Hot Reads... Night Shadows
 

Vampire/Futuristic erotic romance

AQP Bestseller!

The year is 2067.  Life on Earth is a mess thanks to global warming and the oil wars that devastated the environment, government, and the economy.  But some things never change.  Like the existence of bad guys, and the cops who hunt them down.   

Rachel Jones is a third generation police detective who knows her mind, can take care of herself, and doesn't take shit from anyone.  But when she discovers the serial killer she's hunting is undead, it opens her eyes to a whole new segment of the underworld.  A segment that only comes to life in the dark of night.  Reluctantly, she turns to one of the killer's own kind for help, a vampire named River.  But he makes it hard to focus on the job at hand. He weaves an erotic web around Rachel, enveloping her in a constant haze of sexual desire that leaves her wondering if her ally is the man of her dreams or the very killer she hunts.

Buy it now! 

Release date:  February 2006
Heat Level:  3 (Amber Quill's hottest level of sensuality)
Length: Extended Novella (38k words)

Price:  $6.00
ISBN (electronic):  1-59279-487-4
ISBN (paperback):  NA at this time
Available in ebook formats at:  Amber Quill Press, Fictionwise

***  If you'd like to discover a few more tidbits about River, pick a copy of my M/M (gay) erotic romance Souls Deep!  Souls Deep tells the story of River's brother, Jarrah, who's also a vampire, though River doesn't realize it.  Yet.  <g>

Excerpt...

His hand slipped under my tight red tank and yanked it up and off. My bra tore at the skimpy clasp and was gone as quickly. Big, cool hands took command of the aching flesh of my breasts, kneading the full globes, rubbing my nipples into painful peaks, wrenching agonized groans of pleasure from me.

His touch worked like one of the highly addictive sexual stimulant drugs that had become so popular back in the twenty-forties and fifties, heightening nerve ending stimulation, sending blood rushing to swollen sex organs.

My breathing grew stuttered, my groin became unbearably tight, as if some internal thread were pulling it hard toward the center of my being. My thighs squeezed together to either hold off or help along, I wasn’t sure which, the orgasm building in me like the storm outside.

“Tell me your name,” I gasped.

“Does it matter?”

His voice was intoxicating. It was all I could to do to respond...yet it was important to me to at least know his name. To have something besides just the purely physical plane on which I could feel some connection with him. “Yes. It matters to me.”

One of his hands stroked down over my belly, nudged between my legs, silently ordering me to spread them. When he cupped my mound, I wanted to sob.

He turned me and tugged me hard against him so my back was molded to his chest. Then he resumed his position of one hand fondling my bare breast, the other pressing, releasing, pressing my cunt. I let my head fall back against his shoulder. The bulge of his cock strained against my rear-end, and his lips found my ear, my neck. The wet tip of his tongue fucked the sensitive skin near my jugular, and it was a damned erotic sensation.

You want me, Rachel.

“Yes,” I cried.

Why?

“Because I feel you. In my head. In my body. I...I feel like I know you, but I don’t know why.”

Do you like the way I touch you?

“Gods, yes.” I settled each of my hands over the top of his, urging him on. “I’ve wanted this.”

I know.

With swift motion and little difficulty, he unfastened my belt, undid the snap and zipper on my jeans, and pushed them and my panties down over my hips, thighs, and calves. I toed off my boots and kicked aside the wad of denim and satin.

He raised one of his feet to my low coffee table, then lifted my right leg and draped it over his thigh, spreading me open. The oven-like air in the room brushed my exposed sex for just a moment before his hand returned to my weeping cleft, this time stroking along the bare, slippery folds with a slow motion that made me want to scream with bliss. His fingers—two, three, I didn’t know—pushed inside me.

Within seconds I was on the edge. I’d never wanted to come so badly in my life. My moans, uninhibited and raw, filled the room.

His erection rode against my ass as he rocked our hips back and forth together. The heel of his palm grated on my swollen folds, bumping, grinding, even as his fingers made up their own rhythm inside me. His other hand tweaked and fondled my breast. And his tongue continued its erotic play on my neck. We swayed together in a heated dance, to music that played only in our bodies. I wanted to cry, laugh, moan, and crawl inside him all at the same time.

“This is only the beginning, baby.” It was a promise, one I knew he’d keep.

Reviews...

5 Stars!!  Heat level:  O (for orgasmic)

The year is 2067, the place Earth. Earth has undergone major changes in the 21st century; there is an electricity crisis due to global warming and an oil shortage, and cities are shut down from dusk till dawn. For Rachel, a cop in the sector now known as Power Sector Delta, nighttime is her time, the time when she feels at her best, the time when she meets him. River. He comes to her at night, and with one kiss, throws her world into chaos. When a killer comes into her territory, and she discovers he is undead, she will find that River will become more important to her than he already is.

Night Shadows is the first in a series revolving around Rachel and River, and if this story is any indication, we are in for a fun ride! The heat between these two is very impressive. The moment they speak sexual tension is present, and Ms. Rhodes does a fantastic job of creating the explosion! Amazing sex from the first few pages, (the things one learns when one has had hundreds of years to practice), the story continues to build around their desire for each other. Written in the future, we see that some things don’t change, and love is never easy, regardless of the year. Watching River take Rachel’s walls down brick by brick is fun, and reading Rachel fight with herself over this was at times too funny. She is used to doing everything for herself (and I mean EVERYTHING), she has to learn to let go and to let her heart lead the way, even when she finds River is not what she first thinks he is. An absolute thrill to read, this installment begins a good story that lets us get to know these two and what makes them tick- and lets us watch as they go head to head with the supernatural world and things that go bump in the night.

---Stacey Landers, Just Erotic Romance Reviews 

4 Angels!!  "...had me riveted from the first chapter until the last! I found myself holding my breath towards the end... I will be looking forward in the near future for the next book in this series!" 

---Debbie, Fallen Angels Reviews

4 Hearts!  "In the Earth of the future, the environment has been devastated by man, leaving an energy shortage that necessitates the shutting down of the power grid for long hours of the night.  During these hours, crime runs rampant and a serial iller preys on young women, draining their blood and cutting off their heads.  Rachel Jones, a homicide detective, is hunter for the killer.  Each night when she arrives home, a man waits in the shadows.  Their attractions is instant and all consuming, even after she finds out that he is a vampire.  She knows that he is not the vampire pretying on the women of her city, at least she hopes so.  River knows that the ancient vampire has targeted Rachel and is using the murders to attract her attention before he strikes against her, but he needs to convince her that he would do nothing to harm her.

The Earth that the author describes is a grim place with few comforts for the ordinary person.  It is hot, dirty, and even the food lacks nutrition.  The author makes this so rea that the reader will have no problem picturing the Colorado of the future.  The main characters are very real and likable.  Both their love story and the suspense filled mystery are very absorbing.  The supporting characters are also very well described, though not always likable.  The vampire Markos is very satisfyingly evil and the story is fast moving and suspenseful.  This is a good read and I recommend it."

--Maura Frankman, The Romance Studio

"Night Shadows is a fast-paced and intriguing novel; it kept me turning the pages!  M. L. Rhodes’ speculative fiction brings this world to life, making me believe that things could very well be like this 50 years from now.  I especially liked her characters: Rachel is a strong, determined, personality with bedrock integrity and River is an Alpha male with a strain of sensitivity."

--Annie, Joyfullyreviewed.com