The old silver box at the back of the cupboard wasn’t the only treasure Lily discovered when she moved into her new college rooms.Unexpected Treasure is a short story accompanied by tasters for some of Nell Dixon’s other published workThe old silver box at the back of the cupboard wasn’t the only treasure Lily discovered when she moved into her new college rooms.Unexpected Treasure is a short story accompanied by tasters for some of Nell Dixon’s other published workNell Dixon is a Black Country author, married for twenty-eight years she has three daughters, a tank of tropical fish and a cactus called Spike. Winner of the RNA’s Romance Prize in 2007 and 2010, she writes warm-hearted contemporary romance

Paige Lindon wants to keep her booth at the farmers’ market open, but she can’t do it alone. When a mutual friend introduces her to an out-of-work farmhand, she hires him on the spot. Only Sterling Keller is not what he seems. Sterling agreed to investigate the small startup for his boss, thinking it would only take a weekend. Little does he know it will take all he has, even his heart.PAIGE LINDON arrives at the farmers’ market to find her booth rebuilt in cedar. JOE, a good friend and fellow vendor, has surprised her in hopes of becoming closer, but Paige isn’t interested. ELAINE, a wealthy customer, makes an offer to buy Paige’s Goat Milk Soap business, but Paige laughs it off. Elaine suggests she “hire” a boyfriend to help with the goats and to deter Joe. Paige laughs that off, too.By the afternoon Paige has sold out and has to hurry home to get more product. AUSTIN, a friend from her college days, introduces her to STERLING KELLER who she thinks is an out-of-work farmhand. She asks Sterling to watch her booth for a few minutes. Due to a break-in at her house, Paige returns late that night and takes Sterling to dinner. Not wanting to be alone, she asks for his help milking the goats, and he stays the night.The next morning is ideal until JULIE, Joe’s ex-girlfriend and an heiress, recognizes Sterling as a venture capitalist researching Paige’s business. He agrees to wash her feet so she won’t blow his cover. Paige grows jealous and forces him to wash ladies’ feet most of the day.When the farmers’ market closes, he leaves, and she believes she’ll never see him again. A few days later, Elaine calls Paige to explain a company is suing for her soap formula. As a family friend, Elaine agrees to use her legal team and hires Paige until the dispute is cleared up. Elaine proposes moving the goats to a neutral facility in exchange for a one-week deadline to negotiate a settlement. Paige agrees when she discovers Sterling works with Elaine. Trustworthy Austin agrees to help move the goats. Sterling and Paige go on a business trip to Texas to scope out a new company. Julie arrives and tells Paige that Sterling has lured her away so that Elaine can steal her goats. Paige flies home to find the goats moved right under Austin’s nose.A contrite Sterling rushes back to make things right. Austin has created a new tracking system, and they find the goats. The three friends decide to "kidnap" the herd in a U-haul. Sterling takes them to his family farm two hours south. Only he hasn't been there in twelve years due to a secret in his past. With Paige beside him, Sterling must face his past to win his future.

Jilted by her estranged husband, Cheryl Evans laments spending the weekend alone at a luxurious resort. If given the chance, will she make lemonade?This short story anthology is comprised of eight suspenseful and horrifying tales, composed for a special one-week fiction event on the blog, "The Leaky Pencil". These stories centre around the theme of Madness. Not one of the stories approaches this theme in the same way, and each has something unique to say.Features eight outstanding new tales by: Laurita Miller, Richard Godwin, Angel Zapata, Benjamin Sobieck, Sean Patrick Reardon, Erin Cole, Lily Childs, and Chris Allinotte.

Separated from his friends one fateful beer-party night, college student Peter Orbus stumbles upon a pale young woman in the park. He feels a strange connection to the shy young woman, a connection made stronger when he gives her his favorite sweater and she disappears into the night with it. His search for both leads him into the depths of the dark woods that cover the park.Separated from his friends one fateful beer-party night, college student Peter Orbus stumbles upon a pale young woman in the park. He feels a strange connection to the shy young woman, a connection made stronger when he gives her his favorite sweater and she disappears into the night with it. His search for both leads him into the depths of the dark woods that cover the park where he finds a hidden world of the undead, vampires. It’s a world he must keep secret if he hopes to survive until midterms.But all secrets hold a price. A shadowy terror arises in the sleepy college town and attacks his fellow students. All evidence points to Peter being the culprit, so he must enlist the help of his newfound companions to clear his name and stop the creature before it destroys everyone.

Ronnie Lambert thinks getting a tattoo will change her life. Little does she know, it is only the beginning. After being struck by lightning, Ronnie's life is changed forever. When Ronnie meets hot, annoying new guy, Gavin Clearwater, and finds out her destiny, she must choose between following him into the Spiral or returning to her life before being struck by lightning.Seventeen-year-old Veronica “Ronnie” Lambert wants to get out from under her older brother’s shadow. When Ronnie gets a tattoo and then is struck by lightning, she suddenly finds herself able to see and hear things in shadows that don’t appear to others. Then Ronnie meets Gavin Clearwater, the hot new guy in all of her classes and finds out he can see and hear the same things she can. Gavin tells her about the Spiral Defenders, a group of warriors that travels through space and time to defend the planets of the Spiral. After meeting the Commander of the Spiral Defenders and realizing his intentions might not be pure, Ronnie struggles between following her destiny to become a Spiral Defender and trying to regain the life she had before being struck by lightning.

Her heart can’t be destroyed by the same person twice. At least that’s what Clara Abbot finds herself hoping when she runs into Boone Cavanaugh less than an hour after returning to Charleston. As kids, Clara and Boone had been each other’s firsts, and no one or nothing could stand in the way of their forever. But all kids have to grow up sometime. The troubled son of the town drunk winding up with the firstborn daughter of the local royalty was a happy ending even the most imaginative of fairy tales couldn’t make believable. Their fable came to an end as most do: tragically. Boone might have done the leaving, but it was Clara who got away and made a new life for herself in California. But after seven years of dodging her hometown, she’s only back in Charleston for seven days to celebrate her sister’s wedding. She won’t let her overbearing family or her run-in with Boone rattle her—though rattling her is obviously Boone’s primary objective. Boone is her past and her past is behind her, a mere speck in the rearview. So why does she feel it coming back every time she looks at him? Why does she see it every time he looks back? Just when Clara’s life can’t possibly get more complicated, the ground shifts, and she discovers just how far her family was willing to go to keep the wrong boy out of her life. Was it really Boone who left her? Or was it Clara who left him? The truth will be hard to face. Especially when she discovers most of her life has been built on lies.

Rising-star blogger Milla Kierce knows she's arrived when she sees the swag basket in her dressing room on the night of her late-night television debut. But before she can bite into the muffin that symbolizes her success, gunfire echoes through the TV studio. She's just hidden herself (mostly in plain sight) when the door flings open. Instead of a gunman, there stands one of the world's most popular rock stars, Gage Daxson, looking for his own way out of danger. Thrown together, they'll battle a venomous man seeking revenge and his own sexual pleasure, but they may never leave the building again. Distracted by fear, fame, and infamy, can these two somehow find their way to each other? Equal parts horrifying and hilarious, Debra Anastasia's Late Night With Andres offers more than a few twists and turns—and, of course, enough heat to keep things interesting.

Georgina's Service Stars by Annie F. JohnstonAuthor Johnston, Annie F. (Annie Fellows), 1863-1931 Illustrator Gooch, Thelma Title Georgina's Service Stars Language EnglishCategory Text Up the crooked street which curves for three miles around the harbor comes the sound of the Towncrier's bell. It seems strange that he should happen along this morning, just as I've seated myself by this garret window to begin the story of my life, for it was the sound of his bell five years ago which first put it into my head to write it. And yet, it isn't so strange after all, when one remembers the part the dear old man has had in my past. "Uncle Darcy," as I've always called him, has been mixed up with most of its important happenings.That day, when I first thought of writing my memoirs, was in Spring house-cleaning time, and I had been up here all morning, watching them drag out old heirlooms from the chests and cubby-holes under the rafters. Each one had a history.[14] From one of the gable windows I could look down on the beach at the very spot where the Pilgrims first landed, and away over on the tongue of sand, which ends the Cape, I could see the place where they say the old Norse Viking, Thorwald, was buried nine hundred years ago.

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Kira is a beautiful redhead who lives on the docks of England, and dreams of a better life for her and her father! Her experience with vile men of the sea has taught her to trust no one. But when she is kidnapped by vicious pirates, her whole world comes crashing down! Her only choice is to trust the one man she hates more than the pirates, the man who bought her from them!Kira is a beautiful of a redhead who lives on the docks of England, and dreams of a better life for her and her father! Her experience with vile men of the sea has taught her to trust no one. But when she is kidnapped by vicious pirates, her whole world comes crashing down! Her only choice is to trust the one man she hates more than the pirates, the man who bought her from them! Is Kira right to despise a man who would pay to possess her, or will this chaos-filled tale end in true love?Marcus O'Hare is a dazzling man of the world, a Nordic-looking sailor in the Naval Fleet and a dashing rogue. He's brought more than a few women to their knees, but now it's a certain redhead that's causing him trouble. Will Kira's time on Marcus' ship spell the end of her virtue, and her future? Or will their battle of the wills lead to something else entirely? This romantic kidnapping story leads them from the dark streets of a dilapidated dock to the sparkling halls of the Royal Palace.

Anna is young and attractive but sometimes intimidating. She is comfortable in her role of wife and mother, which she balances against her career as a policewoman. She's also comfortable in her heterosexuality, but her emotional world is upended at a kindergarten barbecue where she encounters Susan, who unearths feelings she never suspected.In the privacy of the bathroom at a kindergarten barbecue, wife and mother Anna shares an unexpectedly intimate moment with Susan, the attractive blonde mother of one of the other boys. Previously confident in her heterosexuality, Anna is confused by her attraction to Susan and struggles to face the uncomfortable reality of having romantic feelings for another woman. She longs to take a chance, but how can she be sure that her feelings are reciprocated when she can barely understand them herself.Anna turns to her journal to vent these strange emotions on paper where she hopes she can understand them – or even better, banish them entirely. But when her words take a turn for the erotic, she is led in a direction that she could never have imagined.

Evan loves his work on International Space Colony 2, but he misses the colors of his life on Earth. Drawing the flowers he remembers from his mother's greenhouse provides a pale substitute for authentic living color, but it's the best he can find. Sean spends his days lost in his software while listening to the same songs on the same radio stations day after day. He would give almost anything...Evan loves his work on International Space Colony 2, but he misses the colors of his life on Earth. Drawing the flowers he remembers from his mother's greenhouse provides a pale substitute for authentic living color, but it's the best he can find. Sean spends his days lost in his software while listening to the same songs on the same radio stations day after day. He would give almost anything to hear the mistakes of a live performance, but a space colony is hardly an ideal place to find an amateur musician.A chance meeting shows Evan a glimpse of real color and Sean a taste of real music, but neither expects to see the other again. Then Evan's greatest accomplishment fails, endangering the entire colony, and Sean becomes his last chance at fixing it.  

Mindy has gone crazy. Or so everybody thought.Now that she's back from her nth stint in rehab, will Mindy still find the good in life?Join her in this adventure of love, life, and music.Johnny Clunker was an awkward and shy boy who kept mostly to himself. But when the school day ended, Johnny Clunker became Johnny B. Fast, a super spy who worked with Department X to thwart the evils of the world.Utilizing super technology so advanced that it seems like magic, Johnny and his friends battle the United Order, a ruthless organization trying to acquire the Super Chip – a computer processor so powerful it can virtually hold the world’s technology hostage.When one of his fellow classmates, Nancy Korrins, is also revealed to be a super spy who was trained by the world’s most deadly and advanced agent, Johnny has his hands full trying to figure out if he can trust her to help him capture the Super Chip, or if he has to fight her as his greatest rival.

After 10 years of globe-trotting, burned-out ex-CIA operative Donovan Lassiter was ready to return home. But Donovan needed solitude to wrestle with his demons. His cabin in the wooded hills of Maryland was the perfect place for a little soul-searching -- or so he thought. Donovan's peaceful existence was shattered when beautiful widow Andi Brady and her children moved next door. Andi needed help to prove her late husband's innocence and knew Donovan was the only man for the job. But could he focus on the case when he was in danger -- of losing his heart?

A vampire never gets old. But neither do his enemies. When a figure from Ethan's dark past makes a splashy debut in Chicago, Merit and her Master don't know whether he's friend or foe. But they'll have to figure out soon, because trouble is brewing in the Windy City. At an exclusive society soiree attended by the upper echelons of the human and supernatural worlds, Merit and Ethan barely stop the assassination of a guest. When the target turns out to be a shady businessman with a criminal edge, Merit suspects a human vendetta. But the assassins have fangs.... The connections to Chicago's Houses go deeper than Merit knows, and even one wrong move could be her last....