Julia Talbot is here today with an exclusive excerpt of her new shifter story, Fangs and Catnip, part of the new paranormal Cracky Fluff line from Dreamspinner Press!
Hey y’all!
I’m here today with an exclusive excerpt from Fangs and Catnip, my very first Dreamspun Beyond, from Dreamspinner Press! It’s also the first book in a new series about the Dead and Breakfast Inn, which is owned by werebear Tanner and vampire Fallon. In book one, Tanner hires were-kitty Carter as a manager to help during the winter hibernation. Fallon doesn’t think they need a manager, but Carter might convince him otherwise.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you’ll take a chance on Fangs and Catnip!
XXOO
Julia Talbot
***
Fallon Underwood stared at the screen where Tanner’s email glared back at him. Three résumés attached, and none of them was remotely suitable for the inn.
They had a night auditor who was perfectly trained, so the vamp was out. The mummy wouldn’t work in the least because no one wanted random crypt dust on the floor—Glenda would hex his undead ass out of existence—and unattached fingers in the tea? Right out.
He pursed his lips when he looked at the werecat. Mountain lion. Very young. Just out of college. No. That would never do. Too bouncy. Too Tigger.
He called down to Tanner on the house phone. “Seriously? A river rafter? Seriously?”
“He has a degree in hospitality. He worked at a large B and B in Fort Collins.”
“He’s a kitty adrenaline junkie.” They didn’t need that kind of energy.
“Yeah? Well, that will serve him well. I notice you don’t comment on the other two.”
“Because I just deleted those. You weren’t serious. No way you were.”
“No? Well, I have a few more to send you. They’ll come for interviews next week.”
“Are you sure you can’t just have Glenda do it?”
“Glenda? Our Glenda?” Tanner laughed, the sound merry as fuck. “She would smother the guests in their sleep. Possibly awake.”
“Either that or make them statues. Less work that way.”
“One of the ones I still need to send you is an elf.”
“Seriously, Tanner? A house elf?”
“I know! Wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“No. No, elves are not helpful and you know it.” They were vain and much preferred others to work for them.
He just wanted to bite them.
“You’re profiling.”
“Tanner, I will bite your beary butt.”
“Alas, you never follow through.” Tanner sighed dramatically.
“It’s all that muscle,” he teased. “My fangs ache just thinking about it.”
Tanner laughed. “Come down and have supper/breakfast with me. It’s dark.”
“I suppose I can do that, bear. Give me ten.” He stood up and stretched, feeling his back pop.
“You got it. I’ll warm something for you.”
“I’ll be right there. No mummies.”
Tanner chuckled and rang off, leaving him even more worried than before. He had a feeling he was going to end up having to veto the mummy in person.
That smell, and the sneezing….
The sneezing was the worst.
He changed out of his sweats into a pair of dark jeans and a button-down shirt in midnight blue. Fallon hated to let anyone, even Tanner, know what a slob he could be.
Sure, he could spend night after night in front of his computer, head down, not even breathing, but that was his secret.
Tanner deserved for him to look good, just in case there were guests. He shot his cuffs before making his way downstairs, admiring as he always did Tanner’s understated, old-world decorating style.
He’d loved this place from the first time Tanner’d brought him here, decades ago. There was something magical about this space.
Maybe it was the land. Maybe it was Tanner. Either way, he didn’t want to lose the balance they had, and he feared it would happen if someone new came on board.
He worried about it with every new person. Every single one. Most of them he admitted he never saw. Glenda kicked him out of his rooms once a week to clean. Jami brought him blood at 4:00 a.m. most nights.
It wasn’t like they were a big estate. They weren’t a hotel, for goodness’ sake.
Tanner was just being dramatic. Bears hibernated, but humans did not.
Oh, that was the tack to take. Bears hibernated, but so did a lot of their clientele. In the winter, most of their guests were low-maintenance.
Like him. He was totally easy.
***
Blurb:
A Dead and Breakfast Novel
A romance worth fighting for—tooth and claw.
Solitary vampire Fallon Underwood gets all the social interaction he needs being the silent partner at the Dead and Breakfast B and B high in the Colorado mountains. Change is hard for Fallon, so when his business partner, Tanner, suggests hiring a new manager for the inn, he’s adamant that they don’t need help, especially not in the form of bouncy werecat Carter Hughes.
Carter is a happy-go-lucky kitty, and he loves the hospitality industry, so the D and B ought to be a great place for him. He falls for Fallon as soon as he picks up one of Fallon’s novels, and begins to woo the vamp with gifts. When Fallon finally succumbs to Carter’s feline charms, the results are unexpected, to say the least. Their mating will have irreversible consequences—for their bodies and their hearts.
Buy Link:
Author Bio:
Stories that leave a mark. Julia Talbot loves romance across all the genders and genres, and loves to write about people working to see past the skin they're in to love what lies beneath. Julia Talbot lives in the great mountain and high desert Southwest, where there is hot and cold running rodeo, cowboys, and everything from meat and potatoes to the best Tex-Mex. A full time author, Julia has been published by Dreamspinner and Changeling Press among many others. She believes that everyone deserves a happy ending, so she writes about love without limits, where boys love boys, girls love girls, and boys and girls get together to get wild, especially when her crazy paranormal characters are involved. She also writes BDSM and erotic romance as Minerva Howe. Find Julia at @juliatalbot on Twitter, or at www.juliatalbot.com "The mountains are calling, and I must go"
ICYMI see our review of Fangs and Catnip HERE!
No comments:
Post a Comment