Winter Solstice: An Immortal Highlander Novella (Druid Series) (5 page)

Sacred
Places

Goddess
of the Grove

Winter
Solstice

Mandy M. Roth grew up fascinated by creatures that go bump in
the night. From the very beginning, she showed signs of creativity. At age
five, she had her first piece of artwork published. Writing came into play
early in her life as well. Over the years, the two mediums merged and led her
to work in marketing. Combining her creativity with her passion for horror has
left her banging on the keyboard into the wee hours of the night. Mandy lives
with her husband and three children on the shores of Lake Erie, where she is
currently starting work on her Master’s Degree. She was nominated for Romantic
Times
Bookclub
Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Award for
Best Paranormal Erotic.

Mandy has topped the Amazon bestselling charts more than
once and has a loyal and steady following. She does cover art under the brush
name Natalie Winters and is very involved with helping authors learn to market
their books. In 2009 she and fellow author Michelle M. Pillow started their own
self-publishing endeavor named The Raven Books. It spawned from the name of a
nightclub in Mandy’s wildly popular Daughter of Darkness Series. In July 2010
they opened The Raven Books to third party distribution and by Dec 2011 had
sold WELL over 150,000
ebooks
.

Mandy writes for The Raven Books, Samhain Publishing,
Ellora’s
Cave Publishing, Harlequin Spice, Pocket Books and
Random House/Virgin/Black Lace.

To learn
more about Mandy, please visit
www.mandyroth.com
or send an email to
[email protected]
.

For latest
news about Mandy’s newest releases subscribe to her announcement list in Yahoo!
groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/Mandy_M_Roth

For a
complete, up-to-date booklist, visit
www.MandyRoth.com

The
following material is free of charge. It will never affect the price of your
book.

The Christmas fun continues

As Victoria told her best friend, Megan, all she wants for
Christmas is a hot, horny vampire. Instead she’s got a sleazy, sexually
harassing boss who treats her like a piece of meat and doesn’t know the meaning
of “no!” Victoria can’t afford to lose her job. Where’s her fictional horny
vampire, coming to her rescue so he can rock her world? If only they were real…

Phillip Ruth does his best to pass as human. He’s managed to
carve out a name for himself as a successful businessman by controlling his
otherworldly blood lust. But the day he crosses paths with Victoria, lust isn’t
the only thing he’s feeling. As the sparks fly, he finds he’ll do anything to
make her his.

Note: Want to know more about Victoria’s BFF, Megan? Pick up
Christmas Curse by Michelle M. Pillow!

Victoria
Resa
focused hard on the
computer screen in front of her, hoping her boss of two years, Frank Hewitt,
would just pass by without stopping to do his normal song and dance. She
clicked away from her email program, worried he’d try to read the email she was
in the middle of penning to her best friend, Megan.

Frank was an absolute and total tool. If there was a skirt
in a hundred-mile radius, he was there, trying to nail it. If she wasn’t so
desperate for a job, she’d tell him where to stuff his innuendoes.

Please, just keep on moving.

“Vicki, did you happen to get the updated customer service
component packs together? I got stuck with the damn training seminar again and I’d
really like to be prepared this time, sweetie,” he said with a wink that made
her stomach turn. She hated being called Vicki and really hated his pet names
for her. She especially hated Vicki-poo.

She wanted to take his neatly trimmed blond head of hair and
ram it through the wall. Of course she had the packets of information ready.
She always had everything that sleazebag needed done ahead of time. It wasn’t
her fault the jerk had left them at his mistress’s house the night before last
year’s seminar. Frank didn’t tell his superiors that. No, he told them his
assistant had failed to get them done in time.

Lies, all lies.

Everything that falls out of the man’s mouth is a lie.

Victoria could have spoken out against him, but what was the
point? The company would never move her any higher than her current position.
Frank had told her as much the minute she’d refused to sleep with him.

He’d cornered her in the copy room, after hours, and made it
very clear that if she wanted to advance her career, she could do so by
servicing him first. It would be a cold day in hell before that happened.
Victoria had immediately
begun
the search for a new
job, but couldn’t figure out why no one seemed to call back. She overhead Frank
giving her a rather nasty reference on the phone and knew then why she hadn’t
been able to get another job.

Her master’s degree in marketing seemed pointless now that
she was no more than Frank’s glorified secretary when, in actuality, Betty was
his secretary. He ordered her around like a dog and she jumped at his every
whim—or almost every whim. Maybe if she took that one last step, she could be
free of him. It’s not as though she ever had any better offers. She worked so
much that she never socialized, and Frank had spread rumors around the building
that she was his, so no men asked her out.

Ah, to be my own boss.

Megan owned her own bookstore less than five minutes from
Victoria’s apartment building. Even though the hours were often long and the
pay wasn’t exactly great, Megan seemed content to be in charge of her place and
Victoria envied that. What she didn’t envy was Megan’s dislike of the holiday
season. The poor girl was thoroughly convinced Christmas was cursed. At times
it was almost comical. Not that Victoria would outright laugh at her friend’s
fears.

Victoria eyed her cell phone, the urge to call her friend
great. She’d been in the middle of writing an email to Megan when Frank had
cornered her. Frank would throw a fit if she made a personal call on company
time, so she resisted. It didn’t help that the main topic of conversation
between them of late had been how best to deal with the overly touchy-feely
prick with the corner office. Talking about Frank with him within earshot
wasn’t wise.

His warm breath skated over her cheek and she cringed
inwardly as he hovered.

“Vicki,” he sighed, inching closer. “Hiding any more of
those romance novels about vampires and werewolves in your desk drawer?”

She gasped.

How had he known about those?

“You went through my things?”

He slid his finger over her neckline. “I leafed through
them,” he confessed as if it were no big deal or any type of violation. “You
like your sex rough, huh?”

Ohmygod
, he did not just
ask me that.

“Mr. Hewitt, I…”

“Tsk, tsk,” he whispered, his finger in the top of her
blouse. “We’re way past formalities, don’t you think, Vicki-poo?” A lecherous
smile gleamed over his face. “Those novels you read are erotic, aren’t they? I
read all about the heroine’s quivering quim. Is that what you want? You want a
man to make you wet?”

She tensed more, silently willing him away. It didn’t work.
He skimmed a finger farther into her blouse, blatantly invading her space. Her
traitorous body responded, her nipples hardening and her breath catching.

Her vibrator had become her best friend, and when she’d
realized that she was buying batteries in bulk on a regular basis, she knew
things had gotten bad. The touch of any man sounded good at the moment.

Frank wasn’t a bad-looking man. On the contrary, most of the
women she worked with were so jealous that he was her boss that they didn’t
speak to her. She swallowed back the vomit in her throat as she pushed the idea
of screwing Frank out of her head. Making a mental note to seek psychiatric
help if she should ever entertain sleeping with him again, she forced herself
back to reality.

“I
vant
to suck your blood,” he
said with a bad accent.

And I want to ask my Tia Rosa to curse you. Maybe she
could turn you into the toad you really are.

She held her thoughts and focused on her screen.

Her aunt Rosa, who firmly believed she was a witch, had
offered on numerous occasions to handle the hexing of her boss. So far,
Victoria hadn’t taken the woman up on the offer. She was considering it for
sure.

Frank used his other hand to ease open her top desk drawer.
He moved a file, uncovering one of Victoria’s guilty pleasures. “Hmm,
Call
of the
Lycan
by Michelle M. Pillow. This a
vampire one too? You like those, don’t
ya
?”

“It’s a werewolf one,” she snapped, unsure why she felt the
need to defend it. She wasn’t sure Frank could form complete sentences, let
alone read. “And yes, I like it.”

Much to her dismay, Frank tapped the keyboard, shutting the
spreadsheet window, revealing the email. He leaned in more, his gaze on the
screen.

“Megan,” he read out loud. “I’ve decided. All I want for
Christmas is a hot, horny, single vampire who wants to not only drink from me
but who wants to keep me as his sexual love goddess. That or a million dollars,
I can’t decide. Tell me your night is going better than mine. Love, Victoria.”

For a
complete, up-to-date booklist, visit
www.MandyRoth.com

Contemporary
Romance

Megan Sinclair believes she’s cursed. After all, every year
she celebrates Christmas something bad happens—broken bones, chicken pox, house
burning down. So after agreeing to finally go home for the holidays, she’s not
surprised when her all-too-sexy boyfriend breaks up with her—and by note, no
less!

Sean Morgan doesn’t believe in curses, but his girlfriend
does. It’s her one fault. In all other ways Megan’s perfect for him, from her
interesting mind to her gorgeous body. And the sex? HOT. But, because she’s
convinced something bad will happen, he’s not too surprised when she leaves for
the holiday without him. Convincing Megan that she’s not cursed may take some
creative maneuvering, but Sean plans to make sure he turns her holiday luck
around.

Note: Want to know more about Megan’s BFF, Victoria? Pick up
Trust in the Season  by Mandy M. Roth!

Tinsel and garland clung tastefully to everything that
didn’t move. Christmas music pumped throughout the house, jingling and tingling
and so very merry. Bright packages overflowed from beneath the giant tree.

“Oh, Jeff, she’s just so thin!” Frieda fussed. Her blonde
hair was sprayed into position, not a hair out of place. Her mother had that
same hairstyle since she was a kid. “Megan, honey, don’t you eat? Jeff, look at
her. Don’t you think she’s thin?”

Megan just smiled and took a deep drink of the champagne. It
was going to be a long night. “I’m fine, Mom. I eat plenty.”

“Didn’t you say you were bringing a friend down?” Jeff
asked, smiling at her from where he sat back down on the couch. He was a good
man and had been a really good father and husband over the years. She knew he
was changing the subject to take her mother’s attention off her weight. Frieda
would over-feed the world if they let her.

“Christmas curse strikes again,” came her response.

“Curse?” Jeff chuckled. “Well, I can’t blame you for
thinking so. What year did you get the snake again? When you were seven?”

“Nine. Mom bought me a bunny. The pet store messed up and
gave me a snake. I hate snakes. The damned thing shot out of the box and bit
me.” Megan lifted her glass for a refill before pulling her shirt to the side
to show two puckered scars on her neck. “See, right here. Seven is the year
Sugar-Puffin was hit by the car Christmas morning.”

“Megan, honey, phone for you!” Frieda called, waving the
corded handset at her from the kitchen where she was putting the finishing
touches on her sugar cookies for the neighborhood gift bags.

Megan frowned. Who would be calling her at her parents’
house? Victoria was supposed to have been busy that evening and only a handful
of people knew where she was. Pushing up from the couch, she smiled at her
mother as she was handed the phone.

“What are those?” Megan asked, checking out the sugar
cookies. She nearly choked. They were strangely shaped blobs that looked
suspiciously like turgid male cocks.

“Ornaments,” her mother answered, as if it were obvious.
Then, waving to the phone, she grinned in giddy excitement and whispered
loudly, “Answer it. It’s a man!”

Megan turned her back before her mother saw her laughing at
the ridiculous cookies. “Hello?”

“Hey, babe, I better be the only man calling you.”

Megan froze, feeling as if a truck had run over her. Sean!
The sound of his voice gave her chills of desire—striking her in the stomach
and causing her pussy to ache. She cleared her throat, trying to calm her
racing heart. Her lips tingled, hearing the laughing tone in his words. He was
the best kisser, knowing just how to massage his tongue against hers in slow strokes
that he would later mimic with his tight body.

“Listen, Meg, I’m—” The phone cut out and she couldn’t hear
the rest.

Numbly, she pulled the phone from her ear and hung up. Why
in the world was Sean calling her now? Was he trying to make the wound worse
just in time for Christmas?

“That was fast,” Frieda commented.

“Telemarketer,” Megan lied. “They can track you down
anywhere.”

Megan left the kitchen, going in search of something a
little harder than champagne, as her mother stared after her.