Storywitch's "Book of Shadows"

I’d forgotten today was July 31, so I wanted to pop back in to let you know who the July newsletter contest winner is. The winner is Gary! Congratulations, Gary, and I’ve sent you a direct email to find out what your book choice is.

Remember, we’ll have another drawing in the August newsletter, so keep a lookout for it! Thanks everyone who entered, and as always, thank you for the kind comments that many of you include about my characters and their stories.

Counting down to Vampire Trinity on September 7… Just a tiny bit more than a month to go!

Here we go, guys! There will probably be one more segment after this one, unless the muse surprises me (grin). All good things must end, though we know Mason and Jessica have many more adventures ahead of them (and possibly more future vignettes!). As always, hope you enjoy this…

* * * * *

Perhaps it was because of how vulnerable she felt right now, how stripped down to the soul, but if he brought himself to completion, gave his essence to the waves and the sand, rather than to her body, it would be as sharp and devastating a rebuke to her heart as anything else he could do. She equated it with his choosing to leave her behind, not letting her share every part of his life. He was her Master, her life and will his to command, yet it wasn’t that simple. She loved him; she had demands of her own, so many of them having to do with her deep-seated need to serve him.

Those tears touched her lips, suppressed sobs fair choking her. He’d proven his point. He could break her down to this, to pure need and pain, no rational or sensible thoughts in her mind, only emotion. Please don’t…

(more…)

Hope everyone’s having a wonderful week! Here’s the next segment. Sorry I’m about a day late. The week became far busier than I expected. But I wrote 22,000 words on Afterlife (Jon’s story from Knights of the Board Room series) this week, so that story is just barreling along at full blast!

* * * * *

I only fear losing you, my lord.

For wasn’t that truly the fear that crept through her mind, spread out until it seemed the terror of it was coursing through her very blood? The fear that whenever he left this estate, she would never see him again? She’d lost so very much in her life, and he’d given her back passion, happiness, laughter…love. She wouldn’t survive losing that again, and she wondered how he’d borne it for three hundred years, when he lost the first woman who had brought that to him.

“You brought it back to me, habiba. And the third mark binds us. You will never lose me. Wherever I go…”

“I follow.” She stared up at him. But fate could play terrible tricks, couldn’t it?

“Ssssh.” He leaned in then, pressed a kiss to her forehead, to her cheeks, then across her lips, teasing her when she tried to strain for him, for a deeper connection. Instead he played his tongue over hers, traced her mouth, gave her a tiny nip on the corner before drawing back and picking up another bloom.

(more…)

Here we go – Part Six! Thanks again for your patience, and we should be on an every two week schedule going forward for awhile. Hope you enjoy this next installment!

* * * * *

On that thrilling and terrifying note, he released her, stepped back and took a seat in that oak chair on which she’d earlier imagined herself, riding his cock before voyeuristic eyes. “Come here.”

Rising to her knees, she closed that distance naked, leaving the robe behind. On impulse, right before she would have been between his knees, she bent, her eyes on where the frayed cuff of his jeans brushed the ankle of that long, finely shaped male foot. She stopped above it, her hair falling down along the insole. It was an amazingly subservient desire, to kiss his foot, yet his words, the hint of total Mastery he might finally decide to exert over her, summoned it from that pool inside of her that seemed full of such surprising cravings.

As her mouth closed that distance, pressed against his flesh, he shifted, his hand touching her head. “Jessica.” His voice, the rich timbre, had a hoarse note to it.

“I’ve missed you so much, my lord,” she said softly. “I understand what you are saying, and I didn’t mean to try and force your hand. But, if you love me, please stop leaving me behind. I can’t bear it.”

(more…)