Monday, October 26
Welcome to HERE BE NEWS, where each monday we bring you all the latest from the fantasy romance authors at Here Be Magic:
New!
LOVE LITES
A
Collection of Romantic
Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Paranormal Vignettes
by Linda Mooney
(Rated G to R)
Word Count:
18.2K
$0.99 e / $6.99 p
Stories Included are:
INNIE -
Katherine shows her
shifter husband the value of a good innie.
A
BOTTLE OF LOVE - Fighting a full-blown cold, the
last thing Marlow expected was a handmade gift from Liston.
THE COLOR OF ROSES - She may be a cyborg, but DeShay
wants to experience what human women do...like painting her
toenails.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Stacie and the rest of the
spaceship's crew teach Gallas how to celebrate.
THE SLOT MACHINE - Wendell wins his heart's
desire...whatever that is.
LADDER OF GLASS - Darra gives a heartfelt confession
to her dead father.
SONG OF RELIEF - Ysidra learned it from her husband,
who came from the future.
MY WORST - Carra tempts her husband, Vector, to do
his worst.
PICKLES 'N ICE CREAM - When Dia asks her alien
husband, Favan, to pick up dessert on his way home, he
learns what it could mean.
BONDED - Peg is branded a witch and sentenced to be
burned, but her new friend has other plans.
AN INFINITY OF KISSES - Illustra gets a late-night
visit from a secret admirer.
THE DAY OF THE WHITE GOLD - One day on the planet
determines how much water they'll have for the rest of the
year.
THE GHOST OF KRISMAS PAST - Tina relives the day she
lost her beloved husband...only to find out it's not
forever.
COLD FAIRY MOON - When Brinn joins Sassa in watching
the new year's celebrations, he ventures to suggest they
have one of their own.
Excerpt and Buy Links
October 21: Nicole Luiken offers a glimpse of her WIP Where Lost Things Go
October 22: Deborah A Bailey discusses the right POV for your book.
Eight years ago, Ophelia Leonides's husband cast her off when he discovered she was not the woman he thought she was. Now destitute after the death of her father, Ophelia is forced to turn to Dario for help raising the child she never told him about.
Dario is furious that Ophelia has returned, and refuses to believe Arthur is his son - after all, he thought his wife was barren. But to avoid gossip, he agrees to let them spend the holidays at his villa. While he cannot resist the desire he still feels for Ophelia, Dario despises himself for being hopelessly in love with a woman who can never love him back.
But Dario is wrong: Ophelia's emotions are all too human, and she was brokenhearted when he rejected her. Unsure if she can trust the man she desperately loves, she fears for her life, her freedom and her son if anyone else learns of her true nature...
Excerpt:
Candlelight glimmered in the gold of his wife’s hair and Dario could not keep his gaze from straying down the length of the dining room table to where she sat, quietly chatting with her son over supper. He’d never expected to see her seated here again, presiding over his table as she used to do. Yet here she was once more, just as in seasons past.
How many nights had he sat here reveling in the sight of her—her exquisite beauty, her ineffable grace—anticipating the night to come, when he’d have her once more in his bed...
“And Papa said we might go riding together sometime too,” Arthur confided in eager tones. Dario started, his attention captured by the unexpected appellation.
“Did he now?” There was a distinctly hesitant note in Ophelia’s voice. She shot a fearful glance in Dario’s direction. Arthur appeared not to notice his mother’s concern.
“Yes, and I met his horse—Leveche—and he told me what her name means and...”
His voice trailed off and then he, too, glanced nervously in Dario’s direction. “It is all right that I call you that, isn’t it, sir?”
Dario ground his teeth, uncomfortably aware of those two sets of eyes trained so anxiously on his face. Arthur’s eyes pleaded with him to say yes. What Ophelia’s eyes had to say about the matter he didn’t know, for he refused to meet them.
His initial instinct was to deny the boy’s request, to insist he address him more formally; but then he reconsidered. Where was the harm in it, really? As long as he kept them here on his estate, shielded from the busybodies and the gossips, why not indulge the boy?
“Certainly,” he said at last and hurriedly returned to his meal, unwilling to be drawn into any more of their conversations. He could not, however, resist taking one quick look at Ophelia’s face. The smile that curved her lips, the radiant gleam in her eyes as she gazed back at him caused his breath to hitch and his chest to grow tight. She’d always affected him like this and suddenly he wanted nothing more than to indulge himself, as well—to have his wife once more in his bed, to see if he could not give her cause to smile at him several more times before the morning broke.
Dario paused, shocked by the direction his own thoughts had taken. His wife? Could he even call her that anymore, knowing her for what she was? On the other hand, wasn’t that precisely how he did still think of her? Annoyed with himself, his appetite gone, Dario slammed his fork down on the table.
He should have divorced her long ago. Religion be damned. She’d been absolutely right to have questioned his motives this morning. He’d been lying to himself for far too long.
She was no one’s wife. He did not wish to bed her.
He groaned softly. It had been hard enough trying to pretend that was the case with her gone. Sitting here face to face, it was completely useless. No matter how many times he repeated the same empty lies, he still could not make his heart believe them.
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