AVAILABLE NOW FROM AMBER QUILL PRESS  Fictionwise  Amazon.com/Kindle, Ereader.com & Mobipocket.com

While waiting for her appointment with a sex therapist, uptight Rena Winters is kidnapped and whisked away to a silken tent in the Sahara where she loses her inhibitions in the arms of a masked desert lover...

CHAPTER ONE

He's back. Just the sight of the mysterious desert prince standing in her small, Beverly Hills shop made Rena Winters' heart beat faster.

As before, he wore a dark, hand tailored suit with masculine power and grace. His traditional head covering, a white kaffiyeh bordered in red and gold, gave an air of mystery to his tanned face. She'd learned the silver and gold cords binding the kaffiyeh, denoted his high rank, but she didn't need that symbol to recognize his aura of authority.

What she did need was a way to protect herself from being captured by his essential maleness, his dangerous potency.

As she rose from her jeweler's workbench, separated from the front displays by a wall and pane of glass, her nipples tightened into little buds aching to learn the touch of his hard, sensuous mouth. Why him? Why now?

From the moment she'd first seen him two weeks earlier, when he'd come to her shop with a gorgeous twenty carat natural Burmese ruby and twenty-four double rose cut diamonds, erotic fantasies featuring him had invaded her dreams.

Now he'd returned for the jewelry she'd designed, and she was practically panting like a bitch in heat.

Get a grip, she told herself, then mentally groaned at an image of his long, elegant fingers sliding across her skin, cupping her breasts, and lowering his lips to her oh-so-willing--

Abruptly, she broke off that thought and shrugged into her tailored, pearl-gray blazer to hide her obvious arousal.

After two years of a disastrous marriage and a coldly civilized divorce, Rena had been convinced she was truly what Chet had called her, "A sexless bitch." How often had he mocked her saying he should've realized anyone with the maiden name, Winters, would be as frigid as an ice queen, as cold and hard as the diamonds she used in her one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces?

"Miss Winters," Rena's clerk, Mitzie, paged her on the intercom. "Sultan El Yazid is here for his order."

"Thank you, Miss Johnson. I'll be right in."

Congratulating herself on her coolly composed tone, Rena smoothed her black hair into its already severe knot at her nape, and entered the walk-in safe to retrieve the gold, ruby, and diamond necklace.

Mitzie's giggle floated in from the other room through the intercom. Flirting as usual, Rena thought enviously. Her clerk was everything she wasn't--warm, sexy, comfortably sensuous, and had a date every night.

After drawing a breath to steady her emotions, she stepped into the store carrying the velvet case containing the designer piece.

The sultan wore his usual impassive expression as he gestured to his aide who also functioned as interpreter.

The aide said, "Is that the special piece my sidi, my master commissioned?"

Nodding, Rena opened the case, lifted the shimmering strand of gold and diamonds, and arranged it on dark blue velvet with the ruby pendant, in its stylized cloud-of-light setting, placed in the center of the display form.

In a businesslike manner, Rena turned the centerpiece to show the back, explaining, "The pendant may be removed and worn as a pin."

Moving closer, El Yazid gently clasped her hand and raised it to his lips in the continental fashion. "Shukran," he murmured, his warm breath washing over her sensitive skin.

Alarmed by her unexplained attraction to him, Rena drew back and surreptitiously wiped her knuckles on her skirt.

The sultan's gaze caught hers. Heat flared in his dark brown eyes, then his expression once more became impassive.

4 HEARTS!
"Rena Winter is a recently divorced jeweler, who lives in Beverly Hills. Rena's ex-husband always referred to her as "a sexless bitch" while they were married, but if he knew about the dreams Rena has been having about a masked stranger lately he would surely change his tune. Ever since Sharif Azzam El Yazid Sultan of Kasama walked into her jewelry shop she has been having the most incredible dreams about him. But when she is kidnapped by the Sultan and taken to his country of Kusama her fantasies soon become reality. As Rena and Sharif embark on an incredible journey across the desert they discover their passion is as hot as the desert heat. Desert Passion may be a short story but it holds enough heat to leave you breathless. Writing as Barbara Clark she is awesome and as April Reid she is steamy as well as great. Don't miss the debut book of April Reid called "DESERT PASSION". - Reviewer: Dina Smith www.theromancestudio.com

"I was really drawn into this story in the first few chapters. The story line is original and interesting and explores the popular female fantasy of being whisked away as a pleasure slave to an exotic, foreign man. Even though she is taken without her consent, the author makes it very clear that Rena wants to be there.

There was an obvious attraction between the characters with an abundance of romantic tension and teasing that fuels the simmering heat in this story." - Laci Grey Just Erotic Romance Review Newsletter

"Every woman has a secret fantasy, and one of them has to be--being whisked away by a delicious and exotic man. Ms. Reid really delivers in DESERT PASSION and leaves us panting for more." - Robyne Hanson, owner Sunshine Books

"DESERT PASSION is a very fast fun read. The attraction between the hero and heroine grabs you from the first page and just keeps on building. The sensuality of this story is hot! Hot! Hot!

I cannot wait for more stories from April Reid." - Nancy Elekes, Sunshine Books

AVAILABLE NOW FROM AMBER QUILL PRESS  Fictionwise  Amazon.com/Kindle, Ereader.com & Mobipocket.com