Seeker
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About this ebook
She learns that women no longer exist on planet Mars in the future. And it's her fault.
Kendar's life's work has been the study of Sara Tolliver's doomed attempt to shut down the machine that ultimately obliterates the female population. In a race to interpret ancient Martian writings and find the truth about Sara's heirloom chest, together they have a second chance to save all females, including Sara. They work feverishly to learn the secret to going back in time, into a past that holds the key to the future, to love itself.
Failure is not an option. Because failure means Kendar loses Sara to the same disaster that cost the world everything.
Susan Kearney, a native of New Jersey, writes full time and has sold books to the industries' top publishing houses -- Grand Central, Tor, Simon & Schuster, Harlequin, Bell Bridge Books, Berkley, Leisure, Red Sage, and Kensington. As an award winning author, Kearney earned a Business Degree from the University of Michigan. Kearney's knowledge and experience spans throughout the romance genre, and her fifty plus books include contemporary, romantic suspense, historical, futuristic, science fiction, and paranormal novels. She resides in a suburb of Tampa--with her husband, kids, and Boston terrier. Currently she's plotting her way through her 54th work of fiction.
Susan Kearney
Susan Kearney used to set fire to herself four times a day. Now she does something really hot — she writes romantic suspense for Silhouette Intrigue. While she hasn't performed her signature fire dive from a 10-metre platform in years, she started diving at age 10. By age 12, she'd won the New Jersey State Championship, and by college, she was a three-time All-American Diver. While attending the University of Michigan, she earned a business degree that led to her diverse careers as, variously, a partner in a barter business, a real estate appraiser, a mover and renovator of houses, and owner of three hair salons. Finally, in 1995, she sold her first book and became a full-time writer. She's currently plotting her way through her 14th novel. Of all her careers, her favourite is wife and mother. She married her teenage sweetheart and lives with her husband, two children, and Boston terrier in sunny Florida. She now beats the heat not by diving into cold water, but with her new hobby — figure skating. Susan also enjoys writing science fiction, screenwriting, boating, and travelling to foreign countries.
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Seeker - Susan Kearney
Praise for Susan Kearney
Kearney is a master storyteller.
—New York Times bestselling author Virginia Henley
This book is like eating a piece of dark chocolate when you are dieting—you know it is not good for you, but you cannot help wolfing it down with guilty pleasure.
—All About Romance on Enslaved
Other Titles by Susan Kearney
Romantic Suspense
Kiss Me Deadly * Dancing With Fire * Secrets of Moore House
Born in Danger * Born in Mystery * Born in Secret
Science Fiction and Fantasy Romance
The Challenge * The Dare * The Ultimatum * The Quest
Lunar Heat * Solar Heat * Shifter in Paradise
The Shimmering * Stargazing
Historical Romance
Conquer the Mist
Coming Soon
Beyond the Edge * A Burning Obsession
Bordering on Obsession * Double the Thrill
Enslaved * Royal Target * Royal Ransom
Royal Pursuit Daddy to the Rescue * Defending the Heiress
Saving the Girl Next Door * Hijacked Honeymoon
Cradle Will Rock * Little Boys Blue * Lullaby and Goodnight
When the Bough Breaks * Touch Me * On the Edge
Seeker
by
Susan Kearney
Bell Bridge Books
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or locations is entirely coincidental.
Bell Bridge Books
PO BOX 300921
Memphis, TN 38130
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61194-748-9
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61194-748-9
Bell Bridge Books is an Imprint of BelleBooks, Inc.
Copyright © 2005 by Susan Kearney
Published in the United States of America.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Originally published as Tomorrow’s Promise by Susan Kearney in the anthology The Hope Chest by Harlequin Books S.A.in 2005
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Cover design: Debra Dixon
Interior design: Hank Smith
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:Eswx:01:
Chapter One
Earth 2405
MARS WAS CALLING to Dr. Sara Tolliver in more ways than one. Feeling like a college student on her first day on campus, she anticipated her trip to Mars where she could put her degree in Martian archeology into practice. With lots of hard work and a little luck she could expand upon the discoveries Professor Dixon had already made on the planet’s North Pole. She looked forward to reuniting with her former mentor, a man married to his archeology. However, she didn’t intend to end up a salty old soul like Dixon, who might study the mating rituals of other peoples, but likely never experienced any sex firsthand. And since Mars was no longer considered a raw frontier, she planned to enjoy a social life along with her work, preferably with a man who didn’t necessarily ask for more from her than great sex.
Studying relics was one of her passions, but she liked the old-fashioned physical kind of passion, too. In fact, Sara impatiently contemplated being pursued—almost a guarantee due to the lack of available women on Mars. Although many women had ventured into space, the majority of the first Mars explorers had been male, and females remained a rarity among the planet’s population. She liked the idea of having choices. There certainly hadn’t been enough men in her life recently. Her colleagues believed she was too picky—that she shouldn’t compare the Alpha men of history to the civilized men of today, but she disagreed. She just hoped the men on Mars might be more to her liking: individualistic, entrepreneurial, dynamic—not the I-want-to-get-in-your-head intellectual archaeologists that she tended to meet. Sara preferred a make-love-and-move-on kind of relationship to one that required . . . feelings. Feelings opened up too much risk of pain. And from the assortment of men around her right now, she suspected that she just might find a man to satisfy her needs—one who would overlook real intimacy for a good time and a willing partner.
ne of only two women among twenty males in the boarding line for a rocket ship, Sara appreciated the ratio in her favor, a reflection of the population of her soon-to-be home planet, Mars. Even in her baggy jumpsuit, she was drawing the attention of several hot-looking men.
Hmm. She could become accustomed to this kind of advantage. The men who surrounded her in the boarding line—tall men, short men, husky men—kept eyeing her as though she were a prize. One shot her a charming, knock-your-spacesuit-off smile, and she nodded back, but lost sight of him as her line advanced toward the ticket agent.
So far, Sara had no regrets about her imminent departure from Earth. The planet was overcrowded and even the oceans had few places left to discover. She craved the excitement of exploration, of seeing new sights and meeting new people, especially men who wouldn’t be too demanding on her time. Sara was smart enough to comprehend that her fear of intimacy stemmed from the fact that everyone whom she’d ever loved had been taken from her. However, recognizing the source of her problem and eliminating it were two different things. While she couldn’t change the way she felt, that didn’t mean she had to be alone. She simply had to find a man who had a full life that kept him occupied when he wasn’t sharing lusty companionship with her.
Filled with hope, eager to get to work, more than ready to leave her old life behind, Sara looked forward to her departure and her new life, which made the slowly moving line seem to creep.
Next!
Finally. Sara stepped forward, holding an heirloom that had been in her family for generations, a box that contained all her earthly possessions. With care she set the box on the scale, pleased when it weighed in at twenty-eight pounds, the maximum allowance for the Earth-to-Mars trip without paying a penalty.
Sara couldn’t afford a penalty. She’d spent all her credit on the box’s precious contents. Inside were computer chips that held her life’s work, research and reference material, books and music chips, pen and paper, and holographic scenery of Earth. She might not be able to take her favorite beach, Daytona, to Mars, but she’d carefully packed a vial of ocean water to help her remember the scent and a pinch of sand for the computer to replicate. She’d also brought thousands of e-books—romance, science fiction, and fantasy—to keep her company in the Martian Outback. Among her luxury items were precious seeds to grow a variety of tropical flowers and plants, as well as her ancestor’s journal from the 1800s, several magazines that had sentimental value, her mother’s dried wedding bouquet, and her father’s chronometer.
Identichip, please.
Sara pressed her finger onto the access plate