Snippet Saturday – First Meetings
May
1
2010

How about a super sneaky peek at de La Vega Cats: REVELATION? It’s not Kendra and Max’s first meeting, but it’s when everything begins for them…

DE LA VEGA CATS: REVELATION by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Samhain Publishing
Releasing July 2010

She hung up and put on shoes while she brushed her teeth quickly. Max de La Vega was one of the hottest men she’d ever laid eyes on, the least she could do was not look like a hag when he arrived. They’d exchanged some looks. Mild flirting. Renee had told her he was dating a woman, another jaguar shifter, but had broken things off a few months back. Renee seemed to think it was about Kendra. She’d love to believe that, but he was not her normal fare. Like a five-star restaurant with all the dollar signs and she was that little pho shop down the hill that everyone loved because it was good and fit a budget.

Hm. That didn’t necessarily sound right. But whatever, it was an argument she was having in her head, who would judge?

She heard the purr of an engine and looked out to the street where Max had just pulled up. Not bad. Four of the five minutes she’d given Jack. He probably drove like a crazy person, which given the situation, she appreciated as she jogged down the inner stairs and outside to meet him.

He—good sweet heavens—looked soooo good standing there on her stoop she nearly forgot her sister was in trouble.

“Did you look through the peephole before you came barreling out here?” he asked her in that voice, the voice she’d been thinking about since she’d first heard it nearly four months before. A rumble, a growl and sometimes if she was very lucky, nearly a purr.

Still, hello, she wasn’t a five-year-old.

“Nope. I rushed out here with dollar bills pinned to my shirt.”

He snorted, a smile hinting at the corners of his mouth. “Come on then, car’s right there.”

If by car, one meant a sleek, black jaguar. Which, okay, she laughed and he looked at her sideways.

“What?” He hustled her inside the still-running car, and he lectured her about opening her door? “You’re a black jaguar, am I not supposed to notice your car is too?”

Without asking, he reached over and belted her in before squealing away. “Watch the upholstery, you’re going to rip it to shreds.”

“If you didn’t drive like a maniac I wouldn’t have to hold on so tight. Also, you left your car running! You lectured me on opening my door, which yes, I did look out first, I’m not a moron, and your car was unlocked and running on a city street in Boston at three in the morning.”

He snorted. “Who’s going to steal from me, Kendra? Hmm?”

He had a point she supposed. “It’s not like a thief is going to know you’re some super-dooper alpha jaguar shifter.”

He laughed then. “Oh little witch, you’re so smart and powerful and yet, naïve sometimes. Predators always know other predators. Or they become prey.”

Oh.

“I’m nearly five nine, I’m not little.”

“You are compared to me.”

Hmpf. If he wasn’t eleven feet tall that wouldn’t be true. Then again, if he wasn’t six and a half feet tall of delicious chocolate skin, he wouldn’t be as ridiculously sexy as he was. Which would be a shame because he was the fodder for many of her best masturbatory fantasies.

“Why are you on guard duty anyway?” She pretended to ignore the way he drove all while fervently thanking the universe for airbags.

“Galen asked. It was you. I came.”

It was her? Really? What did he mean? That she was Renee’s sister and so his relation? Or her specifically because he had fantasy wankfests about her? Gah, okay, she didn’t need to go down that road just then. They turned onto Renee’s street, and she tensed, holding her bag ready.

“Hold on, babe. No need to hurt yourself jumping from a moving car,” he said, screeching to a stop.

“Babe?”

“I could call you sexy if you prefer.”

She huffed an annoyed breath, swinging her door open and jumping out. “I’m not that girl, Max de La Vega.”

“Dream on, Kendra. You are and more,” he murmured as he got out on his side, making her all flustered. Several times over the last few weeks he’d turned her into goo with silly things. The way he looked at her, or some silly thing he said.

At first he’d sort of been wary, but friendly. Slowly though, it had felt as if he’d begun to focus on her in an altogether new and non-related sort of way. His attention wasn’t so much off-putting, but intense. He had a way of looking at her, intimate, as if he brushed her skin with his lips as he stared.

They were all that way, the shifter males, no matter the rank, they were intense beings. They paid attention on a level she hadn’t thought existed.

This one in particular also had a way of moving like there wasn’t a damned thing in the universe capable of scaring him. He owned every single step he took. Simply expected everyone to pay attention and be there when he needed it. Like the way he handed his keys off to Gibson, Max and Galen’s brother and the Bringer of the jamboree, who tossed them to another guy who drove off without a word.

Cripes, there were at least six shifters out in front of the house, all on guard. Their magick filled the area with loam and fur. Her magick always rose in the presence of Weres, it flowed around her like a warm breeze.

Gibson cleared people from the base of the steps and nodded at Kendra. “They’re inside waiting.” Gibson rarely said much, but damn he was pretty to look at.

Be Sure to Visit This Week’s Other Snippeters!

Jody Wallace
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
Lissa Matthews

5 comments to “Snippet Saturday – First Meetings”

  1. Christine
    May 1st, 2010 at 4:50 am · Link

    Great excerpt and nice and long to. Can’t wait until July.



  2. Janell
    May 1st, 2010 at 6:59 am · Link

    Great way to start a weekend. Thanks for sharing. I’m looking forward to this new book. I liked the image of him owning every step he took. I can feel that.



  3. Dana
    May 1st, 2010 at 4:08 pm · Link

    Just enough to set the drool flowing! C’Monnn July!



  4. Lori
    May 2nd, 2010 at 6:51 pm · Link

    Looking forward to the continuation of this story/series!!



  5. Maryam
    May 3rd, 2010 at 8:52 pm · Link

    yummy! I just can’t wait.