Liquid Crystal Release!

This month marks the re-release of Liquid Crystal, the first of the Crystal miniseries set in the Dept 57 world. This is the only time menages formed the center of the book, and Liquid Crystal introduces the merpeople.

Here’s your first look at the new cover for the book, too! Like it?

Excerpt:

Learn the Secrets of Underwater Loving - Times Two!

An unseen, unsuspected enemy rises up to threaten Crystal's life, until her old friends, Bryn and Kai, rescue her from an unexpected and unwelcome plunge into the Thames. When they all sleep in the same bed, the passion they wake in each other is as amazing as it is inevitable. When Bryn and Kai reveal their secret - they are mermen - and show Crys the secrets of underwater loving, the passion they release is incredible.
But their enemy still chases them, and now Crys, Bryn and Kai are in danger of their lives. Even in a city as busy and modern as London, England, old enemies lurk and old secrets hide.

Excerpt:

      Bryn? She almost put a crick in her neck, she turned on her side so quickly.  There he lay. Bryn Murchison, fast asleep, close but not touching her, his face turned towards hers.  The covers were drawn up to his shoulders, which were bare. Was the rest of him? What was this? The fearful words date rape seared into her brain.
     
      Clutching at her body in panic, Crys was relieved to find herself clad in a t-shirt, much too big, but that was all to the good, because it covered more of her. She forced her mind to accommodate what was happening. How could she be here? In bed with Bryn? Date rape, would they really do that? From the bottom-of-a-parrot’s-cage feeling in her mouth, it seemed likely.
     
      Except she didn’t like to think it of him. It didn’t work. For one thing, Bryn was gay. And she hoped her judgment of character was better than to mistake a warm friendship of twelve months for rabid desire.
     
      “Morning, precious.”
     
      Twisting on to her back so fast she almost winded herself, Crys looked up into the sea-blue eyes of Kai Murdoch.  Feelings and sensations were back with a vengeance now, and she felt the presence of two warm bodies close to her like a protective sleeping blanket. Or a captive one.
     
      Panic gripped her so hard she couldn’t move for a minute, then she lashed out, her only thought to get out of here and to the police.
     
      Kai caught her wrists, bearing them down to either side of her head, seemingly without effort, leaning over her to speak to her gently. “Wait a minute, baby. We’re not the enemy here.”

     
      “No, we’re not.” Bryn’s sleepy voice sounded amazingly normal. “Give us a chance, Crys, and we’ll tell you what happened after you conked out.”
     
      Swallowing, she subsided. With these two powerful men she really had little choice. She’d have to try to get away by other means. Find a telephone, perhaps. “Tell me then,” she croaked.
     
      “First things first.” Hoisting her up, to rest her back against his chest, Kai brought a glass of what looked like water to her lips. “You’re thirsty. Drink, Crys.”
     
      “No!” Convinced they intended to drug her again, she clamped her lips shut. Kai sighed and put the glass down on the small bedside table behind him. “Listen, then. Yes, you were drugged, but not by us. Do you remember anything about last night?”
     
      She closed her eyes briefly and shuddered when the memories flooded back. “Yes.” She took a deep breath to steady herself. “I got into Mike’s SUV and they gave me a drink, vodka I think they said it was, but it tasted strange so I didn’t want to finish it. I started to feel dizzy. They forced the drink down my throat.” Her eyes snapped open. “You didn’t do it, they did. So why am I here and not with them?”
     
      Bryn tucked his arms behind his head, the sinews flexing with his movements. He seemed perfectly at ease, lying naked for all she knew under the crisp white sheets. “Crys, they threw you in the river. They wanted us to rescue you, so they could capture us. They didn’t care about you, you were just their bait.  I’m sorry.”
     
      “What?” She remembered some of the muttering she’d heard as she’d gone under. Mike and Geoff and their twisted friends said something about the river. And a bridge. “Which bridge?”
     
      “Vauxhall.” That was right, that was what they said. “I got a call on my mobile telling us to go there, if we wanted to see you alive again. We knew what they planned, but we had no choice.”
     
      “We could hardly leave you at the bottom of the Thames, now could we?” Kai asked from behind her. She still rested against him, weaker than she could ever remember feeling in her life before, but her panic subsiding a little now. “Crys, you know we’d never hurt you. Deep down you know that’s the truth.”
     
      She did. She found it impossible to believe these men would deliberately hurt her. Their friendship had been understanding and steadfast; why would they suddenly do this to her now? So she listened.
     
      “They tied you up, and sealed your nose and mouth with duct tape. That’s what probably saved you, because you didn’t take in water when you went into the Thames. Once we got the stuff off you, I breathed air into you while Kai freed you.”
     
      “How did you do that?” Kai and Bryn exchanged a glance. Crys sighed. “I want to know. I’m finding all this so hard to believe, I need to know it all.”
     
      “She does.” Bryn lost all his customary good humor, and watched her carefully. “They were right about one thing, Crys. I am a merman.”
     
Look for Liquid Crystal re-released soon!