by Abby Brooks
PRAISE FOR ABBY BROOKS
“Abby Brooks is a wizard with Beyond Us—entertaining and pure enjoyment!”
ADRIANA LOCKE—USA TODAY AND WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLING AUTHOR
“A masterful blend of joy and angst.
PRAISE FOR ABBY BROOKS
“With just the perfect amount of angst and remarkable character development, Abby Brooks has crafted a masterpiece…”
PRAISE FOR BEYOND WORDS
"Once again Abby Brooks creates a world filled with beautifully written characters that you cannot help but fall in love with.”
PRAISE FOR BEYOND LOVE
"A lovely story of growing beyond your past, taking control of your life, and allowing yourself to be loved for the person you are."
MELANIE MORELAND—NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR, IN PRAISE OF WOUNDED
“Abby Brooks writes books that draw readers right into the story. When you read about her characters, you want them to be your friends.”
PRAISE FOR ABBY BROOKS
RECKLESS
A WILDROSE LANDING ROMANCE
ABBY BROOKS
Copyright © 2022 by Abby Brooks
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover image copyright © 2022 by WANDER AGUIAR PHOTOGRAPHY LLC
Cover design by Abby Brooks
WILDROSE LANDING
Fearless
Shameless
Reckless
THE HUTTON FAMILY
Beyond Words
Beyond Love
Beyond Now
Beyond Us
Beyond Dreams
It’s Definitely Not You - Joe’s story
The Hutton Family Series - Part 1
The Hutton Family Series - Part 2
A BROOKSIDE ROMANCE
Wounded
Inevitably You
This Is Why
Along Comes Trouble
Come Home To Me
A Brookside Romance - the Complete Series
WILDE BOYS WITH WILL WRIGHT
Taking What Is Mine
Claiming What Is Mine
Protecting What Is Mine
Defending What Is Mine
Wilde
THE MOORE FAMILY
Finding Bliss
Faking Bliss
Instant Bliss
Enemies-to-Bliss
THE LONDON SISTERS
Love Is Crazy (Dakota & Dominic)
Love Is Beautiful (Chelsea & Max)
Love Is Everything (Maya & Hudson)
The London Sisters - the Complete Series
IMMORTAL MEMORIES
Immortal Memories Part 1
Immortal Memories Part 2
AS WREN WILLIAMS
Bad, Bad Prince
Woodsman
CONTENTS
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
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
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Epilogue
Beyond Words Sneak Peek
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Acknowledgments
Recipes
About the Author
Also by Abby Brooks
Connect With Abby Brooks
CHAPTER ONE
Izzy
“This seat taken?” Jude Malone dropped into the empty chair beside me without waiting for a reply.
I swirled my gin and tonic, smiling at my brother’s best man. “It is now.”
His grin did things to me that should be illegal. Part of me was sure he knew it—that he’d known it for all the years we’d been friends—and just liked to watch me squirm. The more likely option was that he loved attention and would take it wherever he could get it.
Even from me.
Regardless, Jude’s smile should have come with a warning label. Add in his blond hair being just the right kind of long and the fact that he looked like sin on a stick in a tuxedo and my urge to run, run, run away before I made a fool of myself kicked in hard.
I didn’t.
I should’ve; but I didn’t.
All around us, happy couples danced and talked while my brother Alex and his new wife Evie wandered the reception hall, visiting with their guests. It seemed like all of Wildrose Landing had crammed into the building, so the happy couple would be busy for a while. After turning down a handful of drunken advances from guys who’d heard too many rumors about bridesmaids, I’d retreated to a quiet table near the back for refuge—until Jude found me and helped himself to a seat.
“You look very pretty tonight. Red is definitely your color.” He threw an arm over the back of his chair and sipped his whiskey while I stared in shock. The two of us had been friends for so long, I was pretty sure he’d forgotten I was a woman.
Since when did he give me compliments?
“You look pretty dang nice yourself.” I smoothed my dress over my thighs and cocked my head. “Tell me though, since I’m assuming this little visit is a pitstop in your hunt for female companionship this evening, what is it about a wedding that has everyone so ready to get drunk and make mistakes?”
“That compliment wasn’t a mistake.” He upped the wattage on his smile and I tried not to melt. “I feel like you probably don’t hear that enough. You’re a very pretty woman, even if you are Alex’s little sister.”
For real though, was Jude hitting on me? I needed to put a stop to that immediately.
Sitting back, I shook my head with a laugh. “This is probably unnecessary, but I feel like I should make something very clear, up front, just in case. I know there’s the whole wedding tradition of groomsmen sleeping with bridesmaids, but you and I both know nothing’s gonna happen here.” I gestured back and forth between us. “Like ever. I suggest you look elsewhere if that’s what you have in mind.”
My body one hundred percent disagreed with my mouth. For that matter, so did my heart. Jude was my dirty little secret. My midnight fantasy. For as much as I prided myself on being strong, when it came to him, I was weak, ready to fling myself his way at the tiniest crook of his finger. I’d been in love with him since I was a kid. Talk about embarrassing. What kind of woman fostered a crush that lasted more than a decade? Not the fiercely independent kind, of that I was sure.
“Elsewhere doesn’t get me very far.” Jude smiled broadly, flaring his hands. “Amelia and Jack are basic
ally engaged and have been eye-banging each other all night. Evie just married your brother. Poor Austin’s so single he didn’t even have a bridesmaid to walk down the aisle with. That leaves me and you.”
“Wow. Yeah. I definitely feel so much better about myself now.” I rolled my eyes and punched him in the arm. “Thanks for boosting my self-esteem.”
“Hey.” He puffed up his chest and threaded his hands behind his head. “That’s what I’m here for. Also, you know I’m joking about the whole me and you thing, right? There’s something else I want to talk to you about. You know, whenever you have the time.”
I’d known Jude forever. Somehow, when we were kids, I’d managed to tag along with my brother and his friends long enough to earn myself an honorary ‘one of the guys’ title. There’d been a couple months in high school when I thought Jude and I would be something more, but oh, holy shit had I been wrong, and I made such an ass of myself figuring it out. I’d been trying—and failing—to be normal around him ever since. The only way I’d managed to make that happen was to spend little-to-no time alone with the guy, which was hard since we shared a friend group that loved to hang out together. I made sure to show up late to social events and keep conversations as platonic as possible between us.
Speaking of little-to-no alone time…
I finished my cocktail and swirled the ice before scooting back my chair. “I’m gonna grab another drink. You want one?”
“I got you.” Jude tossed back his whiskey and stood, taking my empty glass. “Gin and tonic, right? With a splash of lime.”
And there it was. The smile he’d dubbed the pantydropper—aimed directly at me.
Now I was sure he was hitting on me. Or shit, was that my imagination holding hands with hope and running away with each other? Either way, self-preservation demanded I put him in his place before he broke my heart.
Again.
“Don’t think that knowing my drink order is gonna get you anywhere.” I waggled a stern finger his way while my smile betrayed me. “Whatever you have in mind for tonight isn’t gonna work. Not on me. You forget I’m impervious to your charm.”
Liar, I thought to myself.
“Isabelle Prescott.” He cocked his head. “That sounds like a challenge. You know I never back down from those.”
“It wasn’t a challenge, Jude,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “It’s just the truth.”
He chuckled to himself, arched an eyebrow, and headed towards the bar.
Three more drinks and a whole lot of reminiscing later and I was helpless when he pulled me out of my chair and dragged me toward the dance floor.
“I don’t dance,” I murmured as he drew me close.
“That’s a shame.” Jude wrapped his arms around my waist as the music swooned and we swayed. “Someone like you should spend her whole life dancing.”
I stared into his eyes, powerless as he held my gaze.
Damn it. Had he managed to get hotter? How was that even possible?
“Someone like me?”
He nodded, spinning me away then twirling me back into his arms. “You’re special. Something else you probably don’t hear enough.”
I dropped my head to his chest to break the eye contact because I couldn’t think when he looked at me like that. His hands slid up my back and I inhaled his cologne. This wasn’t any better. My body was on fire, celebrating being in his arms and demanding I see the night through to its natural, very naked conclusion. I glanced back up and he smiled, a private thing, just for me.
“If I’d known how right this would feel, we’d have done this so much sooner.” His voice, so low, so warm, so intoxicating…
I giggled like I was sixteen again. “Does that kind of stuff actually work on women?”
“I don’t know,” he whispered, leaning closer. “Is it working on you?”
I should have said no. I should have called him a dick, punched him in the arm, and gone back to ignoring the way my heart skipped a beat every time he walked into the room.
But I didn’t.
Maybe it was the drinks.
Maybe it was the music.
Maybe I was just tired of fighting the way I felt about the guy.
Whatever it was, my body was about to betray my mind—and my poor, stupid heart was celebrating at the prospect.
“It seems like it is,” I whispered, chest heaving.
Jude’s smile was electric as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Good.”
He danced us into a corner, cupped my cheeks, and kissed me. I sighed into him, exhilaration winging through me as I draped my arms over his shoulders. I’d wanted him for so long.
So long.
This stolen moment felt like a dream come true.
To finally have the man I wanted want me back?
I melted. Putty in his hands. Every silly daydream coming back to me while my heart sang because good things did happen to good people and Jude’s hands on my skin felt like triumph.
“You wanna get out of here?” he murmured, his lips grazing the shell of my ear, then going back to tease, tease, teasing their way to my mouth.
I nodded and he took my hand, leading me out of the reception like a man on a mission.
CHAPTER TWO
Izzy
My bridesmaid dress was a heap of red silk on the floor. The path of his tuxedo told a tale of seduction, trailing from the front door of his house to his bedroom upstairs. Jacket crumbled in the foyer. Cummerbund forgotten in the hall. Bowtie dangling off my heels, which sat cattywampus near the bed.
The sheets tangled in our legs.
Our chests heaved and our hearts pounded.
Jude flopped back onto his pillow, grinning at the ceiling as he wiped a bead of sweat from his temple. “Marry me, Izzy.”
“Ha ha.” I scoffed, relaxing my grip on the headboard, and wiping my hair out of my face. “Very funny.”
He rolled onto his side, his expression dead serious. “No. I mean it. I want you to marry me.”
I snorted and stared at the ceiling, shaking my head. Why did he have to ruin something so wonderful with a joke? “Stop being an ass.”
“I’m not being an ass. I’m being real.” He pushed up on his elbow. “I’m asking you to be my wife.”
Slowly, I turned my head to meet his gaze, completely unable to compute the turn we’d taken. “You want me to marry you,” I deadpanned.
He nodded as if this was a logical thing to ask a friend right after they accidentally had sex. “I was gonna ask at the reception, but then we started having such a good time, one thing led to another, and here we are—” he waggled his eyebrows “—but yeah. I kind of need a wife.”
He kind of needed a wife?
Who kind of needed a wife?
Was he honestly asking me to marry him? As in, this wasn’t a joke with an eyeroll-inducing punchline just around the corner? Even worse, did he sleep with me because he thought it’d make me say yes?
You knew better, whispered the cracks appearing on my heart. You knew better and you gave in anyway…
Forget punching him in the arm. I wanted to punch Jude in his disgustingly handsome face. I clutched his sheet to my chest and willed my eyes to shoot lasers.
“You look mad.” His blond hair was adorably tousled and his butterfly-inducing grin faltered as I glared.
“Mad? I’m furious! If I ever figure out how to make looks actually kill, you’re in so much trouble.” I increased the amperage to the eye lasers to no avail.
He sat up, his abs flexing, his bronze skin doing its best to make me focus on his sex appeal rather than my murderous intent. “Izzy, wait. Let me explain.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. “Explain?” I shook my head as I staggered out of bed, dragging his sheet right along with me in a decisive tug. “Don’t you think you should have done that before you got me into bed? So help me, Jude. If you’re using sex to manipulate me, then you and I have nothing to say to each other. If all this is part of some
master plan…”
I am such a fucking fool.
I’d started the night thinking dreams really could come true, and I was ending it realizing that sort of stuff didn’t happen in real life. Decade-long crushes stayed unrequited. The boy who chose my brother over me didn’t grow up to realize he’d chosen the wrong Prescott.
I snatched my dress and shoes off the floor, then turned in a flustered circle, searching for my bra and panties. I found the bra draped over the lamp on the end table and if the underwear didn’t make themselves known soon, I’d commando my way on out of there because this evening was done.
“Izzy…” Jude huffed as he ran a hand through his hair. “I swear to you, this? Us? The sex? That was not planned. Not even a little. We were having such a good time and I got a little carried away…”
“Carried away? For fuck’s sake, Jude. Are you serious right now?” I pointed one of my heels his way, then let it drop. Did he really not have a clue how much he meant to me?
“Everything about this is coming out wrong. I thought asking you to marry me like that would be funny…” He held up his hands and went into serious backpedal mode. “I see now that I was wrong, but in my head it would be something we’d laugh about for years. You’d grin and say, ‘The sex was so good he proposed on the spot!’ and I’d just smile and shrug, like, ‘Yeah. It really was pretty amazing.’”