Forsaking Truth

FORSAKING TRUTH

Lydia Michaels

Erotic Romance

Secret Cravings Publishing

www.secretcravingspublishing.com

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A
Secret Cravings Publishing Book

Erotic Romance

Forsaking Truth

Copyright © 2014 Lydia Michaels

E-book ISBN:
978-1-63105174-6

First E-book Publication: May 2014

Cover design by Dawné Dominique

Edited by Elise Hepner

Proofread by Amanda Ward

All cover art and logo copyright ©
2014 by Secret Cravings Publishing

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PUBLISHER

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www.secretcravingspublishing.com

To Gregory Payne.

May your dreams come true in every
romance you write and live.

~Lydia

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*
Trouble With a Cowboy
, a western, erotic romance:

18 wheels
had her heart until one hard-up cowboy found her kickin' up her heels and
propositions her to take his bull to Vegas.

Jacie
Hawkins drives big wheelers for a livin'. Something not a lot of women do.
Littleton Oklahoma is just a dry stopover for a few hours of rest and relaxation
at the nearest bar. Jacie needs to find a hot cowboy to release some of her
pent up frustrations on for the night, but wannabe's aren't her style.

Tucker
Marshall needs a big-rig driver to haul his prize bull to National Finals Rodeo
and he needs one fast. Who would have thought he'd find one shootin' pool at
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Can some
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**
Blood Kisses (Nightwalkers 1)
,
paranormal erotic romance:

Ashleigh Brown, the author of
the popular Nightwalkers series, lives a quiet life free of the limelight. She keeps her real identity secret by
writing under the pen name, Victoria Allure. She soon finds herself in a bind when
she's kidnapped by a group of handsome vampires seeking Victoria. She then agrees to meet their Master,
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instead of meeting him, she accidentally crosses paths with her rock star
crush. He is the sexy muse behind
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anything to meet him but little does she know her crush has a secret...

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FORSAKING TRUTH

McCullough Mountain 5

Lydia Michaels

Copyright ©
2014

Manhunt;
Age 17

Tristan’s back pressed
into the tree. Pine needles prickled his front as the overgrown evergreen shrub
swatted against his chest. It was dark
and the scent
of sap, sweat, and summer swirled around him like a swarm of gnats. His heart
raced as he waited, crouching low in his hiding spot for the others to come.

Texas was dry, boring
and hot in August, but manhunt was their favorite pastime. Other
than sitting inside his family’s dank ranch house, sweating
his balls off playing video games, there wasn’t much else to do.

The snap of a twig had
his breath stilling in his chest. He crouched low, careful not to give away his
location. A dry flake of dir
t stuck to his lip and he
quickly peeled it away.

Another step. His body
became so quiet he could hear the oncomer’s breathing. “Tristan?” a voice
hissed.

He wasn’t falling for
it. Like a fox in a hole, he waited. Another crunch and then the shrub coverin
g his location twitched. Like a soldier diving into a
bunker, Jason shot behind the bush and chuckled. “Found you.”

“You suck,” Tristan said, unfolding his
legs to stand.

Jason yanked on his
shirt and Tristan dropped back down. “Wait. No one knows we’re
here.”

Tristan frowned. There
was a devious gleam in Jason’s hazel eyes. Dirt and dust from a long sweaty day
outside cluttered the sprinkling of boyish freckles on his cheeks. Jason was
sort of the ringleader of their pack. He called the shots and the res
t followed. Maybe the game had changed.

“You’re still It,
right?”

Jason nodded, but put
his fingers to his lips warning Tristan to be silent.

“Who are we hiding
from then?” he whispered.

Jason grinned.
“Everyone.”

His frown tightened,
but he waited. “It’
s hot as hell. After this we
should hit the quarry.”

“Yeah,” Jason
whispered, but his eyes told Tristan he was thinking about something else.
“Listen… I wanted to show you something.”

Tristan’s eyes skated
over his friend’s frayed cutoffs and settled on hi
s
hands. They were empty. The laces of his white Chucks, now faded and stained
brown, were undone. “What?”

Jason shifted and
their small hidey-hole seemed to shrink around them. “Why didn’t you look when
Timber showed her boobs?”

“I looked,” Tristan
lied,
intuitively aware he had to do so. Boobs were
weird. What was the point?

Jason’s head shook
meaningfully. “Nah. You didn’t. I was watching you.”

His gut tightened with
the same anxious knot he always got when he thought his friends suspected
something. “Ye
ah, I did. They were hot.”

His friend’s hazel
gaze cut to his, challenging, knowing. Fuck. “No, you didn’t, Tristan. You
squirmed and sat there, lookin’ anywhere else, ‘til her shirt came down.”

“I saw her tits,
Jason. Jesus, why do you care so much?”

They
were crouching so close their collective breath mingled.
He could still smell cola on Jason’s, sweet and syrupy. “I know.”

Yeah, everyone knew
Timber had the nicest rack in their grade. Tristan was the only guy who didn’t—

All thoughts cut off
as Jason pl
aced his hand on his shoulder, a somehow
gentle, caressing contact. Shit. What was going on? Guys didn’t touch guys like
that. They punched and shoved and sometimes horsed around wrestling, which was
becoming more and more difficult to tolerate in Tristan’
s pubescent years, but the way his friend was touching him now… that shit
didn’t happen.

Brush it off. Get pissed.

“What are you—”

“Shh,” Jason hissed.
“I
know.
About you.”

His breath quickened
and his muscles tensed down to the soles of his feet, crampin
g painfully. Were they all out there, ready to kick his
ass? Would this be the end of their crew? Who else knew? Maybe he was
misunderstanding something?

Play dumb.

“Wha—” His words cut
off as Jason’s mouth pressed into his.

His heart beat so fast
his
ribs became a splintering vise on his lungs.
Balance gone, he fell back into the tree, bark scraping his elbow, but none of
that mattered. What was happening?

“I know,” Jason
whispered again, angling his mouth over Tristan’s.

He’d never been kissed
or kiss
ed anyone else. Mostly because, since he was
born, he’d liked boys. Never in a million years had he suspected Jason liked
boys too. His instinct, growing up in a conservative, bible beating, redneck
town, told him this was a trick and he should bale out ri
ght now and crucify his friend for being a homo. But
something inside of him melted at the first touch of Jason’s tongue.

He didn’t know if this
was a setup or a genuinely sincere moment. All he knew was that he didn’t want
to push Jason away. Something in
side of him opened
up. A weight that had been on his shoulders since the first hard on he got from
watching a man on the beach, noticing every bulge and curve under his wet,
clinging suit, suddenly slipped away.

This
was right.
This
was him. This was ever
ything he hoped to someday feel. Then his mind jolted as
Jason’s palm cupped him. His heart went ballistic. The dizzying effect of his
friend’s hand
there
nearly knocked him to his ass. This
wasn’t a prank.

I don’t care.

Emboldened, he grabbed
Jason by
the back of the neck and deepened the kiss.
He tasted of cola. His skin smelled like sweat and fresh air. His tongue was
soft, but the kiss was hard. It was the most incredible moment of his life.

Then they heard the
others coming and reality ripped them a
part. Jason
wiped his mouth over the back of his hand, lips parted, eyes wide. “Gotchya!”
he yelled and stood.

Tristan barely had a
chance to recover as Jason flung the branch out, exposing them to the others.
Terror for what might happen next gripped Tri
stan,
crippling his vocabulary in the face of fear.

“It’s about fucking
time,” Tim shouted. “I was holed up in Old Man Hill’s tree so long the dang
branch started to give. You’re It, Tristan.”

He stood, still trying
to comprehend what was happening. Glanci
ng at Jason,
ambling with the others, the picture of innocence, he caught the quick wink of
his hazel eye.

Standing on shaky
legs, he quickly turned and dropped to a knee, pretending to tie his shoe so he
could buy some time and hide other unsightly situat
ions
going on below.

Mom. Grandma’s underwear. Baseball.
Barbara Bush naked. Jason’s lips. Jason’s touch. Jason’s eyes. Fuck!

He stood and moseyed
toward the woods, spit, and shouted. “Two minutes. Go!” The others took off
running to their next hiding spo
t and Tristan caught
his hand on the nearest solid object, hoping to find solid ground. Everything
had just changed.