Nola Sarina is a
fantastic author and person, so I was delighted to be invited to take part in the blog hop for Jaded
Touch the sequel to her first novella, Gilded Destiny.
I really enjoyed
Gilded Destiny, so when given the opportunity to read an advanced copy of Jaded
Touch I jumped at the offer. What I loved about Gilded Destiny was
Nola’s style of writing, it brought her characters to life leaving us feel real
emotion for them. I found Jaded Touch the same, from the very beginning you
were pulled into a world that left you breathless and wanting more. Like a roller-coaster, the journey begins slow and builds all the way through to an
exciting climax. The ups and downs of the characters’ emotions are portrayed superbly in this second part of a three part series.
– This is a must read.
Just to wet your appetite a little, I have an excerpt for you to get your teeth into...
I dreamed I was falling
down into the well on the old homestead where I was a slave for my teenage
years, after my father and I were sold for his crimes. I kept waiting for the
splash of water or the crack of rock bottom, but neither came. I simply fell
and fell, reaching for walls to slow my descent but finding none, never
crashing down into the end of all sensation. It was a suspended, endless
plummet, too dark below me and too bright above, and there was no way out by
death or life.
I jolted awake in a
bed far too soft, in arms too warm, the energy of nighttime coursing through me
as the drain of daytime vanished.
I awoke in arms. Oh,
yes, the memory emerged: I had committed a sin with a penalty of death last
night. Right. I craned up to peer at Jack’s face, and sucked in a gasp when I
found him staring right back at me.
He brushed a curl
out of my eyes, and I fluttered inside, my new desires awakening as readily as
my body.
“You’re not
sleeping,” I said.
“You were barely
breathing. I worried for a while, but nothing changed so I assumed that was
normal.”
I couldn’t stifle a
quiet giggle. “That’s normal. We almost hibernate during the day. Everything’s
slowed down, and we can be woken, but it’s not wise to be the one to wake us.”
Jack’s smile curled
one side of his mouth and he brushed my temple again, though there was no hair
in my way. He touched me because he wanted to.
Not because he
wanted to hurt me, like Rachel. Because he wanted to make me feel good. I averted my eyes from his gaze,
for that thought alone was enough to melt me inside and send a spiral of terror
through my mind. How badly I wanted to feel good in Jack’s arms. How sick it
was that I wanted it.
And how dead I was
if anyone found out what I’d done with him.
A gurgle between us
startled me out of my brooding, and I yanked back the sheet to see where Jack
was hurt. He must have stripped off his shirt while I was sleeping, but I
didn’t notice him do it. But all I saw were smooth muscles, a light stripe of
hair cutting downward into the waistband of his pants, and I rested my hand on
his stomach, his heat bleeding through my palm. “What was that?”
Jack’s grin brought
delight into my mood and I couldn’t help but smile back. “Just hungry, Milady,”
he said.
Oh! Hunger pains,
hunger gurgles. I remembered human hunger. I tugged the sheet back up,
embarrassed that I’d exposed him, and though humility caught in my throat and I
didn’t know what to say, Jack laughed and threw the blanket right off us both,
revealing his full torso. I couldn’t possibly pout when Jack was laughing. I
loved that laugh. Carefree, unrestrained joy… something Vespers were forbidden
to express.
“I forget,
sometimes, what being human is like.”
“Are you hungry?”
“No!” It was a lie:
I was always hungry. But not hungry enough that Jack was in danger, so he
didn’t need to know.
“Oh, good.” Jack
stretched, his hands clasped together above his head. My heart beat quicker in
response, and I felt a little lightheaded. Like a pathetic damsel in distress
in a movie, I swooned.
“How long since you
were human, anyway?”
I shrugged. “About
seventy years, I think. I’m not sure. I didn’t live a privileged life.”
“But you do now.”
I thought of my
Lady’s palace and the lavish décor, the unlimited funds for the finest of
clothing we Maids could procure. “Yes, I do now. Except I’m still a slave.”
Jack dropped his
arms and glared at me, a flash of anger brightening his eyes while his smile
vanished. “Still a slave? You were
one before you became a Vesper?”
Questions I didn’t
want to answer. Most humans didn’t realize how many different ways slavery
existed in the world, and that we weren’t all freed with the end of the Civil
War. Or that skin color had nothing to do with whether or not you were bought
and sold for whatever purpose. I snugged the blanket around my legs and sat up.
He was angry. I hadn’t seen Jack angry, or any human, really. Most often, they
were just scared.
“Fuck,” Jack
snapped, and I flinched at his vehemence. He flung open the bedroom door and
stomped down the stairs, and I sat there in a human’s bed, wrapped in a human’s
blanket, bearing the weight of human anger. What did I say wrong? The fury in
his eyes was clear, but I didn’t know how I had offended him. Humans were so
confusing, so sensitive. I didn’t mean to complain about my life. I knew I had
the better end of the deal than Jack did. After all, he couldn’t eat me. At
least not in a lethal way. Oh, that mouth of his...
I jumped out of
Jack’s bed as that thought drifted from my brain down between my legs,
lubricating my veins as it moved. I straightened the sheets and followed him
down the stairs, taking each step with caution. An angry human seemed as
unpredictable as an angry Vesper.
Jack was still
shirtless, leaning on the kitchen counter on his elbows, digging aggressively
into a bowl and shoving a spoon into his mouth with each scoop. He ate so fast
I didn’t imagine he had much time to chew or taste his meal, and as I stared at
him, my sinuses throbbed. Watching Jack eat made me hungry. Hungering for Jack
made me… well, hungry. In a different way. Both
ways, I reminded myself, clenching my jaw tightly shut to assure I wouldn’t
forget the danger I posed to him whenever he tempted me.
Jack slammed the
spoon down on the counter and tilted his head back to drink the contents of the
bowl. I watched him swallow, the bounce of his Adam’s apple bringing a smile to
my face.
Jack plunked the
bowl down and faced me, one elbow still leaned on the counter, his abdominal
muscles heaving lightly with his breath. He was so sinfully attractive.
“What?” he asked,
his tone curious but impatient.
“Why do you suppose
they call it an Adam’s apple?” I asked.
Jack blinked and
glanced around, caught off-guard by my question. “Uh, I don’t know.”
I stepped toward him
until I could lean on the counter, too. His height wasn’t overwhelming, but
enough that I had to tilt up to see his jade eyes as he peered down at me,
curious, a bit of anger still rippling off his sculpted shoulders.
“I think they call
it an Adam’s apple because it must have tasted really bad when Levitiqas and my
Lady had to eat the things. I bet it got caught in Levitiqas’ throat.”
He regarded me with
curiosity. “Levitiqas and your Lady eat apples?”
“They did once. But
only once, since the flesh of the apples was laden with serpent poison.”
“Why would a serpent
poison apples?”
“What else should he
have done to penalize them when they stole the most sacred fruit from the
Garden that started it all?”
Jack’s eyes widened,
the anger gone and replaced by shock. “Holy fuck, Three, are your masters Adam
and Eve?”
I nodded and let a
smile spread across my cheeks. “That’s how Vespers were born. All the old
stories are true, Jack. They’re just adapted in your written faiths to hide us.”
Jack let out his
breath in a rush, stunned. “Wow. We knew your masters were ancient. Of all the
train gossip I’ve heard, all the rumors, I never expected that.”
I nodded, inhaling
the taste of his breath, a hint of something sweet from his food ringing in my
nostrils. “I’m not allowed to tell you this.”
“Yet you’re telling
me.”
I shrugged. “I could
already be killed for what we did last night. I figure, what’s one more sin, to
give you some answers?”
“I don’t recall
asking you about Adam and Eve. I asked if you were a slave. You asked about the Adam’s apple.”
I bit my lip, and he
sucked in a breath, straightening, taking me by the waist and pulling me toward
him. “Yes,” I said, “but that wasn’t the question I really wanted to ask. And
you don’t owe me answers if I don’t give you any answers about this crazy life
you’re indentured into.”
“What question did
you want me to answer?”
I unfolded my arms
from their protective cross over my chest and slid my hands up Jack’s arms,
letting his heat flow into me as his fingers tightened on my waist. “Why did
you get angry at me?”
The anger in Jack’s
eyes flared again and something about his scent in my nostrils amplified with the
rise in his temper. I stepped closer, drinking in his anger, trying to
understand, trying to taste. His fury was intoxicating in an unfamiliar way.
Rage and I had an intimate relationship, and my rage wanted to know his.
He let go of me to
rake both hands through his hair, and then let his fingers fall to rest on my
waist again. “I’m not angry at you. I’m angry that someone would enslave you,
then or now. All the rules fucking piss me off. You should be able to choose
who owns you.”
“You think I’d
choose to be owned?”
He shrugged. “If it
were by a guy like me who only wanted to please you, yeah.”
“Since when do
slaves choose their masters?”
Jack smirked at me,
and I loved the way his attitude toyed with his face, giving me clues to his
mood before he spoke. “In my world, they do.”
What world? “You
don’t choose your masters.”
“Says who? I haven’t
run away yet. I can quit the train company any time I want.”
“And be hunted for
it.”
“If I really didn’t
want to be here, that would be an acceptable price to pay. Would you risk your
life to escape masters you hated?”
The sound of searing
flesh resonated in my memory as I thought of my human days. “Yes,” I whispered.
“Me too. But I’m not
miserable enough to risk it, therefore I’ve chosen.”
He was angry at
those who enslaved me, not at me? “What choice do I have? I can’t fight my
nature… we’re programmed to be the way we are. Disobedience is difficult.”
Jack leaned into my
space and I tasted his breath, and I wished I could kiss him like he kissed me.
“You fought your nature and disobeyed your programming last night.”
I nodded. “I know. I
did. And I loved it.”
Jack’s eyes lit with
fire. Not angry fire. Just… hot fire, as though fire itself didn’t blaze
brightly enough for what he was feeling. “Yes, you did.” He pressed forward and
that ridge was there again, and I lost my breath.
“I can’t do this
with you,” I whispered.
Jack didn’t relent.
He rolled his hips against me and I moaned. “Really? You seem pretty capable to
me.”
“No, I…” What was my
argument again? Jack’s hand slid up my side and he ran his thumb over my
breast, the hot pad of his thumb shocking my attention to the sensitive bud. I
shook and pressed against him, my body betraying my morals before I had time to
stop it.
Jack took my chin
with a fingertip and tilted me up, and he kissed me again, and oh, how I wanted
to slip my tongue between his lips and taste his breath.
“Wait, stop,” I
said, breaking the connection.
“I’m sorry,” Jack
rushed, his voice gritty with arousal. He stepped back and blew out his breath,
shaking his head. “I don’t… I can’t think clearly with you. I can’t focus on
anything but you when you’re in the room, and I forget it’s probably different
to you. You’re a goddess, and I’m just a human.”
His honesty sliced
through my resolve. Ugh! Why did his words have to be as enticing as his body?
Jack leaned on the counter with both palms, panting, and I battled internally
between talking us both down from this ledge of sexual tension, and jumping
Jack, pinning him to the floor and making him mine.
Mine. I shook my
head. Now that was a dangerous
thought. If Jack were a Vesper, and I took him into my body… he’d be mine in
more ways than one.
Or would he? I was
bitten by a Gent. My soul was as susceptible to ownership as his would be, if I
bit him. And I’d been owned my whole life. I didn’t know if I wanted to own
somebody, wanted to dominate them.
Jack had spoken of
slaves choosing their masters. “In my
world, they do.” Had he meant dominance? Like, the intimate dominance human
beings often engaged in with each other? I’d seen it in movies a couple of
times and it looked... well, I imagined myself as the human woman with the
collar, and a faceless man, sculpted and tanned, with the whip. I swallowed at
the thought, my attention drawn to sensations low in my core. Sensations Jack
woke up in my body last night.
But I wasn’t a human
woman, and no matter how delicious it looked in the movies, such a relationship
between Jack and I was impossible.
“Jack,” I breathed.
“You have no idea how much I want… things I shouldn’t want, right now.”
He tilted his head
to peer at me through narrow eyes, his jade flashing again with fire. “Me.”
I swallowed. “Yes.
You.”
Jack blinked, and
then his eyes lit with humor. “For dinner, of course.”
I glared at him. I
was trying to say something important, and he disarmed so effortlessly with his
humor. “No, not for dinner.”
“Really?” Playful
Jack was back after a quick appearance from serious Jack. He straightened and
took a step forward, and I couldn’t help but notice the way his movements
tensed up my insides in that perfect, terrible way. “For breakfast, then?”
I folded my arms across
my chest. Playful Jack, meet playful Three. “Not a chance. A snack, maybe, but
you’re not quite enough man to satisfy my hunger.”
Jack’s breath caught
and he grabbed my wrist, yanking me closer to him. I sucked in a breath, and he
pressed my palm to his groin, to that ridge… Oh. My. Yes.
I hesitated, my eyes
wide with shock, as Jack held my hand there. What do I do?!
Just pretend you’re a human woman. One from the movies. I swallowed my fear and wrapped my
fingers around that ridge through his pants, and squeezed. Jack’s grip on my
wrist tightened, a hot shackle holding me captive in a prison I wanted more
than I wanted daylight. I moved my hand, and it was Jack’s turn to lose his
breath.
***
Hope that excerpt has left you wanting more.
Jaded Touch along with Gilded Destiny are now available on these links:
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