Hiding Away (Anchored Hearts #1.5) (15 page)

Playlist for Hiding Away

The One That Got Away by The Civil Wars

Crash
Into Me by DMB

Wild Horses by
The Sundays

I Want Crazy by Hunter Hayes

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely by The Band Perry

Fall
Into Me by Brantley Gilbert

Drunk
On You by Luke Bryan

Running Blind by
Godsmack

Wanted by Hunter Hayes

Just a Kiss by Lady Antebellum

Love Somebody by Maroon 5

Stay The Night by Zedd & Hayley Williams

It Girl by Jason
Derulo

Talk Dirty by Jason
Derulo & 2 Chainz

Man
In The Box by Alice In Chains

Stupid Boy by Keith Urban

Say Something by A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera

Love Don’t Die by
The Fray

About the Author

J.M. resides in Metro Detroit, MI with her husband and four small children. 

Always wanting to write romance novels, she followed her dreams after having baby #4, who may or may not be the spawn of Christian Grey!

She hopes you’ll enjoy more than a good book, but have an experience.

You can find her at

www.jmwittbooks.com

Twitter @ wittymomauthor

www.facebook.com/jmwittbooks

Official playlist for
Hiding Away
on Spotify

If you or a loved one has been a victim of sexual abuse; there is help for you.

www.rainn.org

1.800.656.HOPE

Allurin
g
TURMOIL

Book 1 Bayou
Stix Preview

By
:
SKYE TURNER

Alluring Turmoil, Book 1 Bayou
Stix

Skye Turner

Published by Skye Turner

Copyright ©2013 Skye Turner

First Edition, ebook-published 2013

www.skyeturnerauthor.com

This ebook is the sole property of the author and may not be reproduced or transmitted without the permission of the author. This preview is being used by JM Witt with the cooperation and permission of Skye Turner. Please help prevent the piracy of ebooks. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, places, events, or occurrences is purely coincidental.

*Due to graphic sex scenes and strong language, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Chapter One

Lexi

“Come on, Lexi. Why are you being difficult? It’s front row at Bayou
Stix.
BAYOU STIX
! Do you not understand this? Micah pulled some serious strings to get us these. Come on!” is what I hear from my old college roommate, now best friend Bradi.

“
Bradi, I just don’t know. Things are so busy here, I have inventory to do, and I really need to get started on the Masons’ wedding cake. Besides, I’m not a big fan of Bayou Stix. You know that.” I answer, as I look around at my coffee shop/bakery.

Java and Sweeties is my baby. It was always my dream to own and run a coffee shop/bakery. I’m living my dream and I’m very proud of what we’ve put together here over the past few years. I take in the autumn sunset colored walls with the back wall being a built in bookshelf. The black leather couches and recliners spaced intermittently with the bistro sets and warm mocha throw rugs on the polished hardwood floor give the space a warm and welcoming feel.

Over the past two years, business has really taken off and Java and Sweeties has become the go-to place for LSU students and professionals alike to come to study, or work on presentations. My cakes and baked confections have also been on more than one highly respected person’s table over the past year.

“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit, Lexi! This place can spare you for one night.
One
night! I get it. It’s your baby, but you still need a life. You
are
coming with me to the concert. It’s Jude…  fucking…  Delecroix! Sex on a stick! Don’t make me break out the big guns, because you know I will!”

“That doesn’t work on me
Bradi. I’m immune to your wiles,” I say with a chuckle. “But you’re right… ok. I’ll come with you. But I am
not
going backstage. I mean it. I’m serious!”

“Ok fine. We’ll see.
Yay
!” Bradi exclaims as she jumps around doing some sort of happy dance.  “Sheesh, I don’t want to have to browbeat you. And I know it isn’t your thing, but it’ll be fun. You’ll see!”

“
Yo Erik, she said
yes
!” Bradi yells out to my lifelong best friend, as he’s making an espresso behind the counter.

“Oh great.
That’s awesome. It’s going to be an interesting night. One that we’ll certainly never forget!” Erik calls back, giving me a small wink and a sheepish smile, before turning back to the customer.

“
Sooo, what should I wear? I’m thinking my purple skinny jeans with my black stilettos and my black sequined halter top. You know the one that makes my boobs look fabulous? Or should I wear my leather miniskirt with the red tube top and my thigh high leather boots?  I want to be sure the band notices me!” Bradi asks me with a twinkle in her eye.

“Come on
Bradi, seriously? Aren’t you back on with Micah? You know, hence the front row tickets to the sold out concert. And you being noticed is never a problem!” Bradi is gorgeous. As in supermodel gorgeous. She’s what guys call “stacked”. At 5’8 with wavy blond hair accented with dark chocolate lowlights, moss green eyes, a perfect heart shaped mouth, breasts that women pay for, a narrow waist, and curvy hips with legs for days, yeah, she has no trouble being noticed.

Now, I’m not unattractive, but next to her, I feel like a wallflower.

Bradi gives me a devious grin and says, “Yes, we’re back on. We’re always on. Even when we’re off.  I love that man! And was he on last night… Ahhhhhhh! However, there is nothing wrong with trying to catch a sexy rock star’s attention. Besides, I’ve already told you, if Jude Delecroix motions my way,  I’m dropping my panties before he can blink and change his mind. I would
so
have his rock-star babies. “

My heart starts racing and my head feels strange as I say, “Ok, you do that.  Rock stars are overrated. In my opinion, you should stick with Micah and have
his
babies. He’s crazy hot, he’s in love with you, and he puts up with your insanity.”

Bradi
gives me a serious look and says, “Lexi, you know I’m joking, right? Are you ok? I would never do that to Micah. Jude is a fantasy… you know,
most
women have a guy they fantasize about.  Sometimes, I wonder about you chick. Are you feeling ok though? I mean really, you look a little off. I think you’ve been working too much. You really do need a break, even if it’s just for one night!”

I wipe my hands down my jeans and cover her hand with mine. “I know, babe. You’re you and that’s why I love you. And yeah, I have been working a lot. This place just takes a lot out of me, but I love it.”

“And
that’s
why you’re coming with us Friday night! You need to remember that you’re only twenty-six. You might be a crazy successful business owner, but you’re also a fabulously sexy chick who needs to get out, have some fun, and shit,
get laid
!” she says with a smirk. “Now what are we going to dress you in?”

I roll my eyes and can’t help but laugh at her. I love this crazy woman so much. Besides, she’s right. I need to have some fun. It’s time to let loose again and be a regular, twenty-six year old, single woman.  “You pick. Just make sure all my womanly bits are covered!”

“Well, you’re no fun,” Bradi says with a smile. As she reaches over to kiss my cheek and I give her a hug, I don’t hear the door to the shop open.

My back is to the door. The shop is busy for a Wednesday night. Almost every couch and chair is filled and there’s a nice line of people at the counter waiting to order their coffee or
pick up a sweet treat from our bakery display racks. John Mayer is playing over the speakers low enough not to bother anyone working, but loud enough that you can hear the music.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck stands up as if I’ve just been shocked.
Bradi is facing the door and her eyes go wide. “Oh my God… Oh my God…
OH MY GOD
!”

I slowly turn around, as if pulled by an imaginary cord, but I already know what I’ll see. My mind sees everything as if in slow motion. My eyes travel the length of a slim, but cut, 6’1 body, taking everything in, from the tips of his black boots to the top of his spiked dirty blond purple tipped hair. I notice all of the tattoos and the scruff that looks as if it’s a permanent part of a chiseled face. 

“Oh
FUCK ME
!” I gasp out.

I feel faint. My hands start to sweat, my stomach starts to clench, and my panties start to moisten. It’s instinctual. My eyes move back down a smidge and rest on the clear, hard, hazel eyes of the one and only Jude
Delecroix, lead singer of Bayou Stix, and he’s staring right back at me. 

I unconsciously start to shake and forget that I’m still holding onto
Bradi. Only now I’m squeezing her as if she’s a lifeline. I feel her move to where she’s looking into my face, but I can’t move. I can’t speak. I cannot break the all consuming hold of  the hazel eyes across the room. Those eyes that still haunt my dreams… every night.

<><><>

Jude

I’m staring into the whiskey golden eyes across the room and I can’t stop. It’s almost as if I’m frozen.
Rooted to the floor. My hands clench and unclench and I have to grit my teeth.  The urge to run across the room and kiss those moist red lips or to scream into that beautiful, perfect face for still affecting me is almost too much to handle.

Alexia Sloane… here, in front of me.
This is what I wanted. This is what I needed. But now that I’m here, everything I’ve ever thought this moment would be, the way it would play out, goes out of the window. My head is suddenly blank, but I can’t stop looking into those eyes. Those eyes, that I once thought could see into my soul. The eyes that every night when I close my eyes, I still see, no matter what I do to banish them... no matter how many women I take into my bed. My heart is empty.  Dead. But those eyes… those fucking gorgeous eyes. They haunt me.

Chapter Two

Lexi

Bradi
is pulling on my arm. I can feel her, sort of.  It’s as if I’m in a tunnel, me on one end and Jude on the other. Everyone and everything else is covered in fog. Nothing else exists. It’s only him and me.

Our eyes stay locked. I’m stunned, frozen in time. I thought I’d do this differently. I knew there was going to come a time when we would be in the same room together again, but I’m not ready. Not now. I’m not ready! I need more time.

“Lexi. Lexi. What the fuck Lexi?
LEXI?
”

Finally I’m able to tear my eyes away from Jude and focus on my friend.

Shaking my head to clear it, I look at her. I see the concern and confusion on her face. I’m finally able to comprehend that she’s talking to me, though I can’t yet understand what she’s saying. “What?”

“Lexi!
WHAT THE FUCK?
Why are you and Jude Delecroix…
‘Jude Fucking Delecroix’
, eye fucking and strangling each other from across the room? Do you know him? Lexi, tell me now! 
DO. YOU. KNOW. HIM?
” Bradi is squeezing my hands now; I never even noticed she’d grabbed them.

I sigh and look into her eyes, before glancing back at him. He’s still staring and I can see the rage on his face and in his eyes. The rage directed at me. I tear my eyes away from Jude and look back at my confused best friend.  Suddenly I feel defeated.
“Yeah.” I sigh. “Yeah you could say that. There was a time when we knew each other very well. A time when we ripped each other’s clothes off at every available opportunity and fucked like rabbits. A time when the only way I was me, was with him. So yeah… you could say I know him. Or I guess I knew him.” My voice fades in and out as I talk. My voice is flat, monotone, as if I have no emotions.

Bradi’s
mouth is opening and closing like a fish and her eyes are wide, like saucers in her head, as if she can’t form a coherent sentence. She’s looking from me to Jude and back, like she simply cannot believe it.  Finally, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before looking into mine. “The fuck you say? You... you and Jude Delecroix?
THAT
Jude Delecroix?” She points at him. “The
ROCK STAR
! The one I talk about non stop? Are you
fucking serious
? How? Why? Oh my God… I don’t understand this.”

I sigh long and loud. My heart is still racing. I cannot believe he’s here. He’s
here
. In my shop and in
my
space. It’s hard for me to breathe and I feel as if I’m going to throw up, but I can see the confusion and a hint of betrayal on Bradi’s face. I know I owe her some sort of explanation. “We grew up together. You know he’s from here. We were inseparable. The three of us were inseparable, Erik, Jude, and me.” I swallow and close my eyes so I can continue. “You know the guy I told you about? The guy I said I lost myself in? The guy who broke me… well… there you go. That’s him. It was Jude.” I’m flapping my hand in his direction as I talk.

Looking at her and waiting for her reaction, time stands still. I don’t know what I’ll do if she walks away. With Jude here, with my emotions all over the place, with my heart in my throat and fear consuming me, I just wait… and wait.

She takes another deep breath and she looks at me, really looks at me.  It feels like an hour has passed, but I guess it’s really only been a few seconds.

“Ok. Ok then.
You and Jude Delecroix. Ok. It’s perfectly fine. But wait, no. No, you know what? It’s not ok! You and Jude Delecroix! You and Jude and you never told me?!?! Why didn’t you ever tell me Lexi? I’m your best friend! You should have told me!”

Suddenly we realize the coffee shop is no longer quiet. We both look around. Girls are screaming. Laptops are left on tables and couches as Jude is completely surrounded. Hands are all over him, people are in his face, thrusting things at him to sign. He meets my eyes one last time and then it’s as if a switch is flipped. He turns away from me, dismissing me, and turns towards his fans. He’s instantly smiling, signing things, shaking hands.  He’s no longer the boy I once knew. The boy I can’t get out of my head. He’s in his element; he’s Jude
Delecroix… the rock star.

I grab
Bradi’s arm and pull her into the back, towards my office. I have to get away, away from Jude, away from his fans, away from the chaos in my beloved shop, I
need
to get away!

<><><>

Jude

I look up from my fans.
My fans, the people who love me. Guys who want to be me. Girls who want to be with me. I notice that Lexi is running from the room as if the hounds of hell are on her heels, dragging the blonde bombshell with her.

I smile. I take photos. I shake hands and sign whatever is thrust at me. I’m going through the motions. I can do this in my sleep, but my mind continues to focus on the redhead who just tipped my world on its axis, again, and then fled. Leaving me and racing from the room as if she can’t get away from me fast enough. 

I don’t know why I’m surprised. It’s Lexi, and that’s what she does. It’s what she’s good at. At least with me.