A Reverie Resort Vacation
Blurb:
Visit
Reverie Resort, a luxury hotel on a tropical island where vacationers come to
enjoy their wildest dreams but get more than they ever expected…
Genevieve,
a Jinn, comes to Reverie Resort for one last vacation before she must go before
the Afrit tribunal and formally declare that she has no powers. She hopes to
enjoy one last taste of a luxury beyond even what she is used to before being
cast out of her own dimension to live among humans.
But
something goes wrong. Instead of the spa weekend she's expecting, she finds
herself on a remote, barren planet being auctioned off to the highest bidder
and has no way to contact her hosts to correct the situation. Is there really a
mix up? Or do her hosts have sinister intentions toward her? In the meantime,
she finds her new owner, Colin, to be quite attractive for a human...
Where you can buy it:
Add it to your shelf on Goodreads
Enjoy
this excerpt:
Will turned to address the men again,
but did not release her from his grip. “Have a good look at this beauty,
gents.”
As they gawked at her, she stood
straight and proud as though daring someone to try and claim her, returning
their gazes with scathing, cold eyes, her fair lips pressed into a tight line.
After one quick scan of crowd before her, she shot an icy glare at Will, who
let go of her and backed off.
Colin chuckled. Could this petite thing
be the reason for the bruise on Will’s cheek? She radiated anger, was so alive
with it that it cast off her like the heat of a flame.
Will strolled to one corner of the
platform as though nothing dramatic had just occurred. “Now, where shall we
start the bidding?”
“What skills does she have?” asked one
of the men.
“Yeah, can she work a terminal?” asked
another.
“A bit scrawny for farm work. Looks
like the most she’d be able to do is keep the house clean,” someone else
commented. That was followed by snickering from the cluster of men around him.
The woman tossed her head and the dark
strands of her hair gleamed onyx in the light of the double suns. “I do not do
menial labor.”
She reminded Colin of warrior princesses
in tales. And it was obvious to him that she was unused to being handled the
way she was right now.
The trader wagged his eyebrows and
strolled to the other side of the platform. “Who cares what skills she has?
Come now. Let’s start the bidding. With a woman of this quality, why would you
ever want her to leave the bedroom?”
The deep multi-toned chuckle of men
followed his statement. But Colin wasn’t among them. Instead, he frowned, and
started making his way forward to end the show.
“Who will give me twenty credits?” the
trader shouted. “Twenty credits for the loveliest creature you’ve ever seen.”
The woman stood with her head held
high, eyes distant, stance hard as the rock that formed the distant red
mountains of Garrulus Four.
The men shuffled and murmured amongst
themselves. Given the kind of lives they led, beauty was a luxury far
outweighed by the many other qualities they needed in a wife. This lot of men
were used to leading quiet lives, and they wanted women who did the same or
went along with it at least. The woman on the platform would not fit in with
this plan. Even if one of them could afford her, Colin doubted they’d be able
to handle her.
Will’s eyebrows were high with shock.
“Nobody?” He stopped his movement on the platform and pulled his head back in
an exaggerated way, making his potbelly poke forward from the coat he wore. “No
one will pay twenty credits for this gorgeous creature? That’s a bargain for
someone like her.”
Colin saw one corner of the woman’s
mouth quirk upward in satisfaction, and he grinned again. Obviously, she felt
like she was winning so far, but what would be the consequences? She’d already
stated she wouldn’t work, and she’d failed to declare any skills. If all she
had to trade was beauty, she was on the wrong planet.
“Eighteen credits then. Who will pay
eighteen?” Will called, an edge of desperation in his voice now. “You’ve all
become shy suddenly. Suffering from performance anxiety, perhaps? Who wouldn’t
be with her around, eh?” He chortled and leered at the woman.
Colin could see the men glancing at
each other. Who would be crazy enough to take on the beautiful spitfire? That’s
what it came down to, their masculinity. Clearly they found themselves lacking,
because none of them were brave enough to bid.
As the silence stretched on, a warm
wind whooshed through, audible in the
vacuum of stillness. It was only then that the woman’s stance thawed. Her shoulders rounded, and worry transformed her eyes from
their sparkling glare to the round-eyed, lost look of an innocent. The pink
lips softened and parted revealing surprise at the group’s rejection, and
Colin’s heart went out to her.
“Eighteen credits!” His hand shot up in
the air before he even realized that the words had left his lips.
About the Author:
Restless by nature, Jewel Quinlan is an avid traveler and
has visited sixteen countries so far. Lover of ice cream, dark beer, and red
wine she tries to stay fit when she’s not typing madly on her computer
concocting another romance novel. In her spare time, she likes to do yoga,
hike, learn German, and play with her spoiled Chihuahua, Penny.
For
more information about Jewel Quinlan
No comments:
Post a Comment