by Lily Zante
Table of Contents
Tainted Love Series
Other books by Lily Zante:
Author’s Note
Misplaced Love
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
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Reclaiming Love
Untitled
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
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Embracing Love
Untitled
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
About The Author
Booklist
Tainted Love Series
Lily Zante
Other books by Lily Zante:
You can find an updated list of Lily Zante books at: http://www.lilyzante.com/books
Lily Zante
Newsletter | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Email
Author’s Note
The Tainted Love Series, a spin-off from the Perfect Match Series, consists of three standalone books based on characters who first appeared in The Proposal, (the first book in the Perfect Match Series.)
It isn’t necessary for you to have read the Perfect Match books in order to enjoy the Tainted Love books. But if you are interested in seeing how the two series are connected please click here.
If you have read the Perfect Match books, then you will be familiar with Sandra Donnelly. To find out what happened to Sandra, please click here and download a free bonus chapter about Sandra’s story.
The books in the Tainted Love Series are standalone and can be read in any order.
Table of contents
Misplaced Love
Reclaiming Love
Embracing Love
About the Author
Books by Lily Zante
Misplaced Love
(Tainted Love, Book 1)
Chapter 1
Zoe dragged her battered suitcase out of the taxi and stood outside staring at the familiar apartment she’d shared with Billy.
She’d moved in with him when things had turned serious between them. But even then, if she was being truthful, she wasn’t sure if it was because she loved Billy so much or whether she wanted to move out when her mom’s new husband moved in.
Her stomach churned and she wondered whether Ethan would be inside. He didn’t even know that she and Billy had split up, or that she had cut short their trip around South America.
It had all been so different when they’d set off, starting in Peru, and it was Peru where she had returned from.
She’d never made it to Ecuador or Bolivia. Heck she’d barely lasted a month. A month away on the road with Billy, running away from their problems. Why had she thought traveling might fix things?
Like flecks of dirt on white cotton, it had only highlighted them even more.
They still had another four to six months on the road, maybe longer. They didn’t have a concrete plan. Billy winged it wherever he went.
Winging it was fine—for people who could sleep easy in hostels where the floor crawled, and eat from soup bowls not caring too much what horrors floated beneath.
When Billy suggested they join the group of Australians instead of it being just the two of them traveling together as planned, she’d had enough.
With all their rows and with her mind constantly harking back to home, she hadn’t really been wholly convinced she had done the right thing.
She’d even signed up for the programming course she’d been thinking about. So when Billy changed their plans to fit in with the Aussie group, she quit her plan with Billy and focused on her needs instead.
He was now on his way to Ecuador and she was staring up at the redbrick building wondering what it might be like to stay with Ethan again.
Just as she got ready to walk up to the door, it opened and a statuesque girl with flyaway hair and hot pants rushed out. She pulled the corners of her teeny leather jacket together.
As if that’s going to keep you warm, thought Zoe, and wondered whom this creature had come to see.
Billy’s friend Andre had moved out in a hurry and Billy had told her their room was free again. It seemed serendipitous—as though she was meant to come back and follow her plan, instead of idly following him around.
If Andre wasn’t at home, it meant Ethan was.
And if Ethan was in, had that long legged gazelle paid him a visit?
It couldn’t be.
She sucked in her stomach and walked up to the door and knocked. No matter how many times they had called, texted and emailed him, they’d
been unable to get a hold of Ethan, but seeing the girl leave just now had given her hope that he was in.
She waited, wishing he would hurry up, and yet the thought of being face-to-face with Ethan again set her nerves on edge.
When he didn’t open the door, she started to get irritated. She knocked again, and rang the doorbell twice.
Still no answer.
She crashed to the floor in a huff, flung open her battered handbag and rifled through it, muttering under her breath. She was tired after the long flight and needed a bed more than she needed food or a clean shower.
Relief poured out when she found the key. Getting up quickly, she opened the door just as she heard heavy footsteps on the wooden floor from inside. The angry voice of a man yelling greeted her.
The door yanked roughly open away from her, pulling the key with it.
She stared at the tall and slim shirtless man who opened the door wearing only jeans and a bad attitude. “I see her once a week, Chrissie. Why the hell has she started to demand two to three appointments a week?”
He glared at Zoe, then looked away and yelled into the phone. “I don’t care how much. I can’t see her so many times. This isn’t a full time gig for me.”
A rush of adrenaline tingled through her body. This wasn’t Ethan or Andre.
With the call over, the guy stabbed a finger at the cell and shoved it into his back pocket. He turned his attention to Zoe, his slate-gray eyes widening for the briefest second.
Zoe stood stupefied into silence, first by his rude manner, then by the sharp line of his abs. It rendered her speechless. Her gaze skimmed over the faint gauze of his five o’clock stubble—before dipping down lower to fix on his tight, ripped chest.
Her heartbeat raced and she experienced firsthand the sensation of free falling without leaving the ground.
The guy cocked his head and gave her a who-the-hell-are-you look.
And then she remembered.
Tyler.
He was one of the guys who’d been in the Dreamboys Dancers right at the beginning for a little while. They all knew one another through Billy and they’d all been friends,: Troy, Jed, and Tyler. Ethan knew them, too, but not as well, and he wasn’t one of the dancers. And as she recalled it, Tyler left the group soon after joining.
Her eyes widened as she recalled it now—he’d left to join an escort service. Apparently, he was the one who’d told Ethan all about it.
What the hell was he doing here?
“Ethan’s not in.” He gave her a hard smile.
She felt more out of place than ever, especially now that Billy wasn’t here. She stood taller, mustering her bravado; the guy was tall—very tall—and the way he stared at her made her feel minuscule in her flat sneakers.
She had expected to sail right in, but this guy was barricading the door with his totally ripped chest.
Seconds passed while they had a silent but deadly standoff and she tried to find her tongue.
Finally, he stepped closer to the door—his hand on the door handle. “Zoe, right?” His eyes narrowed and the angry ridge between his eyebrows kept her at bay.
She nodded, wishing he’d put a shirt on. She grabbed the handle of her suitcase trolley even tighter.
“What are you doing here?” The slate-gray eyes remained cold.
She swallowed. “Andre sent Billy an email about moving out and Billy replied to say I’d be taking the room.” Her explanation caused the angry ridge to deepen.
The guy’s face was a mixture of confusion and irritation.
“I’m staying here. Andre moved out last week. Didn’t Ethan tell you?” He frowned at her, then scrubbed his jaw.
Ethan? They hadn’t heard from him since they’d left. “Tell me what?” This time her eyes narrowed. She wished again that he would put a shirt on. Jet lag made it harder to focus on his face.
“Your friend Andre moved out. Ethan knew I was looking for a place. So here I am.”
Zoe felt her body tense. His explanation just about tipped her over the edge and especially the idea that he seemed to think he had one over her.
“I think you got that wrong. I’m staying here. We got Andre’s email and we told him I was coming back. The room you’re temporarily staying in belonged to me and Billy anyway.”
But even as she said it, she remembered they hadn’t been able to check their emails while they were in a rural part of Peru. And when they’d received Andre’s email, it was a week after he’d sent it.
She knew what had happened. In the time that Billy hadn’t replied, Andre must have gotten a hold of Ethan.
It was the only explanation which made any sense, and which would explain why this caveman was now staring at her with that smug look of satisfaction plastered all over his face.
He gave her a cool, condescending stare. “Look at it any way you want; it seems I beat you to it. The room’s mine.”
Chapter 2
She moved toward him forcefully, giving him no choice but to back off to the side as she stumbled through the door, dragging the trolley suitcase behind her.
“What do you think you’re doing? There isn’t a place for you to stay. Ethan still has his room.”
She turned quickly. “Has he been staying here?”
“No.”
He let go of the door handle and sauntered into the kitchen, leaving her stranded in the hallway with the front door wide open. He was acting as though the place belonged to him.
Well, she had more of a claim to this place than he did. She closed the door and followed him in, her hands so tightly clenched that her nails bit into her palms.
No way was she sharing with him. Her mind ran haywire thinking of ways she could get rid of him, and fast.
“You can’t stay here.” She huffed, knowing she sounded like a child, having nothing concrete to fight back with.
He had his cell to his ear again and, from the way he commanded Ethan to call him back, she guessed that he was leaving him a message.
She didn’t like the way he referred to her as “a problem.”
He tossed his cell carelessly onto the table. “Ethan okayed it with me and that’s why I’m here. If you have a problem—you go sort it out.” He put his hands on his hips and frowned. “Aren’t you supposed to be traveling around with Billy?”
She turned her head at the sound of stilettos that smacked along the floor just outside the kitchen. Another buxom vamp paraded through the door and slid over to Tyler.
Zoe raised her eyebrows. Two women? She’d heard things about this guy. He had a reputation and so far, everything she’d seen lived up to it.
“Thanks for an amazing night. Call me sometime.” She kissed him and ran her hands down his chest before handing him something. “It looks better on you.”
Zoe focused her gaze elsewhere, looking around the kitchen and winced. The sink was full of dishes.
It looked like he’d been way too busy to clean up—she didn’t want to think of what he’d been up to.
She felt a fool for standing here, and she wanted nothing more than to go to her bedroom. A shower appealed as well as bed now. But instead she was forced to deal with this gigolo. His booty call—that was what she assumed he had—left the kitchen, not before throwing Zoe an all-knowing grin. Zoe’s lips barely moved. Her eyes settled on Tyler.
Unabashed, as if the scene that had just taken place was normal, Tyler slipped a T-shirt over his head. Zoe licked her lips unconsciously—unable to look elsewhere, and enjoying each delicious second as he pulled it down over his flat, hard stomach.
“Two women?” she hissed. “Your reputation precedes you.”
He snickered. “I wish. The first one was just a friend. She slept on the couch. Honest. I’m not that debauched.”
“Rumor has it otherwise,” replied Zoe, a touch of sanctimonious.
“Believe what you want,” he muttered. “Why are you back so early?” He shifted easily from the worktop by the fridge to stand over by the sink. When
she didn’t answer immediately, he prompted, “Ethan said you were on a cruise or something with Billy.”
She flinched. Cruise was so not the word to describe what she’d been on.
“Something like that,” she said in a clipped tone. She wasn’t about to give up her story to someone like him. She barely knew him. They had barely talked even when they’d been in the same circles, back when Billy and his friends practiced their routines. They’d hardly had any interaction back then, even on the odd nights when they’d all shared pizza and drinks.