Read You Only Love Twice Online
Authors: Lexi Blake
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Suspense, #Contemporary, #Erotica, #General, #Lexi Blake, #Masters & Mercenaries, #McKay-Taggart, #Bdsm, #Dom/sub, #erotic romance, #CIA
You Only Love Twice
Praise for Lexi Blake and Masters and Mercenaries…
“I can always trust Lexi Blake's Dominants to leave me
breathless...and in love. If you want sensual, exciting BDSM wrapped in an
awesome love story, then look for a Lexi Blake book.”
~Cherise Sinclair USA
Today Bestselling author
“Lexi Blake's MASTERS AND MERCENARIES series is beautifully
written and deliciously hot. She's got a real way with both action and sex. I
also love the way Blake writes her gorgeous Dom heroes--they make me want to do
bad, bad things. Her heroines are intelligent and gutsy ladies whose taste for
submission definitely does not make them dish rags. Can't wait for the next
book!”
~Angela Knight, New
York Times bestselling author
“A Dom is Forever is action packed, both in the bedroom and
out. Expect agents, spies, guns, killing and lots of kink as Liam goes after
the mysterious Mr. Black and finds his past and his future… The action and
espionage keep this story moving along quickly while the sex and kink provides
a totally different type of interest. Everything is very well balanced and
flows together wonderfully.”
~A Night Owl “Top
Pick”, Terri, Night Owl Erotica
“A Dom Is Forever is everything that is good in erotic
romance. The story was fast-paced and suspenseful, the characters were flawed
but made me root for them every step of the way, and the hotness factor was off
the charts mostly due to a bad boy Dom with a penchant for dirty talk.”
~Rho, The Romance
Reviews
“A good read that kept me on my toes, guessing until the big
reveal, and thinking survival skills should be a must for all men.”
~Chris, Night Owl
Reviews
“I can’t get enough of the Masters and Mercenaries Series!
Love and Let Die is Lexi Blake at her best! She writes erotic romantic suspense
like no other, and I am always extremely excited when she has something new for
us! Intense, heart pounding, and erotically fulfilling, I could not put this
book down.”
~ Shayna Renee, Shayna
Renee's Spicy Reads
“Certain authors and series are on my auto-buy list. Lexi
Blake and her Masters & Mercenaries series is at the top of that list...
this book offered everything I love about a Masters & Mercenaries book –
alpha men, hot sex and sweet loving… As long as Ms. Blake continues to offer
such high quality books, I’ll be right there, ready to read.”
~ Robin, Sizzling Hot
Books
“I have absolutely fallen in love with this series. Spies,
espionage, and intrigue all packaged up in a hot dominant male package. All the
men at McKay-Taggart are smoking hot and the women are amazingly strong sexy
submissives.”
~Kelley, Smut Book
Junkie Book Reviews
You Only Love Twice
Masters and Mercenaries, Book 8
Lexi Blake
You Only Love Twice
Masters and Mercenaries, Book 8
Lexi Blake
Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC
Copyright 2015 DLZ Entertainment LLC
Edited by Chloe Vale
eBook ISBN: 978-1-937608-36-1
McKay-Taggart logo design by Charity Hendry
All rights reserved. No part of this book
may
be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form
without permission
. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of
copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and
incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is
solely coincidental.
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Thanks to my team of editors, beta and proofreaders, and
designers. Chloe, Stormy, Riane, Rich, Liz, and Charity, I couldn’t do it
without you. Thanks to Top Griz who left the marines only to find himself
surrounded by romance authors with a million questions. Thank you for the
knowledge and patience. And thanks to his wife Kennedy Layne for sharing his
wisdom with the rest of us.
Special thanks to my street team for always supporting me
and helping me find the encouragement I need. Love you ladies!
This book
is dedicated
to anyone
who has loved and lost and found the strength to love again.
Adored: A Masters and Mercenaries
Novella by Lexi Blake, Coming May 12, 2015
Master No by Lexi Blake, Coming
August 4, 2015
Their Virgin Mistress by Shayla
Black and Lexi Blake, Coming April 14. 2015
Scandal Never Sleeps by Shayla Black
and Lexi Blake, Coming July 7, 2015
Fairfax County, VA
Phoebe looked up at the house with no designs on actually
living there. Yeah, she wasn’t an idiot. This place was way too nice for a
group home. It was a two story with big columns. Colonial. She’d read that in
some book. She liked books. Books didn’t lie to her for the most part. They
didn’t say one thing when the social worker was around and then smack her face
the minute they were alone, so all in all she preferred books to the real
world.
Also libraries were pretty fucking awesome because they
didn’t give a shit that you didn’t have the money as long as you managed to
turn the books back in on time. Phoebe always turned her books in on time.
A book from a library was the one thing she wouldn’t steal.
Everything else was fair game and once she was inside, she
would look around to see what her sticky fingers might be able to grab. After
all, her eighteenth birthday was only three years away. A girl had to plan for
that grand moment when she went from foster care to homelessness.
“Could you try to smile?” Alicia wasn’t bad as social
workers went. She was a lovely woman with caramel-colored skin who seemed to
actually get that it sucked to be Phoebe.
“Could you try to not sell me to some weirdo pervert who’ll
make me do sex tapes and lick his big toes?” Yeah, just because Alicia wasn’t
so bad didn’t mean Phoebe wouldn’t give her shit.
Perfectly brown eyes rolled and Alicia frowned as she parked
the very boring sedan she’d probably paid a whole two years worth of shitastic
salary for. “I’m serious, Phoebe. Franklin Grant isn’t the usual foster dad.
He’s very wealthy and very private, and over the years he’s taken in exactly
two kids and he adopted them both. You’re the third he’s shown an interest in.”
“Why?” That information sent every spidey sense she had
tingling because she knew damn well that too good to
be true
usually meant
she got her ass kicked in some way.
Alicia’s jaw firmed. “He has to talk to you about it. I’ll
be honest, I’m not sure exactly what he does for a living but I know he works
for the government and he has a security level that means I can’t even read his
records. Usually this is a very long process, but if he decides to take you,
you
’ll be adopted
within the next six weeks and you’ll
have a family, Phoebe. He’s promised to pay for your education and set up a
trust fund for you if you agree to his terms.”
Her gut dropped. What the hell were his terms? Who used a
word like “terms” when it came to adopting a kid? Alicia talked like she had a
choice, but Phoebe knew better. She hadn’t had a single choice since the day
her mom had overdosed on heroin and her dad had chosen to not take her in. Her
father. He’d had a new family and the new wife didn’t want Phoebe around her
kids. It hadn’t been a big shock. She hadn’t seen her father in years but she’d
still stood in his doorway praying he would let her in. She’d been seven years
old and she’d seen her half siblings from the doorway before their mom had
scooted them away like Phoebe was something dangerous.
It had been Alicia who held her hand and walked her away.
Alicia had driven her to the first of a seemingly endless line of foster homes.
She couldn’t even remember some of their faces and others she would never
forget. But Alicia had been the constant. She knew other kids
got shuffled
through social workers as fast as they did
homes, but Alicia had always been there. She counted on Alicia.
Though she tried not to cry ever, the hated tears were
suddenly in her eyes. “Are you selling me?”
She’d heard it could happen. Especially when no one in the
world cared about what happened to a girl. Foster care kids ran all the time.
No one gave a damn to find them.
Alicia turned to her, her jaw dropping open. “What? Phoebe,
no. Honey, this man is interested in you because of your IQ scores. I have some
suspicion he works for the NSA or the CIA. Do you understand? I think you
’re being recruited
. If that scares you we can turn the car
around and nothing and no one will make me bring you here again.”
Phoebe looked out the window. It was a sunny day and the big
colonial house stood out against the brilliant blue sky. In the distance, she
could see a pasture with a couple of horses. The whole setting was peaceful and
so foreign to a girl who’d grown up in some of DC’s worst slums. What would it
be like to wake up to green grass and trees?
She
was scheduled
to enter a group
home in six weeks and after she aged out she would be on her own. There would
be no education for her. There would be a fast food restaurant job if she was
lucky enough to find a place to live. There would be years and years of trying
to get by. There would likely come a time when she was desperate enough to try
a little of what her mother had in order to get a moment’s respite from how
shitty life was. She would be in and out of prison until she finally took too
much and found the place where all junkies went.
Wasn’t anything worth trying if it meant a shot at getting
out of this life?
“You said his name was Franklin?” Like the turtle. When
she’d been younger, she’d read the Franklin books. Even when her mother had
been alive, she’d hidden in books. She’d taught herself to read at the age of
four, and one of the moms in the tenement they’d lived in had been a
kindergarten teacher and lent Phoebe books. Franklin. Arthur. The Berenstain
Bears. It was stupid, but the fact that this man’s name was comforting helped
to calm her.
“Yes. Franklin Grant. His family has been in Virginia for
two hundred years, but he’s the last of his line. I don’t know why, but he
never married.” She looked at Phoebe. “Do you want to stay or go?”
Phoebe got out of the car and slammed the door behind her.
Everything she owned in the world was in her satchel. Three T-shirts, four
pairs of socks, a complete days of the week underwear set, though technically
she was wearing Sunday on a Monday since she didn’t get to do laundry very often,
two pairs of threadbare jeans, a tube of lip balm she’d stolen from a pharmacy,
and twelve dollars and fifty-two cents she kept in a plastic Hello Kitty wallet
she’d gotten one year at Christmas. Everything else had been lost or stolen.
The door to the big house opened and two boys stepped out.
Alicia’s door shut and she was suddenly beside Phoebe. “It’s
your call. If you want to leave, I’ll take you back.”
But she wouldn’t take her in. She’d known that dream
was done
long ago. Alicia had three kids of her own. There
was no room for Phoebe there. There seemed to be no place for her anywhere, but
that house in front of her had a whole lot of rooms.
“I’ll meet him. Who are they?” She was watching as the two
young men walked toward her.
“That must be Grant’s sons. He adopted them both. The word
is they both tested incredibly high on their IQ tests and had some extra
skills. I think one of them was a shooting champion. The other had a history as
a hacker. I know everyone was surprised a boy with an arrest record managed to
get adopted.”
She’d avoided
being arrested
.
Mostly. The one time she
’d gotten caught
, she helped
the cops with a worse crime that had been committed in the same area. Detective
Bates had happily expunged her record when she’d given him a serial rapist on a
silver platter. Sometimes cops couldn’t see patterns to save their lives.
Phoebe saw them. She’d stood in his office and looked up at the wall of data
he’d accumulated on the man and all the lines were there. He’d simply had them
in the wrong places. She’d fixed it and now the man was serving seventy-five
years and she had a friend to call when she got caught shoplifting.
Life was all about making use of the materials around. She’d
learned that long ago, too.
“Hi.” Both boys were dressed in slacks and button downs, but
the one who greeted her had pitch-black hair and the prettiest eyes she’d ever
seen. He was slightly taller than his brother, who she barely looked at because
her eyes couldn’t seem to move off him.
“Hi.” Yeah, that sounded stupid and breathy and girlie.
“Are you Phoebe?” Dreamy Eyes asked.
She managed to nod. What the hell was wrong with her?
“Well, I’m James. It’s nice to meet you. Dad’s been talking
about you a lot. Why don’t you come up and meet him? He’s in his office. If you
decide to stay, I will warn you, he’s made meatloaf for dinner. About once a
week he gets it into his head that he can cook. He can’t. It’s awful, but we
order pizza and then tomorrow Maria is back. Maria can actually cook.”
James. Oh, James. He made her heart pound. He made her
breath threaten to stop.
“I am here, too, you know.” The second boy rolled his green
eyes and chuckled.
She was being a bitch. She turned to the other boy. He was
cute, too, but he didn’t make her drool the way James did. “Hi.” She thrust out
her hand.
Dumbass.
Only adults did that. There was nothing to do but
power through. “I’m Phoebe.”
He gave her a grin and shook her hand. He really was cute,
with golden brown hair and a ready smile. “I’m Tennessee, but you can call me
Ten. Come on now. Stop making love eyes at Jamie here and let’s get a move on.”
“I’m not.” She felt her whole body flush with embarrassment.
Ten shook his head. “God, I hope you are because he’s
staring at you, too.”
James sent his brother a warning look. “Am not.”
“Are too.”
“I will end you, Ten,” he said under his breath.
Ten laughed. “You’ll try. Let’s go, lovebirds. Don’t keep
Pops waiting. He’s actually a really great man. I think you’re going to like
him.”
Ten turned and started up the bricked walkway.
James was blushing as he looked back at her. “Don’t pay him
any mind. He’s kind of an asshole.” James flushed further as he nodded to
Alicia. “Sorry. He’s my brother.”
Alicia smiled. “So I’ve heard. I think I’ll go in and say
hello to Mr. Grant.”
She started toward the door.
James suddenly seemed to find his feet endlessly
interesting. “I could show you around if you like. Dad sent us out here to talk
to you. I’m supposed to show you the house and then you can talk to him.”
“Why?” She needed to know. “Why does he want to talk to me?
I don’t buy it. I’ve seen it all and this doesn’t add up.”
James’s eyes met hers. “You’re smart, Phoebe, and you could
be something more. You could help your country. That’s what we do. Dad finds
kids who need homes and something to believe in and he gives us both. He took
me in when I was eight and we found Ten when he was thirteen when he came to
live with us. In a couple of years I’m going to college, but after that I’m
joining my dad. You could be with us if you want to.”
“In what?”
James’ s shoulders went back, his pride evident. “The
Agency. I’m going to be a spy and you could be, too.”
A spy. Yeah. That sounded cool.
Cooler than anything else she was going to do. When James
turned and walked toward the house, she followed. It was all she could do to
not take his hand.
* * * *
13 years later
“Hey, Phoebe.” Ten walked into the room, his presence almost
a nuisance.
God, she hated that, but she felt that way. She didn’t want
to see him, didn’t want to see anyone. She wanted them all to go away so she
could fade. She wanted to do nothing more than lie down and utterly fade away.
Maybe if she didn’t eat, didn’t drink anything, she could see him again.
She didn’t reply to Ten, simply stared at the wall.
“Everyone’s leaving. I thought you might want to come out
and say good-bye.”
She hadn’t wanted them to come over anyway, so she figured
the hoard of visiting vultures could find their way out on their own. They had
been Jamie’s co-workers, people who knew their dad, but she hated them. She
hated everyone.
“Don’t do this to me.”
She ignored him.
“Goddamn it, Phoebe. Don’t you dare fucking do this to him.”
Her eyes came open as if of their own accord. Ten had said
“him” and her body responded. “I’m not doing anything.”
The words came out on a growl. She was resentful. He
shouldn’t be here. He’d only been Jamie’s brother. He hadn’t been his wife, his
lover. Ten hadn’t been trying to have Jamie’s baby.
“You’re fucking giving up, Phoebe.” She could practically
feel Ten’s will as he paced across the floor. Ten’s cowboy boots thudded along
the hand-scraped hardwoods as he continued to move. Ten always had trouble
staying still. He paced when he was anxious. He’d been really anxious since
that moment that they’d heard
Jamie had been captured by jihadists
.
Ten had spent months trying to find him, months in the deserts of Iraq. And
then more time trying to find his body because the fuckers had moved them,
likely hoping their bodies
would never be found
, that
the families would never be able to give them a proper burial.
