Masters for Life

by Ginger Voight

  I was just self-destructive enough to go for broke that New Year’s Eve, where I showed up to the party already medicated. I smoke top-shelf herb while I got dressed. I drank nearly a bottle of champagne in the car. I decided who the fuck needed Devlin Masters, anyway? I was young. Thanks to my weight loss, I was getting more attention than ever. Words like “sexy” or “hot” defined me now, if the comments on my social media accounts were to be believed anyway.

  I didn’t have to spend this night alone if I didn’t want to. And suddenly, I really, really didn’t want to. A million years ago, I had gone to a website to pay someone to spend time with me. By the time I went to that New Year’s Eve party, I was ready to see what kind of fish I might reel in for free. I walked into that room preying on all the men present, to see if there was anyone suitable to take home.

  I could do that now. I was a free agent. There were no longer any rings on my finger.

  As I scanned the room to see if I could spot anyone interesting, I nearly swallowed my tongue whole when I saw Devlin Masters standing next to some other socialite who ran in our circles. He had his arm around her, smiling down at her in that near predatory way he had… like an animal on the hunt.

  With a shudder I remembered when that look belonged to me. So intoxicating. So dangerous. I had lost myself because I wanted to.

  As if he sensed my presence, his head turned and our eyes met. Even from fifty feet away, that look was as potent as it had ever been. I rose from my chair and aimed myself for the nearest exit. I wasn’t about to stick around for this.

  That was when I saw Caz Bixby, who had just entered the room on another woman’s arm.

  Of course he would be here. Of course Devlin would. These women were their clientele, and this was the biggest night of the year. Nobody wanted to be alone on New Year’s Eve.

  Why had I decided to do this?

  I turned back to the rest of the crowd, where I realized that Devlin was stalking right towards me. I could barely breathe. He still had a vice like grip on my soul. There was no way I could be anywhere around him. I needed an escape, but Caz was behind me, and I didn’t want to see him either. There was no getting around the crowd filing in the building.

  So I cut through the tables toward the stage, where I knew there was a service entrance I could use if I was desperate enough, to one of the other rooms currently not in use.

  Turned out I was desperate enough, because that was where I chose to escape.

  I closed the door behind me, but there was no way to lock it. I peered through the crack, trying to keep an eye on Devlin, sure that if he came anywhere near that door I would be a goner. I’d either kill him or I’d fuck him, and neither was a way to end the old year, or start a new one. My breath caught and held as I stared at the crowd, trying to make out the faces. A shadow passed over the door and I stepped backwards, waiting to see if he was going to follow me. The room was barely lit by the sliver of light coming out from under the main door towards the reception hall. The music faded the further away I got, until all I could hear was my breathing.

  When enough time had passed and I finally decided that he wasn’t going to follow me, I took a deep breath and turned around… right into Devlin Masters, who loomed large behind me like yet another wall.

  The bastard had cornered me, just like a goddamned raptor.

  I backed up a step. “What are you doing here?”

  His face split apart in that damnable smirk. “Working.”

  “Funny. I thought you already had a job partnering with Darcy. Using your education and all,” I sneered.

  He offered a shrug. “What can I say? It doesn’t pay as well as Cabot’s, so I needed a little… supplemental income.”

  I glared at him before I turned to leave. “I won’t keep you then.”

  He grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “What’s your hurry? We haven’t seen each other in a while. Don’t you want to know how I’ve been?”

  His soft voice sent a shiver right down my spine. “Don’t you want to know how I’ve been, Devlin?” I shot back.

  He pulled me closer. “You honestly think there has been one move you’ve taken in the last three months that I haven’t seen, Coralie?”

  I shuddered against him. I knew then that he had showed up to this party on purpose, using whatever excuse he could use to do it. If it could hurt me, all the better. “Willing to add stalking to your list of sins, I see.”

  “Being a sinner is what you loved most about me. Remember?”

  I hated the way my body reacted to the words he said, or the nearness of that unbelievable body that had taught me so many things. I couldn’t think about it. I couldn’t allow myself to weaken, even for a second. The pain of his betrayal had dulled somewhat over the months, thanks mostly in part to my using every intoxicant I could get my hands on–anything so that I could take a breath without feeling the knife twist in my gut.

  But the danger surrounding this man remained. He held my arm with that vice grip, suggesting with that hungry look in his eyes that he wanted me, he needed me, he still desired me, like I could only hope. At the end of the night, however, only one woman held Devlin Masters by the chain. I could never, ever lose sight of that ever again.

  “So how are you doing, Devlin?” I asked, since he seemed so eager to tell me.

  “Fucking fantastic,” he smiled. He leaned down. “And I mean that as a verb.”

  I glared at him. “Suzanne must be thrilled.”

  “You know me, Coralie. I believe in customer satisfaction. I make sure they always come back for more.”

  At least he didn’t deny it. “What do you want from me, Dev?”

  He straightened, his hands cupping my forearms as he pulled me closer. “Nothing much. Just a little New Year’s Eve kiss. Not quite a kiss in a church in front of a preacher, but I think we could do the holiday custom justice anyway.”

  Such an asshole, rubbing our aborted nuptials in my face. He wasn’t even pretending anymore. “Isn’t there some poor woman out there paying for that privilege?”

  “Only rich ones,” he said as he stared down at me with those narrowed eyes. “And there are two.”

  I practically snarled as I tried to pull away. He wasn’t having it.

  “But I’m willing to cut you a deal. A real holiday special, for my preferred customers only.”

  “Go to hell,” I spat as I struggled harder. He held me fast.

  “Been there and back, honey. What about you?”

  “I could write a book on the subject.”

  “I’d read it,” he said as he held me tighter. I felt his hard body press against me. “Make sure to make the sexy parts extra juicy. Like your pussy,” he whispered near my ear.

  I shuddered hard. “Can’t you just leave me alone, Devlin? Haven’t you done enough?”

  “As a matter of fact, no. I can’t leave you alone. I told you before I’m never going to let you go. No matter what legal documents say, you’re mine, Coralie. You have been since the minute I touched you.”

  “And yet you belong to everyone else.”

  “For a price,” he acknowledged. “Man’s gotta eat.” He ran that long tongue across his even white teeth.

  I tried again to pull away. “I’ve gotta go back to my Father.”

  “Not till I get my New Year’s kiss,” he decided, fitting me neatly against his hard body, surrounding me, everywhere all at once. I could feel myself disappear in his arms, like being pulled underwater by a fierce undertow. All I could do was hold on and pray it was over quickly.

  He stared down into my face for a long moment. “Aren’t you going to stop me, Coralie?”

  “Would it matter if I did?”

  “No,” he answered before his mouth covered mine. Electricity shot through my body, still responding to his every command. My head swam from all the booze I’d been guzzling all night, but I knew I had to resist. I could leave that party that night with any man on my arm except for Devlin Masters. It was the
hardest thing I had ever done to keep my mouth shut as he used those supple lips to torment me and tease me into submission.

  He pulled back, studying me thoughtfully. “You really think you can fight what you feel about me, darlin?’”

  I tipped my chin. “Every day of my life.”

  The outer door creaked open. “Everything okay in here?” Caz asked, filling the frame of the door like a cruel joke.

  I turned to face him. “Everything’s great. Devlin was just wishing me a happy new year.” As I stared at Caz, I realized what I could do to put an end to this crazy ride once and for all. I had to hurt Devlin every bit as much as he hurt me, and there was only one way to do that. I had to go for the jugular, every bit as much as they all did. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, Devlin. Mr. Bixby and I had a prior engagement.” To Caz, I said, “Ready to take me home and fuck me?”

  His eyes drifted between me and Devlin. I felt Devlin’s fingers bite into my flesh as he tried to hold onto me, but I held firm.

  “Born ready, pussycat,” Caz replied with a smirk of his own, knowing, finally, he had the upper hand as far as Devlin was concerned.

  He had finally won.

  I turned to Devlin, who practically shot fire from those intense green eyes. “Happy New Year, Dev. I hope it brings you everything you deserve.”

  With one ferocious pull, I yanked my hand free from his and walked towards Caz. I looped my arm with his and we exited the room with the resounding bang of a slammed door.

  END OF BOOK TWO

  After a devastating betrayal fractures the fairytale romance between Coralie and Devlin Masters beyond repair, Coralie tries to piece together a future without the man she had come to love.

  Devlin, however, refuses to let her go. He doesn’t give a damn if there’s a new man on her arm these days. Since that man is Caz Bixby, Dev’s sworn enemy, it only makes him even more determined to win her back.

  Caz is the new prince in Coralie’s fairytale, her miracle-working personal trainer who had transformed her from a meek pussycat into a sexy, confident lioness ready to take what she wants.

  What she really wants is her happy ending with Devlin, and Dev knows it. He digs himself even further into her world so that she can’t ignore him, or what she feels about him. He swears that he loves her, and there’s much more to the story. To get her back, he knows he has to share his many dark secrets with her.

  But can she ever trust him again after what he did?

  Can you?

  The shocking secrets finally unfold in MASTERS FOREVER, Book Three of the Masters Saga, Ginger Voight’s unconventional love story that will stick with you long after the last page.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

  Ginger Voight is a screenwriter and bestselling author with more than twenty published titles in fiction and nonfiction. Her nonfiction works cover everything from travel to politics, while her works of fiction range from romance to the paranormal, as well as dark “ripped-from-the-headlines” topics, such as those featured in her book Dirty Little Secrets.

  Ginger discovered her love for writing in the sixth grade, courtesy of a Halloween assignment. From then on, writing became a thing of solace, reflection, and security. When she found herself homeless in L.A. at the age of nineteen, she wrote her first novel in longhand on notebook paper while living out of her car.

  In 1995, after she lost her nine-day-old son, she worked through her grief by writing the story that would eventually become The Fullerton Family Saga. In 2011, she embarked on a new journey: to publish romance novels starring heroines who look like the average American woman. These “Rubenesque romances” have developed a following thanks to her bestselling Groupie series. Other titles, such as the highly-rated Fierce series, tap into the American preoccupation with reality TV, giving her contemporary stories a current, pop-culture edge.

  Ginger isn’t afraid to push the envelope with characters who are perfectly imperfect. Rich or poor, sweet or selfish, gay or straight, plus-size or svelte, her characters are beautifully flawed and three-dimensional. They populate her lavish fictional landscapes and teach us more about the real world in which we live, through their interactions with each other, and often through gut-wrenching angst. Ginger’s goal with every book is to give her readers a little bit more than they were expecting, with stories they’ll never forget.

  For more, please visit gingervoight.com. Follow Ginger on Twitter (twitter.com/gingervoight) and “like” her author page on Facebook (facebook.com/gingervoight) for all the latest news on her public appearances and new releases.