Ecstasy (A Contemporary Romance) Read Free Page A

heroine.”
    “Thank you,” Candace said, flashing a smile
at him, but before she could feel better about her evening, an old
biddy who had just contributed a story about her cat said, “I will
not stand for such smut! I think we should take a vote right now.
Who here wants to listen to this trashy porn?”
    Only the middle-aged man half-raised his
hand, giving Candace a sheepish grin, and she had the awful feeling
that he was only voting for her because he thought she was
easy.
    Looking smug, the ringleader asked, “And who
wants her to leave immediately?”
    Everyone else raised their hands while their
eyes shot daggers at her.
    “Fine,” Candace said, calmly slipping her
papers back into her leather satchel. Swinging it up onto her
shoulder she stood and left the room without a backwards
glance.
    She was none too surprised when she heard
footsteps behind her in the hallway and turned to see her one
supporter hurrying to catch up with her.
    “Candace,” he said, slightly out of breath.
“I feel terrible about this.”
    “I’m sure you do,” she said, a slight twinge
of bitterness lacing her words.
    “Even though this didn’t work out, I was
hoping that, ah, maybe I could take you out for dinner next
Saturday.”
    Candace acted like she was considering his
words carefully. Forcing a coy look onto her face she asked, “Is
that all you want from me?”
    Giving her a sleazy smile, he leaned in until
she could smell his bad breath, and said, “I’m game for helping you
try out some of your new scenes, any time you want.”
    Candace worked hard to keep her hands firmly
at her sides. He wasn’t the first guy she’d wanted to slap, and he
wouldn’t be the last. From between gritted teeth she said, “I don’t
know why every guy who meets me thinks all I want to do is fuck his
brains out simply because I write erotica. Because I wouldn’t have
sex with you if you were the last man on earth.”
    Clearly upset by her slam, he looked her up
and down and disdainfully said, “Then maybe you should stop begging
for it, you slut,” then ran back down the hall to the meeting room,
slamming the door behind him.
    Standing in the hallway, stunned by her
latest bad experience, Candace heard the distinct sounds of
lovemaking coming from the women’s bathroom. A minute later, the
two people who had left the room right after she read her chapter
emerged, clothes in slight disarray, and sneaked back off towards
the meeting room, thinking no one was the wiser.
    Candace smiled momentarily. “I guess that
means it was a good chapter,” she said. But then, falling
despondent again over the difficulties of her new writing
direction, she added, “At least some people are having a good
night.”
    Trying not to be too down about the events of
the evening, she headed out for her car and another lonely night
curled up on her couch with a paperback, where she could dream
about having a perfect life, like the characters in her favorite
books.

Chapter Three
     
    Candace stood underneath the huge “Sensual
Writer’s Conference” banner and took a deep breath. As soon as she
walked through the double glass doors she would officially be
entering into her new life. Instead of continuing to write young
adult stories, where sex was never allowed to enter into the
storyline, today she was officially going to make the jump into the
world of erotica, where the only limit was how far a writer wanted
to go. Practically nothing was forbidden.
    Now, if she could just muster up the nerve to
walk through those damn double doors.
    She tried not to be too hard on herself.
After all, anytime anyone made a career change they were bound to
have some butterflies in their stomach. Unfortunately, what Candace
was feeling went far beyond butterflies. More like huge ravens
flying around inside of her, picking at her innards.
    A middle-aged woman brushed past her and
hurried inside the conference hall. Candace knew it was now or
never—time to either bite