Pippa Jay: The SFRB Showcase - Cold Oblivion #spaceopera #scifi #romance

Friday, 4 December 2015

The SFRB Showcase - Cold Oblivion #spaceopera #scifi #romance

Welcome to the SFRB Showcase! This month I'm sharing my brand new release (so new it doesn't actually release until the 7th but is up for pre-order right now) and a never before revealed excerpt. I'm not going to tell you who or what is in this excerpt, but those who've read Book One - Keir - may have a suspicion...

Nameless and uncertain, he waited in the bedroom of the empress. He was conscious of pressure around his neck where Jakhani had fastened a tight collar of some flexible opalescent material, a leaden weight far heavier than it looked. The close-fitting red clothing Jakhani had given him to wear clung so snugly to his skin that he felt naked. His lack of memories left him hollow and lost, an unfinished thing awaiting completion and instruction. He had the terrible sense that something important had been forgotten, something so essential to his existence that its absence left him feeling as though he were bleeding slowly to death.
The empress came to him, barefoot and beautiful. He stared at her, disturbed by her pallor and the predatory look on her face. She stood as tall as him, her dark eyes level with his own. Why had she chosen him? What did she want?
She placed a hand on his neck, caressing him gently, and he flinched under the coldness of her skin. Her eyes narrowed in anger, and she grabbed a handful of his hair in retribution, pulling hard. She stepped closer, her small nose almost touching his before she kissed him softly. At the press of her lips, the iciness of her seeped further into his skin, into his thoughts, fogging his mind. Sudden pressure built inside him.
“Jakhani says you have no memory of your life before being here,” she murmured, releasing him temporarily.
He shook his head, watching her in desperation. Did she know his past? His origins? His name?
“Not even what you’re called?”
“Not even that,” he admitted, his throat tight.
“Hmmm.” She tilted her head to one side to examine him. “Then I’ll give you a name. Zhuri.”
Something jolted through him. The word was wrong and yet had a familiar ring. Something like it, something that sparked memories of a color. The color of his own skin. A scent...
“It’s a gemstone,” she continued as he stared at her. “The same color as your eyes. Do you like it?”
“Zhuri.” He swallowed. The name told him nothing. “What color are my eyes?”
The empress laughed. “You don’t even know that? They’re blue. The brightest blue I’ve ever seen on a human.” Again, she ran a finger along the line of his jaw. “You are very handsome,” she told him, smiling.
Her words sparked a faint memory, of the same words spoken by another voice and his feelings of confusion and denial then. She kissed him again, harder and more demanding. Automatically, he slid his hands up her slim body, shivering at the contact with her skin even as he held her tightly. The chill she emanated sank deeper into his chest, into his heart, numbing him further. What kind of magic was it that could take all feeling from him aside from desire?
We call it science…
Where had that thought come from? Who had said that when he had spoken of magic? There had been amusement in the speaker’s voice. Warmth. Someone gently mocking his belief in the supernatural. He tried to put a face to the person, but nothing came to him.
“It seems your body remembers what your mind does not,” the empress said, snatching him back from the tenuous memory.
My body remembers…
Yes, the pressure building inside him seemed familiar. The feel of skin against skin. How to kiss, how to touch in such a way to make her breathless. But even in that knowledge, the wrongness of it screamed inside him. Even as the desire to pull her closer, to mold her body to his made him ache, a part of him refused to accept this. Told him to jerk away, to run and fight.
But he could not. Each kiss deepened his detachment, thrust him further from reality. He could not escape from this. When she pushed him onto the bed, he fell willingly. Let her strip the clothing from him until he lay there naked and shivering, her icy skin pressed to his. Returned her caresses until cold ecstasy swept over him and carried him into oblivion.

If you enjoyed that, I hope you'll check out the full version at the links below (book one is also only 99 cents/99 Euros/99p until the end of December). In the meantime, you can check out the other participants in the Showcase by clicking on the link under the banner at the top of this post.