Showing results by author "Ruby" in All Categories

I've had a full life: wife, mom, divorcee . . . and then alien property. All of that's changing now that I'm on the ice planet. Here, I'm free again, and I've found love once more. Vaza's older and a widower, but he knows how to make a woman smile both in the furs and out of them. Everyone around me has a baby in their arms or in their belly, though, and it's hard to be the only one without. I love nothing more than being a mama . . . and when I hear there's an orphan at the Icehome camp, I want to adopt him. Vaza and I have so much love to give, but will an alien baby love us back?

Marlene's not like the other humans. They weep while she smiles. They look at us with fear, while she entices me with a come-hither look. I...have no idea why such a bold female resonated to a male like me. I am the most reticent of all the sa-khui tribe, a hunter that never expected to have a family of my own. But resonance chooses, and it has chosen her for me. And Marlene is quite determined to seduce me...and who can say no to such a woman?

After being stolen from Earth, I learned that I could live each day in fear...or I could meet life head-on and unafraid. I chose the latter. Which is why, when I find a terrifyingly huge cat-alien male hip-deep in my favorite fishing spot, I don't run away in fear.

One adventurous couple. One pool table. An eager wife. The ingredients for an explosive cocktail!

January 1941. Peggy Collins has learned a lot during her time as a Spark Girl. Posted to Swansea as a driver to the squadron leader, she often hears things she shouldn't, and she knows to be discreet, understanding how serious the phrase 'loose lips sink ships' really is. Peggy meets and falls in love with pilot Jim Hudson, but her heart is broken when he becomes missing in action, and Peggy is left fearing the worst. That isn't the end of the shocks in store for Peggy, and she is forced to remember a promise made long ago. But can she keep her word while the bombs fall?

I've ruined everything. I had a mate. Resonance. Happiness. But then T'chai's attacked by ravenous sky-claw and almost killed. To help him recover, I tell the healer to turn off our unfulfilled resonance. It's temporary...or so I think. Big mistake. Because now my khui acts like it's dead and it hates T'chai. But I still love him. How do we move forward when I can't bear his touch? Is there a way to get back our happiness together, or is it time to give up on what we once had? T'chai has other plans, though.

What's a bigger disaster than being stranded on an ice planet with a bunch of aliens, never to return home? Resonating to the biggest jerk of all those aliens, of course. I hate M'tok, and it seems to be mutual. He thinks I'm ugly and unpleasant, and doesn't understand why I don't just fling myself at him. In his eyes, resonance has decided, and that's that. Problem is, resonance keeps pushing us together. And when that doesn't make me jump into his furs...he steals me away from the camp. I can't avoid him if there's nowhere to go.

There are two things that my husband values more than anything else in this world. One is his...the other is his 1964 Ford Mustang.

All I want is Hannah. We've resonated, but she avoids me. She has made it very clear that she wants no mate, whether he has two arms or four. But when others leave the Icehome beach camp for a getaway to a fruit-filled cave, Hannah wants to go, and she needs a companion.

Amy Chambers: restaurant owner, micromanager, control freak. Amy will do anything to revive her ailing restaurant, including hiring a former reality-show finalist with good connections and a lot to prove. But her hopes that Sophie’s skills and celebrity status would bring her restaurant back from the brink of failure are beginning to wane… Sophie Brunet: grump in the kitchen/sunshine in the streets, took thirty years to figure out she was queer.

Everyone knows Megan and Cashol hit it off the moment they resonated...didn't they? But when Josie goes into labor, an offhand comment makes Megan point out to her friend that no, things weren't always so smooth. Just because resonance is immediate doesn't mean it's immediately perfect. But also...just because it's an instant bond doesn't mean it's wrong. Sometimes it's very, very right.

Diana and Fergus are both in the running for the coveted spot of "prime suspect". Fergus decides the only way to clear their names and save Christmas is for them to investigate the case. He's convinced that an ancient curse is the real killer. Diana is convinced that Fergus has lost his marbles. She's ready to prove him wrong, but when they are dragged into a maze of secrets and lies, she starts to wonder....

The crew of the pirate ship, the Lovesick Fool, are worried about their navigator, Sentorr. He's obsessed with working, spending all his time on the bridge. It's not work the big blue alien is truly obsessed with, though. It's a female. Sentorr's convinced that Zoey, a female navigator on another pirate ship, is his mate. She won't show him her face, though, or agree to meet him. She's happy to have steamy, late-night conversations with him over comm channels, though.

It isn't easy working out who you like when you're still working out who you are. Jay—sorry, Jennifer—and her family move to a new town for a fresh start, after bullying at her last school went too far. Jennifer's mum insists that she do things differently, so gone are her jeans, T-shirts, skateboard and short hair. Jennifer wants to keep her mum happy, so she follows Mum's plan to start looking and acting like a girl. But it soon starts to wear on Jennifer, and she starts leading a double life, dressing in her brother's clothes to sneak out to go skateboarding in the local park.

Making cupcakes can be murder. Especially when someone has poisoned them. Diana knows she's being framed for a crime she didn't commit, but who is out to make her look guilty, and why? Speaking of secret enemies...Fergus has done something terrible. Now part of a new crime-fighting duo, Diana finds herself immersed in a deep, dark conspiracy theory. At the heart of it is a mystery that has baffled investigators for decades. The whole thing is more ridiculous than anything Fergus has ever previously believed. The worst part is...she's starting to think it might all be true.

All my life I have served. One lord after another, I have given them my time, my body, and my soul. My newest lord, however, is not one but three. I have become the anchor to the three Aspects of Fate, the mortal chosen to teach the gods humanity. It seems an impossible task for any mortal to satisfy a god's wishes and I must serve three? Three lords means three times the frustration, three times the petty demands . . . and three times the pleasure.

Being stolen from Earth has taught me that there's nothing in this universe to be trusted. Not people, not promises. So I make sure that I'm prepared for the worst at all times. I fill my homestead with pit traps. I make weapons for fun. I avoid my friendly neighbors. And I never leave my house if I can help it. So when I find a deathly-ill cat alien on my living room floor, I do what any sensible human woman would do. I put a stun-stick to his jock and demand answers.

I never thought I could forgive them. I didn't believe there was still a heart inside of me that could forgive. But my boys, my knights, were taking down my walls and claiming a piece for themselves. All I wanted was to lock our secret away and enter junior year as though the past never happened...but someone won't let me. Someone knows what we did and the price for their silence may be more than I can give.

New chapters on the brain, intersectionality, and parents. Simple, proven strategies that schools can start using today. With a view through an economic lens that has only become sharper and more focused since its initial publication in 1995, the premise owned by A Framework for Understanding Poverty is unchanged: Middle-class understandings of children and adults in poverty are often ill-suited for connecting with people in poverty and helping them build up the resources to rise out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.

No one ever comes back for me. I've always been on my own, and why should it be any different on an ice planet? So when I'm kidnapped by a feral outcast, I suspect I'd better learn to love raw fish and rough living. Then...U'dron comes to my rescue. He's always understood me more than anyone else. He's been my friend and my confidante. We've made music together. And now that he's my hero? The crush I've had on him is turning into something more, something deeper. He won't want me when he hears my terrible secrets, though. But it turns out that U'dron has a secret of his own....