From New York Times Bestselling author Elisabeth Naughton, comes ENSNARED, a new novella in her Eternal Guardians Series, brought to you by 1,001 Dark Nights! Be sure to grab your copy today!
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Elisabeth Naughton comes a new story in her Eternal Guardians series…
RYDER–Mysterious, powerful, every woman’s fantasy come true.
For thousands of years, Ryder has reveled in his role as an immortal messenger—a dream weaver sent to seduce and manipulate. Until he’s ordered to deceive a fantasy of his own.
Zakara, the daughter of one of the mightiest Eternal Guardians, is his perfect woman. But she’s impervious to Ryder’s advances. Each attempt to sway her to his will pushes him deeper into a dreamscape she seems to be controlling. To survive, Ryder will need to find a way to master his sexy new prey. Because if he can’t, he risks forever condemning himself and the woman he’s grown to love to a never-ending nightmare drawn straight from the twisted depths of hell.
Happily ever after wasn’t in his future. Reality and
dreams—as he’d learned long ago—did not intermix. It was too dangerous. And
he’d spent months successfully avoiding her, only to have Zeus send him
straight to her now.
Only now that he was here, some part of him was thankful he
no longer had to avoid her. He knew he should go on fighting the attraction but
he didn’t want to. She was everything he’d been denying himself. Everything he
craved. That connection he’d been missing for so damn long. For tonight, at
least, he wanted to indulge in the one temptation he knew he could never truly
have.
“I wondered when you’d return.”
She turned at the sound of his voice and lifted surprised
eyes to his. Violet eyes. Mesmerizing eyes. Eyes that softened and warmed the
instant they locked on his. “I was tied up all day with family stuff. This was
the soonest I could get here.”
Damn, he didn’t remember those eyes being quite that
brilliant.
“Thankfully, you’re here now.” He reached for her hand,
silky soft skin sliding over his much rougher palm, and drew her toward him.
Her lithe body brushed up against his without even the slightest hesitation.
“Where is here?” she asked, tipping her face up toward his,
teasing him with her plump, pink lips beneath the softly swaying palms in the
warm breeze.
“Right where we left off.”
He lowered his lips to hers with a kiss that sizzled along
every one of his nerve endings and taunted his rock-solid self-control. But
before he could deepen the kiss and tease her with the promise of a little
pleasure, he registered that the water beneath his feet had turned cold, and
the warm breeze that had once been ruffling his hair now left a shiver down his
spine.
He drew back, lifted his head, and glanced around the beach,
only to gasp at what he saw. No more palm trees, no more powder white sand, no
gently lapping waves. The water was now still and black, the shore a mixture of
rough sand and small round stones, and there was no more tropical foliage
rising from the beach. Instead, steep, rigid mountains stood tall against a
starry sky. Mountains covered in pine and fir and spruce and cottonwood.
“What in all the gods...” Still holding her hands, he turned
to the left and looked back behind him, no longer seeing his bare footprints in
the soft sand as they’d been moments before. Catching nothing but the dark
rocky shoreline as it curved around what looked to be a small bay in a rather
large lake.
“Something wrong?”
Her sweet voice drew him back around, and he looked down
with wide eyes, shocked she didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned. “I...”
Words faltered on his lips. Had he altered the dream right
there mid-kiss?
Elisabeth Naughton is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. From Elisabeth:
“I was never one of those people who knew they wanted to be an author at the age of six. I didn’t have imaginary friends. I didn’t write stories in my journal or entertain my relatives by firelight after Thanksgiving dinner. For the most part, I was just a normal, everyday kid. I liked to read, but I wasn’t exceptional at it. And when my teachers complimented me on my writing abilities, I brushed them off. I did, however, always have a penchant for the unique and absurd. And as my mother told me all throughout my childhood, I should have been an actress—I was a drama queen before my time.
“Years ago, my husband bought me Scarlett: The Sequel to Gone With The Wind. If you ever saw the book, you know it’s a long one. I sat and read that thing from cover to cover, and dreamed of one day being a writer. But I didn’t actually try my hand at writing until years later when I quit my teaching job to stay home with my kids. And my husband? After that week of reading where I neglected him and everything else until I finished Scarlett, he vowed never to buy me another book again. Little did he know I’d one day end up sitting at a keyboard all day drafting my own stories. “My writing journey has not been easy. I didn’t just sit down one day, decide I was going to write a book and voila! sell my very first attempt. As most authors will probably agree, the path to publication is filled with hours of work, pulling all-nighters I thought I’d given up in college, sacrifices, rejections, but a love I discovered along the way I just can’t live without. Instead of a big, thick book to read by lamplight (I do read much smaller ones when I get the chance), I’ve traded in my reading obsession for a laptop. And I’ve never been happier.
“I’m one of the lucky ones. I have a wonderful family and fabulous husband who put up with my writing—and obsessive personality—even when life is chaotic. More than once my kids have been late to swimming or baseball because I needed just five more minutes to finish a scene. Their support and encouragement mean the world to me. I also have amazing friends and a support network I couldn’t survive without. So to all of you out there who have encouraged me along the way, sent me emails and fan letters, phone calls and congratulations, I just want to say, thank you. You make this whole writing gig that much more enjoyable. I truly wouldn’t be here without you.”
Thank you so much for sharing! ~Jessica, InkSlinger PR
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