WICKED TEMPTATIONS (STEAMY COLLECTIONS)
she said in a tone made of rustic southern hospitality.
I entered Bethany’s bedroom and allowed my eyes to drift across the vibrant forest of pretend life that was pretend playing and pretend escaping. Birds—there were birds everywhere. Over the last year Bethany had been collecting porcelain birds. Chickadees, swallows, cardinals, blue jays, robins, finches, orioles, sparrows, warblers, and hummingbirds flitted and swooped around the room in happy, free exuberance. There was little else in the room except the birds and that one picture. The photograph of a gap-toothed Bethany and her mother Linda, taken about ten years previously, was positioned on the nightstand facing the bed. Ebullience