Read Enchanted Frost (Frost Series #8) (A YA Romantic Fantasy Adventure) Online
Authors: Kailin Gow
THANK
YOU!
And if you enjoyed reading this book and
want more books like this one get published, support this book and author
by
Letting
others know.
Positive reviews and
word-of-mouth is very much appreciated, too. And you never know, if my
publisher like your glowing review so much, you may find it quoted in the next book.
That’s one of the best
support any author can ask for!
I love hearing from my readers!
You can reach me at:
You
can find me at:
Blog:
http://www.kailingow.wordpress.com
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/KailinGowBooks
Twitter:
Want to Know More about the
Frost Series
,
Author Insight, Author Appearance, Contests and Giveaways?
Join the
Frost Series
Official Facebook Fan
Page at:
http://www.facebook.com/theFrostSeries
Talk to Kailin Gow at:
http://kailingow.wordpress.com
and
on
Twitter at: @kailingow
Preview of Upcoming New Series
Loving
Summer
kailin
gow
A hot YA edgy contemporary romance
Prologue
R
achel Donovan
paused at the door to the room her brothers shared, steeling herself for the
kind of chaos within. What was it about guys that they couldn’t live in any
space that wasn’t knee deep in unwashed clothes? Okay, so maybe her own room
wasn’t exactly perfect, but she was a sixteen-year-old girl. And she was meant
to be the rebellious one. It was
allowed
.
She pushed open the door to see Nat and
Drew still stuffing clothes into their bags for the summer vacation. Nat was a
year older than she and Drew were, with short, deep copper hair, an
increasingly muscular build, and a good three or four inches in height on
either of them. Drew was handsome, built like the athletic star quarterback he
was, with jet black hair that would have matched Rachel’s except for the purple
streaks she’d run through hers, deep green eyes that did match, and those same
high cheekbones. Even though they were only fraternal twins, people always
commented on the similarities. But the difference was he was tall, almost six
feet, two inches, and muscular, while she was average and not muscular.
The room was every bit as bad as she’d
thought it would be. Worse, even, because now there were clothes strewn over
the two beds while they tried to work out what to take with them, the rejects
joining everything else on the floor. Rachel picked her way through it as she
headed inside.
“Aren’t you two ready to go to Summer’s
Aunt Sookie’s place yet?”
“What’s the rush?” Drew asked. Nat just
shrugged.
“What’s up with you two?” Rachel demanded.
“It’s like you don’t
want
to spend the summer in a Malibu beach house or
something. Is the idea of spending days on the beach that bad?”
Drew shoved a few more clothes into the
bag, stuffing them down into it hard. “It is when I have to miss football camp
for this.”
“Like you and the other jocks don’t spend
all year running into one another anyway,” Rachel shot back.
“This is a big deal for me,” Drew pointed
out.
Rachel snorted. “Like you aren’t a shoo-in
for some dumb jock football scholarship anyway. A few weeks at Summer’s aunt’s
place aren’t going to hurt. Come on, are
you
really telling me that
you’d rather spend the time playing football than on the beach talking to all
the girls there?”
“I would if it means you’re going to be
there in a bathing suit,” Drew replied. “There are some sights the world isn’t
ready for.”
Rachel looked around for something to
throw at her twin, couldn’t find anything suitably heavy looking, and settled
for ignoring Drew instead. She turned to Nat. “What about you? What’s got you
sulking here?”
“I’m not sulking,” Nat said. “I’d just
rather be here.”
“With Chrissy,” Drew added from behind Rachel.
Nat shot him a dark look.
“Why not?” he demanded. “I’ve only just
hooked up with her, and now I’m supposed to just go off to Malibu?”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Like you
seriously think she won’t be here for you when you get back? You two are so
into each other it practically makes me want to throw up.”
“Isn’t that your response to love
generally?” Drew asked.
“This from the guy who seems to be making
his way around every girl in our class?”
Her brother shrugged. “Can I help it if
they all seem to want me?”
That got another eye roll from Rachel.
“Arrogant, much?”
Nat stepped in, the way he always seemed
to so that they wouldn’t end up fighting. It was no fun being a twin with a
sensible older brother, sometimes. “Look, Chrissy and I are not in love, guys.
Infatuated right now, yes. I mean we went out a few times but that’s about it.”
“Did you actually want something, Rachel?”
Drew asked. “Or are you just here to make sure that we never finish packing?”
Rachel remembered and pulled out her
phone, bringing up the photo that Summer had sent over.
“Summer’s aunt is going to be busy at her
acting school, so Summer is picking us up herself. She sent over a photo so
that we wouldn’t miss her at the airport. I’m kind of glad she did. She might
have been my best friend, but I haven’t seen her in, like, forever. I wouldn’t
have recognized her.”
Nat took the phone.
“She’s changed a bit,” Rachel said, and as
her brothers looked at the photo, she watched for the moment when their
expressions said they’d finally realized just how much Summer had changed. The
slightly awkward thirteen year old in glasses, with braces and puppy fat was
gone in the picture she’d sent, to be replaced by a chestnut haired, blue eyed
beauty with a willowy body, delicately tanned skin and a perfect smile.
“Whoa,” Drew said.
“It’s quite a change, isn’t it?” Rachel
said with a smile of her own, just to let her brothers know that she’d seen
their faces. “Honestly, I’m not even sure if I can be friends with someone
that
pretty. I mean, Summer’s better looking than the queen bee in our school,
so she’s probably turned into a total bitch.”
“Because all pretty girls are mean girls?”
Nat laughed. “Looks like you’re going to have to get over the stereotype there,
Rachel. Anyway, it isn’t even true. Chrissy’s beautiful, and she’s as sweet as
anybody you could ever meet.”
Rachel took her phone back from him.
“Because you’re into her right now. We’re see about that in a month.” She’d
barely gotten her phone back when Drew snatched it from her. “What are you
doing?”
“What?” Drew shot back. “I just want to
make sure that I recognize her.”
“So it has nothing to do with the part
where you think she’s hot?” Nat asked.
“What if it does?” Drew shrugged. “I’ve
always… I’ve always thought she was kind of cool.”
Rachel gave him a warning look. She knew
what her twin brother could be like. “Don’t you dare go there,” she said.
“Summer’s one of my best friends. You are not just going to play with her and
sleep with her like all the other girls you date. She’s off limits, Drew. I
mean it.”
“You’d better listen,” Nat said, with a
look that made it clear he wasn’t serious. “We wouldn’t want to be on Rachel’s
bad side.”
Drew caught his cue neatly. “She has a
good side?”
Why was it that her brothers always teamed
up on her, Rachel demanded of any part of the universe that was listening? It
was meant to be twins who teamed up on the rest of the world, wasn’t it?
“I’m serious, Drew,” she said. “I don’t
want Summer getting hurt. Besides, I don’t think you’re even her type.”
“I’m not her type?” Drew said, looking
slightly offended. Maybe it was just because he couldn’t believe that there was
any girl whose type he might not be. “Well, maybe she isn’t
my
type. Had
you thought of that?”
“She has a pulse, doesn’t she?” Nat asked,
and was rewarded by Drew throwing one of the t-shirts for Sookie’s Acting
Academy that Summer had sent over at him.
“He has a point, Drew,” Rachel said,
moving to sit down on the edge of the bed. “Right now, it seems like you’re
interested in any pretty girl who looks at you.”
“That isn’t true,” Drew insisted.
Rachel shook her head. “All right then.
Any pretty girl who’s prepared to sleep with you because you’re the star
quarterback. You use them and then you leave them, and I don’t want Summer hurt
like that.”
Drew finished shoving clothes into his
back and yanked the zipper shut. “Why are you assuming that it’s always me?”
“Maybe because it usually is?” Nat
suggested. It looked like he’d finished packing too, and he put his bag beside
Drew’s. There were still plenty of clothes left everywhere. Rachel knew better
than to wonder whether they’d do anything about them. “Face it, Drew, you
aren’t exactly the kind of guy to settle on one girl. How many girlfriends have
you had in the last year?”
Drew picked up his bag and grinned the
kind of boyish grin that did a lot to explain why he’d worked his way through
most of the cheerleading squad. “Plenty. It’s kind of hard not to when they’re
practically throwing themselves at me.”
“Well then,” Rachel said with heavy
sarcasm, “the break will do you good. With all those girls making life so hard
for you, this will give you a chance to recover.”
Not that it made so much as a dent in
Drew’s ego. He just shrugged. “I guess it would be kind of good to get away.
Then, when I get back, the party starts all over again.”
Rachel sighed. There wasn’t any point even
trying when it came to her twin brother, some days. “Yes, sure. Just finish
getting ready, would you?”
“I
am
ready,” Drew insisted. He
took another look at Rachel’s phone, then passed it back to her. “You know,
it’s going to be good seeing Summer’s Aunt Sookie again.
And
that beach
house of hers.”
“And Summer?” Nat added, obviously trying
to stir things up between them.
Drew shrugged. “It’s going to be a great
vacation any way you look at it.”
Rachel headed back to her room, looking
for her bag and leaving her brothers behind. Right then, she was kind of
thinking that the whole vacation might go a little better if she found a way to
abandon them at the airport. It was probably the only way she was going to get
any peace, for one thing. But it was too late for that kind of thinking. They
were all going, and Drew was right about one thing. It
would
be good to
see the old place again.
It would be good to see lots of things.
Rachel took another look at the photo Summer had sent her. They’d stayed in
touch online, but she hadn’t seen her friend face to face since they were both
thirteen. Summer was her dearest friend, and she was happy to be seeing her
again. She also hoped that Drew would listen to her warnings, because from what
she remembered, Summer was fun, and different, and exciting, but also maybe a
little too fragile to be treated the way Drew treated girls. She was
embarrassed that Drew was the type of walking one-night stand guy their mom had
warned her about.
“I hope you know what you’re letting
yourself in for,” Rachel said to the photo, but then shook her head. Summer had
always had a crush on Nat, though, ever since she was five years old. No one,
no boy had ever been able to shake her out of her crush on Nat, so at least
that was a good thing about Drew.