Terms of Surrender (43 page)

Genesis immediately stopped moving, felt Alex convulsing between her legs, his fingernails driving deep into her hipbones where he held her fast.

It is not too late, cannot be too late. He is alive. He is not a dry empty husk…

She glanced down at him as his shudders subsided, shocked when she saw his face changing from feline to human to feline and finally back to human again. She looked further to see fine, shiny black fur receding back into his upper body, the hair on his head withdrawing back to its original close cropped length.

Genesis put her hands on his shoulders and shook him when her shock subsided. "Alex!"

He opened his eyes, a beatific expression shining out of their amber depths as he stared at her and rasped, "More, Gen. I want more of you. I need more."

REVIEWS for
Guardian Seductress

"
Guardian Seductress
is the first book in a series about the sexy Sisters of Emsharra and it is a winner! Gracie C. McKeever has done an exceptional job of world building as the reader is immediately drawn into Genesis and Alex's plight. Their romance is both sweet and spicy and readers will cheer Genesis for being willing to break the social taboos of her culture that amount to nothing more than a form of racism against humans. The sex scenes are tasteful but steamy and sure to heat up anyone's warm night!

Gracie C. McKeever does a wonderful job of explaining the intricate details of the world of the Inanna and Sebitu. Explanations for concepts such as kundalini, the life force necessary for survival, are all provided in the context of the story as well as in a very useful glossary at the end. The idea of the conservation of humans was an interesting twist and one this reviewer had never seen before. Kalika had high hopes for Alex as she envisioned him as solving both the problem of a shrinking food supply as well as ending the war on the borders between the Inanna and the Sebitu.

Readers of urban fantasy and erotica would do well to take a peek at
Guardian
Seductress: Sisters of Emsharra, Book 1
. The story is both highly enjoyable as well as thought provoking. Gracie C. McKeever is obviously a gifted writer and it is well worth adventuring into her fantasy realm to explore the world of the Sisters of Emsharra.
4.5

Klovers
" —
Anne,
CK2SKwipsandKritiques.com

"I was surprised at how much I enjoyed
Sisters of Emsharra 1: Guardian Seductress
. It was loaded with action, titillating sexual encounters, and most of all, a good romantic plot line.

No matter what was happening around Alex and Genesis, they never stopped eyeing each other as if they were a double scoop of Moose Tracks ice cream...I really liked the characters and the story. Both Alex and Genesis seemed so lonely that I could not help but hope they would find something in the other that could cure their solitary existence. In one way or another, they were always on the outside looking in. That was what made them perfect for each other. I was hooked on these characters and the world they lived in. This was my first time reading Gracie C. McKeever and I'm betting it will not be the last time. I found
Sisters of Emsharra 1: Guardian Seductress
thoroughly enjoyable.
4.5 Stars
" —
Suni
Farrar,
Just Erotic Romance Reviews

"
Guardian Seductress
is a chill-tingling fantastic read. Genesis has strong characteristics throughout as she keeps Alex in her care at all costs, and Alex is interesting as he tries to come to terms with the crisis landed in his lap. Ms. McKeever pens a fabulous tale. When Alex was confronted with the woman with hazel eyes, I think I was just as frightened as he was. I kept looking for claw like fingers to jump from the pages. Ms. McKeever fashions a gripping story that this reader enjoyed very much and look for the others in the series.
4

Cups
" —
Cherokee,
Coffee Time Romance

"
Guardian Seductress
is a shape-shifting, paranormal, fantasy thrill ride that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Genesis is different in so many ways and all the things she can do will shock and amaze you. She is attracted to Alex and tries to fight it, but as usual that never lasts long. Alex can’t believe what Genesis tells him and thinks she’s nuts, until he experiences first hand just what she can do. He has no clue about his past or what happened with his mother and Genesis is there to make sure he finds out. I have read several books by Gracie McKeever and each one has its own appeal. Her writing is creative and readers will love her flair for intrigue.
4 Blue Ribbons
" —
Angel,
Romance Junkies

"Welcome to the world of Emsharra, a world set in a parallel universe where the warring Inanna and Sebitu races, both of whom live off of human energy, have formed an uneasy truce due to the depletion of their human food supply. Ms. McKeever has created a vividly imaginative world, complete with its own language and culture, and
Guardian Seductress
is an impressive introduction into that new world. This story truly provokes the thought of what if there was life out there besides us and we were the prey rather than the hunter.

While this reviewer would have liked to see certain portions of the book developed a little further, especially the back story surrounding Alex’s conception and the somewhat contrived instantaneous acceptance of Alex by his royal grandmother, this brief but powerful tale took this reviewer on a wild ride through a fantastical tale that will resonate long after the last page is turned. Genesis is strength personified and Alex proves to be her match in all ways.

This story is hot, hot, hot and any reader that likes fantasy and doesn’t mind explicit language and sex will absolutely love this tale as much as this reviewer did!
4 Hearts
"
—

Leah,
LoveRomancesandMore.com

STORY EXCERPT

PREDATOR’S SALVATION

Sisters of Emsharra, Book 2

By Gracie C. McKeever

Copyright © 2006

Mateo couldn’t help feeling as if he was being led down a dark and lonely path he really didn’t want to pursue or explore.

He paused at the passenger side door of Alex’s car and waited for Alex to disengage the power locks. His heartbeat sped when he caught the sudden, spicy-sweet scent of cinnamon on the air, as if someone were baking a cake nearby with the ingredient generously sprinkled in. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and an icy-hot liquid sensation of lust settled in his groin in response to the enticing aroma.

Mateo sniffed the air more thoroughly, looked at Alex to confirm that he had smelled the scent too and saw Alex frown as if confused.

Mateo had an instant to glance up right before something swooped down towards them from the indigo, star-dappled sky, something large enough to be a person, but with wings spanning five feet across from either side of its back.

Definitely not human, but definitely a female.

Mateo thought it right before the woman dive-bombed towards him, arms outstretched in front of her as if she were some sort of super-heroine.

He had a moment to step away from the car and hear Alex’s warning cry of “Look out, Matt! Duck!” before the woman hooked her arms beneath his armpits, scooped him up, and took off for the sky again.

“Oh, shit…Mateo! Matt!”

Okay, this could
not
be happening! He wasn’t soaring a hundred yards off the ground with Alex yelling through cupped hands and chasing after him from the parking lot of McDougall’s. A woman with humongous wings had not just swooped out of the sky and grabbed him. No, siree!

Mateo glanced up at his abductor, but she didn’t look at him, just kept her eyes straight ahead as she flapped those big bat-like wings and acted as if he wasn’t suspended below her.

“Hey! Hey…you!” What exactly was he going to say? ‘Put me down’ didn’t seem like such a good idea when she was soaring over rooftops as if she had a hang glider attached to her back.

“Silence, human. We will be at our destination shortly.”

What the hell was that? A line out of a Shakespearean play he hadn’t read? She certainly spoke in the same stilted accent.

Christ, he hated heights!

Here’s a hint, Matt. Don’t look down.

He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth to try to make the sick feeling in his stomach go away.

Mateo opened his eyes, couldn’t help himself, as they glided over a deserted area of the city in Lower Manhattan. From what he could make out by the light of the moon, it looked like some place in TriBeCa with converted lofts and narrow streets dominating the immediate area.

She aimed for the roof of one of the warehouses and smoothly landed.

As soon as his feet touched the rooftop pavement, Mateo tried to make a run for it but was stopped in his tracks by a green force field that completely encircled him after he’d taken only two steps forward.

He scowled at his kidnapper through the bubble prison as she circled him, hands clasped behind her back. He thought there was something oddly familiar about her, about the way she looked at him.

He pummeled the capsule with his fists, and she smiled at him like an indulgent parent watching her baby throw a fit of temper in his crib.

“Let me out of here!”

She raised a fist in front of her as if in a Black Panther salute and twisted it back and forth a couple of times, her movements unhurried and strangely erotic. “You will sleep now,” she murmured.

They were the last words Mateo heard before he passed out.

ADULT EXCERPT

PREDATOR’S SALVATION

Sisters of Emsharra, Book 2

By Gracie C. McKeever

Copyright © 2006

Mateo stared at her back as she walked away from him to the stainless steel kitchen in the distance. He tried to see if he could spot the wings she had used to fly away with him, but there was nothing except the mahogany smoothness of her well-muscled back.

His fingers itched with the memory of how that smooth skin felt beneath them, as if he had been with her before, inside her, too many times to count, and craved to do it all again.

He let his gaze lazily drift down her six-foot tall, hour-glass figure from the gentle slope of her bare back to the slim curve of her waist and finally to her endless legs encased in painted-on burgundy leather pants and matching knee-high boots.

Despite his precarious state, Mateo felt his cock hardening in his boxer briefs, fantasized about putting his dick in her slick, hot cunt. What was
wrong
with him?

She turned back to him then, hazel eyes glinting with insight, leering as she stalked across the burnished parquet floor.

She sat at his bedside. “I am LaMia Enlil, and there is nothing at all wrong with you except that you are a healthy, red-blooded male.”

What was this? Formal introductions before she killed him? And damn, he wished she would stop dipping inside his head like that!

He used to think it was cute as well as advantageous to know other people’s feelings, especially girls he was involved with as a late teen. He had, however, gotten over his psychic voyeurism years ago when, at twenty, he’d experienced his then girlfriend’s severe menstrual cramps. He’d snooped because they’d argued earlier in the day and he had thought she was just using her period as an excuse to get out of having sex with him. He had been sorry for his mistrust ever since.

LaMia was more outright and rude with her snooping than he had ever been though, and he didn’t like it one bit. He didn’t like someone like her tooling around in his brain and knowing every little thing he was thinking.

“Contrary to your assumptions, I am not rude. I am merely availing myself of any and all opportunities to get to know my submissive better. And you will call me Mistress or Mistress LaMia, by the way,” she said then firmly placed her hand on his forehead.

Mateo grimaced.

Who the hell is this woman?

He closed his eyes and braced himself as her subtle, yet heady, cinnamon-and-female scent washed over him. He felt the tug on his brain as if she had reached inside his head to gently peel back the layers of his past.

Mateo’s heart pounded a vicious beat in his chest, obliterating all miniscule sounds in the loft as he wondered if his heart would explode.

She held her palm against his forehead for several long moments, ransacking his mind, melding with his memories until she became a part of them.

He knew this woman! Knew her too intimately to deny her or forget what he had been doing with her for the last several months—but more importantly, he knew her too intimately to deny what she had done to his family so many years ago.

One woman he implicitly trusted with his body and soul. The other had taken too much from him for Mateo to trust her at all.

How could they be one in the same?

Her touch was insidious, seductive, seeping into him like the mist in his dreams, and then he realized she
was
the mist in his dreams.

He could see how his brother and father had succumb to her allure, how his father had allowed her to come between him and Mom and how his brother had allowed her to drain the life right out of him. The promise of the ultimate climax and release was too powerful to resist.

But resist he would…this time.

Suddenly, LaMia jerked back her hand and gasped.

Good! He wasn’t the only one so overwhelmed by what she’d just done.

“It
is
you! At first I was not certain, did not believe it was possible that fate would actually send you to me...” She reached for a corner of the tape and viciously stripped it off his mouth.

“Shit!”

“Do not make me regret doing that.”

Like he wasn’t regretting it already, Mateo thought as he flexed his jaws in concert with his fists clenching and unclenching in the cuffs above his head.

“Speak!”

“I’m not a dog!” Mateo shot back and silently gauged her reaction. He noticed the slight upward tilt of her lips, an expression of admiration and amusement that just barely reached her hazel eyes.