Wow, this was one of the most rushed short stories that I have ever read. Kyle had a lot of things happening here in a very very short time (30 pages) which just did not work for me.

Meg, the heroine, is in the process of fleeing from an abusive situation and Jacob, the hero, is big ole' man-whore who just wants to stick his wick in anything with a hole. They meet, there's an instant attraction, Jacob goes into denial and tries to screw the first available body in an attempt to deny their connection but suddenly develops erectile dysfunction. Meanwhile, Meg finds out that she hasn't covered her tracks enough and her abusers find her. Suddenly, out of no where, Jacob comes to the rescue and has miraculously decided that he wants Meg and only Meg. The abusers meekly leave, but not before revealing to Meg that Jacob nearly humped some dude in the back alley of a bar. Meg (for no reason) comes to terms with this and decides that, despite just getting out of a horrible situation, she wants to be with Jacob even though she knows absolutely nothing about him except that he sleeps around... a lot. Meg and Jacob proceed to hump like bunnies and profess to wanting to spend the rest of their lives together.

Later that same night, while they're napping in post-coital bliss, Meg's abusers break into the house and attempt to kidnap her, which results in Meg and Jacob slaughtering them. And I say slaughter here because there's no real reason given as to why their first and immediate reaction to these guys coming after Meg is to disembowel them. Shoot, they don't even really try to hurt Meg, one of the guys just puts his hand on her shoulder and suddenly he's missing body parts. But anyway, after a handy clean-up of the bodies by a minor character, Meg and Jacob drive into the sunset to live happily ever after. The end.

I think I got some serious whiplash from reading this short story. Primarily because all those events I mentioned occur within a 24 hour time span. This much stuff happening in such a short time did not allow any for much, if any, character develop. So when Jacob was getting ready to ride some guy like a pony behind a bar after developing a connection with Meg, I did not give a fig. I couldn't even muster any sympathy for Meg and her situation. I didn't know enough about these characters to really care at all about what was happening. Why was Meg in such a toxic place in the beginning? Why does she get paid so much money for being an unsuccessful breeder? What kind of culture is she living in and who really holds all the power? etc. etc. All of this just lead to me not believing that Meg and Jacob would work out. I figure that after the initial lust wears off Jacob will go back to man-whoring and Meg will once again find herself in a sucky situation.

Kyle seems to be a hit or miss for me. So while I really did not enjoy this short from her, I'll probably still pick up another book of hers in the future since I have enjoyed some of her other stories.