Misplaced trust. Pure evil.After reading these 9 chilling tales this Halloween, how many times will you soothe yourself in the dark thinking "there are no monsters"?

     Faced with his parents’s divorce, eleven-year-old Lucas runs away from his house with the hope that his family will get back together to find him. On his way walking through the empty streets, he is picked up by a mysterious woman who offers to take care of him and provide him with a loving family. The boy then wakes up in shackles, confined to a bed in a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere and will have to face his deepest fears in order to survive in his new home. Join Lucas in a desperate attempt to get back to his family in Madhouse, the first published book from horror-thriller author Miguel Estrada.

    They are led to believe that here they will leave behind all the distractions of 'real life' that are keeping them from creating the masterpiece that is in them. But 'here' turns out to be a cavernous and ornate old theater where they are utterly isolated from the outside world - and where heat and power and, most importantly, food are in increasingly short supply. And the more desperate the circumstances become, the more desperate the stories they tell - and the more devious their machinations to make themselves the hero of the inevitable play/movie/non-fiction blockbuster that will certainly be made from their plight.

    Worse, she's been saddled with the brutish Carlo Castellan as her bodyguard for the last night of Bacchanal. There's only one thing to do: escape to the fabled House of the Severille...The imperious Lady Lucrezia expects to sate herself by dominating some poor house slave. What she gets instead is the harsh touch of a Severille Master who will stop at nothing to make the Lady submit.Excerpt below......Lucrezia had never been one to hide. She'd never felt the need. Hidingwas what one did when one wasn't sure of one's place in the world, andshe had always been quite sure of her place at the top. Suddenly she wasn't sure of anything. After a moment of stunned hesitation, Lucrezia had immediately fled toan unoccupied bench in a relatively secluded corner of the courtyard,partially obscured by the greenery of several tall, foreign lookingplants. She had thought to collect herself, and find a way to explainher mistake -- she was not a slave, and didn't know the first thing aboutsubmission to anything -- but there was no escape from the sights andsounds of the Severille: on the other side of the mottled green curtainwas a woman having sex with two men at once on a bench much like the oneLucrezia occupied. One of the men kept slapping the woman's reddenedbuttocks as he drove into her asshole from behind, while the other tookher pussy from below. She was crying unintelligibly with near constantpleasure.Once more, Lucrezia could not look away."How amusing," a deep voice rumbled behind her. She tried to turn toface the intruder, but a heavy hand grabbed her shoulder and kept herstill while a rougher hand clasped between her legs from behind. She gasped in shock, but did not move. She did not even speak. The sudden, bright fire from the hand between her legsseemed to blot out all words."Don't you know that those who hide in plain sight only wish to befound?" the voice continued, and she realized it was muffled by a mask.Still, it was resonant and rich, and with the calm authority of someonewho is rarely disobeyed. She opened her mouth to speak, but whoever hadtrapped her began to rub his fingers along the length of her slitthrough the thin fabric of her undergarment, and Lucrezia lost her wordsonce more. She felt herself begin to melt into him, and heard himchuckle softly."Do not move. Do you understand?""Yes," she heard herself say, and nearly choked on it.The man moved his hand from her shoulder to her breast, first over thesoft, expensive leather, then with impatience reaching under the topspiece to seize her naked flesh. He kneaded her breast until she leanedinto him, rolling her nipple between his fingers, massaging her pussywith his other hand. He pinched her nipple, hard, and laughed as shesquealed."Yes," the voice said, "you will do." He spun her around to face him. He was wearing a full black mask ofsmooth lacquer, his full mouth and stubbled chin all that was visible,and he was smiling. His dark eyes shown through the holes in his maskwith a kind of amused certainty, as Lucrezia imagined a cat might lookat a struggling mouse. What's more, he was powerfully built, with abroad frame wrapped in thick muscle, and shirtless to the waist. Hischest was dusted with fine dark hair, trailing all the way down to hisbelt. Just the sight of him was arousing. He reached out and tipped herchin up to him, taking a look at her blushing cheeks and wet lips. Thenhe grabbed her between the legs again, and drew her close. "This is now mine," he said....The Lady Submits is a 12,000 word erotic historical fantasy novelette featuring strongBDSM themes. If you don't like bondage, leashes, public display andhumiliation, or alpha male doms who brook no dissent, then this probablyisn't for you. Otherwise...enjoy. ;)

    But it still tortures him. His search for answers will lead him down a twisted path paved with secrets and grotesque lies. Instead of peace he finds madness, held captive as part of a deranged plan filled with suffering…and blood. As the nature of his captors’ insanity is revealed, Marshall will need to confront the truth about his son and his own past if he hopes to have a future.

    One of the best mercenary teams in the business and an asset Tessa Honeywell can't afford to lose. The fact that their leader, Jensen Haye, is possibly the hottest guy this side of the Keltairan expanse is something Tessa tries very hard not to let affect her plans. Very hard. Well, not that hard. But in her defense, the guy is sex on legs. Just one...err, two problems. He's not human and he's pissed at her after her Intel sent a mission bad...So why do his growls turn her on like nothing else?Jensen Haye thinks Tessa is the hottest thing alive. A femme fatale. She's mysterious, alluring and ...human, so she's way too delicate for a brute like him, and that's before factoring in the beastly side of his nature. But anger loosens the bonds he holds on his inhuman side and when she offers...he takes.Two operatives, one abandoned warehouse in the back end of beyond... an afternoon neither will ever forget.*Please be aware that this is an Erotica Short*

     But how could I help being struck speechless by the sexy smile and warm intelligence of Professor Shane Brooks? What starts as wistful gazing from the back of the room leads to stolen touches that melt my core, and ends with a midnight encounter right on school grounds. Those weren’t the kind of after-school activities I had in mind. Will Shane hate himself for what we’ve done, or resent me for wanting it? I don’t know. I’m too lost in the heat of his body and the depths of his soul. Sooner or later someone’s bound to find out about us, and it’s not going to be pretty. The only question is, are we strong enough to survive it? FORBIDDEN HEAT is a full-length standalone in the Firework Girls contemporary romance series. Jordyn White takes you on a delightful journey of secret rendezvous, nerdy soulmates, and transcendent love in this completely swoon-worthy forbidden romance.

    But I’m positive, I’m the only one in Sunrise Bay undressing the pretty blonde in my head. Everything about her, from her make-up to her high heels says she’s a fish out of water. Whispers and speculations run rampant until the secret of who she is gets uncovered. Then the rumor mill goes into overdrive when she announces she’s staying to open a bookstore in the building next to mine—throwing a big wrench into my plans to buy that empty building.I quickly find myself in a tug-of-war since my business partner/brother is upset she’s ruined the opportunity to expand our business. I try to keep my distance, but I’ve got one sister with a gossip column on the local radio station and two meddling grandmas setting me up as a tour director.And now I kind of like the idea of our new neighbor staying. But small-town life isn’t for the weak—time will tell if she has what it takes to be one of us.

    Who hires a virtual stranger out of a New York City coffee shop to care for their adorable grandson? Apparently Claudia Renaldi does.Widower Matteo Renaldi isn't pleased that his mother found a replacement nanny so soon after he fired the last one. Yet little Matty takes to Paige like no other nanny before. And Matteo can't deny he's quite taken with her as well. She's beautiful, sweet, and far, "far" too young for him.There's something about the gorgeously sexy Matteo that fills Paige with longing to break through his wall of formality and touch his softer side. But no one knows better than she that crushing on her boss is one thing. Acting on those feelings is forbidden. Foolish.InevitableWarning: Sexy, grumpy Italian hero who is determined to keep his walls up. No matter how much his son's sweetly beautiful nanny drives him to distraction

    She’s smart but naïve, and when a job goes wrong, there’s only one way to make up for it: by pleasing the client in other ways.Tom and Gabriel Costas are demanding billionaire brothers with an eye for vivacious women. When Michelle is sold by her boss as reparation, they don’t hesitate to claim their due. The problem? She’s sassy, curvy, mouthy … and now, she’s pregnant with their child. Arrogant. Demanding. Complete a$$holes, yet utterly irresistible. Even better, the Costas brothers love taming women, and Michelle is about to get a filthy lesson or two. Lose yourself in this forbidden encounter that breaks all the rules of a traditional client relationship. No cliffhangers, no cheating, and always an HEA for my readers.

    Somerset Maugham (Novels, Short Stories, Plays and Travel Sketches)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.William Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.Table of Contents:Novels: Liza of Lambeth (1897)The Making of a Saint (1898)The Hero (1901)Mrs Craddock (1902)The Merry-go-round (1904)The Bishop's Apron (1906)The Explorer (1908)The Magician (1908)The Canadian (The Land of Promise) (1914)Of Human Bondage (1915)The Moon and Sixpence (1919) Short Story Collections:Orientations (1899)The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian A Bad Example De AmicitiaFaithThe Choice of AmyntasDaisyThe Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands (1921)The PacificMackintoshThe Fall of Edward BarnardRedThe PoolHonoluluRainEnvoiPlays:A Man of Honour (1903)Lady Frederick (1912)The Explorer (1912)The Circle (1921)Caesar's Wife (1922) East of Suez (1922)Travel Sketches:The Land of the Blessed Virgin: Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia (1905)On a Chinese Screen (1922)

    But in the dark, he realizes that the dead are never very far away. Not when there are secrets yet to be uncovered. Because Paul hasn't lost everything. Not yet. And as he struggles to separate dreams from reality, he is forced to answer the ultimate question: How far would you go to get back those you've lost?

    Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. His sister wears a white mask to cover her burns.He spends his hours with his cactus, reading his book on insects, or touching the one ray of sunlight that filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone’s been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they’re shut away.A few days ago, some fireflies arrived in the basement. His grandma said, There’s no creature more amazing than one that can make its own light. That light makes the boy want to escape, to know the outside world. Problem is, all the doors are locked. And he doesn’t know how to get out.…