The Storm Read online

  The Storm

  K.C. Crowne

  Copyright © 2019 by K.C. Crowne

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Description

  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

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Also By K.C. Crowne

  Baby For The Mountain Man (Preview)

  About the Author

  Description

  An escape is all I need.

  Until the goddess shows up.

  Fortune brought her to back to the Colorado mountains.

  Now, she can’t break free.

  Not from the storm.

  My cabin.

  Or the attraction neither of us can ignore.

  She needs my protection.

  I need my hands on her.

  She has become my obsession, but if I tell her about the storm brewing inside me....

  I could lose the only thing that matters.

  Chapter 1

  Gabby

  The drinks were flowing, the music was loud, and my best friend, Carly, and I were squashed into a corner booth with two large margaritas.

  Beside us, a long mirror stretched out along the wall giving me a good view of all the other drinkers in the bar. But it also gave me a great view of my hair, which I'd spent almost two hours styling to perfection. Shoulder length and the same shade as the strongest Americano, it was almost impossible to tame, but after wrestling with my straighteners, it was sleek and shiny. Leaning into the mirror, I inspected my makeup. Minimal, but done with care, the three layers of mascara made my brown eyes pop, and the subtle bronzer accentuated my olive skin. I had to say, I was feeling pretty great and looking hot as hell.

  Life couldn't get any better. I'd been working hard at my crappy temp job all week and was in desperate need of some gossip.

  "So, tell me everything," I begged, leaning across the table to hear her better. Above us, the speaker blasted out some cheesy nineties hit that I outwardly hated but secretly loved. Beneath the table, my foot tapped involuntarily.

  "Okay, so I met this guy on Tinder,” Carly announced. “And we have a date next weekend."

  "Is he hot?"

  "The hottest."

  "Like on a scale of zero to Ryan Gosling."

  "He's a Ryan Reynolds."

  "Wow."

  "I know."

  "Sure he's real?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "I mean, what if he's just some creep on the internet with a fake profile picture?"

  "Don't say that," she gasped, then took a long sip of her drink. "Why would you say something like that? You totally ruined my buzz."

  "Hey, I'm just looking out for you. Don't want you hooking up with a serial killer."

  She rolled her eyes and looked over toward the bar. "Here we go again with the serial killers. You really need to stop watching the Crime and Investigation Channel."

  "Never!" I squeaked, pretending to be horrified.

  She laughed and continued staring toward the bar where something caught her eye. She squinted as she sipped on her margarita, then said, "Hey, is that Todd?"

  "He's supposed to be out with his boys tonight."

  But my stomach clenched tightly because I knew that turning up uninvited on my night out was just the kind of thing he would do. We'd been dating for six months, and in the past few weeks, I’d been getting increasingly fed up with his clinginess.

  When I’d first met him, he was the quintessential bad boy that I loved. He had all the things that sent my motor racing: a muscle car, tattoos, a job as a personal trainer while competing in bodybuilding competitions in his spare time. He was hot, all right. The only problem was…he knew it.

  Craning my neck to see over the crowd, I saw his tall, lumbering figure looking over the sea of people, obviously searching for me.

  "Shit, it is him."

  "Why is he always tuning up like this?" Carly grumbled. "This is like the third girls' night out he's ruined."

  "Dammit," I grouched. "It was cute for about five minutes, but I’m over it."

  "Yeah. Jealous and possessive are not desirable qualities in a guy, no matter how hot he is." Her previously happy facial expression had turned to thunder. Gone was the laid back, tipsy Carly of a few minutes ago.

  "Hey! Gabby!" Todd called, and before I knew it, he was squashing himself into the booth beside me and wrapping his enormous arm around my shoulder. He held me to his chest tightly and ruffled my hair with his hand.

  "Ow! Hey! I spent ages curling my hair."

  "Ah, shush, you look sexier with a little bed head."

  He sounded drunk already, and as I looked up at him, I saw his eyes were bloodshot.

  "Aren't you supposed to be out with your friends?"

  "Was," he said. "Then I thought I'd come see how my girl’s doing."

  "Yay, " Carly muttered sarcastically. "Lucky us."

  He ignored her and kept his eyes on me, his hands holding me in place. I didn't like it. Not one bit.

  "Hey, how about you get us some drinks?" I suggested. “On me."

  I handed him some cash, which he took gratefully. He swaggered to the bar. People were looking at him, guys with envy in their eyes while girls lusted after his muscles.

  "This isn't cool," Carly hissed. "He can't just pop up on you like this. It's weird, and he does it all the time."

  "I know. It’s bullshit."

  "You need to get rid of him."

  “Ugh. I know.”

  In the beginning, his wanting to be around me all the time had been almost endearing. I’d let myself believe for a brief time that it was because he was so into me, he couldn’t stand to be separated from me. But I quickly realized that it was that he didn’t want anyone else looking at me. He didn’t trust me to be faithful, and that pissed me off. Carly was right, I needed to be done with him.

  "Too bad you aren’t still with Jackson," Carly commented, looking at me through her lashes.

  At the sound of his name, I felt as though a large rock had plummeted into the pit of my stomach. Even after all these damn years.

  Jackson. The love of my life. The one I was always meant to be with.

  "He's in the past," I said, hoping she would stop talking about him.

  "Yeah, but I bet you wish he wasn't."

  I said nothing and stared into my drink, hoping to put him out of my mind. But now that she’d said his name, it’d be pretty damn hard.

  "Of course," Carly continued. "It was weird at first, you know, with him being my brother and all, but you two were clearly made for each other."

  The rock in my guts grew heavier, and a peculiar fog of melancholy settled over my brain.

  Well this night has turned to shit. All I wanted was a drink with my best friend and here I am commiserating over lost
loves while my boyfriend spies on me.

  I had the strongest urge to ignore my drink and head home. But instead, I found myself asking, "How is Jackson?"

  "He's doing great. Really great."

  "That's good to hear."

  At least that lifted my spirits. Jackson deserved to be happy. As Carly's brother, I'd known him for most of my life and had a crush on him since the age of five when I first saw him running through the sprinklers in my front lawn.

  Even then he was a fearless little kid who excelled at everything he did. By the time he was a teenager, he was the best soccer player our town had ever seen with grades that could have gotten him into any college. And looks that could have seen him stride right into Hollywood.

  There wasn't a single girl that didn't swoon over him every time he walked by, but the strangest thing was that he didn't seem to notice quite how phenomenal he was. Despite all his accolades, he was a humble, kind, and generous man who made time for anyone who needed it.

  When he asked me to prom when I was eighteen, I almost fainted. Of course, by then, we'd been flirting like crazy all the way through high school, but I never imagined he saw me as anything more than his kid sister's best friend. We soon became an item, and although Carly was a bit freaked out at the idea at first, she grew to like us being together. After all, she wanted the best for her brother, and who was better than her best friend?

  For two blissful years, Jackson and I had the dream relationship. We'd spend nights driving around the wilderness, gazing up at the stars and the mountains and making love in his pickup truck before sneaking back to our parents' houses.

  Young love like that makes you feel invincible, makes you feel as though you're at the very center of the universe. I thought Jackson and I were unshakable, until he sat me down one day and dropped a bombshell. He was joining the Navy, which meant he was moving hundreds of miles across country.

  "But we'll still be together, right?" I'd asked him.

  "Of course," he assured me and kissed me on the forehead. "We'll always be together."

  And I’d really believed him. I’d thought the kind of love we had was the real thing. I’d thought we'd be together for the rest of our lives. So when he called me one night three months after he left for training to tell me he was breaking up with me, I felt as though the ground had been ripped out from under me. For days, I'd laid in bed sobbing, feeling a deep, dark, and physical pain rip through my body as my heart tore in two. Getting over him had taken a long time, and there were still times when I thought I never truly did. Every guy I'd dated since was always held up to him, and of course, they always came up short. As much as I wanted to hate him for dumping me, I just couldn't. He'd always had dreams of becoming a Navy SEAL, of achieving the very best in life, and if that meant moving away and not being with me anymore, then who was I to tell him otherwise? As much as it hurt, I wanted him to fulfill his dreams. I’d loved him enough to let him go.

  "You okay?" Carly asked, interrupting my memories.

  "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

  "You've been staring into space for a full five minutes."

  "Just thinking."

  "About Jackson?"

  "No," I said, but my eyes said yes. "Anyway, where's Todd? I thought he was getting drinks."

  We looked towards the bar where he was leaning on the counter and smiling at the pretty bartender. She looked as though she was barely out of her teens with pink hair and piercings in her lips and nose.

  "What is he doing?" Carly scowled, obviously annoyed. "If he gets any closer to that bartender, she'll get pregnant."

  "Hmmm..."

  I began to feel uneasy but said nothing.

  "Doesn’t it bother you, him flirting like that?"

  "I honestly don’t know if I care anymore."

  She tapped her long acrylic nails along the table and narrowed her eyes.

  "Look, I'll just come and say it. He's a douche."

  "Carly!"

  "Hey, you know it too. Just admit it. Todd is a douche bag."

  As if us talking about him had summoned him, he was back at the booth, sliding bottles of beer along the table.

  "What are you two ladies gossiping about?" he asked, sitting so close to me he was almost in my lap.

  "Nothing," I replied.

  "We were actually talking about the gig in Station Springs tomorrow night," Carly answered.

  "The gig?"

  "Yeah, I told you about it," I said. "We're going to see Roxi Lane, remember?"

  Todd just blinked at me.

  "I told you like ten times," I said, but he looked none the wiser.

  "Roxi Lane..." he murmured, rolling the name around his mouth as though it tasted rotten. "That little pop star nymph who's always prancing about in those little outfits like some slut?"

  "Oh for Christ sake. She's really talented and I love her music. Who cares how she dresses? I’m certainly not looking."

  His face started to redden.

  "So you're out of town this weekend," he said, his eyes stormy. "Who are you staying with?"

  "Carly's brother."

  " Jackson?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

  "Her other brother, Jared,” I answered, failing to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

  He bristled in his seat and practically slammed his beer down on the table.

  "What's your problem?" I asked. "It's just a girl's weekend away."

  "Make sure you Face time me as soon as you get there."

  "I will if I have time," I said, unwilling to meet his demands just because he told me to do something.

  Carly's eyes shifted between us, her nails now tapping furiously on the table.

  "I'm going out for a cigarette," she announced, grabbing her purse angrily. "Gabby, you coming?"

  "She doesn't smoke," Todd said.

  "She can come keep me company."

  Before he could protest, she grabbed my hand and pulled me over Todd's lap before dragging me through the crowd. By the time we reached the frigid air of the street, her anger was bubbling over.

  "You okay?"

  "What do you think?" she asked, reaching for her lighter. "Look I love you. You know that, right?"

  "Sure. And I love you too."

  "I just have real bad vibes about Todd," she revealed, as if she was telling me something I didn’t know. "He's so full of himself. And did you see the look on his face when you told him we were going to see Roxi Lane? For a second I genuinely thought I could see steam coming out his ears.” She huffed out a stream of smoke. “He'll probably show up at Station Springs to keep an eye on you."

  I rolled my eyes, but I knew she was probably right. Todd was a problem I needed to solve sooner rather than later.

  "Are you even happy?" Carly asked, watching me.

  “I don’t know.”

  She quirked an eyebrow at me and blew a stream of smoke out the side of her mouth.

  “Okay, okay. No. I’m not. Shit.”

  "Come on," she said, stubbing out her cigarette in the gutter. "Let's go back inside before I freeze my ass off."

  Eyes fell on us as we made our way back inside. A group of guys crowded around the bar looked Carly's legs up and down before turning their attention to me.

  "Come join us!" one of them shouted and waved his beer at me.

  "You're a real hottie," his friend called.

  "A real ten out of ten!"

  "My boyfriend's over there," I said and pointed at Todd in the corner, who took up the entire booth with his muscles.

  The guys instantly fell silent and glanced away, afraid. One perk about having Todd around was he at least kept all the other lecherous guys away from me.

  Back at the booth, I squeezed in beside Todd and saw he'd not only downed his own beer, but all of mine as well.

  "It's cool, I didn't want a drink anyway," I grumbled.

  "Huh?"

  He was too busy looking over at the bar.

  "See someone you know?" I asked.
<
br />   "I'm goin’ to the bathroom," he said, sliding off his seat.

  "Get me a margarita while you're up?"

  "Make that two," Carly added.

  She looked relieved when he disappeared and sank back in her seat.

  "Those guys were all over you back there," she said. "And a couple of them were pretty hot."

  "Feel free to dive right in," I laughed. "You are single, after all."

  “And you should be too,” she insisted. “Seriously, you need to forget all about that jerk and find some new, totally smokin' hot guy to have some fun with.”

  “Oh...” I mused, shaking my head. “That's more your thing.”

  “What's that supposed to mean?” she laughed.

  “I mean you're a wild child,” I said with a loud laugh. “God knows hearing about some of your exploits has made my hair curl.”

  She sat back proudly and smirked. “That's just the stuff I told you about.” She winked at me and laughed loudly. “But seriously, I really think you should get back out there and have some fun. Forget about Todd.”

  It definitely sounded tempting, but after Todd, what I might really need is some down time.

  We sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the music as I looked at the faces in the bar. There was something immensely satisfying about people watching and trying to figure out everyone's stories from staring at their faces. I was so busy watching a young girl touching up her makeup that I didn't realize how much time had passed until Carly nudged me in the arm.

  "Where the hell is Todd with the drinks?" she asked. "He's been gone for like twenty minutes!"