by Jenna Rose
No. Don’t be stupid, Faith!
What would he have to apologize for? The only thing he’ll be doing—if that is him at the door—is trying to bullshit his way out of this situation. But I doubt it even is him. Why would he need to come and lie to me? He already fucked me. Twice! He got what he wanted.
I hear the front door open and my father’s raised voice. From where I’m standing, I can’t see down the hall, so I slowly tiptoe across the kitchen floor to a better angle. Sure enough, standing on the front steps, is Lance, arguing with my father.
“You’ve done enough, Lance,” my dad says, on the verge of shouting.
“Brian, listen to me. This is all a big mistake! I love your daughter and would never—”
Lance’s eyes flicker past my dad and land on me.
He sees me.
I quickly leap out of the way and race for the back door, but I hear the sound of his footsteps racing towards me. “Wait, Faith! Wait!”
The backdoor sticks, so I tug hard, almost ripping my shoulder out of its socket in the process. It opens, and I race out into the snow. When I glance behind me, I see Lance racing after me. “Faith!”
“Go away!” I shout, heading for the trees. There’s an old trail to a bridge over the creek. I know the area and Lance doesn’t. I can lose him there.
“That message you saw! It was just a joke between me and an old friend!”
“Go fuck yourself!” I snap.
My foot slips on some ice, and I spill into the snow, but I’m back on my feet and running in a second. But I can hear Lance closing in on me. God, why is he so persistent? Why can’t he ever just leave me alone? Why does he seem to run my entire life? Even now that I want nothing to do with him and he’s no longer my boss!
I duck under the tree branches and start racing down the trail. I jump the tree stump and watch my footing so I don’t break an ankle in the deep ruts by the young pines. I keep running, getting closer to the bridge. But when I see it, my heart sinks again.
The creek must have been high when it iced up. One entire footing of the bridge has been lifted out of the ground, and the whole thing is teetering precariously over the sunken ground, as though one strong breeze could send it toppling over. But I don’t even care right now. The last thing I want is for Lance to catch me.
So I go for it.
“Faith, no!”
I jump from the snowy bank onto the bridge. It creaks beneath me, like a painful yawn of an old ice giant, and begins to sway. Something cracks. I hear the sound of ice splintering and start to lose my footing.
This was a bad idea…
Then, with a strong jolt, the whole bridge begins to fall.
I look down at the riverbed, chilled and studded with ice-covered rocks, and brace myself for impact. But at the very last second, I feel a set of strong arms around my waist and am lifted into the air.
“Christ, girl,” Lance curses as he sets me down on the bank beside him. “You trying to get yourself killed?”
“You jerk!” I slap him straight in the face. “If you think that’s going to make up for what you did—”
I try to slap him again, but he’s ready. He catches my hand, then my other hand when I swing out again.
“Stop.”
“Don’t you tell me what to do! You’re not my boss anymore!”
There’s no point in fighting it anymore. The tears spill down my cheeks, freezing before they reach my jaw. Behind me, the bridge crashes down, and the sound of cracking ice and shattering wood echoes throughout the woods.
“Faith—”
“I trusted you!” I cry, pouring my heart out through my lips. “I wanted to prove myself to you and you—you screwed me over!”
The cold, Winter air tears at my throat as I gasp for breath. I struggle against Lance’s grip, but he’s too strong. As much as I want to get away, I’m not going anywhere.
“It’s not what you think, Faith,” Lance says firmly. “Danielle is an old friend. It’s all just a long-running joke between us.”
“Joke my ass!” My heart is definitely going to explode. “You just want to save your business relationship with my dad!”
Lance shakes his head firmly. “No, Faith. No, that’s not true. I want to save my relationship with you. The message from Danielle was a joke, and I can prove it to you. I can show you all the old messages, and I can even have you talk to her, and she will back me up.”
“She’ll just lie too…”
“No, Faith. You have to listen to me,” he persists. “I’m going to show you everything, and if you still don’t believe me, I’ll go. I’ll sever my ties with your father and take the loss. I’ll recover from it. But I’ll never, ever recover from losing you.”
His words seem to worm their way into my chest—warmth beating back the cold. But I remind myself that Lance is a smooth-talker. He didn’t get to where he is today by not knowing the right things to say. If I give him a chance, he could convince me of anything.
“Please, Faith. Will you listen to me?”
No.
No, I can’t. I can’t…
EPILOGUE
FAITH
FOUR YEARS LATER…
“COME ON, guys, let’s get this order done so I can go home!”
“The boys,” as I like to call them, Chris, Ryan and Tommy, all glance up from their stations and give me their patented smirks.
“Sure, boss.”
“Got a glass of red wine waiting for you at home?”
“Or maybe a boy toy?” Ryan, the snarkiest of the group, suggests with a wink.
“Hey,” I reply, pointing a finger. “Don’t make me fire you, mister!”
The boys laugh and go back to their boxes. We’re packing up and shipping a big order of lemon drops today, along with a sample shipment of our new lime drops which we’ve just finished testing. They’re delicious, and if we get the big order in that I know we will, Have Faith Candies will go from just a small, successful, mom-and-pop style company to a big competitor. Hell, I could probably even take on Frost Sweets if I wanted to.
It’s crazy to think back to when my dad got me a job with Lance. I know he was doing it because he wants what’s best for me, but I wonder if he would have had he known what was going to happen.
It took him a long time to get over being angry with Lance after he saw how upset I was that day at the house, and even longer to go back into business with him. Luckily, Lance was happy to wait for my dad to be ready. And once he was, Lance proposed.
Of course I said yes. After he showed me the ridiculously absurd e-mail chain between him and Danielle, from the beginning of the joke to the final message that almost broke up our relationship, I realized I really had nothing to be mad at him about. In fact, I was mad at myself for overreacting. If I had just asked him about it and been open to listening, I could have spared us that overly-dramatic chase scene through the woods.
But then again, we wouldn’t have that awesome memory of our overly-dramatic chase scene through the woods to look back on and joke about now.
I took Lance up on his offer of course and brought him in for 20 percent of my company in exchange for him taking care of the one-year lease and a substantial cash investment to get things up and running. I worked hard, hired two employees, and within four months, had a working manufacturing chain churning out lemon drops 12 hours a day.
It was incredible.
People started ordering them from all over New England. Every store in New Hampshire wanted them, and we started shipping up to Maine and down to Boston, even hiring our own vans to make deliveries. Lance offered to give us a distribution deal through Frost Sweets, but I told him no. I wanted to do this on my own, and he understood completely.
But now, three and a half years later, Have Faith is a success. And beyond that, my life is a dream.
“Momma!” The sound of my son’s voice behind me makes my heart melt, and I turn around to see Lance walking in, little Tyson in his arms.
“Hey, honey!” I scoop my son up and nuzzle my nose into his neck, making silly snorting sounds that always make him laugh. Lance wraps me up in a strong arm and pulls me close.
“He’s been dying to see you all day,” he chuckles. “I told him Mommy was very busy and he’d have to wait, but you know how he can be.”
“Oh, do I ever.” I smile, kissing him all over. So I’m a bit of a smothering mother right now. Sue me, okay?
Tyson has his father’s face but my eyes. He’s going to grow up to be a definite heart-breaker, but I do my best not to think about that now. Right now he’s just my brand new little man whose giggle makes my heart melt.
“Come on,” Lance whispers in my ear as he squeezes my ass. “Daddy’s been missing Mommy too.”
I glance up at him, my eyes hooded with instant desire. “There’s still so much work to do—”
“Aye, boys?!” Lance barks. “Can you guys handle the rest of the shipment if I steal this woman from you?”
“It’ll be triple overtime!” Ryan says with a chuckle. Lance gives him a mocking thumbs-up.
“Check’s in the mail!” He pulls me towards the door. “See? They’ve got it. Don’t worry, boss. You can take some time off.”
I know he’s right, so I do my best to relax as we walk out to the car. As we drive home, I try to figure out just how I managed to get so lucky. An amazing husband, a beautiful baby boy, a company of my own…
…oh, and an incredible sex life. Did I mention that?
Lance and I turned out to be beyond sexually compatible. We’re basically addicted to each other and have been since he took me home after the bridge collapsed that day. Having Tyson put a bit of a damper on things, of course, so we got creative. Instead of having sex twice a day for a really long time, and me passing out completely afterwards, we started having three or four quickies, which meant I was just constantly horny all day and wanting him even more. I guess it’s like snacking all day instead of having one or two big meals.
But either way is fine by me.
We get home, and of course Tyson goes right to sleep. He’s always his most energetic right before bed, and seeing me was enough excitement to finish him off. I close his bedroom door and turn right into my husband’s arms. He pulls me close, and I can already feel the bulge.
“Mmmm, is that a present for me?” I ask, undoing his top button.
“Sure is.” He smiles. “And totally unwrapped.”
“Just the way I like it.”
Like a mountain man, Lance lifts me up and throws me over his shoulder and carries me down the hall to our bedroom. He lays me down beneath him, and with a quick motion, pulls my pants down to my ankles. His eyes flash.
“No panties…”
I writhe beneath him as he pulls my shirt up over my breasts. “Well, I was hoping you’d come visit me at work today, Daddy.”
“Fuck, you don’t know how badly I wanted to,” he growls. “But between work and Tyson—”
“It’s okay, Daddy,” I whisper. “I know you’ll make it up to me. Won’t you?”
“You’re goddamn right I will,” Lance purrs as he spreads my legs. His cock is already hard, and my body is already ready. I open my mouth as he smothers my lips with his kiss. Our need for each other melts together, and my love for him flares as he enters me. He commands me with every stroke, pumping in and out of me, his strong hips pressing against mine as he makes sure I know who I belong to.
Him. Lance Frost.
My husband and love.
The End
The Warming Up to Love authors have teamed up to bring you nine new romances guaranteed to chase away the winter chill. We hope you have a wonderful holiday season filled with joy, love, and hot book boyfriends & get ready to be warmed up to love!
Check out all the Warming Up to Love books below!
Snowy Kisses by Elisa Leigh
Winter Kisses by Flora Ferrari
Unwrapped Kisses by Jenna Rose
Warm Kisses by Loni Ree
Naughty Kisses by Mayra Statham
Sugar Kisses by Megan Wade
Christmas Kisses by Mila Crawford & Aria Cole
Holly Kisses by Penelope Wylde
Mistletoe Kisses by Shaw Hart
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HER RUTHLESS PROTECTOR SAMPLE
AUTHOR’S NOTE
There’s no question - this book is a DARK, BULLY romance.
It’s over-the-top, contains some very dark scenes that may trigger some readers. If you think that this book may not be a good fit for you, please stop reading now.
I know why Baron and Pixie do the things they do and want the things that they want, but there are some boundaries being pushed here that might not work for everyone.
I love their story and loved writing this, so I really hope you enjoy it too. But don’t say I didn’t warn you :)
PIXIE.
IT CAN BE tough living at home, especially when you’re 18. But it can be even tougher when your mom remarries the biggest bully in the world.
Baron, my stepdad, is a cold, ruthless billionaire, known for his take-no-prisoners approach to business. He gobbles up his competitors and spits them out again. I knew from the minute we moved in with him in his big, modern, lavish home that he didn’t like me, and what happened yesterday just confirmed it.
He’s snapped at me before – mostly because he doesn’t like my fashion sense. Talk about a controlling man. What kind of stepdad has the balls to tell his stepdaughter that what she’s wearing is inappropriate around the house? So what if I want to wear short-shorts? It’s not like anyone can see me.
I’m not proud of it, but his comments made me want to wear those things even more. So I did.
I started buying shorter and shorter shorts just to spite him, and seeing the look on his face when I’d come downstairs in them was priceless. I loved seeing how mad it made him. How dare I stand up to the king, right? He may be my mom’s husband, but he’s not my dad, and I’m not about to get on my knees for him and do what he tells me.
I kept pushing it until finally he took me aside when my mom wasn’t home and screamed at me. It was strange; he couldn’t even look at me as he did. He told me the next time I defied him I would be “severely punished.”
I figured he was just trying to scare me, so I went ahead and pushed it even further. But I was wrong.
I ruined his meeting with a Christian bakery by walking through his conference room in a pair of shorts that were basically underwear, and a tank top that showed so much side-boob it might as well have been my whole boob. So what did Stepdad do?
He spanked me.
Yeah. Like a little girl. After they left, he literally came and found me in my room, grabbed me by the arm, put me over his knee and spanked me. Hard.
I tried to cry out, but it was no use. He put a hand over my mouth and held me down. I was powerless. It was the most humiliated I’d ever been in my life, and my butt is still sore. Baron told me I was a bad girl and that I was his stepdad and he had complete and total authority over me. He told me he wouldn’t stand for my “daddy issues” and that I should stop prancing around the house “teasing” him.
Imagine that? Teasing him? The man who has sex with my mother? Talk about gross. I guess he thinks that just because he’s six-foot-four and has the body of a gladiator and all the women in the world want him, that I do too.
“You’re dressed like a fucking slut!” he told me. “But I’m not about to let you turn into one.”
He took my phone from me so I couldn’t “text boys” or “post thirst trap pics” on Instagram. I tried to get my mom to back me up, but she buckled as she usually does. There’s no question that she’s with him for his money. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s got a side guy; she’s al
ways texting on her phone when Baron isn’t around.
Since he spanked me, my rebelliousness has soared to an all-time high. I’m doing things I don’t even know if I want to do just to upset him. Like meeting up with Harry tonight.
Harry is the captain of the hockey team at my school. He’s super popular, a total Chad, and usually dates girls who look like they’re going to become the head of their sorority when they head off to college next year. So when he messaged me and asked me to “hang out” and check out his new car, I knew what he was up to, but I said yes anyway. Just to spite my stepdad.
I should be able to do what I want. Is that too much to ask? Maybe it’s not the expected thing for a girl my age to do, but I’m standing up for myself. Just because Baron is able to boss my mom around doesn’t mean he gets to do it to me too. What kind of guy in his 30s tries to control what a girl can wear?
Baron may have taken my phone, but he didn’t take my laptop. I see Harry has sent me a message and quickly check it.
Hey. I’ll be outside in five.
I send a quick reply and finish getting ready. My hair is teased to look like I just had sex – being a virgin I don’t really know what that would look like, so I just am sort of winging it – and I’m wearing a skimpy pair of shorts and a cropped T-shirt that shows underboob if I stretch my arms too high. Baron is at the office still, and if I’m being honest with myself, I kind of wish he wasn’t, just so I could walk downstairs and pass him and see how pissed he gets.
I pass my mom’s bedroom on the way out. She’s on her iPad as usual and doesn’t even give me a glance as I head downstairs. I could be running a meth lab with Walt and Jessie out of the basement and she wouldn’t even notice. I know people like to talk about absent fathers, but if there’s a female equivalent, it would be my mom. I’ve been practically raising myself for as long as I can remember.
It’s a chilly evening, and the clouds are dark and murky in the deep, violet sky. A parka would be more appropriate than what I’m wearing now, and I can’t help but smile when I think about what Baron’s reaction would be if he saw me skipping down the driveway right now with half my butt hanging out.