Gold

by K. A. Linde

  And as they toasted to their first year together, Bryna knew all would be well.

  The End

  FIND OUT WHERE IT ALL STARTED FOR BRYNA IN DIAMONDS (ALL THAT GLITTERS, #1).

  Amazon

  TURN THE PAGE FOR A SNEAK PEEK OF K.A. LINDE’S NEXT BOOK COMING THIS FALL.

  Struck from the Record

  (Record, #4)

  A standalone novel from Senator Brady Maxwell brother, Clay’s point of view.

  Struck from the Record

  Chapter 1

  “FUCK!” she screamed.

  Her head fell backward into the heavy law books with an audible smack. Clay leveraged her body against the bookshelf as he thrust upward. His hands gripped her bare ass where he’d shoved the tiny green thing she considered a dress out of the fucking way. Their bodies smacked together, and her screams were growing more insistent.

  Clay hadn’t said much. He didn’t have to. She was going to come over the adrenaline of getting fucked against a bookcase in his clerk office at the Supreme Court. She hadn’t believed he actually worked there, and so he had set out to prove her wrong. Since his term as a clerk had come to a close, he figured fucking her was a fitting going away present.

  “Yes, yes, yes,” she yelled, loud enough that he was sure her echoes were carried down the hallway.

  He didn’t care. It was the middle of the night, a week before Christmas, and no one else was here. Even the diligent, annoying douche who worked for Justice Scalia hadn’t been here when Clay had taken her into the building.

  Clay leaned forward into her and pounded forcefully, until she reached her climax, and her screams died out. He liked vocal women, but sometimes screaming into his ear made it fucking difficult to concentrate. Now with her fucking quiet, he focused on getting himself off, which really had been the whole point.

  “Jesus Christ,” she said breathily. “Fuck me. You’re going to make me go a second time.”

  “Shut up,” he said forcefully. He hauled her off the bookshelf, walked her over to his desk, and threw her back down on the scattered mess that he would have to deal with later this week.

  She groaned. “Make me.” Her eyes glistened. “Choke me.”

  His eyebrows rose. He’d expected the girl to be a slut, but he hadn’t anticipated kink.

  Whatever. I’m in.

  His hand reached out and wrapped around her throat. Her eyes fluttered closed in pleasure. He hadn’t even done anything. He was just holding her like a doll he was about to shake around.

  With his hand positioned at her throat, he drilled into her at a bruising pace. She was making mewling noises, and with him in complete control of her, he found them hot. This was a better view too. He could stare at her tits. She had a seriously nice rack. That was why he’d let her question him when he’d said he worked for the Supreme Court. It was fun to have people look at him in disbelief. Much better than when they recognized his name.

  He was close at this point. Without asking if she was about to hit her second climax, he tightened his grip on her body and came inside of her. He shook as he finished. His breath was coming out in heavy bursts. It had taken more effort than he normally expelled with her screams still ringing in his ears.

  He removed the grip on her throat and was surprised to find a red handprint where he had been holding her. He must have been clutching her harder than he thought. She probably would like if she ended up with bruises.

  Clay pulled out and trashed the condom. He turned his back on her and adjusted his black suit. After this rendezvous, he’d have to send it to the dry cleaners.

  When he faced her once more, the girl was still lying on the desk. He gave her a once over in appreciation of her mostly naked form, still laid out, and unable to move. She looked spent and exhausted, but it was time for her to get the fuck out of his office.

  “All right. Let’s go,” he said briskly.

  She sat up on her elbows and gave him a seductive look. “What about round two?”

  “I appreciate your vote of confidence,” he said sarcastically. “I might be Casanova, but I don’t have another one in me right now.”

  “Well, come on, Casanova. Let’s go to your place, and we can have seconds and thirds. I’m suddenly ravenous.” Her eyes glittered with excitement. Her body was still flushed from the vigorous fucking.

  “I don’t think so,” Clay said, suddenly bored. It had been fun when it was a challenge. He liked challenges, but this was too easy. He could pick up any girl at a bar if he wanted to. At least put some fucking effort into it.

  She pouted, but had enough dignity to not say anything else. She immediately covered herself up and followed him out. He got her safely into a cab, and then took his own back to his townhouse. Once it reached their destination, he absentmindedly threw the driver a twenty. His place was convenient as it was only short distance from his work. He enjoyed the bachelor feel to the place, but tonight it felt cold and uninviting. Maybe he should have taken up that girl on her offer. As soon as the thought hit his mind, he knew that he never would have gone through with it.

  He had spent his life constantly on the edge between recklessness and complete control. He had a game plan—top of his class at Yale, clerk at the Supreme Court, federal judge, attorney general. Thinking of it both excited him and made him feel sick. He wanted to live up to the man his father expected him to be, but following the mold made him crazy. It was a double-edged sword. A line he constantly skirted.

  That girl had been an immediate pleasure, a reckless pleasure…not one needed to indulge in a second time to discover anything more about her. She had been a treat for completing his clerkship and moving one step closer on his path. But tomorrow, he would have to clear out his desk and get serious about deciding which private practice offer he would accept to begin in January.

  He had been staring at the three offers for over a week now, and they would be expecting an answer by Christmas…maybe New Year’s at the latest. He would push it back if he could. Recklessness was creeping up into his game plan all over again.

  But not tonight.

  He shrugged out of his suit coat and walked to his wet bar. He passed over the hard liquor and cracked open a beer. He’d already had a few drinks tonight, but the beer didn’t seem to quench his thirst. He knew it had something to do with his clerkship coming to a close. Another thing completed on a checklist. It didn’t seem fulfilling in the way it had when he had been accepted.

  Clay stood and fished his cell phone out of his pocket. Maybe he should go home to Andrea tonight. It might be nice to get out of the city for a bit. Spend some time in a real house, even if it was in the D.C. suburbs and not at his place in Chapel Hill.

  He dialed Andrea’s number and waited for her to answer. It clicked over to voicemail. He scowled down at the phone. “What the fuck?”

  Then it almost immediately lit up again.

  “Can I help you?” Andrea asked curtly, when he answered the phone.

  Clay cracked a smile. There’s my bitch. “Hey babe, I’m coming home tonight. Are you there? I’m tired of the city.”

  “And what was her name that made you so tired?” she asked. Her voice was high and musical just like he had always found it these past fourteen years they had known each other.

  “Should I remember?”

  And he didn’t. He didn’t even know if he had bothered asking for her name. It hadn’t mattered at the time. Had she been blonde or brunette? Everything about her was a mystery except the feel of her ass in his hands, the sight of her scrunched up green dress, the way the material stretched tight across her rack, and the red imprint on her throat. Everything else was a blur.

  “Your standards are slipping.”

  “I’m still with you. Can’t be that low.” Clay smirked.

  “I’m out of your league, honey.”

  “Always have been,” he agreed easily.

  “Why do I put up with you anyway?” Andrea sounded bored, not irritated. She was never
irritated with him. Not really. She didn’t give a shit what he did. Just like he didn’t care what she did in her spare time.

  Clay had met Andrea on Hilton Head beach when he was almost thirteen years old. They had spent every summer together on that beach until her parents finally split up after their sophomore year of high school. Six long years of endless arguments and limitless pampering to make up for the fights jaded Andrea’s soft heart. By the time they met up again at Yale their freshman year of college, they were both very different people.

  Romance was wasted on them, and so they had entered into an arrangement of a lifetime. They could do whatever they wanted, but at the end of the day, they would be together. Guard their hearts. No feelings would get hurt. They wouldn’t turn out like her parents, and he wouldn’t have anyone in his life to disappoint for his behavior. It was perfect.

  “You don’t put up with me. You enjoy it. It’s all my charm.”

  “Oh right,” she drawled. “That Maxwell charm. It does have a certain appeal.”

  “Every appeal,” he said confidently. “So, are you home? I’ll grab another cab and drive out there.”

  Andrea made a tinkling giggle. “Do you think you’re the only one who can have fun, Clay Maxwell?”

  A smile spread across his face. “You’re bad, and it turns me on.”

  “Well, you’ll have to do something about it by yourself. I won’t be home tonight. I have…other plans,” she said breathily, for his benefit, he was sure.

  His body itched with the sudden challenge she was posing. Andrea always seemed to do this. He could fuck so many other girls, and then one little giggle from her made him want to claim her all over again. Not as his girlfriend or his wife. He shuddered at the very thought.

  She was just a continual challenge. She was beautiful with long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and a tall lean frame that he knew intimately. But every time he thought he had her figured out, every time he was sure she was going to do one thing, she would do something else. She liked to play games, and he liked her games.

  Because at the end of the day, he knew exactly where her head was in all of this. It wasn’t seeking out a Harry Winston engagement ring. It wasn’t demanding an I love you before bed. It wasn’t a scowl for his philandering or the way he treated his brother or innumerable other reasons. It was just an arrangement for two people who cared about each other…in their own way.

  “Pray tell me, love. Who is the lucky bastard?” Clay asked.

  He was already throwing his coat back on and changing from his light blue tie into a purple striped bowtie. Andrea came from old Southern plantation money, and his family could stretch their lineage back to Thomas Jefferson himself. They had been in real estate in the Triangle area of North Carolina for just as long. He was a Southern boy through and through, and if there was one thing Andrea couldn’t resist, it was when he acted like it.

  He pressed the phone into his ear, as he expertly tied the bowtie.

  “He’s no one you know,” she told him.

  “I know everyone.”

  “Not this one.”

  “Stop teasing me.”

  She giggled. “Oh, but you don’t really want me to do that, Clay. You probably want me to describe him on the phone. Should I start with his suit or how big I think he is?”

  “Always good to know your competition,” he said, adjusting the tie one more time.

  “Well, I don’t have time. I have to get back to my game. I don’t want him to think I have a doting boyfriend at home waiting for me.”

  Clay snorted. “Doting. Sounds just like me.”

  Andrea was silent for a moment, and if he couldn’t hear the bar noise in the background he might have thought she had hung up on him. “Sometimes it’s not that far off,” she said quietly.

  “Right,” he said with a laugh. “Doting, Andrea?”

  “You’re an ass.”

  “Yeah. You’ve always known that. Now, I’ll show you doting. Where are you?”

  “Don’t ruin my game, Clay,” she said without conviction. He could hear the tell tale signs of excitement in her voice. He was sure she was pouting on the other line to look like she was upset. Poor schlup.

  “I would never,” he lied.

  “I don’t ruin yours.”

  “You do if you can help it. Now tell me,” he demanded.

  “Fine,” she said. “But you better bring you’re A-game. He’s a keeper.”

  “Don’t I always?”

  She told him the bar she was at. It wasn’t far from his place, which made him wonder if she had picked it hoping for this outcome. She was conniving, and he wouldn’t put it past her.

  Clay felt emboldened. His melancholy from his apartment evaporating as he left to chase down his girl.

  GOLD is a project that I have been working on for several years now. It wormed its way into my mind while I was working on another, but it wasn’t until I wrote Diamonds that I realized how different this book really needed to be to show Bryna for the woman that she becomes—from golden girl to gold digger to maybe even a little grown-up. Thank you for coming along this ride with me as Bryna finds her way through it all.

  As always, there is a long list of people who helped make this book come to life. You all mean the world to me, and I wouldn’t have gotten to this point without you. Jessica Carnes, Bridget Peoples, Rebecca Kimmerling, Lori Francis, Katie Miller, Diana Peterfreund, Mariah Dietz, Christine Estevez, Christy Peckham, Katie Ross, Jessica Sotelo, Corinne Michaels, Lauren Blakely, Gail McHugh, Kendall Ryan, Emma Hart, Pepper Winters, Jenn Sterling, Mary Ruth Baloy, Daniela Padrón, Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations (for the badass cover), Jovana Shirley of Unforeseen Editing (for the incredible editing and formatting), and all the bloggers and readers who gave up their time, which they could have been using any other way, to read this book!

  I also have to thank my husband (ahhh!), Joel, for sitting through the madness of writing this book in the midst of wedding planning. I know that couldn’t have been the easiest thing in the world. Also my sister Shea who loved Diamonds and always encouraged me to keep going through the hard parts of Gold. Much love to my writing puppies, Riker and Lucy!

  I hope you all enjoyed Bryna’s story and will stay tuned for the next book in the All That Glitters series, Platinum, which follows Trihn! ♥

  USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde has written the Avoiding series, the Record series, and the Take Me series as well as her new adult stand-alone Following Me. This is the second in her four-book All That Glitters series. Book one, Diamonds, debuted on the USA Today Bestsellers List.

  She grew up as a military brat traveling the United States and Australia. While studying political science and philosophy at the University of Georgia, she founded the Georgia Dance Team, which she still coaches. Post-graduation, she served as the campus campaign director for the 2012 presidential campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

  An avid traveler, reader, and bargain hunter, K.A. recently moved to Chapel Hill, NC, with her husband, Joel, and two puppies, Riker and Lucy.

  K.A. Linde loves to hear from her readers! Feel free to contact her here:

  kalinde45@gmail.com

  www.kalinde.com

  www.facebook.com/authorkalinde

  @authorkalinde