Every Night Without You: Caine & Addison, Book Two of Two (Unfinished Love series, 2)
Page 1
Every Night Without You
Caine & Addison, Book 2 of 2
Violet Duke
Unfinished Love Series
Contents
Title Page
Copyright © 2017 Violet Duke
Praise for Violet Duke
Also by Violet Duke
Book Description
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
Epilogue
Before That Promise
Caine & Addison, Book 1
The UNFINISHED LOVE Series
Also by Violet Duke
About the Author
The UNFINISHED LOVE Series
EVERY NIGHT WITHOUT YOU
CAINE & ADDISON
(BOOK 2 OF 2)
~
VIOLET DUKE
Copyright © 2017 Violet Duke
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, this book and any portion thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, transferred, or distributed in any print or electronic form without the express written permission of the author. Participation in any aspect of piracy of copyrighted materials, inclusive of the obtainment of this book through non-retail or other unauthorized means, is in actionable violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, media, brands, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and registered trademark owners of all branded names referenced without TM, SM, or (R) symbols due to formatting constraints, and is not claiming ownership of or collaboration with said trademark brands.
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-941198-70-4
PRAISE FOR VIOLET DUKE
“A fast-paced, heartfelt, and fun read!" -- New York Times Bestselling Author Lauren Blakely
"A unique series that will take you on a roller coaster of emotions. I couldn't put these books down!" -- New York Times Bestselling Author Carly Phillips
" Sexy, heart-melting and guaranteed to make you laugh and cry, Violet Duke writes the loveliest romances ever.” -- New York Times Bestselling Author Sawyer Bennett
"Violet Duke made me laugh and cry in this incredible romance. One of the best I've read this year. Emotionally charged with wonderful characters, I couldn't stop reading!" -- New York Times Bestselling Author J.S. Scott
"A new must-read series. Not only will you fall in love with the characters, you'll fall in love with romance." -- New York Times Bestselling Author Kathleen Brooks
"A contemporary romance star! Violet Duke is a must-read for guaranteed feel-good, heart-tripping romance with true heroes, sassy heroines and delicious happily-ever-afters.” -- New York Times Bestselling Author Erin Nicholas
“Refreshing, clever, and original, Jackson’s Trust is a beautiful five-star read!” -- New York Times Bestselling Author S. L. Scott
“For the love of football, Violet Duke has scored with this book. Jackson and Leila are a couple you don’t want to miss.” -- New York Times Bestselling Author Heidi McLaughlin
“Emotional, heart-wrenching, and oh-so-sweet!” -- New York Times Bestselling Author L.P. Dover
“A delightfully fresh read . . . Violet Duke delivers it all in Jackson’s Trust!” -- New York Times Bestselling Author Jen McLaughlin
"From the giant men getting schooled to the happily ever after, I was enthralled! Violet Duke has a touchdown with Jackson's Trust!" -- New York Times Bestselling Author Melody Anne
“Violet Duke’s writing just jumps off the page and grabs you from the first sentence.” -- New York Times Bestselling Author Bella Andre
“Hot, sweet, and filled with tender moments, Violet Duke writes heroes who make me swoon!” -- New York Times Bestselling Author Kendall Ryan
ALSO BY VIOLET DUKE
The CAN’T RESIST Series
The acclaimed New York Times bestselling series, an emotional, heartfelt Top 10 Bestseller both in the U.S. and internationally.
Resisting the Bad Boy *
Falling for the Good Guy *
Choosing the Right man *
Finding the Right Girl
*Serial trilogy, also available in the NICE GIRL box set
The CACTUS CREEK Series
The laugh and cry USA Today bestselling small town series with strong heroines, romantic heroes, a quirky supporting cast, and inter-series cameos galore.
Love, Chocolate, and Beer
Love, Diamonds, and Spades
Love, Tussles, and Takedowns
Love, Exes, and Ohs
Love, Sidelines, and Endzones
The FOURTH DOWN Series
The fun and sexy USA Today bestselling sports romance series starring three sweet and incorrigibly alpha heroes, from Random House Books.
Jackson’s Trust
Bennett’s Chance
Donovan’s Heart
The UNFINISHED LOVE Series
Four brothers, each fighting for their second first chance at love. Years be damned.
Before that Night (Caine & Addison, Bk 1)
Every Night Without You (Caine & Addison, Bk 2)
Before that Promise (Drew & Skylar, Bk 1)
Every Promise Unspoken (Drew & Skylar, Bk 2)
Before that Kiss (Gabe & Hannah, Bk 1)
Every Kiss Goodbye (Gabe & Hannah, Bk 2)
Before that Chance (Max & Kennedy, Bk 1)
Every Chance We Lost (Max & Kennedy, Bk 2)
The JUNIPER HILLS Series
An emotional new series from Montlake Romance
All There Is (Coming June 2017)
Dedication
For the people who continue to inspire me to believe in the unbelievable, to hope beyond hope, and to love and trust in the face of pain and doubt. You’re the reason I’m not just able to look forward to the future, but also find the strength to look back at the past.
And to Malia.
You will forever be loved.
EVERY NIGHT WITHOUT YOU
(Unfinished Love: Caine & Addison, Book 2 of 2)
Seven years.
Seven damn years of wondering whether the woman was still alive...whether she'd spent the last two thousand five hundred fifty-five days wondering if he was still alive.
Wondering whether that night was as burned into her memory as it was his.
Seven years having his heart tethered to Addison―and now she's back. With even more reasons to run than she'd had then.
Only this time, Caine isn't letting the gorgeous little flight risk out of his sight.
Regardless of how noble her reasons may be.
“Violet Duke is my go-to read when I just want to immerse myself in a captivating romance.” – NYT bestselling author J.S. Cooper
EVERY NIGHT WITHOUT YOU (Bk 2 of 2) takes place seven years after BEFORE THAT NIGHT (Bk 1 of 2), and is
the conclusion of Caine & Addison's story of love, sacrifice, and the lengths one will run―and chase―when their past threatens their future.
Note: Each of the 4 couples in the Unfinished Love series have 2 books (duets) w/ separate storylines that take place years apart.
Chapter One
Tucson, Arizona -- Seven Years Ago
It was days like this Addison really missed having the minivan to get around.
Now I get why these sunglasses were so cheap.
Sighing, she pocketed the bargain bin aviator shades now heat-deformed simply from sitting atop her head for the last half hour, and scolded herself for not knowing better. Of course the universe would go and melt the pair of sunglasses she’d impulse-bought because they’d reminded her of the ones Caine used to wear. There appeared to be a zero tolerance, zero subtlety policy up there in the cosmos when it came to Addison so much as thinking about the man—that fun factoid was made painfully obvious from the very first week she’d moved out here.
It was bad enough she’d sustained minor pedestrian whiplash that day from the heart-seizing mirage of a Caine doppelganger across the street from her. The somewhat less minor mortification she experienced by then walking face-first into a wall as a result was just plain mean. Especially when it turned out the wall wasn’t a wall at all, but rather, a brick-like bear of a man.
And not just any man. Nooo. That’d be too random. The wall-like bear-man ended up being—of course—a cop.
Named Officer Payne.
Bonus efficiency and artistry points for the name rhyme and double meaning in one.
In the months since, with similar cosmic love notes arriving whenever she let her guard down, it wasn’t any surprise she never risked wearing the old Arizona Law Enforcement Academy t-shirt she’d once borrowed from Caine to sleep in—the comfy, guy-smelling one that had sprouted feet and hopped into her duffel bag the day she and the kids had left his apartment for good.
Knowing her luck, something like a vat of maple syrup would leap at her and ruin the one thing she had of Caine’s that accomplished the feat of almost putting her back in his arms again.
God, she missed him.
Don’t do this. Not today.
With a determined headshake, Addison looked for a temporary reprieve from the broiling summer sun to get her bearings. A cluster of trees nearby offered a sparse bit of shade that barely covered half her body, but still, she exhaled with relief as she dropped the heavy bags of groceries that had lined both her forearms for the past few blocks, making sure to balance the bag with the gallon of milk and other dairy products on top of her feet. Mostly to keep the perishables away from the griddle-like ground, but also partly to cool off the tops of her baked feet now sporting a lovely flip-flops tan.
She closed her eyes for a few blissful seconds, knowing she couldn’t stay there for long. Not with tiny streams of liquid running down the backs of her legs creating a puddle at her feet, thanks to the now thawed Ziploc bags of ice she’d loaded her backpack with to keep the two cartons of ice cream she’d bought for the kids cold during the half-hour trek back home.
Frankly, she was a little surprised the universe hadn’t already sent good ole Officer Payne over to give her a ticket for public peeing or something equally humiliating. Seemed like a missed opportunity to mess with her there.
But then again, the all-knowing powers probably figured, why bother, seeing as how very little could get her down today.
Because today, we ice cream.
Royal trumpets resounded in her head as she verbicized the dessert with as much ceremony as she imagined there was in a knighting—a fitting opening celebration for the big night she had planned. Just thinking about Kylie and Tanner making their first-ever homemade sundaes, with the scooper she’d splurged on that had those slick mechanical thumb crank doodads, was the reminder she needed that today, it wasn’t the journey that mattered. It was the destination. Their very own apartment, to be exact. Finally.
In the three and a half months since they’d left Creek Hills, she and her two incredible, roll-with-the-punches little travelmates had had their fair share of nomadic adventures. From the college student studio sublet hiding the non-landlord-approved waterbed patched with more duct tape than anything else, to the housesitting stint in the cram-packed bunker-like barn for the doomsday prepper/hoarder married to the happily enabling extreme couponer, they’d seen it all.
It all started with the closet-like private bedroom—one of twelve—in a house just outside the city. Addison spent her days helping a quirky old antique picker rummage through dusty warehouses and abandoned lots for fifty bucks a day while Kylie and Tanner hung out with a couple of their eclectic housemates who were on a mission to invent the next great kitchen gadget.
From there, she moved on to her next job shoving take-out menus under the doors of every light-on-security lodging in a fifty-block radius of the pizza shop who paid her in cash, pizza, and pasta. Her second day working, she overheard some hotel guests raving about the dirt-cheap discounted rate they got, which led to her researching and finding other places with similar deals. And so began the stretch of back-to-back weeks she’d been able to give her little brother and sister an actual summer vacation of sorts where they got to stay in some pretty nice rooms with awesome pools for the kids. Only in three-day midweek stints between weekends spent in cramped budget quarters, yes, but the sweet kids never complained. In fact, they had so much fun during each mini-vacation, Addison readily pardoned the universe for the ‘wardrobe malfunction’ she later had in one of those very pools.
A freak filtration system accident, the goggly-eyed hotel maintenance guys had called it.
Sure. An accident. Completely unrelated to the mental tennis match she’d been having at the time regarding the pros and cons of maybe creating a onetime use email account to send a photo of Kylie and Tanner to Caine so he could see they were safe.
Her having to consequently get cut out of her one-piece bathing suit with the big bow in front after it got sucked into the pool filter was a pretty definitive cosmic answer on that topic.
At least the hotel had credited them two free nights for her little peepshow.
Eventually, when their streak of both lucky and unlucky hotel deals ran out, Addison turned to the bulletin board at a local co-op market. She quickly found them an extremely open-concept basement apartment (aka a big unfinished room with curtains for walls and a tiny bathroom also doubling as the ‘kitchen’) where she and the kids slept on different thirds of a U-shaped sectional couch in exchange for a few hours a day helping the owners build a garden out back.
The elderly couple who owned that last place had actually been a blast to live with, and kind enough to put in a good word for them with a close friend who managed a building that had a vacancy for an affordable furnished unit. So even though Addison had no long-term employment prospects for the time being, or any official I.D. to speak of, or reasons she was willing to discuss concerning why she had two kids living with her at her age, the couple’s glowing referral had been enough to secure her a six-month rental contract.
Suffice it to say, she’d been a covertly weepy mess after she got the keys this morning.
She did manage to keep it together around the kids during the entire hour it took them to unpack—one benefit of the homeless and nomadic lifestyles—only to slingshot back to getting teary-eyed over every little excited giggle from Kylie and Tanner while she helped them put sheets and pillowcases on the three twin beds that came with the unit…the first actual mattresses they’ve each ever had all to themselves.
Hence her royal decree for an ice cream hoopla in the kingdom after dinner.
Just a few more blocks to go.
Hefting the grocery bags back up, she hustled the rest of the way, all the while daydreaming about the lasagna and garlic bread she was going to make tonight after her short shift at the women’s shelter. She’d never actually baked a meal from scratch before. Cooking was differ
ent. That, she’d been doing since elementary school for her siblings—the alternative being starvation while waiting for their mom to remember to feed them or be sober enough to even get any sort of sustenance from the market. But baking? The only place they’d lived in with an oven that hadn’t been used to make drugs had been before Kylie was born.
Addison distinctly remembered having nightmares back then of her mom’s tweaked-out bed buddies mistaking Tanner, who’d been a newborn at the time, for a ham or turkey and baking him while tripping on a high. Sure, that was undoubtedly the implausible delusions of a paranoid eight-year-old sleep-deprived from singlehandedly raising her baby brother without a manual, but seeing as how she herself had been mistaken for everything from a pet goat to a glowing Martian by those crazy stoners, she hadn’t wanted to take any chances. So when everyone was passed out one night, she’d grabbed some tools and broke that oven good and proper.
From now on, at least one baked meal for the kids each week, she decided as she stifled a tiny sniffle over using her apartment key to officially ‘come home’ for the first time in years.
“I’m back!” She dropped the bags onto the kitchen counter and peered around the empty apartment.
It was quiet. Too quiet.