Highland Steam by Eliza Knight ...

Tragedy strikes in the Highlands, making Drostan the laird of the Comyn clan and in need of a wife to placate his people. His only choice is to trust in magic and travel to the sacred circle of stones…where he must passionately lay claim to the woman Fate brings him.

Briana is lost and alone when magic lights up the night. She meets the man of her dreams, a man who rocks her to her very core with orgasm after orgasm and somehow manages to steal her heart. The problem? The man of her dreams lives eight hundred years in the past.

An Excerpt From:

HIGHLAND STEAM

Copyright © ELIZA KNIGHT, 2012

All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

Chapter One

Scottish Highlands, Present Day

Briana broke through the copse of trees, sweat glistening on her skin, not from the sun gleaming down but from the exertion of walking up rocky slopes for hours.

She stopped in her tracks and gazed at what appeared to be a pile of old stones in the center of a clearing—probably an ancient ruin of some sort. She swiped her hand over her forehead and then brushed her palms on her athletic shorts. Taking a deep breath, she walked closer to the ruins.

There were five tall pillars in a semicircle with an arch of some sort at the head. A few smaller structures sat between the pillars and in the center of the circle, a large flat stone—nearly the size of a full bed.

She sat on a chair-sized smooth rock outside the circle and smacked her broken GPS tracking system against her hand, hoping it would zing back to life.

“Dammit!”

She was well and truly lost now. Judging from the sun it was late afternoon, which meant she’d been wandering the mountain, lost, for about four hours. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and cursed again. The stupid thing had absolutely no reception. What a waste.

She had no way of getting back to where she’d started from. Why hadn’t she just stayed put? Better yet, why had she insisted on going on a hike in the Highland mountains by herself? And Ben Nevis too, one of the highest summits on the western end of the Grampian Mountains, for heaven’s sake. Had she lost her mind?

She wasn’t even from Scotland. Not even Europe for that matter. She was from New York City—the only mountains she climbed were corporate office building stairs on her way to work at a worldwide bank.

Her coworkers thought she was crazy when she suddenly quit her job to travel to Europe. Everyone at the inn she was staying at told her she was crazy for climbing Ben Nevis by herself but she’d given them a dumb smile and held up her piece-of-shit GPS system that was supposed to keep her on track. Lot of good that did.

She frowned at nothing, glared at the pretty spring wildflowers poking between pebbles and snarled at the green leafy trees that dared to grow on Ben Nevis.

This trip to Scotland was supposed to be a healing trip. Supposed to make her forget the sudden and tragic death of her parents—and how she was now truly alone in the world. No siblings. No boyfriend—she’d had her share but they’d all been a bunch of selfish, unfeeling jerks.

She and her parents were the last of the Kane line. The idea had never bothered her before. She’d always figured she had time. But then tragedy set in. She was alone. And her dream since childhood had been to be surrounded by lots of family, by those who loved her and who she loved in return.

Her dreams were only flights of fancy. She’d never have that. Not with her track record. And especially not now that she would surely meet her death atop this wretched, beautifully enchanting mountain.

She should have listened when the townspeople told her she was just acting on impulse to go up alone.

By the time they found her…

She couldn’t think like that. She was lost. She was tired, thirsty, hungry—the PowerBar she’d packed eaten within the first hour of her hike. She had to pee.

Briana had been through survival class. Although it’d been some years, she still remembered. Perhaps she could keep herself alive until morning. She could find some berries and roots to eat. She wouldn’t starve to death.

Taking care of business first, she then rooted around in the bushes for sustenance. She came back to the smooth rock that felt familiar, safe, with a few handfuls. She munched on tart berries and some nuts she’d found and watched the sun start to set.

The pink-and-orange hues of the setting sun shimmered against the ruins. The archway in particular seemed to spark to life with the glowing sky—the way the sun hit the stones was mesmerizing. The way it was situated made her believe it must be an entryway—to what, she wasn’t sure.

Briana stood up to investigate, walking around the front of the archway. There didn’t appear to be any stones beyond it for at least a hundred yards. As if this was a gate to the ruins maybe? She groaned, wishing she’d studied history a bit more before making this adventure.

At least while she was stuck out in the wilderness, she could learn something. She skimmed her hand over the archway, bits of mortar between the stones coming away as dust. Her fingers ran over ridges and dips in the stone. Were those patterns? With the dimming light it was hard to tell. She touched them again. They were patterns. She tried to wipe away some of the moss and debris to see what the patterns were.

It looked like maybe they were symbols—ancient symbols. Celtic symbols?

She sighed and rolled her eyes, again irritated she hadn’t at least paid more attention on her tour of a couple castles the day before.

She touched the Celtic designs again. What did they mean?

To read a very steamy excerpt from HIGHLAND STEAM, please click here.

Thanks for hosting me Chicks! I’d love to give an ecopy of HIGHLAND STEAM to one of your readers! Leave a comment to win J

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About the Author ...

Eliza Knight is the multi-published, award-winning author of sizzling historical romance and erotic romance. While not reading, writing or researching for her latest book, she chases after her three children. In her spare time (if there is such a thing…) she likes daydreaming, wine-tasting, traveling, hiking, staring at the stars, watching movies, shopping and visiting with family and friends. She lives atop a small mountain, and enjoys cold winter nights when she can curl up in front of a roaring fire with her own knight in shining armor. Visit Eliza at www.elizaknight.com or her historical blog, History Undressed, which was recently mentioned in a feature article in The Wall Street Journal. www.historyundressed.com

*Eliza will be giving away an E-copy of HIGHLAND STEAM to on lucky commenter! Please include your E-mail address with your comment. No E-mail address- no entry. Winner will be picked at random after Friday March 2nd, 2012! Good luck!