An Excerpt From: SNOWBOUND: BEAR HUG

Copyright © TUESDAY MORRIGAN, 2008

All Rights Reserved, Changeling Press.

One more word from that overgrown, bad-tempered, foul-mouthed bastard Alyssa worked for would be one word too many. She was seconds away from grabbing an ice pick and jamming it into his frozen heart. Instead she strode toward the front door.

He was of course waiting for her, muscular arms folded across his chest as he leaned against the door. Flaxen hair that was too long to be fashionable cascaded past his wide shoulders. Dark blonde stubble etched his cheekbones and defined the hardness of his jaw as he peered at her with heavily lashed dark green eyes. “Where the hell do you think you are going?”

“Please get out of my way,” she said through tightly clenched teeth.

“Why?”

Alyssa forced herself to take a deep breath before answering. “Remember the part where I said, ‘I quit’? Yeah, I meant every word.”

“Every word?”

Her gaze wavered. She knew he was remembering some of the nastier things she had said. “What I did and did not mean does not change the fact that I quit.”

“There’s a storm brewing. You can’t possibly think you can go out there.”

Two onyx eyebrows lifted. “Don’t tell me you’re concerned for my safety, Devlin. If you keep it up I might think you give a shit about me. Please move out of my way. Liam is waiting for me.”

“Liam’s not coming. The man’s too smart to die in a snowstorm.”

“Well, then I’ll trek my ass over to town by myself.”

He stared at her for a moment. “You cannot leave me. You cannot leave him.”

For one moment Alyssa’s heart had soared at his words. And then reality intruded. She was still just his nanny. “Jamison will be fine.”

His hands dropped to his sides and he stepped away from the door. Angry lines of tension rode his six-foot frame. “Like hell he will. When he wakes up and finds you gone he will not be fine. He will be devastated because he loves you. You are the only woman who has accepted him as he is. Even his mother couldn’t…”

A sharp shaft of pain shot through Alyssa’s heart at Devlin’s words. She had lived in his home for over a year and had recently discovered his and his nephew’s secret. They were shape-shifters. Males with the ability to turn into polar bears. She had stumbled across their secret three months ago when Jamison became ill. Alyssa could not understand why this man with the time consuming job wouldn’t allow the nanny to care for the boy. One night she had overheard Jamison crying her name. She’d tip-toed to his room and found a white polar cub crying for her. She’d been too shocked to be scared. And then understanding dawned.

She looked up into Devlin’s swirling green eyes and told him the truth. “I will not stay here. Enough is enough.”

He watched her for several moments. “Too bad. I haven’t had nearly enough,” he growled and lunged at her. He moved so quickly she didn’t have a chance of evading his determined hands. His fingers dug into her waistline and lifted her off her feet. Purposefully, Devlin strode through the hallway, kicked open her bedroom door, and dumped her on her bed. Alyssa blinked up at him as she bounced on the mattress.

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