by Jaye Cox
COPYRIGHTS
Unexpected Consequences
Love is not enough series Book 1
By: Jaye Cox
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 by Jaye Cox
All rights are reserved. This book is intended for the purchaser of this book only. No part of this book is to be reproduced in any form, without written consent from the author. All songs, and song titles contained in this book are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.
ISBN-
Cover design & Formatting by RE&D - Margreet Asselbergs
Cover photo by Stefano Cavoretto
www.stefanocavoretto.com
Proofread by Janeen Bentley
Editing by Editing Vixen – Traci Roe
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
PLAYLIST
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY- ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
EPILOGUE
Author Bio
PLAYLIST
Unexpected Consequences playlist
Drive – Incubus
You & Me – Lifehouse
Sex on fire – Kings of Leon
Crazy in love – Beyoncé
Californication – Red hot chilli peppers
I’m yours – Jason Mraz
Collide – Howie Day
Halo – Beyoncé
Spin – Lifehouse
Let’s get ridiculous – Redfoo1
All of me – John Legend
Sorry – Daughtry
I knew I loved you – Savage Garden
Arms wide open – creed
I’ll Fight – Daughtry
Thinking out loud – Ed Sheeran
How long will I love you – Ellie Goulding
Beautiful in White – Westlife
It’s you – Westlife
My Little Girl – Tim McGraw
Prayer for you – Usher
Tiny Dancer (hold me closer) – Ironik
Kryptonite – Matt Easton
You light up my life – Leann Rhymes
Please forgive me – David Grey
The drugs don’t work – The verve
Everybody hurts – R.E.M
Tightrope – Illy
Give me back my life – papa Roach
Perfectly Imperfect – Shannon Sellig
Unexpected Consequences playlist ONLINE: https://open.spotify.com/user/12160637482/playlist/6nJLm9LnyuRAfhhBmfqs8Q
DEDICATION
To My Family and friends, without all your crazy, this would never have been possible.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I have a lot of you to thank for this book, firstly I want to thank my Husband, I love you and want to thank you for supporting me and understanding writing this book was so important to me, Rayne wouldn't have come to life without some inspiration from you.
To my kids, thank you for being the most awesome people in my life. You push me to be a better person, show you anything is possible and that you can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it. I love the six of you with everything I am and couldn't imagine my life without you.
My mum, for everything she has ever done for me, you are the best mum a girl could ask for and I thank you for everything, I may not say it all the time, but I love you.
My family and friends, you are all crazy as hell, and I love it! We are a real special bunch and I love each and every single one of you, I won't name you all because we would be here all day.
Tamara, Lana and Karla, thank you so much for being the first to love my story and support me and keep me writing, I would not have gotten this far without you all.
To all my girls; Sophie, Nat, Alana, Sarah, Jodie and Alisha... You girls have been my rock over the years and we have been through so much together; memories I will cherish forever. Thank you girls for all the mischief we got into over those years, they inspired a lot of my characters.
To all the lovely ladies who have read my book and given me your feedback, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for putting your time an effort into helping anyway you can. Shana, Lauren, Lesley, Angie, Kirsty, Chrissy, Jessica, Michelle and Penny. I will be forever grateful for everything, and for taking a chance on me.
Margreet, I don't know how many thank you's I could fit on one page, so I will just keep it at one. Thank you for my cover. It is AMAZING! You are extremely talented and I cannot wait to work with you again.
Traci, you have truly been awesome, and I thank you for everything you have done and helped me with. I could not have finished this book without you, a hidden gem in this Indie book world, that’s for sure
Janeen, thank you for going through my work I cannot thank you enough for your time, I appreciate every minute you spend working on my books.
To Lesley Jones, thank you for your brilliant mind and writing carnage, you inspired me to go after my dreams. My life will never be the same, and it’s all thanks to you.
Lastly, I want to thank everyone who reads my book. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking a chance on a new Indie authors.
CHAPTER ONE
Do you ever feel like you’re invisible; like no one can see the real you? Well, that’s how I feel, don’t get me wrong, I love my life; my family; my best friend and even my job – which came at the perfect time – are all perfect. Because everything is so perfect, it leaves no room for error, no room to mess up, and lots of room for disappointment.
“Earth to Isabella.” I turn when I hear my best friend Tommy say my name. I’ve known Tommy since primary school, when I had fallen down, grazing my knee and he came running over, he wiped my tears away as he said, “Please don’t cry. You are too pretty to cry, and crying makes your face ugly.” We’ve been best friends ever since.
“What?”
“Come to a party with me tonight.” He holds up his right hand to stall my refusal, and then continues on in a persuasive tone “Before you say no, hear me out,” he says quickly.
“Okay. Go ahead,” I say with an extra dose of sarcasm.
“You have never been to a party before, and at nineteen that is just lame, and totally embarrassing. It’s New Year’s Eve, Bells, you have to come out with me, just think of it as me doing you a favour. You can owe me one.” He smirks.
“I’ll owe you one? What, exactly, would I owe you for? Taking me to a party I have no interest in going to?”<
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“I’m your best friend and I love you, but you need to come with me and have some fun. Please don’t fight me on this,” he says as he tilts his head and looks at me with his adorable brown eyes. He knows I find it hard to resist that look, and once I realize I’m a goner, I give in.
“Fine; I’ll go with you, under two conditions; ONE, no ditching me to chase after girls, and TWO, do not make any lame sexual innuendos toward me in front of your friends. If you do either of these things, I’m outta there.”
He smiles, showing me his irresistible dimples, “Deal, but if you leave me alone, I can’t promise you girls won’t find me. After all, I’m irresistible.’’ he says, as he picks me up and throws me over his shoulder, running me into Paulie’s, where I wait tables during the day and serve drinks at night.
“Put me down before you make a scene.” I hiss and punch him in his muscled back. The uniform here is skimpy enough and I don’t need to give the whole bar a peep show before my shift starts, he puts me down next to the bar and slaps my ass hard, then whistles piercingly to make sure he has everyone’s attention and can hear him, “I’m going to rock your world tonight.” GRR, he knows how much I hate it when he draws attention to me.
I quickly sit down and put my head on the bar to hide as Paulie comes over and gives Tommy one of those weird handshakes guys give. Paulie is in his early thirties and a great boss. I started working here on my eighteenth birthday so I could pay for my classes at Uni. My father could afford to pay for them, but it would come with conditions as he wants me to be a doctor, or something in the medical field like him. My grades were good enough to get me into medicine, but I don’t want the long hours and all those years of more study, so until I can decide what I want to do with my future, I’ll be here, working on my customer service skills.
The day goes by quickly, which is a good thing, even though waiting tables isn’t my favourite thing to do, I do love working at Paulie’s, especially at night. The atmosphere is electric and he has live bands on the weekends. Paulie’s has a new band called Kaleidoscope Memories who will soon have their first show here. Tommy’s friend is the lead singer and he says they’re supposed to be great.
I can’t believe I actually managed to score tonight off since it’s the busiest night of the year, but I believe Tommy had something to do with it. I see the two of them at the bar talking to another guy who has his back is to me, but as I approach, he turns around and I’m stopped dead in my tracks when his eyes lock onto mine. I think it's only my imagination, but in those few seconds our eyes met, I noticed his eyes looked lifeless; almost like they’re void of all emotion.
But when I look back up at him, it’s as if I’m the only person in the room. He couldn’t possibly be looking at me like that, I’m plain Isabella; I look away again, trying to pull my shit together, telling myself to just move, I have to remind myself to breathe. I feel as if my heart is being squeezed and all the air has left my lungs, taking a deep breath I look back up and now it isn’t just him staring at me but all three of them. Tommy reaches for me and pulls me to his side and drapes his arm around my shoulders. “Bells, there you are, I want you to meet Rayne. Rayne, this is Bells”
So this is Rayne. Tommy has done nothing but rave about him and how talented he is at playing the guitar. Tommy had guitar lessons in the past and on occasion, likes to play, but he can’t sing for shit and I never waste an opportunity to tease him about it. I extend my arm to shake his hand but he does not shake mine; instead he takes my fingers and places a soft kiss on my skin. A sharp tingling sensation rolls up my arm like an electric shock - it’s so unexpected and I can only stare at his face, I see him observing my shocked reaction whilst he looks totally unaffected, as his facial expression stays neutral. I know he has to have felt what I did and I almost miss it, but he runs the same hand across his lips, so I think it wasn’t just me.
Paulie must have seen our exchange and excuses himself, telling me he will see me tomorrow and to have fun at the party. I know he’s teasing me, since he knows how much I hate parties. I have spent years being Tommy’s best friend – that’s how people refer to me – especially girls who are interested in him. We spend so much time together, it’s nice just to have some time for myself to hang out at home and read a good book, rather than to watch a bunch of girls get completely wasted and throw themselves all over any guy who looks their way. Tommy says I shouldn’t be so judgmental since I’ve never been drunk or even been to a party before. I suppose it’s advice I should listen to if I’m going to make it through the night. Tommy is oblivious to everything because he is getting fuck me eyes from one of the waitresses and starts to follow her, informing us he’ll be right back. As if!
Once I’m left alone with Rayne, I feel awkward, but he’s looking out across the room, so I take that moment to thoroughly check him out. Rayne Hollywood is gorgeous; his eyes are dark, almost black and he’s wearing a hat; his hair is just long enough it sticks out from the back. He looks like the epitome of a rock god and he has the style of a rocker down; jeans torn at the knee, leather jacket worn over a tight white t-shirt and big, combat style boots. He even wears a thumb ring and wristband to complete his badass look. At this point I’m almost tempted to take my panties off and throw them at him. I lick my lips at the thought and when I look up, I find him observing me and know I have been well and truly busted. His facial expression stays neutral, but I can see a tiny smile in his eyes. “Hi,” he whispers.
“Hi, I whisper back. I have no idea why we are whispering, but with one word, he has me mesmerized, I’m his and he doesn’t even know it yet; I wonder how is one word enough to know you have found your destiny - your other half? That part of you that you didn’t even know was missing until that moment. I have never believed in love at first sight, that instant attraction with someone you don’t even know, but I’m starting to think your soul already knows that person, and knows it’s more than love. That they are in fact your soulmate – maybe it’s forgotten memories from another lifetime finding their way back to each other.
I glance up at him again as he looks back at me, I can feel it all the way down to my toes and I can’t begin to describe it, but it’s this overwhelming feeling of belonging to someone, even as your mind races to put it all together. I shake my head at myself, how would I know anything about any of this? All I do know is in this moment; I feel it so strongly it takes over any questions and doubts. I’m brought back to reality when Tommy puts his arm around my shoulders, “So, Rayne here is staying for a few weeks, maybe longer if the band does well here.” I find myself slightly disappointed he could possibly be ready to leave in two weeks.
“Are you ready to go, Bells?” Keeping my eyes off Rayne isn’t easy, but I drag my head to the side to look at Tommy and tell him yes, I’m ready, when I’m really not, I’m disappointed I have to leave, and not know when I might see Rayne again.
“Do you two mind if I tag along tonight?” Rayne asks once we get into Tommy’s car. The question is directed at the both of us, but when I look at him, I understand the question is really meant for me. I think the sound of his voice has caused me to have a mini stroke, because I can’t form words to even speak, so I nod my head like one of those stupid bobble head dolls.
Tommy drops me off first, letting me know to get ready because he’ll be back at nine to pick me up. He waves goodbye while Rayne winks and smiles, causing my heart skip a beat. I don’t want to like Rayne; I don’t even know him, much less want to be this affected or attracted to him. The problem is, I seem to have no control over it. My mind is now consumed by all things Rayne Hollywood, and I feel like an immature, giddy little schoolgirl.
They left only half an hour ago and I can’t stop thinking about him. So I decide I need to know more about him; so I do the first thing everyone does―I check Facebook. I find him relatively quickly in Tommy’s friends list, and his profile isn’t blocked so I look through and see what I can find.
Rayne Hollywood. Born July
23, 1989, making him twenty-four, and his relationship status is SINGLE.
Wow. I would be completely gutted right now if he was in a relationship. I scroll down his news feed, which is full of photos and I come across one of his videos labeled, Cover: Drive by Incubus. I have never heard of the band Incubus, but as Rayne sings the song, his voice is husky and hypnotizing. He is sitting on a bed with his head hanging down, not facing the camera, and totally lost in the song. Once the song is nearly finished, he looks up at the camera and whatever he was feeling while singing that song was gone in an instant, replaced with something cold. What could make his emotions go from one extreme to the next so quickly? It’s something I find myself wanting...no, needing to find out. I know there is more to this man than what he appears to be.
The next few hours fly by as I spend most of it watching every video he has posted, even listened to a few love songs one too many times while imagining him singing them only to me. I went to look at his photos but there were too many of him with other girls and I didn’t like the way that made me feel, with him looking so happy and carefree in the arms of other girls. He smiles in every photo and I can’t help but to notice his eyes always have the same look; Soulless.
My phone buzzing pulls my attention away from my computer. I see it’s a text from Tommy.
TOMMY: We’re leaving now.
ME: Okay.
I look at the time and it’s almost a quarter to nine. I have spent over three hours watching Rayne sing, when I should’ve started getting ready at least an hour ago. I jump to my feet, ready to take the world’s quickest shower and dress casual.
As I jump in the shower, I turn on some music as I love to sing and dance in the shower because I’m not good at either, hence why I only do it in the shower. I make quick work of shaving my legs because it’s too warm at night, so pants aren’t an option with the humidity.
Once I finish, I turn off the water and lean up against the wall, taking a few deep breaths. It’s finally sinking in that I have agreed to go to a party on New Year’s Eve. It’s too late to back out now that Tommy is on his way, but what I’m most nervous about, is spending time with Rayne. I only hope I don’t wind up making a total ass out of myself tonight.