Wicked Innocence (20 page)
Authors: Missy Johnson
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Genre Fiction, #Coming of Age, #Romance, #Contemporary
Out now at all major online retailors.
Synopsis
My best friend was dying and I was in love with his girl.
Andy and I had been best friends since we were eight-years old. Watching him slowly fade away, ever closer to his final breath, made me so incredibly angry. I knew there was nothing I could do to change it--I had given in to despair, but Andy had not. He had one last hand to play.
He wasn't going to simply sit back and wait for Death to claim him--not Andy. He was going to live life until he couldn't hold his eyes open any longer.
Andy didn't want to die in some sterile hospital and asked me to take him and Emily to the beach. It would be our last road trip together.
Emily. Emily was a problem for me.
I harbored a secret that would have torn our friendship apart. I was in love with Andy's girl, and had been since she'd walked into our sixth grade class, so many years ago.
So what kind of person am I? My best friend is dying, and it's awful--but my heart still aches for his girl. I hate myself for thinking beyond Andy's death and whether there could ever be a future for Emily and I, but I can't help it.
I'm in love with her.
Excerpt
Prologue
Death. It is the only certainty in life.
It’s such a small word that holds such a powerful message. We avoid talking about it and we fear it, because we’re taught to do so, because nobody really knows what happens when you die. It’s that uncertainty that is so terrifying.
It’s amazing how being told you’re going to die puts things into perspective.
How being told your body is going to slowly give up on you makes you reevaluate everything you thought you once knew. Things you take for granted suddenly seem so fragile. The worst part isn’t the thought of dying itself, it’s everything you’re going to be leaving behind.
My name’s Andy Grayson. I’m twenty-six, and I’m dying. God, saying that still freaks me out. I don’t know how long I have left. A month—maybe two, if I’m lucky. For a long time, I was angry: I’ve been fighting this fucking disease since I was seventeen and it’s finally going to win. I have nothing else to fight with because it has taken everything.
Then I realized that this is no longer about me. I can’t save myself, but I can make sure the people I love are taken care of. This became less about what I was losing, and more about what I could gain.
That’s when I decided I was going to do this on my terms.
Em is my girlfriend and I love her with everything I have in me. She isn’t just my girl, though; she’s my one of my best friends, my lover, my confidante, my partner in crime, and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.
And then there’s Seth: we’ve been best friends for so long he’s like a brother to me, and I know he feels the same. As kids we got into more trouble than I care to mention, and before I die I intend on getting him into some more—for old times’ sake and all that shit.
Without them by my side, I wouldn’t have fought for this long. They sacrificed so much for me and now it’s time for me to return the favor.
I can’t leave them without knowing the two people closest to my heart will be okay. I need that assurance before I settle back and let this fucking disease take me—finish me off for all eternity…
Synopsis
Magnolia "Mags" Reynolds is no shrinking violet. Her innocence is taken away from her at a very young age. Since she can remember, she's been a ruthless criminal but she's managed to survive to see her twenty-fifth birthday.
Maxwell "Max" Cartier, an expert in his craft, enters her life shortly after a sudden change of circumstances leaves her adrift yet again. He doesn't want to be her lover or friend. He only wants her for one last job that will mean a fortune and his retirement.
The best laid plans are always the first to go awry, and their situation is no different. Both will have to learn the hard way there is no such thing as easy money when they are both merely Devil's prey.
Excerpt
“What do you want from me?” he whispered, her lips drawing closer and closer to his.
“It’s not what I want, baby. What the fuck do you want? Do you wanna live or do you wanna die?”
He laughed; her gorgeous mouth a hair’s breadth from his own. “What a stupid fucking question. What the hell do you think?”
“I believe you want to live,” Mags began in a seductive whisper. “And Dimitri will keep you alive just to allow one person to complete the job. The one person you saved without knowing it. The one person who owes you everything in this world because without a few tender words from you . . . her life, body, spirit and soul would be no more. He wouldn’t murder you because he knows what kind of person you saved and how she’s loyal to everyone who gives her self-preservation above everything else. It
is
human nature after all—for us to think otherwise is sheer stupidity.”
Max could feel the softness of her lips brush against his own and for one moment, she was the only person who existed, who even fucking mattered. She’d not only bore into his skin but she’d become a part of him without even realizing it. The fucked up part about this whole situation was he didn’t love her—he couldn’t because he didn’t know her well enough—but he would if he didn’t stop himself from falling . . .
now
.
“And this person who would be willing to risk everything to save a piece of shit like me if one ever walked the earth . . .” His vocabulary failed him as her lips pressed softly against his before pulling away.
“
She
would be
me
.” Before he could stop her, their lips pressed together in a hungry, enticing kiss that blurred the edges and scorched everything in its path into a blazing inferno, them included.
Max surrendered, not because he wanted to but because he couldn’t stop himself from not wanting to possess this beautiful creature that’d started a fire neither one of them would ever be able to extinguish.
Not without destroying themselves in the process.
Thank you to my family and my husband for putting up with me when I’m trying to write. Thanks to my amazing street team and fans for helping to spread the word about my books. Thanks to my beta readers for their help with Wicked Innocence. Thanks to my editors and proofreaders for all their help getting this book into shape. Thanks to my writing buddies for their ongoing advice and support.
Most of all, thanks to you, the reader, for your support.
A special mention to the three winners of my teaser competition, Caryn Watson, Hayley Picknell and Beth Hurley, who, as their prize received a small role in this book. A huge thank you to all the people who entered.
