Excerpt From The Crumb Snatcher

An Excerpt From The Crumb Snatcher

For her entire life Allison Woodall McNulty wanted to be in control, needed to be in control, demanded to be in control. If it were not relinquished voluntarily she would wrest it away and make sure that whomever refused her would be very sorry he or she had crossed her. There was nothing she wouldn't do to get her way. The word "no" did not exist in her vocabulary. Disarmingly engaging, she wrote the book on manipulation. Every grade, every job, and every relationship was a direct result of her devious scheming.

As a child, coercion and cajoling always resulted in her getting her way - from the expensive bicycle to her mansion-like dollhouse. Once she entered her teens, Allison knew how to play people like finely tuned fiddles. She remembered old Mr. Slavinsky, her high school history teacher and Rodney Christopher, her not ready for primetime boyfriend.

Rodney had previously been dating one of her friends. Between relationships herself, she decided he would fill the bill temporarily. What an easy target he was to seduce! One day during a lunch break, she and Rodney had been going at it hot and heavy in the band instrument room. Pinned against a wall, his hands were up her skirt and hers were down his pants. Right in the middle of a serious lip lock, who should amble in but Slavinsky. Allison laughed out loud as she recalled the look on his face. Rodney took off like a bat out of hell and Slavinsky reported them both to the senior advisors. Threatened with being expelled, Allison did the only thing a girl in her situation could do - she turned the tables.

One week before the hearing, she requested a "meeting" with Mr. Slavinsky. As she entered his small office, she noticed a group of her classmates milling about. Always the gentleman, Slavinsky rose from his desk and walked around to face her as they talked. Allison approached him so closely they were practically nose-to-nose. As she attempted to put her arms around him, he grabbed her arms, pinning them to her sides. At that exact moment Mr. Witcher, the gym teacher, entered the room. Needless to say there was no further discussion of expelling her or Rodney, and poor Mr. Skavinsky took early retirement.

As she grew older, she became a master of the game, developing agendas for life, tweaking them as needed. Her goal was to get married, do the wife and mommy thing and enjoy all of the pleasant trappings that went with it - on her terms.

In her previous relationships she turned in performances Hollywood would admire. Warm, sexy, whatever she needed to be, doing whatever she needed to do. When it seemed no longer worth her time and effort she opted out. She remembered the day she first met Matt. It didn't take her long to decide he was to be the one. He was smart, fun, lonely and not too bad in the sack either. She definitely had a plan, an investment to protect and no one was going to interefere with that. She wasn't going anywhere and neither was he.