The Gardener And The Vampire – Guest Post by Janine Ashbless

I always knew I wanted to write a supernatural story. Because I’ve done quite a bit of volunteer gardening at my local Victorian cemetery, my first thought was to use that setting and have a female gardener meet a ghost. But I struggled to think of a way I could reach a plausible, um, “consummation” of their relationship in such a public place. Then I flipped the idea round and set the story from the undead point of view and suddenly everything worked: the lone sepulcher, the isolation, the historic era, the swift predatory sex, the title. Those writing moments are so satisfying when they happen! The result is “Love Lies Bleeding,” one of the twelve garden-themed stories in Fifty Shades of Green. I hope you enjoy it.

Xxx—Janine Ashbless

 Excerpt from Fifty Shades of Green, “Love Lies Bleeding”

Once, greatly daring, I did come out while he was here. My desire was so fierce that day I could not resist the lure. He’d been laboring all morning a little way off from the house, where the woodland understory was still thick. Maybe he glimpsed my presence at the corner of his eyes, because he would pause and glance about himself occasionally, frowning into the depths of the grove. But he never truly saw me. Resting after his lunch in a cleared dell, he dozed off for a moment, I think, in a patch of sun. I crept in closer under the dense cover of the rhododendrons. There he lay in his open shirt, one arm tucked behind his head to pillow it. His face was peaceful in repose, his lashes long and silky. That broad chest of his rose and fell mesmerically. Beyond the crest of his ribcage, his torso sloped down to the shallower flatland of his stomach, a vulnerable stretch that seemed to crave the touch of my hand. I was close enough to hear his gentle breathing, to smell his sweat, to feel the heat of his blood like a furnace on my face. Almost close enough to reach out to him. My lust for him was an ache bone-deep.

But he lay in sunlight. I was confined to my shadows.

Almost as if he felt my gaze upon him in his shallow dreams—and perhaps he did—he woke up abruptly and sat up shivering and looking around him. In my hiding place amongst the dark and glossy leaves, I froze.

Did I want him to see me? The answer is, I do not know. I have been ill so long, and there are no mirrors in my house. I am no longer entirely sure that I look like the pretty girl I used to be, all ringlets and wide eyes and blossoming maidenly curves. I think I must be pitifully frail and slender now. I don’t eat much these days. My appetite comes and goes.

I like to watch him eat.

I like to watch when he goes off to empty his bladder against the bole of some tree. There is something exquisitely masculine about the way he stands; the insouciant tilt of his hips; the brace of his legs; the satisfied little bounce he gives as he readjusts his clothing afterward.

He’s in the prime of his youth, and male, and working alone. I can see the low burn of the fire that’s in his flesh, always. It must be hard to ignore the imperative itch of his potency. That weight he carries between his thighs. I imagine it is burdensome at times. And I sympathize, because my own need is just as cruel

Blurb and buy links

Fifty Shades of Green is a garden of naughty delights! Within our pages you’ll discover:
– Virile gods and their mortal conquests. – A community garden’s secret (and very dirty) fertility ritual. – An Edwardian dominatrix living out her sadistic garden fantasies.  – Student/teacher lessons in horticultural hotness. – Young lovers seeking the help of green witches. – A beautiful, blind priest who helps an injured traveler. . . . and so much more. Peek inside the garden gate. (You know you want to.) A dozen racy tales await. Fifty Shades of Green is a collection of twelve delicious and erotic short stories with gardening themes. What you’ll find in these pages is hotter than the hottest pepper on the Scoville index of heat! And smart, not smutty. Well . . . maybe a little smutty.

To Buy Fifty Shades of Green (it’s on sale, just for you):

Amazon.com UK

Amazon.com US

Author Bio and Links

Janine Ashbless is an established writer of erotica and hot romantic adventure. She’s had novels published by HarperCollins, Black Lace, Samhain, and Ellora’s Cave. Her latest books are Cover Him with Darkness, a novel of fallen angels and religious conspiracies (Cleis Press) and Fierce Enchantments: Ten Erotic Tales of Myth, Magic and Desire (Sweetmeats Press,), both to be released in October 2014.

Janine Ashbless Website

Janine Ashbless on Amazon US

Janine Ashbless on Amazon UK

FREE Sample Stories!

To sample two free stories from Fifty Shades of Green visit our Garden Shorts website.

If you sign up for our newsletter you will be sent Seed (our sexy story about a community garden’s secret fertility ritual).

To read Phallus Impudicus, (a tale about the horny god Pan’s visit with a lonely gardener) just click on the Fifty Shades SAMPLE! tab.