Title: Moonlight and the Monarch
Series: The Moonlight Curse, Book Two
Author: Evelynn Carver
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 07/11/2023
Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 73100
Genre: Fantasy, romance, fantasy/paranormal, mystery, magic/magic users, demons, kidnapping, captivity/imprisonment, action/adventure, family drama, shifters, political intrigue, HFN
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Description
The exciting adventures of The Moonlight Curse series continues when family loyalty comes up against love.
Brand’s curse remains, his family estranged, and his carefully constructed plan gone ridiculously awry. He’s fallen head over heels for the powerful mage and temperamental socialite, Valentino Vicari, the descendant of the witch who cast a dark curse on his family.
Is Brand prepared to give up everything, crown and consequences be damned, for an excellent pair of legs and a scalding tongue?
The decision is taken from him when Brand and Valentino are captured by agents of Brand’s father, the ruthless King Lykanos, and the newly built trust between them is shattered.
Valentino is forcefully conscripted, thrown into yet another unwanted engagement, his precious pride rubbed in the dirt and stomped on. Left feeling utterly betrayed and powerless without his magic, Valentino can’t help but hope that, somehow, he’ll get a chance to burn the whole castle to ashes and escape. Will his fledgling relationship with Brand survive the fallout?
Brand will have to think two steps ahead of his watchful father, enlist the help of some unlikely allies, and climb through a couple of sewer pipes to scheme his way out of the castle and back into Valentino’s heart.
Family drama, trouble-making ex-lovers, and political intrigue provide the backdrop for a test of our heroes’ newfound love amidst the rising tide of war in this second installment in the series.
Moonlight and the Monarch
Evelynn Carver © 2023
All Rights Reserved
Valentino’s mouth was very, very warm.
Brand didn’t know if he should curse his luck or count his blessings. He’d spent the last few seasons traveling across the Felideran countryside, hopping borders, working his ass off, lying, fighting, and sleeping in the mud, and for what? A bullet in his leg, a couple of singed eyebrows, and a pretty bit of fluff in his bed?
A very pretty, very dangerous bit of fluff who could immolate him at any second, but who was, instead, kissing him as if his life depended on it?
The same one his father had sent him off to spy on and murder two years ago? The one he, instead, fell ass-over-teakettle in love with, like a fucking idiot?
Yeah. That one.
Brand had fallen hard and fast and deep, as if stepping into quicksand. If that quicksand had a hair-trigger temper and a pair of fantastic legs.
Brand didn’t understand how he could be simultaneously thrilled and terrified, but every day he spent with Valentino taught him something new about himself. It was astonishing how much a person could change when they took their lives into their own hands, how much he craved and valued open honesty in a partner, how deeply and utterly he’d fallen head over heels for someone who rose to that challenge in spades. Brand had enjoyed plenty of flings over the years with varying degrees of attachment, but he’d never had anything, anyone, quite like Valentino.
Valentino was more than a pretty face, that was for sure. He was quite possibly the key to unlocking Brand’s century-old curse.
He’d brought Valentino all the way to Kaenys with every intention of turning the mage over to his father, the king, but then he’d gone and confessed everything instead, his plans and his feelings. Valentino became incandescently angry at first, and rightly so; but somehow, Valentino remained beside him, despite it all. He’d run away from his old life but followed Brand to start a new one, willingly and openly.
And now, Valentino was in his arms, his mouth on his lips, his lithe figure pressing insistently against him.
Curses and family ties be damned.
Brand pulled away from the kiss reluctantly, hating the loss of heat from his lips, and gazed down at the man in front of him.
Valentino’s warm golden-brown eyes were full of tenderness and defiance. “Well, what now?”
Of course, he asks the hardest question first.
“We need to get out of here, and quickly. My sister wasn’t joking about my father. He’s got eyes everywhere, so we’ll need to get as far away as we can. Perhaps board a ship.”
Valentino gave him a look, half fondness, half annoyance. “On the road again so soon? We just arrived.” He glanced around the modest room they’d rented for the evening, his eyes lingering on the bed. “Could this mad dash possibly wait until morning?”
Brand wanted nothing more than to pick him up, toss him on that bed, and stay there for hours, possibly days. “We should probably leave as soon as possible.”
Valentino sighed, looking up at him with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Too bad. And here I was looking forward to the royal treatment tonight.”
What little resolve Brand had mustered quickly faltered. “Well, maybe we don’t have to rush that much.”
“Good.” Valentino stood up on his tiptoes to kiss him again.
Goddess, his mouth was so warm. Warm and insistent, teeth dragging on his lower lip and sending a shiver of need through his entire body. Brand returned the kiss, eager tongue slipping inside that hot, perfect mouth. Valentino groaned against him, then made a somewhat less sensual noise—the unmistakable rumble of an empty stomach.
Brand drew away with a laugh. “Hungry?”
Valentino’s face went pink. “I missed dinner. Have you eaten yet?”
Brand shook his head. “No, I was out looking for you.”
“Ah. Well, I suppose we should eat before we, um, retire.”
“Right. I’ll go down and see if the cook has anything we can bring up to the room. Stay here, and I’ll be right back.”
Valentino sighed again and sat on the bed, but he didn’t protest.
Brand left the room and stood in the hallway, catching his breath. He shook himself and then walked down to the common room. A sparse crowd had gathered by the fire, but a few patrons still drank cheap beer in the booths and at the bar. A rough and surly lot, mostly sailors and factory workers, stared glumly down at their drinks or playing cards held with greasy hands. Brand had chosen this spot for its proximity to the castle, not for any note of hospitality. He didn’t recognize anyone, but he kept his head down, nonetheless. He’d been no more than a teenager when he left home, but he didn’t want to take any chances of being recognized. The exhausted barkeep didn’t meet his eyes, and Brand ordered bread, dark beer, and two bowls of thin stew. Not exactly the most romantic meal, but it would have to do. At least it was better than tinned beans and campfire coffee.
Brand carried the tray up to the room and kicked at the door with his boot to knock.
The door opened, and for a second, Brand could only stare. Valentino had taken off his trousers and stood there in the doorway in only his shirt, the loose front half-unbuttoned and not quite covering the pale expanse of his long, slender thighs.
He raised Brand’s chin with one finger. “Well, are you coming inside or not?”
Red Heavens above and White Valleys below, yes, I am.
Brand swallowed and nodded, and Valentino stepped aside. Brand set the food tray on the small dresser before scooping the other man into another embrace. Laughing, Valentino pushed him away and picked up a tankard instead. He tipped it back and took a long, gulping swallow. Brand watched him, entranced, as the beer quickly disappeared.
With a gasp and a cough, Valentino set the empty mug down with a clatter and wiped his mouth with the heel of his hand. “Goddess, that was absolutely vile.”
Brand wasn’t sure how he could fall even more in love, but it happened anyway. “Yeah.”
Valentino swayed a little, reaching forward to lean on him. “Oh, it’s a rather potent brew, though, isn’t it?”
Brand blinked in surprise. “Uh, just the normal stuff. Pretty weak usually.”
“Oh, really? I guess I haven’t eaten, but… Oh.” Valentino practically collapsed against him.
Brand jumped to catch him. “What the hells? You can’t be drunk already!”
But he was. Valentino had passed out from just one drink, limp as an eel in his arms. Brand stared down at him in astonishment. While Valentino was certainly no heavyweight, Brand had witnessed him deep in his cups before, and it typically took several rounds to get him there. This was entirely out of the ordinary. Brand looked at the empty tankard and had no time to form any suspicions before someone bashed in the door and royal guards swarmed the room.
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Evelynn lives with her partner, child, and dog in the Deep Dark South (also known as Atlanta, Georgia). She studied art in school and is somehow still deemed employable. In her free time, she reads genre fiction, plays video games, watches cartoons, and engages in other related unseemly behavior. She’s been writing and drawing stories since she was in grade school and would one day love to grow up to be a Real Author.
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