JANUS IS A TWO-FACED MOON
Author: Susanne Marie Knight
Genre: Science Fiction
Romance
Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i86CgD6o3eI.
Price: $3.99
Buy Link:
Available electronically at:
Blurb:
BETWEEN
A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE. In the year 2458, injured ballerina Blade Sinclair
agrees to participate in the Galactic Olympic Games. Unfortunately, she’s on
the wrong team; an alien team. If Blade doesn’t win a gold medal, her family
will die. If Blade does win, the Sarthox will destroy Earth. What’s a girl to
do??
LOVE HURTS. Security chief
Christopher Bainbridge has had his share of traitorous females. At the Lunar
Olympic Games, he finds himself mixed up with another one. But Blade doesn’t
seem like a typical traitor, and against his own inclinations, he falls in love
with her. How can he help her escape from the Sarthox and save the solar system
at the same time?
Scene Set-Up:
Blade has just received
*very* alarming news from attractive but disapproving security chief
Christopher Bainbridge. Discussing him with her roommate, Heidi, Blade will
soon learn about Heidi’s connection to Christopher.
Excerpt:
Despite the lower gravity, Blade dragged her feet to
the Olympic Village apartment. The time was almost eight at night, and she’d
been going strong since six in the morning.
She opened the door, stepped inside, and waited.
Absolute silence greeted her; her roommate Heidi must’ve still been out. Good.
Blade didn’t need any distractions as she mulled over the events of the day.
Not the least of which was the encounter with
Christopher Bainbridge.
Sitting on a heavy duty plastic chair, she removed
her tattered ballet slippers and winced at the new blisters and welts appearing
on her toes. Air ballet routines were not completely performed up in the air,
and dancing on pointe on the ground was always hard on the feet.
She took out her handy survival kit and wrapped every
toe, especially the pinkie, with medical tape.
“Whoa! What in the cosmos did you do to your feet,
featherweight?”
Blade sighed. Heidi stood in the doorway. By her
messy hairdo and droopy eyelids, it was obvious that she had been sleeping in
her bedroom.
“An occupational hazard.” Blade finished her feet pampering
with a brisk massage using a scented lotion. “It looks worse than it is. You
get used to it.”
“I wouldn’t be able to run if my feet looked like
yours.” Heidi yawned. “I had a great practice today. How was yours?”
“It was okay.” Blade made an automatic reply.
Unfortunately her coach, Plevake, was absent for
practice, and a new partner always took some getting used to. But the son,
Jevake... well, he was different in an indefinable way. While his dancing
technique contained no flaws, it contained no passion either.
She shivered as she recalled his cold touch.
Instinctively, her skin crawled, for if what Christopher Bainbridge said was
true, then Jevake and his father were inhuman--alien.
But how could that be? If the Sarthox were aliens,
then that meant Blade was competing in the Olympics against Humanity.
She closed her eyes tightly for a second. Please, no.
That can’t be so...
While she wasn’t overly patriotic, she was Human, after all. Here was a line
she didn’t want to cross.
Heidi left her seat to stare straight into Blade’s
face. “What’s wrong? You seem preoccupied.”
“It’s nothing.” Blade removed her leg-warmers, then
headed into the bathroom to peel off her leotard. “I just met a really
disagreeable person today.”
Heidi pulled a chair over and sat outside the
bathroom while Blade showered. “Oooh, dirt! Dish it up. Tell me all. I bet your
disagreeable person is a man. Is he hunky? Does he make your hormones roar?”
Blade lathered up, then rinsed off. Water was a
precious commodity on the Moon. Only the wealthy had unlimited access.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” she lied over the
rush of water. “But, yep, he was one hundred percent man.” She’d give
Bainbridge that compliment anyway. “He had the nerve to question me about my...
Olympic associates. And he disapproved of me. He even said he hoped I didn’t
win.”
“What a scurvy knave!” Heidi stood and flexed her
muscles. “I’ll punch the dirtbag out. Who does he think he is? Only security
personnel have the authority to ask questions about Olympic stuff.”
Ouch. Blade slipped into a terrycloth robe and
towel-dried her long hair. “To tell you the truth, the guy did mention he was
security.”
Heidi harrumphed. “That doesn’t give him the right to
put you down, or disapprove of you, even if he carries a badge. Maybe it’s
counterfeit, anyway. My brother’s GCC security, too. I’ll ask him to check--”
“No, no. It’s okay. I’ll just--” A doorbell sounded.
“I’ll get the door.”
Glad to leave that discussion behind, Blade rushed
out through the living room into the entryway. The whole situation was
disturbing--Jevake, aliens, Sarthox... Christopher Bainbridge.
She opened the door. “Hel... lo.”
Holy cow, it was him, Bainbridge. All six foot two of
him. Even in the dim corridor light, the sight of his broad shoulders, muscular
chest, and slim hips caused her to unthinkingly lick her lips.
Stop it!
She’d seen plenty of well-physiqued men before; her
ballet company had been full of them. But this man, he made her insides quiver.
“Miss Sinclair, may I come in?” He stood with his
arms folded against that powerful chest.
“Why?” She hadn’t meant to be rude. Her question just
popped out.
But then after all, she’d had a very trying day. The
expression “dead tired” must’ve been created just for her.
A vein pulsed on his right temple. “I have a few more
questions to ask you.”
She tightly bunched the edges of her robe together at
her neck, then stepped aside to let him in. Never normally prudish, she felt an
unaccustomed shyness creep over her. Being clad only in a robe with her hair
still dripping water did nothing to bolster her confidence.
“Is this about Plevake Va-Thor?”
He turned his high watt gaze on her and didn’t answer
her question. “Were you at--”
“Who was at the door?” Heidi barged into the room
like a bulldozer. “I hope it wasn’t that dirtbag.”
Blade flushed. Somehow this bad situation got worse.
Heidi stormed over to them, then her mouth nearly
dropped to the floor. “Chris!” she squeaked as she threw herself at the man.
“It’s so good to see you.”
Bainbridge looked uncomfortable as he gently but
firmly detached Heidi from his person. He darted his gaze to Blade, then looked
back at Heidi.
“Heidi.” He cleared his throat. “Is this where you’re
staying?”
“Sure thing. Y’know I left a message for you that my
housing assignment was color-coded red.” She slapped Bainbridge on the back
with the blow that would’ve crumpled Blade. He didn’t flinch, however. “This is
great! Perfect! Chris can help you with that swine you were telling me about.”
Oh. Blade must’ve blazed redder than a case of
tomatoes. The worse situation just got even worse.
“Um, Heidi, I didn’t say that.”
Heidi shook her head, making her short hair dance.
“No, no. You don’t have to worry. Chris’ll take care of everything. He’s my
brother.”
Her brother? Of all the people in the entire
galaxy.... Yep, everything was going to hell in a handbasket now.
Not looking at him, Blade muttered, “Great.” Was
there a convenient hole she could crawl in?
“C’mon, let’s sit.” Heidi went over to the VR window
and selected an image. The picture of soil and farm buildings immediately
appeared--a view from her home planet.
“Chris, this is my roommate, Blade. She told me about
this guy--”
“Miss Sinclair and I have already met.” He sat on the
couch and folded his arms across his chest again. “And I can imagine what she
said.”
Puzzlement
furrowed Heidi’s brow so Blade explained. “It was your brother who questioned
me.” She hesitated a second, then turned to Bainbridge. “Listen, I didn’t say you
were a swine.”
He
shrugged. “I’ve been called worse.”
She
fingered a wet strand of hair. “I’ll get dressed while you two catch up.”
Hurrying
into the bedroom, she flung the door shut, then fell back against it. Her
emotional side scolded: Well, you really stepped in it, didn’t you Blade?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hope you enjoy!
Susanne Marie Knight
Read outside the
box: award-winning Romance Writing With A Twist
