Scent of a Man (PDF)

"Scent Of A Man:
Joseph Godwin is a virgin, for amongst Anglian nobility chastity is prized and harshly enforced by the all-powerful Council and their clerics. Tomorrow, when he reaches his majority, he will claim his birthright and take a virtuous young woman to wife. Overnight he transforms into a Scentinel, a creature exuding powerful sexual pheromones which make him irresistible to women -- all women, even his mother and sisters. To the fanatically religious Anglians, Joseph is now a godforsaken monster who should be executed on sight. He's on the run, starving and desperate. He has nothing more to lose -- or so he believes.

Liliana is Europan and she's a creature even rarer than Joseph, a Null who can neutralize the insidiously compelling scent that Scentinel’s exude. Because of her unique ability, in truth she has even less freedom that the oppressed Anglian women she so pities. She will never be allowed to live a normal life. She is a pawn -- a tool to be used as Empress Vashti sees fit. Liliana’s mission is to rescue Joseph and bring him to Europa. There, he'll join the Empress's elite band of Scentinel spies--provided he survives his training with his sanity intact and learns how to suppress his pheromones at will.

Joseph’s appalled to discover his rescuer is a woman disguised as a man. Worse, Liliana is a morally corrupt Europan who, among other things, is immodest, scandalously outspoken and refuses to show him the respect he’s due. She’s the complete opposite of the meek, obedient Anglian females he’s known. And she’s the most fascinating woman he’s ever met. He’s forced to accept that until he’s taught to control the insidious scent he exudes, he’s helpless without her. And if he’s to have any kind of life at all, he must accompany her to Europa. During the perilous journey, growing mutual respect turns to love. But when they reach Europan shores, Liliana rejects him and convinces him she was only acting as any red-blooded Europan female would do--using him to satisfy her sexual appetites. When Joseph is presented to Empress Vashti and finally learns the truth about what’s expected of him, he vows he’ll never forgive Liliana for using and betraying him.

By the time Joseph completes his training and ascends the ranks to become Europa's top Scentinel operative, he’s become a cold-hearted, ruthless man, dedicated to the Europan cause. Liliana knows she did the right thing by pretending she felt nothing for him--the cost of loving him was too high. Even so, she blames herself for the man he’s become. Then she and Joseph are dispatched on a joint mission to assassinate Joseph's father, the Anglian Council Leader, and bring an end to his cruel regime.

Empress Vashti is delighted by the irony of the son Lord Godwin disowned and rejected being used as the instrument of his destruction. And when Liliana discovers the horrifying truth of Joseph's parentage, she jeopardizes the mission by revealing the true extent of the Empress's duplicity. Joseph must now choose which cause to champion: Europan or Anglian. Either way, the lives of his mother, his sisters, and Liliana, the woman he still secretly loves, are at stake.