Fall Into Temptation (Blue Moon #2) (31 page)

Gia was getting perilously close to humiliating herself with a tearful wail.

“I’ve asked your father, I’ve asked your kids, I’ve asked this whole damn town and now I’m asking you. Gianna Decker will you be my partner, my wife, my other, better half?”

Gia closed her eyes and let her heart tell her what to do. “Yes.” She had barely whispered the word when she was swept up in a crushing hug. Beckett spun her around, kissing her until she was too dizzy to stand on her own.

Evan and Aurora jumped around them cheering and laughing. Evan jumped on Beckett’s back and it was just enough for everyone to lose their balance. They landed in a heap on the living room floor, laughing like idiots.

“Mama! Bucket said ‘damn.’”

“Dibs on the secret passage room!” Evan hooted.

Beckett found Gia’s hand in the pile of chaos and slid the ring onto her finger.

J
oey Greer let
the night wind from the open car window whip over her bare arm. She was three days away from turning eighteen and five from graduation. The freedom looming on the horizon burned like embers inside her. Or maybe that smolder came from the driver whose hand rested possessively on her bare thigh just below her ragged cutoffs.

She shot a look in the dark at him. He looked like one of the gods in the Greek mythology section of her World Cultures book.

Jackson Pierce’s profile was just as fine as the rest of him. The perfect blade of a nose over lips that were either spread wide in a mischievous grin or attached to Joey’s mouth. His square jaw and high cheekbones gave him the same ancient warrior look his older brothers shared. He was leaner than his brothers and his gray eyes had a hint of icy blue to them. But there was no mistaking him for anything but a Pierce.

Jax was six months older and miles more experienced than Joey. But it wasn’t his fault he hadn’t fallen for her in kindergarten as she had for him. He was making up for it now.

In the end, all it had taken was for Joey to accept Bannon Bullock’s invitation to Homecoming last year. One look at the basketball captain’s wandering hands on the dance floor and Jax had finally laid claim. Joey’s virginity had lasted all of a week after that.

She loved him completely, simply, unconditionally, and knew that as surely as her heart beat he felt the same about her.

She felt the purr of the engine ride up her spine as Jax accelerated toward her home to meet curfew. The ’68 Camaro had been Jax’s first love, until Joey.

Everything about him — about them — was fast, dangerous. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’m serious, Jojo. Think about it,” he said, his voice low and smooth. “Forget college. Let’s see what’s out there.”

Joey laughed as she always did when Jax pitched his see-the-world quest. “College
is
seeing what’s out there. I’ve got plans. You’ve got plans.”

Those plans included partial rides to Centenary where Joey couldn’t wait to try for a spot on the equestrian team. Jax was already guaranteed to start on the Cyclone’s lacrosse team.

He gripped her thigh tighter and she felt the thrill she always did at his touch. “Come on. There’s got to be more to the world than Blue Moon and college.”

Joey rolled her eyes and calculated how far they were from home. Her curfew was non-negotiable, set in stone. Her father didn’t like Jax. Thought he was too smooth, too charming, too rebellious. Joey’s mother, on the other hand, adored him … and had insisted on scheduling a doctor’s appointment for birth control as soon as Joey told her they were dating.

“Okay, where would we go?” Joey said, spreading her fingers as if to caress the night air. His answer was always different. One night they’d build a cabin in the hills of Montana. Another and they’d backpack their way down to Florida where they’d set sail for the Caribbean.

“West,” Jax decided. “We’ll just drive west. Pick up odd jobs wherever we stop.”

“And then what?” Joey asked, hiding her smile. A chorus of frogs serenaded them as they sped past Diller’s pond.

“L.A.”

Joey shot him an incredulous look. “You want to live in Los Angeles?” As far as she was concerned, L.A. was a horse-less wasteland of boob jobs and overpriced real estate.

“Why not, Jojo? I wanna be someone. I’m not going to be anyone but John Pierce’s son or Carter or Beckett’s brother here.”

Joey reached out and put her hand over his t-shirt. She could feel his heartbeat strong and steady under her palm. “Jax, you’re never
just
going to be a Pierce.”

“That’s all that’s here for me.” He said the words quietly, heavily.

Her mood shifted from quiet amusement to pissed off in less than a second. She dug her nails into his chest. “That’s
all
that’s here for you? What the hell am I, jackass? Some high school distraction for you until you can start living your real life?”

Jax was used to her flairs of temper, and was practically immune to them by now. He squeezed her thigh, hard enough to leave fingerprints until she quit stabbing him in the chest.

“Joey.” Her name on his lips had the effect it always did, goose bumps on her skin and a warm, melty feeling in her stomach ... like drinking hot chocolate on a cold night.

She crossed her arms over her chest, trying to hold on to her mad.

“You’re everything to me. There’s no future without you.”

“You know I’m not going to throw away college and all my dreams to live out of a car with you and take showers in gas station restrooms, right?”

Eyes on the road, Jax grinned. “I know. And I’ll be right there with you.”

“Promise?”

“I promise you.” He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. “But maybe we could take a road trip this summer? Just the two of us. No parents, no brothers, no school.”

Placated, Joey relaxed in her seat. Her horse fund could probably spare a few hundred dollars for a road trip with Jax. She’d be eighteen, an adult. She would find a way to smooth things over with her dad, who’d hate the idea. Anything would be worth spending her nights wrapped in Jax’s arms, waking up to that sexy as hell face.

“Let’s do it,” she said.

“Seriously?” He was back to her lighthearted Jax again.

“Yeah. Let’s figure it out. Maybe we could leave right after graduation.”

“I love you, Joey.” He laid a hand on his chest over his heart.

“I know.” She smirked at the dark outside her window and he gripped her leg again.

A flash of brown on the side of the road caught her eye. It was moving fast, too fast for her to get Jax’s name out of her throat.

The headlights caught the glow of the deer’s eyes as it burst through the trees onto the road. Jax braked hard, cutting the wheel to the right. And for a split second, as the deer bounded safely across the road, Joey thought they were out of danger. But the gravel sent them fishtailing.

She had less than a second to feel the sick, icy fear in her gut as the colossal oak loomed before them. Jax’s name exploded from her in a scream of dread. His arm slammed against her chest pinning her to the seat just before the sickening crunch of metal and glass.

And then her world went dark.

* * *

P
ain woke her
. And with it dread.

“Jax?” In her head it was a scream, but somewhere between her head and her lips it came out as a strangled rasp.

“He’s not here, honey. Remember?” Her mother’s voice and the scent of her Vanilla Fields came to her, floating on the fog of fluorescent lights and grief.

She went under again trying to remember why Jax wasn’t with her.

* * *

J
oey was discharged
on her birthday with a concussion, seventeen stitches running from wrist to elbow, and 50 units of a stranger’s blood coursing through her veins. Her chest and stomach were a mottled purple from the seatbelt that had saved her life.

There was no celebration.

Jackson Pierce was gone.

She’d heard her mother and Jax’s mom, Phoebe, talking in hushed whispers at the foot of the bed when they thought she was asleep.

He’d vanished from the farm in the middle of the night, leaving behind a note and most of his possessions.

He was heading west, the note said.

Joey’s father said in no uncertain terms that he preferred to think the boy who put his precious daughter in the hospital was dead.

So did Joey.

N
o More Secrets
: A Small Town Love Story

C
arter Pierce is
a man who believes in signs. He just doesn't know what to do with this one.

I
n the small
town of Blue Moon Bend, where everybody is a matchmaker, Carter wants to be left alone to tend the family farm. After returning from Afghanistan with scars, his only goal is recovery. He doesn't need any distractions, and definitely not one with silver-blonde hair and lips that beg to be kissed.

S
ummer Lentz is
a journalist from the city sent to interview Carter and his family. She's out of place in the small town, with her designer wardrobe and workaholic lifestyle. She asks too many questions and doesn't take no for an answer, threatening to destroy the peace and balance that Carter has been working towards. She thwarts every attempt Carter makes to retreat back inside himself, somehow bringing him closer to being whole again.

S
ummer has
secrets of her own, but she never planned to open up to anyone - let alone the scowling, secretive farm owner whose story she's after. But as she gets drawn into the community, she starts to realize that she can't stay closed off forever.

A
nd what's more
, she doesn't want to.

A
s Carter
and Summer grow closer, will they be able to push past the secrets that are holding both of them back?

* * *

S
ummer watched him go
, a frown on her pretty face. Carter wandered her way.

“There you are!” Summer said with relief. “I was worried you got bored and wandered off, or Katherine stole you away.”

“She didn’t catch on to our top secret relationship, did she?” Carter asked, stepping in closer.

“No, I think we’re in the clear for now.” Summer glanced over her shoulder.

“That was a nice save back there with Mary Beth, by the way,” he told her.

“Thanks. Usually Katherine’s assistant stays with her to help with names, but who knows where she disappeared to.”

“I was almost enjoying Katherine squirming after she made me feel like a piece of meat.”

“How dare she do that to a hot vegetarian,” Summer said in mock horror.

“Well, you were very impressive and quick on your feet. I hope she appreciates you.” Carter had a feeling she didn’t.

“I hope you’ll keep being impressed when I tell you the bad news.”

“Does it involve extending the time between now and when I get to peel that dress off of you to see what you’re wearing underneath?”

She bit her lip and nodded. “It’s your own fault. If you hadn’t impressed Katherine with your ‘whole package,’” she waved her palm in front of him. “Then we’d be able to sneak out before the show.”

“What does my
package
have to do with not being able to sneak out?” His package was currently straining behind his zipper at the idea of stripping Summer naked.

“She wants us — mainly you — to sit in the front row with her.”

“I can tell by the look on your face that this is important, but I’m not exactly clear on why.”

Summer laughed. “The front row is VIP-only. Usually at these events I don’t even get to sit. I stand in the back. You and your sexy-as-hell-everything just bumped a buyer for Saks and a Tony-nominee.”

“I feel like you’re still not speaking English.”

“Have you ever watched the Victoria’s Secret runway show?”

What red-blooded man hadn’t? “I think I’ve seen bits and pieces of it.”

“You’ll be one of the people in the front row that the cameras are constantly panning over.”

Carter swore. “This isn’t going to be on TV, is it?”

Summer patted his shoulder. “No, but there will be photographers and videographers capturing your handsome face.”

“I should have just waited for you at your place,” he grumbled.

“But if you were waiting for me at home, you wouldn’t know that the only thing I have on under this dress is a very pretty, very sheer thong.”

He made a move to grab her, but she danced out of his reach and around another column.

He snagged her wrist and pulled her back against him in the dimly lit corner, the brick blocking them from the rest of the room. “You play dangerous games and think you’re safe because we’re in public.”

She was breathing heavily. Her breasts rose, her lips parted.

He nuzzled against her neck. “You know what I could do to you here?”

She shook her head and angled her chin up, giving him more skin to tease.

“I could push you against this pillar.” He nudged her forward until her hands met coarse brick. He kissed her behind the ear. “And I could slide my hand up your dress.”

He gripped her shoulder and held her in place while his free hand roamed down between their bodies under the hem of her skirt.

“Carter!” A sharp whisper. A warning.

He skimmed his fingers down the gauzy material, following it from back to front. “I could slam my fingers into you right here.” He pressed the pads of his fingers against the wet spot they found. “I could make you come.”

“Carter.” This time his name was a dark plea on her lips...