Merlin's Magic?

By Linda Palmer

Raised by a elderly grandmother and spinster aunts after the death of her mom, Aimee Kendall has lived a sheltered life. Now that everyone she loves has died, she is on her own and trying to get on with her life. Step one of that process is detaching herself emotionally so that she'll never again experience the pain of losing a loved one. Step two is resisting the efforts of her widowed landlady to annihilate step one.

Senior citizen Rose Reinhardt is as lonely as her renter and can't understand why Aimee resists all her offers of friendship and keeps to herself. Enter Mick Doonan, Rose's in-your-face great-nephew, there for Rose's birthday. From the moment Aimee and Mick clash, she is drawn to him and can't understand why. He's loud; he's nosy; he's bossy. He's also gorgeous in a rough edges sort of way, and, she quickly realizes, totally irresistible. Does she dare lower the emotional barriers that protect her heart? Or should she simply wait for Mick to barge right through them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Palmer
• Release date: Jun 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311007759

Linda Palmer

Linda Palmer admits it all started when she fell in love with Roy Rogers in the fifties. The family TV was boxy; the picture was black and white. That didn't matter. Roy's cowboy courage won the day and inspired her to  create elaborate scenarios when playing with her sisters and friends outside. Indoors, she read romances in every genre from Sci Fi to Gothic. Linda began writing for pleasure in the third grade, mostly poetry, and has letters from her grade school teachers predicting she'd be an author. Her poems eventually became short stories; her short stories became books. And even though a writing career was never actually a dream, it was something she pursued with intent after winning some writing contests and joining local and national writers' groups. Silhouette Books published Linda's first romance novel in l989 and the next twenty over a ten-year period (writing as Linda Varner, her maiden name). In 1999 she took a ten-year break to take care of her family, but learned that she couldn't not write. She began again in  2009, changing her genre to young adult/new adult paranormal romance. She has now written over a hundred novels and novellas ranging from traditional romance to erotica. Linda was a Romance Writers of America Rita finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC eBook awards in the Young Adult category. She was also a finalist in that category in 2013 and in 2014. Linda has been married to her junior high school sweetheart over fifty years and lives in Arkansas, USA with her family. Ever a hopeless romantic, she still falls for unattainable Hollywood heroes that inspire her to write romances about alpha males and the women who stand up to them. Linda hints that her current crush's name starts with Tom and ends with Hardy. Her website is www.lindavpalmer.com. You can also find her on Facebook: Linda Varner Palmer.

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Merlin's Magic?

by

Linda Palmer

Merlin's Magic © 2013 by Linda Palmer

Cover © 2013 by Linda Palmer

Created from the following www.Canstock.com stock art, which was manipulated:

© Can Stock Photo Inc. /Kudryashka

© Can Stock Photo Inc. /elenamarchesini

© Can Stock Photo Inc. /Goodluz

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

About the author: Linda Varner Palmer has been writing for pleasure since the third grade and has letters from grade school teachers predicting she would someday be a writer. Linda's works range from Silhouette Romances (written as Linda Varner) to young adult paranormal romance. She was an RWA RITA finalist twice and won the 2011 and 2012 EPIC awards in the young adult category. Linda lives in Arkansas with her family.

Her website is: www.lindavpalmer.com.

Full-length teen romances by Linda Palmer

Jaguar Moon 

Storm Swept 

My Wolf 

Wolf Run

Wolf Way

Wolf Crazy

His Wolf

Blood Wolf

Operation: Normal

Nightmare, Interrupted

The Cinderella Swap

Sidekicks

Somewhere in the Middle

S'nat Wars (Co-written with Julie Kimbrell)

Double Vision (Co-written with Julie Kimbrell)

Short teen reads by Linda Palmer

Spell Fail

The Problem with Pumpkins

Mistletoe Magic

One Shifty Santa

E.V.E.R.

Caught!

Sister Golden Hair Surprise and the Cruiser

FAEted

The Curse of Willow Lane

The Jingle Bell Jinx

Adult romances by Linda Palmer

The Ghost of Christmas Never

The Honeymoon Hoax

Chapter One

Merlin, I need a guy, and I need him now, I said. How about conjuring up a healthy, willing one?

The ebony feline I spoke to blinked green eyes in answer and put his pink tongue to a paw, coolly resuming his toilette.

Lazy cat. I finished securing my ponytail with a final twist of the coated rubber band. I wasn't going to keep him. I just wanted to borrow his back for a minute.

Planting my feet firmly on the uneven hardwood floor, I grasped the roll top desk yet again and pushed with all my might, scooting it a scant two inches nearer its destination even though the desk corners were on slider thingys that were supposed to make moving furniture a dream.

Sweaty and exhausted, I took a break and flopped down on the love seat with a big sigh. Not for the first time that December Sunday morning, I wondered what had possessed me to take on this project alone. I actually really knew the reason. I preferred to do things myself to make sure they were done right.

How I longed to settle into the glider rocker and watch the movie I'd received free with the purchase of the brand new flat-screen TV, stand, and Blu-ray recorder/player sitting out in my car. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that until I finished girlhandling the furniture to make room for them.

I drew a ragged breath and absently petted the cat who had adopted me when I moved into the upstairs apartment of this old Victorian home I'd come to love. I frowned at the desk, which had come with my lodgings, along with all the other antique furniture in the room. Unbelievably sturdy, it was twice as heavy as I'd anticipated, even minus all the drawers. The fact that I'd already moved the loveseat, coffee table, rocker, and bookshelf-–efforts resulting in lots of bumps and thuds--merely increased the difficulty of my task, as did the aged, uneven wood floors. I wished that just this once I'd arranged for some help.

But who would I have asked? Rose Reinhardt, the owner of the house, might be shockingly spry for seventy-nine, but hardly up to this kind of torture. And the frail old man who'd been in the apartment across the hall until last week was now in Texas with his daughter. Even after eight months of living in Little Rock, I knew no one else, male or female, well enough to ask for assistance.

Come on, wiz, I said, letting my hand brush down the purring cat's back to the tip of his tail, which I playfully tweaked. Do your stuff. He needs to be at least six feet tall and strong, very strong… I laughed softly and closed my eyes, caught up in my fanciful request. Short brown hair, brown eyes, perfect smile-–

A sudden loud bang on the door jerked me back to the real world. I darted a glance at Merlin. Surely he hadn't…? But of course not. He was just a pet, after all, and in spite of his name, had no magical powers. It was probably Rose, already back from her weekly trip into town and now upstairs to see what all the racket was about.

Wearily I got to my feet, maneuvering my way to the door through the obstacle course my living room had become. Halfway there another knock sounded and then several more in quick succession, all of them reverberating offensively through the apartment. In my haste to stop them, I caught my little toe on the leg of the coffee table that hadn't been anywhere near that spot twenty minutes earlier.

Craaaap! I hopped on my uninjured foot while I caught hold of the other to assess the damage. Tears of agony filled my eyes, momentarily blinding me. I blinked them back just as another series of heavy blows rained on the door. It definitely wasn't the sweet little old widow who lived downstairs. But who else could it be? Coming! Geez.

Trying to ignore my throbbing toe, I limped the remaining distance to the door, ready to blast whoever stood on the other side. I jerked it open and immediately found myself facing down a tall guy wearing a white T-shirt with blue writing on it and faded jeans with frayed hems. Biting back the angry words ready to tumble off my tongue, I slowly raised my gaze, taking note of the lean body, wide shoulders, scruffy chin, and glinting brown eyes of the stranger standing there.

He peered over the top of my head into my apartment. What's going on up here? You're shaking the whole damn house.

Starting with his buzz cut, my ever-widening stare dropped slowly down again, missing not one millimeter of his V-frame body before it landed on flip-flops long enough for my cat to nap on without spilling over. Now sitting beside those shoes, the furry wizard in question looked guilelessly up at me. I glanced from him to my visitor and then back to him in disbelief. One rational thought surfaced.

Way to go, Merlin!

What…are…you…doing? The guy, who looked to be in his early twenties now enunciated each word loudly and deliberately, as though he thought I might be hard of hearing or maybe an idiot.

But I was neither. I placed my hands on my hips and glared at him. Rude much?

He blinked. What I am is tired. But I can't sleep for all the noise.

"Who are you?"My anger was replaced a little late by wariness. Currently, the only other occupant of this old house was my landlady, and she kept the front door locked.

Mick Doonan, Rose Reinhardt's nephew.

My jaw dropped. "You're Mick Doonan? Little Mick Doonan?" Rose had only mentioned the annual summer visit of her great nephew a dozen times in passing, never once giving me any reason to expect someone this old.

He hooted. Is that what she calls me?

My face flamed. I nodded numbly.

Well I was only six and the runt of the litter when we met for the first time. He shook his head and grinned. I guess she still thinks of me that way.

Somehow I wasn't surprised by that. Surrounded by antiques and family memorabilia, Rose clearly cherished her memories of days gone by.

I'm Aimee Kendall, the renter, I said, suddenly remembering the social skills I taught part time while attending the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. It's nice to meet you, even if you're not exactly what I expected.

He took the hand I now extended to him, giving it a surprisingly gentle but firm shake before releasing it. So you thought I was going to be a little kid. Disappointed?

Not sure how to answer that loaded question, I hesitated before tactfully replying. Of course not. I guess I owe you an apology for keeping you awake. I had no idea you were anywhere in the house.

No harm done. But I'd still like to know what you're up to. Once again he peered into my apartment. I could just imagine what he