The Trouble with Bree (Spotlight #1.5) Page 9

  “If you’re good.” I leaned over and kissed his forehead, stripping out of my shirt. It wasn’t to be sexy, I had to put on my uniform, which thankfully was just a pink T-shirt that I could never get the coffee smell out of and jeans. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “I’m going to be good.” Josh winked at me. “The question is, will you?”

  “Always.” I scoffed. “Dinner’s in the crock pot. I made chicken and dumplings. If the kids act like you’re trying to poison them, there are dino nuggets in the freezer.”

  “Mmm, that sounds so good.” He pulled me down on the bed with him and kissed me. Then he looked around the room, grinning. “There’s one box we forgot to unpack.”

  “There is? I thought I got everything.” The boys kept dragging things out and putting them “away”, trying to help, so it was possible I missed something.

  “Yup.” Josh got up and opened the drawer to his nightstand. I squinted in confusion trying to figure out what he could possibly be talking about, but my heart stopped when I saw the black velvet ring box in his hand. My mouth dropped, frozen in shock as he dropped to one knee in front of me.

  “Holy shit,” I whispered. I never thought this moment would ever happen to me.

  Josh opened his mouth to speak, turning red, and bowing his head. Wow, he was nervous. I wondered if I should just say yes and make his life easy. No way. I’d waited my whole life to hear this. “Aubree Lynne Farrell, it makes me insanely happy to come home to you, Landon, and Lucas, every day. Bish, too, because let’s face it, Bish completes us.” He took my hand in his as I giggled. He brought it up to his lips and kissed it. “And I want to make sure I can do it every day for the rest of my life.”

  “Yes.” My voice shook. “Fuck yes.”

  “I haven’t even asked you anything yet.” Josh tried to contain his smile, but it was impossible. “But I was thinking, this ring would look awfully good with a long white dress.” He slipped the prettiest diamond solitaire set in white gold onto my finger. I stared at it like it was something that was happening to someone else.

  “White dress?” I cocked an eyebrow at Josh as I raised my hand so I could get a better look at the ring. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Not because it was a diamond ring, but because of what it meant. “Who are we kidding?”

  “I don’t care if you wear footie pajamas and a robe, I just want everyone to know you’re mine.” Josh closed his hand over mine with the ring on it and brought it back to his mouth to kiss just below the ring. “So what do you say?”

  “Fuck yes.” I slid off the bed and into his arms. I’d meant to kiss him sweetly, but instinct took over and I nipped his bottom lip, then pushed him back so he was flat on the floor. He pulled me in close and I fell on top of him, but that was it. We lay on the floor in a heap, doing nothing but savoring the moment.

  I couldn’t wait to let everyone know Josh was going to be mine forever.

  Thank you!

  I hope you enjoyed Bree and Josh’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it! If you did, tell a friend! And please take a moment to leave a review. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but reviews are the best way to help spread the word about books.

  Keep in touch! I’m on Facebook and Twitter. You can check out my website for more information about my books, and I’d love it if you signed up for my mailing list!

  I’ve included an excerpt of my next book in The Spotlight series, Too Many Reasons. It will be released February 9, 2015, and it’s available for preorder! Keep reading to meet Abby and Devon.

  Chapter One

  “Get him out of here,” my sister Mallory hissed, maybe even loudly enough to wake Devon, sprawled out on our futon in a drunken stupor. “How many more nights is this going to happen?”

  “I’m not kicking him out. He’s not bothering you.” Our apartment was Devon’s safe haven, more so when my sister wasn’t around. I let him hide out here when he didn’t want to put up with the rest of the world’s shit. Tonight’s shit came courtesy of his current girlfriend, Lexi, as usual. By the time Devon got here, his words were slurred and he said the same things over and over. He wasn’t a reliable source. But I didn’t care. What mattered tonight was that I had him and she didn’t.

  “It’s one in the morning. I’m awake. He’s bothering me.” Mallory stood in front of the futon, getting in the way of me covering Devon with a throw blanket before she stormed back into her bedroom.

  Before I covered him, I took a good look at him, his long, lean limbs wrapped in colorful tattoos. The new ones were much better, but I loved the first one the best; a dragon that looked more like a dog crossed with an alligator, it barely had any color left. Looking at it brought me back to the day we’d skipped school and convinced the guy at the tattoo shop that the ID we’d found at the mall really belonged to Devon. Every time he got a new tattoo, I suggested he get it fixed, but he wasn’t the type of guy to pretty things up. That was my department. The more ink he got, the worse that dragon looked, but he insisted he liked it just the way it was.

  My cat, Ziggy, stood up from her place next to Devon’s stomach and shook violently. She gave me one of those looks only a cat can get away with, and there was no doubt what she thought about that blanket. Devon found her and she loved him, she only tolerated me because I fed her.

  I pushed a lock of hair from Devon’s cheek. The purple highlights were fading in his dark hair, and tomorrow I’d check to see if I had any more dye left to fix it. That meant my hair could use a touch up, too. We had a hair dying party tradition. I did his hair, he did mine, and we always watched Rocky Horror Picture Show while we did it. Devon insisted we sing along if my sister wasn’t home.

  Like everything else about me and Devon, Mallory would think it was pathetic.

  I could stand here and watch him sleep forever, but I had to be up in five hours, and Devon exhausted me. This wasn’t the first night this week he’d stayed here. I couldn’t even say I didn’t expect him anymore. He knew he was always welcome. We’d been friends too long and through too much together for me to ever turn him away. If I showed up yawning for my morning classes again tomorrow, I’d have to listen to everyone’s shit again, about how Devon was using me and that I needed to snap out of it and blah, blah, blah.

  Devon loved me, just not the same way I loved him.

  “Abby.” The shift of the mattress startled me awake when Devon crawled into bed with me. This happened almost every time he stayed here, too. He pressed his body against my back and wrapped his arms around me, his words hot whiskey breath against my neck. “Thank you.”

  I nodded, reluctant to open my eyes. If he knew I was awake, he’d want to talk. The alarm was going to start screaming at me to get the fuck out of bed at quarter past six whether Devon worked out his feelings or not.

  I nestled back against him, my body fitting perfectly against his. He didn’t react, but my heart stopped and sighed.

  Devon took my movement as an invitation, just not the one I wanted. “How come you’re the one who just fucking gets me?”

  I’d asked myself that same question more times than I could count. My eyes were open now. Three forty-five. Maybe we could make this quick. “I tell you the same thing every time.” I rolled over so I faced him. “You need to stop thinking you can make a relationship out of sex.”

  “I don’t. At least, it doesn’t start that way.” He almost spoke in a regular tone now he knew I was awake, instead of the hush he’d used when he was only trying to wake me up. If his voice carried into Mallory’s room, she’d know he was in my bed again, and she’d barge in and go ballistic. “I thought I had so much in common with Lexi, but she’s doesn’t give a shit about my life, she doesn’t like any of the stuff we like. I wish I could find a girl just like you.”

  I sucked in a breath that caught in the back of my throat, strangling the scream that I wrangled back. He had no idea how much his words fucking slayed me, and I had no idea how to tell him. We’d shared alm
ost everything with each other since junior high and even though he lay in my bed with his arms around me, this was all that had ever happened. What would happen if I just leaned in and kissed him? Would it change everything, or even worse, would nothing change, and life would just go on as it would before? Would he just go back to Lexi? It killed me not to know. But it would kill me even more to lose him. So I continued my vigil, waiting for him to make the first move.

  “You’ll find that girl.” I could barely get the words out. “When you least expect it.”

  Devon didn’t say anything else, he just pulled me against his chest and rolled on to his back, the alcohol pulling him under for the second time that night. I should have been thankful for the chance to sleep instead of solving his problems, but sleep wasn’t coming. Instead, I lay against his chest with my heart pounding for two hours until it was time to step out of my warped little life back into the real world.

  **

  We both jumped when the alarm went off; it felt like five minutes later. “Good morning.” Devon blinked rapidly, like his eyes weren’t ready for daylight yet.

  “Ugh.” Not ready to face the day either, I pulled the blanket over my head. I felt like someone had kicked me in the face, and I didn’t even drink last night.

  Devon ripped the blankets away from me. “Time to get up.” How was he so cheery? He could barely speak English five hours ago. “What do you want for breakfast?”

  I shook my head. “Just coffee.” Devon whacked me with a pillow. “What?”

  “I’ll get cereal ready for you.” He jumped off the bed, still in his clothes from last night. I had yet to move. “Thanks. Again.”

  “For what?” Movement hurt. Why did I pick classes that started at eight? Oh yeah, because I wanted to graduate sometime this decade. Or better yet, this spring.

  He tipped his head in confusion. “For everything.”

  Mallory was already in the bathroom when I went in to take a shower. “You’re an idiot.” That’s how she greeted me after spitting out her toothpaste. I couldn’t wait until it was time for her to go out of town for work again. “When are you going to stop carrying a torch for that loser and move on?”

  “He’s my best friend.” I caught sight of the dark smudges under my eyes when I locked glares with her in the mirror. “I need to take a shower.”

  “Yeah, I know, you guys have matching hair so you’re meant for each other,” Mallory let out her usual sigh of disgust. “Has he even kissed you yet?”

  She knew the answer to that. “Is that what you want to happen?”

  Mallory groaned. “Has anyone? If I wasn’t your sister, I’d just do it myself so you knew what you were missing.”

  I ripped the towels down from the shower curtain. “Are you going to let me take a shower?”

  “He’s never going to magically come to his senses and realize he’s madly in love with you. If it was going to happen, it would have already. You make it too easy for him. He can have his cake and Abby, too. Stop letting him walk all over you. Stop being band bitch and start concentrating on your own shit. You’re scared you’re not going to graduate because you spend all your time doing band stuff, and picking up the pieces every time Devon fucks something up.”

  “I’m not band bitch. There’s more to it than you think.” That would be true even if Devon had nothing to do with Sinister Riot. Devon had been my muse since the eighth grade, and I’d always factored him into my future. If I couldn’t be a rock star, I was going to make damn sure he was. I’d helped him restyle clothes, I cut his hair, and I taught him how to put makeup on just like all the guys in our favorite bands for his shows. I knew things about Sinister Riot before the rest of the band even got to make decisions about them. I did all the promo and bookings for the band. I was the one who figured out how to make sure they got paid for shows before they even set foot on stage.

  The only thing Devon didn’t talk to me about was his girlfriends, unless he was drunk and not making any sense. Not one of those girls had ever bothered to get to know me, they just expected me to disappear. Never going to happen. He might be fucking their brains out, but they didn’t care enough to see the side of him that I did. Advantage: me.

  “I’ve been applying for internships,” I continued when Mallory shook her head. And I’d worried that it was going to be Devon who’d make me late for school. “No one’s answering me. But being band manager looks good on my resume.”

  “Bullshit. You should have done that already. I was on set all last summer, what did you do? Sell T-shirts at a bunch of biker bars?” Mallory was a year older than me, and like everyone else in my major, she wanted to pursue film production, an industry that had boomed under the Louisiana tax credit. Even though she had no job guarantees either, everyone respected her choice. “No one is going to ooh and ahh that you’ve been the merch girl for a bar band. And you’ve said it yourself. There aren’t any record companies doing what you want to do.”

  I’d stopped telling her that Sinister Riot was on the brink of something big. The slower the negotiations crawled forward, the more I looked like a liar. “I’m looking at indie labels. Something with heart. I know what I’m doing.”

  Everyone thought they could just snap their fingers and I’d change my mind, and go into something safe and respectable, like teaching. Or film production, since everyone was all over that. That might be great for Mallory, but I just wasn’t interested. It didn’t matter how many ways people told me my plans weren’t practical. No guts, no glory. I always told them the same thing: I’d fall flat on my face doing what I loved before I did anything just for the money.

  Mallory’s hand rested on the doorknob on her way out of the bathroom. Maybe I’d get my shower after all. “You’ve always been the smart one, Abby. Stop letting Devon Sinclair define who you are. It’s time he started chasing after you.”

  BOOKS BY KRISTEN STRASSEL

  THE NIGHT SONGS COLLECTION

  BECAUSE THE NIGHT

  Sex, Blood and Rock n' Roll

  Immortal Dilemma is the hottest band in the Las Vegas vampire rock scene. They draw insatiable fans from around the globe, thanks to a supernatural attraction called Bloodlust. Tristan craved such an opportunity to fill his empty mortal life, and now he has eternity to earn his place along the legends of rock n roll debauchery.

  Callie always feared that Tristan’s excesses would get him into trouble, but she never thought they’d lead him to immortality. To reconnect with him, she must weave her way through a world not only she had no idea existed, but does not welcome her.

  Blade turned down a spot in Immortal Dilemma after learning what he must sacrifice for that lifestyle. He finds Callie a refreshing change from the girls in the vampire rock scene. When Callie drags Blade back into the world of Immortal Dilemma, his resistance drives her into the waiting arms of Tristan, who shows her the true meaning of Bloodlust.

  But the very things that Callie fights so hard to save are the very things that fight to destroy her.

  NIGHT MOVES

  We bonded in darkness, over darkness.

  Melanie Vaughn's job ruined everything. Her social life, nonexistent. Her relationship with her boyfriend, a hostile roommate situation. She resolves to fix everything one snowy afternoon, but instead comes home to discover her boyfriend is already exploring other options. Blonder, bustier options. Rage drives Melanie to do the unthinkable.

  When Soul Divider was on the top of the world, so was Ryder Maddox. When the band faded into obscurity, Ryder's luck plummeted with it. In a last ditch effort to rekindle the band's heyday, Soul Divider teams up with powerful vampire clan leader, Talis de Rancourt. In return for her services, the band pays the ultimate price for never ending fame.

  Now on the run, Melanie meets Ryder in a middle of nowhere hotel. She never expected her teenage rock star crush to be as lost and as in need of a companion as she is. Their connection is all consuming, even before they find they share another kinship: murder.

&
nbsp; The newly turned vampires in Soul Divider still have a lot to learn. The police and public begin to connect the girls that go missing or die in sync with the band's tour schedule. Back at home, clues are also adding up against Melanie as well. Between constant media coverage and unrelenting attention from the authorities, Melanie and Ryder find themselves in uncharted territory.

  WE OWN THE NIGHT

  The Ultimate Manipulation.

  Callie Chabot would stop at nothing to save her ex-boyfriend Blade Bennett from the clutches of vampire clan leader Talis de Rancourt, even if means becoming immortal herself. What she doesn't know is that Blade has already defeated Talis, and he's waiting for Callie in the afterlife.

  Now Callie only has her creator, Tristan Trevosier, to turn to for guidance. But he's too wrapped up in the debauchery of the Las Vegas rock scene to give a damn about the particulars of being undead. That's enough to drive Callie crazy on its own, but female vampires are automatic clan leaders.

  Not only does Callie have no idea how to wrangle a vampire clan, but her would-be followers have more to gain from her failure. They instead choose to follow Blade--and he's hell-bent on making Callie pay for her bad decisions. Since he took out the existing clan leader, that automatically puts him at the helm of what should be Callie's new clan.

  A Master of Deception.

  That's when seasoned rogue vampire, Cash Logan, shows up, shrouded in magic and mystery. No one is sure which side Cash is on, but Callie needs to take a chance on the one vampire who is willing to give her the answers she needs, no matter how dark and frightening they may be. Callie must trust her instincts and form alliances that may backfire. Cash shows Callie that playing nice is no longer an option, and that fixing her wrongs won't always make everything right.