Fictional Kevin and I are collaborating on a novella of suspense that we hope you all will enjoy. Kevin wrote the first chapter, I have written the second. We’ll continue to alternate writing and posting a chapter a week until the conclusion of Double Seduction. We are both anxious to hear your comments and feedback.  If you missed the first chapter, find it here.

Chapter 2 – Loneliness

Divorced. It was final. After eighteen long months, the dissolution of Dr. Melody Rivers’ marriage was official. Mel sat back in her leather armchair and sipped her merlot. She would allow herself one glass of wine in celebration. She wasn’t however, feeling very celebratory. Jack had nearly ruined her. He’d taken their house, their Chiropractic practice and nearly all of their friends. Mel was the one who had to start over from scratch. When she’d signed the business contract with her now ex-husband, she never imagined the clause compelling her to move at least twenty-five miles away to open another office would ever have to be enforced. She and Jack had married right out of Chiropractic college, and they had been so in love. It had blinded her to the implications of owning a business with someone. But oh, the lessons she’d learned. How quickly love can turn into hate.

Sighing, she set the letter from her lawyer on the desk and powered up her laptop. Thank goodness she’d had her writing to help her through the whole ordeal. Who would have imagined that a woman fighting in a nasty divorce could be a successful romance author? Mel smiled, thinking of those few tentative words she’d penned in her notebook. Her first two novels were Amazon best-sellers, the third was quickly achieving that status. She had a fantastic group of followers on her blog and her recent queries had been welcomed by two literary agents. Finally. She was actually going to have an agent. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Jack!

She scrolled through the Reader till she found it —a post by her favorite blogging buddy. He called himself Fictional David. Today, he’d written another piece about his girlfriend, Savannah. Mel had no way of knowing whether or not that was her real name, but every time she read one of these posts, she felt just a little twinge of jealousy. David was so romantic. The posts about Savannah were usually pretty steamy and Mel imagined someone loving her that way. Maybe even David. This post was like that. The header image showed a naked couple, strategically covered by sheets. A black and white photo of two beautiful bodies, neither face visible to the viewer. Muscle and curve, a swell of breast and a mane of long hair. Mel sighed again, her heart beating just a little faster in her chest. She took another sip of the wine.

Her eyes drifted to David’s avatar — a pencil drawing, very artistic. It portrayed a handsome, strong-jawed, dark-haired man. Mel knew it was foolish because there was no way to know, but that’s how she pictured David: tall, dark and handsome. They were close in age, according to his blog bio, so they could talk as contemporaries. Mel liked that about him, too.

She read the post and commented like she always did, with praise for his writing and the sentiments it expressed. In the few months they’d been connected through their blogs, she and David had formed a friendship. Well, at least as close to a friendship one could have through online interactions, anyway. They joked around and teased each other. He even featured her in one of his posts a couple weeks back. Mel had been ridiculously flattered. She responded with a post of her own. That’s when he suggested they correspond through e-mail. How could she resist?

“That’s what loneliness will do you,” she murmured under her breath. “Have you grasping at the first sign of attention someone shows you. I must be out of my mind.”

She began typing: Dear David… No, too formal. Hey, David… Better. I’m really happy we connected, too. Thanks for your kind words… Delete. Delete. Delete. Why was this so hard? They talked on their blogs almost every day. She started again.

Hey, David! I’m really glad you gave me your e-mail address. Sometimes I feel like we’re just clogging up the comments with our nonsense! Although, it doesn’t seem like anyone minds it. I hope you had a great day. I’m off to bed early, I have a busy one tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know I was happy to share my private e-mail with you. I’ll be in touch. Goodnight. Sweet dreams. Mel

She hit send, immediately regretted it. Was the ‘sweet dreams’ too much? What if he got the wrong idea?

“Well, too late now,” she said.

After draining the last of her wine, she rinsed out the glass and went upstairs to her bedroom. While the bath filled, she stripped naked and looked at herself in the mirror. Gone were the soft curves of eighteen months ago. They’d been replaced by sleek muscle, lean and strong. She stretched her arms overhead and smiled. She looked a lot like the woman on David’s blog. What would he think of that? Piling her long hair up in a messy bun, she slid into the warm bubbles and hummed with pleasure. “Sweet dreams, David.”

Continue reading Chapter 3