Steamy Stories (Volume 1) Read online

  Steamy Stories

  Volume One

  KINDLE EDITION

  All stories Copyright© by their respective authors:

  Francis Ashe, Carl East, Malia Mallory, Synthia St. Claire, Marie Shore

  Cover design by A. D. Cooper http://services.caffeinatedowl.com/

  License Notes

  Ebooks are not transferable. They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work. If you are not the purchaser of this book, please purchase a copy out of respect for the law and the author’s hard work. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Disclaimer

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Adult Content Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

  Contents

  Whatever He Desires by Synthia St. Claire

  B is for Beach by Malia Mallory

  The Horsebreaker by Francis Ashe

  A BDSM Love Story by Marie Shore

  The Haunting of Annabelle by Carl East

  More Steamy Stories

  Whatever He Desires

  By Synthia St. Claire

  Chapter One

  The air felt chilly enough for a light jacket as I walked down the quiet main corridor of Stony-Grayson hospital’s east wing. I rubbed my hands on the long sleeves of the plain white shirt I’d donned under my royal blue scrubs. The patches sewn onto the shoulders were like badges, informing anyone with even a hint of casual observational ability that I am just a student nurse.

  To be honest, I’m not really sure what made me go to school for this in the first place. I do love helping others, and I hate it when people around me aren’t feeling well, but I’m not exactly the type to bring a pot of chicken noodle soup to the neighbor with the flu down the street.

  No, it was probably the promise of a good job and a decent paycheck at the end of this educational rainbow that got me started. My family has always been pretty poor, and I’m not ashamed of it in the least. In fact, having to pinch pennies, wear hand-me-downs, or live for the few days at the end of each month on macaroni and cheese made me appreciate how hard my mom had to work to make sure she could fit in caring for three kids on a waitresses’ salary. That appreciation didn’t make me stop wishing to hit the lottery (that I don’t even play!) or have an easier life some day, though.

  Finding a good man would be nice, too. A girl can dream, can’t she?

  I nearly leapt out of my shoes when rounding the corner, almost smacking into one of the other students assigned to the same floor. My clipboard slipped from my hand and landed with a clatter, spilling and mixing up all of the important patient notes that it secured.

  “Oh! Hi, Laurie!” Karen said, her voice echoing against the walls almost loud enough to wake up Miss Peterson, the deaf 80-year old at the end of the hallway. She was a pretty girl, with curly strawberry blonde hair and rectangular glasses that sat on the end of her nose. Karen was fun to hang out with and a great study partner, but sometimes went on about the boys she was seeing a little too much. After taking one look at the mess I’d made on the pale tile floor she immediately stooped down to help me.

  “Sorry about that, sweetie. This place really needs to put up stoplights of something.”

  “It’s ok. My fault,” I replied absent-mindedly, and blew back a long, stray lock of reddish-brown hair from my face. “I didn’t even know anyone else was up here. It’s just so quiet this morning.”

  “Ugh,” Karen returned, scrunching up her face. “Are you trying to jinx us?”

  I could only look at her quizzically, wondering what type of magic she thought I could be weaving over our fate. With a sigh, she handed me back the rest of my paperwork, which I clipped back into place.

  “We don’t say the ‘Q’ word around here, girl. Once you say it, you’re just asking for the day to go from pleasant to total chaos. It’s like walking under a ladder, or something.”

  “Oh. Sorry, Karen,” I murmured and felt the corners of my mouth frown ever so slightly.

  Her serious expression lifted and her normal friendly smile returned. “It’s just a thing, you know? Anyway, Tabitha wants you to round on 206, 207, and 208. She said we weren’t going to get a tech today, so you’ll need to get vitals while you are in there.”

  Duty was calling again. With a nod, I turned away from Karen and headed back down the hall to check on my patients. The door on room 206 was closed, so I gently knocked, rapping my knuckles against the wood. I waited a moment for a reply, but the only sound that returned was silence. Whenever there was no response after a knock, I always hoped that I wouldn’t find a patient standing in the middle of the room completely naked. Sudden nudity is not always a good thing, trust me. When I creaked open the door and saw Mr. Battle sleeping peacefully in his bed, I could only breathe a sigh of relief. So far, so good.

  The smell of Lysol and bleach came together into an overly chemical odor, filling my nostrils and reminding me of exactly where I was. It was a scent you could never really get used to. At least I knew the room had been kept clean by the overnight shift.

  Lying on the bed was a man that looked positively ancient. His skin was like old wrinkled leather, and only a few stringy white hairs remained on his head. Hospital blankets and sheets were piled up on and around him, some hanging off the bed or bunched up at the footboard. He was snoozing, letting out little snores between breaths almost in time with the heart rate monitor beeping along above the bed. I could tell even through his cracked and dusty exterior that perhaps forty or fifty years ago he had been a very strong man.

  Everyone in the hospital was completely aware of just who Edgar Battle was. He wasn’t just another geezer from the nearby retirement home on his last leg. This gentleman had at one time controlled the richest and most powerful bank in the entire country. Battle Capitol and Loan, Inc. had small and large private banks across America and several foreign countries, too. Their net worth was easily in the billions, possibly trillions, or dollars. Even when the economy went into a downward spiral nearly a decade ago, BCL had managed to profit. It was no wonder how he secured such a spacious room at the most prestigious hospital in the region.

  “Mr. Battle?” I spoke loudly, hoping to break him from his sleep.

  His only response was to clamp his opened mouth shut and huff out a little, groggy, “Hhhmph.”

  “My name is Laurie, and I’m your nurse. It’s time to check your vitals, Mr. Battle. This will only take a minute.”

  The man came around a bit more, cracking open his eyes into a squint, and then thrust out his arm as if it were time for the drill sergeant’s inspection. I took his blood pressure and checked his heart rate and other important factors. By the time I finished up, he looked a bit more awake.

  “Thank you Mr. Battle. You look like you’re feeling better today.”

  “I’ve seen worse,” he muttered grumpily, and then, looking up at me, his voice softened. “Um, thank you, my dear.”

  “Can I get you anything?” I asked, and prepared to head back out the door.

  “No thank you, I’m fine.”

  I reached for the door h
andle, balancing my clipboard under my arm while dragging the stubborn blood pressure machine along behind me with my other hand, when the door suddenly opened.

  “Ow!” I shouted, feeling the heavy weight of the door bang against my knee. Once again, my clipboard met with the floor, and all the papers I had just fixed went fluttering all over the place. I immediately knelt down, rubbing my knee while cursing under my breath and trying to collect the papers at the same time.

  “I’m sorry! Here, let me help you,” said the deep, masculine voice of whoever had just thrust the door open.

  The first thing I saw was his hands.

  They were big and strong, sort of like how I imagined Mr. Battle’s hands might have looked when he was a much younger man. Those hands had a sculptured look; they were no stranger to hard work, but at the same time had been groomed meticulously. Jutting out just past the wrist was the sleeve of a white dress shirt underneath a fine, dark grey suit. I didn’t see a wedding ring, but caught the silver glint of an expensive-looking watch, something which I decided in a split second cost more than I would ever earn in a month. His hands were scrambling around with mine, snatching papers from the floor, when I finally looked up.

  I was taken aback by this man, who was handsome in every conceivable way to me. His green eyes caught me first; flashing back at me with an intense energy and life that I couldn’t describe. The concern on his face was ashamed and seemed to genuinely express sympathy for my plight of scattered papers and the bruised knee. My anger immediately died and I could feel my cheeks flush crimson in embarrassment instead.

  “Are you ok?” he asked, standing back up and handing over my papers. “I had no idea anyone else was in here.”

  I wanted to fan my face in an attempt to cool the burning heat I felt radiate on my cheeks. Speech was difficult as I took him all in, from the long, blonde hair that fell around his shoulders to the body which was hidden by an exquisite business suit.

  “I’m…uh, I’m ok. Just hit my knee. It’s fine,” I managed to stammer.

  His gaze shifted and he cocked one eyebrow up ever so slightly. Perhaps he’d already figured out how blown away I was by him. God, why did I have to be such a plain and clumsy girl?

  “I feel awful about it, but I’m glad you’re ok, Miss…”

  “Summers. Uhm, Laurie Summers. I’m Mr. Battle’s nurse…well, student nurse, anyway.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m William Battle, and that’s my grandfather.”

  “And it’s about time you got here to see your old grandpa,” Edgar croaked loudly from the bed. He pressed one the buttons on the side and the head of the mattress began to rise up into a seated position. “Where’s your father? Don’t tell me he’s already managed to run my company into the ground!”

  “You know Dad, grandpa. He spends every waking moment in his office working. I haven’t seen him in two weeks. I didn’t even know you were here until someone emailed me a memo to sign your “Get well soon” card. You could have called me, you know.”

  The old man just waved his dismissal at the very idea that he should have to call anyone. William produced an envelope from inside his suit and presented it to Edgar, who promptly tossed it on the small table next to his bed.

  “Bah! They don’t care about me, son. They just want to brown nose your father, like he cares about me, either.”

  I watched William pull up a chair at his grandfather’s bedside and scoot closer to continue the conversation. Their affairs seemed interesting but it wasn’t my place to get involved as a lowly student nurse. I crept quietly back out the door to attend to my other duties before Tabitha came looking to give me a tongue lashing for being too slow.

  Chapter Two

  As the rest of the morning went by in a dull haze, I found myself thinking more and more about the attractive young William Battle. My mind took me to places I wished he would take my body, wrapped up in his arms, with the smell of his musky cologne in my nose and his soft lips pressed hard against the nape of my neck.

  My belly tightened as I pictured his strong hands running over my flesh; firm against the supple mounds of my breasts, my hardened nipples slipping between his fingers. I arched my back instinctively in my chair at the nurses’ station, dreaming of him cupping me from behind and feeling his hardness about to penetrate me.

  Needless to say, trying to do boring paperwork while that is in your mind is nigh impossible.

  “Oh my god, Laurie, did you see that guy who went in to visit Mr. Battle?” Karen gushed and plopped down on the seat next to me. “Total hottie. He looks like Thor in an Armani business suit.”

  My mind snapped back to reality and all I could muster was a delirious-sounding, “Mmm.”

  Karen chuckled and leaned in a little bit closer, curiously investigating me. There was no doubt she could see how distracted I was.

  “You’ve already met him, haven’t you? Is he that guy’s lawyer or something?”

  “His grandson,” I murmured, wishing Karen would just leave already so I could get back to my fantasy.

  Karen put two fingers against her mouth. “Oh, wow! So not only is he insanely hot, he’s insanely rich, too?”

  I turned to her and watched as she shook her head in disbelief and dove into her purse, retrieving a make-up kit and a mirror. Deftly, Karen touched up her lipstick and mascara. She had chosen a sultry shade of dark red which looked slick and wet.

  “You don’t really think either of us has a chance with a guy like that, do you?” I asked, placing my hands in my lap and quietly wishing I’d actually worn makeup that day. I probably looked like some half-awake zombie with bags under my eyes.

  “Mmmh,” she responded, pressing and puckering her lips. “A girl’s gotta try! Men like that are hard to come by, or with, if you catch my drift. You want to borrow some?” She asked, and slid the make-up case my way.

  It was just a simple black leather bag with a zipper on the side. The contents were a limited selection of lipstick, eye shadow, one nearly-empty tube of mascara, and a few flat containers of blush and foundation. I rifled through it. Like hell I was going to look like crap the next time I saw that guy.

  “Just don’t use the same lipstick as me, ok?” Karen said plaintively, and clamped shut the tiny clamshell mirror before passing it across the desk to me. “It’s my ‘slut special’. The boys love it, it’s like a secret weapon.”

  As enticing as wearing Karen’s “slut special” and looking like a cheap whore appealed to my inner demons, I found a very nice shade of muted pink that matched well with some of the other stuff she carried around with her.

  One look in the mirror told me everything I needed to know. I looked like a wreck! My hair was all over the place, twisted in my morning rush into a crude ponytail, and I was so pale I could have used about a week of quality time spent inside a tanning bed. Ugh. About the only things I had going for me were my more than adequate breasts, but they were mostly concealed by the boring scrubs I had on. Oh well. Nothing a little make-up can’t fix.

  Once my hair was down, the brush came out and I straightened it as best I could. When I had some extra money, my hairdresser was going to do something about this, whatever it is. I quickly finished gussying myself up before any of the floor nurses could come by and give us hell for screwing around instead of working. You haven’t seen anything till you’ve seen a charge nurse get angry.

  I managed to drudge myself through the stack of paperwork and charts, exchanging my time responding to the call bells of patients and cleaning heinies. William Battle was never far from my mind, though. By lunchtime, my stomach was growling and I had begun to regret my decision to grab nothing more than a cup of coffee to get me through the day. Sometimes we’d get stuck working nearly 12 hours straight without a break, but today, the gods were kind and I would actually get to take a lunch.

  “Ready to hit the cafeteria?” Karen asked, slinging her purse over her shoulder and coming out from behind the nurses’ station. “I
’m about to starve to death over here.”

  “Same,” I replied, and snatched my almost empty leather purse out of my cubby. When I looked back over at Karen, she was standing in front of the elevator, staring down the hallway. Something or someone had caught her eye.

  “Look, there he is!” she jittered excitedly. “My future husband!”

  Strolling down the hallway directly towards us was William Battle, having a conversation on his phone. The fabric of his tailored suit matched his movements, betraying just a hint of the hard, muscular body below the surface.

  “Wish me luck!” Karen whispered as he drew near and looked up at both of us. Karen was doing her best pose to push out her boobs and look sexy, but it came off more like she was doing some odd yoga move instead.

  She was about to walk forward and introduce herself when William stuck out his hand to me and softly said, “Hey, you. How’s the knee?”

  When I took his hand it was like all the breath had just run out of me. A hard knot seemed to form in my throat and it was all I could do to squeak out a response.

  “Fine, it’s fine. See?”

  I jutted out my leg to show him my knee which was, of course, covered in royal blue scrub pants. Unless he had x-ray vision there was no way he could see the tiny bruise there.

  “I don’t know,” he said and looked at me with a smiling, puzzled look. “I hit you pretty hard with that door, Laurie.”

  He remembered my name? Another wave of hot, red blush came over me and I finally let go of his hand. I looked over at Karen for a moment out of the corner of my eye and her face was painted with unexpected surprise mixed with disappointment.

  “Oh, William, this is Karen. She’s a student nurse, too.”

  “Huh? Oh, nice to meet you,” he said to her absently, and nodded in her direction after a quick glance. Apparently, the ‘slut special’ wasn’t having much of an effect on him. “Listen, Laurie, you really should let me make it up to you, the knee and everything. You haven’t had lunch yet, have you?”