Welcome
to Charity Sunday for October. On the last Sunday of each month, I
showcase a worthy cause here at Beyond Romance, and commit to
donating to that charity for each comment I receive. It’s my small
attempt to increase awareness about the many ways people work,
worldwide, to improve the lot of humanity. My hope is that some of
the people who visit will be inspired to give a bit of themselves: to
share the post with their friends, to make their own donations, to
think about the lot of people who might be less fortunate, to reach
out... to share their own unique light.
Meanwhile
I also include an excerpt, so that the post can do double duty
as a marketing effort. I do this largely to attract visitors and to
encourage other authors to join the event.
If
you want to be notified about Charity Sundays, please join my VIP
email list. Just click here: https://lisabetsarai.eo.page/kqyq4
Everyone
who subscribes gets a free copy of my paranormal erotic romance The
Eyes of Bast.
My
selected charity today is Voices
of Children Ukraine. It has now been more than five years since
Russia attacked Ukraine; day after day, the war grinds on. It’s
hard for everyone, but children especially suffer. Instead of the
security they need and deserve, they have uncertainty and fear. Many
have lost parents or other family members. Tens of thousands are
internally displaced, forced to evacuate when their homes are
destroyed.
Voices
of Children provides support and therapy for some of
these children. They work with a range of other philanthropic
partners to make contact with children at risk, to evaluate their
needs, and to provide safe spaces for these kids to live and to grow.
Please
spend a bit of time at their website. You may never have heard of
them before, but I think that, like me, you’ll find their work
inspiring.
I
will donate two dollars to Voices of Children for every comment I
receive on this post between today and the next Charity Sunday event.
Since
I’ve already mentioned The Eyes of Bast above, I’ll give
you a sneak peek into that book. It’s actually perfect for
Halloween, featuring as it does a cat shifter, a curse, and a
powerful, thoroughly evil sorceress.
Blurb
When
instinct tells Shaina to visit the feral cat trap she’s set in
Central Park, she listens to that inner voice. The sleek black cat
she finds has a terrible secret. Tom is an unwilling shape shifter,
cursed by a sorceress who craved a human plaything. Shaina vows to
defeat the vicious but seductive witch and save the man she believes
is her soul mate—though it might mean losing him forever.
Rave
Reviews for The Eyes of Bast
The
Eyes of Bast is hard to put down once you start reading it.
Between highly arousing sex scenes and nail-biting suspense, it'll
keep you turning pages until the very satisfying ending. ~ Ria
Restrepo, Amazon (5 stars)
What
I DO want is extremely hot sex between one man and one woman, and
plenty of it, as they fall in love. And WOW! Does this book have
that! ~ Fiona McGier, Amazon (5 stars)
Lisabet
brings it all together seamlessly: mystery, thriller, paranormal,
black magic, shape shifting, smoldering sensuousness, hot, hot sex
and a touching love story. This one has it all. Really enjoyed it. ~
Max Lemberger, Amazon (5 stars)
I
picked up this novella, meaning to read the first chapter or two in
the time I had before I had to be somewhere. Needless to say, I read
a lot more than I intended, and I was very late.
~ Cheyenne Blue, Goodreads (5 stars)
Excerpt
(Rated R)
By
the time we emerged from the theater, dusk was near. We parted at the
subway, she heading downtown, me heading up. The train was crowded
with people dressed up for the evening. Everyone seemed so cheerful.
I couldn’t help but smile.
I
slipped my key into the front door of my building, thinking about
ordering Chinese for dinner. All at once, I heard someone call my
name. I glanced around. Aside from an old woman walking her golden
retriever, the sidewalk was empty.
Weird.
But then it had been a weird twenty-four hours.
Go
check the old elm.
I
swear, the voice was clear as crystal in my mind. Lack of
sleep, I told myself. Or stress.
The cage is still
in my apartment. There
won’t be anything
there. But the urge to go back just wouldn’t let
go.
Trust
your instincts. With a sigh, I turned and headed for the park,
pulling my mace out of my purse as I walked.
The
sky was still light enough for me to see shapes and shadows, even
under the trees. As I’d expected, the area beneath the elm was
empty, the grass trampled from my previous visit. Of course, no cats
revealed themselves. If there were ferals around, they’d be hiding
in the underbrush, wary of my scent and the sounds I made, despite my
attempts to move quietly.
Tom
wasn’t afraid of
me. The thought made me ache. He’d been such a
gorgeous, affectionate cat. I hoped he was okay.
“Hello.”
The voice was male, low and throaty. I jumped and whirled around.
A
man stood behind me, a fairly young man with sleek, dark skin and a
wide, shy smile. Although his body appeared to be fit and muscular,
he held himself in an awkward manner, as if he had some subtle
handicap. His arms hung at his sides, his hands clenching and
unclenching as though he didn’t quite know what to do with them.
I
gripped my mace more tightly. He didn’t appear at all threatening,
but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“Um—what
are you doing here?”
“Nothing,
nothing…” He shrugged and scratched the curly black locks that
covered his head. “I heard your voice. I wanted to make sure you
were all right.”
Had
I spoken aloud? I returned his smile, still uncertain whether I
should trust him. “I’m fine. Just taking a walk.”
“It’s
not safe here after dark, you know.”
His
earnest tone made me chuckle. I held up the can of mace. “I can
take care of myself.”
Worry
furrowed his high forehead. “That won’t help against some of the
things that come out at night.”
A
chill shot through me. I shook it away. “I was just headed home
anyway.”
“Good.
You should be careful.” His smile returned, melting my last
vestiges of suspicion. He pronounced his English with a precision
that made me wonder if he spoke something else as his native
language. It wasn’t exactly an accent, but I could tell he wasn’t
a native New Yorker.
“What
about you?”
“Oh,
I know my way around here,” he answered. He ran his fingers through
his curls and arched his back a bit, as though stretching. Despite
that odd awkwardness, he was lithe and graceful. A brief pang of
desire shot through me. “And I have excellent night vision.
Exceptionally sharp hearing too.”
I
couldn’t figure out why, but something about him felt familiar.
“Have we met before?” I asked then cringed, realizing it sounded
like a pick-up line. “I mean…um… I don’t mean…” Hot blood
climbed into my cheeks, though the shadows were probably too dense
for him to detect my discomfort.
His
bold laugh rang out in the growing darkness. “Maybe we have
met,” he said. “I live in the neighborhood. Do you?”
“Pretty
close,” I answered, alarm bells sounding in my head. No matter how
handsome and charming he was, I wasn’t about to give him my
address.
“Well,
then, you never know. You said you were heading home. May I walk with
you?”
“Um…
Actually…”
He
took my arm without waiting for my permission.
His
touch stopped me cold. It drove out rational thought. As if someone
had turned on a faucet, hormones poured into my blood. My nipples
tensed and my lower lips grew plump and slick. Fire tipped the
fingers resting on my bare forearm. I gasped, staring up in wonder at
his strong, even features, overcome by his imminent maleness.
I
wanted to stretch out in the grass and pull him down on top of me. I
was dying to feel his weight on my chest, his hardness probing
between my thighs. Skin on skin was what I craved, with an urgency
I’d never experienced in my all my twenty-eight years.
His
nostrils flared and I knew he’d caught the ocean scent rising from
my sex. I could smell it myself. My saturated panties and jeans were
no barrier. He grinned, revealing teeth so white they gleamed in the
twilight gloom. I shuddered with need, imagining those teeth tearing
my flesh, and stumbled on the gravel path.
“Are
you all right?” he asked. He released his grasp to search my face,
concern evident in his eyes. The blaze raging through my body
subsided slightly.
“Ah…
I think so. I’m dizzy…” I wasn’t lying. The world swung
around us, tree canopies whirling overhead. Gradually, the universe
settled back into place. My heart rate fell to something close to
normal. My nipples still ached for contact, though. My clit pulsed,
the seam of my jeans kindling sparks every time I moved. “I’ve…
I’ve got to go.”
I
started down the path, forcing myself to move away from him and his
perilous magnetism. It might have been the most difficult thing I’d
ever done
Please
leave a comment. It’s a small thing, but every generous act is
strike against darkness.
And
please do visit the other authors participating in today’s Charity
Sunday event!
