Rogue's Paradise Read online

  Rogue’s Paradise

  By Jeffe Kennedy

  Book three of Covenant of Thorns

  Pregnant, possessed, and in love with a man I don’t dare to trust—those are the consequences of the risks I took to save my life. But Faerie, the land of blood and magic, is filled with bitter ironies, and the bargains I made now threaten me and my unborn child.

  The darkly sensual fae noble Rogue still tempts me to danger and desire. As we await the birth of our child, I’ve been forced to question whether our offspring is part of a bargain Rogue once made to save himself. He can’t tell me the truth due to a spell the vicious Queen Titania has him under. Would he betray our family against his will? Could I ever forgive him if he does?

  Rogue insists on an eternal commitment from me, even as Titania’s forces close in on us. I don’t know if Rogue and I can withstand her onslaught, or that of the beast within me. But I will not stop looking for answers—even if it brings the walls of Faerie crashing down.

  101,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  September might herald the end of summer fun and the vacation season, but the one thing you and I both know, as avid readers, is that we can always escape the daily grind thanks to books! This month, Carina Press is placing extra emphasis on the mystery genre, with the last week of September dedicated to not only our entire backlist of mysteries, but also four brand-new frontlist releases in four different subgenres of mystery.

  Within the mystery program, we welcome debut author Ricardo Sanchez with his novel Elvis Sightings. In this unique mystery that absolutely delighted our team from the first moment we read it, Floyd is a private detective who lives his life the way he thinks Elvis would have wanted him to—fast and hard in a sequined jumpsuit—and if he can avoid the billy clubs of government agents, a Viking reenactment and the amorous attention of the bearded lady sheriff, he just might prove, once and for all, that Elvis is still alive.

  Rosie Claverton brings us the second book in The Amy Lane Mysteries (a series that has some of my favorite Carina Press covers!). Welsh amateur sleuths Amy and Jason return in Code Runner, with Jason framed for the murder of a gang runner. When his prison transport is broken open, Jason is caught between the police, the gangs and the mastermind behind Jason’s downfall, while Amy races to prove his innocence.

  In Mistress of Lies, a historical mystery by Holly West, a young beggar girl claiming to be Isabel Wilde’s niece—previously unknown to her—shows up unexpectedly and reveals that Isabel’s brother Adam was murdered, compelling Isabel to take up an impossible task: discover the truth about her brother’s death, twelve years later.

  And joining these three in the mystery category, with a new release in her Patience Price Mystery series, Julie Anne Lindsey brings us Murder in Real Time. When a popular reality show host is murdered at the local bed-and-breakfast, Patience’s small town is overrun with grieving fans, paparazzi and a gunman who puts Patience in the crosshairs.

  If mystery isn’t your favorite genre, we have nine new releases in September in romance subgenres. Starting with contemporary romances, first up is Breaking His Rules by Alison Packard. If you love the friends to lovers trope as much as I do, you’ll love this story of two good friends pretending to be a couple at a coastal wedding, who find things get passionate when their true feelings rise to the surface.

  Rebound flings are supposed to have soft landings, but one sexy cop is about to fall hard in Christi Barth’s fun romantic caper Love on the Boardwalk. And in Emma Barry’s Private Politics, when a glamorous non-profit fundraiser becomes entangled in a political scandal, she turns to a savvy DC blogger for help clearing her name. As their hearts and ambitions collide, they find that everything in Washington comes with a price.

  If you like contemporary romance with an edge, reach for new adult romance Losing Streak by Kristine Wyllys. Rosemary Young was just another bartender until her boyfriend, Brandon Williams, lost a bet, leaving them with no choice but to sell their souls to the Lane’s crooked king.

  Author Stina Lindenblatt returns with Let Me Know, a contemporary romance with a new adult flavor. College freshman Amber Scott is propelled into the media spotlight when love letters she supposedly sent to her stalker surface prior to his upcoming trial.

  Switching gears to three books outside the contemporary romance genre, I’d like to turn your attention to Tyler Flynn’s newest male/male historical romance, Hunting the Spy. Nathan Kennett is hunting down a traitor who is selling the secrets of England’s defenses to the French rebels—could it be Sir Peter Ross, the man he loves?

  Don’t miss the final book in Jeffe Kennedy’s fantasy romance Covenant of Thorns trilogy. In Rogue’s Paradise, our scientist heroine discovers the origin of the fae and of her own nature, and whether she can make true love actually work. And it’s not too late to catch up with the first two books in this fantastic trilogy, Rogue’s Pawn and Rogue’s Possession.

  Eleri Stone’s Gun Shy has a wonderful Firefly-esque Western feel in a paranormal romance world. When criminal boss Gideon Moore sends men to steal the fort’s dwindling supply of Reaper cure for sale on the black market, Jane Fisher offers to guide Lieutenant Lyle Dalton through the shady side of Storm King Territory in an attempt to recover the serum.

  And last this month, we’re thrilled to present Shattered Bonds, the final book in Lynda Aicher’s Wicked Play erotic romance series. At the same time, we’re sad to see these characters go, as Lynda has captivated us with the emotional ups and downs of the relationships between this compelling cast of characters. Don’t miss this book, in which everything could change when the past comes back to destroy the members of The Den. Look for Game Play, the first book in Lynda’s new erotic romance trilogy, in spring 2015.

  Coming in October 2014, Dana Marie Bell returns us to the world of Maggie’s Grove, we welcome co-authors Eileen Griffin and Nikka Michaels and their incredible male/male romance duology, and R.L. Naquin is back with her urban fantasy Monster Haven series.

  Here’s wishing you a wonderful month of books you love, remember and recommend.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Editorial Director, Carina Press

  Dedication

  To all the wonderful readers out there who love Rogue too.

  Despite everything.

  Acknowledgments

  Many thanks, as always, to critique partners Marcella Burnard and Carolyn Crane. They listen to my angst, never give me grief for my bad choices and read on short notice. All the love to you gals.

  Special thanks to Grace Draven for beta reading this book. I owe you one!

  Also thanks to C. J. Lemire for attempting a beta read under short time constraints and getting me comments on the beginning.

  One more time, thanks to Has and E at The Book Pushers, for discovering this series, pushing it and asking for more. Many thanks to Amy Remus at So Many Reads and L. E. Olteano at Butterfly-o-Meter, for checking in with me regularly. You gals brighten my days.

  I’m grateful for my Twitter friends, who are ready to step up and cheerlead me through those black moments in the story. I think you all know who you are. (I sure hope so, because I forgot to write everyone down. Oops.)

  Gratitude to my editor, Deb Nemeth, and the entire Carina Press team, for seeing this trilogy into the world and giving it that special shine.

  A big hug to agent Pam van Hylckama Vlieg, for reading Rogue’s Pawn and believing in me from there. And for saying all the right things when I ask what happens if I’m not done yet.

  Credit to Patricia McKillip, who invented the Liralen, and whose book, The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, will live forever in my heart.

  Much love to David, who understands.

  Contents

/>   Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Part II

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Part III

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Part IV

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Part V

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Part I

  Revisiting the Original Hypothesis

  Chapter One

  In Which I Am Attacked by Flying Monkeys

  The only thing the stories seemed to agree on was that the fae were capricious beings who delighted in disrupting human lives, awarding their magical favors according to a system of ethics known only to them.

  ~Big Book of Fairyland, “Flora and Fauna”

  The flying monkeys attacked just before sunset.

  Swear to God, that’s exactly what they looked like. I even looked for a smoke trail warning “Surrender Dorothy!”

  “I have no idea what that means.” Rogue, as usual, had read my thoughts as clearly as if I’d shouted them. “But now would be an excellent time for you to focus and possibly assist.”

  I struggled to clear my fatigued brain and sit straighter on his lap—not easy on horseback, with our steed Felicity breaking into a panicked run over the glassy black rocks as the sky overhead darkened with throngs of winged primates.

  “I thought you said we’d have some time before the Queen Bitch would be strong enough to come after us.” I gasped as the mare whipped around a narrow curve.

  Fortunately Rogue needed no reins, guiding her with the grip of his muscular thighs and likely his mind, leaving his hands free to hold me tight against him. As a fae noble, Rogue possessed many skills, and apparently superb horsemanship ranked high among them.

  “What makes you think it’s her?” He sounded arrogant—something that once would have grated on me—but I felt his anxiety beneath. Rogue had suffered far more at Queen Titania’s hands than I. We hadn’t discussed yet what had happened to him as her puppet and slave, largely because he’d been letting me sleep off the exhaustion from battling her.

  Also, Rogue was far from the type to confide. He might never tell me.

  His gorgeous face was tense, creased with the torment of his captivity, the winding black lines that covered the left side of his face and body stark against his skin. Apparently even immortals could look the worse for wear.

  I wasn’t in much better shape, perilously drained of my magic reserves, my hands a crippled mess—and unfortunately pregnant, just to top it all off.

  Neither of us was fit to fight. Nor could we afford to be recaptured by Titania.

  We barreled into a narrower canyon that forced Felicity to slow her headlong rush and fortunately limited the angles the monkeys could come at us.

  “Whether or not this is Titania’s doing,” Rogue said, “these creatures are more like guard dogs. It wouldn’t require much of someone to send them. However, it may require much for us to deal with them.”

  “What do you want me to do?” I asked.

  “How much power do you have?”

  I wished I knew how to answer that. Rogue had been teaching me more about my abilities to work magic and how to draw energy from outside myself, but we hadn’t gotten far before Titania snatched him. It was a bad sign that he, the ever-and-all-powerful—far more magical than I, though I hated to admit it—had to ask me for help.

  “Some. I don’t suppose you have my crystal staff tied to the saddle?”

  Rogue looked grimly amused. Then ducked when a flying monkey, clawed fingers outstretched, dive-bombed his head. Monkeys shouldn’t have curved talons, but pretty much anything goes in Faerie. A burst of magic from Rogue, his signature feral black and blue, whooshed past me, and the monster chimp dissolved in a puff of sparks.

  “Your girl, Athena, took it. She seemed to think you couldn’t be trusted with it.”

  And Athena had ridden ahead with the others, since Rogue had been burdened with unconscious me. Annoying of her as the thing would augment my abilities, even if it was dangerously addictive. Compared to my current alternate fate, that sounded like giving up caffeine when starving to death.

  “You can’t nuke them all, like with that one?”

  “No. Not enough power for so many.” He hated admitting it too. Quite the pair we were.

  “Tell me what you want and I’ll do my best.” How little power was “not enough”? No delicate way to pose the question so it wouldn’t impugn his male ego. Asking Rogue if he had no magic left and no access to those outside resources he’d bragged of seemed akin to asking a guy whether he thought he could get it up or if he was done for the night.

  A trio of monkeys swarmed us, a talon raking Felicity’s hide. The horse screeched and put her head down, bucking with terror, which Rogue barely managed to control, his steely strength keeping me from being thrown. My cat Familiar, Darling Hercules, riding behind Rogue on his special saddle pad, sent me a startled image of him digging in claws and holding on for dear life.

  Whatever we were going to do, we needed to do it fast. The trio of monkeys wheeled back on us. One went up in sparks, but the other two seemed only singed around the edges and one managed to sink talons into Rogue’s shoulder before he got it on the second try. Not a good sign.

  Darling Hercules let out a yowling wail and swiped at one of the monkeys that tried to grab him. To all appearances a humble tabby cat, he had grandiose ideas about his size and battle readiness.

  “Goliath,” he nudged into my head, insistent on his new battle name.

  “Later,” I answered. “I suppose wishing them away won’t work?”

  Grimly, Rogue shook his head. “Too many. They’ll just keep coming.”

  Already the evening sky looked dark as night with their bat-winged bodies blocking the last of the light. Only the narrowness of the canyon we were tearing down kept them from simply dropping on us like an immense cloud of hairy locusts. As it was, they came at us singly or in small groups, scratching a cheek here or slicing an arm there, before Rogue could blast them.

  “However, if—” Rogue’s words came in puffed bursts of effort. “If I can pull power from you...I have an idea. So I need to know how much you have.”

  I couldn’t answer that—not as if I had a little gauge warning me I was at less than 20 percent battery—but I did know how to charge myself up pretty fast. Just lucky that my favorite catalyst happened to be holding me in his arms.

  “Ow—dammit!” I screeched as a talon tangled in my hair, taking some of my scalp with it. “Can you keep them off of me? And slow Felicity down, if at all possible.”

  “For a time, yes. Be sure to hold on.” He freed one arm and his gleaming blue-platinum sword appeared in his hand. A major magic for me, a parlor trick for him. Apparently easier than frying monkeys, however. The monkeys came thicker as Felicity slowed, but they stayed farther back, wary of that sharp edge.

  Turning myself around in the saddle wasn’t easy by any stretch, but I trusted Rogue, even one-armed, and his uncanny long-limbed strength to keep me from tumbling off. I maneuvered to straddle Rogue’s lean hips, while Darling Hercules compla
ined bitterly in my head that I’d better not kick him. I told him to make himself useful and deaden the agony flaring up from my fingers as I clumsily slid my bandaged hands behind Rogue’s neck. Thankfully the cat did, removing the pain with his oh-so-useful gift of magical anesthesia.

  “Gwynn, what in Titania’s name are you doing?” Rogue flicked his sword and a monkey fell in two pieces, spraying white blood on the black rocks.

  “Kiss me.” I pressed my groin against his, the sure rise of his cock making me giddy with a flood of strength and the hope that this might work.

  With a grunt, Rogue split another diving monkey and glared at me. “After all this time of dreaming that you’d finally ask me for that, this is the moment you choose, contrary Gwynn?”

  “You want power from me. You’re the one who pointed out that sex energy is my shortcut. So shut up, pucker up and keep an eye on those monkeys.”

  He barked out a laugh, but wasted no more time. That seductive mouth of his fastened on mine with a ferocity that belied his weariness. His deep blue eyes stayed open and I felt the contractions of his chest as he swung the sword. Holding me pressed against him, he kissed me with all the fierce desire I could wish for. My own longing for him welled up, hot and needy—all the more so for our long separation—so ready for him. A monkey raked claws down my arm, and I flinched but focused on the kiss.

  Not sure how to do it, I tried linking with him as we’d done once before, mentally putting myself in his hands and pouring the energy into him. Rogue hummed deep in his throat and pushed the hard ridge of his erection against me, sending a bolt of electricity through me that ricocheted between us. The sexual heat built between us, the magic wild and potent, overwhelming in its intensity. He ran his hands over my back, cupping my bottom and pulling me even closer to the lean length of his body while he stroked his hips, driving me into frenzy.

  Wait—both hands?

  I became aware that Felicity had stopped and stood head down, breathing in great gusts. Starting to pull back, I gasped when Rogue nipped my lower lip. “No, don’t stop, lovely Gwynn.”