Title: HIGHLAND HEALER
Author: Willa Blair
Genre: Scottish Historical Paranormal Romance
Book Blurb:
Toran Lathan never expected to become Laird, and he never expected to meet a woman like Aileanna Shaw. Her healing ability is just what his people need, but Toran cannot resist her beauty. Yet will loving him destroy her ability to heal?
Aileanna Shaw has a healing touch - and a special talent she must keep secret. Stolen from her home by a marauding army, she's kidnapped again by the Highland Laird she heals. Is she a prize of war or the prize of his heart?
While Toran battles the invading lowland army, he also battles his desire for Aileanna. And Aileanna must decide if she can trust her secrets to this fierce warrior who needs her talent but wants her love.
Excerpt:
Aileana studied the big man leaning so casually against her door. He’d been formidable, stretched out on the table in her Healer’s tent. On his feet, healthy, fully in his power and in his own keep, formidable was too weak a word. He fascinated her. His genial arrogance annoyed her; his size, strength and powerful position frightened her, but still, she found him compelling.
She’d distracted herself by braiding her hair, keeping her eyes away from the bed, and looking anywhere but at him as he questioned her. Now, she had no further diversion, and no excuse to look anywhere else, nor did she want to.
In the flickering firelight he seemed taller and broader than any real man could be. The metal and crystal of his torc gleamed at his powerful throat, half covered by the fall of his thick, dark hair. But she knew just how real he was. She had touched him. She had healed his hurts. She knew the beat of his heart, the rise and fall of his massive chest, the length of his lashes when they rested on his high cheekbones. She’d depended on the strength of his arm securing her against his hard torso as he rode headlong through the hills, and blushed at the forbidden hardness of his manhood pressing against her hip.
The idea of this beautiful, powerful man becoming hers thrilled her, but scared her witless, too. How could she hope for a fantasy like that to become true? She couldn’t, not with any man, and especially not with him. Her position here was too precarious. Not knowing what else to do to save her composure, she stood and moved to the fire, to stare into the flames and burn Toran’s image from her eyes.
“What do you intend to do with me?” she asked at last, afraid and hopeful at the same time. It was too much like the last question he’d asked her this morning: “And what’s to be done with me?” She recalled the dismay that had filled her at his question, and her certainty that Colbridge would torture him for information, then kill him. But only after she’d healed him again and again, and only after he’d given up his secrets to his tormentor.
So now it was her turn to wonder. Despite his threats a few moments before, she had sensed no real animosity in him. She’d been treated well since arriving at the Aerie. Her dream of a home, with people who cared about her, perhaps a family of her own, rose unbidden to her mind, and with it came a familiar lump in her throat. She was tired, she thought, to let that longing overwhelm her now. She folded her arms under her breasts and kept her eyes on the flames. She heard Toran move from the door to stand behind her. She tensed as his hands came to rest on her shoulders. He turned her gently, but irresistibly, to face him.
“What should I do with so beautiful, so valuable, a prize?” he murmured, almost to himself.
His deep blue gaze ensnared Aileana as completely as his hands. She knew she should be outraged at being called a prize. He’d done it before, on the way here. Did he truly see her that way? She refused to be chattel any longer, and would not allow him to treat her so. But she found she could not summon her ire. One of his hands left her shoulder and he lightly touched her cheek, then slowly slid his fingers down her throat to her collarbone. There, he hesitated, and Aileana held her breath until he moved the hand back to her shoulder.
His simple touch sent shivers dancing and nearly undid her. That frightened her enough to break the spell he wove. “Please, don’t,” she asked. “Let me go. The Healer is not to be touched.”
“Aye, I heard ye tell Brodric MacAnalen the same thing. Did ye learn that from Colbridge?” Toran asked, slowly stroking along her collarbone with his thumb. “Or is that what he told his men, to keep them from...hurting ye?”
Aileana shook her head. She could try to force him away, but she felt less and less able to summon the energy as his touch ensnared her.
“Have ye spent the last two years without any human feeling? Without a simple handclasp between friends?” Toran’s tone dropped along with the hand that he slid slowly down her arm and back to her shoulder. “Without the embrace of a lover?”
Unfamiliar, liquid sensations trickled into her very core from the places where Toran’s warm fingertips touched her. The heat radiating from him nearly matched the heat from the hearth at her back. As Aileana melted into his gentle seduction, she let her head fall back in enjoyment. Toran’s breath warmed her cheek as he slowly lowered his mouth. His lips were soft as they skimmed lightly over hers, questioning, not quite demanding. He dipped his head and his tongue left a trail of damp fire along her throat, then moved back to breach her defenses and probe her mouth, leaving behind a faint peaty taste. Of whisky? His teeth nipped gently at her lower lip, and his mouth caressed the small pain away. Her body’s answering eruption of need finally burned away the haze of desire building in her. No. This could not be happening.
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What’s the first binge-worthy book you read and why was it a must-read?
I don’t recall my first, but any of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern certainly qualify. They’re SciFi/Fantasy but most have an element of Romance and Adventure. I’ve read the entire series and return to the first two books, DRAGONFLIGHT and DRAGONQUEST, again and again. I was thrilled when a reviewer compared my books to hers.
What makes your featured book a binge-worthy read?
HIGHLAND HEALER sets up the rest of the Highland Talents series and lately, my new Highland Talents Heritage series about her children. I’ve always loved Toran and Aileana’s romance. The story is complex and the villain is easy to hate. There’s love and loss, trust earned and betrayed, and so much more. Start the series with HIGHLAND HEALER and enjoy!
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon (US or Canada) gift card.
Open internationally. You must have a valid Amazon US or Amazon Canada account to win.
Runs August 1 – 31
Drawing will be held on September 1.
Author Biography:
Willa Blair is an award-winning Amazon and Barnes & Noble #1 bestselling author of Scottish historical, light paranormal and contemporary romance filled with men in kilts, psi talents, and plenty of spice.
Her books have won numerous accolades, including the Marlene, the Merritt, National Readers’ Choice Award Finalist, Booksellers’ Best Award Finalist, Reader’s Crown finalist, InD’Tale Magazine’s RONE Award Honorable Mention, and NightOwl Reviews Top Picks.
She loves scouting new settings for books, and thinks being an author is the best job she’s ever had.
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