Assembly-line forewoman and Dayton, Ohio resident Lisa Marie Smith’s life just got a lot more medieval. Lisa’s co-worker and best friend, Pegeen Palmer forcibly drags her to an event showcasing Pegeen’s latest hobby---the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), a living history organization that specializes in the Middle Ages. SCA members get their weekend kicks dressing up in medieval “garb” and pretending to be knights and ladies.

Lisa is skeptical at first, but pretty soon she falls for Sir Phillip Reginald of Whitestar, a swashbuckling SCA Knight and top favorite to become the SCA’s most important new King. It’s soon clear that this dazzlingly handsome, super-sexy knight has a dark and mysterious past, and it’s all Lisa can do just to keep her head above water as she gets caught up in the strange, intrigue-ridden world of SCA kingdom power politics. Will shy, emotionally fragile Lisa manage to juggle her day job, her eccentric best friend, and a passionate new relationship with her mysterious knight without coming apart?



Genre: Contemporary romance, paranormal, time travel, historical romance

Heat level: 2

Cover art by Dara England



~Excerpt~

I’ve been watching the SCA fighters tackle each other in the Blood and Roses Tournament for a couple of hours. Which was interesting for a while, but now I’m getting antsy. There doesn’t appear to be much else to do here at SCA events besides watch armored fighters cream each other with swords and sticks—except maybe wander around admiring other people’s garb (which I’ve already done), or play a round or two of chess with some old men in jester outfits over by the fold-out gym bleachers (which I can’t do, because I never learned to play chess). There’s supposed to be a medieval song and dance contest later today (which I can’t enter, because I can’t sing and don’t know any medieval dances).

I was hoping Pegeen could show me around and maybe help me find something medieval to do, but she has disappeared. Knowing her, she’s probably off having Hot, Medieval-Corset-Dominatrix sex with Arundel the Black somewhere.

Sigh.

I lean against the hard cinderblock wall of the gym and move my body up and down against it, hoping to somehow use the resulting friction to scratch at the corset rash that is fast developing all over my back. A youngish bearded guy holding a large wooden staff and wearing a red and black tunic decorated with crossed swords announces the next pair of stick-fighters. I yawn, expecting yet another set of nondescript, middle-aged office workers in bulky, clanking garbage can armor to step into the ring.

That’s when I see him.

Him.

The most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen just walked in, and he’s standing over by the drinking fountain.

My knight in shining armor, in fact.

And I mean literally shining armor. This guy’s armor is so shiny and sexy, he could have stepped right out of Camelot.

Hell, he could be Heath Ledger stepping out of A Knight’s Tale.

Hoo baby.

Is it hot in here?

The Society for Creative Anachronism just got a helluva lot more fun.




Author Bio:

JAMAICA LAYNE is a widely published author of romantic and erotic fiction. Her books are published by Ravenous Romance, Virgin Cheek, Silver Publishing, and Virgin Black Lace, among others. Her novel KNIGHT MOVES, an erotic time-travel story with both modern and medieval settings, is a bestselling ebook with Ravenous Romance that will release in trade paperback from Red Silk Editions in 2011. She also writes M/M erotic romance under the pen name “Jay Hughes,” with her novels THE SHUNNED and THE FORBIDDEN (both Gay Amish Romances) which are also bestsellers.

For more information, visit www.jamaicalayne.com and www.jayhughesbooks.com