by Toni Aleo
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE INFORMATION
NOT THE ONE
Copyright © 2017 Toni Aleo
2017 Edition
Cover art: Dana Leah
Editing: Lisa Hollett of Silently Correcting Your Grammar
Formatting: Deena Rae —E-BookBuilders
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either 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 is entirely coincidental.
This book is available in print from most online retailers
2017 Edition License
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Table of Contents
Not the One
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
A Note from Toni Aleo
About the Author
Not the One
Genevieve Stone got her first taste of passion as a teenager on a road trip to Kentucky with the bastard bad boy of the country club. Everyone agreed he was not the one for a girl from her station in life.
Ten years later, she's a successful romance novelist and is engaged to be married to the appropriate sort of man. But something is holding her back from finishing her latest book and from joyfully walking down the aisle. On impulse, she takes off for Spring Grove, the site of her youthful indiscretion and the location of most of her happiest times.
What she thought was just a short walk down memory lane quickly becomes much more as Gen reconnects with friends from her youth and is welcomed back into the quirky arms of small-town Kentucky. And it isn't long before she starts to realize that the man who was supposedly so wrong is really oh-so right.
Dedication
To whiskey. You always seem like such a good idea.
At the time…
Not the One
Prologue
Blue lights were flashing like mad, giving her a headache as she leaned against the police car.
Genevieve’s body was shaking with fear, but a little bit of excitement was also bubbling deep inside of her. She knew damn well her family was going to flip. Once word got back to the country club, everyone would be talking about how the precious Genevieve Stone, daughter of the prestigious Murray Stone of Stone Masons, was caught trafficking drugs. The disappointment would ring loud in her father’s voice—he’d probably take her credit card away. And her poor mother would probably wring her hands, steeling her nerves with a healthy dose of vodka in her morning juice.
Too bad Gen didn’t care.
This trip was supposed to be the time of her life. She was going to see the world, but he’d said they had to stop back in his hometown first. What she didn’t know was that he had been planning to bring a whole bunch of drugs back for his buddies to sell down in Lexington. When she found out, by opening the trunk to put her bag in, the smart part of her brain told her to run the other way. But then he looked at her, his blazing blue eyes burning into hers as her lips pressed together in an “oh shit” kind of look. She should have taken that as a sign even he knew he was doing wrong, yet she just shrugged, threw her bag in, and went to the front seat.
She wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she knew she wanted to go on this trip with him.
But after only three days in his hometown of Spring Grove, where she fell in love with small-town life and learned more about herself than she had in her whole life, Gen found herself leaning against a cop car with her hands cuffed behind her back.
Well, shit.
Terms were being thrown around—some she knew, some she didn’t. But as she watched two cops from a neighboring town investigate, since Spring Grove only had one sheriff and a deputy, she knew she was in deep shit.
“I never thought I’d find you this hot with blue lights flashing on your skin, but I do.”
Gen looked up, her eyes meeting his extra blue eyes since the lights were flashing directly into them. “Yeah, neither did I.”
His lips pulled up at the side. “Probably should have stayed at home. Maybe my big brother would have taken you to the formal.”
She scoffed. “Pfft. Like I wanted to go anyway.”
“You did. You’re made for that life.”
She laughed, shaking her head. That was the furthest from the truth. She was actually more trailer park trash, like her mom used to be before her father found her and settled her in at the country club with diamonds hanging off her. “You must not know me.”
“Not as well as I want,” he said, making her heart flutter. He had that power, the one that made her whole body feel like it was tingling. Her mother said it was because she was young and naïve, but she was convinced it was just him. Theo. His thick shoulders, his darker than night hair. It was such a contrast, his eyes to his hair, and she loved it. She did. Even now, as she stood cuffed, knowing that serious charges could be coming her way, she still found him alluring. “But I know that formal would have been better than this.”
She shrugged, looking away. “Says you.”
He grinned over at her, and she met his grin with a smile. Things were easy between them. Since Gen had struggled her whole life, she enjoyed being with someone and not having to try so hard. She didn’t have to be proper; she didn’t have to make sure she had her manners turned on. She could just be her, burp if she wanted, and he would burp along with her. He was everything she had never experienced, and she couldn’t get enough.
“Man, this sucks.”
“Surely it’s not a big deal. It’s not like you’re selling the stuff.”
“I’m moving it, though,” he confessed, shaking his head. “I just wanted to get my mom out of here.”
Gen smiled. “She doesn’t want to leave.”
He laughed. “Yeah, but maybe I could have given her a better life than working in the damn diner.”
“She loves the diner, though,” she tried, but he wasn’t listening. “It’s all over with anyway. We were caught—”
“No, listen—” She looked up, her heart still in her throat as his eyes held hers. “I’m taking all the blame. Those are my drugs. I didn’t tell you about them, okay?”
Her brows pulled together. “But I knew.”
“Gen, really. This is going to be bad. You aren’t this girl. The one that goes to jail for drugs—or anything else for that matter. Just trust me. Keep your mouth shut. Don’t even talk to them.”
“But—”
“No but, Gen. I’m this guy. You’re not. This has been fun, but you gotta trust me. Let me take the fall. You act oblivious to everything, okay?”
; “Theo—”
“For real, Gen. Okay? You know I love you, right?”
Her heart sang for him. “Yes, I love you too, but let me—”
“Darling, I’m not the one for you. You deserve the world. And this right here is a godsend, I promise. I do love you, Gen.”
Before she could say anything else, the cops were closing in on them. And as she stood there, tears in her eyes, she knew she’d never see Theo Hudson again.
Chapter One
Wrapping her hair around his fist, he yanked her head back, and her gaze met his in a hot and wanton embrace. “Say it.” She couldn’t breathe or talk as she gazed up at him, whimpering. He loved it. He craved it. Her fear, it was a drug. “Who am I? Say it, Ash. Say who I am.”
His voice was strained, his body shaking as his cock throbbed so deep inside of her. He almost couldn’t think. Almost. He didn’t know what was happening, he didn’t understand what his body was doing, but he felt it deep in his soul, the need to bury himself inside of her and never leave.
She was his.
“Ash, say it,” he demanded once more, squeezing a fistful of hair and causing her to cry out. It drove him mad, her body shaking against his, her eyes hooded as he looked down the pebbles of her spine to her round ass and small waist. God, he wanted to ruin her for every single man. She was his, damn it! “Now!”
“Daddy,” she cried out, her body squeezing his as his toes curled into the carpet of her apartment. “Daddy… Please fuck me, Daddy.”
His cock throbbed, his eyes squeezing shut as his fist tightened and his hand gripped her. He was about to explode—
Genevieve Stone jumped when her headphones were knocked off her head, Lady Gaga crooning from where they’d landed in her lap before her eyes quickly narrowed. Slamming her laptop shut in frustration, she glanced up and complained, “What the hell?”
Her fiancé, Montgomery, looked down at her, annoyance on his beautiful face as he shook his head. His eyes were narrowed, his full lips pressed together on a face free of hair, looking so clean and tidy as always. But that didn’t stop the expression of pure displeasure on his face. He was wearing a very expensive looking pair of blue slacks and pressed button-up shirt that matched the greenish blue of his eyes. The blue suit jacket was unbuttoned and hung open as he pressed his hands to his hips. “I’ve been calling up to you.”
She glared before placing her headphones on top of her laptop. “I’m working, and you know I always have my sound-canceling headphones on when I’m working. You bought them for me.”
He didn’t seem pleased, but really, he never was. This wasn’t the first time he’d found himself at the bottom of the stairs yelling for her, only to trek upstairs to find her in her zone. Writing her heart out. Not that she cared about his inconvenience; she was working. He knew that. “I understand, but you were also aware that our mothers were coming today for wedding planning. They’re here. Waiting.”
She rolled her eyes, letting her head fall back as she groaned. She had forgotten they were coming. “Mont, please, I’m in the zone. Distract them.”
He didn’t seem to care or have any intentions of distracting his insane mother. Her mother would be just fine sitting down at the table, looking through magazines while she waited. She understood Genevieve’s career. She supported her. “We’re getting married in a little over a month. Your book can wait.”
She tried not to scream. “I’m on a deadline.”
“Which I told you to cancel because of the wedding.”
“I don’t make the deadlines, my publisher does.”
He gave her a dismissive look. “I think they can make an exception for you since you are getting married and there is plenty of smut in the world.”
The fight bubbled inside of her, but she didn’t have it in her today. Not when she had to deal with their mothers, and especially not as they’d had this fight at least once a week since deciding to get married. Yes, as awful as that sounded, they’d decided. They had been together for over five years, lived together for three of them. She loved him, she did. She was comfortable, they were happy, and things worked. He went to work, she stayed home and worked, and they had sex.
When they had time.
When he brought up that maybe they should get married, it seemed like a good idea. Of course, their families were over the moon since they had been asking the two of them to tie the knot for a while. At first, it all went so quickly that it really didn’t seem as though anything had changed. They picked a date, she picked a dress, and things were still good. But then, Montgomery’s mother had started to come over more. She wanted everything planned to a tee, and that’s when Genevieve began to notice her own lack of patience with everything. She just wanted to get married and to go back to their normal, but it seemed like his mother was scratching at her nerves. Soon Genevieve found that she and Montgomery were at each other’s throats more than they weren’t. And more than they had ever been.
Things had always been effortless. But lately, they were not even close to easy. Nothing was good enough: her clothes, her weight, her hair. He always had something negative to say. And when it came to her writing, Montgomery wasn’t supportive. Genevieve didn’t understand it. He hadn’t been like that before. He’d seemed to love her, but she didn’t feel that way all the time now.
Especially when it came to her career.
It was mildly mind-blowing. She was extremely successful in the romance world as Zoe Jayne. She had hit all the bestselling lists, she had been featured all over the world, there were even talks for movies, but Montgomery didn’t feel it was a career people could know about. According to their friends—and some of his family—she worked in insurance. Before it hadn’t mattered, but as soon as he planned to marry her, they had to lie to all their new friends. Man, she hated hiding her career, but she loved him, and because of that, she respected his wishes.
Except when he pulled shit like this.
“I don’t write just smut, Mont, and you know that,” she complained, rolling her eyes. “Either way, I have to finish this. I only have three more weeks, and I’m not even halfway done.”
He shrugged before heading for the door. “Our mothers are downstairs. Do you want me to send them up, or are you coming down?”
As she watched his retreating back, she felt her blood boil. “I want you to tell them to come back tomorrow.”
But he didn’t acknowledge her words. She even heard him say that she was on her way once he reached the stairs. She knew he was nervous about the wedding. Over three thousand people would be attending. Everyone from his architecture firm would be there, plus his whole extended family and hers. It was a production for sure, but she really needed to get this book done. Not only for her deadline but also for her characters. They were screaming to be written, and it was her job to do so. So why couldn’t the man she was about to spend her life with understand that?
To Montgomery, her writing was just a hobby, not a career. He thought it was a joke. But to her, it was way more than a career. It was a part of her. She had to write, she had to give her characters life, and she’d be damned if anyone would hold her back. As a result, all Montgomery and Genevieve did was argue. How she was wasting her time. How the wedding was more important. He wanted her to quit, but she wouldn’t, and she knew it drove him crazy. She didn’t care.
And she sure as hell didn’t care about this damn wedding.
Why couldn’t they just elope? Go to Vegas or even the courthouse, she didn’t care. She just wanted it over…after she finished her book. She hated the planning process of the wedding and, most of all, the arguing with Montgomery’s mother, Verna. Verna was acting as if she were planning a wedding for the Prince of Wales, it was so pathetically lavish. Of course, Genevieve’s mom was eating it up since she had grown up poor, marrying into money when she got pregnant with Gen. But it wasn’t really Gen’s jam. She liked low-key things, and when she expressed that, she was shot down by Verna and then Montgomery. They were
about the extravagant and ostentatious. Gen just wanted somewhere to write and someone to love.
“Gen, honey!”
She groaned loudly at her mother’s overly cheery voice. “Coming,” she called out before reluctantly getting out of her office chair and heading out of the room, locking the door behind her. She was very weird when it came to her work in progress. Not that Montgomery ever showed interest in reading her stuff, but if he had, she’d make him wait. Still, though, she didn’t want anyone seeing or reading her unfinished manuscript, so she always locked her office door.
Heading down the grand staircase and then cutting through the den of the very upscale home Montgomery had inherited when they were younger, Gen let out a long sigh. She couldn’t wait to start decorating their home. Since they weren’t married yet, Verna wouldn’t let her do anything to the bachelor pad Montgomery’s uncle had left him, and she was really sick of the feel of it. It was old and smelled of cigars. She swore it, though Montgomery said she was crazy and constantly agreed with his mother. He was a mama’s boy to the extreme.
As she entered the large dining room where Verna and her mother sat with all the wedding crap known to man laid out on the table, she suppressed a groan when Montgomery stopped her by grabbing her waist and kissing her jaw. “Good luck.”
She leaned into him. Though she was annoyed, she did love this man. Had for most of her adult life. While it hadn’t been by choice, more expectations from her family at first, it wasn’t like that any longer. He made her happy…when he was home and not calling her job stupid. “Yeah, thanks.”
“Don’t pout,” he demanded, kissing her once more. “It will all be done soon.”
She gave him a dry look as she shook her head. “I really need to work,” she stressed once more.
Before he could comment, his mother was speaking, “Oh, Genevieve, your little book can wait. This is your wedding.”
