The Date

By Julienne Holmes

In Carlington, a parallel universe, where shape-shifters and other magical creatures co-exist among humans, there is an unlikely romance brewing between two very different individuals.

Joanna, a temp, has already experienced the painful heartbreak of betrayal and is looking for an enticing love with someone who will, not just accept her, but love her.

Wyatt, a successful werewolf, has invested all his time in his business. Yet, now, he's looking for his true mate.

What both don't know is that finding that perfect someone, can be as simple as turning on their computer and logging into a special dating site.

Will a loving blissful romance be within these twos grasp? Or will the prospect of romantic bliss still be out of reach for both?

Who can tell, unless you read:
The Date

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julienne Holmes
• Release date: Mar 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311210043

Julienne Holmes

There's really not much to say about me. I'm a self-published, struggling, writer who, thus far, has had ten books published. I do plan on eventually writing more. Yet, I'm having problems with life's everyday ups and downs. At this time I'm using more than one self- e-book -publisher. While I'm hopeful that things will start to look up, I'm also pessimistic about my future.

Book preview

The Date

Julienne Ruth Holmes

Published by Julienne Holmes at Smashwords

Copyright 2014 Julienne Holmes

To all the lovers of romance and those who might love a little magical spice in their life.

Chapter One

Joanna happily clapped her hands together, like a little girl in a candy store, when she saw that loverwolf was on-line. She had met the charming werewolf when she had joined The Inter-Creature Dating site. At first the site had only been available to magical creatures: shape shifters, fairies, goblins, witches, and so forth. Mortals were not permitted to sign up on these dating sites, but that all changed when a bill came out that stated that all magical creature dating sites had to open their websites up to humans and vice versa.

Joanna's family had all but been appalled by her decision to join this dating site. Yet, the problem with dating, was that men, in the mortal sense, hadn't changed much since the turn of the century. There were times, when Joanna had contemplated whether or not every mortal male on the face of the planet was some sort of sex crazed animal. Her faith in men, in general, was beginning to crumble and she was practically to the point of throwing in the towel and giving up on men altogether. This was of course before, she had joined The Inter-Creature Dating site and met loverwolf.

When she had first joined this dating site, her cousin, Emily, had charitably informed her that some magical males had the uncanny habit of being worse ass-holes than the mortal males that Joanna had dated in the past. Even though Joanna loved her cousin, she wasn't too happy to heed her advice. Yet, she realized that if anyone would be an expert in this kind of dating it would be Emily. For Emily had found that she was more attracted to shape-shifters than mortal males, and, even though those shape-shifters were instantly attracted to the blonde bombshell, more times out of ten they would use her for that none too descriptive term that mortal females referred to as a booty call. Emily hadn't wanted to point this little downside out to Joanna, but felt that it was her cousinly duty to do so. She warned Joanna that if she was able to get a few of the magical males to talk to her, she would probably have the misfortune of being used for the booty call purpose.

It was because of her cousin's none too gallant advice, that Joanna had opted out of putting a picture on her profile. Yet, bless Emily's little black heart, and her inability to keep her mouth shut, she decided to also inform Joanna of the downside for doing this. A picture could discourage the magical males into instantly looking at her human status. Once they saw her picture, they, at least according to Emily, would instantly want to chat with her. No picture would have them cautiously swaying away from her because their gaze would be quickly drawn to her species status, instead of her picture.

Joanna had to give Emily some credit, because, in the beginning, her cousin had been right. When she had first logged on to the site, none of the creatures on it wanted to even chat with her. A few had pointed out that they would, if she put a picture of herself on her profile. Yet, stubbornly, she had decided to ignore their advice. There had been times, though, that she had been tempted. Like when she had tried to enter a few of the chat rooms, but had been instantly blocked. She knew the main reason for them blocking her had to do a lot with her being human. A fact that she couldn't have lied about, even if she had wanted to. To join the site, she had had to fill out all of the form and not putting down anything in the blank that had said Species was not an option. At first, Joanna had thought The Inter-Creature dating site a lost cause, yet, when she had practically lost all hope, that was when loverwolf Instant Messaged her.

It had been a total surprise when his chat box popped up on her screen, but once she had gotten over the initial shock, she began chatting with him. The friendship between her and loverwolf didn't start off in that direction; in fact it started off somewhat bumpy. In the beginning he had mostly asked her questions and trying to be nice and sociable she had replied with short, brief, answers. In her effort to be cordial with him, she had been wary of his intentions. Of course she hadn't been mean to him, but his Internet name had been one that was similar to another individual that she had met on a previous dating site.

Before joining The Inter-creature dating site, she had become acquainted with a man whose Internet name was loverboy. At first he seem genuinely nice. Someone that she had been tempted to introduce to her family. Yet, as she got to know him better, she realized that he was actually a major pervert. He wanted her to put naked pictures of herself on her profile page and use her web camera to do sexual perverse things. Of course that had ended the friendly, chatty, relationship and Joanna had hoped that if he hadn't already lost her phone number, then maybe he could develop a serious case of amnesia over who she was.

As it turned out, though, it was easier said than done; he just didn't get the hint that she wanted nothing further to do with him. At one point, he got so bad, bombarding her cell with harassing phone calls, that after awhile she thought that she would have to not only terminate her cell phone, but change her phone number. Yet, after about two months of just ignoring his phone calls, and canceling her membership on that particular dating site, he finally stopped.

Once Joanna had gotten to know loverwolf better, from chatting with him, she realized, from reading his numerous chats to her, that there were differences between him and loverboy's IMs. For one, she could honestly say that loverwolf's IMs had more of an adult maturity; while loverboy had been leaning toward more a teenaged immaturity. Of course, it still had taken a few days for her to get over the initial suspicion of thinking loverwolf could be the same person. Yet, once she realized that he wasn't, she relaxed more and become more acquainted with him.

When he had proposed that they talk on the phone, though, she had instantly hesitated about giving her phone number to him. The whole loverboy incident had left her slightly cautious over who she gave her number to. Yet, after two weeks of just chatting on the computer, she finally bolted and gave him her phone number, which, she was now, not at all disappointed for him having. The first time she talked to him, she instantly noticed how sensually enticing his voice was. Just hearing him, made her dizzy with hopeful anticipation. His voice had away of sensually caressing her to the point that he could bring her out of her shy shell, which had ruined so many past relationships. He could fill her, without even needing to physically touch her, with this unbearable desire that left her breathless.

What made this relationship so enticing, was the fact that loverwolf didn't chastise her for being too shy. Another enticing factor, was that their relationship wasn't at all a complicated one. Neither one minded if the other had prier or ongoing relationships, and, if by chance they met someone, they would still want to be friends. Another key aspect about their relationship was that they didn't talk about politics or anything that would cause each of them to exchange heated words; on the computer and on the phone it was just plain conversation. What also made the relationship ideal, was that there wasn't that constant judging of appearances. Neither one wanted to see the others picture or know what each others real names was; loverwolf knew Joanna as her Internet name shygirl and she knew him as his. They talked, laughed, and confided to each other about their problems; ultimately they were a comfort to one another, in a sense that they could depend upon their friendship when they needed it.

After one too many disastrous dates from mortal men, Joanna had finally come to the conclusion to close out, with the exception of The Inter-Creature dating site, her accounts on all the other dating sites that she had signed up for. Besides, she already spent most of her time talking to loverwolf and, even though they had never met, she felt more acquainted with the charming werewolf than with the men she had actually gone out with.

It took tonight's disastrous date, for Joanna to be even more excited about hearing from her confidant. Her best friend, Angela, had set her up with a colleague from work. Angela had bragged about what a nice guy, her colleague, was. Yet, if he had been truly a nice guy, he wouldn't have stood her up. Taking off her short black dress and donning her robe, Joanna looked at her computer screen again to see that loverwolf was in the process of messaging her.

She smiled and after sitting down, across from her computer, she read what he wrote. So how was your date? the screen read in bold black letters, with a happy face to follow.

Smiling sadly, she replied to his message, by typing, It was okay...

Just okay?

Sighing, Joanna decided to change the subject; for she really didn't want to talk about it. So what did you do tonight?

For a few minutes, the screen was blank, and then, I ask you first. Tell me how your date was, I really want to know?

There was one thing that Joanna liked and, at the same time, disliked about loverwolf, and that was, when he sensed that something was wrong, he could be very forceful, either on the computer or the phone, at getting her to confide to him what was bothering her. Hesitating, she finally typed, He stood me up...

Joanna perplexedly stared at the computer screen, waiting for loverwolf to reply. She practically jumped out of her chair, when she heard that familiar jingle of her cellphone. Flipping it open she said, Hello...

Hello, Shygirl. Why did he stand you up?

Going over to the bed, she stretched out on it. I don't know... she began. Maybe he took one look at me and took off.

He didn't even call to tell you why?

Sitting up, she looked down at her knees, she didn't know how to answer him. To Joanna, being stood up wasn't so bad, maybe it stun the first time, but after a few more time of it happening, it became a fact of life, shit happens, and certain people were just careless when it come to another individual's feelings. The way Joanna saw it, was that it didn't hurt unless she had had a real emotional stake in the whole thing. As it was, she didn't even know this guy; she hadn't met him off of a dating site. She'd been setup on this date by her best friend, which, if she had been given the chance to think about it, she would have bucked at this whole blind date proposal. If anything she had an unbearable curiosity to meet loverwolf, not someone who turned out to be a total no-show.

Yet, even though she had an unbelievable curiosity to meet her loverwolf, she was afraid that he would be entirely different than the person she had already become acquainted with over the phone and computer.

After a few minutes of not hearing Joanna's sweet voice, loverwolf realized that he was the only one doing most of the talking. He wasn't sure if he'd lost the call or if something he'd said made shygirl hang up on him. You still there? Shygirl?

It took loverwolf's wonderfully smooth sensual voice, to instantly snap Joanna out of her preoccupied thoughts. I'm still here, loverwolf.

He chuckled, I thought I lost you there for a minute.

Smiling to herself, she said, No...I was just thinking...

About what?

About you... embarrassingly she put her hand over her mouth. I mean about...that didn't sound right...I...

Loverwolf chuckled. I know what you meant shygirl and I've been thinking about you too; a lot.

Blushing, Joanna wrapped a strand of her long, wavy, auburn hair around her finger. You have?

"Yea...In fact...I...I have a question to ask you...Now you can say no if you're not ready and if you need a little