Eloise

By Victoria Michelle

Young jewelry store assistant Gloria "Glory" Braithewaite is in a dead-end relationship with a no-hope, out-of-work, cheating boyfriend. She's bored with him and with her life...until one wet and dreary day, when her boss is gone to lunch and Eloise Smart walks into the shop.. Eloise is stunningly beautiful, all the things Glory isn't—confidant, dominant, flirtatious—and she appears to be smitten with Glory. Strangely, Glory is excited by the woman's attentions and stunned to realize her submissive nature is eager to play, but will she allow herself to be seduced?

• Language: Unknown
• Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
• Release date: Oct 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781509222025

Victoria Michelle

I was born in the UK, what seems like an epoch ago, and moved to Australia at age 16. I was a long haired rock guitarist and poet/songwriter, before real life got in the way, and I gave it all up for love. I've always felt I had tales to tell and won short story competitions and published poetry in my wilder, younger days. More recently I've written and published five novels. While they have all been Police procedural thrillers, mainly focusing on Serial killers, they all have a love theme running through them. I believe love, and family are everything. Anything else you gain in life is a bonus. I live in Perth, in Western Australia and am fiercely patriotic, and parochial. My wife is amazing in that she not only puts up with living with a writer, but encourages it. I've been blessed with five children, and I adore them all.

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You

Eloise

by

Victoria Michelle

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

Eloise

COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Victoria Michelle

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Contact Information: [e-mail]

Cover Art by Diana Carlile

The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

PO Box 708

Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708

Visit us at www.thewilderroses.com

Publishing History

First Scarlet Rose Edition, 2018

Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-2202-5

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

Thank you to Melanie Billings, for reading my story of Glory and wanting to help bring her to life. I will always be indebted to you, Melanie.

Thanks to Shannon Coombs, my very first editor, who invited me to submit a story in this genre and liked what she read.

Of course, I’d also like to thank my family, for putting up with me and offering support in my quest to become an author—thanks guys, I love you all.

Eloise

It was just another dreary midweek rain-filled day on High Street, as I looked through the shop window and wondered for the umpteenth time if we were going to get any customers. I needed someone, anyone, to provide a cure for my boredom, but the way it looked, the rain was going to keep shoppers away in droves until closing time.

Mr. Baines, my boss at the small family-owned jewelry shop where I worked, forbade me from having my mobile phone in the shop with me, bugger the man. So, that couldn’t help pass the time. I had dusted and tidied up twice, so all I could do was stand around and watch the few people who were out and about dodge the puddles and dash between shop overhangs to avoid getting too wet.

Some had umbrellas, and here and there I could see different colored domes hiding faces and bobbing along the streets, while below them high-heeled boots clip-clopped along, raising droplets when they sloshed down in the puddles, and oh-my-God was I bored?

Mind you, I kept reminding myself, at least I have a job, unlike most of the friends I had been at school with. And Mr. Baines wasn’t so bad to work for, though he’d be a whole lot better if only he would let me have my phone so I could use my social media during the quiet periods. Then my life wouldn’t be so bad. At the very least I could text my lazy boyfriend and find out what he was doing. I had the feeling of late he wasn’t just hanging out with his mates, smoking weed and playing violent games on his gaming machine. I had the distinct feeling he was screwing Rachel Longbottom, the slag. I used to consider her to be a friend, but every time I saw her lately she wore this kind of smirk on her face, and had a knowing sly look in her eye. To be honest, I didn’t much care if she was fucking him, Because of late I had been coming around to mum and dad’s way of thinking that I could do quite a lot better than Haydon.

Maybe it’s time to move on from him anyway, I daydreamed, as I polished an imaginary speck of dust from the glass counter top.

Of the old crew of ten I was in with at Ascot Modern High school, only two of us were working. So, guess who had to buy the beers on a Friday night? Sure, life was tough, and it was hard for eighteen- and nineteen-year-olds to get work, but maybe if they just tried a bit harder?

Gawd, now I’m sounding like my mum.

Glory, Mr. Baines said, to break my trance-like state.

Seriously, why couldn’t he call me Gloria, which was my name after all? It so annoyed me. Glory