RavenVampireClub

A Touch of Magic

Author: Cassandra Kane

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Genre: Futuristic Romance

Publication Date: 31 October 2006

All Rights Reserved. © 2006 Cassandra Kane

Blurb:

Captain Tirana Albasta leads the last scouting mission to mystery planet Samhain, which has already swallowed two previous missions and a starship full of New Wiccan colonists, Lalith's People.

Determined to keep the planet from UA Special Forces' harsh military control, Tirana finds much more than she expected. For the descendants of Lalith's People have split into to separate societies - the anti-magic Priests and the magical True People - and she has just been caught in the crossfire.

Complicating matters is her attraction to Loren, the broodingly handsome True People witch who ignites passions she has never experienced before, and who just might make leaving Samhain impossible in more ways than one ...

Excerpt:

Tirana was dragged down into a vortex of cold water, spun and twisted, dragged downwards to the bottom of the pool. Her chest burned as she expelled her last breath and a freezing cold wrapped itself around her. She flailed her arms, mouth open in a silent scream, trying to hold on to anything that would keep her from the relentless pull of the current.

Something hard gripped her wrist, hauled her up through the water. She broke the surface with a desperate gasp, drawing the air deep into her burning lungs. An arm caught her around the chest as she gulped in air, drew her to the edge of the pool, pulled her out. On all fours, she vomited a lungful of water into the sand as Loren smoothed back her hair.

She spluttered, wiping water from her face, looked up at him. “Thank you.”

“If I had known you found me so distasteful you would rather risk death than my arms, we could have bathed safely in the pool.”

Tirana flinched at the coldness of his tone, the edge of anger on every careful word. She had meant to get away from the intensity of her own feelings, had almost killed herself by that childish and foolish reflex. And she had hurt him, when he had done nothing. Nothing but desire her.

“I’m sorry.” She touched his arm. He drew away, the look in his eyes distant and dismissing, and rose to his feet.

“We’ll go to Laliata now.” He reached for her comms suit from the pile of clothing, threw it so it landed beside her in the sand.

“No.” Panic made her voice harsh as she stumbled to her feet and faced him. He ignored her, crouching as he gathered up his boots and sifted through the pile for his trousers. “You haven’t shown me the hekarten-jal yet.”

“There will be no hekarten-jal.” Loren lifted his trousers and shook off the sand.

A piercing scream filled the cave. She saw deLoren hopping from foot to foot in a dance of anger on the rocks above the waterfall. Loren winced. Then his face set hard as he flicked a hand at deLoren. The creature toppled backwards onto the rock.

“Loren!” Tirana stared at him in shock. Somehow Loren had made deLoren fall, she was sure of it. A lash of anger that should have been directed at her.

In a temper, she tore the trousers from his grasp. “I said I’m sorry. What more do you want?”

“My clothes.” His face was impassive, eyes hooded.

Furious, she cupped the back of his neck and dragged his head down to her. Her lips burrowed into his cold mouth, prodded at an unresponsive tongue. She growled in frustration, catching his fleshy lower lip in her teeth, pulling and nipping. She glared at him, saw the flash of anger in his eyes, lowered both hands and gripped his cock. It jumped to stiff attention in her grasp.

Loren shoved her back. Then his hand clamped over her wrist. He turned on his heel, storming off into the darkness at the far side of the pool.

“Loren!” Her feet skidded in the sand as she tried to tug her arm free from his iron grip. Darkness enveloped them, and a moment later they were in another warm passage. Here the rock glowed red around them. There was a low round entrance at the end, so small Loren had to bend his head to enter. She barely had time to duck under the rock as he dragged her after him

“Here!” Loren pushed her into the cave before him.

She stumbled and fell. Her hands landed on a soft, cushiony substance the texture of cotton candy. A soft cloud of fibers stretched over the floor of a small cave, warm and snug like a cocoon. Or the pulsing red insides of a womb, for the walls were covered in glittering red lichen.

Loren fell to his knees behind her, hooked her legs apart, and slipped his stiff member between her thighs, resting the hard shaft on the slit of her sex. He hauled her up and slid his hands around to cup her breasts, squeezing them. She gasped at the pleasure/pain as Loren lowered his mouth to her ear.

“This is the hekarten-jal,” he growled, his hot breath fanning her face. “The mating place.”

Heat spurted at her core as he said the words. Mating. This was what he’d wanted all along. What she’d wanted since she’d set eyes on him back at the stone circle but had been too cowardly to even admit to herself. Until now.

Read More: http://www.samhainpublishing.com/atouchofmagic.shtml