Beware Falling Rocks
Page 1
Suncoast Society
Beware Falling Rocks
The last thing he wanted to do was walk away.
Paul was forced to make a heartbreaking decision to end things with Lynn. It took nearly two years to painfully hammer home that, despite his beliefs, he chose wrongly and all his friends had been right. Including Lynn. Now he is back and ready to fight for the love he gave up—if Lynn will only give him a chance.
The last thing she can do is move on.
Lynn never blamed Paul because she understood why he had to leave. She also knows it tore him up inside. Two years later, she’s a shell of her former self and knows logic doesn’t matter when a shattered heart has deeply buried her under a rockslide of pain.
The last thing they thought they would have was a second chance.
Paul’s sudden return threatens to upend Lynn’s life. Can she ever trust him again, or will her dreams be cruelly crushed once more?
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary
Length: 74,779 words
BEWARE FALLING ROCKS
Suncoast Society
Tymber Dalton
SIREN SENSATIONS
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Siren Sensations
BEWARE FALLING ROCKS
Copyright © 2016 by Tymber Dalton
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-507-9
First E-book Publication: September 2016
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of Beware Falling Rocks by Tymber Dalton from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Tymber Dalton’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Tymber Dalton’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
Especially for Trish and Bill. (AKA Bestie and Monkey Man.) Because sometimes the best ideas aren’t cooked up inside the dungeon itself, but out in the front office. And for Hubby and Sir.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This book picks up where Beware Falling Ice [Suncoast Society 36] ends, and includes some of the same characters, continuing their stories. It’s the second in a set of three books I’ve informally dubbed the “South Dakota Trilogy.” They overlap the same set of characters, along with some familiar favorites from the Suncoast Society. The next book in the series will be Justin’s story, and will overlap the previous two a little.
While the books in the Suncoast Society series are all standalone works, which may be read independently of each other, the recommended reading order to avoid spoilers and not miss any backstory information is as follows:
1. Safe Harbor
2. Cardinal’s Rule
3. Domme by Default
4. The Reluctant Dom
5. The Denim Dom
6. Pinch Me
7. Broken Toy
8. A Clean Sweep
9. A Roll of the Dice
10. His Canvas
11. A Lovely Shade of Ouch
12. Crafty Bastards
13. A Merry Little Kinkmas
14. Sapiosexual
15. A Very Kinky Valentine’s Day
16. Things Made Right
17. Click
18. Spank or Treat
19. A Turn of the Screwed
20. Chains
21. Kinko de Mayo
22. Broken Arrow
23. Out of the Spotlight
24. Friends Like These
25. Vicious Carousel
26. Hot Sauce
27. Open Doors
28. One Ring
29. Vulnerable
30. The Strength of the Pack
31. Initiative
32. Impact
33. Liability
34. Switchy
35. Rhymes With Orange
36. Beware Falling Ice
37. Beware Falling Rocks
Some of the characters in this book appear in or are featured in previous books in the Suncoast Society series. All titles available from Siren-BookStrand.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Author's Note
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
About the Author
BEWARE FALLING ROCKS
Suncoast Society
TYMBER DALTON
Copyright © 2016
Chapter One
I’m the suckiest friend ever.
Lynn knew she should be happy and smiling and all that, sucking it up, faking her way through the evening’s celebration and supporting her friends.
Corre
ction, she was happy for her friends. Andrew and Rachel were perfect for each other, and it was about time they got off their butts and made it official. Watching her friends be happy was one of the few things that ever made her smile anymore.
Still, it was all she could do to hold herself together.
She hung back behind the rest of the small crowd gathered there at Venture on that Thursday evening to witness the ceremony as Andrew collared Rachel. He was so sweet, and they would likely live a charmed life. She couldn’t have written a more perfect couple, or a funnier falling-in-love story for the two of them.
Deep breathing helped her endure her emotional pain while she watched the ceremony play out.
It was when Andrew helped Rachel stand, and then dropped to one knee in front of her to propose, that unhinged Lynn’s reserve.
Choking back the sob trying to claw its way free from her throat, Lynn quickly raced through the doorway separating the new side of the club from the old side and retreated to the bathroom there.
Alone, she stood at the sink and quietly cried.
This is hell. I’m in hell.
That’s what it felt like, anyway.
Every damn day.
It didn’t matter what well-meaning people told her, the things she “should” do. She was grieving, and it took as long as it took.
At the current rate she was going, it’d be a few more years.
At least.
If she was lucky.
When Lynn heard the bathroom door open several minutes later, she assumed it was Terrie coming to check on her.
But it was Rachel.
That made Lynn feel even worse, that she was pulling her friend away from a day that was supposed to be hers, and happy, and…
Everything Lynn knew she wouldn’t have.
Rachel hugged her.
“I’m sorry,” Lynn whispered. “I’m really happy for you guys. I am. I just…needed a minute.”
“It’s okay,” Rachel gently told her. “We’re worried about you.”
“And you know what? If he walked through the door right now and pointed at the floor, I’d drop to my knees just like that as if we hadn’t been apart for a single day.”
“I know.”
It made it so, so much worse that neither of them had wanted to break up. That they’d been forced apart.
Not only had they lost each other as lovers and play partners but as best friends.
All because Paul’s wife had lied to him years ago when she’d first met him—and in Lynn’s mind a whopper of that size was a full-blown lie, not just an omission or a failure to disclose—an expanding rockslide of issues trapping Lynn and Paul both in its path when it finally collapsed on top of them.
When the dust settled, everything had been shattered.
Including their hearts.
“God, I want you two to be happy,” Lynn said. “Please, I need to see a happy ending for someone so damn bad right now, you have no idea.”
“Just know that we love you and we’re here for you.”
“Thanks.” Lynn stepped back, grabbing a paper towel to blow her nose. “I’ll be out in a few. I just need to clean up.”
“Okay.” She didn’t miss the concern on Rachel’s face, but her friend finally turned and exited the bathroom, leaving Lynn alone.
She stared into the mirror over the sink.
Puffy nose and red eyes?
Check.
She’d forgotten what it felt like to feel…happy. Normal. Emotionally carefree. Now, she spent all day, every day, pushing herself, cooped up in her office, which Terrie had years ago dubbed her Evil Writing Lair of Evil.
The only tolerable escape offered to her from the reality she existed in.
She could flee to foreign, alien lands, invent people and plots, commit fictional murders over and over again, and force herself not to think about him.
She fingered the collar around her neck, the chainmaille necklace, one she knew she’d likely never willingly remove for anything other than showers.
Just like she would never get the small tattoo at the base of her spine covered up.
Just like she couldn’t remove Paul from her heart.
Not when she’d never be able to erase the sound of him sobbing from her brain.
* * * *
Fortunately, when Lynn finally returned to the main playspace, everything was still in full swing, her absence not missed. Terrie broke away from the group she’d been chatting with and walked over to her.
“I think you’ve had enough fun for one night, huh?”
Lynn nodded.
Terrie pulled her in for a hug. “I’m so sorry, sweetie.”
“I have to learn to get through it. You all are right. It’s been almost two years. It just still hurts so much.”
“I know.” Terrie fished her keys out of her pocket and pressed them into Lynn’s hand. “Go on. I’ll say good-bye for you and be out in a minute.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. We’ll be coming back tomorrow to meet Rachel’s brother. This isn’t going to be a late night anyway. Plus, you have work to do tomorrow.” Terrie arched an eyebrow at her. “You have edits you haven’t sent back yet. Martin’s going to be sending me nasty e-mails wondering why he hasn’t received them.”
“They’re not due until next week.”
“Yeah, and you almost always get them in early. We’ve spoiled him. I warned you about that.”
It didn’t matter that Terrie was Mark’s slave. She was a loving taskmaster who’d kept Lynn’s shredded sanity intact, and had forced Lynn to keep going.
More than just a friend. Her lifeline.
There was a damn good reason she jokingly called Terrie “Mom,” even though at forty-five, Terrie was only a year older than Lynn.
Lynn headed out to Terrie’s SUV and climbed into the passenger seat, reaching over to crank the engine and get the AC going to stave off the Florida heat. The muggy May night, even steamier following the late-afternoon thundershowers, felt oppressive, stifling.
Lynn had grown up with it, though. Florida’s fickle weather was like an old friend to her. About the only constant she’d had during her childhood, which was spent bouncing around in foster care for years before she’d aged-out.
After a few minutes, Terrie emerged from the building and hurried over to the SUV. They’d known each other since high school, when Terrie’s family moved to Florida from Maryland.
Once Terrie’s family realized Lynn didn’t have a forever family, they’d basically adopted her in every way other than officially. She’d spent more of her high school years at their home than she had at her foster parents’ house. Not that her last foster parents had been mean or anything, because they hadn’t. Sue and George Carlisle were wonderful people Lynn still kept in touch with. But they’d been busy with several other younger foster kids, two of them with autism spectrum issues, and it was easier for everyone for Lynn not to be around and in the way.
Then Terrie had met Mark, a Nebraska native, during their junior year of college in Tampa. The couple had been there for Lynn’s ill-fated marriage to and divorce from Ron in her early twenties.
Terrie and Mark ended up moving to Texas for several years for Mark’s job, but then he secured a transfer back to Florida. Even while living half a country apart, Terrie and Lynn had remained best friends, talking every day. Terrie also worked for Lynn as her paid author PA while raising her two girls and getting them both off to college. One daughter had earned an academic scholarship to UF, the other to FSU, their first-choice schools.
Mark and Terrie were now enjoying the freedom of being able to engage in their M/s dynamic without having to arrange for Lynn to babysit so they could go to Venture, or get a hotel room for a night.
Lynn, however, hadn’t repeated her mistake with Ron. His self-assured cockiness, which had seemed extremely charming while they were dating, turned into overbearing assholishness once they were married. A bait-and-switch.
Not a Dominant, but domineering.
After just under two years of trying to appease him, Lynn had put her foot down and told him he could shove it where the sun didn’t shine. He suggested that if she didn’t like the way he ran their household not to let the door hit her where Mother Nature split her.
Then he’d been shocked when Lynn had actually left him and filed for divorce. Which led to a few weeks of him begging and pleading and a most unDomly display of whiny douchebaggery, as he tried to “woo” her back.
She hadn’t fallen for it. He’d wanted a doormat, and she was anything but.
In retrospect, she knew she’d gotten married too fast, wanting safety and a “family” of her own. Throughout the years following her divorce, while Lynn had dated, both vanilla and kinky, nothing serious had taken root.
Until she’d met Paul.
And look where that got me.
“Let’s get you home,” Terrie said as she climbed behind the wheel. “I’m really proud of you for coming out tonight.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Terrie snorted. “One of these days, I might surprise you and get all toppy on your ass.”
It was Lynn’s turn to snort.
“Hey, I might,” Terrie protested.
“I’m sure I’ll lose sleep over that possibility.”
“I keep your writer ass herded in the right direction.”
“That’s work. I never said you were a submissive when it came to work.”
“Little Miss Switchyhead.”
Lynn stuck out her tongue at her.
When they reached Lynn’s condo, the women hugged.
“If you need to talk tonight, call me,” Terrie said. “Promise?”
“I’ll be okay. Just ripping the scab off my wounds…again.”