Stormy Weather

Stormy Weather

The Williams Sisters Book One

Marie Rochelle

Published by Phaze Books

By Marie Rochelle

Alpha Male Incorporated: Under Your Protection

Alpha Male Incorporated: Access Granted

Alpha Male Incorporated: Take Control

A Taste of Love: Richard

Closer to You: Lee

My Deepest Love: Zack

More Than Friends: Brad

Caught

Caught 2: Ajana’s Return

Desire

All the Fixin’

Crossing the Railroad

A Rancher’s Promise

The Men of CCD: Slow Seduction

The Men of CCD: Loving True

The Men of CCD: Help Wanted

Lucky Charms

Hunks: Too Hot to Touch

Hunks: Opposite Attraction

Hunks: Pulled Over

Me & Mrs. Jones

Taken by Storm

Tempting Turner

Roped Into You

So Much Better

Bikers & Bars: Dante’s Way

Sinful

Alpha Male Incorporated: Take Control

Final Delivery

Stormy Weather

This is an explicit and erotic novel

intended for the enjoyment

of adult readers. Please keep

out of the hands of children.

www.Phaze.com

Stormy Weather

Copyright © 2015 by Marie Rochelle

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Cover Art © 2015 by Niki Browning

First Edition March 2015

Ebook ISBN-13:
978-1-60659-842-9

Published by:

Phaze Books

An imprint of Celeritas Unlimited LLC

6457 Glenway Ave., #109

Cincinnati, OH 45211

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, Celeritas Unlimited LLC, 6457 Glenway Avenue, #109, Cincinnati, Ohio 45211, [email protected].

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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Dedication

To Ms. Linda,

I want to thank you for all of your wonderful advice. You always knew the right words to tell me. You were more of an aunt to me than a friend.

I’m going to miss you forever.

Love,

Marie

Chapter One

Cash Garon stared out the barely tinted windows of the Greyhound. He watched as the bus zoomed past various landmarks on the highway highlighted by the moonlight. Riding public transportation hadn’t been his first choice, but after thinking over his other options he decided his mind was too clouded to pay attention during a long drive. Honestly, he wasn’t in the mood to drive alongside other motorists.

So, he purchased a ticket and boarded the bus for Hook, Texas—a town he picked out at the last minute. Cash had quickly moved to the very back of the bus and found a vacant seat away from the other passengers. He prayed no one else came back here with him. He wasn’t interested in endless, boring conversation about nothing. He wasn’t in the mood for it…
not today
.

Cash had more important things on his mind than talking about the weather or telling a stranger where he was going. Honestly, it wasn’t anybody’s business why he was even on the bus. He was the only one who needed to know why he was escaping the hard decision pressing him.

This trip was going to clear his mind so he could make plans about his television show. Would he stay the host of
The Gossip
or quit a job he’d worked for the past three years to move on to something else?

Stretching his feet out as far as the seat in front of him would allow, Cash ran his hands down his face. Blowing out a breath, he remembered his excitement ten years ago at landing an interview with a show called
The News.
It was one of the most successful national news programs on television and covered the world news like CNN. He finally thought his broadcasting degree would be put to good use and he would be the next Sheppard Smith.

Everything had gone well for several years, then ratings started slipping. The following month he was called into his boss’s office and informed the network had been sold to a larger company. The new owners were going in a different direction with his time slot.

The new executives wanted to give his show a total makeover to follow the hot trends in entertainment. They were going to turn it into a talk show called
The Gossip
, which centered on celebrities’ lives, marriages, break-ups and rehab visits.

Insulted by the idea at first, he was seconds away from quitting and informing them to go with someone else until his boss quoted him the amount of money he would be paid. If he agreed to the new position, he would be earning twice what he was getting with
The News
.

Cash had jumped at the lucrative job offer and within four weeks of his new show’s debut it became the most watched television show in its time slot.
The Gossip
got more and more successful as the years went by. For some reason, people
loved
hearing about how their favorite celebrities lived when they weren’t in front of the cameras.

His employers kept advising him to take it up another notch by doing more shocking stories on the air. This was their code for what former child star was now in rehab using a fake name, or could he find any pictures of an aging actress coming out of a plastic surgeon’s office?

Without a doubt, those situations consistently drew the best ratings. Sometimes, he felt a bit guilty about doing those stories. However, making those huge paychecks kept him searching for scandalous stories he could put out there for his diehard fans.

Why should he have felt any guilt over reporting Hollywood stars’ dirty little secrets? He’d believed what famous people did behind their closed doors should be brought out into the open. Weren’t they the ones who worked so hard to be in the limelight? Sometimes fame brought good things to you and sometimes it didn’t. It was like tossing a coin in the air and trying to guess what side was going to land face up.

The more salacious the information he dug up, the better the ratings his show received. Of course, Cash did have limits on how far he’d go with his reports. He never plastered any celebrities’ children’s pictures onscreen. He
did
have a soul.

When he started on
The Gossip
he never lost a good night’s sleep over any of the news. Being called a heartless bastard by some offended people on Twitter or Facebook hadn’t pushed him to stop doing his job.

Not until he went too far with an expos
é
about a former Eighties child star’s sex tapes. The show aired two weeks ago and caught his little brother’s attention.

Gerald had left a voice message telling him he was no longer invited to his birthday party that weekend. After that one show all the adventure from his high paying job began losing its excitement. It became the final straw for his brother after numerous warnings to stop wasting his talent on
National Enquirer
type of trash.

Now, his contract was up for renegotiation and he was torn about what to do. Could he continue going down the same path because the pay was exceptional?

Was he getting softer in his old age?

His bosses gave him a week to think things over, so Cash found a listing for an out of the way inn where he would unwind and contemplate his next move. No matter what happened while he was on this trip, the time away would give him a new outlook about his prospects. One thing was for sure: he was determined not to go back home until he figured out what to do.

Working as much as he had over the years, his relationship with his brother wasn’t the only one that suffered from his long hours. Shit, he couldn’t recall the last time he had a girlfriend or even shared his bed with an attractive woman. Most of his days and late, late nights had been filled with working on the next program.

In his opinion, there was no way his current dilemma could get any worse. He wasn’t usually so torn when it came to making decisions. He would stick to one without second guessing himself, but now things were different. He felt restless, like something deep inside of him was unsettled and searching for a release.

Resting his head against the seat, Cash closed his eyes. He realized this bus ride wasn’t the best option for him. It was taking
way
longer than he expected. As he sat there, Cash felt his body slowly relax as sleep took over. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep before he felt someone shaking him on the shoulder.

“Sir, you need to wake up,” an unfamiliar voice told him.

Cash opened his eyes and blinked a few times. He turned his head and frowned at the young blond man sitting next to him.
Where in the hell had he come from
? He hadn’t been sitting next to Cash earlier. The seat had been empty and, as he could recall, the guy hadn’t been seated anywhere else on the bus. So, why was he bothering him now?

Damn, he shouldn’t have fallen asleep, especially not on a Greyhound bus.

“Yeah, what is it?” he asked in a raspy voice.

“Mister, the bus driver was yelling back here at you. He’s been trying to get your attention. He wants you to know this is your stop,” the guy said to him, pointing out the dark window next to him.

“What?” Cash looked out the window, surprised. “I didn’t know I was already here.” He picked up his jacket off his lap. Bending, he grabbed his black bag from underneath his seat.

Getting up, he slid past and then glanced back at the guy. “Hey, thanks for waking me up. I would have been in so much trouble if I missed this stop.”

“No problem.” The young man grinned. “You never know who you will run into on these long bus rides, so I always try to be helpful.”

“Well, you were very helpful to me tonight. Enjoy the rest of your ride.”

Walking up the aisle, Cash made his way towards the front and was stopped by the bus driver.

Frowning, he stared out of the windshield, but this couldn’t be where he was supposed to get off. Why wasn’t there a taxi stand or a waiting car outside? Surely the bus driver didn’t think he was about to get dropped off on an empty highway this late at night. What in the hell was he trying to pull?