A Hint of Frost: Araneae Nation ( Book One) (26 page)

Tucking a lock of hair behind my ear, he allowed his touch to linger. “So they are.” Heat flared as his attention made my pulse flutter hard beneath his thumb. “Does it bother you?”

I didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. Without venom, we lacked the secondary bond I once thought we shared. Pressing his open palm over my heart, I let him feel it beating. “I feel you in here. I have from the first. Even when I was terrified of you, I desired you.” His chest expanded. “You have no need of venom, not with me.” I relished the hitch in his breath as my hips shifted.

Rhys braced my hand upon his heart, and its beat guided the rhythm of our bodies. Cries meshing, our souls came as close to contact as skin allowed. Venom had no place between us. If we knew nothing else in our ever-changing world, we’d know love, when we made it, expressed the threads that bound our lives. Not so weak a thing as venom and not so brief a thing as desire.

About the Author

Hailey is a wife turned mother turned writer, who loves her husband, her daughter and alone time with her computer. Whenever southern living strikes her as too ordinary, she can be found squinting at her monitor as she writes her next happily-ever-after or with her nose glued to her Kindle’s screen. Wings and/or cupcakes are usually involved…

She loves to hear from readers at
[email protected]
.

You can also swing by
www.haileyedwards.net
for all her latest news.

Look for these titles by Hailey Edwards

Now Available:

Daughters of Askara

Everlong

Evermine

He can be a slave to his past…or allow her love to free him.

Evermine

© 2012 Hailey Edwards

Daughters of Askara, Book 2

There’s such a thing as too much change. Emma’s sister is mated. Revolution is brewing in her home realm. The last straw: her would-be mate is back from the dead and back under her skin—yet when it comes to the last five years, he’s not talking.

Desperate for a chance to start her own life, she answers the queen’s call to ensure equality for all of Askara’s newly freed slaves. It’s the perfect opportunity to escape a heartbreak in the making named Harper.

Harper loses a piece of his fractured soul when Emma walks away. His lies were meant to protect her from torturous years that drove him to the point of madness. Instead, when he comes to her a year later to help avert a crisis in a freed-slave community, the wedge those lies drove between them is firmly in place.

As their new lives collide with old wounds, they race to stop a threat that could not only destroy the queen, but send Harper back to the hell he escaped. Emma must decide if the man she still loves deserves equal rights to her heart.

Warning this title contains torn pants, ripped gowns, and sand in uncomfortable places. It also includes one overcompensating villain, one gnarly priest, and two battered hearts willing to give this thing called love one last chance.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Evermine:

Harper walked a circuit of the guest bedroom. Night sounds poured through the open window, carried on an arid breeze. He paused when the curtains rustled and the soap-clean scent of Emma teased him to lift the fabric, inhale her fragrance and wish for things best forgotten.

Dillon lay on a cot, staring at the ceiling. “You’ll wear tracks in the floor.”

“I have a lot on my mind.” He stepped away from temptation.

“I don’t supposed this ‘a lot’ has blonde curls and a temper?” He sat upright. “She could have at least been born with red hair.” He scowled. “A warning label would be appreciated.”

“She wasn’t feeling well.” The excuse came easy. It was one he’d made often after finding out about Emma’s caffeine addiction the hard way. Seeing her doubled over and gagging on her bedroom floor brought his first night in the earthen colony rushing back in perfect detail.

His bittersweet homecoming had served as a wakeup call when he snuck from Clayton and Maddie’s guestroom to find Emma and made a chilling discovery. He’d found her, all right, crawling on her hands and knees on the floor of her diner. Shattered coffeepots had driven glass into her palms. Mud-brown sludge had smeared her mouth, her chin. Her eyes had gone glassy.

He’d seen enough courtesans crazed with their drug of choice not to recognize her symptoms. She’d purged her stomach across his lap, then curled up against his chest and slept as if she hadn’t closed her eyes in all the time he’d been gone. Other memories drifted into his conscience, but he choked them, stuffed them back into the hellish box where they belonged.

On good days, he nursed a five-year gap in his memory. He craved the fuzzy edges of his recollection. It was how he kept his anger with Emma in check. The urge to throttle her for being so reckless simmered below his skin. He could have lost her. Regret churned. He’d lost her anyway.

“I’m heading out.” This oasis Emma had carved out of the city’s heart boasted a small garden. It wasn’t much, but even two extra steps in either direction would help ground him.

“Okay.” Dillon stood. “Let’s go.”

Harper’s skull ached, shoulders burning where his wings were hidden. “I’d rather go alone.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?”

“I’ll be in the garden.” He shrugged. “I need to stretch my wings for a while.”

“You get a half hour. After that, I’m coming for you.” Dillon folded his arms across his chest. “You’re a target in this city. Remember it’s not just the mine and the colony at risk. It’s you too. You control distribution. Nobles won’t like that. Raiders already don’t like it.”

He was right. “I know.” Harper opened the door, then slid through it, careful not to wake boarders in the adjoining rooms. He’d counted seven males and one female at dinner. Emma had a full house and expected a mated pair’s return. He spotted her bedroom turned office and picked up his pace. Too late, her fresh scent teased his nose. Four long strides later, he reached the back door, shoved through it and inhaled deeply of the night. Spice from the nearby markets stung his nose. The familiar smell and sounds of horses carried. Over everything, he all but tasted Emma.

“Definitely Hell.” He shivered as his glamour dropped. His wings flexed, stretching kinks from long-denied freedom. Rolling his neck, muscles loosed and bones popped.

“I don’t know.” Emma’s laughter carried on the breeze. “I kind of like it here.”

He spun around and found her sitting on a low chair beside the door with bone needles in hand, a basket of wool at her ankle, knitting. The better part of a throw covered her legs as she worked at the topmost corner. Tightness gripped his skin, stretching his wings out of shape.

“Have a seat.” She gestured toward the seat against the opposite wall with her chin.

“No.” He tried to turn away, but couldn’t. “I came out for a walk.”

She glanced at her hands. “Suit yourself.” Her needles resumed clacking.

She paused to shove hair behind her shoulder. It sprang back, curling under her breastbone. Lines scrunched between her eyes, and her head tilted back and forth as she worked.

“You knit.” Fascination drew him closer. Her calm rhythm soothed his frayed nerves.

“I picked up the habit in the colony.” She shrugged. “It keeps my hands and my head occupied. I’ve done it off and on, made things for Maddie. Now it kind of fills the void, I guess.”

“What you said up there…” he cleared his throat, “…you meant it?”

Her hands slowed. “I kicked the caffeine habit, quit cold turkey once I left Earth.”

“That’s good.” He swallowed sweet relief.

“And in case you’re wondering, I haven’t picked up any new ones.” She pushed a strand of yarn aside. “Well, except this, and it doesn’t count. This is more of a rededication.”

“Fair enough.” He turned away, shook out his wings, stretching until they stung. Glamour was an illusion, but it was a tangible illusion. When he altered his appearance, tucked his wings out of sight, they were plastered to his spine, trapped in a magical cocoon that itched and burned.

Emma gasped. “What happened?” Seconds later, hot hands smoothed down his back.

Every inch of him tingled at her touch. Color drenched his wings, turning their dusky carmine to vibrant crimson. No hiding his arousal in his natural form. He shouldn’t have dropped his glamour. He still didn’t know what she was fussing about— “Damn it.” She poked a finger below his wing joint and pain crashed over him in agonizing waves. “Could you not do that?”

She caught his arm, wheeling him around to face her as she snarled, “Has anyone checked your back?” Her fingers tightened. “Were you in that mine when it exploded?”

“No, I was outside.” His back had been burned, hadn’t it? The pain hadn’t registered until she mentioned it. His wounds weren’t life-threatening, so he blocked it like everything else. The men in the mines mattered. The lone survivor of the caravan required their healer. He didn’t.

“Males.” She didn’t ask permission, just shoved him onto her lounge face-first. Expert hands spread his wings one at a time as delicate fingers inspected every leathered inch. He pushed up when her hands deserted him, but she shoved him down as if he were a child. He’d forgotten how strong she was. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he surrendered to her whims.

The same gentle hands returned, stroking every inch of his back, working over every muscle, pausing to pick debris from his cuts. “You know you’ll get infected if you let something like this go untreated.” She jabbed a nail deep in his shoulder blade, and he grunted. “Those mines are a case of wing rot waiting to happen. Don’t you have a healer?”

“We have two in training,” he defended, “but they were needed elsewhere.”

“Good grief. They were needed
here
.” She stabbed his hip for emphasis. “Don’t move.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” The lounge smelled of Emma. He buried his face in the pillow, and a stray hair tickled his nose. Sleep weighted his limbs, and his eyes closed for a moment.

“This is going to burn.” A second later, she slathered icy ointment across his back.

He shivered. Let it burn. This was one pain too delicious to block. Emma’s hands on him, nursing him like she had a thousand times when his protection of Maddie earned him lashes from her father’s whip. Archer had been so consumed with desire for Maddie, he assumed Harper shared the same twisted lust and punished him for her affection. He hadn’t suspected Harper craved only one female, or that Archer’s halfling daughter was the one true light in Harper’s life.

His eyes closed again, and this time he left them shut. If someone had told him he would long for the days of their enslavement, he would have called that person a fool.

Yet here he lay, wishing for a simpler time when his body was a tool to be used, his thoughts dictated by cruel circumstance, but his heart was free. And it had belonged to Emma.

Five years made no difference to him. This year apart made even less. Ten or a hundred more wouldn’t change the sick ache in his bones craving her long-ago touch. He couldn’t love her openly then, either. But she knew she was his. Just as he knew he would always be hers.

His duty…her pleasure.

Kisri

© 2011 Moira Rogers

…and the Beast, Book 2

After three years at war, Ennon bears the burden of seeing the High Lord’s vast armies home. Keeping thousands of fiercely independent lions in line isn’t easy. When his soldiers discover a beautiful,
royal
female hidden beneath an illusion spell, the lure of her inheritance threatens the order of his camp.

The men of her family protected Kisri, until the war stole them away. Tired of defending herself from greedy suitors, she’s in search of her only remaining male relative. Instead she finds Ennon, her cousin’s most dangerous warrior. Perhaps the only man in the kingdom who has no interest in claiming her birthright. Which makes him unique…and tempting.

Delivering Kisri to his High Lord’s side—while keeping his distance—is Ennon’s one and only duty. Yet Kisri’s untutored advances crack his formidable resistance. And she proves to be a dangerously adept student. Especially when their passion wakes a magic beyond their control…

Warning: This story contains a dangerous shapeshifter warlord, a lioness with a sword, innocent passion, sexual awakenings and a happily-ever-after worthy of any fairy tale.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Kisri:

They made good time, but it was still only a matter of hours before they had to make camp. Ennon had carefully paced their travel, and he watched Kisri closely for signs of overexertion.

She was tired. A fool could see it, but every time he drew too close she snarled, ears pressed back against her head, teeth bared. It wasn’t until she stumbled that she allowed him to check their progress. Even then her back was stiff with the same pride that laced her thoughts.
“I am no weakling.”

It sparked his own temper.
“Only a fool flouts his limitations without reason. We are in no danger. We should not push ourselves.”

Her footsteps faltered. She stopped, her head low, and capitulated with an attempt at grace that failed to hide her trembling anger.
“I will be guided by you.”

“But you will not like it.”

“You have my obedience. Would you demand my submission too?”

Her submission. He almost stumbled at the thought. What would she be like, on her belly for a man? Being of such high birth, she was almost certainly a virgin…or was expected to be one, at least. Plenty of noble women had successfully played the part of the innocent when they were anything but. Hell, he’d had his share of them himself.

But not like Kisri.

He shifted forms, but even his attuned clothing did little to hide the arousal she’d elicited. “I demand nothing of you,” he told her as he slid the similarly enchanted packs from his shoulders.