Azure Masquerade

By Megan Hussey

The Midnight Merman enjoys nocturnal swims in Port Emerald, captivating swimmers with his mysterious beauty. Yet the merman—also known as Taron Andrews—loves only Lillith, his college sweetheart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
• Release date: Oct 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781612353104

Megan Hussey

Megan Hussey is a feminist erotica writer and editor with nine single-title ebooks, twelve anthology stories, an erotic audio CD, and seven paperback novels in print. From mermen to vampires, Megan's stories feature sexy, kind-natured heroes and strong, real woman heroines. Megan won an Honorable Mention for Love Romances and More Cafe's 2007 Vampire Book of the Year award, for her book "Under Cover of Night: The First Book of Nuit". She was also a nominee for the Erotic Romance Reviews for Women Golden Shoe Award; and her book The One that Got Away received a Recommended Read rating from the Erotica Readers and Writers Association. She lives in Florida.

Book preview

Chapter One

The sight of ruby-hued rose petals, strewn with sensual abandon across sheets of azure satin, always aroused Lillith Munroe.

Yet on this evening, with these sheets bathed in the golden rays of a forlorn, solitary moon, this arousal became tinged with an undeniable sadness. In evenings past, Lillith shared the soft, slick sheets of her Victorian four-poster bed with her husband Gregory. The two tumbled often into the luxurious depths of their bed, prompting Lillith to stare wondrously at the silken pastel canopy that oversaw their nightly trysts.

Although a happily and properly married couple, they never gave up on caressing, flirting, or, if the mood hit, even making love.

During the course of their five-year union, they exchanged their modest college apartment at Port Emerald University for an expansive, two-story, ivory-hued home on nearby Port Emerald Beach. And they traded in their student ID cards for a small business license. Their rec room became a home office for the fastly growing Munroe Marketing Firm. And the multicolored rock’n’roll poster that once adorned their ceiling was replaced with a luminous, two-tiered chandelier.

Even so, the couple never stopped ‘making out’ or ‘sneaking around’—sometimes even venturing into the velvet-upholstered backseat of Gregory’s restored 1945 Rolls Royce.

Although admittedly the site of some interesting marital memories, Lillith now hoped with fervor that she would never see the car again; though she knew in her heart that the Rolls was not responsible for her husband’s deadly accident.

Six months ago, the actions of a drunken, reckless driver ended Gregory’s life. As a blissfully unaware Lillith lay asleep in the couple’s bed, her husband’s car was pummeled in a violent collision on a dark, rainy road.

That was the last night he lived, thought Lillith. And the last night I truly slept.

Even so, it helped sometimes to play the old jazz CDs, pour the glass of crystalline champagne, and coat their sheets with a fresh supply of radiant rose petals in bloom.

Just so something in this house feels alive, she thought.

The decorative French doors that bordered Lillith’s master bedroom suffused the next morning with a kaleidoscope of light, rays adorned beautifully by a Florida sun.

She shifted slightly in her bed, finally sitting up to greet the morning with a smile, something she hadn’t wanted to do since her husband died many long months ago.

Despite the great temptation to do so, I can’t lie here wrapped up in my sheets like a mummified pasta shell, she mused. After all, if Gregory and I are going to work in a morning jog…

Suddenly, she fell back