Read Bad Boys of Romance - a Biker Anthology Online
Authors: Kasey Millstead,Abigail Lee,Shantel Tessier,Vicki Green,Rebecca Brooke,Nina Levine,Morgan Jane Mitchell,Casey Peeler,Dee Avila
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Anthologies & Literary Collections, #General, #Short Stories, #Anthologies, #Romance, #Anthologies & Literature Collections, #Genre Fiction, #Collections & Anthologies
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Thank you for respecting the work of this Author.
Fighting for Switch is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and events portrayed in this book are either from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, with exception to Artists named, and their song lyrics, and direct quotes from movies whose titles have been named. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Copyright © 2014, Kasey
Millstead
To Jovi
You taught me the hard way that life is too short.
Five and a half years with you wasn’t long enough; but for a parent, forever isn’t long enough. I love you with my whole heart. I miss you even more.
xx
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
Ray Bradbury
To Poppy Skip
Come to Me
God saw you getting tired,
And a cure was not to be.
So he put his arms around you,
And whispered, ‘Come to me.’
With tearful eyes we watched you,
And saw you pass away.
And, although we love you dearly,
We could not make you stay.
A golden heart stopped beating,
Hard working hands at rest.
God broke our hearts to prove to us,
He only takes the best.
-Anonymous
Steele Investigations
Sapphire
Emerald
Down Under Cowboy Series
Cowboy Town (Eden & Jackson)
Sky Cowboy (Ava & Jeremy)
Cowboy Dreams (Jules & Clay)
Cowboy Christmas (A Henley Christmas Novella)
Stand Alone Novels
Fighting to Stay
Illicit Desire
Vengeance is Mine
COMING SOON
Cowboy Struggles (Ava & Jeremy – a Novella)
Tatted Cowboy (Laura & Luke)
Rogue Cowboy (Sienna & Zeke)
Cowboy Redemption (Kennedy &
Kye)
Cowboy Endings
INFERNO
In The Ring
ADD THEM TO YOUR WANT-TO-READ SHELF ON GOODREADS.COM
Troy – God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you...
To my four beautiful babies – I love you beyond measure.
To Mel and Wurry, I think “
I II III IV III II
” says it all. Mwah.
Thanks to Meri for listening to me rant and rave and for letting me bounce ideas of you.
Thanks to my mum and dad, the best parents,
ever.
And an extra special thanks to my mum who implanted a deep love of reading in me at a young age by reading The Adventures of Blinky Bill & Nutsy to me every night when I was a little girl.
“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
Stephen King
Thank you to Emily, again, you’ve gone above and beyond for me. Never underestimate the depth of my appreciation for you and everything you do for me. I’ll never be able to thank you enough!
Kylie at Give Me Books blog – You. Are. Amazing! You’ve become a great friend and I can’t wait to work with you more. Your dedication, hard work, professionalism and honesty is an inspiration. You are one of the most devoted and enthusiastic bloggers I’ve ever met and I’m so glad I found you.
Desiree, my Personal Assistant,
thank you so much for
everything
you do! You’ve been amazing and the work you’ve done for me has taken a weight off my shoulders!
The girls in my Street
Team, thank you! I can’t wait to get to know you all better. Thank you for loving my work as much as I do.
To each and every blogger that participates in my cover reveals, blog tours and book blitzes – THANK YOU!!! I wish I could list you all individually, but that
would be a novel on its own! Thank you for everything you do. Your hard work never goes unnoticed and it’s appreciated from the bottom of my heart.
To the girls in 101 – Wow! You ladies are such knowledgeable, friendly, helpful people. I’ve learned so much since I found y’all, and I’m so very grateful. <3
Lastly, thank you to each and every one of you that reads this book. You are making my dreams come true.
www.facebook.com/authorkaseymillstead
www.twitter.com/kaseymillstead
Goodreads.com – Kasey Millstead
If you liked Fighting for Switch, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and
Goodreads.
Every story has a beginning.
Every love story has a Once Upon A Time.
Even though our story isn’t traditional, it’s still a fairytale in my eyes, because it’s
ours
.
True love is like a force field; it sucks you in, keeping you attached to the other person by an energy you can’t
see
. You can only
feel
it. It’s why they say true love is blind.
When it comes to love, there are no rights and wrongs, it becomes all about feelings – good feelings and bad feelings; what makes us
feel
full and content versus what makes us
feel
hollow and empty. That’s not to say true love won’t make us feel hurt – it will – but the good will always outweigh the bad.
The best love stories aren’t all hearts and flowers.
The best loves stories are the ones where the love is worth fighting for.
This is our fairytale.
This is our story of a true love that was worth fighting for.
The last few weeks have been hectic for me. I’ve not long started working at Joe’s Bar in Salt Rock, Alabama, as a PR manager. Currently, I’m heading up a major fundraiser and it’s taking up the majority of my time.
Despite its name sounding more like a dive, Joe’s Bar is actually the nicest establishment in Salt Rock. It’s clean, sophisticated and upper-class, all while being hip and attractive to all ages. Every second Friday night, we have a blue light disco in one of the function rooms for the kids in town. There’s a cocktail bar, a DJ who plays Thursday through Sunday and we have live entertainment every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in the main dance hall. There’s a family friendly restaurant on site and we often host a range of functions here including wedding receptions, birthday parties and funeral wakes. It’s a great place to work.
I come out of my office to grab a drink before getting sucked back into planning the silent auction part of the fundraiser. I have a three o’clock meeting with one of our major donators and I know I won’t get a break for the rest of the afternoon.
As I walk down the hallway from my office, I mentally go over all the things I need to do before my workday finishes. My head is down and that’s why I don’t see him. I almost,
almost
, walk right into him. I pull up short, though, my stilettos slide on the polished floors. My arms go flailing as I try to keep my balance and stay upright. He reaches out and grabs a hold of my hips with his steady hands, holding me still. Immediately, I notice the way my hips begin to burn where he is touching me. I look up into his eyes and I want to melt.
He’s gorgeous.
Tall, dark and handsome in a scruffy, unkempt kind of way. He has the bad boy look going on and I can just imagine my mother harping in my ear about the difference between bad boys and good boys. Good boys are reliable, steady and accountable. Bad boys are not. Blah, blah, blah.
And, just as quickly as I’ve almost fallen for him,
literally,
my eyes catch sight of the thin, gold band sitting snugly on the third finger of his left hand and I right myself, using his chest as leverage to push myself away from him.
He is taken.
The married kind of taken.
Off limits.
For a moment, I wonder why his wife didn’t buy him a chunky platinum band that screams
I’m taken.
If he were my man, I would want the world to know immediately. His wedding band wouldn’t be something people would have to search for; no, it would jump right out at them before they even had a chance to wonder.
I busy myself straightening my skirt and then I give him a kind, professional smile.
“Sorry about that, Sir.”
“No problem.” It’s the first time I hear him speak and my nipples tingle. His voice is deep and raspy, a perfect bad boy tone to accompany his bad boy persona.
Damn it.
I catch a whiff of his cologne and it infiltrates my senses, making me feel dizzy and intoxicated. I shake my head slightly to try and clear the fog that’s clouding my mind.
Stupidly, I look into his eyes. He is regarding me with a look I can’t decipher. He looks a little confused and pained, even. I imagine it is the same expression I am wearing, except, I know why I’m looking this way; he’s married, and I wish he wasn’t.
But, I have no idea why
he
is looking this way.
“Uh, I should, uh,” I throw my hands out in front of me and begin walking toward the bar. Throwing my head over my shoulder, I turned to look back at him. “Thank you for catching me,” I almost whisper.
I can feel his eyes burning holes into my back as I walk away, but I don’t turn back again.
There is no use.
“Hey, Jenn. How’s it goin’?” Glenda smiles at me as I slide my ass onto a barstool. Glenda is a middle-aged, married mom of eighteen-year old triplet sons who are always getting into trouble and causing her grief. I swear she gets called into the principal’s office once a week with those boys – as if having triplet sons wasn’t hard enough! Just yesterday, I had to cover her shift (bartending is
not
my forte) because Remy, was caught having “inappropriate sexual relations” at school. Glenda didn’t elaborate on the details when she returned, but, understandably so, she was livid. I feel sorry for the poor woman.
“Good, and you?”
“Same shit, different day,” she answers dryly. “What can I get you?”
“Just a glass of soda, please. How are the boys?” I ask, wincing a little.
“I don’t know what to do with them,” she throws her hands up exasperated. “They’re a trio of walking horniness and I don’t know how to tame it. I wish their father was home more often, but he doesn’t have a choice with his shift work,” she sighs and I really feel sorry for her.
“Maybe they’ll grow out of it,” I shrug lamely.
She hands me my drink and I take a sip.
“Yeah, when they’ve impregnated all the fertile women in Salt Rock . . . or their dicks fall off from a sexually transmitted disease,” she grimaces.
Deciding to leave it at, I turn on my stool to glance around for the hot guy . . . the hot
married
guy, who I shouldn’t even be thinking about. I grit my teeth in frustration.
I feel him before I see him. My back begins to get unusually warm and my skin prickles.
“Switch, how have you been?”
“Glenda, what’s
shakin’?” I turn my body back around and see he is right beside me. As in,
right beside me.
Suddenly, I feel hyper-aware of my surroundings – the music playing softly in the background fills my ears as all other sounds fade away to nothingness. I can hear the leather of his jacket rustling as he reaches into his pocket and the crinkle of his money as he pulls a bill from his wallet.
I shiver and try to inconspicuously shuffle off my stool to put some distance between us.
His name is Switch?
I feel his eyes on me as I pull my straw into my mouth and take a long pull of my drink as I try to distract myself.
“What’s your name?”
I don’t answer immediately, and then I realize he is speaking to me. I don’t want to be rude, so I answer quietly, keeping my voice level. “Jenn.”
“Beautiful name for a beautiful girl,” he murmurs and my brow knits.
What an inappropriate thing to say.
“Yes, well, uh, thank you,” I stutter. “I better get back to work. Bye, Glenda.” I slide off the seat and walk back to my office, closing the door behind me and leaning up against it.
Never in my life has a man affected me the way he does – and I’ve only had two encounters with him! I have never been one to fall speechless or stumble over my words in the presence of the opposite sex, but, that man –
Switch
- he does something to me.
Something I can’t explain.
Something I shouldn’t even be feeling.
For what feels like the millionth time in the space of thirty minutes, I remind myself that he is married and completely off-limits.