Sometimes the most interesting things happen right next door.
Book number six, if you can believe it! I don’t yet know if I can. Just shy of 30,000 words, Amazon says that’s 117 pages. A pretty typical definition of a novella is 17,000 to 40,000 words, so I’m calling it a novella.
It’s a little bit of a departure for me because instead of focusing on young, single women the main characters are a little older and married. It’s a slow burn, but as one of my beta readers said it’s more like a slowly burning fuse leading up to a big kaboom. For those who enjoy the lore of the Grading Universe, there’s plenty of that. And what would a GM Mariner book be without a visit to HCI Houston?
Dani and Ben have a comfortable marriage, a pleasant suburban home, and a front-row seat to their neighbors’ increasingly scandalous private lives.
In a world where slavery is legal and sexual boundaries are very different, a little curiosity about what happens behind closed doors isn’t particularly unusual. But when their neighbor Terry brings home a beautiful young pleasure slave, the resulting upheaval threatens to destroy his marriage to Dani’s best friend, Abby.
As Abby struggles with betrayal, loneliness, and some surprisingly tempting new possibilities, Dani finds herself drawn into a world she’s always observed from a safe distance. What begins as concern for a friend gradually becomes something far more complicated – and considerably more exciting.
Before long, unexpected friendships, forbidden fantasies, and some very unconventional decisions will challenge everything these neighbors thought they knew about love, loyalty, desire… and that sometimes the most surprising desires are hiding in plain sight.
Neighbors is a slow-burn erotic novella about friendship, temptation, betrayal, and the strange intimacy of surrender – what we’re willing to give away to keep what we love.
Available to buy on Amazon and also on Kindle Unlimited/Kindle+: