Seductive Studs ~ Disturbing His Calm

December 4, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Seductive Studs, the blog hop dedicated to m/m romance by the people who read, write and review it.

This week I’m sharing another excerpt from Curse of Salar, Book 3 in the Masters and Mages series, release date January 5, 2016. In this scene Prince Dezra is being tended to by one of the many attractive servants sent to seduce and spy on him.

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“I am most grateful for your blessing, my lord.” Jai filled the cup and bowed again. They always spoke formally, even during sex. It amused Dezra and saddened him.

Jai stood a hand taller than Dezra and was muscular for a house servant, lean with hair the color of desert sand and pale blue eyes. He had a smooth, attractive face, which was why the premier’s agents picked him. Dezra’s watchers were always trying to guess who might entrance Dezra enough to earn his trust. So far they’d failed. He trusted no one. Sometimes he pretended in order to keep the watchers content.

“How goes things beyond the palace walls?” he asked, lifting the cup to his lips and keeping his gaze on Jai’s face. The servant raised his eyes. Despite his exemplary training, he stared hungrily at Dezra, an expression of desire disturbing his calm.

***

Masters and Mages 3: Curse of Salar ~

In the desert kingdom of Jahar, the rule of mages has been overthrown and the ancient lineage of sorcerer kings wiped out. Prince Dezra and his sister are the last living members of the royal family and are held prisoners in their ancestral palace.

Prince Dezra lives a life of lies and deceit. In order to stay alive, he must pretend to be a drug-addicted wastrel, trusting no one, isolated from even his sister who has chosen to cooperate with the government that executed their parents.

Into his lonely existence comes a man who should be his sworn enemy; Captain Rayn Nevar. Dezra is irresistibly drawn to the rough soldier and his longing for a simple sexual encounter quickly morphs into a dangerous obsession.

Captain Rayn Nevar knows he should stay far away from Prince Dezra, but his desire for the beautiful young man overrides all common sense. Despite the fact that Dezra’s ancestors destroyed Rayn’s family, the captain finds himself in a position of protecting the prince from the many schemers who believe the last of the mages should be annihilated.

When treachery leads to Dezra’s escape, he is at last free to bond with the serpent god Ka’alar and develop his long repressed powers. Only the arrival of a mysterious monk with powers greater than Dezra’s stops the prince from using black sorcery to destroy all who stand in his way, including Rayn.

As Jahar edges toward another war between masters and mages, Rayn must question his devotion to his increasingly deadly lover while Dezra must decide if ultimate power is worth the ultimate sacrifice.

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Don’t forget to continue the hop at the Seductive Studs home page. Lots of steamy m/m goodness goin’ on.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Mars?

November 29, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop. Hope you had a great Turkey Liberation Day. As a vegetarian, I have to say I’m very grateful for mashed potatoes and butter.

I’m continuing with another excerpt from my m/m space opera in progress, From Mars, With Love. I’ve skipped ahead a bit from the last snippet. Our hero Eli has been transported via shuttle to the Space Marines’s battleship, where he has more rude surprises waiting.

***

A marine with a wisepad on her arm stood waiting for Eli outside the battleship’s dock.

“Passport or ID chip?” she demanded.

“I was swept, as in kidnapped, as in abducted against my will. They didn’t give us a chance to pack our bags or apply for visas.”

“So no identification?” She tapped on the screen, frowning. “Well, you can apply for a long-term squatters permit when we get to Mars.”

“Mars? Wait, no, you’ve got to take us back to earth… all of us.” Eli looked around in a panic, as if someone reasonable might pop out of the ether.

***

Possibly my favorite ‘space guys with guns’ photo yet. ~ Chris Pratt

From Mars, With Love follows the adventures of Eli and his pal Rilke, two down-and-out scavengers from earth as they’re abducted by slavers, arrested by space marines, and dumped on an unwelcoming outpost on Mars. Eli’s troubles are only beginning when he finds out the ring his mother gave him contains the life force of a powerful but dormant alien and the mysterious man he has a huge crush on happens to be an alien artifact smuggler. Eli’s just trying to make it on Mars, but can he survive the dangerous political intrigue swirling around him? This erotic space opera is a work-in-progress. Stay tuned to this blog for ongoing excerpts and updates.

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This post is part of an ongoing blog hop hosted by Weekend Writing Warriors. Every Sunday, participating authors post eight to ten sentences from a published work or perhaps their current work in progress. Then we hop to our fellow warriors’ blogs and check out all the fabulous fiction that’s happening! I heartily invite you to participate as a reader, writer, or both. It’s a great way to discover your next favorite book. Click here or use the address: http://www.wewriwa.com

Seductive Studs ~ Panthers Lurking

November 27, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Seductive Studs, the blog hop dedicated to m/m romance by the people who read, write and review it.

This week I’m sharing an excerpt from Curse of Salar, Book 3 in the Masters and Mages series, due to be released in January 2016. This scene is in the POV of Captain Rayn Nevar, a soldier who’s just attended a formal ceremony in the palace as head of the escort for Minister Havran. He can’t stop thinking about Prince Dezra.

From a distance across the hall, the prince had met Rayn’s expectations of a beautiful but pampered royal. Observing the prince provided more entertainment than listening to the speeches, but a persistent erection wasn’t enough to overcome Rayn’s natural aversion to undeserving elites and sorcery, both of which were wrapped up in the person of Prince Dezra.

Despite this, Rayn hadn’t been able stop staring at the prince. Prince Dezra sat motionless most of the evening and appeared to drift in a dreamlike state. Rayn had heard he was addicted to harrar and spent his life in a luxurious fog. In his trance, Dezra’s long black lashes brushed his high cheekbones, and his wide lips curled into an amused half smile. Rayn had seen the expression on the face of many an idle courtier.

Then Rayn’s training as a scout took over, and he soon decided the prince wasn’t dozing at all but intently listening to every word. His body had the tautness of a grazing deer aware of panthers lurking at the edges of his idyll meadow.

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Masters and Mages 3: Curse of Salar ~

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Don’t forget to confine the hop at the Seductive Studs home page. Lots of steamy m/m goodness goin’ on.

Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Classified

November 15, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the best place on the inter-web to discover your next favorite book.

Well, my little NaNoWriMo dreams have already burned up in the flames of reality, but as usual it’s due to good things. I’ve received the first round of edits for Curse of Salar, which means the release date is scary soon! Plus, I’ve signed on for a project with a February deadline, so…poor Eli is going to be stuck with the space marines for a while longer. Maybe I’ll end up publishing the whole story in snippets.

Last week, after an exchange of insults, Eli told the man in black about the other slave ship in the hopes the other captives might be rescued. This excerpt is from my space-opera-in-progress, From Mars, With Love.

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The man in black didn’t seem upset about being called a habi-brat. Maybe he’d never even heard the slang, having never set his sanitized feet on the ground.

Eli caught up with the closest marine and grabbed his arm. This earned Eli a smack to the chest that sent him stumbling backwards.

The marine’s voice crackled out of the mic in his helmet, “I heard what you said about the sweeper. I’ll mic it up to Con, but don’t hold your breath; we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

“Aren’t you supposed to stop slavers?” Eli demanded.

“Yeah, but we’ve got a report on alien smuggling earthside and—”

“That’s classified,” the man in black said sharply. The marine shut up and hurried away.

***

EUREKA -- Episode 505 "Jack of All Trades" -- Pictured: (l-r) Colin Ferguson as Sheriff Jack Carter, Salli Richardson-Whitfield as Allison Blake -- (Photo by: David Gray/Syfy)

I don’t know about you, but I miss all the fun-loving end-of-the-world disasters Colin Ferguson narrowly averted every week on Eureka. (Photo by: David Gray/Syfy)

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Careless?

October 11, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Hello and welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors, the blog hop where a bunch of really great writers share tantalizing tidbits from their works-in-progress or published novels. I’ve been sharing from a work-in-progress, the m/m space opera From Mars, With Love. Our hero Eli has been rescued from a life of slavery by the mysterious man in black and the Intergalactic Free Market Trade Patrol Marines but what fate awaits him now? I’ve skipped ahead a bit to where Eli is being escorted out of the slaver’s ship. For those of you paying attention to little details, yes, they did find Eli some clothes to put on- one of the white jumpsuits the Asteroiders were wearing.

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“The officers tried to escape via shuttle,” one of the marines said, “but their launch bay is blown all to hell.”

“That must be what set off the distress beacon – morons.” The marine on the left shook his head.

They’d reached the wrecked entrance to the shuttle bay and Eli wondered how he’d survived it. The metal doors, floor and ceiling were scorched black and warped.

“Is that how you got your burn?” the man in black asked from behind.

“Never jam a fully powered stun gun into a fission panel if you can avoid it,” Eli said, glancing back over his shoulder.

A tiny smile curled the corners of the man’s lips, making them even more sensual. “Didn’t think a ground rat careless enough to get swept would be that resourceful.”

Careless?

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Eli might have a few words for the man in black next time. But until then, don’t forget to continue the hop.

Gotto love those men in black- good boy/bad boy? A little of both?

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Weekend Writing Warriors ~ Earth?

October 4, 2015 by Alexis Duran

Welcome to another round of Weekend Writing Warriors. I don’t know about you, but I missed last week so I’m anxious to catch up on the all the stories. So much can happen in ten sentences!

I’m continuing to share from my m/m space opera, From Mars, With Love. Last week, Eli and the mysterious man in black had a moment to check each other out, leaving Eli feeling a bit inadequate. In this snippet, Eli speaks first.

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“So when do you think we’ll get returned to earth?”

“Earth?” One eyebrow lifted in apparent amusement, then lowered.

Two marines barged in, bristling with lethal looking weaponry. Proper marines in heavy grey fatigues emblazoned with the Free Market Trade Patrol logo that depicted the planets of the solar system rotating around a gold coin instead of the sun.

“That’s it?” one of them asked, sounding disappointed.

Eli’s rescuer nodded and said, “All the others were already in storage, human cargo only, no artifacts.”

“Just another slaver out of the belt—hardly worth breaking trajectory for,” the other marine grumbled. They still wore their helmets and Eli could determine nothing about them except that they weren’t natural humanitarians.

“C’mon, groundling, time to go.”

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