Authors: Piper Davenport
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Erotica, #Romantic, #Romance, #Contemporary
Road to Passion
COPYRIGHT
2015 Piper Davenport
Copyright © 2015 by Piper
Davenport
All rights reserved.
Published in the United
States
Road to Passion
is
a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of
the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If
you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an
additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not
purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to
your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the hard work of this author.
BACK BLURB
Logan ‘Mack’ Reed loves women. Really loves women.
He’s an equal opportunity player, happy to oblige just about anyone looking for
a good time, but when a beautiful red-headed pixie walks into his club, he
finds himself unable to think of anyone but her.
Darien Aherne and her sister have lost both of their parents, but create a
comfortable life for themselves. Darien, however, is sheltered and overly
curious, which is a dangerous combination. When Darien breaks away from the
protective bubble her sister has created, she finds herself falling for a man
who could break her.
When the chance of a lifetime pulls Darien into a provocative world she has no
experience in, will she trust Mack enough to tell him all of her secrets?
Will he be able to protect her, even from herself?
For LCJ
So glad to have you back! I’ve
missed you!
Mack
M
ACK’S PHONE BUZZED in his pocket. He
pulled it out and read the display, smiling as Kim’s name came up on the
screen. “Hey, babe.”
“Hi, Mack. Sorry I’ve been MIA,”
Kim said. “I had a couple of shows.”
“Yeah? I thought maybe you were
dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“Right, like you’d ever let that
happen,” Kim pointed out. “If you’d really been worried, I would’ve been
tracked, located, and the perpetrator killed before they had a chance to get to
a second location.”
“Yeah, that’s probably true.”
Mack chuckled. “What’s up?”
Mack met Kimberly Church when
Booker claimed her best friend Dani and subsequently married her. Kim rode
fancy-ass horses and, although Mack knew nothing about horses or that side of
her life, he knew Kim enough to know she was up to something.
“A couple of friends and I wanted
to come to the club tomorrow night. Will you be there?” she asked.
He frowned. “Booker’ll lose his
shit if Dani comes without him, Kimmie.”
“It’s
not
Dani,” Kim
promised.
“Which begs the question, why are
you plannin’ somethin’ without her?” he asked. “What the hell are you up to?”
Dani and Kim rarely did anything
without each other. Mack always thought it was a little strange until he got to
know Kim and her history. She’d had a rough beginning in life and Dani and her
family had helped exorcise a lot of Kim’s demons. Not all of them, but enough
for Kim to function.
“She’s busy.” Kim groaned. “Mack,
seriously. She’s not part of this. Just a few friends getting together for a
good time and if you’re there, I get to see you too. Bonus.”
He shook his head with a smile.
“Yeah, I’ll be here.”
“Thanks, bud.”
“But no leaving with some random
douchebag, yeah?”
“I can handle myself,” she argued.
He glanced out the one way mirror
and down at the club floor unusually packed for a Thursday night. “Fuck me,
Kim, you cannot. Do I need to remind you about three weeks ago?”
Kim had walked out of the club
with one of their regulars, and he’d attacked her in the ally. He didn’t get
far because Knight followed them and beat the shit out of the guy, but not
before the asshole had ripped Kim’s dress down the front. She seemed to lose
her mind when Knight was around and Mack knew his brother was getting fed up
with her desire to find trouble.
She sighed. “No. You didn’t tell
Booker, right?”
Both Mack and Kim knew if he did,
Booker’d tell Dani immediately and then Kim would be screwed.
“No, babe, I didn’t tell Booker,
but you keep up with this stupidity, I will. Better yet, I’ll tell Dani.”
Kim let out a quiet hiss. “Logan
Reed, you better not!”
“I fuckin’ will, Kim, but for
now, your secret’s safe.” He turned toward his desk. “What are the names of
your friends?”
“Darien and Pauley,” she said. “I
think Darien might bring a friend as well.”
“You’re bringin’ guys in? Not
typically your style, babe.”
“No, they’re sisters. Their dad
wanted boys, it’s a long story.”
“Okay.” He didn’t admit it, but
he had a thing for girls with boys’ names. It was sexy as hell.
“Anyway, you’ve met Pauley. She’s
the bartender at the restaurant.”
“Yeah, the hot redhead.”
Kim giggled. “Do you actually
know the names of the women you meet or are they all classified by hotness and
hair color?”
Mack chuckled. “I’m thinkin’ I’m
not gonna answer that.”
“Chicken.”
“I’ll make sure you’re on the
list.”
Kim sighed. “Thanks, Mack.”
“Hey,” he said, his tone softer.
“I’m lookin’ out for you, yeah?”
“I don’t know why,” she grumbled.
“Need me to break it down for
you?”
“No, what I need is for you to go
back to being Mack the dawg instead of concerning yourself with my sex life. I
know you’re watching out for me, honey. But outside of that, I’m good, okay?”
He gave a reluctant smile. She
was right. He was inserting himself somewhere he didn’t belong. “Okay, babe.
I’ll butt out.”
“Thanks. And thanks for the
entry.”
“No problem. Talk to you later,”
he said, and hung up.
* * *
Darien
I slid my leg
under my bottom and settled my laptop squarely in front of me. Still no email
informing me I was about to be published. Even so, I thought I might attempt to
write something else. However, this was the third time I’d changed positions in
an effort to shake out the cobwebs in my head.
“To sex or not to sex?” I asked,
hoping someone might answer me. I was alone in the apartment I shared with my
sister, but I was desperate.
I stared at the blinking cursor
and tapped my fingers on my keyboard. It took me about thirty-two seconds to
let out a frustrated groan and dump the computer on the sofa cushion beside me.
My fluffy, snooty Llasa Aapso, Barney, raised his head but didn’t move any
other part of his body, considering he knew Mommy had at least three of these
outbursts a day. I don’t really know why I bothered, no one would ever want to
read anything I wrote anyway.
“Don’t judge me,” I demanded.
Barney yawned and settled his
head back on his paws. Damn him and his cuteness. I needed to focus, not coo at
his adorability.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you,
little doggle,” I said, and rose to my feet. Maybe some water would help... or
a shot of tequila.
As I grabbed a glass from the
cabinet, my sister walked into the apartment and dumped her purse on the
kitchen counter. Pauley was tall, well, taller than me. She stood a whopping
five-foot-eight to my five-foot-six. She and I had the same hair color, a deep,
Irish red, but where hers was thick and glossy, mine was curly and
unmanageable. We both had gray eyes, but that’s about where the similarities
ended. She was glamorous and confident, fully in touch with her sexuality and could
use it to her advantage.
Me... not so much.
“Hey, Pauley,” I grumbled.
“How goes the fascinating world
of old people?” she asked, and opened the fridge.
“I know more about the bombing of
Pearl Harbor than I ever thought I would.” I smiled. “But Mr. Akerman gets so
excited when he’s telling his stories.”
I had started working at the
nursing home pretty much right out of high school. Pauley and I lost our mother
four years ago and there hadn’t been money for college, so we looked for jobs
right away. I was lucky enough to find a position working with the elderly
which I just happened to love.
“I envy your life.” Pauley pulled
out a beer and twisted off the top.
I rolled my eyes at her sarcasm,
especially considering, she was deathly afraid of old people. “How was the
restaurant?”
“It was good.”
Pauley waited tables five days a
week and tended bar two nights a week to help fund her ‘around the world trip
in style’ she’d been promising to take since she was six. With the amount she
made working weekends, she probably didn’t need her day job. But that was my
sister. She was sexy as hell, friendly, and made more money in a day than I
made in a week.
“Any word from the agent?” she
asked.
I let out a pathetic groan. I
finally finished the book I’d been threatening to write and sent it off to a
couple of agents. One had requested the entire manuscript, but that had been
six weeks ago and still no word. I was pretty much resigned to the fact it was
obviously total crap and I’d never hear from her again.
“Uh-oh, that doesn’t sound good.
You probably should have let me read it before you sent it off.”
I shook my head vigorously. “And
have you tease me mercilessly? No way!”
The truth was, no one but Millie
had read any of it and I had sworn her to secrecy.
Pauley chuckled. “Have you yelled
at Barney yet?”
I frowned. “I don’t yell.”
“
Okay
... have you snapped
at Barney yet?”
I wrinkled my nose. “I
apologized.”
Pauley giggled. “You know it’s
weird that you talk to your dog like he’s a human, right?”
“You know it’s weird
you
think it’s weird that I talk to my human companion, right?” I poured water into
my glass and smiled. “How much did you make in tips tonight?”
“Almost four-hundred.”
“Dollars?” I squeaked.
Pauley laughed. “No, pesos.”
“Ohmigod, sissy. I think I need to
change careers.”
“You’re too sweet for this job,
honey.”
“Suck it, Pauley,” I snapped.
We’d had this conversation a hundred times over. My sister was five years older
than me and took her “maturity” seriously. But I was twenty-two and paying half
the rent and utilities, so I was getting a little sick of her seeing me as just
her innocent baby sister.
“You know, you could always
self-publish,” Pauley said. “Lots of people are doing it and if you find
someone who can do a cover for you or whatever, it’d be a good way to find out
what the masses think.”
“You might be onto something,” I
said. I’d actually thought about self-publishing before, but I’d always wanted
to do it right and that meant finding an editor. Easier said than done.
“Tell you what. If you want to do
research and find out the costs to publish, I’ll put money in. Consider it an
investment. You can pay me back when you make a profit.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, why not?”
I hugged her. “You are my
absolute favorite sister.”
“I know that already.” She giggled.
“Anyway, subject change. You said you and Millie got turned away from
Blush
a few weeks ago, so I wanted to know if you want to go with me and Kim tomorrow
night?”
“We didn’t just get turned away,
sissy. We were humiliated.”
More accurately,
I
was humiliated.
The bouncer had looked me up and down and laughed before shooing me away like I
was a stray cat begging for scraps. My best friend, Millie, on the other hand,
was told she could enter; however, she showed solidarity and left with me.
“Honey, you’re a grown-ass woman,
you’re not really still mad about that, are you?”
“Oh, now you acknowledge I’m a
grown-ass woman when you just told me I’m too innocent to work as a bartender?”
“They aren’t mutually exclusive.”
Pauley tipped her beer toward me. “But I’m a little surprised you’re still
mad.”
I sighed. “I’m not mad, just a
little irked.”
“Well, get over it and come out
with us tomorrow.”
“And have them kick me out again?
No thank you.”
“Kim knows one of the guys who
runs it. She promises you’ll get in. Call Mill and see if she wants to come
too.”
My curiosity beckoned. I’d always
been the girl who wanted what was forbidden, but my need for self-preservation
generally warred with that curiosity and I typically did the safe thing. Truth
be told, I was the biggest chicken on the planet, but I wanted to know why this
club was so exclusive and why it was so hard to get into... and more
importantly, why I wasn’t good enough to be admitted.
“Okay, fine,” I said.
“Awesome. Kim said she’d come
over around eight-thirty or so and help you... I mean,
us
, get ready.”
I let out a frustrated groan. “I
can dress myself, sissy.”
Pauley didn’t respond.
“Suck it, Pauley.”
She giggled again. “Eight. Be
showered and ready to be pampered.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I’m on the early shift, so I’ll
be here around eight-fifteen to supervise.”
“You’re going to work for all day
and then still be ready to go out?”
Pauley snorted. “Who are you
talking to?”
“Right.” I smiled. “Forgive me,
oh royal big sister.”
“Better.” She sipped her beer
again. “Did you eat?”
“Hmm-mm,” I mumbled.
“Cheetos?”
“Don’t talk to me like you know
me,” I responded.
“I brought home your favorite.”
She glanced at the counter. “Shit. Left it in the car. I’ll get it.”
“I love you!” I called, as she
grabbed her keys and headed out of the apartment.
* * *
Friday evening, I
arrived home and fell onto the sofa. Barney gave an excited bark and jumped
onto my back, leaning down to sniff my face. I was tired and when I say tired,
I mean close to death. My phone buzzed in my purse and I answered it with a
muffled, “Hello.”
“You don’t sound good,” Millie
said.
Millicent Magrew had been my best
friend since our senior year of high school. I think we would have been friends
before that, but she transferred schools one week into the year, and had
attached herself to me. I adored her.
I groaned, still unmoving. “I
don’t think there’s a part of my body that doesn’t hurt.”
“Bad day?”
“No, not bad, per se. One of my
ladies tried to get out of bed on her own and fell. I had to help her up and
wacked my leg against a nightstand.”
