Monday, 8:29 am I felt small, gentle hands run up and down my bare chest as consciousness started to seep into my mind. Eyes still closed, I simply stretched and enjoyed the soft caresses, wanting to prolong this lovely moment between the waking world and dreams where every touch felt magnified ten-fold. The fingers making small circles on my chest were accompanied by the feeling of soft lips enveloping mine in a sweet ki...

Friday, 4:07 pm Four hours later, I had a new bodyguard, and her name wasn’t John. I wasn’t convinced that choosing her over one of the Johns was the right call, but she seemed more than capable, and I felt more of a connection with her than I had the others; that had to count for something. Granted, that connection was probably my attraction to her, but I was still hiring someone qualified. As soon as she accepted my off...

Thursday, 7:28 pm I looked around my tiny apartment and suddenly found it very hard to swallow. I hadn’t spent a lot of time in this place since I’d signed the paperwork at YPV and bought Marduke, but despite that, it felt like I was severing the last remaining tie to my life before I found out about my grandfather. While I hadn’t been capable of buying a G6, I wasn’t broke either, and I was relatively happy. Things were...

Thursday, 8:50 am “It’s been over twenty-four hours since the story broke about the death of famous billionaire Colin Gerard and still we have no details on the whereabouts of his grandson Marcus Upton.” The blonde woman from Channel Seven was back at it again this morning. As I lay on the couch waiting for a text from Erin to let me know she was downstairs, I watched the updated coverage of my grandfather’s death. It was...

Wednesday, 8:05 am Buried in my bed sheets, my phone woke me with its incessant buzzing. I blindly reached for it without success and cursed as I reluctantly opened my eyes and began sorting through my blankets, looking for the damn thing. During the process, my phone stopped, which made it harder to find. The entire time, I had to remind myself where I was and what had happened over the last five days. Inheriting billion...

A few minutes after Naomi left, the door opened and the final candidate walked in. My first impression was she was very different from the other two in almost every way. Bella and Naomi had dark hair, were curvy, and had an innate sensuality about them that would have immediately turned the heads of every straight male within sight and inspired every filthy fantasy imaginable. They’d both been relatively tall with fair co...

I sat at my desk and quickly flipped through all three resumes while waiting for the first candidate to come in. I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but it was strange to me that I was interviewing for a personal assistant when I’d just been one of the many drones on the analytics floor of Marduke just a few days ago. I wondered if Gerald had any idea what was going on, or that I’d even bought the...

Friday, 2:02 pm “What’re you doing here?” Having heard that question for the fourth time today, I rolled my eyes as I laid down my bag and set my water bottle down on the countertop. I turned to see my cubicle partner Gerald, returning from getting a fresh cup of coffee, judging by the topped-off mug in his hand. He was a good guy, albeit a little too nosey into my personal life for my taste. I put up with it though, beca...

Safa was laying on the bed sharing memes with Stef like they did every night before bed. Ezra and Mickey were curled up on the bed between them, fast asleep, as asleep as cats go. Stef made a soft chortle of amusement and Safa glanced at her and bounced her eyebrows in a question. Then, as if on cue, Stef tapped on her phone to share the meme. Wouldn’t it be funny if someone went to a job interview and actually did this?...

BaliorAvdaci, the Sanguine Regent of Lyrisa and a Prince of Relicium, slowly descended the marble staircase of his new home. ‘New’ was a term he used quite loosely to describe the decrepit castle where he would dwell henceforth. An oracle had convinced his father, King Jorin, that Lyrisa was where he might find his mate. The oracle had neglected to say how long it might take him to find her in this sprawling village or wh...

WhenAlina woke the next morning, she was surprised to find that she was well-rested. The dark stranger had not come for her in her dreams and she wondered if what she’d seen in the castle window had in fact been another fantasy. Something conjured up by her overactive imagination and weary mind. She sat up slowly from her perch near the window and stretched her muscles as she glanced around the shack. The greyish blue lig...

“Light shines from the castle!” Alina stopped brushing her long blonde hair to cast a doubtful expression at her elderly cabin mate. There hadn’t been light coming from Castle Sanguine’s dismal windows for decades. Alina had grown up in the village of Lyrisa, one of many that dotted the mountainous region known as Relicium, and she couldn’t remember a single night where anything but shadows and darkness came from the cast...