Finding Destiny
Authors: Christa Simpson
Tags: #romance, #love, #valentines day, #sexy alpha male, #sexy alpha hero, #beautiful blonde, #valentines day story, #love and attraction, #sassy writer, #sexy adult romance, #valentines day romantic story, #valentines day romance, #valentines romance, #hero alpha male, #vacation holiday romance for adults
Christa Simpson
The Destiny Series
Book #1
BLACK WIDOW
Publishing
FINDING
DESTINY
By Christa
Simpson
Copyright 2014
Christa Simpson
All rights
reserved.
Electronic
Edition
ISBN:
978-0-9919070-4-5
Author: Christa
Simpson
www.twitter.com/christasimpson
www.facebook.com/authorchristasimpson
Proofreader:
C.S. Janey
Black Widow Publishing: February 2015
This e-book is
licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be
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it. In the case that you wish to share this e-book with others,
please purchase an additional copy. If you are reading this book
and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use,
then please return it to the author immediately and purchase your
own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this
author.
A special thanks goes
out to my good friend, Tanya Vought, who has continued to support
me and my crazy ideas. I’d also like to thank each and every one of
the ladies on my street team for their continual feedback and
assistance. Thanks so much, ladies. I honestly appreciate all that
you do. <3 <3
- Christa
Simpson
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE
“I absolutely hate Valentine’s
Day.”
Destiny
Sanders had grown tired of the holidays based solely around
couples. Especially the one that revolved around love and lace and
chocolates. She had long ago convinced herself that most men were
jerks, and the ones that weren’t total
jackwads
went off and died.
She didn’t
exactly hate men. Someone had to fix her leaky faucets and change
the oil in her car after all. Destiny could’ve sworn though, that
men as a whole planted this ridiculous holiday after a long
depressing winter just to spite her, and she wasn’t about to let it
get to her. Oh, no. Not this year. This year she had persuaded her
three besties to join her on a ladies-only weekend retreat.
She had
selected the most luxurious suite she could find and invested in
the most expensive pamper package. She deserved it, damn it. She
took care of herself. She didn’t need a man to get through this
holiday.
But what she hadn’t anticipated was her
not-so-good friend,
Mother Nature, who thought it’d be fun to dump a boatload
of snow on her and her friends the day before their trip.
She watched out the window of her friend Melanie’s truck, as they
headed to their destination. Snow. Snow. And more snow.
Destiny pulled
her eyes away and couldn’t help but notice how happy her friend
Felicia was. “Wipe that smirk off of your face.”
Felicia
couldn’t seem to help it. “Can’t a girl be happy?”
Destiny
was
happy. Even if she was sandwiched between her two best
friends in a beater of a truck in the middle of the biggest snow
storm of the year. “You do realize this two hour trip is now going
to take us over three.”
Felicia
continued to twirl her long, brown hair around her finger. “Yeah,
so? What’s your hurry?”
“Um, gee, let
me think about that.” Destiny was being sarcastic and goofy, so
Felicia shoved her. It wasn’t a far reach, since Destiny was
stuffed in between her two friends on an old, leather bench seat
that had cracked with age.
Natalie
continued to drive, squinting through her oversized black-framed
glasses. Destiny wondered how she could see anything through the
foggy windshield. The wipers swiped side to side with a rhythmic
squeak, which seemed to be the only thing that had stayed true to
its course.
“Everything is
under control. I’m a master on these roads,” Natalie insisted,
sensing that Destiny had been watching her.
Destiny had to
laugh at that.
Felicia
laughed too. “Maybe we should have taken my car. Are you sure this
old thing can make it that far, Nat?”
Natalie shot
her a cold glare. “We’ve gotten this far, haven’t we?”
“You know
what? It doesn’t matter. In a few short hours I’m going to be
soaking in the Jacuzzi, right after my relaxing massage.”
Destiny
glanced out the windshield and stared at the endless drifts of
snow. “Oh, that does sound nice.”
Two hours
later, in the middle of nowhere, Natalie pulled her truck over to
the side of the road, coming to a complete stop in the middle of a
snow bank. “I am so sorry. If I could just see that map for a
minute, please. I want to make sure we’re on the right track.”
A bad feeling
swept over Destiny, but she kept her mouth shut and passed Natalie
the map.
“You know,
Google has maps,” Felicia teased.
But Natalie
didn’t care. She always reverted old school like that. “Google
doesn’t know everything.” Natalie ran her finger down the map,
following the road that she believed we were on. “That’s odd.”
Destiny stared
up at the roof of the truck, with its sagging fabric only adding to
her frustration. “I don’t like when you say that, Nat. Why did you
just say that?”
As if her
worry hadn’t already become close to debilitating, the truck
stalled out making Destiny’s anxiety ball in the pit of her
stomach. Felicia snickered, but Destiny didn’t think it was quite
so funny.
“What’s odd,
Nat? Tell me what’s odd.”
Ignoring
Destiny, Natalie twisted her key, in an attempt to turn over the
engine. “Come on, baby,” she cooed to her truck. Her soft blonde
curls bounced playfully, as she pumped the gas, but that really
wasn’t helping.
Felicia
outright laughed this time. “You don’t pump fuel injection, Nat.
Are you trying to get us stranded out here?”
Destiny put
her hand on Natalie’s shoulder to calm her, since she was now on
the brink of a panic attack. “Just relax. We’ll give it a minute
and you can try again. Okay? Why don’t you tell me what you saw on
the map?” Destiny could only hope that it would be enough of a
distraction to slow Natalie’s racing heart.
“We should
have been there already. The map shows we’re on the right road, but
I didn’t see the turn off. Maybe it was snowed in.”
Felicia
flipped a lock of dark hair over her shoulder. “That’s ridiculous.
We were all watching. There’s no way we passed it.”
“I don’t
know,” Destiny admitted. “At the rate the snow is coming down, I
think it would have been an easy miss.”
“Maybe if we
had taken my car, we might have been able to see out the windows.
Not that I’m pointing any fingers.” Felicia glared at Natalie.
Destiny was
growing tired of Felicia’s insensitivity. “You’re not helping
here.”
“I’m just
saying.”
“Well don’t.”
Destiny was starting to lose her cool. “Try the key again.”
Natalie tried
and tried, but the engine only moaned back at her. “Come on,” she
shouted, but it was not going to turn over. She slammed her hand on
her steering wheel, admitting her defeat.
Only moments
earlier, they had been well on their way to their own private
paradise and now it was like a dark nightmare had taken over like a
vicious, unexpected storm.
“Now what are
we going to do?” Natalie asked, knowing they were officially
stranded.
“Easy peasy,”
Felicia said, as she rummaged through her purse. She came out with
her cell phone and stared at it with dismay. “You guys are not
going to believe this. I’m not getting any service.”
Why was
Destiny not surprised? “Of course you aren’t. We’re in Bumfuck,
Idaho, in the middle of the biggest snow storm of the year. What
else could I expect?”
This was
supposed to be Destiny’s weekend to cool down. She had been all
wound up after losing her job and was having a hard time adjusting
to being unemployed, even if it were only temporary.
“Let me try my
phone,” Natalie suggested, as if it would be any different. “Nope.
Nothing. Now what?”
Destiny, being
the reasonable one, unsnapped her seatbelt and pulled out her snow
gloves. “How did I know these were going to come in handy? Bundle
up, ladies. It looks like we’re going for a walk.”
After half an
hour of trudging through the snow, with the wind blasting it at
them violently, Destiny started to worry. If they carried on much
longer, she was sure the three of them would become ice cubes on
the side of the road, complete with frostbite and hypothermia.
“This is
crazy,” Natalie chimed. “This snow has got to be two feet deep.
Maybe we should head back to the truck.”
Destiny
refused to give up, even with a vicious wind ripping right through
her jacket. Without a doubt, if they hunkered down and waited for
someone in the truck, they would be sealing their unfortunate
fates. “We’ve already come this far. Let’s just keep going.”
“I’m afraid to
say this, but Destiny is right. We can’t very well sit here all
day. It’s bad enough with this snow, but I’m not about to wait
around for night to hit. There could be bears out here.”
Destiny wished
Felicia hadn’t reminded her of that. She was fine with a little
hike in the snow, but she didn’t do bears. Bears were the one thing
that disturbed her about hiking north of their small town. “You
said there’s a town not too far up the road. A mile. Maybe two.”
She tried to remain optimistic.
“Maybe ten,
for all we know,” Natalie added, not trusting her own judgment
anymore. “I’m going back to the truck. I can’t just leave it out
here. You guys do what you want.” Natalie spun away, and as she did
she slipped and crumbled to the ground with a yelp.
Felicia
hurried over to her. “Are you okay?”
Natalie looked
up at her with a scowl; as if it were her fault she twisted her
ankle. “I’ll be just fine, as soon as I get back to the truck.”
Felicia made
an attempt to lift Natalie to her feet, but she fell back down onto
her butt with a moan. Destiny wiggled her fingers, to make sure
they were still there. She couldn’t even feel them anymore. The
pins and needles had already turned into a general tension, making
it difficult for her to bend her fingers at all. Much longer and
they were going to have worse issues than a broken down
vehicle.
“Can you
walk?” Destiny asked.
