TIED: A Steamy Small Town Romance (Reckless Falls Book 3) Read online

  TIED

  A Reckless Falls Romance

  by Vivian Lux

  Reckless Falls Book Three

  All Rights Reserved

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

  COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

  Please respect the work of this author. No part of this book may be reproduced or copied without permission. This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Any similarities to events or situations are also coincidental.

  The publisher and author acknowledge the trademark status and trademark ownership of all trademarks and locations mentioned in this book. Trademarks and locations are not sponsored or endorsed by trademark owners.

  (C) 2017 by Vivian Lux and Velvetfire Press

  All Rights Reserved

  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 Small Town Bad Boy Romance

  CRAVE: A Small Town Menage Romance (April 2017)

  PLAYED: A Small Town Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (May 2017)

  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:[email protected]

  Friend me at facebook.com/vivianlux.romance

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  Dedication:

  Many thanks to Roxie Noir who found time in the midst of releasing her own book (Never Enough, grab it, it's awesome like all her books) to take a look at a draft of this book and basically fix everything about it. Rox, you know I love it when you smack me around and make me call you Daddy.

  Thank you to Amelia Wilde, Joanna Blake and Aubrey Irons for helping me iron out the plot of this book, and for the very high-level discussions about what animal should be bothering Brynn. (My choices ranged from raccoon to coywolf). Hope you ladies won't mind that I scrapped that subplot all together.

  Thank you to Sennah Tate for being the best and most dependable editor I've found.

  And as always, thank you to B., this time around for taking snow and sick day shifts with the kids while I feverishly finished this book.

  If you want to read a special subscriber only bonus epilogue to TIED, just sign up to my mailing list using this link!

  Click here!

  Chapter One

  Brynn

  It was pitch black in that closet, so the only thing I had to go off of was the feel of his body against mine.

  "I can't believe we're doing this," I hiccupped. I was way more drunk than I should be, but not so drunk that I couldn't feel every goddamn thing he was doing to me down there. And I wasn't so drunk that I didn't know that this was a terrible idea that would probably ruin our friendship, but fuck it, I was definitely too drunk to stop now.

  Too drunk on what he was doing to me.

  "Jesus!" I gasped as my back slammed into the back wall of the closet, sending wire hangers jingling. I was gasping and it had nothing to do with the airless claustrophobia of the closet or the hanging coats that kept swinging into my face. No, I was gasping because holy shit, how was this guy, of all people, burying his face between my legs right now, and how the fuck was he so... good?

  "We shouldn't be..." I was going to say...something, about how this was a terrible idea, but I shut my damn mouth right then and there because he was doing something with his fingers that made spots swim before my eyes. I sagged downward and he caught me with his hands, were his hands always this strong and I hadn't noticed until right now? Just like I had never noticed how fucking sexy he was all those years he was hanging out with my brother and being the straight-laced, stick-up-his-butt Boy Scout in the group. I always thought he was a prude.

  I was never so happy to be dead wrong about a person.

  Breaths, gasps, the greedy muffled sounds he was making down there, I grabbed hold of the closet pole, sending the wire hangers jingling and then shushed myself, but that shush turned into a hiss and suddenly I didn't give a fuck anymore because if anyone flung that coat closet open right now, they would see me having the best fucking orgasm of my entire life. I didn't give a fuck that night...

  And I didn't give a fuck right now as I squeezed my eyes shut against the memory.

  "Fuck," I hissed, moving the vibrator faster. It had been over a year now, but the memory of that mistaken night was the only thing that could reliably get me off.

  I arched my back, ready for the climax, when a loud shrieking scrape made me scream and tumble off the side of my bed.

  "What the fuck?" I yelled. As if my empty house would answer.

  My heart thudded in my throat. I yanked up my schlubby old gym shorts, blushing at the dampness between my legs and stood up straight, listening.

  Was that crack a footstep? Was something outside?

  I opened my bedroom door. My cat looked up at me reproachfully from where he lay sprawled on the hallway floor, still lying where I'd thrown him when I kicked him out of my bed. Sure I lived alone, but some things are private, okay?

  "It's probably a deer," I told Mr. Stevens. "Down in the underbrush by the gully."

  He blinked at me, then we both jumped as the harsh metallic scrape sounded again. Mr. Stevens took that opportunity to bolt into my bedroom and launch himself onto my bed where he sat disdainfully licking a paw.

  "That sounded like Freddy Krueger trying to tear the siding off," I whispered.

  When the realtor showed me this place on Gibson Street, a short little dead end dirt road on the very edge of town, I jumped on it. It was the perfect setting, walkable to Main Street but it backed up to the creek as it dipped and dove and twisted its way into the lake. My house was the only one on this side of the street because of the way the creek sheared off the land at a diagonal and across the way were two vacation houses owned by out-of-towners who I hadn't met yet. Reckless Creek was the natural boundary of our town, and on the other side the woods stretched out.

  Here on Gibson Street, I woke to birdsong instead of the sound of my father's bar opening up. It was heaven-on-earth I was sure of it. But right now...

  "Fuck, did you hear that?" I whispered to Mr. Stevens. My cat stared back with wide saucer eyes, so he must have. "It sounds like someone is trying to tear a hole in my house. Should I call the police?"

  Mr. Stevens gave a short little purry-mew and jumped down from my bed to wind between my ankles.

  "Okay but you know it's going to be Gabe Foster who comes out. And he'll give me epic amounts of shit if it turns out to be nothing," I huffed. Gabe was one of those guys I'd hung out with in high school while I'd gone through my "I'm-not-like-other-girls" phase, and it was frankly embarrassing to think of him showing up here now to see me
all girly freaked out.

  Mr. Stevens coiled his tail around my calf and meowed at me.

  "That's a good point," I nodded. "Cal will know what to do." I grabbed my phone off my bed and dialed my brother's number. Then I did a doubletake to see my vibrator still sitting there accusingly. I shoved it under my sheets right as Callum picked up his end.

  "Hey Brynn," my big brother answered in an explosive sigh.

  Panic was making my skin prickle along my hairline, but I still had to force myself to be polite. To be nice. It was a habit I couldn't shake, no matter how hard I tried. "You sound exhausted," I observed, the very model of sisterly concern.

  Cal stifled a yawn, making his voice go all funny. "Last night was my shift with Ellie."

  I grinned at my niece's name, then winced. "She's still not sleeping the night?"

  "She sleeps in the day," Cal grumbled. "I think she's a vampire."

  There, I'd asked two questions about his life, now... "Cal, there's a weird noise outside," I whined. "Sounds like a giant angry clawed beast trying to scrape off my siding."

  "You have any trees that need to be trimmed?" Cal asked immediately, ever practical.

  "It's in different places."

  "What about mice?"

  "This is way louder than any mice could hope to be."

  "You sure about that?" my brother asked. "They can make the house sound like it's falling down."

  "I don't think it's mice. Mr. Stevens is scared, not interested."

  "Your cat is useless."

  "You shut your mouth about my baby," I huffed, then sighed. "I'm honestly a little freaked out."

  "Do you want to call the police?"

  "Gabe Foster."

  "Point taken," Cal rumbled. He'd always hated that guy, "Well I'd come by, Brynny, but I live twenty minutes away from you. Maybe Dad could get there faster?"

  I considered as I walked around the downstairs, checking out the windows. "Dad would show up with his gun all ready to defend his daughter, get all worked up and probably shoot himself in the process."

  "Yeah that's true," Cal mused. Then his voice softened. "Are you really freaked out?"

  I took a deep breath. There were only two people in the world I would ever let myself be vulnerable around. One was my friend Autumn who'd seen me at my very worst when my mom disappeared. And the other was my brother. "Yeah, Cal," I sighed. "It's probably nothing but I'm a little freaked out."

  "Okay," he said. There was a thump and then a wail. "I have to go, Ellie just did...something loud, but I'll see what I can do about getting it checked out, okay sis?"

  I grinned. "Thanks Cal. Go kiss my niece for me."

  "Okay," he said hurriedly. There was a scrabbling sound at the other end, then the far off sound of him comforting his daughter. I listened for a second, then realizing he wasn't hanging up, I hung up myself and sat back down on the bed, barely daring to breathe I was listening so hard.

  Silence reigned now. Of course. After a moment, my breathing evened and I lay back on the bed. This was not at all what I had envisioned for the night before the last day of school. I had a whole long to-do list, a party to plan for my kindergartners, a little graduation ceremony. And then a long summer stretched out ahead of me, the first one I wasn't spending working a second job to save for a house. No, I had my house now and my time was my own, and how was I spending it?

  Pleasuring myself to the memory of New Year's Eve over a year ago. And the hottest, rawest, realest sex I'd had in ages. Perhaps ever.

  Idly my fingers trailed back under the sheets. When they closed on the vibrator, I let out a heavy sigh. Then I froze in place. Was that another noise? I poked my head out of the bedroom. "Did you hear that?" I asked Mr. Stevens. Yes, that was definitely the sound of booted feet on my wooden porch. A dull, hollow sound.

  "Who is that?" I called, trying to sound bad ass, but my voice quavered and came out in a croaking whisper. There was no answer except for the sound of footsteps retreating back off my porch. I stepped forward, then froze again to hear a stick break outside of the bathroom window. Whoever it was was walking around my outside of my house.

  "Who the fuck is that?" I yelled out the window, but there was still no answer. I rushed down the stairs, then stopped. Where the hell had I left my phone? Why did not have a landline to call 911? What the hell was wrong with me?

  There were the boot sounds on my porch again. I grabbed a butcher knife from the block in my small kitchen and went to the door, clutching it to my chest. Taking a deep breath, I threw open the door and let out a high-pitched war cry as I launched myself at the dark silhouette on my steps.

  The intruder let out a soft grunt that sounded vaguely familiar as he ducked away from my attack. "Brynn!" he growled, snapping his hand around my wrist. My body was suddenly responding before my mind caught up. My cheeks caught fire and I yanked my hand away, gasping, and the way he looked at me, I swore he knew exactly what I was doing before he got here...exactly what memory I'd been reliving. How else had he just shown up here looking rumpled and disheveledly sexy on my doorstep ten minutes after I'd climaxed screaming his name?

  I screamed it again, but this time I gave him a shove for good measure. "Everett McCabe! What the fuck are you doing here?!"

  Chapter Two

  Everett

  "Brynn! Stop! Uh..." I ducked again as she took another swing, a small part of me pretty impressed with her wicked right hook. "Cal! Your brother! He called me."

  She was still in panic mode, fighting me off even as her eyes started to register understanding. I reached up and grabbed her hand again and forced her to look me in the eye. She shivered in my arms, squirming and stomping her feet and a flicker of something I hated to name ran through me, feeling how completely she was under my control.

  But I banished that thought back to the dark places inside of me that it came from and instead I took a deep breath. I licked my lips, all set to explain to her that Callum had called me just as I was leaving work late and asked me to check in on her. That she'd heard a noise that scared her and I was the closest person able to make sure she was okay. That I was just doing her brother a favor and didn't mean to scare her.

  But all those words died on my lips as I looked into her wide, frightened eyes.

  In all the years I've known her, I'd never seen Brynn Reese undone. She was always polished and poised, her face carefully made up, her hair sleekly straightened. There was something completely unnerving, and also downright alluring about seeing her — fuck about holding her — in faded pajamas with her face scrubbed clean, her hair caught back in a scraggly topknot with pieces falling down around her face.

  I'd only seen her like this one other time, and then I only had the little sliver of light underneath the closet door to illuminate her parted lips and wide-open eyes. The porch light wasn't much brighter, but at least I could see all of her at once. And now that I could see her, I couldn't seem to stop staring.

  "Sorry," I exhaled, loosening my grip on her once I was sure she wasn't going to try to murder me yet again. I lowered my hands and took a deliberate, conciliatory step backward. "I didn't mean to frighten you."

  "Well you did," she muttered petulantly, idly rubbing her arms where I'd been holding her. Even in the dim light of the bare overhead bulb, I could see that the pressure had raised delicate pink lines in her peachy skin.

  I swallowed, my throat suddenly dry, and I turned away and coughed, stuffing that impulsive desire, the thing I hated most about myself, back down. Not here. Not with her. She was too sweet, too nice. What I wanted... I could never ask it from a girl like her.

  I always pushed too far. And when I pushed girls in the past, I always ended up pushing them away.

  I couldn't do that with Brynn.

  "Your brother called," I said, clearing my throat and coughing again. "He wanted me to make sure you were okay." I allowed myself to sneak another look at her and was relieved to see that some of the poise was returning to her face. "Are you
okay?"

  That little haughty smirk she wore, the one that looked like she'd spent ages practicing it in the bathroom mirror, had returned. "I'm fine," she said, blowing out an exasperated breath. "No thanks to you, Rett."

  I swallowed again, trying to wrench my eyes from her bare, marked skin. I'd always thought she was pretty, but holy shit in this moment I felt something I'd never felt for her before. Never allowed myself to feel anyway, I reminded myself, considering who she was. Cal's sister. My best friend's sister.

  And she was looking at me like I was a crazy person, because all I seemed to be able to do was stare.

  "Were you in bed?" I asked, the words tumbling out of my mouth before I could catch them.

  She cocked her head to the side and gave me an odd look. "I have to be at the school at seven tomorrow," she reminded me. "Kindergarten starts early."

  I started nodding, and then tried to stop my head, but I just kept nodding because every time I moved my head, I was able to take her all in.

  That night, that New Year's, well we had never really talked about what happened, because I was fairly certain she was intent on forgetting it. Brynn hated awkward moments more than anything and there was nothing more awkward than being reminded of sex you clearly regretted.

  Me, I could never forget it. I'd wanted her forever.

  But I couldn't have her in the way I wanted her. So it was best for me to back away. Cut myself off cold turkey before I went too far.

  The memory of how she looked that night came roaring back as she stared at me on her porch, bare toes wiggling, and I realized I'd never gotten her out of my system.

  If anything, she'd only wormed her way deeper under my skin.

  "You want to come in or something?" she asked.

  I took a deep breath, temptation making my blood thud in my ears. . It would be polite to do so, of course, but it would also be complete agony. I was tired, and at the end of my rope. She looked like she wanted to go to bed, and frankly I wasn't sure I could trust myself near her when she looked so sleepy and vulnerable.