Eat Your Heart Out: A Romance Charity Anthology

by Skye MacKinnon

  Selina picked up her fork as Damian’s phone buzzed. “Seems you’re getting a text.”

  “I’d better get this. It’s Interpol.” He pulled out the phone and read the text, then he stood up. “I’m sorry, Selina. I need to call them back. May I use your office?”

  “Of course.” Selina hadn’t seen him so concerned since they’d been after a murderer the month before. Whatever this was, it had to be important.

  Selina sipped her wine and waited. After a few minutes, Damian came back into the apartment. When she saw the look on his face, Selina stood up. “What is it?”

  “I have to go to Italy.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s Lorenzo. He and Nora need my help.”

  “I understand.” Selina placed her hands on either side of his face. “They are your family.”

  “My pack and my family.” Damian looked into her eyes. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “When do you have to leave?” Selina glanced down at the table. “Do we have time to finish dinner?”

  “There won’t be a flight out until tomorrow morning,” Damian replied. “Lorenzo’s already taken care of the travel arrangements.”

  “He knew you would say yes,” Selina said, smiling slightly. “I’d like to meet them someday.”

  “I would like that, too.” Damian leaned down and kissed her. “I know we talked about going to Paris…”

  “We’ll do that later,” Selina said. “And if you don’t have to leave until morning, then we should finish our dinner.”

  “It’s probably cold. I can warm it up if you like.” Damian stopped talking as Selina began unzipping her dress. “Carina, what are you doing?”

  “I’m making the most of this evening,” she replied, letting the dress slide to the floor. “What do you think of the dressing?” she asked, holding a lettuce leaf against the top of her bustier. “I’ve heard it’s very good.”

  Damian’s eyes grew large for a moment, then he smiled. “Carina, you are a temptress.” He leaned down and pulled the lettuce out of her hand with his teeth. “Looks like some dressing spilled right here,” he said, licking a few drops off her skin.

  Selina dipped her finger into the spaghetti sauce and wiped a little under his jaw. “You did want me to try your cooking,” she reminded him, slowly running her tongue along his jaw. “Delicious,” she whispered.

  Damian pulled her to him and kissed her, slowly backing her up against the kitchen counter. Reaching for the olive oil, he poured a small stream along her cleavage. “I told you. Italian is best.” Then he began slowly licking it off, undoing the hooks on her bustier.

  Selina felt herself weakening. She wanted him, but she wasn’t ready to swoon just yet. Damian had set the oil down on the counter, so she pushed him back enough to get his shirt unbuttoned. Grabbing the oil, she poured some on his chest. “Only seems fair,” she breathed, then pulled him to her. The oil was slick, and she had to giggle as they slid against each other.

  “I think we may have to wash some of this off,” Damian said, looking into her eyes. “Eventually…” he slid her back against the counter and undid the rest of the hooks on her bustier. He was tempted to take her right there on the countertop, but decided he had something better in mind.

  “Carina, you are my vampira bella,” he said, meaning beautiful vampire. “If this is our last night together for a while, let’s do something truly memorable.”

  Selina wrapped her legs around his waist as he picked her up and carried her into the bathroom. He set her down and turned on the shower, then slowly backed her into it.

  Somehow, she managed to grab the soap and started rubbing it against his chest. They were soon sliding against each other again, but this time it was soap suds instead of olive oil. Selina stopped and looked up at him. “You are the most fascinating man I’ve ever met. Whatever happens in Italy, don’t forget me.”

  “Carina, I could never forget you.” Damian ran his hand along her arm. “You warm to my touch. Do you know how intoxicating that is?”

  Selina smiled. “Why don’t you show me?”

  And he did. In the shower, in the bedroom, and they even ended up back in the kitchen to get that champagne.

  Selina poured a glass for each of them, then opened the refrigerator and took out some chocolate sauce. “I did promise you dessert…”

  The next morning, Damian was lying in bed and watching Selina as she slept. She was so beautiful. Not just her looks, but her essence. He hadn’t felt so attracted to anyone in a very long time. Or so protective.

  Selina opened her eyes and smiled. “Did you get any sleep last night?”

  “A few hours,” Damian replied.

  “Were you watching me sleep?” Selina reached over and ran a hand through his dark hair. “When do you have to leave?”

  “Soon.” Damian glanced at the clock by the bed. “I need to stop by my hotel.”

  “I can drive you…” Selina began.

  He shook his head. “You look too relaxed exactly as you are. Besides, it will be easier if I take a taxi.”

  Selina took his hand and placed it on her heart. “You know I will be here when you get back. Take as long as you need.”

  Damian wanted to say it. To let her know exactly how he felt about her. He cared about her. He probably even loved her. He knew she was more important to him than anyone since Beatrice. “Selina, I…you know how much you mean to me.”

  “I know.” She kissed his fingers one at a time, then let go of his hand.

  “Carina, I have to be honest with you. Lorenzo didn’t say what it was he needed my help with, but it could very well be…”

  “Hunting vampires.” Selina finished his sentence. “It’s what you do.”

  “It’s what I did. I don’t have the desire to do that any longer. In fact, I’ve been thinking of resigning from Interpol as well. I don’t think my heart is in either job anymore.”

  “You don’t have to stop for me,” Selina said. “You know I’ve never taken a human life, and a rogue vampire can be a threat to everyone.”

  “It puts us on opposite sides.” Damian drew her close and almost whispered. “I want us to be on the same side. Now and always.”

  It was the closest he could come to telling her how he felt. Maybe going back to Italy would allow him to truly put Beatrice’s memory to rest.

  “Be careful,” Selina said, then kissed him very slowly and with such gentle passion, Damian was tempted to try to get a later flight. But the sooner he dealt with Italy, the sooner he could return to her.

  “If you need anything, you know you can always call me.” He smiled. “If I don’t answer, leave a message. I will call you back as soon as I can.”

  Selina nodded. “I will. Are you sure I can’t fix you any breakfast?”

  “I don’t have time. Besides,” Damian flashed her a wicked grin, “I don’t know if we should go into the kitchen again until I get back.”

  “It definitely won’t be the same without you,” Selina agreed. She got up and pulled on her robe. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

  As they got to the top of the stairs, Selina put a hand on his shoulder. “Be safe.”

  “I’ll call you when I land in Italy,” he promised. He leaned down and kissed her one more time, then turned and walked out the door.

  THE END

  Find out more about Selina and Damian in Moonlight, Roses & Murder, the first book in my Paranormal Mystery/Suspense series.

  https://lavenderlassbooks.com/moonlight-roses-murder/

  Selina is a woman with a secret…and she has been hiding it for a very long time.

  With her nieces, she runs Luna’s, a nightclub in downtown Seattle, catering to Steampunk and Goth clientele. When someone leaves a body behind her club, she is drawn into a web of mystery and murder. Puncture marks on the body indicate a vampire might be responsible and as more women are killed, a red rose is left by their bodies.

  When a vampire hunter with secrets of h
is own comes to investigate, Selina wonders who she can trust…

  About the Author

  Get the latest information on this and other books at www.lavenderlassbooks.com or email me at lavender_lass_books@yahoo.com.

  My pen name is Anna-Violetta Carsini…she of the wide hats and narrow skirts. Anna-Violetta enjoys a bit more steam in her romance and all things fantasy/paranormal.

  "You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants some magical solution to their problem and everyone refuses to believe in magic."

  Lewis Carroll

  My name is Lorri Moulton and I live on a farm in Eastern Washington. We have five horses and live in a lovely part of the country, which inspire many of my stories. I write romance, suspense, fantasy, mysteries, fairytales, and historical non-fiction. Real life fairytales happen all the time. You just have to believe in the possibility...and look for magic in the most unexpected places.

  Her Tomato Mate

  The Paranormal Council

  Laura Greenwood

  Heat level: 3

  Tomatoes are missing, and there is only one person who can get to the bottom of it.

  If there is one thing that Jenna Sunangel takes seriously, it's her job. When she's assigned to the greenhouse where dryads are being stolen from, she uncovers more than just the missing produce.

  Baxter Heirloom has never thought much about his mate, but when fate brings a beautiful hummingbird shifter to his workplace, he can't believe his luck, and will do everything he can to convince her that they're meant to be together. Even give her his tomatoes...

  -

  Her Tomato Mate is part of the Paranormal Council series and is Jenna & Baxter's complete story.

  Chapter 1

  Baxter

  Someone had stolen his tomatoes.

  Again.

  Baxter growled as he studied the shorn off stems of his plant. The thief hadn't even had the decency to pick ripe ones. Surely everyone knew that all you had to do was tug on the fruit. If it came off, then it was ripe, if it resisted, then it needed to be left in order to ripen further.

  At least the loss of the tomatoes wouldn't affect the bond he had with his plant. The tether he had as a dryad remained intact.

  "I'm sorry," he whispered to his plant. "I promise I'll find out who did this." Not that he was allowed to do any of the things he was imagining if he did. There were laws in place for a reason. And this person was breaking them.

  He straightened up and marched through the greenhouse towards his boss' office. This wasn't the first time plants had been stolen recently, and he needed to know that it had happened again.

  The glass door to the main office swung open and one of the other workers stormed out, a thunderous look on her face.

  "Don't expect much," she muttered as she passed Baxter.

  He sighed, but knew he couldn't ignore the thefts that were happening. Their boss needed to do something about it and sooner rather than later.

  Baxter knocked a couple of times on the glass pane and waited for his boss to call him in.

  "Enter," a tired sounding voice responded.

  The moment he stepped into the room, Baxter understood why Sharon had been so annoyed with their boss. The bags under his eyes and the crumpled clothes didn't give off an air of confidence when it came to sorting out important matters such as a thief in their midst.

  "Let's guess, someone's stolen your tomatoes?" he asked, a resigned expression on his face.

  "Yes."

  "I've reported it, we're expecting someone to turn up from the High Council soon, but there's very little I can do," his boss said.

  "Can't we at least get some more security?"

  "You know as well as I do that there's no budget left for that. We can't afford another night guard. Now, if you all want to take turns sleeping in the greenhouses to protect your plants, then that's fine by me. But I can't pay anyone for it."

  "That's not fair," Baxter started. "For us, those plants are a matter of life or death."

  His boss sighed and set down his pen. "As you know, when you entered your contract here, you signed a waiver about housing your tether-plants in the greenhouse. There has always been a risk keeping them here, and now that's happening. As far as I'm aware, none of them have been damaged..."

  Baxter fumed inwardly. This was what happened when the higher-ups refused to put a dryad in the position of power over the others who worked in the greenhouse. While he didn't think his boss was a bad person, he clearly didn't understand the complexities that his workers suffered from in their day to day lives. There was no way that they could survive without their plants, and that was hard to get across to people who weren't dryads.

  "But damage is being done," Baxter insisted. "The plants are being damaged when pieces of them are being stolen, especially when they're picking fruit and flowers before they've had time to properly mature..."

  His boss sighed and looked him in the eyes. "I'm truly sorry for what you and the other dryads are going through, but there's very little we can do without the support of the High Council. They're sending someone and they should be here this week. That's all I know. And before you ask, no, I don't know the investigator's name or anything about their credentials. You'll find out as soon as I do and not a moment before that."

  "Thank you for letting me know," Baxter answered stiffly. "I hope you enjoy the rest of your day."

  He didn't wait for the other man to say anything and turned out to leave the office. He had too much to get one with to spend too long standing around and trying to get information out of someone who didn't want to give it.

  The moment he stepped back into the main greenhouse he breathed a sigh of relief. Everything around him was green and vibrant, full of life. While he technically only needed his tomato plant to survive, it was invigorating being around so much greenery. It was what attracted so many dryads towards fields that dealt with plants. While he'd taken the botanist path himself, his friend Lia had decided to work with pharmaceuticals derived from natural things.

  He waved to several of his co-workers, but didn't stop to talk to them. He needed to grab his notes from his locker so he could check on the health of the various plants under his control. Being distracted by the fate of his tomatoes and who would do such a despicable thing wasn't a good enough excuse to forget about the rest of his job.

  Once he'd collected his notes, he started doing his rounds. Nothing appeared too out of the ordinary, which was to be expected. The only plants that had been touched by the thief were those that were tethered to dryads, and he only had his own in his patch of the greenhouse, which was to be expected. He'd never presume to be able to look after another dryad's tether-plant unless they explicitly asked him to.

  A butterfly flitted past, with stunning colours on its wings. It must have escaped from the other side of the building where they were doing research on insect behaviour.

  Baxter set down his clipboard and prepared himself to catch it until he remembered seeing that pattern before. It was a good job he hadn't tried to catch her, he didn't think Felicity would be particularly happy to be caught. And that was if she didn't crush him on her transformation back into human form.

  Not for the first time, he found himself grateful he was a dryad and not a small shifter like some of the others who worked in the building. Being tethered to a plant didn't seem too bad compared to being small enough to be accidentally stepped on.

  Chapter 2

  Jenna

  The warm air that greeted her as she entered the greenhouse reminded Jenna of why she'd wanted to take this job in the first place. She often found herself longing for a warmer climate, she assumed because of the bird hiding inside her. But this was where her family lived, not to mention where she'd made friends and created a life for herself. She wouldn't give that up for anything, not even the chance of sitting on a beach and sipping cocktails every evening.

  She wanted to dally amongst the plants to admire the handiwork of th
e botanists who worked here, but she knew that there wasn't the time for that right now. She needed to get to her meeting with Mr Bradshaw so she could do her job and sort out the thief who was terrorising the dryads here. Up until recently, there hadn't been anyone doing the job she did, but that had all changed when the High Council finally started to get involved in inter-species issues, and now people like her were helping paranormals up and down the country to get the justice they deserved.

  Luckily for her, the office was fairly easy to find, though the man inside didn't seem to have heard her coming.

  She cleared her throat, hoping to gain his attention without causing alarm. "Mr Bradshaw?" she asked.

  He looked up sharply and set down his pen.

  "Can I help you?" He sounded as if he'd had a rough week and was in desperate need of a weekend to himself with a paper and as much tea as he could manage.

  "I believe we have a meeting. I'm Jenna Sunangel, the High Council has sent me," she said.

  "Ah, yes. Thank you. Please take a seat." He waved at the chair opposite him.

  She gave him a thin smile and did as he asked.

  "You've arrived just in time." He sighed as if his words were an understatement.

  "Have things progressed from the reports I've seen?" She resisted the urge to flick through her notes to check on the state of things. She'd prepared as much as she could in advance and had memorised the figures in preparation. She'd found it was easier to do her job if she wasn't focusing on finding information while she should be observing the area around her.

  "There were more thefts overnight," Bradshaw said.

  She nodded. "Unfortunate. Do you have reports for today's incidents?"

  "No," he responded gruffly as he shuffled uncomfortably in his chair.