Amazon Black Velvet Seductions Category:  Romance Publisher: Black Velvet Seductions ISBN-10:  0980224616 Type: Fiction Pages: 144 Copyright: 18 Jan 2008 ISBN-13: 9780980224610 A story of making time to be together in a busy world where time is short Temporally Yours  by  Richard Savage Theirs was a love hampered by time…. There were never enough hours in the day. They were never in the same place long enough to spend much time together.  Patrick and Susan worked hard. They both had demanding careers that kept them at opposite ends of the globe for large amounts of time with only fleeting moments to be together. Yet the heat, the love, the friendship they shared was a connection neither wanted to ignore. Susan loved Patrick. All she really wanted was more time with him. Patrick loved Susan with every fibre of his being, yet he feared the boredom of giving up his high powered career for a less challenging one closer to home. He often found himself contemplating the life he and Susan could share if they had all the time in the world to be together. Yet that dream dangled just out of reach – she had her career – he had his --  until they happened upon a quaint and peculiar shop.  Was it possible that a chance visit to a mysterious shop and the cryptic words of an old jeweler could yield the solution he was looking for… Or would love demand a price more dear than either was willing to pay?   Excerpt Time on my Hands The air was filled with the pungent aroma of coffee and Danish pastries. Smells of cooking wafted from the kitchen. Waitresses bustled, taking and delivering orders and there was a general buzz in the background as people discussed the minutia of their daily lives. Patrick closed the case of his gold pocket watch with a satisfying click. 11:37 AM. He stroked the inlayed and engraved watchcase, enjoying the tactile feel, before slipping it into his vest pocket. Absorbed, Patrick was oblivious to the room’s distractions. He sat, warming his hands on the mug, staring into his coffee noir, contemplating time, seeing the world over the cup’s white rim. Time was the thing, there was never enough of it, or at least that used to be the case. To be in control of time, was to be the master of your own destiny. All those wasted hours, ticking away, gone forever, like grains of sand lost on a beach. But what if you could stop time and live in the gaps, he wondered. It was a fantasy for a man waiting. Time. If he had a wish, it would be to spend more time with Susan. He was haunted by a reoccurring daydream of Susan being a part of his every day life. A noise distracted him and for a moment, he looked around the café. His eyes were drawn to the source of the noise, a red-faced waitress, frantically apologizing to customers, amidst a pile of mangled food and broken crockery. The room was caught up in the drama for a moment, and then it returned to its low rumble of chatter. For a moment, he listened to the overlapping waves of conversation. Other people’s lives had always fascinated him. There was something of the voyeur in him, picking at the threads as people chatted, in the vague hope of a juicy tid-bit. Although years had ticked by the topics of the conversation had not changed, who was sleeping with whom, the price of food, and the scandalous behavior of whatever administration was currently in the White House. The Café itself was timeless. It still had all the hallmarks of the 1980’s. Patrick had first sat here when it was new and besides looking a little tatty, nothing much had changed. He found he liked the continuity. His finger idly played with some spilled sugar on the table and the individual snippets of conversation returned to a background drone, freeing his mind to drift back to his coffee and time. He remembered books he had read and films he had seen. There was a scene from a science fiction film regarding the nature of time, and a conversation, his mind struggled to recall. “They say time is a beast that stalks us all our lives,” Dr. Soren had said in the film. “I prefer to think of time as a friend that accompanies us along our journey” Picard had responded. He had sat on both sides of that fence. For so many years of his life, he had thought of time as the enemy and now time was just a thing that was there. It was just a factor, like the weather, always there. No longer the demon it once was. He took the watch from his pocket, the gold chain dangled from the round ring on the winding stem. Patrick pressed the knurled winding button and the case sprung open 11:59 AM. His heart raced as the bell on the café door rang. He looked up from the watch as Susan entered. He closed the watch and returned it to its pocket. He could see her eyes searching for him and he caught her gaze. They both smiled. The connection made, they didn’t break eye contact as he rose to greet her. She looked smart, yet he could see she had come straight from work, by the wrinkle lines in her dark skirt. There was that worn all day look about her clothes, but they were smart nonetheless. He had missed her and joy filled his heart, as she picked her way to his table. He moved into the gap between the closely spaced tables, trying to avoid the clutter of handbags and general shopping debris, and held his arms out to greet her. He could see his smile mirrored on her face as they melted into each other’s arms. He loved the feel of her soft lips as they grazed lightly against his. Her lips parted slightly, surrendering to the tip of his penetrating tongue. He was aware of his penis stirring, like some caged animal, in its dark confined space. He suspected too that people were beginning to notice them. The kiss deepened and he ran his hand across Susan’s pert bottom, and gave her tender cheek a squeeze. He wanted her here and now, yet for the sake of decency he knew he would have to break soon. Still locked in a hug, Patrick reluctantly broke the kiss. It had lasted a matter of seconds but it had felt a lifetime. Slowly he became aware that the chatter had stopped and to his amusement he discovered that they were indeed, attracting a substantial amount of attention from the cafés other occupants. With a last squeeze of her ass, he smiled and said, “God I have missed you.” He kissed her again, holding her against him. Though it had been only days, it felt an age since they had been together. He lingered with the kiss letting his lips slip to her slender neck, as he drank in her floral fragrance. She always smelled good even after a day at work. He felt her hair on his cheek. It was long and loose, soft and shiny, falling in soft shimmering waves that framed her face. He could not help himself, his hand rose to feel the silken strands, fine as gossamer. His nose touched her hair and his nostrils detected a little of the hair spray, that had recently been combed out.

Defines the word erotica
Richard Savage's book, Temporally Yours/The Key are two separate novellas. Temporally Yours is the story of Patrick and Susan, two people who never have enough time to spend together. They both have careers that force them to travel allowing for an occasional rendezvous in various cities. Most of the relationship is courtesy of phone sex.

One day while taking a leisurely walk, the couple stumbles upon a charming yet mysterious shop and meet a jeweler who can solve their time dilemma...with an unusual condition.

In The Key, readers meet Jane. It's Valentine's Day and Jane waits in her office for a present from her boyfriend, David. Jane's emotions spin into frustration, anger, and disappointment as she watches her office colleagues receive the usual expressions of the day. She starts believing David doesn't love her as much as she had thought.

Jane then receives a series of clues, beginning with a key, eventually leading her to David, a beautiful dinner, and a very special evening which concludes with a marriage proposal.

Mr. Savage's writing style is vividly descriptive (Temporally Yours Zachariah the jeweler, "his long beard was flecked grey as was his long hair, which contained more salt than pepper). I liked the use of the word "flecked". The author's sex scenes define the word "erotica."

My difficulty with both stories was their sluggish pace. There was too much thinking and fantasizing and not enough action. It may have been the author's tension building approach. But by page 9 of Patrick sitting in a coffee shop and thinking (Temporally Yours), I was bored. It was the same with The Key. Endless pages with Jane sitting, watching and waiting.

I found it tough to become emotionally attached to the characters. Possibly because the stories were novellas with word count restrictions, or the stories' slow-moving tempo I just mentioned, but I never got to know these characters and was unable to understand (or care) why they loved each other.

For me the story is principal and the erotic landscape is a supporting feature. With Temporally Yours and The Key, it's not the story but the dynamic sex scenes that stand out. On the other hand, perhaps that was the author's intention.