Acknowledgments and Author Notes
As Hillary Clinton titled her book several years ago, It Takes a Village . She apparently meant it about raising children successfully, but it’s also true about MORE THAN LUST.
This novella came about thanks to many readers of my old Ellora’s Cave series who let me know it disappointed them not to know something about their favorite characters in the five stories that comprised my Lawyers in Love series, published back in 2003. While I was revising these stories I started wanting to know the answer too!
The fabulous Syneca Featherstone (Original Syn) produced a cover and suggested the title, MORE THAN LUST, when I told her I was thinking of writing what I was going to call “Andi and Gray—the Beginning.” As you can tell, I’m awful with titles, so I adopted Syneca’s suggestion. I also gave readers brief glimpses of the heroes and/or heroines of three of the other four stories in the old (now heavily revised) series. We decided, together, that I’d re-release the five original titles in two boxed sets, for which she also designed the covers.
In addition, I owe thanks to my longtime critique partner, Joey W. Hill, who helped me develop two of the original stories’ emotional depth. Joey always has kept me from writing what she calls “emotional shorthand” while tutoring me about the emotional and sensual aspects of domination and submission, which are addressed in the Courthouse Connections series.
Finally, Michelle Mottola, my incredibly capable personal assistant, agreed to edit MORE THAN LUST once I finally finished it, and to turn it around in less than a day. Her suggestions were invaluable in helping me flesh out the characters and make the novella seem complete.
Thank you all, from the bottom of my overworked heart! MORE THAN LUST is a labor of love, and I hope all of you who enjoyed the original series will check out the derivative stories as well as this introductory novella. They are now, first and foremost, ROMANCES, which I intended them to be before modifying parts of them to meet EC’s requirements for erotic contemporary romance.
Look for THE DEFENDERS and THE PROSECUTORS, and check out the loosely connected short story, “Jake’s Love,” which continues the series now named “COURTHOUSE CONNECTIONS.” Four more novels are in the works, with additional ones possible if readers ask for them. Enjoy!
Chapter One
Every time he stepped through the door of this Tampa high-rise building, Gray Syzmanski shuddered. His dad had died here a little more than fourteen years ago, in the fortieth floor office where he’d spent fifteen hours a day or more trying to live up to Mother’s expectations.
Since that day, Gray had done his best to avoid coming here, but this visit couldn’t be helped. His mother had gone too fucking far this time, inventing a nonexistent illness to get him pulled off an important assignment and sent scurrying home to her for nothing. This, after she’d pulled strings to get him reassigned permanently to the Tampa DEA office so she could keep him under her iron control—or so she’d thought.
Gray had done everything possible to rein Mother in. Now it was time to enlist Uncle Guy’s help, because her younger brother was the only living soul who could exert any effective control over Elizabeth Winston Syzmanski. Guy could do it only because he controlled his sister’s income stream, but that was a pretty heavy stick when he chose to wield it.
Seeing his uncle meant he had to come here, because Guy devoted nearly all his waking hours to Winston-Roe, et al , just as Gray’s dad had done—except that Guy set aside one week a month for his family and his sailing pastimes, which he declared to anybody who dared complain was the untouchable prerogative of the firm’s managing partner.
Unfortunately this wasn’t his uncle’s week off, and this conversation wouldn’t wait. Gray
As Hillary Clinton titled her book several years ago, It Takes a Village . She apparently meant it about raising children successfully, but it’s also true about MORE THAN LUST.
This novella came about thanks to many readers of my old Ellora’s Cave series who let me know it disappointed them not to know something about their favorite characters in the five stories that comprised my Lawyers in Love series, published back in 2003. While I was revising these stories I started wanting to know the answer too!
The fabulous Syneca Featherstone (Original Syn) produced a cover and suggested the title, MORE THAN LUST, when I told her I was thinking of writing what I was going to call “Andi and Gray—the Beginning.” As you can tell, I’m awful with titles, so I adopted Syneca’s suggestion. I also gave readers brief glimpses of the heroes and/or heroines of three of the other four stories in the old (now heavily revised) series. We decided, together, that I’d re-release the five original titles in two boxed sets, for which she also designed the covers.
In addition, I owe thanks to my longtime critique partner, Joey W. Hill, who helped me develop two of the original stories’ emotional depth. Joey always has kept me from writing what she calls “emotional shorthand” while tutoring me about the emotional and sensual aspects of domination and submission, which are addressed in the Courthouse Connections series.
Finally, Michelle Mottola, my incredibly capable personal assistant, agreed to edit MORE THAN LUST once I finally finished it, and to turn it around in less than a day. Her suggestions were invaluable in helping me flesh out the characters and make the novella seem complete.
Thank you all, from the bottom of my overworked heart! MORE THAN LUST is a labor of love, and I hope all of you who enjoyed the original series will check out the derivative stories as well as this introductory novella. They are now, first and foremost, ROMANCES, which I intended them to be before modifying parts of them to meet EC’s requirements for erotic contemporary romance.
Look for THE DEFENDERS and THE PROSECUTORS, and check out the loosely connected short story, “Jake’s Love,” which continues the series now named “COURTHOUSE CONNECTIONS.” Four more novels are in the works, with additional ones possible if readers ask for them. Enjoy!
Chapter One
Every time he stepped through the door of this Tampa high-rise building, Gray Syzmanski shuddered. His dad had died here a little more than fourteen years ago, in the fortieth floor office where he’d spent fifteen hours a day or more trying to live up to Mother’s expectations.
Since that day, Gray had done his best to avoid coming here, but this visit couldn’t be helped. His mother had gone too fucking far this time, inventing a nonexistent illness to get him pulled off an important assignment and sent scurrying home to her for nothing. This, after she’d pulled strings to get him reassigned permanently to the Tampa DEA office so she could keep him under her iron control—or so she’d thought.
Gray had done everything possible to rein Mother in. Now it was time to enlist Uncle Guy’s help, because her younger brother was the only living soul who could exert any effective control over Elizabeth Winston Syzmanski. Guy could do it only because he controlled his sister’s income stream, but that was a pretty heavy stick when he chose to wield it.
Seeing his uncle meant he had to come here, because Guy devoted nearly all his waking hours to Winston-Roe, et al , just as Gray’s dad had done—except that Guy set aside one week a month for his family and his sailing pastimes, which he declared to anybody who dared complain was the untouchable prerogative of the firm’s managing partner.
Unfortunately this wasn’t his uncle’s week off, and this conversation wouldn’t wait. Gray
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