Dark Dreams: EXCERPT!!!!!!

As I've mentioned a couple of times, I've been working on a new paranormal adventure/romance series with Dawn Treadway, and we are nearly through the final revision of the first book in the series, tentatively titled "Dark Dreams".  Dawn is the lead writer on this, and with her permission, I've been given the opportunity to post the first excerpt from this exciting story here!

First a brief background ... Nias H'udor is a member of an immortal race of daemons (the Djinn) from the hell-like realm of Sheol.  Having escaped from the horrors of that world and now sworn to protect humans as much as possible from the horde of Shaitan daemons who are now committed to serving the ruler of that realm, Nias and his family and fellow Djinn have to combat not only the Shaitan, but their own darkness within.  When Nias's younger brother is captured and taken back to Sheol, he is instructed by their patron goddesses to find a specific human and use her and her unique abilities to help him literally go through hell to save him.

Jade Shear is a normal woman, owner of a small business, and just looking for someone who can be her Mr. Right.  Only one problem ... she has a secret, and it's one that makes it almost impossible for her to have a long-lasting normal relationship.  Then a tall, dark, and sexy stranger walks into her bookstore, and just as suddenly disappears.  She dismisses it until she runs into him again the next day, and is suddenly thrust into a world she never thought possible, side by side with one of the most infuriatingly arrogant men she has ever met.

Here is an excerpt from the upcoming novel, from their first encounter.  Enjoy and keep an eye out for news on this pending series.

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“Hey gorgeous, thought it was your day off?”  Matt lilted accusatorily and sauntered toward the cash rap.  For whatever reason nothing ever seemed to ruin his good cheer.  It was one reason she could stand to be around him.  The other reason was he was one of the few men she could be around and not read lascivious feelings about her radiating from him.  “You alright sweets, look like you need a drink,” his perfectly arched brows rose slightly for a moment, “and a brush,” he chuckled and pushed at her shoulder.

“Can you please not start with me?” Jade lifted her aching head to respond and tried to shake out the last bits of the obtrusive emotions around her.

She actually loved when Matt started up with her.  Her favorite employee was a bright breath of fresh air in her normally ho-hum days and the ones where she was accosted by her irritating affliction.

“Now darlin’ what in the world would be fun about that?”  He moved his hand like a wand through the air, a gesture he always seemed to make appropriate.  Whether recapping a bad date he’d been on, appraising someone’s outfit, or generally talking trash about another of Jade’s employees, there was always “the hand” emphasizing his dramatic points.

He continued without waiting for a response.  “Girl you need to stop with the workaholic spinster act.”  He gave her a cursory disapproving glance from her disheveled hair down to her beautifully attired feet.  He let a small smile escape at her footwear but then began again.  “Get out of here, go dig up a life girl, get laid, fall down drunk somewhere.”  He let loose with yet another wave of his hand around the room. “You know this place is fine. I’ve got the wheel, I make a fabulous captain.” Matt laughed; the man really loved to amuse himself.

“I just need a book or two, then I’m out, I won’t stay,” Jade swore, even as she scanned the room for other things she could be working on.

“Okay, mama, but I’m watching you.”  The characteristic hand wave ended with an accusatory finger pointed at her.

A gust of cool air blew up from the floor behind her.  It seemed to come from nowhere.  Jade inhaled as the fragrance of dark sandalwood and a dirty masculinity wafted into her nostrils.  Her eyes closed and as she breathed in, her mind was abruptly flooded with the image of all the sex she wasn’t having.

Matt’s lowered voice invaded the darkness of her shut eyelids.  “Oh my Lord no, I am not looking at you, not anymore, now I’m watching that!”  She opened her eyes and saw the look in Matt’s eyes glaze over slightly as he motioned to something, or someone, behind her that had now consumed his attentions.

“Do not turn around quickly, but girl, turn the hell around.  Slowly I said, do not startle it and make it run away,”  Matt hissed as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

Jade smirked, “What are you talking about now?  Is there some kind of animal in my store?”  Jade turned and not twenty feet away, he stood.

Legs crossed, a gorgeous man leaned against her book shelf, his cocked head rested against it in a lazy pose.  A long stream of dark, almost black hair fell against the structure contrasting with the lighter red of the cherry wood mantelpiece.  The man was making no attempt to hide the fact that he had been staring right at her, assessing her, and she had to mentally roll her eyes at his obvious audacity.  But when finally her curiosity took over she just had to take another distant peek.  Jade’s eyes met his and they seemed to grab and pull her in; then his emotion smashed against her unbidden, and she felt a sudden wave of lust crash over her.

She unintentionally released a breathy sigh and clenched her teeth as the pure animal nature of him surrounded her in an all encompassing cloud of arousal. Between this force and her body stood only a flimsy white tank and it apparently was going to provide her no protection.  Her breasts and nipples tightened and became overly sensitive to even the slightest movements she made.  The lower regions of her body went moist and warm and she crossed her legs; the clenching however, made the feeling even stronger.

“Holy cow,” fell softly out of her mouth.

And Matt concurred, “Yes, ho-oly cow girl.”  Her mouth had apparently remained open because, keeping his gaze stuck on the tall hunk of man before them, Matt put his hand under her chin and popped it closed.

Trying to shake off the lusty arousal she turned and tried to once again take on the look of the professional establishment owner she was, but she couldn’t help but take a tentative step in his direction.

Of course that didn’t work out; instead she tripped on the edge of the Turkish rug beneath her, twisting her foot and breaking the heel off her favorite Jimmy Choo knee-high boots.

“Damn it,” she said under her breath, “I saved for months to buy those.”  As she bent down to pick up the broken heel, she tried to take a step backward and stabilize her still sexually stunned body against the wooden counter behind her.

Of course, being that she was Jade, her hand landed at the base of a stack of returned books, sending them and herself tumbling to the floor.  She was now red-cheeked, with hair strewn across her face with pieces in her mouth, on her hands and knees. She lifted her head, to wait for the typical Matt-like wisecrack.

The mysterious man flashed a condescending grin the Cheshire cat himself would have been proud of and slowly turned and sauntered toward her front doors and then just seemed to disappear.  But that couldn’t be right, could it?  He must have just walked out the door.

“What the fuck was that?”  Jade gaped at the space the dark haired man had occupied; as she sat back onto her heels and shook her head to clear it.

Role Playing: Advantages ... and Challenges ...

My name is Aaron Speca, and I am a Role Player.

Role playing was something I hadn’t tried since high school.  And that was very different than what I have discovered today.  Back then, what I knew of was Dungeons and Dragons, swords, sorcery, adventure-driven.  Writing?  Please.  I hated to write.  I hated the whole process of it.  I focused on math and science, wrote when I had to, what I had to, I order to get that degree and job and be a “success”.

Twenty years later, my wife made some friends here locally, and was introduced to another form of role playing than what I had been exposed to.  Writing-based, playing characters from popular series (or sometimes making up your  own), weaving an intricate tale of fantasy, intrigue, romance, adventure; it was something I didn’t get at first.

You’re role playing?  And you are writing in order to do it?  I didn’t get it at all.

Then I started reading what she wrote.  I was hooked.  She’ll tell you otherwise, but she is a really good writer in her own right, in some ways better than me.  I found myself rooting for her characters … hard.

I still wasn’t interested in doing it myself though.

Then, because I was (and still am) an avid poker player, her group asked me to come online and help them write out a poker game as the dealer.  It was an experiment that had limited success (I think we played out two hands in ninety minutes), but it did allow me to actually experience what role play on Facebook was like.

So then I decided to really try it.  I picked a very minor character from Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series, and thought I might try this a couple of times.

Ok, that was almost two years ago.

What I discovered was a creative wellspring I didn’t even know I had inside myself.  Stories and backgrounds for both characters within this series and original characters started to form as if from nothing in my head. 

And I was hooked.  From someone who despised creative writing to published writer in a little over fifteen months.  It’s a transition that still leaves me reeling.

What is Role Play to me?  It’s a mental exercise.  It uses so many different skills – writing, acting, improvisation, organization.  It can be a daily writing activity.  I once heard someone say, if you want to be a writer, then write a little bit every day … this is a great way to do that.  And it’s fun to boot.  Even better, it has allowed me to meet people (albeit virtually) that I would probably never have had the opportunity to know any other way.

                                 

There are some great people … real people … behind the character profiles that people LOVE to read on Facebook.  In fact, I’ve been told by a few fans that the only reason they come online is to read the stories that these characters put together. Now along with my first character, I have several others and many stories that I and my fellow group members have put together, our group has over 1000 fans, and we have built relationships with many other groups from many different book series.

Now there seems to be a force hellbent on killing all of that.  This week, many character profiles were disabled by Facebook.  Because Facebook doesn’t tell anyone exactly WHY their account was disabled, it’s unknown whether they were reported by someone or Facebook just decided to go crazy, but they are now requiring an upload of a copy of a government issued ID.  Which of course does no good, because the name obviously won’t match the name on the account.  As an aside, authors which have accounts under pen names can potentially face the exact same issue.

I’m not going to get into the legality of this requirement, which I personally think is questionable at best, but looking at it from a pure business standpoint, why is Facebook willing to kick all these people to the curb?  Do they not realize how big this community is?  How many people they stand to lose?  How much advertising revenue will go by the wayside?

I understand the issues with safety on the internet, curbing bullying and cyber-stalking, all of that.  But they are grossly missing the target if that is their intention in taking this action.  Role Players ARE NOT THE PROBLEM.  Those profiles are very clear and up front that they are not real people.  None of us are out there claiming to actually be Nick Gautier or Sookie Stackhouse or Acheron Parthanopaeus.   In fact, RPers are more often the victim of the exact bullying and stalking that Facebook claims to be trying to curtail.  I know people that have been approached and cyber-stalked by some real freaks out there, and then when they are rebuffed, they simply get mad and report the profile.

What kind of system is it where someone, with a click of a button, can report any profile for anything without proof, and have that profile disabled with no recourse for the person reported?  Shouldn’t those people have the opportunity to at least know the specific reason why they were reported so they can have the chance to fix it?

I realize this is a bit of a rant, but it is frustrating for anyone to lose their writings and be prevented from performing a hobby by rules that make no sense and are not even close to uniformly enforced.  I have many acquaintances and other people I would call true friends who have lost months or years of writing and fan-building.  Some are published, some are trying to be, some have no real designs on going that route.  But it is still a huge creative loss.  I know one person in particular (Kenneth Roy Ezell, who gave me permission to use his name and profile and wanted me to) actually had all his 3-plus years of work backed up, had a hardware failure this week and was getting ready to back it all up again when his profile was taken down.  I know others who used Facebook’s own backup feature, only to find out when they needed them that the downloaded files were corrupted and unusable.

I know there are other sites out there for RPing, but to be honest, none I have seen have the combination of functionality and reachability that Facebook has.  And the reachability is important for those of us that are writers or aspire to be writers, or even just simply enjoy the social interaction with fans and other groups.

There are pockets out there of RPers and fans that are looking at various ways to address this issue, including a proposal to create a Facebook space or type of account to let us do what we enjoy, and allow the fans to continue to enjoy the fruits of our labor.  To keep us all on Facebook would seem to be to Facebook’s advantage.  So we will see what comes of it.

Thanks for reading … and stick with me because I have some more excerpts and news coming for publications soon!!  I am not planning to go anywhere.

Kenneth Roy Ezell’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Backlotanimation

Writers United: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Writers-United/178214592296077 (not yet ready for posting but will be up soon)

January Gush and Gripe

I've decided to work with my friends at Talk Supe (talksupe.blogspot.com) to join them in bringing you my own monthly Gush and Gripe!  I hope you enjoy them.  Of course, these opinions are mine alone and in no way are meant to reflect the opinions of Talk Supe or any of my writing partners or associated companies.

GUSH OF THE MONTH

Ok, since this is my first one of these, I am going to gush about my kids!

I think, being biased of course, that I have three of the best kids in the world.  First, there’s my 14-year-old daughter, my oldest.  Scholastically, she is in the International Baccalaureate program in 8^th grade.  She has desires to become a marine biologist, a desire she has expressed since 5^th grade, so I have no reason to think she’s going to change her mind.  She is also a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, working on her 2^nd Degree, and hoping to spend some time as an instructor there as well.

Second, is the middle one, the 11-year-old.  She has been in the Magnet Dance program since 3^rd grade, and she’s definitely the artist of the family.  Her writing is incredibly deep for an 11-year-old.  On top of all that, she is a top keeper in the local soccer league, and after a season off is getting ready to return to that sport.  She has a sarcastic wit to match my own, and beware when the two of us get started on something.  We’ll have each other in stitches in no time.

Finally, there is the seven-year-old boy.  He is a Blue Belt in Tae Kwon Do himself, and the focus he has learned doing that is quite amazing.  Case in point – the day after Christmas, with all the stuff he got, he spent seven straight hours assembling a Lego robot he received that had almost 600 pieces, and these were the tiny pieces that are easy to lose.  He never asked for any help or got upset or complained, just did it. 

They deserve every bit of Gushing I can do about them!

GRIPE OF THE MONTH

I’m going to stick with the theme of kids for my Gripe as well.  I just recently heard about this issue that the FDA has been investigating about the connection between food dyes and hyperactivity or bad behavior in children.  Granted this has been going on since March of last year, but I hadn’t heard about it until this past month.

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/30/134962888/fda-probes-link-between-food-dyes-kids-behavior

Now, of course, I think food dyes have plenty of negatives, but to be honest I don’t think too much about them.  What strikes me about this story, and thus my Gripe, is why everyone wants to find some key external cause to explain why their kids don’t behave.  “It must be the food dye” seems to me to just be another excuse in today’s all-too-common propensity to give everything a named “syndrome” or “condition” that might need to be medicated or controlled.

The flaw with any study such as this is that there is no way to completely factor everything else out.  Let’s face it, there are plenty of conditions which make the foods with these dyes more popular with certain parts of the population … most notably, convenience.  These foods are often quick snacks, and for people that are incredibly busy with working two jobs, or having tons of after-school activities, they are sometimes not only a food of choice but in some cases, they may feel it’s a necessity.  Or, they are easy to have around the house for when the parents can’t be home right away.  Plus, let’s face it, in today’s economy, putting “natural” on the label often can be an excuse to make the product more expensive, regardless of whether it truly is or not.

Of course, these are exactly the kinds of environmental factors that might ALSO cause hyperactivity and bad behavior.  One reason I feel blessed is that I have a job where my bosses are flexible and allow me to start work very early so I can get home earlier for the kids, when my wife is working.

There may very well be anecdotal evidence that eliminating these types of foods is beneficial in the area of hyperactivity.  I would never try to tell any family that something that they are sure works for them doesn’t work.  But, to put a ban on such foods based on what is purely circumstantial evidence, to me, smacks of too much control.

I’m a fan of the FDA, they have done great things to make food and drugs safe and healthy and I would never dream of eliminating them.  I just think they need to focus on those things and make absolutely sure there is a causal connection between things before even considering something so severe as a ban, or even going as far as a warning label.

Coincidence does not necessarily equal causation.

MEDIA GUSH:

Loving the creativity of the writers of Once Upon a Time, the way they are interweaving the fairy tales together.  The last one I saw was the one where the genie got freed with the king’s first wish, and also got given the final wish by his liberator.  Unfortunately for the genie, it led to him becoming the evil queen’s magic mirror at the end, trapping him once again.  “I have granted 1001 wishes, and 1001 times they have ended badly.”  And it did even for him.  Brilliant!!!

MEDIA GRIPE:

Saw the Adventures of Tin Tin with the kids.  Just didn’t get it.  At one point I almost dozed off.  Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of kids’ movies that I love – Finding Nemo, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Tangled, Enchanted – this one didn’t have any of the elements I loved about those movies.  Characters were not engaging, and the story didn’t hold my attention at all.  The animation was amazing of course, but that just doesn’t cut it with me.  Sorry, Mr. Spielberg, I know you got fascinated with the books and wanted to bring them to the big screen, but this was a miss.

ANTICIPATORY GUSH:

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to see it in the theaters, but the movie “Chronicle” intrigues me.  For one thing, it’s got a bunch of relative unknowns in it … and for another, I think I’m one of the minority who enjoy the kind of grainy low budget feel that this one looks to have (Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, District 9).  It seems as though it will be short however, at only 84 minutes.  Which means … it could be another “Jumper” or “Push” which were both disappointing.  But this is a hopeful anticipatory gush.

ANTICIPATORY GRIPE:

Why, George Lucas, must you continue to try to squeeze every last penny out of the “Star Wars” franchise?  I’ve seen so many 3-D movies that have disappointed me with the fact they would have been just fine without it, there’s no way I’m spending any money on “The Phantom Menace 3-D”.  Not gonna do it.  Ok, I guess this is more of a standard gripe … I already know how I feel about this LOL.  Love “Star Wars”, hate what you keep doing with it.

Time, the Great Enemy

Sometimes I feel rather inadequate when I look around at what authors are able to accomplish.  The sheer volume of the work some of them produce is staggering to me.  I wonder every once in a while if I should even bother.

I have to admit a slight level of envy when I consider Allison Cassatta and Denyse Bridger, two authors I've spoken with online, and who've been incredibly helpful to Patricia and I ... and I watch them as it seems like they are coming out with something almost constantly.  And we have one story to our credit.

I see Sherrilyn Kenyon, the whole reason I got into writing in the first place, and see how she comes out with a major novel every three or four months it seems, and everything she puts out turns to gold.

I wonder, what the hell am I doing?

But then I look at where I am in my life and all that kind of melts away.  They do what they are able to do, and I do what I am able to do.

I have to keep my full time job, there's too much at stake not to.  To be honest, I've never even considered quitting.  And my three kids need me too.  So I have to accept that I can only do what I can do.

I can say however, that I don't regret or resent where I am.  In fact, I look at the advantages ... I have SO MANY ideas bouncing around now ... the limitations of my time is making me focus on the REALLY good ones.

So ... I'm not going to be the most prolific writer in the world ... not by any stretch ... but hey, keep paying attention ... I promise what does come out that my partners and I come up with ... it'll be worth the wait!

Credit where Credit is Due

So I was in a discussion today and it kind of centered around taking credit and giving credit, and whether one gets validation from themselves or from other people.

Myself, I write stuff that I would like to read, and I write for my writing partners.  If people enjoy reading it, I see that as a bonus.  If I get recognized, that is a HUGE bonus.

So, XOXO just announced their best of 2011 and Evernight: Romance in a World of Darkness was one of the books picked as Best Anthology.  It's a collective award for all the authors who worked on it ... so I wanted to post links to their pages here.  I know I have an extremely small following right now, but this group was all great and we all should deservedly share in the honor.  Congratulations Evernight authors!!!

Allison Cassatta

http://www.facebook.com/allison.cassatta

http://www.allisoncassatta.com

Donya Lynne

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Donya-Lynne/264551610235097

T.A. Grey

http://www.facebook.com/pages/T-A-Grey/122074687903394

Angela Kerns

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angela-J-Kerns/111209085577475

Tracey Steinbach

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Tracey-Steinbach/255179941185173

Audrina Leone

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003035753453

http://theblogginamamma.blogspot.com/

N. Bance & Lee Leskova

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NBance-Lee-Leskova/263890763644788

Aaron Speca & Patricia Laffoon

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aaron-Speca-AuthorEditor/216515161730857

L. S. Beck

http://lsbeck.weebly.com/index.html

I know it's been a while since I posted, my full time job has been crazy lately.  But I'll be back with some more news soon ... and it's good :)  See ya later!!!!

Christmas Miracles Do Happen

So a little break from talking about writing, to say a little something about something that happened between Christmas and New Year's.

If you've been reading, you know that I am part of a Role Playing group, and we've gotten fairly close over the last eighteen months.  I mean, I only know a couple of them from face-to-face meetings, but still we are like an extended family.  We talk and support each other all the time.

So you can imagine how we all felt when we heard from one of our member's family that he had been killed in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer two days after Christmas.  Shock wasn't even close to the right word.  We were all affected, and a couple of our members (one who was his best friend outside of the group, another who played his mate) were absolutely devastated by the news.  There was a lot of chatter going on, tons of virtual hand-holding and shoulder-crying.  It hurt tons.

So I was online putting together some things for them when lo and behold, he pops up and just starts talking on our page!  At first I thought someone had hacked his account or something or was playing a sick joke.  I mean let's be honest, we had heard from the family and the friend ... and crazier crap has happened online.  But after a couple of posts it was obvious it was him.

Seems that he and a friend of his had gone out drinking.  At one point, his friend had given him his wallet to hold.  Later in the night, his friend was sober and needed to drive and asked for his wallet back.

A tractor trailer crossed the center line as they were headed home in bad weather and hit them head-on killing the driver.  Turns out, his friend had inadvertently gotten the wrong wallet.  Our member was unconscious the whole time they were going through the notification process, and when he woke up, they were calling him by his friend's name.  He spent the next several hours proving that he was who he said he was.  He came out of it hurt, but overall okay.

Now it is a tragedy still that his friend was killed, so it's tough to know what feelings one is SUPPOSED to have when something like this happens.  But it was an incredible story and roller coaster.  I mean, you can't WRITE this stuff!

So what's my point?  Well while this was all going on, I had written a note for some of our members, a couple who had mentioned the possibility of quitting.  I wanted to express how I felt about that whole thing, and it turned into a little commentary on living life and how we all needed each other.  I felt like sharing it here.  Peace, hope you all had a great holiday season and will all be able to enjoy it again next year!

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"Alone"

Why do we do this?

When something tragic happens to someone we know, no matter how closely or distantly, inevitably the questions come up.

For those that were close, they ask questions like "Why did this have to happen?"  "What do I do now?"  "How can I ever do this again?"

For those that might have known the person just on the periphery, they might ask "What if it were {fill in the blank}?"  "What would I do if it were someone close to me?"  "Why do I even take the risk?"

Genesis 1:3-4 -- "And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.  God saw that the light was good."

This mantra is repeated over and over in the first two chapters of Genesis.  God created, and saw it was good.  Land, sea, sky, stars, plants, animals.  Every time God created something, He saw that it was good.  Until the sixth day, after God created the first man.

Genesis 2:18 -- "The Lord God said, 'It is NOT GOOD for the man to be alone.'" (my emphasis)

To me, this passage is not about how many days it took for God to create the world, or whether or not He even exists.  No matter what you believe, whether it's in God, or an intelligent design, or that it is just random bits that fell together ... I believe that we were not made to be alone.  That we would literally shrivel away to nothing if not for other people.

I was talking to someone today who thought she might seriously quit RP over this loss.  Now she admitted she probably wouldn't, but it got me to thinking, are there others that might feel this way?  That might feel that the risk is too great, that the pain of someone hurting you, or being different than you thought they were, or leaving, or God forbid even dying?

These thoughts have crossed my mind as well.  What if?  That is the biggest question.  What if it were Nick, or Jeshika, or Savitar, or Trish, or Kyra, or Siana, or Aimee, or Bride, or ...  What if it were someone I knew in real life?  My wife, my sister, my friends, my parents.

How easy would it be to shut them all out and avoid that pain?

For me it would be impossible.  Because, MY world would be a very boring place without them in it.  ALL of them.  And all of you.

Why do *I* do this?  Because to me, it is all worth the risk.

I could be alone, but alone I am nothing.  I can't write on my own.  I don't go out to be on my own.  I can't love on my own.  I can't live on my own.  Avoiding that is worth the risk of pain or loss that will inevitably happen every time I open myself to a new friendship, here or in my "real life".

"It is NOT GOOD for the man to be alone."

It is not good for any of us to be alone ... don't make that choice.  Take time if you need it, even leave RP if you feel you need to, but please don't make the choice to BE alone.  To EXIST alone.  It wasn't meant to be that way.

Excerpt Time!

I've included here excerpts from the story "Tears of the Mermaid", published in Allison Cassatta's anthology "Evernight: Romance in a World of Darkness"; and "Heart of the Mermaid", the hopefully soon-to-be-published prequel.  And look to the right for links to the anthology on XOXO Publishing's web site and on Amazon.  Enjoy!


Tears of the Mermaid


Trish did not have long to wait. He didn't arrive the way she thought he would. No, he stole onto the beach like a thief in the night. His steps faltered at first as he rose up from the waves that crashed upon the shore. He quickly found his footing and made his silent way towards the single, solitary figure sitting by the bonfire. Tossing down a bundle of clothes, standing naked he towered over her.
   
A small gasp escaped her lips and it was not one of pleasure by any means. "What?" he demanded. "Do you not find my form to your pleasing? I seem to remember a time when you thought so."
   
She turned her face away from him, and in that moment he leaned over, inhaling her scent. His eyes flared in the rapidly darkening dusk, then narrowed as he pulled on his britches, tucking his feet into a stout pair of black leather boots.
   
"You lied to me; you said there was no human here." The look on his face turned into a snarl. "I can smell the same male on you that I smelled before!"
   
She scrambled back from her place on the sand in fear. "No! No you are mistaken!"
   
"Am I?" Aaron bent his knees slightly, grabbing Trish by her slender arms, dragging her up his well-defined chest. He could feel her resistance in the way she went rigid against him. His groin tightened as he drew in her scent again, dragging his nose and lips from the curve of her graceful shoulder, up her slender neck nuzzling just under her ear, whispering, "He was here, but he's not now is he?"
   
She tensed at his touch turning her face away from him. There was only one man's touch that she relished and his was not it. She had sent Rudy away from the island, and yes, she had summoned Aaron but it was to tell him that his attentions were no longer desired; actually that they never were. Now that he was here, the fear and trepidation she always felt in his presence came flooding back, as did the memory of his last visit when he first suspected that not only was there another man here, but a human at that. She had refused to tell Rudy where the scars had come from.
   
"I…," she trembled, "I don't know what you're talking about."
   
"Trish you lied to me once and paid a heavy debt for it; don't let us have a repeat of that tonight. You called to me; there must have been a reason, what other could it be than you wanted me."


Heart of the Mermaid

Rudy saw the slightly open door of the bureau and slowly pulled out his sword.  He swiftly used it to lever the door open, pointed his pistol at the now open bureau and saw … a woman … collapse out of the small space.

Trembling with rivulets of water running from her long blonde curls and down her body, she looked at him with the deepest blue eyes he had ever seen.  She tried to cover herself with a dress that she was not wearing at the moment.  But her wet body made it cling to her, and it didn’t do much to cover her curvaceous shape.

Rudy certainly didn’t remember her being with the group they had brought to the Americas.  And he absolutely would have remembered her.

Her eyes were wide and frightened, and he tried to change his demeanor to put her at ease.  He pushed the hammer forward to uncock the gun, and put it back in its holster slowly.  But he did keep his sword out.  She was a stowaway after all.  “Hello,” he said softly.  “What are you doing here?”

He knew he should grab her and turn her over to the captain.  But he also knew what might happen if he did.  He felt an overwhelming need to make sure that didn’t happen.  And he already knew he was in trouble.

********************************************************************

Trish tumbled from her hiding place and lay sprawled at the feet of … Oh my … She looked up at a god.  He was tall, really tall as he peered down at her, and his skin was brushed with a golden hue.  His uniform fit like it was a second skin.  She had never had this reaction to a human male … ever.

She trembled and began babbling in the tongue of the Merfolk before she regained her senses and drew the dress up to attempt to cover her nakedness, swallowing hard.  Then she said in a soft stuttering whisper, “Please … my l-lord … have mercy on a poor female.  I need sanctuary.”

Surprisingly, he sheathed his sword and crouched down next to her.  Then something tumbled out of his mouth that she did not expect.  “Please don’t refer to me as ‘your lord’.”  She shivered as he took off his shirt.  Paralyzed, staring at the rippling muscles of this paragon of a male, she was both excited and frightened.  Gods, what is he going to do to me?  But then, he did the most amazing thing.

He gently placed his shirt over her shoulders and closed it around her.

She could barely comprehend what he was doing.  He was so close to her now, when he pulled away she almost gasped.