I was mega-excited but not really surprised to learn that STACY GAIL had scored a slot in not one but two Carina Press holiday anthologies--last year's A CLOCKWORK CHRISTMAS (which is how I get to claim her as an antho-sister-for-life) and this year's A GALACTIC HOLIDAY. Whoo-hoo! Go Stacy!
I'm a big fan of Stacy's work and I'm thrilled to be able to welcome her here today along with Anna Hackett and Sasha Summers to chat about their sizzling sci-fi stories. Talk about the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns! These ladies have it all going on...
Do androids dream of electric sugar plums?
A detective who refuses to modify her body teams up with her cyborg rival to track down a burglar who is putting toys into homes. A solitary ice miner finds love and friendship while stranded on the surface of Galileo. And two hardheaded negotiators put their differences aside to evade an assassin and save their planets. Enjoy these visions of Christmases yet to come with three science-fiction novellas from Carina Press.
Edited by Angela James, this anthology includes:
How the Glitch Saved Christmas, by Stacy Gail
Galileo's Holiday, by Sasha Summers
Winter Fusion, by Anna Hackett
Galileo's Holiday, by Sasha Summers
Winter Fusion, by Anna Hackett
Many thanks to our wonderful hostess
with the mostest, PG FORTE, whose name rhymes with foreplay! And with a catchphrase like that, you know
this is going to be one hot little convo…
Without a doubt, the novellas found in
Carina Press’s sci-fi holiday anthology, A GALACTIC HOLIDAY, have a multitude
of out-of-this-world concepts sure to please even the pickiest sci-fi fan. But in between space raiders, androids and interplanetary
assassins, there is one thing these stories have in common—love. And while the hearts and flowers are
definitely there, we’re talking about the kind of love hot enough to melt the
ice on Pluto!
To give us a glimpse of what smexiness
is going on in the future (and proving this blog should probably be subtitled
“Lust in Space”) take a look at an intimate teaser from each novella found in A
GALACTIC HOLIDAY!
Anna: It doesn’t matter if a romance is contemporary or
futuristic, set on Earth or on some distant ice planet, it needs some
smexiness! In WINTER FUSION, my rival trade negotiators, Brinn and Savan start
off disliking each other…intensely…but beneath the fiery arguments something
else is simmering. It takes a string of accidents, where they only have each
other to depend on, to bring that desire to the surface.
Snippet
from WINTER FUSION:
Her hand opened, her palm pressing
over his heart. Then her fingers traced a lazy circle over his skin.
Did she know what her innocent touch
was doing to him? This was Brinn Fjord. She hated him. Maybe they’d taken the
steps to understand their past animosity, but he couldn’t read anything into
this. No matter how much he wanted to.
He felt the brush of her lips on his
skin. Her breasts were flush against him, her nipples hard. His body ignited,
his cock so hard he was in pain. He swallowed a groan.
Then she sat up and straddled his
lap.
Her slim legs slid along his hips.
The warm, private part of her brushed over his engorged erection.
He sucked in a breath, his gaze
searching her face. Molten desire burned in her ice eyes. Her lips parted and
her cheeks flushed with color.
Savan surged up and cupped her face.
He tangled his hands in her hair, tilting her head back. “You’re teasing me.”
A brief smile, all too feminine. “I
wanted to see just how noble you’d be.”
He was known for giving no quarter at
the trade tables. “I’m not noble.”
The smile widened, flashing straight
white teeth. “You are. More than you realize.”
When she lifted her hips up, then
sank back against him, the mind-blowing sensations scattered his thoughts.
“I want you.” She leaned forward and
nipped the point of his ear. “We could have died in the explosion, the crash,
in the snow. I want to know I’m alive.”
Desire warred with his brain. “We’ve
been through a lot. I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
“See, noble.” Her hands slid over his
shoulders, tracing the lines of muscle. “I want to explore this warrior’s body,
find what touches make you groan. And then I want you inside me.”
Her words fanned the flames. He
struggled for control. “We shouldn’t do this. There are reasons.” He was sure
there were reasons. They just escaped him right now.
Sasha: I had a great time
with Leo and Riley. They were such strong, vivid characters and their chemistry
was hot and fast. While she was grappling with a whole world of weirdness, her
attraction to Leo was something Riley could cling to – and she does. Leo, on
the other hand, is completely thrown-and completely overwhelmed-by Riley. The
results are pretty awesome. J
Snippet
from GALILEO’S HOLIDAY:
Cold air greeted her.
He was staring at her chest. “You need
to put on more clothes.”
She stared down at her chest, the taut
tips of her nipples clearly visible. She wrapped her arms around herself. “It’s
cold, Leo.”
He pulled her against him, rubbing his
hands up and down her arms. “I can fix that.”
She tilted her head back, way back, and
sighed against the weight of his mouth. It shouldn’t feel like this. She knew
it. But it did.
And
it felt right.
She wrapped her arms about his neck, murmuring.
“I’m going to get grease in your hair.”
“Uh-huh.”
His words were a whisper on her neck.
“Oh, for crying out loud.” Rex was
laughing. “Give it a rest. Food’s waiting.”
She felt Leo laugh, his arms heavy
about her waist. Looking at him, seeing
his smile—she didn’t want to give it a rest. She didn’t even want food, not
right now, anyway.
“We’ll be along in a bit, Rex.” She
didn’t look at Rex.
Rex chuckled. “Alrighty.”
Leo watched her closely, but didn’t say
anything.
Once Rex’s footfalls were only a faint
echo on the metal stairs, she spoke. “Leo. I need you to know that I don’t like
this.” Her hands tightened on the back of his neck, savoring the warmth and
feel of him. “You make me feel things I don’t want to feel.”
“Oh?” His brown eyes flashed.
“No.” She shook her head. “But I know
things will get back to normal when the storms move on. You’ll go back to
running meds, or whatever it is you do, and I’ll figure something out. You’ll
go one way, and I’ll go the other.” She stood on tiptoe, her heart in her
throat at the hard line of his jaw. “And then I won’t have to worry about
feeling anything anymore. Until then…”
He picked her up, gripping her hips as
he set her on the edge of a worktable. His hand cupped her cheek, and his lips
brushed hers. “We’d better make the best of it, for now.”
Stacy: Writing about
Reina and Edison having the hots for each other was SO easy. Right off the bat these two obviously had a
combustible chemistry, though Reina was a bit pig-headed about the whole
deal. Thankfully Edison, that futuristic
knight in heavier-than-human cyborg armor, understands that a woman who’s
difficult to kiss, is DEFINITELY a woman worth kissing. ;)
Snippet
from HOW THE GLITCH SAVED CHRISTMAS:
“Um.
Detective.” She heard his muffled snort, which confirmed her suspicion that
standing on formality at this exact moment in time was, in fact, hilarious.
“Remember when I told you this was strictly medicinal?”
“Uh-huh.”
Edison leaned into her with a heady threat so blatantly masculine it made her heart
trip over itself. Then he rubbed against her in an all-over body caress that
made it scorching hot within her frictionsuit, and as giddy excitement surged
through her like a drug she had to reconsider the whole swooning business as a
viable option. “Praise me. I’m taking my medicine like a big boy.”
Big
boy. Reina’s mouth went desert-dry as she tried not to notice a bulge starting
to swell against her abdomen. But facts were facts. As his body warmed, there
was no doubt that Edison Wick was indeed a big boy. “Here’s the thing. I
also said not to get excited.”
“Yeah…about
that. I’m going to have to disappoint you on that score. And in my defense, you
have to take some of the blame for being so damn sexy you should be declared
illegal.”
“I’m
just trying to warm you up.”
“Congratulations,
you’re doing a bang-up job of it.” His head lowered, and his eyes drifted shut
as he brushed his face over her hair. “God, Reina. I didn’t know you smelled
like heaven and sin all rolled into one. If I had, I would have done this a lot
sooner.”
She pulled in a breath
to ask him what he was doing when his mouth slid down her cheek to unerringly
capture her lips.
If you enjoyed these luscious little
snippets, just imagine what reading the whole anthology is like. *smirk* Happy Holidays!
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