Colt wound his hand around her wrist and pulled her closer, staring her in the eye. “I don’t want you to seem available to any of this scum. I can practically read what they want to do to you already.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Don’t tell me you can’t feel their eyes following you around. In case you haven’t noticed, the majority of the population in here is male.” Colt’s eyes narrowed. “Between you and the singer, there aren’t enough women to satisfy their hungry eyes.”
Ace had to agree with him there. He’d noticed how many men littered the place, and not all of them were humanoid. Still, it didn’t make a difference. In this galaxy, if a race wasn’t sexually compatible with another, they could always take the woman and sell her off. It was a very popular trade, and lined the pockets of many. He wouldn’t be surprised if Maine himself traded women in this way, though he seemed to have a tendency to keep them.
“Colt, don’t be difficult,” Brynn continued.
Ace sighed in frustration. He could understand Colt’s concern, but he’d look out for Brynn too. Even if he had enough faith in her to believe she could take care of herself. Still, she’d be safer with the two of them on the lookout. “You’re not going to look available to anyone tonight,” Ace said. “Everyone’s already seen the big cowboy all over you. If you try to gather any info now, it’s just going to look suspicious.”
After a moment’s pause, she nodded. “Shit, you’re right. I didn’t think of that. What should we do then?”
Ace glanced at the singing beauty, and then turned back to the woman he’d been fantasizing about until they’d finally left the claustrophobic confines of Stallion II. “I think we should take it easy. Grab a few drinks, enjoy the entertainment and come back tomorrow night. A backwater town like this one is bound to attract a variety of locals each night. Some might already be too drunk to remember us next time, anyway.”
Besides, he wasn’t ready to leave yet. Not until he at least got a name.
Colt nodded and reluctantly released Brynn. “I think he’s right. Let’s enjoy the night and tomorrow we start the real work. It was a long trip. I need to stretch my legs.”
Ace bit his tongue to stop from stating that maybe what he needed a break from was stretching another body part. Instead, he got as comfortable as he could on the chair and continued to enjoy the view.
The beauty caught his eye and smiled.
“I’m going to get us all a round of beers,” Colt announced.
“You do that, we’ll be right here,” Brynn said.
The crowd clapped once again and watched in awe as the singing beauty bowed and made her way off the stage.
“Ladies and gents, please thank the stunning Ely.” A small man motioned for them to raise the volume of their applause, and Ace found himself whistling along with the other guys packed inside this hazy bar.
Before Ely exited the stage, she looked his way once and then ducked behind the side curtain.
What he wouldn’t give to follow her back there.
“I think she likes you.”
He turned back to Brynn, who was sporting a wide smile. The tease in her blue eyes made them twinkle in the dim light. “Are you talking about the singer?”
She nodded and pressed her chin against her propped-up hands. “I think you like her too.”
“And I think we’re starting to sound like a bunch of kids playing silly games. We’re not kids, and the game we’re here to play is deadly serious.” He wasn’t sure where that had come from—maybe it was the truth, or it could simply be his attempt to defensively shift the conversation in a different, more comfortable direction.
“Wow, you really do like her.”
“I didn’t say that.” Although he couldn’t keep from looking at the curtain, hoping she would return.
Brynn sat back and shrugged, crossing her arms under her chest. “You don’t have to. I saw the way you looked at her. And since when does a person on any stage concentrate on one particular guy in the audience unless they want something too? Besides, she’s hot. You know you want her.”
“Stop it.”
His outburst only made her laugh harder.
“Brynn!”
She stuck her tongue out at him and pointed at the bar. “Hey, I think Colt needs your help.”
“Why would he need my help? He’s a big man, he can handle himself. I’m sure a few beers won’t give him any trouble.”
Brynn grabbed his hand and yanked on it, pulling him closer and across the table. He was relieved to realize her touch didn’t make him hot and sweaty. “Don’t be such an idiot, of course he doesn’t need your help but the hot chick just made her way to the bar. Go and buy her a drink. Here, it’s on me.” She tucked a gold coin into his palm and closed his fingers around it. “Go on.”
He shook his head, smiled at the absurdity of her pathetic attempt at matchmaking, and pushed the chair back. Had she figured out his frustration? Maybe Brynn had noticed his stares and just hadn’t said anything about it.
Ace stood up, took a deep breath and headed for the bar. Even though deep down inside he knew that as soon as Colt found out he’d left Brynn all alone at the table, he’d be pissed.
Just when he was within reach of the gorgeous woman and knew exactly what he was going to say, Colt’s raucous voice distracted him. He seemed to be arguing with a man seated on a stool at the bar.
Don’t get into a fight now, not now. Just give me a few more minutes to…
Too late. All he got the chance to do was smile at Ely. She caught his approach and turned to face him a second before Colt smashed his fist into the man’s face. Blood spurted and the man tumbled off his stool.
A second man responded with a kick to Colt’s stomach. The cowboy fell back against the bar, taking a few seconds to right himself.
For a man who hated killing, it hadn’t taken him long to get into this fight.
Ace looked at the woman he now knew by name and opened his mouth to say something, when someone grabbed him by the back of the shirt. His hat flew off his head as he whipped around quickly, kicking his feet low and ducking out of a third man’s punch. Ace shoved him aside with a fist to the face, sending him flying across the bar until he hit the other side of the wall and slid down to his ass.
When he turned back, Ely wasn’t there anymore.
She’s the one who got away. Now she’s uncharted territory…
Solar Storm
© 2013 Mina Carter
Ten years after her rich-girl life fell apart, Rhys Devin is a changed woman—her name, her face, and her attitude. Now the fast-talking, hard-as-nails captain of the Grey Lady sails the most dangerous solar roads in the universe. Times are tough, but she gets the job done, sailing alone. Always watching over her shoulder.
The last thing she needs is a delay, but when she runs across a stranded sailor, she has no choice. The law of the road demands she rescue him.
Kelwin Sayeed is a soldier without a war. The retired War Commander’s latest and most ambitious hobby, the solar flyer Artemis, was supposed to prove him worthy of the famously reclusive Solar Sailors. Instead a catastrophic computer failure has him at the mercy of the most hazardous road of all: Icaria.
Confident he won’t be left to die in the golden spray, he waits for another sailor to come along. One that’s born and bred to the roads, with skin wizened like beaten gold. What he gets is a woman whose voice does things to his body that should be illegal. Whose golden-tinted skin sparks erotic fantasies.
The bride who ran from him a decade ago…
Warning: Contains a self re-invented woman with a low tolerance for B.S. and a tendency to snark, a hot former soldier with a brutal approach to protecting what’s his, and a solar-kissed romance that spans years.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Solar Storm:
“Oh, you have to be kidding me. Justice is so, so sweet!”
Nerys grinned broadly as the Grey Lady reached the top of a rise, reve
aling the star-scape laid out in all its glorious detail below her. Just ahead, at the bottom of the incline, was the sleek yacht that had cut her off earlier. Caught in one of the side-shears Icaria loved to throw at the over-confident, it was being dragged relentlessly from the road and into the blackness beyond.
She hovered on the brink of the rise for a second, the bulk of the Lady casting a shadow on the rolling swell before the ship crashed down. Golden vapor splashed up around her hull to curl lovingly against the shield-strengthened glass of the upper decks.
“Just had to push it, didn’t you?”
She clicked her tongue against her teeth in disapproval. She should have known this guy would get into trouble. He was flashy, arrogant and entirely too cocky to be allowed on Icaria…hell, any road, without lead reins.
“Well, look at where it got you now. Pretty little sails’ll never get you out of that, will they?”
Her expert eye skimmed over the shear he was caught in as she pulled alongside. A Class Two without undertow. It was nothing the Lady couldn’t pull out of with her heavy-duty tri-sails, but fancy-pants flyer over there didn’t have a chance with those dinky little quads. His sails were designed for speed, not heavy work, and certainly not for dragging a ship out of the crap.
“This is the Grey Lady to…” She paused and tilted her head to read the name written on the hull. Artemis? She huffed in surprise. Unusual name for a ship. Sounded Old Terran.
“This is the Grey Lady to the Artemis. Looks like you need a bit of a hand there.”
The response was immediate. A male voice filled the airwaves, issuing from the speakers by the helm’s controls.
“Yeah, you could say that. I was beginning to think that hunk of junk ship you got there would never make it here in time.”
Deep and rough, like barbed wire over steel, the voice triggered every feminine reaction she had and froze her to the deck-plating at the same time.
She knew that voice. It was one she’d prayed she’d never hear again. Her ex-husband, Kelwin Sayeed. The rat who had been so drunk on their wedding day that he’d propositioned at least three of the ushers and tried to kiss her aunt. And that was before she’d found out what he’d been up to the night before.
“Hey, you still there? Could do with a hand before the shear crushes me.”
“Oh, keep your fricking panties on,” she shot back, wincing at the squeak that had replaced her normal voice. She resisted the urge to clear her throat and try again. At least sounding like that there was less chance of him recognizing her. He was just as bad as her father, but in a totally different way. Her father had only been interested in his offspring when it suited him, whereas Kelwin had been extremely attentive to everything with a pulse. His behavior on the holo-vid her father had obtained… She shuddered. She’d had a lucky escape.
The last thing she needed was him realizing who she was now. Not after her fall from grace. Everyone she’d known from her previous life had wanted to do nothing more than gloat and gossip. A McQuaid daughter brought low and working for a living? It was a drama worthy of the holo-soaps, and that was before society at large knew the whole story. What would they say if they knew the truth…that her father had planned to strip a war-hero of his retirement money—a veritable fortune given the settlement an enhanced soldier received as recompense for the surgery they underwent.
She put the whole tangled mess from her mind with the ease of long practice. All she had to do was haul Sayeed back onto the road and leave him to do his own thing. She didn’t need to invite him aboard for tea and a heart-to-heart.
“Panties? Honey, who says I’m wearing any?”
Typical Kelwin. She ignored the heat filling her cheeks as she maneuvered the Lady into place and cast the ropes. Self-propelled, they wrapped around the smaller craft in a snug embrace.
“Cute. I guess it’s less washing for your mother.” Her finger hovered over the retract button. “You’re gonna need to drop those fancy quads, sailor-boy. Unless you want to lose them as I come about.”
“Sweetheart, you get me out of this and I’ll drop anything you like.”
She shook her head but couldn’t stop the slight quirk of her lips. He’d always been a charming bastard. “Save it for the ladies back at the station. You’re not my type.”
“Oh?”
“That’s right.”
“Honey, give me an hour and I can be anyone’s type.”
There was no mistaking the sudden interest in his voice. She cursed under her breath as the quads began to fold down. Despite herself, she was impressed. Real smooth action. She’d never seen that configuration before, so they were either top of the line or a custom job.
Nerys snorted. “Yeah right, Slick. Perhaps I’m not into guys. Might want to hold onto something—shear can pull like a bitch. Wouldn’t want you to bust your pretty face.”
Making sure the fancy little sails were nice and neat in their cradles, she punched the retract button. Motors whirred in a metallic symphony as the ropes pulled the smaller craft tight against the Lady’s side. She tapped her fingers on the helm impatiently as the Artemis was reeled in.
There was a long pause. So long she was about to break radio silence to make sure he was okay. It would be just her luck for him to fall and crack his skull—then she’d have to nurse him.
“So…” His voice was light, but she could hear the intent behind it. “How do you know what I look like?”
Shiver
Yolanda Sfetsos
Blood made him a monster. Passion could be his salvation.
Recast, Book 3
After narrowly escaping brutal captivity in the Clash Arena and the bite of a bloodsucking creature, all Eniell Knox wants is to get off the crappy planet that ruined his life. When he steals an abandoned ship and is shot down over freezing northern Fray, he finds nothing but more trouble. An alluring young woman who stirs his hunger—and her shackle-happy mother—could push him over the edge.
Day after day, Lian Shan lives like a prisoner, fending off a parade of creepy potential husbands her mother tries to force upon her. She longs to experience life outside the confines of her ice castle and meet the man whose face haunts her dreams.
When a handsome, mysterious man crashes onto the estate her world breaks apart, spilling unfathomable secrets. Some of them her own.
Though Eniell and Lian’s mutual attraction explodes off any known star chart, there’s something her dreams left out—he’s been bitten by a monster. Which means if he turns into one, the first thing on his menu could be her neck…
Warning: This book contains shared temptation hot enough to melt ice caps, a warrior with a blood craving, a rebellious heroine who isn’t afraid to share hers, and the galaxy’s most dysfunctional family.
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They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Shiver
Copyright © 2014 by Yolanda Sfetsos
ISBN: 978-1-61921-876-5
Edited by Holly Atkinson
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: January 2014
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Epilogue
About the Author
Look for these titles by Yolanda Sfetsos
Also Available from Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Back Cover Copy
Copyright Page
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