Defying Gravity: Shattered Cove Series Book 3
Page 30
“I have everything under control, Bent. Okay? I just need you to do this and not ask me any questions. Okay? I’ll owe you one.” More like a million, but who was counting?
“Okay. Fine. Anything you need.” Bently said.
“Thank you. I’ll call before bed to say goodnight to her.”
“Sounds good.” Bently ended the call.
Jasmine opened her contacts. She needed to talk to someone about this. But her best friend, Remy was married to Mikel, and she was shit at keeping secrets from him. The last thing Jasmine needed was her two over protective brothers jumping in to save her. Again. She’d caused them all enough trouble. This was her doing and she would fix this. Somehow.
She scrolled through her contacts until Emma’s name popped up, and hit call before she could back out. It rang and rang until her friend picked up.
“Jazzy! Hey Mama. I got a quick break from the studio. How are you?” Emma asked as background music filtered through.
Jasmine covered her mouth with her hand, trying to quiet the sob that surprised even her.
“Jas? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Emma asked. The noise grew quieter, as if she’d moved away.
“He’s here.” She managed.
“Who’s there?”
“Zoey’s father. He’s staying at my inn.”
Emma was silent for a few beats. “Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”
She couldn’t blame her friend for not knowing. There were several things Jasmine kept locked away in a vault of topics she wouldn’t talk about. Zoey’s biological father was one of them. She was too ashamed.
“I don’t know, honestly.” Jasmine wiped the tears from her eyes and walked out to the back deck. Salty sea air blew gently over her skin as waves crashed in the distance.
“Okay. Does he know about Zoey?”
“I don’t even think he remembers me.”
“Oh, sweetie.”
“I—I don’t know what to do.” Jasmine shook her head.
“I wish I could offer advice, but you have never said anything about this guy.”
Jasmine sighed. “I know. It’s a part of my past that I’d like to forget. I did a lot of fucked up things, and I’d just rather forget the girl I used to be.”
“I get it…So, can you explain how you made a baby with him, but he somehow can’t recognize you?” Emma asked carefully.
Flashes came back of that dark bar. Those grey eyes had burned her skin with awareness making it clear exactly what he’d wanted from her before he’d ever even offered to buy her a drink.
“He was just a guy from a bar. We never exchanged names, just…body fluids.”
“Thanks for the mental image.” Emma said and laughed. “Is he hot?”
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “On a one to ten scale, he’s an eleven.”
“Damn, girl. So, how can this god-like man not recognize you? Tell me it was something kinky like a sex party with masks.”
Jasmine laughed. Only Emma could take something like this and turn it into something to laugh about. “It was less than ten minutes in a bathroom and I never saw him again…until today.”
“Was it a good ten minutes?” Emma asked.
Jasmine blew out through her nose. “It was…okay.” Achieving orgasm with a partner was pretty rare for her. Zoey’s father hadn’t been one of those unicorn moments.
“Hot but not great in the sack. Got it. Well, we can’t all be perfect. Maybe you should try sleeping with a woman; I’ve never not had an orgasm with a woman. With guys, it’s fifty-fifty.”
“I wish I could be sexually attracted to a woman.” They seemed safer.
“Okay, so maybe this is a good thing your baby-daddy is back in your life.” Emma suggested.
Jasmine paced back and forth over the long porch. “How exactly is this good?”
“You can get to know him and see if he’s a good guy. Maybe Zoey can have her dad in her life after all.”
Jasmine stopped, a rush of dizziness spinning though her head. She sat on the ground with her head lowered to her knees. “I’m scared. What if he tries to take her from me? What if he says I’m a bad mom? What if—”
“What if he’s a great father? What if Zoey could have two parents in her life? What if he can help provide for her and take some of that stress off you?”
Jasmine blinked back more tears. She hated showing her emotions like this, but that was something else that motherhood had changed. She couldn’t hide anymore.
Emma had a point. She couldn’t let fear stand in the way of Zoey’s chances of happiness. If Atlas was a good father, and she didn’t try, then she’d be robbing Zoey of something Jasmine herself had never had but always wanted. She couldn’t hold the man’s sexual history against him. After all, she’d done the same thing—more than once.
“You’re right. I’ll get to know him. I’ll see if he’s a safe person, if he can be good for Zoey. Then, I’ll tell him.”
“I’m here for you. Whatever you need.” Emma offered.
“Thank you. I appreciate it. Can you keep this between us for now? I don’t want Remy to find out just yet. She’ll tell Mikel and then— “
“And then you’ll have two big brothers and their best friend knocking on your door getting into the middle of your business. I got you.”
Jasmine laughed. “They probably wouldn’t even knock. They’d bust the thing down.”
Emma giggled. “True. Well, I know they have your back, but I also respect your right as Zoey’s mother to do what you think is right.”
“You’re the best, Em.”
“Tell that to my step-brother the next time you see him.” Emma laughed again, but this time it sounded forced.
“I’ll tell Link next time I talk to him.” Jasmine promised, knowing it was a hopeless cause, much to her friend’s dismay.
“Okay, well, I gotta get back. Almost done with this album and then I start my tour next week,” Emma said.
“I’m so happy that your dream is becoming a reality. Soon you’ll be too famous to be my friend.”
“Never!”
“Talk to you later.” Jasmine smiled.
“Love you, bitch.”
“You too.”
Jasmine slipped the phone in her back pocket and got to her feet once more. Taking a deep breath, she stared past the salt water grass and rose hip bushes towards the expanse of green-blue waves. They crashed against the rocks to her left and licked up the sandy coast to her right as the ocean tide worked its way in. She could do this. For Zoey, she’d do anything. If that meant giving her father a chance, she’d do it. And if it meant keeping who he was a secret for the rest of her time on earth, she’d do that too.
Because Zoey would not go through the shit she’d been through. Jasmine would work through the pain of the past so that her daughter didn’t have to have one tenth of the trauma in her life that Jasmine had. She’d protect her daughter, no matter what it took. Because Jasmine knew better than anyone that of all the people in a child’s life, the father figure could be the most dangerous.
To continue reading Jasmine and Atlas’s story, visit the website below to get your copy of The Lighthouse Inn right now:
www.amkusi.com/thelighthouseinn
Thank You
Thank you for reading Defying Gravity. We hope you are emotionally satisfied with Bently and Belle’s love story. If you enjoyed this novel, please consider leaving a review on your favorite retailer and sharing it with your friends and family.
If you haven’t read Remy and Mikel’s story yet, check out A Fallen Star (Book 1 in The Shattered Cove Series).
For Andre and Mia’s story, check out Glass Secrets (Book 2 in The Shattered Cove Series).
For Jasmine and Atlas’s story, check out The Lighthouse Inn (Book 4 in The Shattered Cove Series).
/> Lastly, if you haven’t read our first series, The Orchard Inn Romance Series, make sure you get your copy so you don’t miss out on three wonderful love stories.
Thank you again for reading Defying Gravity!
Cheers,
Ash & Marcus.
Acknowledgements
We want to send out a huge thank you to our diversity editor, Renita McKinney of A Book A Day. Her belief in this novel, us, as well as her hard work getting this story out into the world, means the world to us! She’s been with us since the beginning, and her unflinching honesty has been wonderfully helpful and motivating.
Our editing team Lauren Clark and Anna Bishop from CREATING ink. We’ve learned so much through our sessions together. Thank you!
To Curtis Evans, and everyone from CREATING ink’s team, thank you for all you do.
So much gratitude for Danielle Sanchez of Wildfire Marketing Solutions, thank you for having so much belief in this series and all your hard work to get the word out!
To the family and friends who supported us, thank you so much for letting us gush about our stories and characters. To our daughters, for your patience and inspiration.
And every ARC reviewer and reader who left reviews, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
Ash and Marcus
A. M. Kusi
About A. M. Kusi
A. M. Kusi is the pen name of a wife-and-husband team, Ash and Marcus Kusi. We enjoy writing romance novels that are inspired by our experiences as an interracial/multicultural couple.
Our novels are about strong women and the sexy heroes they fall in love with, are emotionally satisfying, and always have a happy ending.
Discover more about us at:
www.amkusi.com
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To contact us, use this email address:
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Happy reading!
Ash and Marcus
Also by A. M. Kusi
A Fallen Star
(Book 1 in The Shattered Cove Series)
Glass Secrets
(Book 2 in The Shattered Cove Series)
The Lighthouse Inn
(Book 4 in The Shattered Cove Series)
His True North
(Book 5 in The Shattered Cove Series)
The Orchard Inn
(Book 1 in The Orchard Inn Romance Series)
Conflict of Interest
(Book 2 in The Orchard Inn Romance Series)
Her Perfect Storm
(Book 3 in The Orchard Inn Romance Series)
For a complete list of all our books, visit:
www.amkusi.com/books