Unfiltered & Undressed (The Unfiltered Series) (19 page)

I wasn’t sure I’d ever tell him about that night at The Coffee Cave, but it was safer to leave some things left unsaid.

“About the money,” I said, knowing we needed to have this conversation eventually. “I don’t want to keep it.”

Will laced his fingers through mine, like he was silently conveying his approval. “It’s your money. I could care less what you do with it.”

I licked my lips. “I think I want to donate it. To the rec center.”

He squeezed my hands, our palms pressed together. “I think you’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever known, Lauren.”

My heart lodged in my throat as I got lost in his unbelievably gorgeous face, wondering how I’d ever gotten so lucky. “When you said you loved me…” I began.

“And you looked like a deer caught in the headlights?” he finished, and even though I knew he was teasing me, I felt bad I’d left him hanging like that. I should’ve told him then how I felt.

I let go of his hands so I could feel him beneath me. I let my hands move over his arms, his chest, his back. “You surprised me is all,” I explained, hoping to make him understand it had nothing to do with him.

“I know.”

I met his gaze. “I
do
love you. And I’m more than ready to go back and do this with you.” And I was, wherever it took us. Because that was the thing; this adventure we were about to embark on was going to be surprising and messy and confusing at times.

I’d always been such a planner that I hadn’t realized before: this was what life was all about, the ups and downs, and everything in between.

Will had learned that when his mom had died, only to realize he had a little sister who was counting on him. I’d discovered it when I’d come to California with one dream and walked away with another, even better one.

My story began with sex, and had been completely transformed by death.

It was what you made of those changes—those life altering moments—that defined you. Those were the parts that made life interesting.

And amazing.

—◊—

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for reading
Unfiltered & Undressed
! I hope you love what you’ve seen so far. There’s so much more to come! Next is
Unfiltered & Untouched
on July 14, 2014 followed quickly by
Unfiltered & Unveiled
on August 14, 2014.

Already in love with UNFILTERED? Drop by our
website
and
sign up for our newsletter
to keep up on all things Rio Verde. We promise not to spam you, but there just might be some sneak peeks and bonus content!

If you swooned for this book, the best way to help us keep our series alive is to review it. Anywhere! Even a few words are so appreciated! It makes a bigger difference than you think.

Lastly, with so many co-authors, there’s always something fun to read online! Please go to our website (
www.UnfilteredBooks.com
) to find our Twitter handles, Tumblrs, and personal websites.

Thanks Again!

Payge

—◊—

Keep reading for a preview of
Unfiltered & Unveiled
by Payge Galvin & Katy West, the eighth installment of the UNFILTERED series. For more on the Unfiltered Books, the rest of the series authors, or on Payge Galvin and Meg Chance, please visit us online:

www.UnfilteredBooks.com
| Twitter:
@PaygeGalvin

—◊—

READ THE REST OF THE UNFILTERED SERIES:

Unfiltered & Unlawful

Unfiltered & Unknown

Unfiltered & Unsaved

Unfiltered & Unhinged

Unfiltered & Undone

Unfiltered & Unraveled

Unfiltered & Undressed

UNFILTERED & UNTOUCHED

Book Eight of

the Unfiltered Series

~ Payge Galvin & Katy West ~

COMING JULY 14, 2014

—◊—

From the back cover of 
UNFILTERED & UNTOUCHED

After a night-shift shooting of a drug dealer in The Coffee Cave, twelve strangers each walk out with more than $100,000 in dirty money, a pact never to meet again, and the chance to start over…

For Allison Daniels, starting over means keeping the promise she made to her best friend that she would join a therapy group and quit drinking, cold turkey. Allie signs up for the first group session she hears about—led by a gorgeous ex-marine named Noah—and decides he’d make the perfect AA sponsor-with-benefits, to help her give up her addiction in favor of a safer, more intimate pleasure. The only problem? Noah isn’t running an AA group—he’s the president of a celibacy club.

Two years ago, to secure visitation with a daughter conceived during a meaningless hookup, ex-marine Noah Porter joined Worth The Wait and took an oath of abstinence. Noah’s restraint is a thing of legend among college co-eds, many of whom have tried and failed to make him break his oath. But when Allie accidentally joins his club, desperate to quit drinking and put her life back together, he quickly realizes she may be more than even he can resist.

As Noah shows Allie which temptations to resist and which to indulge, they begin to fall for each other, but the more intimate their relationship grows, the more aware Noah becomes that soon he’ll be forced to choose between loving Allie and raising his daughter…

—◊—

Allie

First there was sex, and then came death. A little of each turned out to be more than enough on the night of the shooting at The Coffee Cave, but my real problem was that I couldn’t remember how either of them came to happen, thanks to the miracle of vodka. I remember going to the club, and I remember the promise I made to my best friend, Violet. And I remember
really
intending to keep that promise for once—right up until the moment I didn’t.

What I don’t remember is walking out to the alley behind the club. I don’t remember the name or face of the guy who led me there. But what I do remember thinking as I was pressed against the brick wall with my skirt hiked up to my hips, numb from the inside out thanks to lots and lots of vodka, was that he wanted me, and I
really
wanted to be wanted. Everyone wants to be wanted. Right?

Everyone except Violet. She just wanted to go home, where everything she ever saw, or felt, or did fit into neat little boxes, which she was perfectly in control over, all the time, so that she never had to make a mistake or live in the moment, even just a little bit.

Living in the moment was
my
thing—especially if that moment was drenched in alcohol and primed for oblivion.

But if I’d learned anything since the moment we left the club for the coffee shop down the street, it was that some moments were never meant to be lived in…

‡

Arizona in June is killer—hot enough to melt you where you stand—and Violet’s foot-dragging wasn’t helping that. “Please get out of the car, Vi,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the front of the New Beginnings rehab facility. “In three minutes, I’ll be nothing but a puddle of sweat on the sidewalk.”

“This is your fault,” she snapped, pushing long blond hair over her shoulder from the passenger’s seat. “You should be checking in here. You’re the drunk, and we both know it.”

“I heard you the first four
thousand
times, and I’m still very, very sorry. But your parents are the ones who put you here.” They’d sworn they would disown her—totally cut her off, financially and emotionally—if she didn’t go to rehab.
Bastards
. “I just drove because… Because I still have my license.”

“You did
not
just…” Violet’s mouth fell open in disbelief, and the rest of her protest melted into the Tucson heat.

Okay, I shouldn’t have added that last part. She was already madder than I’d ever seen her. Ever. But she was stalling, and I was
broiling
.

“What color were the dead guy’s shoes?” Violet demanded softly.

“What?” I frowned and pushed dark strands of hair back from my face. I didn’t want to think about the dead guy, and what the hell did his shoes matter, anyway?

“What color were his shoes? You remember everything from that night, right? So you remember his blood spreading all over the coffee shop tile like an oil slick. You remember watching those black snakeskin boots through the crematory window as they melted and burned. You remember checking the crematory tray for chunks of the body that might not have been incinerated. You remember all of that, right?”

“Um…” I closed my eyes, certain the sun was frying my brain through my skull while I desperately tried to access the memories she was asking about. Images and sounds I still hadn’t quite pieced together, but she obviously couldn’t make herself forget. “I remember holding your hair back.” And feeling really guilty that I’d let her get that drunk. That I hadn’t noticed how much she was drinking, because I’d been drinking too. “And two people were kissing on the floor. A redhead and guy in a leather jacket. I remember
my
shoes, because they were really
your
shoes, and I remember coffee beans crunching beneath them. You almost fell, but I can’t remember whether that was because of the beans or the blood. But I’m
sure
the dead guy was wearing brown hiking boots.”

“
You
almost fell, but I caught you. And they were black snakeskin boots,” Violet snapped. “The girl on the floor had blond dreds, and the guy she was kissing wore a suit jacket, not a leather jacket. But honestly, I’m surprised you remember being there at all, considering how drunk you were. Well, I fucking do remember it. I remember all of it, because it’s seared into my brain. I have nightmares about it almost every night. I have anxiety attacks every time I walk into my own family’s business. I will carry that around with me for the rest of my life. And it’s your fault. As usual.”

“I know. I’m sorry. I’m a total bitch,” I admitted, hauling her giant suitcase from the trunk with a grunt. “And you’re saying ‘fuck’ a lot more lately, by the way. But the truth is that you aren’t here because you drank, or because I drank. You’re here because you drove, and I know you had a really good reason, even if the specifics are a little hazy….”

“A little hazy?” Violet grumbled, as I slammed the trunk.

“We’re not talking about my problems right now. The fact is that regardless of how and why it happened, you got caught drinking and driving.” I shrugged at her in the side view mirror, then lifted her enormous bag and penguin-walked to the front of the car with it. “But I’m on your side here, Vi. I will gladly haul this bag of boulders back into the trunk and drive you wherever you want to go. You don’t have to stay here. The court said ‘therapy.’ Your parents are the ones who decided on in-patient rehab, but they’re not the boss of you anymore. You’re twenty-one years old. You have the money. You can walk away any time you want.”

“I can’t just… Ahhhgh!” Violet bit off a growl of frustration and leaned with both arms folded over the open passenger’s side window. “They’re my family, Allie. You may not care about yours, but I care about mine, and I care what they think of me. If I don’t stay, I won’t have anyone to go home to… I won’t have anybody.”

I tried to look like her words didn’t sting. “You’ll have me.”

Violet frowned up at me, squinting into the sun shining behind my head. “That’s not enough for me. This isn’t enough for me anymore, Allie. I can’t spend the rest of my life cleaning up after you any more than I can spend it without my family. I have to stay.”

I shrugged, though my shoulders could hardly move beneath the weight of her bag. “That’s your call.” Violet had always been a rule follower. She’d never even been drunk until her twenty-first birthday, and personally, I blame her complete inexperience for the fact that she couldn’t hold her liquor. “Honestly, it could be a lot worse, Vi.”

She could be in jail.

“Don’t… How can you even…?” Violet groaned and finally got out of the car. “This could not possibly be worse.” She slammed the door and marched toward the front of the building, leaving me alone on the sidewalk with a suitcase that weighed more than both of us combined.

“Don’t worry!” I called after her. “I got the bag!”

I didn’t realize her suitcase had a broken wheel until I tried to pull it down the sidewalk and it fell over onto the yellow concrete wheel-stop in an empty parking space. “Damn it!” I stepped off the curb and was reaching for the suitcase handle when a car pulled into the spot and screeched to a stop inches from my nose.

I screamed and fell backward, stumbling over my own wedge-heeled sandals and Violet’s suitcase, and my elbow smacked the curb.

The car door flew open as I gritted my teeth against the pain in my arm, and a shadow fell over my face. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you. Are you okay?”

I looked up at the outline of a man’s head, backlit by the sun. “Um…”

“Here.” He pulled me up in one smooth, strong movement, and his face came into focus. And suddenly shock wasn’t the reason I couldn’t speak.

He was
gorgeous
.

Deep brown eyes, heavily lashed, below short-cropped brown hair. His arms bulged beneath the snug sleeves of a tee stretched tight across a sculpted chest, and his mouth was…

My hand tightened around his before I realized what I was doing.

His mouth was…

Yum
.

A mouth like that was wasted on speech. It was meant for something much…naughtier.

I dropped his hand, suddenly embarrassed by how long I’d held it, and how much like a
total drooling moron
I must look.

“Here. Let me get that.” He pulled Violet’s suitcase onto the sidewalk as if it weighed nothing, muscles shifting beneath his shirt, bunching at his shoulders, bulging beneath his sleeves. He was completely cut, and if I could tell that with his shirt on, what might he look like without it…?

My gaze wandered over the expanse of taut cotton and my thoughts lost focus.

“Checking in?”

“What?” I blinked and looked up into his eyes. I couldn’t even remember what I was doing on the sidewalk.