Blown Away (Whispering Winds: 1)

Rowen Smithe doesn't do friends. They are too much trouble and he'd prefer to focus his attentions elsewhere, like the unusual lights in the west or smoke patterns in the east. Mick Rutger is a happy-go-lucky type that in fascinated by Rowen's interesting personality, and would very much like to be his friend...Rowen Smithe doesn't do friends. They require time and effort, both better spent protecting the woods surrounding his Mountain Shadows home. Lights in the west, smoke patterns in the east, and now a shiny glint deep in the forest. Someone needed to do something.Mick Rutger rarely met a challenge he wouldn't chase, but the drop-dead gorgeous man next door gives a whole new meaning to crazy when he spends hours in a tree just...watching? When his charming words have no effect, Mick has no choice if he wants to crack this nut. He follows the mysterious Rowe on a middle of the night hike, only to be caught before the chase can even begin.
Views: 386

Liars Like Us

Unlock the secrets in Reunion Gap What happens when destiny ignores the rules? Tate Alexander has the good luck to be born with looks and charm, and the bad luck to belong to a family where money and power mean more than honor and integrity. When he returns to Reunion Gap to take over his father's company, he's determined to uncover and right the wrongs his father committed. He's also determined to win over Charlotte Donovan, the woman who's stolen his heart. Charlotte Donovan is big on causes and vows no man will ever "own" her, especially a playboy who can't commit to a vehicle, let alone a woman. However, her heart isn't listening to her brain. The only way to battle that is to create a web of lies that keeps Tate believing she doesn't care about him. But maybe she's so busy keeping her lies in place that she almost misses the man's devotion to his siblings, and his commitment to righting past wrongs his father committed. When the...
Views: 385

Unzip and Other Compact Stories

A new collection of short stories by Tommy Dakar. From humour to intrigue, from irony to philosophy, each piece has been carefully constructed to perform its task.An observant boy goes to the park, returns home, and has a conversation with his mother in a fabricated, unlikely, never-happened, plausible, impossible, invented, realistic coming-of-age story. What Never Happened: An Observation, a short story, was first published in Waccamaw, Issue 7.From What Never Happened, An Observation:I was a boy. (Dear reader, for the last time I say to you, please remember that this is only a story, meant to comfort friends, relations, and acquaintances, and as such it only exists in your head and those heads who have heard it.) As a boy, I was not especially different than other boys, though I was somewhat indifferent towards them. Of girls, I remember the existence of none save my mother and other assorted relatives: a passel of cousins, an aunt, and a grandmother. I was predominantly interested in myself, though not in a selfish way. I was simply not aroused by games of sport or make-believe or conversation. Allow me to make myself clear: sport, make-believe, and conversation were three of my most cherished pastimes, but they were activities I preferred to conduct with myself. With others these pastimes were diluted, somehow losing their piquancy.What I was most passionate about, though, was observing. I would sit for hours in the same spot, quietly taking mental note of my surroundings. I would not speak my observations, nor would I write them down. I would simply take mental note of the position of a fork on a table, of the number of tines it had, of the sharpness of those tines, of the curvature of the head, of how gracefully the head met the handle at the neck, of any ornamentation on the handle, of any fingerprints. I would note the construction of the table, how its disparate parts were joined, the lay of the grain of the wood, the pattern of the sunlight splashed on the tabletop, the angle of sunlight entering through the window, the shape of a leaf outside the window. When I could fit words to my observations, I did (silently), but I never forced the issue. I did not wish to force my surrounding reality to conform to words if no words were adequate. For example, if the pattern of light on the table was rhombic, I would say so silently to myself, and so too if I could say with reasonable probability that the light passing through the window (forgiving refraction) entered the kitchen at an angle of 30, 45, or 60 degrees while my mother spread peanut butter and jelly on bread for me, I would use just those words. But more often than not, the pattern of light was decidedly unrhombic and indeed indescribable, just as the angle of the sunlight’s penetration was generally immeasurable and inestimable. In such instances, I would wordlessly observe and make wordless mental note. The words, after all, were not what I was after. Words were merely tools. I was after the thing itself.
Views: 385

Romance Meets Death

Ina fails to seduce a snobby, bat-eared English pathologist at work. Romance meets Death includes an explanation of Ina's artwork.A short story from 2005 from Ina Disguise. The tale of a young artist, trying not to be. Ina gets into trouble at work in the course of failing to seduce an ugly pathologist. Ina makes a film and narrowly escapes losing her income.
Views: 385

Be With Me

It was the friends-with-benefits proposition he never saw coming... While Arran Adair might have followed the call of wanderlust in his younger years, it isn't the reason he stayed away from Ardnoch. Home now, desperate to put the sins of his past behind him, and rebuild his life in the Scottish Highlands, Arran could never have predicted Eredine Willows. The Ardnoch Estate Pilates instructor is a complicated mystery and one Arran can't help but want to solve. Eredine has spent the last eight years hiding in Scotland and building walls between her and the people she cares about. Arran is the first Adair who doesn't treat her as if she's fragile and demands a genuine friendship. Yet, the attraction sizzling between them is undeniable. So when she realizes she trusts him, Eredine surprises them both by offering Arran one night of no-strings passion. Arran knows one night will inevitably lead to a desire for more and he's willing to...
Views: 385

The Mistress (Ruthless Regency Dukes 2)

THE MISTRESS (Ruthless Regency Dukes 2) is the second book in USA Today and Amazon International #1 Bestselling Author, Carole Mortimer's, NEW Regency Romance series.Six Dukes, bound together by their friendship and loyalty to The Crown. Then one of them is killed at the Battle of Waterloo, splintering the friendship of the five left behind, as they blame themselves and each other for their friend's death. Until they learn he didn't die in battle at all, he was murdered. The search for the killer begins!Alaric Montrose, the Duke of Melborne, has his quarry in his sights, but very quickly realises that the best way to learn if this is the man responsible for the death of Alaric's friend, is to seduce the man's mistress.Except that mistress is immune to all Alaric's attempts at seduction.Obviously stronger measures are needed if he is to succeed in his current mission, and there are any number of ways in which he might achieve that...
Views: 384

Amina

'Amina' is a ten minute play script. A tragedy. Three characters (2m/1f). One or some of the characters are ghosts. The audience will not know who is alive, and who is not until the end. The piece is set in 1980s Lebanon, during the long civil war, in the basement of an apartment building that has collapsed due to bombing. Khalil says he has come from the future, in a near-death, drug induced sp'Amina' is a ten minute play script. A tragedy. Three characters (2m/1f). One or some of the characters are ghosts. The audience will not know who is alive, and who is not until the end. The piece is set in 1980s Lebanon, during the long civil war, in the basement of an apartment building that has collapsed due to bombing. Khalil says he has come from the future, in a near-death, drug induced spirit walk, to rescue his true love Amina, a ghost, from the loop she has been trapped in since her death. Amina is stuck in the basement of a bombed apartment building with her father Abu Walid. Abu Walid cannot see Khalil, or maybe he just doesn't want to admit that he can see Khalil. Abu Walid insists that Amina is going crazy from their situation and that she needs to be patient. Amina doesn't know who to believe. If she really is dead, then she wants to escape the loop, and to be with Khalil. Her father has always disagreed with Khalil being a suitor for his daughter. There are mummified cats coming to life, men with bazookas and rifles heading their way, and a Pharaoh's master craftsmen to deal with...things are quite surreal when you're dead!
Views: 384