How well do we ever really know someone? Even when you love a person, are there secrets from the past that are best kept hidden?
-Sidney Lanier
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A Romantic Suspense Novel
By Sidney Lanier
Published: May 2018
Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
Pages: 266
Size: 6x9
ISBN: 9781984513267
Amazon Review
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It is definitely a tough book to put down - Laura C (Amazon Purchase)
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Finally a book that does not have the same old format. -C. Case (Amazon Purchase)
By Laura C.on May 31, 2018
Have you ever read a book that you could relate to? I just did, with HIDDEN PAST. What I liked the best was that I felt like I was one of the characters in the book, facing once again some of my personal secrets and private feelings.
I read this book almost without stopping. After a day and a half, I had finished the book (sadly) but still have not finished thinking)about it.
The most disappointing thing about the book was that I looked up Sidney Lanier but found no more books by this author.
Have you ever wondered how much to reveal about yourself to another person? Especially when you are falling in love with someone, it is tempting and even seductive to tell them "everything" and to learn all that you can about them-as you pursue the depths of newfound intimacies.
HIDDEN PAST probes the events that precede a "perfect couple" in their commitment to each other. This psychological drama quickly pulls strangers together and provokes empathy and self-reflection in you the reader. It challenges you to think about what aspects of your past continue to haunt you.
When we think about our past, how much is clear and how much is blurred? Particularly with regard to intense physical involvements, how much was about sex and how much was about love? And, how much was done out of desire and self-interest and how much because of coercion?
The romantic feelings and suspense in HIDDEN PAST will arouse you and unnerve you. You may recall a relationship in which you discovered that the person you loved purposely omitted certain vital details. You may also recall some things about yourself that you have shared, and now wish you could take back.
Chapter 50
The stairs seemed long and steep to Austin. Maybe he was just in a hurry to get inside and get busy. Clearly, Sasha wanted to savor the moment and seemed oblivious to everything—except for Austin.
Once inside, with the door securely bolted, she turned and focused totally on him. She pressed him firmly, passionately, and kept pulling his neck and head down toward her. Austin realized how short she was, especially when compared to him.
She opened her mouth widely but kept her lips tightly connected to his. She inhaled through his mouth and sucked the air from him. He knew what it felt like to be possessed.
“Let’s see if we can find a bed, big guy.” She grabbed his belt underneath the buckle and aggressively tugged him.
He guided her backward through the unnoticed kitchen and dining area, the length of the hallway past the dark bathroom to the single bedroom at the rear of the apartment. Thank God, he thought, the sheets were fairly clean and the covers were not in disarray. Clearly, none of this registered with Sasha because nothing other than making love with Austin mattered at all.
She pulled him on top of her as one and then fell backward onto the queen-size bed almost acrobatically. She seemed so small to Austin in the oversized bed, but his visual observations lessened, except for very up-close ones.
Chapter 51
Sasha and Austin had, for a while, what seemed like a perfect relationship. It wasn’t very deep, and it was mostly about sex. He made few demands on her, and she made none on him.
Except for sex.
“Austin, can we slip upstairs for a quickie before I go home tonight?”
“I don’t know. Lorena wants me to come out to her house tonight and meet some of her friends.”
“You don’t want to be with a bunch of old farts, do you?”
“Not as much as I want to be with you,” Austin responded sincerely. He didn’t really like it when Sasha made fun of Lorena, calling her Ms. L or referring to her as being old or over the hill.
But he didn’t say much, partly because he could understand how a vibrant young girl like Sasha would see anybody over thirty as at least middle aged. And partly, he didn’t want to jeopardize his readily available supply of incredible sex.
“You think everybody’s old, and maybe they are—compared to you,” he said.
“Well, I know you think my development has been arrested at the adolescent stage of development. You guys who take a psych course go around diagnosing the rest of us innocents,” she cooed.
“Well, maybe …” They both knew what the other wanted.
“You need to let yourself go, Austin, and do what you want,” Sasha said forcefully. “That’s my job—to get you to quit being so stodgy, so serious for your age. I know Lorena is your boss and a nice enough lady, I guess, but you don’t have to cater to everything she wants. Tell her you’re gonna be tied up tonight, with some pressing assignment,” she said as she pressed her hard little body with her man-made breasts closely against him near the bar.
“Sasha, be careful! What if somebody sees you?”
“Who? Lorena’s home—you told me.”
“Like maybe a customer. We don’t want the Victory Circle to be seen as a place where the manager or the wait staff are on the make.”
“But I am on the make—for you!” She grabbed his testicles for added (but gentle) emphasis.
“What about if Anthony comes in?”
“Anthony’s not coming in here. I’ve told him not to. I don’t want him all worried and jealous.”
“But you told me you weren’t in love with each other, that you lived together with ‘friends’ benefits.”
She paused for once before reacting.
“We do have friends’ benefits, and I don’t love him, but he does seem to love me.”
Austin could understand loving Sasha, although he was convinced he himself didn’t love her.
But he loved making love to her. He had never had sex with anyone that even came close to what it was with Sasha. They were totally compatible in the bedroom from head to toe and every place in between.
“How’s my big Audie?” she would say whenever she reached into his pants to pull out his seemingly always hard penis. She had asked Austin the first time they had made love what his name for his penis was.
“I’ve never named him,” he confessed honestly.
“Then you won’t mind if I name him,” she said as she licked his lips and then gently touched him.
He groaned, which apparently, she took as an affirmative.
“Okay then. I think I’ll name him Audie.”
As she pressed against him again, he was brought back to the reality of the moment.
“Okay, lover. I’ll call our boss and tell her I’ll be an hour or so late,” he said as he surrendered.
Sidney Lanier, PhD, is the author of HIDDEN PAST. Dr. Lanier is a licensed clinical psychologist, trained in understanding the mind, psychotherapy, counseling and healing broken relationships. Combining innate perceptiveness, uncanny instincts and 25+ years of experience helping people, Dr. Lanier has given us an intriguing, edgy novel with subtle self-help advice hidden beneath its surface.