My latest release is actually a re-release of the first erotic
romance I ever wrote. It's a story about a young native man who falls
for a woman who is not the same as him and doesn't belong to his tribe.
He goes against his father's wishes and tradition to meet the woman.
Once he's in her village though, he's soon captured and held against his
will by the young woman's cruel master.
In the Willow Woods weaves together magic and romance, blending in a
lot of historical tidbits from cultures around the world. It is loosely
based in a Viking era, but the underlying magic in the story gives it
something unique. It's a coming of age romance that is sweet despite its
eroticism. I hope readers will enjoy Nainie and Tiir's love story this
second time around.
My inspiration for writing this story came from watching a lot of
documentaries on native people. Culture, especially when it is people
who live close to the land and do not rely on modern day conveniences,
has always fascinated me. It's the simplicity of the hard work, the day
to day struggle to survive and the appreciation of life each day that I
find endearing. It is something those of us in modern day
entrapments can still relate to. Things go wrong, and we can either
accept that and keep at it, or give up. Despite the trials and failures
thrown in the paths of the hero and heroine in this story, they both
continue to push on and make the best of what they have.
In the process, they find love and friendship, family, a home they
build themselves, and a future full of possibilities. In the Willow
Woods is as timeless as a romance today.
BLURB:
Step
into the magic of the Willow Woods where Nainie, the son of a dryad and
a shadow spirit, has come of age to take a wife. He longs for the woman
in white who lives across the river, but venturing beyond his clan’s
boundaries is forbidden...and dangerous.
Even before their first
kiss, Nainie knows Tiir is the only woman for him. The ripples in the
river move toward her rather than away. Her eyes are like the lake when
the noonday sun touches the water’s surface, blue and placid, bespeaking
another place far from the stone city where she resides. She is
different, but he feels she is the same as him—one who stands apart from
those of her clan.
They come from different worlds—his, a
wilderness life of magic, promiscuity, and cultural hierarchy—hers, a
mysterious stone walled village he is not allowed to enter. After
gathering his courage, he crosses the wall and finds himself in a cold,
ordered world of slavery to a cruel master. Ensnared in her master’s
hold and unable to get word to Tiir that he is being held captive,
Nainie must rely on the kindness of strangers to plan his escape and
find her again.
Excerpt:
Nainie crossed his hands in his lap and leaned forward, watching the
mysterious woman from his vantage, hidden among the draping branches of a
willow. Sea green leaves caressed his bare arms and tickled his back.
His thick strands of looping black hair waved in the light breeze,
forcing him to brush aside tendrils that fell in his eyes and shrouded
his view. He dropped his hand and squinted at her pale brilliance. The
woman wore white, a swathe of pale cotton fabric that hugged her curves
and covered her so much that it offered her modesty—a rare thing in his
clan. Every morning he ran from his village in the willow woods and
climbed this same tree, his bare feet gripping the gnarled trunk and his
fingers lodging in each available crevice until he reached this same
lookout.
I wish I knew her name. A smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
She
knelt beside the river, her eyes downcast and her honey-colored hair
drifting just as unruly in the breeze as his. The woman pulled the
leather strap from her shoulder and dipped her head beneath it in order
to retrieve the clay jug balanced on her back. The ripples across the
river moved toward her rather than away, a small detail that entranced
him.
Nainie puckered his lips in a wind whisper when the side of
her fabric wrap fell off her left shoulder, revealing more of her fair
skin and the top of her small, round breast. She dipped the jug into the
water and waited. The water filled fast. After pulling the jug free,
she wiped the lip with delicate fingers. The woman adjusted her
clothing, hiding her body, and he pouted at the loss of such a tempting
view.
Beyond the white plastered wall, her clan called to her in
feminine voices and Nainie sighed, disappointed. She would go, as she
always did, and he’d not see her until the following morning.
He swung his bare feet in mid-air, waiting for her to hurry along the stone-lined path.
Her clan is unusual, he decided.
People should live in the open, not behind rocks.
When
she disappeared beyond the high berry bushes, he slid forward and
dropped to the ground, landing with ease on the thick blanket of leaves
covering the willow wood floor. The tassels on the edges of his
loincloth tickled his legs. He glanced over his shoulder. The stone path
the woman took wound away from the river’s edge, and he could see the
smooth prints her sandaled feet left behind. “Strange,” he whispered.
“If I separated my skin from the earth, how would I know what lay
beneath me?”
He shrugged and ran his hand through his hair.
“Tomorrow,” he said to the breeze. He knew he wouldn’t approach the
woman. The thought always dwindled and vanished when he returned home to
his own clan. He twisted his arms, stretching his waist before he burst
into a steady run.
Willow branches whipped past him like
leaf-crusted snakes. He dodged them, his bare feet soundless over the
ground. Chasing his shadow all the way home came as second nature just
as his ability to blend with and become a creature of shadows. Nainie
was not like the others in his clan; he couldn’t shift into the shape of
trees although he could hear their voices on the winds. He longed to
find a woman like him, one who stood apart as he did.
Soon he
smelled the single fire in the bointpit. He slowed and inhaled the
scents of his clan, tanned leathers, roasting meat, and the sweet
perfume of the maidens who wove jaiga flowers into their hair. Nainie
stopped at the edge of the village.
Three longhouses made of wood
and mud mixed with fallen leaves stood around the bointpit. In time, he
knew he would stand there and take his first wife. He blushed at the
thought and wondered who his father would choose.
I want the river girl, he thought. His body burned at the thought of her. He clenched his fists and frowned.
What would it be like to taste her lips? To touch her skin?
This is a quick peek into the world of Hell's Gate, asupernatural fetish club. Here we find Amelia and Barrett getting to know one another a little bit with Barrett sharing his fetish with her.
