Icefire!

Icefire from Ellora's Cave

Shapeshifters rock!

Order Page: http://Icefire.notlong.com

ISBN: 9781419916410



At the Pure Wildfire concert...



Gina opened her eyes, right on to the speculative, sharp gaze of Ryan
Hawthorne. He wouldn’t be able to see her, not really, she assured
herself.

She looked away but she’d felt the contact and it couldn’t be undone.
She felt naked, open, just for a moment. That was why she avoided
meeting eyes unless she had shielded herself, prepared for the
encounter. Whoever said eyes were windows on the soul was right. She
looked deep inside Ryan Hawthorne and caught an amazed, vulnerable,
open soul for a second, or perhaps even less. Then he turned away, his
whole body pivoting in the other direction and took his microphone from
a roadie. Just an illusion. It had to be...

Later

Ryan held out his hand to her. She swallowed and looked up at him.

His expression now was completely controlled, the deeper emotions
masked, a query in his eyes. She could refuse him but that would be the
act of a coward. And besides, something inside her urged her to go to
him, as he evidently wanted.

Behind him, Splinter played on. Taking a deep breath, she leaned up and
took his hand. “Come up,” he said softly, so softly she couldn’t hear
him, only follow the shape of his sensual mouth.

One of the security staff lifted her and she scrambled over the low
barrier separating them, sliding from the edge into his arms.

He released her as soon as she’d steadied but not before she felt his
astonishing steely strength. Who would have imagined such a
slender-seeming man would be so strong? When she looked closer, she saw
muscles bunch as he turned away, his hand in hers, to lead her to the
stools.

Time slowed, as he seated her next to the guitarist, then began the
song. She knew many bands did this, drew a member of the audience into
a song and her seat was conveniently close. But however much she told
herself This is a gimmick, a device, she couldn’t separate her
professional self from the vulnerable woman underneath.

She tried not to listen, tried to keep the smile fixed on her face, the
blank expression in her eyes. But she couldn’t. Ryan had evoked Maria
perfectly in the song—her fragility, her gentleness, her touching
naïveté. Her image—slight, blonde, ethereally pretty—swam before Gina’s
eyes.

Damn, when had she started to cry? Tears spilled over her eyes and ran
down her cheeks, two big, fat tears the spotlight would only emphasize.
The man taking video shots for the band knelt in front of them and she
knew the camera would magnify her distress tenfold. She couldn’t use
her trick of squeezing her eyes tightly closed, because anyone watching
the video would see it and know. So she forced her sight past the tears
and gazed at Ryan. Right into his eyes.

Shock lanced between them.



When Ryan Hawthorne and Gina Russo meet, the heat between them burns
hot and raw. But an event five years before set them apart and it lies
between them now.

Ryan Hawthorne is the charismatic vocalist for the band Pure Wildfire
with the world at his feet. He’s also a shape-shifting firebird more
than a hundred years old, torn apart by the death of his lover. Maria
died of a drug overdose but Ryan always suspected foul play. Now he’s
back in New York to find out.

Gina always blamed Ryan for her stepsister Maria’s death, but when she
meets the devastatingly sexy singer she finds Ryan is the embodiment of
all her wet dreams, and she’s had plenty.

They set each other’s worlds ablaze but they have to find Maria’s
killers before they get to Gina.

Or Ryan will lose her, too.



Icefire from Ellora's Cave

Shapeshifters rock!

Order Page: http://Icefire.notlong.com

ISBN: 9781419916410