I’d answered my phone even when I didn’t know the number, and the second I heard his voice I knew who it was. The deep rumble of his voice was one I’d never forget and it didn't matter that it had been years since I’d heard it.

  You forgot my letter. Don’t do it again.

  It was all he said before he hung up and I didn’t get the chance to respond. He gave his order and he expected it to be followed. It should have made me mad that he was bossing me around since he never asked me to write to him to begin with. He didn't even tell me he was leaving town even though I knew he was a Marine and would be called up at some point.

  Everyone in the Bierman family served in the armed forces for a few years before they came home to run the family business. But Joe doesn’t have a family anymore since he’s now the last living Bierman. Until he comes back and gets married and makes his own. I push that thought as far away as I can because I’m too young for Joe. It doesn't stop me from sending my letters and packages and all the naughty thoughts. I have no idea when he’ll be back and maybe he never will be.

  I prop my phone up so it points at my bed and get ready to make the video. It’s the first I’ve ever done and I’m going to put it on a USB to send in the package with my letter today. I’ve gotten bold over time and I think more than anything it’s because I’m trying to get him to snap. I want him to come back to town and have his way with me even though I’m not sure it will ever happen.

  Over a decade separates us but I hold out hope because of that one phone call. He’s been reading the letters and opening all the packages. I know without a doubt he’s looked at the pictures I’ve taken of myself, but I never show too much. The last thing I need is for someone to get ahold of a naked picture of me, but I don’t leave much to the imagination either. Each time I get a little bolder because I don’t care anymore. I want him to see me and want me, and maybe this video will do the trick.

  I hit record on the phone and jump onto my bed. I cringe when one of my stuffed animals falls off and I sweep my arm across the bedspread and send the rest of them flying. I can edit this out later. I don't have anywhere else to do this but my own bedroom and I’m lucky my dad’s at work.

  Everything I’ve sent him before today was only a peek of my cleavage or a tease of my panties in a short skirt that would lift just a hint. I was trying to drive him crazy and to break him into writing me back or even calling. More than anything I want him to come home and claim me as his own, but I know this isn't one of the stories I write. This is real life.

  Nothing else has worked so far. Sure, I could try and skip a day and he might call again, but I can’t bring myself to not write to him because it’s become an addiction I can't quit. I get off on the thought of him fantasizing about me. He probably thinks it’s so wrong and that I’m too young for him. I know that’s what he’d say even as he jerked himself to pleasure with my name on his lips. At least that’s what my fantasies are. That he can’t even get hard unless he’s thinking about me and no one else.

  I smirk at the camera and pull my oversized sweatshirt over my head. My boobs bounce free as I throw it away, leaving myself in only a pair of white cotton panties. I lick my lips as my hand trails down my stomach and my fingers dip into the simple material.

  In my letter I’ll tell him how I never put my fingers inside myself because I want him to be the first thing I ever feel there. I’m going to tell him that it’s his for the taking and that I only play with my clit. I’m going to complain about how I wish I had self-control to not even do this little bit, but I ache too much for him and I need something to hold me over until he comes back.

  “Joe.” I moan his name as I close my eyes. My other hand cups my breast and I pull at my nipple. “Please,” I beg him, moving my hips.

  I dream about him pushing me down onto the bed and taking what he wants as he tells me what a tease I’ve been. That I belong to him now.

  “I need more. I need you,” I cry out as the orgasm hits me and I fall back onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling. “It’s not enough,” I whimper, because the ache is still there. “I need you,” I whisper, knowing he may never be mine and that this ache is all I’ll ever know.

  Chapter 1

  Joe

  “So you’re staying?” Chief says as he leans back in his chair. “Are you sure about that?”

  I nod, thinking about that decision and how it will impact all of our lives. “I’m planning on putting down roots.” He and I stare at one another for a long moment and he lets out a breath.

  “All right then, you’re hired.” He stands up and holds out his hand, and it’s probably the most formal he’s ever been with me. But this isn’t the past; this is me taking the job as his deputy at the police department in Magnolia Springs and him becoming my boss.

  I shake his hand, but before I can take it back, he grips it a little harder and pulls me to him. “Having you back is a good thing. Just don’t go running out on us again.”

  We share another look and I nod. There’s so much neither of us is saying as I leave his office and walk out to my truck.

  I didn’t want to leave Magnolia Springs to begin with, but I had to. Every member of the Bierman family has served in the armed forces and it’s been that way for generations. It was important to me to keep this tradition even though I lost my mom and dad when I was seventeen.

  Chief let me come stay with him and his kids, Kayla and Ben, during my last year of high school before I enlisted. Ben was my best friend from the time we were in kindergarten until he was killed in a car accident a couple of years ago. Chief has been through so much grief that I wondered how he was still able to go on, but I knew it was because of Kayla.

  I was twelve the day Kayla was born and I remember it so clearly. She’d been a surprise for Chief and his wife later in life, and it was a difficult pregnancy. Kayla was born six weeks premature and her mom died in labor. It rocked the whole town and later when Ben passed I thought about how unfair life was.

  After my mom and dad died, Chief took me in and treated me like his second son, and I loved Kayla like a sister. Ben and I were inseparable and we made our own version of a family. We always made what we could out of the broken pieces we were given, and although it was hard, I never felt alone.

  I enlisted in the Marines and stayed there for nearly thirteen years. I came home after basic training for a few weeks and then I was called out for a deployment. That happened a few times, where I’d be home for a short stint and then have to turn back around for a year or more at a time. Each time I came home, things changed. Mostly Kayla changed. She went from a five-year-old that begged me to play dolls with her to a moody pre-teen that rolled her eyes at everything I had to say almost overnight. But during one of my last trips home, right before her eighteenth birthday, something shifted.

  I knew that the next deployment I had would be my longest one yet and I made sure I was home for Christmas. That was always her favorite time of year and we had traditions. I knew she would kill me if we didn't stick to them. She’d long ago stopped believing in Santa, but we still stayed up late baking cookies on Christmas Eve, just the two of us. Chief always threw a party for his guys at the station and they invited most of the town. But after everyone left and the chief went to bed, we had our cookie tradition.

  I remember seeing it snowing outside, and when I pointed it out, Kayla nearly came out of her skin with excitement. She pulled me outside and we had a snowball fight in the front yard in the middle of the night. At one point, I nailed her in the back and she started to fall. I ran over and caught her, but she ended up taking both of us down and we fell into the snow laughing.

  I rolled her over so I was on top, and when I looked down at her I saw she’d become more than just a little sister who made me sing Disney songs in the car on full blast. I saw a woman below me that I loved more than my own life and everything changed. What I wanted to do out there in the snow would have broken everything we’d built and change our little family forever.

  I left the next morning without even saying goodbye because I couldn’t look her or Chief in the eye. I didn’t even bother to open my Christmas presents and took the coward’s way out. It’s not something I’m proud of, but I would have been more ashamed if I’d stayed.

  That’s when the letters began.

  Kayla had always sent me a few letters and care packages when I was on deployment, but never this many and never writing so many things I shouldn’t have read. Things I couldn’t stop reading.

  I’ve been gone from home for a long time and I’ve finally ended my service. My plan before this all started was to come back and then figure out where in the world I wanted to go. I dreamed about living in another country for a few years or just traveling until I found the place I loved most. But the longer I pictured what my life would be like, the more I couldn’t picture it without her.

  She’s too damn young to know what she wants and she doesn’t deserve an old man like me holding her back. Her father is a damn good man and someone I consider a father and mentor. There isn’t anything I would do to break his trust, but my head and my heart are at war. I may not be the thing that’s best for her, but I know I won’t let anyone else try and do better.

  “Hey, Joe, you back in town?” Amelia from the diner calls as I walk by the storefront.

  “Yep, trying to find Kayla. You seen her?” I shove my hands in my jeans as she smiles at me.

  “I might have seen her ducking out the back of the jailhouse a little bit ago. Can’t say where she went afterwards, but if I were you, I’d check the gazebo by the park.”

  “She still likes to sketch out there?”

  “It’s almost like she’s got something on her mind she can’t seem to shake.” Amelia raises an eyebrow. “Funny, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” I nod my thanks as I get in my truck and go toward the park.

  Small towns love good gossip, but I don’t give in to Amelia’s bait. The thing I do love about small towns is they’re only so big.

  Kayla is running out of hiding places.

  * * *

  Want General Joe on your Kindle? Download now at AlexaRiley.com

  Cozy

  by Alexa Riley

  Timber Grayson likes living alone in his castle far from people and crowds. So when a company wants to use his place for some corporate party, it’s a flat-out no. That’s until she comes knocking...and suddenly he’s changing his "no people" rule.

  Pippa Michaels has been recruited by her sister Myra to get a castle secured for an event space. Pippa would do anything for her, but after meeting the hulking lumberjack, she’s having second thoughts. When Timber tells her she can have it if she stays for the duration of the planning, she’s making promises she’s not sure she can keep.

  Warning: Cuddle your cute butt up with this billionaire recluse who chops wood with his bare hands. Once he meets Pippa there’s no going back...but you wouldn’t want him to anyway! Get ready because things are getting cozy. See what we did there?

  Chapter 1

  Pippa

  “Sooo.” Myra drags out the word to get my full attention.

  I gaze up at my sister who’s still dressed to kill. I don’t know how she does it. Every morning she gets up, does her hair and makeup and puts on a kickass suit or dress and rolls around in heels like they’re slippers. I look at her now with her blond waves up and not a hair out of place. Her makeup from this morning is still flawless and you’d have no idea the woman ran her butt off at work all day. Myra is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life, but too bad she has a jerk of a boss that has no clue how much she does. He works her too hard.

  I heard her come in a few minutes ago, but when she first gets home I always give her a moment to unwind. But this time she comes straight to the living room to find me and her “sooo” puts me a little on edge. Something is up.

  “So?” I prompt her to continue because I know she wants something from me.

  She’s acting as though whatever it is she wants me to do, I'm not going to say yes. When it comes to my older sister there isn't anything I wouldn't do for her. She’s more than a sister to me; more often than not she slips into the mother role. We’re only seven years apart but for as long as I can remember she was the one who took care of me. She graduated top of her class in college while working all the way through. She made sure the bills were always paid so the power wouldn't get turned off on us because we all knew Mom wasn't going to do it. Our mom wasn't there most of the time anyway and it was always Myra and me. She’s the one person I can always count on and if there’s ever anything I can do for her, I will. Without question.

  On my eighteenth birthday we were out of my mom's apartment the second I opened my eyes. That morning Myra pulled me from my bed and packed our bags. She already had us a place and we were leaving the past behind. That was over two years ago and it’s been just the two of us since.

  “I need a favor.” She steps out of her heels as she says it and lets out a soft sigh.

  “I’ll do it.” I put my knitting needles down to give her my full attention.

  I’m almost done with the mittens, and unlike my sister, I'm not a busy body. She constantly needs to be moving and doing something while I could sit on the sofa all day and knit. At the moment it’s because I have four applications in for jobs and I’m waiting to hear back from one of them. There isn't anything else for me to do, so why not pass the time crafting winter accessories?

  Her shoulders drop and her lips purse. “Don’t agree to things before you know what they are,” she scolds. I do have a bad habit of agreeing to do just about anything. If someone asks me to do something, I can’t help myself. I’m always eager to help my sister, as long as it isn’t against the law.

  “If it’s you asking, I know it’s fine.” She gives me a smile and I can tell she’s tired. “Sit.”

  I move my knitting stuff and pat the sofa next to me. Our very nice sofa at that. When Myra graduated from college she got offered a job at Cox Investment. She went in to interview to be a secretary but somehow she ended up getting the job of executive assistant to the CEO, Mr. Cox. I’ve never met the man but he keeps my sister busy. I swear the man never wants her to come home. He’s always trying to keep her at the office, and then other times I think he’s trying to get her to quit. I swear I don’t know if he likes her or hates her. Men. This is why I stay away from them. It probably doesn't help I saw way too much of my mom’s dating life growing up and I’ve decided dating isn't for me. What is for me is knitting.

  Myra sits down next to me, letting out a long sigh. “He’s asked me to do the impossible.” She drops back onto the sofa.

  “I don’t believe there is a thing you can’t do.” I raise an eyebrow at my sister. The woman is unstoppable. I wish I had half her drive. She’s always known what she wants and goes for it. I’m a drifter who sort of lets things happen. My job applications range from vet tech to working in a library. I have no idea what I want to do in life, I just know it’s not working in a restaurant. The poor owner of 68 Diner tried me as hostess, server, busser, dishwasher, and even doing some prep cooking. I failed at them all because high-stress situations and I do not mix well. I explode under pressure and make things ten times worse. When too many things are on my plate I fold like a cheap chair.

  “The party.” She closes her eyes for a second. “Mr. Cox picked a venue that I can’t get. I’ve tried a dozen times to talk to the owner of the estate but he won’t take my calls and I’ve been stonewalled.”

  Now I know the problem. My sister has a little bit of the same problem I do with saying no, but hers is only with her boss. If Mr. Cox asks her to do something she always comes through. Always. She doesn't want to go back to him and tell him she can't get something he asked for.

  “Why won’t they talk to you?” I’m sure Mr. Cox would spend whatever amount of money he needs to in order to lock down the venue he wants. My sister throws a handful of parties a year for his company and they’re never small. The events are extravagant and I could tell money wasn't a thought when they were pulled together, but if you’re Mr. Cox I guess money is never a thought.

  “The owner apparently doesn't like people.” Myra shakes her head. I want to laugh because Myra doesn't like people either but she pretends to because it comes with her job. I love people. I might not want a man but I always enjoy company.

  “He doesn't like money either?” I tease. I don’t want to know what she’s offered already. I still cringe sometimes at how nice our place is. It’s so different from how we grew up. With Myra’s fancy job came a fancy condo and a fat paycheck each week. At least I’m guessing it’s big because we no longer struggle like we once did.

  “He’s got his own.” She rolls her eyes.

  “You want me to talk to him?” She’s actually had me do this for her a few times when she can’t get someone to bend to whatever it is she needs to be done. That’s when she sends me in.

  “Maybe.” She gives me a pleading look.

  Myra is convinced I have a way about getting things I want. She said it’s why I didn't get canned from the diner sooner. People have a hard time telling me no. Actually I don’t think I got fired from the diner. I took pity on the owner and stopped showing up to do everyone a favor. Myra often jokes it’s my dimples, that when I flash a smile people melt. I think I’m just good at talking to people and it comes easily to me.

  “Give me the address.” I pick up my phone off the coffee table as she goes for hers to text me.

  She nods when my phone pings and says, “Look at this place.” She shows me a picture. She flips through a bunch of them and my eyes widen.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12