Today I'd like to share a small snippet from Forged in Fire. Forged was the first science-fiction romance I ever wrote, and the hero, Gin Draven, remains near and dear to my heart. I thought readers might like a small excerpt from one of my favorite stories on this Tantalizing Tuesday!
The Blurb
Steel is forged in fire.
Hardened by hatred,
Tempered by blood.
Seasoned by shame,
Sharpened by death.
Gin Draven is a soldier. THE soldier. Sworn to protect the nine planets in the galaxy humans made their home ninety thousand years ago. He lives for winning the war. He loved a woman once, and she cost him his sanity, his eye, and his heart. He’d taken every moment of their time together and buried it deep. Until the day she strolled back into his life.
Maeve was a woman. THE woman. Back to make Gin Draven her husband. She wants the same thing he does. The end to the war that plagues them all. She knows secrets that can help him win the war, and secrets that could destroy them both.
War brought them together, and war tore them apart. Everyone knows the strongest loves are Forged in Fire.
The Excerpt
Maeve wasn't stupid. She knew Gin's reaction to her would
be bad. What she hadn't accounted for was her reaction to him. She laid back on
his bed and sighed. The minute she'd seen his face her heart had nearly jumped
out of her chest. It had taken all of her strength of will to act like she was
mad as hell at him and not swamped by the old emotions that threatened to take
her to her knees.
Sure, he barely looked the same. His face had once been
beautiful. As beautiful as Brydon's. Now it was scarred, and he looked
dangerous and lethal. She almost liked the scars better. It made her wary of
him. Before, she'd fallen for him so fast she'd never realized the darkness
that lived inside of him. Now he carried it on his face for everyone to see.
His bionic eye was hard to distinguish from his real one, but she knew it was
there. Every time he looked at her with that disgusted, sick look on his face
she knew the real eye was the one that still had a little hurt in it.
She rubbed her chest. Damn. Even after five years his hurt
could still rip her apart. She knew what being ripped apart felt like. When
he'd assumed she was a traitor she'd felt her heart split in half. The one half
he'd ripped out and stomped all over when he'd left her in the Boderian camp.
The other half she'd lost the moment she'd seen the laser gun melt half his
face. It had taken her months to be able to think about him without tears.
Years to look at herself in the mirror without calling herself a coward. If
only she'd gone to him, instead of running back to her father, none of this
marriage nonsense would have been necessary. She'd let him think her dead
because she convinced herself it was the best for them both. In truth it had
been the easiest way out.
Maeve slid under the covers, breathing in his smell. He
always wore the same aftershave. Bry gave it to him for his birthday every
year. She pulled his pillow close, burying her nose in it. Why, now, was she
worried about him? He would survive. He always survived. She needed him that
was all. He was the one person who could finally do what she'd been trying to
do all these years. Kill every last Boderian. Her eyes slid closed as she
imagined a world where no one had to be afraid of the monsters under the bed
again.
Thanks for reading this excerpt from Forged in Fire. If you enjoyed what you've read please check out the full copy here:
