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

Or at least out of the car. Off the road, if nothing else. How I feel about actually being hereas opposed to anywhere else at the moment still waits to be seen.


On the way up to our floor, I mull over the last conversation I had with Timothy. On the phone, in my parents’ bedroom. It wasn’t a badcall, I don’t think, but it wasn’t exactly great, either. Things between us were strained, for the most part, and I’m sure a lot of it is my fault. I just don’t know how to make it up to him, after all this time. It’s so easy to fall in with who I’ve always been before. He makes it easy to argue with him, to piss him off. Why should the burden of fixing our relationship rest solely with me?


Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Maybe he’ll be happy to see me—there’s always a first time for everything. Maybe he’ll be glad that I’m home.


Chapter 53