After a rocky November, December started out on a much more positive note. On the first day of the month, I got a wonderful little note in my in box announcing that Nature’s Pentacle is a finalist in the 2009 EPPIE Competition. I’m still doing a happy dance over that one!
Here’s the blurb for Nature’s Pentacle, my paranormal witch ménage, available now from Loose Id :
After someone exposes their role in a forbidden, sexual rite to heal the parched earth, Matt and Lena are forced to flee vigilantes and a rogue witch. Drawn to each other despite Matt's ties to Kenji, the man who rescued him from a troubled past, they're swept into a ménage, and the three witches exchange magical traits in an explosion of power and passion.
As Matt and Lena face another pentacle rite, a violent kidnapping, and a magical duel, their attachment deepens--and so does Kenji's resentment at losing Matt. The addition of another witch to the group eases Kenji's jealousy, and sparks fly when the foursome mingles sex and magic on the kitchen floor, carrying them finally, to the love they never imagined they'd find.
And here’s a PG-13 rated excerpt to introduce you to Lena, Matt, and Kenji and give you a little taste of the story:
Perhaps sensing her distress, Matt crossed the room and touched her shoulder. “Not your fault, little witch.” Returning to the table, he scooped his violet glow from the bowl of oil and gestured for her to retrieve hers.
“Why?”
“I’m going to show you what you’re feeling isn’t anything you can control. I feel like I’m caught in the sun’s gravitational field, and I couldn’t break free of you if my life depended on it.”
Curious, she reached out and called her light globe to her hand, cupping her palm to receive the slight weight. “I don’t see what you--”
“Something happened during the rite--a connection between us. I think our magic got scrambled, tied together, and I want to test my theory.” The streak of mud across Matt’s shoulder and his tangled curls didn’t do anything to diminish his beauty. When he smiled at her, his amber brown eyes glowed with warmth.
“Okay, I’ll play. What next?”
“Toss your glow sphere in the air. If I’m wrong, it’ll just float back to your palm.”
Realizing he had no more idea what would happen than she did, she bit back a cheeky, “And if you’re right?” Instead, she tossed her blue orb at the same time he launched his. When the spheres spun toward each other she let out a surprised yelp. The lights crashed together, setting loose waves of force, sound, and shimmering color.
“Get down!”
At his warning, she plastered herself flat on the rough wooden floorboards. But rather than harming her, whatever magic they’d set loose caressed her body like a warm stream. Sheets of emerald, sapphire, ruby, and turquoise arched over them like the aurora borealis.
Helpless in the wake of the unexpected discharge of power, she tensed as the door opened a crack. She staggered to her feet, attempting to gather a protective shield. “Matt?”
“‘S okay. No one can cross the wards but me and Kenji. This is his place, and the magic guarding it is unbreakable.”
As if on cue, Kenji--looking no less intimidating than when he anchored the rite last night--stepped into the room and gaped at the light show. “Every witch in the country is in danger, and the two of you decide to play bedroom games with your power?”
Ignoring the continuing display, he clicked the door shut, strode across the room to the table, and set down two grocery bags and his cell phone. Lena’s first impulse was to grab the phone and call Serena, but she had to get something straight first.
“What do you mean, no one can get past the wards?” Bedraggled and exhausted, she drew herself up to her full five feet five inches and cloaked herself in a curtain of power. “Given the time and inclination, I could smash those wards.” She fixed Kenji with a brittle stare. “And what you walked in on was an exercise to test our combined magic--not some kinky game.”
“My apologies.” Six feet of wiry grace wrapped in a package of soft leather shoes, tan chinos, and a plum-colored shirt, Kenji bowed. The formality that would have seemed ludicrous coming from Matt seemed natural, if slightly mocking, coming from Kenji.
Suddenly, the fact that this was one of the three witches who’d drawn molten power through her last night, bleeding her dry as she trembled and wept, hit her with the force of a blow. Kenji couldn’t be much older than she was, and yet he’d earned a spot as one of the three anchors--alongside Sorren, the most powerful witch in North America.
Sweet Brighid, what had she gotten herself into? Taking a step back, she studied the lines and angles of Kenji’s face. The cinnamon mocha warmth of his skin softened his sculpted features, and thick lashes shaded his deep brown eyes. Black curls fell to his shoulders, covered with a sprinkling of rain. But for all his heart-stopping beauty, every movement, every mannerism, reeked of power.
When outmatched, bluff. “I need to borrow your phone.” Feigning confidence, she crossed the room to the table.
Matt, not Kenji, intervened. “You can’t. It’s not safe.” Closing the distance between them, he covered her hand with his own as she grasped the phone. “Your sister needs to be able to say she hasn’t heard from you--with 100 percent honesty. That’s the only thing that will guarantee her safety--and your mother’s.”
Now, if you fail to answer the math problems correctly in the given time frame of 60 seconds or so, a phrase like "Water and bed for you" or "Try again" will pop up. I assume the idea being that you'll get bored, fed up or pass out before you can figure out the problems. Knowing me and math, the second the screen popped up, I'd groan, draft the e-mail and go to bed.
May is going to be a spectacular month for me. Yesterday Impulsive Pleasures released from Ellora's Cave. This story was originally with another publisher. So when Ellora's Cave picked up my naughty little Cougar, I was beyond thrilled.
In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
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Henry:
