All the Way

By Ellen Fisher

Two friends-becoming-lovers short stories, totaling 10,000 words.

All the Way: Garrett and Diane have just spent their first night together. But in the morning light, Diane wants to pretend nothing happened. Now Garrett has to convince her to drop her walls and go all the way...

Be Mine: Zeke and Mackenzie find themselves dateless for Valentine's Day, and they decide to celebrate friendship instead of romance. But sometimes you find romance when you aren't even looking for it...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ellen Fisher
• Release date: Jun 9, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476224237

Ellen Fisher

I'm an author of romance who writes, or tries to, around plenty of distractions. I have four kids ranging from six to sixteen, and two young and energetic Australian shepherds.My first book (a colonial Virginia romance entitled The Light in the Darkness) was published by Bantam in 1998. A few years later, I started writing ebooks. Overall, I've published thirteen novels and novellas, ranging from historicals to sci-fi romance to contemporaries. You can visit me at www.ellenfisherromance.com .

Book preview

All the Way

Two short stories by Ellen Fisher

Copyright 2012 by Ellen Fisher

Cover art copyright 2012 by LFD Designs for Authors

Smashwords Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

All the Way

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Be Mine

All the Way

Chapter 1

I figure this doesn't actually count.

Sprawled on a bed that was about three sizes too small for his big frame, Garrett Cornell glared at the back of Diane Madden's head. She'd been his friend for years, and now she was his lover. And he intended to keep her that way, damn it.

But he guessed it would be a struggle. He was well aware of Diane's propensity for building walls— immense brick walls with lots of razor wire on top— every time she got too close to someone. Especially him.

What do you mean, it doesn't count?

She was either oblivious to the dangerous note in his voice, or ignored it. She’d just emerged from the shower, her pale skin glowing and rosy, and now she shrugged as she picked up a jade green blouse and a black wool jacket she’d laid out on a chair.

Well, you know, we didn't actually do anything.

He glared harder, but she didn’t notice.  It wasn’t that he had a bad temper or anything. Really, he was a very calm guy. But Diane’s carefully casual tone was starting to aggravate him. She had a way of doing that.

Especially with the wall thing. He hated the wall thing.

Diane, he said, taking care to keep his voice calm. We spent three hours last night doing quite a lot.

Yeah, but we didn't... well... She shrugged, and pulled the green blouse over her head, rumpling her rich sable-brown hair in the process. "I mean, there was no, you know, penetration. We didn’t go all the way."

He sighed.

We talked about that, he answered, more quietly than before. He was aware of the low growl in his voice, but Diane still gave no sign that she was aware of his annoyance. Remember? We decided it was a little too soon.

Exactly. She looked back over her shoulder, smiling brightly. Too brightly, really. So it doesn't actually count.

No. Diane. He sat up and tried really hard to keep his voice steady and even. We did not avoid going all the way so you could have an easy out in the morning, okay? I was just trying not to rush you.

Not that most guys would have considered it rushing  After all, he’d known Diane for four years now—they’d first met at the law firm where they’d both worked, and even when she’d moved on to a different firm, they’d stayed close friends. But they’d never been anything more than friends… or at least they’d never admitted there was anything else between them. Last night was the first time that they’d really acknowledged their