by Tonya Brooks
Desire Too Wild To Tame
By Tonya Brooks
Copyright 2014 Tonya Brooks
Amazon Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please do so. In return, I would appreciate it if you would leave me a review on one of the links at the end of the book. Thank you for reading.
Praise for Desire Had A Name
DESIRE HAD A NAME, a sweeping, fiery tale of a young and passionate love that seems doomed from the start. Harley was a great heroine: feisty, independent and blunt. She deserved Matthew, the kind of hero every woman wants. He was fierce in everything he did, from his loving to his fighting. He was protective and biting with everyone else, but gentle and tender with his woman. Sigh. I'm melting again just thinking of him. Their moments together were magical. DESIRE HAD A NAME was gripping and engaging. I read it assiduously and am definitely looking forward to reading about the rest of the Baker bad boys! ~ Sawyer Belle, The Romance Reviews
Acknowledgements
To my wonderful husband, Billy. You are my inspiration and the reason that all of my bad boys are good men.
To Jackie, cousin, friend and fan. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews and the occasional shoulder to lean on. Love ya!
Thank you Cristin Harber and the Team Titan ladies, Elaine Levine, Greta, Lori and all of the Red Team Readers Group for the support and encouragement. And to the Urban Valkyries, Rihaneh, Pam, Athena, and Carol for allowing me to join your elite group and for loving my Bad Baker Boys. You guys rock!
AUTHORS NOTE
The Bad Baker Boys is a series of books written about four brothers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Each book is a standalone and can be read separately, but to get the full story I strongly suggest you read them in order. The Welcome To Lakeside series of novellas features their friends and families and also serves as prequels to the brothers stories.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Prologue
Once upon a time in the small town of Lakeside, there lived a family of handsome men better known as the Bad Baker Boy's. The patriarch of the family was Matthew Jedidiah Baker. In his youth, Jed had been in an elite Special Forces unit, and he had gone places and done things, that no man should ever have to endure, or live with the memories of.
At the age of twenty-seven, he had left the military and came to Lakeside to have a look at the house that a distant relative had left him, and was floored when he discovered it was a genuine antebellum mansion that had been in his family for generations. He'd never even met the woman, but as her only surviving heir, she had left him the home and acreage that sat atop a prominent point along the river. The house had fallen into disrepair over the years, so with no plans for his immediate future and nothing better to do, he moved in and began to renovate her room by room.
The people in town knew little about the handsome young man who appeared to be the last of his families’ line, except for the fact that he had been in the military, and that was only because of the tattoo on his arm. Jed kept to himself and had little to do with the local residents until he met seventeen year old Virginia Lawson. Ginny was like no one he had ever encountered before. She was as innocent and trusting as a newborn babe and there was no guile in her. She set her sights on the handsome, mysterious newcomer and nothing could change her mind.
Jed refused to have anything to do with her. She was perfect and pure in her innocence and he was tormented with images from the past and couldn't bear the thought of tainting her perfection with the demons that drove him. Ginny would have none of his excuses. She wanted him and she knew that Jed felt the same about her, no matter what he said. So what if he was ten years her senior? Age didn't matter and neither did the fact that he refused to talk about his past. She was only interested in his future, with her.
He couldn't believe someone so young and innocent could twist him into so many knots that he didn't know if he was coming or going. In spite of everything he'd been through, Jed had been raised as a gentleman and there was no way he could take advantage of her innocence. She was a lady and he couldn't treat her as anything less than that. Giving up the fight, Jed had gone to her father to ask for her hand in marriage and been told in no uncertain terms to stay away from Ginny. The Reverend Lawson also warned his daughter not to go near the older man again, not that it did a bit of good.
One rainy afternoon, his Gigi, as he had called her, had taken matters into her own hands and seduced him. Jed hadn't been strong enough to fight her and his own desire any longer and he had given in and made love to her. As luck would have it, her father caught them. Once again, Jed offered to marry the girl, much to her delight and her father’s fury. The Reverend Lawson was a hell fire and brimstone Baptist preacher and he'd been livid over his daughter's fall from grace and flatly refused to let them get married. He'd had the younger man arrested for statutory rape and Jed sat in a jail cell for over a week while Ginny was kept locked in her room.
Judge Mason had pulled Jed's service record and the parts of it that weren't classified assured him that the young man was a bona fide hero with an impressive list of commendations and a chest full of medals. He also knew that the good Reverend was a vindictive bastard and was certain that he was keeping the couple apart just to punish them. After he discovered her father was keeping Ginny a prisoner in their home, the judge dropped the charges and married the couple himself.
Word got around town about Jed's military background and the stories of his supposed missions got more dangerous with each telling until they were almost as bad as the truth. Before he knew how it had happened, he had a reputation for being a badass as well as the respect and admiration of people he'd never even met.
Except for his father in law's congregation. Rumors began to circulate that he was a murderer and seducer of innocent children on a par with the devil himself, according to the holier than thou crowd. Just to spite the Reverend, who had publicly disowned his daughter, Jed bought a liquor store and named it Wicked Spirits much to the town’s amusement and had a highly successful business.
He and Gigi shared ten wonderful years of love and laughter and she chased his demons away with her gentle touch. They had four boys, each of them two years apart, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, their names chosen due to her gratitude to God for allowing her to marry the man of her dreams. Ginny was pregnant with their daughter when she fell down the stairs and broke her neck, losing the baby in the process. The fact that her death had been instantaneous was of no consolation to Jed. He was inconsolable without his Gigi and lived in the bottom of a bottle for months, unable to come to terms with the loss of the woman he loved more than life itself.
One morning he awoke on the floor at the base of the stairs, where he had passed out the night before and finally came to his senses. Eight year old Matt was kneeling over him, pounding his fists on his father’s chest as he screamed hysterically, “Don't die, Pop! Please don't die and leave us, too.” Matt had been the one who had found his mother and seeing Jed lying in almost the same spot, his first reaction was that his father had died as well.
Realizing that his sons were suffering as much as he was, Jed pulled himself out of the torment of grief and dedicated himself
to raising sons that his Gigi would have been proud of. The holier than thou crowd in town referred to them as the bad Baker boy's with good reason. They were all a little bit wild, but considering who their parents were, that much was to be expected.
Matt was the oldest and a hellion from the moment he was born. He was his father's son, of that there was no doubt. From the coal black hair and eyes right down to his fiery temperament, he was Jed Baker made over. He was a handsome devil with an abundant supply of bad boy charm and the ladies loved him. From the time he was old enough to walk, he had joined his father for a morning workout in the old carriage house that Jed had converted into a private gym.
Matt possessed the natural instincts of a killer and Jed knew his namesake needed to learn how to discipline himself or he'd wind up hurting someone. He could track a man or an animal with deadly accuracy and as stealthily as a jungle cat. In hand to hand combat, he fought as tirelessly as a demon and could run for miles without breaking a sweat. He'd be a perfect candidate for the military and Jed did everything in his power to ensure his son did not follow that path as he had done.
He got Matt a summer job at a garage pumping gas when he was twelve and by the time he was sixteen, Henry had hired him as a part time mechanic and was amazed at the way the boy had with an engine. When he was twenty-one, Henry sold him the garage because there was nothing Matt loved more than working on cars. At least there wasn't until he had a son of his own and the boy became his whole world. It was just too bad his marriage didn't work out the first time around, but now that he and Harley were back together, he couldn't imagine his life without her.
Mark was their second child and the complete opposite of his brother except in looks. Had it not been for the age difference and the fact that Mark had dark brown eyes, he and Matt could have passed for twins. He had a wicked devious streak and a temper when riled, but most of the time he was laid back and easy going and his one true love was football. From the time he was old enough to hold the ball in his hands, he never put it down. The child excelled at the sport and spent every waking moment in the yard practicing throwing the ball through a series of hoops that he had hung from the trees. His accuracy was amazing and the older he got, the more powerful his arm became.
By the time he made it to high school, college scouts were already coming around and he had his pick of scholarships to choose from. After college he had gone on to play professionally and that first season, his team had won the Super Bowl. Then the worst happened and he was involved in a car accident that crushed his right arm. The specialists did everything they could to repair the damage, but they assured him that his shoulder would never be the same again. His career in professional football was over.
Mark had returned home and opened a bar that all the ladies in town flocked to just to be near the handsome owner and he loved it. Thankfully he'd had the foresight to take advantage of his education and had dual degrees to fall back on. He had a bachelor’s degree in finance as well as an associate’s degree in business administration and had managed to accumulate a healthy portfolio in a short amount of time that supported his playboy lifestyle nicely and then some. And then Desiree Anderson and her daughter Kylie came into his life and before he knew it, his days as a playboy were over and he was thrilled to be a husband and father.
Luke was the third child and the thinker of the family. He always had his nose in a book and was as different from his brothers as daylight and dark. He rarely lost his temper and more often than not refereed when his brothers got into it with each other. Luke was the voice of reason and he always thought an issue through before he acted on it. There wasn't an impulsive streak in his nature and he had never once behaved in a reckless manner that anyone knew of, except for jumping headlong into a fight if his brothers were in the thick of things.
When he decided he wanted to be a lawyer, no one was surprised at the choice since he excelled at debate and it was almost impossible to win an argument with him. After getting a full academic scholarship for college, he applied for and was granted a scholarship to Harvard Law as well. He could have chosen to practice at any number of prestigious firms around the country, but he surprised everyone when he came back home to Lakeside to practice locally. The female population had been thrilled because with his father’s coal black hair and his mothers blue eyes, he was the most eligible bachelor in town.
John was the baby of the family and gentle natured like his mother even though he had a wicked temper when provoked. He had picked up a toy guitar as a toddler and refused to put it down. Night and day he plunked the plastic strings and sang at the top of his lungs for the sheer joy of it. Jed bought him a real guitar when he was six and the boy literally wore it out learning to play it. By the time he was twelve, he had saved enough money cutting grass to buy a used electric guitar and his father had been forced to make the boy practice in the loft of the carriage house when he rattled the windows in the house with the decibel level.
At thirteen he started his own band with some boys from school and much to Jedidiah’s fury, refused to cut his hair again. When he graduated from high school, the band bought an old van and went on the road seeking fame and fortune. After three years of barely making enough money to stave off starvation, the band returned home and took local gigs while they worked days to support themselves. When Mark opened his bar, he hired them to perform every weekend but John hadn't given up his dream of being a rock star. With the black hair and blue eyes that he shared with his brother, he had an adoring female fan base that always came out to watch him perform.
In spite of their wildness, they were all good boys and their father was proud of them and knew their mother would have been as well. Jed had remained faithful to his wife’s memory for twenty-five long, lonely years. Since no woman could ever take her place, he had vowed to never marry again and had never even dated another woman. He'd never believed he could love like that again, and truth be told, he was afraid of being hurt again. Gigi's death had nearly destroyed him and everyone knew it, so he had managed to shock his family and the entire town when he announced he was getting married. The fact that he was marrying Harley's mother had been the biggest shock of all.
The couple had spent a great deal of time together over the years as they cared for their mutual grandson during his visits and had become exceedingly close. Jed wasn't sure when he had first begun to want her because it seemed like it had been forever, but he'd been stunned to discover that Claire had felt the same way about him.
Claire Abbott had been in love with Jed for years and he was the finest gentleman she'd ever known. She had been thrilled to discover he wanted her, but even though she wanted so much more, she was happy to take whatever he was willing to give of himself. Since memories were long in a small town and with her wicked past, she had known gossip would run rampant if she were ever linked with a man, so she hadn't had a date since she'd arrived in lakeside thirty years ago. In order to avoid a scandal and have Jed's good name tarnished, she had insisted their association be a closely guarded secret.
Jed didn't like sneaking around and he sure as hell wasn't ashamed of their relationship, but she meant too much to him to risk losing, so he had given in. Once he had the courage to admit to himself that he was in love with the younger woman, he had proposed and found out that Claire had only been waiting for him to admit he loved her. She could survive a scandal or anything else if Jed loved her because he meant everything to her. Their children were pleased that they had finally found someone and didn't give a damn what anyone else thought.
No, the Baker's were not the average family, but they sure did liven up a small town like Lakeside with their outrageous behavior. And the best was yet to come!
Chapter One
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Matt Baker looked up from the motor he was working on when he heard the unmistakable growl of a finely tuned engine. Wiping his hands on a grease rag, he walked toward the open bay door and stared appreciatively at the m
otorcycle pulling into the driveway. He wasn't surprised to discover it was a Harley Davidson. Nothing purred quite like a Harley he thought with a wicked smile because his wife and the motorcycle shared the same ability. When the bike rolled to a stop in front of him, he noticed for the first time that a woman was riding it.
If there was one thing that Matt knew, it was trouble, and he knew with certainty that the woman on the bike lived up to the image she projected. She was absolutely beautiful and sexy as hell, he noticed with the trained eye of a reformed ladies man. Black leather riding boots encased her feet and she was dressed in form fitting black leather pants with a matching vest that laced up the front, affording anyone who cared to look, a view of her ample chest. Coal black hair cropped short and spiky framed a classically beautiful face while mirrored wraparound shades hid her eyes from view as she looked him over and smiled in appreciation. No, sir. Trouble like that he didn't want or need.
“Can I help you, Ma'am?” he asked cordially.
The smile grew decidedly wicked. “There’s a hell of a lot you could help me with, Sugah.” Easy Grayson assured him in a sultry Southern drawl that was full of invitation.
His smile never wavered as he shook his head in denial. “I'm probably the happiest married man you'll ever meet,” he informed her honestly.
Her smile became amused at that. “She must be a hell of a woman,” she said as she looked him over again. In her informed opinion it would take a hell of a woman to keep a man like him satisfied. His eyes were as black as his hair and the perfection of his handsome face could have been chiseled from stone. So could the rest of his well muscled body. Damn. He was a fine specimen.
