Bound by Steel, blurb and excerpt:
Emissaries of Belthalas, Book 2
A night of brutality destroyed her innocence…can the love of two people heal her wounded spirit?
“I’ve been thinking about Kaela…”
There they are-the words that lead Gil to suspect his wife Lianon is falling in love with Kaela, the beautiful, traumatized young woman they rescued from certain death six months ago. Gil has no idea how to compete with a woman for his wife’s affections, and part of him ceases to care as Kaela begins to work her way under his skin.
Kaela’s sweet innocence fills a chasm in Lianon’s soul she hadn’t even realized was there. As she gently helps Kaela rebuild her shattered confidence, Lianon begins to believe healing the young woman’s wounded spirit could be the key to wholeness for all three of them. If Gil agrees to follow her lead and help Kaela discover her own feminine power.
But even as they all succumb to their growing desire, Gil and Lianon are drawn against their will back into the intrigues and vendettas of Belthalas’ elite. With Lianon’s life at stake, Gil must weave a dangerous path between one adversary’s ambition and another’s lust for vengeance.
Success will save Lianon…but could cost them Kaela.
Product Warnings:
This title includes explicit sex, including f/f, m/m, m/f/f, anal sex; bad language; questionable politics; violence; stringy, overcooked lamb; a dog with a major drool problem; and one seriously well-deserved comeuppance.
“I’ve been thinking about Kaela.”
There they were. The words Gil had dreaded from the moment, a little more than half a year ago, when Lianon had suggested they take the girl on as a housekeeper. Scowling at the back of her head, he tightened his arms around her waist and fought to maintain his sanguinity. “What about her?”
“Oh, Gil, you should have seen her. I came back from the south pasture, and she was just sitting on the ground, hugging Biso and sobbing. It was ten minutes before I could get a coherent word out of her.”
Against his will, Gil felt a bristling of protectiveness for the young woman. “Did he touch her? If he touched her, I’ll-”
“He was rude, Gil, that’s all. Rude and abrupt. And it scared her half to death.”
He sighed. “So being here with us isn’t helping her.”
Lianon turned in his embrace and met his gaze. She was so open, he could see everything she was about to say written on her face. “She needs more than a place to be, Gil,” his love told him. “She needs to learn that her body isn’t just a vehicle for pain. She needs to learn that love and pleasure and happiness are things she deserves as much as anyone else does.”
Gil stared at her, his face carefully neutral even as every muscle in his body tensed. “And how do you propose to teach her that?”
She dropped her gaze, and he knew. Damn her, he knew.
“Are you in love with her, Lianon?”
“No.”
He pressed a palm to his forehead, still damp with sweat from their lovemaking. “Not yet, you mean.”
She frowned, but was too honest to argue. “She reminds me of Rhianna.”
He was shaking, he couldn’t seem to control it. Was he in competition with a dead woman now? Pulling away from her, he started to rise. “Shall I leave you alone to be with her?”
“No!” she cried, pulling him back. “No, Gil. I love you more than anything. More than my life. You know that.”
“Yet you would ask me to share you with another!”
Her eyes pleaded with him. “It’s not like that. I’m talking about healing her. I’m talking about making her whole again.”
“Take her back to Aru. He’s the healer.”
“He fixed her body. I think together, you and I can fix her heart.”
“Because Kaela’s experience of men will have her falling at my feet in love?” he snapped, pushing to his feet.
She sighed and sat up, hugging her knees and frowning down at his rumpled pillow. “During the war, Anthoril of Harrowsfail took four Darjhina to wife. It is said that they are still well content in their union.”
“Ask him how content he would be if his wives liked each other better than they did him.”
She met his gaze, her own unflinching and so open he knew she was earnest in every word she said. “Is that what you fear? That I would love her more than you?”
“Your first love was a woman, Lianon.”
She lifted her hands helplessly. “What would you have me say? I love you, Gil. You know this. You brought me back from the dead. There is nothing in this world or the next that could stop me feeling as I do. But I feel for Kaela, as well. And I’ve seen the way you look at her. I know there is a part of you that desires her too.”
He scowled and pressed his lips together, searching for the words to deny what she said. Kaela was a beautiful woman, sweet and soft-spoken, and there were times when he looked up to find the young woman’s eyes on him and felt his stomach clench at the tarnished innocence in her gaze, but that didn’t mean he wanted her. Lianon was beautiful and clever and generous and loving, and she didn’t need looking after. She was an Emissary-she had the brains and the skills and the muscle to look after herself. Certainly, Gil sometimes found himself wondering what it might be like to have someone to protect, someone who needed his shelter, but it did not follow that he desired Kaela.
He gazed down at his wife, her lean, whipcord body, her close-cropped hair and work-roughened hands. She’d killed men with those hands. She’d killed for him. And she lived for him too. He could see it in her face, the certainty of her love for him.
“And if she wants none of this? What then?”
Lianon lowered her gaze to her lap. “Then we must find her a better place. Somewhere she can heal.”
His heart twisted. Somehow, he was not as pleased to consider that possibility as he would have expected. “All right.”
She didn’t smile. As he watched, her eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.”