[Curious Liaisons 02] • Cheater's Regret by Dyken, Rachel van -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Log In

Or create an account ->

Imperial Library

Home
About
News
Upload
Forum

Help

Login/SignUp

Index

PRAISE FOR RACHEL VAN DYKEN “The Consequence of Loving Colton is a must-read friends-to-lovers story that’s as passionate and sexy as it is hilarious!” —Melissa Foster, New York Times bestselling author “Just when you think Van Dyken can’t possibly get any better, she goes and delivers The Consequence of Loving Colton. Full of longing and breathless moments, this is what romance is about.” —Lauren Layne, USA Today bestselling author “The tension between Milo and Colton made this story impossible to put down. Quick, sexy, witty—easily one of my favorite books from Rachel Van Dyken.” —R. S. Grey, USA Today bestselling author, on The Consequence of Loving Colton “Hot, funny, and will leave you wishing you could get marked by one of the immortals!” —Molly McAdams, New York Times bestselling author, on The Dark Ones “Laugh-out-loud fun! Rachel Van Dyken is on my auto-buy list.” —Jill Shalvis, New York Times bestselling author, on The Wager “The Dare is a laugh-out-loud read that I could not Unnamed ALSO BY #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR RACHEL VAN DYKEN The Consequence Series The Consequence of Loving Colton The Consequence of Revenge The Consequence of Seduction The Consequence of Rejection The Wingmen Inc. Series The Matchmaker’s Playbook The Matchmaker’s Replacement Curious Liaisons Series Cheater The Bet Series The Bet The Wager The Dare The Ruin Series Ruin Toxic Fearless Shame The Eagle Elite Series Elite Elect Entice Elicit Bang Bang Enforce Ember Elude Empire The Seaside Series Tear Pull Shatter Forever Fall Eternal Strung Capture The Renwick House Series The Ugly Duckling Debutante The Seduction of Sebastian St. James The Redemption of Lord Rawlings An Unlikely Alliance The Devil Duke Takes a Bride The London Fairy Tales Series Upon a Midnight Dream Whispered Music The Wolf’s Pursuit When Ash Falls The Seasons of Paleo Series Savage Winter Feral Spring The Wallflower Series (with Leah Sanders) Waltzing with the Wallflower Beguiling Bridget Taming Wilde The Dark One Unnamed This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Text copyright © 2017 by Rachel Van Dyken All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Skyscape, New York www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Skyscape are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781477819975 ISBN-10: 1477819975 Cover design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant To Melody. Without you, this book would have been a nightmare. Thank you for all of your insight! Contents Prologue Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty Chapter Forty-One Chapter Forty-Two Chapter Forty-Three Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Prologue Rain dripped from my chin as I banged my knuckles across Thatch’s fancy apartment door. Over and over again. Like a crazy person, I smacked my hand against it. Tears mixed with water from the outside streamed down my cheeks. I was “that girl.” The one who went to her boyfriend’s apartment late at night, a complete hot mess of emotional chaos. “Thatch!” I hit the door a third time, my palm stinging from the contact. Finally, it opened. Thatch was shirtless and shoeless. His jeans hugged his body in a way that should have been illegal. Then again, he was a plastic surgeon—perfection was kind of his thing. Anger surged through me and then . . . insecurity quickly replaced it. Brooke, the girl I had found him kissing, was taller than me, more athletic. She had stripper hair, the kind that just screams extensions, and her face was flawless. Probably along the lines of what Thatch was into. And her body? Let’s say it was made for sin. And looky here. A sinner. In my entire life, I h Chapter One AUSTIN “Fire!” Someone had shouted the word loud enough for me to jolt awake in a full-on panic. Heart hammering against my chest, I quickly assessed my bedroom for flames or smoke. Pink walls. I hated pink. Pink walls summed up just about everything you needed to know about me. Namely, that my life wasn’t mine to control. I had pink walls because my mom liked soft colors and wanted my room to look feminine. And the old One Direction poster with asshole Zayn on the front of it? Well, that’s what normal teenagers had on their walls, right? At least, that’s what my father said, since we always had to please the voters. And when the local news did a story on our house, it was a huge hit. Look at the all-American straight-A student and her normal high school room! Yay me. So the walls were pink, and I was staring up at One Direction. Damn you, Zayn, damn you to hell! I shook my fist in the air. Partially because I was still pissed at him for leaving, but mainly because I was so Chapter Two THATCH “I’m sorry, what the hell did you just say? You were mumbling.” Lucas covered his mouth with his hand and said something under his breath about being drunk and a turkey. “You did what with a turkey?” I shook my head. “Because you really don’t want to know what I’m thinking right now.” With a sigh, Lucas dropped his hand and took a long sip of coffee. We’d been sitting at Starbucks for the last five minutes while he mumbled about needing to tell me something important. I checked my watch. “Look, I have surgery in an hour, so if you could just”—I lifted my hands in the air—“be normal, for one second, that would be fantastic.” He’d been my best friend for four years, and the best wingman a single guy could ask for. Until he put a collar on his dick and gave his girlfriend, Avery, the leash. Pain sliced through my chest. I ignored it. Heartburn. Regret. Really it was all the same. “I may have gotten drunk,” Lucas finally said. His dark eyes darted between me and the coff Chapter Three AUSTIN I covered my face with my hands and peeked through the space between my fingers as I looked at a picture of Thatch scratching his face. “Avery, you said it was a minor allergy!” We were sitting on a park bench in downtown Seattle, enjoying the best clam chowder I’d ever had while birds flew over us, begging for scraps. I didn’t share food. So I was really ready to wage war against those things if need be. I clutched my soup closer and elbowed her. “Avery?” “Hmm?” She was busy texting Lucas, probably explaining that she was going to be late for dinner because she almost killed his best friend. That sucked. She got a fancy dinner date, and I was scarfing down soup and trying to keep animals from taking my sloppy seconds. She stared at her screen with a dopey grin on her face. I grabbed her phone and sat on it. “You aren’t even listening!” “Sure I am, minor allergy, all true.” The problem with best friends? I could be sitting on her phone or peeing in front of her and Chapter Four THATCH My face was on fire, and my entire office was still in an uproar over the award. News had already traveled about the big race I was supposedly doing with Troy and the mayor, which meant I somehow had to learn how to ride a bike between now and then or just sprain a muscle—any muscle—and bow out. What should have been a simple practical joke spiraled out of control because, how amazing was it that I was a successful surgeon and also doing bike races? At least, that’s what the nurses kept saying every so often when I left the safety of my office. It didn’t matter that Troy had been racing for the past fifteen years. Troy wasn’t known as the Dr. McSteamy of the group. So help me God, if one more nurse asked me if I could stitch myself up like they saw on Grey’s Anatomy, I was going to lose my fucking mind. My mouth still felt swollen. The only Benadryl in the office was in liquid form, and I chugged half the bottle. My allergic reaction was so severe that if I didn’t, Chapter Five AUSTIN “So?” I twisted my hands in my lap while Lucas took a painfully long time to pull off his sunglasses, shrug out of his jacket, and lift his coffee to his lips. By the time he took a sip, I felt like I was at the sloth DMV from Zootopia. My eye was starting to twitch, and I’d bitten my tongue twice to keep from yelling at him or launching myself across the table and demanding answers. “Easy.” Lucas shrugged. “He’s a coldhearted bastard, who’s going to most likely die alone—or with a prescription of Viagra in his bedside table and a girl thirty years his junior telling him to go harder.” He leaned forward, his eyes twinkling with amusement. “I gave him the list.” I exhaled while Avery busted out laughing. “Oh, this is classic, you’ve even managed to turn his best friend against him. Well done, Austin.” Had I not been focusing on Lucas, I wouldn’t have seen the horrified look on his face. Was he really on our side? Or Thatch’s? “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Lucas held out his ha Chapter Six THATCH “Alright, I know this seems strange, and I’m sorry my hands are cold.” I winked, cupping her left breast in my right hand before cupping the other with my left. “But I need to mark you up a bit.” I loved my job. Loved my patients—for the most part. But there were always those consults that you knew were going to go badly before you even stepped into the room. This was one of them. Or should I say she? Most of the eighteen-year-olds I worked on were spoiled brats who either flirted way too much with the man who was about to touch their breasts, or argued with whatever professional opinion I might have about them. It had already been a long day. And judging by the bubble gum that had just popped in my face a few minutes before when I introduced myself—it was about to get a hell of a lot longer. The teen jutted her chest out like she was God’s gift. She wasn’t. After all, wasn’t that why she came to me? She wanted more? There were three types of patients when it came to Chapter Seven AUSTIN It was going to be a late night. Like really late. Not only did I have an assignment to finish, but there was no chance in hell I could actually sleep after that run-in with Thatch. Why? Why did he have to be so cruel? And why was I like a dog with a bone? I wanted to let it go. I wanted to let him go. I wanted to be free from whatever emotional bondage he still used on me. But every time I saw his face, I was torn between wanting to knock out his perfect teeth and wanting to kiss him with reckless abandon. Maybe it was because no one had ever broken up with me before? Probably because I’d never had a serious relationship—until Thatch had given me a key. A freaking key to his apartment! “He doesn’t want you, Austin,” I mumbled to myself. I mean he made that clear the minute I walked in on him with his tongue down another girl’s throat. Taking a deep breath, I tossed my keys onto the kitchen table and pulled out a wineglass, filling it to the rim before opening my l Chapter Eight THATCH “I’ll be your hero.” The first sentence that was texted to me by an unlisted number. The hell? The morning just kept getting weirder. When I went to grab my coffee at my usual Starbucks, the barista stared up at me with wide blue eyes and said, “Enrique Iglesias is boss.” “Okay.” I drew out the word slowly. “Thanks for the coffee, good talk.” As if that weren’t weird enough, my Facebook feed was full of hero memes, one of them a picture of me wearing a cape. “What the hell?” I scrolled through my phone. And then a video started playing on my newsfeed. From Austin’s page. I’d been meaning to unfriend her—it was too hard seeing pictures of her all the time. Instead, like a masochist, I’d remained friends so I could stalk her and get angry all over again at my decision to push her away. My drunken voice sang out not only the wrong key to the “Hero” song but also the wrong words. “Holy shit,” I whispered as I stared at my drunken self belting out a song in a pitch that Chapter Nine AUSTIN “What do you mean it doesn’t count?” I fought to keep my voice even as my evil professor looked at my website. “It went viral!” “You posted an embarrassing video of an ex-boyfriend singing off tune.” He rolled his eyes and closed his computer. I swear he had some sort of God complex, since he was in his forties and had women falling at his feet, mainly hot undergrads. “Of course it went viral, but that’s not what this class is all about. What you posted is fine, but it’s a flash in the pan. It took absolutely no effort.” Hah! I nearly died from a spider attack because of that video, but whatever. I bit my tongue and waited for him to fail me. One of my classmates walked up to the desk and gave him a flirty wave. Her top was so tight, I could see nipple. He grinned and waved back. Bastard! “What you need,” he said, returning his attention to me like I was an epic disappointment, “is something that is actually interesting. Maybe you can document something important to Chapter Ten THATCH “I have a proposition for you.” Austin’s raspy voice always did mess with my head. I quickly turned around. She was dressed in a short black skirt with a black-and-white striped T-shirt that showed an inch of pale skin at her waist. Her black gladiator sandals wrapped all the way up her calves. Basically, she was trying to kill me by way of high-heeled sandals and a hell of a lot of thigh. “Austin.” Damn it, could my voice be any hoarser? “I’d say this was a pleasure, but I wouldn’t want to give you the wrong idea.” She flinched before moving swiftly into my office, closing the door behind her, and grabbing a chair. “Yes, please come in. It’s not like I have a job where I have appointments,” I grumbled, at my wit’s end with whatever the hell kind of drama she was about to unleash on me. “I’m going to fail my class,” she blurted, eyes wide with worry. “And I can’t fail, not after everything I’ve gone through to get to where I’m at. I’m living at home still, and I just Chapter Eleven AUSTIN Thatch was supposed to be at my house any minute. My palms were sweating. And every time I thought about shaking his hand, all I kept thinking was, Holy shit, you didn’t just sell your soul to the devil; you willingly gave your heart, soul, sanity, and most likely your body, all with one desperate thought. Pass class. Move on with life. Away from the parents’ house. Away from politics. Away from Thatch. I was going away, but what exactly was I moving toward? I frowned at the thought. I hadn’t really considered life beyond graduation because it had been my sole focus—get out from underneath my parents’ thumbs, be independent. Then get a job, get married. I gulped. Why? Why did I always have to associate Thatch with all of those future-goal words? My chest burned right where my heart was located—bad sign, a really bad sign, that he still affected me in a physical and emotional way. No matter how many times I repeated to myself in the mirror that he was a cheating ja Chapter Twelve THATCH I was more nervous for this workday than I’d been since I was out of residency and trying to prove myself. Our Wednesday morning staff meeting took longer than necessary, and by the time it was done, I was in need of coffee. Though for the first time in three days, I’d managed to actually get a good night’s sleep—since I didn’t have to worry about Austin releasing frogs or something else in my apartment. Really, everything worked out in my favor, since I got a good night’s sleep. Even though Austin wasn’t a real patient, I still needed to treat her like one. I just hated that every time I thought about examining her, I got so hard, I couldn’t think straight. Mia, our office assistant, waved me down with her hand, then covered the phone. “Austin Rogers is in your office.” And so it begins. “Thanks, Mia.” I only had one augmentation that day, and if the patient didn’t mind Austin watching, I was going to let her scrub in and observe. She’d probably pass out five min Chapter Thirteen AUSTIN Nancy was nice. If you liked women who should be aging naturally, but instead looked like they had had their faces frozen one too many times and had their eyebrows nailed to the top of their head. She was beautiful in a really harsh, she-could-either-be-eighty-or-forty way. I wasn’t against plastic surgery—I was just more a fan of its looking natural—and nothing on Nancy looked natural. When she left to let me change, I peeled off my shirt so fast, I nearly caught my head inside the neck hole—not because I was eager to get Thatch’s hands on me, but because I wanted this whole embarrassing situation to be over. I was uncomfortable, and I knew Thatch. I’d had sex with him, he’d seen me naked, and my teeth were still chattering. I made a mental note to include that in my post. That no matter who it was. You were still topless in a doctor’s office while bright fluorescent lights peered down on you, revealing every single flaw hidden in the dark. A loud knock had me Chapter Fourteen THATCH She was waiting for me. She had been waiting for me for the last five minutes. But I literally couldn’t get my own body under control. I’d been staring at the door, thinking about the same horrible things for what felt like an hour. Puppies being murdered. Whiskey shortage. Riding a bike. Frogs. Death. And still, still, I was hard as a rock and ready to make sure everyone in the hallway knew it. “Damn it.” I shut my door and turned toward the closed window, then grabbed myself as visions of Austin’s perfect body surged to the surface, making it almost painful to touch myself. “What are you doing?” a voice said from behind me. A familiar voice. Her voice. Swear my dick all but leaped out of my hand in search of that voice and the body it belonged to. “Nothing,” I lied. My body straight up hated me for that one, while my brain screamed, Turn around, bend her over the table, lift the skirt, just lift the skirt! The sound of a door shutting should not at all be erot Chapter Fifteen AUSTIN I’d never seen a surgery before—and I refused to count that one time in sixth grade when we were forced to watch a knee scope and I almost puked. I had only been twelve! I was an adult now. I could totally handle watching someone get cut up. Shivering, I downed the rest of my fruit smoothie and walked toward the elevators. I really shouldn’t have worn such high heels, my feet were starting to burn where my skin rubbed the soft leather, I knew I was going to get blisters when I put the suckers on, but I wanted to be tall—I hated how big Thatch was in the first place because he’d always made me feel small, safe. And I was a tall girl, all legs. So high heels were my armor. And I needed armor around him. Since the armor around my heart had a tendency to just fall to the ground whenever he smiled at me. Ugh. Why was it so hard for me to get the hint? He didn’t want me. Though he did seem to be having trouble giving his body that memo if what I walked in on was any in Chapter Sixteen THATCH I’d been on edge ever since Austin ran away from me like zombies were chasing her and threatening to eat her brains if she stopped. So I said the only thing I knew I could say in order to see her again, because I was a sick man, or maybe because I knew that my addiction for her was getting worse, and like a true addict, I told myself, just one more taste and I’d quit. One more look at her body and I’d leave her for good. One more taste of her lips and I’d really delete her phone number. Just one more. By the time I made it back to my apartment to shower and get dressed, I was in a really shitty mood. What the hell had caused her to panic like that? She survived a tarantula bite without passing out—so why was she so pale after watching a breast augmentation? There were literally fewer stitches for that than most surgeries, it wasn’t like I was chipping away on someone’s nose and doing some reshaping or a tummy tuck. I shoved my key in the door lock and froze. “Dad Chapter Seventeen AUSTIN Wine with Thatch. Everything between us had started with wine. Wine and then pizza and then a silly little line where he asked if I wanted to see his comic-book collection. I knew he’d been full of shit, but his personality had been magnetic. I was helpless, caught in his delicious web of sex. And I’d been a willing victim. But the guy I’d stumbled into bed with—and the guy I was currently having a nice adult glass of wine with? Two totally different people. Gone was the heart-stopping smile he usually chose to hide behind, and in its place, he looked stripped bare. As if he were finally about to lay all the joking aside and reveal some sort of truth. “So, you wanna talk about it?” I asked, swirling the wine in my glass a few times before taking a slow sip. “About?” He didn’t make eye contact. “Tits.” He spit out his wine in his glass and glared at me. “Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” “Try.” His eyes narrowed. With a laugh, I nodded my head toward the door. “All bo Chapter Eighteen AUSTIN The cursor kept blinking at me. My new blogger site mocked me. Because the only stupid words I could think to type were things like, His hands were smooth as they cupped my breasts, his thumb an inch from my nipple as he measured. He was warm. I gulped. Large. And every time I typed those words, I had to delete, you know, because I wasn’t writing an erotic novel. I leaned my head down against the computer and sighed. After the trauma of feeling a piece of glass stick out of my cheek, I decided to go to bed and wake up early to write my first post before class. And there I was, an hour before I had to leave. Still staring at the blank screen where no words were present, and wondering how I was going to sound professional when every single touch had me nearly jumping out of my skin and ready to maul the good doctor. The difficult part—I knew what his mouth tasted like. I knew what his touch felt like. So, my body couldn’t help itself—it craved him. “Be professiona Chapter Nineteen THATCH “I’m in fucking hell.” “Cheer up.” Lucas slapped me on the back. “It can’t be that bad.” “That. Bad,” I growled. “Did you not hear what I just said? How the hell did you do this? Work with Avery without using whatever power you had as her boss to make her—” Lucas grinned. “No, keep going. I’ll just beat the shit out of you rather than offer you whatever wisdom I was going to bestow.” Groaning, I finished my burger and wiped my hands. “I’ve worked with her four days. It’s Thursday, Lucas, and I’m ready to lose my mind.” “Don’t forget you still have to fake an injury or sickness so you don’t have to go riding with her dad tomorrow.” “Helpful,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m not sleeping, I’m constantly hard as a rock around her—yesterday, a middle-aged grandmother came in for Botox, Austin watched and kept sucking on her lower lip, and I literally had to excuse myself like I was ready to shit my pants—and go take care of business.” Lucas burst out laughing an Chapter Twenty AUSTIN “He’s turned me into a stalker,” I whispered into the phone while I slumped down behind the wheel of my car and waited. “Why are you whispering?” Avery said on the other end of the phone. “And who are you stalking?” “Because stalkers whisper, and I’m stalking Thatch.” “Okay, that’s it, intervention time, you can’t keep just hoping he’ll come back, sweetheart. Ugh, I knew it was a bad idea for you to hang out with him for your final project—you’re going to get attached, then get hopeful, and then, boom, I’m going to find you buried under a pile of MoonPies.” “What a good way to go, though, you know?” “No, Austin!” she yelled. “Not a good way, not even a normal way! You need to get over him, and you can’t get over him if you’re still pining for him. This is my fault. I told you to dress sexier in hopes that he’d snap out of it, but when we walked in on their conversation . . .” Pain sliced through my chest. “Yeah, I don’t think that conversation bears repeating, it Chapter Twenty-One THATCH My only goal had been to apologize to Austin for treating her like shit and being distant; anything beyond that, I wasn’t sure I could stomach. But now that my dad was in the hospital, I figured the truth was getting closer to being exposed, and I’d rather she hear it from me first. God, my parents were so good at ruining my life, weren’t they? And now they were going to ruin hers. Fantastic. My nose throbbed. Luckily, I didn’t think the bastard broke anything, though it hurt like hell to the touch. When I’d texted Lucas for Austin’s location, he hadn’t said jack shit about her being on a date. So I wasn’t prepared to see another man touching her hand—my hand. I still felt those hands slide down my skin at night when I fought back the anxiety over our breakup. I still dreamed of the woman attached to those hands. My nose pulsed—yeah, life wasn’t fair, not by a long shot. “We’ll pick up your car tomorrow.” Austin finally stopped the silent treatment as we pulle Chapter Twenty-Two AUSTIN Thatch kissed a woman as if he knew her body better than she did. It was like his lips could sense the perfect amount of pressure to apply in any given kissing scenario. Moaning, gasping, begging for more weren’t just options; they were necessary. It was survival. I’d been a victim of his kisses. Just like I’d been a victim of every inch of his sexual prowess, and I knew, if I didn’t stop the kiss, I would be a victim again. But my body begged me to just linger a bit longer. It told me to wait until I felt his tongue sliding across mine, until he tugged my lower lip and did that thing where he sucked it between his teeth just long enough to get me to gasp and open my mouth wider, where he’d slip in and take advantage, plundering my mouth until his air was mine. My body trembled beneath his heated touch; he knew exactly where I needed him, where I always craved him, and he took advantage of it, stealing any sort of no that I wanted to speak, and turning it into Chapter Twenty-Three THATCH “The hell you are!” I spit. “You can’t come in!” I was seriously minutes away from calling the police on my own father. He’d been out of the hospital for three hours—and was already completely wasted. “I’m your father!” Amazing that he wasn’t even slurring his words, although his body swayed a bit. Damn it! I had Austin. Austin in my bed. My Austin. And I had to deal with this shit! “Give me your keys.” I held out my hand. Dad shrugged. “I left ’em.” “You left them,” I repeated. “Where?” “No idea.” He burst out laughing. “Stay here,” I said through clenched teeth while I ran back into my apartment, grabbed the spare key, and tried not to break it in half while I stomped back to my dad and then across the hall. When I opened his door to let him in, he, naturally, tripped over his own feet and stumbled against one of his entry tables. Swearing, I slammed the door and began doing the usual. Make a pot of coffee, search his house for bottles of whiskey, put a gl Chapter Twenty-Four AUSTIN My morning was not starting well. I had three missed calls from Avery that I ignored because I still smelled like sweaty Thatch and was in the process of gathering my clothes so I could run home and shower before class, when my father decided, “Hey, let’s make sure my daughter is alive and breathing.” Lunch. He wanted me to go to lunch with him and my mom. And of course he just had to text me that early to ask! So basically, he had something to tell me—that was the only reason for his lunches, and of course he couldn’t be a normal parent and have those types of talks at the house, because nobody would see! I texted him back yes only so I’d stop getting messages from him with a question mark, and went in search of my underwear. I found it in the living room, which was odd since I was pretty sure I was stripped naked in his room. I quickly put on all of my clothes and grabbed my purse. Luckily it was still early, so nobody would see me sneaking out. I made it a Chapter Twenty-Five THATCH I didn’t text. I didn’t call. I didn’t chase. Not because I didn’t want to do all of those things—but because I knew that it wouldn’t be enough. Austin had woken up to an empty apartment and assumed the worst—who wouldn’t? But it wasn’t like I wanted to tell her about my alcoholic father. Because she’d ask questions. And I’d tell her, because I’d been carrying all of the stress for so long; I knew it was only a matter of time before I blurted everything out. I eyed the clock in the corner. She was supposed to come in today by two. It was two thirty. I closed my eyes and waited for my office door to open, and when it didn’t, I went over to it and jerked it open myself, looking up and down the hall for any sign of her dark-brown hair or long legs. Hanging my head, I was just getting ready to turn back around when I saw a flash of dark hair down the hall and then, she was walking toward me. Her face in a tight smile, her body hugged by a beautiful black wrap dre Chapter Twenty-Six AUSTIN My mom. In Thatch’s office. Why was my mom in Thatch’s office? Why was this happening? Had I just walked into an alternate universe, one where my mom used words like “nipple”? I loved my mom, don’t get me wrong, but, this? Did Dad know? As far as I was concerned, she’d never even discussed a boob job or anything like it. Besides, her boobs, unlike mine, were basically perfect, like every part of her! I closed my mouth and shared a horrified look with Thatch, who looked like he was ready to puke, though I wasn’t sure why. It was his job! And it wasn’t like he was touching his own mom’s boobs. Too far, Austin. Too far. “What are you doing here?” Mom and I said at the same time. “Austin’s shadowing me for one of her classes,” Thatch answered, saving me from having to explain myself. I would not be thankful for the save. I would not let his kindness in this moment minimize his rejection this morning. Spine straightening, I faced my mom. “So? Why are you here?” “I Chapter Twenty-Seven THATCH “I didn’t leave you,” I said hoarsely. “So stop taking your anger out on everyone else! I wouldn’t do that to you.” “But you did,” she argued. “I woke up alone!” I ran my hands through my hair and tried to think of a way to explain without giving her all the details. “This morning, I didn’t leave the building. I wasn’t abandoning you or trying to get out of the awkward morning-after part where you wonder if you’re going to get more sex or if the person’s going to make a run for it.” She sighed and looked down at the ground. “Well, aren’t you curious which it would have been?” “Yes.” My body ached for hers. “Too bad.” She marched over toward the door and placed her hand on the knob. “If you didn’t leave the building, where were you?” “Does it really matter? I didn’t leave you.” “It matters to the girl you slept with and then abandoned most of the night, yes.” “I was with you until five o’clock this morning.” “Did you want a prize for cuddling?” she countered. Chapter Twenty-Eight AUSTIN “So I’m just going to come out and ask.” Avery’s eyes narrowed in on me and Thatch as we sat across from her and Lucas, holding hands and basically groping each other under the table. “Are you guys together?” “Clearly they’re sleeping together. Austin’s neck has ten hickies. Who gives hickies anymore?” Lucas frowned into his glass. “Sucking on someone’s skin, not natural; now, sucking on a woman’s—” Avery shoved a piece of bread into his mouth. “Hungry?” With narrowed eyes, he pulled half of it out and chewed. “Starving.” “That’s what I thought.” Her deep blush said more than I’d like to know about my best friend and the guy sharing her bed, but whatever. Lucas Thorn wasn’t a cheater anymore, and I was happy for them, especially now that I had Thatch back. I shivered in response. I’d spent the last week in his bed. A full week of bliss where we argued over who made the coffee in the morning and which late-night TV show to watch. It was bliss. It was exactly Chapter Twenty-Nine THATCH The paper from my office was burning a hole in my pocket. The paper on which Austin’s mom had written her cell number and circled it a few hundred times. I suspected that she wanted to know what I knew. Which was a hell of a lot. But I wasn’t going to say anything. Maybe I had it wrong; maybe she was seeing how it was possible that I wasn’t saying anything to Austin or going to the press. Then again, I could be wrong about every damn thing and her mother didn’t even know. Hell. Cheating. You don’t cheat by accident; your dick doesn’t just slip into another woman, the same way a woman doesn’t trip over her own feet and lock lips with another man. Damn it. I didn’t call the number. Austin was snoring lightly next to me. She was the only good part of all of this, and I had to trust that she loved me enough to weather any kind of storm. I lay awake, staring up at the ceiling, my thoughts going back to that night when I realized my parents weren’t who I thought th Chapter Thirty THATCH “Let me get this straight.” Lucas pointed at my black eye. “A panther ran out in front of you and you crashed a bike.” I bit out a curse. “Yes.” “A bike with training wheels?” “Yes.” Clenching my teeth hurt like hell. “And this”—he held up fake air quotes—“‘panther’ escaped from the zoo.” “YES!” I yelled. “Look, all I’m saying is, I was having a nice leisurely training session with Austin, and she had to go to class, so I thought then why not practice on my own? So I grabbed my helmet—” Lucas choked on his coffee. “Whatever, why am I even defending myself right now?” “A lot of good that helmet did. You still managed to get a black eye.” “I fell against the handlebars!” I showed him with my hands, not that it was helping. Swear it really was a panther or the largest cat I’d ever seen in my entire existence. “And you’re a jackass—why did I even call you?” “Oh, I don’t know, because I’m one of the only ones who wouldn’t make fun of you and take pictures?” “You got ou Chapter Thirty-One AUSTIN “I’m impressed.” My professor actually said those words. They came out of his mouth, and I could have sworn he was smiling; I mean, his teeth were clenched, but the point? He said the word “impressed.” “Thank you.” I grinned, feeling lighter than I had in weeks. “It’s been really interesting.” Images of Thatch on his knees in front of me, his hands clasped around my hips as he pressed hot kiss after hot kiss against my skin, flooded my head until a burning heat erupted like goose bumps all over my body. “Has it, now?” He eyed me up and down. Yeah, I didn’t like that look. I quickly put all images of Thatch on lockdown. The last thing I needed was for my professor to think I was hitting on him. “I have an idea of what you could do to make it better.” My eyes narrowed. If he said sleep with him, I would take an F and then punch him in the face. Hands shaking with nerves, I put them behind my back and took a deep breath. “Okay, what’s your suggestion?” “Get one.” Chapter Thirty-Two THATCH I was just finishing up with my last patient when I got the call from Austin. I started running the minute she said “hospital.” My heart had nearly stopped. The fact that she was actually conscious and talking to me told me that she was alive, but that fear, that sinking feeling of loss, still clung to me with every step into the ER. I felt sick to my stomach. Nauseated. I couldn’t lose her. Just the thought of not having her—of her even being injured—hell, it was a glorified paper cut, and I was ready to scrub in and save her life. “Sit still,” I scolded. “Or you’re going to have zigzags on the side of your hand.” “Sorry,” Austin hissed as I tugged the needle a bit harder, threading the sutures together. “It just feels funny.” “Don’t puke,” I said without looking up at her. “It’s never the pain that gets people, it’s the tug they feel when their skin’s getting pulled and pinched together.” Austin sucked in a breath and whispered, “Yeah, I’m going to need you Chapter Thirty-Three THATCH “Just what do you think you’re doing?” I asked a guilty-looking Austin as she drank directly from the chocolate-milk carton. She froze and then slowly put the carton on the kitchen counter and wiped her face with the back of her bandaged hand. She had no idea how cute she was. Or how aroused I was by just watching her drink out of the damn milk carton. The light from the fridge cast a sexy glow across her smooth skin and nest of dark hair as strands fell across her face and long neck. She smiled, busted. “I was thirsty.” “And all the glasses were dirty?” I approached slowly, crossing my arms over my chest so I wouldn’t reach for her. Again. Because a man needs sleep. And ever since the day before—I’d been kissing her, taking her in the shower, and making sure that every single space in my apartment was christened with her presence. Including the kitchen counter. It still had remnants of chocolate sauce on parts of the granite. My blood heated at the memory. Chapter Thirty-Four AUSTIN Things were going too well. And suddenly, that morning, I had that weird feeling where I could almost taste the tension in the air. Something felt wrong as I got ready for my last class to turn in my final assignment and found Thatch gone. I got the sense that the universe was shifting again and not in my favor. It was the same feeling I’d had the night of our breakup. He never left before me. Except for that one time when he was helping his neighbor. Concerned, I sent him a quick text and checked the time. The last thing I needed was to get docked points for being late to my final class, even though I’d completely killed that assignment. Five hundred people had started following my journey into plastic surgery—though I think most of it had to do with Thatch just being that good-looking. I’d have been addicted to the blog too—and Thatch being Thatch, he didn’t care that I added pictures of him to a few of the posts, as long as patients weren’t part of them. N Chapter Thirty-Five THATCH That morning, I had left a sleeping Austin in my bed. My warm bed. She glowed, like an angel, her hair spread across the pillows while her arm was tucked under her head. She was peaceful, like she didn’t have a care in the world. The last thing I wanted to do was leave. God, I hated my life most days, but what was worse? The drama was so completely unnecessary! Dealing with our parents’ messes was like babysitting grown children. Austin’s mom had given me a note with her phone number. It sure as hell wasn’t a booty call. It was desperation. And I’d refused to answer until last night. Until I’d made love to Austin one last time, knowing that I couldn’t truly love her if I kept parts of myself from her—parts of the truth from her. So early that morning, I called her mom and told her to name a place. Not because I wanted to air out all the dirty laundry but because she deserved to know the truth about her husband. And my mother. Pain sliced through my chest. In Chapter Thirty-Six AUSTIN A loud knocking sounded on Thatch’s door. I opened it and took a step back as Avery held her hand in the air and then sucked in breath after breath before finally stumbling into the apartment. “Hold . . . just one sec . . . can’t breathe.” Lucas followed and shook his head slowly. “She ran.” “She needs to start power walking or something,” I mumbled, biting off a huge piece of a Twizzlers licorice. “Heard that,” Avery said on another wheeze. “And I was worried, okay? You texted me a picture of two MoonPies, a Snickers bar, and a six-pack of Mountain Dew! It wasn’t Diet, Austin.” “Gross, Diet?” I scrunched up my nose. “And why would that freak you out?” “Need I remind you of last time?” She threw her hands in the air. “I had to rescue you from your own filth!” I waved her off. “Well, I’m not in need of rescue, though Thatch did the honors at least a few times this afternoon.” Avery made a gagging noise and then looked around the apartment. “Where is good Thatch Chapter Thirty-Seven THATCH “What does a nervous breakdown feel like?” I kept checking my watch, and every time I checked, only a minute had gone by. Walgreens was two blocks away. Two! “What the hell? Did they stop to feed the ducks or something?” I paced in front of Lucas while he devoured half a bag of potato chips. “And why aren’t you saying anything?” “One.” He held up a finger. “Because you’ll just tell me to shut the hell up.” He crunched down on another chip. “And two, because I’m ninety percent sure if I say something, no matter how helpful, you’ll just take out your pent-up aggression on me and punch me in the face, and I like my nose. I’m attached to it, literally. So I’ve got nothing.” “I wouldn’t punch you.” “Admit it, you want to punch something.” “Because I don’t know what the fuck to do!” I yelled. “I’m pretty sure Austin’s dad wants to start a smear campaign in order to protect his own ass, and if Austin’s pregnant . . .” I sat and groaned into my hands. “And if she is Chapter Thirty-Eight AUSTIN We celebrated all night, and Thatch told us part of his plan before disappearing with Lucas for a good hour while I hung out with Avery and tried my best to come up with more ways to take my dad down. Everything Avery and I came up with fell short. Because really, who would believe my mother over the mayor? Especially with proof? People loved a good scandal, and even though Thatch wasn’t actually kissing her, it looked like she was going in for a kiss and they were holding hands. It looked bad. I mean, I knew them, and I’d suspected the worst. The answer came easily enough. In fact, the answer came when Zootopia popped on and Avery made us pause for the Shakira song. “I would kill for a carrot recorder pen.” I yawned and then shared a look with Avery before grinning up at Thatch. “That look scares me.” He scooted away and then narrowed his eyes. “Just what’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” “The fact that I’m brilliant.” “I agree with that if I can ad Chapter Thirty-Nine THATCH “If we didn’t need that bastard, I would have punched him in the face,” I said through clenched teeth as we slowly got ready for bed. The bathroom was large enough for both of us to move around each other, and I kind of hated it, because I liked feeling her warmth around me, knowing that if I reached for her, she’d be there. I’d turned into a complete sap. And I’d never seen it coming. Austin put her hands on her hips and shook her head at me. “You’ve said that . . . at least five times.” “It was true the first time, true this time too.” I looked down at my shaking hands and clenched them into fists. “The fact that he ever kissed you, touched you—” “Whoa there, cowboy.” Austin was suddenly in front of me, tugging me by my hair in a way that drove me wild, pulling me into her arms and kissing my mouth, her delicious tongue sweet on my lips. “I’m yours. Plus . . .” We both looked down as she placed my hand on her stomach. “Now we’re going to be a family. Every Chapter Forty AUSTIN I didn’t want to dance around anything, so when I walked up to my house—the house that I was going to be moving out of as soon as this all blew over—I felt empty. Kind of like, the home I’d grown up in hadn’t really been a home, just a place to put my things. I’d always felt empty in this large house; I just never realized how empty until now. I expected some sort of sadness, another emotion, something. Instead, it was like I was walking up to a stranger’s house. Thatch’s apartment felt more like a home, and for the first time since finding out about my dad and his mom, I was justifiably sad. Sad that my dad had done this to our family. Sad that he felt the only way to cover his ass was to blame someone he should be protecting—my mother. And just sad all around that although I was bringing a life into the world, as far as I was concerned, if he didn’t apologize, he wasn’t going to share a part in it. By the time my hand reached the doorknob, I almost itched to knoc Chapter Forty-One THATCH “I think I may puke,” Austin said at my side. She was dressed in a gorgeous black gown that hugged her every curve. It was lacy, and it was really messing with my head, since the lace gave glimpses of her creamy skin. If our driver stared at her one more time, I was going to punch him in the face. I’d gotten really territorial all of a sudden. Hell, I’d always been territorial where Austin was concerned; I’d just never wanted to act on the feeling as much as I wanted to right now. “You look awesome,” Avery encouraged. She was sporting a short red dress that kept hiking up enough to cause Lucas to have trouble breathing every few seconds when he looked down and did a double take. We decided to rent a limo to drive us to her father’s fund-raiser. Rather than hide out while news went wild. It only made sense to show our unity and strength. It had been a week since the news hit about me and Austin’s mom, and the fervor hadn’t died down, but without any more proof, Chapter Forty-Two THATCH I was too excited to sleep. By the time eight a.m. rolled around, Austin was still sleeping, and I was trying to make coffee without dropping cups and running into walls. I was dead on my feet and so thankful I had taken the day off. With a yawn, I was just getting ready to grind some coffee when a hard knock sounded at my door. I knew that knock. Just like I knew who would be on the other side. And suddenly the tension was back in my shoulders as I rigidly made my way toward the door and opened it, expecting to see the usual—my father, red-rimmed eyes, swaying unsteadily on his feet, smelling like whiskey, and shouting about how my mom and I ruined his life. Instead, I found my dad. Completely. Stone-cold. Sober. Showered. Dressed. He looked like the dad I remembered. His hands shook as he held out a newspaper and pointed at it. “You did this?” Shit. “Yeah.” I swallowed the guilt and pushed it away completely. “It needed to be done.” “Closure,” he said after a Chapter Forty-Three AUSTIN His mouth. Why would I ever want a job? Sex with Thatch. That was my new job title. He was probably just trying to distract me from watching the news, since my dad’s face was all over it right along with his mom’s. Every time I tried to reach for the remote, he slapped my hand away and started kissing me. “Focus on us. Focus on this,” he’d say over and over again, loving me with his mouth, holding me, touching my stomach. So I listened. But it was time. And it was like we both knew we needed to face it, to watch the news and see what happened once the story hit. I grabbed Thatch’s hand and rose from the bed, leading him out into the living room and pointing at the remote. “They’re still our parents,” I whispered. “Yeah, they are,” he echoed, and then hit the power button. It was breaking news alright. But it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought. I mean, it wasn’t like he was guilty of embezzlement. Speculation said that the affair had been going on for years. I knew Epilogue AUSTIN “You’re doing so well.” My father-in-law winked at me and moved around the bed to grab my hand. “How are you feeling?” “Oh, you know.” I clenched my teeth. “Like I’m giving birth to a ten-pound gorilla, but other than that, splendid. Hey, where are we on those drugs?” He grinned, and his expression reminded me so much of Thatch. Over the past few months, father and son had mended their relationship so much that we had family dinner nights, and he’d even paid off every cent of Thatch’s student loans so we could start fresh. The divorce settlement had gone through, and the very first thing his father wanted to do with his money was take care of us. Thatch said no. But his father said it was necessary, and said if we didn’t take the money, he’d just set up a trust fund for the little boy we were about to have. So Thatch took it, and later that night, cried in my arms. Three hundred and fifty thousand dollars’ worth of loans. Gone. Forgiven. Funny how the minute he was able Acknowledgments I still pinch myself. I love my job; it’s my passion. And I’m so blessed to be able to do it, and so thankful to God for allowing me to do it and putting me on the right path so that a dream could become a reality. To my amazing husband and son, who put up with my late nights and constant craziness over book deadlines—I love you guys. Nate, you are truly the best book boyfriend EVER, only you’re real . . . Wait, you are real, right? Melody, thank you for all your hard work with this manuscript. Courtney, thank you for always being so up for whatever crazy ideas I have and going, “Okay, yeah, let’s do it!” So honored to be a part of the Skyscape team! Erica. Best agent EVER! Thank you for pushing me, and always being such an amazing friend and agent. I love you! Jill—you literally make sure everything is perfect before publication. Thank you for keeping me sane and making sure that every t is crossed and every i dotted. I don’t know what I would do without you as family About the Author Photo © 2014 Lauren Watson Perry, Perrywinkle Photography A master of lighthearted love stories, Rachel Van Dyken has seen her books appear on national bestseller lists, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. A devoted lover of Starbucks, Swedish Fish, and The Bachelor, Rachel lives in Idaho with her husband, son, and two boxers. Follow her writing journey at www.rachelvandykenauthor.com.

← Prev
Back
Next →

← Prev
Back
Next →

Chief Librarian: Las Zenow <zenow@riseup.net>
Fork the source code from gitlab.

This is a mirror of the Tor onion service:
http://kx5thpx2olielkihfyo4jgjqfb7zx7wxr3sd4xzt26ochei4m6f7tayd.onion