While I'm working on Prep School Passion, the final novel of the series, I've also created an original short prequel to the saga. Marco and the Devil: A Prep School Blues Story, follows book characters Marco Strieber and Richard Alexander as they struggle with family, faith, strippers and a certain drug queenpin in order to come together! Read below an excerpt from the story, now available for pre-order as an Amazon Kindle exclusive...
Marco and the Devil: A Prep School Blues Story
While their respective single parents, the owner of a Christian coffee shop and a United States Senator, planned a benefit gala to raise money for the homeless population of Beaumont, Illinois, Marco Strieber and the Alexander brothers went out behind the lake house for a swim. The day was hot and cloudless. The water looked cool and inviting.
Edgar Alexander, the younger brother, was the first to disrobe, but he stayed for a few minutes in the shade of the lake house’s back patio to slather on some sunscreen.
Marco thought the brothers could not be more different. Edgar was pale and slender like his late mother, while Richard was ruddy and hearty like their father. Richard bounded down onto the dock, peeling off his tee shirt and shorts in two quick swipes, before diving into the lake in just his briefs. Marco was seventeen that summer, but he thought he still looked childish with his curly black hair and round face. Richard was the same age, but to Marco he looked like a man, not a boy.
By the time Marco reached the lakeshore, Richard’s head had already broken the surface. Richard shook his head back-and-forth, scattering droplets from his auburn hair to make ripples on the placid water around him.
“Come on in, Marco!” Richard called out, smiling. “The water’s great!”
Marco hesitated on the dock. He could not help himself from noticing how the gentle waves lapped up against Richard’s bare, muscled chest. His face burned with an unwanted blush.
“What’s the hold up, Marco?” Edgar asked as he sauntered towards them. “Afraid to get wet?”
Marco took in the brazen display of Edgar’s slim body in tiny piece of swimwear, which left little to the imagination. He realized that he was the only one still fully clothed.
“Never seen one of these before?” Edgar laughed as he twirled around, showing Marco just how tightly the thin fabric clung to his small bottom. Marco was speechless.
“Leave him alone, Edgar!” Richard called out from the water. “He’s just shy, that’s all! Aren’t you, Marco?”
“I just don’t know how to swim that well...” Marco fumbled for an excuse.
“Oh, I’ll teach you how to swim!” Edgar laughed again and shoved Marco off the dock into the water below.
Caught of guard, Marco screamed as he fell back into the water. His tee shirt and shorts were soaked instantly. The force of impact sent him sinking down into the depths. Cold water filled his open mouth. He frantically kicked his feet against the bottom of the lake and swam up above the surface. After spitting out a mouthful of lake water, he gasped for air. He looked up at the dock and saw Edgar clutching his stomach in a fit of giggles.
“Stop it, Edgar! That wasn’t funny,” Richard chastised his brother as he swam towards Marco. “Are you okay, Marco?”
“I’m...fine...” Marco replied between breaths. He felt a pain in his ankle. He realized that, in his haste to swim up for air, he must have twisted it.
“You don’t look fine,” Richard insisted. They were now bobbing in the water only a few feet apart from each other. “Are you hurt?”
“Well, maybe I should get out now,” Marco admitted.
“I’ll help you.” Before Marco could protest, Richard hoisted him up in his strong arms and lifted him out of the lake, reaching dry land with a few strides of his long legs.
“Ow,” Marco could not help himself from groaning as Richard set him down on the soft grass at the water’s edge.
“Where does it hurt?” Richard asked urgently.
“My ankle,” Marco explained as Richard knelt down to examine the injury.
“Oh, poor baby, should I go get your mommy and tell her you got hurt playing with the big kids?” Edgar stood above them, hands on his hips, a pout on his face.
“I think you’ll be alright,” Richard said to Marco, ignoring Edgar’s petulant taunts. “Just don’t put too much pressure on it.”
“Thank you, Richard.” Marco already felt better with Richard’s strong hands encircling his delicate ankle.
“What is going on out here?” Cary Strieber, Marco’s mother, called out as she emerged from the lake house. She was a large woman with a very loud voice, who mostly wore muumuus. “Marco, you’re soaked!”
“It’s my fault, ma’am,” Richard instantly covered for his brother. “We were horsing around and I knocked him in by accident.”
“Well, accidents happen, I suppose.” Cary, like so many others, could hardly resist Richard’s charm. “But one of you boys will have to lend him some dry clothes to wear on the drive home. I won’t have that dirty lake water getting all over the seat in my car.”
“Marco will have to borrow something of Richard’s,” Edgar sniped. “My clothes are all a size too small for him. I wear an extra-small in shirts and my waist is a twenty-eight.”
“That’s because you wear everything too tight, Edgar.” Richard chuckled. “But it’s okay, Mrs. Strieber, I always keep a couple different sets of clothes here for the summer. Marco can borrow whatever he likes.”
“What a good boy you are, Richard.” Cary positively beamed at the handsome young man.
“Cary, please reconsider!” Senator Timothy Alexander joined them outside. He did not react to the spectacle of Marco laid out on the grass. “I need you to muster the local churches to support this fundraiser.”
“No can do, Timothy.” Cary turned away from the boys to continue talking business with the senator. “I can’t in good conscience provide material things for the homeless without also giving them the gift of God’s word.”
“I already told you, your minister can give a sermon at the event!”
“That’s fine for the donors, but what about those poor souls in need?”
“We don’t have the budget to provide those bibles you want, Cary.”
“Then cut something else out! How about redirecting those funds set aside to purchase winter coats for the homeless? If we buy them bibles instead, they can be warmed by the word of God!”
“I’ll bring it up with the committee.” Senator Alexander sighed in exasperation.
Marco knew from experience that his mother would not be satisfied with the senator’s noncommittal answer. Before Cary could reply to the Senator, the approach of a speedboat across the lake drew everyone’s attention. The whole group assembled on the lakeshore turned to see the boat skimming across the water’s surface, piloted by a beautiful dark haired woman in sunglasses and a string bikini. A brown skinned boy, about Marco’s age, sat in the back of the boat, reading a comic book.
The speedboat came to a stop at the dock and the woman hopped out, while the boy remained behind.
“Nazira, I wasn’t expecting you till this afternoon,” the Senator stammered.
“Naz-who?” Cary asked, her eyes shooting daggers in the woman’s direction. Marco knew his mother disapproved of revealing swimwear, especially on females with athletic bodies.
“Nazira Salman,” the woman said by way of introduction. She gestured back to the boy in her boat. “And that’s my nephew Fareed.”
“Salman? Fareed?” Cary put together the Arabic names with the swarthy appearance of the newcomers. “I didn’t know Timothy did business with Muslims.”
“Nazira is doing publicity for the gala,” the Senator explained. Marco thought he looked very uncomfortable at the obvious conflict between the two women. “Her family also has a summer home across the lake from ours.”
“Maybe they should move their summer home back to Arabia or wherever they came from!” Cary snapped.
“We’re from India,” the boy in the boat said softly, looking up from his comic.
Cary exploded with rage.
“I don’t care if they’re from Timbuktu, I won’t work with terrorists, even if it is for the homeless. They probably just want to brainwash our American poor to serve in their jihad against our freedom. Does no one remember our troops? Disgusting. And what is she wearing? I thought the one saving grace about foreign women was their modesty. Listen up, Timothy, I’m not helping with your event while this Jezebel is involved!”
“I see.” Nazira looked amused more than anything else. “Timothy, should I withdraw my support from the gala? My husband was going to offer a substantial donation, but if you don’t want the money...”
“Of course not, my dear.” The senator put an arm around Nazira’s waist. “You’ll have to forgive Mrs. Strieber. She’s gotten a bit overheated in this weather.”
“Come on, Marco!” Cary was already walking away. “Let’s get out of here before they decide to impose Sharia law on us!”
Marco felt humiliated by his mother’s rude behavior. He glanced helplessly at Richard and silently mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.”
Richard gave Marco a discreet wink in return.
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