I’m delighted to announce I’ve signed a contract with Ellora’s Cave for GUILTY AS SIN, #4 in the Phoenix Rising series! Wings and tails and a bad-boy thief. Heh, heh, the feathers are gonna fly! No edits as yet, no cover and no release date, but I’ll let you know as soon as I have more information. Keep watching my website for a longer excerpt.
So…
Here’s a little more about the book and a sneak peek. (BTW, Fledge, Mirry and Jan make a couple of appearances and Griff and Fort pop in.)
Michael’s bad, bad, bad - all the way to the bone. A single heated encounter with the master thief and level-headed Liseriel the Gray has never been so furious - so intrigued - in her life.
Neither has Michael. Danger’s always been his drug of choice.
With his huge bronze wings and sweet serious smile, Daxariel the Burnished is everything the thief is not—a shining spirit and an honest soul.
Lise and Dax are both so godsbedamned good, Michael can’t wait to debauch and defile, to make his Aetherii beg. It’s the only way he knows to win—and win he must, because there’s something about wings and tails and trust freely given that has him reeling.
Exquisitely trapped between wicked temptation and steadfast love, everything Lise believed about duty is dust on the wind. How can she crave two men, different as night and day?
When the three are thrown together to rescue a group of slum kids from Hssrda slavers, someone’s going to get caught. Who will it be?
Ah, that Michael, I keep seeing him with a black leather jacket and a big purring motor bike. Shame Phoenix is a sword and sorcery world!
Excerpt:
The Prince’s Palace, Sere
She didn’t think she’d ever seen such a pretty man - or one more accomplished. Vastly entertained, Liseriel the Gray stepped deeper into the shadows and folded her arms, watching him flirt with a plump matron encased in gold-shot velvet while his eyes carried on an entirely different conversation with her bulky, four-square husband.
This was the master thief Jan had spoken of, she was sure of it.
Michael.
That was all they knew of him, his name. And that he’d been an assassin once. Her lip curled. Likely he still was.
Brilliant. Light-fingered. Deadly.
“You’re the most observant person I know,” Jan had said. “All our intelligence indicates he’ll be at the Prince’s birthday celebration tonight. He won’t be able to resist. He has expensive tastes, this Michael.”
His hard mouth had curved without humor.”Find him for me, Lise. The Prince has finally lowered himself to ask the Winged Envoy for help. It’s an important breakthrough in the trade negotiations.”
As Head of Security, Janarnavriel the Noir was the Winged Envoy’s to command, and for his second officer, Jan’s word was law. So Lise had merely nodded in her usual cool manner, concealing her pleasure at the offhand compliment.
Which was why she was currently lurking in a window embrasure in the main ballroom of the Palace, her gray wings furled about her like a cloak of shadows and her tail curled neatly around one booted calf, watching the Grounded flirt and plot and drink themselves insensible at the Prince’s expense. The Aetherii were by nature a spectacular race, still enough of a novelty in the mountain city of Sere to bring passersby to a dead halt in the steep cobbled streets, mouths open, but Lise prided herself on her ability to be unobtrusive. It was as much her stock in trade as her eye for detail and her hard-won warrior skills.
The man appeared to be a gilded youth, the line of his jaw clean and beautiful, his hair a thick golden blond that gleamed with health. Lise narrowed her eyes. A wig, but a very good one. Human hair, she judged. There were rings flashing on his slender fingers, sapphire drops in his ear lobes. He’d spared no expense, she had to give him that. A perfect little lordling, and all in excellent taste. So what if she could see the hard disks of his nipples beneath the ultra-fine silk of his shirt? Or if the merchant was darting discreet glances at the taut ass cupped so lovingly by the satin breeches required by court etiquette?
Michael was wearing makeup, expertly applied - not unusual for men at the Sereian court. Coupled with the classical purity of his features, the fine elegant shape of cheek and nose and skull, it gave him a disturbingly androgynous air. He looked… She had to think about it…
Available. Deliciously, dangerously available.
He was deceptively lean. Lise measured the width of his shoulders and her gaze dropped to consider the muscle in his thigh. Oh yes, there was power there all right, coupled with perfect, almost unnatural control. His purpose kept him on a tight leash, this thief.
Her quarry detached himself from the merchant couple and drifted over to delight a group of half a dozen bright-eyed society ladies. With no little amusement, Lise observed the fluttering of lashes, the imperceptible tilt of their bodies toward him. They made a delightful picture, all youth and firm smooth flesh, colored silks and sparkling stones.
Lise’s brows drew together as Michael offered his arm to a dainty dark-haired piece wearing a small fortune in emeraldas. Green fire dripped from her ear lobes and flashed in her cleavage.
In the minstrels’ gallery, the orchestra struck up a fanfare and the Prince’s party paused in the vaulted entrance to acknowledge the spatter of polite applause. The Prince of Sere was respected, but not greatly loved. Lise watched his thin lips curl the slightest bit as he raised a languid hand in acknowledgement.
Rip the Veil, Michael had disappeared! Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the pale gleam of his golden head, passing through the tall carved doors out onto the dimly lit balcony, his palm resting lightly on the back of the girl’s waist.
By the gods, he was good! But so was she.
Fading back into the darkness, Lise stepped across the window sill. Half-spreading her wings, she drifted across the courtyard garden, no more than another shadow in the night. Small creatures froze instinctively, trembling with terror, as her shadow passed silently over their heads like a highhunter on the prowl. She glided to a gentle landing on a rustic path behind a thick bush, aware that all the small rustlings and squeakings had stopped.
Michael wasn’t pushing the pace, she noticed. The young woman’s hand rested lightly in the crook of his arm, her skirts frothing over the steps as the couple descended the curving stair down to the short swathe of velvet lawn. They looked pretty together - as if they were meant to be - the blond head bent attentively toward the dark.
He slowed to a halt as they reached the path. “The stars are beautiful tonight,” Lise heard him murmur. “Look.” With gentle fingers, he tilted the girl’s chin up, brushing a cascade of ringlets back behind her ear as he did so.
In that, he was right enough. Lise glanced up at the Veil of the night sky. The single moon of Phoenix shone like the thinnest of sickles, sharpened to a razor’s edge. Over its shoulder, glittered a scatter of pinpricks - what the Grounded liked to call stars. To the Aetherii, they were rents in the Tattered Veil, glimpses of the all-consuming fire that was the primeval cosmos.
Michael indicated a small gazebo, situated a few yards farther on down the path and bowered in an exquisitely perfumed climbing vine. The blooms shone like tiny ghostly faces.
“Come sit with me a moment.” His voice was a light, beguiling tenor, full of warmth and promises unspoken.
The young woman tilted her head back, her profile perfectly presented to his gaze. “Sit?” Her gurgle of laughter was throaty, enticing. “Is that what you call it?”
Keep well and happy!













Fort frowned more ferociously than ever, one big finger running down a column of figures.
An era is over. Yes, Rackety Kate and the Pirates has finally come to an end. I know, I can’t believe it either. Kate has been with us since September 2007. More than two years. Wow! That’s a while to wait for your HEA and Kate was never exactly the patient type. *grin*



