I don't want to live anymore.I thought life was bleak and colorless before she came into the picture, but every minute without her now that I've breathed her air is unacceptable.A trial.I haven't been able to leave this office since she walked out of it, because I don't want to look at the outside world. Don't want to face it without her. Sabrina gave me a reason to live, she stole the loneliness and now that her life-affirming presence is gone, I'm depleted. I'm raw and miserable and I deserve every second of it.The hurt I caused her.She wasn't going to betray me. If I'd listened to my heart earlier, I would have known.She was so brave and incredible, standing up to her father, and what reward did I have to offer? A video of me defiling her. In the place she holds sacred, nonetheless. I'm a monster.I stare bleary-eyed at the computer screen, the words and numbers in a senseless jumble. It's the middle of the night. She left me three days ago and I've been working on this proje
I'm disoriented when we arrive. Voices sound like they're coming from a carnival funhouse and walls swell in and out as I run down the hospital corridor. I was brought to the correct floor by Randall, but ran from him as soon as the doors opened, directed by some internal compass that knows where he is. Knows where to find Bryant.I'm unprepared for the sight that greets me when I skid into his room, realizing vaguely that I'm barefoot and wearing a nightshirt and robe. Bryant is restrained in a bed. A nurse is shining a small flashlight into his eyes, but he's staring straight ahead into the light without blinking or responding to her questions. His gaze is hollow, as are his cheeks, his hair matted.When I make a broken sound, however, a jolt passes through him and his head turns toward the door, his eyes showing a sign of life. And that life roars back in when he sees me, his arms jerking at the restraints."Sabrina." Alarm transforms his features. "Sabrina!"Until he bellows my na
Five Years LaterI walk up the stairs toward the bedroom I share with my wife.When I hear the sounds coming from the other side of the door, my lips curl into a smile. I've caught her in the act once again, have I?Careful not to make a sound, I elbow open the door and find Sabrina on the bed. She's lying sideways on her back, head turned to in the direction of the flat-screen television. A familiar video plays. One taken with my hidden phone five years earlier on the afternoon I took her virginity. The video started as something we never wanted to think about again. But after accidentally stumbling on it last year while clearing out storage on an old computer, Sabrina found it. She played it alone in our home office, expecting it to make her angry. Or sad.It turned her on, instead.Big time.Now I catch her watching it when she thinks I'm not home, her fingers busy in her panties, watching me pop her cherry on the television, my grunts and filthy words echoing in the confines of ou
Phoenix Arizona's father is prone to trouble. When he lands a few months of jail time, leaving Phoenix all alone and by herself, she's devastated and lonely. Frequently visiting him was never a problem, until a fight breaks out and she's the target.But she gets saved by the least person she ever imagined.An inmate. No, scratch that. A tall, smoldering, delicious, yet unlucky specimen of a man.Yusef Fritz has lost all hope these few years behind bars. But one look at the calm, beautiful brunette girl and he finds a spark of light at the end of the tunnel. His body sizzles for her. Just how much would it cost to have the prison guards turn their back?Claiming her in a cell isn't ideal, and she deserves better, but he'll do whatever it takes to get what he wants.And he wants her.----------1: Phoenix.The metal gates are twice as wide as the SUV I’m sitting in and even taller than that. They’re covered with barbed wire on the top and sealed all the way to the cinder block wall. Whe
“I don’t know how much longer you’re going to get our support,” Sam says from across the table but I just nod. “Yusef,” he tries again, and when the dark-haired girl looks away, I give him my attention.“We’ve been planning this for two years, Sam. I’m not stopping until it’s finished.”“I can’t give you much more time.”Glancing around the room, I clock the prisoners and who is getting a visitor. Every time I make a scan, my eyes go back to her. Phoenix Arizona. Daughter of Leo Arizona, the most powerful man in the world. You’d have to be living under a rock or be some boring investment banker to not know who she is. She’s the king's daughter, and the most powerful player in the game. One day she’ll be queen, but not until he hands over the crown.I’ve seen pictures of her before, but always from long distances and most of them when she was little. She’s grown into a woman since the trial, and I can see the god that gave her curves was generous. Her ass fills the seat and then some,
“Honey, are you sleeping okay?” Margaret asks me as she stirs a giant pot of sauce. She’s been like a grandma to me over the years, and I can’t remember a time she wasn't here. She’s in charge of running the estate to keep it in top shape and I’m guessing keeping an eye on me as well.“Not really,” I admit. She puts the lid on the sauce and starts to make me a cup of tea. She thinks tea is the cure to everything, as long as it has extra honey, of course.“I hate that you had to go through that. I know it was scary.”Scary is putting it mildly. I knew prison was a rough place, and I’d even imagined things like that happening there. Actually seeing it was something else altogether. I could’ve sworn that inmate with the knife was coming after me and not my dad, but I don’t know why.Then he saved us both. Cold blue eyes flash in my mind, and somehow they don’t make me afraid. I haven't been able to stop seeing them since I left the prison, and I even dream about him at night. I wake up w
Prison is exactly as awful anyone outside imagines it to be. Solitary confinement? That’s hell on earth. After three days in the hole, the guard comes over and opens the metal door, sending a fraction of light into the dark space. It must be from the moon because it’s late.“Eritz, you’re out,” he orders as he knocks his wooden nightstick against the bars.I get up off the floor and duck my head. The cell isn’t big enough for me to stand straight, and my muscles protest at being cramped for so long. Thankfully my stitches are still clean, and I’ve healed enough that I’m not worried about them tearing open.Keeping my mouth shut, I move to the designated spot outside the cell and straighten my spine. It feels good, but I don’t let the emotion show. I don’t let anything show, ever.The guard leads me and three other men that were in solitary down the long hall that leads to the showers. Inside the bathroom, the stalls are open, with no privacy. Next to the showers are clean jumpsuits an
Stretching out on the cot, I think about how I got to this point and what this might mean. I close my eyes and think about home, wishing for sunshine and the smell of salt. Praying for the day when I can feel the sand under my feet again and the wind of my island around me.My mother was from the Philippines and came to Hawaii as a small child. Her family was poor, but when she was old enough she began to work in a restaurant to make extra money. She cleaned tables and washed dishes until she was old enough to cook, then eventually she took over the kitchen. That’s how she met my dad. He was born in Molokai and came to Lanai for work. He was asked to deliver supplies to a restaurant one day, and that’s when he saw her. He told me that with one look he knew, even though he’d never spoken a word to her.They were married soon after and had me almost exactly nine months later. My parents didn’t have much, but they gave me everything that mattered: a safe home filled with love and an educ