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I can’t believe the summer is over. Not that I’m sad, Autumn is my favourite season of all.

I love Thanksgiving (for us in Canada our Thanksgiving is October) and Halloween.

I love the smell of Autumn. I love harvest time and all the fall produce. What I love most of all is I married the man of my dreams in Autumn.

I also like the fact the KIDS ARE BACK IN SCHOOL!!! WOOT!

My kids just started back this past Tuesday. So this week I’ve been trying to get back in routine. This is also the first year my middle guy started all day school, so having the whole day with just my youngest is a HUGE transition for me.

FREEDOM!! Next year the youngest goes to Kindergarten and here in Ontario the kindergartens now go all day every day. *faints*

More time to write. Rubs hands together. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kids but I’m really, really, really looking forward to the extra hours.

So to celebrate I’m going to share an excerpt of my October 10, 2012 release from Ellora’s Cave titled WARRIOR UNBOUND:

An Excerpt From: WARRIOR UNBOUND

Copyright © AMY RUTTAN, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

A crack of thunder rent the air, but the sky was still cloudless. Hattie fell to her knees, the ground shifting and lurching violently. It suddenly became all too real and she was pissed off at herself for not really believing it. The only thing that didn’t seem to jostle about was the Warrior. The ancient sentinel was still prominently jutting up from the ground, unaffected by the magmatic shakes that were engulfing the island.

A fissure opened up just beyond the confines of her circle. The ground cracking open like a giant mouth ready to swallow her whole and from that great dark maw steam began to rise.

“By the Mother…”

Two red eyes illuminated and a growl erupted causing all the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end.

“You’re too late, little medicine woman,” the voice hissed.

Hattie’s pulse began to race and she scrambled to reach the notebook. There had to be a way to control the demon and banish it. There had to be. She reached up to grab the Warrior, but instead of limestone, her hand came into contact with warm flesh.

She gasped and snatched her hand back in surprise. The Warrior was very much a living, breathing man. His bronze skin glowed in the moonlight. Muscles rippled over every inch of his naked body. A lump formed in Hattie’s throat and she had to drag her focus away from a part of his body that was quite prominent at the moment.

Scooting back, she tried to get a closer look at him, but he reached out and grabbed her hand.

“Do not exit the circle. It cannot touch you inside the confines of your casting.” His voice was deep, like the roll of thunder in an approaching storm. Thunderstorms had always frightened her as a child, but she found his voice calming and soothing.

Hattie opened her mouth to speak, but the words wouldn’t come out. It was as if she was numb from the brain down.

“Little medicine woman is speechless.” The demon chuckled. “She’s out of her depth me thinks.”

She tore her gaze from the man who had emerged from the limestone monolith and gasped when she caught sight of the creature emerging from the fissure. As a medicine woman in training she had seen some weird stuff, but nothing like this.

The creature stood like a man, it had two arms and two legs and held itself upright, but that’s where the similarities ended. Its features were feline in nature, from its slanted red eyes to its aquiline face. Its skin was black as midnight and shimmered with glittery scales.

“I think she’s scared, Warrior.” The creature closed its eyes and inhaled deeply. “In fact I can smell her delicious fear.”

“What do I do?” Hattie whispered.

The Warrior turned around. “Place your talismans, medicine woman, and finish it.”

Heat bloomed in her cheeks as she thought about one of the key components of the spell and she didn’t know how she was going to accomplish that. Not with that creature roaming around.

“I don’t think I can.”

The creature began to laugh maniacally.

The Warrior knelt beside her. “You have to. You stepped foot on this island, you took the responsibility of your tribe on your shoulders, little medicine woman.” He tipped her chin—his dark eyes glittered like obsidian in the moonlight. “You can do this. I will help you.”

Warmth spread through her like a wild fire across a dry prairie, her pulse began to race and there was a stirring deep inside her. By the mother, she so wanted him to help her with the spell casting.

Steeling her courage, she quickly scrambled to lay out the talismans inside the circle. The panther-like demon paced along the outer perimeter and she tried her best to ignore it. She had to, thousands of lives were depending on her and if she failed, the underworld could spew up through that volcanic pipe and decimate most of northern Ontario.

“You don’t have what it takes, medicine woman,” the creature taunted. “You’re a novice. I’ve read your mind.”

Hattie shook her head and laid the final talisman in its place.

The Warrior stood behind her. She could sense his presence—feel the heat of his skin permeating through her thin cotton blouse, setting her blood aflame. Hattie closed her eyes and tried to drown out the snarls and taunts of the demon she was trying to banish. To concentrate on the spell she had studied before she had set her canoe into the water and came to this island.

“That’s it, little medicine woman. Relax.” His breath was hot on her neck, causing gooseflesh to break across her skin, sending a thrill of delight down her spine. His fingers trailed down her back, his skin was hot, as if he was running fire over her skin, but it was pleasant. Soothing and arousing.

She could feel the energy of him and his connection to the elements flowing through him. It melded with her own power as she chanted the ancient words to seal the portal between Earth and the underworld realm from which the demon came.

Her body was tingling as she shared the power of the casting with the strange man.

“Lie back,” he whispered and Hattie complied. His naked body covered hers and she could feel his hard cock against her hip. “Relax, he cannot harm you nor can he see you any longer.”

Hattie opened her eyes and stared up into the Warrior’s eyes. Her body instantly eased and somehow she instinctually knew the creature could not see her, it was virtually blind. Her mind seemed to be faintly linked to the man who emerged from the stone. The Warrior. She nodded her head slightly, letting him know she understood.

“I will help you finish it,” he whispered against her ear. His long black hair tickled her cheek. He moved down her body and undid the button to her capri pants and slid them over her hips.

Hattie shuddered. The logical part of her mind, which had never served her well as a medicine woman, was screaming at her that she was crazy. Whereas the other part of her was reveling in anticipation of the hedonistic pleasure she knew she could experience with this man.

Besides, she had to orgasm, or the spell would be incomplete.

“Relax,” he said again.

Hattie nodded as his fingers hooked under the elastic waist of her underwear and tugged it down over her hips. A jolt of pure electric pleasure coursed through her, as she was exposed to his gaze.

The creature beyond the confines of the circle snarled and cursed, but she tuned out its words. Instead she focused on the man leaning over her. He parted her legs, running his strong hands down her inner thighs.

She arched her hips at the sensation of his touch, the rough pads of his fingers stroking her skin. Suddenly the yearning became stronger, her arousal more urgent. She wanted his mouth on her pussy, licking her.

She wanted to come.

Badly.

You can win a copy of this book (though I won’t be able to send it to you until October 10, 2012) from our upcoming ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY! WOOT!

Click here for details on how to enter!