Preview: Impressionable Minds: Part 2 (Patreon)

This is a preview of my newest story, another sequel, which will be available for purchase on Amazon in the coming weeks. It's a sequel to a previous entry featuring a mysterious, borderline demonic creature with powers even more undeniable and reality bending than any other master manipulator we've seen before: the Stranger.

Synopsis: In a puff of smoke, the Stranger appears on the hot concrete of a residential neighborhood in Palm Springs, in a part of town once beloved by families but has since been taken over by speculators and investors who've turned the town's charm into a short-term rental property haven.

In one of these rentals we find the Hartley family: Dylan, the young engineer, and his new wife, Aubrey Kim-Hartley. Joining them on their getaway are Dylan's parents, Mark, the silent, analytical type, and his mother, Reese, a hotshot Texas realtor.

After persuading his way into their short-term rental, the Stranger makes quick work of Mark and Dylan, sending them away for the evening to allow the two Hartley women some alone time and a chance to re-examine their relationship.

****

Something was wrong. Something was horribly, dangerously wrong. 

Reese knew it in her bones. The man—the Stranger—wasn’t right. His voice was too smooth yet jagged, his presence too still yet chaotic. 

The moment the men had left their wives, the moment they abandoned them with this mysterious presence, the air inside the rental home had changed. It wasn’t just the silence or the tension, it was him.

And yet...

She could feel the heat rising beneath her skin.

Reese looked at Aubrey, really looked at her, and was suddenly struck by how insanely beautiful she was. 

She’d always noticed, in a casual way. But this was different. 

Her youthful, tawny skin was flawless, golden from birth and dewy from the heat of the house. Her cheekbones were soft and smooth, her dark eyes wide and sincere. The curve of her collarbone above her pale dress, the delicate way her hands rested in her lap, the faint tremble of her lower lip—it was all so incredibly feminine, so intoxicating.

The way she sat: prim but flushed. The look in her eyes, the tremor in her voice…

Reese’s thoughts tangled.

She wanted to say something sharp. To stop this. To tell Aubrey she was crazy. To tell the Stranger he was unwanted. That they were being played with, pulled into some impossible situation.

But her mouth stayed dry. Her tongue pressed to the roof of it, heavy and uncooperative.

And her eyes… her eyes kept wandering, her mind kept directing her to new features to appraise.

Down Aubrey’s arms. The smoothness of her shoulders. The delicate build of her body, compact, sculpted. The graceful sort of figure that seemed effortless. Her features had always been striking: those unmistakable Korean traits, the angled eyes, the gentle strength of her expression, the long black lashes, the high cheekbones. And now, for reasons Reese could no longer deny or even understand, she found herself overwhelmed by all of it.

She felt her breath catch.

A slow burn was building in her chest, in her stomach.

Reese’s fingers twitched at her side. Her knuckles trembled.

Aubrey was still watching her. Eyes soft. Wide. Glowing.

Reese’s voice came low, rough, barely audible.

“What else do you like?”