Compromising Positions
by Barbara Cutrera
Josie Hollingsworth is beautiful, tenacious, and successful. She’s also haunted by her past. For years, her brilliant, mentally ill parents consistently compromised their children’s sense of security. But Josie worked diligently to distance herself from their world, a world filled with hallucinations and anxiety. However, now that her sister has also succumbed to mental illness, Josie fears that all of her efforts were for nothing, that she’s doomed to the same fate.
Enter Stone Romero, a sexy, charismatic, strong-willed pediatrician. After their unlikely meeting in an Austin, Texas Emergency Room, Stone intuits Josie’s need for support during her time of crisis. He offers her his help, assuring her that there are no strings attached despite their mutual attraction. Josie soon realizes that Stone, grieving the loss of his identical twin and repressing anger regarding his own childhood issues, needs her help as much as she needs his.
Relocating to Stone’s hometown in northern Louisiana, they work to begin a new life together. For the first time, Josie discovers love, intimacy, and explosive sex. As scandals resulting from both Hollingsworth and Romero family secrets come to light, they lead to terrible tragedies and horrific violence. Josie recognizes that Stone is the one man in the world who will never put her in a compromising position. She prays that it’s not too late for them to have the storybook ending that she never imagined would be within her grasp.
Excerpt
“Josephine,” he murmured.
“Hm?”
“Don’t move,” Stone said quietly.
“Why not? Did I hurt you?”
“No. Shhh.”
“Stone –”
“We’re not alone.”
“What do you mean we’re not alone? This is our property, and there are acres of it.”
“Shhh. Be quiet and still.”
She obeyed, waiting. At first, she wondered if someone had come onto their land to hunt without permission. Then she saw the pack.
For some reason, Josie experienced no fear as she watched the wolves circle them. She counted five during the next few minutes as she remained absolutely still in Stone’s arms. The wolves seemed regal, calm, and curious. Josie, who had never seen a wolf outside of pictures or on television, was fascinated. She watched without moving as the largest one went over to the pile of their clothing and sniffed it. As he moved away, the others did the same before slipping out of Josie’s line of sight.
She continued to remain motionless as Stone held her. He was obviously watching the wolves, whatever they were doing. She could hear the beating of his heart under her left hear. It was steady and strong. He wasn’t afraid either. He seemed tranquil and relaxed. Well, most of him did. The part that remained inside of her was hardening again, and she felt herself quivering around him and fought the urge to move.
There was movement behind her as the wolves walked away from them through the woods. Before she could ask Stone why he’d just done what he had, he lowered her onto the ground and began to thrust in and out, surrendering to a punishing rhythm that soon brought them both to climax. Stone collapsed on top of her afterwards and lay with his head buried against her neck for a long time.
“Why?” was all she could manage to ask.
“The wolves accepted me and Nelson a long time ago. These wolves must be their descendants. They seem to have an understanding with me, and I wanted them to have that same understanding with you. They got a good whiff of our scents from the air and from our clothing, but I wanted them to know you were mine.”
Josie laughed and asked, “You marked me like when a dog pees on a tree?”
“More like when a male wolf mates with a female. I wanted them to know that you and I were connected in the most primal of ways."
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
I would make the most perfect trophy wife. After all, I look like Barbie, know how to get my way, and would probably make classically beautiful babies with the handsome doctor. Of course, they might all be schizophrenic, OCD- laden, anxiety-ridden children, but the Christmas card pictures would look fabulous!
You and your stupid way of thinking... Stop worrying about what people will think and what you believe the Bible says and just love your remaining twin enough to save his life!
You know, for being an 'ass-backwards fool who's slow to change' you're pretty smart and kind.
It's nice to live in a town where everyone knows you and most people are genuine, whether they're genuinely sweet or nasty.
"You know what my granddaughter likes to call me?" When Josie shook her head, Miss Iris said, "Sherlockeisha Holmes." When Josie laughed, the woman added, "She says they should make a TV show about me and my deductions."
Her father hadn't protected her, yet a pack of wolves had. The irony of it was too much.
Your father was simultaneously brilliant and dense.
My Review:
Compromising Positions was non-stop drama, action, and intrigue. It was an intense story that was off to quick start and maintained a break-neck speed of shocking personal revelations, twisted secrets, abysmal childhood histories, crippling parental mental illnesses and dysfunction, and steamy love scenes. The main characters, as well as the plot, were authentic, flawed, a big ball of awkward, and heavily laden with tension; yet there was also a steady undercurrent of humor that thrummed along with the taut storyline. And the sensual scenes - they sizzled and snapped!
While all the characters were deeply damaged in some way, most of them were also incredibly smart, lovable, clever, and endearing - even when they frustrated me. This small town was quite the soap opera, but then again, most of them really are... I know the rural inbred redneck community where I was unfortunately reared certainly was.
Empress DJ
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