Desperate and young, Jillian Moore did something she knew would one day come back to bite her in the backside. She had posed nude. For money. Years later, and on the last track to a successful career, she is still haunted by her mistake. She can’t help but wonder when her past will catch up with her.
Samuel Steele is not short on female attention, but the women who warm his bed pale in comparison to the fantasy he has created of the seductive temptress in the painting hanging prominently in his bedroom. A fantasy that has ruined his once-satisfying sex life. When he discovers that her exact likeness works in his building–works for him, in fact–things get interesting. Perhaps there is hope for his sex life after all.
This is really kind of a cute story, built on the need of a successful business woman to locate and reclaim a painting for which she had posed nude in her “hungry” days, and which continues to allude her efforts to do so. Now she has found out that the latest owner bid $75k for the painting, a sum she doesn’t think she can raise even if she wanted to buy the painting, and even if the new owner would allow her to buy it. It is also the story of a man who has fallen in love with a painting, with his fantasy girl. Even though he never lacks for partners in his love life, he can never truly be satisfied. Where was the real woman? And then he remembers: he thinks she is one of his employees. And so he finds his fantasy girl, right under his nose.
So what is Sam’s ultimate challenge here? Is he willing to continue seeking Jillian as a fantasy as he sleeps with other faceless bodies, or is he willing to seek reality with the real person? Jillian certainly knows the hurt of realizing that Sam may have just been seeking to find out if the real person was a glorious as his fantasy. And perhaps that is the issue at the root of this story. Are any of us willing to give place to the realities in our lives, especially when that reality is a real person? I have often believed that many hang on to their fantasy partner–marrying and divorcing, or hopping from one bed partner to another–because they would rather retain that perfect fantasy in their lives rather than deal with the imperfections of a real person. Sam has to make that choice here.
This is Kaily Hart’s inaugural short story as a romance writer and she has done so very well. The plot is concise and can be readily explored in this brief literary format. The main characters are well developed without a lot of extra and unnecessary information. The reader is able to grasp the fundamentals of the work place context and the surroundings of their rendevous. All in all, it is a well-written short story and is very entertaining. The love scenes sizzle and yet they don’t swamp the basic story. I look forward to reading future work by this author.
I give this short story a 3.75 out of 5 rating, not because it is inferior, but rather because it is short. I would have loved to have seen it extended.
You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place
This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.
Hi Judith, I wanted to thank you so much for reviewing my debut book. I loved reading your take on the story and enjoyed your comments very much.
Kaily
Kailyhart.blogspot.com
Thanks you, Kaily, for your response. I try to see the “story behind the story”–that’s at least half the value of fiction for me along with the sheer entertainment of it. Your story is very well don and it was a privilege to review it. Hope you give us more in the near future.
Working on it :). I don’t have a release date yet, PAY UP should be available from Ellora’s Cave soon.