Hi!

Just wanted to share something exciting. My first self-published e-book is out. Even though I've written nineteen novels and thirty-eight novellas and short stories, Paladin is the first where I really held the reins.

The only constant in Summer St. Clare's life is Paladin, the fictional hero who's becoming more real with every kiss.

Struggling novelist Summer St. Clare can't remember her murdered mother's face, or most of her childhood before the age of twelve. The only constant in her life is Paladin, once her imaginary childhood friend, now the handsome detective of her urban fantasy series.

There's nothing imaginary about Paladin now. Hot, seductive and dangerous, Paladin blurs the line between fantasy and reality. The passion Summer experiences in his arms makes her question what's real -- or whether she cares.

Someone else believes in Paladin, and he wants Summer dead. Her confusion mounts when she fights off five attackers with a display of dazzling martial arts skills she doesn't remember acquiring. As she searches for answers and runs for her life, her dream lover becomes more real with every kiss.

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Excerpt: Paladin kissed me, deep and desperate, as he often did when he returned. It poisoned him, the job he'd taken on because some subconscious need of humanity demanded justice. Demanded balance against the vicious and the murderous and the uncaring.

Demanded light.

I slid out of sleep as his lips teased mine. Moaning, I tasted his magic, a current rushing from his mouth to mine. Light flowed into me on the thrust of his tongue.

His kiss tasted of ozone, an electric glitter that lit the darkness behind my closed lids as he spilled power into me. Power and the copper penny tang of blood.

They've bled him, I thought, with a stab of pain. They've hurt him. And if they hurt him, he could have died. I'd rather die myself.

"Shhhh." He soothed me, fingers seeking nipples drawn tight by his kiss. Light spilled from his hands, pouring from his skin into mine, turning my fear into need. His fingers traced over my ribs, trailing sweet neural sparks that built need into desire. Pleasure rushed in with the magic, flowing along my nerves, flushing out the last of the fear with the warm tidal rise of delight.

My pussy grew slick as I arched into his hard strength. He pinched my nipple harder, making me suck in a desperate breath. "Did he hurt you?" I gasped. "I can taste the blood."

"Hardly. The blood is his. It would take more than Gerald Moss to lay so much as a spark on me."

"What happened?"

"The usual. He was just another acolyte of Valak's. Not particularly challenging to track down, or to eliminate once I found him. I don't want to talk about it. You'll remember it later anyway, whether I want you to or not. The spell won't hold much longer." His voice dropped to the soft growl that made my pussy even wetter. "And we have more interesting things to do now."

"Yes. God, yes!"

He smiled at my eagerness, the expression lightening the darkness in his eyes as I squirmed under his hands. He seemed to know every synapse in my body and how to stir each one to pleasure, taking a wicked delight in the process. I loved his touch, loved surrendering to him and climbing the heights he could drive me to.

The thought that I could've lost him tonight...

"Shhhh," he repeated. "It didn't happen. It won't happen."

And I believed him as he stroked me with tender brushes of his fingertips over the curve of my waist and hips and breasts. He kissed me in the path of those caresses, slowly, as if savoring the taste of my skin.

Hypnotized, I watched him, panting and dizzied. My hands tangled in the cool silk of his hair, threading among the curls, sliding down to the warm strength of his shoulder, thick and smooth under my fingers.

His hand slipped between my legs, finding me already slick and tight. He slid a teasing finger deep, thrusting as his thumb danced over the erect nub of my clit. With a groan, I spread my thighs, giving myself up to him. Pleasure floated up in long spirals like sparks from a candle flame, swirling with the smoky delight as strong fingers tugged with delicate care.

"That's it," he breathed. "You know what I want. Come for me."

His thumb strummed with the perfect pressure at just the right spot. My hand curled into a fist as I rolled my hips to meet his clever fingers. The orgasm took me, grabbed me hard and dragged me up as I cried out with the intensity of it, burning so sweet and merciless.

Something else rose from the depths of my brain, a wash of hot power that bowed my spine, making me scream, building to a roiling geyser of magic surging down my shoulders to burst from my fingers in stinging sparks.

Above me, Paladin's eyes widened in alarm. "No, Summer, not yet! He'll sense..."

But he was too late. I had no control at all as the magic exploded through the barriers I hadn't even known were there. It burst from my very pores like steam under pressure, lighting up the darkness...

Self-pubbed or not, I did have a lot of help. I want to thank Editor Margaret Riley, cover artist Fiona Jayde, critique partner Joey Hill, copy editor Pat Sager and line editor Emilie Pitt. And most of all, I want to thank you for reading my books. I hope you'll let me know what you think of Paladin.  

www.angelasknights.com
angela@angelasknights.com