Articoli correlati a The Shape of Desire

Shinn, Sharon The Shape of Desire ISBN 13: 9781937007171

The Shape of Desire - Rilegato

 
9781937007171: The Shape of Desire
Vedi tutte le copie di questo ISBN:
 
 

For fifteen years Maria Devane has been desperately, passionately in love with Dante Romano. But despite loving him with all of her heart and soul, Maria knows that Dante can never give all of himself back-at least not all the time.

Every month, Dante shifts shape, becoming a wild animal. During those times, he wanders far and wide, leaving Maria alone. He can't choose when he shifts, the transition is often abrupt and, as he gets older, the time he spends in human form is gradually decreasing. But Maria, who loves him without hesitation, wouldn't trade their unusual relationship for anything.

Since the beginning, she has kept his secret, knowing that their love is worth the danger. But when a string of brutal attacks occur in local parks during the times when Dante is in animal form, Maria is forced to consider whether the lies she's been telling about her life have turned into lies she's telling herself...

Le informazioni nella sezione "Riassunto" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.

L'autore:
Sharon Shinn is a journalist who works for a trade magazine. Her first novel, The Shapechanger's Wife, was selected by  Locus as the best first fantasy novel of 1995. She has won the William C. Crawford Award for Outstanding New Fantasy Writer, and was twice nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has lived in the Midwest most of her life.
Estratto. © Riproduzione autorizzata. Diritti riservati.:

Chapter One

It’s around two in the morning when I hear a rustle and bump in the kitchen, and I sit up in bed. I’ve left the light on over the stove for the past few days, since I’ve been half expecting Dante to show up. Still, you never know who might have come in through an unlocked door. I get up quietly, throw a robe over my T shirt, and grab the cell phone in case I need to call 911. Then I creep down the hallway until I can peer into the lighted kitchen and determine whether what awaits me in the other room is a murderer or a lover.

It’s the lover. Dante is standing with his back to me, drinking orange juice straight out of the carton. His black hair is greasy, tangled, and halfway down his back; he is shirtless, and I can see the pattern of his ribs through the roughened layer of skin. I wonder what creature he has been this time, and for how long. Where he has been staying, what he has been eating, if he has been in danger.

For a long time, I don’t speak. I simply watch as he finishes off the juice and then opens the refrigerator door again. He’s clearly ravenous. He rips open a package of cheese and consumes half the brick in two bites, still rummaging through Tupperware containers and wrapped serving bowls to find something to assuage his hunger. He actually grunts with pleasure when he finds the roast beef I defrosted and left on a plate on the bottom shelf. Setting the plate on the kitchen counter, he closes the refrigerator door and uses both hands to peel back the Saran Wrap, rolls a thick slice of beef, and eats it like a hot dog. He’s halfway through the second piece before he stiffens all over and swings around to stare into the darkness of the corridor where I am hiding.

Just for a moment, I get the chance to see his face in full on feral intensity. My God, he is so beautiful. Beneath the grime and beard stubble, his skin is marble white; his deep set eyes are a dense and impenetrable brown. His mouth is full and heavy, his cheekbones deliberately planed. Black hair sweeps back from his forehead in a theatrical fall. He could have been an actor, a model, a muse, some rich woman’s companion, if only his life had been a little different.

If only his life had been completely different.

Maria?” he says in his low voice. It’s not hard to imagine that voice dropping a few notes, losing its consonants, and coming out as a wordless growl.

He must realize that I am the likeliest presence to be standing a few feet away in the dark; but he sets his plate down, frees his hands for combat, and continues to stare in my direction. Until moments like this, I think that I would like to see him in one of his alternate forms sometime; but I always realize, in those few seconds before he recognizes me, that I really wouldn’t. I am not afraid of him now, but I might be if I saw him in some other guise.

I step out of the shadows. Yes, it’s me,” I say. You look so thin.”

He glances down at his chest, bare except for a necklace made of a leather cord holding a single key. Indeed, he’s much leaner than I like. And I see a new wound cutting through the thin, dark mat of hair on his chest. The cut has already healed, though not long ago. Sometime in the past month, Dante has been in pain and in peril.

He lifts his gaze again and smiles at me, an expression that always reminds why, despite everything, I love this man so much. It’s been a tough few weeks,” he admits.

I come closer. I see you found the beef,” I say. There’s frozen pizza if you need some carbs.”

Maybe later,” he says. Protein’s better for now.”

This close, I get a pretty strong whiff of what I mentally describe as new Dante, the creature he always is when he first arrives. There’s dirt and sweat and garbage and urine and some indefinable animal odor the sort of scent that surrounds a zoo on a hot day. It doesn’t bother me as much as you might think. I want to get closer still, throw my arms around him, press my mouth against his, remind myself of his shape and his strength. He’s always the one who holds back at first. I’m never sure if it’s the wild instincts making him shy away from human contact or his human instincts shunning his animalistic side, and trying to shield me from it at the same time.

He glances from my face to the plate of roast beef and back to my face. It’s clear he’s trying to determine if he’s eaten enough to get him through the next few hours. I need a shower,” he says, obviously deciding more food can wait. I step in his path as he heads for the doorway.

I need to kiss you,” I say, holding him in place with my hand against his chest.

Maria ”

Just . . . a kiss.”

He holds utterly still as I stretch up and touch my lips lightly to his, but beneath my hand I can feel his heartbeat kick up a notch. I press in a little harder, just enough so that his mouth responds to mine, and then I step away. I’m smiling; he’s not.

There are towels and clean clothes in the bathroom,” I say. Want me to make you a meal?”

He’s watching me with those unbelievable eyes. At times like this his expression is the most haunted, most unreadable. Is he sorry that he has disrupted my life so completely? Sorry he cannot exist beside me through ordinary days like an ordinary man? Sorry that he cannot stay away? Not sorry at all, merely roused to a passion he refuses to act upon until he has restored himself to some self imposed level of civilization? Or is he simply still hungry and thinking of nothing more than food?

Don’t cook,” he says, his voice even lower, throatier. I’ll come rummage some more once I’m out.”

I nod and turn away to straighten up the little mess he’s made. I don’t hear him leave but I can tell when he’s gone. Even when he’s wearing shoes, which he isn’t at the moment, he moves almost without sound. The only reason I know he has left the room is that I miss him already.

I busy myself in the kitchen for about ten minutes, putting away the meat, rinsing off some apples, making sure the sliced bread is out on the counter so he’ll see it if he comes hunting for more food later on. But I can’t stand being in the kitchen when he’s somewhere else in the house. I lock the outside door, turn off the light, and feel my way down the dark corridor toward the bathroom. The door is open just enough to allow a little light and a lot of steam to escape.

I untie my robe, yank my T shirt over my head, step out of my panties. I leave all of these lying in the hall as I push the door open and step into the hot, foggy bathroom. I can see his silhouette, dark and blurred, behind the translucent glass of the shower door.

When I push it open and step inside, he spins around as if he is a woodland creature startled by a predator. Water sloshes over both of us, kicked up by his feet before it can swirl into the drain, streaming down from the nozzle overhead. It is almost too misty to see, but there is no missing Dante. I scoot carefully across the slippery porcelain of the tub, lifting my arms to twine around his neck. I can smell the toothpaste on his breath as I kiss him again. Water and soap make our skin slippery as our bodies come together. He is no longer resisting me; indeed, his arms close around me, hard, and he kisses me with a furious desire. The water continues to beat down on both of us as we make love in the shower until all the hot water is gone.

It is the first time I have felt fully alive since the last time I saw him.

I know Dante will sleep all day, so I go into work, even though I obviously didn’t manage to get much rest the night before. Still, I hate to waste one of my few remaining vacation days moping around the house, waiting for him to get up.

I work as an accountant at a midsize firm in Eureka, Missouri, about forty minutes outside of downtown St. Louis. The company provides Web design and marketing support to regional businesses as far away as Arkansas. There are about twenty of us scattered throughout two stories; the creative people have offices on the top level, while the nuts and bolts people like me populate the ground floor. Still, it’s impossible to work in such a small place and not be fairly well apprised of everyone else’s business.

Today, all the gossip is about one of the secretaries, who came in with what looks suspiciously like a bruise under a heavy caking of foundation. It’s not the first time. We all suspect she’s being abused by her husband, but whenever someone tries to approach her on the topic, she refuses to speak to us, on that subject or any other. There are several of us who feel like we’re failing her as friends and human beings, and we constantly debate what we should be doing for her. I have seen up close the effects of domestic violence; I know how badly such a situation can end. But I have no more clue about how to help Kathleen than anyone else does.

The office manager drops by my desk around ten, just as I’m yawning over the same spreadsheet that I’ve been staring at for the past half hour. She perches on the edge of my desk, which is something of a feat since her clothes are exceedingly tight and her skirt is exceedingly short. She’s a well endowed, fiftyish woman with garishly blond hair. She looks like she should be serving coffee at a diner and wearing a name tag that identifies her as PEARL or JOLENE,...

Le informazioni nella sezione "Su questo libro" possono far riferimento a edizioni diverse di questo titolo.

  • EditoreAce Books
  • Data di pubblicazione2012
  • ISBN 10 1937007170
  • ISBN 13 9781937007171
  • RilegaturaCopertina rigida
  • Numero edizione1
  • Numero di pagine324
  • Valutazione libreria

Spese di spedizione: EUR 28,26
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia

Destinazione, tempi e costi

Aggiungere al carrello

Altre edizioni note dello stesso titolo

9780425256480: The Shape of Desire: 1

Edizione in evidenza

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780425256480
Casa editrice: Ace, 2013
Brossura

I migliori risultati di ricerca su AbeBooks

Foto dell'editore

Shinn, Sharon
Editore: Ace (2012)
ISBN 10: 1937007170 ISBN 13: 9781937007171
Nuovo Rilegato Quantità: 1
Da:
Wizard Books
(Long Beach, CA, U.S.A.)
Valutazione libreria

Descrizione libro Hardcover. Condizione: new. New. Codice articolo Wizard1937007170

Informazioni sul venditore | Contatta il venditore

Compra nuovo
EUR 25,92
Convertire valuta

Aggiungere al carrello

Spese di spedizione: EUR 28,26
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia
Destinazione, tempi e costi
Foto dell'editore

Shinn, Sharon
Editore: Ace (2012)
ISBN 10: 1937007170 ISBN 13: 9781937007171
Nuovo Rilegato Quantità: 1
Da:
GoldBooks
(Austin, TX, U.S.A.)
Valutazione libreria

Descrizione libro Hardcover. Condizione: new. New Copy. Customer Service Guaranteed. Codice articolo think1937007170

Informazioni sul venditore | Contatta il venditore

Compra nuovo
EUR 25,82
Convertire valuta

Aggiungere al carrello

Spese di spedizione: EUR 28,73
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia
Destinazione, tempi e costi
Foto dell'editore

Shinn, Sharon
Editore: Ace (2012)
ISBN 10: 1937007170 ISBN 13: 9781937007171
Nuovo Rilegato Quantità: 1
Da:
GoldenWavesOfBooks
(Fayetteville, TX, U.S.A.)
Valutazione libreria

Descrizione libro Hardcover. Condizione: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Codice articolo Holz_New_1937007170

Informazioni sul venditore | Contatta il venditore

Compra nuovo
EUR 21,62
Convertire valuta

Aggiungere al carrello

Spese di spedizione: EUR 36,14
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia
Destinazione, tempi e costi
Immagini fornite dal venditore

Shinn, Sharon
Editore: Ace (2012)
ISBN 10: 1937007170 ISBN 13: 9781937007171
Nuovo Rilegato Quantità: 1
Da:
ICTBooks
(Wichita, KS, U.S.A.)
Valutazione libreria

Descrizione libro Condizione: new. Codice articolo ICM.2FCI

Informazioni sul venditore | Contatta il venditore

Compra nuovo
EUR 21,84
Convertire valuta

Aggiungere al carrello

Spese di spedizione: EUR 69,50
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia
Destinazione, tempi e costi
Foto dell'editore

Shinn, Sharon
Editore: Ace (2012)
ISBN 10: 1937007170 ISBN 13: 9781937007171
Nuovo Rilegato Quantità: 1
Da:
The Book Spot
(Sioux Falls, SD, U.S.A.)
Valutazione libreria

Descrizione libro Hardcover. Condizione: New. Codice articolo Abebooks542579

Informazioni sul venditore | Contatta il venditore

Compra nuovo
EUR 56,31
Convertire valuta

Aggiungere al carrello

Spese di spedizione: EUR 41,70
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia
Destinazione, tempi e costi
Foto dell'editore

Shinn, Sharon
Editore: Ace (2012)
ISBN 10: 1937007170 ISBN 13: 9781937007171
Nuovo Rilegato Quantità: 1
Da:
BennettBooksLtd
(LOS ANGELES, CA, U.S.A.)
Valutazione libreria

Descrizione libro Condizione: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1.15. Codice articolo Q-1937007170

Informazioni sul venditore | Contatta il venditore

Compra nuovo
EUR 58,32
Convertire valuta

Aggiungere al carrello

Spese di spedizione: EUR 40,77
Da: U.S.A. a: Italia
Destinazione, tempi e costi