Moments In Time: A Collection of Short Fiction by Dominic K. Alexander, Kahlen Aymes, Daryl Banner, C.C. Brown, Chelsea Camaron, Karina Halle, Lisa M. Harley, Nicole Jacquelyn, Sophie Monroe, Amber Lynn Natusch Read Free Book Online Page B

Queen was exiled. England was reborn, and Italy helped shape a more positive future for Western Europe.
    Thomas and Mary lived out their remaining days in Rome, where he could be close to work. Several months after moving there, she gave birth to a baby boy. Thomas could not have been happier. The burly red-haired boy was every bit the man his father was, and he loved to tinker and learn about new technology. He filled the void in Mary’s heart she’d thought would never go away.

About the Author
    Dominic K. Alexander is just a regular guy who found a box of crayons and a pack of paper and decided to put them to good use.
    Dominic may be found on social media at:
    Facebook: Dominic K. Alexander
    Twitter: @DKABooks
    Books by Dominic K. Alexander include:
    The Mac Blackburn Series
    City of Steam (coming soon)
     

Baby Special
    An Alex and Cassie Short Story
    by C.C. Brown
    A gung-ho Marine learns to adapt to a situation beyond his control as his wife gives birth to their first child.
     

“Come on, Cassie. Keep walking. The doctor says you need to walk.”
    We were probably on our fourth lap around the course I’d mapped out for us. Cassie was in her last week of pregnancy, uncomfortable, and overly fucking cranky. She wanted the baby out, and was making my life fucking miserable until it happened.
    Cassie and I met under what the Marine Corps would con sider unbecoming circumstances. She was fresh in the Corps, a lowly private first class, and I was her communications instructor, a sergeant at the time, and outside of teaching and learning, our interaction was to be nonexistent.
    Unfortu nately, the rules on paper didn’t exactly mesh with what I felt for her. She had an insanely beautiful smile that hit me like a strike of lightning, a pair of long, sun-kissed legs, and a body that damn near knocked me off my feet. All of it was my undoing. I couldn’t help but break the damn rules, and even with the looming threat of punishment and everything that I knew could and would happen to us, I just couldn’t give any fucks to care. There was just something about her that ferociously held me until I had her, and even then, our connection only grew stronger. Even with every bit of love and devotion I had for the Corps, it was no match for Cassie.
    “Alex! We’ve walked long enough. I’m sweating, I’m cramping, and I just want to go home.”
    “One more time around, babe. Then I promise I’ll take you home.”
    She stopped, placing her hands on her swollen, protruding belly, then grimaced, causing panic to race through me.
    “Are you okay, babe? Are you okay?”
    Cassie blew out a few breaths, effectively taking my breath away with each one. I hated seeing her in pain, and I had no idea what to look for. If she was in real labor or having those .  . . whatever the hell the doctor called them—Braxton something. It looked real to me, and had been looking this way for a few weeks now.
    I was on pins and needles. Every moan, groan, or frown was met with what Cassie called unnecessary overreaction . I didn’t see it that way. I wasn’t a doctor, nor had I ever been around for this, so I felt justified in my frequent freak-outs. My wife, the woman I loved more than anyone else on Earth, would be bringing a piece of me into the world. I wasn’t taking any chances.
    “I’m fine, Alex. I need to go home, though. I’m not doing any more laps.”
    A crease in her forehead, furrowed brows, and a pout of her normally perfect lips told me she wasn’t fucking around, and I’d be regretting it later if I pushed her any further.
    “All right. Let’s head back home.”
    Before I could reach out for her, she had turned and slowly started the long, torturous walk back to our home. I felt bad, looking back on it, that I had brought her out this far in the heat, when she was feeling like shit run over twice. She looked every bit as miserable as she appeared, and knowing I was partly to blame only made me feel like more of an