#SFRMonday: In her crosshairs or her arms? THE CHASE by @Athena_Grayson #scifirom #boxset

Please welcome author Athena Grayson with The Chase, the first box set of her episodic sci-fi romance, Huntress of the Star Empire.

The Chase: Huntress of the Star Empire Episodes 1-3
by Athena Grayson

Getting him in handcuffs was the easy part… 

The Chase (Episodes 1-3)

–Episode 1: Hot Pursuit

–Episode 2: Captivated

–Episode 3: Tailspin

Known to her targets as the Huntress, Treska Sivekka hunts down the aliens and psypaths whose mental talents are a threat to Union security. Now, with the last free psypath in her crosshairs, Treska’s mission is about to be fulfilled.

She’s not the only one who wants a piece of Micah Ariesis, and she’ll have to fight off the scum of the star system to keep him in her handcuffs. Her only problem is that she wants him in her arms…

Buy Link at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YM71WCM
Buy Links at other major retailers: http://athenagrayson.com/books/the-chase-huntress-bundle-1/

***THIS BOOK IS A BOXED-SET BUNDLE OF EPISODES 1, 2, AND 3 OF “HUNTRESS OF THE STAR EMPIRE”*** 

About the Huntress

Ever since she was found in the aftermath of alien attacks, Treska Sivekka has been trained to one purpose–to hunt down threats to the security of the Union that gave her an identity. But when the Union’s biggest threat inspires desire, and not fear, it’s going to take all her training to protect her principles against his persuasive onslaught.

The Huntress’s neuro-collar and repulsor cuffs may keep Micah bound to her mercy, but they can’t stop him from challenging her convictions, and the lies she’s been told about his people. But when the secrets surrounding her own missing memories begin to reveal themselves, he may be the only one she can trust.

“Huntress of the Star Empire” is a sci-fi romance series adventure. For more about the series, visit http://www.athenagrayson.com/huntress or sign up for the newsletter at http://bit.ly/AthenaNews

 

Just a dream…just a dream…

The inhibs burned bitter on her tongue. A small spot, just to the left of her tailbone burned where she thought—knew—that his cock had rested, pulsing and erect, while he pleasured her. Her skin remembered. But how could her body remember what never happened?

She stalked out of the cockpit, gulping in lungfuls of the cooler air in the corridor. Air scented with the chilly chemical tang of the atmo-scrubbers, rather than the heated musk of her own body. She stopped herself from slamming open the sliding door to the cargo hold—if he was still out, she didn’t want to wake him up. The only time a mindsnake wasn’t dangerous was when he was dead. But asleep would do, in this case.

Sure enough, he hung on the wall, sagging against the repulsor cuffs that held his wrists. His head drooped. Golden locks of hair fell down over his forehead, obscuring his eyes. He looked so peaceful. Harmless, really.

Before she could lose her nerve, she strode up to him and pulled the zipcord she’d used to secure his pants after the unfortunate accident. She’d prove to herself it was just a fevered imagining, brought on by a glimpse of something forbidden. And there it hung, sleeping peacefully, in a thatch of dark gold, wiry hair, nestled against his stones. Such a big deal to her imagination and such a…not-big deal up close. It was just a penis.

“A man’s penis is a tool for the transmission of seed to a fertile female womb.” The health video in her head began, displaying a holographic facsimile.

“This is the sceptre of the pleasure goddess, directing her will.” The feminine voice overrode the canned audio of the health vid.

She shook her head. Wherever that came from, she didn’t want to know. It’s just a penis. A body part. That’s all. It’s just…there. And limp.

And…leaning to the left.

A touch, almost like a fingertip-brush, shivered down the skin of her back. She whirled, but there was nothing there. Shaking her head, she turned back around to pull his pants back up. I don’t care if it is eight jumps. I’m getting back to Prime, collecting my bounty, and getting the hell away from—things that leaned to the left.

Reaching around put her in close contact with his legs, and she couldn’t help but notice the scent of cool, fresh water that seemed to cling to him. Maybe I’ll visit a water world, she thought. Swim in an ocean somewhere. She paused as she imagined a warm sea cradling her, tiny waves lapping at her skin.

“Like what you see?”

She started so violently at the quiet words that she flew backwards, landing on her ass with a rattle of the deckplates. A guilty glance upwards and she saw his eyes, bright blue-gray and gleaming from behind the fringe of hair that hung over his forehead. “You’re awake!” It came out like she was accusing him.

Her skin could have been on fire for the blush that burned her from inside out, all the way from toes to the roots of her hair. She was already warm from the cockpit—oh suns, don’t think of that!—and trying to return his pants to their proper state. This just made things that much worse all around.

“I usually prefer to be conscious when a lovely woman is that close to my private parts.”

She scowled. “You have no respect for the vice laws, do you?”

He met her glare with one of his own. “Why should I?”

“It’s virtue that keeps people safe,” she said, speaking along with the Voice that supplied the immediate answer in her head. “A prudent society is a secure society. Vice and temptation make citizens unsafe. Peace comes through restraint.” How much more simple did it have to be?

“So I shouldn’t be at all worried that you had something pleasurable in mind when you divested me of my pants.”

She blushed even harder, and fell back on her original reason for cutting his belt. “I was checking you for weapons.”

He threw his head back and laughed, exposing the long lines of his throat and jaw, and for one wild moment, she wanted very badly to kiss along the line of it, and maybe nip at the flutter where his pulse beat. He’d like that.

“I can assure you that my fiercest weapon is only that which you see before you,” he said, glancing down to meet her eyes. “And it brings only pleasure.” For a long moment she was caught in the loop of thinking about the taste of his skin over and over, seeing an afterimage of her own tongue flicking out and gliding over the salty scratchiness of his jaw.

“You unsheath it when you look at me like that.”

She stepped back. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“Using your mindsnake tricks on me.” She turned away to hide her blush. His voice was too gentle when he murmured those words. To know she had an effect on him—it didn’t fit the equation! I’m the hunter. He’s the bounty. We’re enemies. He shouldn’t want anything more than to get far away from me. And I shouldn’t want anything more than to bring him back for justice. Pursuit and capture. The eventual triumph of the law over chaos. She activated the water dispenser and got herself a cup of cold water.

She turned back to him when she fought down her blush. Vice Hunters didn’t back down. They searched the depths of galactic depravity and rooted out the corruption that put the entire Union in danger. Vice Hunters didn’t flinch.

“My lady, I assure you, you’re in no danger from my ‘mindsnake tricks.’”

Her eyes jumped to the neuro-collar, and the little green LED that indicated that it was functioning properly. The neuro-collars were guaranteed to block psypath talents. She’d witnessed the tests herself.

His voice dropped an octave. “Or did you adorn me with a collar for another reason?”

Her fingers wrapped around the cup in a death grip.

He lowered still, to a whisper, so that she had to step closer to hear him. “Are you the type of lady who enjoys her partners helpless?” he asked. “I’m sure we could come to an…arrangement.”

The collar had to be malfunctioning. There was no way the images that flashed before her could come from her. She’d never done any of those things! Never stood naked before him and shoved him down on his knees among scented pillows. Or felt a white-hot thrill when he looked up at her, his shoulders straining from the elaborate ties that bound his hands behind him and his cock straining from the pleasure they both knew was imminent.

A loud crack split the air between them. She glanced down to see the front of his pants soaked through. It took a full thirty seconds, along with his, “Your hand,” for her to realize that she’d broken the plastiform cup, and launched the water in it everywhere.

In her mind’s eye, she saw herself stepping towards him. Throwing the cracked cup up into the air over her shoulder and pressing herself against him. Felt the dampness from the spill soaking his pants seep into her own clothing, echoing the damp between her legs. Of plastering her thighs to his, her belly to his pelvis, her breasts to his chest. Hunger rose in her, threatening to choke her with its force.

The cup flew into the air.

 

Athena Grayson writes romantic fiction ranging from sci-fi romance to magical realism and contemporary fantasy. She loves to write characters who are more than they seem, and loves to play with beloved genre tropes in engaging and unique ways. She adores smart, sexy, beta heroes, and savvy heroines who aren’t afraid to demand–and get!–the best from their relationships. Underneath it all, she has a love of language and a deep respect for how words can uplift and transport us to a higher state of being, even if only for a few hours.

Her latest narrative adventure is a Sci-Fi romance weekly serial space opera. Written in part as an homage to all the science fiction books, movies, and TV that shaped her into the proud nerd that she is today, and in part to introduce the enduring thrill of romance into those adventures (combining her two great loves in fiction), “Huntress of the Star Empire” introduces new continuing episodes everyThursday, just like your favorite TV series.

Please visit her website at www.athenagrayson.com for more information on the series, her other fiction, and “narrative hacking” – finding the story in everything. You’re invited to sign up for her newsletter for news updates and release information.