Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse In The Age Of Show Business

During a company dinner, I overindulged in alcohol and mistakenly addressed my boss, Brogan Sheppard, as "husband" in front of everyone. My coworkers laughed it off. "She’s gone crazy trying to chase the boss." Brogan shot me a cold look. "If you can’t control your mouth, maybe you shouldn’t be drinking." In the brief silence that followed, the most difficult client in the room, Leon Williamson, let out a low, mocking laugh. "She was calling me. So why are you getting so worked up?"

Lorenzo De Angelis is an Italian tycoon who runs his empire with an iron fist. He is gorgeous, powerful, young, and very wealthy. His enemies are several and quite ferocious, so Lorenzo trusts no one. This is why when he discovers a woman hiding in his office, listening to some important and extremely confidential information, his first instinct is to keep her ‘prisoner’ for a few days while trying to discover who is this beautiful ‘spy’. She is Phoebe Stone and she is just doing her job cleaning offices, without knowing she is ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’. So, in a matter of minutes, against her wishes, she will start a thrilling adventure, next to a stunning but frightening man. This adventure will change both their lives forever. (Excerpt) The reality hit her hard. She was standing in a dimly lit room, half naked in front of the man who kidnapped her… who threatened her... The most beautiful man in the world. He lifted her hands and put them on him as if it was the most natural thing in the world that she should touch him. She caressed him again, just to make sure he was really there. He covered her small hands with his and stood perfectly still. “If you want me to stop, I will. If you want me to leave this room, I will. ‘Piccola’ (Ita. Baby), the decision is yours.” “Don’t stop, please… I just want to be yours tonight… and always…”

Everyone wants to be me. Who wouldn't? I've got the looks, sexy body, money and Andrew Maru Ottave, my husband.But if they will only knew who I really am and what's happening in my life, I doubt that they want to be in my place. Since I was a child, I don't have a right to choose the person I want to be with, because my parents already arranged it for me.Its not actually a new thing with the elite. Because even my parents is a product of an arrange marriage. They marry for business and have a child for business. And just like my mom I will just also be a business wife.

My blood runs cold as he pulls me closer to him, "A fucken restraining order Shey!" he says through gritted teeth as his hold on me becomes harder. I try to pull myself out of his grip but I am pushed up against a wall, with his body pinning me beneath his. His hot breath on my neck as he inhales my perfume, he is holding my one hand behind my back as he tries to undress me with the other. "How will you ever learn Shey? You. Are. Mine!" I let out a whimper but his grip only got tighter. He pulls me away from the wall only to push my back against the wall, my cries for help being muffled by his harsh kiss as he pulls down my top and fondles my right . I move harshly under his grip as I try to come free but he only backs away and punches me in the face causing my body to be thrown to the floor. I hit the ground hard as I felt my body ache and tears start to fall, "Help!" I cry out "Can someone please help me!" I yell. I am then picked up by Bruno and thrown into the wall again, my cries becoming more agonising, "You are going to wish you never left me !"

After getting into debt with a dangerous loan shark, Bianca finds herself in mortal danger, having lost all her money to her con artist ex-boyfriend. Desperate, she seeks out the only man in the world who can help her immediately. But he will also demand his price... And he will drag her into a plot of revenge and twists that Bianca will never forget...

It’s end of October 1985 and the crumbling river town of Dubois, Iowa is shocked by the gruesome murder of one of the pillars of the community. Detective David Carlson has no motive, no evidence, and only one lead: the macabre local legend of “Boris Orlof,” a late night horror movie host who burned to death during a stage performance at the drive-in on Halloween night twenty years ago and the teenage loner obsessed with keeping his memory alive. The body count is rising and the darkness that hangs over the town grows by the hour. Time is running out as Carlson desperately chases shadows into a nightmare world of living horrors. On Halloween the drive-in re-opens at midnight for a show no one will ever forget. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing