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What word best describes true love?
Giles: Sacrifice
Brigit: Trust
Finish this sentence: When I think of love, I think of _______
Giles: Honor and respect. Without that, you have nothing.
Brigit: Family. I never appreciated how important that was until it was taken from me. Now there’s just my brother and my cousin, Kendra. I would do absolutely anything for them.
What’s your ideal romantic evening?
Giles: A sleeping bag under the stars, a thermos of something hot with a kick to it and a woman to share them with.
Brigit: Room service in a 5-Star hotel with a view of the city, a spa tub and lots of imagination.
What’s the perfect Valentine’s Day gift?
Giles: Unwrapping it. (winks)
Brigit: Jewelry. It’s all about the bling.
Did you ever think you’d found that perfect love? What happened?
Giles: I thought so, but her idea of what she wanted me to become wasn’t who I was.
Brigit: My brother is fond of saying the men in my life change as frequently as the weather. I thought I’d found Mr. For the Rest of My Life but he ended up getting himself killed in a foolish attempt to eliminate Giles’s employer. Awkward.
What are the ideal traits you’re looking for in a forever love?
Giles: Honesty, courage, a sense of humor and adventure.
Brigit: Dependability, acceptance, strength, the ability to see beyond the surface to who I really am.
What first attracted you to each other?
Giles: Her vulnerability and the fierce way she tries to hide it.
Brigit: His eyes. He has nice, kind eyes that tend to see way too much.
What kept you from acting on that attraction?
Giles: I gave my word to her brother that I’d protect her. Even from me.
Brigit: Human, duh! He’d never be able to handle my baggage. And I’m not talking wardrobe.
What would he/she have to change to make this relationship work?
Giles: Her unwillingness to trust.
Brigit: His crazy idea that he’s not worthy of what he deserves to have.
What would you be willing to change to make this relationship succeed?
Giles: Being over-protective. I have a habit of wanting to take care of everything on my own terms. Kind of a bad habit for both of us.
Brigit: My clothing allowance. What? That’s a big deal! I guess I could be a little nicer.
What’s the best thing about the two of you together?
Giles: Our compatibility. She keeps me on my toes. I like a challenge . . . and the sex.
Brigit: We get each other, flaws and all. And the sex is good.
What are you most looking forward to as a couple?
Giles: Building a family.
Brigit: Having a home, a place to belong.
What could stand in your way?
Giles: My past.
Brigit: The truth.
by Nancy Gideon
Balancing a criminal empire and a preternatural clan war, reluctant front man Giles St. Clair doesn’t need a problem like Brigit MacCreedy . . . How much trouble can the head-strong and manipulative Shifter beauty get into in two weeks? Plenty when her schemes range from kidnapping to fleeing the retribution of her dead lover’s clan.
With her family’s lives on the line, Brigit is willing to do whatever it takes to save them. The only thing standing in her way is an immovable stone wall of a man she can’t bully or beguile . . . a human, no less, who has promised to protect her from the secrets and dangers she conceals.
Risking her own safety gets complicated when an honorable and annoyingly desirable man puts himself between her and her powerful enemies in a battle he can’t win in this Taming of the Shrew meets Shifter Goodfellas on the Bayou tale of consequences, redemption and finding love in all the wrong places.
Excerpt:
Music?
Brigit slit her eyes open to the brightness of midmorning. She was alone in the bunk. Harsh-smelling coffee warmed on the hot plate, and Giles was nowhere in sight. Then she heard the unmistakable crack of ax into wood.
Feeling tired and sticky and . . . fabulous, she stretched and reached for the crimson-colored sweatshirt Giles had left folded on the edge of the mattress. Harvard? She slipped it over her head to swim in generous folds that came almost to her knees. Rolling back the cuffs, she found the shoe she’d tucked Boyd’s cell phone into, discouraged to see no message from Silas. She tucked it under the sleeping bag on the top bunk, pushed bare feet into her shoes, and went to pour coffee. Her whole body ached gloriously, making her smile as she stepped out onto the tiny back porch.
Because she could still hear his voice, rough with passion.
Bree.
Giles had his back to her, splitting wood in the glare of morning light, a beautiful sight in his revealing muscle shirt. Strong, sexy. A light sweat had broken out on his shoulders, gleaming amid scores of scratches, some nearly healed from their passionate tussle in New Orleans and some raw stripes from hours ago. Chagrined, she put a nail trim and manicure on her agenda for the day.
He’d taken the batteries out of the flashlight to power an old cassette player and was timing his swings to the raucous beat of a late-eighties hip-hop tune that probably dated back to days spent here in male bonding. Something ridiculous about Humpty Dumpty dancing? Her gaze followed the suggestive rock and bump of his hips as the sassy backup singers crooned, “Do me, baby.”
Oh, yay. Good idea.
Time to whip up something for breakfast.
She’d taken a step forward, intending to initiate some moves of her own, when the music dialed down and muted as another sound reached her.
The cup fell from her hands, shattering on the wood planking, as all her senses trembled and went taut.
And a single cry ripped from her.
“Giles, behind you!”
Giles spun, continuing his momentum with the ax so it caught his assailant midleap in the upper chest, flinging him to the ground. Even as he wrestled the blade free, his attacker was gaining his feet, falling into a menacing crouch as his lips pulled back from a mouth full of dagger-like teeth.
Alarm became coldly dangerous intentions when he recognized the disfigured Shifter from Brigit’s description.
“Brigit, get inside!”
He didn’t look around to see if she obeyed. There was no time as the creature sprang.
Driven to the ground on his back, Giles couldn’t angle for another swing as he was forced to grip the ever thickening throat to keep those deadly teeth away from him. A battle he knew he wasn’t going to win as the beast completed its change of form into something monstrous and impossibly strong.
Run, Brigit! That was all he had time to think. Run!
All he had to do was stay alive long enough for her to get a head start.
There was a deafening report from the porch, and suddenly, the figure hunching over him was plucked off and sent rolling away.
Giles risked a glance toward the cabin to see Brigit with her feet planted wide, his pistol braced in both hands. The pistol he’d wisely loaded with silver rounds.
As he scrambled to his feet, his attacker was gaining his own, obviously struggling not to revert back into humanlike form from the effects of the silver. Brigit’s shot had taken him in the other side of the chest. Giles’s first blow from the ax had already healed. Making him no less lethal as he sprang a second time. No less quick.
And this time Giles didn’t respond fast enough.
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