by Simone Evans
“Busted,” I gasped and looked around me as if I was searching for a traitor who had ratted me out to her.
“That’s right, Mr. Noch. You are totally busted.” She grinned at me and there was a familiar twinkle in her eye. “By the way, I have it on good authority that you’re going to get lucky tonight,” she whispered huskily.
She waved someone over and I looked up to find Clark standing there with his arms held out.
“Alright, hand him over.” He wiggled his fingers at Noah in a gimme gesture.
“Clark?” I looked between my assistant and my wife.
“I’m watching this little booger tonight.” Clark clarified as I handed over the carrier and Noah.
The man slid the carrier on without disturbing my son. For a single man, Clark was way too good at all things ‘Noah.’
I frowned at him for a second and then was distracted as he tugged the diaper bag off my shoulder.
“See you all tomorrow,” Clark called as he turned to leave. When he reached the door, he turned back. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do?” he busted out laughing and then cooed at Noah as he soothed him back to sleep.
“What just happened?” I asked and turned to Naiva.
“Surprise!” She grinned at me.
“Naiva?” I growled.
“This will be our first ‘date night’ since I gave birth. Clark said it would be easier to keep Noah overnight than us having to disrupt the baby to pick him up late.” She began tugging at her apron.
“But… this is your day. I should be –”
“And I want to have my husband to myself,” she interrupted and arched an eyebrow at me.
She moved into my arms and wrapped her own around my waist. She peered up at me and I couldn’t keep myself from kissing her lips.
“You might want to take tomorrow off,” I insisted as I broke the kiss.
“Why’s that?” Naiva looked at me strangely.
“Because, you little tease, I don’t think you’re going to be able to walk.” I leaned over and hefted Naiva onto my shoulder.
She let out a scream and I laughed as she shouted for me to put her down.
“Molly, close up for us and you might want to plan on opening tomorrow, too,” I called out as I went through the door and stomped toward the exit of the building.
One thing was for sure, I’d never have enough of this woman or the love we found at Cape Luella.
Simone Evans began creating stories when she was a small child. Her love of books and writing has remained with her since those early days. However, it wasn't until recently her writing became a lot more grown-up. Simone believes in love at first sight, finding romance in the small things, and being open to explore new things.
**Note: Simone's female leads tend to be big beautiful women (BBW) and her stories also tend to fall within the "Forever Safe" sub-genre with their love at first sight, fated love themes. Please note there may be exceptions as she also believes in realistic themes along with the fantasy.
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Website/ Blog at https://sweetnsaucystories.weebly.com/
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Be sure to look for releases in the Money & Mountains Erotic Romance series by Simone Evans and Claudia Stevens.
Stuck With You by Claudia Stevens
Bits, Bites, and Campfires by Simone Evans
Check out the new Leather Persuasion series that released Valentine’s 2020 and includes Second Chance Persuasion by Simone Evans
As well as the Wicked Griffins MC RH series now available from Claudia Stevens & Simone Evans.
Steel (12/19/2019), Cobalt (1/9/2020), Tungsten (1/30/2020), Mag (2/20/2020)
And, her Forever Safe releases:
The Forever Gift: Forever Safe Christmas #5
Love at Cape Luella: Forever Safe Summer II #7
Continue reading for a sneak peek at the first chapter of two of Simone Evans current releases.
Clara Wood grew up with her single mother in Nevada. It wasn’t until her mother died that Clara learned she still had a family — her grandmother out East in Holiday City, Ohio. Living life a day at a time, Clara is stuck in a dead-end job and a crap apartment, but at least her life is her own. So, when her grandmother begs her to visit, Clara claims she can’t miss work.
Then, a little over a year after her mother’s death and nearing Christmas, Clara loses her job and is a week from being kicked from her apartment when her grandmother contacts her with a promise of a life-changing gift. The catch… she has to visit Holiday City. With hopes of a gift that could help her get back on her feet, Clara packs up everything of value and hits the road.
Will a Christmas gift become a Forever filled with love?
~**~ Continue for a sneak peek at the first chapter of ‘The Forever Gift.’
“Get your fucking hands off of me,” I smacked my boss’s hands away from my ass. It had been like this since the first day I made the deal to work under-the-table for the male chauvinist pig.
This time, Ronnie had cornered me in the back hallway when I went to find napkins to fill the containers out front. I’d always known he was a slimeball but for the past seven months, he’d paid me under-the-table and allowed me to keep my money away from the mother-grubbing assholes who had already taken all of my mother’s insurance money. Earning money off the books really helped to keep me off of the collection agencies’ lists — you couldn’t get anything from someone who had nothing. During the long process of my mom’s death, she’d racked up a lot of debt. Which meant I had a decent amount of my own, too. I would have given anything for my mom — but none of it had been enough.
“Don’t be ungrateful, Clara,” Ronnie leered at my boobs. “I’ve been rubbing your back and now… now I think it’s time for you to rub mine.” He waggled his eyebrows and rubbed at his groin.
“You're sick,” I snarled and tried to get past him.
Ronnie took a step in front of the door to the front of the bar where we worked. It was a dive in a bad part of Vegas but putting up with guys pinching my ass allowed me to earn tips on top of the money Ronnie slid to me without the government knowing.
Some rock version of a Christmas classic began to blare from the speakers and the vein in my forehead began to throb with more intensity. Fucking holiday season, I snarled to myself.
I hated this time of the year. My mom had died around Thanksgiving a year ago. Not to mention that the several before that had been lacking in holiday cheer as she’d gotten worse.
“Come on, hot stuff, just a little fun.” Ronnie moved toward me and I could feel as well as smell his horrible breath.
“Look, pencil dick, if you don’t get the fuck away from me, then I’ll—”
“Clara, Clara, Clara,” Ronnie tsked at me. “Just show me a bit of gratitude and you ca—”
I didn’t give the shit-for-brains a chance to finish his vulgar statement. Instead, my knee found itself shoved into his groin with as much force as possible.
“No one… and I mean no one touches me unless I say,” I spit into his red face as he gasped for breath and squealed like a pig.
“You’re” — Ronnie panted as he forced the words past his lips — “fired!”
“Fuck you! I quit!”
**
An hour late
r I was sitting at my tiny two-seater kitchen table. I stared at the wall as I groaned in defeat.
“Fucking pig,” I snarled in frustration.
Ronnie had refused to pay me the money he owed me. It was almost two weeks' worth, something over eighty hours I had worked — covering everyone else's call-offs — and he laughed in my face because I couldn’t do anything about it. There was no proof I even worked for the man.
Friday would have been payday and I would have had enough money to pay my back rent along with this month's. Now I had a total of two hundred dollars to my name. It wasn’t enough and Mrs. Jenkins told me last month that if I didn’t catch up by this Friday she’d have no choice but to evict me.
A year ago I had lost my mother to cancer. Merry-fucking-Christmas to me. She was all I had in the world and she’d been taken from me. But, it had taken six years for it to happen. Her illness began when I was in high school. Mom kept getting sick and lost a lot of weight. Then they’d found the lumps. Thankfully, mom had gotten the receptionist job before I started middle school so she had insurance. In the end, the insurance hadn’t been enough. The doctors hadn’t been enough. Six long years of pain and she was gone and I was left with the few belongings scattered around this crummy ass apartment.
I sighed and dropped my head to the table.
The opening chords to the chorus of “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen brought my head up from the table. The song had been put on my phone by my mom. She thought it was funny and it had gotten funnier to her the closer she got to the end. I never thought it was funny but couldn’t bring myself to change it.
‘Always smile, sweet pea. Never let anyone steal your shine.’ Mom’s final words to me before she’d fallen into the coma echoed in my mind as the song ended. The call had been sent to voicemail.
“Another One Bites the Dust…” The song began again.
I snatched up my cell phone and stared at the screen. A number I didn’t recognize was displayed… or…
“Hello,” I replied softly after swiping my finger over the screen.
“Clara?” A voice I’d only heard for the first time just under a year ago echoed from the device in my hand. “Are you there?”
“Yes, this is Clara,” I replied out of habit.
“Good. Hello, sweetheart.” My mom’s mother chuckled over the phone. “I never seem to be able to reach you.”
“I’m sorry… I work a lot of hours,” I deflected.
“You shouldn’t work so hard. Someone your age should have some fun. There’s plenty of time to work in your life.” My grandmother’s voice was kind as she lectured.
“Someone has to pay the bills around here,” I replied coldly as frustration filled me.
“I didn’t mean…” My grandmother sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I worry about you all the way out there in Sin City by yourself.”
“Mrs. Wood, Vegas—”
“Grandma or Ms. Amelia if you’d prefer. Mrs. Wood still makes me think of my mother-in-law and that woman was scary.” Amelia Wood laughed for several minutes.
“Ms. Amelia, I’m sorry. But… Why are you calling?”
A sigh echoed over the phone as the older woman sobered. “I want you to come out to Ohio for Christmas.”
“It’s very kind of you to invite me but I have work—”
“Clara Wood! You’ve been making excuses for months. Until a year ago I didn’t know what had happened to my own daughter and now I have a granddaughter. One who I haven’t gotten to know. That wasn’t my choice. Your mother made that choice when she ran away from home.”
“She wanted to follow her dream,” I snapped.
“Yes, and look how that turned out.” My grandmother’s voice changed and it sounded like the older woman was fighting back a sob. “I’m sorry. I just miss her. I’ve missed her for thirty years and now I’ll miss her until the good Lord allows us to be reunited.”
“Look, I understand but…”
“Please, Clara? Just come out for a few days. I have a present for you but you have to come here to get it,” my grandmother rambled off quickly.
A gift? What type of gift would my grandmother not be able to ship? I wondered. Would it be something which could help my current situation?
“I really can’t miss work…” Letting my voice fade I waited for my grandmother to take the bait — I needed to know whether this gift was worth driving across the United States.
My insides squirmed at the shadiness of my thoughts. But when you’re down on your luck… you did what you had to do.
“I promise it will be worth your time,” Amelia Wood insisted.
It was as if she knew how shitty my life was. Or, maybe she was just desperate enough to bribe me to get me to visit her. Mom hadn’t shared a lot about her parents. In fact, she’d made it seem like they’d died. I couldn’t help but feel like there was a reason. Maybe...
“I might be able to get a few days off” — I waited a few moments and then finished — “I’ll have to check with work.”
“This gift is worth the trip. Life-changing even,” my mom’s mother’s voice sounded odd as she stated the last. “Just try to come.”
“I’ll let you know, Ms. Amelia. That’s all I can promise right now.” Drumming my fingers on the table I nibbled my lower lip as I began to think about everything.
“Alright, that’s all I can ask, sweetheart.” Someone yelled in the background. “Just a minute, Franny.” Mrs. Wood yelled back at the person before her voice lowered and she spoke to me again, “Your mama was all I had in this world after I lost your grandpa. Please try to come.”
“I will let you know.” I couldn’t bring herself to commit one way or another.
The gift could be some family heirloom which only had value to my grandmother for all I knew but, then again, stuff like that was often worth money. Maybe enough money for me to start over on the east coast.
If the altercation with Ronnie taught me anything, it was that big cities had a lot of sharks who liked to eat the small fish. I didn’t want to continue being a small fish.
Besides, my mom had often talked about her childhood Christmas’. I’d just never realized my grandparents were still around when she shared her stories over mugs of eggnog and hot cocoa. My mom had died thinking her parents didn’t love her. Maybe this was a chance to put some of that hurt behind us all. Maybe my grandmother still had some of my mom’s things from when she was young.
What did I have to lose? Not much. Just the gas to get to Ohio.
“I’ll do it!” I slap my palms to the table and push up from the hard kitchen chair.
It was time to pack and then a quick stop at the Rainbow Market to gas up and load up on snacks, I’d need the fuel for myself and the car. Holiday City, Ohio was over a day's drive from Vegas.
Scribbling a note on a scrap of paper, I slide my apartment key from my key ring and leave it on top of the note. Hopefully, I’ll be able to send Mrs. Jenkins the back rent soon. The woman had been generous and I didn’t want to leave her in the lurch.
“Holiday City, here I come,” I yell as I turn to begin sorting through my stuff.
Lila Bransen is a small-town girl raised in a cabin on the edge of her family’s campground, The Brambles. She loved her hometown, but she dreamed of finding a man she hadn’t known since she was born. A man to control her desires. Her body had needs which couldn’t be satisfied by the smooth talking, scared-of-their-momma boys who hit on her. She might just find him, if she can let go of her past.
Zade Jordan was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He grew up an orphan who made it big with his software company. However, years after his first big deal and billions richer, Zade was still lonely. Everyone wanted one thing from him... his money. All Zade wanted was a woman who wouldn't blackmail him or sue him because of his deviant desires. Instead, he was heading to the middle of Montana to escape the most recent fiasco and reevaluate his life.
What neither expected was to
discover the missing piece to their hearts.
~**~ Continue for a sneak peek at the first chapter of ‘Bits, Bites, & Campfires.’
“Are you staying for one night or two?” I asked my customer while fighting to hold back my sigh of exasperation.
My gaze watched the two college boys staying in cabin one walking by without their shirts. They had the physic to want to show it off. Damn, how I wished I was somewhere secluded between the two of them instead of listening to Mr. Leeland drone on.
“It says right here in the brochure —” This man had been going on for at least forty-five minutes about the decade-old brochure.
“I’m sorry, sir, but the brochure is from before we changed management and it is no longer valid.” My hands hovered over the computer keyboard as I readied to enter his information. It wasn’t like he had many choices of locations to camp around Garter Point, Montana — population 483… and most would argue four hundred of those were snakes.
The boys stretched and wiped sweat from their necks as they laughed together just outside the window. A sigh escaped as I realized they would be too young to fulfill the desires running through my veins. Just kids, I sighed internally.
“Miss Bransen…” Mr. Leeland pulled me back to reality. “I’ll take one night if you will. Tomorrow we’ll most likely head out, but if we don’t, will you have room for us to stay a second night?” The man folded the brochure and shoved it in a pocket as he used his other hand to retrieve his wallet without really waiting for me to answer. “You take a credit card, right?”
“Of course, I can add another night if you need one tomorrow. After that, it’s difficult to say because we have a few guests who should be arriving. And, yes, a card is fine.” I reached out my hand and noticed him hesitate for a few seconds before lying the card in my palm.
“Just the one night, thanks.” He leaned on the counter and watched me enter his information from his card into my reservation system.