The Complete Tempest World Box Set

by Mankin, Michelle

  “But enough wasting head space on Warren Jinkins. Let’s get you glitzed up.” Lace slid the closet open and started looking though the unworn clothes still hanging from the bar. My brow rose when I saw the things she laid out on the bed. Black leather smooth front short shorts, a sparkly see though mesh tank, and a tiny black tube top. “Trust me. You can totally pull off this look.” She held up a finger. “And I’ve got the perfect boots. I’ll be right back.”

  I’d only stripped off my shirt when she returned with a pair of over the knee black shiny boots and a half dozen black leather and silver bracelets.

  “You’re gonna make his jaw hit the floor,” she told me after she noted my uncertainty. “Go wash your face and frizz out your hair. I’ll change and come help you with your makeup.”

  Thirty minutes later, my transformation was complete. Looking in the full length mirror, I had to admit Lace was right. Ok. Not exactly. More like smokin’. I held my own with the statuesque goddess in the one shouldered grey mini-dress standing beside me.

  The boots zipped up to mid-thigh, and Lace helped me turn the cuffs over. Her pink frosted lips pulled into a wide smile. “It’s a regular Sandra Dee makeover.” She shook her head and her chandelier earrings made a tinkling sound.

  “I just need a cigarette to crush out under my boot when he sees me.” My lips twitched.

  She laughed. “Too bad Bry quit, yeah?” She linked her arm with mine. “Let’s grab Carter and go.” Carter’s eyes bugged out when he saw us, but he didn’t say anything. She ruffled his hair and handed me the key card on our way out. I tucked it in my pocket. There was nowhere for her to put it with her outfit.

  We took the elevator down to the ballroom level. There was a line at the security check but with the passes around our neck we were able to bypass it. The ballroom was packed when we entered. Bistro tables were scattered throughout the room. People congregated around them or at the elaborate buffet. A few couples swayed slowly in time with the orchestrated music on the mostly empty dance floor.

  The light from the disco ball hanging from the ceiling reflected off the sparkles on my top. I rubbed my bare arms partly because I was cold in the skimpy outfit, but mostly because I was nervous. I was getting a lot of attention, but that was ok. Things were different now. Other guys could look all they wanted, but they couldn’t have me. I was taken. Whether I was sexy or subdued, I was all his. All of me. All for him. No more hiding. No more doubts.

  I quickly scanned the room for Justin. As the couple in front of me parted, I found him. He was standing next to Dizzy across the dance floor. I was a little sad to see that my lavender shirt had been replaced, but he looked sinfully handsome in a white shirt with the top two buttons undone exposing his collarbone. His hair looked freshly washed and was tousled over his brow and his dark jeans fit him well, snug as usual in all the right places.

  Lace followed the direction of my stare. “I’m taking Carter to get a soda. I’m sure he’ll want to see Justin in a minute. But it’s your moment now. Rock his world, Gigi.”

  I nodded absently, but my eyes were locked on him and my purpose was clear. I threw back my shoulders, summoned my confidence, and strutted toward him.

  Dizzy saw me first. He did a double take, and then elbowed Justin. “Isn’t that Bridget?” I heard him ask.

  Justin’s head snapped in my direction. He gave me a fast head to toe scan. Then he blinked as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. So he looked me over again, this time taking his time. The edges of his mouth curled as he came toward me. When only a foot remained between us, his arms flashed out, and he pulled me in and wrapped them around me tightly. Like he would never let me loose. “I love you,” he said his mouth near my ear, his breath warm on my neck. Then he leaned his head back to look at me. “I know what she said to you.” His eyes searched mine. “None of it’s true. She’s a bitch and a liar. She’s not fit to breathe the same air as you. I was in a different place back when I was with her. I…”

  “I shouldn’t have believed her.” I put my fingers over his lips. “You’ve never given me a reason to doubt you. I let my fears drown out what I knew was the truth. I’m sorry.”

  “Babe,” he breathed and I knew he accepted my apology even before he swung me around in a celebratory circle. “You look hot enough to need a warning label.” His eyes were smoldering when he put me down.

  I smiled. “Thank you. You look pretty good yourself.” I peered up at him through my lashes, suddenly feeling those nerves again. I bit my lip and marshaled my thoughts. “I wasn’t prepared for someone like you, Justin. Someone patient and understanding who could help me find faith in myself again. Who could help me become the person that I’ve always wanted to be. The person that I was, before all the poison in my life put me in a dreamless sleep. But you woke me up and rescued me from my fear and doubt. And you made me some beautiful promises. Promises I treasure. Promises I want to return along with a few of my own.” My fingers tightened on his solid forearms. “I promise I won’t allow anything to ever come between us again. I promise to take every single one of your ‘I love you’s and give them back to you with interest.” I pulled in a breath to finish. “And if for some reason my glass wall needs to come back up again,” I glided my fingers up into the silky hair at his nape and pulled his face down to mine. “I promise that you’ll be on the inside with Carter and me. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me, Justin Jones.”

  “I accept,” he whispered as if I’d proposed to him and then his lips came crashing down on mine. I parted mine eagerly under his strategic assault and his tongue swept inside to reclaim what was already his. I slid my hands down his hard back, arched into him, and moaned my surrender.

  “Mommy.”

  Justin ended the kiss, and rested his forehead against mine. His gorgeous face filled my vision, and there was a forest fire of heat blazing in his eyes.

  I got the unspoken message. He’d take care of me later.

  He took one step back and stretched out an arm to Carter. “Missed you, Champ,” he told him. “I’m proud of you for taking such good care of your mom. When do you think we can convince her to make us a family… officially?”

  EPILOGUE

  Justin

  “Move your toes all the way to the edge,” I told him.

  Looking at me expectantly, Carter scooted forward, styling it in his new Volcom swim trunks that matched mine exactly.

  “That’s good.” Then I felt something really good. Her. Breasts pressed into my bare back as she moved up behind me in the pool and wrapped her arms around my waist. I had the image of her in that hot new pink string bikini seered into my brain. It was almost as hot as that outfit she’d worn when she met me at the afterparty. I’d kept those boots as a souvenir. The things we’d done with her in them…well, let’s just say Lace was never getting them back.

  I lowered my head to bring her delicate clasped hands closer. I brushed my mouth across both her knuckles, accustomed now to the fierce emotion that tightened my chest whenever she touched me. Covering her hands with my own, I glanced over at Carter. He was watching us with a patient smile ghosting his lips. “Try to use your knees to put a little more spring in the jump this time. Diving’s like life champ. You can’t do it halfway. You have to go all in to get it just right.”

  Carter nodded, positioned his hands, and then executed a flawless dive with barely a ripple. When he surfaced, he held the heart I’d fashioned from wire and red ribbon.

  “What’s that?” Bridget asked her chin resting on my shoulder.

  “Bring it here and let’s see,” I said without giving anything away.

  “It’s got your name on it Mommy,” Carter said with exaggerated excitement as he splashed over.

  I drew Bridget around to my front, cradling her in my arms. She took the heart from Carter and peered up at me suspiciously through the darkened fringe of her wet lashes. “When did you do this?” she asked.

  “I have my ways.” I grinne
d. “It is Valentine’s Day, after all.”

  “You know with everything that’s been going on, I completely forgot.”

  Yeah, that was an understatement. Lately, her cell had been plastered to her ear. The witchy stepmother hadn’t contested. Why would she with a bulldog like Maurice Trigg breathing down her neck. Evelyn had been wiser than I’d given her credit for being, hopping on her broomstick, and flying out of our lives, hopefully this time for good. Crystal Hotels, the Dubois family legacy, was now back in the proper hands. The board was looking for a new CEO, and Bridget had a meeting scheduled to go over a list of potential candidates at the end of the month. She was also planning to propose other changes that I thought were pretty damn cool. Apparently, my woman was as capable as she was beautiful.

  “That’s ok,” I told her. “I’ve actually got a few ways that you can make it up to me in mind.”

  Her blue eyes sparkled back at me in a way that told me she liked that idea.

  “It looks like you missed something.”

  She lifted the heart closer and I heard her sharp intake of breath when she finally saw the square cut emerald solitaire. “What’s this?”

  “I’ve had it for a while. You probably don’t want to know how long. You’d think I was impulsive. And maybe I am a bit, but I recognized what we had early on.” I ran my thumb over her bottom lip. “I was fully committed to making you mine a long time ago.” I framed her beautiful face, and could hear the deep emotion in my voice as I spoke. “Bridget Dubois.” She clutched the heart to her chest and stared up at me. “I promise to love you and cherish you, and Carter, as long as I live. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes,” she whispered without hesitation, eyes bright. I lowered my head and kissed her softly, breaking the kiss much sooner than I wanted in order to be sure to include a boy I already thought of as my own son.

  “Did I do good?” He swam in between us.

  “You were perfect, Champ. An aquatic superhero,” I praised and he beamed.

  “Help me get this loose,” Bridget muttered, frustrated with the wire.

  As I helped her, I heard loud voices. I glanced over to see that the celebratory committee had arrived. Right on time.

  I got the ring off and slid it on her wet finger.

  Her eyes misting, she pulled her hand to her chest and then kissed me hard. “I love you.”

  “You guys gonna make out in the pool,” Lace teased, “or are you gonna come to the party room and celebrate? Everyone’s waiting. I made cupcakes.”

  “Yippee!” Carter exclaimed, kicking toward the ladder.

  “Dry off really well,” Bridget called after him.

  “I will,” Carter replied, taking the blue and white striped towel Lace offered him.

  I kept Bridget close at my side, helping her into a terry cloth hotel robe. I freed her soaked platinum tresses from the collar and carefully arranged them around her shoulders. “I love you,” I whispered, kissing her soft neck.

  “Please!” Lace mock grumbled. “All this sweetness is giving me a toothache.”

  We followed her into the room just off the pool deck. A handwritten congratulatory butcher paper banner had been taped onto the back wall and decorative streamers hung haphazardly throughout the room and from the tv that was mounted in the corner.

  King and Sager clapped me on the back and offered me their best wishes while Lace escorted Bridget to a table decorated with silver and red records, a fifties rock ’n roll theme, quirky and quintessentially Lace.

  I took a couple of glasses of champagne that Bryan offered me and made my way to where Lace, Bridget, Carter, and Dizzy were seated. King and Sager dragged a couple of extra chairs over so we could all squeeze in together around the same table. “I’ll go back and get the cupcakes,” I volunteered, not forgetting Carter’s keen interest in them earlier.

  I picked up the platter, but before I had managed to turn back around, I felt the mood drop in the room. The sudden chilling silence made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I spun around, my gaze automatically going to Bridget and Carter. She along with the rest were staring up at the television in the corner, their faces registering varying degrees of shock.

  “Where’s the remote,” Bryan growled.

  “Here.” Dizzy grabbed it and pointed it at the television, his brows down, his piercing eyes glinting in the fluorescent lights.

  As the volume rose, I froze.

  “…former front man of the rock band Tempest refused to make a comment today as he left Zenith headquarters in San Francisco.” All eyes were on the screen as Warren Jinkins wearing mirrored sunglasses was escorted through a throng of reporters to a limo with darkened windows.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, uneasiness churning in my gut.

  “It’s Warren’s mother,” Lace answered, her voice barely audible. She blinked through the sheen that covered her eyes obviously searching for composure. “She was shot and killed during a robbery at the convenience store where she worked.”

  Holy hell.

  She shook her head, but she was barely paying attention to me anymore. Her gaze was zeroed in on Bryan.

  He had his phone to his ear. “Fuck.” The one word expletive was heavy with emotion as he stared back at her. “He’s not answering.”

  CAPTIVATING BRIDGE

  A structure spanning and providing passage over a gap or barrier; a musical passage linking two sections of a composition.

  CHAPTER ONE

  War

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shouted at the powdery pink confection yanking her down from her precarious perch before she could plunge into the icy current below.

  Almost-A-Statistic was a tiny piece of ass. I’d lifted amplifiers heavier than her. But after chugging a fifth of whiskey my balance wasn’t all that great. So instead of setting her down safely on the dry side of the bridge railing as I’d planned, we both ended up in a sprawled heap on the pavement.

  Her on top.

  Me on the bottom. My customary spot in life.

  At least she had me and the padding of her ski jacket to cushion her fall.

  I wasn’t so lucky. I had nothing to soften the impact. But then again I had a lot of practice being smacked down.

  Forgotten.

  Discarded.

  Abandoned.

  My whole damn life.

  Grew up with nothing and no one really. A one man island. Made the mistake of letting a select few on there with me that I thought I could trust. What did that get me?

  Cut down at the knees.

  Stabbed in the fuckin’ back.

  Best friend screwing the woman I’d loved since high school. Secrets kept from me by my so-called bandmates. So I left ’em. Left everything that meant anything to me. Brought so low. Hurt so much. I thought my life couldn’t get any worse. Then that phone call came to let me know that well yeah it could.

  The mother who had barely even acknowledged my existence had been snatched away from me, too.

  Cold air rushed through the new rips in my jeans and my backside began to throb where the hard ass pavement had done a fuckin’ number on me. I ignored the hint of soft curves pressing against me, focusing my resentment on the chick I’d just rescued instead. I blasted her with all my pent up shit, the self-hatred, the bitterness, and the hopeless rage as if she were somehow responsible for it. Those emotions had brought me here, ready to end it all. And I would have already, if it hadn’t been for her ill-timed, inconsiderate interruption.

  Recoiling from my artic glare, Pink pushed off me, grimacing as her ass hit the ground.

  I grinned, my lips curling at her obvious discomfort.

  Welcome to my world, bitch.

  “I just saved your life, you…you…ass…you ingrate.” Eyes a startling peridot green flashed at me as she sputtered. “I saw you put your foot up on the railing. You were about to jump. Besides that you’re obviously drunk…inebriated. Everyone knows you shouldn’t drink when you’re depr
essed.” She put mittened hands to her hips, her brow arching slightly as if challenging me to disagree. “It only makes things worse.”

  I laughed, not because she was funny, but ’cause she was right.

  I was ready to punch my ticket off this whole fucking me up the ass world.

  Eyes narrowing, I took some time to reconsider my wanna be savior. Wisps of hair an artificial shade of blonde peeked out from under a slightly askew bubble gum colored cap and framed a pale too-cute-to-be-beautiful face. Pepto-Bismol tip to toe, from her lipstick to her custom Nike sneakers.

  I couldn’t get an exact gauge on her age with her figure mostly hidden by that heavy coat, but she looked young. Way young, maybe enough to get you arrested if you went there kind of young.

  I’d just about made up my mind that she wasn’t worth the trouble when my gaze came back up to her face. There was something in her eyes, swirling near the surface of their light green depths. Something that once upon a time I might’ve been interested in figuring out…but not anymore.

  I was done with chicks.

  Done with the drama.

  Just plain fuckin’ done.

  “You don’t know jack.” I drew myself up, clumsy and stumbling a bit as I got to my feet.

  “I know a lot. More than you think.” Lip between her teeth, her head moved tracking my movement. “I knew you’d stop me from doing what you were getting ready to do yourself,” she concluded, blinking up at me all doe eyed as I stared down at her.

  “Holy fuck!” I exclaimed as that sank in. “What do you think this is, Pink? The bridge scene from It’s a Wonderful Life? Well breaking news, Sunshine. This ain’t fuckin’ Christmas. You ain’t no guardian angel. And I sure as fuck ain’t no do-gooding George Bailey.” I gesticulated toward the rail. “Go ahead. Climb back up. I won’t stop you this time.”