Honey House (26 page)
Authors: Laura Harner
We still hadn’t talked beyond the murmurs of sex. We hadn’t discussed what happened last night. I still didn’t know what Quinn was, although I was beginning to have some idea. I finally realized why Owen’s gesture of running his hand over Quinn’s body looked familiar. I’d seen Quinn himself do it first, the night he first made love to me. He’d not been gentle that night either, and I should have been sore. Instead, Quinn had brushed a hand over my skin, and all of my discomfort had eased. Owen was one of the Fae. A fairy. Did that mean—
I pushed the thought aside. It wasn’t worth worrying about right now. So
what
if I didn’t know what Quinn was? I didn’t know what
I
was, either. I didn’t know what the House wanted from me or what Joanne expected to happen when she’d arranged for me to come here after her death.
Juniper Springs might pretend to be Sedona’s little cousin in all things metaphysical, but I knew that the truly unbelievable lived here. The location of the House couldn’t be a coincidence. What was it about this particular part of the world that drew so many mythical creatures? And how was it that the sheriff knows them all?
Protects them all?
This small community was the stuff of fairy tales, nightmares, and bad Hollywood movies. Werewolves, witches, and Fae…oh my! There was something here…something that tied all of the secrets together.
In spite of so many unknowns or perhaps because of them, I needed to remember what I had learned since coming to Juniper Springs. The Honey House might be a first class bed and breakfast, but it also was the first real home I’d ever known. A home—me? Who’d have thunk it?
With a small smile, I ran through the names: Gregory, Owen, Raymond, and Gabrielle. I suppose I needed to include Stevie now, though I’d only met him as a wolf. These were all my people, maybe even something like a family.
Did Quinn belong with the others? Or was what I felt for him something more? When I’d thought he was dying, a terrified part of me feared he would be lost to me forever. Did that mean I—
Steel bands tightened around my chest, and Quinn pulled me over to lie on top of his chest.
“Mmm…Katie, love,” he murmured against the marks on my neck. “You’re thinking too damned hard. I have a much better use for all that excess energy,” he said, as his hands smoothed down my back.
A delicious shiver shuddered through me as my mouth sought his. Yes, I wanted this…I wanted him. Quinn and I might not be the sort of people who believed in happily ever after, but maybe…just maybe, we could have a happily for now.
~~The End~~
About the Author
Raised in California, Laura likes it hot, which explains why she ended up in Arizona via such diverse places as Japan, Maine, and Florida, and many more places in between. After retiring from the US Navy, she found a niche working for land management agencies, including the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Though she has held many jobs around the world, her favorite was working and living in Grand Canyon National Park. Working (and eating) in New Orleans was a close second. You will find many of her books are set against the rich backdrops provided by coastal Louisiana and northern Arizona.
When asked how she started writing, Laura tells of waking on Boxing Day a few years ago, with a woman named Elena MacFarland yammering in her dreams, demanding her story be told. Despite never attempting to write fiction before that morning, Laura ignored all of the holiday visitors and the Highland Destiny series was born. She doesn’t believe it was a coincidence that the great grandmother who died when Laura was just a baby was named Elena MacFarland. Destiny does play a hand.
Laura became a full-time writer in 2012, and now she spends her time writing, watching her Arizona Diamondbacks, and working on her very own version of the Willow Springs Ranch in northwestern Arizona. She is a multi-published author of erotic romance, mystery, and urban fantasy and her books can be found at all major online retailers.
Connect with Laura at:
Twitter:
@LauraHarner
Facebook:
facebook.com/lauraharner
Or even better…check out the website at:
LauraHarner.com
Also Available
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Ty Hard, Book One of the Willow Springs Ranch Series
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