On a limb with Claudia

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

The next night
September 29
Downtown Denver, Colorado

After spending a gut wrenching day documenting everything that happened in Paris, Alex excused herself from an afternoon meeting and a working dinner. She wanted to take a long bath.

When Raz came to check on her, she was sound asleep in the tub. He helped her out of the tub and got her into bed before he left for their working dinner. Concerned about leaving her alone, and exhausted himself, he promised to return early. He peeked in around nine o’clock and she was curled up in a ball sound asleep. With a sigh of relief, he was asleep in ten minutes.

Max and John arrived from Paris around midnight. Peeking into the rooms, they found Alex and Raz sound asleep with their doors open to the suite. John pulled Raz’s door closed then, raising a hand in good-bye to Max, he went into Alex’s room. Max returned to the room he had been using.

Pulling off his clothing, John slipped under the covers. He lay watching Alex sleep for a few moments. Drawn, as if by a magnet, his lips brushed her cheek then her ear. When she moved her hand, as if to bat at a fly, he put her fingers into his mouth. She sighed, rolling onto her back, and he slipped on top of her. She smiled slightly in her sleep then opened and shut her eyes. Her arms went around him.

His lips caught hers, pulling at her tongue, while his hands drew the t-shirt over her head. His mouth moved along her neck then took her nipple, flicking his tongue across its rising focus. She opened her eyes, looking down at him, as his mouth moved across her belly. His teeth pulled at the diamond in her belly button then his tongue explored the contours behind the gem. His fingers grasped her behind, slipping off her panties while his mouth worked along her fleshy contours and sensitive soft folds. She gasped in pleasure, wide awake, holding his head in place.

He chuckled, “Welcome home?”

[...]

Continue Reading

This three minute video is specifies homosexuality, but you can apply it to all of the hate debates : health care, immigration, abortion, and well, fill in the blank. (I face bomb in any conversation with my family.)

If we are going to win back our country, our world, we need to stop looking at being ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

Time to look at being human. First.

Continue Reading

What does it take for you to be kind?

No ideas today, only a question.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Continue Reading

“Stop telling the convoluted stories you’ve concocted
to rationalize why you should be afraid.”
–Rob Brezney

This has been my mantra for the last week or so. I hope it helps you as much as it’s helped me.

Happy Monday!

Continue Reading

After my whirlwind week, I’m excited to settle down to some Unconscious Mutterings. This meme is like a touchstone to my week. I hope it is for yours. Will you play?

How do you play? You simply answer the word prompts (created by Pea at LunaNina.com) in the comment section. There are no right or wrong answers. Write down what ever comes to mind. When you play, you enter to win either a signed copy of the Fey, a signed copy of Denver Cereal or  a small jar of honey. (Yes, I finally got around to bottling some honey.)  Who won last week? JustJen from Zen Goddess. Winners are picked by using Random.org.

Let’s play! Here are your prompts:

1. Taxman ::
2. Material ::
3. Format ::
4. File cabinet ::
5. Ignore ::
6. Super! ::
7. Fireproof ::
8. Blockbuster ::
9. Snooper ::
10. Good will ::

My responses:

1. Taxman :: cometh
2. Material :: witness
3. Format :: 1 inch margins, windows and orphans turned off
4. File cabinet :: s are relics of the past.
5. Ignore :: him
6. Super! :: duper!
7. Fireproof :: safe
8. Blockbuster :: I wonder what that word actually means**
9. Snooper :: Scooper
10. Good will :: charities

**According to Dictionary.com the word Blockbuster means:

1. an aerial bomb containing high explosives and weighing from four to eight tons, used as a large-scale demolition bomb.
2. a motion picture, novel, etc., esp. one lavishly produced, that has or is expected to have wide popular appeal or financial success.
3. something or someone that is forcefully or overwhelmingly impressive, effective, or influential: The campaign was a blockbuster.
4. a real-estate speculator who practices blockbusting.

Happy Sunday! When you play, I’ll link to you here!

Continue Reading

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

How could it happen? How could the horrible past reach up and snatch her from the perfect present? She couldn’t make sense of it.

Lying on her bed, Delphie mentally tracked the series of events.

She’d worried about her chocolate chip cheesecake. Valerie loved Delphie’s cheesecake. Valerie could, and would, eat an entire chocolate chip cheesecake herself. But Valerie was ‘slimming down’ and muscling up for her movie role. Standing in the kitchen, Delphie was worrying about Valerie when she heard Heather’s indignant:

“Some guy who says I’m being sued.”

She remembered walking out to the door. Sam slipped his arm around her shoulder as they watched the kids. She glanced from person to person. With practiced ease, she read their mental states.

Jill was being sued by Trevor’s parents. They wanted custody of Katy. Jill wasn’t sure what was more annoying – the custody bullshit or the subpoena for Honey’s sisters trial. The dark cloud of Trevor hung in Jill’s mind.

Heather was being sued by the cretin that impregnated her. Delphie felt a flash of rage from Heather. Blane thought it was funny.

Jacob blocked her from reading his mind. Whatever he received was bad. So bad he didn’t want to disrupt the party. He caught her eyes and shook his head. Nope, she wasn’t getting in.

Valerie was being sued for defamation of character by Heather’s sperm donor. Delphie hated that phrase but Valerie used it. Valerie knew Mike would take care of it. She trusted Mike implicitly and simply put it out of her mind.

Aden’s ex-wife was claiming that she was mentally ill and wanted her parental rights restored. Unwilling to bother with Nuala, Aden stuck the papers in his back pocket. A kiss from Sandy set everything right in Aden’s world.

Honey was subpoenaed to her sister’s trial. Even though they expected the subpoena, MJ felt helpless to protect her. He masked his helplessness with fury. Delphie chuckled. The little process server was terrified by MJ.

Focused on reading the thoughts and emotions around her, Delphie didn’t hear the little man say her birth name. Chastity. Not that she recognized that name. When he said the name she’d lived with for ten years – The Oracle Taber.

The words were like arrows through her soul.

[...]

Continue Reading

Yep, that’s me. Yesterday, I went to Craig, Colorado for a fundraiser/book signing at the local Farmer’s market. We sold twenty-one books (Feys and Denver Cereal), and honey. We even got two copies of the Fey and Denver Cereal into the Moffat County Library. Half of the proceeds will go to Operation Shoebox.

My first library! Wheeeee!!!

I just got out of the car and wanted to let you know. What a wild couple of days!

Continue Reading

Previous Chapters

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Nine hours later
September 29 – 3:21 A.M.
Downtown Denver, Colorado

Alex woke with a start. Her heart pounded against her rib cage. She had no idea where she was or what woke her. She was simply awake in the dark. Sitting up, she noticed that she was in a hotel room. She patted the bed next to her. John wasn’t there. Moving to sit on the side of the bed, she heard the sound again.

The phone was ringing.

She reached to turn on a bedside lamp then realized she didn’t know where the light switch was located. Her hand fumbled around for a few moments before she gave up. Standing up, she moved toward the light under the hall door and clicked on the light.

Ah shit. The light brought a round of Ketamine induced nausea and head splitting pain. There’s got to be coffee here somewhere. She wandered into the bathroom, then heard the phone ring again.

Ah well, they’ll call back.

Turning on the bathroom light, she blinked at the bright light and grimaced at her reflection. She was wearing panties and someone’s big t-shirt. Her fake hair was crumpled, standing straight up in some places and flat in others. It looked like she had gone to sleep with wet hair….

Oh right. Alex remembered that she was at the hotel in downtown Denver. Her one bag of clothing was in Paris. Glancing at the half open suite door, Raz was across the suite. She nodded at her reflection. Turning on the faucet, she wet her hair trying to flatten it out.

She and Raz went to dinner at Elway’s. They ate steak, drank wine and laughed. Alex insisted they eat some salad which they fed to each other. Raz ordered every chocolate dessert on the menu. Groaning and laughing, they managed to eat them. She smiled. She had such a good time with Raz.

When they returned, he ran a bath for her, set his t-shirt on bed, then left for a date. She scratched her head trying to remember who he saw last night. She could probably just go across the suite to find out who was there. She chuckled to herself.

The phone started ringing again.

Fuck.

[...]

Continue Reading

I’m participating in the Sassy Sister’s  Affair tomorrow, Saturday July 25 from 11: 15 – 11:45 AM EDT. I’ll be hanging out in the chat room. I’ve offered a copy of the Fey as a prize give away and a discount.

Stop by if you have a chance. I’d love to chat with you!

Continue Reading

I’ve been learning to run. Three times a week, since May, I’ve laced up my running shoes and headed out with the husband and Rose. We mostly run along a new running trail that cuts through Denver’s City Park. We like to head out in the cool wee hours.

Recently, we came upon a young man grooming himself with the use of the park sprinklers. Clearly unable to make it home last night, he had just finished brushing his teeth when we approached. As we jogged by, he began flattening is blonde tipped military buzz hair. He was well dressed with star tattoos on the back of his calfs. He gave us a sheepish grin then continued grooming.

“Don’t say it,” my husband said.

“Don’t you think he should know?” I asked.

“He just finished brushing his teeth,” he said.

Denver’s City Park’s sprinkler system is not connected to the City water. In fact, as a model of water efficiency most of Denver’s parks use recycled gray water to fill their lakes. City Park’s sprinklers are filled with the goose poop laden lake water.

Yep, he just brushed his teeth with it.

Sometimes, the kindest thing you do is what  you don’t do. I didn’t tell him.

What would you do?

~~~~~~~~

For more Simply Kind Tuesdays, visit these other blogs:

Remote Tree Hugger

Continue Reading