SECRETS, Volume 20, Surrender to Pleasure - A. Green, D. Sinclair, L. Wyndfield, C. Featherstone
Red Sage Publishing - www.redsagepub.com
ISBN:  978-1-60310-0000-7
July 2007
Erotic Romance Anthology

The Subject - Amber Green
West Memphis, Arkansas - Present Day

Esau Kirkland has just found the lab building where his packmates are being held when a powerful earthquake strikes.  Esau knows that the lab is suspected of experimenting on involuntary human subjects, and he hears his packmates screaming for help as the building crumbles.  As he searches in vain for David and Gabie, he finds a naked and severely battered woman wandering amidst the debris.  Esau can no longer feel the connection with his packmates, but he can smell David's scent on the woman.  She has been bred, and now Esau must protect her and take her back to the protection of his pack.  She would not have survived the attack, nor gotten pregnant, if she were fully human.

Tyler awakes in an unfamiliar hotel room and has no idea where she is or how she got here.  When she moves, she feels the sting of bites, claw marks, and bruises on every part of her body.  The fuzzy image of three men attacking her passes through her mind before she is violently ill.  When Tyler calls the front desk for a newspaper to try and find out where she is and how much time has passed, it is delivered by a tall, hard, handsome man.  When he immediately lies to her, she senses it.  Bastien Truc, her partner in a video game empire in which she holds the majority, was in a terrible temper the last time she saw him, and Tyler suspects he is responsible for her current predicament.  She must run and keep on going until she can learn the truth.  What she can't know is that Esau doesn't work for Bastien, but he will follow her anywhere.  Tyler is his responsibility now, and he also wants her for his own.

The Subject is a paranormal romance peopled with shapeshifters, both good and villainous.  It's well written, with a format that reads like a video game with plenty of action and suspense.  Steamy sensuality builds between Tyler and Esau until it finally erupts and binds them deeply together.  The Subject is a taut thrill ride.

Surrender - Dominique Sinclair
New York City, New York - Present Day

Department of International Crime agent Madeline Carter is worried.  She has gone deep undercover to infiltrate Italian mob boss Albert DeBarge's organization.  She believes that Sebastian Maiocco is the key to capturing the elusive crime lord.  What Madeline doesn't plan on is her deep attraction to Sebastian.  Every time he touches her, she wants him more.  When she asks to be removed from the case, her boss pleads with her to stay.  DeBarge is coming to the U.S., and the agency feels that he plans to expand his empire.  Madeline agrees to try one more time; surely she can keep from succumbing to Sebastian if it means saving lives and stopping DeBarge.  Can't she?

Sebastian thought he had lost his entire family after refusing his cousin Albert's demands to gather information for his organization.  When Sebastian finds out that Albert kept his thirteen-year-old sister alive, and has since impregnated her, Sebastian is willing to do what he is asked...until he can get his sister back and kill his hated cousin.  The only thing that has given him any happiness since his family was killed is Madeline Carter.  When Madeline leaves town for the weekend, he has her followed.  Now he is certain that she is working for Albert when his bodyguard spots one of Albert's men exiting the train shortly after her.  Sebastian is infuriated with Madeline, and with himself, for thinking that there might be any hope left in his life.  When Madeline is kidnapped by Albert to further induce Sebastian to follow orders, he knows that he must try to protect her.  He cannot live with the thought that he has caused another death.

Surrender is a crime-drama filled with betrayals and lies.  Sebastian and Madeline both have good reason to suspect the other of deceit, yet are unable to deny the electricity that arcs between them.  Suspense and drama build to a jolting end, and ironic twists.  A story of rebuilding trust, Surrender is filled with emotion and sexual tension.

Stasis - Leigh Wyndfield
Planet Triad - Present Day

Osborn Welty is the commander of the 12th Division of Troopers.  They are fighting a war with the rebels on a harsh desert planet, but testing his sanity the most is his Second in Command, Morgann Right.  She is a brilliant and beautiful strategist, but she is also impulsive and hotheaded, which sometimes leads to drastic mistakes.  Morgann cannot stand any comments on her beauty and regularly has to fight off men attracted to her.  Known for his iron control of all situations, Osborn has successfully hidden his attraction to her for six months.  When the enemy lobs bombs of stasis at them, a chemical which paralyzes but doesn’t kill, Morgann tries to share her rebreather with a soldier who broke his.  When the terrified soldier refuses to give it up, Osborn lunges to give Morgann his own rebreather to save her from the effects of the gas.

Morgann can't believe that her Commander has just broken every rule in the book.  She quickly takes him onto her lap and straightens his limbs before they become too rigid to move.  When they are rescued and make it to medical help, Morgann finds that they are out of antidote and more won't arrive for ten days.  Unwilling to leave her commander in the overwhelmed facility, she brings him to her quarters.  He is still filthy from the mission, and when she can't find anyone else to bathe him, Morgann knows she must do it herself.  Osborn is able to blink his eyes, and they communicate through those blinks.  He gives her permission to clean him up and, as she undresses him, she is amazed at his gorgeous body.  Morgann knows that he isn't attracted to her like so many of the other men, and she is shocked, as she bathes him, by the heat she sees in his eyes and the very prominent response of his body to her touch.  Just what is a woman to do in a situation like this?

Stasis is a story of losing control.  Morgann has little experience with men outside of her profession, so when she's attracted to the immobile commander, and he responds, she is overwhelmed with guilt.  Fraternizing is not allowed and she is jeopardizing both of their careers.  Osborn hates losing his control, and he is going to make sure that payback is a long hot night with Morgann that no one will ever find out about.  Stasis is a steamy little sci-fi gem.

A Woman’s Pleasure - Charlotte Featherstone
London, England - 1851

It has been three years since Isabella, Lady Langdon met Julian Gresham, second son of the Earl and Lady Huntington.  She met him while in Constantinople with her husband, the English Ambassador to Turkey.  Julian is the half-English, half-Persian cousin of the Sultan, and when she first spied him, he became the star of her intimate fantasies.  When they were introduced, she was shocked to see that he was in fact much younger than her thirty-one years.  However, she hasn't been able to forget his sensual touch, heated eyes, and the promise that she made to come to him if she were ever free.  Now that she is out of mourning for her cold, selfish husband, who died of syphilis on the voyage back to England, Isabella simply can't push herself to find Julian.  Her son, seventeen and the new earl, and daughter, now sixteen and soon to seek a husband, must be her first duty.

Julian has waited patiently for Isabella to put away her widow's weeds.  He is certain that she is his destiny, and he will make her honor the promise she gave to him in any way that he can.  He has sacrificed much in coming back to England where he is considered a half-breed and tolerated only for his title and wealth.  Julian wants Isabella and her family for his own.  She is the only woman who has ever treated him as a man.  For what Isabella doesn't know is that Julian is also a Persian Prince.  Many women have come to him simply to obtain his title and wealth; only Isabella has wanted him for her pleasure alone.  When she finally comes to him, she believes it is only for one week while her children are in the country, and though it will break her heart to leave him, she knows that she must uphold her duty to her family.

A Woman’s Pleasure is the story of breaking out of the mold into which women are cast.  Well written characters search within themselves to find the strength to take what they need while society dictates what they must do.  Nice plotting and atmosphere add to the rich sensuality that surrounds Isabella and Julian.  A Woman’s Pleasure is an exotic journey.

SECRETS, Volume 20 contains four very different erotic adventures.  The stories are well told with likable, fully developed characters and sizzling romance.  The different genres mesh well and give a great sampling of each.  For a wonderful treat, pick-up SECRETS, Volume 20.  You won't be disappointed.

Jennell