Far From Heaven (24 page)
Calliope did the only thing she could think to get Nick to steer his truck—and his life—in a new direction. Banished from the Fae realm for granting a wish gone bad, her punishment is an impossible task; redeem the unredeemable Nick Garret. If she fails to help him pair three couples in everlasting bliss, he’s doomed to never experience real love. And she will share his fate—as a mortal.
Nick can’t decide if this charming, exasperating woman is a dream come true, or a saucy, sexy nightmare sent to drive him insane. Yet something about her makes him want to rise to her challenge. He’ll do anything to make her stick around a while.
Besides, how much trouble can one half-naked, seemingly wingless faerie be?
Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Matchmakers:
Nick stole glances at his passenger while he followed the winding mountain roads toward the state forest. The views from the Appalachian foothills were spectacular this time of year, and he’d been itching to get out in the cool autumn air and fill his lungs with freedom.
Unfortunately, the view in the car was equally distracting. Callie had traded her pink satin pajamas for faded jeans and hiking boots. Under a matching denim jacket, she wore a fluffy sweater the color of caramel. It looked soft as a kitten, and Nick’s fingers ached to touch it.
He’d asked himself over and over why he wanted to do this—why he wanted to be with her today. The easy answer was, why not? She was beautiful, vivacious and when she wasn’t driving him crazy, she left him breathless. Loony or not, she was nice to look at and maybe, if he could figure out how to draw her out, he’d learn a little more about her. He needed a better explanation as to why she seemed more and more like a magical creature and less and less like an escaped mental patient.
“Oh look! Pumpkins!”
Nick smiled at her delighted cry. Mounds of brilliant orange pumpkins, some plain and others painted with goofy neon faces, spilled over wooden tables and out of huge crates at a roadside stand. A rocky gravel lot served as a parking area, and Nick pulled in between another pickup and an SUV.
“They’ve got cider. I haven’t had cider in years,” he said as he rounded the back of the truck and helped Callie out.
She breezed past him and immediately wrapped her arms around a twenty-pound pumpkin, hugging it like a long lost friend. “Look at this one! He’s beautiful.”
“It looks like all the other ones, only bigger.”
“It’s perfect for a centerpiece for the bar.”
“Oh. Can’t Farley get his own pumpkins? He hasn’t even agreed to have the party yet.”
Her face fell, and once again, Nick felt like a monster. Why did her smile suddenly mean so much to him? He thumped the pumpkin’s unblemished hide and reached for his wallet. Callie rewarded him with a triumphant grin as she hauled the huge gourd off its table.
Nick pulled out his wallet and paid for the pumpkin and two cups of fresh cider. He leaned against the truck, grinning into his cup while Callie hoisted her prize into the back of the flat bed.
She glared at him when he handed her the cider. “You could have helped.”
He shook his head. “You could’ve popped that thing back to the apartment or right to the bar.”
“Not in front of everybody,” she whispered between sips of cider.
Nick shrugged. “You could’ve made it weigh less.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but no words came out. Her expression told him he’d pay for his cheeky comments later, and he relished the challenge.
They finished their cider in silence and climbed back in the truck. Callie immediately twisted around in her seat to check on their new passenger. “Will he be all right back there?”
“He?”
“It’s a male pumpkin.”
“Of course. Pumpkins have gender?”
“Everything has an essence that defines its sex.”
Nick struggled not to laugh. Her serious expression forbade it. “I see. It’ll—
he’ll
be fine. Are you sure you don’t want to buy him a lady friend before we go?”
“I’m sure.”
Nick just shook his head. Faerie logic would be the death of him yet.
The morning’s destination was a scenic overlook abutted by a crumbling, moss-covered stone wall. The view rivaled anything visible in the Fae realm and made Callie homesick. She shivered in the autumn breeze. Nick put his own jacket around her shoulders, and her heart thumped wildly.
“It’s colder than I expected up here.” He stood close, and Callie leaned into his warmth, wishing for the endless summer of her world. “There’s the road back to Bayerville. If you look past that farm and along the tree line, you can see the hiking trail that leads to the skating pond.”
Callie followed Nick’s tour of the fiery landscape lit with brilliant gold and orange foliage. Country traffic meandered along thin ribbons of road that wound through the hills. Here and there, the familiar shapes of grazing horses and cows dotted the hillsides, and not a single cloud interrupted the endless blue of the October sky.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, fighting to keep her voice light. “It reminds me of home.”
“What’s your world like? Do the seasons change?”
“Not like they do here. We have a time when the leaves change color and a time when the flowers bloom, but it never becomes unbearably hot or cold. We don’t get rain…unless we want to create some. It never gets dark.”
Nick surveyed the land spread out before them. “Rain isn’t so bad. Sometimes it can be…sort of comforting.”
“You love it here, don’t you?”
Nick seemed reluctant to answer, but Callie felt his thoughts. He wanted this to be his home, but he didn’t want to need it so badly.
“It’s nice here. It’s nice in a lot of places I’ve been.”
“You love open space. You hated the time you spent in the cities, didn’t you?”
He nodded, snaking his arm around Callie’s waist, making her stomach flutter. “I hate smog. Traffic. Subways.”
“I bet you love snow, don’t you?”
He grinned. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Snow is nice. It’s a little too cold for me. What else do you love?”
“I love sleeping in hammocks and cold lemonade and…”
“What else?”
His eyes narrowed on her, and she sensed his discontent. “I can see right through you, Tinkerbell. This is some kind of lesson, isn’t it?”
Callie feigned innocence. “I just want to know more about you.”
“I hate mind games and psychobabble.”
Callie pulled away from him, though she was reluctant to leave the safe circle of his arms. “It’s not a game, Nick. When love is gone—it’s all gone. You’ll lose it all.”
“I said I’d help you with this mission of yours—”
“It’s for both of us, Nick. Not just me. I want you to understand that.”
“I’m trying.” He stepped forward and tilted her chin up with his fingers. “Tell me what you love.”
His lips hovered close to hers, and Callie’s breath caught. She could kiss him now and make him feel something he wouldn’t want to lose. But that wasn’t her mission. She moved back just enough to break the hypnotic pull between them.
“I love helping people fall in love. And I don’t want to lose that.”
The rest of the day passed in a blur of crimson leaves and blue sky. They drove through the forest and back and had dinner in a small café that sold hand-churned ice cream and dusty antiques.
Nick stayed close to Callie, aware of the glances of other men and feeling proprietary. By the time they returned home, the buzz of arousal had replaced the light mood of their afternoon.
He followed her up the stairs and hesitated before unlocking the door. “Did you have a good time today?”
“I did. Maybe we can do this again sometime before…”
“Before what?”
“Before I go.”
“We don’t have to think about you going right now, do we?”
“No.”
He centered his gaze on her lips, pink and moist, still sweet from the peach ice cream he’d bought for her. He wanted a taste, and the sleepy-sultry look in her green eyes told him she did, too.
He leaned in, his fingers creeping up under her jacket. A second later his lips nearly collided with the doorframe, and his hands closed on empty air. He caught himself before he stumbled, face first, through the door as she opened it from the inside.
“Hi, Nick.”
“What was that about?” He leaned one arm above her head on the doorframe. “I almost kissed a brick.”
“I’m sorry about that, but we’re not here to fool around.”
“I wasn’t fooling.”
“Nick.” She put a soft finger across his lips and leaned close. The faint smell of roses teased him. “No distractions.” She turned and walked into the apartment, disappearing into the kitchen.
Nick watched her go. He’d been shot down before, not often, of course, but there were certain women on which the Garrett charm just didn’t work. Somehow, his borrowed intuition told him Calliope was not one of them. He’d seen desire in her eyes, felt it each time their fingers touched. Something held her back, though, and he vowed to figure out what it was. He needed to uncover all her secrets, and he wasn’t going to let her disappear without knowing exactly what she was all about.
Far from Heaven
Cherrie Lynn
His love could damn her soul…
Ashemnon’s demonic hunger for Madeleine Dean’s pure, vibrant soul has tormented him throughout every lifetime she’s lived on earth. Now, thanks to her desperate father, he has a blood-tight contract in hand. Soon, her soul will belong to him.
All her life, Maddie has been haunted by strange occurrences, hallucinations and increasingly intense nightmares. As her ex-boyfriend walks away, she can almost hear the pieces of her life falling around her. And then she falls—literally—into the arms of a stranger who’s the first and only person to understand.
Ash meant to pluck her soul, not sweep her off her feet. Yet the moment they touch, the temptation to seduce her again and again is more than he can resist. Despite the risk, he finds himself succumbing to her charms. And, impossibly, falling in love.
Then Ash learns the reason it’s taken centuries to get to this point: He’s not the only one with a claim on her soul. Heaven and Hell are in a tug of war—and Maddie’s the rope. Control wrested from his hands, Ash can only wait for her to make a choice that will damn one soul to Hell…or damn her own.
Warning: This title contains obsession, soul possession, and hot carnal transgression. Oh, and a few scares for good measure. You can’t keep this bad demon down—though you’ll want to try.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520
Macon GA 31201
Far From Heaven
Copyright © 2011 by Cherrie Lynn
ISBN: 978-1-60928-432-9
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: April 2011
