Read An Excerpt:[Click here to expand/collapse]

EXCERPT:

Everything changed on the day true magic came to Earth. Humans thought that the inter-dimensional gateway to Tah'Nut was a miracle because it appeared just in time to save them from extinction.

Elryk Muyd'omir knew better.

This wasn't a lucky coincidence, miraculous or otherwise. This was the result of a three-year concerted effort to track him down. He'd refused to work with the Xoh'kas family and had incurred their wrath. Now that the Tah'Nutian Law Forces had located his refuge, he needed to make a decision: accept his punishment or fight.

Elryk stood on the white sands of his favourite beach and stared out over the stillness of the blue-green waves. Not a breath of wind to be felt in the physical world. The magical realm was another matter.

"You're going to leave, aren't you?" Parker Stokes was a good friend, sharing his beach house and keeping Elryk company when his job as a physicist allowed.

"I'm sorry." Elryk saw no other way. Even though the gateway had opened on the other side of the planet, he already sensed its currents reaching out for him. Once they touched him there'd be no escape. And he didn't want to risk Parker's safety.

"You've always said this might happen." Parker smiled, showing the dimples that were so at odds with his normally serious demeanour.

"I can't fight them, not yet." His magic was going to start working again once he linked with the power flowing from the gateway. But he couldn't gain his strength back quickly enough. His magic had been inactive for too long.

"But you will, right?" Parker's green eyes shone with the force of his conviction. "You can't let those Xoh'kas 're-programme' you and make you a mindless zombie."

Elryk had told Parker the whole story after his friend had sworn to never tell another soul. He'd been fascinated that magic existed in another dimension. The physicist in him had unsuccessfully tried to develop an explanation. With the gateway open, Parker was going to study the phenomenon.

"Yes, I'll fight." Elryk snorted. The Law Forces were sure to hand him over to the Xoh'kas. The Rah'loyst procedure would neutralize both his memory and his magic. Permanently. The ruling Xoh'kas family may have wanted more docile citizens but Elryk shuddered at the thought of losing his personality. Anything was better than that.

"Good!" Parker slapped him on the back. His lean frame was deceptive, the man's strength tangible in his touch. "They don't deserve to control your Ruling Assembly."

"I never thought they did." Elryk sighed. "I just wasn't ready to step up and face them three years ago. I'm not a fighter, you know?"

"I know." Parker nodded, his black hair bobbing around his patrician face. "But you can't let them take over Earth. We've got enough problems of our own."

"Right." Elryk grimaced. "You've certainly managed to make life difficult for yourselves. You do realise that magic isn't going to solve everything, don't you?"

"Obviously." Parker grinned. "Science is going to play a role."

Elryk nodded.

"Goodbye my friend." Parker smiled and stepped away.

"Thank you for everything." Elryk turned back towards the ocean.

It was time. He had to return to Tah'Nut to be effective. The gateway was the only way back. Once through it, he'd need some time to recover his magic. Then he'd find a way to escape and fix things.

He took one last breath of the salty ocean air. Mentally reaching out to the currents emanating from the gateway to increase his power, he wove the spell that would transport him straight into the Tah'Nutian Law Forces Commander's temporary office on Earth.

Kaythan Vs'urr looked up from the three-dimensional map of Earth, an irritated frown on his face. Transportation lightning inside an office, even one as hastily built and temporary as his current location, was highly irregular.

The smouldering black eyes that stared back at him belonged to a tall muscular man with long black hair, a classically chiselled face with a high forehead and a strong beardless chin and jaw. His skin was white, almost translucent. His lips were the deep red of winter roses. In short, he was looking at the wanted criminal he'd been sent here to capture. The man-no, wizard-stood in the middle of the room, hands relaxed at his sides, acting as if he'd been invited over for some social occasion.

Kaythan's mouth dropped open.

Elryk was not at all what Kaythan had expected. He'd been warned about the potent wizard, an outlaw of the worst kind, headstrong and evil. He'd prepared himself for any and all tricks the 'traitor' was going to throw at him.

This wizard fit the physical description he'd been given down to the last gorgeous molecule of his perfect body. Kaythan swallowed. Crap. He was going to have to be careful about betraying the undeniable attraction he felt. The pictures had been one thing, but the wizard's physical presence was ten times more powerful. He couldn't reveal his plans before he got them both to safety. Nobody could know about his real reason for taking this assignment until it was too late for them to do anything about it.

Read An Excerpt:[Click here to expand/collapse]

EXCERPT:

"What the fuck am I going to do now?" Anton Collins blew the shaggy hair out of his face, wishing he'd remembered his hairdresser appointment on Saturday. Now he'd have to wait for five more days. Not good in this late August heat. But he was far too busy to get it done sooner than the weekend. And that had been before the phone call that had interrupted, not just today's work, but his research plan for the whole week.

"Are you okay, boss?" Ben's soft voice came from the work tables outside the offices where he was sorting items for a new exhibition.

"Sure." Shit, he must have spoken loud enough for his colleague to overhear him. How embarrassing was that?

"You don't sound okay." Ben appeared in his office door, a frown on his cute pixie face as he rubbed his hands on his jean-clad legs.

"It's nothing. I just got a call from the management team in Jacksonville. They're sending someone over on Wednesday to evaluate next year's research proposals. You know how much I like making presentations." Anton sighed and slumped into his office chair.

For the first time since he'd started working for the Komlos Foundation two years ago, he wished for a different job. Maybe his parents were right after all and he should have stayed in physics rather than doing postgraduate work in library science. He liked his work for the group of museums well enough, but his current predicament made him wonder whether he was cut out for it.

"But you don't like giving presentations at all." Ben scratched his head. "What about the other two departments? Do they have to come up with one as well?"

"Yes. I'll be up against Political History and Literature, both of which have department heads better at presenting than I am." Anton groaned quietly.

That was the understatement of the century. They were as brilliant as he was useless.

"Surely the priority the Komlos Foundation has always given to scientific research will work to your advantage?" Ben could be so naive sometimes.

"I'm not sure this Gregory Montparnasse knows, or cares, about that. He's one of those management types, whose main concern is their next promotion. I'm not sure he'll even know what to look for." Anton forced himself not to get more upset.

"So what are you going to do?" Ben bounced on the balls of his feet as if he was excited.

Who knew? Maybe he was. It was sure to be a showdown. Mary Walter who headed Literature wasn't too much better than Anton, but Frederic Davenport who was in charge of Political History was a wonderful presenter.

"It's not like I have a choice. If I want my research into the history of astronomy to progress at all, I'll need to hire at least two more people. And without the grant money, I can't. So, I'd better make sure that my presentation is outstanding." Not that he had the first clue about writing a presentation that wouldn't put his listeners to sleep.

"Okay. Let me know if I can help." Ben's gaze lingered on him a little longer than necessary before he turned and went back to his work.

Anton wished, not for the first time, that Ben wasn't a colleague, never mind eight years his junior. It wasn't even the age difference that worried him. It was Ben's lack of maturity. Anton didn't have time for the drama involved with dating a younger man. He snorted. He didn't have time to date period.

Now-where had he put his reading glasses again? He had a presentation to prepare and not enough time to do it well.

He'd barely started making some progress when the sound of a heated discussion reached him.

"No, you can't just go in there. He's busy." Ben's voice was higher than normal.

"Doesn't matter. You obviously can't help me, so I'll need to find someone who can." The stranger's voice was deep and calm despite the apparent urgency.

"But I told you-" Ben stopped speaking at the same time as the stranger entered Anton's office.

He was quite a sight. Standing at least six-four, he had wide shoulders, a muscular chest and strong arms, shown to their best advantage by a short-sleeved, blue T-shirt that hugged his upper body like a lover. His long muscular legs were encased in sinfully tight black jeans that left nothing to the imagination. Black cowboy boots completed the picture of a bad boy come to life.

Tearing his gaze back up to eye level made Anton realise he was about to fall in lust with this hunk of a man. Piercing blue eyes the colour of cornflowers were framed by a square face with high cheekbones and a straight nose. He was clean-shaven and his sun-bleached blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"May I help you?" Anton had to make an effort to stop himself from drooling. The gorgeous man probably had several women after him and even if he played on Anton's side of the fence, he certainly wouldn't be interested in an out-of-shape librarian. Anton had never regretted not going to the gym on a regular basis-until now.

"Oh yes, I think you'll do quite nicely." The stranger's voice travelled straight to Anton's cock, making it sit up and beg for attention. The heat in the other man's eyes almost made Anton whimper.

Read An Excerpt:[Click here to expand/collapse]

EXCERPT:

"Are you ready?" Scott Black glanced at his new boyfriend. They'd been together for a month, most of that time spent organising their move from California to Scotland. Now they were about to meet his parents and suddenly Scott wasn't so sure this was a good idea.

"No." Anton's sky-blue eyes were bright in his too pale face.

The long flights with a layover in Newark had taken it out of him despite the fact they'd travelled first class. Anton's long, strawberry blond locks were tousled and he looked good enough to eat, even as exhausted as he was. Too bad Scott had to focus on driving the rental car they'd picked up at Edinburgh airport. Returning to driving on the left side of the road had been surprisingly easy, but he was still nervous. The first roundabout had almost thrown him for a loop.

"Would you rather stay at a hotel, get some sleep and meet them tomorrow?" Scott wouldn't mind. He hadn't seen his family since he'd left for Los Angeles ten years ago. A career in gay porn later, he wasn't too sure of his welcome, even though his eldest brother, Logan, had reassured him when they'd spoken on the phone.

"That would only delay it, not solve the problem of having to meet new people. You know I'm no good at that." Anton sighed and pushed his hair out of his face. "And these aren't just any new people. Hell, they're your parents and family. What if they hate me?"

"They won't hate you." That was too ridiculous for words. "You're too nice a person to hate. Not to mention intelligent, well educated and about to bring order to their long neglected library of old manuscripts. If they'll hate anyone, it'll be me."

"You? But you're their son!" Anton's eyebrows rose.

"A son who used to be a gay porn star." Scott wasn't ashamed of what he'd done, but he'd always thought his stuffy aristocratic family would object. "Even if Logan assures me that they're okay with it, I can't quite imagine they'll love me for it."

"Okay, so maybe they'll hate both of us." Anton's lips twitched when Scott did a double take. "Watch the road!"

Scott returned his attention to not missing their exit off the M90.

"All right, now that we've discussed the worst case scenario, maybe it won't be so bad." Anton put his right hand on Scott's thigh, not moving it anywhere, just letting it lie there and reassure him. "We have each other's backs, right?"

"Oh, yes!" Scott had no doubts. "You've given up so much to be with me, I'll always have your back."

"Pffft, that promotion would have made me monumentally unhappy." Anton chuckled. "Thank God you rescued me from all that travelling and the unbearable levels of office politics. You've given me my first real shot at doing some serious research into the history of astronomy. I'm hoping I can focus on the history of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, depending on the manuscripts your family's library holds."

"I love it when you get all excited about your work." Scott grinned. He didn't always understand everything Anton said, but his enthusiasm was sexy as hell. "Now, let me see, yes, this is our exit."

They were less than an hour north of Edinburgh and the landscape had already changed to one of wild beauty. He'd taken the slightly longer route so he could drive past Loch Leven, his favourite spot for fishing and swimming in the summer. As it came up on their left, he heard Anton gasp.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Scott was proud to call this area home.

"It's unbelievable!" Anton lifted his hand from Scott's thigh and pointed at the island. "Look, there's a castle on that island!"

"Yes, there is." Scott smiled. "We used to row across the water and try and sneak up there, but the guard dogs wouldn't let us onto the beach."

"I bet you were a holy terror as a kid!" Anton returned his hand to its new home on Scott's thigh and Scott saw him smile from the corner of his eye.

"I did my share of damage." Scott shook his head. "Having two older brothers didn't help. Logan's six years older and David four, so they were always ahead of me. But I did my level best to match them in naughtiness."

They drove the rest of the way in silence. Scott had to focus on the narrow country road and Anton was staring out the passenger-side window. After a few more miles, and several turns, they finally made it to the old cast-iron gate that was set in the even older sandstone wall.

Scott lowered his window and pressed the bell, announcing their presence to the person on the other end. It sounded like Winston, but the voice was so tinny that he couldn't be sure. The gate opened, as if by magic, and Scott started the winding drive towards the castle. The old trees framing it were still hiding the main residence as well as they had ten years ago.

When they came around the final bend, and the view opened up onto the building and the immaculate lawn in front of it, Anton gasped. Scott grinned. The late eighteenth-century building was pretty impressive. Based on a fourteenth-century tower house, his ancestors had rebuilt it in 1781 in very early Scottish Baronial style. The ivy that climbed up the old tower was just as familiar as the crow-stepped gables and the battlement crenellations that made it look more like a castle than the Palladian manor it had actually become.

"Fuck!" Anton's eyes were big when Scott turned around to watch him after parking in one of the spaces in front of the main entrance and switched off the engine. "This is...this is huge!"

"Told you." Scott loved Anton's uninhibited reaction.

"Yes, you mentioned that your parents owned a castle. But you didn't say that it was this big. I mean, just look at the entrance door. You could fit a carriage through there." Anton's eyes kept wandering over the entire front of the building.

"They probably did, back in the old times. The former central courtyard was covered and the space converted into rooms in the original renovation." Scott felt like a tour guide, one who enjoyed the utter amazement on Anton's face.

"How many rooms does this place have?" Anton's hands gripped the sides of his car seat. He looked far more nervous than he should have been.

"Oh, there are about fifteen or sixteen bedrooms. Some of them in the east wing are used for renting out to tourists or for small corporate events. About the same number of bathrooms, a couple of dining rooms and various lounges, the library, of course, the main ballroom, the kitchen and several rooms for those members of the staff who prefer to live here rather than in the village." Scott opened his door and got out to stretch his legs. They'd be discovered pretty soon and if he knew his mother she'd have lunch waiting for them.

Anton had barely gotten out of the car when the main door opened and Scott's entire family poured out.

"Oh, shit. I'm in such trouble." Anton had gone white and stood rooted to the gravel driveway.