— May 28, 585 BCE* (Halys River valley in what is now central Turkey) — The Medes had occupied a broad field on the western bank of the Halys River and were intent on reinforcing their position. The Lydians were equally intent on driving them back....
The house was on fire. She knew it. The party went on around her; why couldn't the others smell the smoke? Anna wandered from room to room, her nose in the air. It wasn't stronger in one place than another. But she knew the house was on fire. It could burst into flame...
"Now thet don't make a lick of sense." "What's that, Pardee?" Pardee nodded his head. "Oh. What part on it don't?" Pardee frowned at his companion. "You ain't got none yerself if ya can't see it, Keats." Keats squinched his eyes up tightly. "Oh, sure. I see it now."...
In the morning I rode the elevator down, in the evening I took it up. It was routine by now, halfway into my summer stay in Manhattan, but it remained a novelty. I was a Brit, used to having to push my own buttons but here in the states, in the plush apartment block...
Grovesnor Dale, Connecticut. The boy unlatched the gate, stopped by the open window and ducked under the Venetian blind to peek into the kitchen. It looked as if there was nobody home, which was a lucky thing because he'd heard stories about Mrs. Lovely; mostly bad...
"I feel so silly and stupid." Archie cast a sympathetic glance at his wife, Tami, as she hunched down in the passenger seat as if trying to disappear inside her off-white wooly costume. "Aw, honey, they're going to love you. You look adorable." "Archie, we should...
Malaga, June 21, 1990 The marine bows with stiff formality and releases his armful of red carnations onto the cafe's stainless steel table. They blanket it, cascading over onto the pavement beneath. "Flores bonitas para una mujer bonita," he says in broken Spanish....
The wedding invitation came out of the blue. I nailed it to the wall with a tack. The pleasure of your company is requested at the celebration of the wedding of Erin Marie Regan and Barry David Edelstein ... She was going by her maiden name. I wondered what happened...
Warning: M/F sex, sensual weight gain "Do you know what the difference between men and women is?" Michael asked against my ear. I laughed, a single breath in the warm darkness. "This is a trick, right?" "No, really. And I'm not talking about naughty bits or the tilt...
Getting the cabin was Annie's idea. She was borrowing it from a friend at work. We would have been all alone in the house anyway, since Susie and Clare had been packed off to Annie's parents' house for the weekend.. For what I wanted to do with Annie, being alone in a...