Redemption
Authors: Eleri Stone
Redemption
By Eleri Stone
Blamed for a heinous crime and banished from his tribe of Jaguar shifters, Adriano will do anything to buy back his rightful place—even steal a priceless artifact. First, he’ll have to seduce Sophie Martin, an archaeologist researching the temple ruins and the one person who stands in his way.
Sophie wants to uncover the artifact as well—not to sell it, but to study it. It could unlock all the secrets of an ancient and mysterious civilization. But it’s hard to focus on her work when the distractingly sexy Adriano is nearby.
What begins as a seduction quickly turns into mutual passion as Adriano’s touch awakens a side of Sophie she’d kept hidden—and arouses his Jaguar instincts. To preserve his people’s secret and earn his redemption, Adriano needs the artifact. But when a rival thief kidnaps Sophie, Adriano will be forced to choose—between the people who rejected him in the past, or the woman who could be his future…
50,000 words
Dear Reader,
What do you get when you cross summer with lots of beach time, and long hours of traveling? An executive editor who’s too busy to write the Dear Reader letter, but has time for reading. I find both the beach and the plane are excellent places to read, and thanks to plenty of time spent on both this summer (I went to Australia! And New Zealand!) I’m able to tell you with confidence: our fall lineup of books is outstanding.
We kick off the fall season with seven romantic suspense titles, during our Romantic Suspense celebration the first week of September. We’re pleased to offer novella
Fatal Destiny
by Marie Force as a free download to get you started with the romantic suspense offerings. Also in September, fans of Eleri Stone’s sexy, hot paranormal romance debut novel,
Mercy,
can look forward to her follow-up story,
Redemption,
set in the same world of the Lost City Shifters.
Looking to dive into a new erotic romance? We have a sizzling trilogy for you. In October, look for Christine D’Abo’s Long Shot trilogy featuring three siblings who share ownership of a coffee shop, and each of whom discover steamy passion within the walls of a local sex club. Christine’s trilogy kicks off with
Double Shot.
In addition to a variety of frontlist titles in historical, paranormal, contemporary, steampunk and erotic romance, we’re also pleased to present two authors releasing backlist titles with us. In October, we’ll re-release four science fiction romance titles from the backlist of CJ Barry, and in November four Western romance titles from the backlist of Susan Edwards.
Also in November, we’re thrilled to offer our first two chick lit titles from three debut authors,
Liar’s Guide to True Love
by Wendy Chen and
Unscripted
by Natalie Aaron and Marla Schwartz. I hope you’ll check out these fun, sometimes laugh-out-loud novels.
Whether you’re on the beach, on a plane, or sitting in your favorite recliner at home, Carina Press can offer you a diverting read to take you away on your next great adventure this fall!
We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to [email protected]. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com
www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
To Michelle, Michelle W., Carrie and Erin. Best sisters, best friends.
Fire. Heat blasted his face and Adriano swiped the tears from his eyes. He needed to be able to see and already, barely ten feet inside the door, the smoke was thick and black, choking his lungs and stinging his nose and mouth.
“Amy,” he called out and paused for a moment to listen, ears strained, eyes burning and fear churning in his gut. Only the greedy roar of the fire answered, and he forced himself to take another step and then another, deeper into hell.
Normally, the girl would have been easy to track but he couldn’t smell a damned thing. His senses were as blunt and useless as a human’s. Amy’s mother had pointed toward the southeast corner of the building as she wept, tearing at the arms holding her back, and that was the direction he headed, grimly forcing his way down the narrow hallway littered with pieces of fallen plaster and wood. He hoped Amy wasn’t anywhere near this place. He hoped she’d gotten frightened and was hiding at the park or a friend’s house. Maybe someone had only missed her in the count.
The building shuddered and he instinctively reached out a hand to steady himself against the wall only to snatch it back when heat singed his fingertips.
His
men had set this fire, following orders directly from the top. It would be ironic if he died here but he could accept that, so long as he was the only one.
Clamping his mouth closed, he buried his face in his shirt sleeve and eased under a fallen support beam. The creak of straining wood sounded eerily loud above the rush of flames. There wasn’t much time before the whole building fell on his head but only one room left to check. The last one on the left, closed. The people here had been sleeping six or seven to a room, the girl’s mother had been working late and the child had been lost in the confusion.
It seemed unlikely that anyone would have taken the time to close a door behind them in the panic to get out. The metal knob burned his palm but he barely felt it, his heart stopping in his chest when he realized it was locked. He stepped back and kicked it twice until the wood split enough that he could push his way inside.
“Amy,” he called out again, his voice a dry croak.
No response.
And then he saw her. Her foot poking out from beneath her blankets, little toes curled. This was the part he remembered so vividly in his dreams. Those tiny toes, nails painted with pink polish, a chip on the big one. He snagged her ankle and pulled her toward him, dragging her toward the window. She was heavy and he knew it even then. Before he managed to haul them both over the ledge. Before he crawled to her across the grass sodden with the spray from the hoses. Before he looked into that angelic face and those staring eyes.
She was dead. And it was his fault.
Five years of exile, only days from going home. A few feet of stone to clear and he’d be inside the temple. A couple of nights to learn the layout of the tunnel system and he’d have his hands on a treasure valuable enough to trade for a pardon. Three weeks, maybe less. Adriano couldn’t afford to get careless now so he watched Sophie Martin, trying to decide if she was a threat to his plan or only a distraction. From where he stood, she didn’t look like much of a threat but she sure as hell was a distraction.
She perched on the top rung of a shaky ladder, talking to herself or the tenon head—he couldn’t tell which. Long brown hair pulled back from her face, she was dressed in old cargo shorts and a loose fitting olive T-shirt, the screen print on the back so faded he couldn’t make out the words. The other men in camp—
human
men—barely gave her a second glance and he didn’t understand it. Her face was pretty enough, and she had a strong healthy body with small high breasts and a good ass. A great ass, really. Pert, round and nicely formed. Even with the long shirt she wore, he could see the curve of it when she moved. Beautiful.
He’d never been in this position before, lusting after a woman who liked to push people away. He’d never lusted after a human, period. Never fucked one. Not even during those long stretches of chastity when he’d go months without meeting a willing shape-shifter. To him, lying with a human had always seemed too much like acceptance of his sentence, too much like defeat.
He’d attempted to ignore his attraction to Sophie but was done trying to convince himself he didn’t want her. He wanted her. He also needed to get close enough to keep her out of the tunnels until he had the stone.
How did one seduce a human?
He had no idea. With his kind, there was no subtlety involved. Attuned as they were to changes in scent, heart rate and body temperature, there was no way to mask sexual interest and with no artifice possible, it was a simple matter of acceptance or rejection.
He’d presented himself to Sophie and could tell that she was aroused, no matter how she tried to conceal herself, dressing like a color-blind teenage boy and dodging his gaze whenever he tried to catch her attention. He could smell her reaction. Faint but alluring, her scent stirred his cock to life every time he came near her. It should have been a simple indulgence to mutual attraction, but Sophie…
Well, Sophie was being difficult.
He crossed his arms over his chest, settled his back against the stone pillar and waited.
He didn’t want to disturb her until she was done. Too serious about her work, she put in longer hours than anyone else on her team but was also given to sudden flights of fancy. His lips tugged into a smile. She looked like she was flying now, screwing up her face to mimic the leer of the jaguar figure she brushed clean.
He was honest enough to admit that part of her allure was the challenge she represented, enough of a predator to appreciate the thrill of the hunt. Sophie hadn’t taken a lover since she’d arrived, accepted friendship from the others grudgingly and kept herself so tightly controlled at first he’d thought her hopelessly, fascinatingly frigid.
Then he began to notice little things—the flush that came to her face at an unexpected find, the strange sense of humor that had her pulling faces at the carvings when she thought no one was looking, the furtive hungry looks she cast his way. She’d surprised him and that alone was rare enough to stir his interest. The others were irritating and frivolous but blessedly easy to distract. They’d been content to sift through the debris uncovered by the landslide until the engineers arrived. They cataloged their shards of pottery and attempted to preserve the exposed funeral bundles. No one was stupid enough to risk their lives in an area of the site already studied by generations of archaeologists, stripped, cataloged and sold off to museums around the world.
Of all of them, Sophie’s heart was invested in this place which is why he’d found her teetering on a piece of shit ladder doing the groundkeeper’s job. People would take advantage of enthusiasm like hers.
She was intelligent, curious and inconveniently industrious. He’d caught her again last night nosing around in the rubble, camera in hand, and escorted her away with a stern warning that the area was unstable. It was the truth. The earthquake and subsequent landslide had tumbled huge stones, collapsing the tunnels beneath the ruins and leaving sinkholes all over the place. It was, after all, the reason he was here. That instability created a unique opportunity for someone in his line of work.
Sophie wouldn’t stay put and he didn’t want to have to kill her for stumbling down the wrong tunnel at the wrong time. He wanted her. Needed to keep a better eye on her.
What was it the Americans said? Two birds, one stone. Sophie liked stones.
Sophie used a small brush to clear the last of the debris from the flared nostril and leaned back to examine her handiwork. The carved granite head thrust toward her, the last figure to remain in its original position on the wall. He was a beauty. Frozen somewhere between beast and man, the jaguar’s hollow eyes stared at her, long fangs curving back from a grinning mouth, a remnant of a fierce people who had believed their priests could transform into jaguars. She smiled wryly. Immense quantities of hallucinogens could make a person believe a lot of things.
She lifted her hand to trace the curling scrollwork that grooved the sides and top. Amazing that it had been created by an artist over a thousand years ago and was still here for her to marvel at. The whole site was a testimony to the Chavín, a largely forgotten civilization which predated the Inca. She’d fallen in love with the place when she’d first come to Peru years ago as an undergrad and it broke her heart to see it now. The initial earthquake had caused collapses at several points in the underground tunnel system but the landslide had done the most damage, covering a part of the old temple, buckling two walls, filling several of the tunnels with debris and exposing hundreds of fragile artifacts to the elements.
When Professor Addington called to ask if she’d be interested in coming down with a team from the university to help with the cleanup, she’d jumped at the opportunity. How could she refuse? A chance to help. A chance to work on her thesis. A chance to
escape
.
She loved the mystery of this place, that even after decades of study they still didn’t entirely understand how the Chavín had managed to consolidate their power without any signs of military conquest. Their intricate carvings confounded interpretation. She loved the rugged landscape, the mountains which shadowed the ruins before rolling toward the lush jungles of the Amazon below. She loved the hidden tunnels and passageways, all of those ancient secrets guarded in stone. She wanted to know what it was the people here had valued so highly that they devoted their lives and the lives of their children to creating these structures. She wanted to see it restored and preserved.
Sophie ruthlessly pushed aside the dull ache in her chest. Some things deserved to be remembered.
“You understand though, don’t you?” she said and then shook her head, laughing at herself. Great. Now she was talking to rocks. Thank God there was no one here to see her doing it.
She ran her hands over the tenon head making sure it was clean. She’d spent the last hour clearing it of bird crap and dirt. Just general housekeeping but she’d volunteered for it to get a chance to see this fellow up close and personal. Finally satisfied, she gave him one last swipe and started down the ladder.
Movement caught her eye and she paused midstep when she realized it was Adriano. His wide mouth slanted into a half smile when he caught her looking, and she ducked her head, fumbled the brush and winced as it clattered down the ladder to land at his feet. She watched him through the slats when he bent to retrieve it, following the long lean arch of his spine with her eyes. From this position, she could literally drool all over him.
He drove her nuts—every time she turned around, there he was, dark eyes resting on her, glittering with a spark of challenge, a slight curl at the edge of his mouth like he was only waiting for an invitation to smile. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was interested, which was ridiculous. Adriano could have anyone and she’d been going out of her way to avoid that kind of complication.
He straightened and she shook herself, moving down the ladder. He probably just tracked her down because she’d wandered off again. He was the government contact ultimately in charge of the site—responsible for the general labor force, site security and coordinating the efforts of the archaeological teams and engineers. He’d been an excellent manager in part because he kept them all together where he could keep an eye on them.
That
was why he was out here now. She’d broken off again like a poor dumb sheep and he’d been forced to fetch her back to the herd. Because fact was, she did know better. Sinfully exotic men like Adriano with their ripped bodies, dark knowing eyes and lazy smiles didn’t go for short, nerdy grad students like herself.
The ladder shook and Adriano braced a hand to the rickety thing as he watched her come down. She could feel his eyes on her, raising tiny pinpricks of awareness along her exposed flesh. The sun gleamed off his sleek black hair, straight, cut short and brushed back from a high forehead. Light reflected off his sunglasses when he turned his head to look at her and she flinched.
“Thanks,” she said, reaching bottom and turning to face him.
High cheekbones, firm mouth, smooth golden skin. The wind kicked up and caught in the crisp white shirt he wore, making it cling across his broad chest and shoulders, outlining all those smooth hard muscles for brief tantalizing moments.
He smiled slowly. “So, is it love?”
She looked at him blankly and he nodded up toward the tenon head.
Her face heated. “Oh…Oh!” She smiled back, relief that she’d misunderstood making her a little giddy. “I dunno…could be. He
is
a handsome beast.”
His smile widened. “You like the jaguar men, Sophie?”
She couldn’t see his eyes behind the glasses but knew he was laughing at her. She was used to that. Very few people could relate to her obsession. Her parents never had, always prodding her to find a job in the real world and stop playing Indiana Jones. But just because she was used to it, didn’t mean she had to take it. Not even from someone who looked like Adriano.
She crossed her arms and glanced up at the tenon head before fixing him with a cool look. “They’re incredibly detailed. The craftsmanship is amazing especially when you consider the tools they had to use. Look at him. You can almost see a personality there.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Perhaps the two of you would like more time alone?”
Impossible to miss the lilt of amusement in his voice. Now.
Now
he was laughing at her.
Crap.
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “I thought you were making fun of me and…well, clearly I’m an idiot.”
“Not an idiot.” He put a hand to his very fine chest. “It warms my heart to hear such an impassioned defense of the skill of my ancestors.”
She’d turned to fumble for the latch to release the ladder. He reached over her head and she could feel the warmth of him at her back. She could smell him, the trace of some subtle cologne underlain by clean male sweat. She stepped back and he took over the task, turning the catch and letting the rails clatter down. “Where does this go?”
“You don’t have to do that. I dragged it out here. I can manage to drag it back.”
Another flash of the smile that made her forget her own name. “I insist.”
He couldn’t miss the way that he flustered her but he pretended not to notice. One more thing she liked about him, that almost old-fashioned reserve. She shrugged. “Fine with me if you’re willing. I’ll help though.” She took the lighter end because she wasn’t stupid and clearly he was stronger. “This way.”
“The others are already eating,” he told her, confirming her suspicion that his little visit had been prompted by a headcount.
“You didn’t have to come after me.”
“Yes,” he said. “I did. It’s not safe for you to wander around by yourself. Especially after hours when security’s gone. The earthquake left behind a lot of desperate people who see a rich foreigner as easy prey.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I’m a grad student. I’m not rich.”
“Some of the people here lost everything—their families and homes, their respect for the law. To them, you’re rich and you’re fair game. I don’t want to see anything happen to you, Sophie.”
A part of her ate up his concern. The reasonable, sane and sober part of her knew he’d give the same lecture to anyone he caught working alone after-hours. She let the subject drop and shifted the weight of the ladder higher on her shoulder. She knew he was right, and he wouldn’t be interested in hearing about her money problems anyway. They were both private people and respected each other’s privacy. It was one of the reasons they got along so well together and why she wasn’t going to try to jump him, tempting as it was. She’d seen him turn away far prettier women and had no desire to join his crowd of rejected admirers. She did have some pride. Much better to keep things simple and friendly for these last weeks until she headed home.
The main tent looked like military surplus from half a century ago—dusty canvas and steel tent poles—nothing like the nylon and fiberglass pop-up Sophie shared with Mia. But it shaded the two long plastic tables and gave them a place to gather for meals and meetings.
“Adriano,” one of the workers called out as they walked up.
Adriano smiled in acknowledgment but stayed with her until they reached the tent. “No wandering off tonight, alright, Sophie?”
“Don’t worry about it.” She smiled and started to move past him but he touched her arm. A light touch and brief but it stopped her in her tracks.
“That is not an answer,” he pointed out.
She smiled again. “No. It’s not, is it?”
He sighed and planted his hands on his trim hips. The damned wind started up again and she forced herself to drag her eyes back up to his face. “It’s not safe for you out here alone. There are no alarms or video cameras, no panic buttons to call campus security. There’s only old Xavier and the only thing he scares is the bats with his snoring.”
