Hello everyone!  Today on My Sexy Saturday we’re celebrating one hundred weeks of terrific blog hops.  I feel very privileged to be amongst the company of so many wonderful and supportive writers.  I always encourage readers to check out the other writers participating in the hop, and this week I’d also suggest you head on over to our Party on Author Central where the festivities that started on Facebook this week are continuing.

As it happens, I’m also celebrating the completion of Book 3 in my Masters and Mages fantasy series: Curse of Salar. Woohoo!  Curse turned into a full length novel. I love it but I’m sooo happy to move on.  So this week I decided to share seven paragraphs from the completed ms.  This is from one of those really fun scenes to write; the moment when the two main characters first lay eyes on each other.  We are in  Prince Mira’s point of view while he sits through an endless and tedious state dinner.

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In contrast, Minister Havran’s escort wore black. Mira tore his attention from the vision of the minister to inspect these other newcomers and immediately forgot about the woman in white. To the left and a step behind Minister Havran stood a tall man with brown hair as richly toned as fresh plowed earth. The thin line of a neat beard framed his strong jaw and his smoky blue-grey eyes took in everything around him. He was the most striking man Mira had ever seen.

Mira quickly lowered his eyelids to their customary languid attitude, though his blood raced. He couldn’t remember ever being so affected by the mere sight of an attractive person, and especially not a common soldier.

Slowly, he took in the details of the man in order to determine what unnerved him so. The man wore a close fitting black uniform with pants tucked into knee high riding boots, a loosely draped formal blouse that revealed a fine, long neck and tan chest. He was built like a skilled fighter, not a brute, with long, lean muscles, wide shoulders and slim hips, around which hung a belt that would normally hold a short sword, if weapons were not forbidden to palace guests.

He exuded relaxed strength, and something of the rebellious fire that Mira sought. But the man was part of the faction that had crushed the royalist rebellion. He was Mira’s enemy. Still, Mira enjoyed looking at him and did so until he realized the man was looking back. Their eyes met. Mira wasn’t one to flinch or look away, but after taking a slow breath, he let his gaze travel away from the sharp features and wide, welcoming mouth of the handsome face to the thin lips of the minister, which were moving and uttering sounds. Speech. Mira tried to focus.

“We of the Armazin are proud to declare our country is at peace. Those who would oppose the rule of Skala have been destroyed and the law of reason now governs with a firm hand.” Havran did not so much as glance at Mira and Alandra, who represented the law of unreason, who those rebels sought to return to the throne. Mira and his sister did not matter. They were irrelevant, even in his mother’s homeland, bastion of the cult of Ka’alar. It was difficult indeed for Mira to remain passive and utterly calm in the face of such defeat, though the fighting had been so far away and removed from his life in the palace.

His attention snuck back to the man, who was still staring at him. Impudent. It flashed into Mira’s mind that this must be the one Jai had been complaining about, Captain Rayn Matisse. Jai was right, the captain was irritating.

Mira decided to turn his divine wrath on the rude captain and returned his stare. The rest of the hall fell away, and they might as well have been the only two people in it. Though the captain stood at least fifty feet away, his gaze penetrated Mira’s defenses and threatened his secret thoughts.

***

Here’s my first stab at a blurb:

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 Mira and his sister are the last living members of the royal family and are held prisoners in their ancestral palace.

Prince Mira 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 Matisse. Mira is irresistibly drawn to the rough soldier and his longing for a simple sexual encounter quickly morphs into a dangerous obsession.

Captain Rayn Matisse knows he should stay far away from Prince Mira, but his desire for the beautiful young man overrides all common sense. Despite the fact that Mira’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 Mira’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 Mira’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 Mira must decide if ultimate power is worth the ultimate sacrifice.

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Don’t forget to continue the hop to check out more sexy snippets from the other participants.  Seven words, seven lines or seven paragraphs of steamy fun await at My Sexy Saturday main page.