Beauty from Pain (40 page)

She unbuttons my shirt and tells me to sit up
so she can pull it off. I do as she says and then I fall back onto
the bed again. Her palms are sliding up and down my chest. “I’m
glad I stumbled upon you. You are super hot.”

Her mouth starts at my upper chest and makes
it way down to my stomach. She tugs to open the button of my daks
and then pulls the zipper down. I’m drunk as fuck, but I somehow
manage to get it up.

She tugs on my daks and jocks until she gets
them down and then slides off the bed to remove my shoes. After she
finishes, she pushes her panties down and kicks them to where her
dress is lying in a puddle on the floor.

She climbs back on top of me and has produced
a condom from somewhere. I assume from her own supply since she
hasn’t asked me where mine is.

I hear her tear it open and then feel her
hands rolling it down over me. I reach up to rub my closed eyes
because all I can see is Laurelyn in the pitch black behind my
lids. Fuck! I want to forget her and I know this is the way, so why
is it not working? Why am I still seeing her? Missing her? Loving
her?

I feel the blond’s hand around me and know
she’s going to slide onto my cock any second if I don’t stop her,
so I jerk up in the bed and shove her off me. “I’m sorry. I can’t
do this with you.”

I get up from the bed and start dressing as
she stares at me from where she’s lying on the bed. She says
nothing and when I’m fully clothed, I don’t even glance in her
direction. “The room is paid for. You can stay if you
want.”

When I’m outside the door, I take my phone
from my pocket but it isn’t Daniel I call. I need my brother.
“Evan, I need you to come get me.”

“
Do you know what time it is?” he
grumbles.

“
No, and I don’t give a shit. Come
pick me up at the Langford.”

–––––

I get into the passenger side of my brother’s
kiddie-hauling SUV. He takes one look at me and shakes his head as
he begins laughing. “You look like shit.”

Just what I need to hear. “Fuck
you.”

He looks me over. “What the hell have you been
doing?”

I stare out the window. “I don’t want to talk
about it.”

“
Well, then why did you call me to
come get you at this time of night if you didn’t want to talk? It’s
not like you don’t have Daniel on salary to drive your drunk ass
home.”

I’m starting to regret calling him. I don’t
know what I was thinking. “Maybe I should have.”

“
Yeah, that’s right. Maybe you
should have.” He pulls out onto the street in the direction of my
condo. “When did you get back into town?”

“
Today.”

“
Mum’s going nuts trying to get
you. She’s dying to know what happened with Laurelyn.” I don’t
reply as I continue to look out the window. “That’s what all of
this is about, isn’t it? You asked her to stay and she told you
no.”

“
That’s not what
happened.”

“
Then what happened?”

It hurts to say it. “She left without telling
me goodbye.”

“
Fuck! That bitch is
cold.”

“
Don’t call her that!” I warn my
brother. “You don’t know anything about what happened.”

“
Does it matter
if she choofed off without telling you so much as
kiss my ass
?”

“
Yeah, it sort of does matter. It
makes all the difference in the world. We had a complicated
relationship topped off with a stupid misunderstanding.”

“
How complicated could it be? She
was here for three months. You hung out, had a good time, and she
went home.”

I can’t believe I’m about to tell him the
truth. “It was much more than that. We had an agreement. She didn’t
know my real name. I didn’t know hers. She was supposed to be my
companion for three months until she went home. I insisted, and she
agreed, we’d never have contact again once she was gone. But things
didn’t go according to plan. I found out her first name. She found
out my whole name. She told me she loved me but I was too stubborn
to hear her because I’m a fucking idiot. She couldn’t tell me
goodbye and I let her get away without telling her how I
felt.”

“
So, you find her and tell
her.”

He thinks it’s so easy. “That’s sort of hard
to do when you don’t know the name of who you’re searching
for.”

“
Bro, that is messed up. Why would
you do that?”

Evan doesn’t get what my life is like. He
walked away from the vineyards and chose a simple life with a
nine-to-five job so he could have Emma. “Because I’m a
multimillionaire and a woman will use your ass when she finds out
you have lots of money. I’ve been doing this for years and it’s
always worked out fine. Until Laurelyn.”

“
So, she didn’t know who you were
or that you had a shitload of money?”

“
Not until I brought her home with
me after Dad got sick.”

“
Mum is going to be so pissed off.
She was already planning your wedding and naming your
kids.”

He didn’t have to remind me. “I know. She fell
in love with Laurelyn as much as I did.”

“
So did my wife and kids. Celia
still talks about her. Mila probably would if she could
talk.”

I can’t believe I’m about to ask him this.
“How did you know Emma was the one?”

He hesitates and I wonder if he’s going to
tell me. I can’t say I’d blame him if he refused. “You can’t use
anything I tell you against me. I mean it. No throwing this shit up
in my face later because you think it’s funny.”

“
No, man. You have my
word.”

“
We’d dated for several months but
had broken up over something stupid and I saw her out with another
guy. I don’t know how to describe the way it felt. Hurt. Sick.
Pissed off. Desperate. And that’s just the short list. All he had
to do was look at her and I wanted to choke the shit out of him
with my bare hands.”

I think of how I’d been out of my
mind with jealousy the past three months. I wanted to beat the hell
out of Ben Donavon, Swinger Chris, and Blake Phillips.
“Yeah, that sounds more than a little bit
familiar.”

“
Jack, you don’t
always know the true worth of a woman’s love until it becomes a
memory.”
That’s pretty deep stuff coming
from my little brother.
“Nothing speaks
louder than your heart. Listen to what it’s telling you. You don’t
need me to tell you how you’ll know if she’s the
one.”

“
My heart’s not telling me
anything. It’s screaming in desperation to find Laurelyn and tell
her how much I love her.”

“
Bro, you’re a rich fucker. Call
out the bloodhounds and go get your girl. She can be found for the
right amount of money.”

Evan’s right. Laurelyn can be located for a
price, and I know just the guy for the job.

It’s late, but I don’t care. I take my phone
out and dial the familiar number. “Callaghan
Investigations.”

“
Jim, it’s Jack McLachlan. I have
a job for you, and it’s a big one. I need you to find someone in
the States. Do you have a current passport?”

Don’t miss the special excerpt from

Rule
by
Jay Crownover

at the back of this ebook.

DEDICATION

To J, F, and M.

You are my dreams come true.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I have made such wonderful friends along the way
and

I want to recognize those who join me in conquering
the publishing world.

Amy Bartol

You are my friend and the sister I didn’t know I
had.

You are the other pea in my pod and the butter on my
bread.

I Love ya, girl.

And people need more tellin’ so keep rocking

The Premonition Series.

You guys seriously need to check this lady out if
you haven’t already.

Because I said so. And because she’s a wee bit
awesome.

Ames, I can’t wait to see where you take us
next.

And thank you for always being my roomie.

Shelly Crane

Your are my pal and the wind beneath my winds.

You never cease to amaze me with your
accomplishments.

Good things come to good people. True story.

You helped me when I was trying to make my way into
this crazy world.

I’ll never forget that. Thank you, Shelly Bean.

Keep pumping out those amazing tales, girl.

I can’t wait for
The Significance Movie
.

You guys have to read
The Significance Series

so you can be prepared before it hits the big
screen.

Michelle Leighton

Wow. You’ve marinated in a little more awesome sauce
this year.

I’m so happy for you and all you’ve
accomplished.

Most of all, I’m honored to call you Friend.

Thank you for your words of encouragement

and always having the gift to make me smile and
laugh.

I can’t wait to see where
The Bad Boys Series
goes
next.

And
The
Wild Ones
.

Samantha Young

Who knew we could become friends with an ocean
between us?

I feel like I know you already and I can’t wait to
meet you. I’m counting the days.

I’ll never forget the way I felt
when I learned
On Dublin Street
had hit #1 on Amazon.

I’m still amazed, but not shocked, by your
accomplishments.

I’m impatient to see where Johanna
and Cameron go in
Down London
Road
.

Hurry up already!

Angeline Kace

I love you for your voice of reason.

You’re a fine example of a friend and
cheerleader.

You’re always quick to point out our accomplishments
and I love you for that.

Your eye for detail is unrivaled and I thank you for
sharing your wise knowledge.

I can’t wait to see what’s next
in
The Vampire Born
Trilogy
.

And FYI: she might have a little contemporary
something up her sleeve in the future.

Quinn Loftis

You were the first author I met in this crazy
world.

You’ve been such a wonderful role model for what

can be accomplished in such a short period of
time.

Thank you for making me laugh when I needed it
most.

You have amazing things in store for you through

The Grey Wolves Series
and
now
Elfin
.

Rachel Higginson

You rock some curly hair like nobody’s business.

I still can’t believe you drove all that way to meet
up with us. That’s a real friend!

I hope we get to see each other again, soon. But fly
next time.

Keep Rocking it out in

The Star-Crossed Series
and
The Starbright
Series

Lila Felix

You’re taking the world by storm.

...another fine of example of what can be
accomplished in a short period of time.

Thank you for being my pal and talking to me for
hours about my projects.

I can’t wait to see you again so I can hear your
prairie dog laugh.

Keep showing the world what roller derby life is
about in

The Love and Skate Series.

Jay Crownover

Wow. What a debut.

I know you didn’t expect
Rule
to rule Amazon the
way it has.

Props to ‘ya.

You truly know how to rock the tatted, pierced
badass and I dig it.

So does everyone else.

Can’t wait to see what Ayden and Jet are up to in
their book.

Thank You To My Wonderful Music Heads

When I needed help from my Facebook pals, they
didn’t let me down. I asked for music suggestions when I was in the
early stages of writing this book before it even had a title. These
are the fantastic peeps who came to my rescue. Thank you so much.
You’ll never know how much you influenced this story.

Fern Curry

I want to especially thank Fern from
whirlwindbooks.blogspot.com

for recommending “Beauty From Pain” by
Superchick.

I loved it so much it went on to inspire the title
of this book.

Gloria Green from globugandhootie.blogspot.com

Amanda “Hootie” Clark from
globugandhootie.blogspot.com

Nikki Sparks from Book Junkies Anonymous

Nanci Nocito Tinkelman

Cindy Villagra

Emily Sarah Lamphear-Mitchell

Kristi Rovison

Marcia Woodell

Ashley Wilcox

Amanda Stepp

Jamie Hilliard

BEAUTY FROM PAIN PLAYLIST

Beauty from Pain • Superchick

Lead Me On • Gloriana

Angel • Massive Attack

Lift Me Up • Christina Aguilera

I Am (Stripped) • Christina Aguilera

Fade Into You • (feat. Sam Palladio & Clare
Bowen) • Nashville Cast

Wanted You More • Lady Antebellum