Desperate Lovers by Adam Carpenter (good beach reads TXT) 📕

Desperate Lovers

A Ravenous Romance® Original Publication

Concept by Adam Carpenter

Written by Adam Carpenter, Curtis C. Comer, and Jeff Wilcox

A Ravenous Romance® Original Publication

www.ravenousromance.com

Copyright © 2011 by Adam Carpenter

The individual contributors retain the copyright to their individual work.

Ravenous Romance®

100 Cummings Center

Suite 123A

Beverly, MA 01915

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60777-412-9

This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: Compromising Positions by Adam Carpenter

PART TWO: Hidden Agendas by Curtis C. Comer

PART THREE: Behind Enemy Lines by Adam Carpenter

PART FOUR; Enemies and Allies by Jeff Wilcox

PART FIVE: Endgame by Adam Carpenter

PART ONE

Compromising Positions

by Adam Carpenter

Here was the thing about this magical place called Wonderland.

Given its name, the tiny village held an inescapable connection with Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story, and many of its residents did little to dispel the idea. No doubt its homes and streets, its businesses, picked up on the quaint, memorable aspects of Alice and the parade of strangers she discovered down the rabbit hole. But really, an entire town’s existence built upon the stories and characters from a children’s fable that dated back nearly one hundred and fifty years? Was that really the true story behind Wonderland’s evolution? For a welcoming, inclusive town like this, which existed like no other place in America, with its tolerance for otherwise controversial lifestyles, sure, there was a decidedly fantastical element to living here. But given the turn of events that had occurred in the past few weeks—namely, the tense power struggle taking place on the exclusive cul-de-sac known as Eldon Court—there was little innocence here, nothing for a child to cling to.

There would be no tea party in this Wonderland. Battle lines had

been drawn. Eldon Court was being threatened from the inside, and the Wonderland Palaces were its proposed fate. For the four couples that lived large, loved passionately, and fucked desperately inside those magnificently restored Victorian homes were fighting for their very lives, their existence. They had formed a posse, if you will, and a posse was more in keeping with Wonderland’s true past than some silly old story about a girl named Alice and a crazy white rabbit and an even nuttier Mad Hatter. Wonderland’s past went back much further than the looking glass, and in truth, if you looked deep enough, the past was the weapon that could potentially secure its future. It all depended on who discovered the secret first.

“What the hell has got you so engrossed?”

Marc Anderson was ready for his evening jog, dressed in a skimpy

T-shirt and even skimpier shorts. As he stretched his lithe body, he couldn’t help but look over at his sedentary lover, sunk deep into the soft sofa, still clothed in his suit, tie still knotted. What captured his attention was an old leather volume, faded gold leaf on the spine the only hint: “Our History.” Marc had to wonder whose history? The gays?

Wonderland itself? Rich didn’t bother to look up, and Marc doubted he’d even heard him.

“Hello, earth to Rich? Anybody home?”

Still nothing, no reaction.

“Forget it, you can tell me later. I’m going for a run.”

A disinterested Rich waved at his partner, which Marc took as

progress. Perhaps when he came back, the book would be put aside and maybe they could have dinner, a glass of wine, maybe he’d peel those business clothes off Rich, starting with that annoying tie—tease him into a memorable night of lovemaking. Heck, it was Friday night and Rich didn’t have to return to his job as bank manager at Wonderland Savings until Monday. Maybe Marc would have his way with him all weekend.

Marc opened the front door and felt the first touch of a surprisingly cool evening. It was still summer, though it was getting late in the season and the first taste of autumn nipped at his exposed skin. A quick run around the block would cure him of that, and so that’s what he set out to do. Down the street, past the five Victorian houses that made up Eldon Court, he couldn’t help but notice lights blazing inside three of them. The folks at Number Two Eldon Court, with its conspiring neighbors who had just moved in and who were siding with the Palace developers were nowhere to be seen. Good riddance as far as Marc was concerned,

especially given that one of the new residents was someone Rich shared a past with. Like they needed that additional distraction. Otherwise, a normal night seemed in the offing in their homo-eroticized version of Grover’s Corners—Sawyer and Dane inside Number One, Aaron and Paolo behind the doors of Number Three, and at Number Four were Jack and Edgar. He didn’t count his and Rich’s own place, the last home on the block, also known as Number Five. Men leading their regular lives, beyond closed doors and doing as they pleased, what felt normal. Rich being engrossed in a book was anything but normal.

As he rounded the bend in the road, he saw the garage door at Aaron and Paolo’s house open up. Their SUV pulled out into the street.

Marc gave a friendly wave to them, only to discover just one occupant: Aaron. Now where was he going alone? The grocery store? Liquor shop?

A secret rendezvous? When his neighbor smiled back, Marc realized he was being nosy and so let his curiosity dissipate as quickly as the rear lights of the SUV faded into the falling blackness.

So he just jogged. He jogged to the edge of the street, proceeding

down the worn, rocky path to the beach located beneath the bluff Eldon Court was situated on. The sandy entrails of the beach made for tough going, but that was one of the reasons he’d gone this way.