Jagged: A Standalone Bad Boy Romance

Copyright 2016 Winter Scott

All Rights Reserved.

Disclaimer: This ebook is a work of fiction. Any resemblance characters in this story may have to real people is coincidental.

No section of this book may be copied or reproduced without the author's permission.

Description

Carter

Taylor was the last good thing in my sad-sorry excuse for a life.

When I was sent to prison for a crime I didn't commit, I lost everything.

Now I'm out and it's time to pick up the pieces.

But Taylor has been keeping a secret.

Taylor

Carter was the biggest mistake of my life.

When he was sent to prison, I thought I had gotten away scot-free.

Now he's out and I can't let him back in.

But his hard body against mine.

His throbbing desire begging for me...

Time no longer mattered when I painted. Everything in my mind drifted away out to sea. My vision narrowed to a tunnel as the brush stroked against the blank canvas. Nothing came close to the calming effect of art. It put you on another planet—away from all the stress and distractions of the real world.

But there was no paint on the brush.

My hand made the movements of a conductor, guiding an orchestra, swiping the dry brush along the canvas, hoping for inspiration to strike. The white rectangle was telling me nothing. A faded image came into focus. I quickly dabbed my brush into some yellow and flung it onto the canvas before the image in my head dissolved. After some blue paint, I thought I finally had something.

A beach and an ocean, Taylor? That's so amateur. What were you thinking?

I sighed and dropped the brush to the ground. A painting of an ocean wouldn't be good enough for my first art show. I needed a piece that would wow the audience. Something that could evoke an emotion. Get people talking about me.

All that schooling and I couldn't come up with anything. A Bachelor's in Art couldn't help with being creative.

My phone rang. A welcome distraction. “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys boomed out of my vibrating phone. I checked the screen and smiled.

“Hey Ivy!”

“Taylor, why the hell haven't you called me?”

Ivy was my roommate freshman year of college. Even though she was also an art major, we couldn't have been more different. Ivy was too preoccupied with boys to really focus on art. Her idea of painting was throwing some streaks of paint on a canvas and calling it a day. I couldn't knock her for it though because she produced some really beautiful pieces. She had natural talent. I on the other hand did not. It took me weeks to produce a somewhat passable painting, sometimes not seeing the sun for days.

“I'm sorry, Ivy, I've been a little busy the past week.”

“Oh the art show is next week! How is the painting coming?”

I looked at the blank canvas and laughed. “Will anybody appreciate a framed white canvas?”

“Paint the words “The Beatles” and it will be just like the White Album.”

That was actually a pretty good idea. There were definitely people out there that loved that lazy approach to art. But it wasn't me.

“That's really good but I won't steal your idea, Ivy. I need to come up with my own.” I walked away from my work station and into the kitchen, glad to be able to breathe in a different room.

“How did you get in this art show again? I heard it's for some pretty big players.”

“My dad got me into it. Said he had to sell an arm and a leg.”

“Of course it was your father, Taylor.”

Ivy was making me feel guilty for being from a rich family again. Better to just change the subject. “Enough about me. Tell me how it's going with that guy...what was his name?”

“Greg? Oh, we've been done for a week now. I actually have a date with this super hot guy I met at a bar last night.”

Ivy was always neck deep in men. In college, she was known for sleeping around and nothing had changed since.

I rolled my eyes. “What's the new guy's name?”

Ivy couldn't wait to scream out his name. “Walter. He's an engineer or architect. One of those. Doesn't matter. The main thing is he has a brother that he's just as hot. And he's
available...
”

I already knew where she was heading and I wanted nothing to do with it. “No way, Ivy. I'm not going on a double date with you.”

“Come on, Taylor. You've been cooped up in that apartment for too long. You need to get out and see the world.”

She wasn't wrong. I couldn't remember the last time I actually left the apartment other than to get food. “Yeah but remember how the last double date went?”

Ivy huffed. “You're never going to let me live that one down are you?”

I giggled. “Nope.”

Ivy had tricked me into going on a double date with her. Tricked me as in taking me to a bar to “have a couple drinks” and then ambushing me with a guy.

“Just because the guy turned out to be woman didn't mean the date was bad.”

I bent over the kitchen counter and rested on my elbows. “Taylor really was an attractive guy.”

“Well I can promise you this next guy will be one-hundred percent male.”

“No thanks, Ivy. You go out and have fun.”

“You're going to have to get over him eventually, Taylor.”

Don't say his name. Don't say his name.

Ivy continued. “It's been years since he's been gone. It's time to move on. Find someone who makes you happy. I just want the best for you, Taylor.”

“I know. I know. I'm really just not in the mood to date anybody right now. This art show is the only thing on my mind right now. And I barely have any time to finish this painting.”

“I'm kind of glad we're not roommates anymore. I could never get any sleep when you worked for twenty-four hours straight.”

“Oh really? You could never get any sleep? How about the guys you would sneak into your bed every night? Try sleeping through all that moaning.” We sounded like an old married couple arguing.

Ivy laughed. “Sorry, I guess I went a little crazy in college.”

“God bless noise-canceling headphones.”

A knock at the door interrupted our conversation. “Hold on a sec, Ivy. There's somebody at the door. Probably my father coming over to teach me how to network or something for the art show.”

I unlocked the front door and opened it to a memory from my past. My jaw dropped and the phone dropped to the floor. I could still hear Ivy on the other line trying to talk.

Muscles, tattoos, and that cocky smile.

Carter was back.

There she was standing in the doorway, her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a dark blue apron covered in dry paint protecting her clothes. Exactly how I remembered her.

My Taylor.

We stared at each other for an eternity. I wanted to take her in my arms, force my lips against hers. But that wouldn't be appropriate. So much time had passed. How could I ever explain to her how much I missed her?

“Carter?” Taylor choked out. “What are you doing here?” She shook her head. “I mean how did you get out?”

“Can you invite me in and we can talk?”

Taylor nodded and bent down to pick up the fallen phone. I followed her inside and was amazed at how nice her place looked. Dark hardwood floors, long white drapes covered the windows, and an amazing view of the town from the twelfth floor. Daddy Warbucks had treated her very well since I'd been gone.

Taylor led me to the kitchen that looked straight out of a home magazine. I felt so out of place. My jail cell was literal Hell compared to this.

“When did you get out?” she asked, setting her palms down on the white quartz island.

Taylor was nervous. But why? I expected her to jump into my arms with tears in her eyes when she opened that door. What happened since I was gone?

“Just yesterday. Nobody was there to pick me up so I had to bum a ride to town.”

“...It's been a long time, Carter.”

I walked around the kitchen island until I was only inches away from Taylor. All those ancient feelings came back. They were always there. But they were dormant. “Four years.
Four
long years.”

Taylor put her hand on my chest to stop my advances. It'd been so long since I held a woman. I dreamed of doing it every day in that prison. My heart pounded against her hand. Something harder pounded in my pants.

“How did you get out? You were sentenced to thirty years.”

Why did she have to ask so many questions? One kiss from me and she'd forget about everything. I jerked off every day in prison to the image of Taylor. Now it was time to make that fantasy come true.

I backed away to give her space. Taylor was obviously shocked at my return. Not exactly the warm reception I was expecting.

“They let me out because of overcrowding.” The reason sounded idiotic in my head but that's what they told me.

“Wait a second.” Taylor sat down at the bar stool next to the island and I joined her on the opposite side. There was an canyon of white quartz between us. “You were put in prison for attempted murder. They couldn't let you out because of overcrowding.”

Why was she making this so hard? I was back. That's all that should matter. “I was put in prison for a crime I didn't commit. The county knew they fucked up and instead of publicly acknowledging it, they gave a bullshit reason.”

Taylor put her head in her hands. “Sorry this is all so much to take in. I didn't think I'd ever see you again.”

“Why didn't you visit me?” The question slipped out of my mouth. I wrote to her almost everyday in jail but never got a response.

Taylor looked away. “I couldn't, Carter. It would've been too hard.”

“Then why didn't you at least respond to my letters?”

“Letters?” Taylor raised her head with wide eyes. “What letters? I didn't receive anything.” She looked around the kitchen like the letters would just be sitting around.

“I didn't know you moved into this expensive apartment. I sent the letters to your father's house.”

“I never knew...”

“It was your damn father,” I said so loud that the windows could have shattered.

Taylor put her hands up in defense. “Please, don't bring him into this. Whatever he did, he was thinking of the best for me.”

“And that brings us back to that classic argument we could never get over when we were together. Can't you see your father for who he really is?”

Taylor stood up and walked to the window overlooking the town, Saint Marks. “I don't want to argue about him anymore.”

I came up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist. She felt so warm against me. Prison would have been so much easier if I could've seen her face just once. “I want things to go back to the way they were,” I whispered in her ear.

“I don't think they can,” she replied.

Her words were like a shiv in my back but they wouldn't stop me. Nothing would. The whiff of her perfume brought me back to old times. Sitting by the fire, naked, bodies slick with sweat from making love. Talking about the meaning of life until dawn. Those were the memories that stuck with me through all those dark days.

I turned Taylor toward me so she could see my eyes—see how much she affected me. “The only thing that got me through prison was you. I don't know how else to say it, Taylor. You're mine and you always will be.”

“Please Carter. We can't do this.” Taylor tried to escape out of my arms but I wouldn't let her.

There was only one way to make her remember.

I forced my lips on hers. Adrenaline surged through my veins. My grip on Taylor tightened. The sweet taste of her lip gloss was something that I'd forgotten. It had been too long since I'd been with a woman. My cock throbbed in my pants. If I didn't take her right now, I'd explode. Taylor struggled for just a moment before surrendering in my arms.

She was mine again.