Shadows
by Ophelia Bell
Everyone has a little bit of darkness in them. Hallie’s denied her own inner demons for months, running whenever someone gets too close to illuminating things she’d rather keep hidden. On the run from her past yet again, she fakes some credentials to join an archaeology expedition to the Sumatran jungle that sounds like the perfect way to escape. Out of her depth, she struggles not to let her teammates know she’s not really one of them, but she learns the dragon temple they discover might provide answers to questions she'd been afraid to ask. The first night inside the temple she awakens to an invisible presence bringing her to heights of pleasure she’s never known before. He then disappears into the darkness without a word. She chases a shadow that might just be a hallucination, but pleasure like that can’t be all in her head. When she finds her shadow man, she also comes face to face with her own darkness. She is forced to reconcile her past in order to embrace the person who will finally give her a reason to stop running.