Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Author’s Note
PART ONE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
PART TWO
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
The Princess & the Prospect
The Other Princess
Angel Girl
Dancing With Danger
Redemption Weather
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
The Infinite Something
The Infinite Beat
Music
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A Love So Hard
Aces High – Charleston #2
Christine Michelle
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Christine M. Butler / Christine Michelle
All rights reserved.
Scanning, uploading, copying, and/or any distribution of this book, either electronically or otherwise without express written permission from the copyright holder, is illegal and punishable by law.
Small quotes and snippets may be used for review purposes only where they do not contain information that would spoil the book for potential readers.
Help support authors you love by only purchasing legitimate copies of their work through trusted sources. Trusted source links and updated pricing can be found on the publisher’s website at
https://www.moonlitdreams.org/
Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages is purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.
Cover Photo © Honored with licensing from https://www.canstockphoto.com
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Commercial licensing acquired from font designer.
Kindle Edition
ISBN:
Author’s Note
Please, read the full note as there is a special announcement at the end!
First, let me start out by saying THANK YOU to everyone who purchased, read, listened to, and/or reviewed The Other Princess. If you haven’t read it yet –STOP HERE – and go read that book first! It was honestly the one book I was worried would just tank because it was too emotional in a sub-genre that likes to go hard rather than soft. I can not thank you enough for all of the support and love I have received in regards to that book. As you move on to A Love So Hard I have a few things to say:
The first thing - Thank you for your courage or curiosity – whichever made you pick up this book after I made you hate Double-D. Maybe you’re here for Momma-Luce, to find out whose baby that was, or whose grave Ever and Deck were standing beside in The Other Princess. Whatever the case, thank you for continuing this journey with me.
The second thing - Get comfortable! This is not a quick story. It starts when Lucy and Double-D are both teenagers and carries them all the way to retirement. Honestly, this book should have been done as a duet. It is broken into two parts, and each could fill up its own novel. The good/bad news is it’s long. The better news is that you don’t have to buy anything separately.
One final note about A Love So Hard. I had an outline completed for this story long before The Other Princess even had two chapters written in it. I wrote that story, that story broke me, and I didn’t get put back together. It wasn’t until I was in the middle of the editing process that I realized that just would not do! So, I changed it. I changed the entire last quarter (a little more) of the book (which required a few little tweaks throughout the first half too) and I did it all in the two weeks prior to release while laid up with a bad back (thanks to an ongoing injury and my own stupidity).
I cried through the making of this book because it is frustrating to scrap what you thought would be the final product when you’re at the finish line. I did it anyway. I did it while I was in pain, so the tears I shed were for both the characters and myself. Here’s the thing – this book may not go out perfect as a result of the last minute changes, but be patient, any small hiccups with edits will be fixed within the first two weeks of release (check for updates if you bought it before July 4, 2019). My editor just got the changes this past week, and she isn’t a miracle worker, so we appreciate your patience.
I hate making an announcement like that, but I would have been more upset to put the book out the way I originally wrote it. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but the ending was far more bumpy, and honestly, my characters deserved better considering what they had to go through! So, forgive me this, because I promise it’s a far better book for the little bit of headache (or in my case the whole lot of pain from sitting on my ass so long with broken back)! ;)
Thanks for reading!
Xoxo,
Christine
PART ONE
First Love to Family
Chapter 1
(Lucy – age 16, Double-D – age 19)
My daddy probably never realized how badly he messed up the day he let me hang out at work with him in the shop. He was a hell of a mechanic, especially when it came to working on Harley Davidson Motorcycles. My dad could make them purr like a kitten or roar like a beast, and either way they’d ride like a dream. Since he was the best there was around these parts it stood to reason that the Aces High Motorcycle Club tapped him to be their number one go-to guy when their bikes had serious problems.
We didn’t have school today since it was summertime and I would be starting my junior year of high school in the fall. I was bored and tired of hanging out with my mom learning to bake crap in the kitchen when what I really wanted to do was go learn how to fix bikes and cars with my dad in his shop. Yeah, I was the weird girl who didn’t mind getting a little greasy. My dad secretly loved it, even while telling me that I would probably never do well with the knowledge, because the type of men who rode the Harleys he fixed didn’t trust a woman to tinker with their babies. I thought it was a load of poop, and completely unfair, but daddy said it wouldn’t hurt to learn something I might find useful for myself one day. That was how I found myself, just a couple days post boring baking lessons, up to my elbows in engine grease and oil, when I looked up into the clear nearly sapphire blue eyes of the most beautiful boy I’d ever seen. Actually, while he was still definitely young, boy was not the word I should have used to describe him.
The person standing in front of me in fitted denim jeans, a wife-beater tank top, a black leather vest over the top that stated his name was Double-D, and some kick ass b
lack motorcycle boots was quite possibly the most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on.
“Where’s Jack?” His voice, deeper than expected, called out causing me to startle a little even though I’d already been staring – I mean looking – at him.
“He just stepped in back to grab a part real quick,” I finally managed to get out.
“Okay,” he stated in a cool manner that had me playing guessing games as to what would come next. “You mind telling me why a pretty little thing like yourself is crawling all around my bike?”
I had a bad habit of scratching at the tip of my nose when I was nervous. My finger slowly went there, rubbing across the tip as I stared into the bluest blue eyes on God’s green earth. The guy smirked like he was in on a joke that I wasn’t aware of, but he just continued watching me, waiting for an answer.
“I work here with my dad sometimes,” I finally managed to answer.
“Uh-huh. Your dad Jack Carter?”
I nodded my head then brushed my hair back out of my face where the flyaway strands had started falling into my eyes again.
“Hey, hey, what’s going on out here?” My dad called and then started double-timing it over to the bay where we had been going over the bike he’d been working on all day.
“Your daughter here was just telling me that she was working on my bike,” Double-D explained. He never raised his voice, but the tone in it had changed a bit, and I watched as my father bristled a bit.
“I was just teaching her some things along the way. She ain’t doing none of the work on your bike though, if that’s what concerns you.”
“She any good at it?” The beautiful man asked, no longer looking at me. As a matter of fact, as soon as my dad showed up it was like I no longer existed. That is, if you discount the fact that they were talking about me while I was standing right there.
“Better than most of the guys I have working here, actually,” my dad admitted as he wiped his brow on a semi-clean rag and then tossed it my way. “Girl, clean your face up, you done got grease all over your nose.”
That made the smirk reappear on the man’s face in front of me. I glanced down at my hands that had caught the rag in mid-air when it was thrown, and sighed. I had just been rubbing my nose nervously, and my hands looked like this? I could imagine what my face must look like now.
“I’ll just go clean up,” I huffed before I started moving away.
“Never caught your name,” Double-D tossed out before I could get even two steps away. I glared back over my shoulder since he hadn’t been gentlemanly enough to tell me I’d gotten my face dirty.
“I never threw it,” I sassed, then turned and kept on going. My daddy chuckled at my response.
“That girl of mine is spunky, for sure. Brains for days, talent with engines, and off limits seeing as she’s just sixteen.” The warning tone in his voice wasn’t to be trifled with. “I know your club’s rules. She might be legal by this damnable state’s standards, but you boys have a hard and fast club-wide 18 and older rule. Best you stick to that,” my father warned as I cringed inwardly. Embarrassment knew no bounds with him.
“Not interested in little girls, old man, but I don’t mind if you have her working with you on my bike. She’s gotta learn somehow.” I couldn’t help the grin that overtook my face then, and was thankful I was walking away so they couldn’t see. Not that I enjoyed the sexy as hell biker calling me a little girl, but the fact that he didn’t mind me working on his bike was amazing. “Not saying all my brothers would feel the same. Better keep that shit under wraps when it’s someone else’s ride.”
“I know it. I’ve tried to tell her how people would feel about that shit, but she can’t stand to be in the kitchen baking with her momma.” I listened as my daddy chuckled. “That girl ain’t cut out for the simple life of a Southern Bell no matter how much her momma keeps trying to make her one, that’s for sure.”
I turned in time to see that Double-D was watching me still. The look he was giving my backside sent a shiver running through me, and lit a fire under my butt to get the heck on out of there before daddy noticed him staring or my reaction to it. I had a boyfriend before. Not that my daddy knew that information, but I wasn’t naïve. I knew when a boy was looking at me a certain way. I also knew that I’d never had the quivers in my stomach quite like I did when I was staring into those brilliant blue eyes of his. I wondered briefly what his real name was, but quickly dismissed the idea of ever knowing. I knew the score. I’d probably never see the man again. If not because of his lifestyle, then because my daddy would make sure he was never around when I was in the future.
I tried to forget about the man with the piercing blue eyes, but as the day wore on and I walked home by myself I knew he would be unforgettable. Sometimes, I hated the fact that I was still only sixteen. Two more years and I could do anything I wanted to. I would graduate; go to college, and date whomever I chose without my daddy stepping in and ruining things. When I got home my neighbor happened to be pulling his new – though definitely used – motorcycle in the driveway next door. It did not sound good at all. I winced as I turned my head to take a look and saw the plume of smoke coming out of his pipes. Nope. Not good at all.
“What’s going on with your bike, Johnny?” I called to him when he killed the engine.
He ripped the helmet free of his head leaving his shoulder length ash-blond hair to blow in the light breeze. “I don’t fuckin’ know. The goddamn thing just started sputtering and coughing the whole way home, and then there’s the cloud of doom it blew out just now.”
I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped me at his description. “You want me to take a quick look and see if I can find anything?” I asked him, and at his dubious look my smile faltered. I should have known better.
“Um, sure,” he finally called out after seeing my reaction. I moved toward him and his bike and just had a quick look since it was still too hot to mess around with. “I’m thinking you might have two separate issues. See here,” I pointed to the intake. “Looks like you have a leak here, but I’m also guessing you might have a cracked hose or a malfunctioning fuel pump.” I glanced up into Johnny’s bright green eyes. “You notice your fuel not lasting as long as it should?”
He grinned at me then. “Yeah, actually. I was going to take it in to your dad and see if he could help me figure out why, but I haven’t been able to get by there yet.”
“Might make it sooner than later,” I told him as I stood up, our sides brushing one another. “We can wait until it cools down and take a closer look to see if I’m right,” I suggested.
His grin faded some, but his eyes stayed on mine as he spoke. “Don’t worry about it, sweet girl. I’ll take it by in the morning and have your dad help me with it.”
“Oh. Okay, well, good luck,” I told him as I started backing away.
“You running off so soon?”
“Yeah, I need to go get cleaned up and ready for supper before my mom comes looking for me.” I held my hands up that were still tarnished by the grease, oil, and dirt they’d accumulated while I was helping my dad at his garage. “She’s going to flip if I don’t have these sparkling like a southern woman’s hands should be before I come to the table.”
He laughed then. “Maybe you should listen to your momma, honey. You’re too pretty a girl to be covered in motor oil all the time.”
I didn’t even bother responding. I let the smile drop off my face as I turned and moved to go inside. Johnny rushed over and caught hold of my elbow though, spinning me to face him. “Come on, Lucy, you know I didn’t mean anything by it. I just think you’re better than being a grease monkey in a garage.”
“I’m good enough as a grease monkey to know you treat your bike like shit it won’t get you anywhere, Johnny. Now let go so I can go clean up.” With that parting shot I snatched my elbow from his hand and ran into my house. I didn’t even get a reprieve there since my mother was waiting to pounce the minute I walked through the door.
“You keep treating that boy like crap, acting like a man yourself, and you’re going to lose any chance you once had with him.”
“I don’t even want him! I don’t know why you keep telling me that. He’s a friend and nothing more.”
“He’s good for you. Johnny comes from good people, and he’d take care of you. Best of all, he’d keep you from making a fool of yourself trying to run around and act like a man the way you do. I don’t know why your father insists on indulging your little whims, but I’m having a talk with him tonight about putting a stop to it. This has gone on long enough.”
I huffed and pushed past my mother on my way up the stairs of our house to where my bedroom and bathroom were located. I loved my mother, but some days I wanted to just scream in her face. She didn’t understand me, and never would. That made it really hard to figure myself out. It seemed no matter what choice I made that my mom thought if I didn’t follow in her footsteps, as a wife and mother who baked in her spare time, I would never be good enough and no man would want me.
We made it through dinner that night with my daddy hushing momma up every time she attempted to try to tell him how I should be living my life. That idea was reinforced by her edict that she didn’t want me sneaking off to his garage anymore. It wasn’t right or proper for me to be there. I wished my mom wasn’t so darn narrow-minded. You would think she would have grown up a bit differently since her momma supported me in doing whatever I wanted. Unfortunately for me, my grandma had moved to Florida the year before to retire in the sunshine. I don’t know why. We lived in Charleston, South Carolina, and the sun shone here just as well as it did down there.
My dad used to tease that grandma found herself a man down there in Florida, but I knew better. Grandma was so in love with my granddad that the day he died, I think she went with him. Maybe that’s why she needed the extra sunshine, to warm the spaces that were left empty. None of that changed the fact that my momma was hell bent and determined to get her way and keep me from the garage. I knew this, because I could hear them fighting about it while I was clearing the table and putting the food away. They had gone to their room to fight, but it didn’t matter since their raised voices let me hear it all anyway. Their fight didn’t last long. They never did. My momma probably pulled a drama, pretended to swoon, faint, or get a headache where she couldn’t tolerate the sound of people speaking again. It’s what she did when she knew she couldn’t win. She tried for the sympathetic end to it all until she got her way.
A Love So Hard (Aces High MC - Charleston Book 2) Page 1