by Preston, LM
Thundering Love (Book 2 in the LUV series) © 2013 LM Preston
All rights reserved
Phenomenal One Press
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. For information visit Phenomenal One Press.
ebook: ISBN: 978-0-9850251-6-8
Summary: Jewel has always been able to get the guy she wanted. The starting jock on the football team, the team captain on the basketball team, and the lead swimmer on the swim team. Problem is, she didn't find them the least bit exciting. Was she cold or a she-wolf for guys? Colin thought so, and he'd do anything to bring her down a peg or two. When these two collide on the sandy beach during their mixed up summer vacation, sparks fly, making this a summer neither will forget.
Cover illustration by Emma Micheals
Interior design by Novel Ninjutsu
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, IndieUnbound
Young Adult:
The Pack by LM Preston– Teen, blind, vigilante on a mission to save the missing kids on mars. Shamira is considered an outcast by most, but little do they know that she is on a mission. Kids on Mars are disappearing, but Shamira decides to use the criminals most unlikely weapons against them the very kids of which they have captured. In order to succeed, she is forced to trust another, something she is afraid to do. However, Valens, her connection to the underworld of her enemy, proves to be a useful ally. Time is slipping, and so is her control on the power that resides within her. But in order to save her brother's life, she is willing to risk it all.
The Pack – Retribution (book 2) - Revenge doesn't have a name, but has chosen a victim - Shamira. But she's never been the type to lie down and let someone hurt her family or her friends. In order to find the mastermind behind the threat to all she cares about, she must give up the one person who's found his way into her guarded heart, Valens.
Valens refuses to back off easily, and neither will Shamira's friends. They join forces with her in order to deal with a new enemy who seeks to kill everyone in Shamira's life that dared save the missing kids on Mars.
Bandits by LM Preston - Daniel's father has gotten himself killed and left another mess for Daniel to clean up. To save his world from destruction, he must fight off his father's killers while discovering a way to save his world. He wants to go it alone, but his cousin and his best friend's sister, Jade, insist on tagging along. Jade is off limits to him, but she is determined to change his mind. He hasn't decided if loving her is worth the beating he'll get from her brother in order to have her. Retrieving the treasure is his only choice. But in order to get it, Daniel must choose to either walk in his father's footsteps or to re-invent himself into the one to save his world.
Flutter Of Luv by LM Preston - Dawn, the neighborhood tomboy, is happy to be her best friend’s shadow. Acceptance comes from playing football after school with the guys on the block while hiding safely behind her glasses, braces, and boyish ways. But Tony moves in, becomes the star Running Back on her school’s football team, and changes her world and her view of herself forever.
Jewel sighed, giving her phone the stink eye as it rang for the tenth time in the last hour. She kicked the cellphone off the beach chair and bit her nail.
The sea. The beautiful sea in front of Jewel couldn’t evoke any depth or feeling within her heart. Maybe what they called her at school was true. Ice Princess, cold-blooded and frozen faker. She fought against tearing up at all the things she knew to be true. She couldn’t feel, couldn’t love, was only a pretty face with nothing in between. The large beach home that shared a wraparound deck and a middle wall with a neighbor had seen better days. It was perfect, a temporary escape from all the drama at home. And she needed an escape, more than anyone knew.
“You should just answer the thing. Stop stringing him along,” her cousin Megs teased, and tapped Jewel’s dark tan leg with her pale foot.
“Easy for you to say. You don’t have a boyfriend who’s scrumptious, head of the football team, and everything a girl should want. But he doesn’t ‘do’ it for you.” Jewel rolled her eyes and huffed, plopping back in her beach chair. She tied her dirty-blonde hair up into a knot. Her curly bang’s pale highlights clashed to her darker hued skin tone which made most people wonder if she’d dyed her hair.
“Nobody ever does it for you.” Megs burst out laughing. “What is he, like boyfriend number five this year? And girl, you’ve been known to make the big guys cry. What do you do with them?” Megs’ platinum blond hair appeared to glow in the sun.
Jewel wrinkled her nose at Megs when Amy, her best-friend, came onto the deck of the beach house. This getaway home was an Aunt of Amy’s. Luckily for them, the lady mentioned she would be scarce this summer, but promised to drop in and check on them from time to time. Amy’s dark skin and light brown eyes were accented by her bright orange bikini and she put her hand on her hip, with a smirk and a shake of her head.
Amy sat on the chair next to Megs and joined in laughing. “She’s right. Didn’t you make the star player on the basketball team cry and actually lose a game because you dumped him only minutes before the start? I mean, to do it by text to me is plain skeezy.”
Jewel slid on her shades. “I didn’t want to do it in person.” She shrugged trying to appear nonchalant, but a shiver trickled through her. “None of those jocks are what they seem when they are winning a game or smiling the first time they met me. I did them a favor. I couldn’t give them what they wanted.” Her friends giggled louder. “Oh, you don’t know how bad that actually makes me feel.” They snickered and she groaned, “Shut up! I’m—” The phone rang again.
She put a finger to her lips, lifted her shades and glared to her friends. With an exhale, she grabbed the phone and answered it. “Hey Matt?” Jewel didn’t need to check the number; she’d known it was him. His ringtone had the school song, his favorite that he sang off-key to her every time he got on a roll bragging about himself.
Matt’s deep voice came through, “Hey babe, why aren’t you answering my calls?”
Jewel pictured Matt, muscular frame, thick shoulders, all the makings of a star quarterback, topped with curly red hair. Crap, he was gorgeous. What was she thinking? Maybe she shouldn’t break up with him.
“Uh…” Jewel took several deep breaths.
“You’re scaring me. Talk to me, you know I love you like crazy. When you don’t answer my calls I’m thinking you don’t love me anymore.” He sounded almost whiny. “You didn’t even answer the door when I came to your house to say goodbye.”
She hated when they did that. Whined, cried, and made her feel like a she-witch.
“Well I’ve been busy. You know, with the girls. We got here today. And since you know I’ll be gone all summer maybe we should um, take a break?” Jewel swallowed the lump in her throat, feeling like scum. She should really be a pro at this, but she hated it, especially doing it where she had to hear or see her next victim. And she didn’t want to hurt them; she knew they’d be better off with someone who could really fall in love with them. Not someone like her, someone broken. Some of the guys she’d broken up with would cry, others had tried to physically hurt her. She’d learned her lesson and tried to break up with them from a distance – a great distance. But ending this with Matt now on the phone couldn’t be helped.
“No. I don’t want a vacation from you. I love you. I was thinking about driving up there today. Me and the guys could rent a place nearby. My dad said he’d foot the bill. Since my parents split, he’ll do anything for me. He even brought me a new convertible, your sexy gold hair would feel good slapping agains
t my face while I drive,” he chuckled. “And you’ll be able to ditch your cousin and stay with me—alone.”
Jewel slapped her forehead. Why couldn’t Matt take a hint? “But I—no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. My mom barely let me come with Megs and Amy because she’s so protective. If she knew I was meeting my boyfriend here she’d think you…ah, I were, you know…” Jewel put her hand over her beating heart. Not only that, but being alone with Matt made her feel extremely uncomfortable. The last time they were alone at her house, he popped over unannounced. Matt had almost ripped off her shirt while they kissed in her living room. He’d tried to force her blouse up, but she fought him to put it down. If Megs hadn’t stopped by earlier than planned, Jewel didn’t know what would’ve happened.
“Say it? C’mon tell me you love me back. I kinda feel like— Jewel, I really miss you. And you never tell me you love me back. You never seem to give me part of yourself. I want that. I want you, to be closer to you than anyone else. So say it. Say it and mean it.” Matt cleared his voice, like he was about to continue.
“I can’t. It’s because. W-well, I don’t. Matt, I’m not in love with you the way you want me to be. And I’m sorry, I really am, but we need to break up. I can’t do this to you anymore.” Jewel felt like a lowlife. Again and again, she couldn’t give up hope that she’d find someone, somebody out there that her heart connected too. She’d thought it was Matt, felt a little flutter in her tummy when they first met, but it died the next day, and by then he’d pressured her to be his girlfriend. And after that, he, like all her other ex-boyfriends, turned scary.
Matt was silent a bit longer. A low growl rumbled from him. “I’m not surprised. All the guys said you were a screwed-up a tease. They were right. You’re a cold hearted bitc—”
Jewel hung up. Then she threw the phone off the deck and into the sand. The relationship ended badly, all of them did. At least she didn’t have to hide from him at school like she did from most of her ex-creepy boyfriends.
“Uhum, I guess he didn’t take that well,” Amy said in her baby doll voice. “Maybe you should’ve text or tweeted the message like you did with the others. Oh, or do a break up song cheer like you did to the guy last year. That was beautiful! I heard about it at my school and watched the YouTube video. Girl, that video went viral at my school.”
Megs piped in, “No, I think the chocolate and marshmallow messaged ‘You are ditched’ she did on the swim team ex was the best, o-oh t-that was,” Megs hiccupped between giggles.
Jewel put her hand to her forehead. “Thanks a lot for your ‘after curse out’ advice. I knew he would take it bad. That’s why I hate doing it in person. It always is the same. First they say they love you, then when you don’t love them back, they get mean or hateful, which makes me wonder if they loved me or were saying it to get in my bikini bottoms.” Jewel didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. She was relieved that Matt was behind her but she still felt like she was on an island alone within herself. And to be honest, she wouldn’t want to be caught alone with any of her past boyfriends with only a bikini between them. Each and every one of them had been aggressive whenever they made out. She wondered if the deep, late night conversations her ex-boyfriends had done to attempt to show her how sensitive they were was a bunch of snot they read out of some guy magazine.
“I never have that problem. I’m usually the one getting dumped.” Amy snorted. “Oh, and guys are such wimps, they don’t even tell you it’s over. You see them with a new girl at school that they’re kissing up to. Maybe I need to stop being so patient with them. Most of them I should’ve dropped after the first date.”
Megs flipped over onto her stomach. “I’ve had it both ways, and when I break up with a guy, I avoid, go ghost, which is easy when you don’t date guys at your own school.” She picked up a spray bottle of water and squirted Jewel. “Why are you even out here? You don’t need to tan with that complexion. I wish I’d gotten your father’s genes.”
Jewel smirked. “No you don’t. Since he’s got a new wife, his genes are always out of the country.” Her heart sank thinking about her dad, and the half laugh she waved to Meg didn’t even come out right. She sounded like a wounded dog instead of the snarky comeback.
Amy came closer. “When was the last time you visited him?”
Jewel shrugged, blinking back stupid tears she refused to waste on the one guy she did love. “Three years ago, give or take. Who cares? Who’s counting? I don’t like his new wife and she doesn’t like me either. So what? He can have her.” Fighting hard against feeling sorry for herself, she locked her jaw and smiled to show how unaffected she was by her dad’s snub.
Her father’s dark brown eyes, thick hair and smooth chocolate skin were distant memories now; he never even sent Jewel pictures. She was ashamed that she’d searched his name on the internet, printed his pictures out, and put them in frames to make her friends think she had a good close relationship with him. She was such a phony.
Megs frowned, tapping her finger on her chin. “Your step-mom is a model or something, right? And he’s like some big time Vice President at a company in Europe.” Megs got all dreamy eyed. “Paris, I hope I can go there with you to visit him someday.”
Jewel started to grin. Her cousin always helped her get back in a good mood. “Yeah, when Richard, aka, Daddy asks me to visit, I’ll take you. It’ll be fun.” But Jewel knew he never would. His new wife and he didn’t have kids together. Sasha didn’t want crumb-snatchers, and it seemed that now her father was devoted to his new wife, he didn’t want kids—his Jewel—anymore.
“So, when’s your mom getting married?” Amy asked, beaming. “She always has the best weddings. You will invite me, right?”
Jewel closed her eyes behind her shades. “If you want to come. I mean like this is the fourth one, and they don’t last long. I don’t even want to go.” Truth was, she didn’t even know her mom’s latest fiancé very well. She’d stop being nice to her mother’s new boyfriends turned husbands after fiancé number two. What was the point? Her mom would divorce them before the end of the year anyway.
“I mean, how does she do it? Most ladies can’t even find one guy to marry them – my mom is still ‘dating’ my dad and can’t get him to commit. But your mom—” Amy inhaled loudly—“she’s like…hmm, like a husband whisperer or something.” Amy laughed.
Jewel lifted her shades to peek out at Amy. “So, are you saying guys and dogs are the same?” She jumped up and plopped down on Amy’s butt to tickle Amy’s feet. “You calling my mom a dog trainer?” she giggled.
Whack! The volleyball hit Jewel on the forehead with such force she fell backwards. Jewel’s foot hit’s Meg’s drink and red juice splattered all over her white bikini. Amy’s butt went upward to knock Jewel onto the hard deck. Falling back, Jewel’s head hit the wood floor, knocking her shades off.
Jewel tried to catch her breath. Pain and anger became one as she blinked against the glare of the sun. Her eyes met the dark brown ones of a laughing boy standing above her. A gorgeous guy, but who cared, he’d hit her so hard with his stupid ball, she was seeing stars.
“You! You! Stupid, don’t you know how to hit a ball?” Jewel struggled to get up, and pushed the boy’s tanned hand away. His unruly long black hair, dark eyes, and full lips cocked up in a smirk made her angrier.
“I’m trying to help you.” His baritone voice sounded like he was fighting against laughter, and he grasped her hand. His firm muscular shaped arm flexed as he bent to help her.
Jewel slapped it away. “I don’t want your help. You ruined my bathing suit and,” she touched her forehead where a small lump was forming, “put a knot on my head!” She pushed at him and stood up, grabbing the volleyball off the ground. His yummy face taunted her when his eyebrow went up, questioning her motive. Jewel aimed the ball at his head and missed.
He ducked. “What was that for?” His laughing eyes turned stormy.
Waving her hand at him, she stepped forward.
“Idiots who hit girls with their…” Jewel slipped back, and tried to get her balance, but the last thing she remembered was him smirking at her as her head hit the floor again.
Colin couldn’t believe he was carrying the infamous Jewel Depree. The self-identified diva didn’t even recognize him. Why wasn’t he surprised? She never noticed him at school, not even when he was standing behind her ex-boyfriend, his cousin, Tank. His cousin was the Lacrosse face-off champ at the school, and Jewel’s 10th grade conquest. Tank got kicked to the curb and dumped after three months of them dating. Truth was, after Colin witnessed the shame and horror of her last few breakups, he considered Tank got off easy.
“Ouch,” Jewel murmured. She winced in his arms, and still was unconscious. Her gold unruly wavy hair was soft against his arms. Her complexion was several shades deeper than his and from what he knew about her, she didn’t get it from a tan. Jewel’s skin appeared sun kissed all year around. And the scent, he tried not to inhale but the distinct smell of peaches and cream tickled his nose. He closed his eyes against the tightening in his chest, then breathed in the fragrance of her once more.
“Which way to her room?” Colin asked Amy, whose face was flushed with concern. Typically the type of girl he liked to date, with a light voice and gentle nature. Nothing like the Jewel in his arms. But there was no one like Jewel, was there?
“Uh, right here. You think she’ll be okay?” Amy smiled shyly at him.
He didn’t spare Amy a glance as he laid Jewel on the double-sized bed in the Island decorated room. Colin barely had a time to study the place before Jewel started wrestling back and forth on the bed. Her face appeared almost angelic, but Colin knew from experience she was a witch. A stuck-up cheerleader who threw her ‘sugary’ hellos around like she was trying to win some Miss Congeniality prize of the year. Being beautiful, snobby and talented wasn’t enough; the girl was the top of her class in everything. He’d occasionally observed Jewel and her cheerleading entourage in school as she sang the latest top-listed radio songs and got her friends to join in as they prepared for their practice.