by Smith, CP
Table of Contents
Until Joe
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Dedication
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Epilogue
Titles by CP Smith
Until Joe
Copyright © 2019 by CP Smith
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published by Boom Factory Publishing, LLC.
CP Smith CONTRIBUTOR to the Original Works was granted permission by Aurora Rose Reynolds, ORIGINAL AUTHOR, to use the copyrighted characters and/or worlds created by Aurora Rose Reynolds in the Original Work; all copyright protection to the characters and/ or worlds of Aurora Rose Reynolds in the Original Works are and shall continue to be retained by Aurora Rose Reynolds. You can find all of Aurora Rose Reynolds Original Works on most major retailers. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage or retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, photocopying, mechanical or otherwise, without express permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, story lines and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, events, locales or any events or occurrences are purely coincidental.
Cover design: FuriousFotog
Cover Photograph: FuriousFotog
Cover Model: Ian Daviau
Editor: Karen Hrdlicka
Proofreaders: Joanne Thompson and Julia Goda
Interior Design by CP Smith
Acknowledgments
To my family. All of this is for you. Thank you for putting up with me!
Julia Goda and Mayra Statham. I love you both, to the moon and back. You ladies keep me sane!
Deb Hawblitzel Schultz, I love you like a sister. Thank you for always having my back.
Nichole Hart, Gi Paar, Jane S. Wells, Angela Shue, Jamila Giel, and Victoria Dixon. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to find my errors. It means a lot to me that you care as much as I do about these characters I bring to life.
Joanne Thompson and Karen Hrdlicka, you edit like rock stars, thank you for all your hard work and for the friendship that I treasure.
My Wallflowers, what can I say? #Crossfire You held me up through the most terrifying time in my life to date and I will NEVER forget that. Wallflowers never leave a woman behind, and you proved you’re Wallflowers through and through.
Teeny’s Tarts, you’re the bomb. Thank you for all your help. I can’t express my appreciation enough that you would give up your spare time to help this Wallflower with her books!
And to my original Dream Team. I love you more than you know! ‘Thank you’ isn’t a big enough word. I never forget where it all started. Who pushed me to take this step. I wish all of you nothing but love and happiness.
Dedication
For Seth! He shines brighter than all the rest!
Thank you, God, for healing my son!
Prologue
Tybee Island, Georgia
July 4th. . .
FIREWORKS RENT THE NIGHT air, the colors exploding overhead in a cascade of Independence Day revelry. Joe Rouger watched with detachment as the coastal Georgia town of Tybee Island put on a show for the locals and tourists alike. He’d been in Georgia for almost a week with his brother, Mike, and his family. They’d insisted he come on vacation with them. Said he worked too hard and needed a break from his routine.
He’d declined at first, wary of leaving Mike’s stepson, Brandon, in charge of their club for an entire week. But November, Mike’s oldest daughter, had worn him down. Now he was covered in sand on a moonlit beach, watching his brother play with his wife, Kat, and their son as he pointed at the fireworks, while Joe wondered what the hell he was doing there.
Joe turned his head and took in his niece and her family. November was chasing one of her daughters while her husband, Asher, balanced one on his hip. Joe smirked at the sight. Asher was a man’s man, but he’d somehow managed to sire all girls. He was surrounded by estrogen, and even though he complained about the constant noise that accompanied the girls, he knew Asher wouldn’t change it for the world. The man was tied tightly around five little fingers. Joe sure as hell hoped he lived long enough to watch Asher’s reaction when some man-child came sniffing around one of his daughters. Or James, Asher’s father, for that matter. He chuckled low in his throat at the thought. Both Mayson men were loose cannons when it came to their women.
His attention caught on a woman walking up the beach with three of her friends. Even though they were scantily clad in bikinis that barely covered their ample breasts, his attention moved away from them. Ten years ago, he might have paid more attention. But a growing emptiness had slowly been eating away his desire for casual entanglements.
After being married for eighteen long, miserable years to a woman he’d never loved, he’d sworn off commitment. He’d put a ring on Heather’s finger because she was carrying his twin sons, a decision he’d never regret. His boys were his life, and he’d do anything for them, including marrying their mother, but the marriage had left him bitter after years of trying to keep the peace. The minute his sons left for college, he’d stripped off the fucking suit she insisted he wear and stopped pretending to be something he wasn’t for the sake of his boys. He’d pulled on his leather and straddled his Harley, shaking off years of resentment that came with a loveless marriage, and lived the next part of his life on his terms. But now, after living life on the wild side for the better part of ten years, he was more unsettled than he’d ever been. Time was slipping away from him, and with it came a deep-seated urgency for something more tangible.
Deeper.
A connection that would complete him.
A woman who was solely his.
A fucking soul mate he could live and die for.
Tipping back his beer as another round of pyrotechnics lit up the ocean with fantastic light, Joe wondered, not for the first time, if it was time to retire from Teasers, the strip club he owned with his brother. He’d used it as an excuse to avoid his empty house and life for far too long. Maybe if he stepped back from the club, he could change his stars?
He’d dedicated more than thirty years to the business, and he was proud of what they’d built: a safe place for women to strip without the worry they’d become prey. In their early twenties, he and Mike had been throwing around ideas for their own business. They’d had tentative plans to open a nightclub in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, so the locals didn’t have to travel to Nashville for a night out. But a chance meeting with a former friend from high school had changed everything.
Scarlet Avery had been a grade younger than Joe but older than Mike. She was a typical teenage girl, with stars in her eyes and plans to take Hollywood by storm, but life got in the way. They’d run into her one night at the grocery store while picking up beer and chips for a night of football and poker. She’d looked beaten by life. There were no more stars in her eyes, only dark circles, a toddler on her hip, and a policeman trying to arrest her for shoplifting a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter. Luckily, the store owner knew Scarlet and was content with letting them pay rather than pressing charges.
Concerned for their old friend, Mike and Joe had escorted Scarlet and her daughter back to her one-room apartment, where she’d confessed, with no
small amount of shame, her whole sordid past. A past that included stripping to keep the electricity on while she tried to raise her daughter and go to school. The club she worked for in Nashville had been a dive, one where the girls handed over half their tips for the privilege of taking off their clothes, all while fending off men who used their hands for pain as much as passing a tip. Her story had rocked Mike and Joe to their core, and within a day of hearing her tale, their plans for a nightclub had switched gears.
With their mother’s support, after hearing Scarlet’s story, the two brothers opened Teasers, an upscale strip club where women were safe, the drinks weren’t watered down, and the girls kept what tips they earned and put money into a 401k that Mike and Joe matched. Scarlet had been their first employee. But instead of dancing, she worked the front of the house as hostess, with a generous salary to take care of her daughter. Scarlet had since moved on after earning a business degree, but she still sent them Christmas cards with photos of her grown daughter. It only took opening that card every year to know they’d made the right decision. A decision some had been surprised by but the correct one, nonetheless. Everyone had the right to work in a place they felt safe, even if the local churches raised a brow.
Teasers was a way for the women to earn an income to support themselves, but Joe and Mike still encouraged them to get an education. And they put their money where their mouth was. They gave low-interest loans to anyone who wanted to go to school and get on a path to a better life. Joe was proud of all the women they’d helped, knew it should be enough to feel content with his life, but he still felt unfulfilled, as if something were missing.
There had to be more to life than checks and balances. More than dealing with scared women looking for a way to change their lives. Lives that sometimes came with baggage Joe had to clean up if he wanted to help them.
That was another reason he was considering retirement. As many women as they’d helped, there were just as many whose lives bled into their club and sometimes into their private lives. The filthy baggage that came with the women they couldn’t help was beginning to eat away at Joe’s soul, leaving him with battle scars. Some days sleep evaded him, and the stench of failure was impossible to wash off. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt clean.
Another explosion rocked the night air, and Joe looked up. The sparks illuminated the beach, throwing shadows into the light. His nephew, Hayden, shouted in delight at the burst of colorful light, then turned to search the crowd. When Hayden found Joe, his face lit up as he waved, pointing at the sky as if Joe hadn’t seen the display and might miss them. Something about the action caused the emptiness Joe felt turn sour. He was too old for more kids, but watching his brother and niece with their families only intensified the hollowness that seemed his constant companion.
He swallowed against the bitterness that being alone sometimes wrought and smiled back at his nephew, waving his hand to let him know he’d seen him.
A nearby detonation caught Joe’s attention. He turned his head to search the sky but found it originated from the beach. A family was shooting off their own fireworks. A high, screeching noise dominated the air as pinwheels danced across the sand. Once the wheels had extinguished, Joe heard a silky, sweet voice drawl out in excitement, like some long-forgotten Southern belle, “Sister! Aren’t those the doohickeys you love so much?” The velvety sound of her voice washed over Joe like smooth whiskey, and he began to search the crowd for its owner out of curiosity.
The beach was crowded with families of all shapes and sizes, making it difficult to locate its source. He continued to scan the crowd with a shrewd eye, thankful for all the string lighting that illuminated the beach, as he searched for a woman who looked as warm as her voice sounded. He doubled back when a shock of blonde hair captured his attention, and he froze solid, drinking in pure fucking beauty. He held his breath and waited to see if he was right. When she threw her head back and laughed, he knew she belonged to the silky smooth voice he’d heard. She looked mid-to-late forties with light blonde hair, big eyes, and a smile that could light up the darkness. She looked innocent, yet she was the most striking, sexy woman he’d ever laid eyes on. Her body was delicate yet shapely. She had the face of an angel and the eyes of a seductress all rolled into one. She was the kind of woman a man reacted to on a baser level. The kind a man stood in front of and pounded his chest to stake his claim. And when she tossed her head back and laughed once again, warmth flooded his chest, and his cock hardened instantly at the sight.
“The kind of woman you could live and die for,” he murmured, rolling to his haunches, not giving a shit that she lived in another state. His gut told him to stand up and find out if she had a man.
Joe managed to get to his feet and take one step toward her before Hayden blindsided him, trying to tackle him to the ground. Thrown off balance, he reached down and picked his nephew up off the ground, looking for his brother so he could hand him over. “Where’s your mom and dad, Hayden?”
The sky lit up like a nuclear bomb before Hayden could answer, as dozens of fireworks went off simultaneously. The apparent finale for the night shattered into brilliant blues and reds, deafening the crowd. Joe searched and found his brother watching Hayden from a distance, so Joe waved him over. The finale signaled the end of the night’s festivities, warning Joe his time was limited. Mike jerked his head as Joe waved, then looked back at the sky as the crowd erupted into cheers, the thunderous noise of the fireworks swallowing up their cries as the show ended. Joe turned his head back to keep track of the blonde, but he’d lost her in the crowd as everyone stood to leave after the final display had died in a spark of ash and smoke.
“Where the fuck are you?” he mumbled under his breath.
“Mom says ‘fuck’ is a bad word,” Hayden chided.
Frustrated, Joe closed his eyes at the sound of his nephew’s curse and chuckled. He’d lost the mystery woman in the hordes of people, and he couldn’t tear through them to look for her with Hayden in tow. But the need to find her, to temper his curiosity, to know for sure whether she was taken by another man, kept driving him to look.
“You think angels take early morning walks on the beach?” he wondered out loud.
“Probably fly,” Hayden answered sarcastically.
Joe looked over his shoulder one last time in the small hope he’d see her, but she was gone, lost to the masses like a figment of his imagination.
The rush of warmth he’d experienced earlier extinguished, leaving him frustrated and hollow.
“Worth a shot, don’t you think?” he told his nephew.
“What’s worth a shot?” he questioned.
“Hunting down an angel before we leave for the airport in the morning.”
_______________
Joe zipped his bag closed harder than needed. He was running late, and the rest of the family was waiting on him. He’d rolled out of bed before the sun had peeked above the horizon and walked the length of South Beach twice, determined to find the silky-voiced angel from the night before. As if she were a ghost, tempting him with a promise of something he’d never have, she’d vanished completely. But he wasn’t done trying. Not by a long shot. He was too edgy and restless to leave. He felt as if something important was now within his reach. He had to find her.
He scanned his room one last time to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He planned to stay a few more days on the island and search for her, but he had to find a new room after dropping Mike and his family off at the airport in Savannah. He wasn’t sure what he would tell his brother. Mike would think he’d lost his mind, chasing after a ghost. And maybe he had. But he’d never, not once in all the years he’d been alive, reacted that strongly to a woman on sight. He’d spent his whole life taking risks. Some panned out, like the club, and others didn’t. But he’d never been afraid to try because you only got one shot at this life, and a risk not taken was a failure from the start. And regret was a bitter fucking pill to swallow on a cold, dark nigh
t.
Grabbing the keys to his rental car, Joe headed outside to the street. November and Asher were loading up their girls into a separate vehicle. They’d needed their own SUV to get them around with all the car seats their girls required.
“Took you long enough,” Mike razzed Joe as he walked up.
Ignoring his brother, Joe popped the trunk and unlocked the doors of their vehicle, tossing the keys to Mike so he could air out the car, then began loading their luggage. Once the last bag was inside, he turned around and stopped cold in his tracks. The restless and edgy feeling he’d been fighting off since the night before extinguished, morphing into a driving need to claim instantly. His angel with the Southern drawl stood fifteen feet away watering plants. And she was staring right at him.
Their eyes met and locked with a silent click. He felt unbalanced immediately. His legs ordered him to broach the distance between them before she slipped away again, but he held his ground while he drank in the sight of her.
Her chest expanded rapidly in short pants, as if she, too, was excited at what she saw. Scanning the vision in front of him from tip to toe, Joe memorized every line and curve of her body while he fought for control before he spooked her off. Her hair was thrown on top of her head in a messy knot while tendrils of blonde silk danced around her face. She had on aviator sunglasses, but they’d slipped down to the tip of her nose as she watched him over the rim. She’d covered her body in a two-piece suit with a flowing piece of material tied at her hip, but it did little to hide her generous curves.
Lust and possessiveness ripped through his chest when Joe finished his inspection. He didn’t like the idea of any man seeing what he was beginning to think of as his after a long night of restless sleep.
“Uncle Joe?” November called out. He ignored her, unwilling to take his eyes off the angel in front of him. It had been years since any woman had ignited his interest or made him feel anything but detached and alone.