Forbidden Temptations (Tempted Series Book 2) (43 page)

There is only one person who sees me for me, my Mikey.

He’s wild.

He’s reckless.

He’s hot as hell.

He’s completely unattainable but oh so tempting.

The Riverdale Series: *sound be read in series order*

Pieces (Book One)

Blurb

Jake Lanza is one of Riverdale New York’s favorite sons. He owns a tattoo parlor in the small upstate town and prides himself on being a fun-loving, live by the seat of your pants type of guy. He has everything he wants in life, a thriving business, a great family and a best friend with whom he could never live without.

Cara Sloane weaved her way into Jake’s life when they were fifteen years old. After her life fell apart at such a young age, Jake helped her heal, and began to pick up the pieces of her fallen life. His unconventional ways slowly had him becoming the anchor in her life.

Now fourteen years later Jake begins to see Cara in a new light. The things he thought he never wanted, he suddenly began to yearn for. The only problem was they were both too frightened to lose the greatest love either of them has ever known. Can Jake convince Cara there is more for them than just a friendship? Is he willing to take that gamble himself?

Broken Pieces (Book Two)

Blurb

Nick Foti left Riverdale New York, seven years ago, leaving his dreams and the only family he ever knew behind. Most of all he left the one girl that managed to completely unravel him. Samantha Lanza was his best friends little sister. She wasn’t meant to be his, she was his to protect like a sister.

When he finally decided he couldn’t fight his attraction to her, events unfold that force him to leave her and the only life he has ever wanted behind. Forced to work for his father in Seattle, Nick is miserable. He spends most his time in the boardroom playing the corporate mogul. The rest of the time he loses himself in a bottle and random woman that will never compare to the one he left behind.

One day Nick hits rock bottom and decides he’s had enough, he hangs up his suit and tie and sets out to reclaim the life he was meant to have. He heads back to Riverdale just when the family he has always loved as his own needs him the most. Everyone welcomes Nick with open arms, except Sam. She wants nothing to do with him. Can he convince her he’s a changed man who wants nothing more than to have her in his arms forever? Or has is the betrayal she feels too great to forgive.

Fitting the Pieces (Book Three)

Blurb

You’ve laughed with them. You’ve cried with them. Now it’s time to say goodbye to the Lanza Family, in the final installment of The Riverdale Series.

Luke Lanza is a man who has always done the responsible thing. He has faced a lot of challenging obstacles in his life; from raising his daughter on his own, to building a successful business, even being the only viable donor that could save his brother’s life. Knowing this about his brother and knowing that he was going to die, Jake asked him to look after the love of his life. Now Luke is torn between the promise he made to his brother and the pull of something he’s never known before.

“Promise me, I need to hear you say it, Luke.”

Luke swallowed. “I promise I’ll take care of Cara, you don’t have to worry about her.” A tear slipped down his cheek as he finished his vow to his little brother.

Jake smiled slightly and closed his eyes. “I could always count on you.”

Cara Sloane is struggling with the loss of her first love and the power of addiction. Jake had been her rock for so long, with him gone she realizes how broken she is. She doesn’t want to feel anything, least of all the emptiness in her heart.

“I know you’re at peace and I should be thankful for that, but I can’t be. I never realized what a selfish person I was. You were suffering and all I could do was pray for you not to leave me.”

A tragic accident leaves Luke and his family pleading with Cara to change the course of her life. Can Cara face her demons and learn there is life after Jake? Can she learn that she can hold onto to the beautiful memories they made together and still live her life?

“I don’t want to fix her because she’s broken.” He said with his own voice sounding a bit broken. “I want to help her because losing her too isn’t an option.”

Individually they try to heal, together they wonder if they can fit the pieces of their broken lives.

Jake’s Journal (Book 3.5) novella – companion to the series.

Blurb

In honor of the one year Anniversary of the series you can now read Jake’s Journal.

If someone would’ve told Jake Lanza he would have ever kept a journal, he probably would’ve laughed in their face. Journals were for females. His sister had a journal. He would know, being as he stole it once and read all her deepest darkest teenage secrets. Yet, to his surprise when Nick gifted him a blank journal, he decided to give it a try.

Dear Diary,

Fuck. That don’t sound right. In fact it sounds kind of gay. Why don’t these books come with instructions? You know what? Fuck this.

Jake

(Because I think I’m supposed to sign my name)

During the most the darkest days and most trying times, Jake used his journal to expose the deepest thoughts he wouldn’t allow himself to say out loud. In this journal you will read the thoughts of a man fighting for his life. Read his letters to Cara as he pours out his heart and soul to her, through his works and drawings he wished to create. Discover the plans he had for his loved ones and the promises he left behind. Enjoy the legacy Jake Lanza left behind.

Janine Infante Bosco lives in New York City, she has always loved reading and writing. When she was thirteen, she began to write her own stories and her passion for writing took off as the years went on. At eighteen, she even wrote a full screenplay with dreams of one day becoming a member of the Screen Actors Guild.

Janine writes emotionally charged novels with an emphasis on family bonds, strong willed female characters, and alpha male men who will do anything for the women they love. She loves to interact with fans and fellow avid romance readers like herself.

Janine loves interacting with fans feel free to contact her on any of her social media sites.

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Forbidden Temptations

By

Janine Infante Bosco

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Published by Janine Infante Bosco

Edited/formatted by: Jennifer Bosco

Cover Design by: Hang Le

ISBN: 9781495168857

Jack “Bulldog” Parrish

There was no God, no higher power I prayed to hoping to relieve me from my sins. No one to grant me penance for all the wrong decisions I made. There was only the devil, and I tangoed enough with him in my twenty-five years to know I was at his mercy. There was nothing I could do but eat the crow he threw at me. I’ve swallowed a lot of shit in my life, losing my parents, my wife cheating on me, my brother turning his back on me and becoming a federal agent. But there is one thing you don’t swallow, one thing you never get over, one thing that stays with you, forcing you to question everything you know in life and that is losing a child. No parent should outlive their child, no parent should have to pick out a casket for their baby and no parent should have to sit in a funeral home as a man dressed in a cloak prays over their son’s lifeless body.

I wanted to believe the man who offered his condolences to me and my ex-wife, to trust his God would take care of my boy. I wanted to relish in the comfort of knowing a loving man would hold his arms wide open to embrace my sweet boy and welcome him into eternal life. I closed my eyes as his words cut through me, the promise of there being someone to take care of the innocent boy I created, to guide him with a steady hand and be there for him when he was scared and missing his mama.

Someone to take care of him better than I had.

I leaned forward, dropped my head into my hands, unable to stare at him lying there in that box. He looked so peaceful it was almost as if he was sleeping, just a little boy holding his Harley Davidson teddy bear as he took a nap.

Only he wouldn’t wake. Not for me to chase the monsters under the bed or see the dawn of a new day.

Not this time.

I’d never look into the eyes of my son and see the innocence of a child staring back at me.

I pulled my head back and lifted my eyes glancing at my brothers that stood on either side of my son’
s coffin, the President on the left and the vice president on the right.
They weren’t my brothers by blood; I had one of those too. I had raised him after our parents died but like everyone else in my life I lost him. Still, I thought he would’ve been here, hoped he’d put our differences aside and stand beside me as I lowered my son into the cold earth.

I used to think having a brother meant I’d always have a friend, someone always there to have my back, but I didn’t understand what having a brother truly meant until I became a patched member of the Satan’s Knights Motorcycle Club. Those men were my brothers, men that never left my side or my boy’s side. They were the men who would always have my back and they would be the men standing beside me as I say goodbye to my child. We didn’t need blood. We had loyalty. We had respect. We had the stuff that held people together when blood didn’t.

I knew it was just something they did out of respect and they would do it for any of the brother’s but watching them as they stood guard over my boy brought me a sense of comfort. They didn’t think it was my fault.

They didn’t blame me for the things I couldn’t control.

There were two people that blamed me for everything. My mother who was dead and my ex-wife who sat beside me thrashing.

My mother hated me. She looked at me and saw her father reflected in my eyes. I wish she would’ve looked at me and saw I was just a boy that couldn’t control himself. Maybe if she had, she would’ve been the kind of mother who sought help for her damaged child. Instead, she inflicted more pain, made me believe I was the devil reincarnate and not someone who needed help. Maybe if she had, then my son would be alive.

“What is wrong with you?”

“You’re crazy!”

I could still hear her shouting at me, taunting me, until I doubted myself. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with me but the more someone tells you you’re crazy, the more you wonder if you really are.

After, she died no one called me crazy. Not the same way she had.

“You’re a crazy motherfucker, Bulldog!”

“You’re fucking crazy, brother.”

Sure, I did some fucking things that would have my brothers thinking that maybe I had a screw loose somewhere but they didn’t look at me and ask me what was wrong with me. They just made me think I was a badass motherfucker who didn’t give a shit. They wiped away the doubt my mother instilled in me and gave me back the confidence she stole from me.

I turned and watched Connie rise to her feet, her body trembling as she started for the coffin. I wanted to reach out to her, to wrap my arms around her, desperate to grieve with her. She was the only one who knew exactly how I felt.

But she hated me. She blamed me.

“Please, get help!”

“There is something not right with you, Jack.”

“I’m begging you.”