Cooper's Promise

by Liliana Hart

  There was no purpose to his steps as he hopped over fallen branches that had snapped off the trees from the cold. He didn’t know exactly where he was going or the heavy need inside of him to get there quickly. He just knew he needed to escape for a little while. To be alone inside his head.

  He’d always felt at home in Surrender. Settled. He’d had no dreams or desires to ever leave the town he was born in or travel the world—unlike his cousins. They’d all left at some point to go to school or find jobs, and yeah, they had come back to raise their families, but they’d had that one taste of freedom before committing themselves to staying home.

  His brothers and Darcy were no better. Cade was headed to Texas, and Declan and Shane were only ever in Surrender long enough to catch a quick night’s rest before they were off again. And Darcy was working on her Master’s Degree in business. She didn’t know what she wanted to do with it yet, but she knew whatever it was wouldn’t be in Surrender. She couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  But not Grant. He was completely happy where he was. He loved his home, and he’d built his company from the ground up and had a steady business that had been in the black for the last six years. But he was looking for more. What made him the most different from his siblings is that he wasn’t shying away from marriage at all. In fact, he was actively looking for someone to spend his life with. Someone he could come home to and share a quiet evening with. Someone he could be comfortable with. Peace and contentment were something he knew most people never really achieved in their lives, but he was determined.

  No, the thought of marriage didn’t have him running at all. It sounded…nice. He could find a sweet, intelligent woman he could have meaningful conversations with. She would be pleasant to look at, give him children and be every man’s dream at night when the lights went out. It shouldn’t be too hard to find someone to fit his expectations.

  The only problem was that this was Surrender. He knew every person in the tiny town, warts and all, and the only woman he could think of who fit his ideal was completely unsuitable. Annabeth Martin had been running around the MacKenzie house since she was a little girl, and she and Darcy had been thick as thieves for most of their lives. But it hadn’t been until recently that he’d found himself watching Annabeth—the way her flame bright hair looked hot to the touch or the way the lush curves of her body fit just right in the stylish clothes she wore. He’d woken up more than one night in a cold sweat with the images of Annabeth lying soft and warm beneath him as he rocked into her burned into his brain.

  In fact, it had gotten so bad that he’d taken to avoiding her whenever he saw her in town or when she was at the house visiting Darcy. Annabeth might be starring in his dreams, but she was six years younger than he was and seemed anything but ready to settle down with a husband and family. She hung out with Darcy for Christ’s sake, and Grant could only assume that Annabeth was as wild and untamed as his sister, though she’d always seemed the shyer of the two.

  He’d seen the way the other young men in town had started to pant after her. The way she’d give them a friendly smile and never show interest in one particular man, only making them all want her more. Grant had never heard whispers about her from the town gossips, but he couldn’t imagine that she didn’t entertain her fair share of interested men. She had a body made for loving, and just the thought of her with some nameless, faceless man had his hands clenching in fists at his sides.

  No, Annabeth Martin was still sowing wild oats and was a long way off from wanting the same things he did. Since there were no other women in town he had an interest in, he had no choice but to leave town. Not permanently, but just long enough to find the right woman and then move back home.

  Grant rubbed a hand over his stomach at the thought of moving away, even for a short time. His business was doing well enough that he could open another office in one of the bigger cities. Surely he could fall in love in a few months, and then be back home before the end of summer. It’s not like leaving was permanent.

  The thought of his mother finding out that he was about to approach marriage in such a cut and dried way made him grimace. He knew exactly what she’d say, because they’d had the talk before.

  “Grant,” she’d said. “You can’t plan falling in love. It’ll happen when you least expect it. And of all my children, I’m not sure there’s anyone who needs to be knocked upside the head by Cupid more. Love isn’t something you can plan or map out like one of your building projects. I’m afraid you’re in for a rude awakening one day, my love.”

  Which was all fine and good, but he didn’t want to wait for one day. He was ready for it to happen now. He was thirty years old, he was healthy and he was solvent. He was just tired of spending his nights alone. No one, not even his mother, could begrudge him a little happiness.

  After a two-mile walk, his heart was pumping and his muscles were warm despite the cold. His breath puffed out in white clouds as he exited out the other side of the trees into a small clearing. The lake was frozen and the last rays of sunlight gleamed off the icy surface. It was less than a mile to his little cabin through the trees on the back side of the lake, and he debated whether or not he should head back to the MacKenzie house and bedlam, or crash on his couch with some bids he’d been working on for the next couple of hours.

  All his plans changed when he heard the crack of ice that echoed like a gunshot through the air. He hadn’t noticed her when he’d glanced at the lake, the sun casting her in shadow. They locked eyes in shock and fear as another crack rent the air. Her face was pale and her flame colored hair seemed brighter than usual with the backdrop of white.

  “Annabeth,” he said, running toward the edge of the lake, his heart in his throat. “Don’t move a muscle.”

  She barely had time to scream before she fell through to the icy waters below.

  Seduction and Sapphires Excerpt

  Neighbors were a pain in the ass.

  Especially neighbors who made as much noise as possible at the crack of dawn. Did no one have consideration for their fellow man anymore? She wasn’t asking for much, dammit. Just a little common courtesy.

  Bayleigh Scott rolled toward her nightstand to look at the old fashioned alarm clock with the giant hands and noticed it was just shy of 6am. She groaned and pulled the pillow over her head, trying desperately to block out the grinding noise from what sounded like a fleet of semis outside her window. She’d closed her shop at ten the night before but hadn’t gotten home until after one because she’d been doing inventory. Not even five full hours of sleep. And she had to be back to open at ten since her assistant was out sick.

  When the pillow failed to have the effect she was looking for, she tossed it across the room and felt the slow flush of anger work through her body.

  “Who the hell do these people think they are?” she muttered, throwing back the covers and stomping to the bay window in her bedroom.

  She could only see the back deck of the house next door from her window, and she scowled as she noted the ferns already hanging from baskets on the porch, the dimmed sconces attached to the posts giving her a good view in the darkness.

  “Making yourself right at home, aren’t you?”

  She let the curtain drop and stomped through the house, tripping over the edge of the rug and bumping her shin against the table she had at the end of the couch. The coffeepot beckoned, so she punched the button to start her morning caffeine as she made her way to the kitchen window. She had the perfect view of the neighbor’s front yard.

  Bayleigh winced as the screech of the truck lift going up and down assaulted her ears. It wasn’t like the noise would bother anyone else. Most of her neighbors turned their hearing aids off after eight o’clock and didn’t turn them back on until the sun rose. There was no way her new neighbors were another little retired couple like everyone else on the street. They were probably party animals or reprobates. Maybe both.

  Powerful lights were set up so they could unload the truc
k that was backed into the driveway, but all she could see was the shadows of men as they unloaded the furniture. They didn’t even need that stupid lift. They were just being lazy. There was no reason for the truck to be on at all.

  Muttered curses propelled her out the front door before common sense could take hold. She never did well on little sleep and no caffeine. It wasn’t her fault. She liked to think of it as a medical condition. She’d just explain politely about the noise, and surely they would take care of things from there. It was the decent thing to do.

  The cool October air slapped against her skin, reminding her she was only wearing the cotton boxers and tank top she’d slept in. Chills raced across her skin and she tripped over the hose that ran across her sidewalk. She’d forgotten to roll it back up after watering her flowerbeds the previous morning.

  She paused for a moment, wondering if she’d made a mistake when she felt three sets of eyes look in her direction. The sudden stillness of the night was unnerving. She couldn’t see the two men in the shadows clearly, but she got a heck of a glimpse of the man standing closest to her. The Devil in disguise. The sudden urge to cross herself had her squeezing her fingers into tight fists. She wasn’t even Catholic for Pete’s sake.

  His scowl was black and menacing and he narrowed his eyes at her in warning, automatically putting her back up. She wasn’t going to be intimidated by the likes of him. At least not by much.

  Bayleigh straightened her shoulders and marched across the tiny patch of grass that separated the two houses. She climbed into the cab of the big white truck, the cracked seats scratchy against the backs of her legs, and turned off the ignition before taking the key. She jumped out of the truck and watched warily as the three men gathered close, their arms crossed over their bare chests and various looks of surprise pasted on their faces. Maybe Satan was having a convention, because surely all three of these men were fallen angels of the worst kind, or hardened criminals at best.

  They were muscled and bare-chested, and their jeans hung low on narrowed hips. It was obvious they were related, and her gaze passed over them all quickly. But she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the one in the center—the one who’d made her lose her common sense with just one scowl. There was something in his eyes that had her taking a step back before she remembered she was standing in the middle of a safe neighborhood. She wouldn’t be intimidated on her own property. She looked down and took a quick step back so she was actually on her own property, and crossed her arms over her chest, daring him to say anything.

  The Devil’s dark hair was longer than she liked on a man, almost to his shoulders, and his eyes were as black as coal. Probably because he’d been hauling it in hell before he’d decided to move to Fort Worth, Texas. A short beard covered his face and a wicked looking tattoo swirled over his shoulder and part of the way down his arm. His chest was scarred, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine what had happened to him to cause such marks. Her gaze lowered, following the black smattering of hair that disappeared beneath his jeans, and all rational thought left her head as she noticed the sizable bulge behind his zipper.

  “You’ve got some mighty friendly neighbors, Cade,” the man next to the Devil said, his smirk evident in the slow drawl of his voice. “She can’t take her eyes off you.”

  Bayleigh felt heat flush her cheeks, and she brought her eyes back up to meet his. The keys bit into the palms of her hand reminding her she had them, so she tossed them to the walking hard-on a little harder than was probably necessary. He snapped them out of the air and glared in her direction, and the urge to turn tail and run was prevalent in her mind, but instead she turned around and calmly and put one foot in front of the other.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  She knew it was him that spoke without having to turn around. His voice slid across her skin like rough velvet, and she shivered at the demand in it. Not that she expected the Devil to be an easy man or be without a modicum of power, but she liked to think she had enough self-control to ignore the dangerous seduction of his voice and keep walking.

  She eyed the distance to her front door and looked back in his direction. He’d taken a couple of steps forward, and there was no way to get away from him if he came after her. He narrowed his eyes as if he could read her mind, and shook his head slowly, warning her not to try it, so she swallowed her fear and turned around to face him.

  She was an idiot. Running would have been the smart thing to do if the look on his face was anything to go by. She could have made it. Maybe.

  “Most of us sleep here in the middle of the night,” she finally said with more bravado than she felt. Never let them see you’re afraid. Her father had repeated the mantra constantly during her childhood. “I figured since it was your first day in the neighborhood, you might want to start out on the right foot.”

  “You thought wrong,” he said. “And this is far from the middle of the night. The sun’s already coming up. Maybe you’re just lazy.”

  Bayleigh’s eyes narrowed at the insult. She’d never been accused of being lazy a day in her life. But while her father’s advice rattled around in her brain, something her mother always told her came to mind, just as it had every time she’d moved from school to school and had to deal with the inevitable “new kid” bullying.

  Kill them with kindness.

  So she smiled as sweetly as possible and said the only thing she could think of to strike terror into his heart.

  “You know, there are a lot of elderly people that live on this street.”

  “So?” he growled. “And then there’s you. Let me guess. You’re single?”

  “I’ve been engaged,” she said, narrowing her eyes.

  “I can see that worked out well for you. I take it he couldn’t manage to bring himself to the altar?”

  “Something like that,” she said softly, the old feelings of not quite being good enough surfacing before she could tramp them back down.

  “Look, I’m sorry,” he said. “That was out of line. I promise I’ll leave everyone on the whole damned street alone if they’ll leave me alone.”

  Bayleigh felt the beginnings of a headache forming at the back of her skull. Between the lack of sleep and the one-two punch her new neighbor had just delivered, reminding her of her former fiancé and the myriad of inadequacies she hadn’t realized she’d had until she’d met him, she decided she wasn’t in the mood to be nice after all.

  “Oh, no. No need to apologize. If anything it’s my fault for getting in at one this morning after working a fourteen hour day,” she said sarcastically. “It was inconsiderate of me to expect you to move in after the sun came up. Tell you what I’ll do to make it up to you.”

  She smiled—a smile that her brothers would recognize as trouble. Her new neighbor must have recognized it too, because his eyes narrowed to black slits and the muscles in his arms bulged as he crossed them in silent warning.

  “You don’t really mean that about having everyone leave you alone,” she said sweetly. “You seem like such a friendly and outgoing guy. I’ll make sure to mention how great you are to everyone over the next couple of days. Before you know it, the whole street will be knocking on your door and introducing themselves. It won’t be a month before you’re hosting the neighborhood barbecue. You’ll also be picking up prescriptions, mowing lawns, and eating macaroni salad with every meal so you won’t hurt their feelings.” She batted her eyelashes at him as he seemed to pale before her eyes. “Welcome to the neighborhood.”

  Laughter followed her into the house and she slammed and locked the door behind her. She knew it hadn’t been him laughing. Dollars to donuts a smile had never cracked that face. The Devil didn’t smile. It would pay to remember that. And so what if she’d been slightly attracted to him. Bad boys were supposed to be attractive to the opposite sex. It was a hormonal rule. But then he’d had to go and open his mouth.

  Tears threatened to fall as she recalled his words. He’d been exactly righ
t. She’d been engaged for over a year, and Paul hadn’t been able to go through with the actual wedding. He’d liked her well enough as a friend, but she was too outspoken for a corporate attorney’s wife. Her body was too curvy. Her language not lady-like enough. And how could she expect Paul to spend his life with a woman who didn’t respond to him in bed?

  It’s not that she couldn’t have orgasms. She had great orgasms with her vibrator. It was just that sometimes it took her longer to get there than her lovers had thought was reasonable. She’d just be warming up, and all of a sudden, they’d twitch and groan and it would all be over. The last date she’d been on was three years ago, and she hadn’t even bothered to move it into the physical stage. The thought of disappointing anyone else had been more than enough to keep her celibate.

  Paul had been a bastard. She knew that now. But at the time he’d chipped away at her self-esteem until she’d barely recognized the person she’d become. She barely ate, trying to slim down the curves he found so distasteful. She barely spoke, knowing if she didn’t talk then nothing would come out of her mouth that would embarrass Paul. And she faked her orgasms just so he would think she was putting a little effort into their lovemaking.

  She knew Paul had been a controlling prick by the time their wedding date had come around, and she thanked God every day that he hadn’t shown up to the church that day. He’d saved her a hell of a lot of grief in the long run, but he’d damaged part of her, and she was still working like hell to get back to the person she really was. To not let those old doubts sneak up on her.

  Bayleigh wiped away the tears that had managed to escape and padded back into the bedroom. It didn’t matter what her new neighbor thought. No one had ever said the Devil was nice.

  Now if she could avoid him for the rest of her life, he’d make the perfect neighbor.