January (Calendar Girl #1) Anthology Anthology (154 page)
Read January (Calendar Girl #1) Anthology Anthology Online
Authors: Audrey Carlan
Ginelle Blanch
- I love your betas. I’m confident that if you’ve read and liked the story the masses will too. You have a way about your review process that speaks to me. I’m so lucky to have you as my beta. Heart you hard lady. And I promise we WILL meet face-to-face one day. ;-)
Anita Shofner
- Not only do you find all my tense errors (which are frequent), you always find the missing little words in a sentence that an author just glazes right over during a re-read. Finding those are so important to the story being as close to perfect as possible. I appreciate that gift of yours so much. Thank you for sharing it lovely.
To
Sarah Saunders
, you are there when I need you and that’s all that matters to me. Thank you dear friend.
Thank you to the ladies at
Give Me Books
and
Kylie McDermott
for spreading this book far and wide into the virtual social world! They do amazing release day blitz and are very affordable. Look them up on Facebook.
To the Audrey Carlan Street Team of wicked hot Angels, together we change the world. One book at a time. BESOS-4-LIFE lovely ladies.
About Audrey Carlan
Audrey Carlan is a multiple times Amazon and Kobo bestselling author. She lives in the sunny California Valley two hours away from the city, the beach, the mountains and the precious…the vineyards. She has been married to the love of her life for over a decade and has two young children that live up to their title of “Monster Madness” on daily basis. When she’s not writing wickedly hot romances, doing yoga, or sipping wine with her “soul sisters”, she can be found with her nose stuck in book or her Kindle. A hot, smutty, romantic book to be exact!
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated and feeds the soul. You can contact Audrey or her personal assistant Heather White below:
Email:
[email protected]
Personal Assistant:
[email protected]
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/AuthorAudreyCarlan
Website:
www.audreycarlan.com
Twitter: @AudreyCarlan
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7831156.Audrey_Carlan
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Table of Contents
Excerpt from June Calendar Girl (Book 6)
Books and Coming Soon by Audrey Carlan
June: Calendar Girl
Book 6
By Audrey Carlan
Text copyright © 2015 Audrey Carlan
ISBN Electronic
ISBN-10:
1-943340-04-8
ISBN-13:
978-1-943340-04-0
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic format without expressed permission by the author.
Editing:
Red Quill Editing, LLC
Senior Editor - Ekaterina Sayanova
Editor - Rebecca Cartee
www.redquillingediting.net
Cover Design:
Tibbs Design
Graphics Designer - Valerie Tibbs
www.tibbsdesign.com
Dedication
Lisa Colgrove Roth
June is dedicated to you angel,
because it’s an instrumental part of Mia’s journey,
the same way you are in mine.
When you joined my street team,
I had no idea I’d be receiving such a blessing.
Your endless promotion, support, and friendship
has helped me a million times over.
With love and gratitude for all that you are.
Chapter 1
June in Washington, DC, felt oppressive. The air made your clothes stick like a second layer of skin. Muggy and miserable. I worried that if I pulled my tank away from my chest it might pull off an additional layer of flesh with it.
The first step out of the airport delivered me into an overcast, sunless sky. This was not at all what I was used to, having spent the last month in Hawaii.
I scanned the rows and rows of cars waiting. One tall fella stood in front of a shiny black town car holding a sign that said, “Saunders”. I figured that was my ride.
“I’m Mia Saunders.” I held out a hand and the driver shook it.
“I’m James, your driver. I’ll be taking you where you need to go throughout your stay with the Shipley’s.” He took my suitcase and tossed it the trunk before opening my door. I climbed into the vehicle, trying not to allow my sweaty thighs to imprint the smooth leather. The flowy skirt I’d worn on the plane seemed like a great choice at the time. I should’ve gone for the standard yoga garb. I slicked the palms of my hands down the backs of my legs, wishing I had a dish towel.
“Is it always so humid?” I asked while pulling my phone out of my purse and hitting the power button.
“In June? Eh, it can be hot has the dickens, raining, or really quite lovely. You’ll probably experience it all this month. I will concede it’s been unusually warm this year.”
My phone blared. Rapid dinging signifying the messages that had arrived while I was in flight.
To: Mia Saunders
From: Sexy Samoan
Girlie, you’ve got some explaining to do. You bailed. Not cool.
I scrolled down to read the other messages. Apparently, Tai hadn’t cooled down after his first message.
To: Mia Saunders
From: Sexy Samoan
The gift… no words.
To: Mia Saunders
From: Sexy Samoan
I’m so mad you stole my kiss goodbye.
That’s when my fingers raced over the keyboard.
To: Sexy Samoan
From: Mia Saunders
Kiss your forever. That will heal all that ails you.
An unladylike snort left my mouth and the driver’s eyes popped up to mine in the rearview mirror. His eyebrows rose, but I just shook my head and looked back down at the other messages.
To: Mia Saunders
From: Wes Channing
Are you ever going to talk to me? It’s been a month. Don’t make me come after you.
Flying phalanges once again. There was no other way to express how quickly I typed back the most flippant message possible.
To: Wes Channing
From: Mia Saunders
I’m sure Gina kept you busy. I saw you happily sucking face on the cover of HotDirt smut mag.
After twenty minutes of stewing in my own irritation and glancing down every two seconds at my phone, he finally responded. He being Wes, not Tai, but I ignored it, trying to force myself to be cool. Instead, I thought back to my sexy Samoan.
Hopefully, Tai was getting ready for his first date with Amy right now. My heart fluttered thinking about how the Universe dropped her into his lap. Literally. She landed in his lap at dinner that night. I sure hoped she was the one. Mentally, I made a note to touch base with Tai in a week to double-check their progress. Something told me that she was it. His forever. As for me, I didn’t know when that was going to happen. Definitely not before this year was up. Thinking about Tai or the future did not help me forget the burning desire to read Wes’s message.
To: Mia Saunders
From: Wes Channing
Jealous?
Is it possible for a woman to cut a man’s dick off from three thousand miles away? Maybe, if I hired out a hit man. I had some extra money in the bank for emergencies. That made me snicker. Have his dick lopped off with the extra money I got from
fucking
him. I shook my head.
What game was he playing? Should I respond or just let him stew in it? Obviously, he didn’t like the month-long forced break. Served him right. He was hitting the sheets with model-perfect Gina DeLuca, while I was banging my own sexy Samoan.
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
I could tell myself that over and over and over again, but the end result still slapped me upside the head. It was impossible for me to stop caring. Wes would
always
matter to me. Not knowing what he was doing and who he was doing it with, ate at me like a piranha nipping at raw meat.
With Tai, I had an awesome diversion. Fun. He made every day more exciting than the last, and every night more scorching hot than I dreamed possible. It was easy to put my issues with Wes on the back burner because I was filling my mind with everything that a young, almost twenty-five-year-old woman should be enjoying. Now though, it wasn’t working.
“Is it going to be much longer?” I asked James.
He tipped his hat. “Sorry, Miss, traffic is atrocious at this time.”
Forty-five minutes. Plenty of time. If Wes wanted to chat, I’d give him his time. Technically, we were friends after all.
I pulled out my phone and hit his number, forcing a level of calm into my mind that I didn’t feel.
“She lives!” Wes’s California-soaked breathy timber came through the line, instantly stirring up some serious vibes.
“Hardy har har. What’s this shit about me being jealous? You know I’m not.”
Lie.
Wes sucked in a slow breath, possibly even a sigh. I could hear the sounds of the ocean in the background. He might even be on the beach having just finished surfing. Hearing those comforting sounds, even filtered through the phone, made my heart ache to be home. “I figured if I provoked you, you’d call.”
“Wes, what’s the deal?” Even through my own ears it sounded catty and a bit bitchy, which wasn’t at all what I intended.
“You tell me. Did you have fun in Hawaii?” His tone seemed to feed off mine.
I thought of Tai and licking those tribal lines from the tip of his shoulder all the way down his chest, ribs, hip, and thigh. All month, it had been my favorite past-time. Yum. A sultry, “Yes,” left my mouth before I could filter the inflection.
He chuckled. “That good, huh? Client or local?” The tension between us broke briefly.
I closed my eyes. “Does it matter?”
“Everything about you matters to me. Haven’t you gathered that yet?” His tone was sincere but dipped in regret. He was failing miserably at playing it cool, and we both knew it.
“Wes…”
He sucked in a breath through his teeth. “No, I’m not going to pretend I’m not upset you were off in Hawaii fucking whoever you wanted, yet you’re pissed at me for doing the same with Gina.”
He had a point. An excellent one. But that’s the thing about the heart and the mind. They are rarely balanced or realistic. He could make more sense than Deepak Chopra’s teachings, but it didn’t change the facts. Him being with Gina hurt. Badly. We were both hurting one another, and neither of us could find a good way around it.
