Length: Short Story
Ridgeville #8
Genre(s): Paranormal, Print
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Gavin Mara is a fox shifter passing through Ridgeville, just stopping to visit his sister. Then he’s traveling to Chicago to begin his job as Director of Communications for the Council. It’s supposed to be a small vacation before the stress begins. Alistair McCain—ex-leader of Freedom—is now dead, and the shifter world is in turmoil. While the Council sorts things out, it’s Gavin’s job to keep everyone electronically connected.
And he’ll get right onto that just as soon as he claims his curvy lioness, Gina.
Read an Excerpt
“Love at first sight doesn’t exist. There is, however, love after five orgasms in one boinking.”—Maya O’Connell, Prima of the Ridgeville Pride and woman in love. Alex is such a giver…
The alluring, seductive scent of his mate woke Gavin Mara from a dead-to-the-world sleep. He bolted upright with a gasp, rock-hard cock stiff between his legs and a sheen of sweat on his brow. He drew the flavors into his lungs, and he had no doubt that his mate was a cat…and very, very close by.
He took a deep breath… Yes, she was a purring lioness. He knew those underlying, feline scents. He’d been visiting his sister Elise in Ridgeville ever since she’d mated her werelion Brute, and Gavin had come to recognize the various shifters the town held.
Lioness.
Would she roar for him? Or better yet, purr?
The heavy aroma of breakfast from downstairs in the Drool and Dine reached out to him, distracting him momentarily. Well, his stomach, anyway.
Each time he visited his sister, he rented the room above the diner, unwilling to share Elise and Brute’s home. He liked the guy. He just didn’t want to listen to his sister have sex with the gigantic lion.
Rushing from the bed, he scrounged around for something to wear. He was spending his last week of peace in Ridgeville, and he’d wanted to visit with Elise before he began his job in Chicago with the Council. They’d hired him to be the Director of Communications. He snorted. Tech support with a fancy name.
Gavin tossed clothes around, sending T-shirts flying as he hunted for something freaking clean to put on. God, he should have taken his sister up on her offer to do his laundry a few days ago. But he’d had a plan, a stack of quarters, and a Laundromat down the street. Right.
Digging into the bottom of his suitcase, he came up victorious, clutching a semi-wrinkled, thin T-shirt he’d forgotten about.
“I Lick!” was emblazoned across the front in bright red letters.
His sister thought it’d get him a little action since “all ladies like a little downtown lovin’.”
Another round of searching netted him a pair of jeans with some sort of weird stain on the leg. He brought the fabric to his nose and sniffed. Well, at least it wasn’t a toddler by-product. He’d gotten enough of that from the pride Prima’s twins. The fuckers were messy little things.
The A/C kicked on, and more of his mate’s alluring scent drifted to him. Shit, he needed to get down there. Now. Before she managed to get away from him.
Gavin rushed to the front door, slipping into a pair of worn sneakers on the way, and then he was outside, pounding down the metal steps. Clang clang clang clang. He sprinted around the side of the building and raced toward the front entrance.
He looked through the windows and scanned faces while he ran, attention adeptly split between the space in front of him and the interior of the diner.
Hot Diggity Dog! Another one!!! And I’m glad Gina is getting her own story. Not being one to kick a pony when it’s done, I must say again PLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAASE. I wanna read about Honor & Grayson.
Hard to place them in order, but for new readers or haven’t-read-them-alls:
TIED for 1st: I love the hero and heroine. All have survived abuse and have found their HEV because of their partner. It’s the combination of the H&H that makes the stories tie for 1st.
Fierce in Furr: If Ricker is yummy, Brute is all-together-now, release a big long blissful sigh! Plus the drive-in movie scene I could read a million times and still laugh myself silly. I think Elise might be my favorite or right up there tied for favorite.
Deuce’s Wild: Finally the LIGHT BEER explained! I liked Elly. She was a bad-ass fox but not obnoxious like Maya. Elly would be fierce protecting her young. In a fight, I’d want Elly. Maya would just mouth mouth mouth mouth mouth.
Sealed with a Purr: Poor Tess and poor Harding. I finished this in one sitting. It was easy to get annoyed with her…but stick with it, because there is a reason for a lot of what she does and says. It’s not bratty-ness or being a be-otch. Hang with it and you’ll love them both.
2nd: I’m not crazy about some of Maddy’s behavior…but given her character in Ball of Fury and Ricker and the acts – I’d place this as my favorite of the remaining books.
Head Over Tail: Ricker – Oh my word! Is there even a world to describe his yumminess and love of certain acts, shall we say? I liked Maddy is Ball of Fury And I liked her mostly in this book.
3rd: I’m less crazy about Carly as the story goes on (and continuing stories). I don’t really care that she was taken. Like I said – mini-maya. Sometimes with Carly I think she just got off on seeing Neal wear a hair-shirt.
Ball of Fury: I love darlin’ Neal, but Carly’s a mini-Maya. I loved her at the beginning of the story though before she got all Mayaized.
4th: What can I say? I love Alex. I’ve always loved Alex. I’ve never liked Maya and I don’t like that she has neutered Alex. She’s like Ridgeville’s answer to Anastasia Steele and don’t get me started on that one!
He Ain’t Lion & You’re Lion I love Alex, but Maya’s disrespect (not sure that’s the right word) is hard to keep putting up with. Act like a man…er lion for the love of macaroni!
Girl, if you don’t laugh out loud with Maya, want to wrap your arms around Tess, fall completely in love with Maddy and really feel for Carly, this series is lost on you. 🙂 I always smile and frequently laugh out loud when reading what is running through Maya’s head, and if you can’t see Alex’s strength in his protection and handling of Maya without clipping her wonderful balls-to-the-wall personality, you are missing some of the nuances that make Ms. Kyle’s writing so wonderful and magical.
Aw, thanks for all your comments. I love the characters and am glad that they’re, in turn, loved as well.
Thanks for your kind words!
I hope this book comes out soon! I absolutely love Ridgeville and all the shifters within. I went and reread all the Ridgeville books to find Gina, and only found little snips of her here and there, so I’m very excited to hear more about her and Gavin as well.
Fell onto this series by accident, but I am sooo in love with it now. I can’t wait for more books I love the characters and its different in how the different shifters get together I mean bunnies, squirrels, foxes and lions together so funny how with each book the lions menu is slowly thinning down. Please keep them coming
Oh, we’ve got lots of Ridgeville residents though they might not all be lions. I mean, rabbits can be hunky and fierce, too. Right?