Don’t Break This Kiss
Top Shelf Romance Collection 5
Jessica Hawkins
Kylie Scott
Marni Mann
Carrie Ann Ryan
Don’t Break This Kiss
Explicity Yours
© 2014 Jessica Hawkins www.jessicahawkins.net
Explicitly Yours Series All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Editing by Elizabeth London Editing Proofreading/2nd edit by Tracy Seybold
Lies, Copyright © 2019 by Kylie Scott All Rights Reserved. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information contact the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Before You
Copyright © 2019 by Marni Mann All rights reserved.
Visit my website at: www.MarniSMann.com
Editor: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com Proofreader: Judy Zweifel, Judy’s Proofreading, and Kaitie Reister
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Wrapped in Ink
A Montgomery Ink: Boulder Novel By: Carrie Ann Ryan
© 2019 Carrie Ann Ryan
Contents
Explicitly Yours
Introduction
Possession
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Domination
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Provocation
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Obsession
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Thank you
Also by Jessica Hawkins
About the Author
Connect With Jessica
Lies
Playlist
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
Also By Kylie Scott
Connect with Kylie
Before You
Playlist
Prologue
1. Billie
2. Jared
3. Honey
4. Billie
5. Jared
6. Billie
7. Honey
8. Jared
9. Billie
10. Honey
11. Jared
12. Honey
13. Billie
14. Honey
15. Jared
16. Honey
17. Billie
18. Honey
19. Jared
20. Billie
21. Honey
22. Billie
23. Jared
24. Honey
25. Billie
26. Jared
27. Billie
28. Honey
29. Jared
30. Billie
31. Jared
32. Honey
33. Billie
34. Jared
35. Honey
36. Billie
37. Jared
38. Billie
39. Jared
40. Honey
41. Billie
42. Jared
43. Honey
44. Jared
45. Billie
46. Honey
47. Jared
48. Honey
49. Jared
50. Billie
51. Jared
52. Honey
53. Billie
54. Jared
55. Honey
56. Jared
57. Honey
58. Jared
59. Honey
60. Billie
61. Honey
62. Billie
63. Honey
64. Billie
65. Honey
66. Billie
67. Honey
68. Jared
69. Billie
70. Jared
71. Billie
72. Jared
73. Jared
74. Jared
75. Billie
76. Jared
77. Billie
78. Jared
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Marni’s Midnighters
Also by Marni Mann
About the Author
Wrapped in Ink
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Epilogue
Bonus Epilogue
Also by Top Shelf Romance
Explicitly Yours
By Jessica Hawkins
Introduction
Lola Winters doesn’t think she can escape her life as a waitress—until she receives a shocking proposition from a sexy stranger. Wealthy businessman Beau Olivier wants Lola for a night, and in order to get her, he’s willing to make her dreams come true.
But Beau’s conditions are explicit. From sunrise to sunset, Lola must submit all of herself to him—body, mind, and soul. Because nothing is more important to Beau than maintaining control...especially over his possessions.
Sometimes, though, things don’t go according to plan. What if one night isn't enough? What if come sunrise, Beau isn’t ready to say goodbye?
Possession
Explicitly Yours 1
Chapter 1
Each night started with the flip of a switch. Hey Joe’s neon OPEN sign flickered and hummed to life. Lola’s watch read 5:59 P.M., but time had no place on the Sunset Strip. Behind the wraparound bar, Johnny wiped down the surface with the efficiency of someone who did it more often than he brushed his own teeth.
“Opening at goddamn six o’clock.” Quartz, one of their regulars, shuffled in. “You ever heard some people like to drink their lunch?”
“But if we opened earlier, you wouldn’t get to say that every night,” Lola said.
Quartz’s whiskey on the rocks already sat in front of his stool. “Bad enough you’re going to cut me off in eight hours. When’s Mitch going to wake up and open this place at a decent hour?”
“Don’t think he’ll be getting to that,” Johnny muttered. “Your tab’s hit its max, Quartz. Need you to pay that tonight.”
“But if I did, you’d never get to say that.”
“I’m serious.” Johnny kept the whiskey in his hand, ready to refill Quartz’s glass. “You see anybody walking through the door? This isn’t back in the day. Look around.”
Quartz made a point of twisting on his seat. “Looks like the same old trough I’ve been drinking out of since ’67.”
“The point is,” Johnny continued, “you want a bar to come to every night, need to help keep us in business.”
Lola shook her head quickly at Johnny.
“What?” he asked, leaving the bottle on the bar to serve a customer. “They’ll find out at some point.”
Lola ducked under the hatch and came up behind the bar. “Don’t listen to him,” she said to Quartz, taking Johnny’s rag and picking up where he’d left off.
Quartz put the rest of his drink back with a jerk of his head. “Never do. Figured out years ago that your boyfriend’s ponytail holder is cutting off the circulation to his brain.”
“He gets crabby when business is slow,” Lola said. “Mitch’s been breathing down his neck about bad sales.”
Two more regulars came in and took their seats next to Quartz. Lola served them and stood back as they grumbled about their wives, bosses, and neighbors. At least, those were the typical topics. She wasn’t actually listening because she was watching Johnny at the opposite end of the bar. For the third night in a row, he checked the bulbs on a string of busted Christmas lights that’d been up for nine months.
“Why don’t you just buy new lights?” Lola asked.
“Because these ones are fine, babe. There’s only one broken bulb. I just need to find it.” The lights were even smaller in his sizeable hands. He raised his brows at her. “You going to trade me in for a newer model the day you figure out my one flaw?”
Lola smiled. “After nine years, you must keep it pretty well hidden, whatever it is.” Before she’d even finished the sentence, a car engine revved out front. And then another. An ear-splitting racket nearly shook the building.
Quartz swiveled around on his barstool. “They trying to wake the dead?”
“Nah. Just get some attention,” Johnny said. “Ignore them.”
Fumes seeped through the door, clouding the room. Lola spent five or more nights a week at Hey Joe, a place she considered her second home. The staff and the patrons were her family. So when a lone beer drinker in a corner booth started to cough, she felt responsible for putting a stop to the commotion.
People roamed down the Strip’s sidewalk in the semi-dark. The owner of an electric-blue Subaru parallel parked out front honked at her.
“We’ve got customers inside,” she called over the noise. “Take it somewhere else.”
He hit the gas again. Behind him sat a black Nissan with red rims and a matching spoiler. He turned his music up so loud the sidewalk vibrated.
Lola went to the curb. With a rag from her apron pocket, she waved away exhaust fumes. It took one well-placed, swift kick of her Converse to put a dent in the Subaru’s fender. “I said get the fuck lost.”
The driver jumped out, a skinny blond kid who couldn’t have been much older than eighteen. “What the hell?” he said as he came around the hood toward her.
Lola braced herself for an argument, but he stopped mid-step and looked up.
“You heard the lady,” Johnny said from behind her. “Don’t make me call your mommy.”
“Look what she did to my car.” The boy pointed at the dent. “That’s a brand-new paint job.”
“She’s done worse to men twice your size,” Johnny said. Some men near the bar snickered.
“But—”
“Look, kid,” Johnny said. “Something you should know about this little stretch of the Strip—we don’t call the cops. We handle our own business.”
The boy flipped them off with both hands but returned to his car.
Johnny squeezed Lola’s shoulders. “Can’t go around kicking people’s cars, babe.”
She glanced back at him. “He started it.”
Even with affection in his brown, gold-flecked eyes, the look he gave her was louder than any words.
“Aw, come on,” Lola said. “I’m not the one who threatened to handle him.”
“Why do you say it like that?” He tucked a loose strand of his long hair behind his ear and half-smiled. “Think I can’t take a couple punks?”
“Oh, I know you could. I also know that you, Jonathan Pace, are all talk.”
Johnny winked. “Not when it comes to my lady.”
With a kiss on the back of her head, he left Lola standing at the curb. She slung the towel over her shoulder. The two cars took the pavement in a fury of screech and burn, and what followed was a rare moment of silence. Sunset Strip was always busy, but every year the crowd at Hey Joe thinned a little more.
Lola turned to go back inside. Everyone had cleared the sidewalk except one man, who was watching her. He stood by the door—coming or going, she couldn’t tell. His long arms hung straight at his sides, as if something had stopped him in his tracks. Even in the dark, Lola was struck by his movie-star good looks—chocolate-colored hair styled into a neat wave and a jaw sharp enough to cut metal. He could’ve accidentally wandered over from a movie premiere on Hollywood Boulevard, except that he was too buttoned up.
“You lost?” she asked since he continued to stare at her.