Mary Wine.com -- Book Excerpts

Walking out of the door, Brice gritted his teeth against the chill in the air, another ten degrees and they’d be plowing the roads come morning. Normal or not, the woman was still human.

He crouched down beside Grace. The rain had washed most of the dirt from her face but the continued drenching was causing dirt to run out of her hair in muddy rivers along the sides of her face. She held her face angled upwards into the rain to keep it out of her eyes. Brice forced his eyes to watch for any sign of life, he’d seen corpses that looked more alive than she did right now. There was a slight rise and fall to her chest. So slight he almost missed it.

There was no missing the shiver that shook her frame a moment later. Just why she elected to remain outside in the cold, he didn’t know. But she was going inside right now before she ended up in shock from exposure.

“Grace?”

Not even a flicker of an eyelash. Reaching for her hand, Brice gave it a shake. She reacted to the touch with the same violence that a pressure-activated land mine did.

Brice was treated to a view of stunning emerald fury before she planted both feet squarely over his chest and kicked him away from her body. She may have been small, but what there was of her was solid muscle.

Reflex kicked in, causing Brice to brutally retain his grip on her body. Her attack sent him rolling across the asphalt, while his grip on her arm pulled her along with him. His brain reacted instantly to his vulnerable position. He flipped her over to her back before she had the chance to think.

“Get off me!”

The venom she issued that order with caused Brice to remain across her body. Her eyes screamed rejection but that didn’t seem to matter too much to him at the moment. Her body felt almost perfect. Brice felt the unmistakable feel of her nipples against his chest. They were beaded and hard, stabbing into his body. That wasn’t anger, it was arousal. The kind that happened without thought. She wanted him.

Brice felt an answering surge of heat from his own body. His staff rose to instant attention. Her eyes widened as she clearly felt his erection against her belly. Raising his knee, Brice nudged it into the center of her body. She gasped as he touched the sensitive juncture between her thighs. He grabbed her remaining free hand by the wrist, stretching her arm above her head.

“What’s your problem? I’m the one getting soaked now.”

Grace felt her body shutter in response to his. The pure dominance of his hold actually excited her. Anger flared inside her but it mixed with the intense stimulation of his touch, making her even more aware of his body. He nudged her thighs further apart making her shiver as pleasure shot straight into her belly from the contact.

“I don’t like being touched, so get off of me!”

“That’s a lie. I can feel how much you like it. I can even smell it.”

Her emerald stare was searing in its anger. Brice held it for a moment before pushing himself to his feet, pulling her along with him. The hospital parking lot wasn’t exactly the place to explore just what her body triggered in his own.

The second she regained her footing she violently jerked her arm from his hold. She retreated several paces before squaring off with him. A slight grin lifted the corner of his mouth as he considered the hard sound of her breathing. Desire was an unruly demon. It struck whenever it pleased. Jacobs’ operative didn’t seem to appreciate the sudden attraction. That made Brice lift both side of his mouth into a smile. He was going enjoy changing her mind.

While she appeared to have plenty of mental energy to expend, her body looked to be just one step short of collapse. Spasms were shaking her frame almost continuously now. If she hadn’t had her jaw set so firmly, Brice fully expected he would have heard her teeth chattering.

“Time to come inside, don’t you think?”

“I prefer it right here.”

The challenge she issued made Brice curl his lips back further. Proving the issue to her was going to be a pleasure. His pleasure.

“Like it or not, you’re not staying out in this chill.”

“The temperature is not life threatening. Find someone else who needs your concern.”

“Let me get a mirror darling, because if that body of yours shakes any harder you’re going to end up on your tail.”

“It’s my tail. Get lost!”

“Go inside now!”

The steel edged command grated her nerves. The Sheriff seemed determined to force his will upon her. A ghost of a smile touched Grace’s face, most civilians were afraid of her. She considered the probing brown eyes once more. This man wasn’t a civilian, he was a predator neatly disguised in civilian law enforcement uniform. The truth was etched in the depths of his probing eyes. He wasn’t tame.

“No.”

Her precise pronunciation of that single word was more telling than if she had screamed it. Brice’s eyes darkened as he watched her step back into a wider stance that would allow her to defend herself more effectively. He felt his arousal tighten another notch. She wasn’t going to give him the chance to chase her, she intended to stand her ground.

“Fine, if that is the way it’s going to be.”

The location could be damned! Brice intended to prove a thing or two the second he got her pined under him again. His body tightened as he considered the raw surge of heat she inspired in him.

“I see the two of you have gotten acquainted.”

Brice turned about to find Jacobs standing exactly four paces behind him.

Grace refused to endure the hard look that Jacobs pegged her with. Paige Heeley had been recovered, beyond that she declined to be critiqued. The Sheriff’s eyes flashed at her and she glared right back at the man. Her body shivered again as fatigue washed over her in a wave.

A blind man wouldn’t have missed the increased violence of the shivers that shook her body. Jason silently cursed himself. He shouldn’t have allowed his curiosity with Graces’s reaction to Brice to distract him from her level of exhaustion.

And Grace was exhausted. Aided by the freezing rain, her body was slipping into shock as he watched.

“Let’s go, Grace.”

It was a simple statement, yet Grace struggled to comprehend it. Jason inclined his head in the direction opposite her. The Sheriff was watching her with those sharp eyes again, so she forced her back straight. He wanted to touch her so she would deny him the chance by keeping her feet under her.

She considered the tan Sheriff’s department uniform that was sticking to his chest. The wet material reviled tight ridges of muscles that she remembered laying across her body. Her breasts lifted again as she spun on her heel before his eyes dropped to her nipples once more. An ache returned to her belly as she forced her remaining energy into recalling the tan uniform.

The man was a civilian. So, she would never see him again.

Brice watched the uneven pair until they faded from sight. He winced slightly as the muscles of his chest issued a slight complaint.

Casting his eyes back down the walkway, Brice slowly grinned.

Now, that was definitely no lady!

* * Read another excerpt from Mary Wine's Dream Shadow at Ellora's Cave.com * *