Contents
Untitled
Synopsis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
About the Author
More books by this author
Copyright © 2019 Mary B Moore
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written expressed permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, businesses, places, events and incident are products of the authors imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.
Cover design: Tracie Douglas https://www.facebook.com/darkwatercovers/
Editor: B&C
The use of actors, artists, movies, TV Shows, and song titles/ lyrics throughout this book are done so for storytelling purposes and should in no way be seen as advertisement. Trademark names are used in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for use only, then you should return it to the seller and please purchase your own copy.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1911 and the Copyright Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior express, written consent of the author.
This book is intended for mature adults only and contains consensual sexual content and language that may offend some. Suggested reading audience is 18 years or older. I consider this book as Adult Romance. If this isn’t your type of book, then please don’t purchase it.
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Synopsis
Lilith
The one time I do something irresponsible it blows up in my face. Two pink lines, the word pregnant mocking me, a blue cross… twenty-six pregnancy tests in total, all screaming the same thing at me - Girl, you’re pregnant AF.
The problem was, I wasn’t sure Tate even remembered our night together.
There was no question in my mind, I was keeping my baby. The only issue was - I needed to break the news to him, too. I had time to figure out the way I was going to do it, how hard could it be?
At least, that was my plan until my best friend revealed the news to the entire bar… including the man in question.
Tate
I’d been trying to figure out a way to ask Lily out ever since she’d moved to town and taken over her grandad’s bar. Apparently, car problems, man problems, and a couple bottles of Johnny Walker were the cure for that – or the accelerant for stupidity.
The only proof I had when I woke up that our night together hadn’t been a dream was the pair of her panties in my shoe. How they’d gotten in there, I had no clue, but that pink scrap of lace was the best thing I’d ever seen because it made what had happened real..
The situation with my cousins got in the way, and I was frustrated I still couldn’t remember every detail from that night by the time I came home to Gonzales County . Then, I walked into the bar and smelled her perfume as she passed me, and all of it came flooding back.
That wasn’t the best part of the night. No – that was finding out I was going to be a dad, just as some twat punched me in the face.
I wish I could say I was sorry, but I wasn’t.
Now all I had to do was convince Lily to take a chance on me.
Dedication
Everyone loves a taint, right? So it makes dedicating his book really hard.
Because of this, I’m going to say – for those of you who want to be tainted, to enjoy some tainted love, and to lay claim to him, he’s yours.
Thank you for all of the support throughout the writing of this book, my “e”mergency (seriously, why does every word have to have an e in it when your laptop refuses to acknowledge it’s existence?) and for loving the Providence characters.
So, Tate is yours.
M xox
One
Lily
“I said I was sorry, sweetie,” Chris said through the speakers in the car, using the tone that he used to use to get me to do what he wanted.
It didn’t work then, it definitely wasn’t going to work now.
The big cheating shit stain! Not that I actually cared, you had to want to be in the other person’s life to do that. Me? I’d only been trying to be nice to him, but a girl had to have some pride and self-respect.
“I already told you, I’m not interested,” I repeated for the millionth time, the boredom of saying it over and over clear in my voice. “You cheated, I caught you, we’re done. It’s as easy as that.”
“But it was only the tip,” he persisted.
The vibrations of my tires hitting the little reflective bump things separating the lanes of the road had me jerking the wheel back quickly. Lesson learned, don’t roll your eyes while driving.
“And it was only because she looked like you.”
That made it better? Seriously, did guys actually use that excuse thinking it would work?
Plus, I had blonde hair, the chick had black. I had light blue eyes, the chick clearly had dark brown eyes when she’d looked at me when I’d walked in. I was curvy, a size ten, she was a size four at most. She’d also looked taller than me even though she was lying down, well from what I’d seen of her apart from her tits. We were complete opposites!
“Was her name Lily too?” I snarked, my patience shot to shit. “Because, not that I saw as much of her as you did, but the stuff I did see doesn’t help me understand why you’d think she looked like me at all. Not that I really give a shit,” I added on at the end, keeping my eyes on the road ahead of me now, and seeing nothing but the same emptiness for a good distance.
“Well, you were busy that night, and I was lonely…”
Hitting the button to disconnect the call, I yanked my wheel so that the car left the road and went into a field with tall dry grass in it.
To hell with it.
I was anal about following the rules, I never broke them ever. I was the only kid in my school who’d never been grounded or even given a detention. I followed everything to the letter and never detoured once.
Today was going to be different. Just once in my life I wanted to live on the wild side, even if it was just driving through a field to get to the road that led me to my family’s bar in town. If I’d stayed on the road I’d been on, like I did every day, I’d have had to drive for another fifteen minutes and then come back on myself to get to town. I wanted to live outside the lines just for once.
I was also done with being that Lily. The Lily who was nice to everyone,
who got herself caught up with an asshole because she didn’t want to look like a bitch for saying no when he asked her out. The Lilith James who followed every rule to the letter.
Only seconds later, I was rethinking my mental rebirth. I hadn’t counted on the ground being so bumpy under my Charger and winced as I went over something hard, hearing a metallic thud as it hit the bottom of my car.
Cars were almost indestructible nowadays though, they even survived floods without dying – well, sometimes.
Shaking it off, I patted the dash of my girl. She’d be okay and get me there safely.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. I’d finally gotten onto the road I’d been aiming for, and had only been driving on it for five minutes, when the car died and I had to drift over to the side.
“Fuck it!” I yelled, banging my hands on the wheel.
Flinging the door open and getting out, I looked at my baby and tried to figure out what was wrong. I’d filled her up with gas yesterday, never once going into the red field on the fuel gauge because, ya know, rules and all. So, it couldn’t be that. She was only five months old too, so it couldn’t be anything major. Wouldn’t there be bits dangling down to the ground or trailing along behind it?
I smelled it before I saw the pool of liquid running from underneath it, travelling down toward the dip at the side of the road.
Please let it be water!
I was just about to get onto my hands and knees to take a look when a truck pulled up behind me and a tall guy with a beard got out. I’d heard about things like this happening, so I immediately stiffened and moved my keys so I could stab him with them if he got close. Well, that’s what I’d been told I should do. In all honesty, if he did anything to me, I’d probably run down the road screaming and find a place to hide – but because I’d been told to do it, I held my keys like a weapon.
He’d just rounded the front of the truck when he looked at me and stopped, and I got a proper look at who it was without the mental image of me running for my life from an axe murderer blurring my vision.
It was probably only seconds, but we stood staring at each other without saying a word, so it felt like hours. Fifty million awkward and tense hours.
Snapping himself out of it, he shook his head and flashed a grin through his beard at me. Even white teeth stood out against the dark facial hair and made me catch my breath.
Holy greasing Jesus, he was hot!
Something I already knew just like I could tell you his full name, but I wasn’t going to stroke his ego by letting him know that. I met and spoke to customers every day, I could have a really selective memory for all he knew.
“You okay, darlin’?” he asked, his voice a smooth deep baritone.
Body shiver… another body shiver… and a full shudder that all led down to one specific place located in the southern region of my body.
“Um, the car stopped,” I replied and then winced at how dumb I sounded. “There’s fluid coming out from under it, so I was just going to take a look.”
I stepped back keeping the door between us as he got closer, something that he noticed and smiled at. When he got to where the stuff was travelling out from under the car, he smoothly knelt on the ground, no bones cracking unlike if I’d done it, and looked under it.
“Looks like you’ve punctured the fuel line, babe,” he groaned. “Dunno what you did, but there’s a decent hole in it.”
“Fuck,” I muttered, leaning my head back to look up at the bright sky. “Fuck a duck, ducky fuck!”
“That help?” he asked, standing up and wiping his hands off on his jeans, drawing my eyes to his legs.
He had nice legs, great legs in fact and the jeans he was wearing did really great things for them.
And for the package hanging between them.
Shrugging, I avoided eye contact with him by turning and looking up and down the road a couple times. “Nope, but then does swearing ever help?”
“Sure,” his response shocked me into looking back at him. “When you stub your toe, bang your head, slam your finger in a drawer and shit like that.”
He had a fair point!
My lips twitched as I fought hard not to smile.
“Name’s Tate Townsend,” he held his hand out to me. “I don’t think I know you?”
“Lilith James,” I replied, reaching my own out to shake his, acting breezy. “But my friends call me Lily. My dad bought The Bar six months ago.”
“You’re Petey’s daughter?” he asked, his eyebrows pinching together in confusion. Either he was a good actor, or he really didn’t know who I was – and that stung. “Way he described you, we figured you’d still be in high school.”
My dad had suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and was now taking it easy, which left the running of The Bar to me and the manager, Annie. However, I was well aware of how he’d told everyone about his daughter from the day he’d taken the establishment over. The stories customers joked about were embarrassing and went all the way back to my first steps.
That little slip up, teamed with the look in his eye just screaming bullshit, clued me into the fact that he knew exactly who I was, so we were both playing the same game, apparently.
I was gonna play it better!
Nodding, I chuckled as I shoved my hands into the back pockets of my jeans. “No, I graduated four years ago, but the way he goes on you’d think I still had four years to go.” Then I played my trump card. “Wait, you’re one of the Townsends aren’t you?”
Slowly raising one eyebrow at me in an ‘ain’t you special?’ way, he drawled, “Well, my last name is Townsend, so…” And then he went and actually said it, “Ain’t you special!”
Ok, so the trump card hadn’t worked. Sarcastic asshole!
Glaring at him, I reached into the car to grab my cell to call triple A or my dad, and groaned when I saw that I didn’t have any service.
“Shit,” I muttered, turning around and holding it up in the air, desperate for even one bar. With just one, I could at least send a text, and if I put my location – i.e. a road between home and town – saying my car broke down, someone could come and help me.
“Not gonna help, babe,” Mr. Helpy-Helperton informed me. “This is a dead zone.”
“Do those still exist?” I asked distractedly, still trying for that one bar of signal.
“Sure they do, right here!”
Glaring over at him, I lowered the phone. “Are you here to torment me? Was that why you were put on this earth?”
Chuckling, he reached in and pulled my keys out of the ignition, before slamming the door shut and locking my car. “Nope, I was put on this earth to rescue you from a car that you killed, before the clouds heading our way burst open and drown you.”
“That’s a slight exaggeration,” I mumbled, following him into his car.
I might have started this all off by trying to play a game, but I’d had enough of men today, I’d had enough of rules today, I’d had enough of breaking the rules today… I’d just had enough. I needed to get to work so Dad didn’t panic and make himself sick, I had a lot to do at work, and even though I’d been a dick pretending I didn’t know him, I knew full well who Tate Townsend was, as well as the other members of his family. I might not have spent a lot of one-on-one time with him past quickly serving him on a busy night, but I still knew him and my dad liked his family. So, I was gonna blow one last rule to hell and back – never get in a stranger’s vehicle. Although, it wasn’t quite a stranger’s vehicle I was getting into, I guess.
Once we’d set off and my car was a speck in the distance, he asked the question I’d been dreading.
“So, wanna tell me how your car came to have a crater in the bottom of it?”
“Not really,” I mumbled, looking out the window so that he didn’t see me blushing.
‘Apparently not’ really wasn’t an answer a Townsend accepted, and I found this out when he asked me every thirty seconds until I exploded and told him the whole story
– including what happened with my ‘ex’.
Tate
“Just the tip?” I wheezed, still laughing over that part from the story about her ex-boyfriend.
“Yup, and that she looked just like me when we were complete opposites,” she repeated, making me laugh even harder.
It had been over an hour since I’d dropped her off at her family’s establishment, The Bar, and had been well over that since she’d recounted the tale of how she’d decided to break the rules and about her ex. Yet, here I was, still laughing about his desperate excuse, sitting on a stool at the bar drinking a beer with her.
The first time I’d laughed about it, I’d been worried that she was still upset by it all and that my laughing might upset her more, which wasn’t my goal. It was just so absurd that I couldn’t help it. But, she’d burst out laughing too, so I’d let rip freely. Even now she was grinning at me as I chuckled and wiped my eyes.
I came from a big family full of dumbasses, but even I had to admit saying that was one of the dumbest excuses I’d ever heard. And to follow it by trying to say she looked just like Lily when she hadn’t? Hearing the first excuse, you knew he was stupid AF. Hearing the second excuse? Guy needed a psych eval stat.
I was relieved we were at this stage though. Both of us pretending like we didn’t know each other when we clearly did had been a pain in the ass, but for some reason she wanted to play it that way, so I’d gone along with it when I’d seen her do her best to look like she didn’t recognize me.
The truth was, I’d been jonesing for Lilith James for a long time. As a thank you to her car for dying, I’d even text Dahlia to tell her to treat it to the works and have it detailed until it glowed in the dark.
Tainted Gold: Providence Gold Series Book Three Page 1