The Priestess by R.G. Alexander My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Now THIS was an awesome way to wrap up a series.

This is a classy novella. Yes, it’s hot as hell, but the love scenes are done in such a manner that the book doesn’t feel bawdy, sex-for-sex-sake or raunchy. It’s absolutely beautiful. You get into the emotional and psychological ‘bits’ of the main characters without any unnecessary dialog or ‘dry’ parts. The world building is nicely done without being overdone. I do, however, think it’s best read after reading at least one or two of the others.There were a couple of spots where I would have said, “Huh?” if I hadn’t already been at least a little familiar with the world.

I would have liked to have learned more about Siraj. He felt asif his story is deep and should have been told in greater detail, perhaps in a separate book or something. But I still loved the character. Given his position in the story (literally and figuratively) he didn’t feel like a third wheel, just hanging on to our main couple. The author did an awesome job of integrating a man into the relationship who shouldn’t have fit yet in the end, he felt like he was supposed to be there.

In addition, this book told us how the world and its customs/beliefs came into being. And it was quite a surprise. All of the characters mentioned in the previous three books were brought around (not physically, but a mention was all it took to explain where they fit into our characters’ lives). At the end of the book there were no loose ends, everything was tidy and very nicely wrapped up.



View all my reviews

Hi all! I love Snippet Saturdays, a time where fabulous authors share snippets from their books. Unfortunately my computer, you know the one with all my books on it, took a coffee bath last weekend so I can’t post anything.

But enjoy the rest of the awesome authors’ snippets and I’ll be back next week!

TJ

Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon
Jody Wallace
Lacey Savage

So here’s the blurby bit for this new sci-fi romance coming on September 24th from Ellora’s Cave. I am so thrilled about this Hunters for Hire book!

Death—so skilled, grown men cry at her approach. Roses—so sweet she enchants your senses. Scharsi—for one man, an unbelievably sexy combination of the two.

The Amalgamation is the definition of evil in her world. Scharsi has spent years hiding from them. Now she must hunt the agent who killed the only man who ever loved her. No one will stop her.

Tanil, an Amalgamation officer left for dead by his own crew, must avoid capture. On the run, wounded and weak, he comes upon the one woman in the ‘Verse he should be running from. But Scharsi isn’t what the government claims she is–a born and bred killer. Deadly? Absolutely…but addictive, hot. She makes his skin sizzle and sends his blood racing with a look. Her touch? Devastating. He wants her, needs her.

Scharsi doesn’t have time for distractions while on a hunt, but Tanil won’t hesitate to prove that a bit of delicious distraction is exactly what she needs.

Enjoy our culinary genius as she prepares some sweet dishes for her beau, a kick-butt gorgeous (pronounced ‘go-jus’) Seeker for the Vampire Council of Ethics…only she doesn’t know he’s a vampire. Not yet…

Purchase the V.C.O.E. series in print or e-book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Samhain Publishing and all other fine bookstores.

“Fill me in on the rogue who threatened you the other day. I received your message but you and I obviously haven’t had a chance to talk until now. Very smart of you to leave the guy’s description. I called it in to V.C.O.E. headquarters. We should have something by the time we get there.”

“Look, Kenoe, before we get to that, I need to talk to you about what happened in London. I don’t have an excuse, but I am sorry. I was so caught up in the excitement of running with vampires, living my ultimate fantasy, I didn’t consider anything past that. Not to mention I didn’t expect to ever see you again in my life.”

“Your point?” Kenoe grumbled around a mouthful of some swanky hors d’oeuvres that tasted like smoked salmon and some kind of spicy peppers. Mmm, good.

“No point. I’m sorry is all. And…” She hesitated. “I’m concerned about my cousin. I don’t want her hurt. Not by you or the asshole who was bold enough to step right into her backyard and threaten me.”

Unable to keep his brows from knitting together, Kenoe scowled across the table. “I would never hurt Shinju. She’s my mate.”

“Mate? As in mate-for-life kinda mate?”

“More than that. She’s my bondmate too.”

“Bond…?! Hooo!”

“Keep it down, woman.”

“Are you telling me she doesn’t know she’s the one? Doesn’t know about your so-called family or the Council? Or those badassed vamps that took me out of Lowan’s place? Wait a minute!” Her voice cracked as it rose. “She doesn’t know anything? Not even that you’re a vam—?”

“No, damn it, so keep your voice down. But I have to tell her before we get off this plane.”

Kimora burst out laughing like Kenoe had just been caught telling the funniest, raunchiest joke ever. “Well, good luck with that, my man. I think I’ll eat in my room.”

With that, she unfolded her muscular frame out of her chair and snickered all the way out of the dining room and down the hall. What the hell was that about? But Kimora’s parting shot reminded Kenoe of the last time Shinju had been pissed off at him. His balls tingled, bringing to mind a way uncomfortable moment after the woman had been less than kind to them. In fact, the little firecracker had sent him and Sasuke to their knees. Perhaps he should have followed Kimora out of the room rather than tell Shinju he was a vampire who happened to be investigating her brother.

“Where’s Kimora?”

Kenoe’s neck snapped a hard right as he turned to watch Shinju enter the room unbuttoning a double-breasted white chef’s coat. It had a myriad of stains down the front and looked a size too big.

“She said she wants to eat in her room.”

“Huh. Okay, I’ll ask the chef to take a tray. You ready to eat?”

Boy was he ever, but his stomach and his heart didn’t agree on what that meal should be. In truth Kenoe didn’t give a damn about food right now. Shinju looked utterly adorable with a smudge of flour across her cheek, and a few loose curls stuck to the side of her face. The smudges on her borrowed clothes told part of the story of what she’d been up to.

Obviously catching wind of his curiosity, she motioned toward the sumptuous spread on the table and said, “Well, you said your boss sent this jet for you and we’re the first to travel on it, right? So I thought we could christen it, so to speak.”

The image of her spread-eagle on top of the large and thankfully bolted-down table flashed into his head. Dragging his mind out of the gutter kicking and screaming, he forced himself to sit still while Shinju directed the wait staff to clear the hors d’oeuvres and bring out the main course. Shinju took a plate up to Randall in the cockpit while Kenoe sat and watched in awe as two impeccably dressed chefs brought the main course.

Even over the wonderful smells of the various dishes, he still scented Shinju before she reentered the room. Rising, he pulled out a chair and dropped a kiss on the top of her head as she settled into it.

“Go ahead. Taste it,” she urged with a big, proud smile on her face.

The woman was a wonder. The first meal she’d ever prepared for him in her neat little kitchen had made his stomach sing. This meal might just make his whole body break into a chorus of “One Singular Sensation”. And hallelujah, none of it was Japanese food!

Instead his plate was piled with seafood lasagna with a sauce so savory and light, the scent alone made his mouth water. The pasta was accompanied by a simple green salad garnished with fresh green peppers and tomatoes tossed in a sweet ginger vinaigrette. The spices were unique, far from the typical basil and parsley in Italian-style cuisine. No, this was a culinary orgasm going off in his mouth. Simply delicious.

They chatted amicably but Kenoe didn’t miss the occasional frown whenever he let his guard down long enough for his anxiety, though slight, to creep down the bond. Bottom line—he had no desire to see the you’re-crazy-as-a-loon skepticism in her eyes when he told her what he was. God knew she wouldn’t believe him.

And he was less than enthusiastic about her reaction to the fact that he, Mr. Law Enforcement, as she called him, was investigating her closest relative for something that had nothing to do with honest vamps, and everything to do with Dr. Jekyll humans.

Not to mention the possibility of her flat-out rejecting him.

Ruthlessly squashing down all concern, he filled his mind with lighter thoughts. Actually just thinking on what a fabulous dinner she’d prepared for him, what a kind and considerate woman she was, a woman so sweet yet with an edge sharp enough to cut himself on. The perfect alpha. His perfect alpha.

And she’d prepared a dessert of strawberries covered with brown sugar syrup, laced with lemon zest. Oh yeah, she was a keeper. He only hoped she would feel the same when he told her…

When had she moved from her chair?

Shinju grinned and pushed his empty dishes off to the side. She held her hand out to him.

“What?”

“Up, handsome.”

Wondering what she was on about, he didn’t move but cocked his head to the side and waited instead.

Enjoy all of our Snippet Saturday authors!
Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon
Jody Wallace

I was sitting in my room bugging the hell out of my daughter to help me come up with a blog subject. And guess what? Neither of us could come up with a single thing to talk about. So my next natural train of thought was, ‘what new book do I have coming out’ in hopes of coming up with a loosely related subject to blog about. No luck…sort of.

Death and Roses is releasing next month from Ellora’s Cave as part of the Hunters for Hire Sci-Fi continuity series. Death and Roses is an erotic romance about a female Super Soldier who meets up with the soldier she believes killed the only man who’s ever loved her. There’s more to every author than just writing, writing, writing, right? *say that 10 times really fast* And since I really don’t like talking about my books all the time, I wanted to think of something ‘not’ bookish. My upcoming sci-fi led me to another thought: FUTURISTIC MOVIES!

I am absolutely thrilled that Resident Evil 4: Afterlife is coming out on September 10^th in 3D and Imax 3D! *tj dancing around doing a very high pitched squeeee!* I’m totally excited because I like series. Love them, in fact. It doesn’t matter whether the series is done in film or book form, I totally heart them. To be honest, my wallet takes a bit of a beating because when I buy a book in a series, or watch a movie in a series and I love it…I gotta have the whole darn thing!

If you’re not familiar with the Resident Evil franchise, it started with the first movie where Alice (Milla Jovovich - remember her in Fifth Element? No? <---Here’s a picture of her in that movie from 1997) is an amnesiac who doesn’t remember that she works as an operative for a nasty bio-agent manufacturer called the Umbrella Corporation. Then she gets her memory back. That’s real bad news for the bad guys considering her character kicks major ass. I think that’s why I love Alice – any book I write has to have a heroine that can hold her own, which Alice does in spades.

Each Resident Evil movie carries along that same story line of ‘get the bad guys’, but if that’s true, what makes me anticipate this new one? Well, the last movie not only killed off the gorgeous Oded Fehr (gorgeous guy to the right—>), but pretty much made it look as if no one exists on Earth but poor Alice. Her last line in movie number three to the bad guys who’d gone underground to hide was, “Hello boys. I’m coming for you. And I’m bringing a few of my friends.” A few of her friends turns out to be a room several stories high full of clones…of herself.

Hell, one Alice is hard enough to deal with. I’m wondering what they’re going to do with hundreds of her…or will they do anything at all?

Now, I don’t know if Blogger will let me do this, so if it doesn’t work, hop over to my personal blog to take a look at the trailer at TJ Michaels dot com.

See you at the movies!

TJ is an award winning multi-published author of contemporary, paranormal and multicultural romance who’s even managed a couple of CAPA nominations from The Romance Studio!

Visit her on Twitter, Facebook and of course her own site.
Visit her publishers at Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Pocket Books

Books 1 through 4 in the series are:
Memory’s Eye by Ciana Stone
Book 1 in the Hearts of Fire series

My name’s Memory and I have a slight problem. I walked out on a business I poured my heart and soul into and took off across country to “find myself”. No luck on finding me yet, but I found something I wasn’t expecting. Marco Redwing. Sexy? Hell, that doesn’t even come close. Oh, the things I long to do to him. The kicker? He has a crystal pendant that’s an exact match to the one I’ve worn since I was eighteen.

It’s almost too good to be true. Problem is, every time I’m around the man my crystal pendant goes crazy. Damn thing sends off energy spikes I’m afraid are going to electrocute me.

Could I really find the man of my dreams in this charming southern city? And that’s the real problem. The crystal is supposed to lead me to the man I’m destined to mate with. Which sounds damn fine to me. But it also lets me know there’s something not so good getting closer.

And that’s the rub. There’s a demon after me.

Shards of Ecstasy by TJ Michaels
Book 2 in the Hearts of Fire series

De’alla Isaacs is a typical executive business woman in Seattle, but away from the day job this sexy elemental has serious work to do—carry and protect a precious jewel. Each Piece of Eight is part of a key, the only thing standing between this world and complete demonic devastation.

Just when Dee has finally come to grips with her task, the one person in the whole wide world she never expected or wanted to meet walks into her life, into her office actually. Faison Dow. Celebrity. Playboy. All-out dog. Yet her stone calls to him. Why? Because he carries the other half.

Seeking Charlotte by NJ Walters
Book 3 in the Hearts of Fire Series

Creed Lawson knows Charlotte Jones is trouble from the moment she presses her lithe body to his and kisses him. But that doesn’t stop him from taking what she’s offering-a night of hot, uninhibited sex. But Creed hasn’t bargained for the feelings she stirs in him, nor the talk of crystals, demons and destiny.

Charlotte is an empath. The ability to feel peoples’ emotions has made it difficult for her to lead a normal life. At eighteen, she received one of the eight pieces of the Heart of Fire, a crystal that contains untold power. She was told there was a male who held the other half of her stone as well as a demon that coveted all the pieces of the crystal.

The demon has finally found her. But she’s knows that Creed is the special man she’s been waiting for. Charlotte is facing the fight of her life. Will Creed will fight beside her or walk away?

Kenna’s Cowboy by Nicole Austin
Book 4 in the Hearts of Fire series

Cursed with unusual abilities, orphan McKenna Fulton has always been different-an outcast. But she’s been Chosen. More accurately, she is one of the Chosen. Eight individuals-four women and four men-selected at birth to guard slices of crystal. The Heart of Fire.

The whole thing is more than a little farfetched. Kenna can handle the part of getting down and dirty with the bad dude. She’s even okay with guarding a crystal. But losing her free will and being stuck with some guy, her destined mate, uh-uh. Not happening.

Local mechanic Ryker Thomas is more than he appears and has his own set of abilities. Kenna wants nothing to do with the southern charmer. So what if he has a matching crystal and the damn thing hums and vibrates whenever they’re close together. That doesn’t mean she’ll toe the line.

He can’t be the one she’s supposed to be with. Fate wouldn’t be so cruel as to send her a cowboy when what she wants is a bad boy.

I added a few short reviews to Goodreads and thought I’d post ‘em here for you. Enjoy!

REVELATION (de La Vega Cats, #2) by Lauren Dane

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Let me start by saying that I hardly EVER give 5 stars to a book. It’s got to be up there with epics and classics, etc. to get that kind of rating. If I give a book a 4, it means I’ll more than likely reread that book at some point because it’s a darned good book. A 5 means the books is freaking spectacular and so good that I could possibly dream about it! And yep, this book is definitely a five in my little world.

Now, if you enjoy multicultural stuff in your books like I do, then you’ll be glad to know that this book is done very very well. Race is not continually an issue (which drives me absolutely nuts in multi-culti books) and the differences between the hero and heroine are celebrated, not harped on or brought up all the damn time.

I’ll Be Slaying You by Cynthia Eden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good lord, this book has some of everything! Definitely had some twists and turns I didn’t expect, and yes, I stayed glued to my Nook until I was finished with it! As awesome as the first book in this series (Eternal Hunter).

Insatiable by Lauren Dane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the third book in the Federation Chronicles series (Undercover, bk 1, Relentless, bk 2) I’ve read by Lauren. It did not disappoint. At the beginning I thought it was a bit slow as the author set the stage (which is necessary), then it picked up quickly and never let up for a second until the end. The world building is awesome and makes it so you can read this book as a standalone even though it’s part of a series. Can’t wait to read Andreas’ book coming up next!

Some people may wonder, what the heck is a black moment. Well, it sounds ominous and couldn’t possibly be good, right? Right!

A boring, somewhat clinical definition is: At a certain plot point, the hero/heroine appears beaten or lost but something happens to turn the situation around. Right before the unexpected story turn, the hero reaches the Black Moment—the point at which all is lost and the goal looks out of reach.

My definition is, when all hell breaks loose and it looks like the hero and heroine are doomed! Doomed, I say!

Enjoy this snippet from Spirit of the Pryde when our hero is about to literally get his head taken off. If you have trouble viewing the widget use full-screen view. If you can’t see the widget at all (for example, sometimes Amazon’s blog doesn’t display properly), please visit me here at www.tjmichaels.com .

Happy Saturday!

TJ

Enjoy all of our snippet authors today!
Lauren Dane
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Shelley Munro
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon

I’ll post more info here as I get it. In the meantime, enjoy this first peek at Death and Roses…
Unedited Excerpt from
Death and Roses
by TJ Michaels, Copyright 2010
Published by Ellora’s Cave

The woman wished she could move her head, wished she could move anything. Eyes closed against the blinding light overhead, she tried to concentrate on the sounds around her. It all seemed so muted. Fighting against the numbing effects of the narcotic floating in her system, the woman gathered the last of her remaining strength and pulled against the restraints. Nothing. Not a single muscle moved more than a millimeter. Great. Semi-paralyzed and muzzy brained. What a fabulous combination.

She knew full well where she was, also knew there was a horde of white-coated doctors and scientists in the observatory above. They always stayed out of arms reach when a Hunter was being worked on in what they lovingly called the “Black Carpet Room”.

Funny. There wasn’t a single thing black in here. She’d know, having been a guest within these sterile circular walls often enough.

”Soldier.” A single bland, emotionless voice, louder than the others, floated into the space around her. Immediately the din of conversation bombarding her through the speakers quieted. “State your rank and serial number.”

Immediately, she responded with a clear voice. “Senior Commander, SH-58R39C.”

Well, at least her mouth still worked, so she could tell them to kiss her perfect, genetically modified ass.

“State your current assignment and generation, Commander,” the scientist said, sounding beyond bored. Perhaps he was. After all, she had a feeling she was here for a reason that was all too common these days among her fellow Gen8s.

“I repeat, state your current assignment and generation.”

“IMF Special Weapons and Tactics. Generation eight Super Soldier.” Gods, she hated saying that.

For what seemed like the twentieth time, he asked, “Do you understand why you are here in the labs today, Commander?”

Well, she had a good idea, but since she wasn’t completely sure, she said, “No, sir.”

“You are here because your generation of Super Soldiers, you in particular, have not responded adequately to the additional neuro education that is required to…”

At that point, she simply engaged her auditory implant and turned the filter on and up as high as her brain could push it. The scientist’s voice faded to a muted, barely audible, “Blah, blah, blah.” She’d heard enough. If they were going to kill her, just fucking get it over with. Knowing why they were going to terminate her wouldn’t change a damn thing.

Eyes closed, with a calm perfected by several journeys through combat hell, she relaxed her breathing and noticed the veins in her eyelids ran mostly east and west. The she heard a schnick. In the next instant, the red of the inside of her eyelids that indicated the lights were turned all the way up suddenly hit the extreme opposite of the spectrum.

She snapped her eyes open. The whole damn room was pitch black. Even her enhanced vision had trouble making out what was going on around her. The humming of the machines that kept the dose of the narcotics pumping into her body at the perfect incapacitating level all went dead at once. A blur of white coats milled around upstairs. The scientists in the observatory, trained to do everything in silence, seemed out of sorts. Was that screaming?

Disengaging the auditory filter, her ears filled with the sounds of chaos. What the hell was going on?

She was strapped to a sterile operating table. The leather bands over her chest and legs were secured with reinforced synth-steel couplings that required a key. That key, a digital chip coded to the locks on the straps, was probably around the neck of the half-zombie sounding creep that had spoken to her over the sound system before all the lights went out.

Which meant she was screwed. All hell was breaking loose and she was stuck on her back, strapped to a table with her ass paralyzed.

“Whatever you do, Scharsi, don’t move just now.”

Who the hell? Wait, that voice was familiar, pleasant. Not dead and careless like the other scientists. And there was only one human in the whole facility who called her Scharsi. But it couldn’t be. He wouldn’t dare, would he?

She started to turn her head to look at the origin of the voice when the straps were literally blown away from her body. It didn’t do a damned thing for her non-working limbs and parts as she tried to heft herself off the table.

“I said, don’t move.”

“What’s going on?” she asked with a croak. Immediately a tube was inserted in her mouth. Water, thank gods. “How long have they kept me in here?”

“You’ve been under sedation for four hours. They just brought you out long enough to question you quickly. Rebels have attacked the facility. And…”

“And what?” she demanded.

“And you’re scheduled for life termination.”

“Life termination? When?”

The figure she couldn’t quite make out leaned in close. Facial features were coming into focus now. And his scent, she’d know it anywhere. His warm breath tickled her ear as he said, “Right now.”

Tubes slipped from her body. A familiar, but hated, series of needles were removed from her temple, the side of her neck, her chest and the inside of her biceps. Damn that hurt.

The doors to the room slid open, but instead of the typical light from the hallways, it just seemed to get darker. But the feet she heard entering the room was a sound she would never forget. She couldn’t move a muscle. Couldn’t fight. Couldn’t run. All she could do was accept her fate. And she couldn’t blame the doctor near her side who had always been so nice to her. After all, he was only doing his job. Bastard.

This was it. This was the end. The crackle of a body bag, something she was unfortunately familiar with, rustled around her feet, and then encased her totally. The sound of the zipper sent a cold streak of fear snaking its way through the little holes in each bone of her spine.

“Good night, Scharsi,” was said with such affection, followed by a prick in her neck just before the last few inches of the bag closed out the world.

Good night? Hmm, that was an interesting way to refer to death.

This week’s Snippet is Vacations or Exotic Locations. I love this excerpt from Egyptian Voyage. The story is exotic and takes our hero and heroine, and their resident bad guy, on a trip through the Mediterranean to Egypt. Enjoy! And don’t forget to visit all of our fabulous Snippet authors via the links at the end of this excerpt.

“Mah, come to me,” he whispered around his toothbrush. At least his eyes were open and he was beginning to recall how to focus. Damn, he was tired. Mahpiya eased to the forefront of his mind, the slabs of dense muscle under her tawny coat flexing as she moved. He closed his eyes a second and grinned when the great cat flopped down on her stomach, raised her amber eyes and waited for him to speak.

Glad no one was around, so that he could speak out loud, Rahn jumped right in and said, “I wonder what the hell happened to Chrysalyn, Mah. I mean, the last time I saw her, she was engaged to that asshole, Kevin or Calvin or something like that. What the bloody hell went down? It’s times like this I wish you could pop over to wherever she is and read her mind.”

Shaking his head in wonder, he was still unable to believe the one woman he knew he couldn’t live without was somewhere around this sprawling apartment. And she was available. Heading for the shower, he stopped short at Mahpiya’s next words.

*There is no need for mind reading. Chrysalyn Geyer is your mate.*

Whoa! Back up. Rahn spun around so fast the clear glass door to the huge stall he’d just opened smacked him soundly on the knuckles. Rubbing the now-tender skin, he reached into his mind, demanding an explanation.

“Mah, how the hell can you know that?” When she didn’t immediately reply, he summoned the feline onto this plane so he could look her in the eyes. “Mahpiya, come to me. Right now.”

The sleek African lioness disappeared from behind his eyes and shimmered into her corporeal form right in front of him. Damn, she was huge—four feet tall and almost four-hundred-eighty pounds of raw power. At the top of the food chain, her earthly cousins were the perfect hunters. And Mahpiya was no less formidable. With the ability to speak mind-to-mind with those in her care, Rahn tended to forget how majestically imposing Mahpiya was. He immediately lowered his head and asked her forgiveness for his impertinence. After all, she served him at her pleasure. He was blessed to have such a wise companion.

Stepping into the shower, he dunked his head under the lukewarm flow and exhaled sharply. The scent of his favorite sandalwood soap filled the oversized stall.

“Okay, Mah, what do you mean, Chrysalyn is my mate?” Could it be? Chrysalyn, the woman perfect for him? He should have been shocked, so why wasn’t he? Because Chrysalyn had been everything he’d ever dreamed of in a woman, a real class act. All he’d had to do was pursue her. But noooo, he’d been an idiot and allowed himself to be, uh, distracted by woman who’d chased after him instead. He’d learned later that same woman not only pursued him, but any other cock she could get her hands on. Hell, she had even slept with his best friend. Claimed it was all part of the job as an undercover. Yeah, right.

Obviously, their relationship hadn’t lasted, but by the time he’d pulled his head out of his ass, Chrysalyn had moved on to someone who treated her like she deserved. The two had been engaged to be married and the woman seemed happy enough. So what happened?

He was snapped out of his musings by Mahpiya’s sharp words and sultry voice.

*Get dressed, hoksila. You must be about your business. Your mate awaits you.*

With that, Mahpiya herded him out of the shower and back into his room with an urgency that had him moving double time. Was something wrong? Was Chrysalyn in danger? And where the hell was the woman, anyway? And hadn’t Mah mentioned a spirit guide before?

*If you stop thinking, you can move faster,* Mahpiya growled before swatting him across the backside with a large paw.

“Ouch! Damn it, that hurt,” Rahn yelped, hoping the impending welts didn’t cause him too much discomfort later. A faint sound caught his attention as he fished around for underwear and a pair of sport socks in his dresser drawer. Lifting his eyes toward the quiet splash, Rahn spied an unlikely vision through the glass doors leading out to the deck.

Holy shit! Chrysalyn basked under the early morning sunshine, her body partially hidden by the swirling rush of hot water in the oversized hot tub. Arms spread out to her sides, the swell of her breasts was just visible above the waterline. Her delicious, cinnamon skin gleamed enticingly, wet from the steam and droplets peppering her beautiful body. The leopard-print swimsuit plastered to her curves sent a rush of heat straight to his cock. Her hair was loose and little curls framed her
strong jawline as she laid her head back, eyes closed and…puffed? On a cigar?

His cock screamed as he stood there, mute and unable to get a single muscle in his body to move. She was so damned sexy. And here he stood with another chance to have her and he couldn’t draw his eyes away from the window.

Another swat across his buttocks took care of that.

“Okay, already! I’m going, Mah.”

*Excellent,* she purred as her corporeal form shimmered away.