4 Bad Boys to take to Bed (4 Book Bundle Set!) (16 page)
Read 4 Bad Boys to take to Bed (4 Book Bundle Set!) Online
Authors: Elizabeth Nelson
Dazed, Brooke unlocked her room and walked in. She expected Jessica to be there, but she was shocked to see Dylan, too. She looked back and forth between them. A slow smile spread across her face. “So, you two, huh? Didn’t see that coming.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Jessica demanded.
“With Nick. I told you that last night when I left.”
“
Last night?
” Jessica laughed incredulously. “Jesus, Brooke, you’ve been gone almost two days. I was getting ready to call the police and your parents. You weren’t answering your phone. I thought you were dead!”
Brooke plopped down on her bed. “Two days?” she mumbled. No. That wasn’t possible. It was only last night that Nick had shown up, taken her to a drag race, and then spent the night having sex with her. Wasn’t it?
“Yeah, two days, Brooke. It’s Monday night. What the hell happened?”
“Nothing.” Brooke shook her head.
“Nothing?” Jessica shouted.
Why does she keep repeating everything I say? It’s annoying. “Yeah, nothing. I was with Nick. Everything’s fine. So, just chill, okay?”
“Chill?” Jessica shrieked.
“God, stop doing that!”
“Doing what?”
“Repeating everything I say.” Brooke flopped back and covered her face with her arm. She just needed a minute to think, to process what Jessica was saying. There was no way Brooke had been gone for two days. Surely she would know how long she’d been gone. Right?
“Are you high?” Dylan asked.
His deep voice had her sitting up. Whoa! She shouldn’t have moved so fast. “Not anymore.” She laughed.
“What’re you on, Brooke?” he asked, coming over and sitting beside her.
He smelled good. Not as good as Nick, but still, good. “E.”
“Christ, how much did you take?” Jessica asked, sitting on the other side of Brooke.
Brooke shrugged. “I don’t know. Three? Four?” She honestly couldn’t remember. Just like she couldn’t remember how much alcohol she’d had. Or how many times she’d had sex. Or even if it was just her and Nick. For all she knew, she could’ve had another threesome and not remember.
Wow. Those thoughts scared her. Was she really that high? It wasn’t like her to get so caught up in drugs and not be able to remember even the smallest details. Sure, she’d used dr
ugs recreationally before, but—
She dropped her face into her hands. “I don’t know anything.”
“Hey, it’s okay.” Jessica rubbed her back. “You’re here now. You’re safe and that’s all that matters.”
Brooke abruptly stood. “I need to go find Nick. He’ll fill in the blanks.”
“What? You can’t be serious, Brooke,” Jessica said.
“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” She looked at her friend like she was crazy. Brooke needed answers, and the only person who could give them was Nick. It was only log
ical that she’d go to him. “But I think I’m going to shower first.”
“Brooke?” Dylan was behind her, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The effect
s of the ecstasy were still working through her system. It was tempting to turn around and kiss him, touch his hard chest, and coax him into her bed. It wouldn’t be that hard. He wanted her. She knew he did.
Snap out of it, Brooke. You don’t want Dylan. What the hell is wrong with you?
I’ve turned into a junkie, that’s what’s wrong.
“We’re worried about you, hon,” Dylan said, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“Yeah, Brooke, we’re seriously worried. I’ve known you a long time, and this isn’t you,” Jessica said.
“The point of college is to try new things, find out who you are. For all you know, maybe this is exactly who I am.”
“Damn it!” Jessica sighed.
“Seriously, Jess, you’re starting to sound exactly like my parents.” Brooke jerked away from Dylan and marched toward the door. “It’s my life. Let me live it.”
“Fine. You leave me no choice then.”
Brooke rolled her eyes. “No choice about what?”
“If you continue to see Nick, I will no longer be your friend.” Jessica crossed her arms over her chest.
“Are you serious?” Brooke’s jaw dropped.
“I’m dead serious, Brooklyn. Now choose. Me or Nick?”
Want to see what happens with Brooke?
You Only Live Once 2 is now available!
Jessica wasn’t kidding when she told Brooke to decide between her or Nick. And Brooke chose Nick. She couldn’t get enough of him. He was fast and dangerous—things she needed to experience after her chaste upbringing. But above all else, he was fun. And that wasn’t so much for Brooke to ask—to have a little fun. Was it?
So when Nick says those three little words that change everything, Brooke starts second guessing her choice but doesn’t know if it’s too late. Has she lost her childhood best friend to someone she barely knows? Will she be consumed by what Nick has to offer, possibly against her will?
And has she not only lost Jessica, but has Dylan now left her inner circle as well? Brooke feels jealousy she knows she has no right to every time she sees Dylan and Jessica together. And there’s nothing she can do about it. Unless she gives up everything she’s been fighting for with Nick.
So when the opportunity presents itself, she takes a chance with Dylan. She feels things she knows Nick can’t offer—breath-stealing kissing, carefully planned caresses, gentle and consuming love. It would be so easy to fall in love with him, so what’s holding her back? How can she be in love with both of them at the same time when they’re so utterly different?
But suddenly she’s forced to choose between them. Will she choose Nick again—the fun, excitement and danger he offers? Or will Dylan come out on top—the safe, gentle, caring guy she’s most recently fallen for?
Continue the YOLO series today!
Curiosity Killed the Kat
A Katherine Flynn Mystery / Thriller
She thought she had the perfect marriage…
He gave her everything – and more. Then he tried to kill her. Katherine’s marriage was fading. She could feel it. Her husband, Steven, was up to something. She knew it. Katherine would do anything for her husband. That is, until she discovers he’s the ring leader of a human trafficking organization. Caught in the cross hairs of her husband’s illegal business and on the run to save her life, as well as others, Katherine is on a race against time to figure out exactly how deep this rabbit hole of political intrigue, sex, and revenge goes. As her husband and his partners close in from all sides, Katherine is about to learn who she can trust – and who is determined to silence her for good.
PROLOGUE
They say revenge is a dish best served cold; but, I know better. Revenge is hot. It never cools, and it never dies. It burns inside your veins, and grows stronger with every beat of your heart.
To understand what happened after, you have to
know what came before.
I don’t remember a time when I didn’t dream of being a wife and mother. My earliest memory is
of playing ‘wedding’ in my parents’ backyard. As the bride, I was draped in my mother’s antique white lace tablecloth, my head covered with a homemade veil and my arms laden with the roses she grew in her garden that summer.
In my mind’s eye, I
can see myself as I was then; a thin, serious looking child with long brown hair and big brown eyes walking slowly up the garden path like it was a cathedral aisle, toward my groom, the love of my life, the man who would take care of me forever.
By the time I
turned 19, I knew that my real-life groom would be Steven Flynn. He was the perfect man; he would be the perfect husband. I still remember the first time I saw him. A freshman in college, I ran into my psychology class 15 minutes late on the first day. Breathlessly, I took a seat in the last row and started madly arranging myself, my books, and my notepad; when I looked up I saw Steven.
As the teaching assistant, he was standing at the front of the class passing out the syllabus. After a moment, he caught my stare and smiled at me. He waved me to the front to get a syllabus and I slowly approached him, taking in every inch of his stunning good looks;
from his dark brown hair and intense blue eyes, to his perfectly chiseled body, on down to the tips of his elegant shoes. He was dressed conservatively in a neatly ironed, button down shirt and gray slacks. He looked like he’d walked off the cover of GQ magazine.
As I got closer to him I could feel him watching me approach.
His intense gaze made me feel naked. I couldn’t believe the other students weren’t staring at him. To me, he looked like Prince Charming. The other students swarmed around, talking and laughing but my eyes never left him. When I reached out my hand to take the syllabus from him, he handed it to me but didn’t let go. I stared at him and he looked back at me with a knowing smile. In that moment, I knew. My life would never be the same again.
When Steven decided he wanted me too, h
e courted me recklessly; never taking no for an answer, never leaving me alone for a moment. After that first day, I don’t have a single memory from that time that doesn’t include him. He brought me red roses to make me smile, took me to see movies that made me laugh, and when we were alone he took me in his arms and made me tremble with desire. For the first time in my life I felt loved.
It makes me squirm with shame to think of it now. My childhood was a cliché, a joke. Abandoned by my father before I was even born
, I was a shy child raised by a busy single mother. I didn’t have a lot of friends, preferring to spend my time in solitude reading and day dreaming. My classmates thought I was strange and they left me alone. I was ripe for a man like Steven. I see that now. But then, oh, but then all I felt was desire and love to the point of obsession. He was my fantasy. I needed him to love me more than I’d ever needed anything else.
I loved him, but I felt so unworthy of his attention. I tried desperately to reinvent myself into the woman he wanted me to be.
I was in awe when I looked at him. Steven was everything I wasn’t. He was handsome and successful, while I was average looking and quiet. When we met, he was a senior graduating at the top of his class with a degree in psychology and a full scholarship to Harvard Law School; I was a freshman without a clue as to what I wanted to study. He was on his way to becoming a master of the universe, and all I wanted was to be at his side.
His first request changed the way I dressed when we were in public. Instead of the
unofficial jeans and t-shirt uniform of my classmates, I eagerly agreed to upgrade my wardrobe to dresses, heels, and pearls. When he told me I looked lovely and gave me a smile, I knew I had made the right decision.
His second request was more complicated.
Steven needed me to be the perfect woman in the bedroom as well as in public. He would settle for nothing less. He valued my virginity and blind trust because they made me pliable—there was nothing I wouldn’t do to bring him pleasure. As a child, I’d lived in my imagination without many friends and a mother who didn’t have time or interest in teaching me about the world. Sex was a mystery that I didn’t have a clue to solving it. Steven’s limitless needs and desires were my secret to carry alone; I didn’t have anyone to discuss him with, no girlfriends to gossip with about his need for blindfolds, whips, and endless sexual punishment. All I had was my obsession to make him happy, to earn his praise, to maintain my place in his heart. For those reasons I would do anything he asked—and he asked a lot. I became the essence of the properly dressed lady in public and a sexual slave in the bedroom.
When he asked me to marry him
the night he graduated I felt triumphant. I felt as proud of myself as if I’d been the one accepting a diploma that day. His proposal made me feel that it had all been worth it; the meticulous attention to my wardrobe and the sometimes painful “lessons” in the bedroom—I was going to be Mrs. Steven Flynn. I eagerly quit school and moved with him to Boston. My only ambition was to be a good wife to him.
I
maintained that blind ambition for seven long years. I stubbornly insisted to myself that Steven’s fierce control, his rigid standards for my dress and appearance, and his increasingly cruel sexual desires were normal, just his way of dealing with the pressure he was feeling as a lawyer with one of Boston’s most respected firms, Bradenson & Arthur.
My only job was to be the perfect wife and partner.
In my mind there was no limit to our success, I was enveloped in my dream of a secure and happy life with my husband and that was all that mattered.
Until the
day I woke up.
