Hotel Indigo (29 page)

I move up to her shoulders. I’m entranced by Lucy’s body, but since she’s on her stomach and I can’t see my favorite parts, my gaze strays to the city view. It really is spectacular up here. Maybe even more than we could afford, but Evelyn was insistent. Lucy didn’t like the idea of accepting money from her mother for a down payment on our studio any more than she’d liked me accepting money for the plane ticket that got me here, but I’ve figured Evelyn out.
 

Lucy sees her as controlling, but I know she’s guarded. She comes off as a bitch to Lucy, and the woman is great at laying on the guilt. But because I see through her, she speaks to me like a human. And thanks to Lucy’s father, Evelyn quite literally has more money than she knows what to do with. She
wanted
to help. Of course she pries at Lucy with guilt over the money, but she does that with everything, anyway. And I think they both understand, finally, what their relationship is.
 

Not good.

Not bad.
 

But it is what it is, and that’s okay.

“Harder,” Lucy tells me.
 

“Dirty talk. I like it.”
 

“Harder on my shoulders,” Lucy clarifies.
 

“Kinky, too,” I add.
 

Lucy groans. Then she turns over, and it’s like I’ve struck the jackpot. I love looking at my fiancée’s body. The only problem is the situation it causes on the rare occasions she wants a real massage and nothing else.
 

My cock is rock stiff, and conveniently right above her face.
 

Lucy looks up at it and says, “What will Anna think when she comes to visit her newest location and sees what you’re doing to sully Yoga Bear’s good name?”
 

“The yoga classes are still professional.”
 

“And the personnel,” Lucy adds.

“Yes. Their jobs are so boring.”
 

I keep hoping Lucy will bend up and take care of my stiff situation, but she lays back and closes her eyes. Then she reaches to the side table and puts on her sunglasses.
 

“Hunter called me.”
 

I look down at her. This makes me pause. But Lucy smiles, fucking with me.
 

“He knows he can’t have me. I don’t want him anyway.”
 

Lucy only says the minimum. She’s a tease, always making me jealous. But still, we haven’t heard from Hunter in a while. Not since Inferno. Not since he returned to San Francisco, and certainly not since Lucy resigned at GameStorming — which didn’t, as Caspian fretted, fall apart without her to help steer it.

“Relax, Tiger,” Lucy says. “I think he just wants a massage.”
 

“No happy endings.”
 

“Hey. Hunter’s a pro. He only has sex with women he isn’t paying.”
 

I consider. Hunter’s top-level public persona is glossy, but his just-below-the-surface image is awful. Orbiting in Caspian’s old circles — or at least its gossip — we hear stories of bad-boy mayhem all the time. He throws these big parties, and the prettiest women always leave sore.
 

“Hmm.”
 

She pulls her sunglasses down and looks at me.
 

“Don’t be like that,” she says, noting my frown, matching it with an over-the-top one of her own. “Come on. Sing for me like you used to.”
 

“No, thanks.”

She takes my cock in her hand and starts to stroke. “Please?” she says.
 

I lean down and I kiss her.
 

And I tell her to try and convince me, and then we’ll see.

WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

I’ve teased you for several books with Hunter Altman, the billionaire music producer with a secret from his past. 

You’ve heard about Angela — the source of Hunter’s deepest regrets — but not who she is or what went wrong between them.

Learn the truth in Almost Wrong, available now.

>> GET YOUR COPY OF
ALMOST WRONG
HERE << 

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It normally sells for $2.99, but I’d like to give you a FREE copy.
Just click the link below to get it!

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THANK YOU FOR READING!

Aubrey Parker

SHIT YOU SHOULD KNOW

It’s funny how these things start.
 

The truth of the matter is, Lucy White wasn’t even supposed to exist.
 

If you read my author’s note in the back of
Gagged
(the book immediately before this one, but as with most of my books,
Gagged
and
Hotel Indigo
can easily be read as standalones), you might know that the publicly released version of
Gagged
was the second version I wrote. The first was more like dark erotica, and Caspian White was more like a porny boogeyman than a bona-fide hero. The story deserved more life, so I gave it to you, my precious and adored readers, by writing the second version — which, I must say, is among my favorite things I’ve written.
 

Let me see if I can do this next part without spoiling
Gagged
for those of you who haven’t read it. (I’m sure I can.)

In my first version of
Gagged
, there were really only three characters — maybe
literally
only three characters if I’m remembering right. There was Caspian; there was Aurora; there was Jasmine. Caspian spent the whole book making both girls do dirty shit. They both loved it, of course. The book was hot, but it wasn’t a romance. And the reason was, in part, because Caspian was a supremely unlikable asshole.
 

Now, you may feel, if you read the second and final version of
Gagged
, that Caspian
remained
an asshole. I’d kind of agree, to a point. I’ve written Caspian into several of my books now, and let’s face it: the guy, redeemed or not, is a total cock. He’s also ridiculously fun to write. (The assholes always are.)

But you may also feel like most readers: that Caspian, while tortured into becoming the man he became, was just another human being deep down inside. He had a heart; it was just clotted with oil. And really, I think pretty much everyone is that way — but then again, I’m a romantic.
 

Anyway. If you came to like or at least understand Caspian, there was one primary reason: because when I re-wrote
Gagged
, I was sure to give him a foil instead of just a love interest. And that foil, of course, was his sister Lucy.
 

That’s how Lucy White started: as an afterthought of a character whose sole purpose was to star in scenes opposite her caustic brother. Caspian was rough and angry with the other two female leads, but interactions with Lucy would naturally be very different. I created Lucy to show a softer side of Caspian. I wanted readers to know that as bad as Caspian was, he still treated his sister with love and respect.

Now, as these things happen, Lucy’s one-dimensional incarnation didn’t stay one-dimensional for long. This, again, was Caspian’s fault. Caspian had an extreme personality, so Lucy had to be an extraordinary woman to find the good in him — which, without question, she did. She had to be tough if she was to challenge him. She had to be smart if she was to work beside him, running the company while he was away. She had to be funny if she was to deflect all of Caspian’s aggression harmlessly away, and she had to be likable if Aurora was — despite Caspian’s personality — to be able to like her.

Lucy was like a gemstone. Gems are forged by pressure and heat. They’re made beautiful because they’re oppressed by powerful forces. And that’s how Lucy was by the book’s end: she’d served her purpose as a worthy foil to Caspian, but she’d also proven her worth in a trial by fire. And she’d proven herself amazing.
 

I
had
to know what happened next for Lucy.
 

Originally, I thought Lucy might hook up with Hunter Altman — a music producer who you saw in this book, but who also appears in
Gagged
. I was wrong; Hunter’s story comes next in
Almost Wrong
, releasing about a month after
Indigo
hits the stores.
 

Turns out, Lucy’s true beloved came from a totally unexpected place … a place that came readily to me once I began asking the right questions.
 

What did Lucy want?

She wanted the best for those she loved.

Where did Lucy go, after her father died?
 

She went home, obviously, to my central town of Inferno Falls.
 

And most of all:
What did Lucy deserve more than anyone else?
 

The answer to that one was obvious. More than anything — and more than anyone else — Lucy deserved
a break
.
 

The story of
Hotel Indigo
unspooled from there. It seemed obvious that Lucy needed not just a break, but a
pampered
break, like at a resort spa. And it seemed similarly obvious that Lucy, with her selfless nature, would only take one if things became dire. So they became dire, and forced her into serenity … with the problem of a man that was Marco.

And that right there set up Lucy’s central conflict:
 

Who did Lucy need to learn most to take care of? It wasn’t her brother. It wasn’t her mother.
It was herself
.
 

Hotel Indigo
isn’t a complex story, but I hope you found it a refreshing one. At heart, it’s about letting go. It’s about learning to trust. It’s about learning to stop taking care of everyone else all the time … and for once, to respect yourself enough to put yourself first.
 

Those are the lessons Marco would have to help Lucy to see.
 

And what happened from there?
 

Well, my friends …
that
was the magic.
 

So what happens from here?

In this book, you got to see more of Hunter Altman. Hunter is a character I’ve known for a while; he actually pre-dated the very first Aubrey Parker book. (Fun side note: Hunter was originally named Parker, but I put a Parker in
Trevor’s Harem
. When you have two Parkers from an author named Parker, shit gets confusing fast. So I changed it.)
 

My next book — called
Almost Wrong —
is Hunter’s.
 

Hunter’s book is a story of taboos. You got a feel for that taboo in this book, a little, but in
Almost Wrong
(look for a link to it before this author’s note), you’ll get the rest.
Almost Wrong
is already finished even as I write this note, so you won’t have to wait long for it. (And if you’re reading this after mid-October of 2016, you won’t have to wait at all.)
 

I already have the project after
Almost Wrong
lined up, too … and HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT is that a project to end all projects. I can’t say more yet, but the first book in that new series will hit in November of 2016. Your jaw is going to drop when you read it. You may not be able to pick your jaw back up. You may just have to walk around forever with your jaw hanging down. You’ll drool a lot that way, but it’ll be worth it.