Except I had no idea where Braden and I stood.
I was so proud of him, I wanted to cry. His words would impact the world, like I’d said. I just wanted to be a part of the journey.
“Hey.” Will walked up. “Nailed the interview.”
I gave him a soft smile. “Thank you.”
“Wait.” Braden suddenly broke free from Alec and Demetri and pinned Will with his stare. “You knew about the interview?”
Crap.
Will gave me an uneasy look and then held up his hands and backed away slowly.
Braden’s hurt expression didn’t help things.
“Let’s go talk?” I offered, grabbing his hand and pulling him out to the balcony. He grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around my shoulders while I exhaled a shaky breath. “You were great tonight.”
“I was petrified,” he answered. “I’m glad you didn’t tell me. I think it would have made it worse, the anticipation of it all. And when I saw the pictures and the families…” He shook his head. “How is it that you’ve known me for only thirteen days and know exactly what I need when I need it?”
I smirked. “Life coach.”
“Bullshit.” He jerked his chin in my direction. “Give me the real answer.”
I gulped. “Because I recognize your pain like it’s mine, and I would do anything in this world to make it better.”
He gasped, and then he pulled me into his arms, tugging me by the blanket. “Stay. I’ll do anything if you just stay. Damn it, stay.” He kissed my forehead. “Stay.” Then my cheeks. “Stay.” Then my lips as he whispered across them, “Stay.”
A tear ran down my cheek. He caught it with his fingers. “Why does staying make you sad?”
“I was afraid you’d be pissed that I pushed you,” I admitted. “Afraid you wouldn’t want me to stay after all of this when it’s the only thing I want.”
Our foreheads touched. “Piper, I would have chased you, tackled you to the ground, and begged you like the obsessed, in-love fool I am.”
“Love?” Tears welled. “But it’s so soon. Are we crazy for—?”
His mouth found mine, but before the kiss truly got going, he pulled away. “Life is short. Love can be given just as quickly as it can be taken. I’m done living in fear. I just want to live by your side.”
I hugged him tightly.
After an intense moment, he abruptly released me. “Be right back.”
He was gone maybe thirty seconds, but when he came back, it was with his vision board.
I smiled. “You’ve been busy.”
“Very,” he admitted. He pointed to a picture. It was of me before I got stung by the jellyfish. I looked so happy. Underneath it, he had put one word: forever.
I gasped. “When did you put this on?”
“Days ago,” he said. “And I’m keeping it because I’m keeping you, even if I have to make up a fake job for you so I can have you on tour.”
I grinned. “You won’t have to.”
“Huh?” He put the board down on the table. “Explain.”
“That’s how Will knew I was interviewing with the production company. Will suggested that they have a life coach on tour to help the guys stay focused on their music and goals, and I nailed the interview. They offered me the job during the concert via email. I leave with you—”
He jerked me against him, meeting my mouth with a punishing kiss, and then he tossed me over his shoulder and marched into the house.
“Daddy, Daddy, why does Uncle B have a girl over his shoulder?” one of the kids asked.
Alec muttered a curse and then said, “Headphones!”
His two kids put their hands on their ears only to have Trevor’s eldest demand, “Why are they going to bed already? You said we could stay up late!”
“Uncle B’s in trouble, that’s why,” Drew said, not helpfully. “Hey, let’s uh, turn up the volume on Frozen Two, and play the sing-along game!”
The kids cheered.
The adults all smirked at us.
And then the door to Braden’s room closed.
Clothes were thrown in seconds.
Mouths clashed.
And I was his.
Epilogue
Braden
1 Year Later
“How’s it going!” I shouted into the microphone amidst the screams. “We’re so glad you guys could come out and join us for our second annual benefit concert to prevent violence.”
More cheers.
“And a very special thank you to my gorgeous, pregnant wife for helping us coordinate this very personal project. Let’s give her a round of applause.” I turned to her stage left.
She was glowing, due in a few days, and I’d never seen anything so beautiful.
The wives were all backstage, while the guys and I were preparing for our sets. I knew Piper would be in good hands with all the ladies—they were used to this sort of thing.
After the sold-out world tour, we decided that we needed to do something more, something better. Because when we sang, people listened.
So we made it an annual concert event in Seaside.
We raised money.
And we tried to create change in a world of people who too often said they agreed with you only to push back when it made them uncomfortable or didn’t benefit them.
Piper got pregnant nearly two months after the tour started. I had found her puking her guts out and immediately thought she had the flu, only to be overjoyed when we found out that she was carrying my child.
Didn’t matter that we’d fallen quickly. After all, trauma forced you to grow up fast, and I’d been a grown-up since my dad left, taking care of my mom and my family for as long as I could remember.
I grinned at the sold-out crowd camped out on the beach and said a prayer of thanks for the very uptight Pollyanna who had stomped into my life and forced me to make a vision board that was still hanging up in my house, glittery blue penis and all.
In order to change, we sometimes had to get uncomfortable. But it only lasted a minute before you found yourself stepping out of the darkness and into the light.
“Let’s get this party started!” I yelled as I strummed the chords to my newest hit single, Vision.
* * * *
Also from 1001 Dark Nights and Rachel Van Dyken, discover Abandon, All Stars Fall, and Envy.
Sign up for the 1001 Dark Nights Newsletter
and be entered to win a Tiffany Key necklace.
There's a contest every month!
Click here to subscribe.
As a bonus, all subscribers can download FIVE FREE exclusive books!
Discover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Seven
Click here for more information.
THE BISHOP by Skye Warren
A Tanglewood Novella
TAKEN WITH YOU by Carrie Ann Ryan
A Fractured Connections Novella
DRAGON LOST by Donna Grant
A Dark Kings Novella
SEXY LOVE by Carly Phillips
A Sexy Series Novella
PROVOKE by Rachel Van Dyken
A Seaside Pictures Novella
RAFE by Sawyer Bennett
An Arizona Vengeance Novella
THE NAUGHTY PRINCESS by Claire Contreras
A Sexy Royals Novella
THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT by Darynda Jones
A Charley Davidson Novella
CHARMED by Lexi Blake
A Masters and Mercenaries Novella
SACRIFICE OF DARKNESS by Alexandra Ivy
A Guardians of Eternity Novella
THE QUEEN by Jen Armentrout
A Wicked Novella
BEGIN AGAIN by Jennifer Probst
A Stay Novella
VIXEN by Rebecca Zanetti
A Dark Protectors/Rebels Novella
SLASH by Laurelin Paige
A Slay Series Novella
THE DEAD HEAT OF SUMMER by Heather Graham
A Krewe of Hunters Novella
WILD FIRE by Kristen Ashley
MORE THAN PROTECT YOU by Shayla Black
A More Than Words Novella
LOVE SONG by Kylie Scott
A Stage Dive Novella
CHERISH ME by J. Kenner
A Stark Ever After Novella
SHINE WITH ME by Kristen Proby
A With Me in Seattle Novella
And new from Blue Box Press:
TEASE ME by J. Kenner
A Stark International Novel
Discover More Rachel Van Dyken
Abandon: A Seaside Pictures Novella
By Rachel Van Dyken
Click here to purchase.
It’s not every day you're slapped on stage by two different women you've been dating for the last year.
I know what you're thinking. What sort of ballsy woman gets on stage and slaps a rockstar? Does nobody have self-control anymore? It may have been the talk of the Grammys.
Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that. I, Ty Cuban, was taken down by two psychotic women in front of the entire world. Lucky for us the audience thought it was part of the breakup song my band and I had just finished performing. I was thirty-three, hardly ready to settle down.
Except now it's getting forced on me. Seaside, Oregon. My bandmates were more than happy to settle down, dig their roots into the sand, and start popping out kids. Meanwhile I was still enjoying life.
Until now. Until my forced hiatus teaching freaking guitar lessons at the local studio for the next two months. Part of my punishment, do something for the community while I think deep thoughts about all my life choices.
Sixty days of hell.
It doesn't help that the other volunteer is a past flame that literally looks at me as if I've sold my soul to the devil. She has the voice of an angel and looks to kill—I would know, because she looks ready to kill me every second of every day. I broke her heart when we were on tour together a decade ago.
I'm ready to put the past behind us. She's ready to run me over with her car then stand on top of it and strum her guitar with glee.
Sixty days. I can do anything for sixty days. Including making the sexy Von Abigail fall for me all over again. This time for good.
Damn, maybe there’s something in the water.
* * * *
All Stars Fall: A Seaside Pictures/Big Sky Novella
By Rachel Van Dyken
Click here to purchase.
She left.
Two words I can't really get out of my head.
She left us.
Three more words that make it that much worse.
Three being another word I can't seem to wrap my mind around.
Three kids under the age of six, and she left because she missed it. Because her dream had never been to have a family, no, her dream had been to marry a rockstar and live the high life.
Moving my recording studio to Seaside Oregon seems like the best idea in the world right now especially since Seaside Oregon has turned into the place for celebrities to stay and raise families in between touring and producing. It would be lucrative to make the move, but I'm doing it for my kids because they need normal, they deserve normal. And me? Well, I just need a break and help, that too. I need a sitter and fast. Someone who won't flip me off when I ask them to sign an Iron Clad NDA, someone who won't sell our pictures to the press, and most of all? Someone who looks absolutely nothing like my ex-wife.
He's tall.
That was my first instinct when I saw the notorious Trevor Wood, drummer for the rock band Adrenaline, in the local coffee shop. He ordered a tall black coffee which made me smirk, and five minutes later I somehow agreed to interview for a nanny position. I couldn't help it; the smaller one had gum stuck in her hair while the eldest was standing on his feet and asking where babies came from. He looked so pathetic, so damn sexy and pathetic that rather than be star-struck, I took pity. I knew though; I knew the minute I signed that NDA, the minute our fingers brushed and my body became insanely aware of how close he was—I was in dangerous territory, I just didn't know how dangerous until it was too late. Until I fell for the star and realized that no matter how high they are in the sky—they're still human and fall just as hard.
* * * *
Envy: An Eagle Elite Novella
By Rachel Van Dyken
Click here to purchase.
Every family has rules, the mafia just has more....
Do not speak to the bosses unless spoken to.
Do not make eye contact unless you want to die.
And above all else, do not fall in love.
Renee Cassani's future is set.
Her betrothal is set.
Her life, after nannying for the five families for the summer, is set.
Somebody should have told Vic Colezan that.
He's a man who doesn't take no for an answer.
And he only wants one thing.
Her.
Somebody should have told Renee that her bodyguard needed as much discipline as the kids she was nannying.
Good thing Vic has a firm hand.
Discover the World of 1001 Dark Nights
Collection One
Collection Two
Collection Three
Collection Four
Collection Five
Collection Six
Bundles
Discovery Authors
Blue Box Press
Rising Storm
Liliana Hart's MacKenzie Family
Lexi Blake's Crossover Collection
Kristen Proby's Crossover Collection
Ruthless Princess
Mafia Royals
By Rachel Van Dyken
Coming May 19, 2020
Click here to purchase.
A mafia romance about best friends turned enemies by Rachel Van Dyken, the number one New York Times bestselling author of the Eagle Elite series.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend…
I never thought my father would ask this of me, to become the second generation at Eagle Elite University, to rule with an iron fist, and to take care of anyone who gets in our way.
But ever since the incident.
Ever since Him.
There’s been a war in our little clique.
After all, a house divided cannot stand.
He’s the problem, not me.
He used to kiss me like I was his oxygen.
Now he looks at me like I’m his poison.
But we both drank it, again and again, never believing there would be a day when our love would start a war.
And our friendship would shatter into a million pieces.
Then again, the worst thing you could do in the mafia is hang on to hope that your life will be normal.
The second worse thing?
Fall in love with your best friend.
Enemy.
And heir to the Nicolasi throne.
* * * *
“Welcome to day one!” Professor Dickface’s eyes roamed around the room, purposefully scanning over us even though I had a middle finger raised in greeting right along with Serena, well at least we could agree on something, pissing off the professors enough to scare them shitless. “If you’ll all log onto your blackboard app, we can go over this year’s syllabus.”
“Overjoyed,” I said under my breath.
“Do you mind?” Serena hissed. “I’m learning here.”
She literally had Snapchat open.
“Uh-huh.” I elbowed her side only to feel the steel of a knife against my dick.
I kept my smirk in and lost when we both locked eyes.
Shit, I knew that look.
And I knew what typically followed.
The best sex of my life.
“No,” I whispered hoarsely even though I let my eyes freely roam over her tight leather skirt down to gorgeous legs that I wanted to lick my way up. “Hell, no.”
I jerked in my seat and nearly impaled myself on her knife when her hand slid across the front of my jeans.
&n
bsp; I gritted my teeth to keep from reacting, braced my hands on the table in front of me and shook my head slowly as she kept touching, and I kept just reacting because it was Serena, and eons ago before she fucking broke my heart—she was mine.
“Choose me,” I’d said in my head. “Choose me in front of them all!”
She didn’t.
She never would.
Our love was impossible.
And I knew more than her—how easy love could start a war.
She still wasn’t pulling her hand away, so I took matters into my own hands, and literally scooted my chair back, then slid my fingers up her thigh, digging into her skin the entire way up until I felt the string of her thong.
With a jerk, I tugged it until it broke, bunched her underwear in my hands, and then very somberly shoved them into my pocket all without looking away from my handy app.
“Give those back,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Better not draw attention to us,” I said in a bored tone. “Wouldn’t want you to get detention on the first day—again.”
“That was voluntary, and you know it!” She hissed.
I chuckled under my breath. “Whatever you say.”
“Junior, I mean it! I can’t walk around like this!”
“You can.” I shrugged. “You will.”
“Junior—“
“—Just admit defeat, you tried to win, and instead you just lost—embarrassingly. It’s going to take more than your hand to get me off, or did you forget?” Then I did turn toward her. “I’d rather drink poison than have you touch me ever again.”
Provoke: A Seaside Pictures Novella Page 11