Short Game

Roll the dice, pick a card, tell a lie, hide the truth. Whatever the move, it's all just part of the game. Follow the lives of four very different characters who are all trapped in an insidious game. Each story delves into the intricate web of misaligned motives and obscured half-truths. Stories include "In This Business", "The Joker", "Dolly", and "Escaping Avila Chase".

Step into a world where passion knows no limits, boundaries are meant to be broken, and desire is unapologetically unleashed. The Best of the Best Erotic Short Sex Stories Anthology is a one-of-a-kind collection that takes you on a sensual journey through the most tantalizing themes of intimacy and exploration. This is not just a book; it’s an invitation to experience the deepest, most electrifying fantasies, brought to life in stories that are as daring as they are unforgettable.

Games are everywhere: Drivers maneuvering in heavy traffic are playing a driving game. Bargain hunters bidding on eBay are playing an auctioning game. The supermarket's price for corn flakes is decided by playing an economic game. This Very Short Introduction offers a succinct tour of the fascinating world of game theory, a groundbreaking field that analyzes how to play games in a rational way.

The nine stories and one poem in this volume formed the basis for the astonishingly original film Short Cuts, directed by Robert Altman. Collected altogether in this volume, these stories form a searing and indelible portrait of American innocence and loss. With deadpan humor and enormous tenderness, this is the work of "one of the true contemporary masters" ( The New York Review of Books).

This is the audiobook for Sly Flourish's Fantastic Adventure, a book of 10 short adventures for the fifth edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game. This audiobook helps the listener bring these adventures into their head and is intended to be used along with the print copy of the book for use at the actual gaming table. Listening to these adventures helps prime your DM mind with the material you need to run the game at the table.

Time to steer the Short Shorts series in a different direction. The drift began during Short Shorts 2, but it’s time to take this series back a little to where it started. This is the fifth compilation in the Short Shorts series and likely the last, although I never planned to run these shorter short stories beyond two collections. Devoting a few weeks to put this group together from scratch allowed me to better match the plotlines to focus more on the ENF angle and to include some different ideas. This mix certainly focuses more on public humiliation. It reminds me more of Short Shorts 1...

Stephen Crane's fascinating story "The Blue Hotel" is seen by many as a study of fear. Crane used the stereotypical 1890's American West as his setting, and the story uses a card game to show how fear feeds upon itself. There are both inner fears and fears existing in reality, and the ways that they interact with each other make for a fascinating tale.

Michael Maloney reads this original adventure by Dan Abnett, featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory. For centuries the Maintainers have worked. With no help from other worlds, they subsist on the food they can grow and that’s little enough. But their purpose, their whole life, is to maintain the machines that will one day make their world as habitable as old Earth. Life used to be hard. Now as crops fail, livestock sicken, and the temperature drops, it’s becoming impossible.

When the President of the United States is caught with his pants down while playing a virtual reality game in the White House, his cabinet is thrown into complete disarray. With the State of the Union address only hours away, Parker Smalls, White House Chief of Staff, scrambles to have the president freed. Nona Norak, the game’s main adversary, has other plans. She’s an avatar created to be unbeatable, leaving Parker Smalls with one question. How does he free the president from a VR avatar that can’t be stopped? An Amazon one-hour read.

Richard just wanted a girlfriend - not the apocalypse. Richard Peak's senior year is looking painfully ordinary - fighting for position on the soccer team, his parents' constant arguing, a glaring lack of a girlfriend. He can't wait to graduate and join a soccer team overseas, preferably as far from home as possible. Then the president is assassinated and his life changes forever. As an alarming chain of nationwide terrorist attacks trigger a civil war, Richard finds himself on a dangerous journey for survival.

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most iconic and lasting figures in literature. In this new edition of Baker Street Irregulars, authors present the iconic detective in over a dozen wildly entertaining new ways. In Keith DeCandido's "Six Red Dragons", Sherlock is a young girl in modern New York City. In Sarah Stegall's "Papyrus", Sherlock is a female librarian in ancient Egypt. In Daniel M. Kimmel's mesmerizing "A Scandal in Chelm", Sherlock is a rabbi. Derek Beebe sends Sherlock to the moon, while Mike Strauss, in "The Adventure of the Double Sized Final Issue", casts him as a comic book character.

From tales of chilling horror, to heart-stopping stories of suspense, Warped is best-selling author Jeff Menapace's ultimate collection of short fiction. Warped contains currently published tales of the macabre like "Princess" and "The Straw Man and a Murder", the currently out of print and award-winning "Sugar Daddy" and its sequel, "Sugar Daddy 2", and the author's preferred version of his controversial "Torment".

She’s not even a contestant on the Alien Love Game show, so how did she become fated to one of the alien men? Lyra I was finally taking a break from my grueling tour schedule on Earth between album releases. I was trying to do a good deed and helped my sister get on an alien love reality show. Somehow it got all messed up. The man my sister chose is now claiming I’m his one and only. How do I get out of this mess so I can go back to Earth and continue living my dream. Dhavoi When I saw Lyra, it was like I was hit over the head with a sledgehammer. She’s the only one for me, and now I ...

Off the court, tennis star Jason Cartwright's playboy image is taking a public beating. On the court, he's down 40-love. A knee injury is shutting down his game, and the paparazzi are splashing his love life on every magazine. A comeback is in order, but the makeover he needs to save his faltering career is in the hands of the woman he loved and left 15 years ago. While single-mom Izzy Connors sees people for who they really are through the lens of her camera, even without it, she knows Jason isn't the star he appears to be.

Her filthiest desire is to sleep with an alien, and she’s determined to make it happen. Cherise When my best friend runs off to marry an alien, I’m desperate for a sexy adventure too and I’m not above using a famous relative as my ticket onto an alien love game show. The best part is that three alien men are going to try to win my affections through a competition of my choosing. I want my new Bolan hubby to be able to feed me well, so I decide to make them cook for me. The way to this woman’s heart is through her stomach… preferably with a hot-blooded dominant alien doing the ...

In the shadowy underbelly of 1940s Hollywood, a studio fixer finds himself protecting men he'd rather see behind bars. As he navigates through a world where desperate starlets trade their souls for a shot at fame and ruthless power brokers pull the strings, our hero struggles to preserve what remains of his moral compass. Each case chips away at his already fragile sense of justice, but this one – this case might be the one that finally breaks him. Step into a noir world where dreams turn to darkness and even the angels have fallen from grace. Will this be the investigation that pushes ...

The victims are the most popular girls in school, each murdered and arranged in a grim fairy-tale tableau. To find the killer, rookie detective Callum Pederson has gone undercover where the Princes hold court. He’s found enough secrets among the bros to bring them in for questioning - but he could very well get lost in the games the Princes play.

Miss Lucy Lancester has loved her brother's best friend, Roman Alexander, for as long as she can remember. So devotedly, she's vowed never to marry anyone else. But her beloved libertine is hardly aware of her existence, and not the least deserving of her affection. Deciding her cause is lost, she makes plans to open a girls' school in Bath. There's just one thing she needs to do before she confirms her spinsterhood forever: spend one blissful night in Roman's arms.

In the digital realm of Virtual Nightmares, three young friends find themselves trapped within a malevolent video game. Guided by their unwavering friendship, they navigate treacherous landscapes, battle formidable foes, and confront their deepest fears. As the line between the game and reality blurs, they discover the true power of their bond and the resilience of the human spirit. Together, they defy the game's malevolent grasp, emerging as heroes who inspire others with their triumph over Virtual Nightmares. Their extraordinary journey becomes a testament to the strength of friendship ...

Is two weeks in Paris long enough for these lifelong competitors to learn to play for the same team? Betsy Ever since I was a little girl, my dream was to go to the International Games. When I discovered an aptitude for volleyball, I pursued my dream with a laser focus that left no time for the frivolous things in life, like romance. Who cares if the snobby ice queen athlete who is my new roommate makes my heart race? It’s probably just the excitement of being on the world stage. Kelly I’ve fought incredible odds in my life to get to the Games. Growing up with conservative religious ...