Provoke

by Rachel Van Dyken

  “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 Mafia King, Abandon, All Stars Fall, and Envy.

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  Mafia King: A Mafia Royals Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

  Coming April 27, 2021

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  One of the first rules they give you when you're undercover—never fall for the enemy.

  I didn't just fall for the enemy.

  I became what I was supposed to hate.

  What's worse: I fell in love with one.

  I live a double life, and both sides know it's only a matter of time before I'm forced to choose.

  Rebirth through mafia blood.

  Or death at the hands of the very government I swore to protect.

  I have one more job before my time's up.

  I just wish it was anything but babysitting a mafia princess who's half my size but knows how to pack such a brutal punch I worry about my ability to have children.

  Tin's small but terrifying.

  And I'm her new bodyguard while we all go on a much-needed vacation.

  I just have to stick to the plan.

  And remember rule number one.

  And stop kissing her.

  * * * *

  Abandon: A Seaside Pictures Novella

  By Rachel Van Dyken

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  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

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  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

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  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.

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  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.

  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.