Legendary Tails I

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Excerpts From: ELLORA´S CAVEMEN: LEGENDARY TAILS I

An Excerpt From: THE CHANGELING

© Copyright CALLISTA ARMAN, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

Raye´s hopes for a climax melted like her fading daydream. Okay, so after five and a half years of marriage, sex with Ian was a bit routine. That was only to be expected. But did he have to bring up the café right now? She´d been so close to coming. Damn it.

Kieran MacKenzie would never talk business during sex.

"If we don´t do something to lure our clientele back," Ian said, "we might as well not open."

"Okay, okay." Raye´s last twinges of arousal vanished. She and Ian had sunk their life savings into Coffee and Scones, a trendy coffeehouse on the edge of the historic district. The Scots theme had been Raye´s idea-Ian had suggested Caribbean jungle décor. They´d done great for a couple of months, until the national chain Star Coffee opened a mega-café less than a mile away, right on the corner of Broad and Main. With a parking lot. Just like that, Coffee and Scones´ bottom line had turned a bright, ugly red.

If Ian and Raye couldn´t steer some thirsty traffic through their brass-handled front doors, they were headed for bankruptcy.

"Yeah, we´ll have to lower our prices," she said.

"What do you think about a buy-one-get-one-free day for the college crowd?" Ian asked. He dropped his head into the crook of Raye´s shoulder as the tempo of his thrusts increased. "Maybe I´ll even break out my grandfather´s bagpipes."

Raye groaned, but not from pleasure. She loved everything Scots-her husband most of all-but Ian had absolutely no talent on the pipes.

"We want to attract customers, not drive them away," she told him.

Ian chuckled.

She nuzzled the side of his neck. "Forget the bagpipes. But you could dress up in the Highlander´s costume I bought you."

He grunted. "No way. I am not wearing a skirt."

"It´s a kilt, not a skirt."

"Same difference." A fine tremor rippled through his body. "God, Raye, I´m getting close."

He stopped talking then, thank God. Raye concentrated on matching the rhythm of his deepening thrusts. A mildly pleasant sensation washed through her, but it was nothing like it used to be. When she and Ian first got together, he´d given her one shuddering orgasm after another. But now...

Now she needed daydreams of Kieran MacKenzie to help her come.

She sifted her fingers through her husband´s dark curls. It was too bad she couldn´t get off without a fantasy. Closing her eyes, she tried to lose herself in the feel of Ian´s cock sliding inside her. A few thrusts later, she gave up. It just wasn´t happening.

Tess never had this problem with Kieran in Highland Passions.

An Excerpt From: BREAKING THE RULES

© Copyright B.J. MCCALL, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

Fool.

Unit leaders didn´t fall in love with team members. The mission was the focus, not a brief moment of physical pleasure. As one of the few female UL´s and the only one in this sector, Ri refused to let her personal feelings interfere with the job.

Get over him.

Hauser Wath, the president of Wath Mining, wanted her. Rich and handsome, Hauser offered luxury and wealth but Ri would rather face a lifetime of dangerous missions with Dancer than becoming Hauser´s woman.

A pulsing red light penetrated her closed lids. Ri opened her eyes and activated her audio.

"Identify."

Rising, Ri turned to her left.

Enemy. Two. Armed.

Two insurgents approached the falls from downriver. Standing beneath the spray, Dancer was exposed and unaware.

Running along the footpath to intercept the enemy, Ri pulled her laser rifle from the sling resting across her back. She stopped, lowered her rifle and took out the insurgents in two clean shots. They fell within twenty yards of Dancer.

Enemy terminated.

Ri headed downhill toward the falls. By the time she reached Dancer, he was fastening his pants.

Don´t look.

When he reached for his boots, Ri raised her face shield. After fastening his boots, he stood. Beads of water covered his broad chest and shoulders. Ri ached to lick each drop from his skin.

Look him in the eye.

His gaze fastened on hers. "I´m glad you happened to be passing by."

Did he know she´d watched him?

He pulled on his uniform shirt and slipped into his weapons vest. Picking up his helmet, he was armed and ready.

"Bring backup next time. That´s an order."

"Understood." He stuck out his hand. The same one he´d used to pleasure himself. "Thanks, UL. I owe you my life."

Team members addressed each other by their last name, but to Dancer she was the UL. Which meant, despite all their missions, hours spent planning missions and relaxing in the base lounge, she was the Unit Leader. Not a woman, not a friend, but the boss.

An Excerpt From: ABDUCTION

© Copyright LYNN LAFLEUR, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

His use of her full name in that low, husky voice made shivers dance down her spine. She whipped her head toward him. He leaned against the door, stroking his mustache, and studied her intently.

Tightening her hands around the steering wheel, Mike turned her attention back to the road. "You´re being stupid again."

"Why?"

"Because we´re friends."

"Friends can be lovers, too."

He pushed her hair behind her shoulder and cradled her nape. The slow caress of his thumb against her jaw made Mike´s eyes cross. He´d never touched her, not like this...the way a man touches his lover.

She could become addicted to his touch in a heartbeat.

Mentally chastising herself for indulging in a silly fantasy, Mike opened her mouth to tell him to stop teasing her. A strange light in the sky made her stop before uttering a word. It looked like a bright star, except the sky was overcast tonight and no stars were visible. The light seemed to pulsate, going from yellow to red to green and back, repeating the cycle of colors. "Look at that."

Jax leaned forward and looked out the windshield. "Look at what?"

"That light. What is it?"

"I don´t know, but it looks like it´s coming right at us."

Mike gasped as the light brightened and seemed to engulf her car. A second later, the light disappeared.

Shaking her head, Mike silently continued toward Jax´s house. She felt...different, but didn´t know why.

"You okay, Michaela?" Jax asked softly.

"Yeah, I think so. That was weird, wasn´t it?"

"Very weird." He tugged on a curl by her ear. "Maybe it was a UFO."

"Ha-ha."

Mike pulled into Jax´s driveway. She left the motor running while he unfastened his seat belt.

"You wanna come in for coffee?" he asked.

It wasn´t unusual for him to offer an invitation into his home, or for her to accept that invitation. For a reason she didn´t understand, she felt uncomfortable at the thought of being alone with Jax tonight. She shook her head. "I´d better get home."

"Hey, it´s still early. It´s only..." He stopped as he looked at the clock on the dash. "What the... Is that time right?"

"Of course it is." Mike gazed at the clock. Her eyes widened in shock. It read 5:48.

"It can´t be, Mike. We left Tim´s house about eleven. It´s only a twenty-minute drive from his place here." Jax shifted in his seat to face her. "Your clock must be wrong. I can´t see my watch. Turn on the radio."

His serious expression made Mike shiver. Her hand shaking slightly, she twisted the volume dial.

"...high today of forty-four with winds out of the north at fifteen to twenty miles per hour. It´s currently thirty-three degrees at 5:49."

The music of "Hotel California" began while Mike tried to grasp what she´d just heard. Seven hours had simply vanished.

An Excerpt From: DARK-PILOT´S BRIDE

© Copyright CRICKET STARR, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

Nightfall. With the sun setting to her right, Josia had to twist her head painfully to watch the greenish-red disk sink behind the brown forest edge. Since her hands were tied to the tree limb over her head, there wasn´t much else she could do.

One small flash and it was gone. A pang of dismay shook her as the remaining light faded from the sky, making way for the deep purple of evening. Her last sunset, the final time she´d see the sun of the misbegotten world she´d been born on. By tomorrow this time she´d be dead...or gone.

Or worse.

Josia sighed. Her life up to now hadn´t been thrilling, but she was sorry to see it end-hence the bindings. The colony elders were taking no chances with the latest "bride" to be handed over in exchange for supplies from the inner colonies. War in another part of the sector had disrupted several expected visits, turning what should have been a short interval into over fifteen years now. Failure of this transfer could mean no further support from outside.

Long ago a bargain had been made with the Dark-pilot League that controlled space traffic in this quadrant. A ship would come every few years with mail from the home planets, plus much-needed medical and technical supplies, items that could only be manufactured off-planet. It would take away the homespun goods the colony produced-hand-carved figures and cloth spun from native materials. Some of Josia´s best weaving was piled in the baskets on the edge of the clearing.

In exchange, the League asked for one other item in payment-a human blood donor for the Dark-pilot who controlled the ship, someone to snack on during his long trip through the stars. Josia couldn´t resist her shudder-the Dark-pilots were vampires. Since the donors were usually female and the pilots male, the term bride had been coined for the sacrifice, but everyone assumed a darker fate awaited them.

No bride had ever returned and Josia could only assume the worse.

An Excerpt From: THE WINDSDAY CLUB

© Copyright CHARLOTTE BOYETT-COMPO, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

They were extraordinarily handsome men and as they walked down the narrow lane that led to the room where they held their semi-monthly meetings, women turned to stare and sigh and daydream of what it would be like to be held in the warriors´ brawny arms.

"Those men have quite the reputation," a middle-aged woman commented. "It´s a dirty little secret about what they do of a Windsday."

"They can do whatever they like with no one to gainsay them," her companion remarked.

"Corydon is the most beautiful, don´t you think?" a shopkeeper asked her customers.

"Aye," the older of the two customers agreed with a wistful smile on her wrinkled face. "He can put his boots under my cot any time he likes."

"I´d take any one of the six of them," the customer´s daughter stated, "but Brion makes my mouth water."

"Kaia, for shame!" her mother chastised. She fanned herself briskly. "Such talk is unseemly for a maiden."

Brion glanced around and when his eyes met Kaia´s he cocked a wicked blond brow. A slight smile tugged at his lips.

"Don´t encourage her, Brion," Keltyn snapped, elbowing his companion. "You want her to come up to the room? This is the first Windsday, not the third!"

Brion sighed. "Aye, I forgot." He rubbed at his unshaven jaw. "It´s just as well, I guess."

Corydon had started the club three years earlier to give them something to occupy their time when not about military duties. They met twice a month to commit in private some of the sins they had been warned against as children-gluttony, gambling, and lust. The women they brought to their club were for pleasure only with no misunderstandings about commitment and the like. It was strictly for the men´s entertainment without there being any chance of getting snared by the wedding bug. What happened at the club, stayed at the club.

An Excerpt From: MANACLES OF LOVE

© Copyright ELIZABETH LAPTHORNE, 2005.

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.

Ma´ra stood in the doorway of the seedy bar. Smoke she didn´t want to identify curled upward toward the stained ceiling from numerous spots around the dimly lit room. She mightn´t officially be on duty but as she had learned time and again the hard way, a merc never really seemed to know how to switch off.

Now that she thought about it, that had been one of Steven´s biggest complaints about her at the conclusion of their brief affair. Her self-realization on this matter had been a strong reason behind her not contacting him this time around on her short stay.

Resting her hand on her small tazer, she swallowed as she recalled the other reason for not contacting her ex-lover. She might need some help dealing with the man she hunted tonight, yet what she had planned was borderline legal no matter which angle you came at it from.

It also fell into the category of being completely and utterly illegal in a number of ways you could think of.

Ma´ra straightened her spine, determination etched upon her face.

Elise might be delicate, she might be young and practically unable to take care of herself alone, yet she was still the only blood kin anywhere in this universe Ma´ra had. She had been tempted long before now to let Elise stand on her own two feet and learn some things the hard way. Yet she always remembered the kinship between them, and once again saved Elise from her own actions. Ma´ra took her responsibilities seriously, no matter how she longed otherwise.

Elise bitched about Ma´ra cruising off to other planets and galaxies constantly, but she never complained about the healthy share Ma´ra always gave her of her credits.

Ma´ra smiled wryly. Elise might whine, but she definitely knew which side her pan was buttered on.

Ma´ra stepped slightly aside as the door behind her opened and let in yet another scantily clad escort. Feeling pity well up inside her, she resisted the impulse to turn the barely pubescent-looking young girl aside, fill her hands with credits, and tell her to head back home and return to her parents and studies. Even though the new regulations for escorts made the legal age of consent seventeen, Ma´ra had never been able to stomach the youthfulness of such escorts.

But knowing that to hand the child credits and try to bribe her to head back home would cause nothing but scorn from the girl, Ma´ra sighed sadly and turned to focus on the other side of the smoky bar. The chink of light from the opened door helped Ma´ra catch sight of her quarry.

Paul Sullivan.