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Category: Romance
Description: Gabriel Marsh, known as the Dark Angel, is a Federation assassin. An Angelus, he's been brought up with high moral standards and rigid ethics. When he meets Deirdre Karanov, a shy blonde with a penchant for black market coffee and strawberries, he's instantly smitten. But Deirdre is a Variant, a type of human whose body can switch into a separate person of the opposite sex at will. She is at the mercy of her domineering Other, Lexei, another government assassin who uses her as a decoy to get near his targets. When Marsh is partnered with Lexei for an assignment, he makes it his mission to free Deirdre from the chains of Lexei's dominance. But double-crosses, enemy soldiers, and Lexei's cruelty conspire to stop him. The more he sees of Deidre, the more Marsh realizes he can't live without her. But is his love enough to set her free?
eBook Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc./Faery Rose, 2011
eBookwise Release Date: December 2011

Available eBook Formats: OEBFF Format (IMP) [123 KB]
Words: 24428
Reading time: 69-97 min.

From somewhere above him, he could hear music and, without knowing why, decided to follow the sound. He didn't even check for Karanov's name on the tenant register. Would it actually be there?

The music led him up two flights of non-escalating stairs to a door in the center of the hallway, a door which, when he tapped the intercom pad, slowly swung open. Inside, the music was blasting at near eardrum-puncturing pitch. How can anyone be inside with that noise and survive? He touched the pad again but there was no sound other than that cacophony. Suspecting a trick, he stepped to one side, carefully pulled the Winchester TR-27 out of its shoulder holster and pushed the door completely open.

Cautiously, Marsh looked in. What he saw was unexpected but totally enjoyable.

A pair of softly rounded buttocks and slender white legs. A young woman, back to the door, doing some type of calisthenics. Bemidjian aerobics, if her gyrations were any indication. She appeared to be wearing nothing more than a towel and Marsh wondered how long it would be before her movements caused the tucked velourcloth rectangle to dislodge and end up on the carpet. He felt a flick of latent lust, wondering if he had enough time to wait and see. She had a headset over her ears and the way she was pausing slightly between each movement told him she was listening to a physical fitness lecture, and that, combined with the volume of the music, was the reason she hadn't heard his knock.

Karanov's girlfriend, he supposed. Okay, so I'm wrong about the kid. Maybe.