by J. S. Scott
ALSO BY J.S. SCOTT
The Sinclairs
The Billionaire’s Christmas (A Sinclair Novella)
No Ordinary Billionaire
The Forbidden Billionaire
The Billionaire’s Touch
The Billionaire’s Voice
The Billionaire Takes All
The Billionaire’s Secrets
The Billionaire’s Obsession
Mine for Tonight
Mine for Now
Mine Forever
Mine Completely
Heart of the Billionaire – Sam
Billionaire Undone – Travis
The Billionaire’s Salvation – Max
The Billionaire’s Game – Kade
Billionaire Unmasked – Jason
Billionaire Untamed – Tate
Billionaire Unbound – Chloe
Billionaire Undaunted – Zane
Billionaire Unknown – Blake
Billionaire Unveiled – Marcus
Billionaire Unloved – Jett
The Walker Brothers
Release!
Player
Damaged
The Sentinel Demons
A Dangerous Bargain
A Dangerous Hunger
A Dangerous Fury
A Dangerous Demon King
The Sentinel Demons – The Complete Boxed Set
Big Girls and Bad Boys
The Curve Ball
The Beast Loves Curves
Curves by Design
The Curve Collection Boxed Set
The Pleasure of His Punishment: Individual Stories or Complete Boxed Set
The Changeling Encounters
Mate of the Werewolf
The Danger of Adopting a Werewolf
All I Want for Christmas is a Werewolf
The Changeling Encounters – Complete Boxed Set
The Vampire Coalition
Ethan’s Mate
Rory’s Mate
Nathan’s Mate
Liam’s Mate
Daric’s Mate
The Vampire Coalition – The Complete Boxed Set
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Text copyright © 2018 J.S. Scott
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781503954304
ISBN-10: 1503954307
Cover design by Laura Klynstra
Cover photo by Laura Klynstra
This book is dedicated to my fantastic and generous street team, Jan’s Gems, and their fearless leader, Natalie.
I personally think I have the best street team in existence. Maybe I’m biased, but I couldn’t imagine a more supportive, friendly, and thoughtful group of women.
Thank you for everything you do on a daily basis to help support my books.
XXX Jan
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 BROOKE
CHAPTER 2 LIAM
CHAPTER 3 BROOKE
CHAPTER 4 BROOKE
CHAPTER 5 BROOKE
CHAPTER 6 BROOKE
CHAPTER 7 LIAM
CHAPTER 8 BROOKE
CHAPTER 9 BROOKE
CHAPTER 10 BROOKE
CHAPTER 11 BROOKE
CHAPTER 12 LIAM
CHAPTER 13 LIAM
CHAPTER 14 BROOKE
CHAPTER 15 BROOKE
CHAPTER 16 LIAM
CHAPTER 17 BROOKE
CHAPTER 18 JADE
EPILOGUE BROOKE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
BROOKE
I was living a life that was a lie, and I hated every moment of it.
Well, maybe there was one exception.
Liam Sullivan.
My boss was the only thing that made my temporary move to the East Coast worthwhile.
Really, I loved the Maine coastal town of Amesport, even though I was only a temporary resident. The people were friendly, and I didn’t mind waiting tables and doing whatever else was necessary to help out in the small eatery where I worked.
I just hated the lies.
I’d run from California to Maine because I’d had to, less than a year ago. Now I was ready to drop the falsehoods and be myself again.
There was only one problem, and that deception was the one I regretted the most.
Liam Sullivan.
My boss, the owner of Sullivan’s Steak and Seafood, was a tall blond god who haunted every wet dream I’d had since the moment I’d met him for the first time. Unfortunately, the fantasies hadn’t gotten any less heated than they’d been months ago.
I let out a sigh and leaned back in Liam’s chair. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the small office of the restaurant with me. It was early morning, and the doors wouldn’t open until the afternoon. We were still running the off-season hours of early spring at Sullivan’s, so Liam Sullivan hadn’t even arrived at the restaurant yet.
“It’s almost over,” I whispered to myself right before I took a large gulp of my coffee. I’d made a whole pot, and I was already down to the last cup. “I’ll be back in California soon.”
I had to focus on going back home. For the last several months, it was the only thing that had kept me sane.
The lies had needed to continue, even after Liam had admitted that he wanted me, months ago. And that fabrication of who I was gnawed at me.
What else could I do? I couldn’t tell him the truth.
In real life, I didn’t have a boyfriend. The visitor Liam had seen and assumed was my man had actually been my brother Noah, brought to the East Coast by the billionaire Evan Sinclair. Evan, who permanently resided here in Amesport, was friends with Noah and had agreed to help me get away from California when I needed to flee my home in the West.
I was grateful, but I regretted the fact that I’d had to hide who I really was.
Liam knew a Brooke who had never really existed.
Not that I lied to him very often if I could help it, but I hadn’t been able to tell him that the man who visited me from California was really my brother.
Liam had given me a job without knowing much about my history. Evan had asked him to hire me, and Liam had agreed after he saw my references.
The agreement with my brother and Evan had been simple.
Lay low.
Don’t tell anybody my real identity.
And don’t do anything to draw attention to myself.
I couldn’t break the promises I’d made to the people who had helped when I was desperate to get away from California. They’d made those rules to keep me safe.
I took another slug of my coffee. I was on the last cup, so I knew I’d better start another pot. I was going to need it.
I yawned, despite my large caffeine intake, and tried to focus on the financials for Sullivan’s Steak and Seafood Restaurant. Liam might be an excellent businessman in most respects, but he hated doing the books and his taxes. I was good with numbers, so I’d taken over the tasks some months ago.
Being here early in the morning had nothing to do with my workload and everything to do with the fact that I was going back to California. I hadn’t told Liam that I was leaving yet, and it was causing a bad case of insomnia.
I hadn’t been able to sleep, so I’d gotten up to come do the books. Really, there was no urgency. I was pretty much done except for the current month. But I’d needed a task to keep me busy.
He’s not going to care if I go home.
Since Liam’s admission that he was sexually attracted to me, and my subsequent confession that I wanted him, too, we’d been pretty distant. The conversation hadn’t ended well. Yes, I saw him almost every day. We spoke about casual things when he was in the mood, and we discussed issues at Sullivan’s. Other than that, we hadn’t shared anything more.
He thought I had a boyfriend, and, Liam being Liam, he’d backed off the moment he realized he’d said too much.
Honestly, I’d been pretty shocked that he thought my brother was a romantic interest, but I’d had to go with it. If I denied his assumption, Liam might have started asking more questions, and there were things I hadn’t been able to explain . . . until now.
Since the crisis was over and I was returning home, it really didn’t matter if he found out the truth, but I didn’t plan on telling him everything. He might despise me for having a supposed boyfriend, but he’d hate it more that I’d been lying to him.
I’d just go. Better to let him think I had a moment of weakness than to inform him that I’d been living a lie here in Amesport. As far as Liam was concerned, I’d done my job here and more. It was none of his business why I’d spent close to a year on the East Coast when my home was in California.
I knew Evan Sinclair hadn’t told Liam much. According to my brother’s billionaire friend, all he’d shared was that I needed employment and that I needed a break from the West Coast.
Liam had agreed to hire me before I’d even arrived in Maine, so I’d instantly had a job I could immerse myself in. Unfortunately, it came with one very hot boss, a man who would never see me as anything more than a helpful young employee.
Okay. He had one moment of weakness in almost a year. The day that he’d told me that he found me attractive. But he’d blown off that admission ever since, and I was pretty convinced he regretted telling me anything personal.
I’m a realist. I need to deal with the facts.
And the truth was, Liam Sullivan was never going to really care where I went or what I did as long as I left with plenty of notice.
I’d never been the type of woman to fantasize about men who were out of reach. I dated men who were safe, guys who fit into my no-nonsense world. My lack of imagination was probably why I was so good with numbers. Finance was concrete. There were no gray areas. Numbers were either correct or they weren’t.
I forced myself to stop obsessing over Liam and focus on the numbers for the current month.
By the time I looked up again, hours had gone by without me realizing what time it was.
I stood up and stretched once I was done with my task, my body aching from sitting in almost the same position for so long.
“What in the hell are you doing here this early?” The annoyed male voice made me startle as I turned my head to look at the source of the sexy baritone.
Liam.
I lowered my arms back to my sides, my heart racing just like it always did when Liam was around.
My body had some kind of Liam sensor, and it went off like lightning the moment he was within speaking distance.
God, he looked amazing. Even in an old pair of jeans and a Patriots T-shirt, he exuded a quiet confidence and control that took most people a lifetime to master.
I shook myself. “Nothing. Well, I’m not doing anything now. I just finished uploading everything to your accountant. The books are up to date.”
He still didn’t look happy, but that was kind of Liam’s usual expression. “What time did you get here?”
I stepped from behind the desk. “Early,” I hedged.
“How early, Brooke?”
I didn’t want to tell him I’d been in before daylight. For some reason, he seemed to think I put too many hours in at the restaurant, and maybe I did. But working was the one thing that kept me sane. “What does it matter?” I answered defensively. “The job is done.”
When I moved to stand in front of him, I had to crank my head back a little to gaze up at his face.
I was average height, but Liam was so tall that it made me feel petite.
The room was suddenly way too hot and small.
I tried to push past him to exit the office, but he easily stopped my progress with a powerful hand to my upper arm. “It matters to me, Brooke. You don’t own the place, and I don’t expect you to put in the same hours I do.”
Honestly, I was sick of having this discussion. I’d buried myself in work for a reason, and to help Liam as much as possible. He’d done me a favor by hiring me. I’d wanted to give back.
I felt tortured and tormented, so I blurted out the first thing that came to my mind. “I quit. I’m giving my two weeks’ notice.”
Shrugging out of his hold, I pushed by him and out of the room. My only retreat was the bathroom, and I closed the door quickly and locked it, leaning against the wooden surface as I tried to get my heart rate to slow down.
Now all I had to do was live through two weeks of hell before I could figure out how I was ever going to get over the one guy who could make me completely lose my composure.
CHAPTER 2
LIAM
What in the hell just happened?
Had she really just said that she was . . . leaving?
Oh, hell no. She couldn’t just leave. I needed her.
Maybe having her here tormented the hell out of me, but I knew damn well that Brooke was the reason I got my ass out of bed so fast in the morning. Maybe I was a masochist, and I questioned my judgment about lusting after a female who was already taken. But not seeing Brooke at all was worse than having to act like she didn’t get my dick hard every time I saw her.
Yeah, I knew that she already had a guy in her life, and I didn’t go there, even though I wanted to. But I was used to seeing her face almost every day. I wanted her here at Sullivan’s.
I strode to the bathroom and hammered on the door. “I don’t accept your notice,” I bellowed.
It took her a moment to reply. “You have no choice. You can’t keep me here if I don’t want to stay. I thought I was being fair by giving you notice.”
Honestly, she was being fair. I was the one being completely irrational. Two weeks was a good amount of time, and it was more than enough. I’d had flaky employees who had just never showed up after they’d gotten another job. Very few people took a waitressing job as seriously as Brooke did. “Can we talk about this?” I requested in a more reasonable tone.
I heard some scuffling in the bathroom, but Brooke finally opened the door. “Liam, I have nothing more to say. You knew this gig was temporary for me. I appreciate everything you’ve done. You gave me a job when I needed it, and I’m grateful.”
I frowned at her. I didn’t want her gratitude. I wanted her ass to stay here in Amesport.
Maybe I still didn’t know exactly why she was here, but I didn’t care anymore. I’d unsuccessfully tried to get more information out of Evan, but all the bastard would tell me was that Brooke had needed some time away from the West Coast. I’d even threatened to fire her if Evan didn’t come clean. But he’d called my bluff, knowing I was never going to let go of a good employee.
“What changed?” I questioned her. “Why now?”
She shrugged. “Because it’s time. My reasons for being here are no longer valid. I can go home.”
“You haven’t even been here for a year,” I grumbled, knowing I couldn’t challenge her decision. She was only an employee, and she had every right to quit if she wanted to, but I wasn’t letting her go without a fight.
She laughed. “A year is a long time. I never planned on staying this long.”
She was probably missing her boyfriend, even though I had my doubts about how serious he really was about Brooke. He’d only come to see her a couple of times, and he hadn�
��t stayed long. “Other than your boyfriend, what do you have on the West Coast? At least you have a job here.”
“My whole family is there, Liam. I have three older brothers, a twin sister, and a younger brother just out of medical school.”
I was surprised. She didn’t talk about her personal life much. I had no idea that she had a lot of family. “You have a twin? Does she look like you?”
She shook her head. “We aren’t identical, but you can tell that we’re sisters. I miss her. We talk on the phone, but I’ve never been away from her for this long.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you had family there?”
She shrugged. “I couldn’t say much about my personal life.”
Fuck! I hated the fact that Brooke and I had never really gotten to know each other. We should have. She’d been here long enough. But she obviously hadn’t wanted to be found, and I was too busy trying to make her believe that my attraction for her was history. We’d spent a lot of time in the same space, but we never really talked.
Honestly, I blamed myself for that. If I hadn’t been so involved in trying to tell myself that I didn’t want to fuck her, we could have been friends.
Hard to be friends when all I can think about is making her come.
“You have a big family,” I told her, not knowing what else to say.
She snorted. “You have no idea how I hated that sometimes. Having three older brothers trying to boss me around was never easy. But I love all of them. My parents are gone, so all we really had was each other.”
“I’m sorry,” I responded automatically, relating to her loss since I’d lost my mom and dad, too.
“They died a long time ago,” she answered in a melancholy tone before she added, “I’ll make some coffee.”
I moved out of her way, and then followed her to the kitchen. “So it must be hard to be across the country from all that family.”
She went through the motions of brewing a new pot of coffee as she answered, “It was good for me. I needed some time to myself.”
Her answers were vague, and I knew she didn’t want to talk about her reasons for leaving California in the first place. “I’m sure you’re looking forward to seeing your boyfriend,” I commented, having trouble wrapping my mind around her being with a guy full-time again.
