Love Is in the Air

From the #1 bestselling Romance/Paranormal Romance/Contemporary Romance author Carolyn McCray comes a collection for all romance readers: Love is in the air. It includes over 150,000 words from some of Carolyn’s bestselling romances novels along with several reader’s favorite short stories.

Praise for McCray’s romances…

“Equal parts thrilling and romantic, HeartsBlood swept me off my feet. How the author weaves a story of science and magic so seamlessly still amazes me. And did I mention the sexual tension between the dark stranger and the heroine struggling to accept the fact her reality has been shattered? Oh yeah, this is a great one folks!”

Your Need To Read

Book Reviewer

“From Carolyn McCray comes a historical romance that will leave you hoping that for once, fate will be kind. You will be gripped from the first page to the last, caught in a love that spans eons and an ancient political intrigue whose consequence still reverberates today. This is truly a masterpiece that stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page.”

Emma Gilbertson

The Writer Bites Back

“I love this story…it’s so touching, beautiful & fulfilling. Thank you Ms McCray for sharing such a beautiful love story.”

Luv2Read

Amazon Book Reviewer

“This is such a cute book. I love how Ms. McCray had me laughing out loud and at the same time, was able to touch my heart with a softer side. When I first met Wyatt, I connected with his sense of humor. I love the beginning scene where he and his uncle Bhodhi are talking about ‘chicks’. Too funny. The animals and their personalities make this book special, but the development of the main character and his relationship with family and friends touched my heart.”

The Book Goddess

Amazon Reviewer

Love is in the Air

HeartsBlood

A Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy Thriller

Fated

Torn Apart by History, Bound for Eternity

Indian Moon

Love Isn’t As Far Away As You Think

Pet Whisperer…er…rrr

Book 1 in the Animal’s Talk Back Series

My Dangerous Valentine

A Spies in Stilettos Short Story

Targeted

A Betrayed bridge short story

Start Reading

Table Contents

Afterword

About the Author

Other Works by Carolyn McCray

Copyright

HeartsBlood

A Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy Thriller

CHAPTER 1

Lightning flashed across the San Franciscan skyline, crackling and dancing on the horizon. Light flooded through the ambulance bay doors into the emergency room. Once inside, the illumination struck its own path, bending around corners, filling every square inch of the triage area with a stark brilliance.

While everyone else might have been impressed with the bolt’s raw power or otherworldly glow, Dr. Salista Calon used that flash to place a nearly perfect suture across Mr. Kasza’s ragged wound.

“Nice,
mija
,” Maria intoned as she sponged the laceration’s edge.

Sal smiled at the head nurse’s compliment, especially since her friend had uttered it in Spanish to describe her affection. While Sal had a Welsh father to explain the green flecks in her otherwise brown eyes, the full-blooded Maria eschewed their shared Latina heritage and dyed her hair a blue-black normally reserved for Goth girls. Her punk-rock cut dared anyone to call her a Chica. The platinum-blonde bangs didn’t hurt, either.

“We don’t need no stinking plastic surgeon when we’ve got Salista, Warrior Doc!” Maria added.

Their rotund patient didn’t seem quite so amused. No matter the nurse’s opinion of her surgical skills, Mr. Kasza had very much wanted a plastic surgeon to close his cut. He’d said so at very high volumes for a very long time. However, the storm hadn’t heard, or at the least, hadn’t cared.

As thunder echoed not far off, rain hit the ambulance bay in sheets, obscuring the view. The world outside their dry sanctuary had become nothing more than a watercolor painting. While the City was used to its fair share of precipitation, this summer storm had taken everyone by surprise.

They’d had over four inches, and the forecast called for another three.

Mr. Kasza didn’t think that those woes should apply to him. He had continued under that delusion until the plastic surgeon called to say he’d ditched the waterlogged 101 without ever catching sight of the Golden Gate Bridge, so he turned back to his home in Marin. Even then, Maria had to scare the patient with impending sepsis or an unsightly scar to get him to allow Sal to sew the wound closed.

“You gonna finish, or what?” he wheezed.

Before Sal could answer, Maria snorted. “Oh,
now
you’re in a hurry. If we’d seen a little more of this attitude an hour ago, we’d be done.”

While some women had wing girls for club hopping, Sal had something far more important—a best friend who could run patient interference better than most linebackers.

Today, Sal was more grateful than usual. What should have been a slam dunk four-hour shift, the storm had dragged out into a grueling twelve-hour debacle.

The day had teed off with a seven-car pileup during the morning commute, then rolled into a cable car derailment down by Pier 39. That’s about the time the central air conditioning went out. Gradually, the ER’s smell of bitter antiseptic gave way to a rather rank odor.

Ready to go home, Sal really didn’t want to explain to Mr. Kasza that she had to wait for another lightning strike to provide enough illumination to finish stitching him up.

So, Sal sat poised, ready to take advantage of the storm’s next flash. As the seconds ticked by, though, and the fatigue of the day set in, she steadied her hand against the bed’s railing. The engagement ring on her finger glistened through her glove, surprising her—as it had all month.

Everyone kept telling her that she’d get used to it. But four weeks in, and it was still a strange sight. The diamond seemed tentatively perched on her finger—as if it was trying to decide whether it wanted to alight there or not.

“So, you getting back up on the horse, or what?”

“Maria!” Sal scolded her friend, but, in truth, she wasn’t at all surprised by her comment. Maria was way too perceptive for both their sakes.

“Richard’s picking me up for a date in a couple of minutes.”

“That’s not what I asked though, was it?”

As she studiously ignored her friend, the rain beat against the windows overhead, pattering out an almost amused beat, laughing along with Maria at Sal’s folly. Even in this dim light, she could see the nurse’s coy Cheshire cat smile.

“Mr. Kasza, I need you to hold your foot perfectly still,” Sal ordered, even though the patient hadn’t really moved. She just needed to get Maria off the subject of her and Richard.

Unfortunately, her friend wasn’t easily distracted. “So how long has it been, then? A couple of weeks?” When Sal didn’t answer, Maria gasped. “Oh my God! You guys haven’t hit it since the proposal?”

“I’m sure that Mr. Kasza, here, doesn’t want to hear about my love life.”

“
Au contraire
! This is exactly the type of stuff he pays good money to discuss in adult chat rooms, isn’t it?”

“Why, I… never…” His stammering confirmed Maria’s suspicion.

For weeks now, Sal been trying to find a way to bring the subject up to her friend. How did you admit to someone, especially Miss Free-Love Maria, that after Richard’s perfectly executed proposal, the fire hadn’t just died between them, but had been shoveled with ash and cemented over?

Sighing, Sal admitted, “No, he and I haven’t…”

“But you did it that night? After he asked you to marry him, right?” When Sal just squirmed, Maria gasped. “He slipped those fifteen carats onto your finger, and you didn’t put out?”

Sal could feel her cheeks heat up. Where was that damned lightning strike? “It’s only
five
carats and—”

“
Only
five carats? Chica, that’s worth more than I make in a year! Hell, if a guy just gave me the
box
that ring came in, I’d be on my knees.”

After Maria’s reaction, Sal wasn’t about to add that not only was the ring over five carats, but Richard had flown to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas to be absolutely certain he wasn’t buying her a “blood diamond.”

Sal knew her fiancé had paid at least double the going price for such surety.

“So how’s ‘The Dick’ handling this booty-free engagement?”

It was no use, but Sal corrected her anyway. “
Richard
is very understand
—
”

“No man is that understanding. Am I right?” the nurse asked Mr. Kasza.

Clearly, their patient didn’t want any part of this conversation either.

“Is there some kind of time limit before infection sets in?” he asked.

“Dick’s gay,” Maria said, ignoring the patient. “He’s gotta be.”

Sal’s ears burned. Her friend had gone too far. “Maria, don’t even—”

“You should be happy! After all the complaining about how I don’t see the two of you as a couple? How you guys don’t click? Now I get it!”

Begging the storm to do something, anything, to stop Maria from telling her what she “got,” Sal stared down at the laceration.

“Come on,” her friend coaxed. “You’re terrified of real intimacy, and he doesn’t like girl parts. It’s a pitch-perfect match!”

Just as Sal went to stand up for her fiancé, lightning struck, blazing bright as a summer’s day. The darkened ER glowed with a surreal clarity.

No matter her irritation with Maria, Sal was ever the professional with her needle at the ready, only it wouldn’t move. Sal tried. She really tried to force the needle forward, but couldn’t.

The entire ER seemed suspended in time. Frazzled interns halted their “chicken without heads” dance. Instead, they stood like nervous statues.