New Release & Giveaway: HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS by Stephanie Julian

Winners: Thanks to everyone who commented. The winners are yadkny and Na. Emails have been sent. 

HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS (Amazon, B&N), the second book in the Forgotten Goddesses series, is on shelves today and can I just say WOOHOO!

This book has one of my favorite heroes. Brandon Stevenson is a rough, tough, bruiser of a professional hockey player who's coming to the end of his career and wondering what the hell he's going to do with the rest of his life when he can't be on the ice.

He's been lusting after the beautiful woman in the stands of the hockey arena where he plays but he never expected her to tell him she's an ancient Etruscan Goddess. Seriously? The woman has to be nuts, right?

No, she's not. Lucy is actually Lusna, Etruscan Goddess of the Moon, patron goddess of the lucani, the Etruscan wolf shifters.  And she's been lusting after him just as much.

What's a guy to do? Whatever he has to to keep her, that's what.

Stick around after the excerpt to comment for a chance to win one of two copies of HOW TO WORSHIP A GODDESS (open to US and Canada). Tell me what goddess you'd like to be...or what god you'd like to worship :)

Excerpt:

Lucy stood at the door separating the kitchen and office from the bar, her lips parted in surprise.

Her hockey player was out there. Brandon Stevenson was in her bar. Dumbfounded, she watched him drink a beer, taking in everything around him, looking as comfortable as if he were a regular. She flashed cold then hot, her body shaking with conflicting emotions. He’d found her. How the hell had he found her?

She didn’t know whether to be flattered or terrified. The full moon was only a few days away and more than three-quarters of her patrons were versipelli. He had absolutely no idea of the danger he was in from a room full of skin-shifters this close to the full moon.

Of course, the man had been knocking heads on the ice for the past sixteen years. He could take care of himself. To a point. Lucy let her gaze trip over the rest of the crowd. They had a good house tonight and she saw no one who might cause a problem.

Actually, some of the male versipelli eyed Brand warily. He easily stood inches over the tallest of them and probably had at least twenty pounds on the biggest guy out there.

The women, on the other hand… They stared at him like, well, probably just like she was. Like they wanted to throw him on the nearest bed.

No matter who was staring, Brandon Stevenson was a man to watch. And she had been, for the past two seasons. How had he found her? And why?

It couldn’t be coincidence. He couldn’t have just walked in here off the street. There were no signs, no arrows pointing the way. The village was listed on no map in existence. The only way he could have known to look for her here was if he’d seen the most recent deed to the property, which was more than a hundred years old. Had he really gone to that much trouble? Her breasts tightened and her thighs quivered just thinking about it.

“Mother, are you ready? It’s time.” Caeles walked up behind her, guitar in hand.

She turned to smile at the young fauni she’d adopted after he’d been dropped on her doorstep as an infant.

Now thirty-two, he had the face of a young man just out of his teens. His golden-brown hair curled in ringlets to just above his shoulders, and his golden eyes gleamed in the low light. When he walked among the eteri, he had to hide those eyes. They attracted unwanted attention.

Caeles would much rather be known for his music than his looks. The boy had a gift and she’d often wondered if whoever had placed him on her doorstep that night had known exactly what they were doing when they’d given him to her. He’d brought music back to her life.

And she’d never tried to find out who had abandoned him because she hadn’t wanted to lose him to them.

Selfish? Yes. She didn’t care. He was hers and she protected what was hers.

“I am. Is the play list okay, sweetheart? I tried to include a few new songs for you.”

The boy’s smile lit the entire room, just as it had from the moment she’d held him in her arms. “You know it is.”

“Good.” She grasped his hand and squeezed. “Now, let’s go knock ’em dead, kid.”

Pushing through the door, she deliberately ignored Brandon, though she wanted to seek him out. Instead, she pinned her gaze to her stool on the small stage in the west corner of the room and walked toward it with a determination she hoped no one else noticed.

The room went silent as she sat, the heavy weight of anticipation settling over her. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. And swore she felt his gaze like a physical caress. Curious and hot and… No, not just hot. Blindingly passionate. The man wanted her with a physicality that made her stomach clench in reaction.

His presence energized the room to a degree she hadn’t thought possible with an eteri. And she sensed no trace of Fata or Enu, the Etruscan magical races, in him.

Of course, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be a descendent of the Sidhe or any of the other magical races of the world. Egyptian, Sumerian, or… Berserkir. Yes, with his dark-blond hair and stormy gray eyes, she wouldn’t be surprised to find a little Norse magic in his blood.

The click of Caeles’s guitar being plugged into the amp drew her out of her thoughts to the task at hand. They had a set of music to perform, one she hoped her guests liked. What would Brandon think?

For just a second, she let her gaze connect with his and had to suppress the jolt of heat that shot through her veins like quicksilver. Blessed Mother Goddess, she wanted him. Could she let herself have him? Knowing she’d have to give him up tomorrow?

Maybe the question should be, Could she let him walk out of here without having him? That might require more willpower than she’d possessed in millennia.

 

Wanna discover more about the world of Etruscan magic? Visit my website. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ or get a peak into my mind through my Tumblr.

Can't get enough Forgotten Goddesses? Read WHAT A GODDESS WANTS, the first book in the series, on sale now at a discount at Amazon and B&N.