by Christina OW
Table of Contents
Title Page
LOVE HER RIGHT
Christina OW
LOVE HER RIGHT | Christina OW | Copyright © 2015 | Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
The Albury Affairs Series
The Dukkha Fate Series
LOVE HER RIGHT
Christina OW
Mainstream Romance
Sweet Cravings Publishing
www.sweetcravingspublishing.com
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A Sweet Cravings Publishing Book
Mainstream Romance
Love Her Right
Copyright © 2015 Christina OW
E-book ISBN: 978-1-631085-685-7
First E-book Publication: August 2015
Cover design by Dawné Dominique
Edited by Megan Koenen
Proofread by Makayla McKinne
All cover art and logo copyright © 2015 by Sweet Cravings Publishing
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Sweet Cravings Publishing
www.sweetcravingspublishing.com
LOVE HER RIGHT
Christina OW
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
Jolie remembered that day as if it was yesterday. And how could she not? It was her eighteenth birthday and the day before the worst day of Mac’s life, which also turned out to be a momentously great day for her. Two consecutive life-changing days...she wasn’t sure to call it luck or the universe playing a big joke on her. But five years later, from where she was sitting, those days were just a teaser of what her life would become. A train wreck, a big joke, a bad hand of cards, whatever other metaphors were out there that one could politely say...since on her eighteenth birthday her life had turned to shit!
It was a great day initially. Her parents threw her a birthday party and all her friends from the cheering squad and algebra club attended. Yes, she broke the norm and was both a cheerleader and a mathlete. She had the confidence to pull it off and it helped that she had three older brothers ready to pound anyone who made fun of her. Some guys from the basketball and football team also attended and her house became the place to be for the senior high school class. It boosted her popularity points by a hundred percent. It helped that her twin brother Jase was the quarterback and team captain on both. So really she didn’t have a choice when it came to the guest list.
Yes, cheerleaders were supposed to be all about the jocks, but she didn’t care much for them. Their heads were so swollen with their egos, it left no space whatsoever for intellect. And anyway, she wasn’t interested in high school boys. She had her eyes set on one college guy who was a senior at Columbia with her eldest brother Jake. She’d zeroed in on Mr. Hot-Stuff when she’d turned thirteen and boys suddenly stopped being gross. Puberty was an eye opener.
“Happy birthday, pretty girl.” The words were followed by a light kiss on her cheek that turned her to jelly. She didn’t dare move, or breathe just in case her legs gave way under her.
He stepped in front of her holding a wrapped gift in his large hands and she sighed dreamily like the high school girl she was. He chuckled, his lips lifting in his signature lopsided grin that could melt butter. It certainly did melt her heart. She was sure he knew what he did to her with that smile and she didn’t care one bit. It didn’t make him arrogant, just aware of his appeal. And she had no pride when it came to this man. Yes, man. Not boy.
Mackenzie Masters, the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in all her life. And the best part about him was that he had the brains to match his looks. He also was probably the only one who challenged the theory of jocks being idiots. He’d gotten into Columbia on a football scholarship, and he studied Engineering, specifically aeronautics engineering. He loved helicopters. He could build an engine for one from scratch. She’d watched him once, and seeing him all greased up and sweaty, no fantasy could ever beat that.
It broke her heart when he decided to go so far away for school but she supported him, the two of them double teaming against his parents who wanted him closer to home. But what could he possibly do in Nevada except get tempted by sin city which was just a few hours away? Yes, it broke her heart, but she was determined to make sure he didn’t repeat the fiasco of his eighteenth birthday.
When he announced a week before her birthday that he was going to enlist in the military, she’d cried for days and her brothers had made fun of her. One of them got a knee to the crotch because of it. James, her elder brother, still wasn’t talking to her because of it, which was fine with her! The meat-head’s feelings were second to her crisis, which was Mac enlisting in the Air Force. She’d begged and she’d cried, even joined the intervention his parents held, but that just pissed him off. For some reason, he was even more disappointed in her than his parents for not supporting his dreams. So, she put on her big girl knickers, did a little research just to see why Mac was so determined to go off and risk his life and probably die before he hit thirty and she found it. The guys overseas needed all the help they could get, especially doctors, but evacuation pilots from hot situations came a close second. So she jumped off his parents’ band wagon and joined his. She was determined to be supportive of his career choice even if it killed her inside.
That’s what a wife was supposed to do anyway. To always have her husband’s back even if it was over something foolhardy. Yes, she had every intention of becoming Mrs. Mackenzie Masters. The only thing to figure out was whether to have the wedding ceremony before or after he deploys. She would much rather it be before, which led to her second dilemma. How was she going to convince him he was madly in love with her?
“Hey, Jelly Girl, stop drooling!”
She reluctantly turned away from Mac and glared at her twin brother. He had a shit eating grin on his face and Jolie was getting ready to wipe it off with her fist when he took the gift from Mac’s hands and shoved it at her.
“Come on, Mac. We’re starting a game, and I want you on my team.”
Without taking his eyes off her he asked, “Which team is Jake on?”
Jase groaned dramatically. “You and your girlfriend can be separated this once. He can have James. Come on.” He grabbed Mac’s arm and began to drag him away.
>
“Okay, all right. Jolie, you coming?”
She sighed again. His voice got so soft when he said her name. It was heavenly, but Jase had to ruin the moment when he snorted and said, “Oh she’s coming. She can sniff you out faster than a blood hound.”
Jolie squeezed the gift to her chest and begged for patience. She loved her twin the most out of all her brothers, but she fought the urge to kill him just as much.
With a serene smile she answered, “I’ll be right out.”
Quickly she ran to her room and left Mac’s gift on her bed instead of leaving it with the rest on the dining room table. That one was special. When she got downstairs and out to her driveway, it was clear Jase had lost Mac to Jake and from the looks of things, it was a college versus high school three-a-side game. The girls were standing on either sides of the half court in small groups, whispering behind their hands and giggling.
God help anyone who giggled in Mac’s direction because Jolie wasn’t above ripping hair out and breaking noses.
“Hey girls, come do what you do best. Wave your pompoms around and cheer,” Jase announced cockily and of course some girls rushed to do his bidding. He stared pointedly at her and she just raised her eyebrow. “You’ll be breaking the twin code if you cheer for the other team.”
With a snarky smile, Jolie turned away from him and joined the other teams cheer group. She loved her twin even when he was annoying, but she hated it when he treated all her friends like ditzy bimbos. Even though, some were.
High pitched squeals, bouncing and pointing had her turn around and just in time to see Jake’s team pull off their shirts.
Holy jelly beans!
James and Jake were fit and attractive and she knew why the girls were going gaga, but her attention was trailed on the dark chest standing between them. Her first instinct was to rush over and offer to hold his shirt for him, but Merry, the head cheerleader, beat her to it. Jolie wanted to rip her fake blonde hair right out of her head, and she would have if Mac hadn’t flashed her his bone melting smile and shook his head no.
He walked up to Jolie, placed his shirt in her hand, kissed her cheek and said, “Take care of that for me wifey.”
In that moment, she could hear the angels sing in the clouds with trumpets and harps! He called me his wifey!
“Of course, honey,” she responded casually, forcing herself not to jump around squealing and giggling like an immature sixteen year old.
Of course her two big brothers had to ruin it for her by dumping their shirts over her head, but she wasn’t going to let it kill her moment. She passed them off to their girlfriends and kept Mac’s tightly—but covertly—held to her chest. She was glad no one asked her about the game because all she was concentrating on was how his coffee skin glittered with perspiration. Sweat flowed like little streams down his broad chest to the channels between his six pack abs to be soaked in by the peeking black Calvin Klein boxers around his waist as his dark blue jeans sat right on the curve of his amazing ass.
She loved watching how his biceps flexed as he dribbled and passed the ball. And the way his back muscles grew taunt when he dunked...it was orgasmic! Well, from what other girls described as an orgasm. She wouldn’t know. She was saving herself for Mac. She’d never even had a boyfriend, to her father’s known relief. All he’d seemed to be interested in with her was that she didn’t get pregnant while she was under his roof.
It hurt sometimes to not be the center of his attention considering she was his only daughter. She was supposed to be Daddy’s little girl and his reason to buy a shot gun, but as much as she’d try to remember, she couldn’t drag up one memory of him ever being very interested in her. Unless her mother dragged him to a recital, or a cheer competition, he wouldn’t show. Well his absence was understandable, with three sons who were all jocks and had their games the same day as she did her school events. Her mom had turned those days into girls’ only events.
She pulled herself out of that depressing thought and watched the slaughter because it definitely wasn’t a game. Jase’s team barely made any baskets and the game ended eleven—three. Mac’s team won and she didn’t even mind when he picked her up and spun her around wet with sweat.
“Traitor!” Jase yelled and Jolie stuck her tongue out at him just as Mac was setting her back on her feet.
“Sorry, I got you wet with sweat.” He smiled down at her.
She loved how much taller he was than her. How much bigger. Laying down, he could cover her like a blanket of perfection. She bet she would be comfortable laying on top of him. It would be the best sleep she would ever have.
Jolie smiled back. “No worries. I’ll get you a towel.”
“Yeah, Jelly, get us all towels,” Jake said passing by them, his arm around his girlfriend’s waist.
James pulled at her pony tail. “Make mine warm and dump. Get me some lemonade too.”
“I’m not your maid, and it’s my birthday dick head!” she yelled at him, stomping her foot.
James turned and glared at her and she glared right back. Jase came to her side then and dropped his sweaty arm over her shoulder. “Yeah, James. It’s her birthday and she’s not your maid. Get your own dump towel and lemonade.”
This was why she loved her twin so much. He always had her back when she was up against their elder siblings.
Jake stopped at the door and yelled, “James, leave her alone. Jelly, it’s your birthday, so you do whatever you want.”
“Thanks, Jake,” she yelled back. “Let’s go in, I’ll get you those towels and lemonade.” She added staring pointedly at James.
He rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Jelly.”
“Push over.” Jase bumped her and walked away.
“No, you’re not. You’re just thoughtful,” Mac countered.
But five minutes later, arms full of dirty towels she was thinking over how thoughtful she would be from now on. She was dumping the icky rags in the washing machine when she noticed she wasn’t alone in the laundry room. Mac had joined her and the door was closed.
“Hey, Mac. Do you need anything?”
As nervous and giddy as she was, she decided to play it cool. Be mature. So when he grabbed her, pressed her against the wall and kissed her she was way past surprised, but it didn’t stop her from responding with the same passion, even though it was her first kiss. She tried to concentrate and make it perfect when he suddenly stopped kissing her.
“Jolie?” He breathed against her lips, his hands cupping her butt cheeks and molding them in his hands. It made her tingle inside.
“Yes, Mac?” Her voice was breathy and thick. She was completely dazed as she stared into his chocolate colored eyes.
His lips broke into a smile, showing the contrast she loved so much of his dark skin against his white teeth. “This isn’t a math quiz. Stop thinking and just feel.”
And then he kissed her again, and this time she did as he asked. Her mind went completely blank and she soaked in every sensation his body emitted in waves, until she felt her lower stomach grow so heavy it created a void in the rest of her. She felt an urge equal to a hunger pang but she wasn’t sure what it was, all she knew was that Mac was the only one who could end it. As soon as she got her leg wrapped around his waist, he’d broken away cursing. Jolie remained leaning against the wall, silently celebrating this new turn of events. He loved her and she was going to be Mrs. Mackenzie Masters before he shipped out because she would be too curious about that hunger pang to wait from him to come back from his first tour.
“Shit! This is bad, fucking hell!”
Jolie was confused by his continuous cursing and punching at the wall. What went wrong in the few seconds since the kiss ended? She moved to him and as soon as she placed her hand on his arm, he pulled away from her. Her heart sank at his rejection.
“Mac, what’s wrong?”
He shook his head, pacing. “I shouldn’t have done that. Hell, Jake is going to kill me! I shouldn’t have done that!”
“Done what? Kissed me?” she whispered.
“I shouldn’t have touched you or kissed you, but God, I’ve wanted to do that since you grew boobs and stopped being my best friend’s little sister who had a crush on me and became the sexiest girl I’ve ever seen. I tried to stay away from you, but...did you have to wear those jeans! And that top, they leave nothing to the imagination, damn it!” he yelled, making her jump.
Jolie was both annoyed and shocked. So he’d noticed her? But why did he sound like he wished he hadn’t? “Mac, I don’t understand what the problem is.”
He laughed, but there was no amusement in it. “Of course you don’t, why would you? It’s not like what I did was illegal, oh no. You’re just a kid and I’m an adult mauling you. Nothing wrong with that at all!” He was livid, fuming mad even his milk coffee complexion was flushed a pale pink.
“I’m not a kid. I’m eighteen years old!”
He snorted. “How many hours have you been eighteen? Two? Three...” He suddenly stopped pacing and turned on her, eyes narrowed. “Weren’t you born an hour to midnight?” He tossed his hands up. “Just great! She’s still seventeen!”
“Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous.” But he went on as if he didn’t hear her.
“That was your first kiss wasn’t it? You’re still a virgin, right? I’m not even sure what I feel more, disgust or relief. I need to get out of here before I do something really stupid...like fuck you on top of the washing machine because that’s what I’ve been thinking about since you walked in here. I’m so depraved!”
And with that he took off, literally ran away. Jolie stayed down there for a few minutes wondering how to take that little scene. Some of his words hurt, but it only reinforced her suspicion of his love for her. So what if she was younger than him? Her parents had a six year age difference, two more than Mac and she.
She would reason with him later, when he was calm. It was a good thing he lived across the street. She joined the rest of the party, which ended when she officially turned eighteen, an hour to midnight. That should make Mac feel better.