Lorelei reprimanded him lightly, “Nick, you know we have to support your siblings. Greta and Will have worked very hard on their new exhibit. They always come to your soccer games when you play at home.” Nick was talented and became a professional soccer player right out of college.
Greta was named after Lorelei’s sister, the one who sat upon the island that the legends described. We never did find out how they ended up using Lorelei’s name and Greta’s description, but either way she wanted a little piece of her past to carry on.
Our children Will and Greta followed in our footsteps and became curators. With a large ‘anonymous’ donation, they were given the opportunity to collect and display pieces from the witches of the Black Forest. They kept the contents secret from us, and I couldn’t wait to see what they happened to put in there.
While Nick apologized to his mother, I spotted Greta and Will, both had excited looks on their faces as they came up to us. “It’s time!” Will said excitedly, as his sister bounced by his side. “Mom, Dad, we want you to come and see it first. Everyone else can see it after.”
Maddalina herded the children and I was thankful that we were allowed to come before opening and get a sneak peek before the crowds came in. There would be no way to keep track of that many rambunctious children, even with the help of the two eldest grandchildren.
I held my hand out for Lorelei and escorted her down the hallway. My eyes teared up as we turned the corner and I took in the display. Lorelei squeezed my hand and I heard her gasp, “My wedding crown.”
There on display were the entire contents of our handfasting ceremony in the woods. The original altar stood in the center of the display, mannequins flanking each side wearing the very same clothing we wore that day. On the table stood the flask used for the cleansing, along with the cup that was used to change Lorelei to one with blood of the earth instead of the water.
There were even candles that were used to break the curse displayed in a ring around the altar. Along a wall displayed the letter that I had written to Maddalina before her death, the crown that Lorelei wore, and the ribbons that were used in our binding ceremony.
“How?” I asked my son in awe.
“I found the ribbon in your things and Mom said I could borrow it. I may have left out the part that I needed it for longer than she expected. And the rest, the coven was more than happy to share these relics to be displayed. They kept all the things that were from the farm boy and the siren. They told us stories that were very similar to the legends you told us over the years.” Will quirked an eyebrow at me and I winked at him.
Lorelei was openly crying now and hugged both Greta and Will. “Thank you for this beautiful display. I know Maddalina would be so happy to see that her work will never be forgotten.”
I took my wife’s hand and kissed it, “I love you with all my heart and soul, Lorelei.”
She smiled at me warmly, the love shone in her eyes, “I love you too, Klaus. For eternity.”
As we shared our moment, our children and grandchildren all surrounded us, their excited laughter filling me with more joy than any man deserved. This was what made every moment of the three hundred years of suffering worth it.
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Thank you so much to DAZED Designs for the gorgeous cover that is so fitting for this story. Rozie Marshall, you are the formatting goddess and I appreciate not only your amazing skills, but also your friendship. You’re amazingly talented at not only formatting, but also as an author yourself. Your talent always blows me away.
Katie, Penny, Jennifer, and Everly; your feedback on this book was so wonderful and helpful. You always make the suggestions that make it better! I can’t tell you how much I love you ladies and am so happy to work with you all. I know she doesn’t want to be mentioned, but I’d also like to thank Ira for the feedback and letting me share my book baby with her a little early.
My family has been a great support, especially my youngest daughter that tells me to get to work, write, write, write. I’m lucky to have a cheerleader in my corner. A special thank you to my mother in law, Bev, who has helped with taking care of all the cleaning things while I’ve juggled writing and homeschooling while writing this book.
To my readers, thank you for your continued support! Sharing these stories in my head means so much to me, especially as a lifelong reader myself. I appreciate ever single kind word, recommendation, read, and review that you give me. Much love to you all!
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Melody Calder is a multi-trope romance author with an addiction to chocolate, books, and swearing - not necessarily in that order. Her mind is always full of interesting characters and plot twists. She not-so-secretly loves cliffhangers but tries not to do that to her readers. She hopes to survive the teenage years of her twins and life with her handsy husband.
She has an extensive collection of elephant figurines and Chewbacca toys. Her family and friends will tell you that she needs reminders for everything, especially putting the clothes in the dryer, but they love her anyway.
You can follow her on social media for games, prizes, teasers and more:
Secret Desires Facebook Group
Newsletter
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Suburbia Series
Secrets in Suburbia
Men in Suburbia
A Very Suburbia Christmas
Escape to Suburbia
Standalones
Sinfully Yours
Sinful Erotic Anthology Available through mid-June 2020. Watch for the full book of Cougar to come in fall!
Brothel of the Damned Series
By CT Dracass, Clover Payne, Rozie Marshall, and Melody Calder
Deadly Desires (Brothel of the Damned Book 1)
Book 2 coming Summer 2020
Sinfully Yours
Chapter One
“Penelope, I don’t know what to do,” Kameron groans and puts her head on top of the bar, her dark brown hair creating a curtain over her face.
“Kami, you know you can stay at my house until you get back on your feet,” Penelope assures her. “What did the lawyer say about the debt?”
Kami’s voice quivers as she relays the information to her best friend. Her now ex-fiancé had not only wiped out their joint savings account and not paid the bills, but had also opened credit cards and loans in her name. “He said I wouldn’t be responsible for the loans and credit cards that I didn’t sign for, but there’s nothing he can do about the savings, credit cards I signed for, or the bills in our name.”
“That’s bullshit!” Penny’s voice rises in anger. “You were the one that saved all that money for your house. That piece of shit didn’t do anything but gamble his money away. And obviously yours. How much are we talking here?”
Kami groans, “The credit cards I approved were about thirteen thousand. My savings was just under fifty thousand, which you know was supposed to be our down payment for a house.” She narrows her brown eyes, her voice rising as the anger bubbles to the surface again, “To top it all off, because I’m on the apartment lease for nine more months, I’m responsible for half of that if he decides not to pay it. I can’t believe I’m expected to pay for his new girlfriend!”
Penny throws her arm around her friend, trying to comfort her. “We will figure this out. You know I’m down for hiding a body if you need,” she states, bringing a small smile to Kami’s face.
The smile quickly fades with Penny’s next statement, “I bet you can get a pretty penny for that ugly rock he gave you.” She knows her friend well because all she has to see is the frown on Kami’s face to know the truth, “You left it with him, didn’t you?” Penny sighs and shakes her head when Kami guiltily nods.
Scott Winston, Kami’s fiancé until one week ago, had everyone fooled. They had been together for six years after meeting at a mutual acquaintance’s birthday party. Back then, Kami had recently moved from a small town to the big city of Chicago. Though she wasn’t inexperienced by any means, she
was a little bit naive and he was suave and charming.
She had fallen madly in love with him, their relationship seemingly perfect. After a couple of years, Scott proposed, and they moved in together. They had leased an apartment that was close to her job and close to the Metra for easy commuting for Scott. He was a CPA and financial planner, so naturally she trusted him to take over the bills while she took over responsibility for cooking. After a long day at her high stress job of helping customers with their various computer problems, cooking was her relaxation. It worked perfectly for them.
Like their bills, they had split their other finances, including their savings. She had been saving for the down payment on a house, whereas he was managing the funds for their dream wedding. Unfortunately, she found out that was not the case. Everything came crashing down when he left for a week-long conference in Las Vegas.
During that time, she took on the responsibility of sorting through the mail, a job Scott had been insistent he did the rest of the time. Kami had been waiting for word on a college program she had applied for, hoping to further her career, so she didn’t want to wait until he got back. Plus, she was being a good person and making sure the paperwork wasn’t a mess when he got back from what was sure to be an exhausting trip for him.
She hadn’t planned on opening everything, just simply sorting out the bills from the junk so that it was ready for him when he got home. Something told her to open the statements though, a nagging feeling in the back of her mind, just to take a look. She was shocked to see the high balances on their joint credit cards. Even more so when she opened the mail that contained credit cards and loans that she hadn’t remembered applying for. The amounts were staggering, especially for Kami, who was always so frugal.
When Scott had called her that evening, she confronted him. He claimed he had a good reason, an investment that would triple their money, and asked her to wait until he got home to explain. Kami had a pretty good understanding of finances, having had built her credit on her own, but since they were engaged and in a loving relationship together, she trusted him.
When he came back from Vegas, he dropped another bombshell and broke her heart at the same time. He revealed he had met someone else and broke off the engagement. Kami screamed at him, demanding to know who this woman was and how he could throw six years away for someone he had just met. Scott kept drawing the punches and continued, telling her he never loved her or wanted children with her. And while he was being honest, he felt Kami had gotten fat at her desk job and didn’t seem to be motivated to improve her career. As if he hadn’t twisted the knife in enough, he also admitted that he wanted kids, just not with her.
She had been so shocked and heartbroken; the finances were the last thing on her mind, and they did slip her mind after listening to every monstrous thing he said. It was as if he was personally attacking her and making things up just to be nasty. Kami had spent the first night in the spare bedroom, examining herself in the mirror. She was no longer a size two from her early twenties, but still, she was only a size six. No, it wasn’t her problem, it was his.
That didn’t make it hurt any less. How could this man throw away all these years of bliss for some chick he just met? For the past week, she had gone through a rollercoaster of emotions. From hating him, to begging him to stay with her, to hating herself, and back again. She had been nursing her broken heart, until this morning when he dropped another bomb on her.
He told her to get her shit and get out. His girlfriend would be arriving that afternoon and he didn’t want Kami around. Not that Kami wanted to be around for that, though she was admittedly curious as to who this woman was. She tried snooping on his social media, but he had blocked her and made it private, changing the password as well. She could have hacked into it, but she lost all motivation to do so when it was clear he wanted her out of his life. Nor did she have the time considering she was now basically homeless.
At Penelope’s insistence, she went and met with an attorney. Another bill she would have to add to her growing pile. She had also found out that her credit had gone from excellent to poor in the past year. There were so many late payments and collections, it was unbelievable.
To make matters even worse, as she sat waiting for the attorney, she got an alert from her bank stating her account was under her set limit of one hundred dollars. It was the one and only financial tool she used. When she tried logging into the account her password wasn’t working. She immediately called the bank, and after answering the security questions, she was finally told the last transactions. Scott had gone into the bank while she was out and drained their accounts of almost everything. He left her fifty fucking dollars! Tears formed in her eyes and she was on the verge of a breakdown when the assistant called her name and informed her the attorney was ready for her. She would have to speak to the attorney now and deal with all this later.
Even if Kami could afford it, she would not be able to get approved for a lease on a new apartment. The attorney advised her that she could stay in the apartment, but so could Scott. They both had equal claim and responsibility for it, but her attorney also asked her if it was worth the fight on a personal level. He informed her that she wouldn’t be able to go after Scott for fraud because she had willingly signed for all of the loans and credit cards. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t known what she was signing. In a court of law, she was responsible for reading what she was putting her signature on.
On top of all this, she was also concerned about how her credit would affect her dream of working for the federal government. It had been her dream to work for the FBI in their cybersecurity division for years. There was something thrilling about putting clues together and working behind the scenes on computers. As a teen, she spent her free time becoming a self-taught hacker. She never did anything nefarious with the information she found, she simply loved the challenge and thrill it gave her when she cracked the coding. She was always careful to put it back the way she found it so she wasn’t caught.
The college she had been waiting for a response from was where she would take her last required course to qualify to work at her dream job. But now it seemed to all be crashing down around her. She wouldn’t be able to pass a background check. The government, especially the FBI, were quite stern about having nothing that could compromise their employees. Bad credit and high debt were two of the things that led to automatic denials.
“My life is over,” Kami groans. “I make decent money, but I loathe my job. It’s not what I wanted, nor does it pay enough to settle this debt. I need to do that in order to land my dream job and get my own place. I love you, Penny, but eventually you and Ben are going to get sick of me.” As Penny starts to protest, Kami holds up her hand to stop her, “I will stay there temporarily, but you know as well as I do that I’m right about you and Ben. You two need your own space without a third wheel hanging around.”
Penny waggles her eyebrows, “Ben would probably love the attention of two beautiful women like us. But I get what you’re saying.”
“Seriously Pen, this is such crap. I should be mending my broken heart, not talking to lawyers and calling collection agencies explaining what a dumbass I was to fall for a conman. I keep getting all depressed and want to hide and never come out, but then the anger comes roaring back when I think of everything he’s done to ruin my life. I’m twenty-eight and I shouldn’t be starting over.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. There isn’t any right way to feel about this mess.” Penny comforts her. “Personally, I’m all for anger and revenge. That fucker is not worth your tears.”
The woman sitting next to them at the bar unexpectedly taps Kami on the shoulder, making her jump. She turns to take in the stranger, a beautiful woman with auburn hair running down her back in perfect waves. The woman’s makeup is dark, but expertly done, the dramatic smoky eye bringing out her green eyes. Her pale skin and heart shaped face made her look innocent, which clashes just the right way with her mature dress an
d makeup. She is a stunning woman that looks like she just stepped off the pages of Vogue.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation,” the woman’s sultry voice was anything but apologetic. “I’m Trish.”
Kami accepts her outstretched hand and shakes it warily, “I’m Kameron, but I go by Kami.”
“A few years ago, I had something similar happen. It was actually my own mother that fucked me over,” Trish’s vulgarity did not match her angelic looks at all. “Anyway, I found a place where I could work nights and rake in the cash. I got out of debt and now I’m living like a queen.”
Wary of what this could be, Kami tried to dismiss the stranger, “I’m not into selling drugs or my body or anything illegal. No offense.”
Laughter escapes the woman, “Oh no honey, I don’t do any of that either. It’s completely legal and a lot of fun. It’s basically like getting paid to go clubbing. I’m an exotic dancer.”
Penny interjects teasingly, “You know Kami, you were quite the dancer in your youth.”
Kami spins and glares at her friend. She and the buxom brunette had grown up together. When Kami had settled into her new city life, Penny had been so fascinated by the stories about it that she decided to leave the small-town life behind, as well. She was such a go getter that it only took her a couple of months to land an amazing position as a newspaper reporter, a very tough industry to get into.
“I don’t know if I could take my clothes off in front of a bunch of drunk men,” Kami admits.
Trish riffles through her small designer handbag and pulls out a card, “I’m guessing you’ve never actually been to a strip club before. Why don’t you stop by and check it out for yourself? I pull in over a grand on a slow night. You’ll be amazed at how fast you can pay back all that debt and get back on your feet. Plus, it really isn't as bad as all the rumors say it is.” She places the card in Kami’s hand, takes the last sip of her drink, and finger waves at them.
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