Unbreakable

by Ashley Blake

  Fresh from breaking up with her loser, cheating boyfriend, the last thing recent college grad Sophie Night wants is to find a new guy. She is all about focusing on her blog and then she meets Lucas, the man who changes everything. Lucas Tate is tall, dark, handsome, rich and totally in love with Sophie… until his ex-girlfriend asks him something he never expected.

  Sophie’s world gets turned upside down and she has to decide if she is willing to take a chance on love. Will their love prove to be unbreakable, or is Lucas asking too much?

  Unbreakable

  Love Me Series, Book 1 – Sophie and Lucas

  by

  Ashley Blake

  New Adult Romance

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  www.ashleyblakefiction.com

  Copyright, 2014 by Ashley Blake.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, or have been used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. No portion of this work may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author.

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  EPILOGUE – THREE YEARS LATER

  Books by Ashley Blake

  Introduction

  Sitting alone at the bar, the music blaring, I was watching Steven across the room flirting incessantly with yet another bimbo with enormous fake tits. I downed the rest of my pomegranate martini, hopped off of the stool and made my way over to interrupt his pathetic display of patheticness. He’s such an asshole.

  Bimbo number 346 gave me a withering look as I approached them and I shot one right back at her. Oh please sweetie, don’t even try it. I gave Steven the irritated-hand-on-the-hip-thing and reached out to turn his face toward me.

  “I’m leaving.” I didn’t give him a chance to respond as I spun on my heel, my long, dark hair whipping around behind me, and marched toward the door.

  “Sophie, wait!” I heard him quickly shuffle up behind me and then felt his hand on my arm as he reached out to stop me. “Babe, it’s not even 10 o’clock yet. What’s the rush?”

  I cringed at his words, I hated when he called me ‘babe’.

  “I have class at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning and I really have no interest in watching you fawn all over another trashy chick, Steven. I don’t know why I even waste my time with you, I deserve better than this.”

  He grabbed my hand. “Sophie, babe, just stay and have one more drink with me, please? I wasn’t flirting with that girl, she’s a friend of Mike’s and was asking me what I thought of his new bike.”

  Ugh, Mike. Mike was Steven’s best friend who was addicted to his bike; it was all he ever talked about. He was a gearhead and was constantly in his garage, working on the bike or polishing it like it was a living thing. Don’t get me wrong, I liked bikes and guys on bikes, but he was gross. He always looked at me like I was a piece of meat that he wanted to devour, and I couldn’t stand him.

  I felt a little bit relieved that, for once, Steven wasn’t trying to get into another girls pants in front of me, but as I stood there and let his words about that girl sink in I realized that I didn't want to have anything more to do with him. I knew that there were much better guys out there and eventually I would find one.

  I stood and looked at him for a minute and a complete sense of freedom washed over me as I finally made my decision. I raised my voice so that he could hear me over the loud music. ‘You know what Steven? This isn’t working for me anymore.”

  He looked completely confused. “Are you serious? You’re doing this here?”

  “Here is just as good as anywhere. We both know that this hasn’t been working for either of us for a while. Your eyes have a bad habit of wandering when they shouldn’t and while I should be sick of it, I just don’t care anymore. That’s not good, not caring is not a good thing, Steven.”

  “Sophie, come on, we can make this work.”

  Nothing. I felt nothing. No tug at my heart, no pit in the bottom of my stomach. Freedom was the only thing I thought about as I stood there in a college bar, breaking up with my on again, off again, on again, off again boyfriend of three years. I was done.

  “I don’t want to make this work, Steven. I’m over it. I’m tired of not trusting you, I’m tired of seeing you falling all over other girls and wondering if something is going on and I’m tired of being tired. We just are not meant to be together, you obviously need something else and I know that I do.”

  “Sophie, let’s go outside. I want to be able to talk to you without the music blaring.”

  We stepped outside as the cool Chicago wind breezed through my hair and I turned to him and crossed my arms, waiting impatiently to hear what he had to say.

  “You weren’t serious in there, were you? I mean, we do this all the time Soph. We break up and then we get back together. I told you that I would stop checking out other girls and I haven’t cheated on you again. I’ve kept my end of the deal.”

  “Seriously, Steven? Your end of the deal? There shouldn’t even have to be a deal, don’t you get it? That’s the problem! We’ve been in and out of this relationship for too long, and I want out. You go and do you, and I’ll do the same.”

  He started to protest and I stopped him. He actually looked kind of sad which surprised me, so I almost felt bad. Almost.

  “It’s for the best, you’ll see. You might think you’re bummed right now but by tomorrow morning when you realize you are free to hook up with as many girls as you want, you’ll be fine. Take care, Steven.”

  He looked dumbfounded as I reached up and kissed him on the cheek. I walked to the corner to get a cab and a huge smile spread across my face. I had been so miserable with him for so long I didn’t know how to break things off. Steven wasn’t a bad guy, he just wasn’t a relationship guy, at least not with me. He had a wandering eye and I don’t know if it was because I really didn’t like him all that much, but it didn’t bother me as much as it should have. We had dated off and on for the last three years and I got so used to having him around, I would rather be with him than be alone. I hated that I was like that, but I liked being in a relationship much more than I liked being alone. I kind of lost my strength and who I was when I was with him, and I wanted it back.

  I knew I deserved better than him so I was really happy that I had the guts to break up with him. I was single for the first time since I'd started dating in high school and while it was scary, it was also really exciting. I had just a few weeks left of my senior year of college and I was really looking forward to stepping out into the world as an independent woman. It was time for me to spread my wings.

  Chapter 1

  We went to a university right in downtown Chicago, and when I got back to the dorm my roommate and best friend Gigi was surfing on her iPad, and I was really happy she was there because I wanted to tell her that I had finally broken things off with Steven.

  “So, how was your night? Was Steven able to keep his eyes on you for once?”

  She rolled her eyes as she asked the question and I could hear the disdain in her voice, which was nothing new. Gigi had not liked Steven from the first second that she met him.

  “I dumped him tonight.” I looked over at
her with a huge smile on my face.

  She looked up at me with surprise. “Wait, is this for real this time or is it just another break up/make up thing?”

  “This is the real deal, I told him I’m done.”

  “Oh my gosh Sophie, finally! He’s such a dick, I don’t know why you put up with him!”

  “He wasn’t all bad Gigi.” I didn’t even believe the words myself as they rolled off my tongue.

  “Puh-lease, he was a cheater, Sophie! I’m glad you finally dropped him. He was probably blocking a great guy for you and now that he’s gone, I bet that great guy will appear. Just like that!” She snapped her finger.

  I threw my pillow at her and we erupted in giggles.

  “This probably isn’t the way someone is supposed to act when they break up with their boyfriend, but I’m so happy!”

  “No, probably not, but it’s totally understandable with what you went through with that jerk. Don’t worry, you’ll find another guy in no time.”

  “Gigi, the last thing I want right now is to meet another guy, I need a long break. Since the website is taking off I’m just going to focus on that for a couple of years because I want it to really take off, you know?”

  “Well, I can understand wanting to take a break and wanting to focus on the website, but no dating for two years? Isn’t that kind of extreme? You could miss out on a really great guy in that time.”

  "Okay well maybe not two years, but guys are definitely not going to be my focus. If I'm meant to be with someone then it will happen, it won't matter where I am in my life. So I figure it’s fine to just work on growing my website and finding more traffic for it.”

  “Okay, I get it. So, no regrets about Steven?”

  I looked at her and smiled. “No regrets at all.”

  *~*~*

  Steven and I met at a frat party our sophomore year of college and we had instant chemistry. He was a really good-looking guy and every girl at that party was after him, but he only wanted me. We hung out all night at the party and eventually started studying together every night. We became an item pretty quickly and I was so into him, and for a while the feeling seemed to be mutual.

  The first time he cheated on me was when I went home for a weekend a couple of months after we had been dating. Gigi told me that she saw him leave a party with this girl Amy who I knew had the hots for him, and was not discreet about it. He admitted it to me the night I got back to school and he begged me to forgive him. He said he was really drunk and she came on so strong he didn't know what he was doing. I had a weird flashback to when I overheard my dad begging my mom to forgive him for sleeping with our neighbor. My mom decided to forgive him so I guess I thought if my mom could forgive my dad, I could forgive Steven. I was really weak back then and I was really influenced by all of the attention I got being Steven's girlfriend, so I forgave him. He was super popular and I was super shallow. We fell into a really dysfunctional relationship with me looking the other way when he flirted with other girls, but I do have to say part of the reason I stayed was because the sex was amazing. When I say amazing I mean he made me come every single time we had sex. I didn't have to fake anything.

  My junior year I started thinking seriously about what I wanted to do after college, and that's when I came up with the idea for my fashion blog. It started as a blog with me sharing pictures of the different outfits I wore with a few of my friends on campus and then it really caught on. People started sharing my link with their friends off campus at other colleges and it took off from there. Advertisers noticed what was going on and contacted me asking if they could advertise on my blog. I had no idea that I could make the kind of money I was making, but once it clicked that it could be a real business I switched my major from English to marketing and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

  Since I was so busy with the blog I didn't really focus on what Steven was doing and it got to the point where I didn't care. I didn't break up with him right away because I had never been single and I didn't want to give up the sex. I’d always had a boyfriend from the minute I was allowed to start dating and, at the time, I would rather have been with a jerk like Steven than alone. I know, pathetic.

  Senior year, as my blog took off, I finally got to the point where I felt really confident and I didn't want to be with him anymore. He had admitted to cheating on me three other times while I was immersed in working on the blog and I knew that I deserved better. When your skin starts to crawl every time you see your boyfriend, something is wrong with your relationship and it's probably time to end it. I didn't want to be around him anymore and it was time for me to say goodbye to Steven and the mind-blowing sex.

  *~*~*

  After I broke up with him I just focused on my blog and my friends. The rest of my senior year of college was one of the best times of my life. I spent a lot of time with my friends, my blog was really blowing up, and I purposely registered for easy classes my last semester so I could breeze right through to the end. My family came down from Wisconsin for graduation, we hung out with Gigi and her family and I was so ready to move on to the next phase of my life.

  Chapter 2

  Gigi and I were both staying in Chicago after graduation and we decided to get an apartment together. Instead of a typical apartment building situation, we decided to rent from an owner in a condo building and we were able to get an amazing place in a full amenity building for a really good price.

  On moving day, both her parents and my parents came to help us move. We hired movers, of course, and with so many people helping the move went really smoothly. When we were done our parents went back to their hotel and me and Gigi collapsed on the couch completely exhausted. We were meeting them for dinner at 7:00 so we had a few hours to rest.

  She looked over at me and smiled.

  "Can you believe that we have our own place?"

  I smiled back at her. "I know, I feel so grown up."

  "What time do you want to go out?" She had a devilish grin on her face. Gig loved to go out and party. No drugs, just drinks.

  "Really Gigi, tonight? We’re going to dinner with our parents tonight and I’m barely going to make it through that without falling asleep at the table. I'm so tired it hurts to think."

  "Come on, you can rally. We’ll go out after our parents go back to their hotel. It's our first night as independent women, we have to celebrate!"

  "Don't you have to study lines for your play? Opening night is in less than a month."

  Gigi was a drama major in college and she was in every single play we'd had on campus. She started auditioning for plays in and around Chicago our senior year and she landed a small part in a play with the Steppenwolf Theater, which started soon. She was fearless and outgoing and I loved her from the first second I met her.

  *~*~*

  We met during the first day of orientation freshman year while we were waiting in line at the student union to get lunch during one of our breaks.

  She gave me the once over as she chomped on her gum before she spoke to me. "Are you ready for this? We have a wild ride ahead of us."

  Standing there in cut off jean shorts, an awesome black sequined tank top and black, three-inch wedge sandals, her long blonde hair rested casually over her shoulders as she smiled at me. Gigi was the blonde version of me. We were the exact same height, we looked to be the same size, she was a total spitfire and was super cool.

  "Yeah, I think so, it should be pretty cool. Do you know what your major is?"

  She took a bow. "You are looking at the next Scarlett Johansson."

  I smiled at her. "Oh wow. So acting is your thing, huh?"

  "Yep, love it, couldn't live without it. What about you?"

  "I'm not sure yet. I’m an English major but I really want to do something with fashion."

  She looked me up and down again, chomping away, and nodded her head. "I can see that."

  Just like acting was her thing, fashion was my thing. I had a subscription to every major fashion ma
gazine and scoured stores and vintage shops for unique but cool stuff all the time. I had a definite passion for fashion.

  We chatted up a storm and were inseparable from that day on. Gigi was from a small town in Iowa and loved to soak up everything about Chicago. I was from a small town in Wisconsin and we totally bonded over the whole from-a-small-town-and-dying-to-get-out thing. Our university was located right in the middle of downtown Chicago so she was like a kid in a candy store every day. I thought she was excited about being downtown when we were in school, but it was nothing compared to what I would see when we lived right in the middle of everything.

  *~*~*

  I stood there looking at how excited she was to go out and I didn’t want to burst her bubble.

  "Okay Gigi, I can't resist that excited look on your face, what time do you want to go out?"