Maureen Atsali
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ABOUT ME
STORY BY Maureen Atsali
The Rogue’s Stolen Bride
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Kaida Hawkins has four days before her father delivers her to Lord Vance — a vampire lord whose cold smile and golden eyes haunt her nightmares. Rather than surrender herself to a monster, she steals her dead mother’s dowry, borrows her brother’s clothes, and walks into the roughest tavern in Cedar Ridge to hire the most dangerous man she can find.Jace Blackwood is a rogue with no pack, no conscience, and no business noticing how beautiful his client is. The job is simple — steal the Alpha’s daughter from the road to the vampire’s keep and deliver her to Havenhill. Untouched. Unharmed. Uncomplicated.Except she smells like heaven, fights like hell, and every night they spend on the road together makes his promise feel more like a curse. Jace has never wanted anything he couldn’t take. But Kaida isn’t just any woman — and the fire building between them is the kind that doesn’t ask permission before it burns everything down.Lord Vance wants his bride back. And he’s not the kind of man who forgives.
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Eudora's Gift
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Book 1 in the Eudora Series Eudora has been living with her abusive, alcoholic uncle for as long as she can remember. She is bullied at school, and rejected in the community. Her only solace is in the woods, where the trees whisper to her and give her strength and comfort. But since she has turned 18 she has been having strange dreams, of an unfamiliar man in the forest. Her dreams turn into reality, when her substitute English teacher walks in to her life.
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I Will Set Your Valentine On Fire
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If there was anything I hated more than sentimental holidays… It was Anthony Kent. The whole town called Dorothy Kent “Aunt Dot”, but she actually was Tony’s great aunt. He was two years younger than I was, so we had practically grown up together. There was a long list of people who had made my life miserable in amount Tabor, and Tony’s name was right at the top of that list. He was the one person I had really hoped I would NOT encounter while I was back in town. “You know, Aunt Dot, if the cafe is still open, maybe it would be best if I just head back to Rutberg…” “Now, Myra, don't be hard-headed!” Aunt Dot scolded me. “Why pay all that money and commute all that way when there is a perfectly good apartment to use? In fact, I’ll call Tony right now!” She leaned over and grappled with the miscellaneous items on her side table until her slightly arthritic fingers found her smart-phone. The fact that my 80 year old aunt had a very new and very high tech phone was surprising. What was even more shocking was that she knew how to use it - very well. No matter that she seemed to have misplaced her glasses, she used voice commands and ordered the virtual assistant, “Call Tony!” “Hello?” I heard Tony's voice loud and clear. Aunt Dot had the volume turned up so high it was practically on speakerphone. Was she losing her hearing too? Just the sound of his voice, after all these years, made the hair stand up on my arms. It was deep and smooth. Exactly the kind of voice you would want to narrate a dirty, s.exy audio book. It sounded like hot fudge melting cool sweet vanilla ice cream. Which only made him more despicable. “Tony! It’s Aunt Dot. Listen, Myra is here. She’s going to stay over the cafe. Give her the spare key.” There was a long pause on the line before Tony replied. “Okay, Aunt Dot. Just send her to the cafe. I’ll be here.”
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Mommy, Please Marry My Best Friend's Alpha Daddy
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I've been waiting for my sixth birthday party… but Dad ruined it all, after he showed up with his mistress, a pregnant lady. He's the worst Dad ever. I've made up my mind-- Mr. Kevin Jackson is not my Dad anymore! I want Mommy to marry my best friend's Daddy and kick out my jerk Dad instead. Alex's Daddy is kind and gentle, but he's really strong too. He always has time to play with us. And Mommy says he sure knows how to fill out a suit. But Alex and his Daddy have a secret, and I swore not to tell anyone… ------ To Mr. Kevin Jackson, You were never around for me and Mommy, and you were mean, so now I want you to sign the divorce papers. I want Mommy to marry Alex's Daddy instead.
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Good Men Are Like Unicorns
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"My grandmother always said that good men are like unicorns," my friend Dallas said, as she took another sip of the Whiskey Sour in her hand. "They are magical, mythical creatures that only exist in dreams and fairy tales." "Amen," I said in agreement, raising a cold, frosty daiquiri in salute. I was practically an expert. I had married my unicorn, my high school sweetheart, and after a short, disastrous marriage, I had divorced him to follow my own dreams. I could say with absolute certainty that unicorns were really arrogant, controlling ogres in disguise. Unicorns don't exist. Not for me anyway. But the chemistry, THAT was real. And when I met Japheth again after five years apart, the sparks were still there. One slightly tipsy moment of indiscretion landed me right back in the arms of my ex, who seemed bound and determined to prove that good men DO exist.
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Daddy's Coming Home For Christmas
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On Christmas Eve, six years ago, Rafael left me to take an internship abroad, not knowing I was pregnant with his child. I was alone, and desperate, but my best friend, his younger brother Gabe, offered to marry me, and give me and my child a home. Now Rafael is coming home.
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Inseparable
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“Oh my god, they are so handsome!” “I heard they haven’t found their mates yet.” “Why couldn’t it be me?” Now I was even more curious. When they went out with the plates, I tiptoed up to the swinging door. While everyone was distracted by the servers, I pushed the door open just a crack and peeked through into the formal dining room. By bad luck, the two men in question had their backs to me. They sat straight and tall, one in a dark red shirt, one in a light blue shirt. The red shirt had long hair pulled back in a pony tale. The blue shirt had a short, deliberately messy style. I couldn’t tell much from the backs of them except they seemed well muscled. I was just about to back out of the door when I was hit with the most tantalizing odor. It overpowered the spicy scent of my jambalaya and made me almost dizzy… I tried to put a name to it… sandalwood, sweet cedar, and sex. Do I even know what sex smells like? I was frozen and couldn’t move from the door. At the same time, the two men stiffened in their chairs and seemed to be looking around in confusion. Luna looked around them and saw me in the door way. Her eyes burned like fire into my skull and I finally snapped out of the trance I was in and slipped back into the kitchen. I was never supposed to be seen in the dining room – so my indiscretion would no doubt earn me a belting later. I went back to the clean up with a heavy heart.
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Love in the Dark
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Everywhere it was the same. Disgruntled citizens were trying to start their cars to no avail. A few vehicles seemed to have died right in the street, barely even pulling off the road before they came to a complete stop. There was yelling and screeching from several apartment buildings, all of them crying over the same things. No heat. No hot water. No cellphones. No radio. He could practically feel the collective anxiety and anger rising around him. The little convenience store on the corner was open, with a sign taped to the door that read "CASH ONLY - CREDIT CARD MACHINE IS DOWN." Seth pushed his way in and picked up a package of donuts. Sadly, there was no coffee available here either, so he settled for a chocolate milk out of the cooler. "Hey Gary," he greeted the man behind the counter. "This is some shit, don't you think?" "Sure is," he rubbed a hand over his head as he counted out change to another customer. "I ain't never seen anything like this." "Me neither." I glanced around at the other customers milling around the store. I lowered my voice and leaned closer. "Listen, if people start acting weird, you better lock up and call it a day." Gary nodded. "Gotcha, Seth." Seth reached into his pocket for his wallet, but Gary waved him off. "It's on the house today." "Sure? Ok thanks man. Take care of yourself." I stepped out of the store, wondering if my presence in uniform would help keep people in line, or if I was making them more nervous. They shifted around me uneasily, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. When I got to the station, it was absolute chaos. There were dozens of people in the lobby, shouting complaints and demanding answers, while two officers at the desk helplessly tried to calm them. I stepped into the fray. "Hey, everyone stay calm!" I shouted. "There has been a power outage, and as of now, we are ALL completely in the dark. We do not know anything more than you do." The crowd dithered and moved around me like I wasn't even there. "If you are a person of authority, please step forward. Everyone else, please go home!" There was a lot of grumbling, but most of the people made their way toward the door. A couple of people stubbornly stayed, even though I doubted they were anyone important. I didn't recognize their faces. The two officers behind the desk visibly relaxed. "Thanks, man." Officer Lawrence breathed. "That was getting out of hand." "No kidding. What the hell is going on?" "Damned if we know anything," Officer Green said nervously, "The lights went out, and everything stopped working. The generator won't start, the radios aren't working, every phone in the place is dead, including the landlines. Laptops are dark. Cruisers won't start. All the units are dead in the water." I rubbed my hand over my face. "Who is here?" "Only us, McGreary, and a few guys from the night shift that couldn't get home." Lawrence checked his cellphone again, just to confirm that is really was off. "We figure everybody else is stranded at home. You must have walked in, huh?" "Yeah," I rubbed the back of my neck. I pulled the officers farther away from the people who were still milling in the lobby. "This is bad. Really bad. People are already on edge; I can feel it. One good spark, and this whole town is going to go up like a Roman candle." Green shook his head. "So what do we do?" "Who's the senior officer here now?" "I guess that's McGreary." Lawrence said. Lawrence was just a rookie; he'd been on the force less than a year. "Alright, I'm going to go talk to him. In the meantime, stay calm. Be gentle, but firm with everyone." As I was speaking two more women entered the lobby. "Encourage everyone to go home and wait for news there."
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Almost Stepbrothers
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Since my father died three years ago, my mother has bounced from one boyfriend to the next. When we moved in with Professor Williams, I didn't expect that his two full-grown sons still lived at home. Phoenix seems nice enough, but Jack really doesn't like me. He thinks my mother is a gold-digger, and I'm just her loser, tag-along daughter. I can hardly breathe when I'm around them, and since we live together, I can't escape from their heated stares.
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Borrowed Beauty
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What does it even feel like to be beautiful? My sister Renee is a beauty, for sure. Everybody knows it, and so does she. Did I fail to mention that Renee and I are, emphatically, NOT identical twins? We look nothing alike. She’s gorgeous, petite, delicate, and feminine. All she has to do is blink her big blue eyes, and the world falls at her feet. She is also a bit of a wild child. That is why Father had me chaperone Renee when she decided to head out to Prosperity Springs to meet up with the Salvador Twins. Unless…unless my father was trying to pass us off as a package deal? A two-for-one, twin-on-twin special. The idea made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. I wasn’t interested in finding a mate, or two, or five, or whatever. And those gorgeous guys wouldn’t be interested in Renee’s spare. It would just be an embarrassing situation for everyone involved. Why? Because I’m Olivia, the ugly sister. With Renee filling the center of a sex sandwich, it was pretty clear she didn’t need me around. Hell, even the Alpha had noticed how alluring she was. Of course, the alpha would be charmed by my sister. Of course, his eyes would become heated when they followed that plunging neckline down between her breasts. Every red-blooded man did, and behind his powerful alpha status, Josiah was still just a man. Heck, even hot-blooded women couldn’t avert their eyes from my sister. And I couldn’t avert my eyes from the Alpha.
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