Jun 1, 2016 | Bloghop
Look at that, lovelies! It’s already time for #WIP Wednesday again, and guess what comes out on Friday? THIS BOOK! ‘Tara’ (Daughters of Eltera Book 2) is available for pre-order here (it goes live this Friday, June 3rd!), and you can get a nice look at the cover on my reveal over here. For today I’ve got a snippet that really sums up the conundrum that Tara and Alaric are in. She’s a slave, and cursed to remain one, and he’s the assassin hired to deliver her to her next master.
—
“If you can fight, then why don’t you fight them? Why are you so –” He groaned. “- so okay with all of this?”
“I can’t fight them,” she muttered. Alaric let out a frustrated shout and stood up. He dropped the laptop on the coffee table before interlacing his fingers behind his head, growling as he fumed and paced across the room.
“Why, Tara? You have to give me more than that.”
The only reason she even contemplated answering him was that he seemed to really care. The answers would only make everything harder for him, would only complicate his job, would only complicate everything.
But… for some unknown reason she was going to answer him.
“You’ve seen the good half of what I am, Alaric, the immortality, the way I heal every morning when Eltera sends her power out to me and I light up.” She laughed a little to herself, suddenly at a loss for words.
How could she explain Gormahn’s curse? What words existed to make this mortal understand powers that hadn’t showed themselves for so long?
Fuck it.
“The other half of what I am is the curse, and when I have a master the curse shows itself as bands of light around my wrists. If I disobey, or even just piss them off, they activate and the pain is indescribable. Like fire and breaking bones and drowning all at the same time.”
He stared at her from across the room and she untucked her legs and leaned forward.
“I used to fight them. I used to fight the curse. I used to foolishly try and fight the power of a god. And then someone I loved died because I was too proud to accept who I am.” Tara winced. “I’m a slave, Alaric. No one can save me from that, it is what I am. And unless Gormahn decides to release all of us, which he’s never going to do, I will be a slave forever.”
“But -”
“Alaric, you’re only making this worse for yourself. I came to terms with it. I accept it, and it’s your job to deliver me to my next master. Neither of those facts are going to change.” She smiled bitterly, and he shouted a curse and walked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
She didn’t know why after the conflict she felt so warm in her chest, even though it ached at the same time. No one had cared enough to get angry on her behalf in centuries, but while it was sweet of him, it didn’t mean anything.
She might as well have been any nameless object, and he was the delivery truck.
A handsome, kind, gun-toting delivery truck.
May the gods damn it all.
—
As she says, neither of those facts are going to change – but what are they going to do about it? You’ll have to check out the book to find out, and it’s OH SO CLOSE to being in all of your hands! Make sure to snag a copy on pre-order so it lands in your lap on Friday for some sweet weekend reading! Trust me, the end of this book is… epic. Until then, read on to find some other great authors on this blog hop!
May 28, 2016 | Bloghop |
Hello, lovelies! It is time for Saturday Spanks again, and we’re back for another delicious snippet from my upcoming release ‘Tara’ (Daughters of Eltera Book 2). It’s now available for pre-order here (it goes live on June 3rd!), and you can get a nice look at the cover on my reveal over here. In this scene Alaric and Tara have been running around Milan in his sleek, sexy Maserati and enjoying the day. Of course, in the life of a Faeoihn, life never seems to be easy for long.
—
A beep went off from his messenger bag, which was tucked down by her heels.
“Can you grab that for me?” Alaric maneuvered the car into a slow turn through traffic as she leaned forward and began to dig through the bag, finally pulling out his phone.
She held it out for him.
“I’m driving, what’s it say?” He didn’t take his eyes off the road as he weaved in and out of traffic, accelerating around the drivers who were less interested in driving and more interested in sight-seeing.
“It says you have a text message from Claude.”
“Unlock the phone and read it to me. 1-4-7-2.” Alaric saw her tilt the phone back towards her in his peripheral vision. He shook his head at himself. Here he was buying expensive locks to keep Luca and the other employees of Infinity Consulting out of his room while he slept and at the same time providing the unlock code to a girl he had known less than twenty-four hours.
Such a contradiction.
“It says to meet him at his club tonight, after 10:30pm, and to bring me.” He could hear the smile in her voice, “Unless bring the girl is referring to someone else?”
“There’s no other girl.” He looked over at her and gave her the smile Luca always shook his head at. She just smirked at him.
Hard to impress.
“Are we going dancing?” She leaned back against the door, letting his phone dim and then relock in her hands.
“We can if you’d like, but we’re going there to get you papers.” He looked back at the road to maneuver them towards the hotel.
“Papers?”
“ID, a passport, the things we’ll need if we have to leave the country.” Alaric spoke and then looked over at her. The light had gone out in her eyes again as she withdrew into herself.
“For when you deliver me.”
“Yes.” He gritted his teeth when he responded. This was what he’d signed up for. Losing his nerve now wasn’t going to help. “In that box of clothes was there anything that would fit in at a nightclub?”
“I wouldn’t say it fits, it’s rather tight, but there’s plenty I can wear to a nightclub.”
—
Like the blurb on Amazon says, Alaric has some decisions to make. He’s always had that pesky no women, no kids rule, but does that mean he’ll defy Luca to save her? You’ll have to grab a copy of the book to find out! There’s only a few more snippets before this book goes live! In the mean time, check out these author hot authors below…
May 25, 2016 | Bloghop |
Hello there, lovelies! It’s #WIP it Up Wednesday and that means another snippet from my current work in progress ‘Tara’! This is the second book in my Daughters of Eltera series, and it’s a series that’s close to my heart. Dark, paranormal romance full of gods and goddesses and immortal female warriors cursed to serve – and this one has a very sexy assassin who is trying to battle his loyalty to the man who raised him, because he doesn’t want to turn Tara over to the man who has purchased her. What will he do? Who knows! (Well, I do… and I bet you have an idea!) In this scene Alaric asked what she wanted to do for the day, and she asked to be around music…
—
Tara took a deep breath of the resin and wood and polishes. Her fingertips traced a violin that had years of experience on it and a price tag to match. Alaric was speaking to the owner of the shop, a well-educated man who had clearly spent his life dedicated to all of these instruments that brought so much beauty to the world.
“Why don’t you pick it up?” Alaric’s voice was low again as he stepped up behind her. “Or did you want to just stare at it?”
She could hear the challenge in his voice, and reminded herself that in a matter of days it could be years before she laid her hands on any musical instrument. As she was trying to make a decision the shop owner stepped up behind her with a bow and pressed it into her hand with a kind smile. “Please, signorina, do you play?”
Alaric leaned back against the edge of a display, so tall and clean cut in his pressed shirt, his tie, his slacks and shined shoes. His eyes were locked on her though. They followed her hands as she took the bow from the owner, before he carefully lifted the violin and handed it to her like one would lift a newborn.
Tara rested it on her shoulder and felt her breath catch. It had been six months since Gianni had smashed the violin he’d bought her, all because she’d smiled too much at one of his friends at a party. She had actually cried then, real tears, not a show. She had begged him not to, and he had destroyed it anyway. Then he had left her alone in the house for a week with nothing but the security team to make sure she didn’t leave the room.
The first movement of the bow across the strings mended something inside her that had broken with the violin Gianni bought her, the same thing that had been ground to a powder when he had told her he sold her. She chose something from Mendelssohn that she had memorized years before, and as the notes flowed out she could feel herself swaying in those treacherous heels. It didn’t matter though.
Nothing did when there was music.
When she stopped and opened her eyes, the shop owner had his hands over his mouth and Alaric was staring at her intently. Tara swallowed and held out the violin for the shop owner. That small moment of music had done what Eltera’s power couldn’t – it had calmed the storm inside her that Gianni’s decision and the memories of Leonidas had stirred up.
The owner didn’t move to take the violin and Tara let her arm drop to hold it down at her side. “Thank you.”
“We’ll take it.” Alaric spoke clearly and the shop owner just nodded. The older man’s eyes were wet as he turned away.
Tara shook her head. “No. Don’t buy it.” She turned and set the violin back on the display, leaving her hands with only the bow.
“That was –” His mouth stayed open a moment before his eyes met hers again. “– worth any amount of money.”
She felt color come to her cheeks. “Thank you, however, I won’t have it for more than a few days. I’d rather never have it, than have it and lose it.” She sat the bow down as well, turned and walked to the door of the shop before she caved and said yes. She waited at the door even though she wanted to walk out into the noise of the street, out of this silent shop with all of its immaculate instruments.
Alaric said goodbye to the shop owner and finally stepped up behind her, touching her elbow as he pushed the door open. When they walked outside he looked down at her. “I would let you bring it with you.”
“And if your client isn’t a fan of music?” She met his eyes, and he turned and cursed under his breath. “Don’t let it bother you. It’s fine. I don’t need anything. I never have.”
—
Tara’s quiet strength in the face of everything she’s been through is one of my favorite things about her, and Alaric mirrors her in so many ways. Both have been through so much shit, but they hide it all underneath this calm facade – only it all starts to crumble the longer they’re around each other. It’s such a fun adventure and I can’t wait for all of you to read it! If you want to catch up on what’s happened in this world, you can read the first book Fae on Amazon. It’s FREE on Kindle Unlimited or $2.99 to buy it! ^_^ While you’re waiting for it to download, why not check out these other fun snippets below?
May 21, 2016 | Bloghop |
Happy Saturday Spankings everyone! This week we have another snippet from my upcoming book ‘Tara’, the second book in my Daughters of Eltera series. The first book, ‘Fae‘ is available now if you want to read it and catch up before this release later in the month! In this scene Alaric and Tara have been eating breakfast and trading truths back and forth, in the #WIP Wednesday bloghop Alaric revealed he was an assassin, and Tara revealed she was a slave. Alaric is… a little stunned after her confession, but I think he recovers well!
—
“I told you there was another god that enslaved me, and all those like me, for eternity. Well, that wasn’t a joke.” Tara lined up her silverware to the right of her plate, tucking the napkin into her lap. “When someone lays a claim to me the curse makes it so it’s almost impossible for me to disobey. There are control bands, they cause extreme pain if I ignore a command. You can imagine, I’m sure, what most of my masters have wanted from me.”
She didn’t want to look at him again, she didn’t want to see that look cross his face when he realized what she was and what that meant. If he hadn’t wanted to touch her the night before when all he thought was she was some weirdo sleeping in a cage babbling about humans and gods – now there was no chance for normalcy. He’d look at her with pity, or disgust. Maybe he’d stare at her like Gianni had, totally removed because she wasn’t real, or human… because she was nothing.
“I’m glad I killed him then.” Alaric’s voice was so quiet she wouldn’t have heard it if she’d moved, and her eyes snapped up to his. Those brown and green eyes were furious, and his lips peeled back from his teeth as he spoke again, “I’ve only felt that way once before, and I’ve never said it out loud, but in this case? Bastard deserved it.”
“Do you –” She started to speak but he cut her off this time.
“I understand, trust me.” He put his own napkin in his lap and started to butter a slice of toast. “I assure you I will not hurt you. Not like that. Not at all.”
She couldn’t respond. Her hand picked up her fork unbidden and cut off a corner of the omelet in her shock. His eyes were still blazing, but it was because of Gianni, not her.
“Now… will you answer my question? What do you want to do today?” He bit into the toast and Tara forced herself to swallow the bite of the omelet.
“Anything?”
“Anything.” He locked his eyes on her again, his strong jaw was clenched and it made the line of it stand out.
“I want to be around music.”
—
He’s kind of swoonworthy, even though he doesn’t make all of the best decisions at the beginning of this book, he gets it all figured out. It’s a hell of an adventure until they get there though! Until then, make sure to stay tuned for a cover reveal for ‘Tara’ and check out these other snippets below!
May 18, 2016 | Bloghop |
This week on #WIP Wednesday I’ve got another snippet from my upcoming book ‘Tara’! It’s the 2nd book in the Daughters of Eltera series (Fae is the first!). In this scene Alaric took Tara out for breakfast and she played a little game of switching languages to see how many he knew. She finally stumped him with Swedish, and then she asked him what language the people in the cafe wouldn’t know. He replied in Japanese and after a little headache, she told him that now she knew Japanese too. Let’s see how they handle their first real conversation.
—
“How exactly do you suddenly know Japanese?” He was a little sharp in his question, and it made her lips curve into a real smile again. For all his calm on the surface, she could already see the buttons to press to get a rise out of him.
“I already told you that a god made me what I am.” Tara tilted her head and felt the weight of her hair fall over her shoulder. “Well, she’s a goddess, not a god, but the gods understand all spoken words. When she made the Faeoihn this was one of the benefits we gained.” Tara looked at him across the table, a little impressed by how calm he remained.
“Another of those benefits would be the light-up trick this morning, and the healing?” Alaric asked, and she nodded.
Japanese was a beautiful language, but she didn’t quite understand how he knew it.
“May I ask a question?” She asked, and he nodded this time. “Why do you know Japanese? Were you stationed there as a soldier?”
His eyes dropped to the table before lifting back to hers. “I’m not a soldier, and I learned Japanese from a -,” he paused, “- a coworker.”
“You looked like a soldier when you showed up at my last residence.” Cage.
“I’ve never been a soldier.”
“Then what are you?” Tara picked up the cup and leaned back, drinking it slowly. Here was where she would see if he kept his promises for honesty as well as he kept his promises for day trips.
Alaric stretched an arm above his head, and it looked casual, but she watched as his eyes scanned the room. He was evaluating who was within listening distance, and who was watching them. She could have told him that the only one interested in them was the hostess, who probably wanted his number, and the older gentleman sitting alone at a table to their left who was really just staring at the hem of her skirt and not listening to them at all.
To her surprise he leaned forward and switched back to English, his voice incredibly quiet, “You would probably say I was a killer, or a murderer.” He took a breath. “The fancy terms are assassin or hitman. Not like they make it any better.” His eyes were locked onto hers as he waited for a reaction that wouldn’t come. She was sure he expected tears, some kind of emotional outburst, or at the very least wide-eyed shock.
He’d get none of that from her.
“Thank you for the honesty.” She sipped more tea and the surprise that flickered across his face was priceless.
“You’re not afraid?” He spoke normally again, but disguised their conversation by returning to Japanese.
“I’ve killed people too, probably more than you.” She looked down at the low cut top, the short skirt, her own eyes tracing down to the pointlessly high heels. “I wasn’t always this person.” Tara waited for him to react, but his forehead only creased slightly.
“Was Leonidas someone you killed?”
Her heart tripped over itself, her stomach wanted to return the tea, and she almost dropped the cup before she was able to get it back on the plate where it rattled for a second before it settled. “Why would you ask me that?”
“You were saying the name in your sleep.”
Damn the nightmares. Damn him for cuffing her. Damn Leonidas for being who he was.
“I don’t want to talk about him.” She tucked her shaking hands back into her lap. “Ask me anything else, anything, and I’ll answer you honestly.” Tara’s pulse was racing, but she tried to maintain a calm exterior even though inside there was an earthquake’s level of destruction on every barrier she’d built between her memories and her self.
“Alright. What were you to Gianni? The real answer.” Alaric was back to his serious self, and she was grateful he didn’t push further with Leonidas. For a moment Tara enjoyed that she was finally sitting with someone who didn’t know who she was, what she was. That fact settled the dust that Leonidas’ name had stirred up inside her.
She wanted to lie, to be something else. Someone else. Someone who was respectable, and brave, and noble.
But, she had promised honesty.
“A slave.”
—
They both have so many secrets, and I love how they come together to share them with each other. Fingers crossed I have a cover to show you guys soon! In the mean time, make sure to check out these other great snippets below!
May 14, 2016 | Bloghop |
Hello, lovelies! I’ve got a ton of birthday partying to do this weekend but I wanted to make sure you all got another snippet of my upcoming release ‘Tara’, the second book in my Daughters of Eltera series! It’s a dark, paranormal romance that throws a mortal assassin in the midst of an ancient warrior turned slave’s giant clusterfuck of a life. To say that Alaric has NO idea what he’s involved in is an understatement and in this scene Tara tries to figure out a way to get him to understand.
—
“So, it’s been a long night, you should sleep.” He needed to sleep too and he had to secure her. Moving to the couch he grabbed a pair of handcuffs from a pocket in his duffel before he tossed it onto the floor. When he turned he saw a flicker of panic in her face before that A-List smile was back in place.
“Well, you don’t waste any time.” One of her hands started to pull the robe apart as she spoke again, “but I promise you don’t need to use those on me.”
Alaric held up the cuffs. “No. This is just to make sure you don’t run off while I’m asleep.”
“I’m not going to run.” Her blue eyes had lost all of their light, now matte discs of color that reminded him of storm clouds more than ocean water. How quick those changed. She was focused on the handcuffs, and he hated the fleeting look of panic that had been on her face, but what choice did he have?
“I can’t take that risk.” Alaric felt cold when he said it, that same separation he felt when he went to pull the trigger taking him over as he watched her.
“Because I’m your job.” Now her voice had ice in it too.
“Yes.”
“Well, then I think you should know what you’re getting in to.” She walked forward slowly, her body shifting the robe apart inch by inch so that his eyes had no choice but to devour each bit of bare, ivory skin. The girl stopped in front of him and her hands slid around his waist before he thought to move, her left hand reached for the button at the top of his pants and he grabbed it to stop her.
Shaking his head he gently moved her back by her shoulder. “No, I’m not asking for that. I’m just transporting you.”
“Alright, well, you should know what you’re transporting.” In her right hand was the back-up knife he’d tucked into the back of his pants, and before he could stop her she dragged it across her arm. Blood welled up fast and she immediately dropped the knife onto the floor so she was unarmed.
Reacting fast he clamped his hand over the wound, but he could feel the blood wet against his palm, and it was already dripping onto the carpet. “What the hell is wrong with you?!” He yelled, dragging her toward the bathroom. He looked at her face to find her staring down at the blood on her arm with a bored expression. Her eyes were so distant she almost didn’t look like the same girl who had been laughing moments before.
“You don’t need to worry. How far away is dawn?” Even her voice was calm and cold. When he lifted his hand blood rushed out and he wrapped one of the towels around her arm, applying pressure with both hands as crimson spread and stained the robe and towel.
“My God! You cut yourself deep – shit – we can’t go to a hospital. Why did you do this?!” The cold clarity Alaric had maintained was slipping. He was suddenly terrified for her. Had she really decided to kill herself after everything else? Because of him?
“We don’t need a hospital, I’ll wake you up at dawn to show you why.” Her flat blue eyes locked onto his when he looked up at her.
“Dawn? What?” He clenched his teeth against a shout of frustration. “Why aren’t you panicking? Don’t you see all of this blood?” He could hear the pleading tone in his own voice. Definitely not compartmentalized right now. Memories slammed him hard and he saw blood on the floor of his childhood home, blood on pale skin. Open, unseeing eyes. Memories he couldn’t handle right now.
“Because I’ll be fine, just trust me.”
—
The first problem? She’ll totally be fine, and he’ll freak out again. The second problem? Alaric is going to start realizing just how much of a mess he’s involved in, and he’ll need to decide if he wants Tara out of his hair as soon as possible – or if he wants to try and help her. And helping her has a whole lot of consequences.
Curious? Keep checking out my snippets on #WIP Wednesdays and #SatSpanks to learn more! In the mean time, check out these other snippets below!
