Chapter Four: The Voice in the Dark

April - New York - Steele Industries

Three days later, Angel put on a blazer and heels and took the elevator to the executive floor. Victoria had left a terse “see you at 9am” in her inbox, but when she stepped into the glass-and-steel lobby, it was Lena who greeted her and brought her to a guest area.

Lena smile was tight and cautious. “Ms. Valentine, you look stunning today,” she said, her gaze flitting nervously over Angel’s inked skin peeking from beneath her blazer and the daring cut of her skirt.

February - New York - Angel as Mark

Dinner was already plated when Lena Park arrived. Mark (formerly Angel) wore a black-on-black best, no tie, sleeves rolled, the perfect blend of intimidating and disarming. She wore a silver slip dress, daring by her standards, paired with a blazer that she refused to remove even after two glasses of wine. Mark clocked the nervous micro-glances at his forearms, the way she tucked a stray hair behind her ear when she meant business, the tic of her heel under the table.

January - London - Mark (as Angel)

The weeks blurred into each other like smudged lipstick.

Every morning, Mark got up, put on his gym kit, and ran laps around the canals, lungs burning, legs raw. If you looked past the stares from construction workers and the old women walking their dogs, it almost felt normal. Sweat, pain, the grind. He clung to it—routine was the only thing left that felt like his.

When billionaire financier Mark Steele opens an anonymous Christmas delivery—a rare First Folio containing a strange, shimmering parchment—his meticulously controlled life begins to unravel. Across the city, Angelique “Angel” Valentine, a sharp-tongued dancer with debts, secrets, and a crippled friend to protect, is blackmailed into entertaining a mysterious guest at a corporate Christmas party. Their worlds collide in a night of lust and deception—and by morning, Mark wakes up in Angel’s body, and Angel in his.

Trapped in a life of cheap wine, bruised knees, and rent arrears, Mark must learn to survive as the woman he once dismissed. Across town, Angel revels in her new power—money, muscle, and a Manhattan skyline at her feet. But as each struggles to master the other’s world, the lines between identity, class, and desire blur. Beneath the sex and glamour lies a simple question: when you strip away money, body, and name—what’s left of the self?

Myranda Whitmore: a woman in her mid-thirties, forged of unyielding authority and raw strength. She's the ultimate manipulator—the type no one dares refuse. No one, except her son, Eric Whitmore. At 13, he mirrors her commanding gaze and unblinking resolve, yet tempers it with a sympathy and kindness forever beyond her grasp.

“Sissy Nickie: Begging to Be Pegged”

Synopsis: This is a lovely "cumming of age" story as young Nickie evolves from being a child to adulthood. Nickie and his family struggle with thoughts that he may be a Sissy; perhaps he isn’t.

The story unfolds

We ended up planning a combined graduation and wedding. I managed to find a wedding dress for three hundred dollars and spent another eighty getting it tailored down to fit me. One thing I didn’t tailor was the bust. It was designed for C or D cup boobs, and it was cheaper to buy C-cup breast forms to fill them than fix that part of the dress. And why not? It would help me look more womanly, and it was something I should have done years ago.

Girl Forgotten - Chapter Two – The Safehouse

Transgender FBI agent Julie Sanderson and deadbeat cop Bobby Keen take Caprice Capshaw, a Trans street hooker who had witnessed a murder for hire, to a safehouse. They plan to enlist Caprice as a confidential informant but Caprice has street-smarts and knows that what they are proposing is dangerous and she wants something worthwhile in return.

Girl Forgotten - Chapter One – Badass Bitch

Street hustler Caprice Capshaw is drawn into a world of intrigue, criminality and murder. After witnessing a murder for hire she is approached by FBI agent Julie Sanderson and deadbeat cop Bobby Keen who make her an offer she can't refuse.

Posting this a few days later than intended - what with getting Community Witch ready for publication, it's been a hell of a month!

My plan is to post the last 3 chapters every other Tuesday after this, and then I'll be posting chapters of a new project. :)

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The week that followed was one of the toughest he'd faced in many years.

© Maeryn Lamonte 2025

No dreams, just the sleep of the emotionally drained. It lasted all the way through to six o’clock.

“Three little maids from school are we,” blared from my phone’s small but powerful speaker, “Pert as a school-girl well can be, Filled to the brim with girlish gleeeeee. Three little maids.... from school!”

“Oh God!” I groaned.

“One little maid is a bride, Yum-Yum,” sang Alice.

Chapter 17 - The Tale of Crispin, Chancellor of Ajanabha.

[Scribe's Note: A description of Zhou Yu’s household taken from “Letters to the Emperor,” a collection of love letters and erotic tales written to the Zeeshan Emperor by his concubine and published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his reign.]

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I was raised as a boy. The first time I figured out something was wrong with that was when I was 5.

© Maeryn Lamonte 2025

© Maeryn Lamonte 2025

I was still in my nightdress when the doorbell rang the next morning. Fortunately, I’ve never quite lost the paranoia accompanying the possibility of being found out, so I always have a dressing gown nearby. This one was long enough to cover the depths of white lace currently cascading off my shoulders, so all I needed to do was pull it on and cinch the tie tight.

The traffic was still awful in London, even with half the population gone. I swore as I tried to change lanes to turn off the dual carriageway. The asshole who shot into the gap from behind put his hand out the window and mimed the wanker sign. Then, when he saw my face and my long blond hair, he almost crashed into the car in front. He gaped at me. Seeing a woman was so rare nowadays, it often had that effect on men.

Getting Eldreth's approval still didn't solve the problem of how he was going to approach Karchak - actually asking to be fucked would put him at a significant disadvantage, which he was reluctant to do. He needed a way to put Karchak off-balance beforehand if he was going to maintain enough of his dignity to be worth the humiliation.

Prelude: The Rise of Lián Xuě

They whispered her name in hushed tones long before she ascended to the throne, a name that danced on the lips of those who dreamed of power and destiny. Lián Xuě (蓮雪), the Lotus Snow, evoked images of serene beauty and ethereal grace, a rare bloom untouched by the harshness of the world.