What the hell are you doing?
Fire & Ice
Sherrilyn Kenyon
The League, book four
ebook, 100 pages
Published 1998
ISBN 80759584419
FIRE & ICE - Originally published in a stand alone ebook in 1998. Currently available in the IN OTHER WORLDS anthology that features all the short stories Sherri wrote for Penguin.
Livia is a Vistan princess who is to be married to an ambassador from a neighboring galaxy--a brutal man, many years her senior. She knows that the one thing he values in her is her virginity, and in a last-ditch effort to escape the fate her father has decreed for her, she sets out to seduce the first man she can find.
Adron Quiakides was once a fierce League assassin. Now he lives in constant pain from wounds suffered years earlier at the hands of a madman. When Livia approaches him in a darkened bar, he willingly falls for her seduction. But when he feels the warmth of her healing touch he knows that he can't let her go. With her in his arms, he is free of pain, both body and soul.
With less than two weeks away from the release of book ten in the League series, Born of Betrayal, it was a fitting time to catch up on the only remaining installment to this series I had yet to read. Of course, although this has been titled book four, it is part of the second generation. It is Adron's story; Adron being the first born son of Nykyrian who was the protagonist of book one and leader of the Sentella.
Nykyrian has some truly amazing kids: Thia, Adron, Jayce, twin sons Tiernan and Taryn, and youngest daughter, Zarina. Very much unlike Syn's son, and lone child, Devyn, who managed to disappoint me on a level I don't even want to talk about. They were first introduced in book three, the only other sequel to feature the second generation of the Sentella, and I'm beyond anxious to get back there, mostly for the sake of Nyk's daughter, Zarina, who is the love interest for Darling's son, Cezar. Not to forget Dancer's daughter, Kalea, being paired with Nyk's son, Jayce. Unfortunately, my own three year old son may be a functioning adult by the time those books make it to publisher.
Say it won't be so!
Adron, once a League assassin and forever a serious badass, has suffered for eight long years with the consequences of a noble, selfless act that saved a woman and her unborn child. Now, forced to live in pain, dependent upon a cane and constant medical care to keep his organs functioning, he just wants one thing on the night of the anniversary that changed his world forever: to drink. To drown the memories.
Livia has one goal in mind when she enters the Golden Crona: to do away with the one thing that makes her valuable to the man her father is forcing her to marry- her virginity. Unfortunately, she barely manages to scan the surface of potential bedmates before her guards barge in behind her and she's forced to throw herself into the first acceptable booth to hide.
Adron is, at first, pissed at her sudden appearance at his table only to to follow it up with being pissed at the innocence she dares to have in this corrupted world. A number of women have attempted to court Adron to their bed, only to be quickly and rudely shunned. But when Livia, in a drastic move to escape discovery throws herself beside him with the most chaste kiss he could have ever imagined, well, he's got just enough Tondarian fire in him to finally allow himself the comfort of a woman's touch. After eight long celibate years.
And in that one moment of surrender, Adron finds that this misplaced innocent creature blocks out the agony of his existence. So he takes her home where the little miracle worker makes the huge blunder of telling Adron how wonderful he feels. And then he knows, because he's not
that drunk, that she's a virgin. The realization stops him cold and Adron goes for a drink. Only to have her come at him with a hug.
I'm going to stop there before I recap the entire book because, yes, it's that damn good. And Adron is that damn awesome. Even when he's a whiny, self-loathing ass of a man. Meanwhile, Livia is a girl without flaws. She was absolutely perfect and embodied everything Adron needed to be reacquainted with the world, his family, and the man he used to be.
Also making an appearance are Nykyrian, Kiara, Zarina, Tiernan, Taryn, Jayce, and, in vids, Devyn himself.
5 out of 5 stars.
The League books, starting with book one and even more notable with book two, were the first books I'd ever read that actually changed my perspective of the world, people, and just life in general. I encourage any lover of Sci-Fi Romance to experience the unparalleled Sentella.
Previously in The League (2nd Generation): Nemesis Legacy
The League (1st Generation): Nemesis Rising