Dye's Kingdom: Wanting It Forever Read online

  Dye laughed. “Ambitious little chit. You’d not have been satisfied with commander!”

  Slowly, she shook her head. Knotting her fingers in the ties below his waist, she pulled him toward her. “I’m quite satisfied with this commander.”

  “I’m hardly a commander anymore,” he told her. “No regrets, then?”

  Martigay’s saucy, trademark smile eroded as a hint of trouble shadowed her smoky eyes. Reaching for Dye’s hand, she brought it to her face and turned her cheek into the large palm as her lips brushed a white scar on his thick wrist.

  “I’m sorry,” she confessed, “about the cell…and the manacles. About continuing to deceive you when I might have told you. I’d planned to get us out of the cell come dusk. But the guards came without warning and if they’d discovered I was a Raith at that point…” Her voice trailed away as she buried her face in his chest.

  Dye gazed down on her head, surprised at the emotion with which she clung to him as well as this rare expression of devotion. She didn’t normally reveal the depth of her passion for him…until she came. Thank Mithra she came often, otherwise he’d never really be certain.

  “It’s all right,” he said gently, tilting her face upward with his fist beneath her chin. “But there’ll be no more surprises, Martigay. I wed you on that condition. There’ll be no more secrets between a man and his wife. Right? Right, Martigay? We’re clean…aren’t we?”

  Sighing, she averted her eyes as she made a face of reluctance.

  “Martigay!”

  “I’ve one more confession,” she admitted, “then we’re clean. Remember when we were together in the mess tent? Remember the rope?”

  His expression was leery. “Aye.”

  “I…cheated.”

  It took a few seconds for Dye to catch on. “You dematerialized the rope? To undo the knots?”

  Guiltily, she nodded.

  “And all that philosophy about loops and pairs and heads was just a bunch of crap?”

  Martigay winced. “Pretty much.”

  Dye laughed. “And I suppose now you’re going to tell me it doesn’t take two to tangle at all.”

  Again, she nodded.

  He reeled her into his body and his long, corded arms bound her body tightly against his lean, tough frame. “Pay attention, Martigay,” he whispered against her ear, “because I’m about to prove you wrong.”

  About the author:

  I slung the heavy battery pack around my hips and cinched it tight—or tried to.

  “Damn.” Brian grabbed an awl. Leaning over me, he forged a new hole in the too-big belt.

  “Any advice?” I asked him as I pulled the belt tight.

  “Yeah. Don’t reach for the ore cart until it starts moving, then jump on the back and immediately duck your head. The voltage in the overhead cable won’t just kill you. It’ll blow you apart.”

  That was my first day on my first job. Employed as an engineer, I’ve worked in an underground mine that went up—inside a mountain. I’ve swung over the Ohio River in a tiny cage suspended from a crane in the middle of an electrical storm. I’ve hung over the Hudson River at midnight in an aluminum boat—30 foot in the air—suspended from a floating barge at the height of a blizzard, while snowplows on the bridge overhead rained slush and salt down on my shoulders. You can’t do this sort of work without developing a sense of humor, and a sense of adventure.

  New to publishing, I read my first romance two years ago and started writing. Both my reading and writing habits are subject to mood and I usually have several stories going at once. When I need a really good idea for a story, I clean toilets. Now there’s an activity that engenders escapism.

  I was surveying when I met my husband. He was my ‘rod man’. While I was trying to get my crosshairs on his stadia rod, he dropped his pants and mooned me. Next thing I know, I’ve got the backside of paradise in my viewfinder. So I grabbed the walkie-talkie. “That’s real nice,” I told him, “but would you please turn around? I’d rather see the other side.”

  …it was love at first sight.

  Madison welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1337 Commerce Drive, #13, Stow, Ohio 44224.

  Also available from Madison Hayes

  Enter the Dragon anthology

  Gryffin Strain: His Female

  Kingdom of Khal: Redeeming Davik

  Miss February

  Zeke’s Hands

  Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

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