Wednesday morning Presley was sitting at a cute little table for two overlooking the beach, listening to the surf pound the shore and the laughs of people enjoying the sunshine. Nice was turning out to be everything she dreamed it would be and more. When her editor told her to book time off and recharge herself after back-to-back novels, she’d initially balked but then when the countdown to her flight to France and this beautiful resort in Nice drew to a close, her excitement ramped up. Now, she was grateful her friends and family pushed her to follow the editor’s direction.She picked at a piece of a croissant and sipped her coffee, content in the first relaxing day she’d spent in months. Her book release was set. The initial pre-ordered copies would be available online for ordering on Friday with the new cover. The mass orders which would go to the bookstores would start being filled after. Her hopes for the book were for it to surpass the others she’d written.Her phone rang on the
He was exhausted. His head was pounding. He’d been eating antacids like candies since he’d realized Presley skipped town on him. His PR team were losing their minds because another story popped up this morning with a trending tweet questioning his use of steroids. His legal advisors wanted to sue her, but his father and her father were old friends and not to mention she was Odin’s younger sister. Legal action was not going to happen.He needed her to get back and fix this shit. He sent her another text asking if she would at the very least release a joint statement. He already knew it was going to bounce back as blocked. He’d been blocked since Tuesday and when he’d texted her from his assistant’s cell, she’d blocked it as well. She’d been gone four days. It was Friday now, and she was in the wind.Cruz needed caffeine and he left his office in search of something stronger than what his admin assistant made for him out of the instant coffee machine.“Sir?”“You brought me a coffee yes
Sitting on her lounger at the beach, Presley was ready to scream with frustration. The blowhard man who’d followed her from breakfast down to the beach wouldn’t give it up.His name was Algernon. He wore a tiny banana hammock under his protruding gut. He was bald and bragged how he didn’t have hair anywhere on his body at all, wiggling his eyebrows in what Presley was certain he meant to be suggestive. The thought was confirmed when he said no hair meant she wouldn’t be picking it out from her teeth when they became closer during the vacation.She’d tried to ignore him, putting her earbuds in and picking up a book she’d brought to read but now he boldly removed the earbud from her ear and was asking her if she wanted to get out of the heat and get into the water with him.“We could swim deep, and I could get very deep.”A woman traveling alone needed to be careful. Setting a man off was dangerous, especially one who was staying directly across the hall from her. She gave a benign smil
Coming out of the water, she felt Cruz’s eyes on her and she wanted to smack him. Why wouldn’t he go away? He was sitting on the end of her lounge chair, his hands clasped loosely between his knees watching her intently.Grabbing her towel, she patted herself dry and then wrapped up in her beach cover up. Without saying a word to him she began packing up her belongings.“Ladybird, we need to talk.”She maintained her silence and when all of her things were packed into her oversized beach bag and her slides were slipped onto her feet she began walking the short distance back to the hotel. He walked behind her, silently, as if waiting for her to blow up.In the elevator she was contemplating all the ways she was going to murder him. Narnurs the intergalactic cop was going to get a sequel. He and his two dicks were going to die a tragic death and the female love interest in the story was going to find a man with three penises and maybe a vagina too. Maybe the funeral process on Narnurs’
Presley considered never in a million years did she ever consider her vacation was going to be ruined by Cruz Hawley. She’d made her escape free and clear, and her father sold her out.She was sitting in small swinging chair in the garden area of the resort licking her wounds and preparing to call her father. After throwing the coffee mug which was the closest thing to her fingers at Cruz’s face, he’d barely ducked away from it, and it bounced off his chest to shatter at his feet. A large shard impaled the top of his foot and gave her the escape she needed.She felt a miniscule amount of regret for making him bleed but she remembered the time he broke her arm as a kid and pushed it away. Now she was kicking her toe off the rocks of the quiet area and trying to get her thoughts in order.She called her father’s cell phone and waited for him to pick it up. After the third ring he answered, and his voice told her he was dreading whatever it was she was going to say.“Hi P.”“How could yo
“Hey Mom.”“Did you tell your father he’s not your father anymore?”“Did he tell you he called me a horrible human being for using Cruz Hawley’s likeness on my book?”“No.” the tone of her mother’s voice told her that her father was in shit when she got hold of him.“He scolded me saying I went too far. Cruz has bullied and abused me my entire life. I did the thing the at the restaurant. He demanded I make restitution in the way of dating him on four dates. I negotiated him agreeing to do the cover. I showed him the photo I was going to use, Mom. He approved it. I agreed to four dates to fix his image with the company because of the restaurant thing and I got to use his photo. He agreed. He signed off. It’s not my fault he chose not to read up at all on what my book was, who my audience is or to even ask proper questions.”“You make a compelling argument,” her mother laughed.“Dad gave him my itinerary, Mom. Dad actually gave him my full itinerary and the name I’m traveling under. Cru
His words should have been a catalyst to her coming to her senses. They should have been an icy dousing of frigid water along her sun scorched skin. Yet as he peeled her cover-up over her head and tossed it onto the tiny bench behind them, she already yanking at the strings of his shorts. When her bikini top followed the cover-up, her hands was already wrapped around his long length stroking him up and down.“It’s only one but it should do the trick,” he grunted right before his mouth claimed hers.His fingers yanked the strings of her bottoms, and they fell to the floor. He wasted no time stroking his fingers through folds. He ripped his mouth from hers, “too short.”“I’m not too short,” she wanted to kick him in the shins but then he lifted her, pinned her to the wall and sucked her left nipple deep into his mouth, the roughness of his tongue sending a shocking burst of pleasure straight to her navel. “Can’t reach,” she tried to get his meaty cock back in her
“You fucked Odin’s sister.” Anderson was more judgemental than Cruz expected.“It happened. I have zero regrets. She fits.”“She fits?”“Like in my arms. She fits. I could carry her strapped to my chest and she fits there. The sex was smoking.”“You hate her.”“Hate is a strong word, but I admit I never liked her much because she was always so damn antagonistic. I swear to God every time we turned around as kids she was pulling some other kind of shit on us. As adults though, I don’t really know her now.”“She singlehandedly ruined a fifty-million-dollar deal.” Anderson reminded him.“I know.”“My sister gave me shit for hacking Presley’s itinerary and getting you into the rooms. I told her we could have a war of hackers if she tried to undo what I did. I told her I was going to monitor everything constantly t
Presley looked down at Cruz as her shaking fingers unbuttoned his shirt to push it back off his shoulders. His hazel eyes were clear and focused on her as if memorizing each tiny detail of her features and yet she was mesmerized by the golden flesh she was uncovering. Vacation sunshine gave his skin a sun kissed and burnished glow Her palm ran over his thick pecs, stroking his nipples and cupping the taut sinew of his flesh. His cock twitched under her as she explored the curves of his abdomen and then back up his shoulders and it forced a smile to her face.“What are you grinning like the Cheshire Cat for?” he asked as he wriggled his arm out of the sleeve of his shirt to allow her further exploration.She ground her pelvis against his, “ten seconds of touching you and you’re already getting hard.”“Ladybird, I can get hard thinking of the smile on your face, let alone having you touch me.”She continued letting her hands search as he pulled his shirt from under him and tossed it asi
Presley entered her place in Gastown, in the city center of Vancouver and felt the tears fall down her cheeks.Cruz immediately seeing her crying grabbed her and hugged, “what’s wrong? Why are you crying?”“I’m so happy to be home. I thought,” her words were clogging her throat as she tried to get them out, “I’d never come here again. I thought I’d never see my own place again.”“Oh Ladybird,” he sighed as he lifted her up in his arms bridal style and carried her deeper into the space and towards a loveseat. He sat down and cuddled her against his chest.She sniffled and reached for a throw blanket behind his shoulder, “my Nana made this for me when I was a little girl. She died when I was really young, but I still have it and I’m so happy it’s still here and I get to touch it again.” She draped it over her knees as she sat across Cruz’s lap. She gave a giggle. “You make my small apartment look even smaller, Kong.”“Kong with two dongs,” he amended as he recited the name Algernon gave
Walking into the breakfast area in the morning, Presley was surprised to find it full of Russian men and she couldn’t contain her giggle when Cruz walked in behind her, and they all pounded their chests and screamed “Kong!”“You are so never living it down.”“I imagine they could have given me worse nicknames,” he shrugged as he nodded at Anderson who was sitting in a corner morosely pushing an omelet around his plate. “They named him Chip.”“Chip?”“Like microchip but chip.”“I wonder what is wrong with him?”“I imagine it’s that,” Cruz gestured in the direction of where Halima was sitting at a table surrounded by six Russian men all eagerly sharing their breakfasts with her and flirting outrageously.“Rami is here!” Presley tore away from Cruz and raced to where he was standing by the breakfast bar. “Rami!”“My fifth sister!” he swung her up in his arms, hugging her tightly. “It is so good to see you looking so well rested.” He set her down and pulled something from inside the pocke
The room looked the same. Why she thought or believed the room she shared with Cruz was going to be different somehow after only a couple of nights away was confusing to her. Yet, in her mind, as she looked around the room and saw all her belongings exactly where she left them, interspersed with Cruz’s things, she felt the urge to cry. Nothing was changed.“What’s wrong?” Cruz immediately noted the way she was rapidly blinking.“I thought it would be altered.”“Altered how?”“I don’t know. I thought maybe my things would be gone or put away or yours would be packed up.”He smiled as he took her hand and led her to the bathroom. “Now why would I pack stuff up? I wasn’t leaving here without you, Presley.” He turned the shower on. “Do you want help or do you want some time alone?”“Would you be upset if I said I wanted some time alone?”“You’ve been surrounded by men for the last twenty-four hours, all of whom you didn’t know. I completely understand why you want to be alone. Take your s
Once they arrived back at the resort, Presley was taken into a reserved room where food and drinks were prepared for her and her family.Algernon and Sloane were the last to arrive and Presley was dumbfounded by her best friend’s appearance. Bruised eyes, swollen lips and hair in disarray, her friend who was usually so well put together, was a mess.Sloane raced to her and hugged her tight. “I missed you.”“Did you because you look like you’ve been very well distracted.” Presley was only half-teasing.“I think I love him,” Sloane whispered in her ear. “I’ve never felt like this before. He sees me, Presley. He sees my heart and we connect so deeply. I can’t help but feel all of this was some divine plan to bring me into his life or him into mine. All I know is it’s meant to be. I think I love him.”Presley squeezed her friend in her arms, “then love him. It’s okay to love him. He’s a good man. He’s a nice man. If he makes you happy, then I’m happy.”“Are you okay?” Sloane leaned back t
The men lifted the door off the groaning man on the floor and Presley stifled a giggle.“That was insane.” She looked at Cruz who was glowering at the man with such rage she wasn’t sure he wasn’t going to stomp on the man without the door between them. She immediately moved to stand in front of him. “Hey, Kong,” he turned and gave her an annoyed glance, “good job taking out the bad guy like a movie star stunt man but maybe we can get out of the way so they can get him upstairs.”“I’d rather throw the fucking door back on top of him.”“With the way his nose is bleeding, I think it’s broken and he’s breathing funny so definitely some broken ribs. You’ve done enough damage.” She was tugging him back towards the stairs. She grinned at Belkin who was waiting, “it worked. Cruz jumped on him.”The men all started cheering as Liborio was dragged up the stairs and thrown at Belkin’s feet. Belkin squatted and grabbed the semi-conscious man by the jaw.“You fucked up my friend. You kidnapped a w
Presley wrapped her arms and legs around Cruz’s neck, and he crushed her to his frame.“Fuck Ladybird, oh fuck,” his voice cracked as he buried his head in her hair.She couldn’t help herself and she was sobbing uncontrollably in the crook of his neck as he stood holding her while men milled all around them. Despite the yelling and the way everyone was rushing around, in the midst of trying to get the ship back under their control before other factions arrived to assist Liborio, she felt nothing but the relief of being in Cruz’s arms.She felt him carrying her away after someone yelled at him in French and he was taking her to a more secure location, away from the possibility of gunfire. He wasn’t letting her go through. The sound of his sniffling and clearing his throat made her pull her head back and look at him. Tears stained his cheeks as he tucked them against a small corner of a wall. Cupping his cheeks with her hands she stared into his eyes. “Hi.”His laugh made her smile, “hi
Presley looked around the quiet room, grateful the men were still tending to the bruises and shallow breathing of Odin despite how furious they all were with him. Then suddenly there was a cacophony overhead as it sounded like hundreds of feet hit the deck overhead.“What is going on?” she made wide eyes at Rami.“The cavalry has arrived,” he smiled at the men. “Now we wait. As much as we’d love very much to go up and shoot some of these fuckers who stole our ship, we will wait here with you and keep you safe.”Liborio’s voice rang out, but it seemed he was talking to someone other than them. “You should leave. I have your crew and Presley locked up down here and she does not leave without me. If you try to come down for her, I will kill us all, including your eleven men, the captain’s wife and child, and Presley.”“He’s nuttier than a Christmas fruit cake,” Presley muttered angrily. “Would your gun’s bullets make it through the metal barricades? Seriously. If you could take one shot
Cruz could feel his heart thundering in his chest. He was a known adrenaline junky. He’d be the first to admit it. He’d sky dived multiple times in his life. He loved activities which got his blood pumping and his heart racing. Yet, this time, the adrenaline running through his veins was not excitement but nervous terror.Belkin let him know before they boarded the chopper Presley wasn’t lying about Liborio taking a hit out on him. The man wanted him dead. Belkin said he’d sent out a message to the underworld indicating Cruz was now one of his and any attempts on his life would not end well for anyone. He’d also confirmed he declared a war against Liborio for violating multiple treaties between their families and he’d collected allies. The problem was, Liborio had friends in places as dark as some of Belkin’s hid and as a result there was a great divide. Many families were indeed on Liborio’s side, supporting his right to choose his bride how he saw fit. Most of those families were no