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Bare in the Bar

Shifter Town, Book
1
Novalee Swann

B
ear
Reid is a grizzly bear shifter. He’s miles of ripped, protective
male who knows what he wants. That would be Kelly McKenna, the
luscious redhead with curves that won’t quit, who waits tables at
his bar.

They
’ve
craved each other since day one, and when Bear rescues Kelly from a
hyena pack, months worth of sexual tension explodes. The encounter
is wild and untamed. The connection so visceral, they can’t
stop.

But Kelly
’s determined to guard her heart, convinced that if she
were Bear’s mate, he’d have claimed her already. Bear’s not one for
negotiating. No need, when you’re the most dangerous man in town.
But Kelly re-writes all his rules and soon enough, there’s nothing
he wouldn’t do for her. Now he’s going to prove it…

Excerpt…

Rosewood, Tennessee

Kelly McKenna kept an
eye on the rowdy hyena pack downing shots and shooting pool in the
back room. It was another crowded Friday night at Bear’s Bar, which
used to be called O’Malley’s until six months ago. That was when
shifter Bear Reid had blown into town and bought the place.

O’Malley’s had been
seedy. Populated almost exclusively by the kind of handsy riffraff
currently playing eight ball. She’d hated waitressing there, but
the tips were good and working nights left her days free to study.
Never feeling safe and carrying pepper spray in her pocket had been
the trade-off.

That changed when Bear
came to town.

He’d cleared out the
scummy clientele, renovated the interior and was slowly turning it
into Rosewood’s preferred Friday night watering hole.

Kelly stopped at a
table where a gorgeous platinum blonde had just knocked back a
Johnny on the Rocks. “You want another, hot stuff?” she asked.

“Well, that depends,”
the blonde drawled.

“On what?”

“On whether I can get
that
to go.”

Kelly glanced over her
shoulder. Bear’s whiskey-coloured eyes flashed her way for a
second, before darting back where they’d come from. He was talking
to Lucas, the local mechanic.

“Which one?”

“Both of them. I just
want to watch.”

Kelly blinked, then
deadpanned. “I’ll go ask them if it’s on the menu.” She pivoted and
the blonde grabbed her arm, pulling her back around.

“Don’t you dare, Kelly
McKenna. I know where the bodies are buried.”

“Well then, Miss
Ashley Ames, you shouldn’t ask for things you don’t really
want.”

“But he’s just so
pretty.”

Kelly easily conjured
the image of shaggy malt strands, long fingers, curving collarbone.
She sighed. “Yeah.”

“All that salt and
pepper hair.
Yum
. I used to think Clooney had that look
cornered, but Lucas could school him but good.”

“Wait, I thought you
meant
Bear
was pretty.” She couldn’t quite believe Ash had
meant
Lucas.
Yeah, the man was smokin’, but compared to
Bear? Well,
no-one
compared to Bear.

“You think Bear’s
pretty
?” Ash’s tone was a touch incredulous.

Kelly considered the
question. “You’re right,” the words were drawn out. Contemplative.
“He’s too,” she struggled for the right word, “rough, like velvet
rubbed wrong.”

“
Oh, poetry
,”
Ash almost cackled in glee. “You know when you start using clichéd
similes, it means you’ve got it bad.”

“Like you can talk,
Miss
hung up on the same guy for years
. It’s just, Bear’s…
If someone said, draw me a picture of the man that rings all your
bells, I’d say, no need. He’s right over there.” She gestured with
her thumb over her shoulder.

“You do know they can
hear us, right?”

Kelly jerked.

“Yep, I can see Bear
looking this way.”

For about two seconds
Kelly’s heart stopped beating.
Shifter hearing.

Until Ash couldn’t
help herself and burst out laughing. “You should see your
face.”

“
You bitch
.
Just for that, you are officially no longer my best friend. And no
more top shelf.” She paused then asked, just to be sure, “So they
didn’t hear us?”

“How should I
know?”

“
You’re
the
shifter.”

Ash flicked her hair
back over her shoulder. “Because of the noise, they’d only be able
to hear if they were trying to.”

“So how do we know
they weren’t?”

Ash arched a delicate
brow. “I’m pretty sure if Bear had heard you, we wouldn’t be having
this conversation.”

Kelly walked over to
the bar, which a few months ago Bear had replaced with the
blush-coloured timber that gave the town its name.

“Two bourbon shooters,
two drafts and a Bud,” she murmured, eyes lowered.

She always had trouble
meeting Bear’s gaze. Tonight, after that conversation with Ash, it
was worse.

She was afraid he
would see how much she wanted him. But she half figured he knew,
cause their eyes constantly engaged each other in hide and
seek.

Bear nodded, quickly
pouring the drinks. He didn’t talk much. Not that he was the strong
silent type. His size just tended to do the talking for him.

Six feet six and built
like a line-backer. A sideways look was usually enough to make
unruly patrons see things his way.

The only exception was
when they were so shitfaced they deluded themselves into thinking
they could take him.

No-one in town could
take Bear, but there were nights she’d sure like to try.

He slid the drinks
across the counter. She loaded her tray and muttered thanks over
her shoulder before heading off to deliver them to the hyena pack,
who were new in town.

Kelly set the drinks
down closes to the pool table in the back room, and loaded her tray
with empty glasses. She was about to leave when a big hand reached
round and slipped a twenty into the neckline of her white T-shirt,
tucking it under the edge of her bra.

“Hey, trim. For your
trouble.” The words were slightly slurred.

She’d stiffened the
moment she realised what he was doing, ire rising at the offensive
term, but her arms were full of the tray and empties.

“You be nice to us and
there’s more where that came from.” The statement met nods and
enthusiastic comments from his friends.

She wanted to get out
of there, back to the main room, but knew from experience that she
had to nip this in the bud or they’d only get bolder. Though she
could really use the twenty and it’d probably mean no tips from
them for the rest of the night, if she gave it back, there was a
chance they’d stop bothering her.

A slim chance, but
still…

Placing the tray on
the table next to her, she retrieved the bill.

“Thanks, boys,” okay,
yeah, she called them boys deliberately, “but this isn’t that kind
of place and I’m not that kind of girl. Plus, Bear wouldn’t like
it.”

Threatening a man with
Bear usually did the trick.

“I don’t give a fuck
what Bear likes.”

Okay, so they were
stupid
drunks.

“What do
you
like, trim?” The hyena crowded too close behind her, slid his hand
low on her hip, pulling her back. She froze, realising her danger
when she felt him rub his stiff dick into her behind. “I like this
round, juicy ass. I think I’m gonna have me some.”

Kelly looked around
for help. Sure, she could crush his instep or jerk her head back
and bloody his lip, but she couldn’t fight them all. She looked
around for support from the other group, a bunch of regulars who
had been playing pool earlier when she’d taken the pack’s order.
But they were gone. Had finished their game while she’d been at the
bar.

When a new hand
stroked down her arm she realised that all five hyena shifters had
moved in, surrounding her. The hand stroked, shoulder to elbow.

“You can have her ass
but I want her pussy,” the new guy said, crowding her front. She
was trapped between them.

“What about us?” one
of others whined.

“You can go when we’re
done. Hot piece of cunt like this, it’ll only take a minute. Watch
the door.”

Kelly opened her mouth
to scream but a palm slapped over her mouth, stinging. So she did
the only thing she could think of, hand flashing out towards the
table.

Get
Bare in the Bar

Shifter Town, Book
2
Novalee Swan

Cage Delgado is the law
in Shifter Town. He’s a hard alpha lion who’s not afraid to lay it
on the line to protect his town, or the woman he secretly
adores.

Ashley Ames is a
sweet-tempered lioness who works admin in the local law enforcement
offices and secretly fantasises about the town’s sexy sheriff.

But alphas need mates
as strong as they are and she’s convinced she’s too submissive to
keep a dominant like Cage’s interest for long, so she refuses to
act on their burning attraction.

But things are changing
in Shifter Town.

Because Ash is about to
come into heat.

Get
Caging Ash

Excerpt…

Three years ago

Sheriff’s Department,
Rosewood, Tennessee

“Ms Ames, why should I
hire
you
over any of the other applicants?”

“I, ah—” Ashley
faltered, mind blank. She had an answer for this question,
dammit
. But when Cage Delgado stared at her through those
amber eyes like he knew what she was thinking, intelligence jumped
ship.

Just keep looking at
those eyes, her lioness purred.
Shut up. We can’t handle him and
you know it.

Ash swallowed.

Blinked.

Opened her mouth to
try again. “Well. You see— The thing is, Sheriff—” she waited for
the words to come. “After finishing my degree in business
administration, I began working at the law firm of Sullivan and
Rhodes. In just two years, I was promoted to assist one of the
partners, as a senior administration officer. I—”

The sheriff
interrupted. “I read all that on your resume, Miss Ames. What I
want to know, is why
you
?”

“Why me?”

“Why,” he said slowly,
“
you
?”

Ash tore her eyes away
from his gaze. The way he had said ‘you’, three times now. Like she
held the secrets of the universe and he was coaxing them out of
her. She took a deep breath. Decided there was no way she could
work for a man who was so hot and dominant that he turned her into
goo, grabbed her leather portfolio and stood.

Cage rose at almost
the same time.

“I’m sorry,” she
stammered, “I don’t think—” and sidestepped away from the chair she
had been occupying in front of his rosewood desk, then took a
hesitant step backwards. “This isn’t going to—”
Oh for god’s
sake woman. Finish at least one complete sentence.

Instead, she kept
stepping backwards until she was in the doorway, careful not to
make direct eye contact lest her resolve weaken.

Why did she want to
move home anyway? Work at the sheriff’s department as office
manager? She’d just stay in Nashville. And the hell with needing a
challenging, engaging job.

Sheriff Alpha Hotness
could hire one of the other two applicants he’d interviewed before
her. Both were non-shifters and had been friendly enough while they
were each waiting their turn to be interviewed.

“Why don’t we grab a
cup of coffee in the break room? Take a breather then come back and
finish the interview?” Cage said, tone neutral.

Why the hell did he
have to be nice?
She was about to refuse and cement her escape
when she heard a scuffle behind her.