Tigers Like It Hot
Who knew shape shifters exist and they adore curvy, full-figured women?
When Jessi decides to leave her home town for the second time, she and her best friend Kelly devise a plan. They’ve researched six different towns, they’ve drawn the orders of their visits from a hat and they’re determined to stick to the new path they’ve set out for themselves.
When Gareth and Mac set out in search of a mate, they didn’t expect company in the form of two unwanted tag-along friends, and they certainly didn’t expect their sort of well-laid plans to grind to a screeching halt in a town they had never even heard of before.
How did they all end up in the town dubbed Halloween town for the week when none of them had even planned to stop there for anything more than lunch?
EXCERPT
“That’s it! I’ve had it.” Jessi snarled as she stalked into the apartment she shared with her best friend, Kelly. “I’ve had it. I am so out of here. Just watch how fast I’m outta here. Your head will spin.”
Throwing her purse on the couch, she stomped to the coat closet and pulled her suitcases out. One by one, she dragged them into her room and hefted them up onto the bed. After hoisting the last one up, she unzipped them and started pulling her dresser drawers out, which she unceremoniously dumped into the open bags.
“What’s the matter?” Kelly leaned against the door frame, her arms crossed, a little crease between her brows. “What are you doing?”
“I’m leaving. That’s what I’m doing.” Jessi waved her hand above her head. “I’ve had it up to here with Billy’s innuendo and Bobby’s pawing. Let them find some other girl to torment. I’m not taking it anymore.”
Tears burned her eyes as she thought about leaving home again. It wasn’t the town she would miss. It was Kelly who would fill her thoughts as she drove away, leaving this town in the dust for the last time. At least she wouldn’t leave Kelly penniless. She’d managed to invest her way into a sizable bank account over the years. While she had a larger bank account than Kelly’s, it wasn’t much larger. The money she’d saved and invested for them both over the time she’d lived and worked in the city, if they continued to invest it wisely, would last the rest of their lives.
“I should have known that I could never come home.” She dashed the tears away with the back of her hand. “Why can’t those jerks just leave me alone?”
For whatever reason, the people in town, mainly the guys she grew up with, wouldn’t forget her wild youth. They reminded Kelly of it constantly. What had made her think that she would be any different?
Every person in town was guilty of doing something they weren’t proud of doing when they were younger. Yet, they constantly reminded her that she wasn’t perfect, and she wasn’t wife material. She and Kelly were good enough to screw any man in town—not that they would do that anymore—but they drew the line at a one-night-stand. Apparently, the men in town had never made it into the modern world. They still held their women to different standards. Jessi hated that.
So what that she’d had low self-esteem when she was younger? What difference did it make that she had done the very thing that every man in town had done at one time or another in their adolescence.
“I just can’t take it anymore.” Jessi shook her head and sighed. A year was already too long to put up with that crap. “This time when I leave, I’m never coming back here.”
Jessi stared at the clothes haphazardly piled in her bags. Her shoulders drooped at the thought of losing her best friend, yet again. She turned to Kelly. “I’ll miss you.” Her voice cracked as she barely kept herself from bawling. She felt like she did fifteen years ago, all over again.
“No you won’t.”
“What do you mean, I won’t miss you? Of course, I will! You’re my best friend.” Did Kelly think she didn’t really care?
“You won’t miss me because…” Kelly paused, then grinned. “I’m going with you this time. If you think I’m going to let you leave me here again, you’re out of your cotton pickin’ mind.”
“B-but why would you leave your home, too?”
Kelly tilted her head and stared at her with a frown. “Do you think those asshats treat me any differently than they treat you?” She shook her head. “I’m sick to death of it, too.” She sat up, clapped her hands together and grinned. “I say we get the hell out of this little Podunk town and find a place where we can really live!” She headed for the doorway, presumably to go pack. “When does our adventure begin?”
