She nodded, but Xia knew Nikodemus had moved on from the genealogy thing to what mattered more—whether she was going to align herself with the warlord or not.
“You know your boy here is sworn to me.” She nodded again. Cautious still. “I could use you both.” He grinned. “I’m fine with witches swearing fealty, by the way.” His smile got bigger. “So far it’s worked out great for me. You want to fight the good fight with us?”
She reached over and grabbed Xia’s hand. He squeezed her fingers. “Yeah,” she said. “I do.”
“Let’s get to it.”
Xia stayed close during the blood exchange with Nikodemus, and he helped her with the words she needed to say. Nikodemus kept it short and sweet, and when it was over, Harsh was looking gray and Alexandrine was sagging against Xia, who was getting a hard-on. And she, the witch, got her hand between them.
“Get my newest wicked witch upstairs,” Nikodemus said. “She needs some rest, I’m guessing. Magic always knocked it out of Carson at first, too.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Xia brought her closer against him.
“I am not your wicked witch,” Alexandrine said.
“Beg to differ there,” Nikodemus said. “You sure as hell are.”
“I’m your sworn fiend,” she returned. Between Xia’s body and hers, she moved her hand over Xia’s crotch. “But I’m his wicked witch.”
“Fuck, yes,” Xia said.
THE DISH
Where authors give you the inside scoop!
From the desk of Jennifer Haymore
Dear Reader,
When Sophie, the heroine of A Hint of Wicked (on sale now), first came to me describing her problem—that she happened to be married to two men at once, both of whom she loved unconditionally—I rubbed my hands together in glee. What a juicy, wicked dilemma! Yes, of course, I told her, I would be thrilled beyond measure to pen this tale.
“But how on earth will you resolve my problem?” she asked me.
“Easy,” said I, proud of my fantabulous solution, and doubly proud of how quickly it had come to me. “You love them both, right?”
“Tremendously!” she declared, nodding vigorously.
“Then you’ll live happily ever after with both your husbands,” I decreed, leaning back in my chair and awaiting her exuberant and everlasting thanks.
Thus ensued a long, uncomfortable silence. Finally, Sophie looked up at me with somber, golden-brown eyes. “Forgive me, but that won’t work. Neither of my husbands will accept such a solution.”
“Huh. Are you saying they’re the possessive caveman type?”
“Exactly.” She leaned forward a bit and lowered her voice so that no one outside my office could hear her. “In fact, I’m certain if either one saw me so much as touch the other, murder might ensue. It’s already come close to that. Thank heavens nobody has been shot.” She gave me a significant look. “Yet.”
“Hmmm,” I said. “I could work on them…”
Sophie broke me off in mid-thought. “You could ‘work on them’ for eternity, but you see, there is another problem. One that might negate any possibility of future happiness for all three of us: I am a duchess. In England. In 1823.”
“Ah. I see,” I said. But alas, I didn’t, not really. I figured, okay, if Sophie doesn’t want both her husbands, I’ll pick one, and we’ll go with that. Cocky writer that I am, I thought maybe I could flip a coin. Ha!
Soon afterward, Sophie took me on her journey, and… oh my! It wasn’t easy. Given two powerful, honorable, drop-dead gorgeous men, Sophie had to choose the one she wanted to stand beside for the rest of her days. Moreover, in doing so, she had to break the heart of the other man—a man she also still loved.
And I won’t even begin to get into the quagmire of 1823 marriage laws! To work everything out without turning Sophie into a criminal, making her child illegitimate, or having her become a pariah or the laughingstock of society? Just about impossible!
Eventually, though, Sophie found her way. By the time I finished writing, I was so glad she let me be the one to share her tale with the world.
I truly hope you enjoy reading Sophie’s story. Please feel free to stop by my Web site, www.jennifer haymore.com, where you can share your thoughts about the book, learn some bizarre and fascinating historical facts, and read more about the person who has most recently barged into my office demanding I write his story…
Sincerely,
From the desk of Carolyn Jewel
Dear Reader,
People. Really. I tried to warn you with my first book, My Wicked Enemy, but I don’t think you were paying attention. I’ll try again with My Forbidden Desire, my second book (on sale now!). Will you all finally listen up? I certainly hope so. The world is a dangerous place, and not just in the obvious ways. True statement: Things around you aren’t always what they seem. Same for people, too. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. How obvious can you get, Carolyn? But really, take a long, hard look at your boss. Is she (or he) really human? How do you know for sure?
Our capacity to deceive others is far exceeded by our capacity to deceive ourselves. Keep that in mind (but not before bed, wouldn’t want to keep you up!).
Suppose, for the sake of argument, there really are monsters among us.
Not the human kind—I think, without further discussion, we can all agree they exist. I’m talking about something else. What if there really are creatures like demons or, oh, say, fiends? And “people” who can do magic. Why the quotes, you ask? Well, they wouldn’t be regular folks like you and me, now would they?
Who would they be? Mages and witches, of course. They rose to prominence in the Dark Ages when they were busy protecting us from demons and the like. Demons, including fiends, were looking for a bigger place in the world then. But thanks to the mages, that didn’t work so well. (Thank you, mages!) Over the years, though, some mages went from being the good guys to the not-so-good guys, and now the demons are fighting for their lives. They’re sick and tired of being murdered and enslaved.
That’s the backdrop of my books: an all-out war between demons and fiends and mages and witches. But what if we take that one step further? What if a demon or a fiend fell in love with a witch or a mage? And now we’ve got my latest book, My Forbidden Desire.
Xia is a fiend. Alexandrine Marit is a witch. He hates witches for some very, very good reasons. Alexandrine isn’t sure demons exist and, well, as witches go, she’s not much of one… until she gets her hands on a talisman. Now Xia has to protect her from some very nasty people. And Alexandrine’s view of the world pretty much explodes. What happens after that? You’ll have to read it to find out.
Enjoy!
From the desk of Robin Wells
Dear Reader,
Have you ever been in one of those slumps when everything in your life is going wrong? Well, the heroine of my latest romantic comedy, How to Score (on sale now), is in just such a situation, and she decides to hire a telephone life coach to help her straighten things out. Only problem is, the man Sammi is baring her soul to isn’t a life coach at all; he’s an FBI agent filling in for his brother—and the man Sammi is falling for.
The idea for this book came to me while writing Between the Sheets. The heroine of that story, Emma, needed to change her image after being involved in a terrible scandal, and I originally in-tended to have her hire a life coach to help her. Emma had other ideas, however, and the story went in another direction.
The concept of writing a book about a life coach continued to simmer in my subconscious. The topic intrigued me, probably because I’m a sucker for self-improvement plans. I devour magazine articles with titles such as “Organize Your House, Look like Angelina Jolie, Behave like Mother Theresa, Become the Perfect Parent, Stay Serene as a Monk, Clear Up Your Skin, and Scorch Your Sheets in Seven Easy Steps.” (The advice never works, but hope springs eternal.)
What kind of woman, I wondered, would go beyond self-help books and actually hire a life coach? Probabl
y a woman with problems on all fronts—problems with her job, problems with her living arrangements, problems with her family, and, most important, problems with her love life. Or lack thereof. The wheels started spinning in my mind. Maybe my heroine’s romantic problem could be of her own making. Maybe she had a painful secret that made her inadvertently drive away potential partners. The wheels started spinning faster. Yes! I was onto something!
I then turned my attention to the hero. What kind of man would make the most interesting life coach? Hmmm. He had to be tall, dark, and sexy as sin—that was a given. What if he wasn’t a life coach at all? What if he was a highly structured pragmatist who thought everything could and should be solved through logic, careful planning, hard work, and self-discipline—the kind of man who thinks he has all the answers, who believes that if people would just follow his advice, their problems would all be solved? (My husband wants me to point out here that I, personally, have never known, much less married, a man like that.)
What if the hero also had a painful past that made him crave order, organization, and control? (Anyone who has seen my husband’s sock drawer will know beyond a doubt that I really, truly did not base this hero on him.)
Once the characters came to life, the story took off. I set the book in Tulsa because I used to live in Oklahoma and know that the city is renowned for its art deco architecture. The museum, neighborhood, and restaurants in my book are fictional, but the issues facing “recent history” preservationists in Tulsa and other cities are all too real.
The secondary romance between the two older characters in the book came as a surprise to me; I originally planned for Sammi’s blue-haired artist sister, Chloe, to have a love interest. Instead, Sammi’s landlord and boss fell in love as they helped each other deal with past regrets, find self-forgiveness, and learn that it’s never too late for new beginnings.
I hope you enjoy reading How to Score as much as I enjoyed writing it. I invite you to drop by my Web site, www.robinwells.com, to share your thoughts, read an excerpt from my next novel, or just say hi!
All my best,
My Forbidden Desire Page 30