LIKED - A Dark Romance Novel (Story of Dangerous Obsession and Lust)

LIKED

(A Dark
Romance)

Diana
Quippley

This tale of dark obsession has been locked and sealed in a fancy,
copyrighted
©
treasure trove belonging to the lusty
Diana Quippley
in the year 2015. It is
highly advisable that you do not attempt to pilfer or purloin any parts of this
enthralling story...

However, on
the bright side, I do not believe in any of that horrid DRM software. And as
such, this book is presented to you without any hint or trace of the vile
substance – meaning you are free to view this book on whatever device you see
fit to read it on! There are zero restrictions... You have paid for the tale,
now please delight in the many thrilling pages wherever you like!

And alas...
you are to be told that this is indeed a work of fiction. Any resemblance or
similarity to real-life individuals, places, or things is purely coincidental.

A Quick Word

LIKED
is a stand-alone dark
romance novel with mature, graphic, and explicit content. Do not expect to find
sappy love scenes and heart-felt cuddles! Not all love comes with chocolate and
flowers… Sometimes it comes with rope and blindfolds…

If you'd
like to read even more of my lusty tales, simply click:
Diana Quippley Mailing List
and join the spam-free, private list!

Or
click here to visit my author page over on amazon

What You Will Find

LIKED

---

Mailing List

LIKED

Chapter 1:

Corsets,
Engagements, & Pink Hats that Can’t Exist

“Putting on a corset by yourself is a joke.”

Gia Sorah’s voice was husky and sultry anyway. Some of that was put on
for interviews and public interactions. Some of it was from a smoking habit she
was fighting to break. When delivering movie dialogue, it was even more vamped
up than usual. Between being a scream queen for indie horror films and eye
candy for films with a little more budget, she was known for a voice that was a
cross between Marilyn Monroe and every guy’s school girl fantasy. It was a
delicate balance that kept the film roles and fan mail coming. And the checks. The
checks were important too. At the moment, her voice was rough and strained
because she was already lacing up her corset alone in her dark bedroom with her
arms twisted up behind her back in the most unnatural way.

Her bedroom window hung open the way she liked it in the hot summer in
LA. Air conditioning was expensive for a horror movie starlet. The city and
state might be on drought restrictions, but she was on air restrictions. The
premier party for Splatter Love might be tonight, but the checks had not come
in yet. She supposed it was really a PayPal payment rather than an actual
check, but that was the lingo still. It did not help that she was dating the
director. Don Blackheart had started paying some of the crew and other actors.
She suspected that intimacy was going to move her to the bottom of the list
even though she was technically the star.

She got the corset tied off and took as deep of a breath as she still
could. Gia leaned up and smoothed down the shimmering purple and black material
of the skirts of her gown below the ornate corset. She looked out the window
and smelled the stink of onions and garbage wafting up on the hot air coming
through her second floor apartment.

“That is the stink of success,” she said to her neighborhood street below.

A kid riding by on a bicycle with high handle bars looked up at her and
she stepped back from the window.

Not all of LA smell this way, but the street she lived on seldom smelled
any other way.

The car wasn’t waiting yet, so she had time.

She realized that she had forgotten to put on panties though. She was
used to putting on a bra first, so not wearing one with the corset had thrown
off her whole system. Her dress was long, so there wasn’t much chance of a
crotch shot from the cameras tonight. If Don knew that it was an option, he
would probably suggest it. She didn’t feel like bending far enough over to add
panties now, so it would be commando for Splatter Love tonight.

Gia went to step into her shoes pushing her heels up at severe angles and
she started strapping them on. It would give her calves and ass the toned look
she needed for tonight, but she might barely be able to walk in the morning.
This was the sacrifice required for promoting art and earning the metaphorical
checks when they actually came.

Gia thought again that Love Splatter was actually a better title. It had
a better flow and rhythm. Don had said that Love Splatter was a porn name while
Splatter Love carried a mystery to it. Don would then go into explaining the
irony that the film was a psychological thriller without any splatter or gore
at all. Gia would explain that fans would be looking for it and then Don would
go on a rant about breaking expectations with art. Eventually, she stopped
talking to him about it. Gia thought that if it had been a porn, she might have
had her clothes on more during the filming.

She rounded up her clutch purse that matched her elaborate dress and made
for the front door. Gia left the lights out and the window open as she locked
her apartment behind her.

As she negotiated the stairs, Gia employed the practiced grace that went
with the show of being an elegant starlet. She could not afford to look like a
baby giraffe stumbling around in her heels like she knew many of the drunk
girls would tonight.

She reached the front, glass doors of her complex. Gia checked her blond
curlets again. Her spiraled hair bobbed as she turned her head from side to side.
All the men would have raging boners from it and not really be able to explain
why. She went with a dark lip and classic natural with the rest of her make-up.
Natural took forever to achieve.

Gia opened her clutch to be sure she had her phone. It was the only thing
in there besides a single key because that was all that would fit. She was glad
to find it there because if she had forgotten it, she might cry going back up
the stairs and ruin her natural look.

She took the phone out of the clutch and scrolled through e-mail and all
her social media notifications. Promotion was a full-time distraction for her.

She sighed as she deleted e-mails from men that claimed to be in prison.
She understood they were allowed to write letters, but how were they getting to
e-mail? She also deleted the pictures of guys sending images of their junk to
her. It was in every inbox on every site. Gia had thought about starting a
website where she posted all these pictures she got with the guys’ names. She
wasn’t sure that a guy who sent pics of his cock and balls could really be
shamed. She’d probably start getting more of them if she really did start the
site. She was surprised by the number of black dudes sending the pics. Gia
apparently had a very specific fan base among the junk pic dudes.

She paused as she found a message from him again. It was on her public
Facebook page, but in the private message section. This was usually some of her
weirder stuff in this inbox.

Jack was back. He had been liking her pictures still. He always liked her
pictures. He liked them everywhere all the time. If there was a like button
anywhere near a picture of Gia Sorah, Jack clicked it. He had not messaged in a
while, but there was one right here in her inbox again. Good old quiet Jack the
Liker was back.

 Gia opened the message and read: Can’t get enough of, Gia. Who can?
Right?! Haha Good luck with the premier party tonight. XXOO – Jack the Liker

Gia smiled and then frowned. Jack the Liker was a clever little name if
she could ignore the reference to Jack the Ripper, of course. Or Jack the
Licker which was somehow even creepier than Ripper for some reason. It was good
enough of a name to keep her attention when he messaged her every so often. She
frowned because he was the only person that had wished her luck tonight. Her
family, friends, co-stars, and director/boyfriend hadn’t given a word of
encouragement about the whole thing. Only her quiet, little stalker Jack the
Liker had taken the time.

Thanks for taking the time, she typed back, that means a lot, Jack.

She looked outside and saw the car wasn’t there yet.

When Gia looked back down, Jack had responded. He messaged: “I’ll be out
in the crowd fantasizing that you can see me. Haha.”

Gia smiled. She typed: “Wear a Blue Bells baseball cap.”

His messaged popped up in a couple seconds: Your little league team from
back home in Kentucky?

She felt a chill run through her that reminded her that she wasn’t
wearing panties. How could he know her little league team? Gia guessed that if
he liked every picture she ever posted, then he would pick up on it somewhere.
She was the one that brought it up after all. That was the part that was weird
as she was the one messaging a potential stalker. No one else had wished her
good luck though.

Jack messaged again while she was lost in her thoughts: “That’s a tall
order. I’ll see what I can do.”

She started to type: “Are you going to go back to Kentucky and” …

But then she deleted it. The thought of him driving to her hometown to
try to find a little league ball cap made her a bit sick to her stomach.
Instead, she typed: “And make it a pink hat.”

Jack responded: “A pink BLUE Bells cap? Do they even make those?!”

Gia typed: “If you really cared, you’d find a way.”

She looked up and saw the boxy, silver Prius she was waiting for from
Uber. Gia opened the door and stepped out trying to not catch her dress in the
door.

Gia looked down and realized she still had messages up to Jack the
Liker’s private message thread. He had not responded again. Gia typed, “JK HAHA”,
before she shut off the phone and returned it to her clutch.

***

She climbed into the passenger’s seat fighting her dress in with her
before getting the door closed. The driver was an incredibly skinny girl with
auburn hair tied up in a pony tail. She had horn rim glasses. She looked so
comfortable in athletic shorts and a tee shirt. Gia was jealous.

The girl said, “The parking lot by the Stinson Bodega, right?”

Gia had to think. “Um, yes, that’s it. Thank you.”

As she girl drove, she said, “I like your dress. It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

Gia expected the girl to ask where she was going dressed up so oddly. As
they made the first turn, Gia guessed that the Stinson Bodega parking lot was
all the explanation that was needed; like she might be shopping in her Friday
Night Bodega Corset or something. It was tough to stand out as weird in Los
Angeles.

Gia was kind of sad to think the girl didn’t recognize her.

Gia shifted in her seat and tried to smooth her dress down again. She was
having trouble breathing the way her stomach was bent in the seat against her
ribs. This was not a dress and corset combination that was designed for hopping
into an Uber.

They pulled into the parking lot that was adjacent to the bodega, but not
really for it. The lot was empty with several tufts of grass breaking through
the pavement around clusters of sand. The outline of the foundation for
whatever building had once used the lot could still be seen. There was no other
evidence the place had ever existed. Gia was only twenty-five, but she began to
think of the vanished building as a symbol for what her career would be one
day.

Gia climbed out being careful to keep her skirts down on her legs to hide
any view of what was and wasn’t underneath. Her severe heels stabbed into the
sand that coated the lot.

“Is this the right place?” the girl asked through the open door.

Gia leaned in. “Yes, they’ll be here soon or someone will murder me while
I wait. How much do I owe you?”

The girl smiled. “You’ve already paid. It already hit my PayPal. We’re
square.”

Gia nodded and closed the car door. As the hybrid backed out of the lot
almost silently, Gia said, “Uber pays better than being the star of a movie
these days.

As she stood in the middle of the vacant lot, she went to pull her phone
out of her clutch. She wasn’t sure if she was going to call Don or check for a
follow-up message from Jack. Before she found out, the limo pulled up to the
curb at the edge of the lot and stopped. They didn’t even pull into the lot to
let her in. She waited for a window to roll down and for Don to give her a
cheesy line, but he didn’t give her that much.

Gia walked forward with as much grace as her heels and the sand would
allow her. The driver stepped out and opened the door for her. As she crawled
inside head first, she considered letting her dress ride up to give the driver
a special tip and preview of the movie. The door closed behind her before she
could follow through.

She sat down on the bench seat next to Don who had his phone up to his
ear. His dark hair was slicked back and his deep, bronze tan was real from the
beaches up the coast where he lived, but still managed to look fake on him.

He smiled and his blue eyes sparkled at her. She smiled back. He held up
a finger to her and his eyes lost focus seeming to stare a thousand miles
through the side of the limo which began to roll. He growled with the smile
still pulled over his lips and bleached white teeth. “No. No. No! That is not
what I said, so that is not what I want.”

His smile of happiness and his look of anger were almost identical. The
focus of the eyes were the only difference she could see in either look.

Gia watched out her tinted window as he continued negotiating the set of
a new picture – one she was not cast in. She did not expect to be the
girlfriend cast in all his movies. She didn’t even really want to be that. Not
being read for the part at all bothered her. If he had asked, she would have
said yes. She always said yes. She couldn’t bring herself to turn down any
role. Maybe it was good that Don didn’t ask then. It still bothered her though.
He needed to pay her for the last gig before he got wrapped up in another one.

He brought the phone away from his face. As he started searching for
another number, she asked, “Hey, should we talk about tonight?”

“I have one more call to make before we get there,” he said.

“Are we still announcing it?”

“Sure. Just let me do the talking. I’ve got this, baby.”

“We should talk about how it will all work at the other appearances,” she
said putting her hand on his wrist to stop him scrolling through numbers.

He looked up, smiled, leaned over, kissed her on the cheek, and shook her
hand off his to go back to scrolling. “We will. Tonight’s a big night
personally and professionally for both of us. I have to make this call while
I’m hot and on people’s minds tonight. You and I can talk any time.”

She sniffed and looked away. “Why couldn’t you come all the way to me to
pick me up?”

He shook his head. “Don’t be like that. You’ll be the star when we get
out. The limo would have bottomed out and got stuck, if we pulled all the way
up in there. It’s a rental.”

“No, I mean, why couldn’t you come by my place to pick me up.”

He shrugged. “Your neighborhood smells funny. I don’t want to make a loop
and make us late either. Big night. If you moved in to my place, this would all
be easier.”

She looked back toward him. “Do you mean that?”

“Sure. Whatever you want. I have to make this call though.”

He brought the phone back to his ear and he was back to telling what he
didn’t mean and what he didn’t want to the person on the other end. When they
pulled up to the theater, he found the time to end the call and they stepped
out together.

***