First Love: A Superbundle Boxed Set of Seven New Adult Romances (72 page)

Liz stirred in her sleep and then took his arm, pulling it back around her to nestle against.

"You 'wake?" she murmured sleepily.

"Just thinking," Robb said.

"About what?"

"About everything. About you. You and me."

"Go back to sleep," Liz said, turning and planting a soft but firm kiss on his lips, then rolling back over. Her back was warm against his chest. "We can talk about it over breakfast."

"We're having breakfast together?" Robb asked.

"Yes," Liz said. "You're making me chocolate chip pancakes."

"That's right," Robb said, grinning as he buried his face into the dark waves of her hair. "I almost forgot."

"You didn't forget the chocolate chips, did you? Tell me you didn't forget them."

"Ma'am, I would never." Robb kissed the back of Liz's head.

A minute passed.

Robb kissed the nape of Liz's neck, nuzzling her until she wriggled again, the soft line of her thighs that led down to her waist. These lines he traced with the palm of his hand, feeling the weight of the body behind them. The curve of her backside pressed firmly against his aroused groin.

"I love your head," he whispered. "Your beautiful, intelligent, chocolate-chip loving head."

"Go to sleep," Liz said. "I'm dreaming."

"About what?" Robb whispered in her ear. Liz turned and looked at Robb. Her dark eyes were framed with black lashes, and they blinked once, slowly.

Liz leaned to press her nose against his and when she spoke, her eyes were already halfway shut.

"About...pancakes."

Then she was asleep again on his arm, and he needed his arm to make pancakes. She was too beautiful to wake. He had to wake her. He lay there next to her for a long while, enjoying the sun's slow crawl across the bed, before getting up to start breakfast.

The End

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EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK by Aubrey

*** The sequel to Heartbitten will be out soon! Here’s a sneak peek of the first chapter of Bloodstricken, a flashback to when Robb was first captured by vampires...***

England, 1642

Robert Chatham, prince regent and heir to the Westfallow throne, screamed like a little girl as the black ghost dragged him away from the castle gates and into the forest mist.

Eliza’s yelling rose above the calls of the guards. He twisted in the arms of the black ghost and saw her reaching out to him from the tower window. Her emerald eyes shone behind her dark hair, and Robb reached back to her. One of the castle’s guards restrained her, and then the ghost pulled Robb across the forest line. The mist swallowed it all up—Eliza, the castle, and everything he’d ever known or loved in all his thirteen years.
 

He would die, he was sure of it.

The ghost who was not a ghost carried him easily through the black pines, and soon Robb stopped kicking. It was no use to struggle against something so strong. The creature had an arm across Robb’s chest and dragged him along as though he was a sack of grain. They travelled through the forest at an angle, across the trading road, and down into the dark forest valley that Robb had never explored before. Nobody went into the valley, not even the hunters.
 

Robb turned his head, trying to catch a glimpse of the black ghost’s face. The man—if he was a man—wore a black cloak, and the hood had fallen down. Robb saw only the side of his head—a shock of dark red hair atop a thin pinched face. The man’s skin was white as the mist swirling through the dark pine branches overhead.

“Ready to walk?”

The voice of the black ghost rasped through the air, and Robb gasped when the man turned his face to speak to him. Dark eyes sunk deep into the man’s skull, and his slicked red hair fell across his face. His thin features looked strange, and as Robb watched, his black irises glowed with sparks of red. Robb swallowed.

“Y-yes,” he said.

The man released him. Robb landed hard on the forest floor, his fall only somewhat tempered by the mat of dead pine needles covering the ground. He scrambled to his feet and immediately ran. His legs pumped fast, fueled by adrenaline and fear, and he didn’t look back to see if the red-haired ghost was following him.
 

Run!
His mind had a single thought in it as he drew breath into his lungs.
Run, run, run!
 

Eliza had challenged him to a race once, around the entire wall perimeter. She was fast, but Robb was faster yet, and would have beaten her if only his mother hadn’t stopped him and scolded him for being ungentlemanly.
 

“Kings don’t run,” the queen had told him, as Eliza skipped past on the wall, sticking out her tongue at him. “And you’ll be a king soon, won’t you?”

His mother.
Robb felt a pang of guilt at the thought of how he’d left her. She’d yelled at him, told him to go. If he lived long enough to make it back to the castle, Robb promised himself now, he would always be obedient to her. But he had to live long enough to make it.
 

He had only sprinted a hundred yards before he was lost in the forest. The white mist around him thickened and made it impossible to see far enough to run. Robb darted from one tree to another, looking back to see only black pine branches and mist. He stopped in a clearing, his breath coming fast in white puffs in front of him. Maybe he could hide here, hide under a fallen log or up in a pine tree. Maybe he could—

“Boy.”

The rasping voice of the black ghost echoed from out of the branches of the pine tree and from all directions in the mist. Robb spun, trying to find the black ghost, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Boy, stop running. There’s no use.”

Heart pounding, Robb ran in one direction toward a large pine he thought he remembered from before. He reached it and stopped, his back pressed against the tree trunk. The thud of his heartbeat made it hard to hear anything else, and he tried not to pant for air, for fear he’d give himself away. The forest was silent. The black ghost was gone. He’d lost him. He’d—

A laugh rose from out of the white mist, a cackling laugh that made Robb’s blood run cold. The laugh grew louder. The ghost was close; he must be close. Robb twisted his neck, trying to find the red-eyed man somewhere. Nothing. Louder, louder. The laughter screeched in Robb’s ears until he was sure the ghost was right in front of him, invisible somehow. His leg muscles twitched, tense and wanting to run. Robb forced himself to stay still. His whole body trembled against the rough bark of the pine.

Then a voice whispered right into his ear, out of thin air:

“Come with me.”

Robb snapped and broke away from the tree running. He didn’t know where he was going or in what direction, but the voice from the mist had shattered any semblance of control he had over himself. His mind was empty save for the feeling of pure panic. Panic drove him through the trees, running so quickly he could not see the branches in front of him in the mist. The twigs tore at his clothes and he broke through the thicker limbs without a thought for the pain. His legs burned with the ache of the run.

He broke through a thick cluster of pines and looked back for only a moment. When he turned back around the black ghost was in front of him. His eyes glowed redder than they had before.

“No,” Robb said, backing away. “No. No, please—”

The man was at his side before Robb could blink, had a hand on his collar. Robb felt himself lifted and thrown. He hit the ground and slid, his body scraping across the forest floor until he came to rest against a mossy stump. By the time he’d stopped, the man was at his side again. Robb scrambled up and went to run, but the man jerked him up by one arm and tossed him spinning. This time he rolled hard, his arm hitting something—a branch, a rock?—that sent a shooting pain up his arm. He staggered to his feet holding his injured arm and looked up to see the man standing inches away from him.

“Done running? Then come with me.”

Robb gritted his teeth through the pain. Useless—the ghost was right about that. Robb was like a rat being played with by one of the castle cats. Run, and the ghost would let him go for a ways before swatting him back. He stood tall and tried to speak with a powerful voice.

“I am Robert Chatham, prince of—”

The man backhanded Robb across his face. The shock of the blow sent him reeling as much as the pain of it. As a prince, Robb had never been hit. Not for years, not since he was young enough for his mother to spank him. Robb looked up in terror at the man who obviously wasn’t going to bow to someone ranked above him, not even if that someone was a prince.

“Didn’t ask what your name was. Asked if you were done running.”

Robb touched his lip. His fingers came away bloody.

“Well? You coming?”

Robb shook his head. If he couldn’t run, at the least he could refuse to go willingly.

“What’s that supposed to mean? No?” The man laughed, the cackling ringing loud in Robb’s ears.

“No,” Robb said. “I won’t go with you.”

“Stubborn lad. Well, then, I’m sick of carrying you. Walk with me.”

“I won’t—”

“
Walk with me.
”

The voice this time was different, and Robb felt the sound flow through his body, taking control of it. There was a shiver in the back of his head, at the base of his skull, and his legs began to move. The ghost’s voice was inside of him, seeping through him, the sound reverberating through his nerves.

“What—what are you doing? What are you doing to me?”

“Getting a stubborn boy to walk,” the man said.

Robb’s legs moved stiffly, jerking forward even as he willed himself to stand still. It was as though an invisible hand was pushing him from behind, flicking his knees up in a grotesque facsimile of walking. It hurt to fight against the motion.

“Stop! Please stop,” Robb said. His legs moved against his control. Tears began to flow down his face. This man, this ghost, this monster had total control of him. There was nothing he could do, no way he could run. He would never see his mother again, or his father.

“Don’t kill me, please,” Robb begged. “Please. I’m a prince. I’m worth ten thousand gold guineas in ransom. You’ll be rich beyond your wildest dreams if you take me back. Please.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” the man said. He turned his red eyes toward Robb, and a flash of something—sorrow, it looked like—crossed his face. “You’ll wish I had, though, by the end of it.”

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BLIND WOLF by Aubrey Rose

Julia has never been on a date in her life. She's a curvy girl with no money, no education, and no way out of the town she works in as a library assistant... until Damien shows up. He's just like the prince charming Julia always imagined would sweep her off of her feet. There are just a few things standing in the way of true happiness: he's blind, he's dating someone, and he's WAY out of her
league.

Oh, and he's a werewolf.

Damien lost his eyes two years ago in a wolf battle. Ever since then, the straggler pack of disabled wolves he leads has been searching for a place to call home. One house seems like the perfect choice, but Damien realizes too late that the person who lives there is the girl he met at the library. The human girl. Damien is torn between loyalty to his pack and raw lusting desire for the girl who haunts his dreams day and night.

She's a human. How could she be his true mate?

From NYTimes and USA Today Bestselling author Aubrey Rose comes a new shifter book that's as wild and hot as anything. This werewolf shifter BBW romance novella is 25,000 words long, has some naughty language, and a lot of naughty sex. Be warned!

Learn more about my first new adult romance novel,

Me Cinderella

One kind deed can change your life forever...

Brynn Tomlin could never afford to follow her heart. But when she sees a stranger shivering in the snow outside of the college library, an inexplicable urge leads her to buy him a hot cup of coffee. It's just a small act of kindness, a few words of conversation. Brynn should be focusing on her finals, after all, not on the man who looked up at her gratefully with piercing blue eyes.

He could have been anyone - a janitor on break, a graduate student, a bum. But the man standing outside in the cold turns out to be Dr. Eliot Herceg, one of the most brilliant minds in mathematics and heir to a fortune. After years of reclusive isolation, he now finds his heart awakening to the kind girl whose name he does not know.

Brynn has spent her life trying to forget her desires, and Eliot's deep wounds have taken nearly a decade to heal. After so much hurt, will either of them be able to open their hearts again?