Beautiful Nimia, who was tutored in sexual arts by her first master, a king, is very appealing to powerful men in more ways than one: She has a prophetic gift that’s triggered by sexual encounters.
In Pleasure’s Apprentice, Nimia is torn between her attraction to Briton battle leader Arthur and his half-brother, the druid Maerlin. A journey to the druidic Isle of Mona teaches her that there is no escaping the intimate tie between her sexual nature and her powers. As tensions grow between Britons and Saxon invaders, Nimia is called on to use her powers to help forge a legendary sword for Arthur: a sword that in future generations will be called Excalibur.
Read the full excerpt from Pleasure’s Apprentice:
“Welcome, welcome, Nimia, Terix, Daella,” Ambrosius said, his façade of sternness dropping away. “And mighty Bone Cruncher.”
The atmosphere in the room relaxed, and Maerlin introduced the other people to us, though they were a blur of faces and unpronounceable names to me. Except for one.
“Nimia,” Maerlin said, taking my hand. I felt again that shock of pleasing coldness, and tried to tug away, but he would not let me. Even worse, he led me to the one-eyed, one-armed, one-legged man who was staring at me as fiercely now as he had been in the courtyard. His eye, seen up close, was a strange shade of amber-yellow in the center, surrounded by warm brown; it made his eye look almost orange. “I most especially want you to meet Brenn.”
I cast a questioning look at Maerlin — why especially Brenn? — and felt his answer through his touch: trust me.
I looked back at Brenn. At that watching eye.
An eye whose color I had only seen once before, in a silver mirror.
A cold rush went through me, and sickening thoughts of possibilities. But no — how could — This man? This terrifying man? Disbelief and shock froze me to my bones.
As Brenn stared at me, some of the same flustered thoughts seemed to go through his own mind. His eye widened, his face flooding with color.
“Brenn knew your mother, Ligeia,” Maerlin said. “Eighteen, nineteen years ago, was it?” he asked Brenn.
“Jupiter’s balls,” I whispered, as the room swam around me and sound seemed to come from a far distance, dampened by an ocean of water. It couldn’t be.
Could it?
It had to be.
A shudder of emotion shook me, and my tongue seemed not to belong to my body when I spoke. My words felt as if they came from someone else’s mouth. “You must be my father.”
Brenn, fiercest of the warriors under Ambrosius Aurelianus, deadliest man with a blade or without, lost all color in his face, rolled his one eye up into his scarred head, and crumpled to the floor.
More: Foreplay tips from the author
Author bio: Lisa Cach is the national bestselling, award-winning author of more than twenty books, including Great-Aunt Sophia’s Lessons for Bombshells, available from Gallery Books. She has taught creative writing aboard the ship MV Explorer from the Amazon River, to Morocco, to St. Petersburg, Russia. When not sailing the high seas, she can be found digging for clams in the sandy mud of the Puget Sound or dealing cruelly with weeds and snails in her garden. She’s a two-time finalist for the prestigious RITA Award from the Romance Writers of America, which doesn’t make it any easier to explain to her neighbors that she writes erotica. Visit her online at LisaCach.com.
Leave a Comment