But even in victory, the legacy of Obadiah Paine is not so easily washed away. His hidden lair yet remains, Dread Fortress Paine yet stands! Within it . . . none can be sure what monstrous acts are waiting to be uncovered or guess the number of Paine loyalists who linger. It falls on the shoulders of ESLED Strike Alpha to answer these questions and to seize Paine's hideout for the Elemental Learning Council. Led by spectromancer Ramses Lamprey, joined by civilian observer Tyson Bonnie, and aided by Council fixer Eva Reti, failure is not an option. This volume is a can't miss for Foul Mouth fans, acting as an action packed epilogue for "The Foul Mouth and the Pit of No Return" while priming many plot points for the next main volume and even those well beyond. Dread Fortress Paine must fall! THE KING HENRY TAPES Book 1 - "The Foul Mouth and the Fanged Lady" (released) Book 2 - "The Foul Mouth and the Cat Killing Coyotes" (released) Book 3 - "The Foul Mouth and the Troubled Boomworm" (released) Book 4 - "The Foul Mouth and the Headless Hunny" (released) Book 5 - "The Foul Mouth and the Mancy Martial Artist" (released) Book 5.5 - "King Henry and the Three Little Trips" (released) Book 6 - "The Foul Mouth and the Pit of No Return" (released) Book 6.5 - "Assault on Dread Fortress Paine" (released) Book 6.75 - "The Glassbreaker Goes Home" (forthcoming) Book 7 - "The Foul Mouth and the Runaway Rumble" (forthcoming)

    Illustrator and writer's Carolyn Marie Castagna's first shared short story.A small icicle hanging from a roof peers inside a window at a small reading room, and learns about magical human qualities, and the importance of the one most special human feeling.

     Lucy is new to the area. Adventurous and up for fun, she is just the girl to take ‘loving thy neighbour’ to a steamy new level. Enter the object of her desire – her deliciously attractive neighbour, Melody. Fit, friendly and oozing sex appeal, Melody is every girl’s fantasy, but is she ‘one of the girls?’ or just a flirty tease? This is a tale to get your heart racing and change the way you view that sexy neighbour down the hallway forever. Who knows, it may inspire you to borrow more than a cup of sugar yourself. After all, sharing is caring… This is a 3500 word erotic short story. Warning: Contains graphic language and f/f sex.

    Learn how the drama all began in this prequel to the wildly popular novel, Been So Long.Mona-Lisa followed her boyfriend, Corey, to college with dreams of building a stable future with him and leaving her troubled past behind, but a chance meeting with a handsome stranger threatens to derail their relationship and send her right down a path she has tried to avoid.

    Starting with losing her entire family in a home invasion in which she was the sole survivor and growing up in an orphanage, Ashley's life has had it's ups and downs. Against the odds she fell in love and got engaged. Her life turns bad after some good when her fiance saves her life from a crazed killer only to lose his own. Eighteen months later Ashley is dealing with her lot in life, moving pass the once debilitating grief and depression, finding solace in her work as an FBI agent, and helping others. Keeping true to form, Ashley''s life has more surprises: Her fiance isn't really dead and he has no memory of her being his fiancee. He's back, ready to work and catch those who tried to kill him. But, can he work with his best and most trying agent not knowing they used to be lovers and friends?

    

    

    No slow burn, no filler. This couple gets right to the point.Nova Bradford and Mikhail Luther have a long history. They've known each other since they were students at Blythe T. Young Magnet High School. Mikhail was the handsome high school jock with the pretty homecoming queen on his arm and Nova, well Nova was the ugly duckling no one cared about. After years of working on her self-confidence thanks to a friend and therapy, she finally decides albeit reluctantly, to embark on a school reunion cruise to tropical paradise where she will come face to face with her former classmates that taunted her every day.What she doesn't expect to find is Mikhail, alone and not the same young man from school. What follows seems unlikely, but it's also the thing they both need ...

     They say you shouldn’t make eye contact with a stranger on the subway in New York City. It may not be an actual violation of the subway system code of conduct, but still. Lisa and Geoff, two strangers smushed together on a crowded E train, break that code when their train unexpectedly stops. Their conversation is the perfect antidote to the boredom and frustration of the delay. And more than the broken AC is to blame for the rising heat between them. When the train moves again, Lisa wonders if they should go back to behaving like strangers. But what if their paths were meant to cross? Tom—middle-aged, divorced, and out of work—needs to get a life. Instead, he gets a juror summons. Hardly expecting to ‘find himself’ while fulfilling his civic duty, he sets a single goal for the day: persuade the judge to exempt him from being picked for a jury. Time had stood still in the juror lounge. It begins to spin backward when he reconnects with Susan, a fellow juror and his middle school crush. Before long, he’s back under her spell. Could a man in his current position interest her? When she swipes through a dating app in front of him, she indicates the answer is no. With nothing else to lose, Tom prepares to sacrifice the one goal he has in order to capture her attention.

    They do everything together—work, play, relax, live. Minus the blight that is Wally's wife, and the unhappiness she brings him, their lives are grand.But then Wally files for divorce, and his wife drops a bombshell he never expected, and Antoine realizes that the life he'd always imagine with the best friend he's always secretly loved has been taken away from him a second time.By the Way is a side story to the novel The Missing Butterfly by Megan Derr.

    I've got a great kid, an amicable relationship with my ex, and a job working cattle on one of the largest ranches in Eden, Wyoming. Only problem is that "everyone" has no clue that I'm living a half-life.Because the other half is a closeted gay man who's got it bad for the young ranch hand he works with day in and day out.But the very straight Travis isn't an option. And even if he were, my sexy co-worker isn't exactly committed to commitment.So it's time for a change and since gay guys aren't exactly falling off trees in Eden, I'm going to need a little help...TravisIt was supposed to be a Friday night like any other. Me and my best friend heading into town to find some female company for a few hours. And even though Jackson usually goes home alone, he's still a great wingman.Unfortunately, between my impatience to get the night started and my bad habit of snooping, I've learned two things about Jackson in the space of five minutes that have left me all kinds of confused.Jackson's gay.And he's placed a classified ad to try and hook up with some guy he can't get his mind off after a brief run-in at a hardware store in the city.Now I can't get my mind off Jackson.Don't get me wrong, I like the ladies, but why can't I stop thinking about my good-looking best friend and the faceless stranger he's ready to start something new with? Jackson doesn't need some random guy right now. Not when he has me...Oh hell. Author's Note: Please note that this story was previously published as part of a charity anthology (Heart2Heart: A Charity Anthology, Volume 3) so it was intended to be a certain length. Although it is a complete story with an HEA, if you don’t care for short stories, Jackson and Travis’s tale may not be for you.

    But as usual her promise to herself is broken, because it was impossible for her not to fall heart first for TONY. Things developed quickly, but then their whirlwind romance suddenly comes to a halt when TONY decides things are too heavy for him and he wants space. After he moves out, he doesn't move on and JOCELYN allows him to play the in and out game, until she meets BRIAN. Ready to finally let TONY go and get him out of her system, she cuts the cord, but finds herself in a horrible situation in the end, all because of TONY.

    This book is an integration of 21 stories by Munshi Premchand, some of them are Ansuon ki holi, Namak ka Daroga, Shatranj ke Khiladi and many more.

    But getting abducted and imprisoned inside a remote experimental lab? Yeah, I think this takes the cake.Then there’s my neighbor in the cell next door, Xavier. Despite being a smoking hot alien, he’s a brooder with a pronounced contempt for pirates like me. But that distaste can’t hide the look in his eyes when I’m forced to shower in front of him.Everything changes when our experimenters demand we breed for them. If we ever hope to escape, we’re going to have to play along. But what happens after that? Will Xavier and I return to the loner lives we both once knew?Or will we discover an unshakable bond neither of us thought was possible?His Mate to Keep is an alien sci-fi romance, from the Warriors of the Lost Planet series of standalone books. This novel features a spitfire heroine and the sexy alien warrior who seeks to possess her. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a very happily ever after is guaranteed.

    Vignette #2 brings back a very minor character - Simon Gardner, the owner of the local Antique Shoppe. The third vignette takes us to Sweet Beans and an interaction between Sal and Camille. There is always something happening at the coffee shop. Vignette #4 is a little deeper insight into some of the agony that Heath Harvey has faced at the loss of his parents. His life changed drastically and the boy never was given time to deal with it. The final vignette - #5 is a look at our favorite waitress from Joe's Diner. Lucy is a steady, solid presence in the lives of so many people in Bellingwood, but what is her story? This is an opportunity to find out.The Bellingwood books are written from Polly's perspective and every once in a while it's fun to look at what's happening behind the scenes from the viewpoint of other characters. These vignettes were originally published on the nammynools.com website and in the monthly email newsletter to Bellingwood readers.