BACK TO TEMPTATION (THURSDAY)

It's that time again. Welcome to Temptation Thursday. The first Thursday of each month here at Plotting Princesses we'll be bringing you little snippets from the current works in progress of several of our members, both published and aspiring authors. Every month will be a little unique with different contributors, new short stories, articles or books we are working on, to give you a taste of the variety of writing talents from the Princesses.


So sit back, grab your favorite beverage (and maybe some chocolate to go with it) and enjoy the ride.


UNTITLED—Elizabeth Essex
The toff limping out of Spring Gardens onto Cockspur Street was just the sort she liked, if she couldn’t have a drunk. Big man, but tired, he was, weariness stewing from his bones like the cold steam of his breath in the frigid, snowy air. And he was a gimp—heavily favoring his left leg—but without a cane or walking stick. So far so good. It paid to stay well clear of walking sticks.


STRANJE HOUSE, EXILE FOR DREAMERS, Book 2—Kathleen Baldwin
I raced toward the woods. He wouldn’t be able to run me down as easily in there. The trees would hide me. After all, I am part forest. My eyes are green as leaves, my hair ash brown like bark, my skin pale as air. I am Welsh, a daughter of the earth. My mother used to say the spirit of these things, the soil and trees, the rocks and beasts, they call to us. “We are part of this land,” she would say. Only now, my mother lies silent, cloaked beneath the very earth she spoke of with such fondness.



COLLATERAL DAMAGE—Phyllis Middleton
Another wall of my precious home was pulled down from its precarious position by the firemen. I looked over to the crater left behind after the explosion took away my car, driveway, and the front part of my house. My would-be killer is dead. Actually, he’s beyond that. What do the bomb guys call it when a person is blown up? Pink mist? Yes, Detective Esposito is now pink mist.


MURDER FOR THE HALIBUT—Liz Lipperman
The unmistakable glint of pleasure in the woman's eyes flashed only momentarily before she shrugged.
“It was an accident. He stepped in front of me when Marcella and I were trying to get the hook out of the fish's mouth,” she said.
Just then Stefano rolled over, still shouting obscenities, and Jordan got her first look at what was causing him so much pain.
Protruding at a ninety degree angle from the center of his left hand was a pair of needle-nose pliers.


TEMPORARILY EMPLOYED—Vicki Batman
“Yuck.”
Pretty much covered the whole freakin’ day.
A blinding red-white, red-white strobe reflected in my brand new Wrangler’s rearview mirror seized my attention. I tossed my hands, ready to surrender. The policeman wanted me to pull over. I shouldn’t have been too surprised.


PAST MISTAKES—Sylvia McDaniel
"Never again," Jennifer Riley, vowed as she stepped into the black-paneled, wooden coffin outside the entrance to the Hilton Hotel in downtown Tyler, Texas. Lying down inside the macabre structure, she could hear traffic whiz by on Main Street.
She tugged at the filmy black, chiffon dress, trying to cover as much of her exposed cleavage as possible. "No matter how busy Julia gets, or how much she pleads, I refuse to do this again. I didn't come back to Tyler to portray the over-the-hill sex queen."


PLEASURES UNBOUND—Michelle Miles
“Bring in the last girl.”


The soldiers shoved River toward the room, leaving her no choice but to enter. Not that she had one anyway. They had purchased her from the mining colony on Kuming-14 a few days ago and herded her onto a transport ship with a dozen other dirty-faced girls. When one of them asked where they were going, a soldier quickly reprimanded her with a backhand to her face, splitting her lip and bruising her cheek.


DANGEROUS DECEPTIONS—Kathy Ivan
The e-mail was damning. Playing the attachment again yielded the same horrific results. Scott still couldn't believe his eyes.
The camera shot panned the interior of a room before coming to rest on a nude auburn-haired woman seated in a metal-backed chair. What looked like wide black electrical tape covered the lower half of her face, wet and shiny from the tears streaking down her cheeks.
With the press of a button, Scott shut down the video playing on his phone.