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Authors: Kele Moon

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Untamed Hearts 1: The Viper

BOOK: Untamed Hearts 1: The Viper
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Table of Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Epilogue

Marcos Rivera’s Boricua Guide to Spanish and Street Slang

Loose Id Titles by Kele Moon

Kele Moon

Untamed Hearts 1: The Viper

Copyright © August 2014 by Kele Moon

All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

 

Image/art disclaimer: Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

 

eISBN 9781623005429

Editor: Maryam Salim

Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs

Published in the United States of America

 

Loose Id LLC

PO Box 806

San Francisco CA 94104-0806

www.loose-id.com

 

This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Warning

This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id LLC’s e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

* * * *

DISCLAIMER: Please do not try any new sexual practice, especially those that might be found in our BDSM/fetish titles without the guidance of an experienced practitioner. Neither Loose Id LLC nor its authors will be responsible for any loss, harm, injury or death resulting from use of the information contained in any of its titles.

Dedication

To Sonja,

Not a day goes by that I don’t feel blessed to have had you for a mother-in-law. Your boldness. Your sharp wit. Your ability to always get shit done and most of all for being the most dedicated mother, grandmother, and friend I have ever met in my life. I admired you for all of it, and I wish I hadn’t waited until you were gone to dedicate a book to you because you were always one of my greatest supporters. Honestly, I had planned for these books to be yours, likely because I thought I’d be calling you every five minutes to help me with the Spanish. It was hard to write this one without you around, and so shortly after we’d lost you too, but you’re still there in the pages. It was impossible for you not to be in every corner of this book.

Thank you for welcoming me into your world. Thank you for accepting me when your son brought me home. Thank you for showing me all the most beautiful parts of the Latino culture in Florida and teaching me to love it as much as the one I had left behind in Hawaii.

Most of all, thank you for loving my children as deeply and profoundly as you did. To you, family was everything. No sacrifice was ever too great. It’s that message more than anything else that you contributed to these books.

We love you. We miss you like crazy. We wish you were still here, but we know you’re watching over us.

Acknowledgments

Extra Special Thanks To:

My husband for going the distance to help me finish this one. This was not an easy journey. Losing your mother. Losing my grandfather. Helping me recover from my back surgery. This year has been the one that taught us that together we are strong. We survive in the face of adversity. We were able to rise up and get it done when so often it felt impossible. The amount of work you contributed to this book far exceeds anything I did. Thank you for taking care of EVERYTHING in the real world while I stayed up nights playing in my imaginary one. Thank you for believing in this new series and for continuing to do anything in your power to help me share it with the world. I’m so very grateful you’re my mate. You make every aspect of my life brighter. I love you more than words will ever be able to capture.

Marivett Villafane for being such a huge help with this book from beginning to end. It wasn’t just about the Spanish, which I would have never been able to pull off without you. It was about helping me find my characters. A lot of Marcos’s big personality is thanks to you! You helped him be distinctively him. For always being there, even late at night, when I pinged you asking any number of random questions. I heart you like whoa!! THANK YOU!

Jessica Canoto for being willing to read and answer questions. You helped more than you will ever know! I held my breath the whole time you read the first draft before the book was even finished and thankfully you are the fastest reader I’ve ever met in my life! Your enthusiasm for Marcos, Chuito, and all the other Miami characters gave me that push I needed to finish!! THANK YOU!

Lori Toland for being an amazing friend and always being there to listen to me ramble about my characters. Double thank you for giving me a place to stay while I finished this. I would still be working on this book if it weren’t for you! I love you!

Laurann for being the most amazing crit-partner in the world! I love you. Plain and simple. There are a lot of things I have to be thankful for since becoming published, but meeting you is, without question, number one.

Karen M for being my resident expert on just about everything. If it’s a legal question or a car question, you’re always there to help me. Every author needs a friend like you! I love you!

Maryam for being the greatest editor a writer could ever hope for! Thank you for believing in me and in these books.

Loose Id for letting me be me and helping me share these stories with the world.

Chapter One

Garnet County

January 1, 2014

A Garth Brooks song played on the radio. The windshield wipers worked overtime pushing away the snow as Katie drove back home after the New Year’s Eve party held at her brother’s place. The roads were empty at two a.m. Not that they were ever too crowded in her small hometown of Garnet.

Katie had gone to her brother Chris’s just in case her ex tried to stop by the house after he sent her flowers for New Year’s Eve, asking for a second chance. Her divorce had been two years of hell, and Grayson
still
didn’t want to let go.

Now she was stuck driving back home through the early stirrings of what looked to be a nasty winter storm.
Damn Grayson
. She would’ve been happier spending the night on her couch with a bottle of wine and Ryan Seacrest to keep her company.

Determined to enjoy the first vestiges of the New Year, she turned up the radio. She started thinking of her mother and deliberately sang along. Her mother used to love Garth Brooks.

Katie didn’t notice the blue car behind her until it was practically on top of her. That little car just seemed to appear out of nowhere. It had to be doing ninety at least. On a snowy, two-lane road that was nothing but sharp turns. Were they crazy?

She expected them to pass her. Even if it was a two-lane road, people did it all the time. Katie certainly wasn’t going to speed up in a snowstorm to make a lunatic driver happy. A chill ran down her spine when the driver continued to ride her tail rather than pass. For one moment she thought it could be Grayson, but this driver was noticeably swerving. Grayson didn’t drink.

She slowed down, hoping the driver would pass, but they just remained plastered to Katie’s bumper in a way that made her feel bullied. Her instincts were on high alert. It was clear this person was trying to scare her.

And they were obviously drunk.

She turned on her blinker, intent on pulling off the road, but before she could, the driver sped up and finally made the move to go around her. Katie looked at the driver, but in the darkness all she could make out was the long hair and slim frame of a woman. She also couldn’t help but notice being flipped off when the strange woman stuck her hand out of the open sunroof. Maybe if the driver had been paying attention to the road instead of giving Katie the middle finger, she would’ve seen the white pickup truck coming over the hill. As it was, the woman didn’t even try to slow down.

As if caught in a nightmare, Katie watched the truck swerve violently to avoid the blue car suddenly in their lane. The last thing Katie heard before her world exploded was the blaring of a horn and the skid of tires against icy asphalt.

Glass was everywhere. The sting of it was in her face and neck. She could feel the warm trickle of blood running into her eye, but all that was nothing but sensory annoyance next to what was going on with her left arm. The agony was so extreme she wouldn’t have been able to comprehend it before this moment. A scream burst out of her as the shock of getting hit cleared between one heartbeat and the next. She tried to tug her arm free from where it was pinned by the twisted metal that was once her driver’s side door.

She nearly blacked out from the pain. She started hyperventilating as the smell of smoke filled her senses. She was claustrophobic in the best of circumstances. After five years in a mentally abusive relationship, Katie didn’t like feeling trapped. She was in such a freak mode, she found herself trying to steel herself against the pain and willing the strength to attempt jerking her arm free again…even if it caused more damage.

She needed out of her car.

“I’m calling 911!”

Katie heard the voice from somewhere. Low and gruff, vibrating with panic. She blinked, focusing on it.

“Stop moving. I’m getting help.”

Katie hadn’t realized she’d been fighting to get out until the passenger side door was abruptly opened, and the blast of cold air hit her. She blinked at a tan face. Light blue eyes swirled with concern, hidden partially by locks of dark hair. As insane as it was, this man was so handsome that for the pulse of one second she forgot the pain, but in the next breath, it slammed into her with such force it wouldn’t have made a difference if it was Bradley Cooper sitting himself in the passenger seat of her car.

The handsome stranger was talking rapidly on his phone.

She started crying. Embarrassing. Ugly crying. Punctuated by really dignified statements about her predicament like, “Ow, ow ow.”

He asked her questions. She thought she answered them correctly.

She couldn’t believe
this
was how she was starting the New Year.

As she sat there, trapped, in pain and shivering in shock and cold, he took off his jacket and put it around her. “They’re coming,” he told her, sounding concerned as he held the phone to his ear. “Mrs. Wellings says they’ll be here in three minutes or less.”

Katie nodded, feeling a little better and a lot warmer. “That’s Jules?” She struggled to stop the tears and speak clearly. “Can you tell her it’s Katie Foster so she can call my brother?”

Katie actually heard Jules’s screech through the phone. Jules Wellings had been Katie’s attorney for the divorce and one of her only true advocates. A very busy woman and a mom of twins, Jules rarely worked 911 dispatch these days, even if her twin brother was sheriff. It was a small stroke of luck.

The world hazed out in relief then. Knowing it was Jules sending help eased some of her panic, and this handsome stranger sitting in Katie’s mangled car had kind eyes. He had even given her his jacket, and it left his arms bare to the cold—
really big arms
. He had tribal tattoos on his biceps, and a large snake inked into the corded muscles on the inside of his right forearm. She’d never seen tattoos like that up close. They made him look undeniably dangerous, but for some reason she wasn’t nervous in his presence. She focused on him because there was nothing else but the pain to set her attention on.

He cursed when his phone died. “
Hijo de la gran puta
!”

“A-aren’t you cold?” she stuttered as she stared at those bunched, tattooed muscles rather than think of the agony in her arm.

“I just slammed into your car two hours after New Years. You should want my ass to be cold.” He let out a bitter laugh full of self-hatred as he turned to her in concern. “I’m sorry about this.” He shook his head. “
Coño
. That sounded lame, huh? You can’t just say sorry for something like this.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “This is my worst nightmare. It was the last thing I fucking needed on my conscience.”

BOOK: Untamed Hearts 1: The Viper
5.33Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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