Homeless Heart
Homeless Heart
After a series of accumulative events, Kelly Jenson finds herself homeless. Alone, her isolated refuge gives her plenty of time to dwell on her past mistakes. Coming upon a stranded motorist, Kelly is forced to face her greatest enemy, her pride. Drake Larson, a prestigious entrepreneur who feels stifled and frustrated with the social circle his monetary success has brought him, becomes obsessed with Kelly. One chance meeting gives Drake the push he’s needed to end a suffocating relationship with a woman whose only mission in life is herself. Kelly questions Drake’s motives when he returns. Drake’s persistence leads to a night of passion and luxury as he escorts Kelly into his world of lavishness and esteem, but hatred and jealousy are lurking. When Drake is targeted through an act of violence, he goes to great lengths to extinguish the lines that Kelly insists should divide their classes.
Genre:
Contemporary
Length:
35,253 words
HOMELESS HEART
JC Szot
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
HOMELESS HEART
Copyright © 2013 by JC Szot
E-book ISBN:
978-1-62740-590-4
First E-book Publication: October 2013
Cover design by Christine Kirchoff
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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Homeless Heart
by JC Szot from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
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DEDICATION
For my husband, Mike, whose long battle with AML Leukemia ended on August 1, 2013. My husband always supported my writing. Without his gifts of time and space my writing wouldn’t be what it is today. For Mike, who gave me fifteen great years, years filled with love, friendship, and laughter.
Table of Contents
HOMELESS HEART
JC SZOT
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
“That’s my damn tarp,” Kelly said coldly. “Hand it over.”
“Listen, Kelly…” Sam’s tone softened on a sigh. He released the large, blue piece of vital plastic, letting it fall to the ground. He kicked it toward her. Kelly lunged for the tarp, folding it in her arms. Sam spoke slowly, as if needing to regain his composure. “It’s bad enough I let you hole up here, but you’ve got to have this little campsite of yours cleaned up and out of sight by five a.m. Understood?” His dark eyes bored into hers. Sam ran a hand over his bald head, his lips twisting with annoyance.
“Yeah, I got it,” Kelly huffed. She picked up the backpack that was stuffed with the few precious possessions she owned and stormed off into the woods that bordered Union Gas and Propane. She needed to cool off. If she pushed her luck with Sam, she’d be screwed.
Kelly tied the rope into the corner holes of the tarp. She’d already screwed the hook-and-eyes into the trunks of the surrounding trees. She threaded the ends of the rope through the hooks imbedded in the bark and tugged until the rope was taut, knotting the ends.
This had become her prime location, her home, however pathetic it was. It was secluded, protecting her from the sun and heat of a summer that was soon to be ending. The tall evergreens would hopefully conceal her from the elements of the pending winter.
She’d only been on the streets a few months. Winter was a worry that grew more potent with each passing day. Though Steve said she’d do fine, the concerns weighed heavily. It was already September. If time continued to fly by, she’d be shivering in the snow very soon.
The sun was spreading across the sky, casting intricate patterns of white heat in its wake as it filtered through the evergreens above and settled on the damp ground.
She’d gotten very little sleep last night. Her thoughts had kept her up. They came every night with the darkness, haunting her, shaking her awake until she fully surrendered and aborted the idea of trying to snooze.
The bottom of her life had fallen out quickly, like a tornado moving at a hundred miles an hour ravaging everything in its path within ten seconds.
Her mother’s mind became corroded by dementia. Life for her father at home had become a serious liability. After her mother had attacked him with a steak knife, Kelly gave up her apartment, resigned from her job as a receptionist, and moved in.
Taking care of her mother was a battle that quickly wore her and her father out. Her poor father’s health began to slip. The stress of caring for his wife, along with the mental turmoil of trying to comprehend why her mother had become such a lunatic, took its toll at a rapid pace. Her mother, thank God, passed away in her sleep. Kelly still struggled with the possibility that her father may have accidently overmedicated her. The Haldol the doctors had prescribed became the only solution Kelly and her father had had.
Kelly believed that her father died of a depressed and broken heart. Her parents’ deaths were only five months apart.
Unbeknownst to her, the amount of medical debt her parents had accrued while going to various gerontologists, as well as countless visits to the emergency room and psychiatric evaluations, left her parents’ estate in a vulnerable position.
She had no job, no money, and no home. The idea of crawling back to the few friend’s she’d had sucked every, last bit of pride out of her. Kelly chose to just disappear. A wavering sigh escaped from between her lips.
I’m so tired. Maybe it all won’t look so devastating after I rest for a bit.
A wide bar of the sun’s heat hit her face, warming her, soothing her. Kelly closed her eyes and drifted off as the branches rustled overhead, pushing the fresh, cool scent of pine into her nose.