High Octane by Kathleen Scott

February 27, 2010 at 12:06 pm | Category: Guest Blogger, blog

Thanks for having me here today, Sandra to promote my latest Samhain Release, High Octane.

I absolutely love action and space battles and epic love stories. Combine all those ingrediants together and you get a story after my own heart. It’s odd how some story lines will come to you. This one began with a single opening line.

Bombs screeched from the sky, falling from above like lethal rain.

With a title like High Octane, I felt I couldn’t disappoint on the action angle. See, I like to start my books out with a bang. Literally. When I typed that I knew where I was going with this story. It was going to be a futuristic and involve a crack team of military specialists who jump between this dimension and the next – and it was probably going to involve writing a series. I’m working on book two now and I have to say, the deeper I get into the world of this military team, the more stories I find I need to tell. The men are hawt and the women daring and strong.

Here’s the blurb for High Octane.

 Two hearts are never more than one dimension apart.

A routine fuel run through one of the planet’s dimensional portals explodes in violence when Major Geneieve Lockhart’s Jumper team is hammered with an unprovoked attack. With her ship disabled and contact to mission control limited, Genie faces her worst nightmare—losing her crew on the blood-soaked floor of a foreign desert.

Help comes from an unlicensed freelance mercenary ship, piloted by a man she never thought she’d see again. Her AWOL ex-lover, Lt. Col. Dante Bowen.

Bowen knows answering Genie’s distress call puts his undercover mission to expose a governmental conspiracy at risk. But after faking his death six years ago, he owes her something. Ending up chained in her cargo hold for transport to his own court martial wasn’t the thanks-for-the-rescue he expected.

The bridges between them may be in ashes, but their desire burns as hot as ever. Even as Genie wonders what happened to Bowen’s code of honor, her body betrays her heart at every turn. The hostile race that attacked her ship, though, is coming back to finish them off. The only way to ensure freedom—on both sides of the dimensional divide—is to put her trust in the one man who betrayed it…

Warning: Contains action-packed dimensional travel, hot military wartime sex, betrayed lovers and evil, power-hungry bastards.

And what would a blurb be without an excerpt.

“Lt. Colonel Dante Bowen, you are under arrest as a defector and traitor.” Genie raised her laser pistol and pointed it at his heart. Her hand was covered in dirt and blood, but she held the gun as steadily as if it were mounted.

The years apart had hardened her, both in muscle and the look in her clear gray eyes. Hate and distrust came at him like a blast of heat. She meant business.

Bowen leaned against the back of the pilot’s seat, resting his arm on the side. “Is that any way to talk to the man who risked his life to come to a battle zone and save your sorry excuse for a team?”

“Don’t you dare speak about my team as if you have the right.” She touched the com unit attached to her belt. “I need security to the merc ship bridge.”

“Yes, Major.”

Bowen raised his brow at Genie, trying to look more casual than he felt at the moment. “Major, huh? I didn’t know you’d been promoted.” He let his gaze rake over her, taking care to make note of the thin synthetic undershirt she wore instead of her uniform embossed with rank insignia.

“A lot of things have changed since you went MIA and were presumed dead.” There was a distinct bite to her words. He expected nothing less from a loyal soldier like Genie. But there were more pressing matters at the moment.

“Instead of wasting your time arresting me, why don’t you make sure the ships are secure so I can get your rigid ass back to the jump port and your team across the divide before the Muloons return with more firepower?”

She shook her head slightly. Strands of shiny, wheat-colored hair fell from its ties under her flak helmet and brushed her shoulders. “They probably work for you and this is just another one of your brilliant double-crosses.”

“It’s not. They

will be back. Mark my words.”"From where I’m standing, your word isn’t worth much.”

No, it wouldn’t be. But he’d made his own bed where Genie was concerned.

The synchronized stomp of booted feet vibrated the floor under Bowen’s backside.

He’d told his men not to let anyone on the bridge and here they’d gone and let the one person in the beta dimension he was trying to avoid right into the cockpit. A shit storm was about to rain on his parade.

Someone was going to get hurt. Real bad.

He knew when he’d picked up her voice on the distress call it would be a bad idea to get involved. But he couldn’t stand by and not attempt to rescue the disabled vehicle. Even so, he had to tread carefully here or his entire operation would disintegrate like a house of ash. Or they’d all get killed by the Muloons.

“Cap’n!” Cozan yelled at him from the door for instructions.

Since he had no doubt that Genie would shoot him if he didn’t let her security team onto the bridge, and as long as he was alive, he could help them fight off the Muloons, he used his only option left. “Bring ’em on.”

Genie narrowed her eyes and indicated Bowen with a wave of her gun. “Cuff him and lock him to the bulkhead in the empty storage hold.”

Bowen didn’t miss the looks exchanged between the officers, but they didn’t question her orders.

The largest of the guards started to reach for his arm. Bowen pushed to his feet and turned his back, presenting them with his wrists. The electronic cuffs clicked into place with a finality that raised a lump in his throat.

If he had to die now, so be it. He just didn’t like thinking of his impending demise with objectives left unmet.

The guard patted him down, relieving Bowen of his more obvious weapons—two laser pistols, an antique 9mm, and a ceramic-bladed hunting knife. The guard spun him back around to face the Major.

“Who is your second-in-command?” Genie hadn’t relaxed her guard, even after his hands were secured behind his back.

“There is no second.”

“Then you better name one.”

Bowen watched her finger move a fraction, putting more pressure on the trigger. He shrugged with indifference. “What does it matter, you’re going to seize the ship, right?”

“That’s the greatest irony of all. Blackbeard’s vessel seized by the authorities. I can transfer my cargo and have mission control bring us in manually.” She shivered as if the very idea made her tingle all over.

Bowen didn’t bother to suppress the crack of a smile as it filled the side of his mouth. He used to love it when she’d shiver like that. Most of the time it was while they were going at it like a couple of horny teenagers. The memory alone made his dick hard. It was definitely not the right time or place for a walk down memory lane with her. But he couldn’t resist. He hadn’t been able to shake her with threats of the Muloons, maybe bringing up their illicit past would get the job done.

As the guards started to move him past her, he leaned over and lowered his voice so only she could hear him. “You used to love it when we played pirate games.”

*********

High Octane by Kathleen Scott available now from Samhain Publishing

Thanks Sandra, I hope you and your readers enjoy!

-Kathleen Scott

High Octane cover - Look at the size of that gun! Wowzers!

Tweet This! Buzz Up! Digg This! Reddit Stumble