An all-new, stand-alone tale of two
improbable lovers, their daring
secret,
and the gamble destined to alter the course
of their worlds
forever!
Star World Frontier #1
By: Susan Grant
Releasing May
26, 2016
RITA-winner Susan Grant is back with an all-new, stand-alone tale of two
improbable lovers, their daring secret, and the gamble destined to alter the
course of their worlds forever!
She was playing with fire...
Jemm Aves battles to keep her dreams alive
on a dead-end world. Working for the mines by day, she’s a successful bajha
player at night, disguised as a male to be allowed to compete in the colony’s
dangerous underworld where club owners will go to extremes to retain the best
players. Every win puts her one small step closer to her goal: saving enough to
escape Barésh with her family. When a nobleman from one of the galaxy’s elite
families recruits her to be a star player for his team, it's because he doesn't
know her secret. Her ruse proves to be her most perilous game yet when it puts
both their lives—and her heart—at risk.
Prince Charming he was not...
Prince Klark is eager to reverse his
reputation as the black sheep of the Vedla clan, a family as famous for its
wealth and power as it is for being a bastion of male-dominated tradition. If
his bajha team can win the galactic title it would go a long way toward
restoring the family honor that his misdeeds tarnished. He travels to Barésh to
track down an amateur who’s risen to the top of the seedy world of street
bajha, offering the commoner a chance of a lifetime: a way off that reeking
space rock for good. But his new player comes with a scandalous secret that
turns his plans and his beliefs upside down. He sets out to win a very
different prize—his champion’s reluctant heart.
Sir Vedla
reached for her hand and pulled her to her feet. His golden eyes were as warm
as dome-rise on the badlands. “You think I’m sending you home without an
offer?” he purred in his smooth brogue.
She tugged off
her helmet and tried to make sense of the bewilderment in his eyes. “I know the
kind of players ya need for your team. I’m flattered ya thought I had a chance,
though.”
“I have every
intention of inviting you to play for Team Eireya, Kes. I thought that much was
obvious.”
It took every
ounce of restraint not to let loose and scream. “You do?”
“Of course! I
could not be more pleased. You played an excellent match—against my best
player. In fact, for a moment there at the end I thought you had him. It had me
on the edge of my seat. Oh, and when you slapped him back…” Sir Vedla clapped
his hands. “Bravo.”
Skeet laughed.
“Whose side are you on, sir?” he pretended to complain.
“Your first
time with regulation rules, too. It could not have gone better. You exceeded
every expectation. Well done, Kes. Truly. Well done.”
It was a blur
after that, the genuine congratulations and pats on the back from the two pros,
the thanks from members of the crew who had stayed for the entertainment, all
while so many thoughts tumbled through her head. Would she train here? Or,
away? If it was away, she would have to tell her supervisor. They would fire her,
of course, and her feelings on that were a jumble of relief and nerves. What
about Ma and Button? What would she tell them? How long before she would be
able to have them join her? And Nico… She loved her brother but if he had
access to all the money she would be paid while she was gone, well, he could be
a wee bit too free-spending. She would need to make arrangements with Sir Vedla
to make sure the family had what it needed while she was away. She would ask
him to leave out a percentage so Nico did not have access to all of it, and go
off knowing that her family was taken care of until they were reunited.
She was so
immersed in her thoughts that she did not realize she had followed the men into
the locker room until Xirri started shrugging off his boots and bajha suit, and
then his underclothing as he walked, bare-bottomed to the showers. All three
men had been exercising most of the day and now were eager to clean up for
dinner.
“You’re
probably hungry,” she heard the Vash say. He was
stripping off his clothing also.
“I’m hungry,
aye.” As much as she wanted to take advantage of her disguise to see how
closely he measured up to her preconceived notions, she didn’t take a gander.
She was better than that. Wasn’t she? She pretended to adjust the strap of her
gear bag that she had dropped onto a bench made from a slab of polished real
tree wood.
“Help yourself
to the showers, then. Afterward, we will dine and discuss the rest of the
details.”
She nodded,
not trusting her voice, and unzipped her bag to fetch her towel. It was covered
in Nico’s dried blood. She yanked the zipper closed before anyone noticed.
The sound of
bare feet padding on the soft floor circled around to her. The Vash was naked—to the waist, she realized with a peek
lower, and he was incredible: lean and muscled, broad in shoulder and chest,
narrowing to tight hips and a skin-tight pair of black undershorts leaving
hopelessly little to the imagination.
She had used
less effort moving a canister weighed down with ore than it took to drag her
eyes from that body.
Susan Grant is a New
York Times bestselling author who enjoys being able to indulge her love of
travel and adventure by piloting jumbo jets around the globe. Her careers as a
commercial pilot and air force pilot have provided endless inspiration for her
books. Susan is the author of The Star King, launch book of her popular Star
series about a spacefaring Earth family, as well as the RITA-winning novel
Contact. Her new series debuts in 2016 with The Champion of Barésh. Susan and
her family live in the scenic foothills of northern California.
Love to
arm-chair travel? Sit down, strap in, and visit Susan's Come Fly With Me blog
at her website
1 comment:
Looking forward to your review!
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