by Jordan Marie
LETTING YOU GO
JORDAN MARIE
Copyright © 2019 by Penny Dreams LLC
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including but not limited to being stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, groups, businesses, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover Designer by: Sarah Hansen
WARNING: This book contains sexual situations, violence and other adult themes. Recommended for 18 and above.
Created with Vellum
DEDICATION
Letting You Go is a different kind of book for me. It stretched me as a writer and allowed me to explore an avenue I’ve been wanting to for a while and one you will see so much more of in Book Two.
Because of that, I had some special ladies that held my hand and a special shout out is required.
* * *
Jenn Allen, Tami Czenkus and Melinda Parker, you girls have become my MVP’s in this game. Thank you for your quick responses, your hand holding and for never failing to keep me on course. Love you ladies.
* * *
Pauline Digaletos I don’t have enough words for you. You give so much and get so little from me. If we lived closer you’d be begging me to leave you alone. I love you.
* * *
Glenna Maynard my Eastern Kentucky connection, I love you. Thank you for editing, but most of all thank you for taking time out of writing your own kick ass books to be my friend. #LoveYouHard
* * *
Dessure Hutchins you’ve had a rough year, but if there is any justice in this world, then, this year will be one of your best because you deserve it. Your heart is bigger than Texas, and your spirit shines so bright it cannot dim, even when some idiot tries to stamp it out. Love you!
* * *
Finally, to my reading group and all of the girls that are still reading my books after all of these years. I’d be lost without you. Please never stop. I ain’t too proud to beg. (You’re welcome for the ear worm.)
Xoxo
J
CONTENTS
Jordan’s Early Access Links
Title
Blurb
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
17. Chapter Seventeen
18. Chapter Eighteen
19. Chapter Nineteen
20. Chapter Twenty
21. Chapter Twenty One
22. Chapter Twenty Two
23. Chapter Twenty Three
24. Chapter Twenty Four
25. Chapter Twenty Five
26. Chapter Twenty Six
27. Chapter Twenty Seven
28. Chapter Twenty Eight
29. Chapter Twenty Nine
30. Chapter Thirty
31. Chapter Thirty One
32. Chapter Thirty Two
33. Chapter Thirty Three
34. Chapter Thirty Four
35. Chapter Thirty Five
36. Chapter Thirty Six
37. Chapter Thirty Seven
38. Chapter Thirty Eight
39. Chapter Thirty Nine
40. Chapter Forty
41. Chapter Forty One
42. Chapter Forty Two
43. Chapter Forty Three
44. Chapter Forty Four
45. Chapter Forty Five
46. Chapter Forty Six
47. Chapter Forty Seven
48. Chapter Forty Eight
49. Chapter Forty Nine
50. Chapter Fifty
51. Chapter Fifty One
52. Chapter Fifty Two
53. Chapter Fifty Three
54. Chapter Fifty Four
55. Chapter Fifty Five
56. Chapter Fifty Six
57. Chapter Fifty Seven
58. Chapter Fifty Eight
59. Chapter Fifty Nine
60. Chapter Sixty
61. Chapter Sixty One
62. Chapter Sixty Two
63. Chapter Sixty Three
64. Chapter Sixty Four
65. Chapter Sixty Five
Epilogue
The End
Prologue
Also by Jordan Marie
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Stone Lake Series
Book 1
* * *
By:
* * *
Jordan Marie
I met Luna Marshall when I was seventeen.
She was a force of nature that I wasn’t ready for.
She was gravity and I was caught in her pull—
Powerless, while she held me in a world I was desperate to escape.
They say you never forget your first love.
I believe they’re right.
I’ll always remember the sound of her laughter.
The way she whispered my name when I touched her, and the taste of her on my lips.
I’ll remember everything.
Including the look of pain as I walked away.
CHAPTER ONE
GAVIN
The Beginning
* * *
L una Marshall.
The girl haunts me.
Has for years.
I watch as she stands over by the football bleachers laughing with her friends. Her voice is fucking… musical. It’s soft and sweet with a melody in it that somehow brings me peace.
We’re complete opposites.
Luna comes from one of the wealthiest families in Stone Lake. Her dad drives a fucking Caddy and her mom has a Lexus SUV. Her clothes are designer and last month she was voted homecoming queen. Krissy Hanes was pissed because she thought the title belonged to her. Normally seniors are always the queen, but Stone Lake allows juniors to run too. Luna is that popular.
Way out of my fucking league.
She is destined to marry the football quarterback or some shit. It’s a small town and that’s the way these things go.
Except, Luna doesn’t date.
She’s been asked out a lot. She’s been asked out by the football jock, the captain of the debate team, the star basketball player, and the swim team—the entire male swim team. And one by one the alluring Luna Marshall turned them all down.
She’s developed the nickname Icebox. The entire male population of our school jokes that if you can ever get your dick inside of her that she’ll freez
e it off.
They’re idiots.
I don’t get that from her at all. I think she could burn you alive with her fire and there’s a big part of me that craves that heat, wants to tempt fate and take it from her.
She’s got long golden blonde hair—the complete opposite of what you would think, given her name. It falls in these soft waves all the way down—the tips resting on the small of her back. Her eyes are green with flecks of brown in them and they sparkle when she laughs. Her lips are full and thick, and I’d be a lying mo-fo if I said I didn’t fantasize about having them wrapped around my cock.
I’m seventeen. It’s a given that sex is pretty much all I think about and for me… sex is all about Luna Marshall. It’s simply my bad luck that it’s the same for every damned male in our high school.
Even my own brother.
Atticus is standing near her even now. Sniffing around her, desperate for her attention and she gives it to him—at least more than she has any other male. Maybe that’s the one reason I haven’t made my move with her. The thing is, when she touches Atticus—like she’s doing right now—it’s not sexual, it’s not any different than she does with her friend Jules. Jules is hot too—also blonde and a rocking body—but, not in the same league as Luna.
Not even close.
Still, she laughs and talks with Atticus but there’s no sexual vibe there at all, at least coming from her. I know without a shadow of a doubt he’s got his eye on her.
Atticus and I have our own problems, which is fucked. When you have a family like we do, it’d be good to be close, to rely on one another.
We don’t.
Our mother hit the road when I was eight and Atticus was seven. My father is a bastard who holds down a day job—although a shitty one—and then comes home and burns his gut with whiskey every night. By the time he’s done he barely knows his own name, let alone ours.
I’m a junior in high school. I failed my freshman year and had to repeat it. I’m barely passing now. I hate school, and Stone Lake for that matter. I have plans to get out of this hellhole the minute I graduate. I’m doing it and not looking back. I have nothing holding me here, not even my brother. I wish we were close, but that’s not going to happen. He blames me for the way our father is. I blame our mother and that pisses him off even more.
Atticus and I are night and day and I don’t see that ever changing. It’s Friday and I haven’t spoken to him all week. I don’t figure that will change either.
Family means nothing. It’s not blood that binds you to someone. I don’t know much, but I’m smart enough to know it’s not blood. My father’s blood is running through my veins, for that matter, so is my mother’s. That definitely didn’t bind them to me in any lasting way.
Not one damn bit.
I’m getting out of here and I’m leaving Stone Lake completely behind.
When I do, I’ll have no regrets…
Except maybe that I didn’t get a taste of Luna Marshall before I left. Then again, that’s probably a good thing.
For both of us.
CHAPTER TWO
LUNA
He’s staring at me again. I won’t turn around to look, but I can feel the chills that move down my spine. I know he’s there.
I always know when Gavin is near.
I’m in love with him. I have been since my first day in high school when I saw him leaning up against the wall talking to his friends. He’s tall with broad shoulders, and he has this jet-black hair that he wears a little too long. It falls at the top of his shoulders and is so dark it glistens. He is perfect and that’s not really an exaggeration. He has this smile that makes me feel like he’s always thinking something deliciously dirty when he looks at me. I don’t know what that says about me, but I like it.
Gavin’s the only boy that’s made me feel…Well… anything. He excites me, and whenever I’m anywhere near him, I feel completely alive. That’s the way it has been for two years.
Of course, in two years I’ve not spoken one word to him. I’ve wanted to. I’ve even come close once or twice, but then I chicken out. Jules thinks I’m insane, and I guess maybe I am. Every day I make up my mind to go and talk to him…
And every day I chicken out.
I’m a mess. I haven’t gone on a date with any of the guys who have asked me. I don’t want to date anyone but Gavin. He’s never going to ask though. I’ve finally come to that conclusion. He’s not interested. He may stare at me, but he hasn’t bothered talking to me, not once in two years. If he was the slightest bit interested, surely that would be different. I need to move on and quit mooning over Gavin Lodge.
There are plenty of other fish out there.
Like his brother Atticus. Jules thinks he’s even better looking than Gavin. He’s not, but he is really cute and funny. He’s sweet, and I can tell he likes me. He’s asked me out a few times, and I do like him better than the others that have.
I even thought about saying yes. But, how skeezy is that? I can’t go out with a guy and wish I was with his brother the whole night. That’s just wrong. So, I’ve kept Atticus firmly placed in the ‘friendzone’.
“You should meet up with us tonight, Luna,” Atticus says, drawing my attention back to him.
“Meet up?”
“Yeah, at the campground. We’re going to camp out and have a big bonfire.”
“My mother would freak at the idea of me being outside all night at a co-ed camp out,” I laugh.
I’m not joking. If anything, I’m understating how my mother would react. I have great parents, the best really. However, I’m their baby girl and there’s no way my mom is going to let me camp out all night with boys and no chaperone.
“What if you tell her you’re going to stay with me?” Jules asks.
“What do you mean?”
“You can tell your mom that you’re staying with me, and I’ll tell mine that I’m staying at your house,” she says excitedly.
“You think that will work?”
“Of course, it will!” She states that like she thinks I’m being stupid. When obviously it’s the other way around.
“And what happens when Mom calls your house to talk to me?”
“We’ll make time to call her and tell her we’re going to bed early.”
“You think that will work?” I ask again like a parrot, because Jules has to be insane. What parent will believe you’re going to bed early on a Friday? Especially if you’re staying with a friend?
“Totally,” she reiterates, physically jumping up and down.
Totally.
“Come on, Luna. I’ll take care of you. Honest, it will be okay,” Atticus urges me.
I don’t want to do this. Even thinking about lying to my parents makes me nervous. Jules is so excited though and all of my friends are staring at me expectantly. If I say no, I’m totally going to be looked at like I’m a chicken. It’s hard enough going through high school with the nickname Icebox. The last thing I need is to have them saying I was too scared to go to a camp out.
“Fine…” I mutter, less than convinced.
“Yay!” Jules screams.
“If I get into trouble, I’m going to kill you,” I warn her quietly.
She ignores my warning and wraps her arms around me squealing.
I ignore the sinking sensation that this isn’t going to end well.
So if my mom catches me and grounds me for the rest of my life… I’ll survive…
Right?
Crap.
CHAPTER THREE
GAVIN
“Where are you going?” I ask Atticus, even though I know I shouldn’t. He’s been walking around here like his shit doesn’t stink all fucking evening.
