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The Authors
Shiloh Walker
Dianne Castell
Kathy Love
Erin McCarthy
LuAnn McLane
Rosemary Laurey
Janice Maynard
Lucy Monroe
Toni Blake
Karen Kelley
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About rosemary
USA Today Best-selling author Rosemary Laurey is an ex-pat Brit,
retired special education teacher and grandmother who now lives
in Ohio and has a wonderful time writing and letting her
imagination run riot.
Her hobbies are vacuuming, dusting and
cleaning toilets but regrettably the demands of her writing
career leave little time to engage in these pursuits.
her website
Rosemary
Laurey
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Shiloh Walker
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midnight lover
Book
five in the Forever Vampires Series. Toby Wise finds
trouble, evil and love on the coast of Oregon
Excerpt
There was
nothing left for him to do. As Toby paused against a large
pick up, tiredness washed over him. He'd better fly rather
than try to transmogrify. Would take longer but used less
energy.
Ripping off his ruined trousers, he tossed them into the
flames. His boxers, shoes and socks he draped over the
Sheriff's radio aerial just for the hell of it. Toby ran to
the open field adjoining Adela's now-burning house. The
flames were licking at the windows now, it was only a matter
of time before the entire house was engulfed. As he watched,
there was an explosion accompanied by yells and screams as
her vandalized car blew up.
Definitely the moment to vacate the vicinity.
Summoning his remaining strength, Toby tensed and ran and
leaped into the air, propelling himself through the night,
towards Devil's Elbow.
He hoped Adela had remembered to leave the window open.
Maybe fortune did favor the sneaky and the underhand. The
unexpected guest was asleep (Laura peered round the door to
be sure) and Mr Connor was dozing peacefully. With Mr Wise
not returning until morning, she had several good hours to
poke and pry and hopefully find something to satisfy her
father. Once she did, she was quitting. She could not look
these people in the face knowing she'd spied on them. She
wouldn't have even considered it, but Dad had been close to
tears when he begged her. It beat her how he let his new
partner pressure him so.
The paper was Dad's bailiwick, she was the one prying on
nice people and a fair employer.
She booted up the computer and after a good hour, found
nothing. Email was password protected - nothing unusual in
that hers was too. Quicken showed nothing more than personal
bank accounts. She certainly envied his bank balances but
having very a nice savings account was hardly illegal. There
were a couple of locked files, but if they held the dubious
secrets Dad was after, she couldn't access them. The files
she could open held ordinary-seeming business correspondence
and a bunch of IRS tax publications.
Drawing a blank there, she looked at the bookmarks in his
browser. He seemed to be interested in South Carolina
History but that was hardly the basis for an expose. She
shut the computer down, checking the keyboard and mouse were
left exactly as she'd found them, and went for the desk
drawers.
The were virtually empty, probably cleaned out after Mr.
Connor's stroke, and there hadn't been time to accumulate
the usual clutter. Mr Wise appeared to have a liking for
purple felt tip pens and often ripped out articles from
Business Week, but that was that.
Maybe the filing cabinet would have what she needed.
The bottom two drawers were locked. Interesting, but the
keys weren't in the desk drawers and picking locks hasn't
part of her training. She had the top one open and was
flicking though the files, when a sound like a wild gust of
wind made her turn around.
Her employer stood in the middle of the carpet. Frowning. At
her. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked. Her mouth
dropped open as he came towards her. "I repeat, Nurse Fox
what exactly do you think are you doing?"
"I..." Inventing a plausible lie was beyond her capabilities
right now. Hard to think when caught in the wrong by an
irate employer. A naked irate employer. He was tall, very
black, and even better looking that a couple of her stray
fantasies had suggested.
He was also bleeding. "You're hurt."
"Utterly irrelevant, Nurse Fox. Please answer my question."
He crossed the carpet and put his hand on her shoulder.
Nakedness didn't seem to faze him. She'd be equally cool.
After all. she was a nurse, she'd seen plenty of naked men
in her job but not standing upright, inches from her and
meeting her eyes in a way that demanded the truth. "What are
you looking for?"
Toby watched as the instinct to lie crumbled before his
compulsion to tell the truth. "Proof of illegal activity."
Toby hissed. Damn FBI! Planting agents in Piet's house! They
didn't miss a trick. "Who send you?" If it was either of the
agents this morning...
"Dad, he sent me."
Rather unsubtle! Mortals! He needed to know if "Dad' was an
FBI code name but damn, he was worn out and the effort to
bend her will this much had him close to dropping. "Indeed.
Go back to your patient, Nurse Fox. You'll tell me
everything in the morning." He watched as she blinked, her
green eyes still confused and then walked across the room to
the door, without looking back.
It wasn't until ten minutes later, as he stood under the
shower, Toby realized he'd not removed her memory. Later.
He'd do it in the morning. Wasn't much of a worry after all.
If she called her field supervisor and reported her quarry
had appeared as if by magic in the middle of the room
without a stitch of clothing, they'd think she'd been taking
funny pills.
Not that Toby was in the habit of wandering around naked in
front of employees. Or anyone come to that. But he was
shocked. He liked Nurse Fox. Really liked her. Too darn much
for his own good and ... Damn! He'd tasted from an FBI
agent. Darn good thing on those occasions he'd held her
under glamor. What would the Feds do with the knowledge they
were investigating a vampire? He'd end up in some nasty
experimental bunker somewhere.
He had to be much more careful.
And he was still bleeding. Whatever that Chupacabra had in
it's saliva and claws slowed healing. Thank Abel, for the
emergency supply of blood in the hidden refrigerator in the
bedroom. It took four bags, but finally the scratches
healed. Toby hid the empty bags to dispose of later, and
went to bed. A couple of hours rest and he'd be right as
rain, and ready to get the full story from the devious and
delectable Laura Fox.
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