Risking It All
A Bad Boy Sweet Romance, Rebels of Forbidden Lake Romance Book 5
Elana Johnson
Contents
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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
Sneak Peek! MAKING A MOVE Chapter One
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Chapter One
Mia Addler let the last of the Michigan summer sun bake her, the warmth settling into her bones where she hoped it would stay through the winter. The forecast called for rain tomorrow, and that would be the beginning of the end of summer.
In some ways, she was glad. She worked hard on the family’s resort as a lifeguard, and when the lake closed, she wouldn’t have to deal with rowdy teenagers keeping families up at night, or drunk men trying to hit on her.
While flattering, Mia didn’t need a boyfriend, especially because the one she wanted, she couldn’t have.
Her father had made that much clear. Her mother, too.
She forced the image of Declan Phelps out of her mind, where it was wont to return in moments anyway. After all, he was easily the best-looking man in the country, maybe the entire world. Universe, even.
He had dark, dreamy, soulful eyes that every female on Earth had fantasized about. He could grow a beard over a weekend and show up at Mia’s to kiss her all sexy and scruffy.
Except not anymore. No more kissing Declan. No more letting Declan through the gate that led to the lane where all the Addlers lived. Nope, nope, nope.
He was too old for her. Too “worldly,” as her mother had said. Was it her fault he was an internationally renowned musician?
She almost scoffed as she lay on her towel on the beach. “And he’s a rockstar,” she muttered to herself. “Not a musician.” Though, technically, he was both. When he got asked questions about his rockstar status in interviews, he always corrected the person.
Mia smiled just thinking about those interviews. That dark hair he kept long to perpetuate his rocker persona, but secretly hated.
She hadn’t hated it. Hadn’t hated the way he pulled it back into a sexy man-bun, nor the way it slid through her fingers when she kissed him.
Enough, she told herself.
He was off-limits, and he’d left the country a month ago anyway. He hadn’t texted her. Hadn’t even fought her parents and their declaration that Declan was No Good For Mia.
Her chest felt a little hollow with that knowledge. She’d thought he liked her, but his willingness to simply leave her alone said otherwise.
She rolled over when she started to feel like the sun was crisping her skin a little too much. To her right, a group of teenagers played beach volleyball, clearly enjoying this last day of summer like everyone else.
The beach at Sunshine Shores Orchards and Resort was full today, and she supposed the fact that school started up again tomorrow after fall break played a heavy hand in that.
Then, there would be no teenagers. No families with screaming kids and crying babies. Just the miles and miles of beachfront her family owned, with the cherry orchards only a couple dozen yards from the shore.
The sweet scent of the fruit filled Mia’s nose for months, and she even went so far as to use cherry-scented lotions and body wash year-round. Yes, cherries ran in her blood, and she hadn’t been able to stand up to her parents and fight for Declan either.
She let her thoughts wander, finally deciding that she needed to get back in the dating pool. Tomorrow, she told herself. While she worked a lot at the family resort in the summer and fall, she also kept a job at the singular law office in the town of Forbidden Lake.
She did all the legal stuff for Sunshine Shores, and she consulted in town, and she did pro bono cases when they came up. Anything to keep her mind sharp, her boredom to a minimum. The two brothers she was closest to had girlfriends now, and Karly had been married for a while. Her baby was due by Christmas, and Mia couldn’t wait for another niece.
The sun continued to shine down as she dozed, the loud voices of the boys playing volleyball fading away and then coming back.
Except they weren’t the exact same voices. Sure enough, when Mia pulled herself from the edge of slumber and sat up, the group on the court had gone. Several new people had arrived, but they were much older, and they’d brought a Frisbee instead of a ball.
Mia didn’t understand Frisbees. They curved oddly in the air, and she’d never been able to throw one. So she watched as the five men threw the disc to one another, seemingly without any of the same issues she always had.
Her phone chimed, interrupting her observations of the men, and she glanced down to see her grandmother had texted. The older woman always made Mia chuckle and shake her head, because she really couldn’t seem to figure out texting. She still had the driving feature on, so every time Mia texted her while she was driving, she got an auto-response that Grams couldn’t respond.
Mia had been teaching her to use short phrases so the dinner tonight? was appropriate.
And Mia didn’t chuckle this time. She always went to the family dinner on Sunday nights. Why was Grams asking specifically if she’d be there?
Yep, she thumbed out and sent, returning her attention to the men. Maybe one of them would ask her out if she got up, went over to the water’s edge, stretched a little…. Mia wasn’t a flirt, but she knew how to flirt. How to get a man to look her way. How to let him know she was interested.
She knew how to do the opposite of those things too, and if she got unwanted attention, she could turn them away, no problem.
The red disc went flying again, and the recipient ran after it as it flew wide. He went in the lake, splashes coming up as he tried to run in water. His friends laughed, and even Mia laughed when he finally succumbed to gravity and went under.
He came up victorious with the Frisbee, a huge smile on his face. Mia got up, straightening the ties on her bikini bottoms and pretending like she was the only person at the beach that day.
She tugged her rashguard over her head so her top half was covered and headed for the water. The game of Frisbee continued several yards to her right, and it seemed like the guys were only focused on that blasted disc today.
Fine.
Mia bent down and got her hands wet, working the little bit of water through her hair. She hadn’t showered in a couple of days, and the tanning lotion and sunscreen she used had left a sticky film on her skin and scalp.
She admired the view of the lake, imagining she could see all the way across it and into Canada. As a child, she’d wondered what it would be like to get on a boat and sail across the border and into another country. Would she find what she wanted there?
Mia sighed and turned around. She didn’t know if she’d find what she wanted in Canada, because she didn’t know w
hat she wanted, period.
She’d always been driven, had gotten her law degree and gone to work. But now that she was thirty, she honestly had no idea what came next in her life. Was it simply the same thing, day after day, until she reached forty? And then what?
After returning to her staked out spot on the beach, she kept her rashguard on so she wouldn’t get sunburnt and sat on her towel. Sure, it was fall, but the sun still spit out plenty of damaging rays.
With her legs out in front of her, she braced most of her weight on her palms and leaned her face toward the sky. Maybe the wind would whisper to her what she should do with her life.
Career. Marriage. Family. She wanted it all. But how, and in what order, and with whom seemed to elude her.
“Heads!” someone yelled, and Mia snapped her eyes open. She had no time to search for the flying object before the red Frisbee landed right next to her, spraying loose sand everywhere.
Everywhere, including her hair, her eyes, down her shirt, and in her mouth.
Instant fury shot to her head, and she jumped to her feet, narrowly grabbing the disc before the jogging man arrived to get it.
“You should be more careful,” she said, slapping the toy against his chest. He simply smiled down at her, but Mia was no longer interested. They’d had their chance to approach her when she’d made her sexy walk down to the water.
He put his hand over the Frisbee to keep it against his chest and backed up a step. He looked vaguely familiar, but Mia couldn’t place how she knew him. As he continued to back away, she squinted at him as if that would help, but it didn’t.
“An apology would be nice,” she called after him and that goofy smile he hadn’t taken off his face.
“Hey, sorry about that,” another man said, coming forward and passing the first man. “Sometimes Frisbees can go astray.”
Mia could only blink at the heavenly vision coming toward her. She knew that gait. Knew that voice. Knew those straight, white teeth, and how delicious that mouth felt against hers.
“Declan,” she said, pressing one palm to her pulse as she drank in the baseball hat and sunglasses—his disguise for being out in public. “What are you doing here?” She glanced around as if her parents had security guards watching her and would swoop in, separating Mia and this drop-dead gorgeous man.
She shook her head and blinked. Maybe he was a mirage.
But he kept coming toward her, very solid and very real.
“Playing Frisbee,” he said. “I didn’t mean to spray sand everywhere.” He brushed his hand over her hair, and she almost jerked away from him so she wouldn’t know how long it had been since she’d washed it.
He was a rockstar in board shorts, everything above the waist bare. She ogled him, the glorious golden color of his skin, the fine lines of muscle along his abs and chest.
“It’s good to see you, Mia,” he said, drawing her attention to his face. Oh, that face. That strong jaw, that slow, devilish grin. It was probably a good thing she couldn’t see those eyes.
All at once, she knew him being here, on this beach, at this time, wasn’t an accident. Warmth filled her from head to toe, and she couldn’t seem to form a response.
Because he was still thirty-nine-years-old. He was still very much off-limits.
Forbidden, she thought as she continued to smile at him. Being with him would definitely make her life more interesting, and an internal war began in her brain.
Chapter Two
Declan Phelps had never had to work very hard to get a woman before. He’d researched, practiced, recorded, and re-recorded in other areas of his life, sure. He knew how to work hard—in some things.
But with women, he’d always had as many as he’d wanted.
Until Mia Addler.
She pushed buttons inside him he hadn’t known he had. Of course, no one had been pushing his anything for about five years, after the death of his sister. He’d sobered up then too, determined not to be the reason another family got a phone call in the middle of the night the way his had.
Declan had thought living the chaste life would be terrible. Boring. Uneventful. But he’d joined Bikers Against Child Abuse and actually found he had time and energy to dedicate to good things when he wasn’t plastered or high all the time.
He’d had a couple of girlfriends, but nothing lasted once they learned A) he wasn’t going to pay for everything and B) he wasn’t going to sleep with them.
But Mia Addler…. She didn’t want or need his money, and she’d pledged herself to abstinence before marriage too. She sure knew how to work a bathing suit though, and she still hadn’t said much of anything to him.
He turned and waved to his friends, who’d played their roles perfectly. He’d suspected Mia would be on the beach today, because she checked the weather like it was the stock market. With this being the last good day of weather probably this year, he’d bet correctly.
He twisted back to her, noticing how her eyes once again landed on his torso, and gently nudged her back to her towel.
“Sit back down, love,” he said, not really meaning to bring out the British accent. Or maybe he had. Whatever it would take to get Mia to talk to him again.
“But…what are you doing here?” she asked again.
“It’s the beach, Mia.” A thread of frustration pulled through him. “What do people do at the beach? What are you doing here?”
He didn’t need her to answer that question. He knew what she was doing here—perfecting her tan and driving men crazy. The same thing Mia always did at the beach, whether she was in her lifeguard chair or sprawled on a towel.
“I mean in the country,” she said. “I thought you left to visit your grandmother. Write more brilliant music.” She almost bit out the last two words, but Declan actually liked her fire.
“I’m glad you think my music is brilliant,” he said. “And I did visit my grandmother. But the English country is for eighty-year-olds.” He added a laugh. “But hey, I learned how to lawn bowl, and I’m not half-bad at it.”
“I bet you’re not,” she said, and Declan looked at her. Really looked.
With all that dark hair, she made his mouth water and his fingers twitch. Her eyes were likewise dark, but they held a light within them too that bordered a bit on green or hazel. She had miles of silky, dark skin that made her look exotic almost. So beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous, and he knew her beauty went all the way into her core.
She loved her family more than life itself, which was why he’d flown across the ocean to his grandmother’s in Sussex, a couple of hours south of London. She had one of those charming English gardens, two bulldogs, and more advice than Declan ever needed.
He loved her though, and since visiting his mother in Spring Green was akin to getting a root canal, he’d taken his half-brother across the sea to the island nation where Declan’s father was born and had been raised.
Kingston had enjoyed the trip immensely, and the boy was finally becoming a man after all this time. Eleven years younger than Declan, he’d been in the abusive home longer than Declan had, and he’d required more help to overcome it.
“What does that mean?” he asked. “That I’m not good at lawn bowling?” He tucked her hair behind her ear, earning himself a glare. He almost laughed. Almost. In his previous relationship with Mia, he would have, and then he’d have tackled her to sand and kissed her until one of the mothers on the beach came over and reprimanded them.
But this was not the same relationship he’d had with Mia, though that one had only ended five weeks ago.
“It means you’re good at everything you do,” she said with a smirk, glancing around again.
Declan wanted to argue, but he kept quiet. It wouldn’t do any good anyway. So many people thought music just wrote itself. If he had even a dime for every time someone said they’d always wanted to write a song and record it…well, he’d be richer than he was now.
The difference was, he had written his songs. He had recorded them,
and sent them out, and been rejected more times than he even knew. He’d worked tirelessly for eight long years before a producer listened to his demo and called him.
Yes, he’d only been twenty-three. Didn’t mean he’d gotten lucky or that he’d hit it big on his first try.
“I don’t think it’s wise for you to be here,” Mia said next, adjusting her sunglasses.
“Is your father on patrol?” he asked, his voice turning a little hard.
“No,” she said. Nothing else.
Declan watched the waves come in, listened to the beachy noises around him, and prepared himself to say what he’d been practicing for weeks now.
The words left him.
A blip of panic stole through him with every heartbeat. He opened his mouth, and just like at his concerts, everything he’d memorized and worked on came rushing back.
“I want a second chance,” he said. “With you. With us. I’m prepared to do whatever it takes to win over your family.” Because he knew if he couldn’t do that, he couldn’t have Mia, period.
“Declan,” she said, shaking her head. Mia could say so much in a single word, but it still annoyed him that she didn’t expound—and that she wasn’t even willing to try.
Declan laid almost all the way down, keeping himself propped up on one elbow. “You won’t even consider it?”
What would he do if she said, no, she wouldn’t even consider it?
She won’t, he promised himself for yet another time. He’d lost count of how many times he’d done that too.
“I don’t know,” she said, exhaling heavily. “I just…want to do what’s right, you know?” She looked at him and looking up at her with the sun behind her head as it was, he swore he was looking into the face of an angel.
Risking It All (Rebels 0f Forbidden Lake Book 5) Page 1