A Hero's Bargain by Rayne Forrest

Welcome to Twenty-Six Keys, the My Sexy Saturday Blog Hop, and the announcement of the re-release of A Hero's Bargain! 

When Ryder crash lands on an alien world, Saba saves his life - for a price. To save her people, Saba needs him to kill the deadly errol, and the only coin she has to offer him is her body. 

Here are seven sexy paragraphs from A Hero's Bargain.

^_^_^_^_^_^

“You will heal but it will take time,” Saba told him with far more calm than she felt.

Ryder hissed, pressing his hands to his stomach. Alarmed, she jumped up. Quick as a snake, he had her again, one hand fisting in her hair, trapping her.

“Heal me, then.”

His mouth came down on hers with bruising force. She pushed against him but he was too strong. His tongue swept over her lips and suddenly, escaping him wasn’t important. Deep in her belly her womb contracted. Need, hot and sweet, throbbed with each beat of her racing heart.

His kiss gentled, coaxing her now with a soft plea to answer him. Her arms slid around his neck. Her lips opened. There was a low rumble in his chest as his arms tightened around her. Awareness of her surroundings faded. All she knew was his lips moving on hers and his warm hand slowly caressing her back. She was caught in the spell he wove, floating in some dark place where her body spoke to her of aching loneliness and whispered its hope of fulfillment.

Softly, ever so softly, the kiss ended. His lips left hers, lingering a hairsbreadth away. His hands slid to her hips, grasping them with strong fingers and pulling her to him. The hard ridge of his manhood greeted her. She looked into his eyes, gone black with desire.

      “You’ll come to my bed first. Then I’ll talk to Tyree about my weapons.”

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More about A Hero's Bargain:

When a poker game turns ugly, erstwhile gambler Ryder Vaughan runs for his life. After crash landing his ship on an unknown world it looks like his life will be a short one - until the lovely healer, Saba Duer, finds him and saves him. Smitten, Saba has no qualms allowing Ryder to seduce her.

In Ryder, Saba sees the coming of a hero to save her people. The deadly errol that has terrorized the Ramalho Clan for so many years has been spotted on a course that will bring it to the village. Ryder has a weapon that could destroy the creature. She strikes a bargain with him to secure his help. Ryder’s not yet well and whole, but there is no choice. Saba has to let him go and face the truth – she’s sent him on a mission to die.

                     

But Ryder has a plan - and dying isn’t a part of it.

A HERO'S BARGAIN

(second edition)

Available now at Amazon

For a full excerpt, please visit my website.

Rayne Forrest

http://www.rayneforrest.com

Available today - Step Into Tomorrow

They say good things come to those who wait, and I've waited a long time to get this story to a worthy publisher. Enjoy!

Step Into Tomorrow
futuristic time travel/erotic romance
Rayne Forrest
available now at Amber Quill Press

http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/413-Step-Into-Tomorrow.aspx

Rhys St. Clair is the best of a select group of highly trained time specialists. When events in the layers of time run amok, it’s his job to step through the Matrix and fix the problem. A mistake in his calculations sends him back to the year 1996 and nets him more than he ever bargained for – Sophia Townsend.

Sophia Townsend needs a life makeover. When a confused stranger shows up inside her home, with no idea of where he is, or even what year it is, it doesn’t take Sophia long to figure out the man in her living room is the most interesting guy she’s ever met, and the sexiest, too.

When Rhys whisks her away, Sophia isn’t sure if she’s been kidnapped, or if the handsome stranger is taking her on the greatest adventure of her life. When the truth catches up to them, Rhys has only one thing left to offer her – but only if she’s brave enough to step into tomorrow with him.

INTRO
“I could’ve done better.”

“No doubt. You’ve had practice. Now open that fancy atlas you bought and figure out where we can stop for the night, because we’re stopping as soon as it gets dark. I want off this main thoroughfare before we lose the light, too.”

Sophia gave him a surprised look then grabbed up the book and started rapidly flipping through the pages.

Rhys hoped she realized they would share a room tonight. And a bed. He couldn’t let her out of his sight. It was too risky. She’d bolt like the hounds of Hell were after her. Thank all deities she’d never see the real thing. They’d blocked the way out of the lower layers of time known as Hell.

The thought of being in a bed with her, even if he stayed on top of the covers while she was under them, brought his cock to attention. The memory of her beneath him burned in his blood. He wanted her, and he had five years to get her. Starting tonight would work out just fine.

“Oh, and find a place that has, um, what’s it called? Room service? I’m hungry.”

“Eat your crackers if you need food,” she shot back. “We can cross the state line and look for a place. Crossing the state line makes you a worse sort of felon or something.”

“Really? You mean I might become wanted by NASA?”

She groaned. “Why me? Why does it always have to be me? Why do I get the good ones?” She finally shifted in her seat to face him. “It’s the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rhys. The F-B-I. Not NASA. NASA is the people who go into outer space. You know outer space. Isn’t that where you came from? Didn’t Scotty beam you down?”

His hands clenched around the steering wheel as he gave her the truth.

“No, beautiful. I didn’t come here from outer space. I came from the seventeenth layer of time. Oz.”

EXCERPT

Rhys had only one option. Well, two, but letting them arrest him wouldn’t work. What would happen when he vanished without a trace from a holding cell one bright, sunny day? He went back to the bed and crawled back under the sheet.
He had to put his arms around her one more time before he sent her back to her life. He gathered her close. “Sophie. Wake up, beautiful.”

She opened sleepy eyes and blinked. Gods, she looked like a woman who’d been fucked, and well, all night long.

He lowered his lips to hers and poured everything he had into the kiss. All the wonder of the night spent in her arms, all his longing for a life with her. All his regret.

She clung to him, returning his kiss with awakening passion and her own longing. He pulled away.

“Sophie, the authorities are outside. You need to get dressed and walk out of here like nothing ever happened. Tell them you needed to get away for a night, and you’re going home.”

Her face paled. “I won’t leave you! What will you do? Where will you go?”
“You have to leave me. I’ll be fine. I’ll go out away from civilization and put down a marker. Hector will find me and get me home.”

“I can’t go home! There’s nothing there for me.”

He hesitated. More than anything, he wanted to be with her. But what had to be, had to be. They had to go their separate ways. It was the only solution—for her. She deserved better than him.

“There’s no time and no choice. Go home, beautiful. Go back to your life.”

“No. We’ve got to think of something else.” She pushed him away. He mourned the loss of her touch, for his arms that would be empty for the rest of his life—without the chance to really know her.

“Don’t fight me on this. I’ve already done you enough harm. Forget about me. Forget you ever knew me.”


Step Into Tomorrow
ISBN-13: 978-1-61124-051-1
futuristic time travel/erotic romance
available now at Amber Quill Press
http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/413-Step-Into-Tomorrow.aspx


Rayne Forrest
Visit my website: http://www.rayneforrest.com
Read my personal blog: http://twentysixkeys.blogpspot.com
Check out the MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/rayneforrest
Join my mailing list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/authorrayneforrest
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A new season

1There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8


When I stop moving, stop working, stop hustling and bustling around, these ancient words always come to mind. In typical fashion, I usually remember the opening in reverse, “for everything there is a time,” but I don’t think that matters too much. It doesn’t change the meaning of the words, or how I apply them to my life. Most recently, my life has seen a season of trying new things, and laying the groundwork for my last working years. A time to plant, as it were.

At a glance, those two things might seem to be at odds, but my life is one of polar opposites. Maybe it’s because I’m a Gemini. Anyway, I’ve gone through a time of serious home improvement work with new roof shingles, the installation of a central air conditioning system, and now a roof over my patio. All of this was done to ‘feather my nest’ in preparation of scaling back and working less hours. If the economy cooperates, it may actually happen.

It’s been difficult to be away from the writing, but it was important to accomplish these items without incurring any debt. I love to write! It defines who I am in ways nothing else does. Yes, I’m someone’s wife, someone’s best friend, someone’s daughter, but that defines me in relation to another. That I am a writer defines me to myself.

So, a season of hard work is behind me, one I don’t regret experiencing. I learned something every step of the way, which I consider important. I’ve eased into a season of taking better care of myself so I can once again tap into that central part of me and let the words flow. I’m more than a little excited at the prospect.

Where should I go first? What new characters await me? Can I attain the new goals I seek? I will if it is my season to do so. I’ve scattered so many stones along the way. It could be my time to gather them together and shore up old bridges even as I build new ones.

As exciting as it is to move forward again, it’s also daunting. The mistakes of the past, the ones that made it easy to set aside my keyboard for a small space of time, will always plague me. In the epublishing business, those mistakes were, and remain, visible. All I can do is set them behind me, and hope the lessons learned were not in vain. It is time to trust that the right people will come into my life.

And it’s time to trust that you are still there, waiting for a story.

Rayne
http://www.rayneforrest.com