Charming
Exiled #3
By Victoria
Danann
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Content warning 18+
For six years
the Exiled hybrids have lived in peace with humans, happily integrated and
intermarrying, sharing education, technology, and culture. Despite his youth,
Free’s youngest son, Charming, reluctantly stepped into the role of leader and
proved formidable, commanding the respect of both hybrids and humans while
uniting them in a single vision.
All was
manageable until a string of human murders point to a hybrid killer. While
Charming is in the middle of trying to keep the peace and maintain hard-won
goodwill between species, Rosie shows up unexpectedly and leaves a young human
female who is, apparently, on the run.
When Rosie
disappears before Charming can find out how to get ahold of her, he finds
himself with a city in crisis, the threat of a race war, and an unruly ward
sporting lots of attitude. And a fetching body.
“So are you going to tell me why you’re
here?” He looked at the large rolling bag parked by the front door. “Does it
have anything to do with that?”
“Well, I do need a favor.”
“You’re moving in.”
“No. Not me.”
“Okay. What is it?” He sat down on a couch.
“Can I sit?”
He made a gesture indicating that she could
sit where she wanted. She sat on a large upholstered chair near where he’d
parked himself on one of his sofas.
“There’s a girl who needs to disappear from
Loti Dimension. She needs a place to stay.”
Charming nodded, waiting for her to go on.
Then her meaning dawned on him.
“You mean with me!?! You want to leave some
strange girl with me the way Kellareal left you with my family?”
“Yes. Exactly. Including the part that you
may find her strange.”
“No.”
“You can’t say no.”
“I sure as hell can say no. Let me reiterate.
No!”
“You have room for a guest.”
“That’s my business.”
“I know. But it has to be you.”
“Why?”
“Because I trust you.” She could see that his
adamant position weakened with that declaration. “And you have a spare room,
what with being the grand poobah and all.”
She waved her hand in the air as if to indicate
that he was overlord of the entire dimension.
“I know I’m going to be sorry I asked this,
but what’s a grand poobah?”
“It’s the MAN, the big kahuna, the big giant
head, yada yada.”
“Was that supposed to convey information or
make you sound unhinged?”
“Look. I have a distressed damsel in tow. She
needs a place to be so as to avoid death and dismemberment, not necessarily in
that order. You have a place for her to hide out. So what’s the problem?”
“What did she do?”
“She’s taking the Fifth.”
He shook his head. “Rosie…”
“That means don’t ask, don’t tell. If she’s
guilty of something, you don’t need to know. If she’s not, what difference does
it make?”
“What diff…? You’re not taking ‘no’ for an
answer, are you?” Rosie cheered in direct proportion to Charming’s posture of
defeat and resignation.
“No.”
“Okay. New subject. Where have you been? Why
did you disappear? Why is it that the first time you’ve spoken to me since my
brother died is to ask for a favor?”
“When you put it that way it sounds rude and
inconsiderate.”
“That’s because it is rude and inconsiderate.
My family loved you, felt close to you. How could you just forget all about
us?”
“I didn’t forget all about you.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“I’m sorry. I knew that facing you, and your
family, would be painful. I guess I was thinking mostly about me.”
“But now you’re not.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, now you’re thinking about the needs
of some stray human you picked up on the street in another world, right?
Somebody you know nothing about. Am I right?”
“Yes. Right on all counts. She was terrified.
You should have seen her. I didn’t care what she’d done. I just wanted to help
her.”
“Well, that’s laudable. How have you been, by
the way?”
“I got married. That’s the other reason why I
haven’t been back. I didn’t know how you’d take it… my moving on. He’s the one
I was taking a break from when I came here.”
“Oh.”
“I wandered around for five years. Then we
got back together.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re happy?”
“Yes. How about you?”
“I’m… busy. I guess that’s the same thing as
happy.”
“I don’t think busy is the same thing as
happy, but if you’re not feeling unhappy, that’s good.”
“I missed you.”
“Missed you, too.” After a minute of silence,
Rosie said, “So. Will you take her in?”
Charming sighed. “For how long?”
“Until you find another place for her to
stay?”
His eyes widened. “You mean you’re leaving
her with us permanently?”
“If she goes back, she’s dead. So, yeah.”
“Rosie, that’s not really a plan. Dumping
somebody who doesn’t belong here. Do you really not see any problems with
that?”
“None that you can’t solve. You’re Charming!”
She grinned. “You made me feel welcome and right at home from the very
beginning. That’s why I know you’re the perfect solution.”
“But that was you! It was easy to make you
feel welcome because you’re you!”
“I think that’s a compliment. So thank you.”
He huffed. “I’m trying to say that, asking me
to room with some strange human… Well, you know how I feel about you, but it’s
a lot to ask.”
“Okay. Let’s negotiate. What’s it going to
take?”
“What?”
“Everything in life is a deal, Charming. What
do you need in return for this favor in order to feel like you weren’t taken
advantage of?”
 |
| Carnal ✯ Crave |
New York Times
bestselling author of thirteen romances. Victoria's Knights of Black Swan
series won BEST PARANORMAL ROMANCE SERIES for the past THREE YEARS IN A ROW.
Reviewers Choice Awards, The Paranormal Romance Guild.
Her paranormal
romances come with uniquely fresh perspectives on "imaginary"
creatures, characters, and themes. She adds a dash of scifi, a flourish of
fantasy, enough humor to make you laugh out loud, and, occasionally, enough
steam to make you squirm in your chair. Her heroines are independent femmes
with flaws and minds of their own whether they are aliens, witches,
demonologists, werewolves, hybrids, psychics, or past life therapists. Her
heroes are hot and hunky, but they also have brains, character, and good
manners... usually.
The rich
characterizations come from being a lifelong student of behavior, casually, and
a serious student of behavior academically. She also studied comparative
religion, myths, and Dark Ages history.
Victoria lives
in The Woodlands, Texas with her husband and a very smart, mostly black German
Shepherd dog.
No comments:
Post a Comment