This Book is intended for Mature Audiences. Sexual Content *Language What would you do if a sexy billionaire asked you to marry him just for his money? Scarlett hates her new job as a stripper, but she can’t afford to quit or she’ll lose her house and won’t be able to afford to pay for her dad’s chemo. One night, the handsome billionaire Michael Manning visits the club and shows interest in Samantha (Scarlett’s stage name). Scarlett is immediately attracted to Michael, but she refuses to date anyone she meets at the club. On Sunday, Scarlett’s friend drags her to church, and to her surprise, Scarlett meets Michael again. He doesn’t realize she’s Samantha from last night (she wear a mask while performing) and asks her out. But Scarlett would never have guessed what he’s about to propose on their first date... Michael needs to marry before his mother dies of cancer, or he’ll lose his entire inheritance to charity. He presents Scarlett with a deal where she’ll receive half of the three billion dollar inheritance if she marries him within two weeks and then divorces him after his mother dies. Scarlett agrees to the deal. But soon she develops feelings for Michael and they begin a steamy affair. Serious problems arise when Michael continues to show interest in Samantha, thinking he’s keeping it a secret from Scarlett. And when Scarlett’s pretend mother-in-law has her followed to work, Scarlett’s secret could very well cost her the billion dollar deal and her relationship with Michael. Views: 16
No musician has lived a more transformational, or more tragic, life than Charlie Parker, one of the most talented and influential figures of the twentieth century. From the start of his career in the late 1930s, Parker was a new kind of American artist: a revolutionary musician who internalized all of popular music and blew it back through his alto saxophone "at the tempo of emergency"—even as he wrestled with a drug addiction that would ultimately contribute to his death at thirty-four.Yet no writer has fully captured the arc and texture of Parker's personal story . . . until now. Kansas City Lightning, the first in a two-volume life of Parker by Stanley Crouch, draws on decades of original interviews with peers, collaborators, and family members to reveal Parker as he emerged from the landscapes—literal and artistic—that he inhabited. A precocious child, shy yet self-possessed, Charlie ventured early into the nightlife of wide-open Depression Kansas City, a veritable stomping ground for such bandleaders as Walter Page, Bennie Moten, and Moten's successor, Count Basie, the king of Kansas City swing. Inspired by saxophonists Lester Young and Chu Berry, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, and his mentor Buster Smith, Parker endured initial humiliation on the bandstand—yet persevered until he mastered the idiom and began to transcend it.Kansas City Lightning follows Parker from the "freak shows" and "spook breakfasts" of late-night Kansas City, to the segregated union halls of Chicago, and finally to New York's Harlem ballrooms. Most intimately, it brings us into young Charlie Parker's family circle, as he plunged headlong into a very adult world—lured by both music and drugs, torn between his oddly protective mother and Rebecca Ruffin, the impressionable young woman whose romance with Charlie is at the bittersweet heart of this story.With the musical wisdom of a lifetime jazz scholar, the cultural insights of an indispensable social critic, and the narrative skill of a writer at the height of his powers, Crouch brings Parker back to glorious, surprising, and deeply moving life. Views: 16
In one world, they’re ordinary university students. In another world, they are a company of heroes in a place of magic and myth called Anfractus… The Cree called the area Oscana, “pile of bones,” a fertile hunting ground where game abounded. The white settlers changed that to Wascana. And centuries later, it became Wascana Park, a wooded retreat in the midst of the urban sprawl of Regina. For a select few, who stay in the park until midnight, the land reverts into a magical kingdom, populated by heroes and monsters. They become warriors, bards, archers, gladiators. In the city called Anfractus, they live out a real-life role playing game. All harmless fun—until they find themselves in the middle of an assassination plot which threatens to upset the balance of everything. Politics are changing, and old borders are about to disappear. The magic of Anfractus is bleeding into the real world—an incursion far more dangerous than the students suspect. Only they know what is happening—and only they can stop it... Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.1.OLDAN TUCHED THE WALLS OF HIS ALLEY. Islands of yellow moss broke through the stones, rippling slightly as his fingers came near. When he’d first arrived, he was naked and in some pain. He hadn’t noticed the blond hairs moving in response to him. Where he came from, the moss was green and didn’t have a mind of its own. How did he survive that day? The details were already decaying. He remembered stealing a sheet and a samosa. He had to run a lot in those days. Now he understood why so many people tolerated the furs. It was because everyone started that way. Everyone was a thief when they first came to Anfractus, trailing the shame of their sheets behind them like dirty and displaced children.He wasn’t quite anything yet. He had a few tricks, but that didn’t make him an auditor. They saw him as a runt that might not survive, and so tended to ignore him. They had to keep their distance. Tricks were easy to steal. He had no hoard to protect, so burglary wasn’t one of his fears. They didn’t keep him around for his creativity. “Light it up,” was all they ever said. “Is this candle magic, or is it nothing?” They didn’t care about the small lives of the objects, the drama of the lapidary, what the knife remembered. “Will it light up?” That meant it was worth more. One of these days, he suspected, they would tell him to light himself up, and the colors he produced would determine his fate.He stepped out of the alley and onto Via Rumor. His eyes stung from the smoke of the Exchange, and a shadow of grime settled on his robe as he walked through the cloud of cries and hammers. Colored screens hung from balconies, lapping up some of the heat, but his neck still felt like a roof tile. Everything was for sale: falchions with weighted stone handles, reversible cloaks, automata in the shape of pome¬granates with concealed blades. The vendors declaimed each other in song while packs of hungry furs moved through the crowd. Roldan saw a fat spado eating lemon sharbah, his tall green cap wilting in the sun.He wondered what it felt like to be a eunuch. Did desire flee, or was it simply mollified and dispersed along unex¬pected pathways? Many of the spadones were known to be insatiable lovers. It depended on how they’d been made. Roldan could remember a bit of a song that he’d heard once, about a eunuch lover. By all my actions thou may’st see, my heart can spare no room for thee, thou art not made like other boys. They weren’t all powdered and soft. Narses, the high chamberlain, carried a sword.He walked down Aditus Papallona, then turned onto Via Dolores, where people gathered beneath the shadows of the aqueduct. They threw dice, struck bargains, and embraced between the high granite bows. In the distance, he could make out the lights of the basia. Even he could afford an iron token, which would get him into the less exclusive houses, but thinking about the pictures stamped on the coins made him blush. A few positions strained the mind. From here, Roldan could see the Tower of Auditors. A crowd had gathered around its entrance, mostly to gossip and steal from each other. A few carried bacula with pommels of jade and sardonyx that flared in the sun.Roldan heard his name. He turned and saw Babieca standing at the dusty curb, smiling. His lute case was strung over one shoulder, and he’d acquired a cape with rampanttigers. He crossed the street and they embraced.“Where did you steal that?” Roldan asked.“I’m no fur. I won it.”“With a loaded die?”“Lower your voice. I have a reputation to maintain.”“Right. I wouldn’t want to besmirch the honor of a tro¬vador. I’m sure you always toss your dice straight, even in the dark.”“I can be good, when I want to. How about you? Working on any new tricks?”“Nothing too exciting.”“Salamanders must love this weather. Isn’t fire their chaos?”“They’ll curl up next to an old kettle if they sense the promise of warmth.”“Can you hear them?”“Not right now. They’re probably asleep near the hypo¬caust.”“That must be strange. I can’t imagine what it would be like to hear the elder things whispering to each other.”“It’s more distracting than anything else. Some of them don’t like having to share the world with us. Some are toler¬ant, so long as we feed them from time to time.”For a moment, he let his mind wander. They might both be cats, coming alive at odd times, singing from opposite walls. He could move closer. Maybe they’d make a device, something with grooves and tongues. Still drowsy from the heat, he felt more like a wall–lizard, insensate, hanging from a patch of moss.They walked up Aditus Festa. Rows of cauponae stood with their ale–posts raised high. Babieca led him through the doorway of the Seven Sages. The main room was full of smoke, and casks lined the corners. Roldan kept his eyes on the rush–covered floor, trying to avoid surprises. Every table had a candle, and most of the patrons were already deep in their cups. He heard oaths, polyphony, wild brag¬ging. Sausages and dried peppers hung from the stained rafters, like edible finery, and the top floor had a hole in the middle to permit rising smoke. People crowded the danger¬ous balconies.Everyone was gaming. Summer was winning at Four Seasons, while a rowdier group of seven drank their way through Planets. Two women faced each other in alquerque, gliding their stone pieces across the wood board. One played the part of sense, while the other was daring. The ale–wife liked to keep the main floor looking civilized, which meant that the higher–stakes games of Hazard were in the under¬croft. The spadones deplored dicing, but he still noticed a few of them in the mix. Their green hats gave them away. There was an old saying about dicers: Come in a cloak and leave bare–assed. It was probably a good thing that he didn’t have enough money to gamble.The smoke in the room was like cobwebs. There were all sorts gathered on the long benches. An artifex was show¬ing off something made of brass cogs that looked dangerous. An auditor in a striped cloak was talking to a miles. They were probably part of a company. He’d heard that some were even led by auditors.Auditors with bacula who know how to fight. All he had was a weathered knife, which he kept only to flash at furs. In truth, he’d drawn it only a few times. Babieca had a short sword with a crooked cruciform hilt, which he was forever trying to lose. If not for Morgan’s bow, they would have been sad conies with barely a lick of training between them.Being in a company wasn’t everything, but it could load the die in your favor. Companies ranged beyond the walls of the city. The greatest wouldn’t show up until sundown. Roldan had never seen the city at night. Even Morgan, the most experienced among them, confined her visits mostly to the daytime. She’d told them stories about how the towers changed. Everything real seemed to happen at night. The stakes were so much higher.Babieca got them a pitcher of sweet malmsey, along with a stew platter. Roldan was never sure where he found his money, but at the moment, he was hungry and didn’t feel like prying. They ate their root vegetables in convivial silence. Babieca surrendered his parsnips in exchange for extra bread. Roldan could feel the drink going to his head, but that wasn’t entirely bad. It would make talking easier and dull his senses, which were currently twitching. Babieca looked like he wasn’t paying attention, but Roldan knew that his friend was also studying the room. He had the instincts of a fur, though he abhorred them.Morgan appeared through the haze. She wasn’t patrolling today, but she’d still worn a boiled–leather hauberk with a rust–colored cloak. Her short bow was strapped to her back, along with a painted quiver. Some looked at her, but most stayed focused on gaming and drinking. A sagittarius wasn’t so captivating during the day. This crowd didn’t care that she’d walked the battlements of the Arx of Violets, or that she’d once killed a silenus. They only saw a short woman with brown hair and a weapon that was next to use¬less in a caupona. She wasn’t interesting enough to make them stop gambling.She sat down and poured herself a drink.“What is this?”“Malmsey,” Babieca said. “It was cheap.”“It tastes like sap.”“You’re welcome to buy the next round.”“We shouldn’t overindulge. You said you’d found us a piece of business, and I’d rather we all kept a clear head. Especially if you have to swing that sword.”“Mock me, and you’ll never hear the particulars.”Roldan felt annoyed. Babieca might have told him about the job earlier. Once again, they both assumed that he would follow them anywhere. He would. That wasn’t the point. He hated simply being told things, like a child.“I suppose,” he said, “you need something to glow.”“Don’t be like that.” Babieca smiled at him. “This could be fun. We’re supposed to pick up something for the basilissa.”Only Morgan had ever seen the basilissa. I just saw the ba...** Views: 16
Was a life dealing with the pressure of photographing an A-List crowd really what she wanted to be known for? Casey Maynard decided a trip home was called for: a camping trip into the wilds of North Western Montana. Growing up, she’d spent as much time in its vast wilderness as she had in her own home. The weekend trip with her father and brother fell through, but undeterred; she’d gone alone. But Casey finds herself in the middle of a twenty year vendetta against her father for killing the Alpha of a pack of werewolves who hold a Sanctuary deep in the mountains of the Cabinets. In a battle for her life, Casey finds herself falling for the new Alpha of the pack while he shows her how to handle and communicate with her own wolf. Upon discovering the wolf spirit who chose her was the Mother of all Weres…more treachery thrives. Finding love and true bonds that know no bounds, her life is turned upside down. From a deep family secret to a two thousand year old murder, will Casey’s link with the Silver Wolf be enough to save them all? Views: 16
He's one cowboy she can't resistCowboy and lady-magnet Trace McAllister has a problem...and she's petite, with almond-shaped eyes and a body that makes his libido beg for mercy. Sure, the Sundance Dude Ranch has attracted a bevy of gorgeous townie women. But not one draws him in like sexy little Nikki Flores.Nikki isn't looking to play games with some good-lookin' charmer of a cowboy. She knows better--or should. Besides, she's in Blackfoot Falls only long enough to figure out her next move. And the last thing she needs is to get tied down...or tied up!But all they need is one moment--the moment when temptation takes over.... Views: 16
Nicholas Haddonfield has something to hide... After a wild youth, Nicholas Haddonfield, Viscount Reston, has promised his ailing father he'll finally take a bride, though doing so will force Nick to make impossible choices and face old, painful wounds. Leah Lindsey is glad to find refuge from her own desperate situation in a marriage of convenience with the gallant viscount. But soon convenience is not enough, and Leah can't understand why Nick remains so distant. What is he hiding, and will he ever allow her into his heart? An extraordinary and passionate tale of courage tested and fears overcome. Once you enter the lush Regency world of award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Grace Burrowes, you'll never want to leave. Views: 16
The bestselling author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals recounts his latest hilarious misadventures in the South Pacific, following in the footsteps of his unlikely idol, Robert Louis Stevenson ? Readers and critics alike adore J. Maarten Troost for his signature wry and witty take on the adventure memoir. Hailed by Entertainment Weekly as a "funny, candid, and down-to-earth travel companion," Troost's bestselling debut, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, is an enduring favorite about life in the South Seas. ? Headhunters on My Doorstep chronicles Troost's return to the South Pacific after his struggle with alcoholism and time in rehab left him numb to life. Deciding to retrace the path once traveled by the author of Treasure Island, Troost follows Robert Louis Stevenson to the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, Tahiti, the Gilberts, and Samoa, tumbling from one comic misadventure to another as he confronts his newfound sobriety. ?... Views: 16
In this companion novella to The Girl with the Iron Touch, American cowboy Jasper Renn finds himself in a situation his lightning-fast skills cannot rescue him from... After surviving a triumph-turned-tragedy in New York City, Jasper is determined to secure a happier future with his gifted band of friends. So when the group’s mechanical genius Emily is abducted, he’ll plunge into England’s darkest places to rescue her.... But his old flame Wildcat is turning London town upside down to find her missing sister, and Jasper finds the attraction between himself and the fierce beauty as tempting and dangerous as ever. Their trail leads deep into the city’s most unusual circus. Soon, Jasper will find his loyalties—and future—tested more than he could ever imagine.... Views: 16
Waking up in the hospital after a terrible car crash, Lila has a long road of recovery ahead of her. More than just her body, she must recover her heart after an altering declaration by Nathan.With all that happened between them she must chose to forgive him and take him back, or sever all ties. Nathan has a hard road ahead of him to earn back her trust, and doing so will open her up to the possibility of being hurt again. A possibility Lila doesn’t think she can survive.The secrets Nathan keeps buried, hidden from the world, of the life he used to lead are revealed. They tell the horror of what caused the scars on his body, mind, and heart.Can Lila and Nathan push through all of the obstacles in front of them? Will the journey be their healing, or their destruction? Views: 16
