New York City, December 31âCountdown to Eternity...
Jackson Holloway is running out of time. To pay for his life of crime, he must find a pure soul to take his place in the Underworld before the clock strikes midnight. Medium Charlotte Simms seems like the perfect targetâall he has to do is kiss her. But one kiss leads to a sensual encounter unlike anything Jack ever experienced in life. And now he must choose between loveâand eternal damnation....
Dear Reader,
When I told my AP English teacher from high school (who is still my dear friend to this day) that I was writing paranormal erotica, she said, âParanormal erotica? What is thatâsexy ghosts?â I laughed long and hard at that, but when I stopped, I sat back and thought, Well, what about a sexy ghost? Could I make ghosts sexy? And so began my journey of thinking up the plot of Tempted by His Wicked Kiss.
Inspiration struck next when I had a girlsâ night with my mom, my best friend Mary and her mom, Kathy. We were eating, drinking and laughing as usual when Kathy took out an old tea-leaf-reading book from the 1920s and we all read our cups of peppermint tea. Thatâs when I knew my next heroine would be a fortune-teller and seduce the hero over a tea-leaf-reading session.
Tempted by His Wicked Kiss was so much fun to write, even more so than my debut novella, The Demonâs Forbidden Passion. I can only hope that you have just as much fun reading it. Feel free to tell me what you think at www.facebook.com/AuthorZoeyWilliams or on Twitter, @ZoeyWilliamsAu. I would love to hear from you!
All best,
Zoey
Dedication
This novella is dedicated to âHilda and the Pool Ladies,â Mary, Kathy, Amy, Zoey P., Paula and Marissa, for always being my biggest cheerleaders and dearest friends.
Chapter One
For almost all of Jackson Hollowayâs adult life, his name appeared everywhere. The headlines of newspapers, police blotters, wanted posters that had been hung so long on policemenâs bulletin boards the paper had yellowed and curled. But now, for the first timeâstanding in the middle of Times Square six days after ChristmasâJack was anonymous. Lights sparkled from every angleâfrom the flashing billboards above the street to the lit advertisements on top of the cabs that flooded the asphalt. All of them hocked overpriced restaurants, kitschy souvenirs, discounted Broadway tickets, cheap T-shirts. Men in sandwich boards and funny costumes attempted to thrust colorful flyers into the fists of tourists. Each had a different message typed out in the same loud font. Designer suits at bargain prices. $10 off your meal at such-and-such restaurant. Do you like free comedy?
A cacophony of horns honking, the swish of revolving doors, the tinny music being pumped out of the underside of Broadway theatersâ awnings: it was almost maddening. And there were people: throngs and throngs of people. Without tourists, Times Square was still an assault on the senses. With them, it was like the inside of a beehiveâconstant movement, constant buzzing, swarming.
Jackâs face blended into the crowd, completely unnoticeable among the sea of tourists. People bundled in hats, gloves, and scarves all across the color spectrum breezed by as if they could see right through him. Heâd always enjoyed coming here for that very reason. Because when Jack was invisible, darting through the crowds, he never got caught.
Back when he and Cal were kids, theyâd cut class (not like anyone cared when they leftâteachers sighed in relief when the boxes next to their names remained empty as they ticked off attendance), take the C train from Brooklyn and spend the afternoon in midtown. As they traveled over the bridge, suddenly everything would turn from the gray, institutional look of the projects to the sparkling lights of Times Square. Jack liked the escapeâto spend a few hours outside of their dangerous neighborhood. Cal liked the escape, tooâbecause the pockets in Times Square were the easiest to pick.
The two would slither through the crowd, their hands diving into whatever back pockets or purses that were attached to a distracted traveler. They made a game of itâhow much could they pick in an hour? Sometimes a wallet or two would contain bills in a foreign currency Jack wouldnât recognize and scores were argued over. But then a quick trip to the exchange on 48th Street would reveal the true victor, almost always Cal. Because that was where a crumpled mound of gibberish notes was turned into cold, hard cash. And he and Cal would be able to eat that night.
But that was more than a decade ago, back when things were simpler. When their worst offenses were pickpocketing a few bucks and stealing a grime-covered banana off a street-adjacent fruit stand. Back then, it was mere childâs play. As Jack and Cal got older, petty crime slowly escalated to robbing ATMs, holding up convenience stores, muggings. Jack knew Cal also dabbled in hired hits from time to timeâCal getting paid to beat someone to a pulp.