Hey, y’all! I’m BA Tortuga, resident redneck and lover of all things shifter. I wanted to share an excerpt with all y’all. This is a scene from the bonus novella in Just Like Cats and Dogs, In the Dog House.
This serves as a bit of a bridge between Just Like Cats and Dogs and the sequel, What the Cat Dragged In, which is coming this summer. .
Gus snapped at the end of his tail, and he zigged, feet digging into the loose dirt. That made Gus bark, so he must have gotten a snoutful. Sam rumbled, then powered over the tree, but he landed badly, stumbling over legs that didn’t want to work.
Gus yelped, then pushed over the trees, becoming human as he landed. “Sam? Are you okay, Puss?”
He lost the fur, reaching for his mate. “Just hurt my pride.”
And his hip, a little.
“You lost your whole ass there for a moment.” Gus pulled him into those strong arms, lifting him easily. Gus was always confident in that amazing strength.
“Yeah, I forget that I’m not eighteen anymore.”
“I do too.” Gus cackled. “Of course, at that age I would have treed you and set the tree on fire.”
“If you could have caught me, maybe.” He wrapped around his mate and clung a little bit. “I’m glad you didn’t, because I would have missed out on some amazing blowjobs.”
“Handjobs. Butt-fucking.” Gus was so… classy. The kiss he gave Sam made up for it.
“Boys! Get your naked butts inside!”
Sam refused to even pretend to notice that Mom was hollering. La la la, not listening. Who was going to care if they were naked? The dragonflies? No one came all the way out here.
Gus hooted and ran, bouncing him along until he had no breath left.
They ended up in the little cave they’d claimed for their own, Gus easing him down onto the piles of blankets they’d stashed there. The place reminded him of the bolt-hole Gus had at the old mine back where his mom still lived. Sam would never call them pack again. They would turn on him if he showed.
“Shh. You never have to go back there, and your pack adores you. How many times a week do I have to pull puppies out of our bed because they want you?”
Sam chuckled, then nodded. “Sorry. I get bitter sometimes. I can hear you when you think so hard about how you’re going to protect us all. You want to bring in a couple more big males.”
“Shit, I wonder about bringing in a few more females. Once those hooligans get bigger, we’re going to be utterly outnumbered.”
“I know.” Sam chewed his bottom lip. “I just—what if I end up persona non grata again?”
“I told you when we came here. That will never happen again. Any pack member who can’t accept you, goes.” Gus got stern faced. “You aren’t the outsider. You are my mate.”
“I do love you, dork.” He stroked Gus’s cheek.
“Ditto.” Gus kissed him gently. “We should go to Reno or Carson City.”
“Yeah?” He could so do that. Dress up, eat something delicious, maybe go dancing. Hell, just the idea that Gus would do that for him, offer to take him away out of the blue made him more than a little shivery inside. “I’d like that. We could have a vacation. Just a weekend.”
“Yeah. Go down on Friday and come back late Sunday. I think that sounds amazing.” Gus was grinning huge, so pleased.
“Yeah? I’ll make some hotel reservations. We can go explore.” They had to have rock stores in Reno, right? Gus could go stroke quartz.
Sam chuckled, even though he knew Gus’s favorite was tourmaline. Double terminated and two tone…. Oh, that could be a dildo.
Gus stared at him, and he knew his mate had caught that random thought. “Puss….”
“What?” Now he tried for innocent, but he was worse at it than Gus. Sam knew how wicked he could be.
“I would pay good money to watch that, babe.”
“Perv.” He would do that for his Gus, though. He so would. Sam cleared his throat. “So we going this weekend?”
“Why not? Let’s go play.” Gus scooped him up, close, kissing him hard enough to make him catch afire.
Sam wrapped around Gus, intent on a thank-you his mate would never forget. Some time away would let him get his head on right again. Gus was right; they were a growing pack.
That fact made it no easier to be the only kitty around.
Much love, y’all.
BA
Blurb:
A Sanctuary Novel
Can cats and dogs ever get along, let alone fall in love?
Sam knows you can never go home again. As an orphaned feline shifter raised by wolves, being an outcast is nothing new to him. But the pack is still his family, and when one of them passes away, Sam returns to the New Mexico desert to say good-bye.
Gus is a loner who rarely returns to his pack, but as fate would have it, Sam is there when he chooses to visit. The history between Gus and Sam is tumultuous, to say the least, but when Gus gets an eyeful of the grown-up and gorgeous version of his childhood bully, he can’t control his reaction. And he isn’t alone.
The attraction is powerful, but so are their differences. And with trouble brewing in the pack and danger surrounding them, Sam and Gus might not have the opportunity to seek common ground.
This action-packed shifter novel is the ultimate opposites attract and enemies-to-lovers romance, and it includes a bonus novella, In the Dog House.
First Edition published by Torquere Press, 2011.
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About BA Tortuga
Texan to the bone and an unrepentant Daddy’s Girl, BA Tortuga spends her days with her basset hounds and her beloved wife, texting her sisters, and eating Mexican food. When she’s not doing that, she’s writing. She spends her days off watching rodeo, knitting and surfing Pinterest in the name of research. BA’s personal saviors include her wife, Julia Talbot, her best friend, Sean Michael, and coffee. Lots of coffee. Really good coffee.
Having written everything from fist-fighting rednecks to hard-core cowboys to werewolves, BA does her damnedest to tell the stories of her heart, which was raised in Northeast Texas, but has heard the call of the high desert and lives in the Sandias. With books ranging from hard-hitting GLBT romance, to fiery menages, to the most traditional of love stories, BA refuses to be pigeon-holed by anyone but the voices in her head. Find her on the web at www.batortuga.com