Although, we’ve all enjoyed hearing about these two men in recent months, I can assure you, they haven’t had it easy. In fact, recent events led Luke to shut the doors on Club Destiny’s fetish club. At this point, according to both Luke and Logan, they aren’t sure where they are going to go from here. They’ve admitted to having invested an undisclosed amount of money in the new resort, Alluring Indulgence, being built by Walker, Inc. Aside from that, they aren’t sharing what their next steps will be.
Despite my interest, Luke hasn’t given me any additional information at this time, but I can assure you, as soon as he does, I’ll make sure you’re the first to know.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Trent Ramsey skimmed the article on the screen, a smile tipping his lips. He was interested to see that Luke and Logan hadn’t announced publicly whether or not they would keep the doors closed on Club Destiny.
He’d been a little disappointed that neither of them thought to call him up when they were having issues, but he wasn’t surprised either. They were still trying to keep him out of the limelight as much as they could.
As much as he was already in the news, Trent respected them for that, but he knew it wasn’t necessary. As far as he was concerned, it was high time he paid his partners a little visit. After all, closing the doors on Club Destiny temporarily wasn’t a big issue for him, but in no way was he interested in shutting the doors forever.
He was all for investing in this new resort, Alluring Indulgence, but Trent had spoken with both Luke and Logan in the last couple of days, and he knew they were thinking the same thing he was... there was no way they’d let that resort outshine Club Destiny.
It was just time to make a few changes.
Acknowledgements
I can remember the day I pushed that publish button for the first time back on July 29th, 2012. That wasn’t long ago. Conviction was the book I published and just like every other Indie author out there, I was hoping someone would get some enjoyment out of the book I had poured so much of myself into. In the months to follow, I learned about book tours and features and reviews and deleted scenes... the list goes on and on.
When I published Kaleb, I wasn’t even sure what the first step was, so, I sent out some emails to a handful of the amazing book review sites that I had seen and let me say, the response was overwhelming. I didn’t have the first clue about what I was supposed to do to “pimp” my book.
They did.
The amazing women that I met helped me through the steps and they were so very patient with me. I will forever be in their debt. I just want to say thank you for all that you have done to help me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you!
I want to say thank you to the Rock Stars of Romance for adding me to your page – I still have bruises from falling out of my chair when I saw that one. Literally – I was floored.
Reality Bites! Let’s Get Lost! I think you were the first to respond to my emails and I felt so totally clueless, but you’ve been there for me with every question – no matter how silly. And Shh Mom’s Reading... I’m truly speechless. You’re inspiration is priceless.
There are so many others: Sinfully Sexy Book Reviews, Sugar and Spice Book Reviews, Erotica Book Club, Three Chicks and Their Books, Stick Girl Book Reviews, Megan’s Book Blog and many more who have helped me along the way.
For the amazing fans, many of you I am honored to now call friends and I look forward to your emails because they are a true bright point in my day: Carla, Jeni and Nicole (supa ninja) – you ladies make me laugh and I hope you never stop.
I love you all! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Check out more from Nicole Edwards:
www.nicedwardsauthor.com
The Club Destiny Series:
Conviction
Temptation
Addicted
Seduction
Infatuation
And coming in 2013 –
Captivated
The Alluring Indulgence Series:
Kaleb
And coming in 2013 –
Zane
Travis
Continue reading for an excerpt from
KALEB
The first book in the Alluring Indulgence Series:
Zoey Stranford might’ve had a crush on the sexy boy next door since middle school, but she’s a woman now, and that crush has turned into a full blown case of lust. So why is it that at twenty nine, her libido decides to ramp into high gear and the only thing she can focus on is the intensely sexy, scorching hot boy next door who is definitely not a boy anymore?
The only problem is that Zoey and Kaleb have been best friends for as long as she can remember. Not to mention, Kaleb and his brothers are working on buying Stranford land to build a new resort, and she’s more than a little hesitant about his intentions.
Kaleb Walker has had his eye on Zoey for close to twenty years, but never before has he considered taking their friendship to the next level, no matter how many fantasies he’s had about her over the years. That doesn’t explain why Kaleb is hell bent on having her – in as many ways as possible.
Kaleb finds himself in a precarious situation. His brothers have nominated him to pursue Zoey’s father about purchasing the land needed to get their new resort off the ground. Finding out that Carl Stranford is on the brink of foreclosure and Zoey might just lose her house and the land, Kaleb now has to convince her to put aside her pride and let him help her.
It doesn’t take long before the flames start burning bright and hot, and the two of them burn up the nights and the days as they explore each other’s forbidden fantasies. But can their friendship survive a business transaction or the new friends with benefits clause? Or will they realize that they’ve been overlooking something much deeper that’s been right in front of them all along?
Warning: This book contains sexual encounters and graphic language that some readers may find objectionable, including, but not limited to m/f/m encounters, anal sex, exhibitionism, and voyeurism. Consider yourself warned! Contains graphic material that is not suitable for anyone under the age of 18.
Kaleb: Chapter One
♂♀
“Are you fucking kidding?” Kaleb could barely make out his youngest brothers words as Zane doubled over in laughter.
“Hell, no. I’m dead serious. Sawyer was standing on the side of the road, holding up a sign that said ‘will work for sex’. I shit you not.” Kaleb finished pouring his coffee before taking his mug back to his desk, dodging Zane in the process.
Hello? This was Sawyer Walker they were talking about, so Kaleb shouldn’t have been all that surprised really. But, he’d been hard pressed to keep his jaw out of his lap as he drove past his brother standing shirtless, wearing jeans and shit kickers while standing on the side of the road holding up the damn sign. To top it off, there was a truck full of women pulled over talking to him.
“You know Dad’s gonna be pissed when he sees it.” Zane doubled over in another fit of laughter.
Kaleb wasn’t all that worried about their father and what he thought about Sawyer’s wild and crazy antics. It was their mother they actually had to worry about. Curtis Walker would laugh right along with Zane, but Lorrie Walker would be fit to be tied.
But that was Sawyer for you. At thirty three, he wasn’t supposed to be the wildest of the seven of them, but he even gave Zane a run for his money.
The screen door slammed and Zane sat upright, immediately choking on his laughter. As Travis made his way into the small kitchen, Kaleb barely suppressed a groan.
“What’s going on?” The oldest of the seven Walker brothers wasn’t smiling, and Kaleb had a feeling he wouldn’t find Sawyer’s antics all that funny anyway, so Kaleb kept his mouth shut.
“Sawyer’s down on Main and 1st half-dressed holding up a sign.”
“Fuck,” Kaleb muttered and pinned his brother with a death glare. “Seriously, Zane?”
He was met with a shrug.
; Telling Travis anything that didn’t pertain to Walker Demolition was like telling their mother as far as Kaleb was concerned. The oldest of the Walker boys at thirty five, Travis had turned into an old man in recent years – at least as far as his mood was concerned.
“Fuck,” Travis groaned as he turned to the coffee pot sitting on the counter. “When will he ever grow up?”
Today, just like any other day, Kaleb was going to give Travis a wide berth, not to mention, knock Zane upside his head for telling on Sawyer. “Likely never if I had to guess.” Kaleb chimed in, knowing that was the only sufficient answer.
“Did you hear back from Carl Stranford?” Travis glanced over his shoulder at Kaleb before returning his attention to pouring his coffee. “You were going by his house yesterday?”
Suddenly wishing he’d had more coffee, Kaleb rubbed his hand over the back of his neck trying to squeeze some of the tension out. There never was a good time to have this conversation with Travis, but now certainly wasn’t it.
“Yeah.” He definitely stopped by Carl’s, just like he had several times that week, but his brief conversation hadn’t resulted in anything other than the expected ‘Let me think about it, Kaleb, and get back with you.’
“Shit,” Travis groaned, obviously knowing what that response had been before Kaleb even had to say it out loud. “That man keeps stalling, and I don’t know what the hell for. You’d think he’d be ready to sell off a portion of that land by now. He’s all but lost every one of his crops and to tell you the truth, I’m getting damn tired of waiting.”
And if Carl didn’t do something soon, he’d lose a lot more than just his crops, but Kaleb wasn’t going to share that with Travis just yet. Until he had the chance to talk to Zoey about it, he wasn’t ready to spread the devastating news.
Not to mention, it wouldn’t matter what he told Travis because until he had a firm agreement from Carl, none of it mattered. His oldest brother would just get even more pissed off than he already was.
Walker Demolition – the company Kaleb and his brothers had built from the ground up – had grown leaps and bounds over the last few years, and instead of being content with what they’d built, Travis was ready to venture in another direction, expand their horizon’s he’d said.
Instead of focusing solely on tearing shit up, Travis had come up with the idea to build a resort. Not that Kaleb didn’t think it was a brilliant idea because he did. He was just content with the tearing shit up part.
The plans he’d seen for a mega resort the likes of which their small town had never seen, were underway. They’d received the necessary approvals, and now the only thing left to do was to secure the land. Travis had already bought out two of their adjacent neighbors, acquiring a good three hundred acres of decrepit old farmland, but he hadn’t been satisfied with that. Now he was looking for another hundred that backed up to what they’d already purchased. Only this land belonged to Carl Stranford, an ornery old farmer who had been giving them the runaround for the better part of the last six months.
“Call him.” Zane’s tone was laced with sarcasm. “Or better yet, go see him. Maybe some of your macho intimidation will make him come to a decision.”
Kaleb groaned.
Zane was the youngest of seven and considering the age difference between him and Travis, he didn’t remember much of the Travis they had all grown up with. The fun loving, hang on by the seat of your pants guy they’d all wanted to be like. But that man never returned from the four year stint in the Army. In his place was the grouchy, unsmiling man that sat before them now.
“I might just do that,” Travis snapped, before turning and walking out of the room.
When the screen door slammed behind their brother, Zane turned to Kaleb. “Why don’t you go talk to Carl? Or better yet, Zoey?”
“What does Zoey have to do with this?”
Zane liked to give Kaleb shit about Carl Stranford’s only daughter. Not only had she been Kaleb’s closest female friend for the better part of the last decade, she was also the woman Kaleb had always wanted, but never had. Despite the ever present physical attraction, he’d somehow managed to be friends with her without ever trying to push it any further, although he’d wanted to.
More than wanted to.
Since she’d never shown even an inkling of interest in him other than friendship, Kaleb had opted to take what he could get and they’d established a very solid friendship. Hell, the woman knew everything there was to know about him and most of his brothers, yet she still chose to associate with him, so he considered himself lucky.
They were infamous in their little town, but that was mostly due to their wild and crazy behavior since about the time each of them could walk. They were a rowdy bunch, and there was a long list of rumors associated with them – some true, some not entirely true. For whatever reason, Zoey chose to ignore them, and for that, he was grateful.
Not that Zoey Stranford wasn’t as wild as they came. That was partly what he found so damn attractive about the woman. She didn’t care what other people thought about her, and it seemed her one goal was to have fun and not hurt anyone in the process.
So, he’d mastered the art of pretending when it came to Zoey. First and foremost, he was her friend, but that wasn’t the problem. His issue was in learning to hide the unbridled lust burning deep and hot for as long as he’d known her.
And since his brothers had dubbed her the one woman who wouldn’t give him the time of day, they loved to give him a hard time about her.
It certainly wasn’t a hardship being friends with Zoey, but it had gotten increasingly more difficult in the last few years. Ever since she and that jackass Jason Tribbons divorced, Kaleb did everything he possibly could to make sure he kept his feelings for her hidden. But hell, he wasn’t a saint and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could pull off the charade.
“Zoey doesn’t have any say in what her father does with that land,” Kaleb added as he watched the wheels turn in Zane’s head. His little brother was going to piss him off, he could feel it.
“Yeah, but she likes you.” Zane goaded. “I’m sure if she goes running to daddy, telling him her boy toy wants to buy the land, he’d sell it in a heartbeat.”
Boy toy? “I know you’ve got something better than that.” Kaleb pushed.
Kaleb had grown quite fond of his own dick over the years, and he didn’t have any intentions of losing it, thank you very much. Carl Stranford would just as soon cut off Kaleb’s dick than let him date his daughter.
Carl was an overprotective son of a bitch when it came to his one and only daughter, and he and Zoey had had to clarify their friendship on more than one occasion over the years. Granted, Carl was close to eighty now, and Zoey was very much a grown woman who didn’t let her daddy tell her whom she could see, but still...
Hell, he’d expected Carl to answer the damn door with a shotgun in his hand the night he had taken Zoey to her senior prom. Thankfully Carl hadn’t, but that was probably due to Zoey’s mother who had liked Kaleb. Not that Kaleb could blame the man. If a nineteen year old man had the balls to show up on his doorstep asking to take his seventeen year old daughter to the prom, Kaleb knew damn well that young man would know how acquainted he was with his gun collection.
But true to his word, even back then when he was ruled by hormones alone, Kaleb never laid a finger on Zoey, no matter how badly he wanted to. And to this day, he’d never so much as kissed her, and his dick knew it all too well.
Shaking off the thought, Kaleb pushed himself out of his chair. “I’ll go talk to Carl. Until we get that land, Travis won’t let it go.”
“Nope, he won’t,” Zane agreed as he stood. “Tell Zoey hello for me.”
“Fuck off.” Kaleb grinned as he walked out the back door.
Not fifteen minutes later, Kaleb was pulling up to Carl Stranford’s house, wishing like hell he didn’t have to do this again today. Thankfully Zoey’s truck wasn’t in the driveway, which meant she was probab
ly working – something Kaleb should’ve been doing. Instead, he’d get the pleasure of explaining to Carl yet again what he wanted and why he was there.
He pulled around to the back of the house, put the truck in Park and climbed out. Stealing himself for the conversation to come, Kaleb took a deep breath and looked around. With the sun shining bright and not a single cloud in the sky, Kaleb took in the vast landscape, looking off to the south as he tried to picture the entrance to the resort as Travis envisioned it.
He could see the massive wrought iron gates in his mind, the ones that would be manned twenty four hours a day by security, allowing only those invited to come inside. Kaleb had seen the artwork for the gates design, including the large “A” and “I” that would be welded into the intricate iron design. Alluring Indulgence, the name he and his brothers all agreed on.
Given the type of resort they were looking at creating, the name suited it. The goal had been to come up with a name to reflect the carnal temptation they fully intended it to be. So, thanks to an online dictionary and a case of beer, Alluring Indulgence was born.
He wouldn’t lie, he was anxiously waiting for the day they opened their doors, but in order for that to happen, Kaleb had to convince Carl to sell him the land. With a resigned sigh, Kaleb shut the truck door and made his way to the side door of the house.
Rapping his knuckles on the wood frame, Kaleb waited like he always did until Carl’s gruff voice instructed him to “Come in.” The man never bothered to get up, nor did he bother locking any of his doors so Kaleb let himself into the large, typical farmhouse kitchen.
“Mr. Stranford,” Kaleb greeted Zoey’s father as he stepped into the living room.
Instead of a greeting, Kaleb was met with a muted “Hmmphh”.
Infatuation - A Club Destiny Novel Page 30
