Shadow Haven
Page 37
Their play session was one that came from a place of pure love, as her slender fingers explored each bit of naked skin as if each told new tales. Teeth and tongue left bruises that would be kissed until they stopped hurting, and Alexandra’s body never went out of Julia’s reach. Thighs stuck together as they worked up a sweat. Legs intertwined as Julia whimpered until her voice gave out. Mouths kept writing little love notes that were secretly passed between them, and when Alexandra finally touched the place Julia had been aching for all night, they had reached a level of intimacy new to both of them. Tears streamed down Julia’s face as she did exactly what Alexandra had predicted: pass out from exhaustion, safely wrapped in Alexandra’s arms.
“I love you,” were the last words Alexandra heard before Julia fell into a deep sleep, and she couldn’t have been more content in that moment. Whatever they had been through and whatever would come next, they were in this together. A perfect union.
Epilogue
“Now,” Caroline said as she closed her office door behind her, “just because you no longer work in this building doesn’t mean I don’t expect the utmost dedication to your work.”
“I know.” Julia rolled her eyes.
“You have deadlines.”
“I know.”
“Responsibilities.”
“That I do.” Julia sighed. She knew Caroline was giving her a hard time as a joke, but it was getting old. They had already done this at least four times, and she just wanted it to be over with. Julia hated good-byes, and this was one she particularly wasn’t looking forward to.
“I’m going to miss you,” Caroline said almost inaudibly.
Julia’s face lit up. “What was that?”
“God, I hope Alexandra beats that attitude out of you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I don’t, but sometimes you’re insufferable.”
“You love me for it,” Julia said as she picked up the magazine that lay on the table next to her. Caroline, the everlasting entrepreneur, had started her own gossip magazine. It was ridiculous, really. For years, her job had been to take care of those exact rumors: to counteract them, to spin them until they seemed so ridiculous that no one believed the tabloids anymore. When Caroline had announced her plan, her staff had praised her for the idea. Caroline called it “damage control.” Julia called it “more money in the bank,” but she wasn’t going to tell Caroline that.
Caroline had paid for Julia to take a long course and learn Adobe Illustrator, and, God, Julia had hated it. Illustrator was her master, and, unlike with Alexandra, she was its not-so-willing victim. For weeks, she had wanted to throw her computer out of the window until she finally had gotten the hang of it. Now her now job consisted of making the magazine as interesting as she could. Caroline had loved the first edition, but Julia had seen nothing but flaws. Still, she was learning lately to be a bit less hard on herself.
“I am going to miss you.”
Julia swallowed her emotions and put the magazine back on the table. “I’m going to miss you too.” She sighed. “I know I’ve given you a lot of grief in the past, but I really do have to thank you. If it weren’t for you, Alexandra and I never would have met, and I can’t even imagine what my life would look like without her.”
“You are so very welcome.”
“I also have to thank you for something else. You took me in when I had a shitty waitress job. You were the first person that didn’t bail on me after a few months. I won’t say you saved my life, because that would be ridiculous, but I do owe you for looking after me the way you did.”
“Just because you’re leaving now doesn’t mean I will stop doing that. You will still see me; it just won’t be as often.”
“I know,” Julia said solemnly. “I just wanted you to know.”
Caroline walked over to her and pulled her up from the couch, engulfing her in a big hug. “You are more than welcome.”
“I should probably go,” Julia said as she tried to settle the knot in her stomach. The last thing she wanted to do was become a sobbing mess in her boss’—no, friend’s office.
“Give Alexandra my love,” Caroline said as she squeezed Julia’s hand.
“You know,” Julia said with a grin, “last time you told me to do that, you found me the love of my life. I wonder what will happen this time.”
Caroline’s eyes welled up, but there was a smile there too. “This time, I’m returning you to her.”
Julia’s heart thumped in her chest as she got off the airplane. It had been three weeks since she had last seen Alexandra, and that had been nothing but torture. In the last six months, they had made it work, but the closer they came to Alexandra’s retirement date, the more Julia ached to be with her. It had been challenging, some days to the point where she wondered what the hell they were thinking, but they had never stopped talking, and that was what had pulled them both through.
Alexandra’s retirement party had been nothing more than Alexandra showing up at Julia’s apartment and showing just how resourceful she could be in their play sessions. She had left her toys at home, instead choosing to use nothing but the clothes Julia was wearing. Although…it was no longer play. This was their life now. A kinky lifestyle combined with the most passionate nights and sometimes lazy nights on the couch—it honestly couldn’t have been more perfect. She thanked Caroline silently every day for sending her to Shadow Haven. To Alexandra.
It had been Julia who had finally made the decision to move to there. The island itself called to her. The thought of only being there once or twice a year was absolutely devastating. She needed the island as much as she needed Alexandra. So, when Caroline had offered her the new job, she had gladly taken it. Designing magazines was something she could do from her computer, and they had agreed that Julia would come back to the office every six weeks to go over her work. She quite enjoyed putting the magazine together, and while she still had a lot to learn, it was nothing she couldn’t do from far away.
She had insisted on going back to the island the same way she had gotten there the first time. Her apartment had been rented out to a colleague, and Alexandra had arranged for her belongings to be brought to the island. When Julia walked out of the airport terminal, she smiled at the familiar face in the crowd waiting for her with a sign in his hands.
“Horace! What are you doing here?”
He smiled and walked her to a taxi that would take them to his boat. “Miss Ortega tracked me down. Apparently, she was quite insistent that I be the one who should get you to her.”
“At least it’s not hurricane season this time.”
“True.” He gave her a sly wink. “So, ma’am, where to?” He helped her onto the boat.
“Home,” she said.
Julia stood on the dock and waved to Horace as he sped away. She slung the backpack on and felt almost overwhelmed at the idea of Alexandra being so close. All she had to do was take a step, a step in the direction that would take her home.
So she did.
She walked up the pathway that would take her past the trees in which she had once tried to find solace when life became too overwhelming. She kicked away a small rock into a stream of water, knowing Shadow Haven would forever be changed, like it had changed her. She let her fingers brush over the leaves that shone bright in the sunlight, and she breathed the air that felt so much cleaner than that of the city. She walked until a familiar house came into view. Her eyes immediately welled up at the sight of it.
She walked faster. When she reached the door, she took a deep breath and let her backpack fall to the floor, much like it had that very first day. A grin spread over her face when a familiar voice called out from behind her.
“Who the hell are you?”
It wasn’t like the movies. She didn’t run to Alexandra; there was no heavy rain that fell on lovers reuniting after being kept apart for years. She just shuffled her feet and turned around. “Yours. I’m yours.”
“Damn right you are.”
Alexandra held out her hand for Julia to take and pulled her along. “I have something to show you,” she said mischievously.
“I don’t get a kiss? No hug? It’s been three weeks!”
“Plenty of time for that later.” Alexandra dragged her along to the back of the house, stood behind her, and wrapped her arms around her waist, nuzzling her nose into Julia’s neck.
Julia gasped. “What the flying fuck is that?”
“A pig, Julia. It’s a pig.”
“Oh my God. You found your family’s pig?”
“No,” Alexandra smiled. “But you are my family now, so we needed a pig.”
“That’s…some weird deduction.” Julia wrinkled her nose. “What is its name?”
“Well, it’s a he, and I thought we could maybe name it together?”
“How very domestic of you.” Julia grinned before turning around in Alexandra’s arms. “Do I get my kiss now?”
Alexandra nodded. “I’ve missed you,” she murmured and slid her lips over Julia’s.
Their kiss was languid and familiar, and Julia sighed with happiness. “I know what we should call him.”
“Uh-oh,” Alexandra smirked.
“Definitely Pork Chop.”
“You’re an idiot, Miss Quinn.”
Julia grinned. “But I’m your idiot.”
About AJ Schippers
AJ Schippers is a professional procrastinator who likes to make people cry with heart-wrenching stories in her free time. When she’s not writing, Lara Croft often entertains her and, when she’s not playing games, AJ is often furiously reblogging about fandoms on Tumblr. She believes publishing her first novel is an honest-to-god dream come true and a big step up from plagiarizing The Never Ending Story when she was six years old.
CONNECT WITH AJ SCHIPPERS
Website: www.ajschippers.wordpress.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorajschippers
Tumblr: www.delirious-comfort.tumblr.com
E-Mail: authorschippers@gmail.com
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
www.ylva-publishing.com
Nights of Silk and Sapphire
Amber Jacobs
ISBN: 978-3-95533-512-0 (mobi), 978-3-95533-513-7 (epub)
Length: 113,000 words (309 pages)
Abducted from a land of wealth and privilege, Dae is chained to a slaver’s caravan crossing the vast Jaharri desert. It is a strange world of blistering sun, rolling dunes, and wind-carved plains, ruled by the Scion Zafirah Al’Intisar, a powerful and mysterious woman with seductive eyes of sapphire blue.
When Zafirah liberates the caravan the rescue Dae prayed for is not as it seems; Zafirah’s carnal appetite is legendary. Dae is taken into Zafirah’s harem, a decadent world of excess and sexual freedom. At first, Dae struggles with desires she has never before experienced, but as love and lust collide these two women slowly forge a bond as one learns to listen to her heart, and the other to the call of her awakening body.
The Club
A.L. Brooks
ISBN: 978-3-95533-655-4 (mobi), 978-3-95533-656-1 (epub)
Length: 72,200 words (227 pages)
Welcome to The Club—leave your inhibitions and your everyday cares at the door and indulge yourself in an evening of anonymous, no-strings, woman-on-woman action.
For many of the women who visit The Club this is exactly what they are looking for and what they get. For others the emotions run high, and one night of sex can change their lives in ways they couldn’t have imagined. For Lou, her weekly visits to The Club enable her to set aside her shyness and loneliness and feel intimacy, however briefly. For Kath, caring for her mother at home, The Club is a welcome relief from her everyday toil; while Max needs distraction from her troubled relationship, even as she tries to tell herself she isn’t really cheating. Tania and Jacky find an outlet for a tricky block in their sex life. Cassie and Nina, bar staff at The Club, find themselves staying on after hours. And finally, Stephanie, struggling with her sexuality, finds her life changing in so many ways once she plucks up courage to enter.
The lives of these women intersect in ways they don’t realize, and watching over them all is Mandy— the owner, whose own ghosts play a pivotal role in the existence of The Club.
Don’t Be Shy
Astrid Ohletz & Jae (Editor)
ISBN: 978-3-95533-538-0 (mobi), 978-3-95533-539-7 (epub)
Length: 139,000 words (350 pages)
Sultry, sensual, kinky erotica with a smart, sexy twist: these twenty-five lesbian erotica stories that first appeared in Don’t Be Shy Volumes 1 and 2 are now available in one compendium.
A woman talks her girlfriend into an arduous mountain hike, only to reveal a naughty al fresco birthday surprise when they reach the peak; a tempestuous opera diva finally makes her longsuffering servant remember why she continues in her mistress’s employ; in the shadow of a rocket launch, a bed-and-breakfast owner reaches new heights of sexual satisfaction from a guest she almost turned away; a woman takes a risk with a compelling stranger in a dive bar and is rewarded with an unforgettable night with an experienced dom.
Celebrate the pleasures of the female flesh without having to check your mind at the door. Come, don’t be shy, take a peek inside—you won’t regret it.
Heart’s Surrender
Emma Weimann
ISBN: 978-3-95533-184-9 (mobi), 978-3-95533-185-6 (epub)
Length: 63,000 words (305 pages)
Neither Samantha Freedman nor Gillian Jennings are looking for a relationship when they begin a no-strings-attached affair. But soon simple attraction turns into something more.
What happens when the worlds of a handywoman and a pampered housewife collide? Can nights of hot, erotic fun lead to love, or will these two very different women go their separate ways?
Shadow Haven
© 2017 by AJ Schippers
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-846-6
ISBN (epub): 978-3-95533-847-3
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First edition: 2017
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Credits
Edited by Zee Ahmad, Michelle Aguilar, and RJ Samuel
Cover Design and Print Layout by Streetlight Graphics
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
About AJ Schippers
Other Books from Ylva Publishing