“Wh-what are you doing?” she stammered like the idiot she was.
“Waiting with you.”
“Why?” She blinked, and sucked in more air from a car that suddenly felt very cramped. Mason’s hot body took up the front seat while his presence filled the back.
“Because our Humvee broke down up there, and we were waiting for another to arrive with some parts my brother needed when we spotted your lights,” he replied, his voice aggravated, his gaze cold and intense as he leaned closer. “You’re stuck with me until they arrive. Keif went back to toy with it some more. You got a problem with that, sweetheart?”
Yeah. She had a problem all right. A problem with the way her body heated when he was near, the way her pulse jumped from blend to mixing speed with his presence, the way her good parts perked up and tingled, begging for attention from a man who’d forgotten how to smile.
A lost cause.
She was so done with lost causes. New Year’s Resolution #3: Resist the urge to help everyone and everything.
See? It was official. She couldn’t help. Wasn’t allowed. No way was she going to help this man. Absolutely not. She was done. On strike. Even if he had the most beautiful brown eyes she’d ever seen, that—on rare occasions he smiled—warmed to a delicious milk chocolate, drawing her in until every last atom was toasty and tingly.
Dammit. Milk chocolate was her favorite.
What they’re saying…
About Wyne and Dine:
“Ms. Michaels has penned another hot and steamy story for her fans to enjoy. I loved that not only is this a new series, but also some of the characters make their appearance from the Harland County Series. The author knows how to create a story that is believable and hard to put down once you start reading it. Another thing I love is that Ms. Michaels’ characters are always so relatable and down to earth.”
—Night Owl Reviews, Reviewer Top Pick
About Her Uniform Cowboy:
“Ms. Michaels pens a tale with pure heart and true grit! This story will hit so many readers close to home there is not one part of the plot that will feel foreign. No super models here, just true, down to earth servicemen and woman getting back to their place in the world. The characters and plot have a wonderful arc and the laughter, tears and emotional ride readers get to take on this journey will not disappoint.”
—InD’tale Magazine, Crowned Heart of Excellence 4.5 Stars
--Voted BEST COWBOY in a Book/Reader’s Choice-LRC
--Finalist BTS eMagazine Red Carpet Book Award/Reader’s Choice-Best Romance & Best Book 2014
About Her Forever Cowboy:
“Ms. Michaels has done it again! Book four in this series is another great success. The author knows how to lure her readers in by telling them a wonderful story that’s wrapped around characters we get to know and love as if they’re real people. This book was no exception. I highly recommend this book and this author!”
—Night Owl Reviews, Reviewer Top Pick
--July Read of the Month--SSYL
--Nominee BTS Magazine Red Carpet Book Award/Reader’s Choice-Romance 2014
A note from Donna
Thank you for purchasing Wyne and Chocolate. This is the second book in my Citizen Soldier Series, a Harland County Series spinoff. Guarding the hearts of the Pocono Valley.
My husband has been fulltime National Guard for nearly thirty years, so I’m excited to be able to create a series involving the men and women who serve in this branch of the service, and to set it near our hometown.This series showcases the National Guard brothers of the heroine from the third Harland County book-Her Uniform Cowboy. The Harland County clan will periodically make an appearance in the Pocono Valley and vise versa.
This book is about the second youngest Wyne brother Mason, part owner of a Pocono Resort with his three brothers. In charge of outdoor adventures, Mason is also a part time National Guardsman whose fiancée left him the morning of their wedding. He’s grumpy, prefers the quiet of the mountain, mistrusts women, and carries a bad attitude toward love.
Jill Bailey owns the chocolate confection shop in town. Her kind heart has gotten her in trouble too many times to count, including a cleaned out bank account, and creditors looking for money from her ex-husband, but it doesn’t stop her from taking on the town’s grumpy hunk.
This is another hot, heartfelt, sexy read in this series involving National Guard men and women, and will sometimes include characters from Harland County, as well as introduce you to a few future National Guard heroes.
Thanks for reading,
~Donna
www.donnamichaelsauthor.com
Also by Donna Michaels
~Novels~
Captive Hero (Time-shift Heroes Series-Book One)
The Spy Who Fanged Me
Her Fated Cowboy (Harland County Series-Book One)
Her Unbridled Cowboy (Harland County Series-Book Two)
Her Uniform Cowboy (Harland County Series-Book Three) Her Forever Cowboy (Harland County Series-Book Four)
She Does Know Jack
Royally Unleashed
~Novellas~
Harland County Christmas (Novella/Brock and Jen)
Cowboy-Sexy
Thanks for Giving
Ten Things I’d Do for a Cowboy
Vampire Kristmas
~Short Stories~
The Hunted
Negative Image
The Truth About Daydreams
Holiday Spirit
~Do-Over Series~
Valentine’s Day Do-Over
Valentine’s Day Do-Over Part II: The Siblings
UPCOMING RELEASES:
Cowboy Payback (Cowboy-Sexy Sequel)
~Time-shift Heroes Series~
Future Hero—Book Two
~Harland County Series~
Her Healing Cowboy (Book 5/Jace)
~Citizen Soldier Novels~
Wyne and Song (Book 3/Ethan)
Wyne and Chocolate
A Citizen Soldier Novel
Book 2: Mason
By
Donna Michaels
WYNE AND CHOCOLATE
A Citizen Soldier Novel//Book 2: Mason
Copyright © 2015 Donna Michaels
Cover Art by Donna Michaels © 2015
Excerpt from Wyne and Chocolate Copyright © 2015
Donna Michaels
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author—except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the web. For information, please contact the author via email at [email protected]
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
ISBN-13: 978-1505457735
ISBN-10: 1505457734
Print edition February 2015
Book 2 in Citizen Soldier Series
Dedication
To my husband Michael and the PA National Guard for inspiring me to write this series. To my family, the HOODS, JT, and Vickie, who was waiting for this book and laughed over a certain shaped chocolate lollipop. And finally, to my editor, Stacy, and to Emily for their help in the final stages. ♥
Table of Contents
What they’re saying…
A note from Donna
Print edition February 2015
Book 2 in Citizen Soldier Series
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
For announcements about upcoming releases and exclusive contests:
Chapter One
If the road to riches was paved with potholes, then judging by the size of the one that just sent Jill Bailey into a ditch, she was going to be a freakin’ billionaire.
If she didn’t freeze to death first.
Camouflaged under nine inches of still-falling snow, the crater—big enough to swallow a man whole—hadn’t been visible until she was upon it. Even though the rapidly falling white stuff filled the hole, and she’d navigated her quick-swerve maneuver, neither had saved her from wrecking her car against a tree.
Idjit.
Only a moron would ignore warnings and travel on a closed interstate during a blizzard. Especially if that moron was desperate. She was both. A moron and desperate. Which made her dangerous.
Yeah, to myself.
“Ouch,” she muttered into the silent car as she pushed at the deployed airbag to tentatively touch her aching nose, then pulled her hand away to stare at her wet fingers. “Oh, goody. Blood.”
Her stomach churned. Nope. She was not going to be sick. If there was one thing Jill hated more than the sight of blood, it was being physically sick.
And spiders. She really, really hated spiders.
Ignoring the pain throbbing in her face, and the annoying white airbag, she tried starting the stalled car, but it was no use. Nothing happened. She was stuck. Turning off the ignition, she kept the lights on in hopes someone would happen by and see her in the ditch. If she tapped the brakes once in a while, too, it could catch attention.
Should she try to flag someone down for help? She glanced to her left, trying to eye the deserted interstate, up the small hill through the falling snow. Nah. She was the only one foolish enough to venture out on a day like today, completely blowing one of the New Year’s resolutions she’d made last week. Resolution #1: Be smart and fierce in business this year.
Yeah, blew that one eight days in.
She hissed out a sigh, the rapidly cooling temperature lending visibility to her disgusted breath. Shivering, she turned the key and pushed the button to roll up the window. No sense in filling the car with snow, and cold air. Judging by the smoke emanating from the hood of her car, the radiator was now shot. Or was that just snow? She flicked on the heater. Nothing. Great. It could be a long night. She fished out her phone, but wasn’t surprised to see there weren’t enough bars to make a call. Not in the boonies.
Running her gaze over what she could see of the coat covering the wrap-around-dress and high heeled boots she’d worn to pitch a new candy line earlier today, she fingered Nona’s good-luck pin on her scarf—a gift from her late Papa—and sighed into the silent car. Perfect attire for a meeting with a major New York confection conglomerate. Horrible for being stranded in her car. In the middle of a blizzard. She’d already tried unsuccessfully to unhook it in hopes of puncturing the airbag. The only thing her squirming accomplished was a good view of the back seat where she noted with relief, her parcel from the city was still in one piece. Thank God.
She quit squirming and blew out a breath. At least this happened on her way back from the city.
Apparently, not only was she going to have to wait for an answer about the candy, she was going to have to wait for help, too. Even though the last sign she’d passed indicated she was only five miles from her exit, there was no way she could walk safely home, especially in her outfit.
Fudge.
Okay, her mind reasoned, if she remained calm, and kept her New Year’s resolutions, she would survive this mess and live to pay her uncle back. Keeping those resolutions were key. She couldn’t afford to blow even one if she was to get her life back in order. Especially Resolution #2: Don’t let your heart rule your head. That’s what had sent her into the downhill spiral that was her life over the past three years.
But things were finally looking up. Her friend, Lea Gablonski, had asked if she’d create chocolate penis lollipops for a bachelorette party last September, and they were a hit. Desperate for finances, she’d added the All Night Suckers to the confection menu of her bakery/candy shop. The lollipops had been so successful, Jill hadn’t been able to keep up with the demand.
So, after accepting a large order last week, for bigger penises, she’d commissioned four new molds from a company in NYC, with more penises per mold. They had been ready today, and with the customer scheduled to pick up the pops in two days, she’d had no time to wait for the molds to arrive in the mail. She needed to start creating tonight and had used the trip to the city to kill two birds with one stone. The new pattern on the molds would shave a ton of time off her schedule, and the new increased size of the pop was great because…well, size did matter.
Her bark of laughter quickly turned into a wince as pain radiated to her temple. Yeah, even the silent winter afternoon didn’t appreciate her ill humor.
But, if she didn’t laugh, she’d surely cry. Thanks to her dratsab ex-husband. Donny was a bastard, but she hated the word and preferred to say it backward. He was a jerk and a gambler who mooched off her until he got her fired from the major New York bakery she loved when he waltzed into her boss’ office and demanded they give her a raise.
A raise. Jesus…
Even now, heat flooded her cheeks at the memory. The warmth was welcomed, but not the accompanying embarrassment from that mortifying day. That had been her last straw. She’d packed up what little she had left, which wasn’t much since she’d hawked most of her things in order to eat, pay rent…pay his never-ending gambling debts.
Jill straightened in her seat. That was in the past. She was moving forward. Rebuilding her reputation, and her life. She left her old one behind to start anew where she’d been the happiest.
In the Poconos.
Many wonderful childhood memories evolved around visiting her cousins Evie and Nico Martelli, and helping her uncle out over the summers at his pizza shop in Pennsylvania.
God bless Uncle Al. He’d loaned her the money to hire a good lawyer to get a divorce and open Confection Connection. He said he believed in her and was happy to invest in her future. Thank God, since her ex had run their joint credit cards to the hilt and neglected the payments. Her credit had tanked. She should’ve known better than to trust Donny to pay the bills.
Tears blurred her vision, but she blinked them away. The day she’d moved to the Poconos, she’d vowed to reimburse her uncle, and was finally in a position to start making payments to him…once she fulfilled this latest order.
Who would’ve guessed chocolate penises would lead her on a path to financial freedom?
A loud knock reverberated through the silent car. Jumping straight up, she hit her head off the roof. Pain radiated across her face, again. “Ouch.”
Unable to make out more than shadows, she twisted the key and pushed the button to roll down the window. With her heart hammering in her throat, she prayed an axe murderer wasn’t on the other side.
“Are you okay?” a familiar voice asked, and it took her a second to focus on the handsome man in fatigues.
Her mind registered the National Guard uniform with the name WYNE on his chest, while her body registered just wh
ich of the four gorgeous Wyne brothers stood outside her door.
Mason. The grumpy one. Serious one. Cute, drop-dead gorgeous one. The one whose mere presence always interrupted her pulse and sent a tingle to all her neglected good parts.
But he was a man. And she was off men. For over a year-and-a-half now. So, her body was just going to have to starve because she was still fasting.
“Jill?” Another face appeared. Another Wyne brother. The youngest. The friendliest. Keiffer. “Is that you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” she finally answered, pushing at the air bag. “I got in a fight with this and lost.”
“What the hell are you doing out here?” Mr. Grumpypuss asked, withdrawing a huge knife from his ACUs—Army Camouflage Uniform—and stepped closer. “Turn your head and close your eyes,” he ordered before she even had a chance to answer his question.
A second later, she heard a huge pop, and felt a burst of air. When she opened her eyes and turned back around, the airbag was deflated, and she could breathe a little easier.
“Well?” Gaze dark and narrowed, Mason stared down, handsome face creased with aggravation as snow blew all around him.
“Thank you,” she replied.
Muttering under his breath, he shoved the knife back into his pocket. “No, I mean why the hell are you out here? The interstates are closed.”
She glanced at Keiffer, who was wearing a strange expression on his face as he stared at his grouchy brother. Then he transferred his gaze to her and a slow smile slid across his lips.
Whatever the younger Wyne was thinking, she knew she didn’t like it. Nor did she appreciate his brother’s tone.
Lifting her chin, she stared right at the irritated man. “What does it look like? I drove out here so I could hit a pothole, lose control of my car and ram a tree because I had nothing better to do than aggravate you.” She tilted her chin higher. “So, are you going to rescue me, or should I wait for another patrol to go by?”
Wyne and Chocolate (Citizen Soldier Series Book 2) Page 1