Blue Moon Kisses
Georgia Moon Romance Book 3
Cindy Roland Anderson
Copyright © 2017 by Cindy Roland Anderson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Line Editor: Sadie Anderson
Content Editor: Valerie Bybee
Cover Design by Novak Illustrations
Cover Photo by Valerie Bybee Photography
Cover Model: Nicole Anderson Harbertson
For my sisters Michelle, Elise and Cami. Sisters make the perfect best friend, and I’m lucky to have three.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
FREE Book
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Cindy Roland Anderson
Chapter 1
Prince Charming wasn’t being very charming. In fact, for a Southern boy, he was being downright ill-mannered. Ashlee Nichols removed his hand from her backside… again. What on earth had possessed her to go out with him?
Oh, yeah, because she’d been dumped by her boyfriend, Grayson. Usually she was the one doing the dumping. The breakup had stung. And, in a temporary lapse in judgement, she'd agreed to go out with one of her coworkers— a guy she didn’t even like.
“Look, Charming, if you try to touch me there— or anywhere else— one more time, I’m callin’ Flynn Rider to come and take care of you.” Ashlee knew Jed had a reputation, but in the four months she’d been employed at Florida’s Magic Kingdom, she’d managed to thwart all of his advances. Until now when she was most vulnerable.
“Which one?” Jed, AKA Prince Charming, said with a laugh. “Marcus is usually hanging out with Aladdin. And I’m pretty sure Austin is the loser who also plays Captain Hook.”
Ashlee couldn’t keep all the Disney cast member’s real names straight. Except for the few guys she worked with. “It’s Daniel. He’s bigger than you and wants me to tell him if you ever get out of control.”
“Sugar,” Jed said, moving toward her. “I’m always in control.” He stepped even closer. “All you have to do is enjoy it.”
Jed continued his progression until Ashlee’s back was pressed against the wall. In a moment of weakness, she’d agreed to meet him at a party with some of the other cast members in the employee housing building, but in the past thirty minutes, everyone else had disappeared. She was left alone with Jed, who obviously wanted more than she wanted. More than she was willing to give. “I didn’t come here for that.” She placed her other hand on his chest to keep him at bay. “I think I need to leave.”
Jed narrowed his eyes and grabbed her wrist, gripping it so tightly it hurt. “I don’t like games, Princess. You agreed to meet me here knowing perfectly well what I want.”
“You said there would be music and dancing and other people.” She glanced around, really hoping the other people had magically reappeared. “We seem to be the only ones left.”
He grinned wickedly, and she regretted reminding him of their solitary status. “We danced, didn’t we?” His smile widened. “Now that we’re alone, it’s time for the fun.”
A shiver of fear raced down Ashlee’s spine at the look in his eyes. She was so stupid. How did she get herself into these situations? This time she couldn’t call her brother to come rescue her. She twisted her arm, but Jed didn’t release his grip. He was really starting to scare her. She should scream, but doubted anyone would hear her. Most of the cast that she shared the same shift with had gone to some new nightclub.
Jed jerked her forward and kissed her hard. Ashlee clamped her lips together and acted on instinct, bringing her knee up to his groin. The move worked, and Jed spat out a string of ugly curse words as he let her go and doubled over in pain.
Ashlee darted around the man and grabbed the doorknob. She glanced behind her and saw Jed was still doubled over. “You ever kiss me again, I swear my daddy will hunt you down and shoot without askin’ any questions.”
As Ashlee opened the door, Jed straightened up and called her a few unsavory names. “You’re gonna regret that, Princess.”
“I don’t think so.” She slammed the door shut and rushed down the hall. Her heart hammered in her chest as she pressed the down button for the elevator. Agonizing seconds ticked by as she waited for it to descend from two floors up.
The sound of a door clicked shut, making her jump and yelp out in fear. But it wasn’t Jed coming down the hallway. Although not in a costume right now, Ashlee was positive the guy walking toward her played the role of a Storm Trooper from the Star Wars attraction. “Oh, it’s just you,” she said, placing a hand over her heart.
“Just what every guy likes to hear from a pretty girl,” Storm Trooper guy said dryly.
Ashlee tried to remember his name, but nothing came to her. To be fair, there were too many cast members to memorize all of them, but she’d ridden on the elevator more than a few times with this guy. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just didn’t want it to be… someone else.”
A door slammed loudly, and Ashlee saw Jed barge out of the room. “Someone like him,” she whispered, latching on to Storm Trooper guy’s arm.
Jed eyed her through narrow slits as he marched toward her. “You already hooked up with someone else?”
“I don’t hookup,” Ashlee said, inching closer to her new nameless friend. “Ever.” She might like kissing— a lot— but she didn’t sleep around. She wasn’t that kind of a girl. Plus, it was just plain stupid and could bring on way too many life-changing consequences, like a nasty disease or getting pregnant or both.
“Dude,” Storm Trooper guy said. “You need to chill.”
“Shut up, Ethan,” Jed said.
Ethan. At least now she had a name.
A ding sounded just before the elevator doors slid open. Ethan guided her inside, keeping her next to him.
“You can have her,” Jed snarled. Then he pivoted around and stormed back to the room he’d come from.
Ashlee heaved a sigh of relief as the elevator doors closed. Glancing up at her rescuer, she smiled. “Thank you, Ethan.”
His lips twisted up into a smirk. “Any time.” He pressed the button for the second floor where most of the girls stayed.
There wasn’t a need to keep holding on to Ethan, but Ashlee liked the way he smelled. And he was cute in a Captain America kind of way. “I feel like I need to repay you.”
One eyebrow went up. “Oh, yeah?” he said in a slightly flirtatious voice. “That sounds very… intriguing.”
She narrowed her gaze. Why did most guys only have one thing on their mind? “I was talkin’ about buyin’ you a milkshake.”
&
nbsp; The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. Ethan stepped forward and positioned himself against the door so it wouldn’t close. Still wearing a smirk, he crossed his arms over his chest. “Thanks for the invite… Ashlee, right?”
She nodded her head, impressed that he knew her name.
“I’d really like to, but I’m gonna have to say no.” He grinned. “I have a girlfriend I’m meeting in a few minutes.”
“Oh.” She was so glad she hadn’t suggested something other than buying him a milkshake. She held out her hand. “Well, thank you again, Ethan.”
He chuckled as he took her hand and gave it a firm handshake. “No problem.” He let go and stepped back inside the elevator. “By the way, my name is Zack,” he said as the door closed.
Ashlee stood there for a few seconds, irritated that Zack had let her call him Ethan without correcting her. Maybe she should spend the rest of the evening looking over the employee website with all the actor’s and actress’s names and the roles they played. She could at least try to become familiar with the ones that lived in her building.
She was almost to her room when her phone signaled she had a new Snapchat from Jed. She opened it and rolled her eyes. He was making a rude gesture with his finger and slamming her about being as cold as an iceberg and not putting out. Like that was supposed to hurt.
The door she stood next to suddenly opened and two girls rushed out, bumping into Ashlee. Her phone flew from her hands and landed with a thud on the carpet.
“Sorry,” one of the girls said. “I didn’t see you.”
“It survived!” the other girl announced as she bent down and scooped up the phone.
“Thank you.” Ashlee was relieved to see the screen hadn’t cracked. Unfortunately, Jed’s Snapchat had disappeared before she had a chance to save it. She planned on reporting him to the office the next morning, and the picture and caption would’ve been great evidence of his hostility.
She glanced up and saw the two girls had already left, making her feel lonely and friendless. She missed Grayson. She missed home, and she missed her family, especially her twin sister, Taylin.
Sighing, she walked the length of the hall until she came to her room. Digging into her back pocket, she found her keycard and unlocked the door. The lingering scent of her roommate’s favorite essential oil wrinkled her nose as she opened the door and stepped inside. While her roomie was neat and clean, her obsession with aroma therapy was just one more thing Ashlee didn’t like about her new job.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, she opened the last text message from Taylin and felt a tiny prick of envy stab her heart. Taylin was getting married in a few weeks, and Ashlee was stuck in Florida, unable to fulfill her role as maid of honor by helping with the preparation for the wedding. She wouldn’t have ever taken the job if she’d known her sister was going to get engaged shortly after she moved to Florida.
Sometimes life didn’t seem fair. Everything always seemed to go Taylin’s way. Ashlee always felt inferior compared to her sister’s many talents and accomplishments. Taylin knew in high school she wanted to be a nurse. Ashlee had no idea what she wanted to be when she grew up. She still didn’t.
She felt like she was the screw up of the family. Her older brother, Chase, was a talented graphic art designer, successful singer-songwriter and had married the love of his life six years ago. He and Addie had a three-year old daughter and had just announced at Christmas that Isabelle was going to be a big sister in May.
Taylin had graduated from nursing school last year and was getting married to the man of her dreams she’d only met four months earlier. And what had Ashlee accomplished so far? Not much, other than leaving behind a string of boyfriends and jumping from job to job. Her grades hadn’t been good enough to get into Mercer University in Macon, Georgia where Taylin and Chase had both gone to school. Ashlee had opted for beauty school, but she’d hated touching people’s hair, especially if they were gross. And there were plenty of gross people who came to get free haircuts, so she’d dropped out a couple of months before finishing the program.
Awesome. She was the proverbial beauty school dropout. At least that was one title no one else in the family could claim.
That’s why she’d thought her current job would’ve been perfect, but she could feel the desire to run away and find something new rear its ugly head again. The only real aspect of the job she loved was interacting with little girls and boys that believed she was a real princess, especially the kids who were visiting the park with the Make a Wish foundation.
Kicking off her shoes, she scooted across the bed, sat with her back against the wall and checked updates on all her social media sites. Chase and Addie had uploaded some new family photos, and Ashlee smiled at some of the pictures of her niece. Izzy was so cute, and the perfect combination of her parents with her mama’s auburn hair and her daddy’s green eyes. Ashlee hated that they lived so far away, but they were coming home to Mitchel Creek a week before Taylin got married. Not that it mattered. Ashlee wouldn’t get to see much of them because she’d only been given three days of vacation.
Feeling completely depressed, she tossed her phone on the end of the bed and headed for the small bathroom. She planned to take a very long, hot shower and then watch something on Netflix while she let her hair dry. She didn’t need a man to be happy.
She didn’t.
Mostly because the man she pined for would never see her as anything more than the little sister of his best friend.
Ashlee had been in love with Beau Jacobsen since she was twelve. Sure, he’d been twenty-two when she’d first let him know how she felt about him. He’d laughed and told her he was flattered but he was way too old for her. Maybe when she was twelve, but once she was an adult their age difference shouldn’t matter. She’d been counting the days until she turned eighteen and graduated from high school so she could finally date him. But Beau had quit his job, left her brother’s band and joined the Army shortly after she’d graduated.
That had been six years ago. Even though she’d faithfully emailed him the first few years he’d been deployed, Beau still thought of her as Chase’s little sister. She’d reduced her emails to once a month his fourth year and quit writing him altogether when he’d extended his four-year commitment to the Army for two more years.
Trying to put Beau out of her mind— something she’d had plenty of practice doing— she stripped out of her clothes and stepped into the shower. The hot water didn’t last as long as she’d hoped. And, for some dumb reason, she’d been unable to stop thinking about Beau.
Turning off the water, she wrapped a towel around her hair and another one around her body. She flipped the bathroom fan on to suck out some of the humid air. Using the palm of her hand, she wiped away some of the moisture from the mirror so she could see her reflection. Sometimes it was freaky how similar she looked to Taylin. Too bad that’s where the similarities stopped.
Done with her mini pity-party, Ashlee combed her hair, dressed in a T-shirt and yoga pants, and grabbed her laptop. She’d just started watching an episode of The Bachelorette when someone knocked on her door.
Sighing, she climbed off her bed to answer it. Jed stood there, an annoying grin on his face. “What do you want?” she asked, hoping he wasn’t here to finish what he’d started.
“You forgot something, Princess.” He held up her purse. “I thought you might want it back.”
Ashlee couldn’t believe she’d forgotten her purse. She also couldn’t believe he was returning it. “Thank you.” She reached out to grab it, but Jed lifted it out of her reach.
“Not so fast.” His smile broadened, reminding her of the crazy dude who played The Joker in the last Batman movie. “What do I get in return?”
Seriously? “Another knee to the groin?” she said sweetly.
The smile disappeared, and his lip actually curled up into a snarl. “Have it your way, Princess.” He added on a few other colorful expletives and then dropped her purse to
the ground before turning around to stomp down the hallway. If she’d known he was this unstable, she would’ve never agreed to go out with him.
Ashlee waited until he got into the elevator before she bent down and snatched up her purse. She hoped the creep hadn’t broken anything. After closing the door and making sure it was locked, she rifled through her messy purse and found her makeup bag. She unzipped it and wanted to cry when she saw the new pallet of eyeshadow she’d just spent seventy dollars on was nothing more than broken bits and pieces of muted creams, mauves and browns. Her bronzer hadn’t fared much better, but she could probably still use it.
Determining everything else was okay, she zipped the makeup bag closed and dug through the arsenal of hair products, receipts, and wrappers that littered her purse until she found her wallet. Nothing looked disturbed, and she could only hope Jed wasn’t the type of guy to steal her credit card number. Just in case he was that jerky, she logged into her bank account and set up mobile text alerts for any charges to her card.
The rest of her night was rather uneventful. Her roommate hadn’t come home, so Ashlee didn’t have to deal with the nightly ritual of lavender oil in the diffuser. At first, the scent had been nice, but night after night got a little old.
The next morning, she woke up and hurried to get dressed. She only had about twenty minutes to talk to the supervisor before she had to report to the costume and makeup room. At least today she’d be playing the part of Rapunzel. She hoped Daniel was slated to play opposite of her today. She wanted to vent her frustration about what Jed had done.
Blue Moon Kisses: Georgia Moon Romance Book 3 Page 1
