Novel Excerpts:

Jayde strode purposefully in the family room of her father's house. She looked disdainfully at her surroundings.

Marion glared, but there was nothing she could say or do. Jayde had always been the favorite. She clung desperately to Mitchell her hands like talons.

Mitchell looked longingly at Jayde. He remembered her sultry kisses and sexy murmurings. He could almost feel her tender caresses but he was drawn back to the present by Marion's fingernails digging into his arm.

Jayde's father embraced his daughter lovingly but not in a forbidden way.

He was proud and a little astonished that this child, his little girl that he thought was lost to him forever was in his home and in his heart.

"I have an announcement." All sound ceased as Jayde's low sexy purr commanded the room as it so often did when she announced things.

Mitchell heard the rustle of Jayde's stockinged thighs as she stood by the fireplace. He trembled involuntarily with desire. Regret pierced his heart and he cursed himself silently for letting the only thing that mattered to him slip out of his grasp.

He flashed back to the day of their parting as he had done so many times since they had done so.

They'd been sitting in a bistro in Montemarte. Jayde was laughing girlishly and ordering French food from the French menu in French.

She paused to sip her wine and as so often happened she turned solemn.

"Do you ever think Mitchell, of what is out there?" Clouds flew across the landscape of her green eyes.

She looked off into the distance pondering. Mitchell memorized her profile as if he were doing what the Victorian's did when the nights were long and slow to close.

"Mitchell, I've got to experience more, there is so much out there I've to to discover what the world holds for me."

Mitchell remembered the feeling. He knew the moment the words spilled from her lips that this would be the end of them. He couldn't let her go but he had to.

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Joanna and Eileen sat awkwardly on the Louis 19th chairs and watched Jayde entertain her guests.

They were grateful that Jayde invited them to this soiree, but intimidated by her stately home and the famous guests.

Eileen sighed as Jayde moved like a cat through the crowd. Her sinuous muscles moving with every step that her legs took, and there were a lot of them. Her hair reflected the candles glow and her eyes sparked with intelligence and mischief.

"Let's go, we don't belong here" Joanna whispered frantically into Eileen's ear. Eileen looked at Joanna and noticed the wrinkles and little pouches under her eyes. She thought of her own jowls and was saddened at the passing of time.

Jayde gave Margaret Atwood a playful punch on the arm and made her way to her childhood friends.

"Are you having fun?" she asked in her languid drawl her lip curling up in a gesture of sympathy.

Eileen nodded quickly and Joanna followed until they both resembled the dog in the back window of a 67 Chevy.

Jayde gently patted Eileen's cheek and masked the sorrow she felt at seeing her friends face ravaged by time.

Joanna, she noted had put on quite a bit of weight and Eileen's hair was liberally splashed with grey they both look older than their years and rather frumpy, but it didn't matter to Jayde as she never noticed these things.

Jayde always felt mixed feelings when with her friends. Although they had never helped or supported her she felt sorry for them. They'd never found direction in their lives. They'd bounced from career to career as if they were trying on hats and were waiting to find one that fit.

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