(At the time of this release, Book One was still not available at Apple. I have not been able to determine reason for delay, but am watching for the release.)
When I finally finished (or at least quit writing), this second book in the series ended up around 100K and being the largest book I've written. There was a lot to cover in it, but it moves fast through the action.
Here's another teaser excerpt from one of my favorite scenes between Ania and Liam (slightly altered to create a PG 13 version):
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Ania took several breaths and focused on aligning Synar’s life force better in his body. His energy was erratic. She chanted softly, the words bouncing off the walls and around the room as they quivered in the air.
“No—do it in English, not Pleiadian,” Synar whispered, arching and stretching beneath her hands.
“The calming chant is more effective in the ancient tongue,” Ania whispered, continuing to release the mystical words into the air around them as her hands moved across him seeking the vortex openings along the front of his body.
“Since your hands are exciting me rather than calming me, it doesn’t matter about their effectiveness,” Synar said softly. “I want to hear your voice speaking a language I can understand. I want your kind words to fall on me like Candoren rain. I want to know once again the joy of your willing touch.”
Ania lifted her hands from him only to have Synar grab her wrists and pull them back down to his body. He had dreamed of her intimate touch often and thought never to have it again on him. It was more restorative than a thousand cycles of sleep.
“This is not wise,” Ania said quietly, but she did not pull her hand away from Synar or try to ease his grip on her wrist, even when he pressed it more firmly against his body. “Synar—you’re probably being effected by the desire between Gwen and Dorian that I carry. This is for them. This is not for us.”
Synar sat up suddenly and met her blue gaze, the hold on her wrist tightening. “Do you really believe that? Search me for the truth and you will find this is what I have always felt for you. You are my mate, Ania Looren. I will regret the last two years away from you for the rest of my life no matter how long that is. I don’t want to further regret whatever time is left.”
Ania was shaking her head in denial, tugging her hand away in earnest now, but Synar’s grip was firm. He pulled it to his chest, trapped it there with the other he was still clutching in that same spot.
“I watched you fight Gwen in the training room. I know what you can do,” he admitted. “If you genuinely don’t want me, stop me from seducing you. I am ill from wanting and not having. It affects all that I am.”
“Synar—Liam, I meant only to comfort your spirit, not to tempt your body,” Ania said softly. “I wish you no harm, but do not seek what you will reject tomorrow.”
“Forgive me for what I have done to make you fear my reaction to your touch as strongly as I fear dealing with the demon you carry,” Synar pleaded, moving her hand once again until it was clutched in his lap. “Forgive me this once even if you go back to hating me tomorrow. I will suffer enough in the coming time. Be with me tonight, Ania. I need you more than I need to sleep.”
He moved his hand from hers and slid back down in the bed. Ania’s hand stayed on him, lightly stroking as he sighed beneath her touch. Synar felt the first sense of rightness he’d had in a long time. His mate was with him again. Whatever the future held, Synar would make himself live for the moments Ania gave him before she sought her end.
“Stay with me tonight,” Synar begged, knowing he would not stop her if she chose to leave, could not force her to stay. But he wanted to—by the creators of all, he wanted to—even knowing the damage a warrior with her training could cause him.
Ania rose quietly from her seat beside Synar, walked a short distance away to stand near the door.
“I desire you only because of Gwen and Dorian. You know it is uncommon for me to feel as I do. I could bond with you Liam, but to what end? In my mind we are no longer mates,” she said.
“Pick whatever reason suits your logic, but please stay with a male who has wanted you and only you since the first time he saw you,” Synar implored, holding out a hand. “I will make our bonding sacred or make it fast or make it whatever you wish. If all you wish is sleep, I can do that as well. Just let me hold you again. Being with you will restore me more than any amount of rest without you beside me.”
To test her resolve, Ania stepped to Synar’s door and put her hand on it to leave.
A profound feeling of wrongness rose up inside her. It wasn’t Malachi's effect because it was the same feeling she’d had the first time she’d spent the night with Liam Synar.
For reasons Ania had never been able to fathom, she simply hadn’t been able to tell him no. Evidently that was still the case, even though Synar had firmly refused to come back to her when she had asked. She closed her eyes, seeking inside herself to find more resolve, but all she found was her own need to be with him.
Sighing in rare defeat, she let go of the door.
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The excerpt is only available in the book for now.
2 comments:
Congratulations, Donna!
Thank you Hallee!
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