Please welcome Katalina Leon as a part
Genre:
Paranormal erotic-romance, time-travel
Publisher:
Ellora’s Cave
ISBN:
9781419945557
Number of
pages: 85 pages
Word Count:
40k
Cover
Artist: Syneca
Book
Description:
Maya
Rousseau’s fantasy vacation in Avignon France heats up when an eccentric
enchantress tricks her into drinking mojo-laced absinthe.
An
unexpected encounter with the green fairy causes Maya’s reality to have a
serious melt down. She travels back in time and wakes up naked in the bed of
her favorite bad boy Bohemian artist, the tall, dark and mysterious André
Bosco. There’s nothing wrong with that except it’s 1903.
For André
it’s love at first sight. He begs Maya to become his cherished model, muse and
lover. The chemistry and shared passion between them is overwhelming. André’s a
generous-hearted dream man but there’s a catch. Every hour they spend together
bonds them tighter and time is running out. The same powers that flung Maya
back to 1903 are preparing to snatch her back.
With a
hundred and ten years separating these soul-bound lovers it’s uncertain if they
can find a happy ending without the help of a little magic and La Fée Verte.
Note: Story
contains super hot sex with an unattainable man, enchanted hallucinatory
beverages, mischievous time-twisters and green fairies.
EXCERPT
Chapter One
Avignon, France
Maya rubbed her tired eyes with
the heel of her hand and blinked. It didn’t help. The glare of a dry July day
and endless hours looking at art had left her in a dazed state of overload. The
rods and cones of her retinas were kaput. Her feet ached too. She’d packed more
than she could comfortably handle into her single allotted vacation day in
Avignon and was now suffering from a bad case of too much of a good thing.
Tired or not, she felt alive.
This was what her soul had been starved for. Since morning she’d wandered
Avignon’s street exhibits, tented galleries and somber museums filled with
masterpieces, gazing in awe. She’d enjoyed an outdoor concert on the bank of
the Rhône and photographed the sunbaked Romanesque ruins of a medieval bridge,
where she had stopped just long enough to eat a light lunch. She loved
photography and Avignon was the perfect place to indulge a hobby she wanted to
take further. When she got home she intended to look back and feel as inspired
to revive her art career as she felt at that moment.
The daytrip to Avignon would
have been perfect excerpt for one important omission. She’d failed to locate
the art studio of her favorite modernist painter, the mysterious André Bosco.
It was a shame, because Bosco was the real reason she’d been attracted to
Avignon in the first place. She’d been a fan of the obscure painter for years
and had hoped to see the place where he had launched his brief but brilliant
career, which had inexplicably ended in 1903.
What she’d expected would be a
simple task had turned into a bust. To her disappointment she’d seen no plaques
displayed anywhere mentioning Bosco, and no one seemed to know much about him.
Even the guidebook had been vague, mentioning a single abandoned building as a
possible site of Bosco’s studio. A daylong search had proven fruitless and
ended in frustration. Within the next hour she’d have to leave Avignon without
touching base with one of the great inspirations in her life. Considering Bosco
was a local artist of merit, it surprised her that he was so little celebrated
in Avignon.
Maya turned the corner and
headed into one of the older parts of town. The buildings were quaint. A few
were in need of repair. The shadows stretched longer and the narrow streets
bustled with foot traffic. The evening festivities had already started and she
realized it was time to leave.
A few yards in front of her, a
team of young male dancers burst onto the crowded sidewalk and claimed a small
circle of smooth pavement as their stage. A heartbeat later they were dancing a
wild routine that had them spinning and kicking in unison like the blades of a
blender.
Maya dodged past the acrobatic
dancers but got trapped in the crowd that had gathered to watch. She recoiled
at the last second from one dancer’s lethal backflips and high kicks, which
were executed an arm’s length from her nose. She pushed past the dancers but
the crowd closed in and she got sandwiched between the exuberant performance
and a gritty sandstone wall.
This sort of thing had been
happening all day. The official festival d’Avignon had something interesting
planned for every hour of the day but all over the city spontaneous
off-festival performances took place anywhere a crowd gathered.
The dancing was fun but she was
thirsty, tired and just wanted to sit.
“Excusez-moi.” Maya crept along
the wall, managing to push through the throng of observers. She reached the
doorway of an interesting looking bistro, tugged the door open and darted
inside.
Once inside she entered a
soothing candle-lit Victorian-era building and found herself in a charming
Bohemian-themed bistro with cranberry-red velvet cushions on the seats and
colorful curtains of glass beads dangling from the windows. Glowing hand-blown
glass lanterns sat upon polished tabletops. A framed Gauguin print of an
ebony-eyed Tahitian beauty holding a bowl of pink flowers hung near the bar.
The pungent scent of amber incense and cherry pipe tobacco perfumed the air.
It was like stepping back in
time to another era. Maya’s senses were instantly transported back to the heady
days of the modernist art movement at the beginning of the twentieth century.
She savored the feeling because it was her favorite fantasy time period, and
one she would have loved to experience firsthand.
It surprised her that for such
a busy festival day the bistro was empty of patrons. The only other occupant of
the bistro, and presumably the proprietress, was a woman who appeared to be in
her fifties who was dressed in the theatrical garb of a flowing- sleeved poet’s
shirt, a black satin corset and flouncy red skirt and tall boots. She stood
beside the bar looking like some sort of piratical gypsy queen.
“Bonsoir.” The lady spoke
French but addressed Maya with a familiar accent.
Maya smiled at the lady. “Puis-je
commander un café glacé, s'il vous plaît?”
“Of course you can have an iced
coffee.” The woman’s keen gaze locked on Maya. A thick layer of black kohl
ringed the lady’s eyes and lent her an unsettling appearance. “I speak English
and I’m going to guess that you grew up not far from my hometown of New
Orleans.”
“I’m from Thibodaux!” Maya
laughed. “There’s no hiding the accent, is there?”
The lady reached for a coffee
press and packed it with fresh grounds. “Seeing as how you’re a Louisiana girl
I’ll add a touch of chicory to your coffee.”
“Thank you.” Maya sat at the
bar, fully realizing just how much her feet hurt from walking all day on
cobblestones.
“My name’s Miss Ruby.” The lady
brushed her long black hair away from her face and appeared to be studying Maya
with intense interest. “What’s yours?”
“Maya Rousseau.”
Miss Ruby poured hot water over
the coffee grounds and pushed down on the press. “Rousseau is a wonderful name
for an art lover.”
“You sound certain I’m an art
lover.”
“Why else would you be in
Avignon in July? I know what drew you.” Miss Ruby toyed with one of her
dangling chandelier earrings while she waited for the coffee to strengthen. “I
realize my current costume makes me look ridiculous as I say this, but I really
do possess the gift of second sight and prophecy. You see, I’m a world-class
enchantress with the highest security clearance.”
A nervous laugh burst past
Maya’s lips. “I didn’t realize enchantresses had to earn security clearances.”
“They certainly do!” Miss
Ruby’s eyes flashed. “You wouldn’t believe the stringent tests we must pass. A
world-class enchantress must prove beyond a shadow of doubt that she is
trustworthy, ethical and has the highest good of others in mind before she’ll
be granted the powers I have.”
Maya wondered if Miss Ruby was
another bit of festival street theater or an ex-pat who’d forgotten to take her
medication. “What special powers do you possess?”
“I’m like a fairy godmother,
but my work tends to be grittier than what a fairy godmother might attempt. The
moment I meet someone I know exactly what their soul needs. I understand the
inner workings of time and space and use them to advantage. I don’t actually
break the laws of nature but I know how to bend them. In fact my specialty is time-twisting.
I’m like a witch but I call myself a ‘Beneficent’ because I always serve the
highest good. The gift is hereditary. My mama was a New Orleans Voodoo queen. I
could have stayed in New Orleans too, but I chose to travel the world as a
high-level enchantress and an ambassador of magic.”
“I see.” Maya recoiled. It was
just more of her bad luck in Avignon. First she’d failed to locate Bosco’s
studio and now a crazy lady dressed like a carnival psychic had trapped her in
a weird conversation.
Miss Ruby poured the steaming
coffee over a tumbler filled with ice and slid the glass toward Maya. “Enjoy.”
Maya sipped the chilled,
chicory-laced coffee with relish. “I feel revived.” She drank fast, not wanting
to linger in the deserted bistro. She decided it best to gulp the iced coffee,
pay and run for her life before the conversation got stranger.
Miss Ruby picked up a chamois
and busied herself polishing the brass rail that ran the length of the elegant
mahogany bar.
Maya’s gaze wandered toward the
far wall and fixated on a framed pencil sketch of a handsome man with a proud,
compelling face. The sketch was framed beneath glass and the paper had yellowed
at the corners and crumbled with age. She studied the man’s face and guessed he
was in his mid-thirties. He had a thick head of wavy dark hair and a rugged
face with square, noble features, chevron brows and luminous eyes that glanced
sideways from the portrait and seemed to follow the viewer around the room.
Maya found herself unable to
look away. The man had a magnetic quality she seldom saw in contemporary faces.
It was a look that could only belong to someone who possessed the
self-confidence and perhaps a touch of arrogance not to care what the world
thought. The generous arch of the man’s lips was so sensuous her thoughts wandered
toward what it must have felt like to be kissed by him.
“You like Bosco, don’t you?”
Miss Ruby leaned close. “He has a interesting face, doesn’t he? He can appear
both compassionate and feral in turn. I’ve heard many differing opinions about
the portrait over the years.”
Maya started. “Is that a
portrait of André Bosco, the Fauvist painter?” she gasped. “I’m a great admirer
of Bosco! I had no idea a portrait existed.” Her heart fluttered. “Did he
really look like that?”
“You know of Bosco?” Miss Ruby
looked elated. “So few do. History has all but overlooked him, which is a shame
because those familiar with his small body of work have hailed him as one of
the most innovative painters of his time. Some say Bosco inspired his more
famous peers and set the example for the Fauvist moment by showing the world
how to paint like a wild beast. Of course, a few of his nastiest critics called
him a ‘paint waster’, but it’s clear Bosco had vision.”
Miss Ruby waved her hands
through the air in an expansive gesture. “A few art historians have credited
Bosco with being the original wild beast, in part because of his physical
intensity and unruly head of hair, but also because he had a habit of tossing
his paintbrushes aside and smearing the brightest colors across the canvas with
his fingertips, with passion. It was said by those who watched him work that he
ravished his canvases like a ferocious lover.” She giggled.
“He sounds exciting.” Maya drew
a sharp breath. “Years ago, I saw an original Bosco in a traveling museum show
of modernist work. Bosco’s painting was the most expressive piece of art in the
entire show. I kept wandering back to look at it again and again. The painting
was of a white stallion but the colors were vivid—every hue of the rainbow was
hidden in the lines and shadows. Before I left the museum I bought a postcard
of the painting and carried it around in a battered sketchbook for years. Bosco
was my greatest inspiration. I heard a rumor he had a studio somewhere in
Avignon?”
“He did.” Miss Ruby pointed upward.
“His studio is a corner room on the third floor. The landlord of the building
has preserved it.”
“Bosco’s studio is here?” Maya
tensed. “Can I see it?”
“No.” Miss Ruby shook her head.
“I don’t have permission to open the room, but the landlord will return on
Sunday. You can ask him then.”
“I won’t be here on Sunday.” A
note of desolation crept into her voice. “This is my last full day in France. I
have to start making my way back to Paris tomorrow for my flight home. I’ll
miss my only chance to see Bosco’s studio.” Maya leaned across the bar, feeling
absolutely desperate to get a look at Bosco actual living space. “Please
reconsider—I promise not to touch a thing.”
“I’m sorry.” Miss Ruby nodded
toward the top of the bar, where an ornate brass skeleton key dangled from a
green satin ribbon. “The landlord is the only one allowed to use that key to
open the studio…”
(La Fée Verte, the green fairy
is going to make an appearance soon and cause a little mischief. Who do you
think ends up getting ahold of that key and going upstairs?)
About the Author:
I’m an
artist, an author, mother and wife. I write for Ellora’s Cave, Loose Id Publishing
and a couple new publishers to be announced soon. I try to bring a touch of the
mystical and a big sense of adventure to everything I write because I believe
there’s a bold, kick-ass heroine inside all of us who wants to take a wild ride
with a strong worthy hero.
Website: www.katalinaleon.com
Ellora’s
Cave:
Loose Id:
Amazon:
All Romance
eBooks:
Night Owl
Reviews Author Page:
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/katalinaleon/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/katalina.leon.142
4 comments:
Thank you Mila, I love visiting Jade Mystique
I have my copy and can't wait to read it!
I need to get a copy. I'm hooked. :)
Thank you Katalina!
I really do love your work.
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