turn my back on the sea, but it’s relentless. The tide rolls in at a pace I’ve never witnessed, and my thigh burns as the saltwater stings my skin. The fresh tattoo is going to be ruined, and I press my palms into the sand trying to push myself away from the sea. But I can’t move. I’m stuck... and worse, my feet are being pulled further into the ocean.
“Help,” I scream. “Help!” I blink back tears. Now is not the time nor the place to have a meltdown. I grit my teeth, determined to get out of this shoreline gravitational pull I’m somehow caught in.
The seal barks louder, and though I try to ignore him, my heart seems to ache, as if begging to swim with the wild animal. I may have called him my spirit animal, but that was a ridiculous idea, inspired by a social media site where hipster girls get cute-ass tattoos. There isn’t any real connection between the seal and me and I don’t need to meet it anytime soon.
What I need is to get away from here.
Except I can’t.
It doesn’t matter how hard I resist, the pull is just too great.
“Someone! Anyone!” My voice is clear, but the bark of the seal is so intense it overwhelms my own cry.
My legs are pushed out from under me, and I sink my elbows down into the sea, barreling down to steady myself, my tattooed thigh burning, my body fighting to stay put but the shifting sand overtakes me.
Even if I don’t know where I belong, I do know that when the sea calls, you have no choice but to answer.
Their Siren
Also by Harlow Thomas
Their Vampire Princess
Chosen: Their Vampire Princess (Book 1)
Crowned: Their Vampire Princess (Book 2)
Turned: Their Vampire Princess (Book 3)
The Shadow Court
Queen of the Shadow Court (coming soon)
More sexy paranormal romance by Harlow Thomas
Writing as Kim Loraine
Waking the Watcher (The Fallen Angel Trilogy #1)
Praised by #1 NYT Bestselling Author, Rachel Van Dyken as, "Spellbinding and addicting!" Kim Loraine brings a new, fresh spin on the classic vampire-meets-human tale. The first in the erotic paranormal Fallen Angel trilogy, Waking the Watcher is a story of lust, love, Heaven and Hell, and everything in between.
Galen
Lust. My ultimate downfall, and demise.
I'm shackled to a life I can't escape.
A life I never asked for.
Now, I'm trapped--soulless,
Burdened by a Watcher lurking within.
He wants out, he wants her.
But I can't let that happen,
Won't let that happen.
She's mine.
Denying the Watcher (The Fallen Angel Trilogy #2)
Praised by NYT Bestselling Author, AL Jackson as “Intense, dark, and so SEXY, exactly what I've come to expect from Kim Loraine's special brand of vampires! This is a must read for adult paranormal romance lovers!" Denying the Watcher continues the tale of fallen angel, Sariel and the growing battle between Heaven and Hell.
Five years...that’s all I have left,
then the Watcher will take control.
But not before I use him to get what I want.
It seemed like a good plan at the time,
until I found her. She's meant for me.
Now I can't leave her. I won't go.
Sariel demands I hold up my end of our deal,
Fight the Fallen.
Win the war between Heaven and Hell.
But she's the one I never thought I’d find,
I can’t let Sariel take me from her.
I need to make a choice--her or my soul?
Releasing the Watcher (The Fallen Angel Trilogy #3)
The epic conclusion to the erotic
paranormal Fallen Angel Trilogy. Fallen angel, Sariel finally finds the woman who caused his fall from grace. But can he stop the war between Heaven and Hell and still have her?
Sariel
She was forbidden, and I gave everything to be with her.
My grace. My wings. My place in Heaven.
But still, she was taken from me.
Now, thousands of years later, I’ve found her in another life, but she doesn’t know me and her heart belongs to another.
The other Watchers are getting bolder. Soon war will be here. With every fight, I grow closer to Heaven but farther from my Selah.
I can’t lose her again, not when she’s finally within my grasp.
I’ll make her see, help her remember us. She is mine.
I won’t let her go. I can’t.
Also by Anastasia James
With Charlie Hart
The Daughters of Olympus
Their Siren
With Harlow Thomas
Their Vampire Princess
Chosen: Their Vampire Princess Book 1
Crowned: Their Vampire Princess Book 2
Turned: Their Vampire Princess Book 3
Mated: Their Vampire Princess Book 4
With Sher Dillard
The Dragons of Perrault Series
Dragon Fire
Dragon Heat
Dragon Blaze
With Alexis Adaire
My Minotaur (coming soon)
About Harlow Thomas
Harlow Thomas writes steamy paranormal romances featuring sexy men who all love sharing one woman. She’s always reading and writing love stories that provide a swoon worthy HEA.
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