Excerpt Monday: Elizabeth Amber

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Dane, The Lords of Satyr
by Elizabeth Amber
An RT - Romantic Times BookReviews TOP PICK!

As he searches for his missing brother in 1880s Rome, Lord Dane Satyr wrestles with a fiery inner demon named Dante. When he meets Eva--a beautiful social climber with a gift for matchmaking--both are consumed by intense needs they cannot satisfy alone.

Excerpt:

Slowly, he uncoiled from his crouch on the forest floor. He shrugged broad shoulders, adjusting himself to the fit of this familiar set of bones and flesh he’d donned. The mind and therefore the body were his for the present. He would be master of them only until dawn.

The tailored linen shirt he wore hung unbuttoned and open in front, gleaming white against the shadowed flesh of his sculpted chest. He flexed his hands and found them sore. He noted the ax on the ground a yard away and the felled limbs, the piles of encroaching vines, which had been freshly cut away from twisted trunks nearby.

Ah yes, he remembered now. When he’d first come into consciousness, they’d been working. He and Dane. Two facets of the same mind. Possessors of a single body.

And it was a body women admired, sought, swooned over. Six and a half feet of solid brawn, wide of shoulder, narrow of hip. A strong column of throat, topped by a square-jawed masculine face with a prominent blade of a nose, and crowned with tousled sable hair. A face bearing a distinct resemblance to those of his brothers. It would have been too handsome save for one feature. From below straight brows, eyes of icy silver reflected the world, making him appear otherworldly and strange. Which he was.

A thrashing sound reached his ears. The woman. He’d known she was there all along of course, had been tracking her with a small corner of his mind. Now his eyes found her again.

She moved heedlessly through the grove, thinking herself alone. Now and then, she paused to tug at a branch, plucking an unripe olive or two from it. Holding these small bits of plunder to her nose she then pocketed them as if gathering samples. The olives would not be ready for picking for another month, so he briefly wondered at her actions. But curiosity was not a failing of his. Dane, however, suffered from a wealth of it. And look where that had gotten them.

Beyond her the sun had just met the horizon, a huge ball of juicy orange jailed by black cypress spears that marched along the hilltop opposite this one. It turned her pale skin to gold, the shadows of her face to lovely bruises, her dark hair to coal. She was dressed fashionably and well in a prim gray dress that blended with the trees here. Perhaps twenty years of age or a little older. And shapely.

He smiled. They’d only been here a few weeks, but already he liked this new world. A Sickness had killed many of the female species in ElseWorld that usually served as mates for his kind, and rendered others unable to bear satyr offspring. Only the members of the Council had the luxury of keeping their own women. Yet, here, women delivered themselves right to one’s doorstep.

His prey disappeared into a clearing and he moved after her, keeping her in view. Her head was bent to study something she held. A small book. A page flipped under her lace-gloved hand, a frown creasing creamy smooth skin between her dark brows as she strained to make out its text in the failing light. Whatever she read on its pages caused her to sigh in frustration.

“Honestly, Maman! What am I to do with these scribbles? Couldn’t you have done any better than this on so important a matter?” Glancing around, she fanned the gilt-edged book back and forth in one hand with obvious impatience.

Gifted with a natural stealth enhanced by a decade of training and field experience as an ElseWorld Tracker, he soundlessly moved in her direction, intent on cutting off her exit to the road. Though she had no way of knowing, she’d come at a most opportune time. Night was falling. A very special night to those of Dane’s kind. Once the moon rose, all would begin.

He made a cursory, visual survey of the grove. It was protected. Dane had bespelled its perimeter himself that very morning. If any humans wandered too close, they would find themselves repelled by forces they didn’t understand. Since she’d managed to trespass, he could only assume she must be of ElseWorld blood.

His eyes swept her again. She was slender, but pleasingly curved. Fey perhaps. On this special night, her blood would be stirring as well, though not as high as that of the satyr. Not as high as his own. When one lived only ten hours a month, one was understandably eager.

A light breeze gusted at his back, whooshing past him to ripple over mistletoe, betony, chicory, fennel, rosemary, and saffron that grew low on the forest floor. He watched it make its way toward her, carrying with it his scent.

When it ruffled her skirt and pulled at tendrils of her hair, she stilled--a woodland creature made suddenly and acutely aware of danger. Her eyes shifted in his direction, twin flashes of emerald. His own eyes narrowed and he smiled, pleased at what he’d read in her glance. Recognition. Only an ElseWorld creature could detect the scent of another. His blood pumped a little faster at this confirmation of his initial assumption. A female from his own world would make for a far more interesting engagement than a human one might have.

“This is private land.” He stepped free of the forest’s shadows into the small clearing in which she stood. She whirled to face him then, her skirts sending the leaves eddying around her. His nostrils flared, waiting for her scent to ride the air in his direction. He’d know what sort of creature she was soon enough.

When her fragrance reached him, its delicate, delicious impact enfolded him like a physical caress. His senses analyzed and sorted through its nuances, and a prickle of awareness swept his skin. His body reached a stunning conclusion regarding her origins a split second before his mind did. He could actually feel his eyes dilate, his heart gasp, his blood halt in his veins.

“Gods, who . . . what are you?” he demanded.

Nicholas Raine Lyon Dominic Dane: The Lords of Satyr series
Dane is an RT Book Reviews TOP PICK!
hot historical paranormal romance
Kensington Aphrodisia
http://www.elizabethamber.com/

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Elizabeth will give away a copy of her book to one commenter here. Her winner will be selected and posted on Tuesday evening. Stop back by to see if you won.