Guest Author & Giveaway: Cathryn Cade

‘Aloha, I’m Cathryn Cade.

Mahalo to Melissa for hosting me today on her fun, hot blog. This is just the kind of place I love to play, how about you? Hot men flexing from the sidebars and rose petals scattered on the floor—oh, yeah!

The only way it could be better? If those were plumeria petals. Mmm, that wonderful scent. Sweet and seductive, wafting on the warm, damp, tropical air. The blossoms hanging from branches on the side of every path and lawn, in shades of delicate cream to deepest pink, tinged with yellow.

Ah, I feel as if I’m back in Hawaii. Sigh … but I’m not, I’m here in the Pac NW, where it’s a typical June—chilly and rainy. Shivering now, and huddling deeper in my polar fleece.

How do you keep your sanity while you’re waiting for your favorite season? I travel—in my imagination, that is. I sit down at my computer, log in to Pandora Internet Radio and turn on my Hawaiian station, loaded with meltingly beautiful songs by Iz, Kealii Reichel, the Cazimero Brothers and Hapa. Then I open up my current work-in-progress, and I’m off to the Big Island for another steamy, Hawaiian fantasy vacation.

I love Hawaii, and visit every spring with my husband. We cram as much snorkeling, sight-seeing, shopping and micro-brew tasting as we can into our visit, and then reluctantly drag ourselves home with hundreds of photos and a suitcase full of gifts and souvenirs.  Our visits are never long enough.

So how to prolong my visits? Why, write a series that will allow me to return again and again. Come with me, why don’t you? Meet the amazing men of Hawaiian Heroes.

If you’ve been to Hawaii, I hope you’ll ‘recognize’ some of your favorite places on the Big Island. If not, come along with Melia Carson on a tropical adventure laden with sun, sand and sex. Mix up a mai tai or an iced tea and join her!

If you like the excerpt, leave a comment here and let me know. I’ll enter you in a drawing for 1 of 5 FREE copies of Melia’s story, Hawaiian Heroes I; Walking in Fire and a $5.00 Samhain gift certificate.

Winners will be notified by June 21. If I list you as a winner, please shoot me an email at cathryncade@cathryncade.com for details on how to claim your prize.

Born to defend his people, he will sacrifice everything—for her.

Nawea Bay, a remote Hawaiian paradise, is just the haven Melia Carson needs to escape the chill of heartache. Instead, she finds herself swept up in a tropical heat wave, fueled by attraction to the handsome native she meets on a snorkel tour.

He’s big, powerful, hot enough to melt her defenses—and he’s not all he seems. How else could he survive an injury that should have killed him…and why does she dream of him garbed in ancient native dress and wreathed in flames?

David “Malu” Ho’omalu is on the Big Island to find and destroy a cache of dangerous designer drugs before they can be sold to his people. Fending off amorous female tourists is part of the job, but one look in Melia’s blue eyes, and his instincts scream that she is his.

 As Melia surrenders to the desire burning between them, she discovers more than a fiery heritage that defies modern logic. She discovers a man who would descend into the molten heart of the volcano to protect his island. And her…if she can find the strength to trust her heart to him.

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Product Warnings

Hot, hot Hawaiian hero with volcanic passion on his mind. Better pack a heat-proof bikini for this island paradise.

Monday, May 9th

He awoke in a rough bed, a roof of green moving above him. Through the icy talons of pain gripping his head and shoulders, he focused one eye. The other was swollen shut.

The shadows shifting overhead were huge ferns hanging from a steep bank. He turned his gaze the other way as much as he was able. The ground sloped off abruptly past black lava boulders.

Somewhere above, the tropical sun burned fierce and bright, but only a little light filtered down through the layers of tropical rain forest. Warm, humid shadows enclosed him. The bed on which he lay was earth, fallen leaves and palm fronds. He was on Mauna Loa.

Shifting carefully, he discovered he could move both his hands and feet. Arms and legs worked too, although not without clawing from the pilikua nui, the monster that seemed to have him by the side of his head and neck. Slowly, he lifted a hand to touch his temple. It came away wet and sticky. Blood.

He remembered now—finding the woman, then hearing a noise behind him, and pain exploding in his head. He was a fool. He’d let his guard down. This was his punishment.

Voices murmured in his head. The old ones. Somewhere, the Ho’omalu were chanting for him. That was good, for theirs were not the only voices he heard. His heart gave a great thump and began to race as a man called out just above him on the mountainside.

“Oh my God! Is she dead?” Footsteps pounded. Small lava rocks skittered down, bouncing past him. A gecko, startled by the motion, darted onto his chest, its tiny feet a familiar tickle. It ran down his belly, toward his hand. Something draped over his fingers.

Slowly, nearly groaning with the effort, he lifted his hand and squinted at the gecko’s gift. It was a small, knotted length of leather, broken in one place. His hand clenched around it. He’d last seen it only hours before—on someone’s wrist.

“She’s alive,” said another man’s voice. “Get over here, help me lift her. Careful!”

“Oh God. Who would do this to her?”

“What do you mean, who?” another man demanded. “Malu disappeared at the same time, didn’t he?”

At this new voice, the injured man tensed. His good eye narrowed to a slit as if his gaze could penetrate the ferns over his head. Rage roared through him, hot and fierce, a deep, primal rumble in his chest battling to erupt from his throat. Though he hadn’t seen who had clubbed him and beaten the woman into unconsciousness, he knew. The evidence lay in his fist.

He held himself still, sweating with the strain. He mustn’t move yet. The enemy was just above him, but so was the injured woman and her rescuers. He wouldn’t risk their safety. The only one who knew he was down here was his attacker, who no doubt thought him safely dead. Before that kepolo returned to check, he’d be gone.

“Malu did this?” one man asked. “But…he seemed so nice. Are you sure? Maybe he was attacked too.”

“I’ll worry about Malu. Right now, all of you help me get this girl out of here.”

The footsteps moved slowly away, down the trail. The voices of the rescuers faded.

The voices in his head continued, steady and rhythmic, soothing, encouraging. Spreading his hands flat on the warm earth, he drew on the power of his island. He let the chant take him, let healing flow into his battered body.

Deep beneath him, the island rumbled as Pele stirred, sighing in her sleep. She sent a stream of heat and healing up through her island to him.

He must rest, gather his strength. The blow that felled him would have killed a lesser man, but he belonged to Pele, patroness of these islands.

One of her warriors. One of her Ho’omalu—ancient protectors of Hawaii.

Saturday, May 7th

Melia Carson climbed onto the Hawaiian Dive boat. As the shining white catamaran bobbed slightly under her feet, she grabbed the high railing for balance.

She couldn’t believe she was finally here in Kona, Hawaii, with palm trees swaying overhead and the tropical sun warming her clear to her toes, an antidote to the chill of early spring in Oregon. Hopefully, it would warm the chill in her heart as well.

Hot, buttery sunlight poured down on the boats, the shore and the clustered palms. Two long canoes slid by, paddles flashing as the teams propelled their crafts toward the mouth of Kailua Bay.

 “Hey, Melia, you made it.” A small group of people stood in the prow of the boat. One of them waved at her. The afternoon breeze coming in off the ocean tousled his streaked blond hair. “Come and meet everyone.”

Dane was surrounded by the same people she’d seen him with in Kona—two men and two women, young, glossy and tanned. And someone new.

He lounged against the rail like an ad for sexy Hawaiian vacations. He was big, Polynesian heritage clear in his build. He wore a pair of long, red swim trunks over one of the most impressive physiques she’d seen, Hawaiian from his golden skin and short black hair to the dark tattoos on one side of his broad, smooth chest and one huge shoulder. His white teeth flashed as he smiled. Still smiling, he  turned and looked at Melia.

Melia took one look into his ebony eyes and felt a solid thunk in her middle, as if that dark, liquid gaze had reached clear inside her. A shiver of heat rocked her to her core, signaling the force of their collision. She’d never seen this man before, but in some visceral way, she felt as if she knew him.”

Hope you enjoyed the excerpt!

Aloha, Cathryn!

http://www.cathryncade.com