The year is 1883. Eduard van De Lier is a Dutchman overseeing a spice plantation on the island of Java, in the South Pacific. His obsessive attraction to dark-skinned men is just one of his many secrets. His wife Marien knows of his indiscretions, but as she's content with their Colonial lifestyle, she stays silent. Until a former lover of Eduard's shows up in their parlor with thoughts of blackmail. Reza was a crewman on the ship that brought the van De Liers to Java. During the passage, Eduard spent many a night in the younger man's arms. Two years have passed, and the last person Eduard expects to find in his drawing room is Reza, a letter in hand that could destroy the life he and Marien lead. Seeing him again ignites Eduard's lust for his first dark lover. He hopes to retrieve the letter, either through seduction or subterfuge, and the longer Reza eludes him, the more his desire grows. But they're on shaky ground, and before things can heat up between them, their world explodes -- literally -- when the unstable island of Krakatoa erupts.

All Shook Up

So I’ll stick to the interstates, take the bridge into Jersey, then hop on Route 47 at Malaga and follow it down through Cape May, come at the island from Rio Grande. I toy with the idea of stopping at Cape May Courthouse to see my mom, but I didn’t think to ask Joey what room she was in and I’m not really sure I want to see her alone anyway. I don’t want to see her at all, to be honest, not in a hospital bed, dressed in her pjs and hooked up to machines that blip, tubes snaking out of her frail arms.


Chapter 7