I haven't forgotten about U

I'm working on U, honest. It's turning out to be longer than I can do justice in one evening of writing, so U will be coming out later. Until then, I hope people are happy with a teaser.

By the way, I am paying attention to everyone's comments and suggestions, even the one about me providing the cover art for the novellas. I'm vaguely terrified at the concept, but I am considering it.

Right now, my focus is in finishing the Alphabet Soup. Then I have a novella I've sold to edit. Then I'll work on the alphabet soup free ebook. I'm sorely tempted to suggest that anyone who can do art provide pictures for it and I'll try and include them in the ebook. No recompense other than your name on it, of course.

Then I'll figure out what novellas to print. I still have to talk to my agent about it, but I would like to get a couple of pieces out. I'm almost resigned to the idea of writing a baby battler story for one and have told my brain to muse on ideas for it, but I do have an existing novella that I'd like to get out there, one titled LORD OF WINTER that I really like.

Just as I was typing this, I got a comment from a reader saying that she hopes I won't forget the sylph world as I try to get other works out there. I don't think I can. I never originally saw any books past THE BATTLE SYLPH. Then I figured THE SHATTERED SYLPH was it. And so on and so on... I have too many ideas to retire it completely, but I have other ideas as well, and the muse is a demanding bastard.

At any rate, I am writing (even if I did forget my power cord at work again. At least my brilliant husband got my powermac working again). Here's the teaser. And yes, as I promised, there's gonna be sex.

OoO

U is for Undone

Solie finished the week’s audience with a sigh, tired and restless for all the audiences had gone well. It just felt as if she’d been doing nothing but meeting with people from within the Valley and without, listening to their entreaties and requirements and handing down her judgements. She didn’t mind the work. It was her duty and she accepted that, but sometimes it felt as if it were draining her and she only wanted to get away. 

She walked to the back of the throne room, where a door was built flush with the wall and indistinguishable from it to those who didn’t know it was there. Her battle sylph guards followed her as she pushed on the side of the door and it opened smoothly and silently to show a corridor beyond, one kept clean and simple in contrast to the opulence of the throne room. It led to similarly simple offices belonging to her and the members of her Council. Opulence wasn’t a requirement back here, where the majority of the administration of the Valley was done. It was kept clean and spartan instead, with the walls themselves as angular as the earth sylphs could bring themselves to make them.

Solie didn’t pay more than a glance to the closed door into her office. She certainly had work to do, but definitely no desire. Not now. She felt itchy and uncomfortable, tight in her body and distracted. She frowned at the door and continued on, headed to the very end of the wide corridor, where a set of stairs led up.

Her guards left her at the bottom of the stairs. They accompanied her in the throne room and even in her office, as well as wherever she went outside, but she drew the line at them following her into her apartment without a very good reason. There was only one sylph allowed free range in there and Solie took the stairs two at a time, her skirts held up so she wouldn’t trip over them. Skirts weren’t mandatory in the Valley for women, but she liked the feel of them swirling around her legs. 

Most of the time she did, at any rate. Now they felt constrictive and the minute the door at the top of the stairs closed behind her, Solie stripped off her robes of office, dropping them over the arm of a chair as she crossed the room, undoing the laces of her dress. It slithered down her body and off and she turned her head from side to side so she could feel the luxurious wealth of her red hair against the skin of her back while she undid the knot that closed the wrap which held her breasts. They came free with a sigh of relief and she pushed her smallclothes down and off as she headed towards the gardens, as bare as the day she was born. 

Doors unique to the Valley in that they were made of pure glass led out onto the lush grass of her walled garden, the roses in full bloom and scenting the air as she took a deep breath and stretched her hands over her head, turning in place and feeling the soft breeze against her skin.

She felt the thud of Heyou’s boots hitting the ground near to her and completed her turn, her arms behind her head and her breasts outthrust as she smiled at her battler. She hadn’t needed to call him. He could feel her emotions as well as she did, regardless of the distance between them, and he’d known what she wanted. 

He rose from his crouch, his eyes never leaving hers as he came towards her. Between the first and second step, he shifted to his cloud form, letting himself be intangible so that his clothing fell to the ground. Between the third and fourth, he was in human shape again, as naked as she, his length already erect and straining for her.

She stepped into his arms, feeling his arms go around her as his mouth dropped to press against hers. Her breasts pushed against him, and she felt the sudden burn of her all the way down to the core of her sex.

She wanted to get away, wanted away from this place that she loved so much but that sometimes pushed her down with its needs and responsibilities. She wanted to be free, to be wild, to be able to let everything go.

Heyou understood, just as he’d always understood. He balanced her and supported her, but he was always her opposite, the wild thing that even she couldn’t tame. She’d have him no other way and she sighed as his arms went around her and her arms curved around his neck. She didn’t have to tell him what she wanted. He knew.