He was blind. Eyes wide open yet couldn’t see a thing. Voices, smells of camphor and ammonia. But no image. Where was he?
Burning pain shut up his nape. As a needle would. A click from inside his skull made him blink and work his jaw against the strange pressure accumulating in his ears and behind his eyeballs. How could something “click” inside one’s head? Nausea rose in his throat. He felt wired yet lethargic. The last thing he remembered was sitting inside the shuttle on his way from New Heraklion for some time off down planet-side. Then this.
“Is he linked yet?” a man asked. Thirties, educated, careful. Familiar. Was he talking about him? Linked to what?
“No,” replied a woman. Gravelly voice, low. Older, smoker. “You’ll know when he is.”
“Download complete,” chimed a computer-generated, genderless voice.
He tried to sit but couldn’t even move his hands. Panic bubbled closer to the surface. He pushed it down. No time for that. Later. Always had to be calm, focused and alert so he could do his job. People depended on him, dammit.
Maybe he wasn’t blind. Maybe they’d just put something over his eyes. Had he been kidnapped by some renegade force, terrorist group, a political party maybe? Well, he wasn’t going to make it easy for the fuckers. They better have strapped him tight because he wasn’t staying.
Grunting, he curled his torso up by a few inches so he could rub his face against his shoulder… And wished he hadn’t. His world vacillated. He squeezed his eyes shut against the nausea.
Just breathe.
Panic made a grand comeback and this time, this time he couldn’t push it down, just as when he’d been a child, a scared little boy who’d stuffed teddies and pillows in all the menacing recesses of a too-large bed. Only way to stop the monsters. And even then, sometimes it didn’t stop them. They’d wait for him to fall asleep so they could crawl out from underneath the bed and claw into his skull, plague him night after night with horrific nightmares. Even now as an adult, he still couldn’t sleep in a bed without waking half a dozen times each night, prey to the monsters, half-remembered but always in the back of his head. Sleeping on a mattress on the floor wasn’t a fashion statement for him. Survival, sanity, fuelled this peculiar habit.
Terror seized him by the throat. His breathing accelerated. A moan escaped him. He could talk!
“What’s going on with him?” the man asked. “He's not awake, is he?”
“Of course he is,” the older woman snapped.
“My god… Will he remember this? Won’t he fight it when it’s time?” Fear rendered the man’s voice high-pitched, made him instantly contemptible.
“Do you think they’ll believe him? After he’s been triggered, he’ll have six hours, then the implant will self-destruct, leaving nothing behind. As for fighting it, no one has ever been able to. Pain is a great motivator.”
His heart beat so fast it hurt. “Where am I?” he managed to croak. His throat burned.
“Your codename will be Chimera,” the woman replied, her voice near his left ear. She smelled of ashtray and old-woman perfume, a mix of roses and some unknown chemical.
Codename? What the hell for? Chimera. How fitting to the monsters plaguing him.
Another intracranial click a split second before the very word Chimera blazed like white-hot steel behind his eyelids. Then pain hit. Hard. In his brain, over his face, every limb. He thought he heard a man screaming, realized with shock it was him. Between desperate gulps for air, he felt they’d lowered something against his face, some kind of lid or cover. It almost touched his nose. He started panting. His breath hit him in the face, smelled of medication and sour beer. But he never, ever drank alcohol, not in his profession and certainly not after having been raised in a household of drunks.
He was suffocating!
A moment later, something whistled near his forehead, sending a tiny ribbon of air down on his face. A sweet smell filled whatever contained him. Pod, stasis chamber…or coffin. He felt sleepy. Stopped screaming.
Inside, the computer voice accompanied him into oblivion.
“Launch sequence activated.”
Excerpt from Beast in a Kilt
“Aye, the lass will make a fine bride,” John MacPeter, chieftain of the MacPeter clan said. His bug-eyed gaze raked Catriona MacCain head to toe. He near drooled, and his belly jiggled when he chuckled.
Catriona cringed, hoping the dim candlelight of Farspag Tower’s great hall hid her expression. Unable to abide the sight of him, she lowered her gaze to the Turkish carpet covering the stone floor. She envied her selkie older brother, Brodie, at the moment. Even though he was cursed, at least he was free and frolicking with the other selkies in seal form. She was trapped here in hell.
“Splendid.” Her mother clapped her hands once and gave an almost imperceptible bounce on her toes. “We shall hold the rèiteach on the morrow to determine the dowry and bride price, and if all goes well in the negotiations, the wedding a fortnight hence.”
The MacCain clan elders stood behind her mother, smiling and nodding.
Were they all daft? The lecher before her had already buried three wives. Catriona wondered if they’d perished from the stench of him. She swallowed the disgust rising in her throat. Death would be preferable to bedding down with him.
Why, dear God, isn’t Brodie here to prevent this?
After John MacPeter headed up the spiral stone staircase toward his guest room, her mother walked Catriona to her chamber.
“Please change your mind, Mother. I detest that beslubbering, clay-brained horn-beast. His very nose is like an anvil. And by the size of his belly, you would think he is set to deliver twins. I do not believe he has bathed in more than a—”
“Catriona!” Her mother blanched, her skin contrasting sharply with her black hair. “Do not say such things about this noble man,” she whispered, checking behind herself in the dim corridor. “What if he should hear? You have spent too much time with your grandfather.”
“On the contrary, I have not spent enough time with him. Could I return to England?” Please, God, anything but to be thrown to the swine-laird.
“No.” Her mother urged her into the bedchamber and closed the door. “You are old enough to marry and must do your duty for the clan. You will secure peace and protection. You will grow to love John MacPeter.” She smiled as if Catriona were a silly child. “It takes time for affection to grow between a man and his wife. I detested your father when we first married, but soon I was mad about him.”
“When you married Father, he was not as old as the MacPeter. Even were he alive now, Father would not be as old as the MacPeter. Perhaps you shouldmarry him.”
“Oh, no. That wouldn’t do at all. He wants a young wife who will bear him many sons. Besides, as the daughter of a chieftain, you know you must marry someone of consequence. Since your father passed, the MacPeter is the most powerful chieftain in these parts and we need his protection. Not to mention that your ne’er-do-well brother has taken himself off somewhere.”
“Brodie is a selfish lackwit,” Catriona muttered.
“And you are fortunate John MacPeter found you to his liking. When first he heard you had red hair, he was displeased.”
“What?” Why, that bastard. He objected to her red hair, when everything about him was revolting? What an arse.
“My darling, you know I love your red curls.” Her mother kissed her cheek. “Sleep well, my child, and dream of your future husband.”
“Ugh!” Catriona grimaced and slammed the door behind her.
“Your mother is right.” Her maid, Aggie, approached from the corner to help her undress.
“What? You wish me to marry that swine?”
“Aye, and ye’ll be lucky to have him. He’s a powerful man with much land. If ye’d been a crofter’s wife, ye’d ken what I mean—hard work, day in, day out.”
“Surely there is a younger, less repulsive chieftain somewhere in the Highlands.”
“A man is a man. Doesna make much difference his age.”
Catriona doubted the truth of that. “If Brodie were here, he would prevent this. What must I do?”
“Obey your mother, that’s what.” Aggie hung up her clothes and left.
Catriona crawled between the featherbed and counterpane, but she was sure to get no sleep this night. She stared up at the rose velvet canopy held aloft by carved wooden posts. As the minutes passed, her desperate thoughts shifted into dreams. She held in her hand a missive with her brother’s name scrawled on it. She turned it over, broke the red wax seal and opened the paper. But she couldn’t read the words. Not enough light. The harder she strained to see them, the blurrier they became. Blast!
Excerpt from Edge
The search for the truth leads to the edge of danger, revenge and love… A beautiful hellion, the first woman trained by the Department of International Intelligence, Catlina Demarco left her life without so much as a goodbye. Deep in Mexico, she’s close to finding the man who can give her the truth of her past, or kill her.
Agent Noah Tyler, Cat’s former partner and lover, is the last man she expects to show up with handcuffs and intent to bring her back to headquarters. No one has ever left the agency alive, Cat’s no exception. Only she refuses to go anywhere with Noah, he betrayed her trust. Forced into the jungle by three armed banderos, Cat finds her and Noah once again working as partners, their thoughts as one, their bodies craving, their goals conflicting.
Hot, angry and infuriated, Catalina must rid herself of Noah Tyler before everything is lost, including her heart.
Excerpt from Sweet-talking the Opposition
Eliza walked into his cabin and dropped her evening bag on the chair. "There are two rules that you must agree to follow."
She delivered the line, and then strolled into the center of the space, willing herself to see it through. If he played along she could do it. If he laughed at her, or didn’t want her enough, she’d fail. She didn't want to fail. She wanted to know what it would be like to conquer a dominant man like Marcus. Pivoting on one tall heel, she turned to look at him.
"Two rules…for my fantasy to be realized." She folded her arms and eyed him up and down.
"Rules?" he repeated, stripping off his tie, throwing it on the floor.
She nodded. He was so aroused that he wasn’t thinking fast, she liked that. Dark slivers of anticipation raced through her veins. The constant, low hum of the engines through the cruiser only seemed to make her more sensually aware. She took a deep breath. “Do you agree to follow the rules?”
It was the only way she could deal with it, but she wasn’t going to say that. She wanted him to think she was sure of herself, that she had the upper hand and knew what to do with it.
Marcus gave a quick shrug. “I’m game, if it means I get to be inside you.”
He’d much rather be in control, she knew that. But he clearly wasn’t going to let that worry him, not now he was all fuelled up. He wanted her—that gave her strength, and it gave her power. "First, you must do everything I ask, follow my every instruction."
"Ah, I see. In that case, I am your servant." He licked his lips, his hungry gaze covering her body.
She turned away, and gestured to the back of her dress. “Unzip me, please.”
He moved behind her and lowered the zipper, keeping his hand on it when it reached its end in the small of her back. She could feel the weight of his hand there at the base of her spine, and his breath hot against her shoulders. He rested a kiss on her skin at the base of her neck, a fleeting touch that sent skitters of sensation under her skin. Her spine seemed to melt. She swayed, her eyes closing.
"That's enough." She turned away, holding the dress loosely in place with her hand. "The second rule...you are not allowed to touch me, or touch yourself, unless I say so."
A flash of confusion crossed his face, but he quickly masked it. His body emanated tension. There was a more serious look in his eyes now, and his voice when he replied was husky. "It'll be hard to keep my hands off you."
“Do you agree?”
The tension escalated.
"I agree."
Lowering the dress from her shoulders, she let it drop to the floor and stepped out of it. He stared at her, transfixed, slowly taking in the whole ensemble, from the polished elegance of her shoes, up the length of her legs and all the way up to the neat line of choker, devouring everything in between—from lace balconette bra, to lace G-string, and stockings, just as she had intended.
His hands clenched at his sides. "Making me promise not to touch such an attractive body seems like a pretty mean thing to do, Eliza."
“Maybe.” She bit her lip to stop from smiling, then threw her dress over the back of a chair, being sure to show him her “derrriere,” as he called it, as she did so. She’d been unsure she could do this, but the way he was looking at her was making her even hotter. Keeping him at bay made her feel emotionally guarded and safe too. When he was in charge he overwhelmed her, leaving her vulnerable. Not that she didn’t like that, she liked it a lot. Too much, in fact. Right now, she wanted to try this tactic. It had a built-in reward all its own. Besides, it was a secret fantasy, and it was making her incredibly horny. “Do you still agree to follow the rules?"
His eyebrows flickered, his eyes dark with lust. He was taut as a bow. "I agree."
Power throbbed in her veins, her body hot and clutching inside, hungry for him. He was so male, so strong, and he was agreeing to do her bidding. She wanted him ever more with each passing second.
From the overcrowded slums of a future Earth, he rose as the perfect tool of lethal justice and deception. Cold and stoical by choice, alone by circumstances, he will neutralize any and all threat to his client then move on. Blunt, direct. Nothing personal. But when his next assignment involves a popular politician who’s as smart as she’s attractive, the greatest betrayal would be to deny his heart.
To my readers Chimera is about the forbidden fruit, that minute of intimacy carved from danger, that stolen glance and stubborn hope it’s going to be all right as the enemy reloads its guns. All of which are bigger than yours. Chimera is love in the face of bullets. But primarily, it’s the story of a woman who shares her sanctuary while the man she loves shares his wounded soul.
Edge by Dominique Sinclair
The search for the truth leads to the edge of danger, revenge and love… A beautiful hellion, the first woman trained by the Department of International Intelligence, Catlina Demarco left her life without so much as a goodbye. Deep in Mexico, she’s close to finding the man who can give her the truth of her past, or kill her.
Agent Noah Tyler, Cat’s former partner and lover, is the last man she expects to show up with handcuffs and intent to bring her back to headquarters. No one has ever left the agency alive, Cat’s no exception. Only she refuses to go anywhere with Noah, he betrayed her trust. Forced into the jungle by three armed banderos, Cat finds her and Noah once again working as partners, their thoughts as one, their bodies craving, their goals conflicting.
Hot, angry and infuriated, Catalina must rid herself of Noah Tyler before everything is lost, including her heart.
To my readers I’ve fallen in love with every hero I’ve written about and my, oh, my, Noah Tyler is no exception. Sexy, strong and packing more than just a powerful gun, Noah is a true hero. And every great hero needs a woman to complete him. I didn’t make it easy on Noah; I gave him a beautiful hellion to test his patience, to challenge his mind, to arouse his body to point of madness. I love Catalina, her strengths, her weakness, her kick ass self. I see beauty in the love I have brought to her on a dangerous path.
I hope you, too, fall in love along Noah and Cat’s journey.
Love,
Dominique
Beast in a Kilt by Nicole North
Scottish lady Catriona MacCain has loved Torr Blackburn, a fierce Highland warrior, since she was a young lass, but Torr only sees Catriona as his best friend’s little sister. When Catriona’s family promises her in marriage to a detestable chieftain, she desperately needs Torr to save her from a fate worse than death. But Torr is under the spell of a witch of the dark arts and is cursed to spend his nights as a kelpie water demon. He doesn’t believe himself worthy of the virginal Lady Catriona. However, she is determined to seduce Torr and claim him… body, heart and soul, if only they can banish the curse and defeat the enemies who have vowed to possess and enslave them both.
To my readers: I’m in love with Scotland and those hot hunks in kilts who are equally capable on the battlefield or in bed. Find out what happens when a virginal lady seduces the cursed Highlander she’s been in love with since childhood. Will she claim his body as well as his heart and destroy the curse which imprisons him? I hope you enjoy Beast in a Kilt, the second in my kilted shape shifter series for Red Sage, the first being Devil in a Kilt in Secrets, Volume 27.
I dedicate this story and all the others to my wonderful husband, who endlessly supports and encourages me. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Sweet-talking the Opposition by Saskia Walker
London-based journalist, Eliza Jameson, is on assignment on a luxurious Rhine river cruiser when she finds the perfect distraction on board — old flame, Marcus Weston. But Eliza came dangerously close to falling for Marcus last time around, and in order to play him at his own game, she decides to call the shots. Meanwhile, Marcus has his own agenda. In the ensuing battle, who will end up on top?
Dear Reader, when these two characters decided to take up residence in my imagination I thought they were perfect for each other, but they had other ideas. They just wanted a quick fling, but I wasn’t going to let them get away with it. I decided to trap them together on a boat, for a week, to see what happened. I had such a lot of fun watching as Marcus and Eliza’s story unfolded, and I hope you do too!
Beast in a Kilt by Nicole North from Red Sage Secrets, Vol. 29
Genre: Historical Erotic Romance Novella (Scottish/Shapeshifter) Publisher: Red Sage
What I Liked: After reading Nicole North's first historical erotic romance novella (also a Scottish/Shapeshifter book), Kilted Lover, and enjoying it, I was thrilled to hear that her next book had come out. So I immediately bought it. Given the fact that sequels usually disappoint me (I'm looking at you, Legally Blonde, X-Men, George Lucas, Matrix, Pirates of the Carribean... okay, I have to stop somewhere, but I could really go on and on and on... Disney... okay, I'm back), I was leery of this sequel. First of all, I'm not super crazy about the time-travel elements (which this story did not have), although I thought she handled that element in her first book better than most. And second, my fear of sub-par sequels nearly kept me from buying this book.
It would have been a shame if it had. I actually thought this book was better than the first. It had all the elements of the first story that I loved: the sensuality in addition to the hot sex, a really fantastic alpha hero, and of course the Scottish Highlands. There is something magical about the way Nicole North writes erotic romance relationships. Whatever magic wand she's got in her head to make it work, she Tim-Gunn's it right out of the park. She manages to make each sex scene absolutely vital to the progression of the relationship while also integrating important character development into the non-sensual parts of the book.
With erotic romance on everyone's radar now, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nicole North on the list of authors who have won an erotic romance RITA when RWA finally adds that category. She is an excellent writer, and I hope she writes many more of these Scottish Shapeshifter erotic romances in the future.
Book Blurb: Scottish lady Catriona MacCain has loved Torr Blackburn, a fierce Highland warrior, since she was a young lass, but Torr only sees Catriona as his best friend’s little sister. When Catriona’s family promises her in marriage to a detestable chieftain, she desperately needs Torr to save her from a fate worse than death.
But Torr is under the spell of a witch of the dark arts and is cursed to spend his nights as a kelpie water demon. He doesn’t believe himself worthy of the virginal Lady Catriona. However, she is determined to seduce Torr and claim him… body, heart and soul, if only they can banish the curse and defeat the enemies who have vowed to possess and enslave them both.
Four sizzling, erotic tales take you from the past to the future. Each unique story features memorable characters, conflict and tangible passion. This highly anticipated antho- logy is a great add to your collection.
In “Sweet-Talking the Opposition” by Saskia Walker, London journalist Eliza Jameson runs into an old flame. This time she plans to call the shots, but Marcus has his own agenda. On a future Earth, Nathalie Gray’s “Chimera” is the perfect killing tool. But his assignment involves a beautiful politician who he can’t resist. In “Edge” by Dominique Sinclair, former agent Catalina is in Mexico looking for a killer. Her ex-partner Noah shows up with handcuffs to bring her back to the agency. Torr, a fierce Highland warrior, is under the spell of a witch in “Beast in a Kilt” by Nicole North. Though she’s promised to a chieftain, Catriona has loved Torr since childhood. Catriona wants to seduce Torr and help him banish his curse.
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