PLAYED: A Small Town Billionaire Romance (Reckless Falls Book 5)

by Vivian Lux

  Table of Contents

  [G1]

  [G2]

  [G3]

  [G4]

  [G5]

  [G6]

  [G7]

  [G8]

  [G9]

  [G10]

  [G11]

  [G12]

  [G13]

  [G14]

  [G15]

  [G16]

  [G17]

  [G18]

  [G19]

  [G20]

  [G21]

  [G22]

  [G23]

  [G24]

  [G25]

  [G26]

  [G27]

  [G28]

  [G29]

  [G30]

  [G31]

  [G32]

  [G33]

  [G34]

  [G35]

  [G36]

  [G37]

  [G38]

  [G39]

  [G40]

  [G41]

  [G42]

  [G43]

  [G44]

  [G45]

  [G46]

  [G47]

  [G48]

  [G49]

  [G50]

  PLAYED:

  A Small Town Billionaire Romance

  RECKLESS FALLS BOOK FIVE

  by

  Vivian Lux

  Copyright 2017

  All Rights Reserved

  This book contains adult themes, explicit language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature audiences.

  NOTE: All characters in the book are 18+ years of age, and all sexual acts are consensual.

  BOOKS BY VIVIAN LUX:

  Sons of Steel Motorcycle Club:

  Steel My Heart

  Steel Me Away

  Steel My Love

  Steel My Soul

  Rockstar Romance

  JAX: A Rockstar Stepbrother Romance

  RANE: A Rockstar Stepbrother Romance

  WILDER: A Rockstar Romance

  LOW: A Rockstar Romance

  TRUE: A Rockstar Romance

  The Reckless Falls Series:

  KEPT: A Small Town Second Chance Novella

  WRECKED: A Small Town Bad Boy Romance

  TWICE: A Small Town Menage Romance

  TIED: A Steamy Small Town Romance

  CRAVE: A Small Town Menage Romance

  PLAYED: A Small Town Billionaire Romance

  Sports Romance

  FORCE: A Bad Boy Sports Romance

  IMPACT: A Secret Baby Sports Romance

  I love to hear from my readers.

  Email me at mailto:velvetfirepress@gmail.com

  Friend me at facebook.com/vivianlux.romance

  Like me at facebook.com/vivianlux.author

  Amazon Author Page

  Hey! Want to hang out with me and maybe chat about romance, hot guys and times I fall down? Want to have chances to win giveaways and have first crack at ARC offers? Then click here to

  JOIN MY READER GROUP on Facebook!

  Get a special, subscriber only bonus epilogue to PLAYED well as a sneak peek at the next book in the Reckless Falls series by signing up to my mailing list. Click here!

  Dedication:

  Thank you to all of the new members of the Lux Lounge, especially Christine, my brand new PA. Thank you for being so excited about my books!

  About this book:

  I was just about to ruin the biggest deal of my career when I ran into Charlie Kendall.

  Literally. She hit me with her car.

  The luckiest fender-bender in history helped make me even richer than I already am.

  Seems like she's my uptight wreck of a good luck charm. She just doesn't know it. She's too weighed down with a son to take care of and a mountain of stress on her shoulders.

  She has no idea how to have fun.

  But I'm ready to teach her.

  I figured I'd only be in Reckless Falls until the deal closes and then split. I never stay in the same place for too long.

  But all that changes when Charlie decides to take a chance for once.

  She has no idea how sexy she is.

  Or how badly I want to taste her again and again.

  But I'm going to show her.

  I'm ready to play her game.

  And I always play to win.

  NOTE: PLAYED will end at around the 50% mark on your Kindle. After that, keep turning the page to read another steamy story from Reckless Falls!

  CHAPTER ONE

  Charlie

  My toddler only weighed twenty-two pounds, but he fought me like a bear mixed with Mike Tyson.

  "Buddy!" I breathed, stepping back and taking a breath. I was starting to sweat and I could practically feel my hair frizzing.

  Malcolm slid bonelessly to the floor of my car where he puddled in a pool of tears. "MomMom!" he wailed.

  Snot poured from his nose as fast as the tears flowed from his eyes. I wiped my hands down the front of my shirt and felt the damp patches where he'd soaked through the fabric. "Oh bud," I sighed, feeling that same squeeze around my heart that I always felt when I looked at my son. "Honey, I told you. MomMom is sick. She can't watch you today."

  Malcolm's fresh wail of anguish pierced my eardrum and I winced away, and as I did I saw the flicker of curtain up on the second story of the cramped house I shared with her. She was watching all of this. Of course she was. And feeling one of two things. Smugness over the fact that her grandson seemed to prefer her to his own mother, and guilt over the fact that she couldn't...or wouldn't...come out to soothe his tears.

  Then I looked down at the watch Malcolm's father had given me, the only useful thing he ever did besides give me my son, and winced again.

  "Buddy?" I said, my voice a little louder. "We need to go."

  The drive across town to my new job was only five minutes, but we had the added complication of the three minutes it would take to get to Maisie's house, plus God knows how long it would take to wrestle Malcolm out of his car seat and into her house. Plus, the added drama of me saying goodbye and leaving him there, which could take thirty seconds, or three hours depending on his mood. Which meant I could leave right now and still be a half an hour late for the new job I was only just starting to settle into. I didn't have time for any of this.

  The fact that I'd gone from a hostess and server at a shitty twenty-four-hour diner to the front-end manager of a four-star restaurant still kind of blindsided me, and I didn't completely trust that one day I wasn't going to find out it was all some sort of colossal joke.

  But until that day happened, it was the best thing that had happened to me since my son was born.

  And now my son was screwing it all up.

  "Buddy," I said through gritted teeth. "Let Mama buckle you in please."

  Malcolm responded by arching himself upward in some move that came right out of one of those Japanese horror movies. "Oh for...fudge's sake." I inhaled sharply. Then, feeling like the worst mother in the world, I jammed one forearm down into his lap — effectively bending him back into a sitting position — while with the other I wrestled the straps across his squirming body.

  He screamed directly into my eardrum and arched upward against the restraints. "MomMom!" he yelled plaintively for my mother to come help him, to rescue him from his awful fate. My ear was ringing with the sound of his distress, and I was starting to sweat. I couldn't imagine what my eye makeup looked like right now.

  But when I heard the click of the buckle across his chest, I sighed with relief. Quicker than anything, I snapped in the buckle between his legs, and yanked the whole thing tight.

  He quieted, and looked at
me in red-faced indignity.

  "Sorry bud." I shrugged. "We have to go now."

  I walked around the car, and yanked open the driver's seat side door. Malcolm was quiet as I slid behind the wheel, but it was the calm that comes before the storm. The second I turned on the engine, he opened his mouth and let out an ear-piercing scream.

  At that moment, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the rearview mirror and recoiled in horror.

  The five minutes wrestling session had left me looking like I'd been dragged through the mud backwards. My hair was definitely starting to frizz out into a blonde cloud around my head in utter defiance of the mountain of product I'd slapped in it this morning. My eyes looked wild, bloodshot from being up far too late last night trying to catch up on bills. My cheeks were pale as hell and I'd forgotten to put on blush. And to top it off, the way the light was hitting my hair right now, I thought I saw a glint of gray hair mixed in with the blonde.

  "No," I said aloud. "I'm twenty-fudging four. It's just bleached out from the summer." But in the back of my mind I remembered my mother saying she started coloring her hair at twenty-five.

  Malcolm let out another shriek as I pulled out, turning out of our little alley way onto Main Street. "Baby boy," I sighed heavily. "You have got to stop screaming."

  He responded with another ear-piercing shriek.

  Desperate, I started rummaging through my bag, and when my fingers closed around my cell phone, I took a deep breath. Screens rotted his brain, I knew that much, but you have to do what's necessary, right? "Here baby, want to play with Mama's phone?" I asked, turning and dangling it in front of him.

  He reached out with his chubby fist, and yanked it hard but his fingers couldn't close in time. I heard the sickening sound of it falling to the floor.

  I smacked my hand against the steering wheel as he began to wail anew. "Ah, Malcolm, what the — fudge..." I caught myself before I swore in front of my son. "Hang on, bud, there's a stop sign right up here." I pulled up at the same time as a fancy car with out of state plates. Some rich tourist. I wondered if they could hear Malcolm yelling right now. "Hope it ruins your vacation," I muttered uncharitably, then raised my voice for Malcolm's benefit. "Mama will get it, no don't scream anymore, Mama's got it, Mama's got it." I twisted in my seat, reaching down behind the passenger seat, but my fingers just brushed the top of it, missing it entirely. Malcolm wailed piteously and I gritted my teeth. Bracing myself against the floor, I felt my fingers start to close around it. I stood up as high as I could, raising myself up off the seat. "Almost got it..."

  "Oh, crap!" I yelled, as my foot slipped and the car jerked forward, rolling into the intersection right into the path of the fancy car. And for a second the noise of scraping metal was loud enough to drown out everything else, even Malcolm's scream of pain.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jameson

  My assistant's voice was distorted by the tinny speakers of my rental car, but his distress came through loud and clear. "Sir, I'm sorry, what was that?"

  I rolled my eyes. "I said that I didn't come back to this backwater hellhole just to sit around with my thumb up my ass," I said, carefully enunciating each word. "I've got places to be, and if they can't be bothered to show up for meetings on time..."

  Miles' voice cut through. "Sir, that's what I'm trying to tell you," he interjected. I could almost see him wincing for having interrupted me. But I let it slide. "There was a communication error. This meeting was supposed to be at two, not twelve like we had thought."

  I inhaled sharply through my nose. "Well, that's too fucking bad, isn't it?" I declared. "They don't get my money then. I'm already in the car, driving away from here as fast as I possibly can."

  "Sir," Miles pleaded. "You traveled all this way."

  "And I'll travel right the fuck back," I reminded him. "Being back in this dump is giving me hives anyway. Wait listen, you hear that? Is that...banjoes in the distance?"

  "Sir, they are very interested in meeting your terms," Miles pleaded. "I understand not wanting to stay after a mess-up of this caliber..."

  "They made me wait," I seethed. "Me."

  "Yes sir, I know."

  "I'm Jameson fucking Tellar. They need me and my checkbook to keep this development project in the black. Fucking Cole Granger sweet talked me into this bullshit in the first place just because we were roommates at Penn. Goes to show what happens when you go into business with a friend. I should have gone with my gut and told him no from the get-go."

  "Sir?" Miles deftly inserted himself into my righteously fuming tirade right as I took a breath. "Why don't you flip a coin?"

  I sighed heavily. "You think you know me, don't you Miles?" I chuckled.

  His tinny voice sounded grossly pleased with himself. "I have a vague notion, sir."

  I leaned back, and rummaged in my pocket. My thumb smoothed over the worn edge of my lucky coin. I believed in luck. It's what made me so rich in the first place. "Okay fine, I'm pulling up to a stop sign right now. Heads, I stay in Reckless Falls and go through with the stupid meeting. Tails, I get the hell away from this dumb idea in the first place. Hey, how did I let you talk me into this again anyway, Miles?"

  "You made me flip a coin, sir," Miles said witheringly.

  I grinned. "Well, here we go again then, huh? Here, I'm about to go through the intersection. Call it. Ready?" I rested the coin on the side of my finger and pressed my thumb to the edge just as I let my foot off the brake.

  All at once there was the sickening crunch of metal on metal. The whole car lurched sideways, sending my lucky coin flying as my head slammed into the window.

  For a few heart-pounding seconds I just sat there dazed, staring at the odd angle I'd come to a halt in. I'd never been diagonal on a street before. This was new.

  Then I suddenly came back to myself. "Oh what the fuck?" I shouted out loud.

  Miles was frantically shouting through the speakers. "Sir? Sir are you okay?"

  I rubbed the side of my head. "Fuck. Some yokel just plowed into the passenger side." I looked in the rearview mirror and gingerly touched the tender spot on my head. "That's gonna leave a fucking mark," I seethed. Red hot rage boiled up in my blood and suddenly I needed to fucking lay out the piece of shit who'd done this. I should have never fucking come to Reckless Falls in the first place and now I have to deal with accident bullshit. "Fucking yokel pieces of shit in this backwater town," I shouted, yanking off my seatbelt and slamming my door open. "Why don't you watch where you're fucking going, you fucking hillbilly?"

  A woman reared up out of the driver's seat, eyes blazing. "You asshole!" she shrieked, whirling around and making a beeline for the back of the car.

  "Where the fuck are you going?" I shouted, rushing to intercept her. "Don't fucking run from me like this, I will have your ass on a platter in court, you don't even know..."

  The fact that she paid me no attention at all made my already hot blood start boiling. The fact that she thought it was more important to be fucking around in her backseat than dealing with the accident she just caused made me want to punch out her window. "Hey!" I shouted, rushing around the car. "Fucking look at me!"

  At that, she snapped back up and stood tall.

  With a fucking baby in her arms.

  "Oh shit," I breathed as I saw the blood on his face. "Is he okay?"

  "I don't know," she moaned frantically, touching his little body everywhere. He squirmed in her arms and she closed her eyes and started shushing him as she swayed from side to side.

  I had this random urge to back away and give her privacy. It seemed like such a strangely intimate moment to walk into. I held my tongue and said nothing as she soothed the little boy, and in the silence, I studied her the way one would a painting hanging in a museum.

  She was dressed head to toe in black, and her tight-fitting t-shirt seemed to be painted on to those curves. I let my eyes sweep appreciatively down to her lush hips and then back up to take in her strong arms and broad sho
ulders. She had an athletic grace about her that was belied by the sweetness of her face. Her round cheeks were lightly dusted with freckles and her lips were full and pink and pouty. Her crown of blonde curls was caught up in a knot at the top of her head that swayed from side to side as she rocked the child I assumed was her son since he looked so much like her.

  For a moment, I felt like I knew that hair. I could picture it floating like a cloud around her face, above eyes that were bluer than the lake that stretched out below us.

  No not a cloud, her hair was a lion's mane. Only lionesses don't have a mane and that's what she was. A fucking feline predator. A tiger disguised as a mom.

  A strange sense of déjà vu set me off balance and I had to step forward in order to keep from stumbling. As I did, she looked up at me, blinking bright blue eyes that seemed fuzzy and unfocused.

  "Is he okay?” I asked again, gesturing to her son. I looked again at the little boy and noticed the little smear of blood near his mouth. He regarded me balefully and clung more tightly to his mother. He didn't seem permanently injured, which meant I was free to call the cops and get this whole thing reported so I could get the hell out of here, but for some reason I didn't move from the spot. "What about you? Are you okay?"

  Her eyes snapped open. "You didn't seem worried about me when you were swearing before," she pointed out with an acidic snarl.

  "You hit me," I reminded her.

  "Yeah well you just sort of... appeared," she protested weakly, then turned her attention back to her son. "I think he just bit his lip," she breathed. "Fudge." She looked at me. "Grab the roll of paper towels from the back of my car for me?"

  "You just hit me and now you want me to fetch for you?" I asked, incredulous.

  Her blue eyes blazed and I took an involuntary step back. I've faced down hostile boardrooms and emerged even richer than I was before. I've been accused of ethics violations only to have my accusers turn around and laugh along with me about how ridiculous it all was. I got in a fight with my mother at seventeen and struck out on my own with nothing but my own belief in my inherent rightness to guide me. I never let anyone get the best of me. I was Jameson fucking Tellar and there wasn't a single person in the world that dared order me around.