M Leighton - Wild Child

“Yes,” I reply in a small voice.

At this, Hemi finally looks back up at me. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of you.” And for some reason, I believe him. “We may have to break this up into two or three sessions, though. I don’t want to overwhelm you, and there’s quite a few butterflies to do. Plus, ribs can be a little more tender and tricky.”

“So you won’t do it all tonight?”

“I don’t think so. Let’s start with the shell and one or two butterflies, and see how you’re doing. Then we can go from there. We don’t want you in the chair too long. You can make an appointment to come back another time to get the rest.”

See him again? Yes, please.

“Sounds good.”

Hemi pauses, with no grin on his lips and no teasing in his eyes. This time they seem just…warm. “Are you always this easy?”

Before I have to try to formulate some pithy or flirtatious (or stupid) reply, Sarah speaks up for the first time since I lay down. “Hell no! She’s stubborn as a mule.”

“So it’s just me then.” He stares at me for several seconds before his grin returns. “Just easy for me. I like that.”

The next thing I feel, aside from the damnable heat in my face, is the cool swipe of an alcohol pad as Hemi preps my skin for what’s to come. I barely notice the moisture. All my attention is riveted to the warm hand resting against my hip, holding me still. Keeping me steady.

COMING NOVEMBER 12, 2013

Read on for an excerpt of the next

Wild Ones novel

SOME LIKE IT WILD

COMING March 4, 2014

How far will a good girl go for the bad boy she loves?

Laney Holt is a preacher’s daughter. A good girl. Her only goal was to get married, have babies and live happily ever after, just like her parents. Only that didn’t happen. With the betrayal of two people closest to her, Laney’s dreams came crashing down. Now she’s left with an empty space she doesn’t know how to fill. Until she meets Jake Theopolis, a daredevil with a death wish who has heartbreaker written all over him.

Jake has no interest in thinking beyond the here and now. All he wants out of life is the next rush, the next “feel good” thing to keep his mind off the pain of his past. His latest rush? Showing Laney there’s more to life than being a good girl—and that going bad can be so much fun. Her only concern now is how she can ever hope to satisfy the wild side of a boy like Jake. She’s looking forward to trying. And so is Jake.

Four years ago, Summer

“Come on, Laney. You gotta live a little. You’ll be eighteen in a few weeks and then you’ll be leaving for college. This is the last fair you’ll ever attend as an adolescent. Don’t you want this summer to be memorable?”

“Yes, but that does not include getting busted for drinking under age.” My best friend, Tori, gives me that look that says I’m hopeless. “What?” I ask defensively. “Daddy would kill me.”

“I thought preacher’s kids were supposed to be wild as hell?”

“I can be wild,” I tell her, avoiding her disbelieving blue eyes. “I just don’t want to be wild right now .”

“Then when? When are you gonna do something? Anything? You won’t make it a single semester away at college if you don’t learn some of this worldly stuff now, Laney.”

I chew the inside of my lip. I do feel ill-prepared for college. But the thing is, I don’t want to do wild things. All I’ve ever really wanted out of life is to find the perfect man to sweep me off my feet, get married, have a family and live happily ever after. And I don’t have to get wild to achieve any of those things.

Looking at Tori’s expression, however, makes me feel like some kind of freak for not wanting to break the rules. At least a little. But she doesn’t understand my dreams. No one does, really. Except my mother. She was the same way when she was my age and she found everything she wanted in life when she met my father.

“Come on, Laney. Just this once.”

“Why? What is the big deal about getting it here? Getting it now?”

“Because I want to get it from him.”

“Why?” I ask again. “What’s the big deal?”

“I’ve had a crush on him for years, that’s what the big deal is. He went off to college and I haven’t seen him since. But now he’s here. And I need a wing woman.” When I don’t immediately relent, she presses. “Pleeeeeease. For meeeeee.”

I sigh. I have to give Tori credit for being one seriously gifted manipulator. It’s a wonder I’m not wild as a buck. She talks me into doing things I don’t want to do all the time . It’s just that, so far, they’ve been fairly innocent. Being the preacher’s daughter and living with such strict parents makes it hard for me to get into too much trouble. Tori ought to be happy about that. If it weren’t for the restrictions being my friend has placed indirectly on her, she’d probably be a pregnant, drug-addicted criminal by now.

But she’s not. Partly because of me and my “taming” influence. And it’s those stark differences in our personalities that make us such good friends. We balance each other perfectly. She keeps me on my toes. I keep her out of Juvie.

“Fine,” I growl. “Come on. But so help me, if he tells on us, I’m blaming you.”

Tori squeals and bounces up and down, her ample boobs threatening to overcome the extremely low neckline of her shirt.

“Why don’t you just go over and do that in front of him a couple of times? I’m sure he’d give you anything you want.”

“That’ll come later,” Tori says, ruffling her blond bangs and waggling her eyebrows.

I roll my eyes as we start off across the fairgrounds. As we near the farm truck where the shirtless guy is unloading crates, I ask Tori again, “Now who did you say he is?”

“Jake Theopolis.”

“Theopolis? As in the peach orchard Theopolises?”

“Yep, that’s his family.”

“Why don’t I remember him?”

“Because your hormones slept through your freshman year. He was a senior. Jenna Theopolis’s older brother.”

“You know my father would’ve killed me if I’d been caught hanging around with Jenna Theopolis. She was pretty wild. That’s about the only thing I knew about her. I’m sure that’s why I don’t remember her brother.”

“How could you not? He was one of the hottest guys in school. Played baseball. Dated pretty much all the hot girls.”

“Except for you,” I add before she can.

She grins and elbows me in the ribs. “Except for me.”

“And you’re sure he won’t try to get us into trouble?”

“I’m positive. He was a bad boy. I’m sure there’s nothing we could think of that he hasn’t done ten times over.” We stop a few feet behind him and I hear Tori whisper, “Good God, look at him.”

So I do.

I can see why Tori would find him appealing. His tanned skin is glistening in the hot Carolina sun. The well-defined muscles in his chest and shoulders ripple as he picks up a crate from the back of the truck, and his washboard abs contract as he swivels to set it on the ground. His worn blue jeans hang low on his narrow hips, giving us an almost-indecent look at the way the thin trail of hair that leads away from his navel disappears into the waistband.

But then Tori’s words come back to me and I’m immediately turned off. She said he’s a bad boy. And I’m not interested in bad boys. They don’t figure into my plans. At all. In any way. That’s why I don’t have to worry about being attracted to him.