Bittersweet Obsessions

When it comes to love, they believe in one perfect mate, 
but putting the centuries-old belief to the test
 could bring them everything they desire. In a culture where it's believed each person has only one life-mate, what happens when yours is beyond your reach? Teriza feels the mating call to a man married to a Human. Unwilling to be the cause of infidelity, Teriza distances herself from her mate after an intense pheromone-charged encounter that leaves her in precarious health. She requires treatment and is sent to a clinic in Switzerland, where sexual surrogates are employed to heal such conditions. After Paul Craddock's life-mate died, he turned to surrogacy to ease the pain of loneliness. His reaction to Teriza surprises him by being more than a casual attraction. He's intrigued to discover she feels the same. They experiment with the Human way of courtship, but the ultimate bond that Crainesians experience eludes them. Teriza fears Paul cannot be content with her since he's experienced heartglow during his previous marriage. Paul worries that the existence of Teriza's life mate makes him the consolation prize, good enough, but not her first choice. Though they are falling in love, they're in uncharted territory without the engulfing pheromone storm of life-mates to guide them. Will they learn to trust their feelings and listen to their hearts before it's too late? To My Reader: What if you were taught that there was only one life mate in the universe for you, and then you learned that person was lost to you? Would you have the courage to put aside the hurt and your ingrained beliefs to stubbornly search for happiness? Such is the situation Teriza and Paul find themselves in. I hope you'll enjoy their rocky journey to happiness as much as I enjoyed telling their story.