Kiss Me Slow
A Top Shelf Romance Collection
Tijan
Corinne Michaels
Willow Winters
Louise Bay
Contents
Ryan’s Bed
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
1. Counseling Session One
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
2. Counseling Session Two
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
3. Counseling Session Three
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
4. Counseling Session Four
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
5. Counseling Session Five
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Five months later
Chapter Forty-One
Epilogue
Dear Reader
Links & Resources
Also by Tijan
We Own Tonight
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
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
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Bonus Scene
Keep up with Corinne
Books by Corinne Michaels
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Irresistible Attraction
A Single Glance
Dedication
Prologue
1. Jase
2. Bethany
3. Bethany
4. Jase
5. Bethany
6. Bethany
7. Jase
8. Bethany
9. Jase
10. Bethany
11. Jase
12. Bethany
13. Jase
14. Bethany
15. Jase
16. Jase
17. Bethany
18. Jase
19. Bethany
20. Jase
21. Jase
22. Bethany
A Single Kiss
Prologue
23. Bethany
24. Jase
25. Bethany
26. Bethany
27. Jase
28. Bethany
29. Jase
30. Bethany
31. Jase
32. Bethany
33. Jase
34. Bethany
35. Jase
36. Bethany
37. Jase
38. Bethany
39. Jase
40. Bethany
A Single Touch
Prologue
41. Bethany
42. Jase
43. Bethany
44. Jase
45. Bethany
46. Jase
47. Bethany
48. Bethany
49. Bethany
50. Jase
51. Bethany
52. Jase
53. Bethany
54. Jase
55. Bethany
56. Bethany
57. Jase
58. Jase
59. Bethany
60. Jase
61. Bethany
62. Jase
63. Bethany
64. Jase
65. Seth
Also by W Winters
About Willow Winters
King of Wall Street
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
Epilogue
Books by Louise Bay
Acknowledgments
Also by Top Shelf Romance
Kiss Me Slow
Copyright 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written per- mission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes only. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created by the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.
Edited: Jessica Royer Ocken
Proofread: Paige Smith, Kara Hildebrand, Chris O’Neil Parece, AW Editing Formatting: Elaine York, Allusion Graphics, LLC (http://www.allusiongraphics.com)
We Own Tonight by Corinne Michaels Copyright © 2017 Corinne Michaels
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imag- ination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or publisher.
Editor:: Ashley Williams, AW Editing Proofreading: Kara Hildebrand, Janice Owen
Irresistible Attraction by Willow Winters
Copyright © 2019 by Willow Winters All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations within critical reviews and otherwise as permitted by copyright law.
NOTE: This is a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to real life is purely coincidental. All characters in this story are 18
or older. Copyright © 2019, Willow Winters Publishing. All rights reserved. willowwinterswrites.com
King of Wall Street by Louise Bay Copyright © 2019 by Louise Bay
Ryan’s Bed
Ryan’s Bed
By: Tijan
Dedication
This is for all those hurting from pain so deep and so dark that you don’t think you’ll ever be rid of it. This is for those who suffer while watching their loved ones suffer and feel helpless to take that pain away.
A note to reader that all towns and locations are fictional.
Chapter One
The first time I snuck into Ryan Jensen’s bed was an accident
I’d been lying in bed next to this girl I’d been introduced to twelve hours earlier at a company picnic. My family had just moved to Portside, Oregon, from Schilling, Arizona, because of my dad’s promotion, so the whole picnic had been new faces, new names, and that feeling of being the newbie on the scene. Portside wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either—maybe around twenty thousand people lived in this suburb outside of Merridell.
Robbie would know. My brother could spit out statistics because he was the family genius. Willow was the family artist. She excelled at almost everything creative, or it seemed that way. Piano. Dance. Painting. Once, she made a six-foot papier-mâché dragon that won a state competition.
Trust me. That was a big deal. She was on the local news.
Maybe that was when it started. Maybe she felt as if she had to compete with Robbie.
I’d found empty bottles of laxatives in our shared bathroom, smelled the dried puke in the toilet, and a couple of times, I’d woken up to find her exercising in the middle of the night. We were the only two sisters, so it made sense we shared a bathroom. We’d shared the bedroom too until our pre-teen years, and then we got freeeee-dom! (I’m saying that in the best Braveheart yell I can muster.)
I didn’t know why she felt she had to compete with Robbie.
No one could compete with that kid. He was a walking, talking, and eating computer. Robbie wasn’t ever going to be normal, but Willow and me—we were. Or I was.
I wasn’t the best at anything.
Willow had been popular in Arizona. I hadn’t.
Well, I hadn’t not been popular. I wasn’t in the top tier of the social hierarchy, but I was liked. Everyone knew me. Everyone was nice to me, though, thinking back, that might’ve been because of Willow. If someone came at me, they came at her. And she was not one to be messed with.
Same thing with grades. I did okay. My B+ average made me beam with pride. Not Willow. It was A+ or the end of the world. There’d been talk at our old school about raising our GPA from a 4.0 to a 4.2 scale. Willow was all for it.
Not me. That meant I’d have to try harder. No way.
Maybe that was my role in the family. I was the slacker.
Yes. I liked that. I’d been the slacker in the family—or maybe I was the lazy one. There was a difference between being a slacker and being lazy. One slacks, and the other excels at slacking. That seemed to fit better.
Yes, that was me, and I had been once again fulfilling my role when I missed Peach’s door and tiptoed into the wrong room. I went in search of a glass of water and got lost trying to find her room again. It was easy to do. The place was a mansion.
I didn’t realize it at the time. Both bedrooms were cool, with fans forming a breeze, and large, comfortable beds. These people were rich.
Wait, not rich.
They were wealthy. According to my sister, there was a difference.
I’d met Ryan and Peach at the company picnic—or, rather, I met Peach. I assumed she was nicknamed for her fuzzy red hair. Freckles all over her face. Blue eyes. Blending. That was what she did, just like me. I blended into the crowd, whereas Willow never did. It was the same with Peach and Ryan. She blended, and her brother didn’t.
I wasn’t actually introduced to Ryan, but he didn’t need it. I noticed him anyway. He was that kind of guy. People noticed him, even adults.
Golden brown hair long enough that it flipped over his face and still looked adorably rumpled, hazel eyes, a square jaw, and a dimple in his right cheek—Ryan had a face girls sighed over. Even with him sitting at a picnic table, it had been apparent he was tall with a lean build and wide shoulders. Since his shirt had flattened against his arm, it was also obvious that there was good muscle definition underneath.
The guy worked out.
And judging by the look on his face, he’d been bored out of his mind.
He’d been sitting on a picnic table with two friends, not doing anything. He wasn’t talking or shouting or waving his arms around. He was literally just sitting with his feet resting where people would normally sit, and he’d drawn attention. His elbows had been braced on his legs, and there was an air around him. He’d exuded a nonchalant charisma.
I wasn’t the type of girl to notice a guy and stalk him from afar. No, no, I was the type to notice a guy and then notice the hot dog stand beyond him. Willow would go for the guy, and I would go for the hot dog.
Priorities, right?
But even though I hadn’t talked to Ryan earlier, I knew he was popular. A person just knew, and my hunch was confirmed when two girls walked past him. They’d paused, hands in front of their faces, and whispered to each other. One of Ryan’s friends had tapped his leg and gestured to the girls. He’d looked, and the girls had erupted in giggles before running away, their faces flaming red.
Meanwhile, Willow refused to come so I was on my own, sitting at my own table, feeling like a loser while I stared at all the other kids there.
They’d all seemed beautiful or remarkable in some way. And they’d all managed to find each other, like with my little brother. He’d been at a table with two other boys and a girl. All were focused on their iPads. I was pretty sure they were speaking nerd language, and if I’d walked over, the conversation between the eleven-year-olds would’ve gone over my head.
Again, I was the slacker of the family. I should be able to communicate with an eleven-year-old, but no. I’d been to other outings with Robbie. I knew the routine. He’d found his crowd, and I could tell he was happy.
Then again, Robbie never endured what another genius eleven-year-old might.
He was never bullied because he was smart. He was almost worshiped. People thought he was going to be the next Steve Jobs, and his classmates had caught on, already sucking up to him. Yeah, maybe there was a jealous kid every once in a while, but Robbie never talked about it. If he was picked on, I wondered if he was even aware of it.
I wondered how things would be for him . . . after. Robbie had always seemed happy. Would some of that be gone? I hoped not—stop.
Mind, back up here. Mental reverse, and back to Ryan again.
I should’ve known something was different from the minute my head hit the pillow in his room. I felt warm, at ease, and my body relaxed. It shouldn’t have. I should’ve remained awake like I had been while I was in Peach’s bed. They said I’d be ‘better off’ not being alone that night so I’d been in a stranger’s bed. I was tense and gripping the sheet with white-knuckled hands, replaying in my head what had happened at my new house earlier over and over and over.
But not in Ryan’s bed.
He was as surprised as I was when we woke the next morning.
He jerked upright. “What?” he asked, his mouth gaping open at me.
I grabbed for the covers, made sure they were pulled tightly over me, and I gawked back at him. That was it, really. My body was still relaxed. Only my mind was alarmed, but then my mind lost the battle. There was other shit up there that I didn’t want to stir and think about, so I gave in and let my eyelids droop again.