Forbidden Bad Boys
Holly Jaymes
Copyright © 2020 by Holly Jaymes
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.
Contents
Introduction: Forbidden Roommate
Chapter 1: Coming Home
Chapter 2: In Walks the Past
Chapter 3: The Past Colliding with the Present
Chapter 4: A New Kind of Heat
Chapter 5: Saved by the Bell
Chapter 6: Lucky Man or Fool?
Chapter 7: Finally Seen
Chapter 8: Done
Chapter 9: Coming Clean
Chapter 10: Finally
Chapter 11: For Now
Chapter 12: Capturing a Moment In Time
Chapter 13: Domestic Bliss
Chapter 14: The Feud
Chapter 15: Stuck in the Middle
Chapter 16: Making Up
Chapter 17: Parents Can Be So Clueless
Chapter 18: Meeting the Enemy
Chapter 19: Is My Secret Safe?
Chapter 20: Blood is Thicker than Water
Chapter 21: Caught
Chapter 22: Retaliation
Chapter 23: A Deal with the Devil
Chapter 24: Betrayed Again
Chapter 25: Messed up, Again
Chapter 26: Drinking Away the Pain
Chapter 27: Where I Should Be
Chapter 28: The Final Approval
Epilogue
Introduction: Forbidden Player
Chapter 1: No Booze, No Women, No Bad Press
Chapter 2: In Walks Trouble
Chapter 3 On the Path to Nirvana
Chapter 4: He Makes Me Mean
Chapter 5: Trying to Behave
Chapter 6: Traitorous Hormones
Chapter 7: The End of My Career
Chapter 8: The Run In
Chapter 9: Confusion
Chapter 10: Underestimated
Chapter 11: Seeing Stars
Chapter 12: Tumbling Head Over Heels
Chapter 13: Life Is Good
Chapter 14: The Bubble Bursts
Chapter 15: Taking a Chance
Chapter 16: Loving Tucker
Chapter 17: Home
Chapter 18: The Retreat
Chapter 19: Betrayed
Chapter 20: Ruined
Chapter 21: Time to Move On
Chapter 22: The Choice
Chapter 23: Sneaking Home
Chapter 24: Checkers
Chapter 25: Skinny Dip
Chapter 26: Full Circle
Epilogue
Introduction: Forbidden Protector
Chapter 1: Run Out of Town
Chapter 2: A New Assignment
Chapter 3: Purgatory
Chapter 4: The Babysitting Job
Chapter 5: Stir Crazy
Chapter 6: Bittersweet
Chapter 7: The Escape
Chapter 8: Shelter In Place
Chapter 9: Freedom
Chapter 10: Having What I Shouldn’t
Chapter 11: Feeling Free to Be Me
Chapter 12: Living Life
Chapter 13: Here and Now
Chapter 14: Back to Reality
Chapter 15: Girls’ Night
Chapter 16: Return to Normal
Chapter 17: Us for Now
Chapter 18: Just an Affair
Chapter 19: More Complications
Chapter 20: Not Mine
Chapter 21: On My Own
Chapter 22: Deadbeat
Chapter 23: Moving On
Chapter 24: Going For Broke
Chapter 25: Arrested
Chapter 26: My Life Begins
Chapter 27: Heaven On Earth
Introduction: Forbidden Best Friend’s Brother
Prologue
Chapter 1: Facing the Past
Chapter 2: Going Home
Chapter 3: Being Mature
Chapter 4: A Foolish Idea
Chapter 5: No Escape
Chapter 6: Serendipity
Chapter 7: Confusion
Chapter 8: Deja Vu
Chapter 9: Another Mistake
Chapter 10: Vegas Fallout
Chapter 11: Dismally Ever After
Chapter 12: Married Life
Chapter 13: Risking It All
Chapter 14: Planning the End
Chapter 15: Remember It’s Not Real
Chapter 16: Duped
Chapter 17: Yet Another Mistake
Chapter 18: Making Amends
Chapter 19: Helpless in Love
Chapter 20: The Possibility of Paradise
Chapter 21: Odd Man Out
Chapter 22: The Worst Day Of My Life
Chapter 23: Not a Nightmare
Chapter 24: Undeserving
Chapter 25: One Foot In Front Of the Other
Chapter 26: Making My Case
Epilogue
Introduction: Her Forbidden Boss
Chapter 1: Two Ships Passing
Chapter 2: The Worst Luck
Chapter 3: Thief
Chapter 4: Coming Home
Chapter 5: Show My Boss the Ropes
Chapter 6: A Kiss Worth the Risk
Chapter 7: Skirting Disaster
Chapter 8: One More Night
Chapter 9: A Moment Out of Time
Chapter 10: On the Downlow
Chapter 11: The Risk
Chapter 12: Ridiculous
Chapter 13: Losing My Dream
Chapter 14: Leaving Eden
Chapter 15: Being Unfair
Chapter 16: Pizza Delivery
Chapter 17: The Promise
Epilogue
Author’s Note
About Holly Jaymes
Also by Holly Jaymes
Introduction: Forbidden Roommate
Over six-feet of chiseled muscle, an ex-Navy SEAL billionaire...he’s hot AF and the one man I’m forbidden to have. Now I’m his roommate!
In highschool, we were secret best friends. Then I betrayed him.
Ten years later, I’m back in our small town.
Now he’s a billionaire celebrity trainer, and a sexy as hell volunteer firefighter with a heart of gold.
I shouldn’t have agreed to be his roommate when my family’s house burned down.
I shouldn’t have let him touch me in every sizzling way possible.
I most definitely shouldn’t have fallen in love with him!
Our second chance is destined to go up in flames.
Because our relationship is as forbidden as Romeo and Juliet.
The only question was which one of us would get burned?
Chapter 1: Coming Home
Willa
Forbidden friendships, secret happy moments, and high school crushes. This is what I thought of when I thought of Eden Lake, my hometown.
I grew up in affluence and had the chance to travel some, but I had to say that California was the greatest place on earth. Located in a single state, you could find sandy beaches or rugged coastlines, mountains and deserts, majestic redwood trees, and magnificent granite of Yosemite. There was the excitement of Disneyland and Hollywood in the south, and the Golden Gate Bridge and wine country in the north.
Then there was Eden Lake. It was named by my five-time great grandfather, Henry Haynesville. It was discovered when he and his partner, Jeb McLean, came upon the pristine lake nestled between pine-filled mountains while sear
ching for gold. The town was only a hundred miles from Los Angeles. Still, it felt like a paradise a world away from the smog and traffic. It started out as a mining town. Over the last century and a half, it grew into what was now a popular escape for city folk looking for hiking and lake recreation in the summer, or skiing and snow sports in the winter.
But as beautiful and perfect as it had been, this was the first time I was returning since leaving at eighteen to attend college. To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled to be coming home. Would my family and I be remembered and scorned or perhaps worse? They might even make fun of us. Or maybe, after ten years, they wouldn’t remember me at all. Which was worse? To be remembered negatively or forgotten altogether? Not that I was particularly memorable back then. If it wasn’t for my family history and money, no one would have noticed me.
“Good, God, Willa. What does it matter?” I chastised myself as I drew closer to the turn that would take me to my parents’ home. I wasn’t coming back to reminisce or visit old friends. The truth was, I didn’t have old friends in Eden Lake; not anymore. I shook my head to push away the image of Mason McLean. He’d secretly been my best friend, but like the rest of his family, eventually, he joined the century-long feud between our families and abandoned me.
I reached the turn taking me off the highway. Then I went north of the lake and up into the mountains toward my family home. No one would be there. My parents left Eden Lake not long after I did. They sold everything except the house that I grew up in. At the time, I think they hoped that someday they would come back. Or maybe they didn’t want Eden Lake to forget the Haynesville family and our place in Eden Lake history.
Now, they wanted to sell. None of us had ever returned, and except for renting it out to vacationers, the home sat empty. Because I lived the closest, my parents asked me to check the house and see what it would need to put it on the market. As it turned out, it was a good time for me to leave Los Angeles. I’d just been laid off from my newspaper job and could no longer afford to live in southern California. I’d been getting by on freelance work, but it was time to figure out my next step. Maybe I could move to the east coast to find a job with a media outlet. Or perhaps I could move to Mexico or Costa Rica and continuing my freelance writing there. My stay in Eden Lake would give me some time to figure all of that out.
The lake was gorgeous today under the late summer sun. The sky was clear, except for the billows of smoke puffing up on the northern side of the mountain. I’d noticed it when I entered the valley. At first, I was concerned because they appeared to be near the lake, but as I got closer, I could see it was farther on the other side of the hills surrounding the meadow and the lake.
Fires have always been an issue in California, but it seemed to be worse over the last few years. At one time, national forests were the biggest victim, but now more and more homes and even entire towns were being swallowed up by the fires. People loved California because it hardly rained, but without rain, water was scarce, and fire was a big risk.
I approached the next left-hand turn that would take me away from the lake, north into the mountains, and I noticed a barrier in the road along with a sheriff’s SUV.
I turned on my blinker, wondering what was up. He waved his hand in a halt motion and came up to my driver's side window when I stopped.
“My family home is up on Haynesville Ridge,” I said through the open window.
“Sorry, ma’am. Haynesville Ridge is being evacuated.”
“Now? Why?”
“Most everyone is already out,” he said. “Winds are pushing the fire up the other side, and it’s not contained from coming down this side.”
It was then that I heard the helicopter overhead. Looking through my front window, I noted it was carrying a large container of water.
I sat, trying to figure out what to do.
“There is an evacuation center at the elementary school if you would like to go there,” the deputy said.
I turned my car around and headed back to the main highway, but as I approached it, I couldn’t decide if I should head into town or drive to my parents in Sedona, Arizona. If I left now, I could probably get there by dinner time.
I blew out a breath as I decided they’d want to know how the house was if there was a fire threatening it. I made the left to head along the south side of the lake into Eden Lake.
I slowed down as I entered the town limits. My heart sped up in my chest, though I couldn’t determine why. Was it because it looked familiar in so many ways? Or was it the few things that were new or different? Maybe it was my nerves. I didn't know how I felt about seeing the people I grew up with. If I was lucky, they wouldn’t recognize me, especially if I stayed around the touristy spots.
I pulled into the nearest motel along the lake, parked, and walked into the lobby. I didn’t have the money to stay in a motel for an extended period, but I could afford a night or two.
“Welcome to Eden Lake,” an older gentleman behind the counter said. I studied him but didn’t recognize him.
“Hi. I’d like a room.”
“Do you have a reservation?”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t expecting to need a place to stay.”
His smile faltered. “I’m sorry. We’re booked. Between the tourists, the fire, and the upcoming reunion, we don’t have anything. I suspect it will be the same everywhere in town.”
The number of year-round residents of Eden Lake wasn’t a whole lot. It was somewhere around six-thousand. But during the height of the summer and winter seasons, the number of people in the area grew at least ten times, maybe even more. There were lodges and hotels all around the lake, but according to this guy, they were all full.
“Thank you.”
“Here.” He handed me a coupon. “We have a deal with Paradise Java. It’s not a place to stay, but you can have a coffee and enjoy the area for a little bit.”
Coffee didn’t seem like a worthy consolation prize, but then again, I probably had a long drive to wherever I was going to end up tonight. I could use the caffeinated pick-me-up.
“Thank you,” I said, taking the coupon and heading to my car. I scoffed as I wondered what the residents of Eden Lake would think of a Haynesville using a coupon. Since the founding of Eden Lake, the Haynesvilles had been the most affluent family in town. Our family made their money through a big gold strike by my ancestors and then smart investing over the years. That is until my father took a risk that cost him everything. All the real estate and businesses he owned had to be sold. All that was left was the house that I grew up in on Haynesville Ridge that I could assume might be burnt to the ground at this very moment.
I drove through town just to see how it looked and then made a U-turn, heading back and parking in the Paradise Java parking lot. I hoped it was a place tourists visited and not the locals.
I walked in, scanning the patrons. A group of young people, probably high schoolers, sat in one corner. A couple with Eden Lake t-shirts sat at a table going over a map. Tourists, clearly.
“Hi, what can I get you?” The woman behind the counter looked like she was around my age, but I didn’t recognize her. Maybe my childhood peers had changed as much as I had.
“Large iced latte.”
“Do you want any extra shots or flavor?” she asked.
Since I could be driving a lot longer, I nodded. “One extra shot.”
“Coming right up. How are you enjoying your visit to Eden Lake?” she asked as she grabbed a cup and started to work on my coffee.
“It’s the same and yet different than I remember.”
“Oh. You’ve been here before?” She poured milk into a metal container and put it under the steamer to heat.
“I grew up here.”
“How lucky.”
Growing up, I’d been fortunate. It was something I always tried to remind myself when I veered towards having a pity party. I wasn’t popular or anything like that. But I had a loving family and security. And I had a best friend that
I thought would always be there for me. Once again, I shook Mason from my brain.
“Why’d you leave?” she asked as she poured the milk into my cup.
“College.”