Please give a warm welcome to romance author, Marie Harte!
I start
out the year with a list of projects to tackle. And then I try to fit in one
big idea. A story unlike the others. And that’s exactly what I did with Tip of the Spear. I like to think of
the book as my “green” romance, because the story centers around the Nature
Laws, laws enacted to protect an environment people nearly destroyed hundreds
of years prior to the beginning of the story.
I’m not a tree hugger, exactly. J But I
recycle, I reseed, and I try my best to leave as small a footprint around me as
possible. I wanted to write a book about people tuned in to protecting the
earth. We’ve fought wars for religion, for freedom, and for personal rights,
and I thought it might be interesting to write a story with a background where
people are passionate about the state of their environment. The Amazons embody
nature, living at one with the jungle. And in the New West, you screw with
Mother Nature, you might lose your life.
That said, Tip of theSpear is a romance at heart, a story about vengeance, forgiveness, and
justice, and how to balance the three. An Amazon meets a bounty hunter, and she
has to forego certain prejudices to accept certain truths. Black and white
don’t make sense in a world of gray. And when it comes to sex, the woman
warrior who knows her way will have to acknowledge that the hero knows what
he’s about. Whoa, does he.
EXCERPT
Thais
studied the painted woman before her with unease. Kitty wore her sexuality like
a moth-eaten cloak. Such age and pain could not be covered by the cloying
paints these whores used. In the four years she and her sisters had spent
acclimating to the Territories, Thais had come across some strange things. But
this driving need men, and apparently women, had for sex baffled her.
“So you
want to know if I’ve seen who?” Kitty paused to take a puff of a smoke that
smelled of clove and another substance Thais couldn’t identify.
Yara would know what it is. Thais
missed her friends dearly. They’d parted two months ago, and in the time since,
Thais felt more alone than she’d ever been. Or at least she had, before she’d
run into that male, a warrior with light blue eyes.
When
Kitty raised her hand in front of Thais’s face, Thais coughed through the smoke
and apologized. “I’m sorry, Kitty. I’m not used to such libation,” she said
haltingly, not sure if she used the right word. It had taken her two years to
conquer the Territory language, and she still misused words when she took the
time to speak them.
“My
clove cigarettes?” Kitty laughed. “Honey, that’s not libation. That’s good
clean medicine. The clove helps me to swallow. Numbs my throat.” She winked, as if sharing a joke. Thais had
no idea what she was talking about. “The filler is homegrown leaf. The damned
UTO outlawed tobacco ages ago. One of our last great vices.” She sighed. “It
was organic, but toxic. Well, shee-it. Who the hell wants to live forever,
anyway?”
Not
sure what to say, Thais tried to regroup. “I am looking for a man.”
“Ain’t
we all,” Kitty muttered and took a long drag.
“This
one goes by the name Aaron Bartel. He’s very rich. His chest is broad, and he
stands this high.” She held a hand slightly above her own head. “He also has
dirty yellow hair and dead eyes. He’s a leader of men like him.” Murderers and rapists and thieves.
“Hmm,
Bartel, you say?” Kitty puffed away on her cigarette. “Why are you looking for
him?”
The
sharp look on the woman’s face urged caution.
“I
think he may be traveling with a few women I know. The warrior—ah, women would
be like me. Tall and strong, maybe with darker skin than many of you here, from
time spent in the sun.”
“I’d
bet they talk funny, too, eh? Like you. One of ‘em have a purple flower with a
yellow dot inked on her cheek, just under her eye?”
Pilar. Thais’s heart pounded.
The traitorous Amazon would lead her to Bartel. She knew it.
Kitty
smashed her cigarette on a ceramic plate. She blew out a residual puff of
clover scented smoke, and Thais fought the urge to gag. “What’s it worth to
you?”
“What
do you need?”
Her
quick answer took Kitty by surprise. “Hmm, what do I need?” She eyed Thais up
and down. “Take off that hat and lose the bandana.”
Thais
grudgingly did so.
“Holy
shit, honey, you’re a beauty. Now take off that vest and open a few buttons.”
Thais
had a bad feeling Kitty would demand of her something she refused to give. She
slowly took off her vest and unfastened a few buttons.
“You
binding ‘em?” Kitty nodded at her chest.
“Yes.”
“Thought
so. You have a build that screams sex, you know.”
“No, I
do not.” Not sex. Never that.
Not
sure if it was her tone or her stillness, Thais watched as compassion replaced
the speculation on Kitty’s face. “Oh, okay, hon. You can’t gimme another girl
to use. I get it. What about currency?”
Thais
buttoned up her shirt and donned the vest again. The thin barrier of clothing
made her feel safe. As if cotton and leather would protect her from the evils
of men.
“I have
some gold, but I think it will not be enough. Is there some service I might
perform instead?” Realizing how Kitty might interpret that, she hastily
amended, “Some man who has wronged you? Someone you wish dead?”
Kitty
stared in surprise. “You a merc?”
“A
merc,” she tested the word. Chow Yen had taught them much when they’d reached
the Territories, but apparently the little man hadn’t taught them enough. She
learned something new every day.
“A
mercenary. You a killer for hire?”
“No,
but to learn of Bartel, I would right a wrong done you.” To balance the scales
of justice. The Goddess encouraged right. Death was a natural part of balance,
an accepted occurrence in Thais’s scattered world.
“Right
a wrong, hmm? You know, honey, I think you and me just might have a deal.”
Not
only did they have a deal, but Kitty added in a room and a meal for Thais’s
promised service. Considering what Kitty wanted done, Thais would have done the
job for free. But she needed information about Bartel.
As
Thais settled in for a night’s sleep, she tried to tune out the moans and
groans around her. The rooms in this building had thin walls. Conversations
droned like the buzzing of bees, low and insistent despite her closed door. The
constant banging of something against her wall and the accompanying moaning of
both a man and a woman made her think, surprisingly, of the tall stranger she’d
encountered twice today.
He’d
led her here to Kitty House with the expectation that she’d service him the way
the women here pleasured their customers. Despite what had happened to her
village four years ago, Thais didn’t hate men. Chow Yen had seen to that. She
didn’t necessarily like them, nor did she anticipate ever mating with one of
them. Though from what she’d heard, sexual intercourse wasn’t always painful,
and most men seemed to derive pleasure from it.
To hear
Kitty tell it, nothing satisfied like a good ride from the right man, whatever
that meant. Though well-intentioned, Kitty’s offer to help Thais get over her
discomfort with sex—and she still didn’t know how she’d been so
transparent—bothered the hell out of her. Thais couldn’t imagine spreading her
legs for a man, surrendering to his control. Still, today when the warrior had
asked her to thank him, she’d felt a
stirring of… something. Unfamiliar yet exciting. Her heart raced, her breath grew shorter, and
her face heated. Nerves, not anxiety. A kind of interest, she supposed.
And why not? Even Mother consented to lying
with a male once. Besides, he’s the first decent looking warrior you’ve seen
out here in the land the Goddess forgot.
Taller
than Thais and strong of form, he’d impressed her at first with his stillness
and steady reserve. As he’d drawn closer on his vore, she’d sworn she sensed an
answering wildness in not just the beast he rode, but in the man as well.
Shoulder length black hair so dark it shone blue under the sunlight had
captivated her, but his eyes had held her attention like nothing could. An
exact match to the crystalline blue waters in the Goddess Cave, those orbs
possessed unfathomable depths.
His
voice, when he spoke, sounded rich. Like the rumble of a jaguar, yet clear of
intent and strong. Unlike most of the filthy men in the Territories, he smelled
of sweat and power. The burning energy in his gaze discomfited her, the way the
guardians at home could unnerve the enemy with just a look.
He
handled a rifle with ease and sat atop a vore as if he’d been born in the
saddle, as she’d heard many a man comment about natural-born riders. Thais
herself didn’t care for horseback. Riding a vore, on the other hand, appealed
to her, maybe because vores were rumored to be nearly as intelligent as people,
or because they could never be fully tamed. Oddly enough, the vore and the man
reminded her of home. And she began to dream…
Love Marie Harte's books, read most of them and it looks like the new one will be an awesome read. Can't wait!
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