My Lady's Pleasure (10 page)

Authors: Alice Gaines

Tags: #Viking, #erotic romance, #Three Kinds of Wicked, #Alice Gaines, #red sage, #Paranormal, #menage a trois, #eredsage

“It seems we have chance to start again,” she said. “To begin our life together.”

“The perfect setting for a seduction.” He picked up her hand and kissed the back. “Come, my lady love, let me worship your foot.”

The reality of freedom hit Trey like the blow of a mace to his chest. He sat on the bank of the river that ran beside Randmead castle, fighting off the dizziness and doing his best to breathe. He’d completed all the tasks set before him uniting all the mortal couples in bliss. The last link of chain in his tattoo disappeared, dissolving in the moonlight as he watched. He could return to Sage. He could finally have the woman he loved.

The fight hadn’t ended for him, of course. He had to free Sage from The Cradle of Displaced Souls, and of course, that also meant rescuing Russ from the void that held him and returning the man to the woman who could restore him. Sage would never feel complete without her wounded warrior by her side, and Trey would never feel complete without her perfect happiness. Maybe it was his fate to always be the trois in the menáge.

He found enough strength to get to his feet, and he stood, bare-chested in the warm evening, searching from the corners of his eyes for any sign of the ether that would guide him home. Across the water, a few lights remained shining from the castle. Despite the distance, he could guess the location of the bedchamber Josalyn and Ulric would now share alone. A lamp burned inside. As he stood there, he could imagine the two of them discovering his last gift to them – the flower-bedecked bed.

They’d been great fun, this pair. Watching Josalyn mature from fearful innocence to full sexual abandon. And, who could have imagined that a minstrel from another time could best a fierce Viking warrior? True, Ulric had won their battle for the lady’s love, but Trey had planned things that way, so he’d been the true victor. What a sweet taste he’d take away from his last challenge.

The light winked out. The lord and lady of the keep had gone to bed, slipping naked between the sheets, no doubt. They wouldn’t sleep much with their bodies so attuned to wanting each other. He could count a victory at that, too. The lady would take her pleasure, and her lord would benefit from her newly awakened lust.

A job well done. He could take pride in that before the final battle. He could take strength from all the love he’d helped to create in all of his travels.

The ether caught Trey unawares. He never saw it coming until it had swirled around him, sucking him into the now-familiar void for his final journey.

About The Author:

Award-winning author Alice Gaines loves independent heroines, sexy heroes, and happy endings. She shares a funky, old house in Oakland, California with her pet corn snake, Casper, and a collection of neglected orchids. When she’s not dancing to Tower of Power, Alice most enjoys sitting in the backyard and writing out her romantic fantasies.

Special Bonus Section

Q & A with Alice Gaines

Alice’s Cincinnati Chili

Try these other stories from Alice Gaines

Q and A With Alice Gaines

1) Please tell us a bit about yourself:

First off, I’m an old, widow lady with bad knees. My generation was on the front lines of the sexual revolution and it’s been said, we think we invented sex. I don’t know about that but we did make it very popular. “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” was a hit when I was coming of age.

I still wear my hair hippie-style – straight and long, parted down the middle – even though it’s pure white now.

2) How many books have you written, what genres?

Five of the books I’ve finished, have never been published. When I add those to the published ones (do I have enough fingers here to count?), I get ten all together. Three were historical romances (one of those paranormal). One was a paranormal contemporary romance. One was a fantasy with no sex at all but a strong romantic element.

I’ve lost count of how many shorter works I’ve published. All are romances, though and all erotic/ultra-sensual. My first publication was a fantasy novella in Secrets 1. I had historical novellas in Secrets 6 and 8. Of course, I’ll have a fantasy romance with ERedSage.com in November. I really loved this story, and I’m thrilled that it’ll be part of the launch.

3) What prompted you to become a writer, (erotic)?

My imagination has always run wild. Since I was little, I’ve told myself stories, and they were often more satisfying than the ones I read or saw in movies and on television. When personal computers became popular, I had an easy way to write my stories down. Immediately, I discovered that I wanted to write romance and the hotter the better. That probably comes from my background on the front lines of the sexual revolution and my natural optimism. I like happy endings. I don’t care what the “serious” world thinks of them.

4) What are your plans for future books?

My next project will be a full-length romance that takes place in an alternative universe. My heroine discovers herself in a place that on the surface looks like her home, Oakland, California but here, the anti-sex vigilantes have taken over the government. She has to save this universe before she can return to save her own. The future of her children depends on it.

5) How did becoming a writer change your life?

What way did it not change my life? I can have Christmas every day. Only, people behave the way I want them to, my presents are perfect, dinner cooks itself and the day has a happy ending.

Writing gives me insights all the time. To show my heroines through my heroes’ eyes, I had to learn to look at a woman as the object of sexual desire. As a heterosexual, that was new for me and it’s enriched my appreciation of women. By training, I’m a PhD psychologist and I learn so much about people by writing. True, they aren’t “real” people, but they have to behave like real people to be believable. Often, they have to be more real than actual people, who act pretty strangely a lot of the time.

Plus, I love my characters. It thrills me when someone else loves my characters, too. They’re like my children but without the fighting and the college tuition.

6) Which if any, favorite, authors played into your wanting to write yourself?

I still remember the impression, C. S. Lewis made on me as a child and a teen. I wanted to be able to create worlds as magical as his. The Chronicles of Narnia and the Perelandra trilogy are what influenced me to want to write fantasy.

Of course, I read romantic literature like Jane Eyre, Gone with the Wind and The Once and Future King (the Arthur legend). Shakespeare rocks my world, especially MacBeth and The Taming of the Shrew. There’s no one better in the English language. He takes my breath away and makes me feel as insignificant as the dust collecting around his writing table. I admire the plays of Arthur Miller, too, especially, The Crucible. That play gave me a lifelong obsession with the Salem witch trials.

In romance, I adore Laura Kinsale, Anne Stuart, and Penny Williamson, although I’m sure there are others I should mention here, as well.

7) Any plans to step out of your usual genre?

I have done one fantasy. I may do more, especially if that book is successful. I honestly think, though, that my main interest is in writing romance inside fantasy worlds.

Alice’s Cincinnati Chili

I love to cook. It’s my second obsession, next to writing. Most of my favorite recipes are either copyrighted or too much work for someone who doesn’t love to cook. I make my own pizza and pasta regularly. You really need a pasta roller to make pasta often.

My favorite thing to make on an evening when I’m too exhausted to cook or go out and buy something is my version of Cincinnati chili. It sounds weird but it’s really yummy, easy and fast.

Start a big pot of water boiling. For one person, open a 15 oz can of good chili with beans and dump half of the contents into a frying pan. Save the rest for another night. Warm gently until hot. Cook your favorite pasta until al dente. (I use spaghetti. I’ve been known to do this with homemade fettuccine.) Using tongs, transfer undrained pasta to the pan with the chili and mix. A little at a time, add pasta water until the chili makes a bubbling sauce around the pasta.

Put into a bowl, top with freshly grated jack or cheddar cheese. On the side, have sour cream and hot sauce. If you have mild onion, you can also add some finely chopped.

Try these other stories from Alice Gaines!

THE HOT-BLOODED HUSBAND - ALICE GAINES

Available in e-book!

Dan Herrera can’t believe that his passionate wife, Paz, has called a halt on their love life – all because he won’t back down in his quest to win his hedge clippers from their neighbor, Brad. He knows she can’t resist him, and he sets about to prove it. When he and Brad settle their feud, Paz assumes they’ll go back to loving as usual. But Dan has a surprise of his own.

THE WICKED WIFE - ALICE GAINES

Available in e-book!

After five years of marriage, Lisa and Brad still have dynamite going for them in bed. When Brad’s feud with the next door neighbor, Dan, leads to blows, Lisa takes drastic action. She and Dan’s wife, Paz, declare no more sex until the men stop their fighting. Can Lisa live without Brad’s special brand of loving, and what punishment will he dole out when he can finally have his hot-as-a-firecracker wife back again?

MASTER OF THE ELEMENTS - ALICE GAINES

Available in e-book!

As Elsbeth says goodbye to her father at the foot of the forbidden mountain, he places a bride’s garland on her head and then refuses to let her go.

“I won’t leave you,” he insists. “Not to what lives up there.”

But Elsbeth has always known that her fate can only be found at the crest of the forbidden mountain in the master’s castle, a place shrouded in legend and kissed by the clouds.

Every hundred years, on the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the new century, a virgin from the town is led to the foot of the mountain and sent up to her destiny at the master’s hands. None of the virgins are ever heard from again.

As the time for the sacrifice grows near, the master’s protection against the elements begins to falter. Drought, wind, cold. Crops fail. The people are suffering, and only Elsbeth can put a stop to it.

But at what cost? Is Elsbeth a blood sacrifice? Or a companion to ease the master’s isolation?

Look for Alice’s stories in Secrets Volumes 1, 6, and 8, available in a bookstore near you or from www.eRedSage.com in paperback or e-books!

Red Sage Publishing