“Let me get this straight.” He took in a deep breath and turned on his side so that he was gazing into her beautiful stormy eyes. “You think that things have changed because I haven’t put any moves on you.” He paused. “When I thought that you didn’t want me to put the moves on you.”

A smile graced her lips. “You make it sound…”

“Do you think that I don’t want to?”

She opened her mouth then clamped it shut. “Because that is the furthest from the truth. I have to take a cold shower every night because I am always overheating whenever I’m around you.” He pulled a careless hand through his hair although his eyes never left hers. And then he was moving closer. To his surprise as well as delight she did not back off but stood her ground. “I’m going to…”

Victoria didn’t give him time to finish that sentence as she pressed her lips to his in order to receive his kiss. At the last possible second, she closed her eyes as Nick thoroughly explored her mouth with a hunger that could no longer be contained. In the next instant, he had his hands tangling in her hair as he made slow and lazy love to her mouth.

Joel Betancourt

Porcelain Doll

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Joseph sat at the bar. His eyes were fixed on a cockroach that was walking on a bottle of Absolut Vodka. The roach made its way up the rim of the bottle and then fell into the vial. The roach fought for its life. Joseph looked away. He glanced toward another bottle. This one was a flask of Bacardi light rum. At the very bottom of the container was a small, black spot. Joseph stared on as the spot began to move. The dark speck made its way to the top of the liquor.

Joseph looked closer. It was another roach.

Joseph looked at the drink he held in his hand. “Ahh.” He dropped the glass and pushed it away.

Something landed on his shoulder. “Shit!” Joseph spun his head to see what was crawling on his arm.

It was someone’s hand. A woman’s hand.

Joseph’s gaze followed the hand from the fingertips up to the owner’s face at the end.

It was Hillary. Her cheeks were covered in tears.

“What...” he began.

She started shaking. Her hand gripped tightly around his shoulder.

“My God, Hillary. What’s wrong?”

She continued to shake.

“What?”

Hillary would not open her mouth. She looked back and forth around the bar.

“What is it? What is it?” he asked.

Hillary stared at Joseph. Her eyes were washed with pain.

Joseph froze.

A cough began to jolt her. Her body trembled, but she would not open her mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Joseph asked again.

Hillary’s lips parted. A river of red rushed out. The blood streamed down, covering her white dress as a single word escaped with her last breath: “Carlos.”

Jack flattened his hands on the wall, one on each side of her head, leaned in and smiled down at her. “This may sound strange, but the last part of this evening was the most enjoyable.” His mouth, soft and warm, caught hers in an all too brief sweet kiss. Nothing passionate about it, but it reached every part of her body like an explosion.

Swimming through a haze of feelings and mixed emotions, she pushed him away.

“Why did you do that?” She struggled to catch her breath.

“I hadn’t planned on kissing you. It just happened.” He turned and opened the door.

She thought of Kimmie. “Let’s pretend it never happened, okay? I just want us to be friends, nothing more.”

“Friends it is. And I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.”

She smiled, hoping she’d made herself clear. “Have a nice flight.”

Helen Goodman

The Blue Goose Is Dead

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Allison felt the blow. In the moment before the world receded in nothingness, her head exploded with a spasm of pain. The next thing she felt was the chill of the water and slimy tentacles clawing at her face, choking her neck. Lakes had always been Allison’s friends, now this one was the enemy—suffocating her, strangling her, doing its best to destroy her. But she couldn’t let that happen. She flailed at the water, tried to disentangle her arms and legs from the clinging weeds.

Air. She needed air. She needed air now. Her head popped through the surface of the water only to be met by another blow, this time from the planks above her head. It was too dark to see anything, but Allison realized she must be trapped under the pier. She’d noticed earlier in the day the boat dock was only a few inches above the water line. And when she toppled, or was pushed, into the lake she must have floated back under the dock.

She stifled a scream for help which tried to erupt from her throat. She knew it would bring no help, and would only alert her assailant she was still alive. She had to get out, out from under the pier, out of the water. But she felt herself going woozy again, the darkness was streaked with weird, unreal lights emanating not from her surroundings, but from her battered brain. Her hands thrashed about, seeking something, anything, to grab.

C.R.’s hand warmed hers as they walked together.

Deanna’s stomach flipped as it had every time he’d touched her since she’d met him. A second earlier she’d decided to just accept what C.R. did to her, but was that such a good idea?

Not for a woman like her.

Deanna steadied herself and vowed that she would not let Cade put her into a state of disarray as he seemed to do every time she saw him.

She was a grown woman with complete control of her emotions.

She staunchly resolved that she wasn’t about to let any man, no matter how unbelievably attractive she found him, set her off balance. And that was that.

C.R. opened the back door, and they both stepped onto the porch. He closed the door behind them and squeezed her hand.

She looked up at him.

“I’ve missed you, Deanna,” he said in a husky voice.

She swallowed hard, stared into his mesmerizing dark eyes and reminded herself that she had every intention of not allowing him to unleash destabilizing emotions within her.

He leaned forward and took her into his arms.

The instant he kissed her, she was right back where she’d been two weeks ago when he’d kissed her near the corral on Catherine’s ranch. All of her control was gone, and she had no power to resist him.

So much for staunch resolutions.

Gabriel Timar

Soldier Of Misfortune

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She chopped the throttle, and the little plane sank like a stone. The engine came alive just over the rooftops of the city. Mimi flew a long, lazy circle and came in directly over the building. Adam did not need his field glasses to identify the German Kriegsmarine uniforms.

“The bastards are after the gold,” he said. Suddenly, the little plane shook like a leaf in the storm.

“I’m outta here,” Mimi shouted.

She turned to the west, banked steeply, and opened the throttle. At the western outskirts of the city, they flew into a hail of machine gun fire, and Adam again saw the Germans well dug in on the north side of the road.

They were flying at treetop level, leaving the firing well behind them.

“Can you drop me off somewhere on the road?” Adam asked.

“I should make you jump without a parachute,” Mimi replied.

She maneuvered to line up with the road, landed with a slight bump, and cut the engine.

Adam jumped out and saluted, but Mimi also climbed out. “What is the idea of making me fly into the line of fire,” she shouted with her hands on her hips. “I’m not one of your friggin’ soldiers! I’m a civilian, one of those whom you swore to protect. Are you trying to kill me?”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Adam had to smile. Mimi was a fantastic sight. Her hair was mussed up, and her dark eyes were firing off lightning bolts.

A crowd of students and locals milled around the pavement in front of the social club. Lynne watched the blue light of the ambulance disappear around the corner half way along High Road. Her hand dropped once again to the waistband of her jeans. She remembered the feeling, like stage fright, like the butterflies, then stronger much, much stronger. She knew exactly who was responsible for the accident.

The club, the DJ, or the roadies would get the blame, but Lynne knew. She also knew what power she had to learn to control. She had felt it, had not understood it at first, then, when the butterflies were hurling themselves around her stomach, could not stop it. They had stopped themselves at the very second that her tormentor’s head had interrupted the fall of the speaker to the floor of the hall.

Angela Verdenius

Love, Heart And Soul Moments

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Time slipped past and finally she started for the bank. Her feet found purchase on the ground and the water had just started to lap above her breasts when a deep voice growled angrily, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Delias froze. It couldn’t be...

“Don’t stop.” Davan stepped out from the shadows, and even though she couldn’t make out his features with the shadows cast from behind him, she could hear the anger in his voice.

Staying exactly where she was, Delias frowned. “What do you want?”

“I want you out of the water.”

“Really? I don’t think so.”

“Now.”

Coolly she looked him up and down. “Why don’t you go and harass someone else, Davan?”

Big hands settled on lean hips, making his giant frame seem even more menacing. “You don’t want me coming in after you, wench.”

“Oh, I’m so scared.” Scowling, she flicked her hand at him. “Go away. I’m not coming out until you’re gone.”

“’Tis too bad, wench. I’m not leaving until you’re out.”

“Oh, ’tis so?”

“Aye.” The bite in his tone was sharp.

Delias tossed her head. “If you’re hoping for a glimpse of flesh, Peacekeeper, I’m disappointed in you. You’re supposed to be protecting me, not asking me to come out naked in full view.”

Coming Next Month

Downsized To Death by Patricia Gully

Eternity's Scottish Hero by Jayme Evans

From The Flames by Bret Sans

Heart Breakers by Eleanor Cocreham

Killer On The Key by E. B. Loan

Persimmon Bayou by Mary Brockway

The Dog From The Sky by Dorothy Bodoin