by DD Prince
“Did you know it’s her birthday today? Is that why you waited so long? Planned to make a grand gesture?”
I shake my head. “It’s her birthday?”
She nods.
Fuck.
“It’s good you’re here. You’ve waited long enough. Now, get down there and fix this. You’ve got thirty minutes before dinner’s ready.”
Thirty minutes to convince the girl I love that she should take a chance on me?
I go to move through the space.
“Aiden?”
I stop and look at Carly’s mother.
“Shoes off in the house.” She gestures with her chin.
“Sorry.” I take them off, grateful she told me, knowing she did because she doesn’t want to hold a lifelong grudge. Let’s hope her daughter is willing to extend the same courtesy.
I move through the space, taking in those pictures of Carly on the walls. Pictures of her older sister. Almost as pretty as Carly, though not quite.
I move down the basement stairs and hear a familiar theme song playing.
I step into the space.
It’s dark and she’s on the couch, cuddling a pillow, watching the show. She’s in my Berkeley sweatshirt. Little vixen stole it. She’s wearing yoga pants and has fuzzy orange socks on her feet.
I stop in front of her.
Her mouth drops open.
“Hi,” I say.
She bites her lips and says nothing.
I sit down on the coffee table in front of her, facing her. I reach for the remote and pause the TV. I set my backpack on the floor and unzip it.
“Got your tiara back.” I lift a Ziploc bag out with the tiara inside.
Her hand goes over her mouth.
I put it beside me.
“Told them we didn’t want the panties. They can burn them. I got this back, too.”
I pull out a velvet pouch and hand it to her.
She holds her hand out. I drop it in her palm, tickling that palm briefly by tracing my index finger across it.
Her eyes are on me and they’re filled with pain.
She opens the drawstring and reaches in and pulls out an emerald and amber monarch butterfly broach. It’s fucking hideous. She sees it and starts to ugly-cry. Women call it ugly-crying, but she’d never be ugly to my eyes. I want to reach for her, but have no idea if she’ll punch me in the face or not.
“I got word which pawn shop had it, over in Rochester, so I stopped there on my way here. Still looking for the rest.”
I reach into my bag. “This is kinda stupid now after all that. Maybe I should’ve done this first…”
“What?” she whispers from behind her hand, clutching the butterfly to her heart.
I pull out a McDonald’s hot apple pie, a small bunch of bananas, and a bottle of hot cock sauce and put them on the table.
Her shoulders shake with laughter. She’s still got tears in her eyes.
I still don’t know if this is gonna go my way or not.
I reach into the bag and pull out another Ziploc.
“Five thumb drives. Incriminating evidence about girls I’ve… I used to hook up with. These are the only copies. You can destroy them.”
I see a half a bottle of water on the table.
I grab it and uncap it and pour the water directly into the Ziploc and zip it back up. I set it down on the table. She watches all this, saying nothing.
“I’m an idiot, Carly. I’ve spent years being the kind of guy just waiting on the edge of my seat for someone to try to fuck me over, so I could fuck them back. I could blame my mother with her pawning us off on the help, with her cheating, I could blame my father for being a workaholic. I could blame the few women that fucked me over, but truth is that I lose out on the ratio because I fucked a lot of them over before they could fuck me. I was raised in the same house as Austin and Adele and they’re not as fucked up as I am. I’ve decided to stop being fucked up over stuff that’s in the past. It was a cautionary tale when I realized I held onto that DNA test for a year just so I could be angry and brood about something that wasn’t even real. I’m done with that shit. I took the video of Bella down. I deleted that channel. I know people on that email list saw, but I had the video down the day after you left me. It took a few more days of having my head up my ass and feeling lost without you before I decided to come up here and try to get you back. I don’t know if she got my message or not, but I texted Bella to tell her I’m done warring with her. It’s safe for her to come home if she wants to.”
She puts the broach down and reaches into the pocket of my sweatshirt that she’s got on for a wad of tissue. She pulls one out and dabs at her eyes, putting the rest of it on the table.
“Happy Birthday, peaches,” I say. “I didn’t bring you a present. I didn’t know.”
She closes her eyes and sucks on her lip.
“I’ll let you keep my sweatshirt that you evidently stole.” I whisper. “Will you go on a date with me? I’ll buy you more Hot Apple Pie from McDonalds.”
She opens her arms up wide, chin trembling. I grab her, spin around and sit on the couch so she’s straddling me and I hold her tight.
She starts crying into my jacket.
“I didn’t steal your sweatshirt. You g-got Joshua to b-bring my stuff back from NYC and this was packed with it. I didn’t notice until I got here.”
“You can still keep it,” I whisper into her throat.
“I’ve worn it every day since I’ve been home.”
I squeeze her.
“I’m sorry if I smell funky, Aiden.”
“You don’t smell funky. I love you, Carly.”
“I love you, too, Aiden.”
“I’m sorry I was such a dick.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t give up on me. It might take me a while to learn to not be an alphahole, okay?”
“Okay. You can still be an alpha… I want you for you. Just lose the hole part, okay?”
“Anything for you.”
Epilogue
CARLY
Four Months Later
We’ve just left Aiden’s mother’s house after Sunday dinner. Audra moved to her own place when she got out of rehab. She got off easy with community service for slapping that cop and she loses her license for a year. There’s also the punishment of being the face of many rich bitch memes that circulate and have given her a bit more than the usual ten minutes of fame.
She and I get along pretty well. She’s kind of high-maintenance and occasionally makes little digs that have to do with her being a bit of a label whore when I’m perfectly happy wearing clothes off the rack, but we do get along for the most part. Her relationship with Aiden isn’t all roses, but they’re both trying.
She’s sober, continuing with AA. And she’s also not with Aiden’s father. Her and Quinten are cordial, though. She’s with Sienna’s father, Roger Greer, though they don’t live together yet. His divorce is proving rather ugly.
Apparently, Quinten was stopping that relationship from progressing and at some stage, changed his mind and gave it his blessing. Aiden’s ex is apparently livid that she might wind up Aiden’s stepsister at some stage. I think it’s kind of funny. Aiden says that’s her punishment for threatening me… to get Audra for a wicked stepmother.
Aiden’s Dad’s health is good, too, so everyone is thankful for that.
Quinten and Audra are cordial enough that once a month there’s a family dinner with all of the Carmichaels together. Last month, my parents were here visiting and we all had that family dinner together at Aiden’s condo. My Mom and Audra are kind of polar opposites, but they bonded over a love of an indie author they both read. Our dads bonded over football.
Caitlin is doing a year in jail for her breach of probation for her former assault and forgery charges so of course she’s sober, whether she wants to be or not. She seems like she wants to be. She’s been writing letters to me, and to my Mom. She seems like she’s finding the old Cait again. Aiden and I
are going to see her on visiting day next month.
She told me where the rest of the jewelry was pawned. We didn’t get it all back, but I did manage to get two more pieces. It’s something, at least.
I’ve got a full-time job with CC and so does Ally. George came back to work and got promoted to VP of Marketing. Aiden is now President of Carmichael Consulting. I got promoted to George’s old job of Marketing Director and I promoted Stacy and Blake and brought in a new intern, Sonia from my old office in Buffalo. She works in our NYC office.
Stacy now has the job I came here to do, and Blake moved to the New York office to take over for Kieran. The Irish alphahole didn’t take too well to my promotion, although I tried to make it work. He wasn’t at all flexible, so I fired his lazy pompous ass.
George moved to an office down the hall a week ago and so now my office is now next to Aiden’s with a perfect view of Ally’s cubicle.
As much as looking at the back of her head, which changes color about every month or two, is fun, I kind of miss the view from before. Now I have to come out of my office to see him.
***
It’s five o’clock Monday and I’m getting ready to wrap up my day.
My boss’s boss comes in with a big envelope in his hand.
“Your name plate for your door,” Aiden says. “Bigger and fancier than the old one.”
“Oh, goodie. A fancy nameplate!” I clap my hands.
He drops one of my blinds.
I frown.
He drops another one.
“Aiden?”
He winks at me and drops the final blind. He closes the door and locks it.
I smile. “What are you up to?”
He hands me the envelope.
I take it and give him a questioning look.
“Open it,” he says.
I reach for the letter opener in the pen cup on my desk, smiling.
“Why did this need to be a private unveiling?” I look inside the envelope, so I can fetch the brass name plate with the sticky tape on the back and spot that there’s a ring box in here, too. I gasp.
I carefully spill them both onto my desk.
I see the name plate.
“Carly Carmichael”
I gasp.
“Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Aiden asks.
“Ring?” I’ve got my eyes on the ring box.
He grabs it and opens it. A beautiful diamond engagement ring is sitting there, sparkling at me.
“Aiden…” I whisper.
“Marry me,” he says.
“Are you asking or telling?” I giggle. He’s now down on one knee in front of me, between me and my desk.
“I’m begging you. I love you so much, peaches.”
“Love you more. Yes, I’ll marry you,” I say, emotion leaking from my eyes a little.
He slips the beautiful ring onto my finger and then grabs my ankles and I squeak in surprise as he hauls me off my chair onto his lap.
“I’m gonna fuck you on your office floor, now, peaches.”
“Sounds good to me, Hot Sauce,” I agree.
He lifts the hem of my navy-blue dress and slides it up and pulls the dress over my head, leaving me in just a coral bra and panties. His mouth closes over my nipple as he frees himself from his suit pants. He slides my panties to the side and guides himself inside of me.
I moan. “Ohhh, Aiden. That’s so nice.”
“It sure is,” he whispers against my lips and then he’s rubbing his nose sweetly against the tip of my nose.
“You’re gonna be mine forever.”
I wrap my arms around his neck and keep moving up and down. I’m going to get rug burn. Then again, Aiden gives me rugburn regularly --- at work, at home here in San Diego, at the other apartment in New York City when we’re there… almost as soon as it heals, I’m getting it again. My knees are willing to take one for the team.
“Forever and ever.” I suck on his neck hard.
“Mm, you’re gonna leave a mark,” he mutters, picking up the pace, gripping my hips as a way to move me.
“Good. You get this ring to mark I’m yours. Until you’ve got a ring on your finger, I’ll have to keep my mark on your neck, so people know you’re mine.”
“You want a big wedding that takes a year to plan with all sorts of red tape and seating arrangements and fights with our parents over roast beef versus roasted chicken and shit like that or you wanna do a destination wedding, say, next week on a beach? Then you’ve got your ring on my finger. Though… I’m okay with the hickies, too.”
“Huh?”
“Whoever comes comes, and we get married with your little toes in the sand and have a huge party?”
“Next week?” I laugh. “That’s crazy talk.”
“So…” he slows down and looks into my eyes. “You’d rather the big wedding? Whatever you want peaches, I’ll give it to you.”
“I love the idea of next week on a beach, Aiden. As long as all our family and our closest friends can come.”
“I knew you would,” he says, still moving inside me, his eyes gentle and on me. That’s why I already booked it.”
The End
End of Book Matter / Author Notes
So… what do you think? Should I write a story for Ally? For Austin? Maybe Carly and Aiden’s destination wedding will be the place the next story starts. We’ll have to wait and see…
I have some books that my fans are waiting for, so I have to tackle that list first.
I loved writing this book. I hope you enjoyed it.
HUGE thanks to those who helped me with the final touches on this book, including my sister Kelly, Peggy M, Robin, Mariah, and all my ARC and beta-reading chickadees. HUGE hugs.
If you haven’t read all of my other books yet, I have several romance sub-genres to choose from.
A vampire trilogy (book 1 is free, too. It does end on a cliffy but the whole trilogy is out)
A dark mafia series with three books and a spin-off.
A biker series. Two standalone books are out at the time Alphahole goes live, but I am half way done book 3 so expect to have it released SOON. That series is expected to be 8 or 9 books total.
A fun and filthy sci-fi romance.
***
Alphahole is my eleventh book and I hope to write many, many more.
Thanks, whether you’ve taken a chance on me for the first time or have read my other books and are a super-fan.
I SO appreciate my readers.
Lotsa Love,
D
If you loved this book, please leave a review! Even a short one. It helps indie authors spread the word about their books.
Thank you for reading this book!
More books from DD Prince are listed on the following pages.
More Books by DD Prince
DD Prince writes in several romance genres:
dark and erotic romance with anti-heroes and potential triggers
MC romances with steam and a little bit of darkness
fun & frisky steamy alien romance (writing as Scarlett Starkleigh)
contemporary romance
More info:
Author of dark, paranormal, contemporary, and mind fuck romances.
This list may have been updated since publishing, so check http://ddprince.com for a full list of DD Prince & Scarlett Starkleigh books as well as a suggested reading order per genre.
Almost Insta-love sci-fi romance :
Hot Alpha Alien Husbands: Book 1 – Daxx and Jetta
More romance than science-fiction. Just a little bit of world-building, but a whole lot of steamy-good fun.
MC Romance: Romantic suspense with comedy, angst, steamy scenes, and a little bit of gritty darkness.
Detour (Beautiful Biker 1) Deacon & Ella
This alpha-male is not an alpha-hole. You’re going to FLOVE Deacon Valentine.
Joyride (Beautiful Biker 2) Rider & Jenna
Rider starts out as a little bit of an alpha-hole. Jenna
resists, but resistance is futile when a Valentine brother has you in his sights.
*A total of 8 books for the Beautiful Biker series are expected.
Book 3, Scenic Route (Spencer’s story) expected in 2018.
Dark Mafia Romance: dark romance with a debt flesh payment plot.
This one is DD’s most popular book, but it is dark. Non-consensual / rough sex. An anti-hero you may love to hate and hate to love. Trigger warnings.
The Dominator
Also:
The Dominator II; Truth or Dare
Dario Ferrano’s book (with Tommy & Tia update chapters)
Sex slave rescue romance with dark and disturbing themes.
The Dominator III: Unbound
More Tommy, More Dare; More Domination!
Spin off Dark Romance (maybe DD’s darkest book yet):
Saved (Alessandro & Holly’s story)
Dark Paranormal Romance: Vampire dark romance / kidnapping
Nectar Trilogy (Includes Nectar, Ambrosia, and Essence)
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Table of Contents
Contents
Alphahole
1
CARLY
2
AIDEN
3
CARLY
4
AIDEN
5
CARLY
6
AIDEN
7
CARLY
8
AIDEN
9
CARLY
10
AIDEN
11
CARLY
12
AIDEN
13
CARLY
14
AIDEN
15
CARLY
16
AIDEN
17
CARLY
18
AIDEN
19
CARLY
20
AIDEN
21
CARLY
22
AIDEN
23
