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

I’m not as strong as everyone thinks I am. 4


Joey stops to pick up cheesesteaks at Big Al’s for dinner. I’m not hungry but I eat anyway, staring at the oil that drips from the end of my hoagie onto the messy foil the sandwich came wrapped in. The three of us sit at the kitchen table, each lost in his own thoughts. My dad still isn’t speaking to me, but I’m not surprised. I ignore his silence, and the way Joey keeps glancing from me to him and back again as if he’s watching a tennis match, waiting for the next serve. When my dad finishes his cheesesteak and balls up his foil wrapper, Joey asks, “How about a game?”


Chapter 17