Showing posts with label Betrayal. Show all posts

Sunday, April 8, 2018

New Love

I fall in love multiple times a day sometimes. It makes me smile at the most inappropriate times. It raises my spirits when I am feeling particularly lowWhen I read... When I write, my mind creates miniature movies where the characters play out the dialogue and my heart races with anticipation of the next scene.

"Paris felt Douglas' gaze on the back of her neck as she slowly pulled files from the shelves behind her desk. Her dark brown cheeks burning as she tried to forget her embarrassment from the first five minutes of their meeting. Prone to bouts of clumsiness, she'd seen the trip happen before it actually did. Why wouldn't she make a fool of herself on the first day of her new position? Life just wouldn't be fair if she had managed to make it through the day unscathed."

Just a few sentences and I am invested in Paris. I relate to her inability to coordinate. I want to know more about her job and to find out if Douglas is a hottie. I want to know if Douglas is a jerk or if he has the skill to calm Paris' nerves.

When I am writing I am falling in love with my characters. I cry when they cry. I cheer when they win. I scream when they go down the wrong hall or make a bad decision and I support their growth.

I find beauty in the most simplest of scenes. Where you can feel the sensations of the characters just based off of your own life. I like to highlight how even in a novel based out of fantasy, those scenes are necessary to build a connection with the reader.

"Livia slowly slipped off her boots and tucked them into the shoe cabinet by the door before making her way into her new home. New home... She had a new home and she hadn't even been looking. More than a few months pregnant with a belly she could scarcely believe was there moving had not been a picnic. Not that she wasn't enjoying the upgrade from a three-bedroom condo the meatpacking district to a penthouse suite on the upper west side. Following the scent of scallions and garlic, she smiled and made her way towards the kitchen. Sei had promised her a home-cooked meal to make up for the last few nights he'd been away attending late-night meetings. The Summit was coming and the City was a veritable whose who of prominent Fae. Jinx had spent the first half of their lunch together complaining about how the increased concentration of magical beings was giving her a headache. She'd been dragged through a crash course of the magical community she'd been blind to for most of her life by circumstances far out of her control. Shuffling forward, she bumped Sei's back with her protruding belly. 'Smells good.'"

With each new story, new character, new life created... I fall in love... With the idea of those characters and the lives they lead. It is that new love. You know what I am talking about. You have felt it before. It is the kind of love where you wake up thinking about them. You get excited just knowing you will get to see them later and spend time with them.

When I reread a book or a scene it feels like I have gone on a second date. Like we are getting another chance to get to know one another and to really see if we get along. Does the thought of your smile cause my breath to catch? Do I wish I could take a page out of Sherrilyn Kenyon's Fantasy Lover and read you into existence? Will you feature in my dreams?

What characters do you love? How does it feel when you put pen to paper and create a world. How about when you are reading a book? Do you have a full-length feature playing in your head? Do you talk to the pages or slam the book shut when the scene just gets too real? Leave a comment. Shout out the book and let me know. I am always looking for a new love affair.

Contact Info:

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www.DurandPublishing.net

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Durand Publishing

Wintr's Homecoming

Jaguar Nights

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Jensawanderingthoughts

Monday, February 27, 2017

Remembering The Past (Excerpt From "Cold Sun")

“Tell me a story,” Selah said as she laid her head in Talia’s lap.

They were in the gardens. Beneath the sunlight and surrounded by flowers. Bryon was off somewhere on Business and Caden was off playing the messenger.

Talia looked into her sister’s eyes with an easy smile, “What kind of story?”

“Comedy?” Talia played with one of Selah’s curls as she continued, “Drama?”

Selah rolled. “Are you done?”

“Do you want me to search my mind for a fairy tale?”

Selah shook her head. “Talk to me about them.”

Their parents. She wanted a story about them. Selah usually avoided talking about them. Talia usually trotted them out when she was trying to teach Selah a lesson her parents taught her.

“Something real,” Selah finished as she spun a grape between her fingers.

Something real? Translation, something not weighed down by some allegorical less? Searching her mind she nodded and stretched her legs out jostling Selah.

Selah shouldered the thigh closer to her and readjusted herself so she remained in Talia’s lap. This was reminiscent of so many of the picnics Talia used to have for her when Selah was younger.

They would cuddle together reading, braiding each other’s hair. Talking about school. Or Talia’s latest commission. Their picnics times turned into movie nights, then Selah became a teenager and her friends took center stage in her life. Talia had missed this.

“Okay. How about the first time I cast a spell?”

Her coven felt that children were better about not abusing their powers when they learned at an older age. Training began in earnest around nine or ten. Before then, the youngest of the coven had their powers bound. An image rose to mind and Talia laughed.

“I was ten.” Frowning she took a beat, “maybe Eleven…”

“You were one or two. Mom was trying to teach me how to tap into my core. She wanted me to levitate an apple. But it was so boring.”

“I know right,” Selah teased impishly.

Talia ignored her sister’s response. The basics were always boring but they were necessary. Learning wasn’t always fun, but how could you expect to do anything complicated without the right foundation?

“Patrice told me all I had to do was think of air.”

“She said my instinctive ability would do the rest. What Patrice did not tell me that air and wind were two different things,” Talia smiled as the scene played out in her head. She did not think she had ever seen her mother quite so surprised.

Selah chuckled in anticipation of how this story would end. Her eyes trained on her sister’s face. Talia did not talk about her parents often. Thinking about them felt like a stab to the heart most days. She had not been the best daughter to them.

“I sent the apple flying across the room and hit dad right in the face. His nose ballooned and started bleeding in seconds.”

Their father hadn’t even been angry. In fact Talia thought he sounded a little proud as he tried to explain where she went wrong. Their mother just laughed as she looked down at Talia with exasperation. A common look on her face, even then.

Selah smiled. “You never told me that story.”

“It does not show me in the best light.”

“It is better.”

“Mom used to say you were her second chance.”

Talia sighed. Before her mother died, their relationship had been strained. She always expected more from Talia. Better from her. She always said Talia had the power to become the greatest witch of this century.

Those days Talia had been struggling to find herself and figure out what she wanted. Her regressions had been horrifying experiences and she was not sure she wanted anything to do with Coven business. Talia wanted to travel and paint, not lead a group of witches.

“All the mistakes she regretted with me, she was going to avoid with you.”

Selah frowned. “When?”

“Right before she died.”

They had just fought because Talia felt as her parents had stopped listening to her. Every chance they got they seemed to force their plans for her, irrespective of what she wanted for herself. She was just expected to be the good little witchling and follow the flower strewn path they set for her.

“I don’t think she meant it in a bad way. But it bothers me sometimes, when I look at you.”

“In what way?”

“Mom and Dad did not get me all the time. They thought I rebelled because that is what teenagers did. When really I think I just wanted to get as much living done as possible.”

Selah looked up at Talia as if she were in deep in thought. The fact was Talia could feel herself becoming more like her parents. The way they invaded every part of her life and pushed their views off on her. Before Selah’s abduction she had thought it was the only way to honor them. Now she was trying a different tactic.

“I could not talk to them.”

Talia pulled a lock of Selah’s hair. “We talk. Sometimes I forget that I am the adult and I just want to be your sister. Then I remember that I am not just your sister. And I feel like I am the world’s worst parent.”

Talia shrugged. “So I over compensate.”

“You definitely do sometimes.”

Talia poked her in the belly gently. “And you run away.”

Selah sat up and crossed her legs. “I am supposed to run away. It is what kids do, Talia. I do it because I know I will always have a home to come back to.”

Talia smiled wryly. “Somehow that is not comforting.”

Selah picked up another grape and threw it at her. “You need to have a baby. Something small and helpless to focus on.”

Talia’s eyes widened in shock as she exclaimed. “That is not happening.”

“Imagine. A boy with sweet deep dimples and wide set eyes.”

Talia placed a hand on her cheek. “I have enough on my hands with you and the secrets I know you are keeping.”

Jen A. Durand

Completed Works

Secrets, Lies, & Betrayal Series:

Wintr’s Homecoming: Secrets

The Virgins Club:

The Planner

The Fixer

The Dreamer

Lipstick Diaries:

Solo Romances:

Things We Left Unsaid

Stuck Between Two Millionaires

Twins For Christmas

Lasting Kind Of Love

True Match Arrangements:

Billionaire’s Perfect Bride
Billionaire's Contracted Family

The Young and The Powerful

Witch’s Reflection

Friday, February 24, 2017

Dark History (Secrets, Lies, and Betrayal Novella)

There was a shift in the air when he arrived. Her teeth ached with need to sharpen, even as she kept still. She waited for him to speak. His appearance was not unexpected. There had been whispers of his return for months now. Lord Tenon Char had been released from his prison by calling in markers nearly as old as time itself.

Playing with the stem of her blood filled wine glass, she sighed. Men had no business in positions of power. They thought with their cocks instead of their heads. It was all about their “manhood” and honor. All she cared about was survival.

Honor was not capable of keeping one’s head firmly attached to the rest of their body. Intellect and a keen sense of where the wind would blow next. Her people trusted her to ensure they did not fall when enemies came knocking on their door.

“You are still as beautiful as always.”

Riela took a sip of blood before standing. He was as good as ever. She doubted her guards were aware of his presence though she would have them reprimanded anyway. Tenon was a threat they should be weary of. She’d have to call Talia and request stronger safe guards were placed on them. He should never have been able to get on her land without setting off the alarms put in place.

There had been a time, long ago, when she would have burned the world just to see him. Tenon could have asked her to rip her heart out of her chest and she would have done it. He meant that much to her.

Eventually a time came when she would have hid just at the mention of his name. When the sounds of his footsteps caused uncontrollable tremors and his laughter brought flashbacks of pain. He was the one who taught her sex and power were tools of a trade and nothing else.

It was late. The only light in her room came from the fire she’d been sitting beside. Her thoughts on just how she should proceed weighed on her shoulders. The Council was gathering and this time she’d received an invitation to the exclusive meeting. Every leader had. Something was brewing and it had the animals rattling their cages.

Her flawless chestnut brown skin glowed gold beneath the red and orange tinge of the light. She was not wearing clothes. She never did when she wasn’t in mixed company. The feel of it was just so constricting.

They were born onto this world naked and exposed… And from that moment on others pushed clothes as if it were a necessary second skin. There was no part of her body, Tenon hadn’t seen or hurt once upon a time. To cover up now would cede some of her power over to him.

“This is not a place you should be.”

Tenon stepped of the ledge of her window and smiled at her words. He knew he wasn’t welcome, he just did not care. He did what he wanted to who he wanted and everyone else just had to live with the consequences.

“I want to propose an alliance.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“This is not a time to hold grudges.”

Riela laughed and circled her chair, “I am not the one holding a grudge Tenon. I know where you have been. We all have.”

A thousand years he’d spend in that isolated prison with his people. Locked away from the world he’d wanted to decimate and conquer for his own. Who knew the shifters were capable of pulling together such a concentrated amount of power?

Instead of learning from the very mistakes that had led to his imprisonment. He would rush head first into another plot for revenge. Dragging his people down that dark path right along with him.

“We were betrayed.”

“You were reckless,” Riela taunted.

The Chars had been used as a lesson. Attempt to upset the balance between magic and mortals and be prepared to spend eternity buried where none would ever find you. She did not love being told what to do by the chattel, but she did know better than to try their hand.

Besides, she and her coven own seventy percent of the blood distribution banks. Humans were a major source of her wealth. That and the plasma substitute her scientist had cooked up fifty years ago. Wiping them out and enslaving what was left would put a major dent in her profit margin.

“This time there will be no council to stop me.”

“Many things have changed since you were imprisoned but the council has not. Try what you attempted to do before and they won’t need a witch to bring you low. They will tear you and anyone who helps you apart.”

And she would help them just to hear his screams of pain. She could not think of a man she hated more than Tenon. No amount of time would change it. He was a reminder of the weakness she had to burn away.

The face of an angel surrounded by a halo of platinum curls, he looked so deceptively sweet. His surface hid his twisted nature. Though his eyes were finally starting to turn. She could see the perverse darkness in his gaze.

“Not if I destroy them first.”

The Council could be a thorn in her side. They were so protective of mortals. Always issuing threats when her people did what came natural to them. There was nothing like the feeling of terror mixed in with the blood. It was almost as much of an aphrodisiac as the taste of stated lust.

But they also served a purpose. The Weres, the elves, every magical being on this earth needed to be kept in balance. Not for the sake of the mortals but for the sake of all magic. Allow one faction to gain too much power over the others and there would be all out war.

“You could try.”

“I will succeed.”

Riela shrugged nonchalantly, her high firm breast trembling from the movement. “If you are so sure of yourself. Why are you here?”

“It is only a matter of minimizing casualties. If we combined forces…”

“If we combined forces, you would betray me the second the last of the council members bodies hit the floor.”

“Is it a betrayal if you expect from me,” Tenon asked with a predatory smile.

His platinum blond hair reflected silver as he took another step toward her. She did not step back. He would not intimidate her. She was stronger now. More than capable of protecting herself.

“No one would join in an alliance with you, Tenon. You are a marked man.”

“Do you bow to the dogs now?”

She ignored the taunt.

“Rejecting my offer is a mistake.” He said as he took another step closer. He thought he was intimidating her by closing the distance between them.

Instead she closed the distance and smiled. “When the Council recaptures you, I will watch as they drown you in holy water.”

Tenon scowled as she pointed toward the window he’d come in through. “See yourself out before I call my guards.”

“If you are not my friend, you are my enemy.”

Her fangs lengthened and her nail elongated at the obvious threat. “I am not the same woman you abused and you are not the powerful general you once were. Leave this place before I prove how weak you truly are.”

Tenon looked stunned as she raised her hand and scrapped the side of his face with a single nail slowly. Blood slipped from the wound and down her finger. She’d questioned attending the summit before. Unsure why she’d trouble herself with the affairs of shifters and mortals. But he was planning something and Riela was curious to see it play out.

He jerked away from her and lifted an arm as Riela slid her hand over his heart and tested the skin with her nails. “Before that blow lands I will have your beating heart in my hand. Leave Tenon. Before I finish you here and now.”

He’d made a mistake coming into her home alone and now he knew it. He could see her threat was a real one. She was not the whimpering fool she’d been for him.

Tenon left and she stared at the blank space before her. Perhaps she could garner good will with the animals by informing them their prisoner had indeed escaped. It never hurt to have friends in low places.