by Stella James
Worth The Risk
Written By Stella James
Copyright © 2016 Stella James
All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons living or dead, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
Acknowledgments
First, I have to thank my husband and my kids for putting up with me. I’m truly lucky to have you and I’m grateful every day that I belong to you.
J, L and R, I would be lost without your insight and advice. You are my tribe and I love you. Thank you for sticking with me through everything no matter what.
To my wonderful readers who continue to take a chance on me, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I write because I have to get the words out, and knowing that you appreciate and enjoy them makes it that much sweeter.
Christine (@justlovemybooks) I feel like you’ve been with me since the beginning, you will never know just how much that means to me. Thank you for every single like, comment and share. I hope that I am lucky enough to always call you a fan.
Mrs. Cavill (@Christy_anderson_author) you were the first person to share one of my teasers when I was just getting started and had zero idea what the hell I was doing and for that I shall always recognize you as wife #1 to Mr. Cavill, no take backs. From one carnivore to another, I thank you!
@novelkindoflove - I reached out to you when I couldn’t find the answers on google, I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to message me back when I was so close to losing my cute little mind. Thank you for every comment and encouraging word #momlife #yougetme
I have to give a shout out to The Naughty Library. The world of self-publishing is full of ups and downs. It can be tough to get your name (and your book) out there when you are literally doing everything yourself and navigating the different ways in which to do it can be overwhelming to say the least. I owe this amazing platform for not only allowing me to share my books but for just plain existing in the first place. You offer so much to indie authors and bloggers and I am truly thankful to be included and to not feel quite so alone in the big scary world of writing. I am excited to see this site flourish!
Last but certainly not least - @acekgray, you magnificent genius. Thank you for not running in the other direction when I aggressively yet gracefully latched on to your face and shoved my friendship down your throat like a needy toddler. I promise that if we ever meet in person I will respect your personal space…probably.
Xox - Stella
This book is for my husband, B.
You give me everything I need and more.
And I don’t just mean in the bedroom.
I love you.
Table of Contents
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
Chapter 17
Epilogue
About the Author
Clipped (A Blue Falls Novella)
Chapter 1
Trace
6 months ago
The sun is just coming up when my shift ends. I don’t know why the hell I agreed to switch with Doyle, there’s no way that bastard would do the same for me. Night shift is long and boring, not nearly as amusing as my usual patrol. I can barely keep my eyes open as I drive back to town. My phone has been going off nonstop for the last hour. Melissa is damn persistent, it’s almost enough of a turn off to make me reconsider our little arrangement. Almost. That girl sucks cock like a damn pro, it wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of me to let that skill set go to waste, even if she is annoying as fuck. I continue to ignore her messages. Every part of my body is begging for sleep, even my dick. I turn my phone off and chuck it on the passenger seat. When I bring my eyes back to the highway in front of me I have to swerve hard to miss the woman standing in the middle of the road. What the fuck?! I skid to a stop in the grassy ditch, my knuckles white on the steering wheel. It feels like I’m having a fucking heart attack. I gain control of my racing heart and wretch the door open. The crazy bitch is still standing there like a God damn statue.
“Hey! What the hell’s the matter with you? I could have killed you!” I shout as I climb out of the ditch and onto the pavement. I squint my eyes against the rising sun and focus on the woman who still has her back to me. She isn’t wearing shoes and her bare feet are covered in dirt. It’s hard to tell from here but they look pretty banged up. She’s wearing a plain dress that comes right down to her ankles and her pale red hair hangs in a tangled knot down her back. I can’t see her hands and I’m praying she doesn’t have some kind of weapon. I approach her slowly. I am not in the mood to get attacked by this Amish looking broad.
“Hey there, are you okay miss?” I soften my tone so that I don’t spook her and stop short about five feet behind her. She gives her head a slight shake, as if realizing where she is and what she’s doing. She turns slowly towards me. When she faces me fully it’s like a punch to the gut. She’s absolutely breathtaking. Her cheeks are flushed but the skin peeking out from the collar of her dress is a shade of delicate ivory. She has full lips and bright eyes that look almost purple. I stare like an idiot, unable to stop myself. It isn’t until she softly clears her throat that I realize she’s spoken.
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Real smooth.
“Help me. Please.” Her voice is hoarse, her eyes pleading. It’s then that I notice her hands are bound in front of her in a pair of thick, rusted chains. Who the fuck did this to her? I fight to keep the anger out of my voice.
“What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“So-Sophie. My name is Sophie Burke.” Sophie.
I take another step towards her, keeping my hands up where she can see them. “Where did you come from, Sophie?”
Her eyes widen with panic as she looks up and down the abandoned highway. “I don’t know. I ran. I ran and I left them, I left them all behind.” She collapses just as my arms come around her tiny waist.
*
Present day
I ram my cock furiously into the warm body beneath me. We’ve been at it for a while now and my raging hard on shows no sign of relieving itself anytime soon. I pull out and flip her over onto all fours, her skinny ass eagerly pushes up into the air. I enter her in one rough thrust and continue my desperate attempt to ease the ache in my dick. She moans so loud, it is hardly even believable. I look down at her thin body and long blonde hair and feel nothing. Six months ago this would have appealed to me. She would have appealed to me. It took all the effort I could muster to get hard enough to stick it in her willingly to begin with. I close my eyes and picture the features that will ensure I don’t have to suffer from a hard core case of blue balls. Long copper red hair, ivory skin and the most unique shade of violet eyes that I have ever seen. Eyes that can see into a man’s soul. I picture her in my mind like a beacon of hope. Finally, I feel the familiar tightening in my balls, the warm pussy I’m currently pounding into begins to squeeze my cock and I let go of my own release. Melissa groans and shouts my name over and over while I think about the beautifully innocent woman that I can never have. I’m one sick mothe
r fucker.
I pull out and head straight to the bathroom to clean up. It’s been months since we hooked up, tonight’s episode was fueled by booze and my desperate need to get off. I was already half cut when I ran into her at Mac’s. I come out to find Melissa laying naked across the bed.
“Leaving so soon,” she says as she arches her back up.
“I’ve never spent the night with you,” I get dressed while she sits up on the bed and pretends to pout. “This isn’t going to happen between us again.”
“I distinctly remember you saying that last time baby,” she laughs.
“I’m not your baby and you’re not mine. This was nothing but sex and you know it, and it’s not happening again. I’ll never give you what you want Melissa, we both know that. You need to move on and find someone else,” I head for the door and narrowly miss the empty beer bottle that she throws after me. I exit the cheap motel and leave the smell of stale booze and easy sex behind me.
The circumstances under which I met Sophie Burke were truly messed up. That morning after I nearly hit her with my squad car, she’d passed out in my arms and didn’t come to until we pulled up to the Sheriff’s office. She’d come out of nowhere, scraped up and exhausted and dressed like an extra from Little House on the Prairie. I stayed with her while the officers on duty interviewed her. The story she told could have easily been the plot to a movie and if it hadn’t been for the evidence she had with her, mainly the set of rusted cuffs, she probably would have been brushed off as a nut job and been sent packing. It took nearly all day to pinpoint exactly where she had come from which turned out to be an old farmstead about five hours from Blue Falls. The officers that raided the place found some seriously creepy shit, a dozen young people dressed like Sophie who were damn near worked to the bone. The owner of the place was some Bible thumping bastard who claimed he “owned” his workers fair and square. I guess he figured that meant he could work them like slaves. They’d taken him into custody immediately and he was currently sitting in a prison cell awaiting trial. The people they found received medical care and were severely over worked and under rested. More than half of them had been at that old farm for several years, if not longer and had a long road of recovery ahead of them. Each of them were malnourished and too weak to even entertain the idea of escaping that hell hole. Everyone at the station referred to Sophie as the “lucky one.”
I stayed with her when the prosecutor came in to take her statement. Relief washed over me when she told the other woman that there hadn’t been any sexual or physical abuse during the twenty-four hour period that she was held captive. I didn’t even know this girl but the thought of someone violating or hurting her filled me with rage. The majority of Sophie’s injuries were from running through the rough terrain of the surrounding forest for nearly half the night. The other officers on duty had a hard time believing that a woman as young and slight as her had the gumption to not only escape her capture but to run her ass off through the dark woods for several hours. I knew the minute I saw her standing on that highway that there was something different about her. Something about the way Sophie held her chin up and the way she tried desperately to help us find the others when she could have easily fallen apart made me think that she was no stranger to being strong and taking care of herself. Sophie might have the face of an angel but there’s no doubt that she’s a fighter.
Sophie. The one woman I want more than anything and the one I don’t deserve even a little bit.
Chapter 2
Sophie
I take the last tray of mugs out of the dishwasher and set them on the counter. I still have a couple of customers visiting at a table in the corner but it looks like they are just about finished and I’ll be able to lock up for the night. I’ve been working at Olive’s Café for just over five months now and I absolutely love it. It’s a busy place so my shifts often go by quickly and I love the atmosphere. Olive and her husband Stan are good, hardworking people. They opened the small café almost twenty years ago after falling in love with Blue Falls while passing through on holidays. Now in their early sixties, they still run it together and business is very good. It’s not a surprise to anyone who has ever tasted Olive’s baking that their place is popular with locals and tourists alike. She reminds me a lot of my gran and I am thankful for the comfort that gives me.
*
My decision to remain in Blue Falls caught me by surprise but it’s a decision that I don’t regret. After my never ending interviews with both the officers at the Sherriff’s station and the prosecutor taking the case, I realized that although I had an apartment and a job to return to, I didn’t have a life. There was no one waiting for me, or even wondering where I was with the exception of my boss at the restaurant. Since the age of eighteen I’ve been on my own and during the last three years I somehow managed to exist on my own personal island. I always got along with my co-workers and even went on the occasional date, but I found myself often feeling restless and in search of something that felt like “home”…I fell in love with Blue Falls the minute I laid eyes on the small mountain town. A combination of old and new, settled within the proud mountains surrounding it, Blue Falls was nothing like the rough, concrete city where I came from. People here smiled when you walked by and took the time to learn your name. Who wouldn’t want to live in a place where the simple gesture of a passing smile can make you feel welcome?
When I woke up in that tiny bedroom, nothing could have prepared me for the twenty-four hours that would follow. I was on my way home from work one night when I was hit from behind and taken. I didn’t even get the chance to fight back. He told me his name was Michael and that it was up to him to make sure that I did “God’s work”. There were twelve of us all together and once I was dressed in what he deemed proper attire, I was put to work in a massive field picking rocks. I kept to myself, not knowing who to trust. A couple of the other girls looked so frail, their expressions blank. I was desperate to find out where I was but Michael had already given me his list of rules, one of which was no socializing. I was scared as to what would happen if his rules were broken, not only for myself but for the others who had clearly been there for some time. When the days’ work was done, we were fed a small meal of toast and eggs and instructed to wait in the barn so that we could follow him in prayer. Afterwards, we were each taken to a separate room and chained to a tattered old cot. I’m not sure how long I laid there, just listening to the silence before I began plotting my escape. I had worked too damn hard to be able to stand on my own two feet, I wasn’t about to give up and accept my circumstances. I shimmied as best I could so that I could gain some leverage against the rusted bedframe that I was shackled to. I pulled and pulled until I felt the bolts begin to loosen and was able to slide the chain through the narrow opening of where the headboard met the frame. I tiptoed to the door and listened for any noise on the other side but I heard nothing. I slowly pulled it open and bolted down the narrow hallway, past what I assumed were other bedrooms. I was in some kind of man made basement, the dirt floor beneath me helped to silence my steps and when I reached the cellar type door leading into the night, I couldn’t believe just how lucky I was. I ran from that hellhole and I didn’t look back. Not once.
It wasn’t until Trace found me on the highway that I realized I’d left everyone behind. Trace. We stood on that empty highway staring at each other and it felt like I was caught in a dream. I can only imagine what he thought of me in the state I was in, I had been running through the woods all night. It took me a few minutes to realize I was out in the open and as soon as I asked him for help, I remembered who I had left behind. Their faces were the last thing I saw before exhaustion claimed me and everything went dark.
Trace stayed by my side during every interview, he didn’t say much but his jaw remained tense and every time someone asked a personal question or took a picture of the various minor injuries I had accumulated, I swear I heard him growl. I wasn’t comfortable with being fussed over but
I was so exhausted that I didn’t put up a fight. Compared to what the others went through, I knew that I was fortunate.
*
I turn off the main lights, leaving only the soft glow of the display cases and make my way to the front door, I look across the street as people filter in and out of Mac’s pub. It doesn’t matter what night of the week it is, that place is always busy. I allow myself to stare before I lock up, wondering if Trace is there tonight.
My internal question is answered when a few moments pass and I see him stumble through the large double doors. That Melissa woman is draped over him practically trying to rip his clothes off. I see him before he notices me. He’s still wearing his slightly rumpled uniform, his sleeves are rolled up showing off his tattooed forearms. His whiskey coloured hair is dishevelled in the charming way that it always is, matching the ever present scruff along the sharp line of his jaw. Trace is the type of man you can’t help but stare at. There’s something more to him than meets the eye, when he thinks people aren’t paying attention, he lets down his mask of easy going indifference and allows just a sliver of something deeper to shine through. Almost as if he’s longing for something. Too bad for him, I’m always paying attention. His eyes meet mine from across the dimly lit street and I don’t turn away. I can’t. His expression is hard and unwavering, almost as if he’s trying to frighten me. But it will take more than that to scare me. We stare at each other as if we each have all the time in the world to try and solve this puzzle between us. The spell is broken when Melissa notices me and immediately stakes her claim.
“Hey! Slave girl! You’re gonna have to pay to see this show!” She stumbles off the curb towards me but Trace grabs her and jerks her in the other direction. For a moment I’m sure I see regret flash across his handsome face. I throw the keys to the café in my bag and turn towards home. I don’t bother looking back to see if he’s watching me. I don’t have to. I know that he is.
