by Laura Avery
TREMBLE
BOOK FIVE
AN ENEMIES TO LOVERS DARK ROMANCE
BY LAURA AVERY
Copyright 2018 Laura Avery, all rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced without written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Tremble is an enemies to lovers dark romance and is intended for mature audiences only. It contains triggers and is extremely possessive and crude. Please don’t read if strong sexual situations, language, violence, drugs, and bullying offends you. All individuals portrayed in this work of fiction are eighteen years of age or older. This edition includes a bonus MC read.
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Chapter One
“Perfection had a name.”
WINTER
*Present
The woman who stood in front of me was intensely beautiful even with the scowl on her face. I let my eyes travel up and down her body, trying to make sense of the huge bomb she had just dropped on me. Bright blue eyes, perfectly arched cheekbones, big pouty lips. And that body, don’t even get me started, legs for days and a chest to match.
She was absolutely gorgeous.
And me? I was average. Replaceable. Nothing more than an excuse for Caden to extract revenge on. Part of his long-running twisted web of cruelty and games. Not to mention a tied up, bloody mess, who had just lost her innocence to another woman’s man.
I was also insanely pissed.
“You bastard,” I mumbled, forgetting all about his rules and need to be in control. He had just taken my virginity when he had a girlfriend, I didn't care how much he hated me. There was far and then there was too far. “Let me go.” I moved my hands back and forth over the headboard trying to get loose. “Untie me right now!”
“Would you stop being so dramatic?” Caden slipped out of bed, grabbing a pair of boxers and slipping them over his still half hard cock. “What the fuck are you doing here, Jen?”
Ah, perfection had a name.
“No,” she spat, narrowing her eyes at me. “What is she doing here? How many times are we going to go through this Caden?” She took a threatening step toward me. “I don’t know how many bitches I have to put in their place before they get the message that you're taken.”
I cringed. Any other day I might have felt like Caden was worth a fight. The thought of him even touching someone else made me crazy but fuck him and fuck that. He didn’t deserve a fight from me; he didn’t deserve anything from me after putting me in such a compromising position.
“Caden!” I shot him daggers. “Fucking untie me. Now!”
Caden sighed loudly like the whole situation was giving him a headache.
“Hey,” Jen snapped. “Don’t talk to him, don’t even look at him.”
“Then let me out of here!”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Caden said firmly.
The hell I’m not.
“LET ME OUT OF HERE!” I started screaming as loud as I could, flapping my arms and legs around. Even if Caden didn’t think this was a big deal I knew his brother would. He was already worried enough about him getting himself into trouble so soon after he got released from prison. “LUKE! LUKE!”
“Would you shut the fuck up?” Caden snapped, moving toward me.
“Would you stop your screaming?” Jen beat him to me, pulling open the drawer next to the bed and bringing a sharp metal object to the top of the headboard and cutting me loose quickly.
“Why the hell is she calling out for your little brother? Jesus, is she fucking both of you? What kind of sluts are you bringing home with you, Caden?”
Wow, someone knew her way around.
“Just you, Jen,” he spat sarcastically.
I bathed in my new freedom, jumping up from the bed so fast that I knocked over the lamp on the bedside table. The impact of the metal landing on my foot barely slowed me down at all. I brushed off the sting instead, grabbing one of my bags from the side of the room and tearing it open in search of any type of clothing that could cover my body so I could get the hell out of there.
“Are you calling me a slut?” She pushed her hands onto her hips and then glanced down at me, raising her eyebrows at the fuzzy pink sweater and shorts I had pulled onto my body. She shook her head. “Alright, that’s it, you and me outside. Right now.”
I glanced over at Caden, looking for some kind of explanation, some kind of reason why all this was happening. I just wanted him to explain himself, I wanted him to tell me this was all some kind of joke, I wanted him to put this girl in her place the way he seemed to have no trouble doing when it came to me. But his green eyes were just locked on me, challenging me, refusing to say anything just like always.
Caden Dean didn’t have to explain himself to anyone, especially me.
I hated the way my heart ached, the way I longed to reach out and touch him, to claim him as a part of me. I was guessing it was the same way Jen felt at that moment. The difference was she wanted to fight for him and I didn’t. I was tired of fighting, tired of trying so hard just to lose over and over again.
“I don’t want to fight,” I informed her, still looking at Caden. His large body was leaning against the side of the bed, his bare chest rising and falling with anticipation as he watched me. “You can have him.”
His green eyes took on a shadow. “Watch it, pet.”
“I don’t want him,” I declared.
Caden’s knuckles clenched to the side of his body.
My words were getting under his skin; the fact that I had the nerve to say I didn’t want him when he was supposed to be in complete control of me was consuming him with even more rage than he normally carried around. He shook his head and took one step forward, warning me.
Jen’s mouth hung open in shock. “She doesn’t even want to fight for you? Is that some kind of joke?” She pushed her long blonde hair to the side of her face and half chuckled. “Are you kidding me? Do you even know who he is?”
“Shut the fuck up, Jen,” Caden seethed, still not looking at her. “Winter.”
My name sounded like venom coming from his lips, laced with too many different emotions for me to even begin to understand. He was about two seconds from crossing the room and reminding me once and for all just how much I belonged to him and no one else.
But Jen belonged to him, too?
No.
No way.
I didn’t want to share.
It hurt too much to share.
God, I hated him for making me feel this way.
“I don’t want to fight for him,” I declared, forcing the tremble out of my voice, clouding over it with the fake voice I had gotten used to perfecting since he had been away. “Why would I do that? I don’t even like him.” I pushed away the tears that were trying to spill out of my eyes and backed up further, placing my body firmly into the hallway. “I hate him.”
Caden narrowed his eyes at me; a deep fire I’d never seen on a man crept into his eyes. He was processing my words, letting my disobedience soak into his perfectly tanned skin and sink into his veins.
I backed away before he could further react, taking the steps downstairs two at a time and running as fast as I could toward the front door and down the sidewalk. I didn’t stop to catch my breath until I was at least two blocks away. Only then, with my hands on my knees and my head between my legs did I let myself start to cry.
They were loud, ugly, huge tears.
But they were also short-lived.
It was stupid to cry over the loss of something you never really had to begin with.
Chapter T
wo
“The man of my nightmares.”
WINTER
*One year ago
Watching Caden Dean without his knowledge was like witnesses a beautiful storm from the center. He was always so intense and lost, breathtaking and evil all at the same time. It was like getting a glimpse into something you were never supposed to experience in your lifetime.
And, oh, how I longed to be wrapped up inside of it.
That’s all I could think about as I watched him pushing around something in the trunk of his fancy car, his head bowed down so that I could only make out the outline of his squared jaw and intense scowl. He was clearly worked up, more pissed off than usual.
I wasn’t sure if that was because of what I had just witnessed going down with his brother from the safety of my bedroom or because something deeper and darker was eating him up inside.
Something darker than usual.
He worked quickly as if he had somewhere extremely important to be. As if he were involved in a life or death situation. And for all I knew he could have been, Caden Dean was a mystery our whole town had been trying to crack for as long as I could remember.
I let my eyes travel up the back of his long legs and rest on his ass.
And what an ass it was.
I blushed at the realization that I was checking him out. Not to mention my pussy was starting to get wet underneath my panties. Part of the reason I hated being around Caden so much. As scared as I was by him, he still turned me on. My body didn’t care that it would never happen, that Caden Dean hated me so much that it consumed him, or that he happened to be totally out of my league. No, the only thing my body cared about was how panty dropping sexy he was.
I wanted to be on top of that.
I pushed the thoughts out of my mind and shivered, trying to get my emotions under control. Caden still had his back to me, mumbling in annoyance as he continued whatever task he had going on in the trunk of his car. I wanted to say something, anything. I wanted to be there for him, it was stupid, I knew that, but I couldn’t help the part of me that wanted to get through to him.
Only I was the last person he would ever want help from.
His large body swung around suddenly as if he could hear my thoughts and his eyes narrowed into the darkness. “Jesus Crist, Winter,” he sighed, slamming his trunk shut and stomping down the driveway to where I stood in the middle of the street. “What the fuck are you doing?”
It was a legitimate question.
Especially since I had no idea.
All I knew was that I had seen him through his kitchen window from my roof, fighting with Luke, looking so lost and angry. I’d had this intense urge to help him, to make it go away. Why did I want to fix him so much? I shouldn’t want anything to do with a man who hated me purely for existing.
“Winter.” Caden lowered his voice, growing furious. “I said what the fuck do you think you’re doing out here in the middle of the street?” He pushed his grip into my elbow and pulled my body closer so that I was pressed up against his chest. “It’s the middle of the night.”
My body fluttered at his closeness, just like always. Lord, the muscles under those clothes felt so tight and defined. I just wanted to reach out and run my fingers up and down his chest a few times. I tried to detangle myself from him, suddenly feeling light-headed. “I was just… I want just… uh…”
“You were just what?” he demanded, pulling me into him even harder.
“I was just going for a walk?” I offered up lamely.
He narrowed his eyes and turned around, pulling me back across the street after him and up his driveway until we reached his car. He pushed my body into the side of his door and closed in on me, boxing me in my placing each of his hands on the car door. “I want you to listen carefully, pet, because you know I don’t like to fucking repeat myself.”
My body started to shake underneath him at the use of the special nickname he had come up with just for me over the years. I let my eyes settle onto his nice defined chest, not trusting myself to look him in the eye.
“Look at me when I’m talking to you.” His fingers were under my chin within seconds, forcing my eyes to his. “I don’t know what you’re doing out there but I can promise you if you have some foolish idea about meeting up with some scumbag guy I’ll kill him and then punish you so bad that you would wish you had never met him in the first place.”
I nearly choked on my own spit. He thought I was meeting a guy?
Yeah, fucking right.
That would be the day.
“What?” I spat out, stunned. “I’m not meeting a guy.”
He titled his head to the side and moved his hand to the gape of my neck, pushing it roughly to the side as he leaned his lips into my ear. “You better not be, Winter, or I swear to God it will be the last thing he ever does.” His grip tightened and he moved his body against mine tighter. “That would be just the kind of thing that would send me over the edge tonight, pet.”
He didn’t have to try to convince me that he meant it. I could feel it in every inch of my body. I let my fingers creep up and touch the outer fabric of his jacket, clutching the fabric between my fingertips in an effort to steady my rapidly shaking body.
Was he jealous?
Shit, why did I want him to be so bad?
Caden kept his mouth nuzzled into my neck for a few more long moments, panting heavily as his mind continued to weave his tangled and dangerous thoughts into an even deeper web of pain and evilness.
When he finally picked his head up his lips stopped inches from mine, his chest starting to rise deeper as he took in every inch of my face. He stuck his tongue out and ran it over my bottom lip slowly. My heart was beating so heavily that I was sure he could hear it.
I inhaled. “There’s no one else,” I whispered. “No other guy.”
I was all too aware of the fact that I had said other as if I belonged to him; as if he even wanted me. It was foolish referring to him as something even somewhat resembling a boyfriend. We had never even kissed. He didn’t even like me, yet somehow it felt right.
I was so fucked up in the head.
“Good answer,” he whispered back, running his fingers over my face.
I didn’t know what response I had been expecting but that hadn’t been it. I inched forward an inch, pushing myself onto my tippy toes so that he had easier access to my mouth. He smelled so good. Like smoke and overly expensive cologne I knew I would never be able to afford.
Kiss me. Please, kiss me.
Caden moved even closer to me. “You’re nervous,” he whispered.
I nodded and he groaned, pleased with my response.
“Say it.”
“I’m really nervous.”
He pushed his tongue out again, this time running it over my top lip and playing with the bottom between his teeth. “Have you ever been kissed before, Winter?”
I wanted to move my mouth forward so badly but I was too much of a coward. Still, the thought of him being so close to me, the knowledge that at any moment he could devour my mouth in his had a heat forming between my legs I had never experience before.
I was growing insanely wet.
My poor pussy didn’t know what to do with herself.
Caden mistook my silence and his eyes started to grow dark. “Have you ever been kissed before, Winter?” He pushed his hand into my lower back and growled into my ear. “I swear to fucking God…”
“No!” I interrupted. “God, no! Never!”
He relaxed and moved his head toward mine again. “Do you want me?”
“Y-Yes,” I choked.
His mouth lowered, a mere inch from mine.
This was it. This was it.
My first kiss.
With Caden fucking Dean of all people.
“Caden!”
He jolted away from me and my body tumbled to the pavement almost hitting the ground before he caught me. “Jesus Crist, Winter,” he mumbled, standing me up straight again.
“Can you try to be careful?”
Luke glanced back and forth between his older brother and me, a puzzled expression on his face before he raised his eyebrows. “Am I interrupting something?”
Caden glanced at me then removed his hands from me altogether. “Nope.”
Nope, only the closest physical contact I had ever had with your brother.
Yup, nothing at all.
“Cool.” Luke nodded but he still sounded unsure. “So, we ready?”
“Yeah, been ready.” Caden turned to me. “Go home, Winter.”
“Where are you guys going?” I asked suspiciously, the encounter the two of them had minutes earlier in the kitchen popped into my mind now that it was starting to come down from the sexual spell Caden had cast over me. Something about the situation didn’t make sense, they had just been ready to tear one another apart, and now they were riding off somewhere together?
Luke shot his brother a worried look.
“Nowhere,” Caden snapped, his usual hard shell back in place. “None of your fucking business.” He grabbed my elbow and started to pull me after him toward the end of the driveway, turning me back toward my house on the other side of the street. “Now I want you to go straight home, Winter, and I want you to stay there. Am I making myself clear?”
I glanced over Caden’s shoulder at Luke but he pretended not to notice the exchange. Luke was like a younger, less cruel version of his big brother and it was clear based off their interactions which one of them was in charge most of the time. Caden, the impulsive and beautiful hot head. Luke, the smart and calm little brother who always thought doing the right thing would win out in the end.
Yet, he still did whatever Caden wanted every damn time.
“Pet,” he roared. “Do you hear me? Straight home. Stay there.”
“Fine,” I said slowly, backing up from him. “I’ll go,”
He didn’t respond to be obedience, watching me walk back toward my house instead. It was only after I closed the front door behind me that he and Luke finally got into his car and pulled out of the driveway, mumbling to themselves in hushed towns.
