SHORT  STORY  /  SHORT  STORIES formerly written for Romantic4ever and WeddingNights

        A varied selection of contemporary and historical romances and wedding tales written for the former Romantic4ever (periodically defunct) site and its honeymoon tales site WeddingNights (periodically defunct).

Samurai Nights / Samurai Days; 1600s

Two perspectives of the same lovely first night between a Samurai Lord and his Samurai love.

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        We were encamped within in sight of our lord’s favored family temple. His entire core retinue was in attendance, to be of service to his every noble whim. He is a good lord, a great lord, who is extremely clever and most brave, and exceedingly handsome.

        As one of the many ladies of his high court, it is a joy and a thing of great hidden tears to merely glance upon him, even at a distance, as I kneel when he passes and I bow in fullest respect to such a superior being.

        But, it is rumored that his heartbeats are set upon the noble Lady Ko, a wealthy cousin of our emperor with many liege knights at her call. She is....

Outback Love
aka Mail Order Love; 1919

A mail order bride and a shy Outback miner; will there be a good love, and will she discover his secret?
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        I’d come from a lush place, of trees and wide rivers, and had sailed a long, exhaustive time, thousands upon thousands of miles from my home, a half a world away, after receiving his letters and deciding I’d be his wife; even though I’d never met him face-to-face.

        Pete’d waited several days at the port, her ship was late, and he’d wondered what she’d actually be like. People often weren’t like their letters. He’d read every one, more than once.

        I sighed; there wasn’t a tree for miles round, not even a decent bush, as Pete drove the wagon into the interior. My God this is a large country, and barren. And my future brother-in-law seems a nervous sort, as he fidgets beside me and barely speaks to....

The Veil; 1846

Victorian lovers make a run for love and marriage against the wishes of most around them.
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        His mother hates me, fears that I’ll take him from her, or, well actually, neither he nor I know for certain what she holds against me. But he understands this hindrance; that she wishes to post the banns for his marriage to … that other person.

        So we ran, he and I, with my aunt’s tacit approval, including giving me a gift before our late night journey began northward, to Scotland’s nearest border and the famous Blacksmiths of Gretna Green, who forge both metal and legal marriage.

        We were soaked from the rain’s downpour, literally steaming in the hot work shelter, leaving me unable to wear my aunt’s fair gift, as the smith was hot of foot to close and splash through cold puddles and slick mud to dry home and warm supper, and so...

Becca's
original short story chapters; 1688

An African Brit runaway bride and noblewoman runs from a king's palace and an earl / general fiancé into a handsome black renegade pirate. Will she run off to the sea? Of course.
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        It's 1688 AD, in the midst of the British "Glorious Revolution" and a Dutch invasion to take the throne, as wealthy widow Rebecca DuMaurier, an African British royal court favorite of King Charles II, runs from a forced marriage with a famous general, a white-haired English earl, and into a infamous pirate troubling and walking the shores of her Cornwall home.

        Cornwall's rocky, treacherous coast is but a stepping stone for lively Becca, her tenacious soldier fiancé, and her intriguing, brown-skinned, Irish Catholic pirate of many faces.

Novel Cover of Becca DuMaurier

"Becca Du Maurier"

Expanded novel(s) & a film short 

      An African Brit runaway bride's journey through memory, loss, and the possibilities for a new life.

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White Hall Palace, Westminster by London, SE England;

1 November, 1688

Draft, PROLOGUE: GLACIAL FLEEING

        Blasted irksome it was! Lord Padraic’s infuriating maxims kept dart­­ing ’round the bare ankles of Lady Becca’s thoughts; like house­cats star­tled, fur stand­ing on end, the apprehensive felines’ claws un­sheathed; piercing into her mind—demanding to not be ignored.

        “ ‘May you live in an interesting age,’ he’d spoken so agreeably years ago, and “May you leave without returning,” she finished in a murmur now, chiding her adult shadowed reflection in a whisper; so her lower lady’s maids, in their room beside hers, could not hear.

        Both sayings were Lord Padraic’s, overheard by a mostly forgot­ten little brown-skinned girl at supper during an ambassadorial gathering of.... 

More SHORT STORIES, NOVEL EXCERPTS, and even MORE...!

        "And, really, SEEKING SADNESS instead of SEEKING JOY is truly a sad business to be about, and a more suspicious activity than pleasure and joy seeking.

        "Joy is a SMILE, a GREAT FEELING, and ECSTASY without limits.

        "It's as seamless as an egg. 

short stories formerly written for
http://www.weddingnight.com/
[periodically defunct site]

"Outback Love"

3 romantic chapters
aka "Mail Order Love"
Coober Pedy, South Australia; 1919
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I’d come from a lush place, of trees and wide rivers, and had sailed a long, exhaustive time, thousands upon thousands of miles from my home, a half a world away, after receiving his letters and deciding I’d be his wife; even though I’d never met him face-to-face.
Pete’d waited several days at the port, her ship was late, and he’d wondered what she’d actually be like. People often weren’t like their letters. He’d read every one, more than once.
I sighed; there wasn’t a tree for miles round, not even a decent....

"Iraqi Honeymoon" 

        My lady’s on MP duty, that’s Military Police, policing the dangerous, dusty streets of Fallujah, Iraq. Yep, Iraq; honeymoon capital of the world. Absolutely not.
We married three days ago, said, “I do.” Kissed. Partied a little, until interrupted, as my special logistics liaison unit pulled out, in answer to an emergency and, short staffed at the present, we all left, including me, her brand, new husband; with the promise to get me back to.... 

"Frictionless Sheets" 

Intergalactic Deep Space sometime in the Future
Straczynski’s bloody, damnable “frictionless sheets.” He’d had them freight teleported to us and we’d used them right away.

Let’s just say the exciting IDEA of “frictionless sheets” is an intriguing one, the actuality of using them, however, not so much a good idea.

Maybe only “half”-frictionless, you intrepid inventors out there?
It was a bad idea because we.... 

  "No Touching"

        No touching. That’s what we’d decided, before truly realizing, as we do know, how hard this would be.
We’ve lived together for two years and our wedding’s in two days, and we haven’t “touched,” I mean REALLY TOUCHED in two months.

A brief, pecking kiss here; a quick hand squeeze there, yes, but not more. Pretty much just like business associates or brother and sister.
So, no lingering embraces, no handsy petting, not even.... 

"Empty Nest Honeymoon"

Australia and Pradesh, India

Our youngest had flown from our nest, to try life on her own terms, leaving us, alone, together, for the first time, since before the children; and now, since Lal’s retirement, we’d managed to argue constantly, getting on each other’s raw nerves, because he’d never spent so much time home before.

So, I escaped to....

"Five and Dime"
[a post WWII REAL romance]

For my parents.
      I listened.
      Any mistakes are my confusion.
      Well, according to my sister, anyway. :-)

        "There is language, both SENSUAL AND SPIRITUAL, language constructed of words and gestures and tones and more layers of WHAT YOU FEEL AND ARE, which can lead us in and out and into so many PLEASURES and JOYS.

        "That's what I write, for print and digital content.

        "PERPETUAL, AROUSING JOY!"

--Neale Sourna

        "I recall when my graduate school busstop which, ironically, was at a nearby seminary (considering what I write :). Anyway, it became odd, or inevitable, that while being at school all the CONFLICTS of STRIVING and MONEY and COMPETITION came to be ... tiresome.

        "THERE IS MORE TO LIFE than work and bills and, well, more bills. And more work.

        "There is the SENSUAL, as well as, the SPIRITUAL--and these two DO NOT HAVE TO COMPETE OR CONFLICT OR WAR AGAINST EACH OTHER. "

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medium and hard erotica / sensual romance / romantic erotica

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[sensuality is PG13, Soft R]

soft erotica / sensual romance / romantic erotica and general fiction

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