RECKLESS - Part 2 (The RECKLESS Series) Read online

  RECKLESS

  PART 2

  By Alice Ward

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 Alice Ward

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  THANK YOU!

  THE RECKLESS SERIES – RELEASE SCHEDULE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

  THE RECKLESS SERIES – RELEASE SCHEDULE

  Part 1: October 10

  Part 2: October 24

  Part 3: November 7

  Part 4: November 21

  Part 5: December 5

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  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  This is the second part of RECKLESS - a five part steamy new adult series by Alice Ward. You should read part 1 first

  Can just one kiss change your entire life?

  After her kiss with Jace Richardson, Andrea Mercer is left with conflicting emotions about her five year relationship and even herself. That conflict quickly turns to despair when things finally take a turn for the worse. And, little by little, Andrea’s life is left in shambles, with everything she’d planned for crumbling into nothing more than dust.

  But Jace Richardson isn’t about to let her throw her entire life away. In fact, he’s dead set on it. He’ll do whatever it takes to help her get her life back on track, even if it means being a little more patient than he’s used to being.

  Will Andrea be able to pull herself together as she discovers that you can’t plan everything? Or will even more forces work against her as she attempts to reinvent her life?

  The RECKLESS Series is intended for a mature audience, 18+ only.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Tears still streaming down my face, lips still swollen from the kiss that changed my life, I flew through the room of my dorm and began packing up an overnight bag. I didn’t have the slightest clue as to where I was going or even when I would be back. I only knew that I had to get off campus and away from Jace Richardson. I needed space to figure out where my life had gone so horribly wrong. Most of all, I needed some room to breathe so I could decide what to do next.

  “Andy?” Becca froze in the doorway of our dorm, her pierced features pinched in concern. “What are you doing?”

  “I—I—I,” The hairbrush in my hand fell to the ground and my body quickly joined it in a shaking, crumpled heap of overwhelmed emotion and fear.

  Becca shut the door and dropped to the floor next to me. “Hey... what is it? What happened?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my heaving shoulders.

  “J—J—“ I wiped the snot and tears with the back of my hand and took a stuttered breath. “I ruined—e—every—thing.”

  Her head shot back in surprise as her eyes narrowed in on my face. “What? How?”

  “I k—k—kissed him.”

  “You... what?” Becca asked, her brows knitted in confusion as if she’d somehow misheard me.

  I didn’t have it in me to speak anymore; I just nodded my head and fell into her arms, the crashing through me like violent waves.

  “Oh, honey. It’s going to be okay.”

  “N—n—no. It won’t.” I shook my head violently against her chest.

  “Where were you going?”

  I didn’t have an answer for her. I didn’t have an answer for myself. I sobbed even harder, right from the pit of my soul.

  “Okay. Okay. We’ll sort this out.” Becca stood and then pulled me up from the floor to place me on my bed. Once she had me settled, she glanced around the room, taking in the chaos I had created in my lapse of sanity. Eventually, she released a heavy sigh. “Have you talked to Sean yet?”

  I shook my head.

  “Good. Because I know the perfect place.”

  As Becca packed the rest of my things, I lay on my bed and watched. A couple of times, I attempted to get up and help but she shook her head and ordered me back in bed. In less than half an hour and a few minutes on her Mac, she was ushering me out the door, our bags in tow.

  “Where are we going?” I asked weakly, sounding about as numb as I felt.

  Rather than give me a straight answer, she patted my arm and shoved me into a waiting cab. “You’ll see,” she said, shutting the door behind me and then walking to the other side to get in as the cabby stashed our bags in the trunk.

  The entire drive to the car rental place, Becca held my hand. She didn’t bombard me with questions. She didn’t force me to talk. Instead, she read her Kindle and gave me some space. Not that I was actually doing anything other than reminding my heart to beat and my lungs to breathe as I stared out the cab window, watching but not watching as we left the college, and Jace Richardson, behind.

  I probably should have been thinking about my future, or what the kiss had meant, or why I’d done it... but it all just seemed too overwhelming. So instead of think, I embraced the numbness, let it carry me to thoughtlessness. Unfortunately, it takes more than a numb brain to ease an ache in your heart; mine was cavernous enough to rival the Grand Canyon. And the tears—a product of that enormous pain—probably could have filled it several times over.

  ***

  “Time to wake up, sleepyhead,” Becca said softly, rousing me from the passenger seat of the rental car she’d purchased.

  The haze of sleep initially masked my pain and self-loathing, but not for long. “Ugh, where are we?” I asked, rubbing my eyes and hoping that my disgusted tone hadn’t come off as being directed at her.

  If her smirk and quirked eyebrow were any indication, it hadn’t. “Take a look, chick,” she said, lifting her chin.

  I turned in my seat, stretching limbs that were a little sore after being cramped up in such a small space for... how long had we been driving? But my arms froze, mid-air, as soon as I caught sight of the scene just outside my window. “Oh—where—how--?”

  Boy, that must have been the day for speechlessness because I just didn’t have words.

  I’d fallen asleep between the emotional exhaustion and lull of the road and then woke up in a dream. That was the only explanation for the palm trees, blue skies, water, and miles of sand outside my window. It was absolutely breathtaking. And confusing. “Where are we?” I finally managed to get out.

  Becca shrugged, as if the picturesque scene outside our window were the most normal thing in the world. “Corpus Christi.”

  “Corpus Christi?” The shriek coming from my mouth scraped at my ear drums. The weight of everything I’d been through in the last twelve hours flew out the window and floated off into the clouds, at least for the moment, as I flung open the front door and stared out at the horizon, taking in the sun hanging over the crystal blue ocean waters.

  Becca made her way around the car and came to stand beside me. “Gorgeous, isn’t it?”

  I nodded silently. The heaviness in my heart had returned, but it still wasn’t quite as crippling as it had been just hours before, not with the sunshine seeping in
to my pores. The salt in the air made it feel like home, but the warmth caressing my skin seemed to be at war with all the memories I had of growing up in the Pacific Northwest.

  My childhood had been filled with seashells and driftwood. As I grew up and experienced my first broken heart, the weight of leaving home, and sometimes feeling a little more alone than I really was, I’d thrown my woes out into the salty abyss. Something about its vastness had always acted as a soothing balm, made my problems seem so insignificant. And, even though this place, with its blue skies and sandy beaches, was worlds apart from the overcast skies and rocky shores of Washington State, it seemed to be no less healing for my soul.

  “You like?” Becca asked, linking her arm through mine.

  I couldn’t have stopped the tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, even if I’d wanted to. “It’s beautiful,” I said, laying my head on her shoulder, staring out at the ocean.

  “Good, because we’re here all weekend.” The grin on her face grew to epic proportions.

  “All weekend?” I asked, my mouth flopping open in disbelief.

  “Yep. An entire weekend of girl time, sandy beaches, sunshine, and zero guy drama.”

  Again, my elation at the current circumstances won out over the ache in my chest. “I love you. You know this, right?”

  “Of course,” she said, patting my hand. “Now get your ass in the car. I’m ready for some lunch.”

  Same Becca as always.

  ***

  If I thought the beach was astounding, our hotel room was downright unbelievable. So much so that I couldn’t even begin to form a tangible, coherent sentence.

  “Yes, yes. I know,” Becca said, propping our suitcases against the wall as I stood in the doorway, my mouth flapping and stuttering. “It’s gorgeous.”

  “How—how did you—afford this?”

  She gave a slight shrug and then plopped down on one of the twin-sized beds. “I’ve had money saved up for ages. My grandparents were adamant on me not having to work while I was in college. But I can’t just sit still like that.” She plucked the tiny green mint from her pillow and started to peel the wrapper off. “Besides, I like working at the pub.”

  “But... you must have spent a fortune on this...” I said, letting my thoughts trail off as I took in the plush beige carpeting, draperies, thick duvets, and cherry wood furniture.

  Before popping the mint into her mouth, Becca shrugged again. “You needed this, and, to be honest, a little time off campus never hurt anyone.”

  I didn’t know what to say, not when the tears were clogging my throat and clouding my brain.

  “Hey, I promise, it’s okay,” she said, standing and pulling me into the circle of her arms.

  I shook my head as the tears came. “It’s not that. It’s just... I don’t deserve this. Not after..."

  “Don’t you dare,” Becca warned, pulling her body back to tilt her head down and glare at me. “You made a mistake. Nothing more, nothing less. If Sean can’t see that, then fuck him. His loss.”

  “You really think he’ll forgive me?” I asked, peering at her through the moistness of my lashes, begging for a shred of hope from my best friend.

  “If that’s what you want, and he’s smart? Yeah, I think he will.”

  Taking a good nibble out of the inside of my cheek, I contemplated the weight of her words. Would Sean really forgive me? Could we really be okay? Or was that even what I really wanted?

  “Look,” she said, rubbing her hands over my arms. “We don’t have to sort this all out right now. We have all weekend. For now, let’s just order some take out and then head down to the beach. Okay?”

  “What’s on the menu?” I asked after nodding my agreement. Even if I didn’t exactly feel like spending time out in the sunshine, I knew it would do me some good. And I was definitely hungry after spending most of the day in the car.

  After releasing me, Becca plopped down on the bed she’d obviously claimed as hers and gathered up the take-out menus by the phone. “Chinese, pizza, and a sub shop,” she said, handing me the menu for a Chinese restaurant.

  “Is this your way of saying you want Chinese?” I teased, lifting my eyebrows.

  The corner of her mouth lifted in a smirk. “If that’s what you want.”

  “Chinese sounds good,” I conceded. I knew what that look meant. And being that she’d paid for the room, and I would probably wouldn’t end up very eating much, it seemed only fair to let her have the choice of where we ate for the evening.

  Within thirty minutes, our food arrived and we took a seat on the floor at the edge of our beds to open our bounty. The delectable scents of my Pepper Steak and Becca’s Sweet and Sour Chicken immediately filled the room. My stomach growled its approval as I doused my rice in soy sauce.

  “Want an eggroll?” I held out the cabbage filled nastiness to her.

  “Mmmm…eggrolls,” she said, eyes lighting up as she plucked it from my fingers.

  I watched in disgust as she picked at the fried wrapper and then the cabbage. “How do you eat those things?” I asked.

  “Why? What’s wrong with them?”

  “Um, cabbage.”

  “I love cabbage!” she exclaimed, mouth full of food. A little flew out and landed on her chin. As she grabbed a napkin to wipe it away, we both laughed. But it quickly faded, leaving a heavy, palpable silence in the room.

  “Want to talk about it?” she finally asked.

  I inhaled deeply and then released a heavy breath. “Not really, but I suppose I’ll have to,” I said, shoving the fried rice in my container around with my chopsticks.

  Becca leaned back, resting her palms on the floor as she waited for me to continue.

  Stalling for just a few more moments, I made a spectacle of closing up my food. When I had it all neat and tidy, I stared at the leftovers, unable to meet Becca’s waiting gaze. “I don’t know what happened,” I said, honestly. “One minute, I was walking to the dorm, and the next, he was kissing me.”

  “Wait, so he kissed you?”

  I nodded. “I slapped him, at first... but it was like something in me snapped. And then... I kissed him.” I waited, gnawing at the inside of my cheek and still refusing to make eye contact, as Becca processed what I’d told her. I knew the questions were coming, and I needed to mentally prepare myself for them.

  “Did you enjoy it?”

  “That’s the worst part. I did. Way more than I should have,” I sighed and chanced a quick glance up at her. I found her nibbling away at that lip ring of hers, brows drawn tightly as she listened. “I—Sean’s never kissed me like that. It was..."

  How do you describe a kiss that changes your life? That sets you on fire? That wakes you up when you never even realized you were sleeping in the first place.

  “Intense?” Becca offered.

  “Beyond,” I said with a sigh.

  “Sean and his feelings completely aside, how do you feel about it?”

  My head shot up in shock. I met her face, not really sure what to make of her question. “I—“

  “It’s not an unreasonable question, Andy,” she said, tilting her head to the side. “And you shouldn’t be afraid of the answer. Look, I know that Sean is a great guy and all... but sometimes things happen. People grow apart. I’m not saying what you did was right, but it’s not like you completely abandoned all your morals and fell into bed with the guy. This might be the time to ask yourself what drove you to kiss him in the first place.”

  Tears started to well in the corners of my eyes. I didn’t want to go down this road. Didn’t want to explore the reason behind the kiss because, if I did, that would mean having to admit that I’d started distancing myself from Sean long before Jace had ever arrived. That would mean facing that Becca might be right, that everything I’d planned for, the future that I’d been so certain of, might have already faded into oblivion.

  “I don’t know.” The words came in barely a whisper but the tears were coming at full force again.


  Becca pushed our food off to the side and reached behind her to grab the box of tissues that she’d apparently had ready and waiting. “It’s okay. You don’t have to know right now. But I think that, before you tell Sean what happened, you need to have an answer to that.”

  “How come?”

  She frowned, the pinch in her brows growing tighter. “Because it wouldn’t be fair to him for you to tell him, apologize, and try to fix things if that’s not what you really want.”

  Damn it all. She was right.

  After cleaning up our dinner, Becca started rummaging through my suitcase.

  “What are you doing?” I asked from the cocoon I’d made on my bed.

  My answer came in the form of a swimsuit, flying at my head. “Getting you out of bed.”

  “But I don’t want to go to the beach,” I whined, tossing the swimsuit aside.

  “I don’t care,” she said, hands on her hips. “I paid for the room, so it’s my rules. And I say that you’re not spending the entire weekend here in bed, wallowing. We’re going out and having a good time. We’re going to ogle boys on the beach, grab some snow cones and act like stupid tourists who buy ugly sun hats and ridiculous souvenirs.”

  I groaned my lack of appreciation for her desire to act like a tourist, but I threw the covers off and headed for the restroom to put on my bikini anyway.

  “And brush your teeth and hair while you’re in there, woman!” she yelled as I shut the door behind me. “You have dragon breath and you look like death warmed over. I’m not picking up any beach babes toting you around looking like that.”

  I glared at my reflection in the mirror. She was right. I looked like a fucking train wreck. But I wasn’t sure that I cared too much. The only reason I complied was because I knew Becca well enough to know that she wouldn’t take anything less than full compliance. She’d force my mouth open and brush my teeth for me, if that’s what it took.

  Ten minutes later, I was at least halfway presentable, and she was ready for just about anything. “Holy mother of all that’s hot,” I said as I exited the bathroom. “You look amazing.”