Do you want to know a secret? XOXO After Dark wants to know your deepest, darkest confessions...and to tempt you, we're having a contest during our online romance convention, #XOXOConnects! Write us a short (very short) story on the theme of "Confessions"--whatever that means to you--and you might win a publishing contract with Pocket Star, the digital-first imprint of Simon & Schuster. Wattpad readers are going to help us narrow the field, and Pocket Star editors will select the winner from the five stories with the most votes! Keep reading for full details on how to enter!

AUTHOR'S NOTE Thank you for taking the time to read my story! If you want to learn more about me and my other books please visit my website, marychrisescobar.com (there's a link in my profile). DESCRIPTION Carolyn’s life has gone pretty much according to plan. She’s followed all the rules. Her star is rising at work, she’s just gotten engaged to an amazing man and she lives in a perfectly decorated apartment. A delayed flight throws her life and plans off schedule. What she learns, stuck overnight in the airport, has her questioning everything and puts her face to face with her own missed connection. Follow twenty-six year old Carolyn’s quarter-life coming-of-age story, the demise of her life as she knows it and the discovery of her own truth. PRAISE FOR DELAYED "I don’t know how Mary Chris Escobar did it, but she basically renewed my faith in the saying, 'Love is lovelier the second time around.'" - coffeebookmom.wordpress.com "The story renews your faith in forgiveness and the power of love." - Amazon review

Infinite possibilities…. Infinite passion….. Infinite danger…. His touch spirals through me, warm and sweet, wicked and hot. I shouldn’t trust him. I shouldn’t tell him my secrets. But how do I not when he is the reason I breathe? He is what I need. At the young age of eighteen, tragedy and a dark secret force Lara to flee all she has known and loved to start a new life. Now years later, with a new identity as Amy, she’s finally dared to believe she is forgotten–even if she cannot forget. But just when she lets down her guard down, the ghosts of her past are quick to punish her, forcing her back on the run. On a plane, struggling to face the devastation of losing everything again and starting over, Amy meets Liam Stone, a darkly entrancing recluse billionaire, who is also a brilliant, and famous, prodigy architect. A man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Amy. Refusing to take “no” as an answer, he sweeps her into a passionate affair, pushing her to her erotic limits. He wants to possess her. He makes her want to be possessed. Liam demands everything from her, accepting nothing less. But what if she is too devastated by tragedy to know when he wants more than she should give? And what if there is more to Liam than meets the eyes?

A power kept secret for 2000 years. A woman who stands to lose everything. India. When a nun is burned alive on the sacred ghats of Varanasi, and the stone she carried is stolen, an international hunt is triggered for the relics of the early church. Forged in the fire and blood of martyrs, the Pentecost stones have been handed down through generations of Keepers who kept their power and locations secret. Until now. The Keepers are being murdered, the stones stolen by those who would use them for evil in a world transformed by religious fundamentalism. Oxford University psychologist Morgan Sierra is forced into the search when her sister and niece are held hostage. She is helped by Jake Timber from the mysterious ARKANE, a British government agency specializing in paranormal and religious experience. Morgan must risk her own life to save her family, but will she ultimately be betrayed? From ancient Christian sites in Spain, Italy and Israel to the far reaches of Iran and Tunisia, Morgan and Jake must track down the stones through the myths of the early church in a race against time before a new Pentecost is summoned, this time powered by the fires of evil. The first in the ARKANE series, PENTECOST is a fast-paced thriller that explores the edges of faith against a backdrop of early Christian history, archaeology and psychology.