by Joanna Blake
RIDE
The Delancey Brothers Trilogy
Joanna Blake
Copyright © 2016 Joanna Blake
All rights reserved.
For my favorite cowboy.
Note from the author
The Delancey Brothers Trilogy consists of three standalone but connected stores! I've chosen to publish all three stories as a trilogy rather than as individual books. Ride With Me was previously available as a standalone novel but has been rewritten and expanded. Bound To Me was previously available for a limited time as a part of POSSESS: An Alpha Anthology. Branded is brand new and includes the completion of all three story lines.
As always, all my stories have happy endings and no cheating!
Please note: if this is your first time reading any of the Delancey Brother's stories I recommend following the chronological order listed on the next page. If you are familiar with the Delancey's or if you just can't wait to read what Jackson has in store for Angelina, just turn the page and enjoy. This brother won't disappoint you.
Turn the page for two options of what order to read these books in.
Enjoy!
Xoxox,
Joanna
The Delancey Brothers Trilogy
To read the newest book first:
Branded - Jackson's Story
Bound To Me - Daniel's Story
Ride With Me - Jake's Story
To read in chronological order:
Ride With Me - Jake's Story
Bound To Me - Daniel's Story
Branded - Jackson's Story
BRANDED
Joanna Blake
Chapters
Chapter One - Departure
Chapter Two - Structure
Chapter Three - Disclosure
Chapter Four - Enrapture
Chapter Five - Immature
Chapter Six - Posture
Chapter Seven - Overture
Chapter Eight - Venture
Chapter Nine - Allure
Chapter Ten - Venture
Chapter Eleven - Pressure
Chapter Twelve - Cocksure
Chapter Thirteen - Closure
Chapter Fourteen - Unsure
Chapter Fifteen - Implore
Chapter Sixteen - Failure
Chapter Seventeen - Cure
Chapter Eighteen - Juncture
Chapter Nineteen - Capture
Chapter Twenty - Exposure
Chapter Twenty-One - Torture
Chapter Twenty-Two - Pleasure
Chapter Twenty-Three - Lure
Chapter Twenty-Four - Treasure
Chapter Twenty-Five - Rapture
Six Months Later
Bound To Me
Ride With Me
Note from the author
GRIND Excerpt
HEAT Excerpt
PUSH Excerpt
Player Excerpt
A Bad Boy For Summer Excerpt
Chapter One
Jackson
"You look awfully preoccupied for a cowboy."
I glanced to the side. A woman was leaning against the bar next to me. She was attractive in the way that most of the rich women were around here. Polished to a dull shine.
I grunted and went back to my drink, not in the mood for small talk.
I was having a real bad day.
Usually I didn't drink to excess. Today was an exception. Once a year on this day, I almost always tied one on. It was barely 5 pm at the club and I was already three or four drinks in. I thought for a minute.
Nope, it was five.
"It's Jackson right? I'm Nancy."
I couldn't ignore her completely. If she was here, she was a club member or the guest of one. She did look vaguely familiar...
"Nice to meet you."
I didn't hold out my hand, or turn towards her. That didn't stop her from settling onto the stool beside me. She ordered a drink, her body language letting me know that she was more than just interested.
She was determined.
She stirred her drink with a tiny straw, pulling it into her lips seductively. The effort was wasted on me. I was not the right fish for that sort of bait.
"Actually, we've already met."
I glanced at her again. Like I said, she did look familiar. But I couldn't place her. Hell, I could barely tell how old she was. All I knew was that she was on the prowl.
I didn't want to get laid. I wanted to get drunk. There was only one woman on my mind tonight. Today was the anniversary of the day my mother died.
My brothers and I had been young men when we lost her. I was already working for our dad at the estate, Daniel was still in college, and Jake had run off to God knows where.
It was the worst day of my life. It was the first time I had ever seen my father cry. He was always a strong, silent man. A disciplinarian.
Not that I ever needed to be disciplined. My brothers on the other hand... Daniel had his moments of misbehavior growing up, but Jake had been a full out rebel. I never did anything bad, other than laying far too many of the local girls.
I never got caught though.
Nancy put her hand on my arm, yanking me back to the present.
"It was about a year ago actually."
She smiled at me, her overly bright smile suggesting we'd done more than just meet.
"Exactly a year ago..."
Now she had my attention. I'd been at the club last year as well, at least for part of the evening. Then I'd gone bar hopping with a lanky brunette. I glanced at her again.
"Your hair is different."
She smiled at me, flashing her overly white teeth.
"So you do remember."
I grunted, shrugging. What difference did it make? I remembered having a terrible time but it was a little bit choppy. Like I said, I didn't drink often, but when I did, I was a professional.
Go big or go home.
Nancy sipped her drink and watched me drink mine. I didn't encourage her or dissuade her. It was a free country after all. She could stare at me all night.
It made no difference to me one way or the other.
"You were pretty hammered, though it took me awhile to figure that out. The big ones don't show it as fast."
I nodded. I had been drunk. And she was right, I always hid it well. Another famous Delancey trait. The men anyway. My mother had been a lightweight. It always made us try to goad her into another glass of wine at holiday dinners. She would giggle like a schoolgirl.
I closed my eyes, wishing she was still here with us for the thousandth time.
"Care for a do over?"
I shook my head.
"Not this year honey."
"This year? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Forget it."
She glared at me for a second then leaned in close.
"Your loss."
I snorted. I highly doubted it. I tossed back the rest of my drink and signaled the bartender for another.
Angelina
"You are absolutely sure you are going to be okay?"
Casey nodded, smiling at me. But I could see the exhaustion in her eyes. My little sister was tough, but she'd been through hell and back.
We both had.
It was pure hell to watch someone you loved get poisoned by a pharmaceutical company. Probably not as terrifying as it had been for her, but still, harder than anything I'd ever been through.
I'd quit my high paying job in advertising to take Casey on an endless round of doctor appointments. We'd had to pare down, cook all our meals, and sell off a bunch of our possessions to afford the copays and supplements. Never mind the cost of alternative therapy in t
he city. Massages, acupuncture, naturopaths. They were all double the price here, if not triple.
And now we were leaving.
After five years I'd had enough of the rat race in New York City. And we needed space and clean air for Casey to get better. Which she would.
She had to.
Two years ago, at only 18 years old, my sister had been given a round of antibiotics for a sinus infection while she was staying with me in lower Manhattan. Almost immediately we had known something was wrong. After just two days her whole body had started aching. I'd pulled out the pamphlet from the drug store, and read the black box warning.
The risks were horrifying. It seemed insane to risk all of those horrifying side effects for a simple sinus infection. But we'd dutifully called the doctor who told us in no certain terms that it was more dangerous not to finish the round of drugs. She'd said the side effects were rare and would end when she finished the pills.
She was so, so wrong. So willfully ignorant. But we didn't know that until much later.
When it was too late.
At the time we'd talked about it and then gone ahead with the doctor's advice. It was the worst decision either one of us had ever made. And I blamed myself. With our parents gone, I was all she had.
I was supposed to be the voice of reason.
My bright and beautiful sister was poisoned. Disabled and in pain for no good God damn reason.
An avid runner, Casey had always been fit and strong. Within a month she had wasted away to a shell of her former self.
And that was the tip of the iceberg. Trouble thinking, anxiety, pain, chemical sensitivity, ringing in her ears, blurry vision, dizziness, sores all over her body, headaches. And the effect on her poor tendons and joints had her walking slowly and carefully, bent over like an old woman.
All that from an antibiotic. Something that was supposed to help her feel better. Instead it had damaged her mitochondria and DNA. It was pure poison.
We tried everything. We ate organic, meatless diets. We juiced. We gave her supplements and did a comprehensive detox.
It had helped. Just not enough. And not fast enough.
I had learned a lot in the process about the big pharma companies.
Too much.
I'd fought them, hired a lawyer, joined advocacy groups, written to my senator and the FDA. We'd even gone to a hearing in Washington D.C. to stop them from giving the drugs to other people. So far, the jury was still out. Even worse, very few doctors even considered the drug remotely dangerous.
Never mind that it had actually killed people.
In a strange way, Casey was one of the lucky people.
And there were plenty of people who healed completely, or nearly so. We held onto hope that she would be one of them. And when she got tired of hoping, I did it for both of us.
So we were leaving. We were starting over. Fresh. In the countryside. I'd bought a plot of land with a big old farmhouse smack in the middle, surrounded by an orchard and empty fields. They'd been fallow long enough to start growing crops without the concern of chemical pesticides or fungicides.
That's right. This former high maintenance, highly ambitious, successful advertising executive career woman was going to be an organic farmer.
My friends had laughed when I told them. But they didn't understand. They didn't think about pesticides or toxic fumes. They hadn't seen what the same company that made those nasty pesticides had also done to my sweet, brilliant sister.
I was damned if I wasn't going to do everything I could to save her.
Chapter Two
Jackson
I groaned, covering my eyes as Jake opened the blinds in the dining room. The sun was too damn bright and it was too damn early. I was sitting in the dining room alone, nursing a black cup of coffee.
I'd tied one on last night, and then some.
In fact, I was pretty sure I was still a little bit drunk.
If anyone understood how that felt, it was my reformed brother Jake. He'd been the family black sheep for most of his life. That's why he was grinning at me with a look of superiority. It wasn't often I wasn't at my best and he was going to enjoy every moment of it.
"More coffee?"
I mumbled my agreement and he laughed. The sound was loud, echoing around the dining room. I was sitting as far away from the breakfast buffet as possible.
The smell was doing strange things to my insides. Horrible, stomach flipping things. Basically I was trying not to throw up.
Mrs. Garritty wouldn't like that.
I didn't even look up as Jake set down a cup of coffee and slid a plate of food under my nose. I flinched at the strong smell of eggs and toast. I actually heard my stomach protest with a loud rumble.
"Eat. It will help."
I finally looked at the smug bastard. He winked at me as he shoveled a heaping fork full of food into his mouth. Grudgingly, I forced myself to take a bite.
And then another. And another.
Before long I was feeling a bit better. Less drunk anyway. The toast must have sopped up some of the bourbon still rolling around in my guts.
Daniel and Francesca came in, giggling like school children. Now Jake and I exchanged a superior glance. Not that Jake wasn't guilty of acting like a lovesick fool himself. But Daniel was over the top with his girlfriend Francesca.
It would have made me nauseous even if I didn't have the hangover from hell.
"Morning."
"'Giorno."
Daniel was halfway through his food before he noticed anything was wrong. He insisted on feeding Francesca small bites of food. I rolled my eyes. The man was in over his head with the gorgeous Italian girl who'd come here to breed her horse.
And never left.
I liked her. Just like I liked Jake's fiancé Elle. Loved them even, in a sisterly way. I just hated watching my brother act like a jackass.
Either one of them.
"What's got into him?"
Jake grinned and got up to get more coffee.
"Big brother fell off the wagon last night. And then it ran him over."
Daniel looked surprised and then he seemed to remember the date.
"You okay?"
I nodded.
"I will be. I shouldn't have scheduled so much today. I have to meet with the arborist about the elm trees."
Daniel frowned.
"I can do that Jackson. My schedule is light today."
"No. I've been talking to this guy for months now. I need to be there in person."
"Suit yourself."
"But thank you."
Daniel grinned at me. He knew I had been working on being less of a dictator about running the place. I'd gotten shit from both brothers lately about being a bit too bossy, even if I was in charge.
I was trying to learn to delegate. Just... not today.
Daniel leaned back in his seat as Francesca got them both more coffee, his eyes never straying far from his woman. In fact, it looked like he was ready to pounce on her.
As usual.
"Where's Elle?"
Jake grinned.
"Sleeping. She had a late night."
I shook my head and grimaced. My brothers were both sex-crazed maniacs. I was the only person in the house who had important things on their mind, like running the damn business.
They were lucky to have me. You would think they would thank me daily, and do what I said without question. They did follow my lead for the most part, but they seemed to take a perverse pleasure in challenging me from time to time.
Daniel cleared his throat.
"The Jenkins' Farm sold."
I cocked an eyebrow at him. The Jenkins' Farm bordered our property on the south side. It was a small farm, not even a fifth the size of our land. But it was a long and skinny plot and we shared a lot of acreage with it.
"Any idea who bought it?"
Daniel shook his head.
"Some city people. I haven't met them. Two sisters from what I hear. Going to m
ake a go at farming the place."
"As long as they don't try and build a subdivision, I don't care what they hell they do."
The Jenkins had been a farming family around here forever. They even predated the Delanceys. It had been hard to watch their land fall into disrepair and finally be seized by the bank. The last generation had simply no interest in taking over the small farm.
Not that I blamed them. Farming was hard work and there was very little chance of an independent family farm ever turning a profit. It was harder and harder for small businesses like that to complete against the huge factory farms.
It was a shame though.
A damn shame.
Angelina
"How can there be so many spiders in one place?"
Casey chuckled, handing me a newspaper.
I rolled it up and smashed the spider that was scuttling around the kitchen counter.
"You are getting good at that Ange."
I looked over at Casey, who was in her wheelchair. She didn't need it all the time, but at the moment it was the only clean chair in the house. In fact, it was the only chair in the house at all, other than the porch swing out front.
I'd forgotten to hire a cleaning service to come and clean the place up. So now on top of waiting for workers to come and repair what looked like at least three separate leaks and electricity that went in and out, I had to clean the place myself.
I sighed. It was an old house. I knew that no matter how glamorous it looked on those renovation shows on television, it was going to be a lot of work just to make this place habitable.
But I didn't have much of a choice.
At least the sunroom was leak free and cheerful. It was on the first floor, right off the large, sunny kitchen. It was the perfect place to set up Casey's bedroom. The steep stairs would not work for her.