Modern Shorts: A Contemporary Romance Collection

By Regina Kammer

Modern Shorts: A Contemporary Romance Collection features all five of Regina Kammer’s contemporary romance short stories, tales exploring the possibilities of love in this modern age.

The possibility...
Of loss.
Of a proposition.
Of a dinner date.
Of a fantasy.
Of the hottie next door.

...The possibility of romance in a chaotic world.

Modern Shorts: A Contemporary Romance Collection has five steamy contemporary shorts with seasoned heroes and heroines in their prime.

The collection includes the following previously published short stories:

Silent Sky
A moody romance set in California on September 11, 2001. The possibility of loss spurs a woman to reminisce about her once-perfect marriage.

An Age Play
During a research trip to England, Regency romance author Jean is propositioned by a young man. But what will Jean’s husband say?

Object
A dinner date with his girlfriend in San Francisco becomes something more than Nigel bargained for.

Orcas
A lawyer vacationing on Orcas Island finds stress relief in a hot tub and fantasies of a honed cyclist.

Window Display
In this tale of unexpected voyeurism and romance set in Zurich, Switzerland, an American scholar trying to finish her dissertation finds her room has a very distracting view.

These acclaimed contemporary romance shorts from award-winning author Regina Kammer have been compiled together for the first time. Themes include second chance romance, vacation romance, seasoned romance, all with a hint of spice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Regina Kammer
• Release date: Jan 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463696040

Regina Kammer

Regina Kammer is a librarian, an art historian, and an award-winning, international best-selling, multi-published writer of provocative historical romance and contemporary romance with a touch of history. Her short stories and novels make history sexier, whether the era is Roman, Byzantine, Viking, American Revolution, or Victorian. She’s even sexed up contemporary settings, Steampunk, and Greco-Roman mythology. She has been published by Cleis Press, Go Deeper Press, Ellora’s Cave, House of Erotica, Story Ink, Loose Id, The Naughty Literati, and her own imprint, Viridium Press. She began writing historical fiction with romantic elements during National Novel Writing Month 2006, switching to erotica when all her characters suddenly demanded to have sex.Keep up with Regina via her newsletter: https://reginakammer.com/newsletter/

Book preview

Modern Shorts

A Contemporary Romance Collection

Five contemporary romance short stories by award-winning author

Regina Kammer

Viridium Press

Copyright

Modern Shorts: A Contemporary Romance Collection is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Collection copyright ©2019 by Regina Kammer

Silent Sky ©2015, minor revisions ©2019 by Regina Kammer. First appeared in Naughty Reunions: Return to Romance published by the Naughty Literati.

An Age Play ©2010, minor revisions ©2019 by Regina Kammer. First appeared in Sweet Confessions: Erotic Fantasies for Couples published by Cleis Press.

Object ©2013, minor revisions ©2019 by Regina Kammer. First appeared in The Big Book of Submission, Volume 1: 69 Kinky Tales published by Cleis Press.

Orcas ©2014, minor revisions ©2019 by Regina Kammer. First appeared in Begging For It: Erotic Fantasies for Women published by Cleis Press.

Window Display ©2015, minor revisions ©2019 by Regina Kammer. First appeared in Naughty Escapes: Eleven Naughty Vacation Getaways published by the Naughty Literati.

Cover design by Regina Kammer

Cover images: Regina Kammer; Depositphotos

All Rights Reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Published by Viridium Press, Friday Harbor, Washington

Contemporary romance by Regina Kammer

Resistance: A Common Elements Romance

Undamaged (Stories from the San Juan Islands)

Modern Shorts: A Contemporary Romance Collection

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Preface

I remember the day in 2010, when I got my acceptance letter for An Age Play to appear in the anthology Sweet Confessions: Erotic Fantasies for Couples. I was thrilled! The publication of this story launched my career as an author of short-format romance and erotica.

Since then, I have written eighteen such stories, from 500-word flash fiction to 10,000-word novelettes. Writing short stories can be a challenge. The format means every word has to count, the right word has to be chosen, the plot a mere snapshot of time. The tale told is unburdened by extraneous backstory, complex explanations of motivation, or lengthy narrative prose.

Because the author has to leave so much out, the reader’s imagination becomes an active participant in the story.

This collection is comprised of five of my short stories, each with a contemporary setting and heterosexual liaisons, ranging from romance to erotica. Themes include exploring sexual fantasies, taking sensual risks, deepening relationships. Each story is written in first person with a woman in her prime (that is, thirty-five years or older) as the central heroine. Except Object. Object is the outlier as it is written in third person from a male point-of-view.

Silent Sky is a moody romance set in California on September 11, 2001. The possibility of loss spurs a woman to reminisce about her once-perfect marriage. It was originally published by the Naughty Literati in Naughty Reunions: Return to Romance, then republished in Getting Naughty: Twenty Tantalizing Tales.

As stated above, An Age Play first appeared in Sweet Confessions: Erotic Fantasies for Couples published by Cleis Press. Romance author Jean is propositioned by a young man eager for her sensual expertise. But what will Jean’s husband say?

In Object, a dinner date with his girlfriend becomes something more than Nigel bargained for. At 1200 words, this is the shortest of the stories in this collection, although the word count puts it on the upper boundary of flash fiction. The story first appeared in The Big Book of Submission, Volume 1: 69 Kinky Tales published by Cleis Press.

Orcas, an erotica short set on Orcas Island, is one of my Stories from the San Juan Islands. It first appeared in Begging For It: Erotic Fantasies for Women published by Cleis Press. A lawyer on vacation finds stress relief in a hot tub and fantasies of a honed cyclist.

Finally is Window Display which was really fun to write. In this tale of unexpected voyeurism and romance set in Zurich, Switzerland, an American scholar trying to finish her dissertation finds her room has a very distracting view. The story was originally published by the Naughty Literati in Naughty Escapes: Eleven Naughty Vacation Getaways, then republished in Getting Naughty: Twenty Tantalizing Tales.

I’ve been wanting to unite these five contemporary stories in one volume for a while now. I am happy to finally present Modern Shorts to my readers.

Enjoy!

Silent Sky

Dedication

To David, who survived 9/11 but did not survive New York. You are missed.

The phone rang the moment I stumbled through the front door after Tuesday morning power yoga-cise.

Jennie?

Mom. She was calling way too early.

Crap. Somebody must’ve died.

Before I could respond, her voice cracked and trembled at the other end of the receiver. Turn on the TV. Turn it on. Oh God.

She hung up in a haze of sobs.

I turned on the television. It was on every channel. Every fucking channel. Even the weird ones people who don’t have cable are subjected to.

Something terrible had happened in New York City. Something unimaginable had taken place three thousand miles away. The news anchor was barely holding it together as images of destruction and chaos flickered across the screen.

I sank down onto the couch, dread oozing from my twisting gut.

Scott was in New York City.

He had a meeting in one of those twin towers.

My lungs constricted, threatening to choke my heart. I stared at the TV, my eyes watering, not blinking. One tower had collapsed. The other still stood, burning, spewing a plume of thick black smoke into the clear blue sky.

Oh God, please let Scott be in that one. Please, God, please.

But God wasn’t listening to the prayers of a lapsed Catholic at that moment.

Because the second tower collapsed.

I tried to breathe. I tried to stop the room from spinning, the image on the TV from getting fuzzy and gray.

But then everything went black.

*****

I woke up on the floor of the living room, the TV still blaring the apocalypse. I turned it off.

The kitchen clock ticked off the seconds. I had been passed out for two hours. Something—probably habit—motivated me to take a shower and change my clothes.

A message blinked on the answering machine. My office manager Stephanie telling me to not bother coming in.

Transit’s not running anyway. Mr. Lefkowitz wants everyone to stay home with their loved ones.

Loved ones.

Shit.

I wandered aimlessly through the house, blinking back the burn of impending tears, trying to ignore the photos hanging in the hallway or perched on the dresser. But it was no use. Every single damn object in the house was fraught with the history of my life with Scott. In the kitchen, the set of espresso cups purchased on our trip to Italy. In the bathroom, the silly fashion magazine he teased me about. I ran my finger over the smooth cherry wood of our dining room built-ins, catching the chipped glass knob he cut his finger on. In the entryway, I hugged his favorite brown corduroy coat hanging on the rack we bought at the