by Tasha Jones
Dedicated
To All The Readers Who Are Making My Dreams Come True
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2015 Tasha Jones. All rights reserved. Including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof, in any form. No part of this text may be reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the author.
WARNING: This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language. It may be considered offensive to some readers. This book is for sale to adults ONLY.
Please ensure this book is stored somewhere that cannot be accessed by underage readers.
Other Titles By Tasha (Free on Kindle Unlimited)
Loving The British Billionaire
The Cowboy's Baby
For The Love Of The Doctor
Doctor Of My Dreams
Cowboy Love
Saving The Cowboy
African Attraction
My Caring Cowboy
Books By The BWWM Crew (Free on Kindle Unlimited)
Violet Jackson
Dating A Doctor
The Love Ranch
Doctor's Love (Complete Series)
Loving The Doctor
Doctor's Baby
Doctor's Soul
The Nurse's Secret Love
Heart of Fire
Country Vibes
Doctor's Love
Falling For The Doctor
The Billionaire's Bodyguard
Jamaica, I Love You
City Vibes – Complete Series
Wanda Lewis
Love & Mocha Lattes
BWWM Crew Collab
BWWM Crew 6 in 1 BWWM Romance Bundle
About Tasha Jones
Hey,
I'm Tasha and thank you so much for taking the time to take a read through my book. I'm a young mother of one, with a loving husband, currently living in Jacksonville, and am a big reader. I've decided to turn my love for books into something more, and have started to passionately write more and more. I recently went on a trip to Africa with my fam, and got many ideas for stories on that trip. I also love traveling and cooking and hope it shows in my writing. I really hope you enjoy my writing and I can bring just a tiny bit of joy into your day.
Thanks,
Tasha
About This Book
A Brooklyn Love story about the healing power of love and redemption.
Jackie Brown only loved two things more than anything in this world. Her daughter and her paintings. But after her daughter almost gets into an accident she finds herself in a hospital with a handsome doctor who she can see herself loving. But Jackie holds herself back as she is a damaged woman, whose past is much darker than anyone realizes.
Dr. Allan Chase always had a sweet spot for damsels in distress. As a top physician nothing brought more joy into his heart than helping people in need. Always a professional, he prided himself on giving everything he had to his patients. But when Jackie comes into his office with a wounded Laila, Dr. Chase finds himself for the first time also wanting to give his heart to this single mother.
Will the doctor and Jackie find love? Or will the scars of her past, and her terrible secret keep her from loving and being loved in the future?
Find out in this touching romance by bestselling author Tasha Jones.
This hot and steamy BWWM romance is for adult audiences 18+ only
Chapter One
“Victoria, can you please just hurry up? The later we get there, the later we leave!” Jackie stepped out of the bathroom of her small apartment just across the Brooklyn Bridge and entered her living room to find her best friend, Victoria, sitting on her couch, only about halfway done with her makeup.
Victoria glanced up from her mirror, her eyebrow raised in a non-committal way. “Is that really what you're wearing?” she asked, her green eyes scanning Jackie's curvy figure from the tip of the scarf she had tied across her forehead to the point of her flats.
Jackie looked down at herself, smoothing her tight velvet skirt. Finding the right outfit to go clubbing in was always difficult, but having to dress for the New York January weather made it ten times more annoying. “Look, this is the third outfit. It's the best you're gonna get,” she replied.
Victoria scoffed, dropping her foundation brush on Jackie's small futon, and swiped up her first generation iPod. “Okay, well, you go find another outfit.”
Jackie frowned. “You know what, if it will make you happy then fine,” she muttered darkly before going back around the screen that separated her bed from the rest of her apartment. She ripped through her long exposed rack of clothing, running her fingers along the sweaters, jackets and pants that made up her winter collection of clothing, but nothing caught her eye at all. By the time she had sifted through every single thing she owned, she was just about ready to throw in the towel and settle down with a rented film for the rest of the night. Victoria could battle the men in her conquest for liquor all by herself.
“But what about this?”
Jackie turned to find Victoria standing just around the corner of her screen, holding a hanger with a velvet electric blue mini dress hanging off of it. Her eyes went wide. “I can't wear that. My dead grandmother would turn over in her grave.”
Victoria rolled her eyes as she stepped behind the screen and threw the dress onto her bed. “Don't bring your grandmother into this.”
Jackie rubbed her hand along the dress, her lips folding into a smirk as she examined every fold of the dress, or lack thereof. She couldn't go back from it, once she had taken a good look at the dress. The thought of wearing it scared and excited her at that same time and that's what made it the perfect clubbing outfit. “You're gonna kill me before the night is out, honey,” she muttered as she kicked her flats off, peeled down her stockings and slipped out of her clothes.
“Damn, you've got a great curvy body girl. I wish I had some meat on my bones,” Victoria hollered, running her thin hands through her big head of blonde hair.
“That's enough,” Jackie replied as she tried her best to slip the dress on as quickly as possible.
Victoria just laughed at her, the sound ringing through the air. “Honey, that's just the sobriety talking,” she replied as she scurried into the kitchen, no doubt to fix another hurriedly-mixed drink for her.
Jackie slipped her feet back into the shoes she had meticulously picked out for herself, and then joined Victoria in the kitchen. She was standing against the back of Jackie’s counter, her hair dipping all the way down to her waist. Jackie placed her hands on each one of Victoria’s shoulders, her gaze reaching clean over her friend's head. “I just want it straight up,” she muttered.
Victoria turned, placing the teacup filled about a quarter of the way with liquor in her hand. “How wild,” she teased.
Jackie chuckled. “God no. I just want to leave. Go finish your makeup. I'll pour myself another shot,” she replied.
And so Jackie stood in the microscopic kitchen area of her small apartment, chugging shot after shot as she watched Victoria
shadow and then line her eyes, mascara her lashes and finish with lipstick. By the time the girl was ready, Jackie had taken down a quarter of the bottle of gin and followed her thoughts all the way to the essay that was waiting to be written and due in less than 48 hours. Luckily for her, before she could finish thinking about the thesis and how severely her croak of a professor would judge her, Victoria stood up, slipped her small purse over her shoulder and joined her in the kitchen. Jackie released a sigh of relief, dropping the mug in her sink and lifting both of her hands to her head to fluff out the thick curls that crowned her head. “Okay then let's go!” she exclaimed.
With that, the two girls set out to their favorite club: a hole in the wall, on the corner of Prince and Houston Street, the heart of SoHo. Jackie and Victoria waited for less than ten minutes in the long line of people before the bouncer picked them up and admitted them, stopping only to hastily scan their IDs. Once inside, Jackie swept the small room, gingerly breathing the heavy air, wet with the scent of liquor and infused with a tinge of cigarette smoke. One small bit of her loved that atmosphere, the other bit of her wanted to leave as soon as possible. That nervous tingle had sprouted in the pit of her stomach and was making its way through to the tips of her fingers and the bottoms of her toes.
Before she could think too hard about how all of it was making her feel, Victoria wrapped her hand around Jackie's arm and led her down the short stairs, onto the main floor of the club and across the dance floor. As they sifted through the crowd of people, she could feel strange hands caressing her body, accidentally and on purpose. She made eye contact with almost everyone she walked past, her mind wandering almost as quickly and as restlessly as her desire, until someone placed a hand on her hip, and kept it there. She looked up to find a face gazing down on her, but just as she tried to get a good look at him, the strobes began. In the flashing lights, it took everything in her to keep from falling over. Nevertheless, the only thing she knew about him was the fact that he smelled good and was gloriously tall.
“Do you want a drink?” he murmured into her ear, his voice sounding like a glorious mix of youth and maturity.
Felling tipsy, Jackie laughed, but the sound of it was lost in the music. She reached up, grabbing the back of his neck and drawing his head back down to her level. “I don't need a drink. Let's just dance,” she replied, her lips pressed against his ear. She couldn't draw away without first planting a kiss on that bit of skin just above his ear.
She felt him smile beneath her lips. “All right,” he replied as he rested both of his hands on her hips and gently moved her so that she was standing in front of him. She reached up to him, placing her palm on his cheek to balance herself. They swayed back and forth together, Jackie getting more and more into him the more they danced. She looked up to find Victoria less than a foot away, necking with a guy who looked like he spent all of his free time in a gym.
“You are so hot,” he whispered.
The sensation of his breath brushing against her skin was enough to send her into a frenzy. However, she didn't know if it was the alcohol, the strobe lights, or the music, but she was starting to feel extremely out of control. She turned herself around, pressing her body against his for no other reason than the fact that she needed the support and couldn't handle herself without it. “Actually, I think I do need that drink,” she murmured into his ear.
He slipped his hands from around her waist, taking her face in both of his hands. Before she could take another breath, he pressed his lips against hers, prying her mouth open with his tongue. Jackie's eyes flashed wide open as what was a sweet surprise quickly changed into an unwanted advance. She couldn't believe how aggressive he had suddenly become, eating her face under the dark cover of the club. Her stomach lurched at the taste of cigarettes in his mouth and, all at once, the last thing she wanted was to spend another moment with him. Thankfully, he pulled away. “What will you have?” he asked, snaking his hand down her arm and intertwining his fingers in hers.
Jackie cocked her head to one side as she took her hand out of his. “Look, it's just gonna be water. I'll actually be fine by myself.” She had to yell the words to make sure that they were heard over the thick sound of music banging against the walls.
But he dragged her back towards him just when she thought she was getting away. “No, you look. I need you. Let me get you something. Come on,” he begged.
He was becoming more and more unattractive by the minute. Jackie decided it wasn't worth the argument and made her way to the bar without him, but just as she reached it, she turned to find that he had followed her. “I'm really dizzy. I mean it. I need some air.”
But he drew her towards him yet again, caging her in his tight grip and pressing his lips against hers. “But I need you.”
Jackie exerted as much force as she could to get away from him, but she couldn't budge. “No. I'm honestly just not into it. Can you get that?” she asserted, but when he still would not let her go, she started to panic. She tried to pull away yet again, but he grabbed her arm and led her even farther away from the dance floor. She could feel her stomach rolling with fear as they moved through the crowd; no one even realized she needed help, let alone go through the pain of trying to intervene. Before she could blink twice, they were out in the cold air and Jackie's face was starting to hurt. As it was getting late at that point, there was almost no one left in line waiting to get into the club. He dragged her down the dark street and into an empty alley, pressing her back against the dirty brick wall. “I want you right here.”
Jackie tried to push him away, but he flipped her over, banging her head against the hard surface. Blood trickled down the side of her face, but she was too disoriented to push him away at that point. And yet, just as the ringing in her ears was beginning to subside, she felt him peel her skirt up. Her jaw swung open and her throat swelled for a scream, the cold air biting at the back of her neck. “Stop!” she hissed, but he had already unzipped.
The next thing she felt was him inside of her.
Chapter Two
*** 6 Years Later ***
Jackie's eyes flashed open to the sun streaming through her open window and the sound of a fire truck's sirens wailing through the morning air as it sat suspended at the corner of Nostrand Avenue, trapped amongst the morning rush. Jackie sunk back into her bed, covering her eyes with her arm as she tried to tell herself that it couldn't be the next morning; not just yet. With a sigh, she yanked herself up and checked her phone. There were two voice mails. “Who the hell leaves voice messages?” she asked herself as she pressed the button and pressed it to her ear. A smile dragged itself across her tired face as the sound of her mother's voice; the best combination of tranquil and wise filled her ears.
“Jackie? Jackie? You didn't answer my phone call last night. I thought something had happened to you. Anyway, I think I left my glasses at your little loft. Just let me know if you find them. I can't read the Gospels without them.”
Jackie put her phone down, deciding to ignore the second voice mail for as long as she could. Her mother couldn't have left two. “Laila!” she called, her voice still rough from the shoddy six-hour night. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and glanced at herself in the mirror that hung on the opposite wall from her bed. Her residual frown deepened as she noticed just how tired she looked. Her skin, which had started to darken as a result of the increasing temperatures and solar intensity of the impending spring, showed signs of deep wrinkles and strong discoloration. A rim of purple shadows, her hazel pupils contrasting beautifully with her olive skin, surrounded her heavily lidded eyes. She ran her hands through her soft, thick curls, wincing as each finger got caught. She told herself to stop going to bed without a nightcap because it was really getting to be ridiculous.
“Laila!” she screamed after another five minutes of no response from the raised platform, which constituted her daughter's bedroom.
She stumbled out of her room and into the short hallway and huge parlor
beyond. An entire wall of windows, badly maintained, but windows nonetheless, covered the east side of her parlor, allowing the sun to simply pour in. It was the only good thing about her terribly accessed, impossibly segregated, century-old Brooklyn apartment. As she crossed the parlor, her feet slamming against the wood, rapidly heating from the sun, she wondered at how spoiled she was to think that throughout all of her undergrad, she had lived in a perfectly accessed subway in downtown Manhattan. She plugged in the coffee maker and then reentered her parlor. “Laila!” she called. By the time she got to her daughters room, she paused to catch her breath. She was a long way away from her nights of clubbing and her days of dance classes and yoga. With a sigh, she reached the foot of her daughter's bed. She couldn't help but to smile at the small form just underneath the quilt her grandmother had given her for her fifth birthday. Her tiny chest rose and fell with her every breath, the little wheezing sound filling the room.
Jackie rounded her bed, and gently shook her daughter. Once she was standing right next to her, watching her sleep ever so calmly, she found it extremely difficult to be firm with her. After all, Jackie had just had the hardest time getting herself out of bed. She nudged at her, willing her to wake up.
Laila moaned, stirring under her covers, but her eyes remained closed. “No,” she mumbled, before turning her face back into the pillow.
