(Half-Breed Series #1)
Debra Dunbar
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Published: 7/21/2014
Number of Pages: 315
Cover Artist: Phatpuppyart Studios
Amber’s succubus desires are driving her, as well as every man within a five mile radius, crazy – and, Irix, the sexy incubus sent to tutor her, isn’t helping one bit. Determined to find some balance in her life as well as get away from his tempting presence, she escapes to visit a college friend in New Orleans.
But the Big Easy is anything but peaceful. Two powerful witch covens are battling for control of the mighty river and the potent ley lines that run through the city. Amber discovers her half-elven heritage may just resolve their differences, but the covens have other, more lethal, ideas. She knows she can restore the elemental energy to balance, but it’s not easy to play peacemaker when her succubus side wants to drown the whole city in a tide of lust.
The tensions between the covens aren’t her only trouble. There’s nowhere Amber can run to escape the siren-call of her demon nature, and nowhere she can run to escape the seductive incubus who won’t seem to take “no” for an answer.
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Excerpt:
Demons Of Desire
Chapter 1
Most people don’t think of sex when
they’re sweating in an airport baggage claim, but most people aren’t half succubus. I tried to keep my eyes on the endless parade
of identical black bags, but my gaze kept drifting toward the three virile
college boys staring back at me. They’d
been on my plane, and I’d been all too aware of their testosterone-fueled
fascination for the entire two and a half hour flight.
Pick one, my
naughty half urged.
Actually she wanted all three of
them, but I’d bartered her down to one.
Not that I had any intention of screwing anyone in an airport. I’d eventually have to give in to her, but it
would be on my terms. I was picky, where
she most definitely was not.
Perspiration rolled down my back,
gluing the light blue tank top to my skin. The heat had hit me the moment
they’d opened the aircraft doors, and the baggage claim wasn’t any cooler than
the outside. It was hot enough up in
Maryland, but New Orleans was like being submerged in a hot tub. Of course, I would have braved the fires of
hell to get away from Maryland – and away from him.
“So, what brings you to New Orleans?”
One of the college boys had finally
worked up the courage to approach me.
His friends stood back, watching and obviously holding their breath in
anticipation of a smack down. Little did
they know my succubus side would never give a prospective partner the cold
shoulder, and my elf side couldn’t tolerate rudeness in any way, shape, or
form.
Did I mention I was also half-elf?
I smiled. It’s not like I could help
it. He was just so darned cute, and his attention so very flattering. “I’m here to visit an old college
roommate. She transferred to Tulane a
couple of years ago.”
“Cool. We go to Maryland – ‘Fear the Turtle’.” He
gave a fist pump to emphasize the college’s sports slogan. “We’re here to party. Airfare is really cheap right now.”
Yeah.
It’s a million fricken degrees and hurricane season. If I hadn’t been escaping . . . no, I wasn’t
going to think of him. Instead of replying I turned to watch the
bags circle by, concerned that I may have missed mine. Even my elf etiquette had its limits.
“We’re going to be down on Bourbon
Street tonight. Maybe we can meet up?”
Of course they were going to be down
on Bourbon Street. But even a first-timer
like me realized the futility of trying to vaguely “meet-up” with someone on a
street filled with hundreds of bars and wall-to-wall people.
“Sure,” I replied, continuing to
watch the bags circle by. “I’ll look for
you all.” My succubus side was irritated
that I wasn’t already dragging this guy into the nearest alcove and having my
way with him. I stalled her again with
vague promises, well aware I wouldn’t be able to hold her back for long. I’d need to get laid in the next few days or
she’d take control and I’d find myself with a less-than-desirable partner.
College boy seemed to realize the
odds of actually running into me on Bourbon Street were the equivalent of
winning the Powerball lottery. “We’ll be
at Saints and Sinners.”
Channing Tatum’s place. It was on my short-list of places to check
out. I gave him another smile. “Okay.
I don’t know what my friend has planned, but I’ll try and be there.”
That seemed to delight college boy
beyond all reason. He grinned, and
walked backward to join his friends.
They hooted, and slapped him on the back, casting quick glances toward
me as they walked toward the big glass doors.
I waved good-naturedly, then turned to see my bag coming down the line.
“Excuse me. Oh, crap!”
I squeezed between two other
travelers and reached for the handle, but my fingers slipped off and it dropped
back onto the belt of the luggage carousel, firmly wedged between two black
suitcases. I watched it move away from
me, irritated that I’d need to wait for it to make a whole circuit before I had
the chance to grab it again.
“I’ve got it.”
A tanned arm sporting a gold watch
shot out and grabbed my bag, yanking it from the belt with a practiced
grip. I followed that arm upward with my
eyes. Trim guy. Fifties.
Mostly bald with close-cut, light-colored hair. Lemon yellow polo shirt paired with khaki
shorts. Business man, perhaps? Here for a convention or on vacation? He had nice, friendly blue eyes.
I reached out a hand to take the bag
from him, and his eyes darted downward, lingering on my tank-top, or rather on
the breasts it was barely covering. The succubus
within me awoke, fixing this man with a hungry stare. Desire stirred, surfacing and arching out in
invisible tendrils.
No, no, no. I tried to rein her in. This man probably had kids my age. Either way, I could tell he was a nice
guy. He deserved better than this, but
my baser self didn’t agree. She was
hungry.
The man’s eyes left my breasts and
rose to meet mine. I saw the lust in
them, along with confusion and a bit of shame. I was ashamed too, but that
emotion was drowned out by the thought of his mouth on mine, his . . .
Married. Married.
It was like an alarm bell, bringing my rational self back into control.
I didn’t care how hungry the monster living inside me was, I was not going to be responsible for this man
breaking his wedding vows. Besides, he
deserved better than a mind blowing fuck in an airport bathroom that would yoke
him to me for the rest of his life. He deserved better, and so did I.
“Thank you.”
I snatched the bag from him and
nearly fell in my haste to get away. For
Pete’s sake, I was in an airport, surrounded by people, and I was on the edge
of having sex with a stranger who had been kind enough to grab my luggage off
the conveyor belt. My face burned with
embarrassment at the encounter, but I would have felt worse had we wound up
naked in a public restroom stall.
I was
out of control. Irix had been right, but
his solution wasn’t something I could live with. I envisioned his mocking voice, his raised
eyebrows when he gave me the “I told you so” speech. I’d heard that speech all too often over the
past month, but that wasn’t why I’d left.
I could handle bossy, what I couldn’t handle was the way I felt every
time he was near.
“Amber!”
There. By the doors.
A young woman waved at me, her black hair pulled back, highlighting
perfect cheekbones and warm dark-brown skin.
She bounced up and down on strappy sandals, all long legs and slim
hips. I waved back and hustled myself
toward her, shrieking as I grabbed her in a tight hug. Darci and I had kept in touch even after
she’d transferred to Tulane, but I’d really missed her. My freshman roommate, my best friend – if
anybody could help me find the Amber I’d used to be, it was Darci.
“Hurry, I’m double parked,” she said,
disengaging and looking around for my luggage.
I grabbed the bag I’d dropped to hug
her, grateful to be getting out of the airport.
The heat and the excitement of my escape had stirred up the monster
inside, and the guys at baggage claim weren’t the only ones I was beginning to
have lurid fantasies about. I hadn’t had
sex in four weeks. This was New Orleans,
a town of indulgences. I’d indulge, then
hopefully the desperate hunger would taper off, and I could just relax and
enjoy myself – like the old Amber.
We crammed my bags in Darci’s Jetta,
and took off, blasting the AC. Darci
chatted on about college, a guy she was desperate to go out with, and what was
on the agenda for today. She hadn’t been
able to get the whole week off work, but I had assured her I could manage on my
own just fine. My anticipation built
thinking about po-boy sandwiches, Cajun music in the French Quarter, and a hot
new dance club in the warehouse district.
Already I felt the monster grow tame, distracted by the prospect of
nice, normal, human-type activities.
“So. . . tell me about this guy
you’re running away from.”
Darci’s inquiry jolted me out of my
happy space. Irix. Thick sable-brown hair that fell to his
shoulders in back and brushed his jaw in the front, dark golden eyes that
seemed to see right under my clothing.
He moved like a large cat on the prowl, and his smile held a promise of
wicked carnal delights.
“He’s bad for me. And if I’d have stayed, I would have wound up
in his bed.”
“Oh, those are the best ones, aren’t
they? Bad for you how? Because I’ve never known you to walk away
from something bad.”
Only when it was something I couldn’t
truly have. “He’s one of those guys who is completely addicting. I’d take it far more seriously than he
would. I just don’t need that kind of
emotional damage, thank you very much.”
Darci shot me a knowing look. “Oh, the tables have been turned! Amber, the queen of love-them-and-leave-them
is in danger of losing her heart to a world-class womanizer.”
What?
I was not that sort of girl!
Well, I hadn’t been that sort of girl up until recently.
“I’m sorry I ever told you about that
Zumba instructor from the gym. One guy
does not make me a player.”
That’s when the problem began. I’d been so crazy about him, wanted him so
bad. One date, one night of torrid
passion, and it was all gone. I didn’t
care if I ever saw him again. I couldn’t
even remember what his name was. What I
did have was the thin trickle of energy he’d supply me with for the rest of his
life. And guilt. A whole lot of guilt.
I thought Darci was going to wreck
the car from laughing. “One guy? One
guy? Seriously, Amber, once you get them in the sack, it’s ‘adios my friend’.”
“I’m not. . . no way,” I
sputtered. How could she think that? I’d had plenty of relationships. Yeah, none had lasted very long, but that
wasn’t my fault.
“Oh, let’s see. . . Darius, Nick,
Brent, Jason.”
“Jason dumped me,” I protested.
“Zac, Scott, Theo.”
“Hey, I dated Theo for a month. That’s not a one-night-stand!”
Darci made a “pffft” sound and waved
her hand at me. “It took you that long
to sleep with him. Remember,
finals? Then he had the flu? Then you went on that ski trip? Once you guys did the nasty, Theo was
yesterday’s news.”
My head whirled, and I stared at
Darci, open-mouthed. She was right. This problem of mine had been going on longer
than I’d thought, I just hadn’t realized it.
She glanced over at me, smiling fondly.
“It’s okay, Amber. Doesn’t make you a bad person. Actually, I always thought it was kind of
funny. Guys are usually the ones that do
this; it was refreshing to see the tables turned.”
No, it wasn’t funny. It was just as shitty as when guys did it to
girls. These were nice boy’s that I’d
screwed over, that I’d hurt. I hadn’t
realized it back then, but now the thought of it devastated me. I’d hidden some
things from Darci – things that she would never believe anyway, but I needed to
let her know how terrible this made me feel, how I didn’t want to be that sort
of person.
“It’s not okay. There’s something wrong with me, Darci. I want to have a long-term relationship. I want to meet someone nice, fall in love,
and commit to them. I’ll never have
that, and it hurts. It hurts almost as
much as how I treated all those guys.”
“You will fall in love. You’ll
find the right guy and it will all click into place.” She gave me a quick, mischievous look. “Now
tell me all about this sexy scoundrel you ditched up in Maryland. I live vicariously through your tales of
sexual conquest, you know. What’s his
name?”
“Irix.” I didn’t want to think of him, let alone talk
about him, but I knew Darci would never give up until she’d heard all the
details.
“Ooo, exotic! Is that his first or last name?”
It was probably one of many
names. I’d been told demons have quite a
few and are very cagy about letting anyone know all of them.
“I’m not sure. It’s the only name he goes by.”
“Like Madonna, or Sting? How did you meet him?”
Now this was the tricky part. I couldn’t really say my demon parent had
sent an Incubus to teach me how to deal with my succubus side.
“My family contracted him as a sort
of life coach for me. That’s why I can’t
just avoid him. He’s there every day,
following me around, pestering me to do this or do that. I told him to go home
and leave me alone, but he won’t until he feels like I’ve learned what I
need. It’s his job.” And I got the feeling he was getting quite a
kick out of it too.
Darci scrunched up her face. “Ugh.
Totally hot does not outweigh bossing you around. That sucks.
What happens if you just tell him to kiss off and do whatever the heck
you want?”
Heat roared through me, I could feel
my face redden.
“Oh!”
Darci chuckled. “You bad girl, you! Well, no need to worry. You’re safe here from Mr. Sexy Life-Coach,
and I’ve got all kinds of fun activities planned for us.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debra Dunbar lives on a farm in
the northeast United States with her husband, three boys, and a Noah’s ark of
four legged family members. Her fantasy
novels feature supernatural elements in local settings. In addition to her Imp
Series, and Half-Breed Series, she has also published a short story erotica
series titled Naughty Mom.
Contact Debra Dunbar:
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