Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection

by Barbara Downey

  “Kiss me, tell me you will stay with me.”

  He sagged against her, wrapping himself in a coil around her. His mouth dipped to hers reverently. “I do love you, Sofie. And I will stay with you.”

  *****

  Afterward:

  The basketball court was loud with the sound of yelling children and squeaking tennis shoes. Hayden, with more enthusiasm than skill, was currently lobbing a basketball at a hoop. It ricocheted off the rim and flew higher than Sofie had expected.

  She cheered. “You can do it, Hayden!”

  He turned a brilliant smile towards her, and gave a wave, even as the game continued on around him.

  “Eye on the ball, little man!” Luke's voice called out with more warmth than admonishment.

  Luke ran down the length of the court. His hat, with the word 'Coach' clearly printed across the front, flopped with every movement. He wasn't fond of the title to start with, but he was getting there.

  The ball was passed back into play, Hayden caught it and dribbled down the court, his short legs carrying him deliberately towards the hoop. He stopped a few feet back and hefted the ball up. His arms delivered the ball unto the air and it sailed upwards. The orange rubber bounced against the metallic rim. It bounced once, twice, and then slipped into the net.

  Sofie cheered. Her hands clapped hard enough to turn the palms red. An ache built up in her shoulder and it wasn't until she felt the band-aid that she remembered just why it hurt.

  Luke must have seen. He paused in her line of sight and mouthed “I'm sorry”

  She shook her head, “Don't be,” she said, knowing his better than human hearing would be able to pick her up from this far away. “It was definitely worth it.”

  THE END

  See the next bonus story at the next page!

  8 of 25 Bonus Stories

  Charmed by His Looks

  Sandra knew that this was her chance, but she just didn’t know how she could get Duke to look at her as a woman and not as a friend.

  “I really don’t know what I'm going to do about this man, Lynette, he won't even look at me the way that I want him to. He looks at me the way that one would look at their little sister,” she said to her friend, feeling frustrated and torn.

  “This is your chance, girlfriend. Duke and Macy broke up and if you don’t get with him before Macy realizes what a fool she has been to let go of him, you might never get him again,” Lynette said, pushing a blonde lock off her forehead as they sat at a coffee house sipping on cappuccino.

  “I know, but how am I supposed to do that. I need to come up with some sort of way to make him actually take me for a woman and not a friend,” she felt exhausted as she tried to rack her brain for the right thing to do.

  Sandra had a crush on Duke since they were teenagers in high school when she had been a few classes behind him. Duke had always been like some sort of demi god to her. She had this mad crush on him, something that she at times thought was pure obsession. Just looking at Duke had the power to make her wet in all the right places, and especially when she imagined all of the things that they could do together.

  Duke was two years older than her, which meant that he was 25 right now. He was a tall lanky guy with cute brown hair and seaweed green eyes that Sandra could look into without ever tiring. In high school, he had made the football team, which had made him the most sought after guy among the girls, Sandra not spared.

  She had known him since they were kids, her brother having been in his class, but still, Duke only looked at her like his little sister. It had devastated her to see him dating other girls when all the while she was waiting for him to take notice of her.

  When he had graduated from college, Duke had soon after hooked up with Macy, their relationship moving at an alarming rate. Before Sandra knew it, they had announced their engagement and they were to be married. She had given up any hope of ever being with him, even though she knew deep within that she was the right person for him.

  The news of their breakup had spread quickly like bushfire throughout the city because they were one of the most popular couples. Apparently, Macy had seeing an older man behind his back. When the news finally hit the roof and he confronted her, she threw a tantrum and broke up with him. It was bad news, but to Sandra, it had to be the best news that she’d heard all her life. She felt as if she had been waiting for such a miracle to happen all her life, but now that it had happened, she was not really sure what she was going to do about it.

  “I think that I have an idea,” Lynette said, interrupting her thoughts. “Bring him closer and give him a shoulder to cry on. Act like you are his friend, someone that he can count on in times like this.”

  “I was actually thinking along the same lines. There is this yacht that an uncle of mine left me, and I was wondering if offering him to go for a spin with me for a couple of days would make him feel any better. I mean, I really want him to be mine, but I don’t want him hurting after his ex either,” Sandra said to her friend thoughtfully.

  “I think that’s a great idea, but who’s is going to steer the thing for you,” Lynette asked, her eyebrows arching upwards as she looked at Sandra, whose lips broke into a smile.

  “That is something that you won’t have to worry about. Have you forgotten that my dad was a renown sailor and that the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree?” she said to her friend, grinning from ear to ear. “I can manage to operate anything that moves on water, I have done it since I was a child.”

  “I must have forgotten that, but anyway, I think that it’s a good idea and that you should probably go and look for Duke right away so that you can offer him the trip. Don’t forget, if you need further company, I really wouldn’t mind coming on the cruise with you,” Lynette said.

  “Don’t even think about joining us on the trip, maybe some other time. Right now I need to be alone with him so that I can get him to think straight and finally see the light,” Sandra said, whipping her cell phone out of her pocket and quickly punching in some numbers so that she could find out the condition of the yacht.

  She spoke into the phone with the guys that were storing her yacht for her, before she hung up and turned back to look at her friend Lynette with a smile on her face.

  “Well, everything is set. I can use the yacht whenever I wish. It is well serviced and fueled up, and besides, they even offered me someone to steer the craft, but I told them that I can manage,” she said to her friend. “Now the next thing is to find out where the hell Duke is so that I can convince him to come with me on the trip.”

  *****

  The sound of the doorbell ringing stirred him out of his drunken daze. “Go away, I don’t want any visitors,” he shouted without bothering to get up, instead taking a hold of the bottle of whiskey and bringing it to his mouth to take a huge gulp of the bitter drink.

  He closed his eyes as he felt the liquor burning down his throat and going through his belly and then his intestines. He heard the bell going off again. He opened his eyes, but this time, he also heard the door of the house opening. Heels sounded in the hallway and when he turned to look at who it was, Sandra walked into the room. He was not sure whether he’d had too many drinks, but she was looking hot, dressed in an oversized t-shirt and tights, finishing off her look with a pair of red heels matching the t-shirt that she was wearing. Her blonde hair was combed backwards neatly, held in place with a hair clip. Today her blue eyes were a little more pronounced than they were, and she had put on just the right amount of makeup to make her look sexy. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and looked at her just to make sure that he was seeing right, and yes, he was.

  “Duke, don’t you think that it is too early in the morning for you to be drinking,” she said, walking over to him and taking the bottle away from him. “I don’t think that this drink is going to do you any good at all, even if you are mourning the breakup with Macy.”

  “And what do you care, Sandra?” he slurred as he took in her bea
uty, the scent of her perfume mixed with the scent of her skin arousing something deep within him that he could not quite understand.

  “Just because you are not my girlfriend doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you. Right now I'm pretty worried that you are drinking way too much and probably not eating at all. That is why I am here to fix you something that you can eat,” she said, storming off to the kitchen along with his bottle of whiskey.

  “Sandra, just where do you think that you're taking my drink,” he said, getting up and beginning to stagger towards her in the kitchen.

  “Like I said, if you must drink, then at least drink when you have eaten something. That way, you are not going to drink yourself to your grave. Just because some silly woman does not realize the treasure that she had does not mean that there aren’t other women that are not interested in you,” she said, tying an apron around her waist and beginning to busy herself preparing for him a meal.

  “In the meantime, I suggest that you go and take a bath and then pack up some clothes, because you and I are going on a little vacation to make you forget about the hurt that you are feeling. This is going to be my little treat to you, and I am not going to take no for an answer. We have known each other like forever and it kills me inside me to see you hurting like this.”

  “Okay, wait a minute, you are talking way too fast for me to digest what you are talking about?” he slurred, trying to get his balance as he staggered to where she had taken some steak out of the fridge and was busy chopping.

  “What I am saying, Duke, is that you and I are going on a short vacation for a couple of days so that you can get over Macy and get on with your life. There is no use in crying over spilled milk. A break is going to do you some good,” she said, putting the knife down and going to the fridge to come back with a bottle of mineral water, which she handed him.

  Duke took the bottle as he checked her out. He knew that Sandra had wanted him for a long time, and she had never given up on him, even when he had never shown an interest in her, instead hopping around with every other skirt that he could get. She was Austin's sister, and Austin was one of his friends, which would have put him in an awkward situation if he had been with her.

  He opened the bottle of water and brought it to his mouth, drinking the water as he looked at Sandra through the corners of his eyes. She was leaning forward on the counter and the t-shirt had hiked up her waist, leaving her tights exposed, and for the first time, Duke noticed what a sexy figure Sandra had.

  “If I were you I would go and take a shower instead of standing there pretending to drink the water when you are actually staring at me,” she said to him without bothering to look up from the meat that she was chopping.

  Duke looked away from her quickly, embarrassed that she seemed to know what he was doing without even looking at him. He placed the bottle onto the counter and turned around to walk out of the kitchen.

  “I'm off to the bathroom,” he said, staggering out of the room and heading up the stairs to his bedroom so that he could take a shower.

  He was actually glad that Sandra had actually come, because he was not only feeling stuffy, but he was also feeling very hungry. He had been planning to order take out but kept on postponing, and he was sure that in the ending he would have ended up not ordering the food.

  *****

  Sandra put the food onto the table and was just about to head out of the kitchen to go and look for Duke when she heard him coming down the wooden stairs. She filled a glass of fresh fruit juice for him just as he walked into the kitchen.

  “Mmm, something sure smells good in here,” he said, raising his nose into the air.

  “Sit down and eat up, you and I have a long journey ahead,” she said to him, pulling back a chair for him at the table as he sat down on it.

  “Hmm, baked potatoes and pepper steak. Boy, it does smell good,” he said, picking up a fork and poking it into one of the potatoes, bringing it up to his mouth.

  Sandra watched him as he ate the potato, seeming to enjoy it to the fullest before he turned to look at her again.

  “This is really good, I didn’t know that you could cook as well as this,” he said to her, reaching for his knife and beginning to work through the steak.

  “I'm just glad that you still have your appetite after drinking nonstop for the last couple of days,” she said to him, noting just how handsome he looked, and especially now that he had taken a shower and looked fresh.

  “So, what long journey is this that you were talking about, because if you know me at all, you should know by now that I hate travelling?” he said to her as he forked in some pepper steak.

  “You and I are taking the yacht out for a couple of days. They say that an ocean breeze is one of the best ways of calming a person down, and I'm hoping that it is going to work for you so that your life can get back to normal,” she said to him, trying to choose her words as carefully as possible.

  “That is pretty thoughtful of you, but what I don’t understand is why you would want to do that for me,” he said to her, eying her with curiosity and reminding her of the way that he had been looking at her lustfully just before she sent him off to the shower. It had actually made her body cream up in all the right places, her body becoming excited at the wrong time.

  “Well, how do I put this? Let’s just say that at least there are still some good-hearted people left in this world, and I was hoping to make that list,” she said to him, pulling out a seat opposite him and settling onto it as she looked at him, noting the way that his eyes shot to her breasts.

  “You're a very beautiful woman, Sandra, and right now I am asking myself why I had to fall in love with another woman and not a woman as kind as you are,” he said to her sadly, and she could see that he was probably thinking about Macy again.

  “It is time for you to move on with your life, just like Macy did. If she did not find you good enough, then I'm pretty sure that the right fit for you is out there, and that you are going to find her very soon,” she said, referring to herself, of course.

  “Thanks, Sandra, you don’t know just how much those words mean to me,” he said to her as she got up. “Wait a minute, aren’t you going to join me in eating?”

  “I actually just got off lunch before I came here. I figured that you were too busy feeling sorry for yourself to eat,” she smiled at him as he frowned. “I did see some ice cream in the fridge, and maybe that could work for me. I'll just get that and then go up to your room to pack up a couple of clothes for you. We will be gone for just a couple of days while I'm off work, and I'm hoping that it is going to be enough time for you to get back to your normal self.”

  “I didn’t know that someone could care so much for another person even though we have nothing going between us. Maybe this whole trip idea isn’t such a good idea, Sandra. I don’t want to waste your time. I don’t think that I'm ever going to get over Macy, I think that chick is etched into my flesh. She is in a place so deep, I don’t think that I will be able to get her out and forget about her just like that,” he said, the words hurting Sandra, but Sandra was determined to win him over by the end of the trip.

  “Nothing is impossible, Duke, and you of all people, having studied business, should know that golden saying by now,” she smiled at him as she scooped some ice cream from the carton and headed out of the room, off to pack some clothes for him.

  *****

  “Preparing to engage the descending gear,” Sean said into the microphone as he hit a couple of buttons in the control cabin of the flying saucer that he was manning.

  “Go right ahead,” a voice from the command on their planet said to him, giving him the go ahead to begin going lower.

  Down in the galaxy, he could see earth on the huge screen before him, and it was there that he was headed. He was on a mission to go and capture some human beings so that they could use them for experiments on their planet, and then maybe later on sell them off as slaves to another planet. There was always constant dem
and for human beings in the universe and this was Sean's first time to go out to look for them.

  He looked at his green reflection in the mirror as the flying saucer moved lower and lower towards his destination. To avoid being detected, he would use a space craft to go right down to the Earth’s once he was near enough. This way the humans would not suspect any unusual activity in Earth’s airspace. He raked through his mind to see if he could remember the drill that he had been put through. There was a chip that had been implanted into his throat and ear that enabled him to hear the human dialect and also to talk it, and then there was the fact that he could transform himself into any human being that he wanted. He could make himself look like whoever he wanted without the human beings ever suspecting it. He was pretty excited actually especially since command had entrusted him to come alone. This sort of honor was only given to the very trusted lieutenants although his was a different case. He was the son of their ruler and the heir to their kingdom.

  “Preparing to change into shuttle. I will leave the saucer in idle mode,” he said into the microphone.

  “Affirmative,” was the response.

  He tapped a number of buttons, before he finally got up from his seat and made his way out of the cockpit.

  Sean headed to the elevator, where he took it down to the dock where the space shuttle was. This was the vehicle that would take him down to Earth undetected and bring him along with the human beings back. It was going to be a nice and quick job and he intended to be back on Mars within a couple of alien hours.

  Before he boarded the shuttle, he transformed his body into that of a human being, the human shell forming on top of his regular body. As he donned his new body, he noticed the way that there was a huge protrusion coming from the crotch and he wondered what that was. It had to be some sort of sexual organ, but it looked pretty huge compared to the ones that he and his kind had. His own dick fit into it nicely, the shell fitting him nicely and consuming his body to become one.