A bottle of wine next to her.
How shocking.
Things were falling right back into place.
“Aira, we should talk for a second,” Julia said.
“It’s fine,” I said. “She’s a drunk. At least she’ll leave.”
“No, it’s not that,” Julia said.
“Aira, you need to see something,” Charlotte called out.
I kept walking.
I needed to see Wes.
I saw him on the back deck, smoking a cigarette.
His hands were covered in cuts, scrapes and blood.
He was a wicked bad boy for sure… and I loved him.
“Aira, look at this,” Charlotte said.
She showed me her phone.
It was some kind of news headline.
About some business man getting arrested.
For…
I blinked.
I grabbed her phone.
I read the headline.
I looked at the picture.
My head snapped around and I saw Julia standing with a frown on her face.
When I looked at Mom, she was just staring forward.
“Is this real?” I whispered.
“Yeah,” Julia said. “They got him to admit…”
I dropped Charlotte’s phone and ran to the door.
Outside, Wes looked confused. “Aira?”
“My father set the house on fire,” I called out.
“What?” he asked.
My knees felt like they were going to buckle.
I put my arms out.
Wes tossed his cigarette and caught me.
I screamed into his chest.
“Jack set the house on fire?” Wes asked.
“He did,” Julia said.
My father burned our house down.
And there was a picture of him in cuffs.
For the world to see.
Cue the rumor mill once again in Hidden Creek High.
But worse than that…
That meant my own father tried kill to me - but why?
Want more #hch?
Book 4 is titled HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER and it’s AVAILABLE … just go to Amazon.com and type in ‘Jaxson Kidman Hidden Creek Forever’ to order your copy today!
But… here’s a little preview of the book before you order!
* * *
HIDDEN CREEK FOREVER
Chapter 1
Aira
I hugged my pillow as I sat on the biggest towel I had ever seen in my life.
That should have made me smile. At least for a second, right? Like, watching Wes roll out the gigantic towel. I mean it was like the size of ten normal beach towels. And it was super thick. It was like a blanket more than a towel, but it was made for the beach.
Why did that matter?
It didn’t.
Thinking about the towel - with is blues and oranges and total beach vibe pattern - that was just a way to clear my head.
Even as I hugged my pillow, I just wanted to clear my head.
I put my nose against the cloth and took deep breaths, smelling sleep.
Crazy, huh?
But I could smell sleep.
It made me want to get up and go back to bed.
I loved sleeping in Wes’s bed.
Oh, another thing I really love too…
A drink.
Or more than one drink.
Which I had.
Or had had.
Had had…?
I laughed. But nothing was actually all that funny.
I reached for my cup and knocked it over.
Liquid spilled to the sand.
And I didn’t even care.
I just wanted to sit on the beach and do nothing. For a long time. For a really long time.
Next to me my phone buzzed over and over.
I had it flipped over but I knew it was Kailey or Nova or one of them.
Trying to check up on me because I was now the girl with the father who burned his own house down. That was only truth that seemed to matter. My father set the house on fire and took off. Mom was in the house. I was in the house. Mom was able to get out right away. And the only reason she didn’t care about looking for me was because I wasn’t supposed to be home.
Either way, my father…
“Hey, darling, what can I get you?”
I turned my head and looked up.
There was Wes.
Weslee frickin’ Jacskon.
Standing in his sexy as fuck ripped jeans, a black hoodie, the hood pulled up.
It was plenty dark outside but I had studied his face so much since we got together that I could see every feature as though it were the middle of the afternoon.
He was my protector.
The only one who seemed to understand me.
The one who loved me.
No matter how hard things were between us at times.
Wes inched forward and slowly moved down to the towel. He was behind me as he spread his legs and wrapped them around me, pulling me against his body. The most comforting spot in the world.
It was dark and the only sound was the ocean.
The soothing sound of the ocean.
I put my head back, still holding my pillow.
Wes put his hands to the blanket and leaned back just a little.
He knew the cliche bullshit words would piss me off so he didn’t say them. Which was good to not hear for once. Bad enough I had to deal with Mom still at Julia’s. Or deal with Julia herself. Or deal with Miss Carson. Or any of the other nonsense waiting for me on a daily basis.
“It’s like they change every night.”
“What?” I asked.
“The stars. Look up. It feels like it’s different from last night.”
“Do you not pay attention in class?” I asked.
“Hell no,” Wes said. “I thought you knew that.”
I laughed. I shook my head. “Wes…”
“What?”
“They don’t change. But things move. And then if it’s clearer and darker you see more stars.”
“Smart and beautiful,” he whispered.
“Yeah. Maybe I can be a professional star person.”
“I’m not sure that’s the title.”
“I’ll make it my title then.”
“Own it,” he said.
“Hell yeah,” I said. “Bitch, you want to see stars, come find me.”
Wes laughed.
His chest bounced and rumbled.
Now that was soothing.
“Better yet, darling, if you want to see stars, then you come see me,” he said.
“Oh yeah?” I asked.
I turned and faced him. Like I was crawling up his body. My head swirled a little but I knew what made me feel good. What made me forget things.
The second our lips touched, everything was gone.
I sighed into Wes’s mouth as I moved my legs so I could straddle him right there on the beach. I put my hands to his shoulders and hovered over him for once. He simply put his head back and let me kiss him.
Mygod… that’s so hot…
My being in control.
Knowing that without notice Wes could just grab me and take me and control me. And have me. And love me.
I kissed him harder. When our teeth touched, it made me gasp because it was a weird sound and feeling. Wes quickly moved his left hand from the towel and touched the back of my head. He then guided our amazing make out session. I was still hovering over him but he was leading the way.
My body pressed harder against his.
That deep need and crave that only Wes knew how to unlock.
He sat up straight and placed his other to the middle of my back.
Now he was in complete control.
I broke our perfect kiss on purpose so I could look up at the stars.
Wes’s tongue gently kissed down my neck.
I could see stars. I could feel stars. Whatever that meant.
I sucked i
n a breath and felt Wes as he grew into the moment.
My right hand moved from his shoulder down between us.
His hands grabbed at my ass and he made a super fast move, putting me on my back on the towel.
I giggled when he did so.
This was when I felt really alive again.
Like things were really going to be okay.
Then again, why weren’t they going to be okay?
The crap of someone coming after me was taken care of. I knew who burned down my house. I was living in Hidden and spending all my time with Wes. Anyone who got in my way at Hidden Creek High got a slap or a punch. Just depended on my mood.
Wes put his hands to the towel again and now he hovered over me.
He bent his elbows and came down for a kiss.
Then he straightened his elbows to get away.
I grabbed his shirt and pulled him back down.
“Aira,” he said with his lips to mine.
“Wes,” I said back.
“I can’t save you from what’s been done. But I’ll make sure nothing else hurts you.”
“Why do you think I’m here?” I asked. “It’s not for your good looks.”
“I thought it was for this…”
He drove his hips against me and I instantly bit my lip.
My phone started to buzz over and over again.
I turned my head.
Sometimes I thought about throwing it in the ocean.
Yeah right.
Wes kissed my neck and hit a ticklish spot.
I jumped and screamed with laughter.
So he did it again.
I clawed at the back of his shirt.
“Stop it,” I cried out as I laughed.
“Nope,” he said.
He went for the same spot and nibbled at me.
I yelled even louder, thrashing my head left to right, kicking at him, laughing so hard that my stomach started to hurt.
Wes then made a growling sound and did it again.
I hurried to pull up his shirt and I dug my fingers into his sides.
How the fuck does have muscles on the side of his body? Ugh.
I dig and wiggled my fingers and Wes didn’t move an inch.
“What is wrong with you?” I cried out as I kept laughing.
He paused. He put his lips to my ear. “I’m not ticklish.”
“Liar,” I said.
“Try me.”
His body was pressed tight to mine.
We were that close… I felt his hardness against me. I was more than ready for him. Yet my fingers were trying to find a ticklish spot on his body.
But there wasn’t one.
“Ugh, I hate you,” I finally said.
Wes laughed as he rolled to his side.
I moved to my side and faced him.
“I am a liar, you know,” he said.
“Oh?”
“I am ticklish. Somewhere.”
I rolled my eyes. “Is this where you insert some kind of stupid sexual reference to your-”
“You said insert,” Wes said with a wink.
“Exactly.”
“No. Seriously. The back of my knees.”
“What?”
“The back of my knees,” he said. “I’m ticklish there. Why? I don’t know.”
“That’s weird.”
“You asked.”
I hurried to reach with my left hand down to the back of his knee.
Wes laughed and bent leg and pulled, putting me on top of him.
He was so quick and smooth with those kinds of moves. Able to take something serious or flirty and turn it into this.
My hands rested against his chest.
When I looked down at him, my hair fell forward.
He reached up and slid his fingers into my hair.
That was deadly to me. Like… heart-racing-panties-coming-off-I’m-going-ride-you-until-I-forget-who-I-am kind of deadly.
I exhaled a breath and saw the grin climb across his face.
He knew what he was doing.
My phone buzzed again and Wes moved his head.
He had rolled right on top of it.
“What the fuck is this?” he growled.
“Kailey or Nova,” I said. “Or one of the others. Checking up on me. I haven’t gone for a run with them in a little while. So they-”
Wes looked at my phone and then handed it to me.
He sat up again and we were in the position where we first started.
“Sorry, darling,” he whispered.
“What?” I asked.
He kissed my left cheek. “I have to take you home.”
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Look for more heart wrenching, emotional upcoming novels including:
A LETTER TO DELILAH
THE WRONG SIDE
* * *
Other bestselling novels by Jaxson include:
5 Years Later
Somebody Else (& Nobody Else)
Dear Everly,
Imagine Us
Anna’s Dress
Let You Go
When I’m Gone
What You Don’t Know
Every Other Weekend
Check out the books here:
Jaxson’s Amazon Page
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PLEASE NOTE DARLIN’ - DEPENDING YOUR DEVICE, SOME OF THE LINKS ABOVE MAY NOT BE SUPPORTED. IF YOU’RE READY TO READ MORE OF MY BOOKS, JUST JUMP OVER TO AMAZON.COM AND TYPE IN JAXSON KIDMAN INTO THE SEARCH BOX AND EVERYTHING WILL SHOW UP. FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME PERSONALLY AT [email protected] FOR ANY QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR EVEN MY PERSONAL SUGGESTIONS OF WHAT TO READ NEXT!
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. (This also includes the cover image and/or cover model(s) appearing on the cover. The context of this book does not in any way depict the personal life of said cover model(s). Image is licensed and used purely for fictional purpose only.)
First electronic edition May 2019
Copyright © 2019 by Jaxson Kidman
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part of any form.
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HIDDEN CREEK DARKNESS: a hidden creek high novel Page 22
