Trail of secrets, p.19
Trail of Secrets, page 19
Isobel nodded, a frown building between her brows.
“An ambulance met us at the ridge road and took him to the local hospital. Both he and Jamie are there.”
“Jamie’s okay?” Alec asked.
Adrian nodded. “He will be, once his prosthetic is repaired or replaced.”
The rest of the crew needed hot showers and time to heal from their bruises. After bathing and changing, they gathered, as people do, in the kitchen of the main house where Catarina served them all tea and coffee and an array of foods from fig leaf-wrapped goat cheese to roasted lamb gyros.
Alec walked in after everyone else had cleared their places. Alec fell into a seat next to Isobel and began loading up a plate. He dove into the meal, eating half of it before he joined the conversation.
“So, what happens tomorrow?” Alec asked.
“We get up and do our assigned chores, visit our counselor,” Boone said with a wink at Isobel.
Alec rolled his eyes as Isobel shook her head, fighting a grin. “I meant with Steve out of commission.”
“I handle the counseling,” Isobel said. “And Kent, who’s been here the longest, will step up with my father to run the rest of the programs.”
Alec nodded. “Figured Steve had a contingency.”
“Always,” Boone said. He rose and stretched. “Well, today was exciting, and I don’t mean in a good way. We got stuff to hash out tomorrow, Miss Isobel.”
Isobel frowned, but before she could speak, Boone said, “I’m gonna spend some quality time with my pillow, folks. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
The door opened, and Luke Monson stepped inside. The elder Monson’s hair was mussed and his face gray. He beelined to Cynthia, who sat next to Catarina. Boone crossed his arms over his chest as he moved to stand by the back door. Kent mimicked him.
Alec tensed, his knuckles turning white where he gripped his fork. Isobel dropped her hand to his knee and squeezed.
After a quiet conversation between the two of them, Luke made his way toward Alec. Isobel began to rise, intending to give up her seat.
“No,” Luke said, shaking his head. “Stay.”
Alec clasped her hand as she settled back against him. Luke sucked in a deep breath.
“I need to apologize to all of you,” Luke said. He cleared his throat. “I wanted Martin here, in part to help him, but also to keep an eye on Isobel Petras and her family. And Steve. And…and for other reasons.”
Boone and Kent muttered and Isobel tensed. She glanced over at her parents and then at Portia, whose jaw was clamped tight, her eyes glittering.
“I didn’t realize Martin would form an unhealthy attachment to Isobel, and I sure didn’t know he’d try to harm any of you.” Luke exhaled in a rush. “That was never part of my plan. I regret my choices. I’ll stop by the hospital to talk to Steve before I take Cynthia home.”
Luke faced Alec, his eyes glassy with emotion. “You saved my wife and your…”
“Everything,” Alec said, his deep voice sure as he leaned in and smoothed a kiss to Isobel’s temple. “She’s my everything.”
Luke dipped his chin in acknowledgment. “I spoke with the local sheriff on the way here so that he understands the part I played in this.” Luke seemed to age right before Isobel’s eyes. “And I’ll work with the department to make sure justice has been met.”
He walked back to Cynthia and helped her from the chair. The room remained quiet as Luke led Cynthia outside, into the dark night.
“Well,” Catarina said. “That didn’t quite go as I expected.”
The laughter burst forth, relieving the worst of the tensions. Even Alec chuckled. Isobel’s heart beat faster.
Alec leaned over and whispered into her ear, “Time to go?”
She nodded and rose. After hugging her family, she headed out the back door. Alec followed.
“Izzy?” he said softly.
She turned to face him. He cupped her cheeks, his thumbs sweeping over her cheekbones. “I love you. And I’m so, so thankful today ended as it did.”
She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “I love you, too.”
“So, I can stay in your bed tonight?” he asked, eyes filled with hope.
She leaned against him. “Tonight, tomorrow. Forever.”
Epilogue
Alec
* * *
“See you tomorrow,” Alec called back to his copilot.
“Hope not,” Boone said. “I mean, not in the air. At the ranch for the celebration.”
Alec clapped Boone on the shoulder and grinned. It was amazing what six months could do for a man’s outlook. Steve had healed and returned to work, and the ranch took on its one hundredth soldier, thanks to the expansion made possible by Luke Monson’s large donation.
Boone and Alec handled all the policing and emergency medical work in the county—the only two men with certifications in both disciplines, thanks in large part to their former military training.
“See you then.” Alec headed toward his truck, which was parked behind the hangar. Isobel hopped out of the driver’s seat and into his arms. He buried his face in her shiny hair and inhaled deeply, letting peace and contentment wash over him.
She stepped back and beamed up at him. “I do like you in a uniform,” she said with a laugh.
“I like you.”
Her smile widened. “You got me.”
He walked her around to the passenger seat and helped her into the vehicle before rounding the rear. “Hope so,” he muttered.
Isobel
* * *
The sun dipped low and dusk fell as Alec drove with the same easy confidence he seemed to do everything these days. Isobel’s heart swelled with happiness as she watched him. She blinked when she realized they weren’t stopping at the main house but driving down a rutted lane about a mile further down the road.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“On the next parcel of land,” Alec said, giving her the side eye.
“Um. Why?”
He stopped the truck and hopped out. Isobel unbuckled and did the same. He waited for her at the front of the truck, between the two headlights. “Because,” he murmured, “I want to build you a house here.”
Isobel’s eyes widened. “A…a house?”
He squeezed her fingers. “Mm hmm. For us to share.”
She untangled their fingers and wound her arms around his neck. He moved in, molding his body to hers. “Just us?”
“Yes. Well…for a while.”
She bit her lip to keep the grin from leaping across her face. “What happens after a while?”
“I’m glad you asked. See, I have plans.”
She grinned even as Alec molded his lips to her. He took his time, making sure Isobel understood the connection between them was full of love and desire. Then he slipped back and sank down to one knee and held up a jeweler’s box.
Isobel’s heart pounded as she brought her fingertips to her lips.
“Isobel, I love you, all of you, especially the feistiness and tireless energy you’ve brought to the last six months. You got Grant to talk to me again.”
Isobel blinked back tears as she remembered Alec and Grant’s reunion five months ago. It would always remain one of the happiest days of her life.
“You managed to get my father to be a decent human.”
She shook her head. That was all Cynthia’s doing. And Steve’s. They’d worked out a deal that helped the veterans and the ranch and kept Luke from any criminal charges. In the end, everyone benefitted, and Isobel couldn’t be happier with the result because it meant Alec and Luke were making slow, tentative progress toward a lasting relationship.
“You give so much of your heart to your veterans, but I’m hoping you saved the largest piece for me.”
“Yes,” she squealed.
He laughed, a deep belly one. “You didn’t let me ask yet.”
She clasped her hands together, her legs trying to dance out from under her.
“Isobel, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife…and someday, if you want, we can fill up our house with kids and pets and all the crazy goodness you had growing up?”
Even before he’d uttered the last word, Isobel was on her knees in front of him, arms around his neck.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Always yes. To anything you want.”
Alec slid back, his eyes shining with love and a deep happiness that touched Isobel’s own soul.
“I want to give you everything you desire, sweet thing.” He slid the beautiful diamond solitaire onto her finger as she struggled for breath.
“You, Alec. That’s been the heart of it all. I will always want you.”
He settled her in his lap and leaned back against the truck’s grill. “So, ten bedrooms ought to do it, then?”
She laughed through her tears as she kissed him.
* * *
The End
Wish to read more of Alexa’s contemporary romances? Check out the first book in her new Austin After Dark series, Deep in the Heart.
http://www.alexapadgett.com
Newsletter
http://www.alexapadgett.com/newsletter/
Acknowledgments
So, this book was a strange one to write. I started it with a writing partner, but she wasn’t able to finish it with me. I’ve worried over the results—what you, the readers, will think—for months. I hope I did the story we originally set out to tell justice.
There are many people I need to thank, but I want to start with Sarah Allan. Her expertise of all-things-military make this book shine. I’m so thankful for your time to look up more details about the helicopters.
Rebecca Hamilton created a delightful cover for this book. Isn’t he yummy? Thanks, Rebecca!
My beta readers: Claire, Casey, Jennifer, Lauren, and Lorrie, I honestly can’t believe how quickly you read this--or how great your attention to detail. Thank you, all of you, for making sure this book reads so well! You ladies ROCK!
And, as always, to Chris. You help me in so many ways. Thank you for all that you do (and for putting up with my crazy all these years).
About the Author
USA TODAY Bestseller & Amazon International Bestseller.
Alexa Padgett's books have garnered awards from Kirkus Reviews, The Romance Reviews, and Readers' Favorites. Her newest novel, Deep in the Heart, has been added to several Goodreads Best lists.
Alexa spent a good part of her youth traveling. From Budapest to Belize, Calgary to Coober Pedy, she soaked in the myriad smells, sounds, and feels of these gorgeous places, wishing she could live in them all--at least for a while. And she does in her books.
She lives in New Mexico with her husband, children, and Great Pyrenees pup, Ash. When not writing, schlepping, or volunteering, she can be found in her tiny kitchen, channeling her inner Barefoot Contessa.
Also by Alexa Padgett
Deep in the Heart
An Austin After Dark Book One
Two strong, battle-scarred people grapple with how to make a relationship work in the forceful first Austin After Dark contemporary. - BookLife
She's mending guitars and her life.
Jenna Olsen isn't sure she'll ever escape her past. Becoming a skilled guitar craftsperson helped with the anxiety, but she dreams of the day when she can trust again. When an up-and-coming country star asks for a custom guitar in an impossible time-frame, Jenna falls for the challenge.
He's focused on music to help forget the war.
Camden Grace's music and fans help him cope with the physical wounds he sustained in Iraq. But he's haunted by his fractured family history. When an angry outburst leaves an expensive guitar shattered, he doesn't expect to find a strong-willed woman whose struggle echoes his own.
Will creating a new instrument turn their romance into a smash hit?
As the instrument and their feelings start to come together, a dangerous would-be flame attempts to sabotage their relationship. The jealous rival could kill more than their careers if Jenna and Camden can't rise above the rage to heal their hearts forever.
* * *
Broken Rose of Texas
An Austin After Dark Book Two
She aches to make her own music…but I burn for the perfect revenge.
I never thought a late-night Scrabble game would blow my world apart. Moving letters. Keeping score. Swapping words and desire with a mystery woman who makes me fantasize of things I have no right thinking.
I can’t get involved.
I won’t.
Despite the pull of her lush curves and the electric crackle of chemistry between us, I resist. Regan has aroused something far more desirable than revenge, and I can’t get sidetracked by my pesky feelings. Not now that my plot to pay back my best friend’s heartbreaking betrayal finally snaps into place, and I vowed years ago to see it to the bitter end.
And that means no emotional entanglements. Even for her.
Until a vindictive smear campaign aimed at Regan is followed by a bombshell that blows my world apart…and our fragile relationship crumbles.
Unless we both go all in and trust each other, we won’t be able to pick up the pieces.
* * *
Or try the Seattle Sound Series:
* * *
SWEET SOLACE (Book One of the Seattle Sound Series)
She Knew Him When
When they first met, Dahlia was far too young—seventeen—and already engaged to the wrong man. Her husband eventually betrayed her trust, but Asher shattered her heart when he wrote a song for her…and then vanished.
He Never Forgot Her
Asher’s whiskey-rough voice made him a star, but fame extracted its price. After leaving Dahlia Dorsey behind, he never expects the way he’ll feel when he sees her next. His once muse is now a widowed mother and a reclusive writer who’s given up on happy endings—in part because of his choice all those years ago.
Betrayal Broke Them Once
Dahlia's career is on the rocks. Asher's family is falling apart. Neither can chase a passing attraction. But the connection between them is too fierce and much too precious to resist. When a moonlit beach and the touch of an old friend revives their decades-old cravings, will they be able to forge a bond stronger than past betrayals and youthful mistakes?
* * *
BETWEEN BREATHS (Book Two of the Seattle Sound Series)
2017 Readers' Favorite award winner and The Romance Reviews Top Pick.
Grief brought them together
A hospice center is no place to fall in lust. But Hayden Crewe’s world is cracking, and he needs something sweet to distract him. It doesn’t matter that he’s the backbone of Australia’s hottest international rock group—here, watching his estranged mother die, he’s more alone than ever. So, when he meets long-legged, perceptive Briar Moore, he knows how to fill the hole inside.
Fortune will drag them apart
Briar has just escaped a job and relationship that nearly crushed her. Crawling out of the wreckage of her previous life, she’s done playing it safe. Sexy, vibrant Hayden is what she wants, and Briar is going to take him. For as long as she can…
Out of heartbreak comes hope
Briar and Hayden plunge into an affair as the ghosts of their pasts haunt their every moment. While those few, intense days changed them forever, a connection this fierce should burn out as fast as it ignited…
* * *
HOLD YOU CLOSE (Book Three of the Seattle Sound Series)
Searching for peace
Mila Trask’s much-wanted pregnancy ended in a crunch of steel and pain, leaving her career derailed and her body scarred by a stalker no one else believes in. And Murphy Etsam, the man she thought would love her forever, shot into international rock stardom on the pure fury of the song he wrote when they broke up. Mila must talk to him one last time if she’s to fully let go of her painful past…
Running from the truth
One glimpse of her in the crowd and Murphy knows a year of drowning his sorrows in booze, fame, and other women hasn’t erased a molecule of his passion for lovely, maddening Mila. Too bad Mila’s stalker picks that moment to attack.
Too close to doubt
With both their lives in danger, the ex-lovers are forced into hiding, where their proximity compels them to face the trauma and misunderstanding that wrenched them apart—and to battle the chemistry that still urges them together. There’s no going back to what they had before. But the future is theirs to claim…if they survive.
* * *
MANY SOUNDS OF SILENCE (Book Four of the Seattle Sound Series)
An Awful Night
A night she can’t remember produces a brutal set of photos the media and former college “friends” won’t let Abbi Dorsey forget. No matter what she does, she can’t escape the shame and harassment…or the threat of more degradation to come.
A Great Lie
Green-eyed senior Clay Rippey has a famous father of his own, and he knows the sting of betrayal. From the moment he sees Abbi, he can’t stop thinking about her. He’s not the relationship type, but he can play one for the press to help protect her from the vicious comments circulating about her…
A Dangerous Hope
There’s nothing made up about the desire sizzling between Abbi and Clay. But a bond built on fear and faking it doesn’t lead to happy endings…
* * *
FROM THE FIRST (Book Five of the Seattle Sound Series)
Sudden Impacts
The car that slammed into Evangeline Mercer knocked her life apart. Her body will recover, but when she looks at the orphaned girl from the other car, she’s lost in memories of her own awful time in the foster system. Evie won’t let little Paige go through that nightmare, and she finds an unlikely ally in Kai Luchia, Paige’s newest friend and champion…
“An ambulance met us at the ridge road and took him to the local hospital. Both he and Jamie are there.”
“Jamie’s okay?” Alec asked.
Adrian nodded. “He will be, once his prosthetic is repaired or replaced.”
The rest of the crew needed hot showers and time to heal from their bruises. After bathing and changing, they gathered, as people do, in the kitchen of the main house where Catarina served them all tea and coffee and an array of foods from fig leaf-wrapped goat cheese to roasted lamb gyros.
Alec walked in after everyone else had cleared their places. Alec fell into a seat next to Isobel and began loading up a plate. He dove into the meal, eating half of it before he joined the conversation.
“So, what happens tomorrow?” Alec asked.
“We get up and do our assigned chores, visit our counselor,” Boone said with a wink at Isobel.
Alec rolled his eyes as Isobel shook her head, fighting a grin. “I meant with Steve out of commission.”
“I handle the counseling,” Isobel said. “And Kent, who’s been here the longest, will step up with my father to run the rest of the programs.”
Alec nodded. “Figured Steve had a contingency.”
“Always,” Boone said. He rose and stretched. “Well, today was exciting, and I don’t mean in a good way. We got stuff to hash out tomorrow, Miss Isobel.”
Isobel frowned, but before she could speak, Boone said, “I’m gonna spend some quality time with my pillow, folks. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
The door opened, and Luke Monson stepped inside. The elder Monson’s hair was mussed and his face gray. He beelined to Cynthia, who sat next to Catarina. Boone crossed his arms over his chest as he moved to stand by the back door. Kent mimicked him.
Alec tensed, his knuckles turning white where he gripped his fork. Isobel dropped her hand to his knee and squeezed.
After a quiet conversation between the two of them, Luke made his way toward Alec. Isobel began to rise, intending to give up her seat.
“No,” Luke said, shaking his head. “Stay.”
Alec clasped her hand as she settled back against him. Luke sucked in a deep breath.
“I need to apologize to all of you,” Luke said. He cleared his throat. “I wanted Martin here, in part to help him, but also to keep an eye on Isobel Petras and her family. And Steve. And…and for other reasons.”
Boone and Kent muttered and Isobel tensed. She glanced over at her parents and then at Portia, whose jaw was clamped tight, her eyes glittering.
“I didn’t realize Martin would form an unhealthy attachment to Isobel, and I sure didn’t know he’d try to harm any of you.” Luke exhaled in a rush. “That was never part of my plan. I regret my choices. I’ll stop by the hospital to talk to Steve before I take Cynthia home.”
Luke faced Alec, his eyes glassy with emotion. “You saved my wife and your…”
“Everything,” Alec said, his deep voice sure as he leaned in and smoothed a kiss to Isobel’s temple. “She’s my everything.”
Luke dipped his chin in acknowledgment. “I spoke with the local sheriff on the way here so that he understands the part I played in this.” Luke seemed to age right before Isobel’s eyes. “And I’ll work with the department to make sure justice has been met.”
He walked back to Cynthia and helped her from the chair. The room remained quiet as Luke led Cynthia outside, into the dark night.
“Well,” Catarina said. “That didn’t quite go as I expected.”
The laughter burst forth, relieving the worst of the tensions. Even Alec chuckled. Isobel’s heart beat faster.
Alec leaned over and whispered into her ear, “Time to go?”
She nodded and rose. After hugging her family, she headed out the back door. Alec followed.
“Izzy?” he said softly.
She turned to face him. He cupped her cheeks, his thumbs sweeping over her cheekbones. “I love you. And I’m so, so thankful today ended as it did.”
She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “I love you, too.”
“So, I can stay in your bed tonight?” he asked, eyes filled with hope.
She leaned against him. “Tonight, tomorrow. Forever.”
Epilogue
Alec
* * *
“See you tomorrow,” Alec called back to his copilot.
“Hope not,” Boone said. “I mean, not in the air. At the ranch for the celebration.”
Alec clapped Boone on the shoulder and grinned. It was amazing what six months could do for a man’s outlook. Steve had healed and returned to work, and the ranch took on its one hundredth soldier, thanks to the expansion made possible by Luke Monson’s large donation.
Boone and Alec handled all the policing and emergency medical work in the county—the only two men with certifications in both disciplines, thanks in large part to their former military training.
“See you then.” Alec headed toward his truck, which was parked behind the hangar. Isobel hopped out of the driver’s seat and into his arms. He buried his face in her shiny hair and inhaled deeply, letting peace and contentment wash over him.
She stepped back and beamed up at him. “I do like you in a uniform,” she said with a laugh.
“I like you.”
Her smile widened. “You got me.”
He walked her around to the passenger seat and helped her into the vehicle before rounding the rear. “Hope so,” he muttered.
Isobel
* * *
The sun dipped low and dusk fell as Alec drove with the same easy confidence he seemed to do everything these days. Isobel’s heart swelled with happiness as she watched him. She blinked when she realized they weren’t stopping at the main house but driving down a rutted lane about a mile further down the road.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“On the next parcel of land,” Alec said, giving her the side eye.
“Um. Why?”
He stopped the truck and hopped out. Isobel unbuckled and did the same. He waited for her at the front of the truck, between the two headlights. “Because,” he murmured, “I want to build you a house here.”
Isobel’s eyes widened. “A…a house?”
He squeezed her fingers. “Mm hmm. For us to share.”
She untangled their fingers and wound her arms around his neck. He moved in, molding his body to hers. “Just us?”
“Yes. Well…for a while.”
She bit her lip to keep the grin from leaping across her face. “What happens after a while?”
“I’m glad you asked. See, I have plans.”
She grinned even as Alec molded his lips to her. He took his time, making sure Isobel understood the connection between them was full of love and desire. Then he slipped back and sank down to one knee and held up a jeweler’s box.
Isobel’s heart pounded as she brought her fingertips to her lips.
“Isobel, I love you, all of you, especially the feistiness and tireless energy you’ve brought to the last six months. You got Grant to talk to me again.”
Isobel blinked back tears as she remembered Alec and Grant’s reunion five months ago. It would always remain one of the happiest days of her life.
“You managed to get my father to be a decent human.”
She shook her head. That was all Cynthia’s doing. And Steve’s. They’d worked out a deal that helped the veterans and the ranch and kept Luke from any criminal charges. In the end, everyone benefitted, and Isobel couldn’t be happier with the result because it meant Alec and Luke were making slow, tentative progress toward a lasting relationship.
“You give so much of your heart to your veterans, but I’m hoping you saved the largest piece for me.”
“Yes,” she squealed.
He laughed, a deep belly one. “You didn’t let me ask yet.”
She clasped her hands together, her legs trying to dance out from under her.
“Isobel, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife…and someday, if you want, we can fill up our house with kids and pets and all the crazy goodness you had growing up?”
Even before he’d uttered the last word, Isobel was on her knees in front of him, arms around his neck.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Always yes. To anything you want.”
Alec slid back, his eyes shining with love and a deep happiness that touched Isobel’s own soul.
“I want to give you everything you desire, sweet thing.” He slid the beautiful diamond solitaire onto her finger as she struggled for breath.
“You, Alec. That’s been the heart of it all. I will always want you.”
He settled her in his lap and leaned back against the truck’s grill. “So, ten bedrooms ought to do it, then?”
She laughed through her tears as she kissed him.
* * *
The End
Wish to read more of Alexa’s contemporary romances? Check out the first book in her new Austin After Dark series, Deep in the Heart.
http://www.alexapadgett.com
Newsletter
http://www.alexapadgett.com/newsletter/
Acknowledgments
So, this book was a strange one to write. I started it with a writing partner, but she wasn’t able to finish it with me. I’ve worried over the results—what you, the readers, will think—for months. I hope I did the story we originally set out to tell justice.
There are many people I need to thank, but I want to start with Sarah Allan. Her expertise of all-things-military make this book shine. I’m so thankful for your time to look up more details about the helicopters.
Rebecca Hamilton created a delightful cover for this book. Isn’t he yummy? Thanks, Rebecca!
My beta readers: Claire, Casey, Jennifer, Lauren, and Lorrie, I honestly can’t believe how quickly you read this--or how great your attention to detail. Thank you, all of you, for making sure this book reads so well! You ladies ROCK!
And, as always, to Chris. You help me in so many ways. Thank you for all that you do (and for putting up with my crazy all these years).
About the Author
USA TODAY Bestseller & Amazon International Bestseller.
Alexa Padgett's books have garnered awards from Kirkus Reviews, The Romance Reviews, and Readers' Favorites. Her newest novel, Deep in the Heart, has been added to several Goodreads Best lists.
Alexa spent a good part of her youth traveling. From Budapest to Belize, Calgary to Coober Pedy, she soaked in the myriad smells, sounds, and feels of these gorgeous places, wishing she could live in them all--at least for a while. And she does in her books.
She lives in New Mexico with her husband, children, and Great Pyrenees pup, Ash. When not writing, schlepping, or volunteering, she can be found in her tiny kitchen, channeling her inner Barefoot Contessa.
Also by Alexa Padgett
Deep in the Heart
An Austin After Dark Book One
Two strong, battle-scarred people grapple with how to make a relationship work in the forceful first Austin After Dark contemporary. - BookLife
She's mending guitars and her life.
Jenna Olsen isn't sure she'll ever escape her past. Becoming a skilled guitar craftsperson helped with the anxiety, but she dreams of the day when she can trust again. When an up-and-coming country star asks for a custom guitar in an impossible time-frame, Jenna falls for the challenge.
He's focused on music to help forget the war.
Camden Grace's music and fans help him cope with the physical wounds he sustained in Iraq. But he's haunted by his fractured family history. When an angry outburst leaves an expensive guitar shattered, he doesn't expect to find a strong-willed woman whose struggle echoes his own.
Will creating a new instrument turn their romance into a smash hit?
As the instrument and their feelings start to come together, a dangerous would-be flame attempts to sabotage their relationship. The jealous rival could kill more than their careers if Jenna and Camden can't rise above the rage to heal their hearts forever.
* * *
Broken Rose of Texas
An Austin After Dark Book Two
She aches to make her own music…but I burn for the perfect revenge.
I never thought a late-night Scrabble game would blow my world apart. Moving letters. Keeping score. Swapping words and desire with a mystery woman who makes me fantasize of things I have no right thinking.
I can’t get involved.
I won’t.
Despite the pull of her lush curves and the electric crackle of chemistry between us, I resist. Regan has aroused something far more desirable than revenge, and I can’t get sidetracked by my pesky feelings. Not now that my plot to pay back my best friend’s heartbreaking betrayal finally snaps into place, and I vowed years ago to see it to the bitter end.
And that means no emotional entanglements. Even for her.
Until a vindictive smear campaign aimed at Regan is followed by a bombshell that blows my world apart…and our fragile relationship crumbles.
Unless we both go all in and trust each other, we won’t be able to pick up the pieces.
* * *
Or try the Seattle Sound Series:
* * *
SWEET SOLACE (Book One of the Seattle Sound Series)
She Knew Him When
When they first met, Dahlia was far too young—seventeen—and already engaged to the wrong man. Her husband eventually betrayed her trust, but Asher shattered her heart when he wrote a song for her…and then vanished.
He Never Forgot Her
Asher’s whiskey-rough voice made him a star, but fame extracted its price. After leaving Dahlia Dorsey behind, he never expects the way he’ll feel when he sees her next. His once muse is now a widowed mother and a reclusive writer who’s given up on happy endings—in part because of his choice all those years ago.
Betrayal Broke Them Once
Dahlia's career is on the rocks. Asher's family is falling apart. Neither can chase a passing attraction. But the connection between them is too fierce and much too precious to resist. When a moonlit beach and the touch of an old friend revives their decades-old cravings, will they be able to forge a bond stronger than past betrayals and youthful mistakes?
* * *
BETWEEN BREATHS (Book Two of the Seattle Sound Series)
2017 Readers' Favorite award winner and The Romance Reviews Top Pick.
Grief brought them together
A hospice center is no place to fall in lust. But Hayden Crewe’s world is cracking, and he needs something sweet to distract him. It doesn’t matter that he’s the backbone of Australia’s hottest international rock group—here, watching his estranged mother die, he’s more alone than ever. So, when he meets long-legged, perceptive Briar Moore, he knows how to fill the hole inside.
Fortune will drag them apart
Briar has just escaped a job and relationship that nearly crushed her. Crawling out of the wreckage of her previous life, she’s done playing it safe. Sexy, vibrant Hayden is what she wants, and Briar is going to take him. For as long as she can…
Out of heartbreak comes hope
Briar and Hayden plunge into an affair as the ghosts of their pasts haunt their every moment. While those few, intense days changed them forever, a connection this fierce should burn out as fast as it ignited…
* * *
HOLD YOU CLOSE (Book Three of the Seattle Sound Series)
Searching for peace
Mila Trask’s much-wanted pregnancy ended in a crunch of steel and pain, leaving her career derailed and her body scarred by a stalker no one else believes in. And Murphy Etsam, the man she thought would love her forever, shot into international rock stardom on the pure fury of the song he wrote when they broke up. Mila must talk to him one last time if she’s to fully let go of her painful past…
Running from the truth
One glimpse of her in the crowd and Murphy knows a year of drowning his sorrows in booze, fame, and other women hasn’t erased a molecule of his passion for lovely, maddening Mila. Too bad Mila’s stalker picks that moment to attack.
Too close to doubt
With both their lives in danger, the ex-lovers are forced into hiding, where their proximity compels them to face the trauma and misunderstanding that wrenched them apart—and to battle the chemistry that still urges them together. There’s no going back to what they had before. But the future is theirs to claim…if they survive.
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MANY SOUNDS OF SILENCE (Book Four of the Seattle Sound Series)
An Awful Night
A night she can’t remember produces a brutal set of photos the media and former college “friends” won’t let Abbi Dorsey forget. No matter what she does, she can’t escape the shame and harassment…or the threat of more degradation to come.
A Great Lie
Green-eyed senior Clay Rippey has a famous father of his own, and he knows the sting of betrayal. From the moment he sees Abbi, he can’t stop thinking about her. He’s not the relationship type, but he can play one for the press to help protect her from the vicious comments circulating about her…
A Dangerous Hope
There’s nothing made up about the desire sizzling between Abbi and Clay. But a bond built on fear and faking it doesn’t lead to happy endings…
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FROM THE FIRST (Book Five of the Seattle Sound Series)
Sudden Impacts
The car that slammed into Evangeline Mercer knocked her life apart. Her body will recover, but when she looks at the orphaned girl from the other car, she’s lost in memories of her own awful time in the foster system. Evie won’t let little Paige go through that nightmare, and she finds an unlikely ally in Kai Luchia, Paige’s newest friend and champion…
