The Reading Spot

Price of Love by Shelley Munro

Tiger Kersen Amat wants to marry leopard Jarita Namar. All he needs to do is find rubies for the bride price and woo the sexy shifter. Unknown to him Jarita is already interested. When they meet in the Burmese jungle sparks fly, along with love and laughter. Mutual pleasure explodes, sweet, erotic and compelling, until thieves intent on stealing rubies intrude. A disaster since without the rubies there’s no bride price and their courtship will be doomed. Obtaining Jarita, a jewel beyond price, as his mate might take more than rubies and seduction…

Ms Munro asked for some volunteer reviewers for some of her short stories and I was very happy to volunteer. This story was part of an anthology put out by Ellora's Cave called Risque Ruby, but it is also available on its own from Ellora's Cave.

This was a great short story. It had a good storyline, a little action, great love scenes and did not leave me with a feeling that I was missing something. I wanted more from this world but this chapter of it was complete.
These shifters live in the wilds of Thailand where they can roam without too much fear of regular humans. Kersen makes arrangements with Jarita's father for her hand but he has to court her to get her acceptance first without her knowing about the arrangement. While he is courting her they run into some bad guys and Jarita gets a chance to see if Kersen really wants her or a pretty statue to put on a shelf.