What To Do With Lore

By Jade Archer

A rough around the edges mercenary and a little spit-fire determined not to be anyone's pleasure slave—making contact has never been so volatile...or so much fun!

Rhyn is an ex-lawman working as a mercenary. He's contracted to protect large space freighters and passenger liners through space. He considers most sentient beings too annoying to be around on a permanent basis. He's content to swear at inanimate objects and tinker with his pride and joy—Baker's Pride; a bastardised freighter with more than one nasty little surprise under the hull skin just waiting to spring on the unsuspecting pirates he loves to goad and chase.

That is until his latest assignment brings him face to face with a stunning, fiery little cat man slave named Lore. Will the siren he discovers lead him to new horizons or will he crash and burn up on re-entry to reality?

Lore's not having a very good day. He's been reclassified as a pleasure slave, traded off-world, knocked on the head and placed in stasis and now he's woken up surrounded by four of the biggest, hairiest men he's ever laid eyes on. Oh! And it looks like they're pirates.

Just as well he's handy with a skillet and the pirates aren't immune to a few well placed hits! Will the sudden appearance of a glorious, dark skinned angel in a lawman's hat be the answer to all his lust filled prayers, or is he just another devil in disguise sent to snatch all his hopes and dreams away again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pride Publishing
• Release date: Sep 6, 2010
• ISBN: 9780857152718

Jade Archer

Jade Archer was born in 2010 after a prolonged pregnancy and labour of over 34 years! I've decided she is about 24, enjoys long walks in the country because she does not have five kids and a husband to care for, eats as much chocolate as she wants because she never has to worry about putting on weight (must be all those long walks!) and can often be found planning her next whirlwind world tour or endlessly typing away (without any interruptions) on another hot and steamy erotic romance. It might be space pirates; it might be shifters or a lonely vampire with a hunger for the girl next door, one thing is for sure, she loves variety and cannot wait to meet the next characters destined to fall in love.

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A Total-E-Bound Publication

www.total-e-bound.com

What To Do With Lore

ISBN #978-0-85715-271-8

©Copyright Jade Archer 2010

Cover Art by Natalie Winters ©Copyright September 2010

Edited by Andrea Grimm

Total-E-Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2010 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

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WHAT TO DO WITH LORE

Jade Archer

Dedication

For Valentina. There are so many people to thank for making this book what it is, but without you, I never would have thought to try.

Chapter One

Rhyn leant back in his creaky piloting chair and casually dropped his heavily booted feet down on the console. Baker’s Pride didn’t even twitch at the abuse. She just kept right on orbiting the cold moon of Siliam 3 with the tenacious persistence of the true mongrel she was. Rhyn smiled with satisfaction. He would trust the ugly looking, bastardised freighter over any of the sleek, top of the line models some of the other security contractors used any day of the week.

Sighing contentedly, he scratched absently at the triangle of smooth dark brown skin exposed by the open collar of his tunic, tipped his battered hat over his eyes and settled in for a nice long nap. This really was the way to live, he mused. No annoying rules and regulations, no commitments, no nagging partners or troublesome equipment. Ah! Bliss.

Just as he closed his eyes to relax and bask in the glow of his worry-free existence, the communicator began to chirp annoyingly, demanding his attention.

Fffff… Rhyn glanced sideways at an innocuous blue light blinking away placidly on the dash with frustration. Fornication!

A tiny alarm buzzed and the light began to flash red.

Fornication—intercourse out of wedlock. Used as a profanity.

Shit! How had the cheap little two credit gimmick known?

The buzzer sounded again and the irritating, cheap synth-voice began to chatter, Shit—faeces. Commonly used as a profanity to express disgust, anger, or annoyance.

Stupid piece of crap. Another alarm. Shut up! You lousy…Ah! Fuck it! It was a stupid bet anyway. You win Felix. It’s not worth it, he growled.

Several more buzzing alarms sounded before he finally managed to reach across and switch the tiny monitor off and hurled it out the hatch. He could just imagine the ribbing Felix and the boys back at the supply station would give him the next time he headed in and they found out he hadn’t even lasted two hours into the bet that he couldn’t stop cursing for a whole day. Of course, it would be all the worse for the fact he was on long patrol all by himself. There wasn’t another soul around for millions of clicks. You wouldn’t think there’d be too much call for swearing and cursing, but he’d already had to restrain himself twice before this last incident.

Well, fuck ‘em. He grumbled. So he had a compactor mouth. It wasn’t like he inflicted it on too many people way out here in deep space all on his own. And most days that’s exactly how he preferred it. The majority of sentient beings were just too annoying to be around on a permanent basis. Or even a semi-permanent basis.

The communicator on the console dared to chirp again. This time with more insistence. Stupid thing was the whole reason he’d lost fifty credits. He gave it the evil eye before flicking the receiver on.

Baker! He snapped, as a rather fuzzy image of a bloated Mebian came on screen. What the hell did they want now? he wondered irritably.

Mebian traders just gave him the creeps, and that was on a good day. The way their thick, blue jowls quivered when they were excited or anxious. Their beady little eyes that constantly looked around as if on the lookout for a bargain or the next lawman, but never quite met you in the eye. Worst of all was the slimy, superior voice that seemed inherent to the species and managed to grate on his last nerve every time.

Right now he was feeling far less than cordial.

"Captain Baker. We have a most urgent situation. Pirates have attacked the Blue Pearl and liberated some very valuable property, the Mebian merchant squawked. We must retrieve the items with all possible speed. One item in particular, cargo lock number three-eight-four-seven, is worth over four hundred thousand credits and was destined for a very high profile diplomat."

Huh, he drawled with deliberate disinterest, searching around for his hat. It seemed to have deserted him in his earlier fit of temper with the obscenity monitor. Traitor, he muttered under his breath as he finally spotted it under the rebreather unit and snatching it up.

What was that, Captain? the Mebian demanded, his jowls wobbling in agitation. May I remind you that you have a contract to protect our cargo in this sector of space? It quite clearly states—

All right. All right, Rhyn barked irritably. Keep your shirt on. I’ll get it back. Where was the attack?

"I’ll transmit the coordinates and projected escape vectors to

Reviews for What To Do With Lore

[serenayates · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that “seem larger on the inside” than they look. Despite the limited number of pages, the story gave me enough details to be able to picture the world Jade Archer created. The characters were fun and made me laugh, and the plot exploded onto the first page and didn’t let me go until the end.

I must admit that it took me a while to warm to the sarcastic and somewhat opportunistic Rhyn. I loved his sense of humor and his almost incessant swearing from the very start, though, and that opened the door for getting to know the rest of him. Which isn’t only sexy, but warm and giving – for the right person, at least.

Lore I loved from the very start. He is the absolute star of this book, as far as I’m concerned. Picturing him as a skillet-wielding menace holding four burly space pirates in check had me in peals of laughter. His courage and determination to try to make the best of a shitty life was inspiring. He took being reclassified as a pleasure slave against his will and being taken away from his home planet if not in stride, with dignity. His resolve to change his fate was unbroken, even though his inner dialogue reveals how scared he really is.

One of the many things making me look forward to the next volume(s) of this series is this intriguing hint at gender role definitions on Lore’s home planet. Essentially, there are none, and both sexes take care of children equally, as well as share all the other tasks. I can’t wait to see more!



Note: This book was provided by TEB for the purpose of a review.