How would you like to be teased?

Savage Garden: Flesh To Flesh
by Tawny Taylor
cover art by Bryan Keller
ISBN (13): 978-1-60521-006-3
Genre(s): Paranormal
Theme(s): Magic and Mayhem, Gay and Lesbian
Series: Savage Garden
Length: Novella

In a savage garden dwells a dark magic…

In a matter of minutes, Dr. Noble Cavanaugh’s life is ruined. A stupid mistake costs an innocent woman her life and leaves her child an orphan. As she dies, she calls upon a powerful mage, demanding justice for Noble’s crime.

There are no police. No trial. No jury. Only the worst kind of punishment for the former doctor -- total isolation. From all human contact. From the world. From light and sound and touch. From life.

But once every year Noble is freed from his prison, and he spends three bittersweet days with his devoted partner and lover, Sayer Lyon. They touch. Laugh. And weep. And then at sunrise, he returns to his prison to wait another year for the fall equinox.

This is how it’s been for five years, and this is how it will be for many more. At least, that’s what Noble and Sayer both think.

This year things will be different.

In a savage garden lies a man’s only hope for redemption.

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Teaser:

“Mrs. Wickham is complaining again. She says the baby’s coming, and she needs to push.”

Dr. Noble Cavanaugh swallowed a growl of frustration, gave Adam, the young, hot intern he’d been chatting with, a don’t-go-anywhere look and did a one-eighty to face the nurse behind him. Maryanne was fresh out of nursing school and thus lacking the experience to know Mrs. Wickham couldn’t possibly be ready to deliver. She meant well, but she was driving him nuts, coming to him every few minutes with a question or concern or problem. “Mrs. Wickham is a first-time mother, and she was at two centimeters when I checked her a half hour ago. Any other signs that her labor’s progressing?”

“Nope.” Maryanne glanced down at the chart. “Contractions are still three minutes apart, and the baby’s heart rate’s steady.”

Noble checked his pager. Eight hours to go. Eight more loooong hours. “Okay, then I’ll be in to check on her in a half hour. Page me if anything changes. I’m going to run down to the cafeteria and grab something to eat.”

“Will do.” Chart clutched to her chest, Maryanne ran off. Noble waited for her to round the corner before he turned back toward the intern.

Mmmm, mmmm.

Adam was beyond tempting, with his fierce body, picture-perfect face -- which haunted Noble’s dreams every fucking night -- brilliant mind, and promising future. Noble had noticed the intern right away. He wasn’t the only one. Every nurse on the floor had too. Patients. Staff. The kid left a wake of heated smiles trailing behind him every time he walked down a hallway.

And damn if Adam didn’t know he was hot too. That cocky I-know-I-got-it attitude only made the guy that much more tempting. Since the first day Adam stepped into Mercer Hospital and caused all kinds of scandal, Noble longed to shove the intern to his knees and wipe that grin off his face. A third-year resident with a stellar record and promising future himself, Noble had always kept his sex life separate from work, for a number of reasons. But guys like Adam made it a hell of a challenge.

He glanced at his pager again. It was going to be one long effing night. “Where are you headed tonight?”

Adam shrugged, giving Noble a look that said wherever you want. “Why? You want me to go down to the cafeteria with you? Or did you have something else in mind?”

“Mrs. Wickham is the only patient in Labor and Delivery right now. And I told Maryanne I’d be back in a half hour… Oh, hell!” Unable to resist the temptation, Noble yanked open the supply closet door. “Come here.” He caught Adam’s wrist, jerked him inside, slammed the door, and pivoting, crushed Adam’s body against it.

Adam tilted his head up, giving Noble a seductive half-smile, and Noble’s willpower snapped. He crushed his mouth over Adam’s, gliding his tongue across the intern’s lips, and ground his hips against Adam’s leg.

The intern opened his mouth, suckling Noble’s tongue, and slid his hands between their bodies to cup the bulge in Noble’s pants.

“Oh fuck, yes.” A hungry moan swept up Noble’s throat.