Shifty Business (Bend-Bite-Shift Trilogy Book 3)

Gerry Hinton thought she had the perfect career as an operative for the Company. Her next assignment should have been another "mission accomplished", but hell was delivering hand baskets that day. When a little girl gives a mysterious silver box to Gerry, her world self-destructs. Suddenly under constant mental attacks, the only person who can save her is her partner, Nicky--but nothing comes without a cost. Secrets buried deep in the past begin to rise, threatening everything she holds dear. If she can't out run her past, can she save her future?

Excerpt

“Geez, stop wiggling and sit still!” Nicky huffed, placing both hands on her shoulders and shoving her back into her seat.

Gerry plopped into the wooden chair with enough force to make the air whoosh from her lips. “Get it over with then. Hurry!”

He slapped her hand when she raised it with clawed fingers to scratch the welted skin on her neck, and he smirked at her when she growled in response. Her eyes met his, and he winked as he lifted a calamine coated cotton swab to her skin. She closed her eyes, shaking her head in annoyance while he finished dabbing the stuff all over her face, neck, arms and chest.

“If you hadn’t rushed off in such a hurry to tackle that werewolf, you wouldn’t have ended up rolling into a patch of poison ivy. Too bad you can’t heal yourself. And we won’t catch back up with the team until day after tomorrow and then Langston can help.”

Gerry ignored him, refusing to open her eyes and look at him.

“There. Feel better?” he asked, snapping the top closed on the calamine and tossing it onto the bed.

“Not especially.” She muttered the response under her breath as she approached the mirror and flicked her nose to engage her magic. The pink splotches began to disappear, and her complexion smoothed back to normal.

“Hey, hey, that’s against rules.”

She knew what rules he meant. They had an agreement that she wouldn’t use her magic to alter her looks when they were alone together. It took him a while to beg that promise from her, because she was much more comfortable when she could smooth and cover the blemishes she saw in her appearance.

Gerry flashed her brown eyes at him. “The rules don’t apply in this situation. I’m still me.”

Nicky came up behind her and placed his hands around her waist, his lips close to her ear, “You’re acting like a baby.” He skimmed his fingers along her ribs. She yelped and wriggled to get away from him, but he held her fast. The angry scowl on her face dissolved into a wide smile.

“Stop it!” She laughed, biting his arm and then kissing the spot.

“Reverse the spell. I want to see you. Spotted and all.”

She complied, twitching her nose until the pink dots appeared again all over her exposed skin. “Satisfied?” she queried, leaning her head back for a kiss. He obliged, smacking her lips and then releasing her.

“Yep, satisfied. Now settle down, woman, and I’ll head out to grab us some munchies.”

She watched him from the corner of her eye as he grabbed the keys from the nightstand. As he passed behind her, he smacked her rear-end with a wink and exited the hotel.

About Author Olivia Hardin

About the Author – Olivia Hardin realized early on how strange she was to have complete movie-like character dreams as a child. Eventually she began putting those vivid dreams to paper and was rarely without her spiral notebooks full of those mental ramblings. Her forgotten vision of becoming an author was realized when she connected with a group of amazingly talented and fabulous writers who gave her lots of direction and encouragement. With a little extra push from family and friends, she hunkered down to get lost in the words. She’s also an insatiable crafter who only completes about 1 out of 5 projects, a jogger who hates to run, and is sometimes accused of being artistic, though she’s generally too much of a perfectionist to appreciate her own work. A native Texas girl, Olivia lives in the beautiful Lone Star state with her husband and their puppy Bonnie. Connect with her Online - Blog | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook