Sean Morris loaded the last cake in his SUV. He had it fitted with special racks so he could deliver Harper’s cakes to four coffee shops on his way to work. He closed the hatch and looked at his scarred face reflected in the window. It had been six months since he escaped after seven weeks of hell. His body was mutilated, as was his face. Sean looked to the house, where his anchor, Harper was probably loading the oven aga...

I sat in my car waiting for Cara.  It was New Year’s Eve 1998.  I was parked in front of a strip mall a few blocks from her high school.  She was performing in a concert with her school orchestra.  She’d told her parents that she was going to stay with a friend afterward.    In reality, she was spending the night with me. I’d known Cara for most of my life.  She was my cousin’s step-sister.  A few weeks earlier she had wa...

Kelly and I met on an adult dating site. We were two lonely people in loveless, sexless long term marriages. At the beginning of October of that year, I had to go on a road trip halfway across the country. Sometimes it’s less expensive to go pick up the items that I sell than it would be to have them shipped. On this trip, though, I knew that I’d be gone over a week and could not take Kelly with me. In fact, it looked lik...

Kelly and I met on an adult dating site. We were both in non-affectionate, sexless marriages. We had been seeing each other for about a month when these events happened. Kelly texted me one day to say that her monthly friend had arrived. My first (selfish) thought was no more fun this week. Since I’m not a total bastard, I revised my thoughts and realized that just spending time with her was enjoyable. We couldn’t get awa...

Heather Anderson’s stomach lurched as she blankly stared at her desk. She could taste bile, she felt like she might vomit. Heather had just emptied the contents of a mysterious envelope that was waiting for her, and the afterglow from the previous night and the glint of her political future had both dimmed. Now her mayoral chances had been snuffed out... Probably. She angrily regretted her transgression. She felt dirty. S...

She looked at him from across the crowded room. He was gorgeous. He noticed her looking and winked subtly, making her blush. She smiled, a seductive little half smile and then turned away to concentrate on the conversation that was happening. She should have been paying attention all along, but the two women she was speaking with hadn’t noticed her absent mind or lack of input. They were too involved with talking about th...