Experiments and a Sneak Peek from ROGUE'S PARADISE

My colleague/friend/boss, Laurie, visited us in Santa Fe this weekend. She and I went on a whirlwind road trip to Oklahoma City to pitch a scope of work for a proposed project and then she spent a couple of days with us. It's always fun to have people visit, because we go out and hit the sights in a different way than we otherwise do.

(Read: crucial errands and otherwise pretty much never leaving the house.)

We took her to the San Marcos Cafe (and Feed Store), which is this very funky, out of the way restaurant. Not the usual Santa Fe scene. Not just because there are peacocks in the desert.

The word of the week is experiment. Which should make it an entertaining week, as I anticipate much experimenting.

However, the word makes ME think of one person: Gwynn, the heroine of my Covenant of Thorns trilogy. She's a scientist by inclination, training and profession - even if she has become a sorceress after being trapped in Faerie. She frames her observations in terms of hypotheses and experiments, a mental discipline that helps her wrestle with the whimsical and horrific vagaries of the magically alien world she's found herself in.

Coincidentally (is anything TRULY coincidental??), yesterday I received copy edits for book 3 of the trilogy, Rogue's Paradise. People who've been following the series know (or hope!) that this book will see the culmination of Gwynn's complex, frequently difficult, and always passionate relationship with the fae noble, Rogue. After many adventures together, they've finally gotten to a point where they understand each other better.

Which means, he often teases her now about her scientific thinking - which he can usually hear quite clearly from her thoughts. I had a lot of fun with this.

So, here are a few sneak peeks, that I hope are not spoilery. But - FAIR WARNING - if you don't want any spoileryness (yes, that's a word) at all, stop now!

*  *  *

Going back to the original section, I sketched the facial pattern as it had been the last time I remembered looking. When had that been? Back at Walter’s castle maybe. I should have kept a better record of it. But there hadn’t been that much to it—a curl on my temple, a suggestion of branches, a hint of a curved claw at the high point of my cheekbone.

“There she is.” Rogue’s hands caressed my bare shoulders, soothing my little start of surprise. “My scientist in her natural habitat.”

I turned my head to look up at him. “You listen to my thoughts more than is healthy.”

“But I find you fascinating, my studious Gwynn.” He leaned down and kissed me, a sweet kiss that rapidly deepened.

*  *  *

I traced another line, that forked over his abdomen—like walking a meditation maze—and thought back to the moment when the inspiration had hit me to tell Rogue to shift into the Dog, which was more like setting it free from his flesh than anything, to shake Titania’s grip on his mind. “Because the Dog can cross the Veil and Titania cannot. Therefore, the Dog possesses an ability that transcends her. Also the Dog isn’t bound by vows and agreements—thus it logically follows that the Dog is beyond her reach.”

“Only to your mind.” He sounded admiring, which I secretly loved.

“Do you think my cat will be the same way?”

“It logically follows,” he replied, making me laugh. “We can experiment some more.”

My face flushed hot at the intimate reminder of how he’d played with me. Learning me.

*  *  * this one is somewhat explicit (though smexiest part is redacted) *  *  *

“No thinking,” he instructed. “I have an experiment to perform.”

...

“Now what would my Gwynn say?” he mused. “My hypothesis is that you can do this again. Over and over. I theorize that even you will stop thinking. What say you?”

I glared at him, hovering on the edge of another climax, yet suspended there, exactly where he wanted me. “I say you can’t have two hypotheses.”

He laughed, low and sinister. “Can’t I? I think I can have whatever I want.”

*  *  *

See? Now you, too, will never think of the word "experiment" the same way, ever again. You're welcome.