Vixenwriter

Sunday and it’s into evening now. This weekend went by very fast. Probably because I’ve got a book due in a few weeks, LOL.

I did get some lovely news last week – the sale to Sensation, which I’m still giddy over. This new series should be a lot of fun to write. I’ve been making some story and series notes already so when I sit down to write it later this year, I’ll be ready. Or um, as ready as I can be in any case.

Also learned the Australian Romance Readers Association has nominated LAID BARE for “Favourite Erotic Romance” I’m in a category with some amazing authors and I’m thrilled and honored to be in their company! Thank you, ARRA for the nomination!

Hughies! Via Patti OShea and an email from Judy at the RBL Romantica boards – LAID BARE has been nominated for Hottest Book and I’ve been nominated as Favorite New To You Author – Thank you to all the fine ladies of the RBL Boards!

Thank you all for the congratulations – it means a lot to me when you send letters and notes, when you comment and take the time to let me know you’ve enjoyed one of my books or what have you.

How about a scene from Undercover? Sera is playing shallow and silly to get information from her new found companions…

FEDERATION CHRONICLES: UNDERCOVER by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2008, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

Sera wanted to die. These women would be the death of her. How they could stand themselves she didn’t know. But one thing she did know was that among Rina’s little group was Giles Standers’ alpha concubine, Delia. Sera figured it would be so and had taken a calculated risk in accepting this particular invitation. Rina’s keeper was a powerful man, not the most obviously so, but the one with the most financial power based on gaming and other gray market areas not so closely regulated by the Federation. They’d move in the same circles and Stander would want his females moving with ones like Rina.

“You are quite fortunate to have two such gloriously masculine protectors,” Delia said as she tossed an obscenely expensive gown at the clerk.

Sera smiled serenely as she fingered the undergarments, selecting several things to entice her men with.

“News travels so fast in Nondal,” Rina said in a voice so low and sensual Sera figured had to be enhanced.

“They are very fine looking men. I hear you had a run-in with Walker’s former wife last evening.”

“News does travel fast.” Sera offered nothing else. She wanted to know what else they’d heard and how.

“Giles is close with Perry and the she-demon. When they’re together, it’s the only time Giles’ wife ever has the nerve to say anything about all his women on the side.” Delia sniffed as if offended by that. Sera thought Giles’ wife would make a better point with a large, blunt object while her wayward husband slept. Still, Sera did quite enjoy the characterization of Kira as a she-demon.

“Have you met her?” Sera asked nonchalantly.

“Of course not. Do you think she’d lower herself to speak to one of us? Is it true they introduced you to her? I would have loved to have seen it with my own eyes.” Delia laughed.

“She gasped as if she’d been injured and stepped back, hand over her heart when Brandt introduced me. As if being a concubine would be something she could catch.” Venomous, evil, horrid woman.

“Not so perfect herself. Her or her precious Family.”

Really now? What did that mean? “This is lovely but this,” Sera held up another gown in a deeper color, “would suit your coloring so much better.”

Flattered, Delia took it, and in the middle of the boutique, stripped out of the gown she wore and tried on the delicate one Sera had handed her. “You’re right. I’ll wear it tonight I think.”

Sera waited until they’d entered yet another shop to hedge around the topic again. “I’m just relieved she won’t be at the party this evening.”

“Perry will be. She doesn’t know what a beast he is when she’s not around. Wouldn’t be so superior-like if she knew. All she cares about is credits anyway.”

“I’ve seen Perry. A girl has to get something out of a relationship and since Ash is in my bed, I think credits must mean more to her than sex.” Whoo, way to channel Sela.

Delia and Rina laughed. “I’ve seen Perry’s cock, it’s nothing to put on a vid and report over. But as long as he’s willing to keep certain people happy and doesn’t have the morals of a speck, she’ll stay with him and the Walkers will be happy.” Delia put yet another pair of shoes on the teetering stack she’d already created. Stander must be operating in the gray in a major way to finance this woman’s shoes alone.

“Certain people? Should I be worried about Ash ending up in some off ‘Verse brig for dealing with the criminal element?” she asked as she handed a pair of shoes to the clerk with a smile.

“Doesn’t seem the type to play on the wrong side of the fence,” Rina said. “Oh, I love that bag!”

Sera let it go for the time being, she couldn’t push too hard about it. Sela wouldn’t care overly much anyway. She’d find ways to bring it up at the party later that evening and whenever she could without looking suspicious. Certainly the comments Delia made didn’t cast Stander in a very good light and the stuff about Perry was worrisome.

One thing that did bother her was the possible involvement of Kira in the dealings with the Imperialists. Not that she gave a purri seed one way or another about the stupid woman. But she worried for Brandt and Ash, for their feelings and their Families. Sera hoped the things they’d said about credits and that sort of thing just indicated Kira’s nature and not any sort of knowledge of what was going on between Stander and the Imperialists.

By the time the afternoon was over, she entered the quiet guest house, the shops had sent over her packages and she was halfway to drunk from all the liquor they’d imbibed at each boutique.
As Ash and Brandt were both gone, she stripped down, got in the large bath and soaked while she tried to figure out just what the hell Kira and Perry had to do with Giles Stander and what she could do to protect her men from whatever trouble might arise

Don’t Forget to Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!
Shelli Stevens
Lissa Matthews
Ashley Ladd
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Vivian Arend
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro
TJ Michaels

Each book has its own challenges, its own flavor and each character has his or her own journey. By this I mean, I do not write say, Triad, over and over. Not every book is kinky, not every book will make you cry, not every book has car chases or stalkers or what have you.

I do this on purpose for a whole host of reasons. First of all, it’d be boring if I didn’t switch it up. I mean, for me as the writer, if I just wrote menages all the time, or BDSM books all the time, or dirty talkers, etc, I’d get burned out. And for readers too. Who wants to read the same thing but with different names?

Laid Bare is an emotional book. It’s that way on purpose and as a mom, for me, the very worst thing I can imagine is to lose a child. So Erin’s journey as a character is very personal to me as I wrote her. It’s also a very physical book – Part of the way Erin and Todd communicate on a very deep level is via sex. A key to how Ben fits in is different. The door is open because of sex, but he settles in for emotional reasons. He’s connected to them and comes to them in a different way than Erin and Todd.

All this is a long, roundabout way of saying, if you’re looking for Laid Bare over and over, that’s not going to happen. Yes, I have written more than one menage book and yes, there are things I have done before (I love me some damaged heroines), but every Lauren Dane book is not going to be a menage with heavy kink. Because every person, every couple or group is different and every story is unique to that group of people.

I love to write kinky, if that’s what the story calls for. But not every story does. Not every book can start with hot sex on page three and not every book with sex on page three is actually erotic.

What I love so much about reviews is that I can take any book and see a totally honest “This book was not hot enough” on the same page with “This book was the hottest thing I’ve read all year” Readers are like books – there are as many views and perspectives as there are shelves and pages. This is awesome to me.

I started out with a small press. I’ve written erotic romance for many years now and I like to think I do it well. I think women shouldn’t be ashamed of their sexuality and I try to reflect that on the page. But each woman is going to be different, so every character and storyline is too. I think we’ve gone pretty far over the edge in erotics if a fully described sex scene, multiple sex scenes over a book isn’t considered “hot” enough or not “true” erotic romance. Because to me, erotic isn’t in how many toys in the scene or how many people, or if there’s kink, but the level of connection between the people involved. I think we miss the point if all we do as authors and all we expect as readers is lots of sex that may or may not be right for the story and the characters. Erotic is not a flogger, or rope, or against a wall – erotic is that moment when the people in the scene are stripped down with that other person (not physically, but emotionally).

Sort of babbling on a Friday – but I suppose all boiled down – though I write sexy books, they’re all sexy in different ways. Sometimes a couple is combustible, they have sex a lot and so the book will have more sex on the page. Other books, it’s about tension and slow heat. How erotic each is, which a person prefers is going to differ depending on the person reading and the story itself. Shrug.

I don’t have a muse and I don’t believe in magic beans. But I do believe each book is organic – it needs to take its own direction and I don’t have a checklist when I write. Writing sex is complicated enough (I know people don’t always believe this, but writing sex is difficult!) so I can’t imagine doing it with a list of necessaries – oral by chapter one, doggie style, two girl on top, etc. I just don’t do that.

Sometimes you’re going to get a book along the lines of Laid Bare or Undercover (two of what I tend to think are my most explicit books) and others you might get a book like Making Chase, which is less graphic on the page, but IMO, no less erotic or sexy. I totally expect people to have favorites and buttons so they might seek out one over the other – I do too!

I’m thrilled to announce I’ve sold to Berkley Sensation! A brand new paranormal romance series based on the world in Sensual Magic (novella in the Vegas After Dark antho)! The first book, Bound By Magic, will be out sometime around the end of next year.

More details as I get them

A new week begins and my kids are going back to school today (thank god). We had such great weather last week it wasn’t so bad to have them home because they weren’t stuck inside.

Finished INSIDE OUT and got working on REVELATION, the next book in the de La Vega Cats series and yes, all loose ends from TRINITY will be tied up. This one centers on Kendra (Renee’s sister) and Max (Galen’s brother) and it picks up just as Trinity ends.

Other than working on books and dealing with kiddos, it’s all about our upcoming move. Why on earth I thought it would be awesome to move in the middle of a school year while I had books due I don’t know. I must have hit my head when I was sleeping. On the plus side, I’ve culled a lot of stuff as I’ve been packing. Then again, crap, we have a lot of stuff.

Catching some of the Olympics, but I find the randomness of coverage annoying. I shouldn’t have to hunt around through tv and cable to find an hour here or there. Oy I could go on and on with the when I was a kid references, but hello, when I was a kid the Olympics were on all day long on the same channel. All this lock out this and blocked reception that – is friggin annoying.

Oh and I know some people don’t like Victoria Beckham, but I love her. I didn’t expect to, but every time I hear her talk or see her with her kids I realize she’s way less stick up her butt than she appears. I love how she is as a mom – I love it that her boys wear costumes out just because. She appears (appears because I don’t know her obvs) to be a funny person who doesn’t take herself too seriously. I dig that.

No love for you John Mayer. No. Love. Jeebus man, STFU about your ex girlfriends. Your nasty self serving comments about J. Simpson and J Aniston were without class or tact. Also, your entire interview in Playboy, including the comments you’ve apologized for, sort of, makes you look like a dong. Shhhh. *Puts finger over your lips* Stop overcompensating. Seriously. Just shut up about your penis and sing.

Ah well, now back to work for me!

Like many others, I find a great deal of inspiration from art of all kinds. I’ve always been a voracious reader and music is part of my daily life as well. When I write, I listen to music. Sometimes just my iTunes on shuffle, sometimes to a special tracklist I’ve created for a work in progress and sometimes I’ll just want to hear a certain artist (Today I listened to Sade’s new CD Soldier of Love several times. Her voice is so beautiful).

For me, Laid Bare is strongly rooted in my love of music. Like Erin, I find strength and inspiration through music and like Erin, I like to think music shapes my art. It’s my tip of the hat to all those musicians who’ve shaped me and my books, about the kind of woman Erin is – vibrant, strong, dark and imperfect.

I thought I’d choose a scene from the opening of the book when Erin and Todd first meet.

LAID BARE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2009, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group

Music, raw and hard like sex, pulsed through the speaker stack, caught the people in front of the stage as much as it had her in its grip.

The bass line throbbed through her like a second pulse as the scent of beer and sweat settled into her system. Sweat slicked her forehead and slid down the line of her spine. The muscles in her forearm corded as she played, her fingers finding their way as they had time and again. A secret smile marked her lips as her halflidded eyes focused on something not visible to anyone else.

Yes, it was a man’s world up there, but she’d kicked down the door with her Doc Martens and she wasn’t giving her spot to anyone else. She loved making music, and it fit her like a second skin.

It made her alive.

Her dreads swung forward, partially obscuring her face—adding, she knew, to the overall effect. Her belly, glistening with sweat, slid against the back of her bass where her shirt ended and her low-slung jeans began.

Up there, under the blue lights, she didn’t have to work at it.

She was. She was exactly where she wanted to be, a guitar strapped to her body, calluses on her fingers from playing. The muscles in her upper arms were well defined because she hauled equipment around for gigs. There wasn’t any doubt, any self-consciousness. She lived the life she wanted.

Erin Brown had stopped apologizing for wanting things. She grabbed experiences with both hands and gobbled them down.

Even if the band never made it beyond small, local rock clubs, she’d be happy to just keep playing. There wasn’t much more you could ask for in life, and Erin accepted her blessings quite happily and graciously.

Todd took a pull from his beer, one leg bent as he leaned against the windowsill, looking out toward the street. There she was, getting out of her beat-up van. He had no idea why the hell he did it, but since
he’d moved to the day shift he found himself at his window every night at six-fourteen to watch her make the walk from car to door.

She was so not the kind of woman who usually caught his eye.

Still, his fingers gripped the sill as he greedily took in the way she moved. Like she couldn’t care less if people watched. Or worse, got off on it.

Long and lean, her gait ate up the walk, her dreadlocks swinging to her ass. A fine ass it was in those faded jeans. If he looked close enough, he saw the threadbare spots just beneath the pockets.

Reflexively, he tightened his hands into fists as tension hummed through him. Anticipation and a sort of need filled his gut as he watched her.

He snorted at what an idiot he was being. Dreadlocks. What woman wore dreadlocks? Not his sort of woman, that was all there was to it.

Time stopped, along with his heart, when she turned at her door and met his gaze with a smile. A smile that told him she’d known he watched. Surprised but rooted to the spot, he raised a hand in greeting.

She paused a moment before tipping her chin at him.

Briefly he relaxed as she turned back to her door, but that slid away when she paused again, dropped her bag on the porch and turned back toward his place.

Shit.

Be Sure To Visit Today’s Other Snippeters!

Lissa Matthews
Ashley Ladd
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Vivian Arend
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro

I posted this one before, it’s older, but it still means the same to me – this is a business. Writing is not my hobby. It is my job and my career and over the years, I have come to believe very strongly that in order to truly succeed in the long run, it behooves an author to keep that in mind. What does this project do for me in two years? In five? What does this contract do for me? Am I being a professional? Am I meeting deadlines? Is this the best I can make this manuscript?

But that’s just part of it – what YOU do as an author totally counts – but what about what publishers do? I hear horror stories all the time from authors who sold to this or that publisher and they’re now totally screwed because they can’t get an email answered, or they can’t get paid, or they didn’t read the contract well enough and now they’re stuck with some horrible rights term and no way out but to just toss their hands up and walk away.

Some lessons suck to learn and even the savviest of people end up getting starry eyed and sign contracts they come to regret later on.

Part of being a smart businessperson is paying attention to as many variables as you can –

These are just a few things I’ve learned to ask about over the years and some of those items came from a hard won lesson (as in I didn’t keep my eye on all variables and got screwed)

Here’s the older part – and still something worth saying:

Angela James had a great entry up at Romancing the Blog about epublishing so you should check it out. As always, she’s got a lot of smart things to say. I thought in particular the last two paragraphs were the best.

But authors should also expect more from themselves. This may be an unpopular thing to say, but first realizing that maybe not every book is meant to be published. Some books are a learning experience and will eventually be shoved under the metaphorical bed. That’s okay. It means you keep working to learn your craft, write the next book, and keep submitting. Choose your publishers carefully, read your contracts even more carefully. Authors should also expect professional behavior of themselves—online, in public and with their publisher and editor, treating epublishing obligations exactly the same as they would obligations to a NY publisher. Representing themselves and the industry they’re helping grow in a way that shows pride in themselves, their work and their company.

Amen. Writing is a business. If you do it as a hobby that’s one thing but if you do it and intend it to be a career, you have to run it like that. Which means sometimes you have to rein in your excitement and say no when you get an offer. Because as I said a while back, not all publishers are equal. And not every author is the right fit with every publisher either. It’s about what you want and what they can provide and then you work your way toward each other.

In the end, what we have is our gut. (and not the muffin top type, LOL) But listening to our common sense and making it louder than the excitement we feel when we get an offer.

Okay here’s the deal, I signed up for today, which is Scary/Horror and I knew it was this theme and I’m not sure why I did because my stuff that’s scary isn’t finished so I can’t post it and the rest is thriller-ish or sort of horrifying, but not scary.

Anyhoodle, after like twenty minutes of cycling through my books I just said, “I should just admit I got nothing and put up something else.” So that’s what I’m doing. I figure since I didn’t follow the rules, I can give you an uber sneaky peek from INSIDE OUT.

This is rough, I’m revising now to turn in to my editor, but I hope you enjoy it. Oh and don’t forget to visit today’s other snippeters who probably signed up and had stuff on topic, LOL!

INSIDE OUT by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing November, 2010!

“My kid is smart. Everyone knows that.” Brody tried to sound tough, but Cope heard the pride and love in his voice. “She was pretty damned proud of herself. Elise and I told her if she kept it up, we’d go to Disneyland next summer.”

A burst of laughter and chattering rose and then faded again. Todd came in the front door with a few more of their friends. Cope half listened to them, taking the beer handed his way, nodding his head. But his attention was focused on that hallway.

The door opened and the sound level rose high enough that the men silenced, their attention snagged as they turned toward the noise.

Elise came first, her pale, elegant beauty highlighted by a deep red sweater and a black skirt that came to mid thigh. The woman had spectacular legs, no doubt. Brody’s mouth curved into a smile as he took her in. Envy crept into Cope’s heart, he wanted that. Wanted to look at a woman and know she was the one.

Erin looked pretty and damned pregnant in a high waisted dress with big red roses on it. Ben sighed happily. Cope would skip telling his brother about the conversation he’d had with their sister earlier that day. Despite Ben’s happiness and success, their father and sister had walled Ben out of their life. It galled Cope to no end. Ben had been the golden boy, the kid who rarely got in trouble in school, got great grades. He had been a good cop, a good friend and no doubt, he was a great brother. Their father’s reaction was stupid and it split their family in half.

When Erin went into his arms, Cope was happy Ben had that connection, thrilled for his brother that he’d built something unexpected and wondrous with not just one person, but two.

But he wasn’t looking for them. He turned his attention back to the hallway. Waiting. Anticipation and then a punch to the gut followed as Ella followed, her normally sleek, short red hair was tousled and curled. Her usually bare of makeup face bore just a bit, but enough to line those spectacular eyes. Her lips were stained dark, calling to his gaze, wondering for the millionth time what she’d taste like.

She wore pants, she usually did, he’d wager it had to do with the scarring on her legs. But she wore them well. Tight, with boots on her feet, showcasing legs that went on and on and on. Damn. The shirt, shit, if you could call it that, it was more of a corset with enough fabric to cover her areola. Her breasts, usually not on display though she couldn’t hide their size, even in a t-shirt, heaved up, mounds of creamy flesh, freckles sprinkled across the luscious curves.

Christ.

“Wow. You ladies look gorgeous.” Brody got up, moving to Elise and no one else existed for the two of them for long moments. Their connection was palpable and staggeringly intimate to see. Cope couldn’t tear his attention away.

In that connection to Elise, Brody had gained a whole new level to his identity, a new layer that Cope wanted for himself.

“You guys just going to hang out here all night?” Elise asked, blushing as she broke her gaze from Brody.

“Maybe.” Brody grinned and kissed his wife to be quickly before turning to his sister. He touched the belly and kissed the top of Erin’s head. “You better take care of yourself.”

“You can’t smoke indoors anymore so the air will be clean of that. I have no plans to drink and I have enough energy to sit at the table and watch everyone else dance while I eat a few of the red velvet cupcakes Ella brought.” Erin smiled sweetly at her brother. “Anyway, we all know you’ll show up in an hour or two, so I’m sure Ben and Todd will take care of me once that happens.”

“I like that color on you.” Cope moved nearer to Ella so he could speak just to her. “Sets off your skin and hair.” The shirt was deep blue with just enough purple to compliment her skin outrageously. The breasts helped, in the way breasts always did. But this was more and he let himself drift a little closer.

“Thanks. It was Erin’s idea. I don’t normally…” She waved around her breasts. “You know, show this much boob.”

He was sure his grin was wolfish because she was ringing his bell like it was dinner time. Christ what she did to him without even knowing it. “Ella, I must dissuade you from that policy. You have beautiful breasts. They’re a delightful addition to anything you wear. Trust me, please.”

Her laugh was sultry. On a lower register than her speaking voice. Which wasn’t that hard given her normal voice. And beyond sexy. He was sure that was her sexually interested laugh. She’d finally reacted to him as a woman did to a man she was truly flirting with. Victory flushed through him, and hope that things could move forward with her at long last.

“I’ll um, keep that in mind.” Her lips quirked up in one corner.

“You know, you’re like a cartoon character. Like a quirky superhero.” Holy shit, did he just say that out loud?

TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Jody Wallace
Eliza Gayle
Vivian Arend
Mari Carr
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro

When the clock radio went off before six am (poor dude had to get up extra early) it was the beginning of a radio lab story – a story about Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan and the day she fell in love with him. Naturally, we stayed beneath the blankets, snuggled against each other to listen because both of us share a deep love of Sagan.

When I was a kid, there was a show on television called Cosmos. Cosmos was created and hosted by Carl Sagan (and Ann Druyan along with Stephen Soter). Sagan was an astrophysicist and an author and it was a look into well, essentially everything – stars, planets, black holes, the earth – everything. And he presented this information, which until then had been heady and out of reach of most people, and made it not only understandable, but fascinating.

Anyway, before Cosmos, NASA asked him to work on a project to be included in two Voyager spacecraft that were set for deep space – essentially, these craft were going to be flung outward into the universe in hopes that sometime in the future, another race would find them and use the gold records Sagan had created to understand what humanity was.

Imagine that job! So Ann was part of the project with him as they pulled together the sounds of whale song, of music across cultures, of a mother’s first words to a child after birth, essentially everything they could think up that was in fact, sewn into our consciousness as humans.

Ann and Carl had been friends and co-workers until one phone call where Carl made a move, a silly, sweet offhand comment, and Ann caught it and ran. They married two days after the launch and were together until he died in 1997.

Hearing Ann tell the story of the project, of Carl’s love for it and of her love for him left me deeply moved. It’s a simple story at its heart (even with spacecraft) about two people finding each other after they were with each other all along. It’s why I write romance. It’s why I love my husband – and it was the best Valentine’s radio story I’ve ever heard

This is the link and I encourage you all to listen to her tell the story (though I encourage you to have tissues handy because by the end, I was fully crying)

I promised some snippets earlier this week – how about an excerpt from INSATIABLE?

PHANTOM CORPS: INSATIABLE by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2010, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing July 6

“Daniel.” She poked him. “Wake up.”

“Why?” he mumbled.

“Three hours are up.”

“No. I had another short dream. I had time left.” He rolled to sit up, and the cold air got under the blankets.

“I don’t think so. Maybe time moves differently in your ’Verse. But here we use chronos. Mine says our three hours have passed.”

He got out of bed, grabbing his pants and pulling them on.

“And even if you did have a short time left, you needn’t be so cross.”

“I have a very good internal chrono.” He went to wash his face and noted his skin had gone very pale and his hair very dark. After the pills kicked in, his eyes had gone from green to brown. He added a scar on his neck, leading up to his ear.

She barged around the corner to continue pestering him. “You’re a pain in the—” Her eyes widened. “You’re very good at this disguise part of the job. I should cut my hair, don’t you think?”

His gut cramped at the thought. “It’s very beautiful,” he said before he could say something sane and professional. “I mean, you’d still be beautiful with short hair and—”

She put two fingers over his lips and froze, before moving her hand away. Then she pressed her mouth to his. He hadn’t expected it, but he couldn’t step away either.

Her lips were sweet, sweet as the kiss was. A soft exploration of his mouth with hers. At first. It wasn’t so much innocent as it was unexpected. It snared him, much like her taste had. She was warm against him, relaxed, obviously trusting him more than any rational woman should have. His blood surged with need for her, with want, demand for more.

He fisted his hands to keep from hauling her against him, from stroking the elegant curve of her spine down to her ass. A groan bubbled from deep within his gut at the memory of the fantasy he’d had the day before. She sighed, taking it into herself.

It was when she stepped closer, her fingers digging into the front of his shirt, molding herself to his body and her tongue sliding into his mouth, that he finally found his sanity about a meter from where all the blood in his body had gathered.

“Seven hells,” he gusted as he set her back from him, holding her upper arms firmly. “That can’t happen again.” Her mouth called to him, those luscious lips just so slightly swollen.

“Why?” She licked her lips, and he groaned.

“Stop that. Carina, this is a bad idea.”

A smile played on her lips as she realized the extent of her power. Gods, he was in trouble now.

“Why? Really? You kissed me back. You’re attracted to me. I can see it. I can taste it.” She pressed fingers to her lips, and he struggled to breathe.

“You’re my cargo. You have something that could save the lives of millions. You’re . . . I bet you’re untouched, aren’t you?” He forged on without an answer. “I’m not. I’m not a nice man. I kill people. All the time. You need a nice man. A gentle man who can give you the life you were bred for.”

She waved a hand as she turned. He took advantage of her distraction and headed back out toward the main room.

“Where are you going? I need your help with my hair,” she called out.

“Tell me when to come back there.” He scrubbed his hands through his hair, standing it on end.

“Now. Gods, did your mother drop you on your head a lot as a child?”

“You’re pretty mouthy,” he mumbled as he headed around the corner and found her in little more than sheer underclothes. “Hey!” He turned his back. “You’re naked. I said when you were ready.”

“You’ll get hair in my clothes and it will itch. Cut it short.” She handed him shears as he turned back around and tried in vain not to look at the shadow of dark pink nipples against the pale material.

“Are you sure about this?” He sifted fingers through it, so long and soft. Beautiful and feminine. “If you braid it, you can tuck it into a watch cap, and no one will know the difference. Women of all ranks have long hair. You don’t have to cut it.”

She turned, so close she brushed against him. “Women of all classes have short hair, too. Do you like it?” Tossing her head, pale burnt-sugar hair tumbled around her shoulders.

The scent of her choked him in the best kind of way. This chemistry between them was so very delicious, even if he knew anything else between them was totally impossible.

“It’s lovely. It’s up to you.” He tried to step back, but he was boxed in, and she knew it.

“I am a virgin, you know. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have desires.” She leaned in, brushing her cheek against his chest. His cock ached, the pulse as he got harder and harder was an angry throb. “I do. Have desires, that is. I’ve never had the opportunity to express them and certainly not with anyone like you. There’s no one quite like you, Daniel.”

“You’d do well to remember that, Carina.” He pointed to the stuff he’d left on a ledge near the basin. “You’re my sister again. We’ll call you Carrie, and I am Neil. We’re itinerant workers, looking to get on with the grain shipments. Do you know anything about wheat? It’s a crop brought from Earth, and I know it’s grown out here. We’re from Suerte.”

He managed to step neatly away once she’d turned to look. “I always wanted blue eyes.” She began to plait her hair into two long braids as she spoke. “I’ll keep it long for now. And I’m very well aware that there’s no one like you. This isn’t over.”

She wanted to laugh when he scurried from the room. An altogether new sort of power surged through her veins. Her allure as a woman wasn’t new, not really. But this sort of romantic chase, the sensual dance they did as he pretended to resist her, was something she’d never imagined, and it was thrilling.

If she had to risk her life, leave her family behind and hare off into new territory with a man like him, she planned to enjoy every moment of it.