Second Skin

By Linda Palmer

Katy has finally broken free from her activist parents and the infamous Chandler name. Determined to excel at her first real job, she has pitched an idea to her editor at Single Ladies magazine and is now in the Colorado Rockies camping alone. It's nature meets technology, the truly modern way to vacation without the help of a man. YouTube, camping blogs, "Survivor," "Naked and Afraid"--she's studied them all and can not only pitch a tent all by herself, but make fire out of practically nothing. Katy intends to document everything with photos and videos and then write the best article her editor has ever read.

But her notorious dad has other plans, the reason she's greeted by a bodyguard the moment she sets foot in the mountains. Tall, dark, and dedicated, Tyler is also a member of the supernatural community--a shapeshifter as determined to be her second skin as she is determined to shed him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda Palmer
• Release date: Feb 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224259458

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.

Book preview

Chapter One

Istepped off the plane at the Rocky Ridge airport and got busy unloading all my stuff on the runway so I could take a good look around. My senses zinged to life in response to the fresh air, the purple mountains, the clear blue sky.

Things just couldn't get any better.

Not only was I in Colorado on my very first assignment as a writer for Single Ladies magazine, no one had given me the job as a favor to my parents. I had a brand new apartment, a brand new degree, a brand new life.

I wanted to throw my arms out, twirling and singing like Maria in The Sound of Music. Only I wasn't a novitiate in the Swiss Alps. I was a novice camper in the Colorado Rockies, reveling in the fact that I was completely on my own in a place where no one could possibly know me.

Katy Chandler?

I pivoted in shock. My gaze collided with that of the handsome stranger casually approaching from the parking area. Tall with ice blue eyes and a scruffy jaw, he wore his black North Face jacket, khaki hiking pants, and leather mountain boots like a second skin.

Tyler Rex. He offered me a handshake.

I didn't take it. Okay.

Frowning slightly, he let his arm drop. "You are Katy Chandler, right?"

Depends. I knew all about stranger danger, thanks to a lifetime of warnings from my paranoid parents. Why are you asking?

I'm supposed to pick you up here.

I instantly relaxed. You've got the wrong girl, dude.

Are you the daughter of Bill Ed Chandler, CEO and Director of Chandler Enterprises?

Oh no. It was happening. It was really happening—exactly what my folks had warned me about my entire life. Why else would this guy have tracked me to the back of beyond? With a disbelieving gasp, I scooped up one of my bags and whacked the side of his head.

Shit!

I hauled butt to the plane, only it was shut up tight. So I did the only thing I could do, veer left and dash for the charter office. But to get there, I had to cover a lot of ground and on shorter legs than Tyler Rex's. Hearing heavy footsteps pounding up behind me, I screamed and whirled, trying to nail him with the bag again.

He yanked it out of my hand and sent it sailing. What the hell is wrong with you?

Stay away from me! I know karate. I did a Ralph Macchio move.

His eyebrows shot up. Just doing my job, okay? If I'd known you were a nut case, I'd have passed.

And what job is that? Only one word in the dictionary described this guy: dangerous. And what I knew about martial arts could be summed up with another: nothing.

If you're Katy Chandler—and I'm pretty damn sure you are—I'm your bodyguard.

All the air left my lungs in a stunned whoosh. Who hired you?

Your father.

There's no way in hell he could know I'm here. I'd been so careful, paying cash for everything and using my middle name as my last when I chartered the plane and reserved my rental car. The only person who knew my real name was the owner of the campsite that was my destination. And why would she connect a Chandler from Arizona with Chandler Enterprises in Georgia?

Trust me, he does. Tyler handed me a small packet of the usual documentation—ID badge, business card, letter of introduction, and even a handwritten note from my father, which I didn't bother to read.

I already knew what it would say.

Tyler took back the stuff I thrust at him. Just so you know, if I wanted to hurt you, I probably wouldn't do it in the open or introduce myself first.

You startled me. Besides, you could be a liar. My activist dad had a lot of enemies who'd love to get even, sometimes through his family. That meant I'd had some form of security most of my life, starting in a grade school so exclusive that bodyguards had their own table in the cafeteria. But that was then. I didn't need protecting these days. So who has Bill Ed pissed off this time? The Democrats? The Republicans? The Sups?

Hey! Don't lump Sups in with the politicians.

Are you one? His disgruntled expression told me all I needed to know. "Oh God. I'm sooo sorry. I don't have anything against Sups. In fact, I support your cause. Um...does my father know?"

That's the reason he hired me. He explained it all in the note.

That would be the note I'd ignored. Are you a vampire? If he was and he knew some single ladies with fangs, maybe I could write an article about them.

Tyler rolled his eyes. What's with the vampires? Everybody wants to meet a vampire. Trust me, they're not that much fun.

So you're a Jacob? I referred to the wolf in the Twilight series, of course.

And here we go with the wolves. All shapeshifters aren't lupine, okay?

Well then, I know exactly what you are—a T-Rex.

His lip twitched. Was he actually going to smile? I may be older than you, but I'm no dinosaur. As for the reason your dad hired me, it was a precautionary measure.

It usually was. "Okay, here's the deal. I'm on assignment, writing an article about how doable a nature vacation can be, even for single women.