The Matchmakers

by Jennifer Colgan

  It also melts steel walls. Martina risks everything to free Chase before he becomes the next casualty of unauthorized scientific testing. Together they flee to safety, but safe becomes a relative term when their growing passion finally ignites« Enjoy the following excerpt from Strange New World: `Oh, my«´ Martina lifted her finger to trace the perfect indentations of Chase’s hands. Ripples buckled the steel between the two impressions as if they’d been cast in wet resin rather than cold metal. The ridges between the fingers radiated heat. `I didn’t ´ He stared at his unblemished hands. `You melted the wall.´ `Yeah«uh. Put it on my bill?´ That familiar smirk tilted the corner of his mouth again. Martina’s heart lurched. `You think this is funny?´ He shrugged and held up his hands. `Hey, I know the government cuts corners. I didn’t think they made holding cells out of Silly Putty.´ `That’s six-inch thick steel.Śhe rapped on the wall, producing a dull, metallic thud. There was no way to hide the impressions. If someone else saw them« `We have to get you out of here.´ `I agree, but how?´ `I’ll think of something.Śhe paced the floor, and Calder backed out of her way. `Can you fix them? Smooth them out?´ ` Fix them? I don’t even know how I made them.´ `Just try.Śhe put her hands on his back and pushed him toward the wall. `Put your hands up there.´ He obeyed, but cast a curious glance over his shoulder at her. `Now what?´ `Now think about whatever you were thinking about a few minutes ago. You were angry.´ `I wasn’t angry.´ `What then? Frustrated? Agitated?´ `Horny.´ Martina gulped cool air and resisted the urge to fan herself. Good God, had he been as hot as she was when he’d pushed her body against the wall? She’d convinced herself that she imagined feeling his erection pressing into her thigh. `Horny?´ `Yeah.Ćalder leaned his weight into the wall and looked up at the indentations that fit his big hands like steel gloves. `I was thinking how I’d like to photograph you. I don’t normally do portraits, but God, you’d look good nude, lying on a bed of red sand to contrast your skin tone. With your hair flowing over your shoulders, your lips parted and one hand covering your breasts«´ Martina sank to the cot. She should have been offended. How dare this man she’d just met imagine her naked, spread before him, her body on display? Why did the image excite her? Her mind raced to a dangerous place. What would it feel like with the sun beating down on her, the hot desert air stealing the moisture that formed between her legs? She pictured Calder looming over her, urging her to lick her lips for him and arch her back while he snapped shot after shot. His lens would travel up her body, pausing to capture the flare of her hips, the gentle valley of her navel«he’d touch her, pose her `We have to get out of here, now. Come on.Ćhase watched her with a mixture of shock and fascination as she slid her ID badge through the security lock inside the cell. `Whoa, wait a minute. We’re just going to walk out of here?´ He nodded toward the windowless door that led out of the observation area. Martina stopped, one delicate, slippered foot in the airlock. `We’re going to have to hide for a little while. We need to get off the base by sunrise.Ćhase swallowed the cold lump of doubt lodged in his throat. Besides being locked in a windowless cell for God knows how long, the last thing he wanted was to get caught trying to escape from the most secure air force base in the lower forty-eight. There was no question in his mind that anyone who saw them would shoot first and worry about red tape and paperwork later. He touched her arm, and the look she gave him made his heart race. `How are you going to do this?´ `I have a plan, but I need you to trust me.Át that moment, looking into her bottomless brown eyes, he’d have followed her anywhere. She ducked through the airlock, and Chase followed her. A second later they emerged into the observation room where the air was warmer, not as crisp and certainly not as sterile as his cell. The place smelled like stale coffee and military sweat. Martina hushed him with a gesture. `We’re going to go two doors down this hallway to the left and into the supply closet. I’m going to leave you there and go around to a work room on the other side. We’ll work our way toward the mess hall. That’s the least secure area.Ćhase nodded as if the plan made a rat’s ass worth of sense to him. Cold steel seemed more comforting at this point than hot lead. Somewhere on this base was a bullet with his name on it, and he had a bad feeling he was going to meet it all too soon.

  The inner corridor was empty, stark white and way too bright. Martina felt completely exposed as they slithered along the wall, trying to stay in the blind spot of the security camera that swept the corridor every two minutes. Ten nerve wracking steps brought them to the supply closet. They ducked inside, and when the heavy door shut behind Calder, blackness closed around them like a shroud. His breath heated the back of her neck, and his body was warm and solid behind her. She wanted to press against him and absorb his strength, but there wasn’t time. She thrust her arms out in front of her and felt around for the handle of the opposite door. Something rattled behind her, and his swift movement startled her. `Shh!´ `Sorry. Broom.´ `Stand still.´ `Yes, ma’am.´ `Don’t call me that. I’m sick of everyone calling me µma’am’. It makes me feel a hundred years old.´ `What about µbabe’?Śhe heard the smirk this time and clucked her tongue. `Mr. Calder.´ `Sorry, Doc. You realize you’re going to get us both killed, right?´ Martina stiffened as her hand closed over the door knob in the dark. `Do you want to go back? They’ll keep you in that cell until you die, which could be pretty soon if Dobbs has his way. Then they’ll probably move you to a medical testing facility and take you apart cell by cell until they find out why you survived.Ágain, his breath heated the nape of her neck. The fine hairs there prickled, and her body sparked with desire when his lips brushed her ear. `If we get out of here in one piece, Doc, you’re going to tell me every gory detail of what’s going on here.´ `I will. I promise.Śhe twisted the door knob, and a sliver of light illuminated the closet. `Just stay here until I come for you.´ `Why can’t we go together?´ `I have to sign out of the containment area. If I don’t, they’ll start to wonder why I’m taking so long.´ `All right.Śhe slipped by him, sucking in her breath to avoid brushing against his chest in the tight space. `I won’t be long,śhe said, not daring to glance at him in the dim light. She wanted to add a hundred different things. Sit tight. Be careful. Don’t move. Everything that came to mind seemed so lame. Ultimately she left the storage area without another word, took a deep breath and marched down the corridor, rehearsing the casual lie she’d tell the check point guard on her way out of containment.

  His blood for a cure. It’s a cruel and deadly bargain« The Ninth Curse © 2009 K.J. Gillenwater Nine curses. Nine weeks to live. Joel Hatcher has inherited more than a family legacy. It’s a time bomb that’s ticking down to the inevitable: his own death. But the curse won’t die with him. Unless he can find a way to break the cycle, his younger brother becomes the next victim. In the throes of the third curse, the Painful Pox, Joel makes a last-ditch decision to seek the help of a young spiritualist. One look into Joel’s suffering eyes, and `Madame Eugenie´ finds herself torn between doing the right thing and fulfilling her most secret wish bring her husband Adam back from the dead. Joel’s cursed blood is the missing ingredient in her resurrection rituals, and Adam’s spirit whispers seductively that there’s only one way to get it: steal it. As Gen and Joel unearth his family’s past to track down a cure, they come closer to each other, and to a horrible truth. To live, Joel must lose everything. Up to and including the woman he has grown to love.

  Warning: This book contains curses, sacrifices, a ghostly husband, a crazy cat and a love that defies all odds.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for The Ninth Curse: Joel struggled to keep up. The dark closed in. How could Gen still see where she was going? But the crunch of her steps on the fallen leaves kept him close enough. Up ahead she stopped. He heard the squeak of an unoiled hinge. A gate swung open. Gen passed into the clearing beyond. When Joel slipped through the gate, he knew where she had led him. A graveyard. Probably the same one where she had acquired graveyard dust for his cure yesterday. The gravestones were pale and eerie, rising out of the mists. The
fog lifted, and a brilliant full moon shone down, illuminating the cemetery in ethereal light. Joel hunkered behind a large stone crypt, where a limestone angel peered down at him. Gen moved between the grave markers, touching each one with a light caress. From so far away, he couldn’t discern her emotional state, but her movements were stilted and slow. She stopped in the middle of the cemetery and raised her hands to the moon as if in supplication to the quiet, distant rock. A sing-song murmur filled the air. The words were just beyond his hearing. Gen kept her hands upraised and swayed in rhythm to them. A cry escaped her lips, and she fell to her knees.

  Joel wanted to go to her, but he instinctually knew Gen did not want to share this with him. It would be an intrusion on her privacy. From her bag, Gen removed some objects. She set them one at a time on the ground. He was too far away to see what they were. Gen started a small fire and threw different items into the flame. Each time the blaze grew larger, her words grew louder. Joel could just make them out now.

  May angle sar te merel kadi yag, opre, Adam! May angle sar te merel kadi yag, opre, Adam! May angle sar te merel kadi yag, opre, Adam! She lit a fat yellow candle from the fire’s odd, red flame. A shadowy figure stepped out from behind a gravestone just behind her, tall and broad shouldered. A man. He drew closer. Gen remained unaware this man was mere steps away `No!´ Joel jerked forward, wanting to protect her. Gen whipped her head around. `Who’s there?´ The shadow man turned too, but evaporated into the mist. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? Joel revealed himself. `It’s me, Gen. It’s me.´ `What are you doing here? Did you follow me?Śhe backed away, keeping the fire between them. `What did you see?´ `A man, I think,´ Joel said. Her eyes were big and round, her mouth half-opened«like a creature of the night, startled by a human passing through her territory. Her face was ashen. `Does this have something to do with the curses? Who was that«man?´ `Who said I was doing this for you?´ Gen kicked dirt over the strange red fire. `Do you have any idea what you’ve just done, Joel?´ `What I’ve done?´ He took a step toward her. `What do you mean?´ `You can’t just wander in here«I didn’t ask for you to be here. Now it won’t work. You’ve ruined it.´ `What won’t work? What are you talking about?Ás he came closer, he could see her eyes were filled with unshed tears. `It’s personal.Śhe snatched up the things on the ground and stuffed them back in her bag. `Just forget it.´ `I don’t understand«if you’d just explain.´ `I don’t want to explain. It’s none of your business. Just leave me alone.Śhe brushed past him. He caught her elbow. `What are you so darn upset about? I can’t sleep, and there you are outside talking to someone in the middle of the night. And when I follow you, you come out here«and«and do this.Śhe tugged it free. `Go back to your brother. Go back to your life and leave me out of it. You don’t want to be messed up with me.´ `I’m already messed up with you. You made it that way. You came along with us. Helped me with these curses. What am I supposed to do, just pretend I can do this without you?´ Gen stopped her movements. `I’m sorry, Joel. Please don’t ask me to explain. I want to help you, but that doesn’t mean you get to know everything about me. I have to have my privacy.´ `You’re right. I’m sorry.Śhe slung her bag over her shoulder and made her way to the open gate at the other end of the cemetery. `Then let’s go back. Let’s just get some sleep.´ `Wait.´ Joel caught up to her. `You still haven’t answered my question. Who or what was that back there?Śhe turned. The moonlight lit up her face, her eyes glowing. She made a little sound, a gasp, like the sound an animal makes when it’s caught in a trap. Joel could sense her heart racing. The tight dilation of her pupils, even in the dark, told him she feared him or feared he might find something out. Lightly, he grasped her upper arm. Her skin was cool. A night wind blew her hair across her forehead, which hid her eyes from him. Here in this moonlit graveyard, she looked like the limestone angel that had been standing guard over him earlier. All cut angles and hard surfaces. But her skin. Her skin was soft and pliant under his hand. He slid his fingertips over her shoulder, across her collarbone, under her chin and forced her to look at him. `Tell me. He was going to hurt you.´ `You didn’t see anything. It was a trick of the dark.Śhe tried to pull her chin out of his grasp, but he tightened his hold. `You’re lying.´ Gen clutched her bag closer to her body. She blinked back tears. `Please don’t ask me to explain.´ `Would it really be so terrible to tell me?´ He took a step toward her. She didn’t move. `I told you I don’t want to explain. It’s very personal to me and ´ The emotions she had so clearly been trying to keep in check came flooding out in one quick burst. He couldn’t resist. He had to make the tears stop. He let go of her chin, curved his arm around her waist, pulled her close and kissed her. A light, sweet kiss. Her scent reminded him of strawberries and sunshine. He drank it in, wanting to absorb her into himself. Her mouth opened to his, inviting him into her warmth. He groaned at the invitation and deepened the kiss, their tongues meeting furtively. He moved his hand up to her shoulder and under her jaw, keeping her soft lips against his. When his other hand brushed across the curve of her backside, she put her hands on his chest and pushed. Gen broke away. `Don’t.´ He stood there, his arms empty, but still feeling her heat, her softness. Her kiss burned his lips. He touched his fingers there and watched as she made her way to the gate, slipping past its rusted iron bars and into the woods.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd. It’s all about the story« Action/Adventure Fantasy Historical Horror Mainstream Mystery/Suspense Non-Fiction Paranormal Red Hots! Romance Science Fiction Western Young Adult www.samhainpublishing.com About this Title This eBook was created using ReaderWorks®Publisher 2.0, produced by OverDrive, Inc. For more information about ReaderWorks, please visit us on the Web at www.overdrive.com/readerworks