Please (Please #1)

by Willow Summers

  Krista couldn’t help a grin. “I have a few. First off, my boss!”

  Kate and Jasmine settled into their barstools expectantly as Krista unfolded the strange events of her first day. When she started talking about Mr. Montgomery and his various quirks, humiliation turned into hilarity.

  Finally Krista got to the most embarrassing story.

  “Wait,” Jasmine said as she bowed her head with a thoughtful expression. “You picked up a piece of paper, which you had heard print, in order to look normal? I don’t get it. Was he hideous or something?”

  “Or creepy?” Kate asked as she leaned over her martini to get a good look at Krista’s face.

  Krista cleared her throat and shrugged. Kate and Jasmine immediately honed in.

  “He was hot, wasn’t he?” Jasmine accused with an evil smile.

  Krista shrugged again, hating that her friends could read her so well.

  “He must have been super fucking hot to make you lose your shit!” Kate chortled, matching Jasmine’s delight.

  Krista kept the shrugs coming.

  “Seriously? He was that hot?” Jasmine asked with a quirked eyebrow.

  Krista felt herself flush. “Okay, yes. He was hot, okay? He just surprised me, is all. He was in my space—I wasn’t all ga-ga over him, or anything! I know to steer clear of hot guys!”

  “Womanizing guys,” Kate corrected.

  “Same thing.” Jasmine waved the thought away. “Describe him!”

  “Seriously, you guys. There’s nothing to describe. He was pleasant looking, he smelled good, and he surprised me in an enclosed space. It’s not like I’m great with people. He could’ve been anyone and I would’ve been a dweeb!”

  “De-scr-ibe-him,” Jasmine enunciated.

  Krista rolled her eyes. “Fine. He was over six feet—not much over, I don’t think. He had really green eyes—super green. Hard to look away from eyes. Stop looking at me like that!” Kate held up her hands as if to say there was no look. Krista continued with a red face. “He had blondish hair in kind of a spikey ‘do. He had these, like, noble-born features ….”

  Jasmine shook her head to cut her off. “What does that even mean? Who do you know that’s noble?”

  “Just…I don’t know…like, straight nose, chiseled jaw—like a guy a photographer would have a wet dream over.”

  “Okay, so he was noble, fine. Body?” Jasmine asked with hungry eyes.

  “Jaz, whoa, get laid already,” Kate said as she leaned away.

  Jasmine huffed, “I need to. It’s been a while. But I loves me a good hot man.”

  “Nice body,” Krista continued, thinking back. “Biceps, super broad shoulders—he was like, hulking in the entryway. Trim waist.”

  “Dress?”

  “Suit,” Krista matched the girls’ smiles. She couldn’t help it. “Tailored, silk tie that matched his eyes…he looked good in it. He wore it like a second skin. He like…lounged in it, or something.” Krista shook her head, trying to calm the hatching butterflies in her stomach.

  Like any girl, Krista also loved to look at hot guys, but this one had been different somehow. There was certain quality to him that made her act like a teenager with a crush. It hadn’t happened since she was a teenager with a crush.

  “So…he was super-hot and you freaked out,” Kate summed up.

  “Well, it wasn’t just that his face was perfect, you know? He was rugged and masculine, but so damn smooth he’d melt in your mouth.” Krista fanned herself, finally giving in with a bright smile, “He gives me fire-crotch just thinking about him.”

  “Hah!” Jasmine pointed at her with victory. “I knew it!”

  “So hit that, Romeo,” Kate laughed.

  “She’s a chick. She’d be Juliet, dummy,” Jasmine said flippantly.

  “Whatever. Same dumb play.”

  “Yeah, right,” Krista mentally shrank back from the suggestion. “New job. He’s the kind of guy that everyone probably talks about.”

  “Yeah, true. And if he doesn’t have a girlfriend, which he probably doesn’t, all he wants to do is sleep around and then talk about it. I hate man-sluts,” Jasmine pronounced, going back to her beer.

  “Yeah,” Kate agreed into Krista’s nod, “But they sure are nice to look at!”

  All the girls fell on the bar laughing. A truer statement had never been uttered. The three of them were worse than any man when it came to gawking. They’d all three turn and look, smiling appreciatively, and then walk away without bothering to say hello, having no time for the man. Heartache or a bad lay was rarely worth the nice face or body.

  Still…a girl could look!

  “But when are you going to get back out there?” Jasmine asked, as her knowing chuckles subsided.

  These girls, to some extent—Kate more so than Jasmine—knew her history. They knew about the bad nights and the dark days. They knew her recovery from the scared, weak woman her ex-boyfriend Jim made. They were her support network most of the time, but sometimes, like now, they branched out and pushed.

  Krista shrugged uncomfortably. Jasmine was right to push. Krista was young. She’d made some mistakes—one in particular—but she couldn’t let that dictate the rest of her life. She did need to move on. She needed to learn to trust again. She needed to find someone safe who wouldn’t jerk her around.

  She just didn’t feel like starting today. She said as much.

  “But you do need to, though,” Jasmine persisted in a quiet voice.

  Krista sighed, tears springing to her eyes unbidden. “Jim got ahold of a Facebook account. He’s been messaging with threats.”

  “What?” Kate yelled. “When did this happen? Why am I just hearing about this?”

  Krista waved her away, desperate not to let Jim ruin her day. “It was bound to happen, right? Even when he was cheating on me, or…the other stuff…he was always possessive. He thought we were going to get married,” Krista snorted in derision. “It’s just a computer. He doesn’t know where I am.”

  “What’d you do? Did you contact his parole officer?” Kate pushed with round eyes.

  Krista shrugged. “He wasn’t breaking any laws. I closed all my social media accounts.”

  “I never use that crap, anyway. You’re not missing anything,” Jasmine deflected.

  “Well, me neither—hence us not knowing this first-hand, but… Shit.” Kate stared at her drink.

  The girls stared at their drinks for a quiet moment, each reliving some memory from Jim they’d rather forget. After a second, Jasmine said, “What did that salesman say when you waved his paper in front of his face?”

  She could turn around on a dime, thank God. She steered the conversation back to safer waters.

  After a deep breath, Krista said, “I didn’t hear what he said—I sprinted out of there too fast!”

  “He wasn’t mad?”

  “No. When I met him later, he was smiling about it. Definitely not mad.”

  “Oh my god…” Jasmine had a somber look, like she’d just found out someone had just died. “He totally knows he makes you nervous!”

  “Yup,” Krista said, peeling the label off her beer. “It was a print-out of some graphs for a sales presentation.”

  “He works on the same floor?”

  “No, thank God. He printed it from the art department. It had his name on it and everything. He had to go reprint.”

  Jasmine started laughing.

  “There’ll be no living with him now. You’re screwed,” Kate said as she shook her head.

  “Yup.”

  ~~~~

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  Synopsis:

  Sara thought she had it all, but when her life turns upside-down, she does the only thing she can
think of: pack up and follow a childhood dream. She takes a job on a dude ranch in rural Montana hoping to pick up the pieces.

  She never thought she’d see him again.

  Mike Frost is all grown up. 6’2” of solid muscle, he’s the best friend from her youth, and the man every woman wants. With a list of successes a mile long, Mike has it all…

  Except for the one that got away.

  Sometimes you have to start over to find your happily ever after.

  Excerpt:

  “Trust me, those two classes will seem like five! Oh my God…” Christie’s fingers wrapped around Sara’s wrist. “Don’t freak out!”

  Sara started and looked up quickly, expecting some sort of emergency. Instead, her gaze met a wide expanse of muscular shoulder. “Why? What’s happenin—”

  “Hi, Mike,” Christie said, yanking on Sara’s wrist to make her step closer.

  In confusion, Sara tilted her face upward and met that spun-honey gaze she’d seen a moment ago.

  “How are you?” Christie asked.

  The fingertips digging holes in Sara’s arm were starting to hurt.

  Mike’s gaze flicked toward Christie. He nodded before his focus settled back on Sara a moment later. “Sara Michaels, right?”

  “Um, yes?” she answered hesitantly.

  He stared expectantly.

  Her eyebrows rose slowly. Was she supposed to recognize him, somehow?

  Taking his extended pause as a yes, she scanned his vaguely familiar face. High cheekbones and a narrow nose adorned his handsome appearance. The color of his eyes was even more spectacular up close, with bursts of browns, hazel, and flecks of green wrapped in lush black lashes. Completing the tableau was a strange sort of command in his bearing—dominance, almost—with a hint of arrogance that often came from a silver spoon and a lingering case of Huge-Bank-Account-Itis.

  She shook her head. “Sorry, I don’t think I know you…”

  “I’m Mikey Frost,” he said. “Jack’s son. We grew up together…”

  Her brow furrowed as she made sense of those names.

  “Mikey Frost…” she whispered, calling up the face of the boy in the back of his parents’ car, waving as he drove away.

  She looked at the man in front of her again, struggling to wipe away the haze of memory. With difficulty, she placed the handsome, chiseled face over that of the pudgy boy’s from her memories. Those same eyes looked at her.

  A thrill ran through her. “No way,” she breathed. Emotions, long forgotten, bubbled up out of nowhere. Butterflies filled her stomach.

  “No freaking way,” she said, louder. The world spun around her as joy blossomed.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God!” she screamed. Like a teenager, she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Holy heck, Mikey!”

  She stepped back so she could see his face. “I haven’t seen you in… Jesus, how long has it been?”

  His lips quirked as he scrutinized her. “A long time. Years and years.”

  “Not since you moved to—where was it? New Jersey?”

  “Connecticut.”

  “Right! This is so nuts.” She slapped his arm, and then hugged him again.

  “How are you?” he asked, his eyes delving into her.

  She sighed into her smile, recalling the profound feeling of a friendship so deep it could be called family. Emotion moved within her as she processed this face out of her past.

  “Wow! I just—it’s just so good to see you. We should have kept in touch.”

  “We were fourteen—well, I was fourteen. You were, what, twelve when I left?”

  “Eleven,” she said. “Still, I don’t know. You were like my brother. I missed you. I can’t believe you’re here! What a crazy coincidence.”

  “Sara, we should go…” Christie was staring after two larger women moving off toward the house.

  Mikey followed her gaze and nodded. “Christie’s right. Ethel and Florence won’t treat you well if you’re late.” His eyes once again settled on her face. “I’ll catch up with you at the fire pit. We’re staying in the area tonight, so I’ll be around.”

  He took a step back to let her go.

  “Wait!” She lurched forward, clutching his arm. The memory of him, of their youth, tugged at her. Made her want to attach herself to him like she used to.

  “I mean, obviously, yes. I need to go. But…” Sara shook her head, embarrassment creeping up at her actions. “I mean…”

  He gave her a small smile. “I’ll see you tonight, okay?” He smoothed her hair from her face. “I’m not leaving forever—never was, remember? I told you I’d see you again. And look, here I am. Magical.”

  Check out this stand-alone romance here.

  Also by Willow Summers

  Jessica Brodie Diaries

  Back in the Saddle, Book 1 – FREE

  Hanging On, Book 2

  A Wild Ride, Book 3

  Growing Pains Series

  Lost and Found, Book 1 - FREE

  Overcoming Fear, Book 2

  Butterflies in Honey, Book 3

  Love & Chaos; Cassie’s Story

  Surviving Love - stand alone

  Check them out here.

  About the Author

  Willow Summers is the breakaway pen name from USA Today Bestselling author K.F. Breene, dedicated to comic, contemporary, erotic and suspense romance. When she’s not writing, be wary, because she will probably try to pull you into some shenanigan or other, usually involving wine and heavy doses of chocolate. She lives just south of wine country with her husband, two children, and out of work treadmill.

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  Contact info:

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