Would
you defy God, for love?
In Bonds of the Earth is the new paranormal erotic romance
by Janine Ashbless, and is the second in the Book of the Watchers trilogy. It
is due for release on March 1st 2017.
“Broad at the shoulders and lean at
the hips, six foot-and-then-something of ropey muscle, he looks like a Spartan
god who got lost in a thrift store. He moves like ink through water. And his
eyes, when you get a good look at them, are silver. Not gray. Silver. You might
take their inhuman shine for fancy contact lenses. You’d be wrong.”
Blurb:
“I will free them all.”
When Milja
Petak released the fallen angel Azazel from five thousand years of imprisonment,
she did it out of love and pity. She found herself in a passionate sexual
relationship beyond her imagining and control – the beloved
plaything of a dark and furious demon who takes what he wants, when he wants,
and submits to no restraint. But what she hasn’t bargained on
is being drawn into his plan to free all his incarcerated brothers and wage a
war against the Powers of Heaven.
As Azazel
drags Milja across the globe in search of his fellow rebel angels, Milja fights
to hold her own in a situation where every decision has dire consequences.
Pursued by the loyal Archangels, she is forced to make alliances with those she
cannot trust: the mysterious Roshana Veisi, who has designs of her own upon
Azazel; and Egan Kansky, special forces agent of the Vatican – the man who
once saved then betrayed her, who loves her, and who will do anything he can to
imprison Azazel for all eternity.
Torn every way
by love, by conflicting loyalties and by her own passions, Milja finds that she
too is changing – and that she must do things she could not previously
have dreamt of in order to save those who matter to her.
In Bonds of
the Earth is the second
in the Book of the Watchers trilogy and the sequel to Cover Him With
Darkness.
Excerpt from In Bonds of the Earth:
I was giving my long-dreaded
presentation on the anniversary footbridge to Misters Ellis, Singh, Constanzo
and Mackenzie…when Azazel walked in.
Oh hell.
“Excuse me,
gentlemen,” I said loudly, lurching around from behind my desk, grabbing
Azazel’s arm and spinning him back to face the door. “Not here, come on,
please,” I implored through clenched teeth.
If there was
one thing I’d learned by then, it was to not ignore warning dreams. If I’d paid
them more attention from the start, things between me and Egan might have gone
very differently back in Montenegro…
No, better
not to think of Egan, not when Azazel was around. One guy at a time was quite
enough to wrap my head around. Especially this guy.
He humored me
though, this time, letting me pull him out of the meeting room and through the
open plan office without resistance. We attracted a lot of stares, but there
was nothing I could do about that except hold my head high.
“Where are we
going?” he asked.
“Out.
Anywhere.”
“You’re so
impetuous.”
I didn’t need
to glance up at his wicked smirk. I could feel it burning its way into my
breast.
Bryce, the
beardy guy in my new team who’d shown me the ropes of the job and seemed just a
tiny bit too eager to talk every morning, stood up from his cubicle to
intercept us. “Milja, is everything okay?”
“It’s just
fine,” I rasped, towing Azazel faster.
“She’s
insatiable,” my demon lover confided with a helpless shrug to my colleague as
we swept past.
Bryce stared,
mouth open.
“Goddamnit,”
I muttered, and Azazel chuckled.
Sometimes it
was hard to remember that he’d risked everything to save me.
We reached
the doors at the end of the room and I pushed through, past the lobby with the
elevators and into the concrete stairwell of the emergency stairs beyond. The
only people who came here were smokers on their way to the roof, and it looked
empty for now. My panicky momentum fizzled away and I swung to face him.
“What are you
doing here?”
“What do you
think?” he countered, taking my face in his hands.
“Azazel—” But
he cut off my protests with his hungry kiss; a kiss that lanced through me all
the way to my core. I gave up resisting, and speaking, and almost breathing, as
his lust rolled over me in a hot wet wave. I slid my hands around his neck and
tangled my fingers in his messy hair, pulling myself into his embrace. His body
was hard as rock, his hands heavy on my waist and hips. The yearning for his
touch that smoldered in my flesh day and night woke to a roaring heat.
I’d missed
him. His skin, his smile, the peppery scent and salt taste of him. The
sweetness of his lips and the harsh rasp of his stubbled chin. I’d missed him so much. Like an addict missing her hit.
Author
bio:
Janine Ashbless is a writer of fantasy
erotica and steamy romantic adventure. She likes to write about magic and myth
and mystery, dangerous power dynamics, borderline terror, and the
not-quite-human.
Buyer beware! If you like dark romance
and a hard-won Happily Ever After, try "Cover Him with Darkness,"
"Heart of Flame," or "The King's Viper." If you prefer
challenging erotica, go for "Red Grow the Roses" or "Named and
Shamed" instead. All her other books lie somewhere on the spectrum
between.
Janine has been seeing her books in
print ever since 2000. She's also had numerous short stories published by Black
Lace, Nexus, Cleis Press, Ravenous Romance, Harlequin Spice, Storm Moon, Xcite,
Mischief Books, and Ellora's Cave among others. She is co-editor of the nerd
erotica anthology 'Geek Love'.
Born in Wales, Janine now lives in the
North of England with her husband and two rescued greyhounds. She has worked as
a cleaner, library assistant, computer programmer, local government tree
officer, and - for five years of muddy feet and shouting - as a full-time
costumed Viking. Janine loves goatee beards, ancient ruins, minotaurs, trees,
mummies, having her cake and eating it, and holidaying in countries with really
bad public sewerage.
Her work has been described as:
"Hardcore and literate"
(Madeline Moore) and "Vivid and tempestuous and dangerous, and bursting
with sacrifice, death and love." (Portia Da Costa)
Links:
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