Separated in time. United by forbidden passion… When an ancient papyrus scroll comes up for auction, gallery curator Cait Lang draws the distasteful task of notifying her boss’s favorite client, Grant Pierson. The rare art and antiquities collector’s arrogance grates on her nerves, but most of all she resents her own weakness for his athletic body and deep brown eyes. It’s the hieroglyphic scroll that draws Grant to a private, after-hours showing at the gallery. But the lovely Cait’s narration of the erotically charged story captures his interest. Determined to hear the rest of the tale-and spend more time in Cait’s company-he convinces her to join him for dinner. The intricate, sensual tale transports Cait’s and Grant’s imaginations into the past. And the depictions of sexually charged temple rituals inspire them to explore their own hidden passions-in Cait’s apartment. Even as Grant succumbs to Cait’s charms, the drive to own the scroll hums in the back of his mind. If he isn’t careful, though, he’ll not only lose the chance to hear the end of the story, he’ll lose something more precious. The missing piece of his own life-Cait.

John Collier's edgy, sardonic tales are works of rare wit, curious insight, and scary implication. They stand out as one of the pinnacles in the critically neglected but perennially popular tradition of weird writing that includes E.T.A. Hoffmann and Charles Dickens as well as more recent masters like Jorge Luis Borges and Roald Dahl. With a cast of characters that ranges from man-eating flora to disgruntled devils and suburban salarymen (not that it's always easy to tell one from another), Collier's dazzling stories explore the implacable logic of lunacy, revealing a surreal landscape whose unstable surface is depth-charged with surprise.

Some of the stories in this book have been printed in The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and Harper's Magazine; some of them have previously been gathered into a volume called Presenting Moonshine (published by the Viking Press, New York, 1941), and a volume called The Devil and All (published by the Nonesuch Press, London, 1934). Witch's Money was published as a separate volume, for private distribution, in December 1940. The Touch of Nutmeg, copyright, 1943, by The Readers Club. "Gavin O'Leary," copyright, 1945, by H. Allen Smith

All London knew her as "Her Highness", the fiery temptress who robbed men of their gold.

But it was proud, untouched Noelle Dorian who was cruelly abducted by Quinn Copeland, the rugged American shipping heir, and, in one brutal act of passion, forced to take his family name.

Transformed by Copeland wealth, abandoned by Quinn, Noelle's rare beauty blossomed in London society. But beneath her soft grace burned a vow of vengeance and a passion for the man whose jet-black eyes and powerful touch she would never forget…

For Quinn would return-to carry her off to the bold shores of the New World. Together they were destined to carve a new life in the harsh wilderness, bound by a love as glorious, as savage, as their pride.

From Soho pickpocket to society belle, from London to the shores of the New World, hers was a game of passion and chance.

Maybe Abby Knight shouldn’t have chosen a home and garden show sponsored by Uniworld Food as the venue for her protest against the corporation’s harmful farming practices. But being bodily removed from the event won’t stop her campaign. Nor will a burning brick thrown through her flower shop’s window.

After she narrowly escapes being kidnapped three times, Abby calls in the big guns-her ex-Ranger boyfriend Marco and her friends and family. And then the stakes are raised by murder…

After enduring years of torture from the vampire horde, Lachlain MacRieve, leader of the Lykae Clan, is enraged to find the predestined mate he's waited millennia for is a vampire. Or partly one. This Emmaline is a small, ethereal half Valkyrie/half vampire, who somehow begins to soothe the fury burning within him.

Sheltered Emmaline Troy finally sets out to uncover the truth about her deceased parents -- until a powerful Lykae claims her as his mate and forces her back to his ancestral Scottish castle. There, her fear of the Lykae -- and their notorious dark desires -- ebbs as he begins a slow, wicked seduction to sate her own dark cravings.

Yet when an ancient evil from her past resurfaces, will their desire deepen into a love that can bring a proud warrior to his knees and turn a gentle beauty into the fighter she was born to be?