Please welcome author Anitra Lynn McLeod! Anitra is fabulous to talk to, so don't be shy because Anitra will be here all weekend! Today will be a guest post for her new release Thief 11/2/10, then tomorrow I will have my review of Thief with a surprise for Anitra and Sunday I have fun interview for Anitra. So make sure you check back.
Welcome to the Fringe
In 2476 there are hundreds of terraformed worlds, most run by the InnerWorld Government (IWOG), a fascist regime ruthless in maintaining their bottom line. The other planets are run by the OuterWorld Alliance Group (WAG), a democratic bureaucracy living in constant fear of IWOG civilization attempts. A dangerous freedom can be found on the Fringe, the fluctuating border between the Inner and Outer Worlds. This realm is one of thieves, middlemen, and scroungers, all scrabbling out an existence in a brutal world where death lurks at every turn.
On the edge of freedom lies a dangerous love . . .
Nothing has ever come easy for Jace Lawless, captain of the salvage vessel Mutiny. Forced into thievery after a virus unleashed by the InnerWorld Government killed his family, only one ambition burns at the back of his mind. Kill the next IWOG officer he has at his mercy.
Bargaining over goods with a middleman isn't exactly his strong suit. But who in his right mind spends an entire salvage job's profits on a woman, even if she has a body built for sin and eyes so fathomless a man could lose himself in them? He must be getting soft.
Once Kraft realizes Jace expects only the "cook" part of their cook-whore contract, she sets out to change his antiquated ideas about women. A challenge she relishes, especially if it earns her the freedom and money to get her own ship. Her big mistake is letting down her guard.
Shameless flirting only intensifies the itch to ride Jace hard and put him away wet--several times. It's an itch it would be dangerous to scratch. Exposing her heart could reveal her secret, one that the still-grieving Jace must never know . . . showing her mercy will be the last thing on his mind.
Warning: Contains a celibate ship captain who can't abide swearing, a kick-ass woman with a marshmallow heart, a motley crew of misfits, interstellar battles, thwarted groping, sensual seduction, and a total bastard who owns his own planet.
Thief excerpt
Kraft willingly cooked, willingly fought, and claimed she would willingly whore. By her own honor, she offered the full of herself up to him, but Jace sensed that she expected him to restrain himself by his own dictates of honor. Asking her to cook and fight was one thing, but asking her to whore? Well, that was an entirely different matter.
When she saw him approach, Kraft stood at full attention with her face demurely lowered. All at once he felt a foot taller than her when he wasn’t.
He’d ordered her to his bunk as a spur-of-the-moment way to get her to stop defying his authority. He never thought Kraft would actually obey. Now that she had, he wasn’t sure what to do with her. Feeling awkward and shy, he thought the first thing he should do was explain and apologize.
Embarrassment at her having saved him and his crew fueled his need to remind her and himself that he was in charge. As he drew close to her, he longed to reach out and touch her face. On a rush of emotion, he wanted to confess that he didn’t always know what to do, or how to proceed, and sometimes acted rashly, fueled more by his heart than his head.
As a captain, Jace wanted to ask for her help and make her his partner in crime. Perversely, he felt he shouldn’t need her help and should make her his partner in bed. As a man, Jace wanted to possess the full of Kraft. He wanted to protect her even though he knew he couldn’t. Worse, he knew he didn’t have to coddle Kraft, which only increased his longing to claim her as his bedwarmer. Beyond that corral of confusion, Jace knew Kraft shouldn’t have to protect him.
Instead of saying anything, he unlocked his bunk with a slap of his hand to the wall com. The metal catch released with a soft snick that vibrated the floor below their feet.
Her braless breasts jiggled against the worn yellow fabric of his secondhand shirt. The enticing movement caught his attention, and he forgot what he intended to say. Instead, he found himself imagining what she would look like topless.
“If you’d like, I could put the harem outfit on.”
His gaze went from her chest to her mouth.
Lifting her lowered face a fraction, Kraft met his gaze, and whispered, “Someone placed the costume in my closet.” She flashed him that slow, lazy and sexy smile.
Jace had no idea who put the outfit in her closet, but he wouldn’t mind seeing her in that getup again. Fluffpink clinging and exposing the full promise of her undeniably strong and sexy body was certainly worth a second look. After seeing her in the revealing outfit, he knew her nipples were large and toffee-dark against her skin. He remembered the snug slit of her innie bellybutton drawing his gaze down to the wide pleasure of her hips. Between her lush thighs, he would find another snug—
“Should I fetch that costume, Captain?”
Her seductive, superior attitude dispelled all his thoughts of apologizing. Kraft didn’t worry one bit about him taking charge, because she assumed she had the upper hand. His blushing and backing off made her think she could say or do anything, and he’d just turn away. Normally he would have, but not this time.
Slipping a finger under her chin, he lifted her face until she met his gaze. Fathomless black eyes held a smirk that he wanted to quash in a sudden rush. For the first time, she didn’t flinch away from his touch. She melted to him as he stroked his finger across her full, sensuous lips. More than anything in the Void, he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to taste every bit of her luscious mouth. Kraft had a body built for sin, but she had a mouth destined for seduction.
Jace lowered his voice as his mouth descended on hers. “Seems like a waste of time for you to put on all those complicated clothes when I’m just going to make you take them off.”
Her eyes widened.
Placing his mouth to her ear, he whispered, “Or did you want to dress up and then strip for me?”
She tensed and swallowed with an audible click.
He pressed closer. “I’ve never had a whore in my bed. If you’re familiar with the concept, maybe you could walk me through it.”
Kraft pulled back and narrowed her gaze. “After ten years of celibacy, I think a walk is all it would take.”
“Is that so?” Refusing to back down, Jace traced his finger along her ear to her neck. “Since it’s been a decade for me, I’m thinking you won’t be able to walk by the time I’m satisfied.”
Her jaw damn near hit the floor.
Jace took a perverse delight in shocking her, and her dismay made him even more determined to make her back down this time. Even if he had to say the most vulgar things in the Void, he would force her retreat.
“I can’t believe you’re surprised.” He stroked her lips with a forceful fingertip. “You can read me so well, right?”
She darted her gaze to the floor. “I told you, I can’t read you like that. I can read—”
Plush lips gave way below the thrust of his silencing finger. When her hungry eyes met his, he said, “Don’t try to distract me. I don’t care what you can read. You don’t have to read me. I’ll tell you what I want.”
Lowering his mouth to her neck, he nipped lightly. “I want you.” After pulling her mocha skin, marking her, he lifted his mouth to her ear. “I want you writhing and panting and sweating below my thrusting body.”
She placed her large hands on his chest, pushed him back and looked him right in the eye. The depths of her black gaze swarmed with heat, smoky and slightly unfocused. “You want me by force?”
He heard the catch in her voice and sensed her desperation. He smiled at her as he answered her question with one of his own. “How can I force you when sex is part of your contract, my lovely cook-whore?”
Kraft withdrew with a startled step back. She pressed against the metal door of his bunk and flattened her palms against the smooth durosteel to steady herself.
Closing in on her, he took a half-step forward and placed his palms on the door, encasing her with his arms. In a tingling rush, a fleeting ripple washed over his body, and he wondered if he could actually feel Kraft trying to read him through the door. He forced himself to contain the rush by focusing his mind and constricting his body to a tense stance.
Kraft stood taller. Confusion and fear darted across her expressive face. He wondered if the darkness in him caused her reaction, or if he’d succeeded in preventing her from reading him. Either way, he sensed his advantage.
Pressing his mouth to her ear, he whispered, “What’s wrong, sugar-britches? I thought you were all for this kind of dance between us, especially after what you said in the cargo bay.”
With her back to his bunk door, she lifted her face and the whole of her body until she met his gaze with level intensity. Since she couldn’t force him to retreat verbally, she now tried to force his retreat with the fierceness of her gaze, and it almost worked.
He fought down the urge to step back by moving closer. She radiated the scents of cooking, but below, he found that enticing hint of her musky perfume. Her scent was rich, intoxicating and alluring. He wanted to find the source of her fragrance and lose himself in it.
“Just give me the order, Captain Lawless, and I’ll ride you until we both collapse.”
One fleeting vision of her proudly riding astride him caused him to blush and turn away. The triumphant look on her face clarified she thought such a command a distinct impossibility.
She seemed pleased that she’d finally forced him to back down. He watched Kraft’s pulse jump below the smooth skin of her neck when he closed in on her and said, “That’s an order I’m not likely to give.”
Her lips parted in surprise. She lowered her face but not her gaze.
“I wouldn’t order you to ride me because I like to be on top.”
He forced her chin up so their lips came close without touching. “Stop giving me that submissive face when you’ve got nothing behind it but arrogance.”
Kraft stood tall. “I thought you preferred submissive women?”
“As a matter of fact I do.” Tracing his finger along the open V of her shirt, he smoothed the fabric against the curve of her breasts and popped open one of the small wooden buttons. “Do you like submissive men?”
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, but it caught in her throat. When he looked down, he discovered her nipples were pressed tight against the soft yellow fabric of his old shirt.
He chuckled and stroked the barest brush of his fingertip over the swell of her nipple. “Obviously not.”
The Wild West meets space adventure--Anitra Lynn McLeod’s Thief is rip-roaring, sexy fun!
--Susan Grant, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Warrior
Here are the buy links:
http://samhainpublishing.com/authors/anitra-lynn-mcleod
http://www.amazon.com/Thief-Fringe-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00436F01G/
Here is my main link:
http://www.anitramcleod.com/
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Now for the give away. One lucky winner will win a pdf copy of Thief , offer ends Oct 31st at midnight.
Please leave a comment or question for Anitra, also please leave your email so I know you are entering the giveaway!
