Samhain Publishing

I’m happy to announce the release of the second book of my Tomorrow series – PROMISE FOR TOMORROW.

Genre: Romantic Sci-Fi
ISBN: 1-59998-694-9
Length: Novel
Price: $5.50

Dodging assassins and political intrigue, Rianna and Jhaan fight to bring a promise of hope to a world on the edge of extinction.

I’m including a brief excerpt. I hope you enjoy my story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Slowly he moved toward her, his eyes capturing and holding her attention. A mesmerizing golden amber, they were fringed with thick black lashes. The intensity of his gaze held hers, hypnotic. Rianna found herself staring into them, falling into their depths as the world dropped from beneath her feet.

She didn’t know how, but as impossible as it seemed, she knew this man. Something deep within her recognized him. Even knowing he was a complete stranger, she couldn’t shake off the conviction. She was inexplicably drawn to him.

Her world narrowed to that penetrating gaze, everything else, even the danger still surrounding her, fell away. Without thought, she leaned toward him, forgetting the body stretched out between them, forgetting the man she had disabled. Nothing else mattered.

Rianna didn’t know what she might have done or said as sharp pain again dug into her mind and dizziness swept over her. Blackness edged her vision until she had to fight to cling to consciousness.

Reaching out toward him, she instinctively sought his strength as the world threatened to spin out of control. His warm hands took hers, anchoring her. With determination she fought off the desire to close her eyes and sink into oblivion, clinging to him with a need bordering on desperation. Her gaze was held by the golden heat of his as she became conscious of a tickling sensation at the back of her mind. It was a fragile bubble of awareness hovering just beyond her reach, tantalizing and elusive. As she stared into his eyes, she felt it flare to life, a pressure building in her head, its strength growing by the second. The world steadied.

“Come.” His dark voice possessed a purring quality. He continued to hold her hands, those amber eyes encouraging, compelling her to accompany him. Commanding.

Rianna hesitated, tearing her gaze away from his to flicker downward to the figure of the man lying at her feet. Absently she realized that the fog was dissipating, allowing her a fairly clear view of her assailant where he lay among the crushed vegetation. She couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive. Did it matter?

“You need not worry about him. The one called Cayo will trouble you no more.” The stranger spoke Basic with a lilting accent, deep and musical. The tantalizing tone curled around her nerve endings to feather down her spine until something deep within her responded to that seductive purr. “There was one other. We must not linger.”

Jhaan stared deeply into her eyes as he prepared a simple compulsion to ensure her cooperation. As he built the command, he allowed himself the pleasure of tracing the delectable curves of her face with his gaze. Following feminine lines to fall into the snare of mysterious green eyes, noting the intriguing manner in which they slanted upward.

He felt a stirring deep within, his heart’s tempo accelerating until his blood pounded in his ears. It was like nothing he had felt before. Tentatively he opened his psychic Talent fully to her. With a gentle touch he tested the mental paths of the female, tuning into the cadences of her subconsciousness, seeking to enforce her compliance.

Instead, it was he who was caught. The instant he fully dropped his shields, her mind reached out and snared his. Unexpectedly, her mental patterns laced with his, meshing with perfection. For a moment he stopped breathing as the full impact of her psi compatibility seeped into his consciousness.

This was not possible! No woman outside of Dakar possessed the psychic capability to match that of a male of his world. It was unheard of.

Shock held him immobile. His thoughts scattered like thistle on the wind.

Rianna frowned with growing perplexity as odd impressions swirled through her mind, dancing at the edges of her peripheral consciousness. There was a sense of tearing, another brief flash of excruciating pain before it was gone, leaving her disorientated. For just a moment it was almost as if she could feel his sense of shocked discovery before it melted into a heated attraction and finally faded into a sense of acceptance. For endless seconds the man stared into her eyes, seemingly blind and deaf to his surroundings, too stunned to move.

That moment of perfect recognition was abruptly shattered when a rustle of movement behind her drew her attention. With great effort she tore her gaze away and turned, her hand diving into the folds of her tunic to pull her small weapon from its concealment. Their unexpected connection had been so startling, so unexpected that they had forgotten about the man she had disabled.

Smitty stumbled to his feet, swaying with drunken disorientation before his eyes found his fallen companion. Rage crossed his face before he turned on the small woman who had taken him out so effortlessly. Blood still ran down his lower face from his ruined nose, lending it a sense of brutish violence.

“I’m gonna kill you, bitch!” Menace emanated from him as he advanced on her, hesitating when he noticed the tall warrior. Noting the lack of a weapon in the hands of this new threat, fierce satisfaction blossomed in his eyes. Smitty’s lips drew back in a parody of a smile even as he darted a hand toward his boot to pull out a lethal-looking blade. Rianna felt his confidence flare as he expertly reversed the blade with the intention of launching it straight at the chest of her rescuer.

His biggest mistake was taking his eyes off her, dismissing her as a threat. She never hesitated. Even as he drew his arm back to throw, she brought up her weapon and in one smooth motion took aim and gently squeezed the trigger as she had been taught. The little weapon fired, striking the man full in the chest, the force of the blast flinging him backwards to disappear into the tall grasses.
Everything fell silent once more.

Horrified and sickened, Rianna slowly dropped her arm. She had never fired upon another living creature before, much less killed one. Her practice had always been on inanimate targets, things that did not wear a brief look of stunned surprise before being overtaken by death. The little blaster suddenly felt heavy in her hand. Repulsive. Nothing moved but the gentle sway of the grasses, remaining tendrils of fog flowing forward to mute the swatch of vegetation. She swallowed hard, her stomach tightening as nausea threatened.

The Dakarian came to stand beside her, his gaze following hers. When Rianna turned to look up at him, she saw a gleam of approval in those amber eyes, a savage satisfaction.

“Well done,” he said, his eyes clearly reassessing his initial impression of her as she stood frozen at his side.

“Well done?” Rianna repeated in a tight voice, disbelief threatening to overwhelm her. “I just killed a man and all you can say is well done?”

Perplexity was clear in those riveting golden eyes. “He would have killed you, my lady. You reacted in the only manner open to you.”

Somehow his calm acceptance of the fact that she had just killed a man, even if it was in self-defense, did not sit well with her. That this was one of the fabled savage Dakarians was without a doubt. The fierceness of their reputation was well earned.

“A third man remained with their ship,” the stranger said, forcing Rianna to focus on him. “He may yet work up the nerve to come in search of his companions.”

No sooner had he spoken than the stillness was shattered by the sound of powerful engines. With a majestic grace, the pirate ship rose over the tall grasses, swimming briefly into view through the mist before streaking off into the cloud cover, vanishing from sight.