“More than ready,” I replied. She removed her hands from my eyes, and I opened them to come face to face with a statue, in smooth white marble. A woman, with a classically beautiful face and flowing hair, bare breasted, her remaining modesty protected by a cloth she held to her stony body. She appeared to be looking—with a most provocative expression—straight at me. Then I comprehended she wasn’t looking at me, but rather straight through me. At someone behind me. I took a step back and saw how her gaze connected perfectly with Phoebe’s, on her opposite plinth. Phoebe no longer stared wistfully at an empty space, but lovingly at her own carved goddess.
I smiled broadly and threw my arms around Anna, holding her tight to me. “Thank you so much. She’s perfect. And only you would think of it. You found Phoebe a girlfriend!”
“Well, you see,” Anna said quite seriously, “Phoebe and I had a chat, and she told me she looked so sad because she’s never found the right person. She wasn’t much impressed by the fine Greek gentleman she had to stare at for so many years, and she was secretly quite pleased when he, well, fell off his pedestal. I suggested she might prefer some female company, and she was very enthusiastic about it, I must say.”
I considered Phoebe’s expression. “She looks happier, don’t you think? I thought she was missing her true love, but it turns out she’d just not found her yet.”
“Definitely happier. Funny how things turn out, don’t you think?”
“What’s her name?” I asked.
“She’s modelled on Aphrodite.”
“The goddess of love?”
“That’s the one.”
“Lucky Phoebe. I guess we have a lot to live up to.”
“I don’t think it will be a problem.” She grinned seductively.
I took Anna’s hand, and we walked back up the steps into the house, leaving Phoebe to enjoy her new view. “It might not be finished yet,” I said, “but Winter feels complete somehow, don’t you think?” We entered the hallway. “Finding Phoebe a girlfriend is just the icing on the cake.”
“It did feel like there was something missing,” Anna said, “though I wouldn’t have known how to describe it.”
“Just like the place wasn’t quite at rest—but not really alive either—half stuck in the past but existing in the present. Almost like a ghost of a building.”
“You’re right,” Anna said. “It was in limbo. It doesn’t feel like that anymore. You’ve brought it back to life.”
“No,” I said, “we have.” I wrapped my arms around her, pulled her warm body close to mine, and let my lips melt into her kiss. “Do you think we’ll haunt this place one day?”
“If being here’s always this good, I can’t imagine something small like death stopping me from staying,” she replied.
“I love you, Anna,” I said softly. Her kiss was her eloquent reply.
About the Author
Rebecca S. Buck has lived in Nottingham, England most of her life. Keen on the academic study of both history and literature, since graduating from the University of Nottingham in 2004, she has been contemplating just what she is going to study next. She is fascinated by the relationship between literature and culture and the importance of fiction for representing the human experience. This is partly what inspires her to write. Writing fiction is also her outlet for an overactive imagination and a propensity for spending far too much time absorbed in her own thoughts.
When she’s not writing, Rebecca is usually to be found reading (any book anyone recommends to her) or listening to music (the louder the better). She also loves to travel, especially to the beautiful cities of Europe and has, since 2005, spent much of her time in Slovenia in central Europe, where she worked as a private tutor at the same time as trying to renovate two houses. Now back in the UK full time, Rebecca is working hard on her next novel and several short stories, as well as trying to settle on which career appeals to her most.
Find out more at www.rebeccasbuck.com.
Books Available From Bold Strokes Books
True Confessions by PJ Trebelhorn. Lynn Patrick finally has a chance with the only woman she’s ever loved, her lifelong friend Jessica Greenfield, but Jessie is still tormented by an abusive past. (978-1- 60282-216-0)
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Ghosts of Winter by Rebecca S. Buck. Can Ros Wynne, who has lost everything she thought defined her, find her true life—and her true love—surrounded by the lingering history of the once-grand Winter Manor? (978-1-60282-219-1)
Who I Am by M.L. Rice. Devin Kelly’s senior year is a disaster. She’s in a new school in a new town, and the school bully is making her life miserable—but then she meets his sister Melanie and realizes her feelings for her are more than platonic. (978-1-60282-231-3)
Call Me Softly by D. Jackson Leigh. Polo pony trainer Swain Butler finds that neither her heart nor her secret are safe when beautiful British heiress Lillie Wetherington arrives to bury her grandmother, Swain’s employer. (978-1-60282-215-3)
Split by Mel Bossa. Weeks before Derek O’Reilly’s engagement party, a chance meeting with Nick Lund, his teenage first love, catapults him into the past, where he relives that powerful relationship revealing what he and Nick were, still are, and might yet be to each other. (978- 1-60282-220-7)
Blood Hunt by LL Raand. In the second Midnight Hunters Novel, Detective Jody Gates, heir to a powerful Vampire clan, forges an uneasy alliance with Sylvan, the Wolf Were Alpha, to battle a shadow army of humans and rogue Weres, while fighting her growing hunger for human reporter Becca Land. (978-1-60282-209-2)
Loving Liz by Bobbi Marolt. When theater actor Marty Jamison turns diva and Liz Chandler walks out on her, Marty must confront a cheating lover from the past to understand why life is crumbling around her. (978-1-60282-210-8)
Kiss the Rain by Larkin Rose. How will successful fashion designer Eve Harris react when she discovers the new woman in her life, Jodi, and her secret fantasy phone date, Lexi, are one and the same? (978- 1-60282-211-5)
Sarah, Son of God by Justine Saracen. In a story within a story within a story, a transgendered beauty takes us through Stonewall-rioting New York, Venice under the Inquisition, and Nero’s Rome. (978-1- 60282-212-2)
Sleeping Angel by Greg Herren. Eric Matthews survives a terrible car accident only to find out everyone in town thinks he’s a murderer—and he has to clear his name even though he has no memories of what happened. (978-1-60282-214-6)
Dying to Live by Kim Baldwin & Xenia Alexiou. British socialite Zoe Anderson-Howe’s pampered life is abruptly shattered when she’s taken hostage by FARC guerrillas while on a business trip to Bogota, and Elite Operative Fletch must rescue her to complete her own harrowing mission. (978-1-60282-200-9)
Indigo Moon by Gill McKnight. Werewolves Hope Glassy and Godfrey Meyers are on a mercy mission to save their friend Isabelle after she is attacked by a rogue werewolf—but does Isabelle want to be saved from the sexy wolf who claimed her as a mate? (978-1-60282-201-6)
Parties in Congress by Colette Moody. Bijal Rao, Indian-American moderate Independent, gets the break of her career when she’s hired to work on the congressional campaign of Janet Denton—until she meets her remarkably attractive and charismatic opponent, Colleen O’Bannon. (978-1-60282-202-3)
Black Fire: Gay African-American Erotica, edited by Shane Allison. Black Fire celebrates the heat and power of sex between black men: the rude B-boys and gorgeous thugs, the worshippers of heavenly ass, and the devoutly religious in their forays through the subterranean grottoes of the down-low world. (978-1-60282-206-1)
The Collectors by Leslie Gowan. Laura owns what might be the world’s most extensive collection of BDSM lesbian erotica, but that’s as close as she’s gotten to the world of her fantasies. Until, that is, her friend Adele introduces her to Adele’s mistress Jeanne—art c
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Breaker’s Passion by Julie Cannon. Leaving a trail of broken hearts scattered across the Hawaiian Islands, surf instructor Colby Taylor is running full speed away from her selfish actions years earlier until she collides with Elizabeth Collins, a stuffy, judgmental college professor who changes everything. (978-1-60282-196-5)
Justifiable Risk by V.K. Powell. Work is the only thing that interests homicide detective Greer Ellis until internationally renowned journalist Eva Saldana comes to town looking for answers in her brother’s death— then attraction threatens to override duty. (978-1-60282-197-2)
Nothing But the Truth by Carsen Taite. Sparks fly when two top-notch attorneys battle each other in the high-risk arena of the courtroom, but when a strange turn of events turns one of them from advocate to witness, prosecutor Ryan Foster and defense attorney Brett Logan join forces in their search for the truth. (978-1-60282-198-9)
Maye’s Request by Clifford Henderson. When Brianna Bell promises her ailing mother she’ll heal the rift between her “other two” parents, she discovers how little she knows about those closest to her and the impact family has on the fabric of our lives. (978-1-60282-199-6)
Chasing Love by Ronica Black. Adrian Edwards is looking for love— at girl bars, shady chat rooms, and women’s sporting events—but love remains elusive until she looks closer to home. (978-1-60282-192-7)
Rum Spring by Yolanda Wallace. Rebecca Lapp is a devout follower of her Amish faith and a firm believer in the Ordnung, the set of rules that govern her life in the tiny Pennsylvania town she calls home. When she falls in love with a young “English” woman, however, the rules go out the window. (978-1-60282-193-4)
Indelible by Jove Belle. A single mother committed to shielding her son from the parade of transient relationships she endured as a child tries to resist the allure of a tattoo artist who already has a sometimesgirlfriend. (978-1-60282-194-1)
The Straight Shooter by Paul Faraday. With the help of his good pals Beso Tangelo and Jorge Ramirez, Nate Dainty tackles the Case of the Missing Porn Star, none other than his latest heartthrob—Myles Long! (978-1-60282-195-8)
Head Trip by D.L. Line. Shelby Hutchinson, a young computer professional, can’t wait to take a virtual trip. She soon learns that chasing spies through Cold War Europe might be a great adventure, but nothing is ever as easy as it seems—especially love. (978-1- 60282-187-3)
Desire by Starlight by Radclyffe. The only thing that might possibly save romance author Jenna Hardy from dying of boredom during a summer of forced R&R is a dalliance with Gardner Davis, the local vet—even if Gard is as unimpressed with Jenna’s charms as she appears to be with Jenna’s fame. (978-1-60282-188-0)
River Walker by Cate Culpepper. Grady Wrenn, a cultural anthropologist, and Elena Montalvo, a spiritual healer, must find a way to end the River Walker’s murderous vendetta—and overcome a maze of cultural barriers to find each other. (978-1-60282-189-7)
Blood Sacraments, edited by Todd Gregory. In these tales of the gay vampire, some of today’s top erotic writers explore the duality of blood lust coupled with passion and sensuality. (978-1-60282-190-3)
Mesmerized by David-Matthew Barnes. Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena Albright learns about the many forms of love and finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older brother, the victim of a hate crime. (978-1- 60282-191-0)
Whatever Gods May Be by Sophia Kell Hagin. Army sniper Jamie Gwynmorgan expects to fight hard for her country and her future. What she never expects is to find love. (978-1-60282-183-5)
nevermore by Nell Stark and Trinity Tam. In this sequel to everafter, Vampire Valentine Darrow and Were Alexa Newland confront a mysterious disease that ravages the shifter population of New York City. (978-1-60282-184-2)
Playing the Player by Lea Santos. Grace Obregon is beautiful, vulnerable, and exactly the kind of woman Madeira Pacias usually avoids, but when Madeira rescues Grace from a traffic accident, escape is impossible. (978-1-60282-185-9)
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