Tiger Speed Dating

TIGER SPEED DATING

LIZZIE LYNN LEE

Summary

Romance author Abigail Collins has an epic writer’s block following a breakup with her boyfriend. She decides to stay at her grandpa’s cabin in Cub’s Cove to nurse her broken heart while working on her new novel. But she can’t write romantic scenes when all she can think about is how to strangle the main male character seven ways to Sunday for his lying, cheating, bast—okay, she’s stuck. Big time. Uh-oh. Seeing her in a rut, her best friends, Tiffany and Carmen, drag her to a local speed-dating event to get her out of her funk.

Tiger shifter Michael Kage chooses Cub’s Cove for his self-imposed exile, away from his clan’s dangerous, back-stabbing politics. Even though he enjoys the new town, one thing in his life is still missing: he yearns for a mate. So when he hears the local bar is hosting a speed-dating event, he’s the first in line to buy a ticket.

That night, just as Michael thinks the speed-dating event is a bust, he sees a gorgeous woman: a curvaceous goddess with silken hair and beautiful, sad eyes. He knows he has found his mate. But before he even has the chance to learn her name, they switch to other partners. Head over heels for having met his perfect woman, Michael has to find his Cinderella because that unforgettable woman holds the missing part of his heart.

First Edition 2016

©Copyright Lizzie Lynn Lee November 2016

Cover Art by (Lizzie Lynn Lee) ©Copyright (November/2016)

Edited by Amy Black

Proofread by Cassie Hess Dean

Galley Proofread by Lisa Bing

This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

About the Author

Join My Mailing List

Lizzie’s Bibliography

Special Preview from Wicked as He Comes

Chapter One

Santino wasn’t having any of it. His rugged hands pinned Claire by the shoulders and held her up against the wall, and then. . . and then. . .

Wait, can hands be rugged or is calloused a much better fit?

Argh!

Abigail Collins tore her hands away from the keyboard and groaned in disbelief. Fuck, fuckety fuck. The flow wasn’t right. She’d rewritten the same scene at least five different times, and each time it came out just . . . wrong. The book was never going to be finished if she kept up like this, and she had deadlines to meet and fans to please.

What was the matter with her? She never had writer’s block like this before. Plot bunnies and colorful characters in her mind always burst their way out easily onto paper like a broken dam. It was annoying that now she had brain constipation.

With a desperate sigh, Abby leaned back in her chair and stared at the old wooden ceiling overhead. Water damage had discolored the planks years ago, and she remembered staring at the same dark splotches during her childhood. She had the desk and chair in the same spot. The only difference back then was that she doodled and wrote for fun. She had a fertile imagination even as a child, especially curious about sex and what went on behind closed doors at night. She wrote her own story and illustrated it as an outlet and never showed it to anybody. Not even to her grandpa. That would be too embarrassing. She was often consumed in her own world to escape reality, daydreaming about princes who swept princesses off their feet, rogue pirates with tender hearts, brave knights who fought dragons to save their damsels in distress. She lived in a fantasy realm where unicorns shot rainbow lasers from their asses and everybody lived happily ever after.

But now she couldn’t run away from her problems anymore. She wasn’t the little kid she used to be, carefree and unaffected by the world and its expectations. Coming out to the old family cabin in Cub's Cove had been a good idea, but a change of scenery wasn’t going to cure her of her woes.

And it certainly wasn’t going to cure her of her heartache.

How was she supposed to write a romance novel when her own love life was in shambles?

Claire’s back hit the wall, but Santino cradled her head with his palm before she made contact. Their noses were close. The touch of Santino’s hand was . . .

Wait, why noses? Would faces be a better fit in this situation?

Useless, useless. Abby scrunched up her nose and shook her head. It wasn’t working, and it wasn’t going to work until she fixed the three-month ache in her chest.

Santino . . . Uhm . . .

Santino kissed Claire’s soft lips. Nah, too predictable.

Santino caressed Claire’s neck and down to the valley of her breasts. Ugh. Santino’s kind of a pervert.

Santino chocked on gum he was chewing and couldn’t breathe.

Santino accidentally stepped on a banana peel, lost his balance and crashed onto the floor spectacularly.

San—

The knock at the front door startled her, and Abby jumped up from her chair with a gasp. Since her grandfather had died, the cabin in Cub's Cove was empty most of the time. No one should have known she was there. She’d only come to try to break herself out of her funk, after all.

Abby crept over to her window and peered down. Her bedroom windows faced the front of the house, giving her a clear view of the front door below.

Even from above, Abby recognized the two women waiting for her to answer.

Oh my God. Abby’s fingers tightened at the sill, and then she pushed back from the windows and grinned. No way!

In seconds, she was out of her old, dusty bedroom and on her way down the stairs. Abby opened the front door right in time to catch Tiffany with her fist raised and ready to knock again.

Tiffany! Abby squealed. She grinned from ear to ear. Carmen!

Tiffany hitched one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows and shot Abby a look. Seriously? You’re still in your pajamas at this time of day?

Abby opened her mouth to reply, but found no words. Instead, she looked down at herself. There was no way she could argue that the pink pajamas with white polka dots and the cute, baggy, graphic T-shirt she wore were street clothes.

I, um, well…

It was after two in the afternoon, and while she hadn’t been expecting company, she knew that she had no reason not to be dressed. Working from home meant that she could stay in her pajamas all day if she wanted, but Abby was usually more in charge of her life than that. The breakup had done more than affect her writing. What was the point of getting dolled up if nobody appreciated it anyway?

Good thing we’re here to stage an intervention. Carmen laughed, and the two of them flounced through the door and entered the house like they owned the place.

In some small way, Abby thought, they kind of did.

Tiffany and Carmen had been her best friends all through childhood. Every summer, when Abby and her brother had come to Cub's Cove to spend their vacation with their grandfather, Tiffany and Carmen were waiting for her arrival. The three of them spent their time exploring the woods and wandering the town, talking about boys and laughing about the stuff only best friends found funny. With all of the in-jokes they’d made over the years, Abby was pretty sure that they could have entire conversations in a code that no one would understand.

Intervention? Abby closed the door and turned to face them. Tiffany had her hands on her hips, and Carmen was laughing coquettishly. "What do you mean, intervention?"

Oh, you know. Three months with no call after you break up with Tyler, and then we spot your car out front of the house? Yeah, we know you’re still not over that scumbag. So we’re here to help you out of your rut, said Tiffany. She narrowed her eyes critically and looked Abby over again. Good thing, too, if you’re still in your pajamas at two in the afternoon.

We’re going to get you fixed up, girl, Carmen promised with a wink.

Both of her friends looked beautiful. It had been