UNBELIEVABLE
by callie harper
Copyright © 2016 Callie Harper
Cover Design by Perfect Pear Creative
All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to real events, people, or places is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without the permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations used for review. If you have not purchased this book or received a copy from the author, you are reading a pirated book.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status of products referred to in this book and acknowledges that trademarks have been used without permission.
This book contains mature content, including graphic sex. Please do not continue reading if you are under the age of 18 or if this type of content is disturbing to you.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CALLIE HARPER’S BOOKS
CHAPTER 1: Colt
CHAPTER 2: Caroline
CHAPTER 3: Colt
CHAPTER 4: Caroline
CHAPTER 5: Colt
CHAPTER 6: Caroline
CHAPTER 7: Colt
CHAPTER 8: Caroline
CHAPTER 9: Colt
CHAPTER 10: Caroline
CHAPTER 11: Colt
CHAPTER 12: Caroline
CHAPTER 13: Colt
CHAPTER 14: Caroline
CHAPTER 15: Colt
CHAPTER 16: Caroline
CHAPTER 17: Colt
CHAPTER 18: Caroline
CHAPTER 19: Colt
CHAPTER 20: Caroline
CHAPTER 21: Colt
CHAPTER 22: Caroline
CHAPTER 23: Colt
CHAPTER 24: Caroline
EPILOGUE: Colt
EPILOGUE: Caroline
IN DEEP
UNDENIABLE (DOM & GIGI)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONTACT
CALLIE HARPER’S BOOKS
The Beg For It Series
Book 1: Unleashed (Declan & Kara)
Book 2: Undone (Ash & Ana)
Book 3: Untamed (Heath & Violet)
Book 4: Unbelievable (Colt & Caroline)
Book 5: Undeniable (Dom & Gigi)
The All In Series
Book 1: In Deep
Off Limits: A Stepbrother MMA Romance
CHAPTER 1
Colt
She stood there with her wrists bound up over her head, her full breasts pressed out against her T-shirt. She looked up at me, defiant, her pouty lips parted and ready to yell.
When I’d learned that my latest real estate development project had been targeted by an angry environmental group, I hadn’t pictured anything like this. I’d reluctantly agreed to fly out to the site and see if I could defuse the situation. I didn’t compromise, didn’t like negotiating, but this group was proving a bigger thorn in my side than expected. In honor of my visit, the leader of the protests and a few others had chained themselves to the fence around our construction site.
It was just dumb luck that the lead activist turned out to have a body built for sin. And she’d somehow handcuffed herself in exactly the right way to showcase her assets. I’d cuffed more than a few playmates in the same position for a night of fun.
Dealing with these activists might be more enjoyable than I’d thought. Starting with their leader. I took a step closer, towering over her.
“I’d offer my hand to say hello,” I greeted her. A wry smile on my lips, my gaze flickered up to her handcuffed wrists. “But I see you’re all tied up.”
“Save your sweet talk,” she hissed at me, fire in her eyes.
“You haven’t heard anything yet,” I warned her, taking another step closer. She had honey-colored hair, tumbling over her shoulders in loose curls. Flushed, she struggled a bit against her restraints. I smiled, enjoying the show. How good of her to present herself exactly how I liked. Now if only we didn’t have a slew of crazy environmental activists and members of the press surrounding us.
“We don’t want your hotel here!” she spat out at me.
“It’s not a hotel,” I corrected her. “It’s a destination resort.”
She rolled her eyes. “You think you can just come here, buy up our land, and build some mega-hotel?”
“Resort,” I corrected her again. “And, yes, that’s exactly what I’m doing.” I felt a strong urge to stroke a strand of her hair that had worked its way down and now rested, curling gently along the swell of her breast.
“Eyes up here,” she growled at me.
With a grin, I gave her what she wanted. For now. “It’s not my fault that you handcuffed yourself for me.”
“I did not handcuff myself for you!” She stomped her foot. It just made me smirk even more, seeing her get all agitated. The movement made her breasts jiggle in the most appealing way. “We are chaining ourselves to this fence around your proposed construction site in protest!”
“Right, right,” I soothed her, glancing to the side and noting a few scraggly-looking hippie types chained to the fence. “What is it you’re angry about again?” I looked at her lips as I spoke, so full and lush and plump. Her tongue flicked out, briefly, and my cock hardened in response.
“The lichen!” some kooky activist down the fence belted out.
“Yes!” she answered, seeming to remember herself. “The lichen! Love the Lichen!”
Oh, that’s right. My assistant had briefed me on the plane flight over. Apparently there was some kind of “endangered species” of lichen that thrived on the coastal area where we planned to build. Where we would build. I was Colton Kavanaugh, CEO of Kavanaugh Investors. I did not take no for an answer.
My phone rang. My settings were such that if a call actually rang through, it was one I had to take. Most went directly to my assistant.
“Don’t go anywhere,” I told her, glancing at the handcuffs and giving her a wink. She gave a frustrated huff as I turned my back and strode a few feet away to take the call.
“Sorry to disturb you, sir.” I knew my admin meant it. She was good at filtering out 90 percent of what came across my desk. She pushed everything she could onto the team I’d built around me, a smart, trustworthy group who helped cultivate the perfect balance of risk and reward. As an investor, you had to be part gambler, thriving on the rush that came from flirting with disaster. But you also had to bring some brains to the game, with intelligent insight to fortify gut instinct.
I happened to possess both. Arrogant? Of course I was. I had what it took to back it up. The chumps I had no tolerance for were the ones who walked the walk but that was it. They’d crumble in a fight. Me? I knew how to throw down and win.
“Yes…No…No.” I checked off the boxes my admin presented to me over the phone. Until she connected me to another call, this one with my Chief Operating Officer.
You know how I said I’d built a trustworthy team? That was true, to an extent. I’d inherited this company three years ago when my father passed away. He left me an incredible legacy and fortune, big shoes to fill as CEO, and a shrewd, manipulative COO. Part Iago, part Machievelli, Leonard Synder could talk a shirtless man into giving away any potential shirts he might possibly own for the rest of his life. I knew he’d stab me in the back if he ever got the chance. I’d seen him do it to countless others.
Why did I keep him in his role as COO? I’d learned a lot from my father. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It was a lot easier to avoid a knife when you had your eye on the guy the whole time. And, I’m not going to lie, having a ruthless bounty hunter on your team paid off a lot of the time.
“I’m on it,” I assured him, letting him give me some intel on the environmental group behind this protest. Love the Lichen. Apparently they had some local
ties—including the leader most appealingly tied up front and center—but also financial backing from national environmental groups. Those deep pockets had enabled them to get national press, which had paused our building plans. Temporarily. Because ultimately I would get my way, sooner rather than later. I always did.
My team had thought they’d picked a trouble-free spot to locate this new destination resort, but in my experience there was no such thing as trouble-free. The Southern Oregon coast was the new “it” location, they’d assured me. Milder and sunnier than the Portland area up by the border of Washington state, the town of Redwood Bay bordered California and only required an hour’s flight from Silicon Valley. Enough tech tycoons had private planes. This resort could become a new playground for Bay Area elite.
The only problem was the hippies. I let Leonard talk longer than I normally would have while I turned my gaze and attention over to finer subject matter. Namely the curvy seductress handcuffed to the fence. She was all temptation, that one, head to toe, feisty and wide-eyed at the same time, her breasts straining against her T-shirt as she adjusted her stance. I had to give myself an adjustment. She got my blood going.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt that kind of instant attraction. It must be the handcuffs, the visual it presented of her offering herself to me and me alone. I could imagine her restrained like that, stripped completely bare. I could torment her for hours, her arms bound over her head as I relentlessly coaxed, stroked, built, demanded pleasure from her. Those breasts alone could keep me occupied for the better part of an afternoon, licking, sucking, listening to her moan, her pussy glistening with need as I played with her stiff nipples.
She glimpsed over to me, then turned away quickly, part annoyed, part embarrassed. As if I’d caught her checking me out. She seemed to like what she saw. I was used to that. Women tended to offer themselves to me with relentless predictability. What was new with this one was the struggle. She didn’t want to like what she saw. That was a fun challenge. It would be most entertaining to see her fight her own attraction. I’d like to make it harder for her, see how far I could take her until she reached the edge of her desire. What would it take for her to get to the brink, then succumb, giving herself over to the pleasure I could provide? I’d like to find out.
“What do you think?” Leonard asked. Huh. I thought I’d like to get that woman alone, that’s what I thought.
“Tell me more,” I responded. Never show weakness, I’d learned that early on. Always keep people on their toes, always guessing, always performing more to try to capture your attention and approval. Leonard didn’t need to know that I was spacing out, fantasizing about a woman with the most luscious curves. I wondered what her ass looked like, what it would feel like cupped in my hands. Right now she was pressing it against the fence. I’d much prefer it pressed against me.
It didn’t make sense, how distracting I found her. The women I spent time with tended to fall into two categories, and I could already tell she fit into neither. The first functioned as networking partners more than anything else, easy companions at parties in the Hamptons or at private clubs, already knowing all the same people I did. I wasn’t just the billionaire CEO of Kavanaugh Investors. I’d also inherited a bonafide title from my father. With his passing, I’d become the Baron of Warwick, complete with ancestral estate in Yorkshire. As such, I required a suitable dinner date at functions.
And then there were the women I enjoyed myself with on a more private basis. Those women were experts in the game of seduction and pleasure. And nothing more.
It was cold, the way I compartmentalized, but it was straightforward and tidy. My life didn’t have room for any messes. My father had made enough of those on the personal front to last our family a lifetime. And I didn’t have any of the leeway he’d had. You didn’t inherit your daddy’s company at 27 and get a lot of people standing around clapping and assuming you’d do a great job. A whole lot of people expected, and sometimes wanted, you to fail. It took constant vigilance along a straight-and-narrow path to prove them wrong.
I was 30 now and happy to say that I’d proven them all wrong. Under my control, Kavanaugh Investors had grown and thrived. Because I remained goal-oriented at all costs. Intense concentration with an indomitable will, ruthlessly focused at all times…
Except for the way my mind kept roaming over to that woman chained to the fence, her hair a wild mess from the coastal wind. She was a delicious distraction, every sexy, curvaceous inch of her.
“And tonight, ask what kind of progress they’re making with that biotech fund.” Leonard was still talking on the phone. He’d already moved past the protestors, on to discussing the dinner I had set up tonight with a group of investors in Palo Alto.
“Got to go.” I ended the call. I wasn’t exactly sure what he’d wanted me to discuss, but I didn’t need his advice on that front. I knew what questions to ask at the meeting tonight. My father hadn’t left me the company simply because I was his oldest son. I’d been in training for this position since the day I was born. Some of my earliest memories were of reading the Wall Street Journal and discussing the relative merits of reported buy-outs and takeovers with my father.
Right now, though, I didn’t feel at all like discussing business. Unless it involved a voluptuous protester standing cuffed and ready for me against a chain-link fence.
A smile slowly making its way back on my face, I strolled over to her once again. “How’s my favorite protestor?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re not taking this seriously.”
“I’m always serious, honey.” I wanted to tease her, of course, but I also meant it. I’d had more than one person criticize me for it. All business all the time I believe one of my younger brothers had commented. What exactly did they expect from a CEO at the helm of a venture worth billions? Others might indulge a whim, or lightheartedly relax. I kept my eyes on the prize. Which at the moment looked up at me, wrists bound, with wide gray-green eyes and soft, plump, pink lips.
“Don’t ‘honey’ me!” she fumed.
“I’d address you by your name,” I informed her, “but I haven’t had the pleasure of learning it yet.”
She paused for a moment, clearly deciding whether or not to volunteer the information. I waited patiently, knowing I’d discover it regardless. “Carrie Porter,” she finally offered, grudgingly.
“Carrie.” I repeated, wondering. “Short for…?”
“Caroline. But nobody calls me—”
“Caroline.” I drew her name out, savoring each syllable.
“Everybody else calls me—”
“I’m not everybody else.” I grinned at her, enjoying how disruptive she clearly found me. She’d certainly turned over my apple cart. It was only fair that I returned the favor.
And it was good for her to learn, I made my own rules. I didn’t do what other people did. I’d move forward with this real estate development project as I had with countless others. I’d overcome any hurdles and obstacles in my way. What stopped others didn’t bother me. And I’d call her Caroline if I wanted, because an extravagantly gorgeous woman deserved a name equal to her allure.
“Much as I like seeing you like this…” My gaze flickered down along her curvaceous body once again. “Why don’t we save the handcuffs for later? I’ll buy you a drink first. And we can talk through this whole misunderstanding.”
I’d planned on flying out in an hour, heading on down to Silicon Valley. We also had a meeting set up tomorrow in Redwood Bay with the interested—a.k.a. angry—parties, but I’d planned on delegating that to my assistant. Now, though? Maybe I’d postpone my flight south. Maybe I’d even consider coming back tomorrow morning to attend the meeting here in person. It would be entertaining to see Caroline again. I’d enjoy seeing her in a different setting.
Well, different in some ways. Less other people, less prying eyes. But she could stay handcuffed just like that.
“You arrogant bastard!” she spat
out, pulling slightly against her restraints. I fully enjoyed the sight of her breasts pressing against her T-shirt. Until she noticed my appreciation and stilled.
“At least let me uncuff you. For now.” I smiled down at her. “I promise I’ll tie you up again later.”
“You can’t uncuff me!” she declared. “I won’t tell you where the key is!” Her eyes blazed, defiant.
“Do I have to pat you down?” I stepped in closer, barely any space between us left. “Where are you hiding that key?” I whispered. She shivered, slightly, barely perceptible. But I could tell I got to her. “You can tell me,” I murmured. “Is it underneath your foot?” I bent down and stroked my palm along the base of her calf, making a show of pretending to look under her sneaker.
“You’ll never find it!” she declared.
“It’s in your bra.” I nodded, standing up as if sure I’d just figured it out. She gasped as I reached out my hand, hovering it directly over her luscious breasts which now heaved with her rapid breathing. Of course I wasn’t going to touch her, not in front of all those people and cameras. If I had her alone, though, that would be another thing entirely. I’d lock her up and throw away the key.
I was about to step away when something caught my eye. Right under my palm, my open hand inches away, teasing her just above her breasts. Her nipple pebbled, pushing through the thin cotton of her T-shirt. She might protest, but she felt it, too, the spark between us, the chemistry.
That meeting tomorrow morning? I decided I’d come back to town to attend it in person. I liked playing with fire.
Giving her a low, wicked smile, I leaned down. Hidden by my large frame, I gave her nipple the slightest brush as I whispered in her ear, “I think I’m going to enjoy fighting with you.”
CHAPTER 2
Caroline
Of all the arrogant, alpha, billionaire CEOs I’d met in my life, he really took the cake. OK, I hadn’t actually met that many guys like him. In our sleepy coastal Southern Oregon town, we specialized in hipsters and hippies. But I’d read and seen movies about arrogant, alpha, billionaire CEO types like him. Unfortunately, looking up at his broad shoulders and firmly set jaw, the one who came to mind was Christian Grey.
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