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  Best Friend’s Little Sister

  Riley Rollins

  Copyright © 2018 by Riley Rollins

  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.

  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.

  Contents

  Riley’s Dirty List

  Best Friend’s Little Sister

  Thank You!

  Bonus Book: The Baby Pact

  Bonus Book: The Competition

  Bonus Book: Little Sister Next Door

  Bonus Book: The Baby Contract

  Bonus Book: Leashing the Virgin

  Riley’s Dirty List

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  Best Friend’s Little Sister

  Jason

  I’m the man you trust to save your life and everything you love.

  Ember did. But hell, she was Randy’s little sister.

  Trouble is, she f*cking grew up.

  Now I can’t live without her… not that she left me a choice.

  Ember’s the only woman in the world with the power to end us, to reduce me to ashes. She gave me her body. I gave her my soul.

  Then I traded a life of privilege to chase down disaster, to put my life on the line. It was the one choice with the power to tear us apart. And it did. I made one wrong decision that cost me everything, and I paid for three long years.

  Now I’m back, and I won’t stop until my ring’s on her finger and my son’s in her belly. She’ll have to tell me to my face that she never loved me… and that she never will.

  But I’m praying she won’t. As a matter of fact, I’m counting on it.

  Because I’m in the fight of my life now, and none of us will survive without one last chance.

  Ember

  Everyone has one moment they’d give anything to do over.

  Jason’s my tower of rock-hard strength. A pillar of steel-cut muscle and piercing blue eyes. There’s nothing he can’t do. From fighting wildfires, to splitting wood and pounding… nails.

  Trouble is, he treats me like I never grew up. He makes decisions without me that affect our lives and our future. It’s better to be alone, than to be with the wrong man. But it doesn’t make alone any easier…

  I’ve loved him my whole life, I always will. Our lives were woven together the first night he took me in his arms. Take away a single thread and we weaken. Remove one of us, and the other is nothing but shreds.

  My body burns with a need I can’t satisfy or deny. I’m alone and I’m terrified.

  What if there’s only one way to a second chance?

  1

  Ember

  I could feel his eyes burning into me, his yearning like a flame too close to my skin. He tracked every tiny movement I made, every breath I took. I was the center of his entire universe, his loyalty to me undeniable. His dark eyes were wide and unblinking… staring into me, willing his utmost desires into my brain, silently demanding that I make the first move…

  “Oh… my… god,” I muttered, pondering for a second that all this isolation might actually turning me into a worse writer instead of a better one. I shot a look at my abandoned camera, gathering dust on a shelf and wondered for the millionth time, what might have been…

  “Whaaat….?” I asked, slapping an exasperated hand down on the metal typewriter keys and locking them into a tangle. Stupid question; I knew perfectly well what.

  Reilly sat on the floor watching me, way less interested in my mood than his own bottomless stomach. He’d dragged his supper dish under the dining room table more than an hour ago and had left it next to my feet, waiting patiently, trusting that eventually I’d have to respond. I ripped the sheet of paper out of the machine and wadded it, tossing it into the corner along with all the rest. Reilly never batted an eye. He just stared faithfully, wagging his furry tail, forgiving me for being so slow-witted. He rested his big, moist nose on my knee and swallowed noisily.

  But the second I stood up and headed for the kitchen, he exploded in a burst of riotous energy and gangly, flying limbs. His toenails slipped and scratched, setting my teeth on edge as he fought for traction. He beat me to the pantry, bowl in mouth, and dropped it with a clatter on the old wooden floorboards. I scooped it full, and sat down on the floor next to him as he dug in. He crunched blissfully away and I ran my hands through his thick winter fur, soothing myself with his warmth and familiar smell. For a second, the old memories overwhelmed me… and once again, I closed my eyes and gave in…

  Jason… coming back to bed, his blond hair tousled from sleep and my greedy hands… his crisp blue eyes intense and an enormous grin on his face as he put the puppy into my arms. Reilly had been so small then, with enormous paws, and fur that looked like a bad hair day… his soft, round puppy belly smelling like a bowl of corn chips… It had been Christmas morning and Reilly had been wearing my engagement ring on a red velvet ribbon around his neck…

  I sucked in a bracing breath and opened my eyes to reality again.

  Three years later. No more Jason. No more ring.

  And the only future ahead of me was what I would make of it. I’d worked in an art gallery for a while, never brave enough to suggest showing any of my own photographs. They were only pictures of the valley and Cradle Creek, after all. Finally I’d decided to try my hand at writing. I’d been starting to think it was just as an excuse to retreat, to lick my wounds and disengage from the rest of the world.

  I shot a disgruntled look at the typewriter as Reilly snuffled around the floor, looking for food he might have missed. He settled for a drink from his water dish and looked at me, blinking, his hairy face streaming and one thick ear flopped comically over the top of his head. I mopped his face with the dishtowel and my own stomach growled.

  “Old beer… and canned peaches…” I dug past a stiffened loaf of bread and a jar of mustard, wondering when the hell I’d eaten last. I opened the jug of milk and sniffed, coughing loudly enough that Rye opened one eye to reprove me. He was stretched full length on the sofa, too lazy to raise his head, basking in a rare stream of winter sunlight that angled through the window. I was suddenly hungrier than I’d been in days. Lonelier too. The balled-up mountain of paper in the corner that was supposed to be my great American novel wasn’t the best company…

  I don’t know which idea had been the worst one; secluding myself out here in the family cabin and thinking I could finally finish the damned thing, or thinking that by running away I’d be able to put the past behind me, once and for all. But it felt like everywhere I looked, everything I did, saw, touched and tasted only reminded me of Jason.

  I’d thought I’d be over him by now, that I would have moved on. I thought it would get better with time. I thought spending the holidays alone this year would make it easier to just plain ignore them altogether. It was a relief to have the holidays over and done with… though I never expected that my heart would still skip a beat every damned time the phone rang.

  I looked at the clock on the stone mantle. Half past four. Right next to it was the dusty, unopened bottle of champagne I’d bought to toast my independence and so-called novel last New Year’s Eve. I pressed my lips together and
frowned. Aspen was an hour away when the roads were clear. The tiny town of Copperton had fewer shopping choices and it was closer. But It also held a hell of a lot more memories…

  Reilly, my hairy mind reader, lifted his cinderblock of a head and whined softly.

  “Fuck it,” I muttered, grabbing up the keys to the truck. “Come on, boy. Road trip…”

  Again, that violent scramble of toenails, and Rye would have slammed into the massive front door if I hadn’t opened it first. He’d scooped up his favorite chew toy as he moved; a little rubber moose with an impressive rack of antlers. He grinned around it as I opened the passenger door and he clawed his way up to ride shotgun.

  Credit card in the glove compartment, and enough gas left to make it into town. Rye looked at me expectantly and a thin string of his drool laced my denim-covered thigh. I leaned into the ignition and it turned over. We both needed a break from our cabin fever. And memories or not, I reminded myself all this was my choice. Never fucking mind that Jason was everything I ever wanted, the man my whole life had revolved around since I was twelve years old. I’d been a skinny little kid, and my brother Randy had brought him home one night for dinner…

  As if he could sense my thoughts, my phone started up with his ringtone.

  “Hey, Sis,” he said into my ear, and I felt some of the heaviness in my chest begin to ease. “I wanted to give you a head’s up, Ems.”

  “Are you done?” I asked eagerly, pushing Reilly off my lap. “You’re okay? When are you coming home…?” I shot questions at Randy rapid-fire. I heard his warm, familiar laugh in return and envied how laidback he was; as if there wasn’t a threat in the world that could ever touch him.

  “The fire’s mostly out,” he said, “enough that they’re cutting the hotshot crews back now.” His voice broke up, crackling. “I… be home in a couple of…”

  “Shit… shit… Randy. We’re gonna get cut off. I love you…”

  “Love… too…” I heard him say before the call dropped. But it didn’t matter. At least I knew he was on his way back home. Nothing felt right until the fires were out, the job was over, and I knew my big brother was safe. And California had been bad this year. Really bad…

  By the time I hit the end of the long, bumpy drive and turned onto the highway, it was like I was driving back in time. Rye had his paws on the armrest, his nose pressed against the glass, clouding it with his steamy breath. I drove on autopilot, relaxing for the first time in days… maybe weeks. I knew this road like the back of my hand. Jason and I had taken it hundreds of times. He’d taught me how to drive on it, and in winter conditions just like this. Back then, it had been just the three of us. Me and Randy and Jason…

  Dad had been a firefighter all his life, and gone almost as much as he’d been home. It’d been hard on Mom… and hard on their marriage. So I’d leaned on Randy’s easygoing nature and lighthearted spirit like a lifeline. We shared the same unruly red hair, the same sprinkling of freckles and the same headstrong nature. With Jason gone, I leaned on him still…

  The sky darkened early this time of year, and the light was changing color, the shadows lengthening. I shifted gears and pushed the engine. The cabin, and Copperton too for that matter, were both settled deep in between the towering purple and white peaks of the Rockies. Last summer had hit record high temperatures, and the fall rains had never really come. Even the snowfall had been surprisingly light this winter. Only small, gray heaps lined the roadside, here and there. The whole landscape was parched and bitterly cold. I let myself remember back to when Jason would drive and I would curl into him, just for his warmth…

  Back then, I’d been nothing to him but Randy’s little sister. Even so, Jason had helped me with homework, comforted me when Dad was away, kissed my forehead and held my hand when my very first real date had stood me up. To me, he’d been my best friend, my protector, my knight in shining armor. And I’d loved him from the first time we’d met.

  I could smile about it… now… thinking back on how I’d suffered, keeping my feelings secret. But those years had created an unbreakable bond between us. When I turned eighteen, trust and friendship ignited a passion even he couldn’t deny. And I wasn’t so little anymore…

  Jason had asked me to marry him less than a year later. Randy said that he should have seen it coming; that Jason and I were cut from the same cloth, that our lives had been woven together from the beginning like warp and weft. Take away a single thread and we would weaken. Take away one of us altogether and the other would be nothing but shreds. Without him now, I felt like a thousand loose ends… And I’d pushed him away, turned my back on him and run. Is it just me… or does everyone have one moment in their life that they’d give anything, everything… to do over?

  Reilly stood up and whined, poking his hairy haunches into my shoulder. We were getting closer to town and he knew it. I bit into my lip, wondering if I’d made a hell of a mistake by coming here tonight. I slowed down and pulled off. Downtown was a narrow strip of colorful storefronts, built back in the late 1800s when the town had sprung up around the local mining prospects. Full of charm, it was the kind of place where nothing really ever changed. Time seemed to tick a little slower here. And I could still see Jason everywhere, feel him like he was still right beside me. The sidewalks we’d strolled… the restaurant we loved the best… the same colorful Christmas lights still strung from streetlamp to streetlamp, long past the time they should have been taken down and stored away for the next year. Reilly gave a short, happy yip and trampled my lap in excitement.

  No, I hadn’t moved on. I think I knew all along that I could never move on. I may have given him back his ring and told him it was all over… that I could never marry him or give him the family we’d both dreamed of. But nothing had changed at all inside me.

  I had tried to escape him… and our whole past. But even if I never saw his face again, I knew in my gut that Jason and I could never, ever be truly over.

  2

  Jason

  All I knew was that I had to get out before bad turned to worse.

  It wasn’t the first time I’d left my parents’ house angry and disappointed. And there wasn’t a helluva lot of hope that it’d be the last time, either. I was thirty fucking years old and it was still the same old story. I was their son, but we lived in separate worlds altogether. Our latest clash was our oldest one. The family fortune they prized so highly depended on unrelenting development and expansion. The Stokes family owned four of the finest ski resorts in Colorado, and they still weren’t content. They wanted more. And I was the one standing in their way. Well, me and my foundation. I’d spent the last three years pouring every ounce of strength and grit I could muster into creating ways that business and environmental conservation could exist in harmony. After Ember had left, it was all I had to care about. Maybe the great Leighton and Catherine Stokes didn’t give a shit about the protecting the beauty and majesty of the Rocky Mountains, but I still did. And I was hell-bent on making a difference in the world. Without accomplishing that, what point was there in the mountain of riches at my feet? It wasn’t worth having, if I couldn’t save the land I loved so much…

  I glanced at the six-figure luxury sports car my father drove, and climbed into my own pickup truck. No bells, no whistles… mud and slush smearing the floormats. I tossed my beat-up old Stetson on the seat beside me and ground the gears into reverse. I took a huge lungful of crisp air and hit the gas. It didn’t matter where the hell I went, as long as I got out of Aspen and back into the wilderness where I belonged. Only when the city finally thinned out behind me and the trees grew taller and thicker, did my shoulders loosen and relax. The truck, like a horse heading for the barn, pretty much took the lead. And I let it. I shifted my long legs and ran a weary hand through my hair. It was evenings like this one that I missed her the most.

  Three long, lonely years… and I could still smell her scent, like spice cake and warmth. The hole she left in my heart was still there, and I had o
nly myself to blame for it. Sure, she left. But what real choice had I given her? She’d watched her parents’ difficult relationship slowly dissolving right in front of her eyes and couldn’t live with the idea of the same thing happening to us. Ember came from a family in which all the men she loved put their lives on the line with every call to duty. The tiniest spark within a hundred miles could mean first responder crews might never make it back home. It could mean wives without husbands… and children without fathers…

  When I made the decision to join up as a volunteer along with her brother, Randy, I’d crossed that one line that stood between us. Like a fault line, it had been the only thing powerful enough, important enough to break us apart. And it had.

  I’d lived every day of the last three years without her. I’d learned that a single decision made alone can be the most disastrous choice a man can make. I don’t know if she even thinks about me anymore. I do know, in the deepest part of my soul, that not a day will pass in my life that I won’t ache for her. We’d been so close, right on the edge of what should have been our own happily ever after...

  It was well past the New Year, but Copperton’s lights were still up, swaying and twinkling with a holiday cheer I sure as hell hadn’t shared. This had been our third Christmas apart, and I still couldn’t shake the connection I felt to her. She’d been the one. The only one. And she always would be.

  “...fucking goddamn truck takes me back here, of all places…” I leaned forward to take in the view of Main Street. It looked exactly like it always had… except that Ember was gone. If I closed my eyes I could still see us walking into Henry’s Grill together, Reilly padding along on his little leash… and Ember wearing the engagement ring I’d designed just for her…