Risky Secrets

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2013
Xondra
Day

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-518-1

Cover
Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor: Marie
Medina

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING:
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is
illegal.
 
No part of this book may be
used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission,
except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a
work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or
dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

To
the love of my life, thank you so much for your continuing support.

RISKY
SECRETS

Xondra
Day

Copyright © 2013

Chapter One

Jayne
Royale was a sucker for routine yet for the first time, she felt different
about it and everything else in her otherwise near perfect life. After
thirty-seven years on this earth, she desired change in a big way.

Success
hadn’t come easy for her, and her dream of being a bestselling author hadn’t
happened overnight.

After
a brief affair with college, Jayne quit knowing it wasn’t for her and
subsequently went to work at a coffee house in hopes of starting her writing
career during her off time. She found her niche soon after writing romance with
an extra bit of spice tossed in. Her first manuscript ended up being rejected
by every agent she submitted it to, but the next garnered her some well needed
attention. With three offers of representation on her plate, she accepted the
one she thought suited her best. And after a whirlwind of activity and mega
interest from four major publishing houses, her novel went up on auction. She
did extremely well, and the sum she got was enough to allow her to quit her day
job. Those memories were good, but unfortunately there were others she
preferred to banish to the dark recesses of her mind. Some things couldn’t be
relegated to the past no matter how hard she tried to keep them there.

Jayne
sat at the small breakfast nook in her large kitchen with her laptop in front
of her. She glanced out through the window, which overlooked the backyard. This
house was her nest and sanctuary from the outside world. She loved living here,
and it was a bonus that it was located in a great area of the city. Everything
she needed was located within a reasonable distance. She considered herself
fortunate, but it had all come with a price attached to it.

Relationships
never worked out. Men in general remained a mystery to her. She didn’t have the
penchant for smiling and saying all the right things when in mixed company.
She’d been with Brice the longest, but that ended when she discovered that he
had been cheating on her with some lingerie model he’d met through work. And wasn’t
that a freaking kick in the pants. She practically took care of him throughout
their two years together. She paid his way while he contributed nothing to the
household, preferring to spend his entire paycheck on only things that he
wanted and deemed necessary. How could she have been so stupid and blind to
everything? Other than his good looks, Brice had nothing. The sex hadn’t even
been good between them.

Jayne
rolled her eyes as she thought more about Brice and their time together. If
only he’d been more like the men she wrote about in her books.
If only men like them existed in real life.
Perhaps that’s
why her books sold so well. They fed the female fantasy of the ideal man. She
wrote about handsome alpha heroes who took care of their women in every way.
Escapism was a wonderful thing. She often took refuge in books herself for that
very same reason. Like them, she dreamt of the perfect man, but for most, he
didn’t exist.

Jayne’s
heroine in the current book she was writing was a headstrong woman much like
herself who eventually finds change in her life along with sexual liberation at
the hands of two spectacular heroes who treat her with both love and respect.
This was a big selling point with readers. Ménage romance was extremely
popular, and it was fun to write about the many possibilities of a three-way
romance.

Jayne
was over halfway done and the day after tomorrow she planned on driving upstate
to her lake house to finish it off. She estimated it would take another two
weeks of writing along with some minor revising to get it completed. She would
then forward the finished book to her agent to take a look at it. After that it
would go out on submission. She loved the writing and publishing process. To
have people reading and loving her stories was fulfilling in a way that
couldn’t be described with words. She truly appreciated every fan. If it wasn’t
for them, she wouldn’t have had a writing career to start with.

“Hello?”
called a voice coming from the front of the house. “Jayne, are you there?”

It
was Jayne’s friend and neighbor from next door. She closed the laptop and
walked out of the kitchen headed in the direction of the voice. No doubt Debbie
was here to get the details on when she was leaving to go upstate. “I’m here,”
she called back as she walked.

“And
working on some sensuous love scene I bet,” Debbie kidded. She winked and
smiled. “Do tell, will this book be as hot as the last?”

“Of
course, I wouldn’t write anything less.” Jayne pointed towards the kitchen.
“The coffee’s fresh.”

“I’m
dying for a cup.” She followed Jayne into the kitchen. “Did I mention that I
adore this house? I should have bought it when it was put up on the market.”

“Why
didn’t you? After all, you were the one who sold it to me. But I’m glad you
didn’t. I can’t imagine calling another place home.” Not that Debbie’s house
was shabby by any stretch of the imagination. The successful realtor, wife, and
mother of three gorgeous children lived in a superb house next door.

“I
wanted the commission,” Debbie replied. She smirked and winked once again. “And
you shouldn’t leave your front door open like that. This is still the city.
We’re in a nice neighborhood, but you never know what crazies are out there
lurking.”

Jayne
pondered Debbie’s comment and agreed with her as she poured two cups of coffee.
“Point taken.”
Debbie had agreed to keep an eye to the
house while she was away. Even with a first rate security system, she felt much
better knowing that an actual human being was nearby to see to the place.

“I
have to ask you a question,” Debbie said, sitting at the kitchen table. “Please
keep an open mind.”

“Dare
I even ask what that’s about?” Jayne sat across from her friend and nursed her
cup of coffee.

“Brad
has a friend,” Debbie began. “And he’s going to be in town next month on
extended stay for work.” She paused and fiddled with the handle of her cup. “I
was thinking that I could set you up with him. We could all go out somewhere
fun for dinner. I know you’re going to say no, but I figured there was no harm
in asking you.”

“A blind date?”
Jayne shook her
head. “That’s not my thing.”

“He’s
rich,” Debbie replied quickly, as if that revelation would sweeten the pot.
“And very handsome.”

“If
this is true then why is he still single?”

“I
don’t need an answer now. Take some time to think about it. It mightn’t be so
bad.”

Jayne
coughed and cleared her throat. She knew that Debbie only wanted the best for
her and happiness was included in that package. She was a good friend. “I’ll
give it some thought while I’m away at the lake. But I’m not saying anything
one way or the other. Blind dates tend to be disastrous.” Jayne cringed at the
thought of being on a date with some stranger. Nothing about it intrigued her
or sparked her interest.

****

Keith
Barrington liked his job, and living in Pine Bluff was a little slice of heaven
in itself. He’d lived all of his life in the small town that basically
supported the residents of nearby Somerset Lake. Some lived their year round
while others only opened up their houses during the summer months.

The
lake wasn’t far from town and growing up the land around it for the most part
was vastly untamed. That had changed during the past twenty or so years as
developers moved in. Now it was a popular spot for rich people looking to take
a break from city life. It wasn’t a bad thing. These people helped drive the
economy in Pine Bluff. With them came a lot of money and it kept him in a job.
They needed someone local to provide maintenance to their homes and the grounds
would always need keeping. Without a job he would have moved away long ago, but
it was the allure of being self-employed that cinched the deal for him. He
punched his own hours. What more could a man ask for?

Work
slowed down during the winter months. It was his job to close up his clients’
homes and reopen when they decided to come back. For this they paid him a flat
yearly rate plus any other expenses he incurred outside the norm of his usual
duties. With close to forty properties under his care, Barrington Property
Management had become an extremely lucrative business. This made him proud.