romance stories and histories

He wakes up and immediately reaches out to touch her, eyes still closed and heavy.
She's gone already. Or maybe, she was never even there. Sometimes it's so hard to remember. He sighs, and tries to find the will to open his eyes. Because if she's gone already, what's the point? He grunts, and rolls off the bed onto the floor. That used to make her laugh so hard. He can almost feel her cold feet on his back, pushing him off the bed into wakefulness. He chokes back the threatening tears, and clambers to hi...

Port Howard, West Falklands, March 1982
Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere had already begun in March with its usual storms. It was not without reason that sailors and seafarers of past centuries who had ventured into the South Atlantic for various reasons had dubbed this region the "Roaring Sixties." I, Margret MacIntosh, née Douglas, called Maggie, thirty years old, widowed for two years and without children, had been managing our family farm above Port Howard on the sparsely populated western main isla...

Carrie was supposed to be looking for--what? A deed? A birth certificate? That fucking folder Angela swore was somewhere in "one of the green bins in the guest room closet." The closet that smells like plastic and garlic salt. The closet with three decades of Catholic guilt boxed up in Jo-Ann Fabrics tubs and labeled in Angela's fat red Sharpie....

NOTE: This is a companion story to Randy's Sow. They are intertwined.
WARNING: This story has a harsh beginning.
Ming Lee was born in China. She had a very rough life. When she was twelve, her parents and her were arrested by the Chinese authorities. They never knew why. After two years in a "re-education" camp her father died. She was fourteen when her father died and shortly after he died, they were expelled from China. They never knew why....

To those who find true love again


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After Marci left I was reeling over the knowledge Marcia had sent Marci there to have sex. I thought Marcia and I had a moment. Apparently she was only a scout. Or worse.
Tuesday night, the doorbell rang. Marcia. With food....

I suggest you read the previous chapters, you'll enjoy the next two chapters more if you do. This has been fun.
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Guess how many people were in our bed the next morning before breakfast....

This story is a slow burn. You do not need to be familiar with the fictional characters Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter to enjoy the story. That said, I'm hoping fans of the characters like how I handled them.
[Chapter 1] is fun, but it's mostly character development
[Chapter 2] leans hard into Romance Elements...

"That was the perfect day," I said wistfully as we sat beside the fire watching the last of the light drain from the sky in a show of spectacular warm colors. I'd started the day enamored by your truck as I pulled onto the camping beach. I parked nearby to get to look at it and dreamt of building mine up like it one day. By the end of the day, I was enamored by you; so playful, so free, so quick to laughter....

"This is silly," I whisper, glancing around the bright room.
"It is not. It's the oldest science."
Cam and I sit side by side at a glass-topped wrought iron table in a stranger's sunroom. Cam has been sitting for exactly ten seconds and already he's sprawling like he owns the place, ratty cutoff jeans and duct taped flip flops tragically visible through the tabletop....

Blair waits until she's out of sight and then makes a break for it, booking it down the halls in a way that's very unbecoming of nobility, or anyone wearing a ridiculously flowy skirt for that matter.
She's not used to such feminine clothing, having always opted for more casual stuff back home. Sweats, tennis shoes, and the everyday teenage girl outfits. But now, her heels claw at her feet, and she wobbles as she tries to keep pace with Sophie....

All I Want (standalone; one-shot)
by
R. D. Oliver (2025-June-14)

The Teams meeting ends and I shut down the webcam before putting the desktop to sleep. Now alone, I take off my glasses and rub my eyes. Gods, I'm tired. The home office is a dozen time zones back from where I am, and their business day only starts long after the work day of most locals has ended. I'm almost thirteen thousand kilometres from where I was born, grew up, from everything I've ever known. I don't mind. Because here was...

Becoming Monsters is the creation of AiLovesToGrow, setting used with permission.
The idea for this story comes from Amethyst Dragonfly. With special thanks to TheNyxianLily for help brainstorming this time around. Oh, and fans of Forged in Fire might recognize a reference or two in this chapter.
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This is basically an erotic love story and of course all characters are over 21. It will not start out as a love story, but it will get there. The Gardener contains BDSM, bondage, exhibitionism, and lots of kinky sex. If you don't like these things then this story may not be for you. Please vote often (fives are most welcome) and of course please leave constructive comments....

Loving Who You Are
I like to write romance stories about people of a certain age finding love for the second time. This is one of those stories.
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It was a Saturday in June. The sun was bright, the sky was clear, and a young woman we both worked with was getting married for the first time. She was clearly excited, almost giddy, and we were all excited for her. We'd met her fiancé, and we all approved. It looked to be a good union, so when we were invited to the out-of-town wedding, we dec...

The Test of Time

Tom stood in front of the old house with a weariness that wasn't just radiating from his aching joints and muscles. It also lived deep in his soul along with something else that had been growing over the last few months he been unwilling to name yet out of fear.
Taking a firm grip on his cane he turned and slowly climbed into the passenger side of the car. Tom hated to admit it but he was an old man. At eighty-three years old it seemed like he felt every joint in his body anytime ...

Arriving at her parents Botswana home, they barely had time to drop their bags and have a coffee at home before her father announced they had to leave.
"Right, we've got an hour before we're due at Auntie Sharon's. Aiden, why don't you take the downstairs guest suite? That way, we all have our own bathrooms."...

Author's note: There is NO SEX in this story. So calibrate your expectations accordingly. But if you're feeling cloudy, hopefully there's something here to help you feel a little warmer. Also there's a cat (:
Thank you to thatsbogus for being the testing ground for my melancholy meanderings.

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All of my writing is fiction, and the stories and characters are products of my imagination. They were created for my fun and, hopefully, your enjoyment. Some of the events in the stories are not particularly condoned nor encouraged by the author, but are there to create and enhance the story of the imaginary characters and their lives. Comments are always encouraged and carefully reviewed. All characters within the story that need to be are 18 years of age or older. I hope you enjoy! And take a second to v...

After spending several weeks at sea, Ricki's contract with the cruise company was coming to an end. A lounge singer for the past few years, Ricki had a voice that was probably destined for greater things. Unfortunately, years of bad management had relegated her to less than glamorous gigs, including weeks at a time on less-than-great cruising boats....

Content Warning: This story contains themes of control, dominance and submission dynamics, and public nudity.
She pushed through the door with fading strength, exhausted from a long and difficult day, the creaking of the older hinges mirroring the aches in her body. She dragged her feet over the threshold and fell back against the door, slumping against it and sliding partway down as she tried to close it with her weight. It didn't fully close, the latch making a scraping sound against the plate, but she...

This is basically an erotic love story and of course all characters are over 21. It will not start out as a love story, but it will get there. The Gardener contains BDSM, bondage, exhibitionism, and lots of kinky sex. If you don't like these things then this story may not be for you. Please vote often (fives are most welcome) and of course please leave constructive comments....

Note: This is the second chapter of a larger story. I strongly recommend checking out the first one before reading this one.
Note 2: This is a slow-burn, slice-of-life, friends-to-lovers romance story first and foremost. There will be erotica, but not for a long, long time.
Huge thanks to ChaoticTwunk for helping me out with editing and providing some invaluable feedback on this chapter and the next....

It had been a gray, drizzly day. The wind was finally calming down, but it was still dreary and unseasonably cold outside. When I first spotted her strolling across campus, she was like a bright burst of color glowing in a black-and-white movie.
She seemed like the kind of girl I had always found magnetic: demure and bookish, a pretty face quietly hidden behind studious glasses. Her soft brown hair was cut in a gentle bob. This was a thoughtful-looking girl who didn't seem to be completely aware of how a...

Chapter 24

The road reeled out in front of us, gray and even. This far east of town, the landscape had flattened into a seemingly endless rock-studded expanse of tough yellow-green grass, gnarled shrubs, and the occasional stubborn tree grasping at whatever spare water it could find. We'd already passed through a few smaller towns in the past hour, chatting excitedly about the Rendezvous....

It was July 3rd, and I had been spending the week at my daughter's house in Maryland. Emily was the oldest of my two children and I had been divorced from her mother for almost 40 years. For 10 of those years, I raised her and her sister Jane by myself before remarrying. My second marriage had also ended in divorce a few years ago. The first year after divorcing her stepmother Emily and Jane were intent on finding me a new significant other. It was a little easier then because I initially rented a small apa...

Disclaimer:
This story is a direct sequel to Wanting. I highly recommend reading the first part before diving into this one; it'll hit harder, and things will make a lot more sense.
I don't know what this night will mean tomorrow. But right now, in this room, with her--this feels like the most honest I've ever been....

Amy's Longing
Amy sat in the passenger seat of the S Class Mercedes which was being driven by Ron, the very tubby, balding business executive. In the pocket of her faded denim jacket was the £50 he had paid her for a blowjob. Ron was a regular, one of many and Amy, along with several of the other girls that worked Trinity Road alongside her, had learnt how to cater to his request despite his large paunch, which made him very happy indeed....

"Ugh, I really don't want to put on my old clothes." Avery sniffs, giving the discarded outfit she threw onto the now-wet bathroom floor a pointed look, as if they're dishrags and not higher-end pieces.
Chris snorts, trying and failing to control his amusement. Avery rolls her eyes, clearly not appreciating his insensitivity towards her plight. It's still difficult to see in the dark, but she fumbles about and manages to collect her clothing in one fell swoop, holding it out from her like it's a snake th...

The second installment in the D + D series. Daniel visits Delphine at her vacation home on the island of Corsica. The rugged natural location serves as a contrast to their first meeting in Paris, and brings out something a bit bolder in them both. If you liked "Tuesday in Paris", but wanted a little more heat, this story should deliver....

BURNED MAN
Bambi set her phone down quickly and turned back to the vanity table. Red hair whipped around her shoulders damply, and somewhere in the back of her busy mind, she realized she'd have to braid them before she went to work. Tired doe brown eyes scanned her bedroom at a glance, and she sighed deeply again. She needed to do this now, she just wasn't sure how she'd do it....