Life as Jaime Dalton knows it is almost over. Come morning, she—the forbidden offspring of a human and a gryphon—will be owned body and soul by the First Dragon, ruler of the mythoi. He will control everything. What she wears, what she eats, when she sleeps. And with whom.
Determined to have a final fling, she seeks out the comfort of a stranger’s arms. Except he turns out to be “stranger” than he first appears.
Kaden Rhodes knows what it’s like to be owned. Before he follows his orders to escort Jaime to the same fate, he can’t resist joining her in one last act of defiance. Before the night is over, though, he finds she has inched her way under his skin.
Their connection is hot, fast, completely irresistible…and they’re playing with fire. Discovery will render them useless to the First Dragon. And those marked useless end up dead.Warning: This title contains wild sex, dark violence and irascible dragons who shift into brooding men. Oh, and the utter perversion of mythology.
You can buy and read an excerpt here.
It’s also available on Amazon Kindle
Category: Emergence
Excerpt: Emergence
An excerpt from Emergence, a Red Hot SF-futuristic from Samhain Publishing
Someone was staring at me. I could feel it as a warm, easy slide over my skin, and it forced me to suck in a quick breath. I straightened, pushing my shoulders back, and my nipples peaked. It was an unexpected reaction. My gryphon-half barely reacted to sexual stimuli; power in all its forms was what got her hot. I glanced to my left and found the heated, amber gaze of a man at the end of the long bar.
A ghost of a smile lifted his mouth, and he raised his bottle of lager. Light sparked gold in his dark hair and over the sharp beauty of his face. The shadow surrounding him melted into the darkness. There was a hint of wings and horns, a mythoi shadow even more nebulous than my own. I had to wonder if a full gryphon would be able to see his complete glory. This man was something truly ancient, and the half-gryphon in me wanted that intensity.
He pushed himself away from the counter and walked towards me with a slow, measured gait that made my heart pound. This wasn’t me. I didn’t react to men like this. I reacted to wealth, position, the promise of power. It was why dragons owned us, after all. They’d supplied mythoi energy to the countries of the world for the last century, found for them by the gryphons who craved it. Was that it? The inherent power in the man, in his mythoi, was unlike anything I’d ever felt before.
“What are you?” Inwardly, I groaned. Great way to look like a complete idiot.
He leaned an elbow against the counter, and the brush of his shadow against mine rushed a prickle of gooseflesh over my skin. “A lowly hybrid,” he murmured, and his hint of self-mockery pricked at me. “But you,” the tip of the bottle followed the blurred edges of my shadow in a lazy, skin-rippling caress, “golden and so, so strong.” The quick, unconscious wetting of his lips with the tip of his tongue had the urge to taste him, to sink my teeth into his firm, bottom lip, flushing heat under my skin. “Truly beautiful.”
“Are you a regular here?” He eased closer, the slide of his shadow over and through mine making my breath short and my chest tight. I turned to him, unable to stop myself. My question had been little more than a squeak, and I willed more strength into my voice. “Because really, if I’d known, I’d have come here more often.”
His finger brushed over my cheek, and the contact was electric. “Semi-regular.” He threaded through to my hair, holding me, his lips only inches from mine. “And I think we should take…this…away from mere mortals.”
“This?” The question came out on a little burst of air. “We’re at a…this…already?”
His quick grin warmed his amber eyes to a deep, intoxicating gold. “Aren’t we?” He put his beer bottle on the counter and took another step closer to me. The heat of his body brushed over me now, his spiced scent sliding into my lungs. “And there’s enough of the mythoi in both of us to have those pure-bloods falling on each other.” He paused, and my blood pounded in my ears as he focused on my mouth. The soft, rich murmur of his voice made me wet for him and nothing, nothing else mattered.
“And I don’t think that’s what they came for.”
“Is this what you came for?”
“Me? Yes.” His unhurried smile eased through me. “You’re irresistible.”
“So much flattery.”
“I am far from insincere.” The first brush of his lips against mine forced a gasp, maybe from both of us. “Trust me.”
“Who are you?”
“Kaden Rhodes.”
It wasn’t one of the family names I recognised, yet he sounded British…which didn’t make sense. Every one of the mythoi was catalogued—
“Thinking too much,” he murmured, and his mouth hovered over mine, so close everything else simply fell away. “Who I am isn’t important right now. What I want to do is.”
Kaden’s cooled fingers teased along my bare thigh, and the need to take his mouth fired through me. I’d come to the club for this, to find a man with whom to lose my final hours of freedom…but it felt too fast, and there was something else that had my nerves straining. Something about him burned as hungry and dangerous as the karkadann.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Second thoughts…?”
“Jaime.” Only the wild thud of my heart echoed in my ears. I didn’t want second thoughts. I wanted to be naked with this man as soon as possible. Hell, I was half gryphon. Having that much of the beast in my genome meant I could shift my shape and my mythoi came with a razor sharp beak, talons and wings. A smile curved my mouth. “I have a suite at the Waterfront Hotel.”
Kaden’s smile deepened and his eyes shone. His finger traced over my bottom lip, and the urge to tease him with my tongue tip rioted through me. “You’re rich?”
Was there something of the gryphon in him? The need for wealth, we couldn’t help it…but unfortunately, he was wrong. The First Dragon had liquefied all my assets, as meagre as they were, and taken them for himself, but not before I’d splurged on nights in a luxurious suite. It hadn’t made me forget that, in a few hours, he would own everything about me. “I’m treating myself on my last night of freedom.”
His eyes narrowed. “A final fling?”
My gut tightened, but he wasn’t pulling back. And really, it was best that the attractive stranger understood that our…this…could go nowhere. The First Dragon would choose my mate, if he let me take one at all. Only profitable gryphons bred after long service. Anyway, mythoi didn’t cross species to find a mate. I really had no clue what Kaden was.
I pulled in a slow breath. “My only fling. My life will get complicated tomorrow.”
“Then tonight will be simple.” He stood back and held out his hand. “Shall we?
Cover Love: Emergence
I seriously love and huggle Kanaxa. Here’s the cover she did for Emergence. It’s out with Samhain 15 June *grin* I also made ‘Red Hot’ status with this novella. Which is worth another quick bounce, lol
She just wanted to forget. What she gets is her destiny.
Life as Jaime Dalton knows it is almost over. Come morning, she—the forbidden offspring of a human and a gryphon—will be owned body and soul by the First Dragon, ruler of the mythoi. He will control everything. What she wears, what she eats, when she sleeps. And with whom.
Determined to have a final fling, she seeks out the comfort of a stranger’s arms. Except he turns out to be “stranger” than he first appears.
Kaden Rhodes knows what it’s like to be owned. Before he follows his orders to escort Jaime to the same fate, he can’t resist joining her in one last act of defiance. Before the night is over, though, he finds she has inched her way under his skin.
Their connection is hot, fast, completely irresistible…and they’re playing with fire. Discovery will render them useless to the First Dragon. And those marked useless end up dead.
Warning: This title contains wild sex, dark violence and irascible dragons who shift into brooding men. Oh, and the utter perversion of mythology.
Sneak Peek: Emergence – a naughty snippet
Blurb
Jaime has one night left before life, as she knows it, is over.
The forbidden offspring of a human and a mythoi, she’s lived her life with her human father. Until now. Come morning, the First Dragon, leader and ruler of the mythoi will own her. Her life will be completely under his control – what she wears, what she eats, when she sleeps. And with whom.
She’s determined to spend her last night in the comfort of a stranger’s arms. A final fling. However her stranger, Kaden Rhodes, is not who he appears to be and the connection growing between them is hot, fast and completely irresistible. They’re playing with their lives because if the First Dragon finds out about them…they’re dead.
Emergence (c) 2009 Kim Knox – unedited excerpt
“Who are you?” The question escaped after I dragged needed air into my lungs. My hand framed the hardness of his smooth jaw. His amber eyes had darkened and something sparked in their depths, a fire than made me want to strip him and fuck him. “What are you?”
“What you need.”
A chair clattered to the floor behind me and my backside hit the cool mahogany table. “That’s not an answer.”
A brief, hard smile cut his mouth and need for him tightened low in my belly. “Do you want to say why you want me here? Why you want to fuck a stranger?” His smile grew and something must’ve reflected in my eyes as he said, “I thought not.” He brushed tangled hair back from my forehead and the unexpected tenderness hurt my chest. I breathed past it. “So, till the morning, we’ll both have our secrets. Agreed?”
My throat ached and I couldn’t speak. I nodded, instead.
“Good.”
He tugged at my clinging top, pulling it over my head. Cool air brushed over my bare skin. The top slid from his fingers, dropped in a golden puddle on the carpet and Kaden let out a slow breath. My nipples hardened under his intense gaze and everything in me ached for his warm lips, his tongue to find my skin and lick—
“Here on the table?”
“You want to eat, instead?”
The smile he turned on me then, wicked, possessive squeezed my heart. “Later. I promise.” He leaned over me, his lips close to mine. “Right now, I want you.”
I resisted the urge to cover his mouth with mine. If I was getting naked, then I wanted to run my fingers, my tongue over the smooth muscles hinted at under his shirt. “Then you have too many clothes.”
His fingers moved and the shirt joined mine on the floor. My own hands, nervous, eager, reached for him and Kaden shivered under the first touch of my fingertips over the rippled hardness of his stomach. His breath warmed my cheek. “Better?”
“Almost.”
“You want more?”
“I want all of you.”
Kaden grinned. “I can do that.” His smile turned evil and he traced a slow, shuddering path over my ribs to the thin-banded edge of my skirt. He made quick work of the zip. I wriggled and the skirt, and my underwear, joined the growing pile on the floor “Though you first.”
“So it seems.” His hands were already moving to his trousers and my fingers covered his, joining him in pushing the heavy fabric away from his hot, smooth skin. I traced my fingers along his cock, my thumb teasing over the sensitive head and Kaden hissed. “Ready?”
He laughed and gripped my hips. “Isn’t that obvious?”
My thighs held him, my calves sliding over the hard, hot muscle of his legs, tugging him closer. This first time would be fast, fierce and my blood pounded at the thought. I guided him, teasing his cock over my wet flesh, little sparks of need firing under my skin as I made both of us ache for more.
“Jaime…”
My name was a soft growl and his shadow thickened around him, encasing us, vast wings cocooning my own shadow, melting over it. The feeling was…bliss, deepening at the first push of his hips, of the slow, slow tease of him into my body.
Kaden’s ragged breaths rushed warm over my mouth and his darkened eyes held me. “We need to fuck you. Right now. Hard.”
“We?”
“My…” He sucked in a breath and I had to have imagined his pause, when he rolled his hips. The sensation of him hard and deep within my body rioted in my flesh and I groaned. “My shadow. It wants yours.”
I blinked. The idea seemed forbidden…and delicious. “We…” He distracted me with a palm sliding up my spine, pressing me hard to his chest. His mouth brushed my jaw, my chin. He nibbled at my bottom lip and the urge to deepen the kiss, to find a fast and furious release warred with my need to question him. The question won. “How? I’ve never…”
“I know.” The satisfaction thickening his voice had me pushing against him. He groaned and his teeth sank, hard, sharp. The sudden pleasure-pain forced me to grab at him, pull him tight against my body. “Let us share both of you.” The words brushed my skin and my shadow stretched, her curiosity peaked. “Don’t deny yourself this pleasure.”
Thanks for reading. 🙂
This story is out next June with Samhain Publishing
Sale! Emergence to Samhain Publishing *bounce*
Samhain bought my futuristic dragon/gryphon shifter novella *bounce*
Here’s an unofficial blurb *grin* It has a tentative date of June 2010
Jaime has one night left before life, as she knows it, is over.
The forbidden offspring of a human and a mythoi, she’s lived her life with her human father. Until now. Come morning, the First Dragon, leader and ruler of the mythoi will own her. Her life will be completely under his control – what she wears, what she eats, when she sleeps. And with whom.
She’s determined to spend her last night in the comfort of a stranger’s arms. A final fling. However her stranger, Kaden Rhodes, is not who he appears to be and the connection growing between them is hot, fast and completely irresistible. They’re playing with their lives because if the First Dragon finds out about them…they’re dead.
KIM KNOX 