 by A.L. Jackson.jpg)
Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 122578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 613(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 409(@300wpm)
I should have known I was in trouble when I backed my old, beat-up truck into the shiny Range Rover.
The driver looked like a gorgeous fallen angel – one who’d been booted right out of paradise for being a giant prick.
Good thing I’ll never have to see him again.
Except when I show up for my new job to teach a little girl how to ride her horse, I find the same icy blue eyes glaring back at me.
Paisley Dae is completely reckless. She’s also the best trainer in this small town. And Evelyn gets the best.
Protecting the little girl is my one focus.
Only the sassy trainer in her cut-offs and cowgirl boots quickly gets under my skin. Distractions are dangerous, but she soon becomes everything I crave.
One reckless night of giving in, and Caleb and I spiral into a web of passion.
But when I begin to unravel the secrets hiding in this place, I find there is more riding on this job than I thought.
Caleb and Evelyn are worth any sacrifice – only Caleb has to decide what he will sacrifice for me…
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
PROLOGUE
Energy crackled through the dim-lit hall.
Tension binding the oxygen in attraction and need.
Every-fucking-thing I could no longer ignore as I stared at her where she hovered in front of her door.
“Caleb.” My name barely hit the air.
At the sound of it, I broke.
I crossed the space. No restraint left.
My hand dove into her hair at the side of her head, and I curled the other around her waist and tugged her against me.
We collided in a torrent of greed.
Mouths and tongues and spirits that no longer knew how to exist without the other.
We spun, gripping at each other, desperate to erase every inch of space as I kissed her.
Kissed her with a madness that burned me to the soul.
This woman who’d scored herself into the places I wasn’t supposed to let her go.
Because I knew what I brought into the lives of the people I cared about.
I knew the price they paid.
And I should have known what touching her would cost…
ONE
PAISLEY
Leave it to me to be late, but it couldn’t be helped.
Gathering the straps of the reusable grocery bags, I slung them over my shoulder and shifted my cell to my other ear as I hustled out the automatic doors of the small grocery store.
“You know I don’t have many details,” I told my bestie Dakota as I jogged toward my old truck in the parking lot, my boots thudding hard on the pavement. I pinned my phone between my ear and shoulder so I could dig my keys from my bag. “You know Ryder got me the gig. Some cousin he doesn’t know all that well has a little girl who got her first pony, and she needs to learn how to ride it. Easy peasy.”
Extra cash in my pocket. Exactly what I needed.
“Are you sure you don’t just want to come and work with me at the café? We’re slammed this morning. I could really use the extra help.”
A small chuckle got free. “Which is why you’re wasting your time on the phone with me?”
“Hello, bestie duties. I needed to get the details before you run off to some rando stranger’s house in the middle of nowhere. You haven’t even talked to the guy. You could end up dead in a ditch somewhere. Buried in a shallow grave. Locked in an attic or basement with some freak telling you that you’re his new pet.”
I could physically feel Dakota shudder through the phone. She was so dramatic.
“You really should stop listening to true crime podcasts before you go to bed at night. Your paranoia is getting out of control. Besides, this is Ryder’s cousin we’re talking about. He isn’t going to send me to some serial killer’s house.”
At least I hoped so because it was super odd this guy had only communicated through email, all formal and calling me Ms. Dae, referring to himself as Mr. Greyson as he gave me the precise time to show at his ranch.
What a weirdo.
As far as I knew, Ryder had spent summers with him growing up, but they hadn’t seen that much of each other as adults, and the mysterious Mr. Greyson had moved into Time River about six months back. In all that time, I didn’t think anyone had ever even met the guy, which considering the size of the town we lived in, that was on the questionable side.
He had to be some kind of recluse, I guessed.
“It’s fine,” I told her. “You know Ryder wouldn’t lead me astray.”
“Okay, just text me as soon as you’re done. I want all the details. Or wait, come into the café so you can tell me face-to-face. Even better.”
A giggle slipped up my throat. “You missed me while I was away, didn’t you?”
“I won’t even try to deny it. This town was boring as crap without you.”
Regret pulled at my ribcage. The intense kind because you could never make up for time that had passed or the things you had missed. But I couldn’t wallow in the mistakes that I had made, I could only make sure I never repeated them again.
“I promise you will be bored no more,” I said like a solemn oath. “Mack’s Friday night?”
These cowgirl boots were made for dancing, and I was about to set them free.
“Um, you could not keep me away. Kayden is having a sleepover at my mom’s, and this girl is ready to get her party on.”
Dakota’s son was almost two. He’d been born while I’d been living in Arizona. It was just another thing I’d missed—being there when he was an infant, being there for my best friend.
“I can’t wait,” I told her. “I gotta run. I just picked up my grandpa’s medication and need to drop it off at his house before I head out to this interview, and I’m wicked late already.”