Free Fiction Monday: Winter Fruit

Adrienne hides a secret face from the world:  she craves eating with an insatiable, magical hunger.  Only her husband, Miklos, an undertaker, knows the truth.  And yet loves her, passionately.  Because of her appetites, not in spite of them.

Then Miklos dies of a heart attack, and his brother Andros, the owner of the family Greek restaurant, creates a feast that tests Adrienne’s resistance to the core.  Andros has somehow learned Adrienne’s secret.  He wants to possess her, all of her, flesh and bone, and now Miklos isn’t there to stop him.  But he wants more than just Adrienne…

Someone removed Miklos’s  great bull of a heart from his chest after he died.  And Andros thinks Adrienne might have done something horrible with it.  Adrienne must discover what rules her:  her love of Miklos, or her appetites…

“Winter Fruit” will be free here for one week only, but you can also buy a copy at B&N, Amazon, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo, Powell’s and more.

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Winter Fruit

 

Miklos had always wanted an old-fashioned Catholic funeral, with incense and a tomb, so he’d converted a few years ago, when the doctor started to warn him about his heart. He didn’t change his diet.

The tomb was cold, but not actually unpleasant.

I locked the door of the tomb behind him and placed the key on a black ribbon inside my dress, singing an old song under my breath. Outside the tomb, it was cold but sunny, and a light breeze played with the black silk scarf covering my hair.

I had to choke back an appalling giggle. Miklos would tell horrible jokes at funerals—the one about switching heads—the one about the man who wanted to be buried with his money, so his wife wrote him a check—

Andros stood next to me with his hand on my shoulder, squeezing hard. The family looked like dancers at a costume ball wearing masks of tragedy, which would soon be cast aside for the hideous grimaces of comedy at the dinner.

If only they had known how hungry I was.

{snip!  this free fiction is over for the week–if you’d like a copy, please purchase it at your favorite online bookstore}