To celebrate the release of FIRST KNIGHT, I’m running a contest.
Be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a handmade ribbon-and-bead bookmark and a signed copy of the backlisted book of your choice from my Ellora’s Cave selection.

For some of y’all who may only have read my contemporary stories, you may not know that I LOVE dabbling in a medieval tale. They are my personal favorites to read, and I collect history books about the time period like my mother does hobnail glassware.

I’ve wanted to dive into the My Immortal Knight series again, but I wanted to do something different with it, so I took the story back, way back. And I thought it might be fun to tell a parallel storyline of troubles in the past, that may spill over into my knights’ present at some time. These prequel stories will have everything you loved about the MIKs—uber-alpha heroes, feisty heroines and dangers lurking nearby. This particular story develops into a very sexy threesome.

I hope you enjoy my little leap of faith. The story releases on Wednesday, and I’d love to hear your impressions and whether you will want more.

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While hiding her true identity, Maddie must seduce the mysterious Lord Garon to cement their marriage contract to ensure she won’t be returned into her lecherous stepfather’s care.

Fresh from Crusade in Palestine, Lord Garon has a secret he must hide, a hunger that must be fed, and a dark and uncertain future. Having shed himself of a fiancée he never met, he’s home to lick his wounds. The only thing he wants is a warm-blooded meal—but the new housekeeper is strangely insistent on giving him much more.

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Garon approached her, stopping in front of her, forcing her gaze to rise. When he was assured he had her full attention, he bent toward her. “There will be no more secrets. If you have any left for me to discover, you will tell me now.”

Maddie’s wide, wet eyes reflected regret, but the longer he hovered over her, the deeper her breaths became.

Her tongue darted out to wet her lips. “I have but one secret, husband.” She leaned close enough he caught the heady aroma of her arousal. Her cheeks flushed. “I think you know it already.”

“Are you attempting to distract me, wife?”

Her eyelashes swept down. “Am I?”

“You only delay your punishment,” he murmured, breathing in her scent and hardening.

Her belly rubbed against him, sliding over his rising cock. “You delay our pleasure.”
Garon ground his teeth. “Remove your clothes.”

The corners of her mouth twitched, but she stepped back and shed her clothing slowly. When she stood nude in front of him, he bit back a groan. Her small, round breasts quivered with each ragged inhalation.

He raised his hand, palm up. She slid hers over it. When he wrapped his fingers tightly around it, she only breathed more deeply.

“I should beat you,” he growled.

Her eyelids drifted down. Her head tilted, mouth pouting for a kiss. “Should you?”

“You endangered this keep, our people.”

Her eyes widened and she stared at his face. “I believed in you.” She licked her lips
again. “You won’t beat me.”

He firmed his jaw. “No. Never. But don’t take that as lenience.”

“I won’t. I promise. No more secrets.”

He led her to the bed, debated turning her over his knee, but his cock throbbed with need. He knew a better way to bring her to submission.

#
Garon was so quiet Maddie worried he was truly displeased with her. She almost blurted out that she would get him a switch when he pushed her to the bed, facedown.

Her breath left her, and she didn’t get a chance to draw a deeper one because he stretched on top of her, holding her down.

The heat rolling off his skin was like standing next to a hearth. His cock, thick and pulsing, rested in the crevice of her buttocks—an embarrassing predicament.

She held her breath, wondering what he planned.

“Your heart beats so fast,” he whispered. “Are you afraid?”

“Of you? No. Of me…yes.”

“Why, sweetling?” He kissed the top of her shoulder then raked the edge of one of his fangs along her skin, causing her to shiver.

“Because I want you. Because I don’t know what to ask.”

“I shouldn’t come inside you. ‘Tis too soon.”

“And yet my body weeps.”

He nuzzled the spot beneath her ear, suctioning on the skin.

Maddie moaned and undulated, or tried to. He really was too heavy for her to drag in a deep breath, much less roll her bottom against him. “Can we not try?”

She almost didn’t recognize the thin, greedy sound of her own voice.

Garon slid a knee between her legs and she widened them, offering him space, offering her woman’s folds, which swelled and heated, growing slick with what she knew now was a woman’s pleasure.

His cock prodded against her opening.

“Can we do this? With you at my back?”

“If I move away you must come to your knees.”

She understood the mechanics, had seen a boar and sow copulate in such a manner. “You must move…”

His lips tugged at her earlobe. “So little patience.”

“And you have so much?”

His grunt sounded like a snort of laughter and Maddie warmed. She doubted it was a common occurrence and felt gratitude that this was something she could give him. She gave a deep sigh.

“Are you bored?”

“I am waiting,” she said, clipping her words.

“Should your pleasure be of greater import than my own?”

“As we’re married, shouldn’t mine be equal in importance?”

“Since I still have to punish you for your many transgressions, I think you should learn a little temperance.”

“I should warn you, since I’ve promised not to hold any secrets from you, that I’ve never been able to hold my tongue. And I’m not very feminine in my views.”

“Since you’ve had the running of my estate these past months, I will concede there is some value in having an unfeminine partner. That doesn’t mitigate the issue of your punishment.”

She stirred beneath him, her sex growing damper and clasping his cockhead. She wished he’d decide her punishment and get on with it, because her body was beginning to quiver and tense with need. “Garon,” she groaned.

“What’s that?”

“Stop teasing. Please.”

He lifted away from her—so quickly, her eyes shot open and she got her hands beneath her to lift her chest and look behind her.

He bent over the edge of the bed then came back with a belt in his hand.

Her heart tripped. “But you said you’d never strike me.”

“And I won’t. Ever. But, sweetling, I said nothing about binding you for my pleasure.”

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Read about when Maddie and Garon first meet