Rivals (Shifter Island #2) Page 11

Maybe that would help.

  “You look so serious,” Aaron said.

  “Life really isn’t simple, is it? Even when you take away all the things that people think are complications. There’s still conflict. People get scared. Lonely.”

  “Are you scared?”

  “Me?” Abby brushed her cheek against his. “No. Not as long as I can be with you. I feel safe. Happy.”

  “As do I.”

  Aaron stood up then, water streaming off the lines and planes of his perfect body. He reached down to take her hand and pulled her up with him, then nodded toward the bank of the stream. “I’m hungry now,” he confessed. “And, yes, I’m feeling a little wrinkled. I need to stretch. Move around.”

  She did too, Abby realized. Sitting there in the water had made her a little lightheaded, and it had been several hours since they’d had anything to eat. This time there were plenty of provisions at the cabin, courtesy of Aaron’s mother: fresh bread, lots of fruit and vegetables, some dried meat.

  She took a minute to wring the water out of her hair and slick it off her skin, then followed Aaron to the shore and dried herself off the rest of the way with the towel he’d brought along. She would have been tempted to walk with him back to the cabin without getting dressed, but she’d discovered that the path was too lined with scratchy twigs and brambles to allow for that.

  The dress she put on was his favorite: bright yellow with tiny white flowers, something she’d chosen back home because it coordinated with her travel bag. He was smiling at her again as she wiggled into it, which made her think that maybe it wasn’t the color that appealed to him, but the way the fabric hugged her curves.

  “Men,” she teased him. “It’s always about the boobies, isn’t it?”

  Aaron blinked at her. “The… what?”

  She demonstrated.

  “Oh,” he said. “Yes, I suppose it is. I do like those very much.” He was still smiling as he took her hand. “Although there isn’t anything about you that I don’t like. You’re truly beautiful, Abby Sullivan. I love every part of you.”

  They didn’t rush getting back to the cabin; they stopped several times to kiss and caress each other, which prompted a loud, chattering protest from a startled squirrel they passed along the way. By the time she could see the cabin in the distance, Abby was truly famished, and thought she might make a quick meal of some bread and fruit rather than waiting for Aaron to cook something.

  “Can we–” she began.

  Then the breath left her lungs.

  There were people at the cabin, one of them circling the small building, the other standing in the doorway. They were talking to each other, the one who was circling clearly angry; his voice was piercing and relentless, and he was waving a fist in the air.

  Aaron stopped walking at the same moment Abby did, and extended an arm to block her path, but he didn’t need to have done that. She was perfectly happy to stop, to go nowhere near the man who was storming around the cabin.

  It was Lane, the man she’d left behind at Dolphin Cove.

  With him was the elderly man from whom she’d “borrowed” the boat.

  “Oh, God,” she whispered. “Oh, no.”

  * * * *

  .

  Shifter Island

  Aaron and Abby’s story concludes in…

  Book Three: Forever (Click the link to order)

  Now that the real guilty party has been found, Aaron and Abby can plead their case in front of the elders and hope for permission to stay together. Abby has begun to gain acceptance among the pack, and things look bright… until an intruder from the mainland puts the safety of everyone on the island, and her future with Aaron, in serious jeopardy.

  Coming in June 2016…

  Book Four: Quest

  Years ago, during a visit to the mainland, Aaron’s brother Luca met a beautiful redhead named Allison and felt the pull of the mating bond. But Allison was a human, and even though she was in love with Luca, she refused to leave her home and family to join him on the island. Although his heart was broken, Luca had no choice but to accept her decision. Now, he’s seen his brother and Abby find love together… and he’s determined to find Allison, no matter where she is, and make her his mate.

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  Most of my work—although it’s in a variety of genres—revolves around the subject of family, both the ones we’re born into, and the families we create through love, and friendship, and shared experience. If you’d like to investigate more of my books, you can find them via my author page at Amazon and at my website.

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