To be honest there are a lot of memorable moments in ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE for me as an author. It’s one of my earliest novels and I’d always wanted to tell the story of a woman trapped on a planet behind enemy lines when a war suddenly breaks out. And send my Sectors Special Forces guys in to rescue her of course! Andi, the heroine of this book is one of my least liked Female Main Characters…guess I made her too strong and b*tchy in the beginning.

ANYWAY, this scene is Andi’s second encounter with Captain Tom Deverane, the man sent to extract from the danger. They had a very antagonistic first meeting and she refused to go with him so he’s trying again in the evening, using a gentler approach.It’s a big party and they’ve been dancing, then went for a walk outside…

The excerpt: 

“The situation report was a lot to take in, I know.” Deverane moved closer to her, heat radiating from his body. Slowly he reached out with one hand to circle her wrist, tugging her gently closer, until she was right up against him. “Better?”

Andi nodded, placing her hands on his chest, enjoying the feeling of their bodies together, the implicit intimacy holding promise for what might happen later.

The lights along the path and beside the benches flickered and went out, plunging them into darkness.

Glancing around, Deverane frowned in the moonlight. He released her, keeping one hand around her wrist and putting the other on the butt of his blaster. “Is that normal?”

“The generators have been known to be troublesome in the summer. Probably nothing.” The moment was gone, the spell she’d been under broken. Am I disappointed? Relieved? Things had been moving way too fast between them for people who had just met. “Fortunately, we still have enough moonlight to see the path.” Andi took a step toward the clubhouse.

He tightened his grip on her wrist, forcing her to stop. “Wait.”

Yelling broke out in the large building on the rise behind them. Glaring, spora­dic flashes burst from the general direction of the parking area and from the main wing of the celebration hall itself. Making the forest brighter than day, a sizable explosion obliterated the light of the two moons for a moment. Clapping her hands to her ears at the concussion, Andi ducked, crowding into the reassuringly hard-muscled captain.

In one fluid motion, he had his blaster in hand. Still keeping his grasp on her wrist, he drew Andi farther away from the path, taking cover behind a wide, multiple-trunked tree. Placing himself between her and the build­ing, he leaned out, reconnoitering the pathway. The screams and shouts were increasing in intensity and number.

Andi huddled against the tree, rough bark scraping her arm. He was right, this sounds like the beginning of war. Trembling, she had to lock her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering as one piercing shriek rose above the rest of the general uproar.

“I’m afraid we missed our deadline for a clean escape.” His voice was harsh, the words angry. “Come on.” Pulling Andi to her feet, he laced his fingers in hers and drew her from the safety of the tree, setting a course around the edge of the lake to the east. Andi stumbled in her high-heeled dancing shoes over rocks and branches.

“Wait.” Digging her heels into a softer patch of ground, she forced him to stop, yanking her hand free. “Shouldn’t we go back, try to help?”

“We’re overwhelmingly outnumbered.”  He frowned at her, nostrils flared as if he could scent the enemy forces. His stare was unblinking.

Eyeing the blaster in his hand, Andi raised her eyebrows.

Deverane sighed. “Even with a blaster. This was a well-planned, well-timed attack. You and I can’t afford to be caught in the middle of it. We’ve got to get back to the Tonkiln house and my men.”

Across the lake, one of the Obati mansions on the far shore exploded into flames. Andi gasped. “The attack is spreading.”

VS: And a little bit later they’ve made it to the lake, where there are small pleasure boats…

Holding her shoes above her head, she waded out, gasping a little at the coldness of the water. With one hand he helped her shimmy up and over into the boat, where she landed with a thud. Scrambling on hands and knees to the stern, she sat at the control panel, trying to remember the simple instructions she’d received earlier in the week. As Deverane fell over the side, she had the motor revving to the red line. Leaving a broad wake gleaming in the moonlight, the little pleasure craft shot straight across the lake.

He crouched low on the bench amidships and ran his hand over his hair. She hoped he was planning their next move. Blaster in his hand again, he reconnoitered the shore with deep suspicion. “Any obstacles in this water?”

Chilled in her half-drenched party clothes, she shook her head, wishing her expensive dress could shed water the way his uniform was engineered to do. “Not this direction. Can you contact your squad?”

“I’m trying right now.” He showed her the tiny comlink cradled in his other hand. “No answer, which could mean anything or nothing, but probably isn’t good.”

“Do you think the Tonkiln house has been attacked?” Andi worried about heading into an even worse situation than the one they’d left behind.

Not looking at her, he just shook his head. “Let’s deal with that when we come to it. Don’t steer straight to the dock—we’d be too obvious, sitting ducks. We need to land and work our way to the house without attracting attention.”

Angling the boat off to the east, Andi set a course to avoid the dock as ordered. “I never considered an attack on the family’s home. Lords of Space, what about the kids? Sadu and his two little visiting cousins—their Shenti nurse went home to her village last night—there’s only old Iraku and a few of the housemen there to protect them.” Worry about the younger family members gnawed a pit in Andi’s gut. “Lady Tonkiln must be terrified.”

“I have to extract the Sectors citizens, not risk my men trying to rescue anyone else against over­whelming odds. The Tonkilns aren’t my concern, understand?” His voice was flat, the words dismissive.

Andi jerked her head around to stare at him. “We can’t ignore the danger to them.”

“Lady, I have orders.” Shaking his head, he grabbed the wheel and yanked it, sending the boat veering away from its route to shore. “Cut the engine and get down. Someone’s moving by the dock.”

Cold flooded her body at the thought of enemies watching them. With fumbling fingers, she flipped the switch. Drifting through the dark waters, their craft floated in silence, slowing as the momentum died away. Andi crouched in the bottom of the boat, Deverane’s body warm and reassuring beside her.

“Can you swim?” He tucked his blaster and the small com unit away, sealing a pocket with a quick motion.

“I can swim.” She stared at him, trying to read his expression in the moonlight. “Can you?”

“Now’s as good a time as any to learn,” he said with a tight grin. “I’ve been told it’s like zero-grav exercise. Any major predators in this lake?”

VS: And the events go on from there. It’s a lonnngggg way to safety…and Deverane is keeping a dangerous secret…

Blurb:
Andi Markriss hasn’t exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn’t about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane’s say-so—no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.

Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed—or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders.

That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground. Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, Andi finds herself fighting her uncomfortable attraction to the gallant and courageous captain. But Deverane’s not the type to settle down, and running for one’s life doesn’t leave much time to explore a romance.

Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire’s so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race’s attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

 National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award Winner

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