| Sample
Chapter For DRAGON'S BANE by Sherrill Quinn
“Really, I don’t want…”
Adara Tremeirchion slapped her companion’s roving hands yet again.
What had Francesca been thinking to set her up on this date?
A hand slid up her thigh and she picked it up by the thumb
and thrust it away. “No! I mean it.”
“Aw, come on, Adara. You know you want me.”
Her companion pushed his chair closer, blocking the view of the other
patrons in the busy pub. He tilted his head so the light caught and danced
across the golden blond strands of his hair. When she caught him glancing
at his reflection in the mirror over the bar, she rolled her eyes. She’d
admit that he was a handsome rogue. But he knew it and that was a turn-off
for her.
She was twenty-six years old and still a virgin. She wanted
to find a man who would love her with a passionate, endless love. A man
who was strong and brave and had a body to die for, but wasn’t vain.
A man who would please his woman because he wanted to, not because he
wanted something from her.
This guy wasn’t it.
“I don’t want you,” she said, batting
at his hands.
One big hand grabbed both her wrists and held them. His
other hand fondled her breasts. “Francesca said you’d play
hard to get. Said I’d have to cajole you.”
“You call this cajoling?” Adara shook her
head. Men. Why couldn’t she find just one who knew the difference
between seduction and mauling?
“Yes, well, I’d say this is far more than
playing hard to get. Darling, you’re the most frigid woman I’ve
ever met. A real ice queen.”
That was just downright mean. She knew the Ice Queen,
and she wasn’t a pleasant person. Enough was enough. She’d
tried to be nice, but he wasn’t listening. Fine. She’d show
him exactly why she was the youngest fairy godmother in the realm.
With the blink of one eye, she summoned her magic and
threw him across the room. Everyone quieted and looked first at the big
man lying unconscious against the back wall, then back at her. She smiled
and rose from her chair, standing as tall as her five foot four inch frame
would allow, and gathered her handbag. “No means no,” she
said loudly enough for everyone to hear.
The men in the pub raised their eyebrows and then, almost
as one person, they turned back to their dinners, shoulders hunched. The
women smiled at her, giving her an unvoiced approval. Adara felt like
she’d scored one for womankind everywhere.
Now, she had a job to finish. She just needed to dust
off her “old lady” outfit, and finish her matchmaking with
Cinderella and her handsome prince.
* * * *
“Calm down, Adara.” The short, somewhat stout
woman took Adara’s arm and led her to a comfortable wingback chair,
urging her to sit. “How was I to know he’d turn out to be
such a toad?”
Adara was so worked up, she could hardly sit still. “How
could you not know, Francesca? His hands were everywhere!”
“Well… So what?”
“So what? So what!?” Adara jumped up and paced.
Her arms waved in agitation as she sputtered, “He was despicable.
Conceited. Mean.”
Francesca hucked up her skirts and sat in the abandoned
wingback. The chair shrunk to fit her smaller contours and she wiggled
until she was comfortable. “Well, my original idea was sound. You
need a man.”
Adara stopped and stared at her mentor. “I am fine
just the way I am. Francesca, why can’t you just leave me be on
this?”
“It’s not natural,” the older woman
muttered, “this fixation on staying a virgin.” She stood and
walked to a shelving unit that held dozens of glass and clay jars. She
took her wand from a lower shelf and turned to face her protégé.
She sighed at catching sight of the confusion Adara knew must be written
all over her face.
Francesca flicked her wand and, in the blink of an eye,
a naked man stood between the two women. He faced the older woman, leaving
Adara the rear view, so to speak.
And what a view it was. She knew she should probably appreciate
the long, lean line of his back and the muscled breadth of his incredible
shoulders, and even the strength of his powerful thighs. All she could
look at was his taut, rounded ass.
“There.” Francesca walked around to Adara’s
side, and the man turned as well. Adara felt her eyes widen when his penis
came into view. She got a peripheral impression of a hard abdomen and
dark blond hair smattering a trail over his muscled chest, but her gaze
was riveted on his cock.
“At first, the other Sisters kept telling me you
needed a man. Then they thought perhaps you didn’t like men,”
her mentor said, her tone gleeful now that she could prove them wrong.
“I can see you do. Touch him.”
That broke Adara from her lustful trance and she looked
at the other woman in horror. “I don’t even know him.”
Francesca frowned. “He’s nobody, Adara. I
just created him. For you.”
Adara didn’t want to think about what poor little
creature this man had just been. A mouse, perhaps? Or maybe a cricket?
“And just what makes you and the other Sisters think I need a man?”
“Why else were you on a blind date? You’re
desperate for cock.”
Adara gasped and choked on her own spit. “I am not!”
she finally managed to say between coughs.
“You are. Otherwise, well, you’d have been
at Cinderella’s when her prince showed up, wouldn’t you? You
almost fucked up. And not in a good way.” Francesca walked up to
the man and took his cock in her hand, smiling when it lengthened under
her touch. She pumped his flesh and continued, “You have only yourself
to blame, Adara. I keep telling you to live your life, instead of staying
on the sidelines and living vicariously through your charges.”
Francesca increased the speed and strength of her strokes
and the man groaned, pumping his hips against her hand. Adara watched
in helpless fascination as he threw back his head. His jaw tightened and
his neck corded with strain. With a shout, he came, his cock spurting
thick jets of semen onto the floor, across Francesca’s hand and
onto her skirts.
“This is what you need, Adara.” Her mentor
flicked her wand and the man disappeared. On the floor where he’d
stood was a small beetle, which scurried off and ducked through a knot
in the wooden floor. Another flick of the wand, and Francesca’s
stained clothing was clean again. “A man to fire you up, to entice
you into the world of the living.”
“You’re saying I don’t live?”
Adara had no problems ignoring what had just happened; she’d seen
similar scenes countless times growing up. It was a wonder she was still
a virgin, considering she lived in what some might call a brothel.
Of course, it would be a brothel if the women sold their
bodies for profit. It was the men who sold themselves—one night
between the sheets for some magical favor or another.
It wasn’t as if she hadn’t received plenty
of offers. She had. But a dream of True Love was hard to push aside, and
she had always felt as if she’d be unfaithful should she have sex
with someone other than her One True Love.
“When was the last time you kissed a man?”
Francesca asked.
When Adara didn’t answer, her mentor hissed, “Don’t
tell me you’ve never even kissed a man!”
“I’ve kissed men,” Adara said, her hands
on her hips. “I just don’t think it’s any concern of
yours.” She held up her hand when Francesca would have interrupted.
“And when I meet my One True Love, I’ll know it. And I’ll
be ready. All right? I’m sure I’ll be ready.”
* * * *
Six Months Later
Adara stood with Cinderella and watched the princess’
stepsisters dance with their new husbands. Once the two women had been
moved out from under the ugly influence of their mother, they had shown
their true natures: loving, kind, and ashamed of the hurtful way they’d
treated their younger stepsister.
Looking at them now, laughing and in love, it was hard
to remember the hard, pinched looks they’d worn when she’d
first seen them. Cinderella had been sitting by a cold hearth, mending
a pair of stockings in feeble candlelight. The elder sister had chided
Cinderella for her uneven stitches. The younger one had frowned at the
harsh tone, but had said nothing.
Later, when the prince had come with the glass slipper
and found Cinderella at her stepmother’s home, Adara had been fighting
off the unwelcome advances of her date.
A slight frown pulled at Adara’s brow. It still
rankled that she’d come so close to failing. After all the hard
work she had put into Cinderella, to have almost botched it at the last
minute… Well, she’d never be so gullible again. The next time
someone told her they had ‘just the man for her,’ forget it.
She’d find her own man, or she’d die a virgin.
Her frown deepened. Damn it, she didn’t want to
die a virgin. Maybe if she cast a spell, just a small one…
The frown became a full-fledged scowl. She couldn’t
use her magic for personal gain. Not only was it against the Fairy Godmother
Code, it was dangerous. Magic had a life of its own and a way of turning
on the one who misused it.
“Oh, Adara, thank you again for everything you’ve
done. I’ve never seen them so happy.” Cinderella reached out
and took Adara’s hand in hers. The princess wore her golden hair
in big, fat curls that cascaded down her back, with two small braids at
her face. The diamond-and-ruby-studded gold crown sat naturally on her
head.
Adara pushed away her melancholy and smiled. Cinderella
was a princess in every sense of the word. Rather than using her newfound
political power to exact revenge against the cruelty her family had shown
to her, she’d recognized that her stepsisters were as much victims
of their mother as she had been. She’d brought them to the castle,
shown them the kindness they’d never seen from the woman who’d
given birth to them, and found new lives for them.
“It was my pleasure, Princess.” Adara squeezed
Cinderella’s hand and released it. Her job was finished; it was
time to go. Just as she turned to leave, a man entered the ballroom and
captured her attention.
He was big and tall and so be-damned masculine her body
pulsed with heat. He wore his dark hair in layers a bit too long to be
fashionable, and it suited him. He looked arrogantly confident. Dominant.
Alpha.
She fought back a shiver and watched as he moved further
into the room. His shiny boot-encased calves looked long and lean. His
buckskin-colored breeches hugged taut thighs and the bulge that nestled
between them.
Sweet Sisters of Destiny. He was all man.
His gaze swept the room. She was too far away to see the
color of his eyes, but they had to be dark to match his hair, she thought.
Dark like the richest chocolate brought by the traders from the East.
The kind that melted on her tongue and made her crave more.
Cinderella murmured something and Adara nodded in response,
not really hearing her and not looking away from The Man. He stood at
least a head taller then most of the men around him, which put him somewhere
around six and a half feet. Unless he merely seemed taller because of
the commanding way he carried himself.
This was a man who was comfortable with himself and his
place in the world.
This was a man who would love a woman completely, who
would take her higher than she’d ever been before, granting release
only when he knew she was ready.
She wanted him. She’d been practical and dedicated
to her job too long, denying herself the pleasure of sex because she was
always taking care of others. Regardless of what the Sisters thought,
it wasn’t that she didn’t like men. She did. Very much. She
just never seemed to find the time for a relationship. Or, rather, find
the inclination to devote the time to one.
Francesca frequently chided her for not slowing down and
enjoying the hot, slick slide of an aroused male body against hers. ‘You’re
missing so much,’ she would lament, always accompanied by a solemn,
sad shake of her head. ‘You should embrace life instead of merely
viewing it from the outside. You need to take time for yourself.’
The Sisters of Destiny might be the founding members of the Fairy Godmother
Guild and most looked like the epitome of grandmothers, but they had sensual
natures that defied age. Adara had grown up in an environment that encouraged
sex, so even though she was untouched, she was not ignorant.
However, sex for sex’s sake had never much appealed
to Adara. Before now. Really, what good was her virginity, anyway? What
were the chances that her True Love would be a virgin? Men were…well,
men were supposed to be experienced. Why not women?
Looking at this man… Why not spend some time doing
something for myself? she wondered. Virginity is overrated. This time,
she couldn’t stop the shiver and it echoed as a flash of heat low
in her belly.
He stopped to talk to a duchess, his manners perfect as
he bent over her hand and placed a chaste kiss on her fat knuckles. The
woman preened and blushed, fluttering her hand near her face while she
batted her eyelashes at him. Even from where she stood, Adara could see
the slight tightening of his jaw, and knew he was impatient and irritated
with the insincerities abundant at court.
Something else to like about him besides his physical
appeal.
“That’s Prince Ruarc of Melthione,”
Cinderella said, her voice soft and awed. “His family has ruled
that province for more than five centuries. Ruarc is my husband’s
best friend; they practically grew up together since Melthione is next
door to our kingdom of Giffard, but he scares me a little. He’s
so…big. And intense. You can see it in his eyes.” She leaned
closer. “Stepmother tried to get him to court Estrelda, but he’s
a perceptive man and, well, you know what my stepsister was like six months
ago.”
“Your stepmother doesn’t deal well with rejection,”
Adara murmured, still watching Ruarc. “I’m surprised Diamanta
didn’t go after him herself.”
Cinderella let loose a laugh and Adara looked at her.
The princess put one hand over her mouth, and winked and then waved at
her husband when he glanced over to see what mischief she was up to. He
grinned, shook his head, and went back to his conversation with his father.
“She did, actually,” the princess said. “When
he treated her politely and respectfully, as if she were his mother, she
changed her tactics and painted a bull’s-eye on him for Estrelda.
When he still wasn’t interested, she set her sights on Bertrand.”
She glanced again at her husband, who looked up to meet her gaze.
The picture of the eldest stepsister with a big, red target
painted on her bottom made Adara laugh. She stilled when Ruarc looked
her way. Her breath caught in her throat as he strode through the crowd,
oblivious of the duchess making a bid to keep his attention, obvious in
his intent to reach her. He came closer, his steps purposeful, yet unhurried,
his body loose and graceful and built for sex. Her heart started thudding
hard and fast against her ribs.
“Oh, good God, he’s coming over here,”
Cinderella whispered, taking a step back. She looked nervous. Her eyes
darted to her husband. “I, um, I think I’ll go talk with my
husband and father-in-law.”
Adara’s eyes widened and panic fluttered in her
stomach. She didn’t want to face him for the first time by herself.
She reached out a hand to grab the princess. “Wait!”
Cinderella skirted a nearby column and faded into the
crowd. And then he was there, his chest level with her eyes. She stared
at the front of his shirt with its starched front. Slowly, her gaze traveled
up past the strong column of his tanned throat to his chin. She blinked
at the sudden urge to put her finger on the dent there, to put her lips
on that spot. Further up to his sensual mouth, curved in a soft smile.
Up his bladed nose and outward to his eyes.
Dark chocolate eyes sparkled with gentle humor. And something
more. Something…hot.
Beneath the satin and lace, her nipples hardened and pressed
against her gown’s bodice. She clenched her thighs against the throbbing
in her loins.
“My Lady.” He took her proffered hand and
brought it to his lips. Rather than the chaste kiss she expected on the
back of her hand, he turned it over and pressed his mouth into her palm.
He curled her fingers over the spot as if to hold his kiss there. “Ruarc
of Melthione, at your service.”
Heat traveled the length of her arm and flushed her face,
her breasts, her pussy. She’d never had such a primitive reaction
to a man before. This was what the Sisters had talked about, that first,
strong attraction to her One True Love.
It couldn’t be. Not this man. He was too hard, too
forceful. Something told her that he would not be the gentle, tender lover
of her dreams. He would demand everything from her. He would take her
heart with very little effort, and if she wasn’t careful, he’d
break it.
With that unsettling thought, she jerked her hand away,
then blushed at the rudeness of the action. “I, ah, I’m not
part of all this,” she said, waving her hand at the gathered nobles.
She sidled back a step, almost desperate to put some distance between
them.
“But you’re here.” He leaned toward
her and she smelled his cool, crisp scent. It was a mixture of soap and
cologne and sensual male. Her brain seemed to shut down and all she could
do was stand there as his gaze traveled over her face, then dipped down
to trace the length of her body. He lingered on the thrust of her breasts.
Adara looked down and realized her pebbled nipples were
clearly visible. She quickly crossed her arms over her chest. He looked
up at her face and grinned at her effort to cover the telltale signs of
her arousal.
His own arousal was just as plain to see, his penis a
hard outline along his thigh. When she realized where her eyes were glued,
she gasped and jerked her gaze back to his. The dark orbs blazed with
heat and need.
The same need rode her, made her want his mouth on her,
sucking hard on her distended nipples, making them even harder, longer.
The sizzling need made her pussy weep with the desire to have his mouth
there, his cock claiming her. Ack. She had to get out of here before she
got into trouble.
“And you are…” His voice was hoarse
and deep.
“Adara.” She backed up a step, trying to put
more distance between her and this unsettling man. She couldn’t
do this. Not now. Not with him. She wasn’t ready. Being initiated
into sex by a handsome man was one thing; being conquered and mastered
by a man who she wasn’t completely sure she wanted to be her One
True Love was something entirely different.
Her breath shuddered in her lungs and she knew she had
to get away from him before she did something silly like…faint in
his arms. She was a fairy godmother, for crying out loud. How embarrassing
would that be? “I…I have to go.”
“Wait, Adara…”
Ruarc couldn’t believe how fast she vanished. Two
steps into the crowd, and then, poof! she was gone. He stood for several
minutes, scanning the throng, but couldn’t find her.
He hadn’t imagined her interest. Or her desire.
It was as real as his. As immediate as his. His heart still pounded in
his chest. His cock pulsed beneath his constricting breeches.
From the moment he’d heard her throaty laugh, he’d
wanted her. His body had hardened with need, even before he’d reached
her. Seeing her up close, with her green eyes dazed with startled passion,
her upturned breasts moving with her rapid breathing, he was lost in lust.
He’d surprised himself that he’d been able to form coherent
sentences when all the blood in his body seemed to be pooled considerably
further south than his brain.
Her body was slender but shapely, with generous breasts
and hips. Sensuous lips made to fit against his. He knew her other parts
would fit him just as well.
With a grimace, he turned his back on the crowd and reached
down to adjust his breeches. As much as he wanted to talk to the princess
about Adara, he couldn’t very well walk through the assembled guests
with his cock looking like a third leg. He’d have to find a secluded
bower somewhere and do something about it.
The strength of his attraction to her didn’t surprise
him. He was a man of great physical needs who enjoyed sex with beautiful
women. What did surprise him was the thought that had come to him when
he’d met her eyes from across the room.
Finally, I’ve found her.
As soon as he could get his randy prick under control,
he’d talk to the princess. He’d find out all about the lovely
Adara. He was aware that he made Cinderella nervous and he’d use
that knowledge to his advantage. She’d tell him what he needed to
know.
He turned and nearly bowled over a maid standing with
her head bent and a tray of champagne glasses held out before her. He
reached out to steady her and murmured an apology.
“Wine, sir?”
More out of habit than any real desire for a drink, he
accepted a flute of champagne and took a few sips. He heard the maid laugh,
and wondered at it for a moment. Then she raised her head and he saw who
it was.
Diamanta. The princess’ stepmother. What the hell
was she doing here?
She looked down at his erection, then back up to his face,
a smirk twisting her features. “You want that little goody two-shoes
Adara?” She laughed again. The sound was sharp, like broken glass
against his soul. “Well, maybe you’ll have her.”
Her eyes went to the fluted goblet in his hand. “Do
you know what happens when a prince drinks dragon-dust hexed by a transmutation
spell?”
His own gaze flew to the goblet. Then, with narrowed eyes,
he stared at her.
Her smile widened. “Oh, it’s too late for threats, my fine
prince. It’s too late for you, period.” She stepped closer
and in a low voice only he could hear, she whispered, “You’ll
regret the day you rejected me, Ruarc. Just as little Adara will rue the
day she crossed my will.”
Stepping back, she gestured toward a side door. “You
should leave now, Prince Ruarc. You’re turning an interesting shade
of green.”
He glanced at the window and drew in a startled breath.
His skin was mutating from his normal healthy tan to an iridescent blue-green.
His eyes were changing, too, turning slitted, reptilian.
“What the hell have you done to me, you bitch?”
he snarled. His voice was guttural, thick and unrecognizable.
“Man by day, dragon by night. Only a virgin’s
blood can save you.” She gave that tinkling laugh again, but it
ended in a cackle. “But nothing will save Cinderella this time.
I will become queen.” She slid one long, crimson-tipped nail down
his arm. “Fly away, my prince, before someone sees you and tries
to end your miserable existence. Fly away.”
The goblet fell from his nerveless fingers and shattered on the floor.
Ruarc gave one last snarl and fled into the darkness.
Diamanta watched him, tapping one finger on her chin.
One down, one to go. “A virgin’s blood can save the dragon;
a dragon’s blood will save the virgin.” Thinking about her
beautiful, devilish plan brought a flush of glee and she clapped her hands.
When a few people in the crowd looked her way, she slid further behind
the column. “Now, to set the bait for Adara. Once they’re
both trapped in the Hinterlands, with only one way out…”
She smiled slowly and licked her lips. “Each will
try to kill the other and, if I’m lucky, at least one will succeed.”
She swept her hand down her body, using her considerable magic to change
her servant’s clothing to a glittering evening gown. Sauntering
out from behind the column, she winked at Duke…What’s-His-Name.
He immediately perked up. Bowing respectfully, his immense girth threatened
to pop the buttons of his putrid-looking waistcoat. He straightened and,
with his jowls quivering in a lustful smile, approached her with a pathetically
hopeful look in his eyes.
Diamanta watched him come closer, her thoughts turned
inward. Evil delight coiled through her at the thought of Adara and Ruarc
at each other’s throats. Smiling slowly, she tucked a strand of
hair behind her ear. She couldn’t wait to hear that her plans had
succeeded. The outcome would be…“Delicious,” she whispered,
and slid her hand into the crook of the duke’s arm, smiling seductively.
Until she had the prince who would one day be king, she’d use the
next best thing.
Reviews For
DRAGON'S BANE by Sherrill Quinn
Connie at Romance Reviews Today says this:
"Sherrill Quinn spins an intriguing story set in erotic fantasy splendor.
Adara and Ruarc make a scorching couple you will be rooting for from the
very beginning. For those of us who always suspected fairy tales of having
a little darker edge – DRAGON’S BANE is for you."
Review Site: TwoLips Reviews Reviewer: Kerin Rating: 5
Kisses Heat Level: 1 1/2 Chilis
"The humor in this book made DRAGON'S BANE irresistably charming.
There seems to be no limit to the fantastic talent of Sherrill Quinn."
Review Site: Just Erotic Romance Reviews Reviewer: Caye
Kimberley Rating: 4 Stars
"DRAGON'S BANE is a quick, entertaining and sex-filled continuation
of Cinderella's own happy ending... When Adara realizes she's found her
one true love in Ruarc, the pages burn with their passion. Ruarc's reaction
to Adara is hotter than hot and the sex is magical in more ways than one..."
Review Site: Love Romances and More
Reviewer: Dawn
Rating: 4 1/2 Hearts
"Ms. Quinn delivers a wonderful madcap of a story... With
each page, this talented author will draw the reader in and capture their
attention and in the process, their hearts as well. Ms. Quinn is an exceptional
voice in romance and truly has a winner with DRAGON'S BANE. Her characters
are multidimensional; the edge of the seat plot will capture the imagination
and finally, her writing delivers a story full of passionate ardor and
captivates the reader from beginning to end! This reviewer highly recommends
DRAGON'S BANE..."
Review Site: TwoLips Reviews
Reviewer: Kerin
Rating: 5 Kisses
Heat Level: 1 1/2 Chilis
"The humor in this book made Dragon's Bane irresistibly
charming. There seems to be no limit to the fantastic talent of Sherrill
Quinn."
Review Site: EuroReviews
Reviewer: Annie
Rating: 4 1/2 Flags
"Ms. Quinn has a way of turning a tried-and-trite fairy tale into
an intriguing and sizzling tale... Her characters are understandable and
appealing, and her hero is to-die-for. Run out and enjoy this tale!"
Review Site: Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer: Wateena
Rating: 3 Cups
"Simply wonderful! This tale features fascinating
characters under extraordinary circumstances... one twisted fairy tale
you will want to read for your bedtime story."
"DRAGON'S BANE takes a traditional fairy tale and
spices it up with new characters and hot love scenes."
3 1/2 Moons
Reviewer: Marlene Breakfield
Review Site: Mystique
"With each turn of the page, this reader was impressed
with both the captivating tale Sherrill Quinn has spun and the passion
that Ruarc and Adara find with each other... Dragon¢s Bane is a great
little fairy tale that readers will enjoy."
Review Site: Fallen Angel Reviews
Reviewer: Jessica
Rating: 4 Angels
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