{"id":1197,"date":"2013-11-13T08:11:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-13T16:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bestfantasynovel.com\/?p=1197"},"modified":"2013-11-13T08:11:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T16:11:18","slug":"collide-by-shelly-crane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/2013\/11\/13\/collide-by-shelly-crane\/","title":{"rendered":"Collide by Shelly Crane"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Sherry has always known there was something out there.<\/p>\n

She’s eighteen, works for a tabloid newspaper in Chicago, and has a brother, Danny who is a lazy mooch. They live a pretty normal, dull life. Then the moon disappears. People start to go missing only to reappear later…but different. Sherry has an abusive ex-boyfriend who shows up on her doorstep and claims to be one of these beings.<\/p>\n

He’s no longer the same person in that body.<\/p>\n

He tells her he has come to protect her and her brother and takes her underground, against her will, to save her. There they meet others like them. She begins to unravel the truth about Merrick, about what he’s really doing here, about the way he looks at her, about the crazy new dangerous world they live in. Can he convince her that he’s here to help? Will she like what she finds when she opens up to the truth? Will he be the one to love her when everyone else has failed her?<\/p>\n

Will he be able to protect her?<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Collide <\/i>is currently free to download on Amazon<\/a>, Barnes and Noble<\/a>, and iTunes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Excerpt<\/h4>\n

\u201cI was lying,\u201d he confessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ok, Merrick. I get it. I\u2019m sorry, I just…I just can\u2019t handle it when people are upset with me and I can\u2019t fix it somehow. I\u2019ll stay out of your way, ok.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I hopped down from the counter and turned to leave, he grabbed my wrist and my skin immediately began to tingle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re so blind,\u201d he breathed, shaking his head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry?\u201d<\/p>\n

He steadied himself, took a deep breath, and then let me have it, all the while, keeping my wrist in his overly warm, shaky, gentle grasp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did lie. I don\u2019t like you, Sherry. I…I love you.\u201d I heard my breath falter, but he continued. \u201cI can\u2019t touch you because it drives this body insane.\u201d He was barely speaking, breathing the words as he leaned closer to me. \u201cMy skin… tingles and I can barely breathe, which you\u2019ve noticed. I can\u2019t explain it. I know you\u2019ll probably hate me now when I tell you this, but I couldn\u2019t help it. Sherry, I watched you, too. The first time I saw you was when you were little, when Danny was born,\u201d he smiled while remembering \u201cyou were so protective of him. I enjoyed it, I thought you were my little helper, but over the years, I never stopped watching. I split my attention in half and took my full focus away from my charge, your brother. I felt so protective of you. Somewhere along the way it stopped being just protective. As you got older and I saw the person you were, the kind of woman you were, it became something else. I fell in love with you and kept watching and protecting you even when you were on your own. After I came here, when I saw you in your driveway…\u201d He shook his head, his eyes closed. \u201cI\u2019m so sorry. I know what you must think of me, but all this time as a guardian I\u2019ve never broken the rules, never gotten involved when I shouldn\u2019t. I know it doesn\u2019t matter, I\u2019m not human, but I…just can\u2019t let you sit there and think that I hate you when the opposite is true.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was all true, not a lie in the mix, which meant he did love me.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t move or speak. Shock overtook me, as did those smoldering green eyes. He reached out and cautiously, gauging to see if I\u2019d flinch, ran his free fingers down the inside of my elbow to my wrist. The goose bumps came and he looked at me for indication, good or bad? I had none to give him.<\/p>\n

I was the one confused now. How could this perfect, selfless being love me, especially if he watched me over the years with my worthless life and pointless existence? I was short and awkward in my own skin. My lousy apartment had no real friends to fill it. My stupid job. My weirdo parents who didn\u2019t even love us enough to stay with us. My horrible judgment I pounded into my brother’s head.<\/p>\n

How did I always gauge every situation so wrong?<\/p>\n

I realized I was panting. He looked worried, but I couldn\u2019t stop. The hot tears spilled over and I wanted to run so he wouldn\u2019t see, but then I guessed he\u2019d seen it before, hadn\u2019t he? He\u2019d seen it all.<\/p>\n

The tears overtook me and a low sob broke loose. I pulled my wrist free and ran to my room, too embarrassed to face him after I\u2019d thought so many horrible things about him, but he somehow was there again, already in my room waiting for me. He reached for my arm, butretracted before he touched me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry. I\u2019m so sorry, Sherry. I shouldn\u2019t have said anything. I didn\u2019t want to hurt you, that\u2019s the last thing I ever wanted to do. Please don\u2019t cry because of me.<\/i><\/p>\n

Wrong. All wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t hate you,\u201d I squeaked. It was all I could get to come out.<\/p>\n

He thought I was mad because he watched me against my will, without my permission, without his call\u2019s permission. But no, it was because I was embarrassed for being lame and not doing something more with my life. To have something for him to see that was worth something and not just embarrassment.<\/p>\n

For some reason, I needed him to comfort me again, even after this, I was surprised that I wanted him to.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sorry. Forgive me, Sherry. Just forget I said anything, all right? I\u2019ll never bring it up again and I\u2019ll stay away from you as much as I can. I promise. I\u2019m so sorry.<\/i><\/p>\n

He started to leave, maneuvering around me. I reached for his shirt in one swift movement, pulling my face into his chest. He seemed surprised, but not as reluctant as usual, as he let me and even wrapped his warm, strong arms around my shoulders. He continued out loud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never watched when I shouldn\u2019t have. When Matt and you…your showers, among lots of other things, I always tuned out. I know I don\u2019t deserve it, but…please forgive me, Sherry. I never wanted to hurt you.\u201d I felt one of his hands slip to the small of my back and to my utter embarrassment, my heart rate picked up and I felt a little sigh release from my lips.<\/p>\n

Find more from Shelly on her website<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sherry has always known there was something out there. She’s eighteen, works for a tabloid newspaper in Chicago, and has a brother, Danny who is a lazy mooch. They live a pretty normal, dull life. Then the moon disappears. People start to go missing only to reappear later…but different. Sherry has an abusive ex-boyfriend who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,162,449],"tags":[691,701],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excerpt","category-excerpts","category-science-fiction","tag-paranormal-romance","tag-science-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}