Aaron radioed back that the rogue had been killed. But where was Marc?
Later, as Dr. Matons saw to her injuries, Aaron swore she was never getting out of his sight again. Reya explained Marc's whereabouts and his temper hit a new high as he tried to control the murderous urge to go back to where they'd left the body and kill him all over again.
Marc was a shifter-a two-faced, lying, killing, woman-stealing shifter. And now a dead shifter. When the bastard died, he'd remained in his animal form. Without the life-energy to fuel the change, his carcass would give away no secrets. Aaron's beautiful Reya, and those like her, would keep their secrets and remain safe and undiscovered for yet a while longer.
Epilogue
Enjoying the cool ocean breeze at the rear of the brand spanking new high-class fitness center, Aaron stood on the private pier built just for Reya and marveled at the radiance beaming across the face of his new wife. The breeze whipped her black curls around her head and the sun kissed her cocoa skin. His eyes drifted lower, admiring the sparkling white bikini hugging her curves. The woman made his mouth water.
"Hey, you two!" came a high-pitched, but sweet, call from the wide balcony above. "Don't stay under too long, children. Our plane is leaving in less than two hours."
"Yes, ma'am," Aaron called up to an older woman, the spitting image of Reya in thirty years. Aunt Sulu. After Reya refused to get married without her only family present, Anthony and Austin had taken it upon themselves to surprise their new sister-in-law. In truth, she had them all wrapped around her finger. It didn't matter which finger, the pinky or the thumb, they were all well and truly caught up over her.
They'd sent a jet for Aunt Sulu and flew her all the way to Belize to attend their wedding then talked her into staying for a month to get to know Reya's husband and his doting brothers who were, as Aunt Sulu put it, "good-looking with muscles as big as melons and sweet as old-fashioned pecan pie".
Waving to the short, little dark-skinned woman with graying locs down to her waist, Aaron took Reya's hand as they walked to the end of the pier.
"I still can't get over your love of water," he grinned, pulling her into his arms. "I thought kitty cats didn't like water?"
"Actually, most big cats are very good swimmers."
"Your skin looks so yummy when it's wet. Can I have a taste?" he teased.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, lifted her lush lips for his kiss and purred. God, he loved when she purred deep in her throat like that. It made him think of being deep in her throat.
After a quick peck on the neck, she pulled her scuba mask down and fell backward with a splash into the azure blue ocean.
Aaron was right on her tail. Literally.
# # #
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About T. J. Michaels
TJ is a USA Today and NY Times bestselling author, and her books have won multiple awards in several romance genres, including paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi and urban fantasy romance. Writing like a madman, TJ hasn't lost steam. Her mind? Yep, that's gone, but steam there is a-plenty. A true Taurus, TJ isn't slowing down and she's definitely too stubborn to stop when she sees the fence! No matter the genre TJ is penning, her favorite thing to do is build worlds. To take you somewhere extraordinary. To transport you to a place where you can close your eyes and slip into your fantasy …
Other Books by T. J. Michaels
Carinian's Seeker, Vampire Council of Ethics Book One
Serati's Flame, Vampire Council of Ethics Book Two
Hatsept Heat, Vampire Council of Ethics Book Three
Seeker's Solace, Vampire Council of Ethics Book Four
Silk Road, Seals of Destiny
Spirit of the Pryde, A Pryde Ranch Shifter Story
Niah's Pride, A Pryde Ranch Shifter Story
Jaguar's Rule
Forever December
Egyptian Voyage
On the Prowl
Entwined Hearts
Shards of Ecstasy
Caramel Kisses
Death and Roses
Anthologies
Mastered: Ten Tales of Sensual Surrender
Doing it the Hard Way
Feral Fascination
Wild Winter
Excerpts
If you would like to read more T. J. Michaels stories, she recommends His Obsession Next Door. An excerpt is included below.
Carinian's Seeker
Vampire Council of Ethics, Book 1
T.J. Michaels
Beautiful genius, Carinian Derrickson, wants to live long enough to date a man from the future generations of spacemen and starships. She's not crazy, she just refuses to die young of some dreaded disease, like all the rest of her family. Her research into gene therapy has shown her the way-she's going to emulate traits only before seen in fiction. Vampire fiction. Only … the beings that shouldn't exist are very real indeed.
Unknown to her, there's a bad boy vampire in the lab next door with a goal quite the opposite of hers. If he has his way, he'll bring the Vampire Council of Ethics (V.C.O.E.) to its knees.
Jon Bixler is a Seeker for the Council-an assassin and undercover operative in a world of humans. Bix must get close enough to this rogue to find out exactly how he plans to dismantle the Council. And Carinian is just the ticket. But when he meets her, all his vampire common sense flies out the window. What's he going to do now that the woman has put herself in danger by secretly trying to do the impossible?
Bix and Carin can't deny the combustion of love and lust between them. They accept their mating. But can they stay alive long enough to enjoy it?
Excerpt
Before he could close the door to his unexceptional hotel room, his cell phone rang. He knew it wasn't Carin calling him back. The special ring tone identified the caller as a member of V.C.O.E.-the Vampire Council of Ethics.
He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it carelessly over the only chair in the room, and then sat on the edge of the bed and toed off his shoes before answering. A silky sweet voice reminiscent of smooth jazz music floated across the line to him. The voice was deep for a woman, but sensual. It fit her perfectly. Too bad Bix couldn't stand the bitch.
"Have you acquired the target?"
Bix ground his back teeth on a deep breath and ignored the implied insult. God, he didn't feel like doing this right now.
"You will not question me, Natasha. I'm more than capable of doing my job. In fact," he said for probably the fiftieth time, "I've been dressing without my mother's aid for quite a long time. Longer than you've been alive, actually."
"Now, now, Jon. You're getting testy in your old age," Natasha purred. "As the V.C.O.E. Liaison for the Western territories, I'm just doing my job. You know that, don't you, lover?"
Lover? Would she ever give up? Resting his elbows on his knees, he stretched his neck from side to side and forced his body to relax. When he tuned back in to the voice on the cell phone it was droning on about some boring piece of nothing or another. He took charge of the conversation with his annoying Liaison and brought it back to business.
"I have acquired the target, Natasha. You may report to the Council that she is scheduled to fly back to San Diego tomorrow, just as they arranged," he drawled in the most bored voice he'd ever heard himself speak. "I'll be sure to contact you as soon as Dr. Derrickson leads me to Sidheon."
"Dr. Derrickson, is it? Surely you've gotten past the formality of last names with her, Jon," Natasha said cattily.
Bix didn't bother to answer. He put the phone on speaker mode and tossed it on the bed. His pants hit the floor, followed by his shirt and underwear. Naked, he ducked into the small bathroom and turned on the shower.
While the water warmed, he strolled to the closet and pulled out his only set of clean clothes for tomorrow. The dirty laundry was stuffed inside a duffel bag and tossed next to the door for easy retrieval before his jaunt to the airport in the morning. After a lengthy silence, a hard, angry female voice crackled over the phone line. Natasha. Hell, he'd almost forgotten she was there.
"The temporary house in San Diego is all set up, Jon. Alaan will pick you up at the airport and assist you as needed."
Bix called over his shoulder with a distracted, "Fine," glad his best friend would work this case with him. Excellent. He ducked into the bathroom again and flipped on the faucet over the small sink. "What about the territory leaders in California? They know I'm coming?"
"All taken care of. I don't have any additional intel other than what I sent you yesterday before you flew to Colorado. If anything else comes up, I'll try to get it to you before you board your plane to San Diego tomorrow."