Exclusive Excerpt from A Counselor Among Wolves
by Liv Olteano
I walked back into my bedroom still rubbing my hair dry, the towel hanging almost haphazardly around my hips. And as I entered, I froze. My bed wasn’t as I’d left it. It was radically different, in fact. Weiss, wearing only sweatpants, lay back against the headboard and was merrily watching TV—in my bed. Okay, technically it was his, but right now it was mine.
“What the hell?” I muttered.
He spared me a glance, running his gaze over me from head to toe and back up again. “Nice entrance.”
I put my hands on my hips. “What the fuck are you doing?” I asked, exasperated.
“Watching TV,” he said in a general “duuh” tone.
“I mean, why are you watching it in my bed?”
He yawned and stretched his legs, making his muscles bunch and relax again in a mesmerizing way. “Easiest way to make sure you’ll smell of me. You’ll sleep in that T-shirt,” he said, inclining his head toward the lump of fabric resting at the foot of the bed. “Your pillow and sheets will smell of me too, so you’ll smell right in the morning.”
And they’d smell of him while I’d sleep in them. The bastard… how was I supposed to sleep like that?
“Want to coordinate our stories about how we spent the night together too?” I asked acidly.
He snorted. “I’m a goddamn PBI agent, Edel. Trust me, I’ve got it covered,” he said, smugly pressing some buttons on the remote.
To my endless horror, some porn started playing instead of the game he was watching. Weiss fumbled with the remote and changed channels, but it was too late. I’d already heard some shameless moaning, and it was giving me a rise—especially considering the half-naked Weiss sitting on my bed. God, how his abs flexed with his every move. The hard ridges of his muscles almost choked me, despite trying to look at anything else. And the hair on his chest, going down into a happy trail that was lost under his sweat—
I hung my head in utter defeat and despair. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
He cleared his throat. “The porn wasn’t part of the plan.”
Good to know. “How did you get in, anyway? I’m pretty sure I locked the door,” I snapped.
He held up a hand. “See that over there?” he said, pointing to an open door. “Communicates between our bedrooms.”
I was shocked I hadn’t noticed it before. Close to losing my patience, I took a deep breath and stared at him. “Is it just me, or are you getting off on this?”
He looked down at his sweats, where there was some response, I realized, looking down on it with him. Then he looked back up at me and grinned. “I’m funny like that,” he said.
Okay… okay. I’d had it. “What are you playing at, Weiss?” I asked, feeling defeated.
He lifted his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“You’re in my bed wearing only sweats after you just groped and molested me down in the living room. Are you sure we’re both clear on the fact we’ll just pretend to be together? Because it looks to me like you’re taking this whole thing a bit too… seriously.”
Big mistake. He got up, giving me a full show of how his abs flexed and how his body looked in motion from up close. So much wank material gathering, my brain was short-circuiting.
He sat at the edge of the bed, resting his hands on his knees. “As long as we’re having this heart-to-heart, I think there are some things you should know. You might want to sit down.”
I sat in the chair beside me, careful not to have stuff hanging out of the towel or flashing him. “Go on.”
He sighed. “I’m not exactly sure how to behave.”
“Picked up on that.”
He growled and looked up into my eyes. “I mean, with you, in this situation.”
“Neither do I,” I said as kindly as I could. “I hope you understand this is… new to me too.”
“I doubt going out with someone is new to you.”
“You’d be surprised,” I muttered under my breath. “I mean, pretending to go out with someone is a first for me too.”
“I guess I am used to pretending.”
I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Never mind. I do cross lines, even on my best days. This hasn’t been one of them. I feel like an ass.”
“You are an ass,” I quipped.
He growled again and glared at me.
“Sorry,” I placated. “Why feel that way?”
“Where’s the line between pretending convincingly enough and actually going out together?”
I scratched my chin. “I guess meaning it makes the difference.”
“Yeah, but when we were making out downstairs… I meant it. Does it mean that when we were kissing, we were pretending very convincingly, or that it was real?”
About A Counselor Among Wolves
Five dead leaders, their bodies arranged in a pentagram. Treason, lies, and backstabbing. A make-believe affair that turns into a real mating.
Timothy Sands is a PBI counselor, half-fey, half-elf, with a secret crush on Herman Weiss, PBI director. As a new chapter is added to the Leader Murders, it is Weiss’s responsibility to investigate what seems an impossible-to-solve case. The other problem? Weiss is suffering from rages, and his only salvation lies in Tim’s emotional-grid-balancing skills. They only have to pretend to be a couple for Tim to use his talents, and he owes Weiss a big favor. Piece of cake, right?
The fey might be involved in the Leader Murders. Someone on the Council might be their ally, and another prominent PBI figure looks more and more suspicious as they investigate. The stakes are upped when Timothy’s father, the Fey King, threatens to leave the Council destitute if they don’t hand Timothy over to him. Weiss’s brilliant solution? Mating Timothy and forcing the Council into protecting him.
There’s only one small hitch in that plan: instead of protecting one, the Council might decide to get rid of two.
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
About Liv Olteano
Liv Olteano is a voracious reader, music lover, and coffee addict extraordinaire. And occasional geek. Okay, more than occasional.
She believes stories are the best kind of magic there is. And life would be horrible without magic. Her hobbies include losing herself in the minds and souls of characters, giving up countless nights of sleep to get to know said characters, and trying to introduce them to the world. Sometimes they appreciate her efforts. The process would probably go quicker if they’d bring her a cup of coffee now and then when stopping by. Characters—what can you do, right?
Liv has a penchant for quirky stories and is a reverent lover of diversity. She can be found loitering around the Internet at odd hours and being generally awkward and goofy at all times.
Her first novella of m/m romance came out March 20 2013 withDreamspinner Press.
Find out more about Liv on her Website.
As part of this blog tour, Liv is giving away an e-copy of ‘A Counselor Among Wolves’!! To enter, just click the link below!
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Don’t forget to check out Nikyta’s review of A Counselor Among Wolves to see what she thought of it!
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