Unattainable [The Wolves of Shade County 1] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Read online

  The Wolves of Shade County 1

  Unattainable

  Some guys are just too damn cute. As far as Micky Silvers is concerned, Hudson Stark, bartender of the hottest gay bar in Shade County, is one of those people. Unfortunately the man turns down every single offer, so when Micky’s friends cajole him into asking the guy out, he’s not exactly hopeful.

  Hudson is a shapeshifter, and he’s had enough heartbreak over the centuries to swear him off dating entirely. The fates have other ideas, though, and push him and Micky together. Taking it as a good omen, Hudson throws caution to the wind and is rewarded with a torrid affair.

  But the wind soon changes, and their luck runs out, as an accident threatens to break them apart and reveal Hudson’s true nature.

  Will they emerge with their relationship intact, or will it all be too much for them to bear?

  Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 40,955 words

  UNATTAINABLE

  The Wolves of Shade County 1

  JC Holly

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

  UNATTAINABLE

  Copyright © 2013 by JC Holly

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-787-8

  First E-book Publication: October 2013

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of Unattainable by JC Holly from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is JC Holly’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Holly’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  For my love.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  About the Author

  UNATTAINABLE

  The Wolves of Shade County 1

  JC HOLLY

  Copyright © 2013

  Chapter One

  There are certain people in the world that are just too damn perfect. That was Micky Silver’s first thought as he watched the bartender of his local bar. His other thoughts were considerably more smutty, as usual.

  According to the badge the bar made him wear, the man was named Hudson, and that was all anybody knew about him. He never told anyone anything about himself, never dated, never even fucked around, as far as Micky could tell. Damn shame, a body like that going to waste.

  Six feet tall, shaggy brown hair that occasionally dropped over his blue eyes, and his face never marred by frowns or grimaces. The man’s short-sleeved shirt revealed toned arms with a hint of a real tan, which led Micky to believe that perhaps the man spent time shirtless. He’d love to see it. He was a few years older than Micky’s twenty-nine years, by the looks of things, but that hardly mattered.

  “You’ll never get him.”

  Micky turned back to the table and the three friends that he’d temporarily forgot existed. They’d come out for a fun Friday, which meant booze and cute guys. Usually at least one of the four would get lucky and then spend the next day telling the other three about it in a disturbing amount of details.

  Micky raised an eyebrow at Rhys, friend and occasional enemy. “Who said I wanted him?”

  Rhys smirked. “Gee, tough one. Could be the line of drool down the front of your shirt.”

  Micky restrained the urge to check and instead shrugged. “He’s cute.”

  “Cute? He’s a frigging god. He’s also a no-go.” Rhys downed the last of his vodka in one gulp. “I’ve seen the guy turn down every kind of guy.”

  “Maybe he’s straight,” George, to Rhys’s left, said. “That’d be a shame.”

  “Not for me, it wouldn’t,” their fourth member, Laura, said with a grin.

  Rhys shook his head. “Seen him turn down women, too. Way I hear it, he’s just not interested, period.”

  Micky knew that wasn’t true—he’d caught the man’s eye once, he was sure of it, and he knew interest when he saw it—but he wasn’t going to tell his friends that. He didn’t need the competition. No, it was more like Hudson wanted to and chose not to. At least that meant there was a chance, however minimal.

  “Anyway,” he said. “Whose round is it?”

  George and Rhys turned and pointed to Laura, who rolled her eyes.

  “Already?” She stood and stretched. “All right, who wants what?”

  The three gave her their orders and then turned back to the table again. Micky would rather have been staring at Hudson, but he had to at least pretend to be sociable for a while. The others knew exactly what he w
as thinking about.

  “Fifty bucks,” Rhys said, smirking.

  Micky frowned. “What?”

  “Fifty bucks say you can’t bag the bartender. Hell, a hundred if you like.”

  Micky didn’t reply, but Rhys continued. Damn, he got annoying when he was drunk.

  “Hundred and fifty!” Rhys turned and pointed to Hudson, who was thankfully facing away. “If you can get with him tonight, I’ll pay you whatever the hell you like.”

  Micky stared at his friend for a long time before finally nodding. “Fifty bucks. Put your money on the table.”

  The man snorted and slapped a few notes onto the middle of the table just as Laura returned with a tray of drinks.

  “What’s this?” she asked as she sat.

  “Rhys is about to lose a bet.”

  Micky stood and rolled his shoulders, then set off toward the bar, ignoring the cat calls from behind him. Maybe it was the few drinks he’d had talking, but he felt confident. He was young, in good shape, and he didn’t consider it vain that he thought himself at least mildly attractive. He’d had his pick of guys in the past, and while his hard partying days were long behind him, one bartender shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

  There was a small crowd of newcomers around the bar, but Micky managed to grab a stool and occupied himself by staring at Hudson while he waited for a lull.

  The man was smoothness incarnate. Every motion of his body was like that of a trained dancer. He moved like he should be on a stage somewhere, rather than selling watered-down booze to drunk assholes. He should be adored, maybe even worshipped, not leered at. Okay, so maybe the “adore and worship” part was down to the vodka, Micky decided. Still, he was going to ask the guy out. He had to, now, or he’d never hear the end of it.

  After five minutes, the crowd died down and Hudson spotted Micky. He smiled and walked over, tossing a towel over his shoulder as he did.

  “What can I get you?”

  His voice was rich and deep, and when Micky opened his mouth to reply no words came out. Damn it! I’ve drunk too much for nerves. Come on.

  “Uh, your phone number, for a start.”

  So it wasn’t the best line ever, but directness usually served him well. Although in this case, Hudson merely shook his head.

  “Sorry, buddy. Company policy.”

  He seemed almost sad about it, but perhaps that was Micky’s imagination. Undeterred, he pushed on.

  “I’ve dated a bartender from here before,” he said, as the man turned away. “He didn’t say anything about a policy. Maybe you’re just shy instead.”

  Hudson chuckled. “Maybe I am. The answer’s the same, though.”

  Micky nodded. “Okay, fair enough. Do me a favor, though?”

  “Hmm?”

  He handed the man his business card. “If you change your mind, call me.” Micky smiled. “Or if you just need me to fix your computer, even.”

  Hudson took the card and glanced at it. “Micky Silvers, IT consultant and technician. Funny, you don’t look the sort.”

  “I tried interior design, but it wasn’t my thing,” Micky said, feigning a lisp.

  “That’s not what I meant,” the man said, smiling. “I meant you looked more…” He shrugged. “Okay, so I don’t know what I meant.”

  “I get it a lot,” Micky admitted. “When people want something techy, they want an overweight guy with a neckbeard, not a cutie with an ass you can bounce pennies on.”

  Micky felt his cheeks begin to burn. He really hadn’t meant to say that. Hudson raised an eyebrow and then slipped the card into his shirt pocket.

  “I’ll bear it in mind.”

  He turned and walked to another customer, leaving Micky disheartened, but not down. Granted, he’d not gotten the guy’s number, but he couldn’t recall ever seeing anyone else talking to him for so long. Maybe there was still a chance. If there was, though, it was down to Hudson now.

  With a sigh, Micky stood and walked back to his friends.

  “Well?” Rhys asked, clearly unsure.

  It was tempting to lie to them, just to see their faces, but in the end Micky merely sat down and picked up his vodka.

  “I owe you fifty bucks.”

  * * * *

  Hudson Stark watched Micky slope off back to his friends before turning back to his work.

  The man was cute, certainly, ticking all of Hudson’s boxes for the ideal man. He was somewhere around five-seven, with short black hair and beautiful brown eyes, and an almost feminine build, bolstered by a little lean muscle. The guy hadn’t been kidding about his ass either.

  But nothing would come of it.

  “Hey, can I get two beers?”

  Hudson nodded without turning to face the customer. Even in the small crowd that had already developed, he knew which had spoken. He also knew that one of the crowd had a couple of baggies of weed in one of his pockets and made a mental note to inform a bouncer later.

  Heightened senses were an advantage to being more than human, but there were enough disadvantages that he wasn’t sure he’d ever recommend becoming what he was. His last relationship had gone great up until the point he’d revealed all. After that it was nothing but fear, anger, and a need to move cities for the third time in ten years.

  And people wondered why he didn’t date.

  He popped the bottle caps off two beers with his thumbs, not even thinking about what someone’s reaction might be on seeing it and then handed them to the customer and turned to take the order from another man. This guy was the drug dealer, as was clear once Hudson took another quick breath. On top of the weed, he picked up a variety of chemicals that he recognized as ecstasy.

  “What can I get you?”

  The man barely paid him any attention, instead looking around the bar, probably for customers. “Yeah, uh, whisky. Double, on the rocks.”

  Hudson poured him his order and then headed over to the other side of the bar where Clara was serving someone else. He and Clara had never got on well, but she knew how to keep it out of the workplace. Most of the time, anyway.

  “Watch the bar a second,” he murmured in her ear. “Think I’ve seen one of my customers dealing before.”

  Clara simply nodded in response and Hudson headed into the back where he knew one of the bouncers was on break. As he stepped into the room, Chris nodded to him from over the top of his paper.

  “Tall guy with blond hair, silver eyebrow ring, and a green shirt.”

  Chris stood. “Starting trouble?”

  “Pretty sure I saw him dealing drugs on the street the other night.”

  “I’ll check him out. Thanks, Hud.”

  Hudson smiled and headed back to the bar. It would have been easier if he could have just said, “I smelt the drugs on him,” but he doubted Chris would have believed him, and Hudson wasn’t in the business of revealing his nature to people who didn’t need to know. Half the time people thought he was making it up anyway. “Hi, I’m a freaking wolfman,” was a tough pill to swallow.

  The night rolled on uneventfully after that, and Hudson slipped back into bartender mode. Drinks were ordered, served, and paid for, and occasionally he got to pocket a few bucks in tips. The bouncer did indeed find drugs on the man in the green shirt, which lead to a scuffle that Chris was more than capable of dealing with, so Hudson merely watched the very short fight while pouring a cocktail.

  Micky and his friends left a couple of hours later, and the man glanced Hudson’s way as he left. Surprisingly to Hudson, he found himself a little disappointed. It wasn’t like they’d talked at all after the first exchange, but he liked knowing the man was there, watching him.

  The end of the shift arrived suddenly and Hudson’s replacement was behind the bar before he even realized it was time to go. With a smile and a nod to everyone except Clara, he headed out the back door and climbed into his pickup truck.

  The drive home was taken up by more thoughts of Micky. It was probably just the nearness of the full moon,
but Hudson had to admit that, despite having a lot of practice, he had found turning this particular man down harder than usual.

  “Probably just the moon,” he told himself again as he pulled onto the silent road. “Always brings out the wolf.”

  But maybe it wasn’t. Perhaps he was actually attracted to the man in more than just physicality. Micky’s eyes had held a great deal of intelligence, for one thing, even if the guy didn’t flaunt it. Hell, he was an IT consultant. That took brains, right? Hudson’s own knowledge of computers and other such devices didn’t take him much further than, “turn it off and on again.”

  He parked on his driveway a little while later and climbed out of the truck, taking in a good lungful of early morning air as he did. Rain was coming. That would make his run tomorrow all the more fun.

  His first stop inside was the kitchen. He pulled a wrapped steak out of the freezer, tossing it onto a plate and leaving it on the counter to thaw. As he turned to head upstairs, he spotted the light blinking on his laptop and realized he’d left the thing on before heading to work earlier. He folded it open and tapped a key, but nothing happened. He tapped at a few more keys, then gave up and pressed the power button. Nothing. Whatever had happened, he couldn’t fix it with his usual techniques.

  As he turned to head upstairs, he remembered the card in his shirt. He pulled it out and read it once more, chuckling at the coincidence.

  “Maybe someone’s looking down on me.” He glanced up at the ceiling. “And if they are, they ain’t subtle.”

  Chapter Two