Just For One Night: A Story Based on the Novel Heart of Malice

Book 1: Alice Worth

by Lisa Edmonds

Genres: Paranormal; Urban Fantasy; Occult & Supernatural; Paranormal Romance; novella; paranormal romance; magic; female sleuth; steamy romance; werewolf romance; kickass female protagonist; steamy novella

Synopsis

The jukebox is playing Eddie Money and dawn is only an hour away, and Sean Maclin sees something he wants, even if it's just for the night. Relive one of the most memorable encounters from Heart of Malice (Alice Worth, Book 1) through Sean's eyes in this short story.

It's been a long workday for Sean, alpha werewolf and co-owner of a private security company. Rather than go home, he heads for Hawthorne's, a popular late-night bar catering to the city's night owls, looking for good music and a drink to unwind. Someone else is headed to Hawthorne's tonight too after a long and eventful day: Alice Worth, mage private investigator, is hoping for an audience with the bar's vampire owner.

A chance meeting changes everything for a woman who lives in the shadows and a man who prowls the night by moonlight.

Just For One Night is a bonus story based on Heart of Malice (Alice Worth, Book 1)

Release date: July 11, 2017

Publisher: Lisa Edmonds

Print pages: 42

Content advisory: Language, sexual content

Sample

Eddie Money was playing on the jukebox when she walked in.

From his table at the window, Sean watched her exchange a quick hug and a few words with the woman who was working at the door, then stride confidently to the bar, greet the bartender by name, and order a drink. The bartender reached up to a high shelf for a bottle and poured a couple fingers in a glass, pushing it across to her with a smile. A regular, then, not just a friend of the female enforcer. He didn’t recall seeing her before, though, and he was sure he would have remembered her.

When the enormous security man came up behind her and put his hand on her shoulder, Sean tensed, wondering if there would be trouble. Instead, the woman put her drink on the bar and punched the enforcer hard on his bicep. He bellowed with laughter as she made a wry face and shook her hand to relieve the pain from the blow.

Sean’s concern turned to interest as she talked with the enforcer. Who was this woman who walked so self-assuredly into a vampire-owned bar and punched a three-hundred-pound enforcer without fear?

She was gorgeous, medium height, and curvy, with long dark hair in a neat braid down her back and dark eyes. She wore a snug T-shirt advertising a band he wasn’t familiar with, tight jeans, and tall boots. Her crystal jewelry indicated she was a mage; what kind, he wasn’t sure. When she turned and headed for a booth, he noticed a hint of a tattoo on her upper right arm, but he couldn’t tell what it was. Her bag pulled her shirt down in the back and he saw part of another tattoo on her shoulder blade: the top of a wing. Not angel wings, though; something dark and edged with fire. A phoenix?

Sean had the sudden desire to see her tattoos—all of them. He wanted her in his bed, this fearless phoenix, even if it was just for one night.