MYSTERIOUS MALICE

A Novel by K’Anne Meinel

E-Book Edition

Published by:

Shadoe Publishing for

K’Anne Meinel on E-Book Novella 

Copyright © K’Anne Meinel March 2017 

MYSTERIOUS MALICE

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K’Anne Meinel is available for comments at KAnneMeinel@aim.com as well as on Facebook, her blog @ http://kannemeinel.wordpress.com/ or on Twitter @ kannemeinelaim.com, or on her website @ www.kannemeinel.com if you would like to follow her to find out about stories and book’s releases or check with  

www. ShadoePublishing.com or http://ShadoePublishing.wordpress.com/. 

MYSTERIOUS MALICE

Book 1

She looked around the nightclub, bored with the whole scene.  It was the same old, same old: the same people, the same corny come-ons, the same drinks, and the same dance moves.  She wasn’t going to stay.  As she made her way towards the end of the bar heading for the exit, her shoulder ran into another woman.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the woman exclaimed as they collided painfully.

“Are you okay?” she asked, concerned, seeing that the woman was obviously upset.

“Yeah, fine.  I just have to find my friends and get out of here,” she answered distractedly, and then she really looked at the woman she had crashed into.

She was worth a second look.  Not too tall.  Slender, but not too slender, with curves in all the right places.  Blonde, but not your stereotype of blonde looks.  Her pert, little nose sat over lush, little lips that ached to be kissed, to be ravished.  Her big, brown eyes were so pale they looked almost yellow.  They were framed by dramatically brown and impeccably plucked eyebrows.  The whole package was enticing, exciting, and while not beautiful, very attractive.

“Well, it’s packed in there,” the blonde pointed over her shoulder with her thumb, “You’d do better to sit at the bar and wait for your friends to show up,” she advised.

The other woman nodded anxiously as she looked out over the crowd.  There was no way she was going to spot her friends in the crush.  She had to admit the blonde was right.  “Well, will you wait with me?  I could buy you a drink.  It’s the least I could do for nearly knocking you down.”

The blonde looked her over for a moment, speculatively, and agreed, heading back to the bar.  In that moment she registered the brunette’s long, streaked hair, boyishly slim body, and girl-next-door looks.  She had freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks, her eyes were a gray blue, and her stubborn little chin invited someone to argue with her.  Her straight, white teeth gleamed in the club lights.

“What are you drinking?” she asked as she signaled the bartender.

“I’ll take a Shirley Temple,” the blonde said with a straight face.

“Are you serious?” the brunette asked with a grin and a raised eyebrow.  No one drank Shirley Temples anymore. 

“Very,” the blonde answered with a look that challenged the brunette to say more.

The brunette turned back to place their order then turned and held out her hand, “Hi, I’m Deirdre,” she said with her already familiar grin.

“Alice,” the blonde answered, shaking the proffered hand.

“So, you were leaving?”

“Yeah, this place and a million like them gets old after a while,” she shrugged dismissively.

“I can see that,” the brunette said, nodding as she looked around on the floor for her missing friends.

“You seemed upset?” Alice asked, opening the conversation.

“Yeah, I just got some shit news.  That’s why I was looking for my friends,” she confided, and then wondered why she had.  She immediately felt the anxiety that had dissipated begin to rise again.  Something about the blonde was easygoing, easy to share with.  The drinks arrived and Deirdre put a ten spot on the counter of the bar.  

“Care to elaborate?” Alice took a sip of her red, fruity drink.

Deirdre shrugged dismissively as she took a healthy slug of her Scotch and soda.

“Easy there,” Alice warned, concerned.

“Well, it won’t matter anyway.  I’m up shit creek when I get home,” the brunette shrugged, but Alice could see something in her look.

“Why won’t it matter?  What’s at home?”

Deirdre looked at the relative stranger and wondered if she should confide or not.  She didn’t know this woman at all; she was a faceless nobody.  Maybe she should tell someone, anyone, but fear made her hold back.  “I got a call from my husband.  He just got home and is pissed that I’m not there.”

Alice didn’t know why, but she was disappointed, and then she noted the telltale rings on the woman’s left hand, an impressive set of diamonds.  ‘Fool,’ she told herself.  “Why is he pissed?” 

Deirdre wondered about telling this stranger her problems and then figured, what the hell.  She didn’t know her and she would probably judge her anyway.  She shrugged, “Because I’m not there and I didn’t ask permission to go out with my friends.” 

“Permission?” Alice considered the word, her ire rising at the thought of what that implied.  An independent woman herself, she bristled at the word.

Deirdre signaled for another drink and held up two fingers to indicate a double.

Alice looked concerned.  “Drinking away the hubby?” she asked with a hint of sarcasm.

Deirdre looked back at the attractive blonde.  Her eyes were almost glowing in this light, a fascinating and eerie yellow.  It had to be a trick of the light…“Well, it will hurt less,” she blurted out and then cursed herself for a fool for letting this stranger know.

“He hurts you?” Alice asked, to be sure, to clarify.

The Scotch was burning through her system, the one in her hand now combining with her earlier drinks, loosening her tongue.  She nodded, shamefaced, and looked down at her drink.  Her self-esteem was non-existent anyway.  What did it matter what this stranger thought of her?

“Deirdre,” Alice touched her shoulder, almost hesitantly.  “Can’t you go somewhere, get some help?”

Deirdre looked up at the compassion-filled yellow eyes.  She didn’t see pity, she saw anger on her behalf.  And she saw something else…almost an excitement, but undefinable.  “I’ve tried that,” she said disgustedly.  “You don’t realize how powerful he is.  He bought off one person and threatened to kill me if I told anyone again.”

Gently, Alice said, “You told me.”

“Yeah, but you’re a stranger.  What can you do?”  She believed it too.

‘If only you knew,’ Alice almost answered.  Instead, she said with a shrug, “I can listen.” 

They shared a second drink together and more conversation.  By then, Deirdre was pretty much feeling no pain, which had been her point.

“Hey, let’s dance,” Alice finally said, waving away the bartender so he wouldn’t bring Deirdre another double Scotch.

“I really don’t feel like it,” Deirdre slurred slightly.

“I’m sure you don’t, but your friends aren’t showing up and I want to dance.  Come on,” the blonde implored, and surprised, Deirdre found herself on the dance floor.

The DJ was playing some eighties’ tunes and the two ladies had fun gyrating to the beat.  One dance turned into two and Deirdre found herself relaxing a little, not thinking as much about what awaited her when she got home.  As the music turned to a slow beat, she found herself in Alice’s arms, moving a slow shuffle two-step to the sounds of a romantic ballad.  She looked down into Alice’s eyes and realized they indeed looked yellow, but also hypnotic, concerned, and warm.  Without realizing it, she impulsively leaned in and gently kissed her newfound friend.

Alice captured the offered lips and quickly mastered them, swiftly taking control of the situation.  She was already holding the brunette close from the dance and she moved slightly, gently, their hips rubbing suggestively together as they kissed.

‘Wow, what a kisser!’ thought Deirdre as she enjoyed her first girl/girl kiss.  Not too wet, firm, and inquiring.  Alice let Deirdre think she was in charge as she encouraged, enjoyed, and loved every moment of it.  Slowly, reluctantly, Deirdre pulled back and looked down to see Alice’s reaction.  The look she received made her heart go pitter pat. 

“Hey, Deirdre.  There you are!” a voice interrupted their dance.

Deirdre looked up at two women who were standing there, looking at them inquiringly.  “Oh, hi,” she said dreamily, her arms still around Alice, swaying to the music.  “Where have YOU been?” she asked defensively, wondering if they had seen her kiss this woman.

“We’ve been looking for YOU!” she returned harshly.  “Carl called and we’re to take you home immediately!”

Deirdre could feel herself falling into the same old trap.  Carl called and everyone jumped.  They did his bidding as though they were robots.  She stopped dancing and stood there, her arms dropping to her sides as she reluctantly decided to go with her friends as commanded.

Alice felt her hackles rise at the obvious demands of Deirdre’s friends and the absent husband.  “Oh, Deirdre said he called earlier.  I’m giving her a ride home,” she said innocently to the friends, wondering if they would buy it.

“Who the HELL are you?” the one speaking for the pair demanded.

“I’m Alice,” she said as though they should KNOW.

“Well, Alice, Carl called US and WE are taking Deirdre home,” she said smugly.

Before Alice could get angry, Deirdre answered, “Uh, you heard her, she is taking me home.  We are just finishing our dance here.”

The two women looked at Deirdre in surprise and then searched her eyes to see if she was lying.  Her innocent look fooled them.  “Oh, uh, okay,” she backed off, shrugging.  It was her problem, not theirs; they were just trying to do what Carl wanted.  “Well then, I guess I’ll call you tomorrow,” she said.  The two of them nodded and walked away with only a glance or two over their shoulders.

“Thank you,” Deirdre expressed her heartfelt gratitude to Alice.

“For what?” Alice asked.

Taking a deep breath, Deirdre answered, “For helping me to find the guts for a second.”

Alice nodded as though she understood, and perhaps she did.  They finished their dance, holding each other marginally closer.

“So, where do you live?” Alice asked a while later as she drove the woman home.

“Beverly Hills,” Deirdre answered, as though it were the most disgusting place to go.

“Really?” Alice asked, surprised.  A Hollywood wife?  She wondered….

“Yeah, Carl insists…Must keep up appearances,” she answered tiredly, the drinks and their exertions on the dance floor catching up with her.

“You know, you don’t have to go home,” Alice offered, almost offhand.

“I don’t?” she asked, stupidly.

Alice shook her head and answered, “No, you can come home with me.  He’s already angry.  Will he be angrier if you’re even later?”

Deirdre considered for a moment what that implied and then said, “Okay, take me to your place.”

Alice glanced over, but in the dim light of the car was unable to see what the other woman was really thinking.  She shrugged.  ‘Take it as it comes,’ was what she thought. 

She drove down to Marina Del Rey and this time Deirdre was the one surprised at the pretty, little condo they pulled up next to.  She hadn’t thought twice about the Porsche she had gotten into and the money it implied, but a condo in Marina Del Rey?  That said something.

Alice escorted Deirdre inside and flipped on the lights.  A little kitchen led to a sunken living room with a view over the marina, a boat sitting at a private dock.  With a flick of a button, the drapes and curtains closed automatically.  Alice escorted her through the living room to a set of stairs that led to an office, a spare bedroom, a bathroom, and then another set of stairs that led to a loft and a large master bedroom with a king-sized bed and its own bathroom.

“I think I should tell you I have no experience in this.  Carl asked, but I’ve never…” she left off, embarrassed.

“I know.  It’s okay,” Alice told her, her yellow eyes glittering now, or so Deirdre thought.

“Do you do this often?” Deirdre asked, nervously.

Smiling slightly, Alice shook her head.  “Relax, I’m not going to eat you…at least not yet,” she joked.

Deirdre laughed at the crude joke and leaned in to kiss the blonde.

Alice knew what she was doing as she seduced the willing brunette.  A desperate, abused housewife was prime prey for the likes of Alice.  Sure, she would like to find love, like every other lesbian in that joint, but she seemed to attract the desperate, the lonely, or the needy.  She rarely found a woman that matched her tastes, her needs, and her secret passions.  Well, she had NEVER found one that shared her secret passions, but then she knew, statistically speaking, she was a rare bird.  Meanwhile, she had a willing woman in her arms, knew what she was doing, and was going to enjoy her while it lasted.

Deirdre was surprised how gentle Alice was.  Alice’s lips were so soft, so delicious, as they kissed her.  They softly pried open her mouth to hesitantly thrust a tongue inside, playing with her partner’s tongue, tasting the drinks she had earlier, and caressing every inch of her tongue.  This enticed Deirdre’s own tongue to plunge inside Alice’s mouth to taste, caress, and play.  She groaned softly when Alice sucked gently on her tongue.  It made a corresponding tug in her crotch that had her realizing, for the first time in her life, how attracted she was to a woman, this woman.

Alice gently began to undress the pretty girl-next-door.  The oh-so-innocent looks were a turn-on and she unwrapped her from her expensive dress as though she were a delicate flower, a beautiful gift that deserved the respect and adoration that only another woman could offer.

Deirdre wasn’t used to the foreplay that Alice was plying on her.  Carl was a selfish man, a selfish lover, and took only what he wanted, when he wanted it.  He wanted it a lot, mostly because he sensed her reluctance and this excited him.  In a time when her friends complained how their husbands ignored them and chased younger, more beautiful women, she had thought something was wrong with her when her randy husband’s advances left her cold.  This warmth, this caring, was exquisite and she wasn’t sure how to accept it gracefully.

She didn’t have to worry though, Alice was gentle, generous, and loving.  Alice slipped the dress from Deirdre’s shoulders and the slip followed.  Standing there in Victoria’s Secret’s latest apparel, she thought it a shame that the brunette’s beautiful breasts looked painfully held up by the push-up bra she was wearing.  She released the twins from their imprisonment and they spilled onto her welcoming face.  She kissed, licked, and suckled them passionately, adoring them with her hands, earning an indrawn breath and a groan from Deirdre as she lavished attention on them.

Used to having them grasped painfully by her husband, she had become immune to tender play, or so she thought.  The adoration that Alice was showering on her breasts made her feel beautiful, loved, and wanted; not for what her body could give her partner, but for herself.  She began to undress Alice, who stopped for a moment to strip off her own dress and underwear, then stood there unashamed as Deirdre looked at her in astonishment.  

Hidden under that dress were two large mammaries, which looked incredible on the petite blonde.  She stood there unembarrassed, proud, and sexy….

They came together and Alice quickly stripped the thong from Deirdre’s slender body, kissing her way south as she stood there, her hands clutching at Alice with a need that only the blonde could satisfy.  Alice stood back up and forcefully held her close, feeling her body against her own, letting the woman feel another woman’s body against her for the first time.  Slowly, she maneuvered her against one of the walls and moved her hands up and down the brunette’s body, arousing her with heated caresses, kissing her deeply, passionately, and deliberately, enjoying the feel of her body against her.

Deirdre sobbed into her mouth, not used to her own passion being aroused, used to being taken.  While that had seemed exciting at one time, she could no longer remember what it was like to have someone take the time to excite her, to arouse her, to take the time focus on her. 

Alice reached up and down the slender girl’s body, squeezing her ass gently, pulling her hips closer to her own.  They were not matched in height, but that was to her benefit.  Her body fit right against the Hollywood wife’s, shaved V and she used her body to seduce; to rub enticingly, suggestively, erotically against the taller woman.  She had her trapped against the wall and as she sensed her legs wanted to give out, to fall to the floor, or better yet the huge bed that took up the center of the room, she used every advantage she had against the brunette, to their mutual benefit.  Long, deep, and passionate kisses were getting the brunette aroused.  Alice’s hands were enjoying the feel of her slender body.  She raised one of Deirdre’s legs and wrapped it around the curve of her own hip, which widened the gap between her legs, left her unbalanced on one leg, and left her strangely vulnerable and dependent on the petite blonde.  She teased with her hand, caressing lower, making the brunette’s body beg to be touched where her legs came together.  She sensed Deirdre’s need in her body’s reaction to the teasing.  Unconsciously, the brunette was signaling she needed to be ravaged, to be royally screwed by Alice’s fingers, to be fulfilled by what she and only she could give her.  Alice’s body began to dance against her, thrusting slightly as she imitated what Deirdre needed, but not fulfilling her…not yet.  Her hands teased around her hips, her ass, her lower stomach until Deirdre was mewing into her mouth, looking for that fulfillment.  Alice touched along her mound, feeling her way towards the wetness she knew was waiting for her.

Deirdre needed whatever Alice was willing to give her.  Her body was relaxed from the alcohol she had consumed, but she had recovered enough to know she wanted this petite blonde.  For the first time in her life she craved a woman’s touch.  She wanted to be royally screwed by a stranger.  Her body was screaming out for an orgasm, one that was not given by her own hand.  For years, her husband had taken his pleasure without a thought for her own and her body craved the release that was very different from self-service.  It craved the feeling that another human being gave you, that allowed you to let go when you weren’t concentrating on doing it to yourself.  She let her body take over, let it tell Alice that she needed her, wanted her, and was hers for the taking.

Alice knew exactly what she was doing to the inexperienced housewife; she was a connoisseur of beautiful woman flesh.  She understood unwritten body clues better than this woman, or most men could understand.  She had made a career out of it, but then in her line of work it was necessary to observe more than the average person did.  She knew it was a sickness sometimes, but other times, like now, it was a benefit.  She wasn’t going to question her gifts, she was going to take advantage of them.  

Slowly, deliberately, she had the taller woman’s body begging to be taken.  She played with her victim as she unconsciously sent off ‘screw me’ signals.  She began to caress, circling closer to the core of this woman she held so easily against the wall.  Her body simulated what she wanted so badly as she thrust gently against her, her fingers taunting her flesh with what they could give, would give, would take gladly.  Her fingers casually brushed against her lover’s bald, lower lips as her upper lips sucked, caressed, and teased at the taller woman’s mouth, which was whining against her in supplication…asking, no begging for release.  With the casual brush, she could tell the woman couldn’t take much more and she deliberately parted those lower lips and sought out the button another woman knows instinctively.  The woman’s body bucked beneath her hand.  She could immediately feel a small amount of wetness that had leaked out on the button.  Her fingers pressed lightly.  Deirdre whimpered for more.  Alice decided to put her out of her misery despite her own need to play with her food. 

Deirdre was on fire.  She couldn’t, wouldn’t be able to stand there much longer.  If not for the wall against her back, she would have fallen already.  The blonde couldn’t support her much longer, but with her leg wrapped around Alice, she ached to feel her touch, to relieve this awful, wonderful need that was rising inside her.  She clutched at her lover, feeling her hands run through her blonde hair, along her shoulders, her nails curling into the smaller woman’s shoulders, unconsciously digging in as she felt emotions she hadn’t dealt with in years.  She let Alice know in a million different ways that she wanted her, wanted what she could give her, what she badly needed.  

Alice didn’t leave her waiting anymore.  She took the palm of her hand and deliberately pushed against her mound as her finger spread the nether lips and felt her wetness fully.  Her own leg and mound were already becoming wet as the taller women dripped down from between her legs.  Alice’s fingers played with it only momentarily as they bypassed the obviously engorged button that waited to be pressed, tweaked, and rubbed.  She plunged first one, then two, and then, amazingly, three fingers into the tight passage, plunging immediately and using the heel of her hand against the button standing so erect, causing friction and pressure that Deirdre instantaneously responded to.

“Oh, my gawd,” Deirdre cried when she had a moment of air as Alice ravished her mouth, her body, and released her lips to kiss, nibble, and suck along her jaw towards her ear.

Alice returned to Deirdre’s mouth as she ravished the willing brunette, plunging inside over and over, her hand and arm pistoning inside her victim, using the heel of her hand to twist and grind against Deirdre’s clit.  The combination soon had the taller woman crying out and bucking against her in the first of her orgasms. Alice didn’t let up until she had wrung a second one from her, then she pushed the leg of her confused victim down off her body, pivoted her around, and pushed her down on the large bed that was waiting for them, lowering herself immediately on top of Deirdre.  She impatiently pushed between her victim’s legs, capturing the still erect clit of the surprised brunette in her mouth and ravishing her to higher highs.  She threw Deirdre’s legs over her shoulders and licked and sucked her way as her fingers returned and screwed her victim harder and more enthusiastically.

Deirdre rose off the bed in an arch that predicated an ear-shattering orgasm.  She grabbed the bedclothes in her fists as her body arched unnaturally at the attack on her clit and vagina.  “Ahhhhhh,” she screeched out as she bucked against Alice’s mouth, enjoying the third and mind-shattering orgasm.

Deirdre was so wet, Alice could barely hold on.  She felt the woman ejaculate against her chin and chest and slowly she let her come down from the incredible high.  Alice had finished it satisfactorily for them both.  She crawled up the slender woman’s body and began to hump against her, spreading her legs over both sides of the woman’s hips so her mound ground down on the brunette’s own soused one.  Combining their juices made Alice even more excited than she had been.

As Deirdre became aware of herself again, she wrapped her arms around the lush blonde and caressed her to the best of her ability, encouraging her, having no idea how to help her achieve what she obviously needed.  She was fascinated to see the yellow eyes glow as Alice’s lids opened and shut and she ground her mound against Deirdre’s satisfied body.  Deirdre could feel the hair from Alice’s manicured, but not shaven mound and she could feel the wetness between her own legs combining with Alice’s as she ground and thrust against her.

“Oh, OH, OHHH,” Alice let out as she came against her.  It wasn’t the best orgasm she had ever had, but she had enjoyed herself enough.  She ground for a while longer, knowing she could have had a second, but satisfied with the first.  Sometimes a second was just that, a second, and not nearly as fulfilling as just enjoying her partner’s satisfaction.  She slowly came down and panted against the brunette.  Finally, she rolled to her side, and when she got her breath back she looked over and asked, concerned, “Are you okay?”

Deirdre looked at her, almost in shock, and nodded.  She swallowed a few times before asking, “You have to ask?” and then grinning.  She hadn’t felt this good in a long time.  She felt no guilt for some reason.   Alice had been generous in what she had done to her and for her, so she leaned down and kissed the blonde and said a heartfelt, “Thank you.”

Alice smiled.  She understood.  Gently, she caressed the other woman, calming her overheated body and enjoying the post-coital bliss they were both experiencing, feeling small spasms of pleasure still coursing through her satisfied body.  

As she caressed the brunette, she examined her closer, noting distinct differences in their bodies, yet enjoying those differences and enjoying the feel of Deirdre’s body relaxed against her.  She saw the various bruises in numerous states of healing: from the dark black ones, to the lighter green and brown ones, to the red and fading ones.  All of them were in unobtrusive spots where her clothing wouldn’t reveal them, but maximized the punishment his fists must inflict.  

Occasionally, a caress had Deirdre flinching slightly, but she ignored the pain.  The hands felt too good to her starved body and she didn’t want Alice to stop.  She couldn’t see the now glowing yellow eyes that were angry, deeply and chillingly livid at the bruises she could now see.   Slowly she stilled her roving hands.  Propping her head up on the other woman’s shoulder, she said softly, “Come on, we both need a quick shower.  I better be getting you home.”

“He is going to be so angry,” Deirdre fretted as Alice walked her to the Porsche later.  The lovemaking, a shower, and a cup of coffee had her thinking straight again.  She laughed in her own frightened mind at the phrase ‘thinking straight.’ 

Alice held her hand and stopped her next to the pearl-colored Porsche, “Hey, let me handle it, okay?”

Deirdre looked down at her.  They were both dressed in the same dresses as before, their makeup touched up after their intense lovemaking and the quick shower that had washed away their passion and sweat.  She wondered what the petite blonde could possibly do.  “You don’t understand.  I should have left with my friends when he called….”

Alice took up her other hand and silenced her with it, one finger against her lips, which were slightly swollen from the intensity of their passion.  “Trust me.  I know how to deal with irate men.  It’s a specialty of mine,” she confided with a smile.

“But…” Deirdre began, confused, wondering what the petite blonde could possibly do to keep Carl from hurting her over her tardiness.  She had glanced at her cell and saw she had missed three calls from him already.

“Give me your cell,” Alice reached out her hand for it.

Deirdre handed it to her with a questioning look in her eyes.

“Is this insured?” she asked as she looked up at her.  At Deirdre’s nod, she very deliberately threw it to the pavement where it immediately shattered.

“What the hell?” Deirdre asked in consternation.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Deirdre.  That man who jostled you when we were going to the car broke your phone,” she intoned in a false voice and looked intently at Deirdre to see if she would catch on.  She picked up the shattered phone from the pavement.

Deirdre broke out in a grin.  She didn’t care at all about the broken cell, but realized Alice had provided her with a plausible excuse for not getting his calls.  And then she had another thought and her face fell again, “He will ask why I didn’t use yours.”

Alice helped her into the front seat of the Porsche, tucking her in, and handed her the now ruined phone to hold.  “I left my phone at home,” she flicked her head at the condo they just left and grinned.

Deirdre laughed as Alice got behind the wheel of the expensive car, but wondered to herself if she could lie convincingly to her husband.  “That doesn’t explain the time lapse though.  He will question my friends.”

Alice started the engine.  It purred and she put it into gear.  It could have roared, but she held her foot off the gas so her neighbors wouldn’t hear its engine.  “Well, I’m sorry the AAA guys couldn’t get to us quicker, but apparently they were super busy tonight with car accidents and a changed tire was the least of their priorities.  After all, try to find a pay phone nowadays…” she once again intoned in a false voice and then exchanged a grin with the now delighted Deirdre.

It really was plausible that AAA had taken a while and Alice was right, finding a pay phone these days was impossible.  Those little boxes along the highway weren’t on the regular roadways either.  She relaxed marginally.  She knew it was inevitable that she was in for it, but it didn’t hold the terror it had earlier.  The lies bought her a margin of credibility, a margin that might mean the difference between being berated or being beaten.

“So, how did you meet Carl?” Alice asked casually as they drove along.  There was nothing innocent about the question though.  She drew out Deirdre as they drove.  She learned a lot more about Deirdre than Deirdre learned about her.  She never shared much more than her body; she knew better.  Intimacy, physical intimacy, was one thing.  Letting anyone in her head or her life too much was another thing.

Deirdre found once again that Alice was easy to talk to.  She asked leading questions and learned a lot about Deirdre, much more than Deirdre intended to share.  She didn’t know if it was the fact that they had shared so much in a relatively short time and she had enjoyed herself immensely, but she felt comfortable with Alice.  She confided more with her than she had with anyone in a long time.

Alice listened intently, already forming plans in her mind.  The lies they would now share with Carl were the beginning.  Well, she admitted wryly, the lovemaking had been the beginning, but her eyes glittered as she anticipated possible plans and what they could mean for them both.

Deirdre directed her through the confusing hills that meant they were in Beverly Hills.  They were granted entry into one of the exclusive canyons and quickly rose and wove through them to another set of gates that opened under Alice’s fingers on the keypad.  Deirdre could feel her anxiety returning, but felt a little braver with the smaller blonde beside her.  As they pulled up in front of the large mansion, she released her seatbelt and took a deep breath.

“It will be okay, let me handle this,” Alice told her.

Strangely, Deirdre wasn’t questioning that the blonde could handle this, but then she didn’t know Carl and how powerful he was.  They got out of the Porsche and walked to the front door.  Deirdre hadn’t even finished putting her key in the lock when the door was yanked open and a tall man stood there glowering at her.  “Where the HELL have you been?” he asked, ominously.

Alice assessed him as he hadn’t seen her straightaway.  Large, confident, and handsome, he was a stereotype in this city of stereotypes: money, good looks, and power that corrupts.  Deirdre had told her he was an investment banker for one of the larger firms in Beverly Hills and she recognized the name.  Access to millions of dollars made him very wealthy with what he could turn that money into.  She had been bought as a trophy wife, someone he could mold to his needs…her needs didn’t enter the equation.  She was provided a roof over her head, a place to lay it, and a bed to spread her legs for him.  Alice smiled and pushed herself forward with her hand outstretched.  No bully wants his behavior observed by the casual observer.  “Hello, I’m Alice Weaver,” she said, brightly.

He blinked for a moment, the rage in his eyes subsiding as he realized he had an audience.  His perfectly smooth persona returned in an instant and he took her proffered and delicate, little hand.  “Carl Spaulding,” he charmingly returned the greeting.  He glanced beyond her at the Porsche, noting its expensive coloring and style.  It immediately registered in his mind that this woman had money, a lot of it by the looks of her car.  While her name rang no bells, one never knew, and he immediately began to tread carefully.

“I’m sooo sorry for the delay in getting Deirdre home,” her voice oozed sincerity.  “It’s entirely MY fault,” she smiled enchantingly.  Using her momentary handhold to her advantage, she squeezed slightly, meaningfully, as she smiled up at him, using her other hand to bring it up and engulf his much larger one in its caress, sending unconscious signals to his brain.

“Your fault?” he repeated as she released his hand.  It tingled a little, but he dismissed that in his mind.  The squeeze, though, had been more than a courteous handshake and he realized that as he examined the strange woman.

“Yes, I need to get new tires,” she pointed over her shoulder with her thumb at the Porsche.  “We left the club to meet you and on our drive back here I got a flat.  AAA took forever, but then it’s Saturday night and I’m sure they had a lot of accidents tonight,” she lied convincingly, looking him straight in the eye, knowing a man such as Carl would appreciate this in his business dealings and in personal dealings.  If she looked away, he would have doubted her tale, her integrity.  He didn’t know her and her confident manner fooled him.

He glanced at his wife, satisfied that she looked chastised and frightened.  It fed his ego to know she kowtowed to him, that she obeyed his every command.  “That’s what happened?” he asked her as she nodded, not daring to speak.  “What about your cell?” he quickly asked, not sure what he hoped to catch her in, but not quite accepting everything at face value.

“I dr…dropped it,” she said in a quavering voice.  It was just enough for him to believe her, to snort derisively at her clumsiness.

“You broke it?  Again?” he asked, sarcastically.

Deirdre held up the shattered phone to show him.

“We’ll discuss this inside,” he said shortly, dismissively.

“Let’s do,” Alice said, taking charge again, and much to Carl’s surprise, he found himself leading her on his arm into the foyer of his home.  “Deirdre and I met tonight and I think it was fate,” she smiled up at the handsome man, so sure of himself and his allure.  She was going to use that against him.

“Fate?” he asked, unsure.  He was still trying to figure out how she had come to be standing in his home.

Deirdre followed and watched as Alice expertly manipulated Carl, astounded how easily she had done it thus far and on such short acquaintance.

Alice smiled.  She knew her abilities and used them unmercifully on women and men such as Carl.  “Yes, fate.  You know the club we met at tonight?” she asked, guessing that the two women who had been with Deirdre had told him, perhaps to get Deirdre in trouble, but she was going to turn it around on them and on him.

“Yes, and that’s another thing…” he began as he looked ominously at Deirdre who suddenly looked frightened again.

“Well, Deirdre and I hit it off, you know…” Alice interrupted smoothly and with enough insinuation that Carl’s attention was captured.

Deirdre gasped slightly.  Was Alice going to tell him they had sex?

Alice licked her generous lips and looked enticingly up at the attractive man, “Yes, and she confided that you might be interested in meeting me.”

This innuendo had Carl’s full attention.  “She approached you?” he scoffed, looking at his mouse of a wife for confirmation.  She looked miserable enough and uncomfortable enough that he knew there was no way she would do what this blonde was telling him.

“Well, no, but as she was waiting for her friends, she mentioned that I might be your type, and as I had approached her…” she left off to see if he was following her train of thought.  He began to examine her from head to toe and she knew she had a nibble on the line.  “She didn’t exactly say it in so many words, but I got the impression we could ALL be GREAT friends…” she smiled again.  He finished his examination and it was obvious by the look in his eye that he liked the package she presented.  The nice dress, the petite, but curvaceous body, all of it was designed to present a nice little bundle to the appreciative…and he was a connoisseur.  

In his own way, Carl was a male whore.  He used his looks and his body whenever and wherever he needed to, to make the deal, to bed the women he desired.  What did it matter if he made millions off the deal from bedding bored women and from enjoying beautiful bodies?  He didn’t care that he had a wife at home to fulfill his every desire.  He enjoyed the unusual.  Like a lot of men, he had fantasized of bedding more than one.  He had, of course, fulfilled that fantasy several times with more beautiful women than this, but the offer implied his wife would be participating.  He had suggested this many times.  He liked the idea of having two women servicing him at his command, but his prude of a wife had refused repeatedly.  In his immediate lust, he assumed many things.  He looked over at her and said, “Why now?”  He didn’t trust this stranger’s version.  His wife wouldn’t lie to him, she wouldn’t dare; she knew too well the consequences of crossing him.

“Well, look at her,” she said bravely, following Alice’s lead.  She couldn’t believe how Alice had manipulated this, had changed what could have been a fatal mistake on her part.

Carl suddenly smiled and Deirdre nearly expired on the spot.  It was his pleased smile, the one he got when he closed a multi-million-dollar deal and needed immediate sexual gratification, the one she was expected to comply with.  She quavered at the thought, knowing he would be hard on her at this moment.  “Well, well, well,” he intoned, pleased.  

Alice smiled too, as though she was equally pleased at the thought.  “I thought the three of us could get to know one another.  It will help when the time comes,” she emphasized.  “That way we all know the score.”

Carl was suddenly suspicious again.  “When the time comes?”

Alice laughed as though he had made a joke.  “Well, I don’t fall into bed with just any couple, you know,” that statement assuring him that she was experienced in this sort of thing, “but Deirdre described you glowingly and I wanted to meet you.  Having done so, I’m sure the three of us will have a wonderful time…exploring,” she hesitated at the word to emphasize it, “and getting to know one another,” she smiled at the double meaning of her words as she looked him up and down as thoroughly as he had her. 

Carl had to agree.  He liked the idea, liked what Alice implied.  She leaned towards him and he bent down as she placed a smooth kiss on his lips.  Capturing them, she quickly manipulated them into a passionate embrace right there in front of his wife.

Deirdre looked on, incredulous.  She should mind, she really should, but strangely she didn’t.  She looked on, inured to her husband’s ardent embrace with another woman, a woman she had just met last night and had amazing and passionate sex with.  The only thing that bothered her was that she had enjoyed the kisses of this woman and resented him kissing HER!

‘This woman really knows how to kiss,’ thought Carl as he enjoyed her charms. Her body pressed against his own was an intriguing promise of things to come.  He could feel her pillowy breasts pressing against him and wondered how they would feel in his hands as he squeezed them hard and pulled on the nipples. 

Alice let Carl experience enough to know that he wouldn’t be dissatisfied when they consummated this relationship, then she slowly, reluctantly pulled back with a smile and a gentle pat on his cheek.  He backed away with a look in his eyes that told her he was on the hook.

She leaned over and gave Deirdre an equally passionate kiss, much to the brunette’s obvious surprise.  Carl saw how awkward it looked for his wife and assumed it was because she had never been kissed by another woman.  The thought of this masterful blonde having his wife aroused him further as he watched.

“Good night,” Alice said softly to Deirdre with a little smile that only the two of them understood.  Carl didn’t see the tender look on her face towards Deirdre and her ‘good night’ was polite.  She looked up at him as she made her way out of the house.  “We will be in touch,” she grinned.

Carl looked after the well put together blonde.  There was something about her, but he dismissed it with his lust engaged.  He glanced at his cautious wife who was looking like a deer in the headlights, waiting for his pronouncement.  He smiled, “Well, that was a nice surprise,” he complimented her, shocking her further.  He turned away and began to head up the stairs.  “A nice surprise indeed,” he said as he glanced back to make sure she was following along.  “You did good, very good,” he emphasized meaningfully. 

Deirdre was astonished at this turn of events.  She didn’t know how Alice had done it, but what had been a certain beating had turned around completely.  Carl was pleased.  He was very pleased.  And while Deirdre didn’t know about a threesome, she knew Carl would love it.  As she followed Carl upstairs, she decided that having sex with two people at the same time was a small price to pay for her indiscretion that evening. 

* * * * *

“I thought you’d never contact me again,” Deirdre said as she welcomed Alice into the house a few days later.

Alice leaned over and kissed her hello.  “I had work to do,” she smiled.

“Carl gave me quite a gift for finding you,” Deirdre enthused, gesturing to the emerald necklace she was now sporting.  

Alice admired it.  It was a nice piece.  The emeralds were connected by diamonds, a very fine piece if you could afford it.  Carl Spaulding could afford it, per Alice’s research.  That was the work that had kept her away the past few days.  She now had Carl’s credit report, financials, and as a bonus, his tax statements over the past few years.  She was good and thorough in her investigations and now knew how much Carl was worth down to the dollar, pound, and ruble.  She knew that he played in the big leagues, had foolishly and arrogantly left no will, and was a shrewd and trusted businessman in the community.  She also knew a little more of the salacious gossip about the man.  He was a man of varied and expensive tastes who enjoyed power, women, and money, not necessarily in that order.  He had covered up many indiscretions with his money and power.  Women were easy prey to his charms, men admired his prowess and brilliance, and both threw money at his schemes, garnering both him and his bank millions.  Already, she had invested heavily in his bank, in a manner that assured her great profits.  “Nice,” she complimented Deirdre.

“Carl has begun to become annoyed at the delay,” she told Alice worriedly.

Alice smiled.  He was anxious, was he?  He would have to learn patience, she thought nastily.  He would learn from a master, if she had her way.  “That’s why I’m here.  I realized I didn’t have your phone number and hoped you wouldn’t mind me just showing up?”

“I nearly died when the security booth called up to ask if it was okay to let you through,” Deirdre confided.  She was thrilled to see the blonde, delighted that she had ‘just shown up,’ and relieved that Carl would stop pestering her.  “I got a new phone.”  They shared a laugh.

Alice smiled again as they sat down in the sitting room.  She looked around.  This was not a room that had been decorated by Deirdre Spaulding.  Everything reeked wealth and a sophistication she knew Deirdre didn’t have, at least not yet, but someday she might.  Her investigation had included getting to know Deirdre.  She now knew that the little girl who grew up by Mt. Shasta, CA had gone to school in San Francisco on an athletic scholarship and met the would-be wunderkind, Carl Spaulding.  He had chosen her from the hundreds of women who had thrown themselves at his good looks.  She had been so honored that he chose her, she let him do whatever he wanted with her, to her, and let him mold her into the woman she was today.  Unfortunately, that woman was a coward who chafed at his derision, cowered at his power over her, and had no confidence in herself because he had worn it down over the years.  His good looks and money had killed any feelings she harbored for him; they were a lie for the evil that inhabited his soul.  “You are going to invite me to dinner,” she told the brunette.

Deirdre swallowed in alarm.  “So soon?”  She didn’t know if she was prepared for what was obviously on the agenda.

Alice laughed, delighted, as she shook her head.  “No, no, not at all.  This is just a way for the three of us to get to know one another better.  We can wait until much later to consummate our relationship,” she told the alarmed housewife.

Deirdre relaxed.  She hadn’t known if she could go through with what Alice and Carl had planned.  Carl was enthused at her find.  Not only had he gifted her with the expensive emerald necklace she now sported (a repossession from the bank btw), but he had been treating her relatively well for the past few days; however, his impatience was beginning to show.  She enjoyed her visit with Alice, relaxed with her, talking with her until the housekeeper came in and she ordered dinner for the three of them.  They visited until Carl came home at seven.

Carl was delighted to see the pearl-colored Porsche in his driveway.  He had asked his wife repeatedly when they would be seeing the petite blonde again and her evasive answers were beginning to annoy him.  He had become greatly excited at the idea of subjecting both his wife and the curvaceous blonde to his obvious male superiority.  It had aroused him repeatedly at work and he had taken it out on Gina in accounting, bending her over her desk and taking her hard against it.  She had enjoyed it immensely, but wondered what had gotten into him.  It was just a momentary diversion for him.  He dismissed it as a release of the tensions building up in his loins, the anticipation of bedding both his wife and her new friend Alice.  Seeing her car put a spring in his step as he returned from garaging his Jaguar.

“Hello?” he called as he came in the door and put down his briefcase.

“We’re in here, Carl,” Deirdre called, falsely, immediately feeling tension.

“We’re on,” Alice said quietly, giving Deirdre a smile of encouragement.

“Well, look who’s here,” Carl boomed as he walked in to see Alice sitting, drinking tea with his wife.

“Yes, Alice came by for dinner,” Deirdre said, still a little nervous of her husband.

Alice put down her tea cup and stood to greet Carl and give him a little peck on the mouth in greeting.  He took advantage of the moment to crudely caress her ass, massaging it roughly.  She was annoyed at the lack of subtlety, but let it pass, showing nothing in her yellow-brown eyes.

“Dinner will be in a few minutes,” Deirdre said as she stood up.

Carl let Alice go with another grope, this time ‘accidentally’ brushing against her breast.  He turned to his wife, well pleased with their dinner guest, and gave her an obligatory kiss.  Hers wasn’t as passionate as Alice’s, but then she was relieved, wondering if perhaps Alice was playing with fire.

Throughout dinner, Carl exerted himself to be charming.  Alice was equally charming.  She was intelligent, witty, and sharp-tongued enough to keep Carl intrigued.  When he scoffed at her profession as a day trader, she brought up a much talked about deal that only insiders knew of and revealed that she was the mastermind behind the scheme.  She knew Carl would know about this deal in his profession, and name-dropping never hurt.  This garnered not only Carl’s attention, but his reluctant admiration.  Money impressed him as nothing else could.  He eagerly anticipated bedding her, but she pointed out that, like a fine wine, these things were meant to be savored.  You didn’t gulp a hundred-year-old burgundy, you researched it, and you got to know it intimately.  Instead of being annoyed, he was intrigued, titillated, and found he didn’t resent the wait.  He loved the double entendre.  Having her under him and at his mercy eventually would make it all worth the wait. 

Alice counted the night a success.  She had kept Carl intrigued and eagerly waiting to bed her.  She had included Deirdre without making it too obvious that Carl treated her horribly, derisively, and like a servant to his unending needs.  She had spent the late afternoon bolstering Deirdre’s ego and the evening stroking Carl’s.

They got to know each other over the next weeks as Alice studied them, learning little things that helped with her plans.  Carl was becoming impatient, but once Alice set a date for their threesome, he calmed down.  They had put some ‘rules’ in place for the much-anticipated night together: safety words and other ideas to make it comfortable for all of them.  What he didn’t know was on the afternoons she came early to get to know Deirdre, she made mind-blowing love to the woman: captivating her, making Deirdre fall in love with her, making her compliant with anything Alice wanted.  She also bolstered the fragile woman’s ego, teaching her to stand on her own two feet, to become the woman she had been before Carl got hold of her.  The few nights she ate dinner with them, she let Carl be masterful over his ‘females,’ encouraging him towards what he was sure would be a night to remember.  He anticipated more than a night though, he expected to enjoy a series of days of debauchery and lechery to his heart’s content.  

In the meantime, Alice spent her mornings and most days putting chess pieces in place for the night in question.  She dressed carefully for that night, arriving later in the afternoon, but holding off Deirdre and her amorous advances.  “Now, now, leave that for later.  You want to convince Carl that we are new at this, don’t you?”

“God, that pig wouldn’t know a good screw if he had it handed to him on a silver platter,” Deirdre complained.  Since knowing Alice, she had learned a lot about making love and she had learned a lot about herself.  She felt so much more confident in her sexuality, and while she wasn’t sure she wanted to be a lesbian, she knew she was in love with the petite blonde, in love for perhaps the first time in her life.  She also sensed that Alice was elusive.  She didn’t share much.  She certainly didn’t tell Deirdre that she loved her, but she showed in so many ways that she cared and that she enjoyed her body.  Deirdre was under no illusions about how the woman might react to a declaration of love from her and kept it to herself.

“Madam?” the housekeeper came into the sitting room where they were enjoying tea.

Deirdre looked up, wondering why she had come in.  Dinner had been ordered two hours ago, but they were waiting for Carl before serving it.  Alice looked up as well.

“There is a police officer at the gate,” she said in her upper crust tones.

Deirdre looked stunned.  “A police officer?” she asked.

“Yes.  He said he needed to speak with you.  Shall I let him in?” she asked.

“Yes, of course, let him in,” Deirdre dismissed her and turned to Alice.  “What the heck is that about?”

Alice shrugged, shaking her head, but she knew, her gut told her.  She felt a curious little sensation begin to hum inside of her.  Her yellow eyes began to gleam, but she suppressed her gleeful emotions…now was not the time. 

The housekeeper showed not one, but two officers into the well-appointed sitting room.  Deirdre rose graciously and walked towards the officers.  Behind her, Alice rose as well and looked on.  She knew these were not police officers, but county sheriff’s officers; it was a different kettle of fish.

“Officers, I’m Deirdre Spaulding.  What can I do for you?”

Both men removed their hats immediately, out of respect for the women.  The first one, apparently, was going to speak for them both.  “Ma’am, I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you that there was an accident today and your husband Carl was fatally injured.”  He gulped.  He hated having to tell wives these things, but someone had to.  He glanced around the room and noticed the attractive blonde standing near the couch.

“Carl?” she said wonderingly, “No, there must be some mistake,” she smiled charmingly.  “We’re expecting him for dinner,” she gestured towards Alice.

The officer shook his head.  One of the things they always looked for was the reaction of the remaining spouse as it told them a lot about the situation.  This one was in immediate denial.  “No, ma’am.  There was a car accident.  He crashed his car and I’m sorry to tell you, he didn’t survive.”

Deirdre stood there in absolute shock.  A strange worm of relief began to flourish in her, but it was so far down that she didn’t notice it.  She stared at the officer as if he had grown horns.

Alice came up behind her and put her arm around her.  “Deirdre, let’s sit down.  I’m sure the officers have more to tell you.”

Deirdre let Alice lead her back to the settee and sat there numbly.  Alice gestured to the two officers to sit across from them on the other couch.  They sat with their hats in their hands, looking around at where the two women had apparently been drinking tea.

Swallowing noisily, the spokesman for the two of them started again.  “It was obviously an accident.  There will, of course, be a coroner’s report to rule out drugs or anything else,” he began.

“He would hate that,” Deirdre interrupted in a monotone.

“Hate what?” Alice asked before the cop could.  It was a way to take control of the situation.

“An autopsy, he would hate that a stranger was cutting him open,” she said, as she began to shudder in reaction to the news.

Alice had an arm around her and put her other around her as well to gather her close.

“I’m sorry, but it’s necessary to prove he wasn’t under the influence,” the officer put in.

Deirdre laughed a short bark and said, shaking her head as the tears began in her eyes, “If you knew Carl, you would know how he detested drugs and drug users.”

The officers nodded to acknowledge her statement and filed it away in their minds for their report later.  The spokesman reached into his chest pocket for two cards, which he put on the coffee table between them, next to the tea service tray.  “If you need anything, you can call me.  The preliminary investigation and witnesses are pointing to an accident, a tragic one.  We will let you know when you can claim the body and have a funeral home pick it up.”

“Oh, gawd,” Deirdre moaned, the enormity of it beginning to hit her.  Alice held her reassuringly, holding her own composure although her face was a mask of concern for her friend.

The officers noted her and asked, “And who are you, ma’am?”

“I’m Alice Weaver.  I’m a friend of both the Spauldings,” she told them with a straight face.

Never for a moment did they doubt her as she held the grieving and now sobbing woman in her arms.

Again, the officer swallowed noisily.  “We will be in touch, ma’am, and as I said, contact me if you need anything or have any questions.”  Both officers rose from where they were sitting, relieved to be getting the hell out of the expensive house.  It was bad enough to uphold the law, but to have to face grieving widows and tell them their beloved husbands were dead was a horrible part of the job.

Deirdre never heard them as she sobbed into Alice’s arms. “But he was coming home for dinner,” she said unnecessarily to the blonde.

The officers had no reason to question Deirdre’s sincere grief.

Alice watched them leave, relieved to have them gone.  She didn’t trust cops.  They asked too many questions sometimes.  That night she held Deirdre as she sobbed out her grief over her relief at having Carl gone.  She subsided in the early morning hours as Alice watched over her friend.

Alice was an excellent friend to the bereaved widow over the next few days.  Condolences began to arrive in droves, expensive flower arrangements were everywhere.  Alice helped direct things for her friend.  She drove her to Carl’s lawyer’s office and pretended surprise that there was no will.  The state would take a large chunk of the estate since he had died intestate, but the remaining chunk was considerable.  Carl had investments and property in places that assured the widow plenty of money in her coming years.  Alice drove her to Carl’s offices and helped her deal with the sugar sweet and two-faced condolences of his co-workers and bosses.  Already an audit was being ordered for his accounts and monies.  On Alice’s advice, the family lawyer was looking to protect as much of Deirdre’s assets as possible.  Carl had been a rising star at his job, a silent stockholder who, if he had wanted, could have eventually been a partner.  His holdings were astounding, but then Alice already knew that.  It just took a little direction to send the lawyer on the right course.  Packing up his office took no time at all, the files had already been rifled through.  There were a couple of plants that Deirdre had no desire to take and a framed photograph of a much younger and happier Carl and Deirdre in their early days, before he turned into the monster he had become, before money and power corrupted him.

Alice helped her go to the funeral parlor to arrange the funeral, a necessarily evil before the body would be cremated.  She had convinced Deirdre there was no point in letting the man take up real estate and having his body interred in an urn would suffice.  The outpouring of sympathy for Carl Spaulding from clients and friends was amazing, but then he was an important man, a powerful man, and knew many people.  Alice took a discreet step back and let the now more confident Deirdre handle this part.  She slowly released her grip on her friend, bolstered her with encouragement, but slowly began to take a back seat.  Deirdre’s two friends had become suspicious of her interest in their friend.  After all, the women had met in a lesbian club.  That Alice was still around after all these weeks made them wonder at their relationship.  If Carl hadn’t bragged to his buddies that he was about to bed both his wife and the apparently bisexual Alice, there would have been a quiet scandal and Deirdre would have suffered.  Deirdre though, wisely realized these two ‘friends’ were a subtle way to keep her in line.  Carl and his buddies were equally controlling of their wives, who voluntarily allowed this treatment in exchange for a life that few could imagine.  Deirdre slowly distanced herself from these types of people.  She no longer needed them in her life and she no longer had Carl controlling the purse strings, controlling her life and dictating who her friends were.

Alice let herself into her condo after the funeral and immediately went to her office and her laptop.  She opened it and typed in an encoded password.  She also had the pad for thumbprint access to ensure no one could ever break into the machine.  She quickly pulled up the information she was looking for, satisfied that things were going her way.  She checked and double checked the figures, then issued a silent command that would slowly sell off the mass of stocks, which would begin to rise again now that the boy wonder of the banking world was buried.  They had dipped quite low when his death was announced and Alice had bought large chunks of the stock planning for this moment.  She had used the occasion of Carl’s death to place her in a strategic position that allowed for vast profits…her profits.  She looked satisfied as blocks of her stock were eagerly gobbled up as a greedy public began to buy the now-rising options she had bought on spec.  She enjoyed knowing that this manipulation had worked out to her pocketbook’s benefit.  

Remembering Carl’s derision over her being a day trader, she saluted herself with a glass of expensive wine.  She celebrated her astute business manipulations of the bank’s stocks and a few of their select customers she had learned of from her investigations.  The fact that she had spread her investments over a wide range of unrelated stocks and bonds had allayed any suspicions from falling on her shoulders.  After all, no one could have anticipated the death of Carl Spaulding, could they?  She smiled evilly.

Over the next few months, as lawyers worked out Carl’s investments, settled his estate, and dealt with the state, Deirdre became more confident in her role as a grieving widow, relieved to have him gone.  She relied on Alice for a while, but found she didn’t need her as much towards the end.  Alice was okay with this.  She had anticipated this as well.  She left Deirdre with a loving smile and a memory that made her stronger, more confident, and self-assured.  She would survive now.  Alice had ensured that in many ways.

~The End~

If you have enjoyed MYSTERIOUS MALICE, check out the first chapter of K’Anne’s BEST-SELLING Novel: VEIL OF SILENCE: 

Five years ago, Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano disappeared when her helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.  Her wife held out hope for her return, but with no word from the army after all that time, she begins to realize she may have to move on without her.

At the embassy in Kabul, a burqa-clad woman arrives at the gate with two young children in tow.  The black-haired, brown-eyed woman looks like an Afghan native, but her American accent belies this.  She identifies herself as Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano, all the while keeping a close eye out behind her as though at any moment, someone might jump out and snatch her back.

Questions arise regarding her disappearance and reappearance and the army is suspicious.  The children are obviously hers.  Has she consorted with the enemy?  How will her wife react to these children?  Will she be able to accept children she had no part in conceiving?  

What is this woman hiding beneath her chador?  What secrets lie behind her veil of silence?

Poetic license was taken with this story as they would NOT have allowed Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano to see her wife or child until after she had been acquitted, adjudicated, or fully cleared of any and all charges.  I’ve patterned my army base outside of Chicago after Scott Air Force Base (AFB), a logistics base for the United States Air Force (USAF) and Great Lakes Naval Air Station (NAS), which is a training naval air station.  Many thanks to the women and men who have served there along with their civilian counterparts.

CHAPTER ONE

The guards were particularly alert.  There seemed to be an inordinate amount of traffic on the road in front of the embassy that day.  Airport Road in Kabul was a straight road that seemed to compel people to rush along it, past the embassies of The United States, South Korea, and even International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters, on their way to and from Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital.  It paid to be alert since American embassies were frequently targeted by extremists looking to make a name for themselves in this violent part of the world.  Men, women, and even children were suspect as they wore the robes of their various tribes, which could hide anything from the daily groceries to a bomb.  Anyone approaching knew to have their identification ready and their hands spread.  Any suspicious behavior was dealt with immediately, not only out of self-preservation, but to protect this tiny strip of land that the Americans declared their own.

The guards were constantly looking, scrutinizing, and assessing any and all possible threats—from the donkey-drawn carts, to the expensive cars that careened down the street as though threatening to hit any and all pedestrians in their path.  Pedestrians especially were viewed with suspicious concern as it was not unheard of for people to walk up to the U.S. embassy with a bomb strapped to their body.

Today the pedestrians seemed particularly plentiful, the hajibs hiding the identities of the women.  No one could tell if they were young or old under the completely engulfing, black garb required by the men in this country.  Purportedly to protect their women, it also provided anonymity from the many hordes of strange men who had come to this part of the world, supposedly to make peace.  As the garb hid so much, it could be intimidating to those soldiers who were new to this part of a violent world.  

The guards watched as a woman with two very young children observed from across Airport Road onto the Great Massoud Road where the embassy was actually located.  She was assessing the embassy, at least that’s how it appeared to their knowing eyes.  She carefully looked up and down the street several times before cautiously shepherding the children across the busy street.  A vendor using a cow to pull his slow-moving cart yelled at her and she bobbed her head in subservience, silently apologizing for having slowed his plodding along the busy street.  She had her hands around both of the young children’s shoulders, pushing them along as she approached the entrance.  Both guards stiffened as it became obvious she was making her way towards them.  A concrete barrier lay slightly behind them, stopping any cars from rushing the embassy and detonating a bomb inside.  Still, as she could go by on the busy sidewalk, they watched her warily.  She looked behind her repeatedly…this was not a good sign. 

She approached the guards and smiled, but this goodwill gesture was hidden by the chador she was wearing—a black veil across the lower half of her face.  Comprehending their increasingly alarmed looks at her presence, she realized her mistake.  Taking her hand from the back of the older child she was shepherding, she held her hand wide and slowly reached for her face so they couldn’t misconstrue her gesture as she pulled the cloth down to reveal her face.  She smiled tremulously as she cleared her throat.

“I am Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano.  I’ve been held captive for years.  I am an American citizen and I demand refuge in the embassy,” she stated, almost afraid to talk.  She glanced around once more, her hand returning to the shoulder of the young child by her side.

“Ma’am?” the guard questioned her, disbelieving.  This woman didn’t look at all like an American with the full length burqa she was wearing; however, her accent was decidedly American, nothing like the natives who learned English out of necessity.

“Please,” she pleaded.  “I’m certain they are following me.  They will take me back!  They will take my children from me!  They will kill me this time….”

“Do you have any identification–” he began, but she interrupted him.

“Of course I don’t,” she stated angrily, looking around at the faces passing by, some curious, some minding their own business.  “Weren’t you listening?  I’ve been held captive.  I am Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano,” she repeated, looking disparagingly at the insignia on the private’s upper arm, trying to intimidate him into believing her.  “I am a lieutenant in the United States Army and I demand that you take me inside.”

“Ma’am, we can’t let…” he began, unsure of what to do.

“Come this way,” the other guard offered, believing her.  If all else failed, they would throw her out if her story proved false.  He gestured to her with his arm out, showing her into the gates, which another guard began to open as he escorted her.  Once beyond the gates and on American soil, she breathed a sigh of relief.  The tension in her shoulders immediately drained away as she shuffled along, still pushing the two young children forward.  

The older of the two turned to her and in a pleading voice asked, “Moray?”

“It’s okay now,” she said consolingly, the fear she heard in her child’s voice hitting her in the chest.  She shepherded them along behind the guard escorting her into the building.

“What is this, Private?” a voice stopped them once they were inside.  

Marsha was relieved to be out of sight of the street and behind a door.  Another mantle of fear began to draw off from her shoulders.  She pulled the chador back from her face and pulled the hood of the burqa off, revealing another scarf tied over her head—a richer, more elaborate, and colorful grey scarf.  She pulled this back too, revealing black hair pulled back tightly from her face.  “I am Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano,” she repeated it as though a litany, as though she had said it so many times that she had memorized the inflections and tones over and over.  “I have been held captive for years and I demand asylum!”

The woman looked alarmed.  She did, however, believe the strange woman and ushered her into the office behind her.  She looked curiously at the children.  They too were wearing a smaller version of a chador, but in blue.

“You can take these off now,” the woman said in English to the children.  They looked up at her, alarmed as she began to tug at the all-enveloping costume.  Removing the garments revealed a young boy dressed in a blue dress-like garment that covered red pantaloons.  He wore sandals on his feet and his hair was covered in a red scarf that matched his pantaloons exactly.  He looked like a traditional Afghan child—much loved and picture perfect with dark brown eyes and a cherubic face.

The older of the children was a young girl.  She was wearing a red dress to her knees, the same color as her brother’s pantaloons and scarf.  Her pantaloons matched her dress as well.  She was wearing a headdress that covered her hair, again the same color.  It was as though a bolt of cloth had been stretched to make these traditional outfits to match on both children.  She looked down at her feet, hiding her eyes shyly from the strange officious-looking woman that was staring at them curiously.

“You said you were Lieutenant…” the woman asked to start the interview as she sat behind her desk.  She indicated the chairs across from her and the woman sat the older child, the girl, in the second chair before settling herself with the younger boy in her lap.

“I’m Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano,” she repeated for the third time that day.  “I was on a helicopter that went down in the mountains.  We were captured.  I don’t know how long I’ve been held,” she said, the words rushing out of her as though she was afraid they wouldn’t be heard otherwise.  “I want to go home,” she pleaded. 

“I understand.  Is someone looking for you…” she indicated the children, “for them?”

“Yes, their father,” she nodded agreeably.  “If he finds us, he’ll kill me.”

She nodded, understanding the culture.  A son was especially valuable to a father in this land.  “They are yours?” she verified.

“Yes, and this one too,” she indicated her belly, hidden under the robes she was wearing.

The woman looked alarmed at finding out she was carrying a third child, but it was understandable, the robes hid everything.  

She introduced herself, “I’m Leslie Murrough.  I’m a Foreign Service Specialist,” she quickly became officious as she began to question the woman.  

Strangely, the lieutenant had a hard time answering some of the questions beyond her identity, almost as though she wasn’t used to talking…especially in English.

After a while, the woman picked up the phone and spoke rapidly into it.  Once she hung up, she turned to the woman again, “Someone will be with us shortly.”

Marsha understood.  She would be accused of, if not charged with, colluding with the enemy.  They would ask her why she didn’t take the opportunity to escape and evade, especially as it was obvious she had been with them for some time.  Three children were the result of that so-called captivity.  They wouldn’t want to believe her.  They would assume she was lying to save her hide, that she just wanted to go home now with no consequences.  She understood that.  She resented the assumption, but she did want to go home.  She wanted to take her children and go home now...but would they let her? 

A man entered the office, looking curiously at Marsha and the woman across the desk.  Marsha’s children began to fidget.  He asked the same questions as the woman.  It took a long time.  

“Please, I’ll answer your questions, but it has been a long trip and the children are tired.  I’m tired.”  She put her hand on her pregnant belly, “We need rest, food if you would.”

“My apologies.  Of course you do,” the man said diplomatically.  They had to be cautious.  If she really was Lieutenant Gagliano and she had married an Afghan national, this could really be messy.  He nodded to the woman who had listened to him asking the same questions to see if the woman deviated from her story.  So far she hadn’t.  The woman, Leslie, made another phone call and in short order a younger woman knocked on the office door.

“Ah, Linda, would you please escort our guest to a room so that she and her children can wash up and rest.  Have dinner brought to them,” she said carefully, in code.  Basically, she was saying they were allowing Marsha to stay, but only as they verified her identity, and she would be under supervision.

“Yes, Ms. Murrough.  Of course, Ms. Murrough,” she answered respectfully.  

“Thank you,” Marsha answered sincerely as she gathered her children.  She put their enveloping robes over her arm and ushered them out of the room.  She knew the two people left behind would be discussing her and her story, what they had gotten out of her.  She couldn’t tell them much as the children had been listening.  While Bahir had listened and not really understood, Amir hadn’t cared at all.  He had, in fact, fallen into a light sleep in her arms.  She was tired, so very tired.  She had carried them so often on her trip to escape.  Fear was a great motivator in keeping her adrenalin going, but it was now gone and she was exhausted.

“Here you are,” Linda told them cheerfully as she showed them to a bedroom.  “I hope you don’t mind sharing, but I thought the children would want to be with you.”

“No, I don’t mind and you are right.  They would be frightened in this strange place without me,” Marsha told her gratefully.  “Thank you.”

“I’ll bring your dinner in a little while,” Linda promised as she showed herself out of the room.

“Thank you,” Marsha repeated politely.  Once the door was closed, she sagged in relief.  She was here!  She was free!  Free of Zabi, free….  She couldn’t quite believe it.  She wondered how long she had been gone.  She protectively rubbed her stomach and the baby seemed to understand her need to be quiet.  She worried now that maybe she’d done something to harm the fetus growing inside her.  Zabi would be angry, especially if this were a son too.  Then she realized, she didn’t have to worry about Zabi and his anger…ever again.

“Moray?” Bahir asked anxiously.  She hadn’t understood where they were going and the surroundings seemed so strange.  She was frightened of these people.

“It’s okay, my flower,” Marsha told her consolingly, speaking her native language.  It had taken more than a year to understand as much as she did of the dialect that Zabi and his people spoke.  A lot had been hand gestures and angry demands, but now she pushed that aside.  She was on American soil and she was free.  She knelt down to her daughter, smiling at the native dress she was wearing…her best, there hadn’t been time to change.  The covering robes were full of dust from their travels.  The clothes they wore were stereotypical of Afghan children—his daughter and son were Zabi’s pride and joy!  They looked beautiful in their best clothes.  Marsha was proud of her children and relieved that she had gotten them both away.  She was incredulous that she had managed, finally.  “Why don’t we bathe?  That nice lady is going to bring us food and then we can sleep,” she indicated the huge, by her children’s standards, queen-size bed in the middle of the room.  The furniture was sparse, but to the children the room was luxurious and strange.

“Bathe?” Bahir asked, a little more enthusiastically.  She loved bathing.  The mountain streams were a favorite playground of the children.  She was still young enough to have gotten away with playing in them.  In a few years she wouldn’t have been allowed.

“Dib?” Amir said, understanding the word.  

Marsha smiled.  The children were so young.  She’d tried to teach them as much English as Zabi had allowed.  He took pride in his Persian heritage and his temper was so mercurial that Marsha had learned not to push her own culture on their children.  His beatings had only stopped when she was with child.  He didn’t want to lose ‘his’ sons to his temper.  He had been disappointed when Bahir had been born, but he’d allowed Marsha to heal sufficiently before he was on her again, raping her until she was, once again, pregnant.  She shuddered in remembrance of the child she had lost to Zabi’s temper.  She looked down at the two survivors before her. 

“Yes, let’s bathe,” she said, using the Tajik word dib that they both understood.  She explained the use of the toilet, fascinating the children with this indoor phenomenon.  She soon had them stripped down and in a bathtub, another new novelty to the two children.  Zabi’s tribe had been very remote.  She supposed that was deliberate, to keep from being discovered.  They had no luxuries and lived pretty much like generations of his people had for thousands of years, nomadic to a degree, but with very little to show for their lifestyles.  They had no need of modern conveniences or luxuries.  

She dressed them back in their outfits after she had shaken as much of the dust from them as possible, and was just in time to hear the knock on the door.  She let Linda in again.  She came with a tray bearing foods Marsha had only dreamed of.  “Oh, thank you,” she said in a most heartfelt way.  The smells emanating from the tray made her mouth water in anticipation.

“I’ll put it down here,” Linda indicated the small couch in the room with a coffee table before it.

“Do you know when they will want to question me again?” Marsha asked.

“No, they’ll let you know,” Linda said, her glance taking in the woman who had removed her burqa, revealing a richer, enveloping outfit of gray with black patterns on the material.  She looked rich and not at all like the prisoner she claimed she had been.  Marsha noticed her looking at her garb.

“We were celebrating when the opportunity to escape came up.  These were our best clothes,” she explained, gesturing at her own outfit and then the children’s.  The children looked fresh and clean after their baths.  They were staring intently at the strange, but delicious-smelling food on the tray.

“You don’t have to explain to me,” Linda assured her, although she had wondered.  She smiled cheerfully, “If you need anything, just pick up the phone and dial zero.”

“Thank you,” Marsha said warmly, feeling so tired.  She too wanted a bath…a real bath after all this time.  The food, however, was not only smelling good, but was a necessity after days going without.

Linda left them and Marsha sat down wearily on the couch.  She filled two plates for her children, watching as they used their fingers to eat.  She smiled.  They would learn.  She herself picked up a fork and delved in.  The food proved as delicious as it smelled.  Perhaps it was the hunger they were all experiencing or perhaps it really was the food.  Marsha was careful not to let any of them eat too much.  Days without food, while common where they came from, meant that their stomachs had shrunken.  She didn’t want either of the children to eat and get sick.  So, despite their protests that they wanted more, she cut them off at one point.

“No, it’s time for bed,” she assured them.  They were both drooping from fatigue.  She herself was ready to sleep too.  The food had made them all even more tired.  She did, however, want that bath before she slipped between the sheets.

She stripped them down to their underwear and put them to bed, telling them a story she made up as she went, until they both fell to sleep.  She then stripped and bathed, washing out her underwear in the bath with her, then hanging it to dry.  She looked at it thoughtfully, wondering, not for the first time, what other Afghan women wore.  She also wondered, again, not for the first time, where Zabi had obtained an American bra.  The chemise many women wore, but the rest of the underwear was sexy, alluring, and surprisingly comfortable.  She knew Zabi had liked seeing her in these fine clothes, the best she owned.  It showed off his status.  It showed he could provide for her better than any other man of the tribe and showed he had deserved to take her as his wife.  His first wife, much older than both of them, hadn’t been pleased, especially when Marsha had proved fertile.  She had instigated the beating that caused Marsha to lose a child.  Zabi had sworn never to touch her again when she was pregnant and she was grateful for that consideration at least.  She had detested his touch from the beginning.

As she laid back in the tub, her hair longer than she could ever remember having it, she luxuriated in the feel of the warm water.  The heat of the water sank into her bones, relaxing her.  She nearly fell asleep, but pulled herself up with a jerk.  She quickly washed her hair using the little bottle of sweet-smelling shampoo that was provided, just like a hotel.  It was wonderful after years of using only whatever they managed to make.  The rough-feeling soaps that they created were a far cry from these manufactured luxuries.  Marsha loved the feel of the soap in her hair.  She found a brush on the vanity, and after squeezing out the excess water, brushed out her long curls.  She remembered how proud Zabi had been of her hair as it grew.  He had hated the short length that she previously worn as a necessity of being in the army.  Not that all women felt that way, but Marsha had liked the ease of caring for short hair back then.  She looked at herself in the mirror.  She looked very different from the woman who had gotten into that helicopter however long ago it had been.  Rough living had aged her.  Childbearing had aged her.  Zabi and his beatings had aged her.  She’d fought back at first, but the sheer number of beatings had worn her down.  Not wishing to be gang raped, she had succumbed to Zabi.  He felt he had tamed the American lieutenant, but he also respected this warrior woman in his own way.  Roughly translated, lieutenant was lomri baridman.  She’d forgotten the meaning, but he was proud that he had conquered her.  At least Marsha let him think he had…to avoid gang rape and to avoid the beatings as much as possible. 

She looked at the hair under her arms, wondering if there was a razor, but not bothering to look for it.  The hair on her legs had gotten to a certain length and stopped growing.  She wondered again how long it had been since she had shaved away these excesses.  She closed her eyes for a moment, luxuriating in the fact that she didn’t have to answer to anyone at the moment.  

She toweled off once more.  She was tempted to use the hair dryer, but knew it would terrify her children.  Even a car, the jeep she had managed to steal, had terrified them until they got used to it.  A robe had been provided for her just like in a hotel and she put her arms through the sleeves, feeling ‘normal’ for the first time.  She hung up her towel and looked around the bathroom, a luxury she hadn’t seen in forever, and turned out the light.

Suddenly curious, she went to the door of the room and opened it.  It was not locked.  In fact, she saw there was no lock on the inside.  Looking out into the hall, she saw an armed marine from the embassy security detail come to attention when he saw her.  She nodded stiffly and withdrew back into the room.  Of course they would have her watched.  It wasn’t unlike being back in the village.  She was watched, all the time she was watched.  Now, it was by her own people.  Only now, instead of being that American woman who some despised, she was that American deserter, at least she suspected that’s probably what they thought of her.  She didn’t blame them.  She wouldn’t believe her story either.

Approaching the bed, she saw that the children were soundly asleep.  Exhaustion had played a role in that.  They had been afraid for days, hungry and afraid, and the combination had made them all a bit weary.  She smiled.  That was an understatement!  She had been terrified that Zabi or his men would find her, that they would find where she had gone.  She’d deliberately turned east to throw them off her trail once she left their mountain roads.  The asphalt highway had hidden her tracks well when she turned around and made her way west toward civilization.  The highway had been like a river of lava to her and she sped along as quickly as the vehicle allowed.  She had left the jeep only when she got into Kabul.  She had run out of gas and had been too afraid to purchase more.  Keeping her head covered, her eyes lowered, and carrying the children when they couldn’t, or wouldn’t walk, she had made her way down Airport Road to the Great Massoud Road where she knew the American embassy was located.  She was grateful to be able to sleep in a bed, a real bed, with her children.  She sent up a little prayer.  To Allah, to Yahweh, to God…whoever might be listening.  All she said was, “Thanks,” but that was all that was needed as she bowed her head and then got into bed with her children.  Her robe felt warm under the smooth sheets, but she wouldn’t sleep naked with her children.  It took mere minutes for her to fall into a dreamless sleep. 

End sample chapter.  If you wish to purchase the entire book, please check it out at www.kannemeinel.com.

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A Lost Love

Dawn Lorrayne isn't happy, and she is going to make sure that no one else is happy...even if her macabre plan for revenge is the last thing that she does. 

Laurel Taylor has moved on with her life, and has found a new love in Alex James. They are making plans to take the next step in their relationship. 

To what lengths will all three go to in order to fulfill their destiny, or will Dawn's violent plan end everything before it really gets started?

The Crossroads

Sex and drugs, a way of life for Samantha Petrino, but the party girl found herself faced with bitter experiences which forced her to face the magnitude of viciousness of her past and suddenly forced to decide to live for the day, or live for the future.  

Standing on the sidelines, Samantha’s friend and business partner, Melanie Anocco, believes that you reap what you sow, and secretly took pleasure in watching Samantha fall from grace.  A secret relationship and the beginning of betrayal begins when Melanie pursued a relationship with April, Samantha’s girlfriend.  

The business partnership and long time friendship ends sending Samantha running. Finding comfort in her therapist, Samantha finds herself falling in love for the first time, but what can a married woman offer her? The journey of heartbreak and betrayal advance forward until Samantha loses the one constant in her life her high-school friend Brenda to cancer. A promise made to Brenda before she passes has Samantha transforming into the woman she was destined to be. Now can Samantha put the pain of the past behind her and rebuild a friendship with Melanie or would she continue to run?

Heart of Fire

Courageous, determined, Homicide Detective, Danni Pacelli's is unmoved by death and violence, but when promoted and partnered with Annabel Flanery, the charming, sexy and young rookie detective softened the hardened heart.  The perfect life Danni fought so hard to build, and protect, was now at stake, as she hunted down a brutal serial murderer, all the while discovering she has feelings for her new partner.  

Danni finds herself spiraling, as the lines of hunting down the killer, or protecting her partner from certain death become blurred, as Danni finds herself wondering how to catch the killer while protecting her heart.

 The more the two battles to save lives, the more in love Danni falls, but will she be brave enough to face admitting her feelings, and win Annabel’s heart, or risk losing the security, and the life of solitude, she’d always known? Or will she face losing Annabel instead?  

Heart of Vengeance

WARNING ~ book contains graphic violence towards women

A serial killer plagues the gay community and leaves a trail of dead bodies across state lines. Agent Danni Pacelli and Agent Parker Stevens rush against time to catch their killer and stop the body count from increasing.

Agent Parker Stevens life was perfect when transferred to a new city and new location which offered her solitude from the grief of losing her partner and children to a predator. But, while hunting down her suspect, she meets Samantha Petrino who takes the once closed off Stevens and opens a world to new love. The charming advertising agent breaks down her defenses, and no matter how hard she fights to protect her heart, she finds herself falling for the beautiful and intelligent woman.

New to the FBI, Agent Danni Pacelli’s struggles to balance her personal life along with the job, to save her relationship, she convinces her new partner to bring in Annabel and utilize the young detective’s skills to track down their killer or risk losing Annabel all together.

The heroic efforts of two agents who hunt down a serial killer, but find more than they bargained for.

Out of the Mist, The Secret

What happens when two women, from different worlds collide? 

Jordan Watkins, self-assured, successful attorney, who trusts no one, dates often but believes it is not in her genes to have a successful relationship.  All that changes when she meets and falls for Angela Gratace, who is still discovering her identity. 

Angela did not mind being alone, it came with the territory she had learned in her youth. Keeping to herself was the best option. But, that was before Jordan Watkins walked into her office, and into her heart, turning everything Angela believed in upside down. 

Thrown into a whirlwind of emotions, Angela is now faced with the dilemma of having to admit she is not only attracted to the young successful attorney, but also women. Struggling with her identity, Angela questions if she is gay, straight or bi-sexual, or just going crazy.   Will she risk everything she believes in, or face her demons, and choose happiness, or die protecting the secrets, lies and betrayal, of a past she tried hard to forget.

The Fallen

Turned into a vampire 1200 years ago, Nira fights hard to regain her humanity. She makes a pact with the Gods to fight the evil who is trying to destroy mankind and in return, the Gods agree to grant Nira her wish to become human.

A vampire assassin hardened by centuries of fighting against evil; disciplined and loyal, Nira never strays from her mission or the rules set out for her. She purged all her weaknesses, including her emotions to the back of her mind.

In a twist of fate she meets Stephanie, and finds herself not only fighting for her soul, but for Stephanie's life.  But the moment she met Stephanie, something dangerous awakens in her, something possessive and powerful, she discovered she would do anything to protect the woman who was slowly claiming her heart, even break all the rules if she has too. 

What happens next, not only shocks Nira but also Stephanie. In the end, it is Stephanie who saves Nira...and more.

The Death Room

Roberta Pena finally has her dream job of being a Biology Teacher at the high school that she once attended, but something sinister lurks in her classroom. She begins to have unusual paranormal experiences. Is she simply losing her mind or is there a ghost trying to make contact? How will she deal with the mystery of the room that often smells of death and where she has begun to have so many unsettling and ghastly sightings? Will she solve the mystery or be forced to leave her career that she worked so hard to achieve? Might she find love in the process?

Sadie’s Revenge

Slim Pritchard had been Sadie's first kiss and he planned to make her his wife one day, but when Sadie meets her new neighbor, Sparrow, plans change.  Sadie is in love for the very first time.

One day, while defending Sadie, Sparrow comes to blows with Slim and he vows to take his revenge.  Sadie's life has already been marred by so many tragedies. Will Slim come between the lovers?  Or will Sadie and Sparrow overcome adversity and be together forever?

Her Calling

In a world on the verge of being told that everything they once thought was merely myth is real, can one teenage girl cope with life changes she never saw coming?

Seventeen year old Kyndle Callahan began her year as a typical high school senior. Well, as typical as a girl can be while living life as a werewolf.  She wasn't bitten or scratched as most people believe all werewolves are made, no, she was born into the pack that's always been her extended family. She's never seen the people she grew up with as the monsters of myth and legend but everything in her life is thrown into a tailspin when her father springs some shocking news on her. Suddenly, reality as a werewolf is much scarier than the stories humans tell. Stunned by the prospect of spending her life bonded to someone she can’t even stand sharing the same space with and devastated at the thought of losing the only love she’s ever known, can Kyndle settle into who and what she is in time to set things right? Can the girl that grew up knowing only pack law stand up, embrace her true calling, and become the woman she was meant to be despite going against everything her family believes?

With the help of her best friend Abbey, Kyndle must navigate a confusing world of wolf culture, teenage drama, and coming out in a group that believes her lifestyle is unnatural.  Follow her journey through pain, heartache, several states, and the fight to be with the girl she loves and take her place in the world.

Her Right

Kyndle met Frost when she was less than 15 years old, but she knew, even at that young age, that they were destined to be together forever.  They make a formidable team—at home and at work.

Kyndle is one of a very small number of females in the US leading their own werewolf pack.  None of those other female leaders are “mated” with other females, but despite her success as a leader, the pack council members want Kyndle out!  She has three strikes against her: she is young, she is female, and she is gay!

Two individual males in the past few months have challenged Kyndle’s position as Alpha of her pack, and both paid dearly…with their lives.  One was Frost’s brother, the other Kyndle’s very own father.

And now Celeste, who has carried a torch for Kyndle since their childhood, has returned hoping to tear the two mates apart and claim Kyndle as her own.

Will Kyndle and Frost be able to stave off the threats to their love and partnership?  

And what about the threats at work?  Not only could Kyndle’s leadership be at stake, but her life as well!

Frankie

Carrie flees from the demons of her present, trying to protect the ones she loves.

Frankie hides from the demons of her past, and the memory of loved ones she failed to protect.

A modern day princess thrown to the wolves, Carrie's only hope is the rancher who had spent the better part of a decade in self imposed, near total, isolation. Frankie's history of losing those she tries to save haunts her, but this madman threatens her home, her livestock, her sanctuary. She knows she can't do it alone, has she still got enough support from her oldest friends?  

Hell Comes Home

Melanie had been teenager when she'd been driven to flee Harker's Island and the madness that surrounded her family there.  She hoped to find some peace and closure, but it is not meant to be. Small towns have long memories. Melanie has not been forgotten, nor forgiven.  When trouble erupts, will she rise up and become the hero needed to save the town, or will she walk away and leave them all to their fate?

Hunter

The government kidnapped her mother. Some unknown entity slaughtered her father. The two forces have always chased her. One wants her as a specimen, the other wants her dead.

When a third force joins the chase, led by a hunter from another world, can Tracy Hawks maintain her advantage? Will she ever have a safe place to call home?

Novan Witch

It was such an odd thing to most people. Arlessa, the most powerful witch in generations, High Priestess of the Borelian Temple, was in hiding, serving on the battlefield as a healer/dispatcher. They did not know, could not know, that for Arlessa to return to the Temple would mean spending the rest of her life in a marriage she did not want or in a prison from which there would be no escape.

Those who hunted her did not know, could not know, she intended to return, but in her own time and on her own terms. When that day arrived they would face a power they did not dream existed, a power that would tear apart their carefully constructed society. The Black Witch of Nova would come, and their world would fall.

Assassin of Nova

He sacrificed his humanity to save his loved ones. The Company left them to die. Now he's looking for revenge. The utter destruction of everything the Company holds dear. The Company's CEO has a daughter. A child for a child, if Rathbone can survive the hunt for her.

When she turns out to be the companion of the Black Witch of Nova, Rath might have to find a new target. He has certainly found a new army, a new purpose, a new lease on life, and most importantly, a new family.

Beyond Nova

Out beyond Nova Prime, at the very tip of the galactic arm, a single star clings tenuously to its hold on the galaxy. Circling that lonely star is a planet called Exile, where the R.I.M. Company sends its biggest failures, its greatest secrets.

Those secrets are about to be revealed. The Novan Witch and her hounds have a mission there, someone they need to find. This could tear the Galactic Empire apart.

Claimstake

If the Novans thought their victory in the Galactic War would allow them a lifetime of peace, they were wrong. Enemies are popping up everywhere, suspicions abound, and they are left with nowhere to go.

When the Novan Witches blew apart a sun they created a gap in space-time-reality. That gap is growing and now they have nowhere else to go. Can they survive in the Gap?

Dark Star

VENGEANCE IS HERS

She always fought for the underdog and never harmed an innocent, but her power couldn't be hidden in a small town. Unable to make herself heard, and tired of the abuse at home, Starla Kirby fled to the city. In her defiant desire to be heard, she turned from the Light which would not help her, and called upon the Powers of Darkness, awakening something terrible in the process. Thus was her fate sealed. Did she have the power to keep the world safe from the terror she had awakened?  

There was only one slim chance.

Empire’s Advance

Tracy and August had won the day on Earth, but the Vorlox Empire was far from finished and their attack comes from an unexpected direction. The Corelians were destroyed and now Tracy finds herself caught between the remnants of the Corelian species and the mighty Vorlox Empire.

Tracy has always concentrated on her own survival above all else. Now she finds herself having to include others in that plan. To top it off she begins to manifest new abilities, abilities that are as dangerous to her companions as they are to her enemies.  

Immortal Tigress

BRAM STOKER GOT IT WRONG

For millions of years a rogue meteor hurtles through space towards Earth, glowing from the vast fields of radiation through which it has passed. A primitive human female gazes in wonder as the burning invader hurtles toward the ground, unaware of the great beast stalking her. All three meet in an instant.

Flash forward to the present, yes, she is still here, she has always been here, in the shadows, ready to strike from the darkness with gleaming fangs. 

Lady Blue

An abused and bullied teenager is suddenly granted great and terrible powers by an ancient goddess. Each step towards womanhood is shaped by her new abilities, as is the woman she will become. Devil or angel, which will she be? Will the woman who chases her ever know for sure?

Phoenix

Earth and Eladia are being invaded by a race of destroyers. Only one hope remains for either world to survive, the good will of a mad woman, his daughter. Can Charles Carter convince her to help or will she even care?

Dark Traveler

On a medieval world, Dale, a bi-gender teenager, is on the run, from the authorities, from him/herself, and something far worse. Sometimes the thing you fear most is exactly what is needed, and Dale's need is desperate. Destiny rarely comes at an opportune moment, and Dale's destiny is nearly upon him...her...both...  

Shelly

Shelly is a troubled teenage transsexual. Can she escape the family violence and find love, a place in the world, or is her life over when her abusive father decides to work at home?

The MacKendricks

Tired of relationships that could easily be replaced by a fresh set of batteries, six women decide to break out of their ruts and find a love that will meet all of their needs.

Divorced Constance needs someone who will court her and treasure her.

Davie needs someone who doesn’t fear her love.

Widowed Elaine needs a new dance partner.

Hard working Kenzie needs someone who won’t take her for granted.

Artistic Heather needs somebody to remind her of the world beyond work.

Engaged Aileen needs somebody far better than her drunken fiancé.

Can a change of scene be what these women need?

Empire’s Fall

The V'Lox Empire has redoubled its efforts to locate and destroy the Offspring and her band of rebels. Tracy realizes it will never stop unless she can completely destroy that empire. Can she do it or will the Offspring's growing power completely absorb and obliterate the human woman she was as well as destroy everyone she loves? Only time will tell.

Lady Justice

Sometime between Tasha Stewart witnessing the murder of her parents and the attempt on her life, she made a deal with a goddess. In exchange for super powers Tasha would bring Justice to the city. A cold relentless Justice, no lawyers, no courts, and no mercy. Can she deliver on her promise and still remain who she is at her core or will she be absorbed into the cold unfeeling force that is Lady Justice? Only her unexpected compassion for a monster and the friendship of Lady Blue will keep her grounded in herself.

Children of the Wolf

For long ages the Children of the Wolf have managed to remain hidden, but the modern world has found them. Hunted and captured by a criminal mastermind, only a precious few remain free. Helpless to aid their captured kin, they turn to the Vampire king and the saber tooth tiger who serves him for help. However, this demented man may just be too much even for the mighty vampires to overcome.

After a long hunt and a terrible battle the vampires prevail, but the number of the werewolves are decimated and they need a new home. Will the vampire abandon them now or will he go further and help them find a home, help them assimilate into the new and modern world. Can they overcome their own instincts enough to do so? Only time will tell.

Hope

The tale of Mary Hope MacLaren is a story of hope. It is the story of a young woman's hopes and dreams shattered as her new husband turns violent. It is the story of hope enduring over the years, but of hope renewed at his untimely death. Most of all, it is the tale of a womans fight back to who she had been before and of her renewed hope for the life she once wanted, dreamed of having.

Lady Shadow

Lexa Condon spent too much time in imaginary worlds until she witnessed a murder.  Now the killers are after her.  With her young life about to be snuffed out, she cries out for help.  Lexa is granted the power to create imaginary worlds herself.  Flexing her new powers, she goes on the hunt for the killers, but her power is strong, and seductive.  Will she be drawn completely into a world of her own construction and disappear forever, or will she gain control and bring down the killers.  It will be a long trail and will have to face her own darkness before it's over.

Killers are hunting for Lexa, but what they find is darkness and shadow.  Shadow and form, and then shadow again.  Even as they hunt her, mystery and madness hunt them.  And then there is that damn dragon.

Return from Exile

Defiant young Annie Laurie Balfour is sent to a distant land in hopes of avoiding a devastating public scandal.  There she acquires a dark and dangerous ally, a guardian angel of great and terrible power.  Together they return to Scotland to extract vengeance and gain justice for Annie.  Will they succeed or die in the attempt?  Only time will tell.

Incoming

The humans of Earth have been guided and nurtured as they bred indiscriminately.  Now the puppet masters are returning for the harvest.  At the moment of our greatest danger an unexpected ally returns from the stars and a leader of incredible ability arises from the vast numbers of the marginalized.  She seizes command of the allies and leads them against the enemy.  Will they succeed?  Can we even survive?  And if we do, will there be anything left of our poor battered battleground of a planet?

Arctic Gale

Rhonda Gale was the undefeated champion of the world in bicycle racing.  She had it all, fame, fortune, beauty, and tons of admirers.  And yet, the one thing she truly wanted, needed desperately, eluded her.  Rhonda was troubled by dreams, psychic dreams, dreams of a woman calling to her for help.  They were dreams of a woman who set Rhonda's soul afire with desire.  Race by race, week by week, she searched, until the day she found her, the woman of her dreams.

Red Nova 

Deep in the Gap where time and space don't follow the rules, Deann of Nova stumbles on a group of people who claim to be her descendants.  Now she has to keep them alive, escape the time ship that imprisons them all, and prevent the total annihilation of Sector Nine and the Borelian Clans.  A mighty task, even for the matriarch of Red Nova.

The Second

Oona, a slave beaten and tortured is saved from certain death by a pirate queen.  Nurtured and nursed back to health by Red Meera, Oona becomes the Second Queen of the Westermen, the largest fighting force in the known world.

When Meera falls near death from poison Oona becomes First Queen.  Will she use her new-found power to avenge herself on her former master?  Indeed, she will, him and those who originally took her.  The wrath of the Westermen is about to fall on the slave masters.  There will be no mercy. 

Lady Seeker

They say she can find anyone, anytime, anywhere. Run as far and fast as you can, gather friends with guns if you want, it won't help you. She's coming. There on your back trail, always there, always getting closer, is the Seeker. Nothing can stop the bounty hunter, nothing can turn her aside, and there's only one thing she's afraid of, the dragon rider.

A Simple Twist of Fate

Genie Carey is a trans woman down on her luck.  Jamie Cameron is homophobic redneck hiding from life at the bottom of a bottle.  When circumstances force them into each other’s company they are forced to face their own fears.  They may get past their natural differences, but the growth could be difficult and painful.

Watcher and the Warrior

The forces of the Dark are on the move, humanity is vulnerable and unprepared. The goddess Moragah sends out her priestesses to find two people, to people to stop the encroaching darkness. One to see the when and where the conflict will happen, and one to halt the advance. The search was successful, in her lonely tower the Watcher sees all while below the Warrior continues to hone her skills, eagerly awaiting the battle to come.

Fortunate Fire

Bradana Gordon has made her fortune by teaching others how to create and seize upon opportunities. Suddenly stranded in a strange city by a fire that burned down her venue, she has the chance to practice what she teaches. In so doing she discovers the love of her life, but as so often happens with love at first sight, she has to accept her good fortune, and then find a way to convince the object of her desire and keep her. Not nearly as easy as it should be, but....  

Rise of The Queen

For thousands of years the High Born Elves have languished in the chains of slavery, their great strength gone, their extra keen senses dulled, and their immortality broken. Somehow, in spite of their harsh master’s efforts, the royal line managed to survive. Now, with the aid of a deadly assassin, the heir is about to shake off the chains of slavery, expose the lies, and bring her people to freedom. And she has no idea the magnitude of the task she has undertaken.

Calan

Calan MacLeod and Angela Davis burst into each other’s lives like skyrockets.  Love at first sight can be a heady experience, but can it last? This is the challenge both women face as they link arms and determine to face the world together.  Step by step, day by day, they face each new obstacle, confused and doubtful friends and family, together.  Each as fully committed to making the relationship work, grow more loving, as the other.  In this way they hope to succeed and become a beacon of hope for others.

Angela

From broke college student to wealthy philanthropist, Angela Davis’ place in the world has greatly improved since she met Calan, and she’s bringing her friends with her.

As Angie finds success and support in her field, she becomes an integral part of the Foundation and her gentle hand stills the beast that roars within Callie.

Proving that some family is chosen, regardless of blood, Leigh charms the mysterious man from Callie’s past so that the Highland Lady has time to remember who she has become.

Trudy has spent years paralyzed by fear, knowing that, until she conquers it, she may never know a full and happy life.  When she does finally face her fears, the arms she seeks will surprise everyone.

Clan MacLeod

In this story, we see the friends of Calan Macleod, Tony, Sean, Gloria, plus her cousin Stephen join forces with Angela’s college friends, Trudy, Leigh, and Bonny to help Calan’s students, Judy and Jill the twins, Donna, Tanya, and former student, Shirly get past the torment of their former lives and find peace.  Together they all bond in a tight group that calls itself Clan MacLeod.

Fallen Angel

Sometimes the pain is too great. Sometimes the desire for vengeance runs too deep.  In the blink of an eye she changes.  The Priestess of the dark known as the Fallen Angel is hunting now, killing.  Nothing can stop her, not even the goddess who made her.  Is she coming for you?

Moira

Orphaned and abandoned on the streets, Moira spent years avoiding those who prey on the helpless.  With a sudden change of fortunes, she now has a different predator on her trail.  Will her suspicious nature prevent her from recognizing love when it shows up?  Only time will tell.

Nordic Desire

Stranded in St. John's because of the events of 9/11, Gudrun is forced to take the time to reflect on her life.  Determined to create a new life for herself, she returns to that far away city.  That new life suddenly appears and she finds herself falling in love with a poor woman.  The challenge now is for the rich girl to compromise, and just much compromise can she make?

Across the Miles

Two different women from different worlds connect over a long-lost love poem. Suddenly Mildred flees England for the Wilds of Canada and vanished from Cecile's life. Can Cecile locate her and rekindle the budding long distance romance they both enjoyed so much? Even if she can, will it work once they meet in person?

Vampire’s Lair

The vampire king's promise of sanctuary, a safe haven for all non-humans, hangs in the balance.  Reluctantly, he sends his youngest agent to retrieve and hide a maddened were-bear.  If she can't keep him out of the public eye then all will be lost, and she's not doing so good.  The bear is elusive, savage, and on a killing spree.  If the humans find out about non-humans, they will hunt them into extinction.  She has to stop the bear, but first she has to catch him.

Wildflower

Almost eaten alive by the fast lane in California, Abby MacKai retreats to the cold north to lick her wounds and start a new life. Out amid the rocks and wildflowers she meets Hazel and the sparks fly, but a misunderstanding can ruin everything, so can the crippling depression Abby struggles with from time to time. Can she pull herself out of the blue funk to save something beautiful? If she does will she be able to track down the girl who has fled?

The Small Step Journey

Book of Prose and Poetry

The Tiger and the Snake

Book of Prose and Poetry

Dakota

When U.S. Marine Dakota McKnight returned home from her third tour in Operation Iraqi Freedom, she carried more baggage than the gear and dress blues she had deployed with.  A vicious rocket-propelled grenade attack on her base left her best friend dead and Dakota physically and emotionally wounded.  The marine who once carried herself with purpose and confidence, has returned broken and haunted by the horrors of war.  When she returns to the civilian world, life is not easy, but with the help of her therapist, Janie, she is barely managing to hold her life together...then she meets Beth.

Beth Kendrick is an American history college professor.  She is as straight-laced as they come, until Dakota enters her life, that is.  Will her children understand what she is going through?  Will she take a chance on the broken marine or decide to wait for the perfect someone to come along?

Time is on your side, they say, unless there is a dark, sinister evil at work.  Is their love strong enough to hold these two people together?  Will the love of a good woman help Dakota find the path to recovery?  Or is she doomed to a life of inner turmoil and destruction that knows no end?

Riding The Rainbow

With two out-loud-and proud mothers, plump, clumsy Lily is miserable in fifth grade where bullies torment her on the playground and in class. Across the room Clara sits still as a statue, never volunteering or raising her hand, answering only in whispers with her head down to avoid curious eyes, keeping her family's secret that she has two dads.

Each girl is relieved to have a friend, especially one who understands living in a rainbow family. Everything seems great until old lies and blackmail catch up with them. 

Clara is kidnapped. Her two dads move fast, the police even faster, but her best friend must be the quickest of all. Will Lily be in time to save Clara's life?

A Man’s Man

 “It’s like this, see.  My dad’s a fag, his boyfriend’s a queer, and I think I might be gay.  I mean, I think it’s catching or something.”  

When twelve-year-old R.J. decides to turn his dad straight, unintended consequences mess everything up.  His father is miserable, the kids at school hate him, and his best friend Jessica is furious.  To make things right he will have to figure out for himself what it means to be A Man’s Man.

(For readers age 12-16)

Leaving Afghanistan Behind:

Amelia Gittens, a black female, has the distinct honor of being the first female to be admitted to the US Army’s elite group of snipers, fighting in Afghanistan.  It doesn’t come without its price, though, as she comes back as so many veterans do with post-traumatic stress syndrome complete with major flashbacks.  Working as a New York City police officer, she is involved with a suspect shooting.  Unfortunately for her, it is the cousin of a major international drug dealer who seeks revenge on her and her partner, as well as the departmental psychiatrist.  Amelia responds the only way she knows how, falling back upon her military training to keep her ward safe while the situation is being resolved.  The whole while, she is battling her own inner demons, fighting with herself to keep them at bay, nearly tearing herself apart. 

The Plaid Skirt

Aly Lockewood, 24, never having told anyone that she is a lesbian, meets Sasha Aronov, 31, who has been out since Junior High school, in a clothing store, both wanting to buy the same plaid skirt.  Alison breaks the ice in a most bizarre way, completely taking Sasha off-guard.  Meeting over coffee, Sasha won't admit her instant feelings, saying she isn't in a relationship and isn't looking for one, yet offers to mentor and support Aly.  Aly admits to being gay for the first time, trusting Sasha not only because she also is a lesbian, but because she gets a good feeling from her, along with feeling sparks of her own toward Sasha.  Can the immovable force move the immovable object?  Only time will tell...

After Sasha

Single mother Alison Aronov-Lockewood has just found herself face-to-face with a ghost.  A living, breathing, ghost—of her lost wife Sasha, and mother to her daughter Lidi.  After she manages to get her anxiety under control, she realizes that this apparent apparition is a wonderful woman, a woman of wit and charm, a woman who cares about being an advocate of the children, just as she has become a representative in the legal system of children in honor of Sasha’s death in the line of duty as a social worker.  And more importantly, like herself, she is a lesbian.  After feeling nothing but pain inside for the last six and a half years, Aly’s heart beats once, twice, three times in quick succession.  Could this be love again?  Could this be that special person that she’s waited all these years for?

The Other Side of Indifference:

London Pereira is a mid-career TV anchorwoman wanting to move from her prestigious anchor position into world-travelling investigative reporting. At a chance meeting of corporate executives, she meets Madeline Ross, a well-respected and successful Ad Marketing executive. Both women are single lesbians, at first unknown to each other, but both strangely drawn to the other. Under the pretense of having their two companies work together, London engineers a way to see more of Maddie, hoping to ignite romance. Maddie secretly plans the same thing. When their plans lead to sensual fruition, the chance for a love of a lifetime blossoms, but with unforeseen complications that their new romance might not withstand.

To Paris With Blood

Welcome to Paris, “The City of Lights”---where the only requirement to visit is being “Undead.”

Struggling with a past tragedy and growing unrest with my sister, I accepted an invitation to visit my very close friends in Paris.

My early morning flight had just arrived in Paris. As I made my way through the busy concourse, timed seemed to stop. All my mind could register were the three friends  standing in front of me. Janine and her two Brother’s, Luc and Jaycee.

Meanwhile, back in the States my sister Elena had taken great joy in antagonizing me. Elena’s jealousy would come to be the driving force that would lead to the culmination of a showdown that will resolve a past injustice and ultimately lead to the destruction of our relationship, and a much darker, sinister means to an end.

Would the love that Luc and I came to share, along with Janine and Jaycee be enough to overcome the deceit, treachery and betrayal we would encounter? Would the secret my friends have destroy me or renew me?

Little did I know, they would literally hold my soul in their hands.

Love Me Completely

After an unhappy marriage, Marie is lonely and wants to find love.  Her old ways of searching for someone special hasn't worked.  So after learning a new technique, she found the love of her life.  Marie puts everything she has into this new relationship with Jada, wanting only her happiness, sacrificing all, even her mental and physical health.  However through Jada's family and personal secrets, she wonders what is in it for her.  Did she really find what she was looking for when she met Jada, a younger black woman?

Jada answers the call for companionship with Marie, but she's holding on to the past, unwilling to let her mother know her closely guarded secret.  Unfortunately, she's confronted with some disturbing news which threatens to destroy her future.

Will her secrets keep her from happiness with Marie?  Will her suspicions cause her to miss out on the best thing in her life?

Unbeknownst to Kelly, "another" answered the call for friendship with Marie was well.  When Kelly's attracted to her dance partner, "Kelly" makes it her life's mission to become more than just Marie's friend, even if that means ruining her love's life.

  Those that lie within the unsuspecting woman are a mystery to Kelly, but also to Marie and Jada as well. 

People Person

Louisa Cannes is trying to juggle her human resources career with looking after her family and keeping her girlfriend interested.  Her ethics are repeatedly tested at the difficult job she depends on to pay for her nephew’s life-saving treatment.  Cripplingly long hours, an incompetent, lazy line manager and a couple of vindictive rivals don’t exactly help, and she is in danger of burning out.  But why does the evil boss, Penelope, seem determined to destroy Louisa one minute then groom her for promotion the next?  Can Louisa avoid competing with her best friend, can she still call herself a people person, and who can she really trust in the race to the top...? 

Irresistible Impulse

When Mary Beth Kracko is found murdered in the enlisted housing area of Fort Kellog, Special Agent Barry Sheldon and Special Agent Robert Downs of the CID are put on the case. As the CID Agents investigate, they find there is a lot more to this than a simple homicide as they unravel a mystery where their own lives may be at stake. In 1971, the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command was designated as a separate major Army Command-to avoid command influence and give the investigating agents more room to do their jobs. These Agents are now only three phone calls from the Chief of Staff. Working with local commanders, the CID stands ready to solve crimes from the petty to the truly heinous. As the killer watches Agents Sheldon and Downs investigate the murder, his curiosity and impulses are at war with each other. Most people can control their urges, or impulses, but a certain few can’t do that. They feel this compelling urge to do something and they do it. The assailant had an impulse he couldn’t control and now there is a dead woman. Is it the first, will it be the last, will he be able to control his irresistible impulses?

Agitated Alone in the Laundromat can she get away with what she needs to do, does she dare? What about when she is discovered. 

Anthology

Fifteen short stories

Beach Dreams  

Hasn't there always been a place you wanted to go to, that you dreamed about? What if you made it a reality with the one that you love? All your fantasies and dreams come true?

Bikini's are Dangerous 1  

This is what happens when I wear a bikini for the first time. A short erotic story that tells a tale for those who understand that BIKINIS ARE DANGEROUS!

Bikini's are Dangerous 2  

Once again we prove that Bikini's can't be trusted, that these itty bitty scraps of material, are DANGEROUS!

Bikini's are Dangerous 3

Proving that Bikini's are more than just for swimming.

Bikini's are Dangerous 4

Rio de Janeiro is well known as the world's premiere beach destination. Will I wear my bikini or not as they are also known for their nude or clothing optional beaches...BIKINI'S ARE DANGEROUS!

Bikini's are Dangerous 5

When you are unsure about your body, being around those who are not only fit and trim but bikini clad can be inhibiting as well as distracting. As I work on my body, my confidence and my attraction to this bikini clad body that helps me achieve these results develops. Finally admitting our mutual attraction leads to a situation that proves BIKINI'S ARE DANGEROUS!

Bikini's are Dangerous The Complete Series

All FIVE in the series

Blown Away

Don’t judge a book by its cover!  Nothing, and no one, is EVER what they seem.

Ellen Christenson escapes from an abusive life, but does one ever escape the scars that are left on their soul?  One must move on, one must try.  But life has a tendency to circle back to what one once knew and she finds her life choices bring her back to the scenes of her abuse, to deal with it finally and fully, in ways she had never thought she would deal with.  It is then that the healing can begin, as she repairs her soul and the people she has devastated along the way.

Ellen hadn’t ‘intended’ to end up in Silicon Valley and its high tech world, but due to life and it’s circumstances she finds herself the head of a startup tech company.  Cool, calculating, efficient, she shows the world a side of her that she really isn’t, few if any know the real Ellen.  Nearby San Francisco provides her with plenty of girlfriends.  That elusive one, that soul mate, she has a hard time recognizing due to the scars within.

Living with the choice of letting someone die for their sins, for years, Ellen is ‘blown away’ by the feelings and emotions she has bottled up for so long….

Blown Away The Alternate Cover

Charming Thief  ~Snake Island~  

What do you do when you are offered more money for one single act than most people can make in a year?  What do you do with skills so refined that only a thief can appreciate them?  Do you enjoy travel?  Seeing the world?  Meeting new and exciting people?  How can you put all these things into one package and call it a ‘career?’

Simone, Marie, Jane, Adelina, Mary or whatever name she chooses to use at the moment has a unique set of skills and a different outlook on life.  Anonymous, pretty, she uses anything at her fingertips to get the job done.  Join her as she uses them to go to one of the most dangerous islands in the world to bring back a specific item for a client who has commissioned her.  Will she be able to obtain it when she finds out she has been misled, will it kill her, get her killed, or will she wind up in a Brazilian prison for the rest of her days?

Charming Thief ~Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend~

Simone takes a trip to Antwerp, Belgium. Four out of Five diamonds come through this capital. Is it too much for this thief to take on the job she has agreed to undertake? Will she get caught? How do you hide that many diamonds?

Children of Another Mother

Dealing with the death of your best friend, the second parent to your children, your mother is hard enough but Kay now also has to deal with the house she had bought for them to all live in.  It’s a ‘fixer upper’ and requires a lot of work for the single mom.  A new home, a new life, new friends leads to a family she hadn’t anticipated or planned for…

Kay is doing the best she can, trying to deal with everything when Jackie enters her life.  They become good friends but how was Kay to know that she would change her life in ways she had never anticipated…

Doctored

A brilliant child protégée, she dreams of becoming a doctor and a surgeon…and accomplishes her goals.  Unfortunately, her youth and round, child-like face work against her.  No matter how skilled she becomes, how knowledgeable, the old school, male-dominated medical hierarchy wants to keep her in ‘her place.’

Deana has worked hard to become an expert in her chosen field, but few believe this ‘child’ capable.   Specializing in infectious diseases, she travels the world—from the States to Europe to South America—honing her skills before winding up in Africa where her skills are desperately needed.

Meeting a nurse by the name of Madison MacGregor, she finds they share an insatiable curiosity and a love of helping others, but falling in love was not what she intended.  Later, when she loses Maddie to a misunderstanding, she is haunted by the one that got away…

Ten years have passed and both the doctor and nurse have moved on with their lives, but fate intervenes when they find themselves working at the same hospital.  Their friendship is revived…can their love be rekindled?  Will the past haunt them or bring them closer?  Will the secrets that both harbor keep them from realizing a future together?

Erotica

20 Erotic Short Stories

Family Night 1

A warm loving relationship, a warm loving body, who wouldn't want to come home to that? What happens to Melinda & Em on Family Night...

Family Night 2

Melinda & Em show that Family Night isn't the same every week and especially NOT for two women in love.

Fantasy

What would you do to be with the one you love....this fantasy tale answers that question but not necessarily in the way you would expect.

Germanic

How do you cope with a life that you are bored with?  You make a new one right?  Be careful what you wish for because you might get a whole lot more than you bargained for….

When you’re bored with your current life, take a trip, that always changes things right?  What Analisa Meunier didn’t realize is that for every decision you make in your life it can change everything.  A new life, a new country, a new family, a new threat to all of that…will she survive?  Will they?

Baroness Lydia Von Horn has never met an American like Analisa Meunier.  Hiding her own identity leads to problems in their initial relationship, but making a family, a life, and surviving with both intact is the real challenge.

From Oconomowoc, Wisconsin to Hammerbruke, Germany, from Cambria, California, to Munich, Germany, their lives and trials and tribulations take them around the world.

Ghostly Love  

What happens when you fall in love with your best friend? What if that best friend is a GHOST?

Stacey is your normal teenager, living with the the 'normal' teenage angst moments. She just happens to have a friend who is a ghost. This takes her on a journey, while it would have been normal for most people, it is guided by her friend Renata who just happens to be dead. As the years go by and Stacey experiences life she finds that love eludes her until she realizes it has been there all along. What do you do when the love of your life turns out to be a GHOST?

Heel or Heal Book 1

Claudia is looking for a new playmate/partner. Can she train one to her satisfaction? Brenda is looking for...she isn't sure what but in Claudia she finds a woman she can admire, trust, and eventually love. Can Brenda heal Claudia's cold heart?

Internet Dreamers  

Leah is blonde, Anglo, and up until recently, unable to fulfill her fantasies that she has been having with her internet friend for months. A sudden winfall allows her to seek out her friend, her potential lover, and fulfill those wants, desires, and fantasies.

Carmen has never felt like this for an Anglo, she herself is a Latina and her friends cannot understand her being faithful to a woman she has never met.

Meeting each other for the first time is explosive.

Into The Garden

My dream lover takes me on an adventure...into the Garden

Kept

Alexis isn't KEPT in the standard sense of the word. She has her own life, her own money, she is her own woman, and yet Sasha keeps pulling her back....an intriguing idea for all of us who wonder what it would be like to have unlimited funds to do what we want, when we want, and with whom...

Kiss

This author’s humorous view on kissing

Lawyered

Discovering that you don’t have everything you thought you wanted is a surprise.  Getting a promotion, finding new friends, learning you are attracted to women….

Nia Toyomoto has worked hard all her life to prove she was the best; she graduated early from high school, college, and got the dream job in Manhattan.  Becoming a partner at the tender age of thirty she thought she had it all until the law firm made demands about her personal appearance and a few other things that made her change her life for the promotion.  Then she realizes having everything isn’t all that it is cracked up to be without someone to share it with…

A successful lawyer in the big city, choices have to made, sacrifices and surprises await this beautiful and talented woman….does she make the right ones though?

Long Distance Romance  

When you unexpectedly fall in love, don’t you take it for what it’s worth?  Don’t you love the person while you can?  When you can?  What if they live on the other side of the globe though?  Could you handle that long of a distance?  Patience becomes the word when two women of independent character fall unexpectedly in love.  From different lifestyles, to different geographic locations, the problems of maintaining this relationship seem astronomical.  Just when they think they have solved these minor problems, new ones seem to pop up.  Will they survive a Long Distance Romance? 

Eliza is from the Midwestern United States, Wisconsin.  Independent, a business woman who has finally achieved her dream.  She is determined to fulfill and continue to live this dream when in walks a woman that knocks the old dreams out of her head for new ones.  Will she someday have the woman of her dreams?  Should she abandon that what she knows for the unknown?  Can she have what she knows she wants?

Krystal is from Austria.  Rich, cultured, and bored; she has seen everything and done everything.  A side trip on another trip to the United States proves to be interesting when she walks into Eliza’s store and is knocked on her back side by the feelings that this woman provokes.  The distance thing is easy to someone who owns a jet but even she has responsibilities back home.  Will she be able to have this woman she has fallen so deeply in love with?  A woman who fascinates her, intrigues her, and challenges everything she is?  Even if all her dreams come true, is it enough to keep them together?

Love of my LIFE 

I meet the love of my life, a whirlwind romance, love, passion, and happily ever after...right? Marriage, until death do us part.....

Menage a WHAT?

Lenny gives her femme, Zoe an ultimate fantasy come true with a little help from her friends Xandra and Yolanda.

Mile High Club

A short story that isn't quite what you expect it to be. Warm, loving, and erotic, joining the MILE HIGH CLUB wasn't going to turn out like expected.

Mysterious Malice (Book 1)  

Meeting a mysterious woman in a bar, Deirdre's life is about to change. The abuse from her husband stops suddenly as this woman enters their lives. What does this woman want in exchange for her help?

Meticulous Malice (Book 2)

Murder requires technique, it requires meticulous planning, and genuine care if you’re going to do it right, right?  Random acts of violence are not Alice’s style, however when forced on her, well let’s just play along….

Meticulous Malice delves deeper into who Alice really is…let’s play by HER rules…

Mistaken Malice (Book 3)

Making a mistake is something Alice DOESN'T do. Can she deal with the fact that someone might not have needed to die? Can she deal with it when someone else makes a fatal mistake? Into Alice's arena comes Senator's Cecilia and Ken Edwards, is the interest she sees for her money, her power, or her desirable body? Pursuing this 'friendship' will create consequences none of them intended...

Malicious Malice (Book 4)

Alice is angry and out for revenge!

Masterful Malice (Book 5)  

When Alice gets a plea for help from a friend of her sister can she do anything to free her from the bonds of a sadistic man determined to have her?  What about the bonds that Kathy begins to place on Alice's cold little heart, how will this affect the killer in Alice....

Malice Masterpieces The First Five Books

Matrimonial Malice (Book 6)  

Alice is getting married, has she finally fallen in love…and first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby or babies in the baby carriage?  Is this possible for Alice’s cold little heart?

Mourning Malice (Book 7)  

Dealing with the death of her wife, Alice finds raising a teenage daughter and two other children to be a challenge.  She hadn’t planned to ever be a parent, but for the love of her wife, now deceased she will do what she has to.

A threat to her teenage daughter leads to other revelations that bring out the ‘old’ Alice we all know and loved….her predator instincts are aroused…what will she do next?

Murderous Malice (Book 8)  

In book 8 of the MALICE series Alice finds out the truth about the past year and the manipulations others have enacted on her and her family.  Her anger burns hot and she returns to what she was born to be...a killer.  Our anti-hero returns as she wreaks vengeance for the sake of her family...

Mental Malice (Book 9)

In book 9 of the Malice series, Kathy has to deal with the mental damage as well as the physical that has been inflicted on her. Between Federal Agents, Doctors, and her own family the stress is nearly killing her. Can Alice be patient enough to wait for her wife after she has been gone for so long, both mentally and physically…can Alice wait to extract revenge for what has been done to her wife?

Menacing Malice (Book 10)

Book 10 of the Malice series, Kathy has figured out Alice’s secret.  Can she deal with the enormity of realizing what a monster her wife is?  Will it destroy their marriage?  Will it destroy Kathy?  How can Kathy survive with the knowledge of what Alice is capable of?  Can Alice share herself completely and honestly with her wife?  Can she let her keep this knowledge?

Malice Masterpieces II Books Six through Ten

Minor Malice

What makes Alice, well…Alice?

From an early age she was always, ‘different.’  People noticed it, from her unusual eyes that changed when she felt intense emotions, to her brain, and her peculiar habits.

Is a ‘serial killer’ actually ‘born’ or is she ‘made?’

Here we find out more about the Alice of her youth and why some of the things in her life made her the way she is…

Morally Malice

Alice is tired of the killing; she wants a nice, normal life.  Circumstances won’t let her though and although she has tried to do the ‘right’ thing, the ‘moral’ thing, life won’t allow her to do anything but what she needs to do to protect her family from those that would hurt them.

Morose Malice

The possible end of Alice’s marriage means that she has to leave the home she has built with Kathy.  She moves back to New York to start over.  Running into her college roommate and former lover sets off a chain of events that even Alice couldn’t anticipate or control.

Meeting new people and renewing old friendships we learn a bit more about Alice and who she was to become the person she is.  The new people in her life though means new changes are in store for our beloved Alice.  Changes she might just not like.

Melancholy Malice

Left alone to deal with the enormity of the estate that was willed to her Kathy must go on alone.  Can she deal with the children, the finances, the legitimate and not so legitimate business dealings? The many surprises in store for her, some welcome, some not so welcome begin to change Kathy.

Meeting the ‘other’ women in Alice’s life as well as many people she didn’t know were in her life may prove to be too much for Kathy.  Will she rise up to the occasion or fail horribly?  Perhaps Alice saw more in Kathy than she herself knew was there?

Mad Malice

Angry at being left alone to cope with the enormous fortune Alice left her, Kathy has to learn to deal with business, family, and a blackmailer who is certain he has her over a barrel.  Dealing with the life she now leads she doesn’t realize until it’s too late how much Alice and her ‘lessons’ have influenced her and her reactions.  ‘Accidentally’ killing her blackmailer leads to being a target by his brother with the apparent backing of the L.A.P.D.  Being in their crosshairs she realizes she has to change her strategy as life seems to get away from her and the enormity of it all may come crashing down on her and her family. 

Malice Masterpieces 3 Books Eleven through Fifteen

Macabre Malice (Book 16)

Framed for a crime she didn’t do, Kathy battles to retain her freedom from corrupt cops out to ‘get her.’  An unexpected bit of help comes from an Internal Affairs cop set on putting dirty cops away.  Certain that Kathy has been targeted by this unscrupulous group, Special Agent Linda Miller not only helps Kathy and Portia to prove her innocence, she finds herself attracted to Kathy.

Can feelings of gratitude and admiration turn to love for the widowed Kathy?  She can never reveal her full past to this cop who she finds herself attracted to.  Will Linda accept that there will always be some parts of Kathy’s life that she cannot know about or will her investigative skills get in the way of their happiness?

Constant reminders and comparisons to the woman she first loved make it hard for Kathy to commit herself fully to their budding romance.  How can she move on when the past keeps sending things forward to tell her that it isn’t done with her?

Marinating Malice (Book 17)

Kathy needs to move on but her thoughts seem to be keeping her in the past.  It is time though.  Her wife has been dead over eighteen months.  She has a girlfriend who would like to become her lover.  Is she ready to put the past behind her and move on?

Trust seems to be the issue, not on her part but on the part of Special Agent Linda Miller, is she ready to take the next step, clues to Kathy and her wife’s past seem to intrigue her a little too much, maybe it’s the cop in her.

Things seem to be conspiring to make Kathy crazy, is she really seeing the clues that point to what she thinks she is seeing?  Her friends keep telling her that she isn’t seeing what she thinks is there. Is it all in her mind?   Is it possible that her wife is still alive or is she only brimming with hope?  Her thoughts keep her prisoner…

Macerating Malice (Book 18)

Alice is ALIVE!

Where has she been?  What is the explanation for the missing months between her and her wife?

As Kathy listens she is horrified to realize what has happened to the woman she once called the love of her life…

How she survived begins to unfold as she describes the terrors that she has endured the last two years…

Minacious Malice (Book 19)

As Alice continues with her tale of where she has been for the last couple of years, Kathy realizes the tally of deaths is adding up.  The same reasons that caused their separation are still there.  Can she forgive, much less forget, why they broke up in the first place?

Murder, planned murder especially, takes time.  Alice must feel ‘justified’ in who she targets.  She also must take into account that Sasha is not only a witness, but an accomplice to what Alice must do.  Sasha will be shocked as she realizes the depth of what Alice is capable of.  Sasha must learn to ‘appreciate’ Alice and her ‘skills’.

Follow along as Sasha and Alice begin the hunt for those who had imprisoned them….

Meddlesome Malice (Book 20)

As she listens to the horrors that Alice and Sasha endured at the hands of their captors, Kathy realizes she has to know, she MUST know everything Alice has been up to.  She wants to understand what kept them apart these past years…beyond her own anger at what her wife is capable of.

As the gruesome details of Alice and Sasha’s story unfold, Kathy asks herself ‘Does this justify what they did and are doing to those people?  Does it explain their prolonged absence from their families?’

Follow along as Alice and Sasha go in for the kill!  Learn how they carefully plot their revenge against the people who took so much from their lives…and take just as much and more from them in return.  

Their lives, their victims’ lives, will never be the same!

On the Parkway

The New Jersey Turnpike is an interesting stretch of highway. On the Parkway, we couldn't wait after stopping at a road stop...could I tempt her?

Out at the Inn

Among the majestic shoreline of the Central Coast of California lies a secret…Leah Van Heusen finds a hidden staircase….

The ancient house she finds among the overgrown foliage is amazing…and eerie, most wouldn’t even step a foot closer but she is intrigued and feels drawn to the old mansion….

Leah finds more than she bargains for after seeking out the owner and purchasing the entire estate for a dollar.  As she starts to restore it, she finds out who her real friends are, she also finds out who her family really is…What’s a few ghosts between friends?

Between repairs, upgrades, and finding out the houses secrets, Leah has her hands full.  Finding out her sexuality and dating is the least of her worries.  As her beloved dream of an Inn becomes reality she finds it suddenly in jeopardy, who will kill for it or the immense fortune that she has found?

Represented

Coming out is hard.  Coming out in the public eye is even harder.  People think they own a piece of you, your work, and your life, they feel they have the right to judge you.  You lose not only friends but fans and ultimately, possibly, your career…or your life.

Cassie Summers is a Southern Rock Star; she came out so that she could feel true to herself.  Her family including her band and those important to her support her but there are others that feel she betrayed them, they have revenge on their minds…

Karin Myers is a Rock Star in her own right; she is one of those new super promoters: Manager, go-to gal, agent, public relations expert, and hand-holder all in one.  Her name is synonymous with getting someone recognized, promoted, and making money.  She only handles particular clients though; she’s choosy…for some very specific reasons.

Meeting Cassie at a party there is a definite attraction.  She does not however wish to represent her despite her excellent reputation.  She fights it tooth and nail until she is contractually required to do so.  In nearly costs them more than either of them anticipated….their lives.

Quickie ~ Against the Car

Based on a Spanish soap opera out of Madrid Spain, this short story is my take on what would have happened had I been there.

Quickie ~ Against the Wall

I'm too tired to think straight when I'm attacked by my girlfriend...

Quickie ~ Over the Couch

My girlfriend attacks me and takes me over the back of the couch...

Quickie ~In an Elevator, GOING DOWN?~

A short story~Living out a fantasy in your mind is one thing, having that fantasy come to life is another...the title is self-explanatory

Quickie ~ Under the Pier  

It takes some persuasion but I take my girlfriend Under the Pier

Sapphic Cowboi  

Maggie is living on a farm in the backwoods of Alabama raising her horses and trying to survive when she is approached by a man looking for a horse act, she and her horses go on the road with the circus meeting new people and having new experiences including meeting the beautiful Ariana.  What would a hick have in common with the sophisticated woman she meets?  Is it possible they have a future?

Ariana is everything a woman in depression era America would want to be, sophisticated, worldly, and beautiful.  What could she possibly see in the hard working Maggie whose whole world revolves around her ‘babies’ the magical horses she has trained?

Sapphic Cowgirl

Marley has become a successful horse breeder and rancher.  Gypsy Vanner's have become her life.  She makes ALL the decisions in her life, at her work, in her home but she is horribly alone.  

Alexandra, Alex to her friends has been independent and alone for a long time now.  Very successful in her job which gives her great satisfaction she finds being alone to be its greatest draw back.

When the two lifelong friends meet up after years apart can the spark they now feel heal the rift that tore them apart for so long?  Have they both grown up and past the pettiness and the competition that drove them before?  As adults will they recognize the spark as attraction and do something about it? 

For Alex it's a lot of firsts can she overcome her hesitation over her former friend's attraction, can she trust Marley enough to enter into a sexual relationship that will affect both of their lives?

Sapphic Surfer

Ashley is a Midwestern girl who is enjoying the life in Southern California.  She learns to surf, a lifelong dream that wasn’t possible in Illinois.  Now she meets professional surfer Willow Samuels who becomes a good friend to her.  How good isn’t really apparent until she realizes there is a mutual attraction.  Can a virgin such as Ashley cope with the feelings that are building inside her for the famous surfer?  Can a Midwestern girl with all the morals and hang-ups ingrained in her overcome them to actually enter into a Sapphic romance with this woman?

Ashley is conflicted when she realizes she is having feelings for her famous friend Willow.  When Willow makes a pass at her she realizes that her friend is gay and attracted to her, how can she overcome a lifetime of ethics and values that just might destroy the happiness that Willow offers her?

SHIPS

Ships are created when a straight woman finds herself falling in love with a gay women.  The complexities of maintain such a friendship and relationship over the next 20 years…

Joan is a world renowned artist who is straight, has three children, and is content with her life when she meets Grace, a respected psychiatrist who also happens to be a lesbian.  Joan is conflicted and has to deal with her feelings, the incredible woman she finds herself in love with, and the relationship that occurs over the next 20 years.

Shorts  

Paperback Only

This is the same book as K’Anne’s book EROTICA but with a kinder cover

Small Town Angel

Small towns are notorious for secrets ... but what if you bring your secrets with you?

Amy Adams arrives in Northpoint, Wisconsin on a Greyhound bus.  Small towns are well known for not taking to strangers, but THIS stranger decides to stay.

Amy has a look around and to her, it 'feels' like home. She rents a cabin in the woods outside of town and proceeds to look for a place to open a store.  Renting to own from one of the locals, she soon finds herself making friends and making waves.  She won't discuss where she is from and has nothing to say about her past.

People are extremely curious. This Southern Belle has them talking.

Abby Shipman, the Chief of Police in this neck of the woods is intrigued by the decidedly mysterious and straight redheaded whirlwind that has blown into town. It's curious that she won't talk about her past and she is certainly uncomfortable around Abby ... or is it cops in general?

Snoggered  

Relaxed inhibitions happen when my girl drinks double her quota...

Stable Affair

Firm bodies, flashing flanks, beauty...and the horses aren't bad either! It all begins in a stable...

Stolen

Loving a woman is hard enough, living with her is as well, add children to the mix it makes it impossible, especially when they are STOLEN!

Sheila went through a painful divorce; her ex-husband is biter and vindictive.  Leaving him for another person, a woman is more than he can bear, revenge is on his mind!

The Claim 

Anna Schmidt is too independent for a woman of the 1800’s.  Worse yet she doesn’t have a man to curb her unwomanly like tendencies.  When she takes a claim of 160 acres and then another tree claim of another 160 acres has she taken on more than she can handle?  Its work that could cripple a man, a woman alone can’t expect help or understanding when she takes this one on and willingly.  Flooding, blizzards, heat, dust, and an incredible amount of physical labor are all set to do this determined woman in.  She takes it on and through the years succeeds despite the odds, despite not having a man to depend on, showing herself and the world that this woman not only can but will make a home, a farm, a ranch on the wild prairies.  Follow along in her journal telling of her experiences.  

The Journey Home

In the midst of the Great Depression, Cassandra (Cass) Scheimer is trying to keep the family farm afloat in the Big Woods of Wisconsin...alone.  As a local midwife and struggling backwoods doctor, she certainly doesn't need more mouths to feed.  

Stephanie Evans is a widow enceinte with her third child.  She accepts a kind stranger’s offer of marriage in exchange for keeping house for him...but he never shows up to claim her.  While dealing with unrequited guilt and the desperation of impoverished motherhood, falling in love with Cass is the least of her worries. 

For Cass, having been in love with a woman once before, she feels it couldn’t possibly happen twice.  When it does, Cass is convinced the love cannot be returned.  Can she and Stephanie keep it hidden from the prying eyes of children and the meddling neighbors in this small rural community?      

Can Cass deal with the guilt she feels over her brother’s injury, an injury that prevents him from doing his duty for their country?  Joining the Nursing Corps may put too much stress on her newfound relationship with Stephanie.  The woman who returns from the war and the woman left behind on the farm are not the same people who once fell in love.  Can they return to being lovers after years spent apart?  Destiny put them in each other’s path, but World War II has them tearing apart.   

This is The Journey Home.

The Outsider

Joy Parker had the perfect childhood.  Doted on by her parents, she couldn’t imagine her childhood any different.  As a child and later a young adult, she’s ignored by her much older siblings, made to feel the outsider…until a tragedy occurs, altering her life in ways she couldn’t possibly have imagined. 

The next few years of her life are vastly different from her parents’ hopes and dreams for her.  Then suddenly, another life-altering event changes the course of her life and she must make decisions she never dreamt possible.  Winning the largest lottery in Wisconsin history opens the flood gates of possibility and means Joy must again decide which direction to take with the rest of her life. 

What would you do if you won $341,726,178.10 after taxes?  Come along for the ride as we discover what Joy Parker decides to do with it….

The Other Women 

Quinn thinks a little ‘revenge’ is in order when her wife is found out to be cheating….

The Rockhound

Sam is a unique woman. She goes after what she wants in life, wherever it may take her. This time it takes her to Southeast Asia to pan for diamonds in the islands. It’s dirty, hot, and dangerous. Her trip is worth it though as she finds what she came for, finding a woman who is intrigued by her, the adventure, and more is just a bonus. Felicia goes along on another trip; could it be fatal for both of them to go deep in the jungle to search for these elusive stones?

Timed Romance

Falling in love gives you no time or place, no reason or excuses.  It’s a deliberate act that can leave you breathless from ecstasy or pain.  There is no rhyme, no sense, no time.  There is no precedence, no priority, it befuddles you.  In the right time and place it can cause you to reach the highest highs or the lowest of lows.  Bad timing though for any romance can hurt you more than the love itself.

Reese has worked hard all her life to garner the satisfaction in the jobs and levels she has obtained.  Landing the position of estate manager for the Cavindish family of England is exciting.  A new country, a new challenge, and a new life.  She packs up her life in Connecticut, kisses her daughter good bye and set’s off on what she is sure will be the adventure of a lifetime…in its own time.

Lady Cavindish is shy, retiring, and a bit out of her league when the attractive confident blonde, Reese Paulson arrives on the scene to run their family estates for her brother the lord of the manor.  Her admiration for Reese soon turns to hero worship and at some point to a love that neither expected.  Their love however isn’t what the Cavindish family name or property’s need, it is bad timing for everyone involved.  

The love she feels for Lady Cavindish is totally unexpected and Reese soon realizes that her presence can only hinder the woman she has fallen for.  She makes the excruciating decision for them both to move on, without her.  

Finding a new love in Australia though proves that life has plans for us that we can only hope gives us what we need, can Reese move on from the woman she loves, or can she love the women she has moved on to.  How can she forget Victoria, her first love?

Fate however brings them together time and time again, can it time their romance so they can have their happily ever after or is it determined to rip their hearts raw time and time again?

To Love a Shooting Star

Erin Ingram is an enormously successful Hollywood star.  She has stared, directed, and produced many films over her long career, starting as a child.  She has even won several Academy Awards.  She is also a closeted lesbian.  Will announcing to the world that she is in love with a woman destroy her long and successful career?  Is the world ready to let the ‘girl next door’ come out of the closet?

Meeting Erin Ingram was a delight and a surprise to author Kate McCall.  Better yet, there seemed to be an attraction.  Getting to know her she was thrilled at their relationship as it developed.  Her own career as a successful novelist made her more than equal for the talented Ms. Ingram.  Will announcing their relationship to the public destroy their love, their careers, or their blended families?

Veil of Silence

Five years ago, Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano disappeared when her helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.  Her wife held out hope for her return, but with no word from the army after all that time, she begins to realize she may have to move on without her.

At the embassy in Kabul, a burqa-clad woman arrives at the gate with two young children in tow.  The black-haired, brown-eyed woman looks like an Afghan native, but her American accent belies this.  She identifies herself as Lieutenant Marsha Gagliano, all the while keeping a close eye out behind her as though at any moment, someone might jump out and snatch her back.

Questions arise regarding her disappearance and reappearance and the army is suspicious.  The children are obviously hers.  Has she consorted with the enemy?  How will her wife react to these children?  Will she be able to accept children she had no part in conceiving?  

What is this woman hiding beneath her chador?  What secrets lie behind her veil of silence?

Wet and Wet Again

I nearly drown as I make love to my girl in a pool...or a pool of water...

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