"Are you... lost?" Someone asked, her tone impatient. I stopped scanning the room to find the woman behind the voice. I blinked. She had the most luminous blue eyes I had ever seen. Even in the dim glow of the bar they glowed brightly, like her pupils were some type of smooth stone at the bottom of a clear blue ocean. Within her blue there flickered tiny speckles of silver, which gave her an icy, somewhat stony appeal. But it was her slight, lopsided smile that erased any signs of wanting to be alone. No wonder this bar was so popular. "Uh, no," I said, holding up the Help Wanted sign I had snagged from the front window. The woman's cool eyes flickered between the sign and me. She didn't say anything, only looked slightly thoughtful as slender fingers raked through her long blonde hair. "What can you do?" She finally asked, definitely not expecting me to be able to do much of anything at all. She'd be right. "Anything and everything," I answered-lied-instantly, hoping I didn't look too desperate, didn't sound too eager. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't worked a day in my life. My hands were used to weekly manicures not hard labor. But desperate times call for desperate measures. The blonde appeared thoughtful again. Those magnificent eyes gave me a once over, slow and steady. You could see the cogs turning in her head as she considered it. I decided to try and sound more convincing. "I have many skills," I added. Okay, so I stole that from Xena, but I was hoping it worked as well for me as it did for her. The blonde lifted a sculpted brow and the smile was, once again, back on her lips. She seemed amused. Maybe she was a Xena fan? "Alright... I'll start you off cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floors, doing the dishes..." Crap.

~TeacherXStudent/ GirlXGirl~ Sam never had an easy life, and as she battles with the memories of her dysfunctional past she also has to battle the sexual tension she has for her hot History teacher, Miss Adams. When her older brother brings home a familiar pretty face, Sam's life turns completely upside down as struggles to distance herself from a woman who always seems to be around. ***HARSH LANGUAGE AND SEXUAL CONTENT.***

Can a natural killer learn to be human again? Regan's unique talent for murder makes her a perfect assassin. After a lethal encounter leaves her broken body washed up on a beach, she finds herself adopted by a group of teenage bodyguards. She doesn't intend to stay for long, but soon Regan finds herself faced with a choice: become a hero or stay a villain? *** The boy played with the flat brim of the cap in his hands and looked around the room. He sat back in his chair, trying to look casual, but the heel of his hi-top sneaker drummed rapidly on the concrete floor. Regan sat opposite him with her legs crossed and her hands folded on her tartan skirt. She watched him without a word and brushed a strand of blue-dyed hair behind her ear. Somehow this seemed to unsettle him more. 'Calm down,' she said. 'It's just murder.' *** Author's Note: Darkness Girl: Trickster God is represented by Louise Fury from The Bent Agency. P.S. The epic cover was made by Paul Kopetko (you can stalk him at paulkopetko.com). Enjoy!

Detective Kim Hayden thought that switching from homicide to white collar would be the biggest career move she would make; she was wrong. When she's sent undercover to the epicenter of luxury, the eminent Shaw Manor, home of the city's resident multimillionaire, Kim is suddenly living a life she never knew. She leaves behind the familiar police force, her home, and her on-again-off-again girlfriend, all to become a housekeeper for a man she doesn't even respect. She's forced into an assortment of new relationships, including one with her impossibly straightforward and controlling partner, Allison Beckett, who always asserts her knowledge of what's best. But relationships go from messy to messier, when Kim makes the biggest mistake of all: falling for the boss's wife. This story is rated R for language and sexual content. A.K.A, all the good stuff. Read at your own discretion, and enjoy, friends. :) Trigger warning: DV/IPV, sexual violence Cover by @halieghk, I can't get over it, SO MUCH YES!

This is a spinoff series of "Assisting Miss Adams" (GirlxGirl): After moving away from Baldwin the summer after graduation, Sam and Megan embark on a brand new journey with new challenges around every corner. While Sam learns how to successfully manage "Jinx 2", Megan continues to pursue a higher education at Mizzou University. This series of shorts take place an entire year after moving to Columbia.

There is only one thing that we can never change, and that is the place from which we come. Though she tries to control everything else in her life, there are three things that Counselor Carrie Everett just can't tame: her growing caseload, her weakness for police personnel, and her increasingly serious relationship with Detective Jenn Carver. While trying and seemingly failing to manage her personal life, Carrie's work life takes a turn for the chaotic when a brand new case threatens the safety of a close friend and coworker, Detective Kim Hayden. A case this serious is mentally taxing for a prosecutor, but that's the least of Carrie's worries. Now, it's personal, and when the detectives of Green Falls seek legal help to solve their case, life becomes a ticking clock for all involved. This is the sequel to my last piece, Black Tie Event, taking place two years after the first story's conclusion. You definitely do not have to read the first one to understand the second, though it may help and make the second piece slightly more enjoyable. You could even read them backwards if you so chose, though it might give some plot away to do it that way. Some new characters are introduced, among the familiar faces, and the situations are brand new. Rated R, just because of its intensity. Enjoy! Cover art again by perfect human @halieghk

***GirlXGirl Romance*** Living in New York you learn to keep up with the quick pace of the city, myself included. I was never the one to stop and smell the roses, but that was until I met her on that dull September afternoon. Her eyes were light and dark at the same time, as if a devil and an angel lived inside of her. Time itself had stopped, and since that day everything had changed, ever since I had crossed paths with Drew Wilder.

'"If she's somehow convinced you that she doesn't control you then she's exercised the greatest control of all," she says so tiredly it makes me immediately conscious of how naive I've been. "She decides your every move."' When the adult population of the Herel Plain, a small country known equally for its film industry and repressive government, is decimated by a civil war, the state sets up an auction system to distribute the newly orphaned youth into American foster homes. The so-called "Pageant" separates Savannah from the brother she has raised and places her in the hands of a violent, brooding entrepreneur and his wife, a callous and alluring college professor, who enlist her - along with their thirteen year old daughter Laurencia and their irreverent, young assistant, Nasrine - as a dealer in the high-end American drug trade. When Nas comes to her with an unthinkable scheme to take off with the money, Savannah sees her opportunity to be reunited with her brother and give him the life they never had. To run away is all she ever wanted, but when the moment finally strikes, something about her new employer makes her want to stay. COVER ART by the wonderful @celaestial; thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart, friend!

Phones, light typing...and murder. Think breaking into show business is hard? Try landing a temp job without office skills. That's the challenge facing aspiring actress Isobel Spice when she arrives in New York City, fresh out of college and deficient in PowerPoint. After being rejected by seven temp agencies for her lack of experience, Isobel sweet-talks recruiter James Cooke into letting her cover a last-minute vacancy at a bank. New to his own job, and recently sober, James takes a chance on Isobel, despite his suspicion that she's a trouble-magnet. His misgivings are borne out by lunchtime, when she stumbles across a dead secretary in a bathroom stall. Can Isobel find the killer before he strikes again?

*ALL RIGHTS RESERVED* Clarisse Hornitt is a nerd. Or a geek. But, not your typical nerd/geek, as she won't put up with bullshit and will promptly tell you how it is regardless to how it makes you feel. She manages to get into a physical altercation with a certain football player at her high school...and well...drops herself into a whole mess of trouble she'd never expected. *ALL RIGHTS RESERVED*