10 Nights

10 Nights

Michelle Hughes & Karl
Jones

10 Nights

Michelle
Hughes & Karl Jones

Copyright
© United States 2012

All rights
reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by
any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publisher.

This is a
work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events
or locales is entirely coincidental.  The publisher does not have any control
over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites
or their content.

©2012 by Tears
of Crimson Books

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13:  978-1478165187

ISBN-10:  1478165189

DEDICATION

An
old friend once told me that the only limitations were the ones you set in your
mind.  Many thanks to Bryden Lloyd, Carlette Ritter and Charlotte Todd for all
their help and support, it is and was greatly appreciated.  Special thanks for
the inspiring music of Halestorm, Cold Play, Creations Tears, Shine Down, and
Goyte.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To all the wonderful people at Tears of
Crimson, thank you so much for always supporting my work.  To my incredible
family even though they won't read this book, they still gave me the space and
time I needed to make it happen.  And to the readers who allow me to share my
dreams no matter how dark they might be.

1

Barely Living

"This should be one
of the happiest days of my life," Leah mumbled under her breath, stomping
her foot in agitation.

After four years of
working her ass off to get her degree, she felt just as empty as she had when
she first stepped foot on the grounds of the campus. When she stepped out on
the green in a few hours, she would receive a Bachelor of Science Degree in
Business; not bad for a girl from a trailer park in nowhere Mississippi, so why
the hell couldn't she be happy?

She felt as if she was
drowning, and every time she tried to pull herself to the surface and into a
better mood the current reached out to drag her back down.

Try though she might to
analyze the situation, she still wasn't sure what was wrong with her. Tonight
was the result of four years of hard work; she had focused on nothing else
during the whole of that time, and she knew she should be pleased to have finally
reached the end.

Her relationship wasn't
the problem, she didn't have one. Leah had long ago concluded that
relationships were pointless, and entering into one would only make her unhappy,
and get in the way of the career she was working towards.

Growing up she had
witnessed her parents degenerate into children in their behavior as their
relationship collapsed. That had convinced her that relationships weren't
worthwhile, an opinion that was cemented when her father walked out on her
mother for a younger woman.

She just couldn't see
the point in getting involved with someone who would leave her the moment she
was no longer young and sexy.

Putting on a bare
minimum of makeup, she never wore much, Leah continued to dwell on her
discontent, wondering if it was the future that had her so confused and
agitated.

Now that she finally
had her degree, life was uncertain. Jobs were hard to come by, even with a
degree, and over the next few months she would be lining up interviews, she
hoped. There was no guarantee that she would find a job however, let alone her
dream job, not that she knew what her dream job was.

The only thing she knew
for sure was that she had left Mississippi and moved to Chicago to avoid
poverty, and she had no intention of going back there.

Thinking about the move
from Mississippi, and the possibility of having to go back there if she
couldn't find a job, brought her mother to the front of her thoughts.

She could have done
anything with her life; one night she'd found her mother's scrap book, it was
filled with pictures of her on stage in Nashville. She was so beautiful and
full of life in those pictures, not like the worn out woman she had left crying
as she pulled her old pickup truck, the one gift from her father she still
possessed, out of the drive, all those years before when she left for college.

Her mother had refused
to talk about her dreams and her life on stage, and Leah had discovered that it
was best not to bring the subject up. The sad look of desire on her mom's face
broke her heart; she deserved so much more than her useless excuse for a father
had ever given her.

From the moment her
father left her for a twenty-something year old slut, Leah had been forced to
watch as her mother withdrew into herself, becoming a shell of the person she
had once been. She stayed as long as she could, but after spending the summer
following her high school graduation watching her mother torture herself over
what she had done wrong, and listening to her cry herself to sleep every night,
she'd had enough.

In her opinion her dad
was a piece of shit, and she hadn't spoken to him since he walked out. It
wasn't the thought that her stepmother was the same age as her that stopped her
talking to him; it was the memories of what he had done to her mother. He was
the epitome of everything she despised about men, and the main reason she
refused to get involved with anyone; with the result that she was a twenty-four
year old virgin, with no interest in changing that fact anytime soon.

Pulling her long dark
hair into a sensible flip, Leah stepped back from the mirror and took a deep
breath in an effort to get her emotions under control. She knew Janie, her best
friend since she moved to Chicago, would arrive any minute so they could walk
down the aisle together.

Grinning at how screwed
up that thought sounded, even in the silence of her mind, she realized the
proceedings that were to take place shortly was as close to a wedding as she
was likely to participate in; at least with her as a principal figure.

Janie was everything
Leah wasn't; outgoing and sexy, and she dated anything with two legs and a
dick. It didn't hamper their friendship in the least though. Leah admired her
friend because she went after what she wanted, and didn’t let anything get in
her way, and that included men.

While Leah didn't get
Janie's craving for the male species, she found she couldn't dislike her for
it. Janie used men the same way other men used women, taking what she wanted
from them and then moving on to the next hunk. Despite that they still fawned
over her like dogs in heat.

In the beginning Leah
had wondered why she didn't dislike Janie for the way she treated men, since it
was essentially the same way her father had treated her mother. Over time she
had come to the conclusion that it was because her friend never promised the
men anything, and consequently never broke a promise, while her father had made
promises to her mother, promises he had broken.

"I hope your ass
is dressed, girl," Janie called out as she walked into her friend's dorm
room without knocking. "I'd hate to be late for our own graduation."

"In the
bathroom," Leah called back, putting on a coral colored lip gloss before
joining her friend in the main room. The moment her eyes found Janie she
laughed, "Sorry, babe, but that gown does nothing for you."

"Smart ass; it's
what's underneath that counts," Janie retorted, lifting the hem of the
gown to her waist. She laughed at her friend's expression; she was wearing
absolutely nothing underneath.

"Holy hell,
Janie." Leah blushed furiously, shaking her head. Very little bothered
her, she generally just ignored things, but somehow Janie always managed to
shock her.

"Yeah, I'm hell on
wheels." Giggling Janie dropped the hem and put her hands on her small
waist. "Now get your ass in gear, I want to get through this crap as
quickly as possible, I've got a hell of a party lined up for when we're
done."

Leah groaned aloud at
her words. "Janie, you know I don't mind being your designated driver, but
please tell me you won't be getting us kicked out of whatever bar we're going
to tonight." Her friend had a temper, and the last time they'd ventured
out on the town a guy had gotten a little too friendly; it had ended with Janie
throwing him across a table.

"This isn't that
kind of party, girlfriend." Janie waggled her eyebrows. "Now get
dressed so we can go!"

"Where are we
going then?"

“That’s a surprise,”
Janie told her, grinning secretively.

Leah was curious, not
to mention a little apprehensive. She'd been the non-drinking friend in the
pair since they'd met, and over the years had almost become Janie's bodyguard.
When Janie decided to party she had a tendency to party hard, and Leah had been
forced to look after her on many an occasion when she had drunk too much.

Returning to her
bedroom Leah pulled on the plain brown dress she'd selected for the evening,
and then slid the graduation gown over the top of it. Before leaving the room
to return to her friend she grabbed her cap off the dresser.

They made it to the
ceremony just as it was about to begin, and though she was excited to be
receiving her degree, Leah found it to be one of the most boring periods of her
life. She actually breathed a sigh of relief when it was over.

"I thought it
would never end," Janie said with a laugh as she slid behind the wheel of
her little two seat convertible.

"I'm with you
there, but hey, we finished!" Leah stared down at her degree in its
leather holder before sliding into the passenger seat and putting on her
seatbelt.

"Now the real fun
can begin. I hope you enjoy yourself tonight." Janie revved the engine,
smiling at the sound it made.

"This is one hell
of a car." Leah didn't begrudge her friend the exotic ride, but she did
wonder if she would ever have the opportunity to find out what it felt like to
own something so expensive.

"Just another one
of daddy's payoffs for always being busy," Janie said dismissively, an
unhappy look on her face. She quickly pulled herself out of her funk however.
It was one of the things that drew the two of them together; both of them had
worthless fathers. The only difference between them was that her father tried
to make up for being worthless by throwing money and gifts at her.

"At least he's
rich," Leah said with a sigh as they drove off.

"Money doesn't buy
happiness, Leah; you remember that, because people that tell you otherwise are
full of shit."

They'd argued about the
merits of a rich worthless father over a poor worthless father on a number of
occasions so Leah changed the subject. "Where's this exclusive party
taking place tonight then?" Over the course of the four years they'd been
friends Janie had taken her to just about every bar in Chicago, as well as a
significant number of the town's elite homes.

"I told you, that's
my secret until we get there," Janie said with a laugh. "Trust me;
this will be better than any of my surprises so far."

She bit back a groan at
her friend's answer. The last time she'd heard that line they'd ended up on
some rich guy's boat, travelling to Jamaica for the weekend. The trip had been
great, but for her having to watch Janie wrap herself around a guy she barely
knew while she tagged along, that hadn't been much fun.

Keeping her mouth shut,
Leah watched the scenery go by until they drove into Highland Park. Whomever
Janie's friends were, it was clear to her they had money, and she gasped as
they pulled up the cobblestoned driveway in front of a white-washed brick
mansion that had her eyes widening. "Who owns this place?" Leah
wanted to know. "It's like something from another world."

"Rhett's
definitely a different breed." Janie giggled at some insider joke as she
opened the door and got out of the car.

"Rhett? Like in
Rhett Butler?" Leah laughed, the house before her was far more modern than
the beautiful mansion in her favorite movie, but was definitely something to
look at.

"I'll let you call
him that," Janie gave a little wink, "his last name is Hammond, he's
a friend of my new, um, friend."

By friend Leah knew
Janie meant lover, unusually though, she hadn't met the latest man in her
friend's life.

When a tall handsome
man walked out the front door of the house and descended the steps to take
Janie's keys, Leah couldn't help but whistle. "Color me impressed, he has
a valet to go along with the fancy house. What are the chances of him giving me
a job?"

Janie shook her head at
the surprise her friend displayed for something which was, in her experience,
fairly normal, and handed over the keys. "Trust me, hon, I don't think you're
the type of girl to earn money from Rhett, then again…" she trailed off.

Leah turned to stare at
Janie as the implications of what she had said penetrated her brain. "You
mean he pays women for…" she cut off what she had been about to say,
partly because she didn't want to suggest that someone her friend knew was that
kind of person, and partly because the front door had opened just then to
reveal a butler in a tuxedo.

The sight of the man
made her eyes widen, it was clear to her that Rhett, whoever he was, had far
more money than he knew what to do with if he could afford to employ someone
just to open the front door.

"Good evening
ladies; if you would kindly follow me." The butler waited until they had
entered before shutting the door. He then led the way across the polished
marble tiles of the foyer.

Leah and Janie looked
at each other, barely suppressing their laughter at the stern expression on the
man's face, as they followed him over to the door he held open for them.

The room they entered
was huge, and boasted a wooden floor that had been polished to perfection. In
the center was a massive table, adorned with a pristine white cloth and covered
with dishes containing every food imaginable. Fragrant blooms nestled among the
huge sterling silver platters, while at the near end bottles of champagne,
surrounded by crystal goblets, awaited opening.

"This is
definitely some setup," Leah whispered, wondering why they were the only
two there, when it was apparent the feast was meant for many more.

"Rhett likes to go
all out when he is accommodating guests." Janie grinned. "Now where
is that date of mine?"

"Hello, gorgeous,
you're late."