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FREE ROMANCE STORIES BELOW ANNOUNCEMENT

Read-a-romance.com officially launched September 1, 08.   For the time being, we hope to add one free online romance story every week, so it’ll take us a while to populate the site with a variety of romantic reads.  However, our ultimate goal is to provide two or three free stories a week.

We’re actively seeking stories from a variety of romance genres, so whether you read western, historical, contemporary, young adult and so forth, we hope to have something here for you to read soon.

Please note this is an all ages site, so our free romance stories will be appropriate for even the youngest of readers.

Thanks for visiting.  Please come back!

L-J Greene

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As their voices faded, M got up and made for her room.  If Jonathan wanted to talk to her it would have to wait.  At this point she couldn’t deal with anything else.  Because if Jonathan did decide to look into her past, he’d find out that she’d already been accused of robbery once.  Oh, sure, nothing had been proved—because she hadn’t done it—but it could be enough to make him think her guilty.  After all, where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.  And this made the second time the smoke of suspicion settled like a cloud around her.

She was so screwed.  All her hopes, all her dreams of making a home with Jonathan and Alicia were withering before they’d had enough time to take firm root and grow strong.

She couldn’t stay here.  Giving up on her dream, giving up on her business before she even got it started crushed her, but it was nothing compared to the pain she’d feel should Jonathan accuse her.

And even if he did believe her, believe in her, she’d still let him down.  She knew—better than anyone—what her parents were capable of, and she’d let them in his house.  Left them alone in his house!

How could he trust her with his sister when she couldn’t be trusted to watch over his possessions?  And Alicia, hadn’t she already paid a huge price at the hands of the McCallister family?  M would do anything to expose her from further harm.  Even at her own expense.

Once in her room, M stripped, then got in the shower.  Letting the water beat down on her neck and shoulders, she sought relief that refused to be found.

She heard Jonathan pounding on her door, but refused to acknowledge him.

Eventually, he went away.

With a towel wrapped around her, she leaned against the bathroom door frame and surveyed her room.  She’d come into this house feeling so out of place, but she’d somehow found a place here.  And it had nothing to do with the room or the house and everything to do with Jonathan and Alicia.

Leaving here would tear her up, but she didn’t think she had another choice.  The shadow of her family was a pall she couldn’t shed, no matter how hard she tried.  The fear that underneath, she was just like them.  The fear that one day she’d lose every inch she’d gained—every inch she’d sweated to achieve—and regress.

Time to pack her bags and move on.  So much for her foolish hope her running had come to an end.  It seemed she’d never outrun her family—her shame.

What was that saying?  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.  She’d hung around, hoping, praying, that Stephen would give her the benefit of the doubt.  That the love he professed for her would be real enough to cover over her shortcomings, real or perceived.  That he would stand up for her, or at the very least stand beside her.  In the end, he’d done neither.  Well, shame on him.

Shaming herself wasn’t an option.

She started packing.

Ten minutes later she heard footfalls coming down the hall toward her room and quickly doused her lights.  Holding her breath, she stood stock still when someone—Jonathan—knocked on her door.

“Em?”

Every cell in her body, every instinct she possessed, screamed at her to run to the door and open it.  Run to him—into his arms.  How many times had she watched as he comforted, soothed, his sister’s fears?  She wanted his reassurances.  Wanted to know that he could—would—make everything better.

But wait, her brain cautioned.  Don’t be a fool.  How can you want reassurances from him if he’s never really given you any assurance in the first place?

All she had to go on were her own interpretations of his actions.  And wow, handed she been wrong before?

She stayed put.  Stayed quiet.

“Em?  We need to talk.”  She could hear the restraint in his voice.  The barely leashed tension.

She watched the door handle jiggle and sent up a prayer of thanks that she’d had the presence of mind to lock it behind her when she entered her room earlier.  Heard him heave a sigh, and knew, just knew, that what he really wanted to do was bang on the door and yell at her to open it.

But that would wake his sister.

Finally, he walked away, and M flopped down on her bed.  Blindly, she patted her hand around on the bed, feeling for her purse.  When she found it, she dug out her cell phone, and called Charlie’s cell.

“Hello.”

“Charlie, it’s me.  Can you come pick me up in the morning?  Early?”

He hesitated before answering.  “Ah, sure.  What’s up?  Is something wrong?”

Tears trickled out of the corners of her eyes and streamed past her ears.  Taking a deep breath, hoping he couldn’t hear her pain, she said, “Please, Charlie.  No questions.  Not right now.  Can you get me around six?  Don’t come to the door, I’ll meet you out front.  Everyone here will still be asleep.”

She hoped.

Another silence.  Well, not quite.   That sounded like teeth grinding.  “M.”

“Charlie.  I’m okay.  I’ll be okay.  Just get me in the morning, all right?”

“I’ll be there at six.  And you’d better have a good explanation.”

M let loose a relieved sigh.  “Thanks, Charlie.  I’ll tell you everything in the morning.”

Installment 43 Coming Soon!

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Thanks to Nan Donahue for sharing one of her manuscripts.