All the Pretty Poses (27 page)

Just one more little girl.

Up next in the Pretty Series is
Sig’s
story

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updates on release

Read on for an excerpt of the next

Wild Ones novel

SOME LIKE IT WILD

COMING March 4, 2014

A FINAL WORD

A few times in life, I’ve found myself in a
position of such love and gratitude that saying THANK YOU seems
trite, like it’s just not enough. That is the position that I find
myself in now when it comes to you, my readers. You are the sole
reason that my dream of being a writer has come true. I knew that
it would be gratifying and wonderful to finally have a job that I
loved so much, but I had no idea that it would be outweighed and
outshined by the unimaginable pleasure that I get from hearing that
you love my work, that it’s touched you in some way or that your
life seems a little bit better for having read it. So it is from
the depths of my soul, from the very bottom of my heart that I say
I simply cannot THANK YOU enough. I’ve added this note to all my
stories with the link to a blog post that I really hope you’ll take
a minute to read. It is a true and sincere expression of my humble
appreciation. I love each and every one of you and you’ll never
know what your many encouraging posts, comments and e-mails have
meant to me.

http://mleightonbooks.blogspot.com/2011/06/when-thanks-is-not-enough.html

I’d also like to take a moment to thank
every single one of you who has taken the time to leave a short,
honest review of this book, or any other for that matter. Reviews
are more important to authors than you could imagine and I’m
forever grateful to all of you who have shared your thoughts. This
seemingly small mechanism is second only to word-of-mouth in ways
that you can profoundly impact an author and a book. So thank you.
So, so much.

Again.

Always

Other books by M. Leighton

All the Pretty Lies

Down to You

Up to Me

Everything for Us

The Wild Ones

Wild Child

Some Like It Wild (March 4, 2014)

There’s Wild, Then There’s You (June 3,
2014)

Fragile

Madly

Madly & the Jackal

Madly & Wolfhardt

Blood Like Poison: For the Love of a
Vampire

Blood Like Poison: Destined for a
Vampire

Blood Like Poison: To Kill an Angel

The Reaping

The Reckoning

Gravity

Caterpillar

Wiccan

Beginnings: An M. Leighton Anthology

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Some Like It Wild

How far will a good girl go for the bad boy
she loves?

Laney Holt is a preacher’s daughter. A good
girl. Her only goal was to get married, have babies and live
happily ever after, just like her parents. Only that didn’t happen.
With the betrayal of two people closest to her, Laney’s dreams came
crashing down. Now she’s left with an empty space she doesn’t know
how to fill. Until she meets Jake Theopolis, a daredevil with a
death wish who has heartbreaker written all over him.

Jake has no interest in thinking beyond the
here and now. All he wants out of life is the next rush, the next
“feel good” thing to keep his mind off the pain of his past. His
latest rush? Showing Laney there’s more to life than being a good
girl—and that going bad can be so much fun. Her only concern now is
how she can ever hope to satisfy the wild side of a boy like Jake.
She’s looking forward to trying. And so is Jake.

CHAPTER ONE- Laney

Four years ago, Summer

“Come on, Laney. You gotta live a little.
You’ll be eighteen in a few weeks and then you’ll be leaving for
college. This is the last fair you’ll ever attend as an adolescent.
Don’t you want this summer to be memorable?”

“Yes, but that does
not
include
getting busted for drinking under age.” My best friend, Tori, gives
me that look that says I’m hopeless. “What?” I ask defensively.
“Daddy would kill me.”

“I thought preacher’s kids were supposed to
be wild as hell?”

“I can be wild,” I tell her, avoiding her
disbelieving blue eyes. “I just don’t want to be wild
right
now
.”

“Then when? When are you gonna do something?
Anything?
You won’t make it a single semester away at
college if you don’t learn some of this worldly stuff now,
Laney.”

I chew the inside of my lip. I
do
feel
ill-prepared for college. But the thing is, I don’t
want
to
do wild things. All I’ve ever really wanted out of life is to find
the perfect man to sweep me off my feet, get married, have a family
and live happily ever after. And I don’t have to get wild to
achieve any of those things.

Looking at Tori’s expression, however, makes
me feel like some kind of freak for not wanting to break the rules.
At least a little. But she doesn’t understand my dreams. No one
does, really. Except my mother. She was the same way when she was
my age and she found everything she wanted in life when she met my
father.

“Come on, Laney. Just this once.”

“Why? What is the big deal about getting it
here? Getting it now?”

“Because I want to get it
from
him.”

“Why?” I ask again. “What’s the big
deal?”

“I’ve had a crush on him for years, that’s
what the big deal is. He went off to college and I haven’t seen him
since. But now he’s here. And I need a wing woman.” When I don’t
immediately relent, she presses. “Pleeeeeease. For meeeeee.”

I sigh. I have to give Tori credit for being
one seriously gifted manipulator. It’s a wonder I’m
not
wild
as a buck. She talks me into doing things I don’t want to do
all
the time
. It’s just that, so far, they’ve been fairly innocent.
Being the preacher’s daughter and living with such strict parents
makes it hard for me to get into
too
much trouble. Tori
ought to be happy about that. If it weren’t for the restrictions
being my friend has placed indirectly on her, she’d probably be a
pregnant, drug-addicted criminal by now.

But she’s not. Partly because of me and my
“taming” influence. And it’s those stark differences in our
personalities that make us such good friends. We balance each other
perfectly. She keeps me on my toes. I keep her out of Juvie.

“Fine,” I growl. “Come on. But so help me, if
he tells on us, I’m blaming you.”

Tori squeals and bounces up and down, her
ample boobs threatening to overcome the extremely low neckline of
her shirt.

“Why don’t you just go over and do that in
front of him a couple of times? I’m sure he’d give you anything you
want.”

“That’ll come later,” Tori says, ruffling her
blond bangs and waggling her eyebrows.

I roll my eyes as we start off across the
fairgrounds. As we near the farm truck where the shirtless guy is
unloading crates, I ask Tori again, “Now who did you say he
is?”

“Jake Theopolis.”

“Theopolis? As in the peach orchard
Theopolises?”

“Yep, that’s his family.”

“Why don’t I remember him?”

“Because your hormones slept through your
freshman year. He was a senior. Jenna Theopolis’s older
brother.”

“You know my father would’ve killed me if I’d
been caught hanging around with Jenna Theopolis. She was pretty
wild. That’s about the only thing I knew about her. I’m sure that’s
why I don’t remember her brother.”

“How could you not? He was one of the hottest
guys in school. Played baseball. Dated pretty much all the hot
girls.”

“Except for you,” I add before she can.

She grins and elbows me in the ribs. “Except
for me.”

“And you’re sure he won’t try to get us into
trouble?”

“I’m positive. He was a bad boy. I’m sure
there’s nothing we could think of that he hasn’t done ten times
over.” We stop a few feet behind him and I hear Tori whisper, “Good
God, look at him.”

So I do.

I can see why Tori would find him appealing.
His tanned skin is glistening in the hot Carolina sun. The
well-defined muscles in his chest and shoulders ripple as he picks
up a crate from the back of the truck, and his washboard abs
contract as he swivels to set it on the ground. His worn blue jeans
hang low on his narrow hips, giving us an almost-indecent look at
the way the thin trail of hair that leads away from his navel
disappears into the waistband.

But then Tori’s words come back to me and I’m
immediately turned off. She said he’s a bad boy. And I’m not
interested in bad boys. They don’t figure into my plans. At all. In
any way. That’s why I don’t have to worry about being attracted to
him.

Even though he’s hot as blazes.

Tori clears her throat as we move closer.
“Hi, Jake.”

Jake’s dark head turns toward us as he pauses
in his work to wipe his brow. He looks first at Tori. “Hi,” he
replies around the toothpick stuck in one corner of his mouth. His
voice is low and hoarse. His smile is polite and I think to myself
that he’s handsome enough, but nothing to warrant Tori’s insistence
to talk to him.

But then he looks over
at me
.

Even with him squinting in the bright sun,
his eyes steal my breath. Set in his tan face and framed by his
black hair and black lashes, they’re striking. The amber color is
like honey, honey I feel all the way down in my stomach—warm and
gooey.

“Hi,” he says again, one side of his mouth
curling up into a cocky grin.

For some reason, I can’t think of one single
thing to say. Not even a casual greeting, one that I would give a
perfect stranger. I stare at him for several long seconds until,
finally, he chuckles and turns back to Tori.

“What’s wrong with her?”

“Uh, she’s just shy.”

“Shy?” he asks, turning his attention back to
me. I almost wish he hadn’t. My belly is still full of hot liquid
and I’m starting to feel breathless. “Hmm, I don’t meet shy girls
very often.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Tori wave
her hand dismissively. “Eh, she’ll loosen up in a minute. In fact,
that’s sort of why we’re here.”

Jake glances back to Tori, releasing me from
the prison of his strange eyes. I take a slow, deep breath to
settle my swimming head.

“Oh, I’ve gotta hear this,” he says, leaning
back against the tail gate and crossing his arms over his chest. I
can’t help but notice how his biceps bulge with the action.

Tori steps closer to him and whispers, “We
were sort of hoping you’d sell us a bottle of that peach wine. You
know, on the down low.”

He looks from Tori to me and back again
before he bends to pick up one bottle. “One of these? To loosen her
up?”

“Yep. It’s sure to do the trick.”

His golden eyes return to me as he slowly
straightens to his full height. “I don’t believe you. I don’t think
she’ll drink it.” His gaze drops to my mouth and then on down my
neck and chest, to my stomach and my bare legs. I wonder what he’s
seeing—just the light green strapless sundress that sets off my
tan? Or is he imagining what’s underneath? What’s underneath my
clothes? Underneath my skin? “I think she looks like a good girl.
And good girls don’t drink.”

The fact that he so accurately pegged me
stirs up my temper for some reason. Immediately defensive, I pull
in my stomach, puff out my chest, and jack up my chin. “What? I’m
just some simple, one-dimensional country girl? Is that it?”

He shrugs, his eyes never leaving mine. “Am I
wrong?”

“Yes,” I declare defiantly, even though it’s
an outright lie. “You couldn’t be more wrong.”

One raven brow shoots up in challenge. “Oh
yeah? Prove it.”

Too proud to back down, I reach out and
snatch the bottle from his fingers, unscrew the lid and tip it
back, taking one long gulp.

It’s just local, homemade wine from his
daddy’s peach orchard, but that doesn’t mean the alcohol doesn’t
sting the throat of someone who’s not used to drinking.

As I lower the bottle and swallow what’s left
in my mouth, my eyes water with the effort not to sputter. Jake
watches me until my cheeks are no longer full of the wine.

“Satisfied?” I ask, shoving the bottle into
the center of his broad chest.

“I’ll be damned,” he says softly.

Ignoring the way his voice makes my stomach
clench, I reach for Tori’s hand. “Come on. We have to get back for
our shift in the booth.”

Tossing my hair, I turn and stomp off with as
much dignity as I can muster. Tori is reluctant, but when I tug,
she follows along.

“What the hell are you doing? You just
totally screwed that up for me. Not to mention that you left the
wine.”

“We don’t need that jerk’s wine.”

“Uh, yeah, we do. And what’s this about the
shift at the booth? We aren’t supposed to be there for another
forty minutes.”

“Then we’ll go early. It’s just a kissing
booth, for Pete’s sake. It won’t kill you to work another forty
minutes. In fact, you’ll probably like it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asks
indignantly.

I pause in my mad trudging to look at her. I
shake my head to clear it. I don’t know how that Jake guy managed
to get under my skin so quickly, but he did.