Astrid Cooper

Forbidden Nights
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Take a walk on the wild side: Do YOU dare enter the realms of the Wyre, the Lilan, the vampire; mortal and immortal lovers whose dark dreams and forbidden nights incite passion and stir the soul?

Feel the thrill of the blood-lust, experience the silken texture of a dream-lover's caress. Join in the quest where desire and fear are but the rhythm of the chase.

Award-winning, best-selling author, Astrid Cooper, presents a powerful combination of mythic-fantasy and stunning eroticism, where hunter becomes the hunted in the ancient game of seduction.

Featuring the stories: Panther: Bouquet: Flight Night: Shadow Man: Tiger! Tiger!; Le Petit Mort: Resurrection.

Touch not the cat!
Danielle's lover is relentless -- he offers forbidden nights of passion and desire. But is he a dream, or a man? She discovers that he is more than he seems. How can a human woman satisfy the passionate cravings of a creature who walks in the shadow of many worlds and many guises? Panther awakens Lauren's deepest, darkest desires, but when Panther's past catches up with him, she must confront the reality of who and what her lover truly is!

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The Excerpt:
Panther
Behind me in the mirror reflection, stood a man -- naked -- save for a black studded collar. His erection was rigid against his taut belly.

I was too sex-incited to be afraid; all I could do was regard him.

Not a true man, this creature, his skin was golden, but over it, a dark nap of downy-hair. His eyes were slitted, glowing gold and green. His blue-black hair hung to his waist and as I watched, running my tongue over my dry lips, he shook his head and flung his hair away. It flew around him like a cloak. Blue lights sparked around him.

I must be hallucinating! But the chimera held me in thrall and I gave in to it; wanted it more than anything.

He stalked to me, and wrapping an arm around my waist, drew me back against him. His body was whipcord muscles, strong; danger barely restrained.

I felt his turgid sex pressing the small of my back, branding me. His hand fanned over my belly, his fingers resting at the tip of my pubic bone. He demanded intimacy and I surrendered.

He lifted the hair from my neck, his mouth lapping at my nape. A gentle bite; two. I lost count at the times he flirted with lips and teeth.

I watched him in the mirror as he nuzzled my neck. His hands quested over my body, cupping and stroking my breasts before exploring between my legs.

I leaned against him. He held me upright as his fingers probed. My skirt was lifted, his fingers travelling with soft determination towards my cleft, delving through my panties into my heated flesh.

I moaned and he growled.a primal sound that made me shiver, made me want him all the more.

I flung my arm back around his neck, holding him, raising my leg, encouraging him to quest within.

His head lifted and in the mirror reflection our gazes met and held.

His smile was one of male triumph; of possession.

I watched in the mirror as he lifted me, carrying me to the table, pushing aside the books and papers before he deposited me onto its polished surface. He leaned me backwards so that I lay on the table, my legs dangling over the edge.

I turned my head to look at him, not watch him as a mirror reflection and I cried out-a sound between despair and alarm.

Against my body lay a cat!

I gasped. The mirror reflection showed the man, but when I looked away, I saw the cat.

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Other stories in the anthology include:

SHADOWMAN:
I hunt to live. I hunt in places you cannot imagine; dare not imagine.

Demon. Succubus. I am these things and more. Misunderstood? Yes; but I do not need to justify my existence to you. I am lilan, hunter by nature and lover by choice. I give pleasure in exchange for the Gift.

Sereia craves danger and excitement; she finds all this and more when she lures the latest man into her deadly embrace. But he is not what he appears and his passion matches her own. He knows her true nature-and that being so, can she allow him to live?

BOUQUET:
Tarquen is a vampire. Of the Blood, he is no stranger to dark desires and even darker passions, but he becomes both captor and captive in the bouquet-embrace of his human lover.

LE PETIT MORT:
The dance is erotic and the blazing desire is timeless as Tess and Michael unite on the stage. But theirs is no ordinary dance and Tess must come to terms with the fact that she is immortal.

FLIGHT NIGHT:
Melisande's sexually-charged dreams are a pale shadow of the real wyre-lover who comes to claim her as his own. Dare she take all that Roheel offers; dare she confront the secret of who-and what-she is?

TIGER! TIGER!:
Lord Julian Wentworth is abducted by a highwaywoman who is not after his gold, but his body. He is more than willing, but it is the lady who determines the rule of this game of thrust and parry! Julian and Desdemona are two lovers who excel in the art of pleasure and pain.

Forbidden Nights,
Forbidden Dreams,
Forbidden Desires.

The worlds of the hunter and hunted.

I had not planned it, but the characters and settings of my erotic stories have become interlinked, though each work stands alone.

Now, I realise I am writing a series about the wyre, the lilan, coven-kin, blood-kin and wizard-kin: men and women of human and alien origins who roam the universe craving that special essence which they live and sometimes die for.

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The Reviews:
Fallen Angels Reviews:
Forbidden Nights is a unique set of stories that I found compelling, yet scorching at the same time. Each story-line had a whole different set of themes, from ghosts to mummies. Astrid Cooper kept me spellbound from the first sentence. I found myself groaning because each story would end too soon and it would say "To be continued". Now, that is the way to keep an audience wanting more! The sex scenes ran from deeply sensuous to scorching. I did not have a favorite story in this anthology, per se, but if I had to pick one that stood out in my mind it would have to be Panther. I think Panther was the one storyline that had the most twists, and a hero who would do anything for his love. (Reviewed by: Debbie).

Just Erotic Romance Reviews:
Rating: 4 -5 stars.
Hot to Orgasmic:
This is a great collection of stories with characters who play off each other well, fast paced dialogues, with strong women and fascinating sexy men. The fact that every character and storyline is unique makes the whole collection a very compelling read. While the writing style was never exactly the same, the transition between stories was smooth. The sex scenes run the gamut from deeply sensuous to down right scorching. A great easy to recommend collection. (Reviewed by: Anya Khan).

Paranormal Romance Reviews:
A collection of short stories all linked by one common theme - that nothing is as it seems and no one is what or who they seem - FORBIDDEN NIGHTS is inhabited by an assortment of shapeshifters and other mythological beings who all have two basic things in common with the humans whose space they share: the need to touch and be touched; to love and be loved. Astrid creates several fully-realized worlds of wyres, vamps, succubi and ghosts in a minimal amount of space, the stories as varied as the methods their inhabitants use to attract the opposite sex; as engaging and well-crafted as each protagonist. A well-done anthology, worth the read! (Reviewed by: Gracie McKeever).