Indelible (25 page)

For now, she was content to sit with Angie, who had changed, a subtle shift in the way she clung to her. A vulnerability had replaced the guarded distance in her eyes. The soft graze of her lips against the skin at the base of Luna’s throat was not a seduction, but a thank you. And when Jack entered the room, Angie squeezed her hand, holding her possessively close when Luna started to move.

“So, what’s the prognosis?” Luna indicated Oliver. Beyond the neon green cast on his arm, no other damage was visible.

“The broken arm is the worst of it.” Angie smoothed Oliver’s hair. “We can take him home when he wakes up.”

Luna was relieved. For all she knew, he could have slipped into a coma. “He’s just sleeping?”

“The painkillers knocked him out,” Jack explained.

Oliver moaned from his bed, struggling to sit up. “Mom? What happened?”

Angie stood, pulling Luna with her. “How are you, son?”

“Feels like I’ve been hit by a car.”

Angie sobbed and laughed. “You were.”

Oliver rubbed his eyes, pulling back his arm to inspect the cast. He looked at it for a minute, then at Luna. “Will you sign it?”

“Absolutely.” Luna loved him for the simple invitation. “Let me just find a pen.”

Oliver smiled, his eyes falling closed again.

Luna waited, afraid now that the immediate threat to Oliver had abated, Angie would remember that she didn’t want Luna in her life.

Angie squeezed her hand and cuddled into Luna, her lips close to her ear. “Come home with us. We’ll work the rest out later.”

Home.
“Sounds perfect to me.”

Sunday, October 11

Angie traced her fingers over the soft skin of Luna’s low back, chasing the flickering shadows cast by the candles on the nightstand. Luna’s body, perfect and open to her, was her favorite pastime. A new territory to be explored, mapped, and cherished time and again. Finally, she could picture herself thirty years in the future, taking the same care to learn the inevitable changes.

“Mmm, feels good.” Luna shifted, bringing her body around to rest on her side. “Going to let me repay the favor?” She captured Angie’s hand in hers and brought it to her mouth, kissing her fingers delicately.

“Later.” Angie eased Luna onto her back and tucked herself into Luna’s side, her head resting on Luna’s shoulder. “Right now I just want to bask in the afterglow.”

Luna tightened her arms around Angie, bringing their bodies flush. “Sounds good.”

With her leg thrown over Luna, Angie’s naked center pressed against Luna’s hip. Every movement created delicious friction and her body flared to life. With a groan she pulled herself away a fraction.

“Really?” Luna asked, her eyes heavy and laughing. She was the only woman Angie knew who could look genuinely amused and turned on at the same time.

“Always.” A few weeks prior, Angie wouldn’t have dared be so honest. She refused to let Luna know how much she affected her. Now she couldn’t imagine holding anything back.

“I love you.” Luna kissed Angie, her lips gentle, loving, and undemanding. She’d done that a lot recently, declared her love then immediately eliminated the possibility for Angie to reciprocate. Even if Angie wanted to say the words in return, it was hard to do with Luna’s tongue exploring her mouth.

When the kiss ended, Angie looked into Luna’s eyes, holding her gaze in the soft candlelight. “I do, too, you know.”

Luna’s mouth curved into a slow smile. “What?”

“Love you,” Angie whispered, the power of her emotions cracking her voice, breaking it down until she could barely force air past her lips. She needed Luna to know, needed the love to reach Luna’s heart.

Luna pulled her closer, covering her mouth in a demanding kiss, her tongue exploring Angie’s lips, her teeth, the soft skin inside her mouth. She pulled away with a sob. “Thank you.”

“I should have said it sooner.”

“No.” Tears, heavy and fat, rolled down Luna’s face. “You said it when you were ready. That means everything.”

“Promise me…” The unspoken request was too much for Angie, dying before fully formed. She couldn’t bring herself to ask for what she really wanted,
needed
from Luna.

“Anything.” Luna kissed Angie’s eyes. “Anything you want. I promise.”

“Just hold me.” Angie left the word
forever
unsaid. Luna knew her fear of being abandoned. They’d discussed it calmly, over coffee the morning after they brought Oliver home from the hospital. Saying she loved Luna was a huge step. Saying she needed her to be there, to promise to never leave, was more than Angie could manage. The weight of it sank into her chest, unable to make its way to the surface.

“Always, Angie. I’m here.” Luna gathered her carefully, tenderly, as the candles around them sputtered and gave way. Luna’s voice found her in the dark. “I’ll always be here.”

Jove Belle was born and raised against a backdrop of orchards and potato fields. The youngest of four children, she was raised in a conservative, Christian home and began asking why? at a very young age, much to the consternation of her mother and grandmother. At the customary age of eighteen, she fled southern Idaho in pursuit of broader minds and fewer traffic jams involving the local livestock. The road didn’t end in Portland, Oregon, but there were many confusing freeway interchanges that a girl from the sticks was ill prepared to deal with. As a result, she has lived in the Portland metro area for over fifteen years and still can’t figure out how she manages to spend so much time in traffic when there’s not a stray sheep or cow in sight.

She lives with her partner of fifteen years. Between them they share three children, two dogs, two cats, two mortgage payments, one sedan, and one requisite dyke pickup truck. One day she hopes to live in a house that doesn’t generate a never-ending honey-do list.

Incidentally, she never stopped asking why, but did expand her arsenal of questions to include who, what, when, where and, most important of all, how. In those questions, a story is born.

Chasing Love
by Ronica Black. Adrian Edwards is looking for love— at girl bars, shady chat rooms, and women’s sporting events—but love remains elusive until she looks closer to home. (978-1-60282-192-7)

Rum Spring
by Yolanda Wallace. Rebecca Lapp is a devout follower of her Amish faith and a firm believer in the Ordnung, the set of rules that govern her life in the tiny Pennsylvania town she calls home. When she falls in love with a young “English” woman, however, the rules go out the window. (978-1-60282-193-4)

Indelible
by Jove Belle. A single mother committed to shielding her son from the parade of transient relationships she endured as a child tries to resist the allure of a tattoo artist who already has a sometimesgirlfriend. (978-1-60282-194-1)

The Straight Shooter
by Paul Faraday. With the help of his good pals Beso Tangelo and Jorge Ramirez, Nate Dainty tackles the Case of the Missing Porn Star, none other than his latest heartthrob—Myles Long! (978-1-60282-195-8)

Head Trip
by D.L. Line. Shelby Hutchinson, a young computer professional, can’t wait to take a virtual trip. She soon learns that chasing spies through Cold War Europe might be a great adventure, but nothing is ever as easy as it seems—especially love. (978-1- 60282-187-3)

Desire by Starlight
by Radclyffe. The only thing that might possibly save romance author Jenna Hardy from dying of boredom during a summer of forced R&R is a dalliance with Gardner Davis, the local vet—even if Gard is as unimpressed with Jenna’s charms as she appears to be with Jenna’s fame. (978-1-60282-188-0)

River Walker
by Cate Culpepper. Grady Wrenn, a cultural anthropologist, and Elena Montalvo, a spiritual healer, must find a way to end the River Walker’s murderous vendetta—and overcome a maze of cultural barriers to find each other. (978-1-60282-189-7)

Blood Sacraments,
edited by Todd Gregory. In these tales of the gay vampire, some of today’s top erotic writers explore the duality of blood lust coupled with passion and sensuality. (978-1-60282-190-3)

Mesmerized
by David-Matthew Barnes. Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena Albright learns about the many forms of love and finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older brother, the victim of a hate crime. (978-1- 60282-191-0)

Whatever Gods May Be
by Sophia Kell Hagin. Army sniper Jamie Gwynmorgan expects to fight hard for her country and her future. What she never expects is to find love. (978-1-60282-183-5)

nevermore
by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam. In this sequel to everafter, Vampire Valentine Darrow and Were Alexa Newland confront a mysterious disease that ravages the shifter population of New York City. (978-1-60282-184-2)

Playing the Player
by Lea Santos. Grace Obregon is beautiful, vulnerable, and exactly the kind of woman Madeira Pacias usually avoids, but when Madeira rescues Grace from a traffic accident, escape is impossible. (978-1-60282-185-9)

Midnight Whispers: The Blake Danzig Chronicles
by Curtis Christopher Comer. Paranormal investigator Blake Danzig, star of the syndicated show Haunted California and owner of Danzig Paranormal Investigations, has been able to see and talk to the dead since he was a small boy, but when he gets too close to a psychotic spirit, all hell breaks loose. (978-1-60282-186-6)

The Long Way Home
by Rachel Spangler. They say you can’t go home again, but Raine St. James doesn’t know why anyone would want to. When she is forced to accept a job in the town she’s been publicly bashing for the last decade, she has to face down old hurts and the woman she left behind. (978-1-60282-178-1)

Water Mark
by J.M. Redmann. PI Micky Knight’s professional and personal lives are torn asunder by Katrina and its aftermath. She needs to solve a murder and recapture the woman she lost—while struggling to simply survive in a world gone mad. (978-1-60282-179-8)

Picture Imperfect
by Lea Santos. Young love doesn’t always stand the test of time, but Deanne is determined to get her marriage to childhood sweetheart Paloma back on the road to happily ever after, by way of Memory Lane—and Lover’s Lane. (978-1-60282-180-4)

The Perfect Family
by Kathryn Shay. A mother and her gay son stand hand in hand as the storms of change engulf their perfect family and the life they knew. (978-1-60282-181-1)

Raven Mask
by Winter Pennington. Preternatural Private Investigator (and closeted werewolf) Kassandra Lyall needs to solve a murder and protect her Vampire lover Lenorre, Countess Vampire of Oklahoma— all while fending off the advances of the local werewolf alpha female. (978-1-60282-182-8)

The Devil be Damned
by Ali Vali. The fourth book in the best-selling Cain Casey Devil series. (978-1-60282-159-0)

Descent
by Julie Cannon. Shannon Roberts and Caroline Davis compete in the world of world-class bike racing and pretend that the fire between them is just professional rivalry, not desire. (978-1-60282-160-6)

Kiss of Noir
by Clara Nipper. Nora Delaney is a hard-living, sweettalking woman who can’t say no to a beautiful babe or a friend in danger—a darkly humorous homage to a bygone era of tough broads and murder in steamy New Orleans. (978-1-60282-161-3)

Under Her Skin
by Lea Santos Supermodel Lilly Lujan hasn’t a care in the world, except life is lonely in the spotlight—until Mexican gardener Torien Pacias sees through Lilly’s facade and offers gentle understanding and friendship when Lilly most needs it. (978-1-60282-162-0)