Scales is Here!

Layla needs a vacation badly after all the mess she’s been through. Escaping to a lake in the woods with her incubus, werewolf, ghost, and angel sounds like a dream…

What could go wrong?

Awesome story! Loved it! Tension, stress, and confusion abound in their world.”
Marianne

Layla and her ever growing coven of men are headed to the beach for a little vacation. It keeps getting better and better with each book. The few last chapters are absolutely amazing.”
Cassie

This series just keeps getting better with every book! We now get to peek inside the heads of all of her men as well, including the ghostly Daniel. I’m eagerly awaiting the next book, just for another chance to live in the heads of all of these characters I’ve grown to love so much. If you’ve never read any of these books, what are you waiting for?”
Fiona (Romance Junkies)

Excerpt From Scales

“Shall we commence with the dessert?” Ink asked. He hefted the surprise cooler out from behind his bonfire and raised it to the light.

Cal leaned closer to whisper in my ear, “Does he mean the food or—”

“My dear wolf, if I mean debauchery, I will say as such. Is it too early for that?”

I tried to walk in the sand and found it harder going than I expected. “Yes. Let me at least eat something before you…eat.”

He chuckled as if I’d made a pun. Cal guided me over to the fire and let me sit on the only towel. The other guys were left to rough it on the sand itself. While Daniel hunched over my spell book, flipping the pages back and forth and tousling his hair, Ink pulled out packets of food. Hot dogs, sausages, marshmallows—those made sense. Then came the solitary can of spam, a packet of ramen noodles and three hardboiled eggs already peeled. Cal prodded them. “I’ve learned enough to not ask. Just hand me a couple hot dogs.”

After picking up a dual-tipped branch, Cal prodded the first sausage onto the end. Ink paused in prepping his food to stare. “I’ve found it’s best to worry the flesh between your palms as one would a screw into a corked wine.”

Cal did just that. “You’ve done this before?”

“Roasted sausages? Not precisely.” Ink smirked and the fire rose, deepening his demonic smile.

Cal full-body shuddered as he jabbed a single hot dog into the flames.

“Do not be such a fusspot. Plenty of men enjoy the press of a tube inside their sausage.”

“Nope. Nu-uh. Not gonna happen. It ain’t happening, Layla,” he told me.

“I’ll take it off the list,” I said with a laugh. Cal shivered again and hunched closer to the fire. Ink placed a marshmallow loaded onto the stick in my hand.

He brushed back my hair and breathed in my ear. “My sausage is yours for the manhandling, my bond.” To finish, he picked one of the larger hot dogs out of the package and gently worried it onto a branch while staring me in the eye.

I didn’t shake in disgust, but I wasn’t certain where I stood on the whole idea. Maybe save the impaling of dicks for much later down the road.

Ink must have read my mind as he shrugged and turned to the fire. Before he slipped away, I took his hand and pulled him closer. “Thank you.” I kissed his cheek. “This was a great idea.”

He turned and cupped my jaw in his hand. Slowly Ink traced his thumb over the edge of my lips. “It was, wasn’t it.”

The ground shook and I found Garavel had landed. Ink’s attention shifted to him in an instant. “Have you had the pleasure of a mashed mallow, my good man?”

Garavel slowly shook his head. He gave a wide berth to Cal, who finished roasting his hot dog and leaned back beside me. Instead, Garavel walked to Ink’s side and the demon helped the angel hold his marshmallow over the fire. Some days it felt like Ink had adopted him. And to think when they first met, I’d feared it would be all-out war.

Together, all three of us thrust our marshmallows into the flames. Ink had managed to tie together a multitude of ten different branches, giving him a small sapling’s worth to roast. The heat of the fire warmed without burning, chasing away the chill of the impending night. “So this is what camping’s like,” I said.

“You’ve never been?” Cal asked.

I shrugged. “My mom…” The brick dropped again. Before my thoughts could run back to her, I soldiered on, “She preferred city life. What about you?”

He rammed his second hot dog into the fire and glared at the flames. “We didn’t camp, not for fun anyway.” For a beat, Cal glanced my way and wariness lurked in his blue eyes. Oh shit, the compound. It didn’t have any electricity so every day there had to be like…like this.

I reached over to comfort him, but he suddenly jerked and pointed. “Your marshmallow’s on fire!”

“Damn it!” I yanked it out and whipped around the flaming sugar bomb. The outside crusted over in black char as I went.

“Is that what we do?” Garavel asked. He mimicked me, waving his less burnt treat around.

“You eat it.” Ink pulled one of his out while it was still flaming, plucked it off the branch, and stuffed it in his mouth. When he smiled, a flicker of fire danced behind his teeth before he swallowed it all down.

Garavel stared at the demon trick as if it all seemed logical. “Got it.” With the tenderest of nibbles, he caught the edge of his marshmallow between his teeth and swallowed. Euphoria dawned in an instant. “This is fantastic!”

“Wait.” I leaped to my feet and reached into Ink’s contraband cooler. After finding the right ingredients, I broke the graham cracker in half and added a sliver of the chocolate bar, which was a fancy dark variety. “Here, you’ve got to sandwich your marshmallow between the chocolate and crackers.”

“I believe I did the same with two widows and a traveling actor once,” Ink chimed in. “He played the chocolate role.”

Garavel stared in wonder as I squeezed his marshmallow off and handed him the sandwich. When I pressed the s’more together tighter, melted chocolate and marshmallow goo oozed off the sides. Garavel moved to lick it off and his entire being glowed. Literally. Ecstatic, he bit it in half, then swallowed the rest in one go.
“This is the most incredible creation I’ve ever eaten. What is it called?”

“A s’more. Can’t get more American than that,” Cal chimed in.

“Did you know the graham crackers were created to curb sexual urges?” Daniel inserted. He looked up and stared directly at Ink. “Is it working?”

Ink picked up one of the lust-banning graham crackers and held it pinched between his claws. “Hm.” He licked the edge, tracing the imprint like it was a vulva. Ink groaned and he dragged the side of his tooth against the wet cracker before plunging through the middle with his tongue. It crumbled in half, but Ink only smiled at Daniel. “Have I abandoned my wanton ways?” He glanced to me. “My bond? Shall I devour you as thoroughly?”

I fought to keep from shivering as Ink placed a hand to my waist. The burn in his eyes was hotter than the hellfire and I found my legs wobbling. Ink leaned close, his lips parting as he pressed his cracker-crumb thumb to my mouth and slipped the tip in. He tasted of fire and I struggled to not moan.

Suddenly, he blinked and pulled back. “Do you require another mallow of the marshes?” he asked first to me, then Garavel.

What the hell was that? Ink smiled as if nothing happened while he actively skipped past a chance to do whatever the hell he wanted to me. Instead, he dug into the bag of treats while Garavel watched. Shake it off. There’s plenty of night still.

I tried to keep my wounded ego in check, when I caught Ink’s gaze pointedly darting from me to… Garavel had his hands clenched tight, his eyes wide as he stared at me. Did my incubus just step aside to give the angel a chance?

A chuckle rolled in my throat. “You must really like the s’mores.”

Garavel nodded with a smile until I placed my finger to his cheek.

“Because you’ve got some chocolate right…” Slowly, I swept down his cheek to his lips. “Here.” I slipped my chocolate-dotted finger into my mouth and sucked off the tip while staring at Garavel.

I expected a lot of reactions but never anticipated his wings erupting directly into the fire. Flames caught, sparking up the feathers and running from one side to the other in a second. “Get some water!” I shouted to the others who were leaping to their feet.

Garavel glanced back without a care and shrugged. He tucked his wings in and the fire vanished. Plumes of smoke rose from his back and he waved it away from his face. I rushed into the acrid fog, clinging to Garavel’s arm to try to help. “Are you okay? Do they hurt? I might be able to heal you with my…”

“Don’t worry,” he said with a laugh. “Happens all the time.” He reappeared his wings, but with more care to keep them out of the flames.