The Time Between Us

by ChaShiree M

  I have the girls coming over to view the new line with me. Calling them all yesterday, knowing they wouldn’t pass up a chance to look at clothes. I was surprised Kitty decided to come. She gave birth three months ago, a day after the barbecue to a beautiful little girl named Kierstin Kathleen Monte-q. She is the perfect little replica of both of her parents and so far, she is a doll. Kitty has not skipped a beat since having that little girl and makes it to every function.

  Rosy has recovered nicely. She is getting back her strength and I have to say, her and Max did slide effortlessly into parenthood with their three little angels. She had a few hiccups and to my surprise she called me, though I know it hurt her. But eventually, she did, and I am happy for her.

  Me on the other hand, this little guy has zapped most of my energy all the time and I am basically sleeping my life away. Yes. I am having a boy. By all accounts based on his in-utero activities, he will be a busy little boy at that.

  Jace told me the whole time he didn’t care what it was, but when the doctor said little boy, his eyes lit up like a kid at Disneyland for their first time. I truly didn’t care and am happy to be having a boy. In three months we will welcome Zeb Jason Crawford and I couldn’t be more ecstatic. I was all set to name him Jace Jr., but Jace decided he wanted our son to have his own identity. Fine with me.

  Finally. The doorbell rings. I am about to fall asleep waiting for everyone. I let the girls in and right behind them is Migan.

  “Ok ladies. Thanks for coming and thank you my bestie Penny for having this little get together for me. My name is Migan. Penny and I were roomies at the university before she left to follow love. I have recently started my own clothing line and was looking for an honest, unbiased audience to show it too.”

  “Well there is nothing in Moosehead by way of fashion. If we want to stay in the know, we must drive seven hours to Chicago cause even St. Paul and Minneapolis are behind. So, this is a treat having the fashion come us.”

  The whole room erupts at Ava’s oh so correct assessment.

  Two hours, 10 outfits, numerous mimosas (a virgin for me), one crying little girl and some finger sandwiches later, Kennedy announces: “Ladies, I have an amazing idea.”

  Oh boy. Here we go. I love my life.

  The End

  Moosehead maybe over but that doesn’t mean there are not plenty of stories to tell. We are as usual hard at work on other stuff we know you will love. As proof, we offer up a few sneak peeks.

  Turn the page for a sneak peek at Wife to Love by MK Moore and The Life She Couldn’t See by ChaShiree M.

  Wife to Love by MK Moore

  Excerpt Wife To Love by MK Moore

  © 2018 MK Moore

  Still in edits and subject to change

  Prologue

  Robby

  The last nine years have been grueling in a way most people don’t ever experience, let alone stuffed into such a short amount of time, all before I was twenty-five. When I graduated from high school at fifteen, I took the next logical step and went to college. I went the pre-med route and graduated from college at the ripe age of eighteen. I loved it. I was proud of myself, as was my family. Though they didn’t always know how to handle me. My mother and stepfather tried to give me have a normal childhood experience, but I was an outcast. Sports drove me crazy because I was not good at them. I was tall, skinny, gangly. Your average nerd. Girls never gave me the time of day. Even my brothers Derek and Jason, and my sister, Ronnie treated me like a leper. I know they were young too, but I couldn’t understand it then. I was so lonely that I plowed through all my coursework in record time.

  I could have done anything, but I had a calling to serve my country.

  I joined the Army while I was in medical school and the rest is history. The Army helped bulk me up and gave me the kind of friends that last a lifetime.

  I just completed my last tour and have been debriefing in Germany for the last week. When I woke up this morning, I thought it was just an ordinary day in a foreign country. Little did I know that my whole world would change. I originally opt to find my own way home and my flight leaves Berlin in two days. I am enjoying sightseeing and not following a strict schedule for the first time in years. I have a week’s worth of beard growth and no plans to shave. It will take some time for my hair to grow out from the Army issue buzz cut, but I will never have a scheduled haircut again.

  Since I’ve seen all Berlin has to offer, and clubbing holds no appeal for me, I am ready to head back to my hotel room by early evening. After I leave the bar I had dinner in, I hear a scream ring out. A scream that was so full of anguish and despair, I stop dead in my tracks and take off running in the opposite direction. Toward the scream.

  As I run into the alley, I collide with the screaming woman. Her eyes look haunted but quickly change to something like relief when we collide.

  I lift her with ease and she goes lax and the screaming stops. She quickly passes out. Her face is covered in blood, but I can tell it’s mostly hers. I look down the alley and see a man, dressed in black staring at us. How fucking cliché. I memorize his face. He’s ugly, with dark hair and weirdly vivid green eyes. I dash my eyes down lower, to his hands. He has tattoos on them. With the way he is holding his pathetic looking knife, I can see the top of his hand says DEATH. Nice. I want to go after him, for hurting who I can only describe as mine, but I know she needs medical attention immediately. Turning away from him, I carry her out of the alley. He’d be an absolute idiot to follow me out here and try to finish whatever it is he had planned.

  Reaching into my pocket, I pull out my cell phone and call 112 for the police. I can’t explain the visceral reaction I am having towards her, but I find that I don’t care. For the first time in my life, I don’t need science to explain this.

  While I wait for them, I quickly check her over. I find nothing, but her US Passport attached to her, under her clothes. Smart girl. She must have read the same Frommer’s guide that I did.

  Salenah Renee D’Agostino, 22. She has a beautiful name. I can’t help but wonder what she is doing here. Does she have a man somewhere waiting for her? The jealous nature I didn’t know I had comes rushing forth. Surely, she is not with the dick from the alley. That had to be a crime of opportunity. Was he trying to rape her? My fists clench at my sides. Her long skirt is twisted around, but that could have happened running to me. What kind of sick bastard does this to someone? It goes against my very nature. I brush her dark brown hair out of her eyes, which are still closed.

  My medical brain wants me to help her, but I know that there isn’t anything I can do for her on the street. I can immediately see that she has a huge cut on her face from her right eye to down to her lip. Head and face wounds bleed profusely, but this cut is very deep. She needs stitches badly. I didn’t see anything else outwardly wrong with her, so I use my shirtsleeve to clean her face up a little. I note that she still hasn’t woken up, but as the old blood wipes away and I see her face for the first time, my chest constricts, and my earlier assumption that she is mine is pounding through my head again.

  I feel like I need to go back to that alley and kill that fucker. That thought goes against my oath to save lives, not take them away, but for this girl, I’d do it. Even though I was in the Army, and know how to shoot, I had no call to use my weapon while overseas.

  I feel like a caveman right now and that is something I’ve never felt before. Like every damn thing in my life just clicked into place. I had a feeling that I would never again know loneliness and for some reason, I gathered that she wouldn’t either.

  I was so lost in my thoughts, I do not notice the ambulance pulling up to the curb. When they EMT asks me, “In welcher Beziehung stehst du zu dem Patienten?” What is your relationship to the patient?

  I say the only thing that comes to my mind. “Sie ist meine Frau.” She is my wife.

  The Life She Couldn’t See by ChaShiree M.

  Excerpt The Life She Couldn’t See by ChaShiree M.
r />   ©ChaShiree M.

  Still in edits and subject to change

  Prologue

  Colton

  She doesn’t know I watch her. Have been watching her for the past six months. That’s the way it should be. I spent ten years in the service. Seven of those were in special ops. Not your average everyday special ops. I was in the kind that doesn’t exist. Yea now you get the picture. So I am trained to go unseen. Be invisible. A ghost. She doesn’t even know I exist. But as soon as this is all over and maybe even before…she will.

  My angel. My little one. How could she know that her smile guides my way through the darkness I have shrouded myself in? How would she react if she knew her laugh and love of life are the very things that give me air? Would she invite me into her space if I told her that I live to share her optimism and brightness? Would she blush if I told her that her body was made for sin? Her ass is the stuff men jack off too. Would she give me a chance if she knew the things I wanted to do to her? Some of it clean and worthy of her grace. Majority of it dirty meant to taint and sully her so we match.

  She is all flowy cushions of luxury. And those tits. Man those tits make my hard ass want to fluff them and snuggle in deep. There is nothing about this size 16 woman that I don’t want under me, over me and in front of me. Whether she knows it or not, she is all MINE. As soon as this shit storm is over, I am going to claim all of her. Every last soft inch.

  He thinks I watch her for him. I will have to kill him when he finds out otherwise.

  Chapter 1

  Kea

  Not in a million years did I expect to be kidnapped, held captive and then rescued all within a few days.

  My day started off the same as always. I got up, got ready for work and drove to my job. Job was the same as ever. Stressful. Being a social worker is something I love, don’t get me wrong, but it takes atoll on a person. Kids are my passion and making sure their safe is my mission. Walking to my car, as I bent down to pick up the keys I dropped and the last thing I remembered was a hand covering my mouth.

  Waking up in a warehouse was scary, but it was also perplexing. Well at least initially. See when I finally came to, the person standing in front of me, was a freaking brick house. This man had to stand at least 6’5’’, weighing about 275lbs. He was covered in tattoos from the knuckles of his fingers up to his neck. Standing with his legs shoulder length apart he looked like an overgrown, steroid induced, giant G.I.Joe. Not to mention the fact that he is sexy as heck. His skin is the color of the golden sun and even from across the room I can tell that his eyes are the strangest color of blue. Blue is even an understatement. It’s more like a teal. I mean I have seriously never seen eyes like his and I could get lost in them. I even forgot for a second that he was holding me captive. His face has a hard structure to it. Like his jaw was built of steel, with an upturned nose that doesn’t fit the rest of him at all. However, the overall consensus is if this were ordinary circumstances, I would be drooling all down my shirt. He is totally my type not my type. You know what I mean? Like he is the type of guy I would dream about, but they are usually not into me.

  See I am what you call a curvy girl. Or as some would say BBW. I am 5’2’’, 250 lbs and most of it is in my gut and my boobs. My gut I totally earned because I love cheese and pastries. Figure out to combine the two and I am in even bigger trouble. But my boobs, those are a curse. I mean who the hell wants to walk around with watermelons attached to their chest all friggin day? Although they are a men magnate, but lets be honest, a certain type of man. And not the long-lasting kind either.

  Mmm…hmmm

  Oh crap. Right. Kidnapped. This happens to me often. See I am what you call a glass half full type of person. I try to find the positive in everything and I guess being stuck in this…. place with Arnold Schwarzenegger junior will be no different.

  “Do you know why you’re here?”

  Holy crickets. That voice goes straight to my lady cave and now I can’t stop the downpour. It runs over me like the deepest darkest ripple from an ocean at nighttime…. in layers. Hitting my toes making them curl, traveling up to my nether regions finally making it to my boobs which I can feel hardening and begging to be in that deep dark booming voice box of his, as it slowly creeps up to my head lulling me into a false sense of security.

  Who the hell is this man?

  “No I don’t know why I am here. However, I can take one guess and I bet it would be right. My father.”

  “Good guess little one.”

  I can’t’ stop the snort before it leaves my mouth. Seriously?!? Little one. Now I know he is crazy. There is nothing little about me.

  Wow. Can you imagine living your whole adult life with the knowledge that your father wants to do you harm? Well welcome to my life.

  “So you’re going to kill me now? Or do you wait for him to come here and witness it?” I ask this with as much bravado as I can muster because I refuse to give the bastard the satisfaction of seeing me weep. But on the inside, I am slowly dying. Knowing that my father hates me so much he wants to kill my siblings and me is the only heartbreak I haven’t been able to talk myself out of feeling. I never gave much thought to how my end would come, mostly because I try not to allow negative thoughts enter my mind, or at least stay there for long. But, if I did give it a second, I always knew it would be my father that took my last breath.

  “That is the plan little one.” The giant says to me. I am all out of pleasant thoughts at this point. I am so far into my head right wondering when was the last time I spend anytime with my brothers and sisters and told them I loved them, that I don’t notice he has moved directly in front of me until his fingers tip raise my chin. I gasp at the proximity of him and at the overall enormity of being this close to him. From afar he looks massive. Up close he is positively mammoth. He leans further into my face and says in the sexiest, Barry White voice I have ever heard, “That is the plan, but no one will touch you as long as there is air in my lungs. I protect what’s mine. And you my luscious beauty have been mine for a long time. You just never knew it. Do as I say, and we make it out of here alive and then I will protect you with my life.”

  His?

  His.

  What the heck. I would lying if I said that didn’t somehow make me want to moan and say yes. But seriously, who talks like this to someone they don’t even know. I thought he crazy a minute ago, but now I am pretty sure he is certifiable. Even if he is freaking gorgeous. And what does he mean by ‘long time and I never knew it?’ Maybe I should take my chances with ED.

  “I see your beautiful sunny mind working little one. Stop thinking and just feel. Do you feel like you’re in danger from me?”

  Shoot. And then he had to go and ask me for the truth. Darn it.

  “No.”

  “Good. Because I would never hurt a single hair on your beautiful body. Well unless you asked me to.” He says with a smirk and suddenly the heat in my body goes up giving me the urge to fan myself. I refuse to give him the satisfaction.

  “So what is going to happen exactly?”

  “I am going to explain to you what is going on, then we are to go for a ride. From there we will take it a day at a time. OK? If you listen to me and don’t fight me, it will all work out. Especially since at the end of it I will get what I have been craving for the past 6 months.”

  I am almost afraid to ask. But apparently I am a glutton for punishment because I do anyway.

  “And what is that?”

  “To sink my life into you so you can never walk away from me.”

  Crap. I just had to ask.

  Chapter 2

  Kea

  2 Weeks later

  Shoot. As usual I am running exactly on time, which means I am running late. I have to be to Phoenix’s dinner party in 30 minutes and as usual I got waylaid at work. I am totally not complaining because I love my job and the kids I save everyday, so I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I hate to be in time for stuff. I like to be early. I like
to see my surroundings, know what I am walking into and center myself before things get underway. That is how I am able to maintain my positive attitude. I avoid surprises in my life outside of work. My job doesn’t allow for the eventuality of variables so I have no choice but to go in blind. So the ability to stay in the know outside of that is even more imperative.

  I finish my hair and makeup and grab my leather jacket, car keys and purse and start walking to the door. Right as I pass the kitchen, I hear a knock on my door. Thinking it might be my elderly neighbor Lois, I pull the door open only to be greeted by the man that features in my dreams night after night and ends up in front of me more often than I like.

  “Colton. What are you doing here? I am just on my way out.”

  “I know little one. You are on your way to your sister’s house and I am going to accompany you. You have everything you need?”

  I can feel my mouth opening and closing though I can’t seem to stop it from happening. I have no idea how he always seems to know everything I have going on and to be honest I am not sure I want to know.

  “Colton, seriously. Why are you still here? I don’t’ need extra security. I have plenty. Just look out the window across the street and you will see all the security I need. Now if you would excuse me, I have to go.” I make to step past him and his arm shoots out successfully blocking my passage. I am essentially trapped between his hulking self and the wall. Being this close to him is not good for my piece of mind. My senses betray me whenever he is around and that is not something I can handle. Even now, I can smell him. He smells like sandalwood, spearmint and pure unadulterated, raw man. The hussy in me wants to lick every inch of him. I want to run my tongue over all of him and explore every inch of his body even down to the steel rod that seems to hone in on me whenever he is around me. But this would be dangerous to my piece of mind.