Layers Crossed
Authors: Lacey Silks
Tags: #romance, #erotic, #suspense, #womens fiction, #series, #cowboy, #contemporary romance
Layers Crossed
by Lacey Silks
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2014 © Lacey
Silks
Smashwords Edition
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Publisher’s Note
This book is a work of fiction. The names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s
imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead,
actual events, locales or organizations is entirely
coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book
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ISBN:
978-1-927715-15-4
To Maya and Alex
She’s a city girl.
He’s a country boy.
And their worlds are about to
collide.
Seeking justice, the mouth-watering cowboy,
Eric Waters hires Cross Enterprises to find the man who’s been
threatening and haunting his family for decades. And the city girl
he hires captures his heart and soul.
Tired of beat-up cases, the witty private-investigator, Emma Cross,
finally gets an assignment worthy of her talents. Except keeping
her wits around her muscled employer from the country is more
difficult than she expected.
The moment their paths cross, Eric and Emma captivate each other,
but mixing business with pleasure may prove more risky than Emma
has bargained for and more deceitful than Eric’s honest heart can
handle.
With a foundation of lies and fear to put the past behind them,
their blossoming relationship is tested by family, friends and
enemies.
As threat looms, trust and honesty are broken, and Emma and Eric’s
lives are flipped upside down. Can they withstand the storm and
find a way to stay together, or will each have to go back to their
corners of the world?
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TABLE OF
CONTENTS
C
HAPTER
1
Emma
Tonight, I
promised myself, would be the last time I ever made a bet with my
best friend. Standing nearly naked back stage of a strip club was
definitely not the sort of place I’d ever imagined to find myself.
The two jewels covering my nipples glittered in the light, and my
bedazzled private parts were beginning to itch. My attire gave me a
new appreciation for the term ‘vajazzled.’
What have I
gotten myself into?
“Stop shaking
like a leaf. You’re going to rock this joint!” My best friend Grace
was lucky I loved her like a sister – otherwise she’d be on the
receiving end of my fist.
“This is the
last time I’m listening to you. I swear if Tristan or Julian find
out about this, I’ll be in the dog house for months. They’ll have
me followed everywhere!”
“They won’t
find out. Your brothers wouldn’t be found dead in a place like
this, Emma.”
“That’s not
making me feel any better! If this ever gets out, I’m holding you
personally responsible. Remind me again why I’m here?”
“Because you
said I’d never stick to one man, and I proved you wrong. Our one
year anniversary is officially today. Enjoy, Em!”
And Grace
chose to celebrate by dragging me out here. “Shouldn’t you be with
Hunter?”
“He’s working
and then meeting an out-of-town friend. They haven’t seen each
other in months. Besides, Hunter said he’d make it up to me next
weekend.”
Great!
I had only one
person I could truly blame for this – me. I was the one who had
decided to play a frickin’ matchmaker, desperate for my best friend
to find ‘the one’ she’d claimed each man to be, yet never expecting
her to fall head over heels for Hunter. I gave it one month tops,
maybe two. Yet here we were, a year later, with me regretting those
words. I’d been lucky enough to drag this bet out for months, but
now it was time to pay up.
And with a
swift push on my back I found myself wobbling onto the dark stage.
I swore under my breath, wishing I weren’t so susceptible to my
friend’s crazy ideas. I might have seemed like a wild one, but this
was way over the top, even for me. Yet Grace, knowing very well the
kind of life I’d led for the past two years, insisted it would be
good for me to let loose and experience life beyond the walls of
Manhattan. When we made the bet, she failed to mention I’d end up
in a run-down strip club that hosted tumbleweeds in its parking
lot. At least there weren’t too many men here; or was I mistaken?
Had the room filled during the time Grace was helping me glue
jewels to my lady parts backstage? What if it had? My eyes still
hadn’t adjusted to the darkness, so I couldn’t tell.
As I began
contemplating how to get back at her and the two other betrayers I
called friends, who were sitting in the small audience, the silence
in the club started to unnerve me. Either there was no one else
here, or I was really
that
bad. I hadn’t even moved a hip or
flashed the jewel line running down the crack of my ass in disguise
of a panty line, and I swear I could hear the mice I’d seen earlier
by the bar nibbling on leftovers.
A white spot
light flashed onto my face. It skimmed the crowd in front of me,
confirming that there was not an empty seat left in the audience.
Knowing I was the focal point of the room, I felt my body drizzle
with the heat of embarrassment.
Fuck it! I may
as well try my best.
That was my
motto – nothing less than the best for Emma – and if you preach it,
you better practice it. Music sounded from the speakers above, and
I began moving my body to its smooth rhythm, making my way toward
center stage and the freshly waxed metal pole in the middle. I’d
taken a few pole dancing classes for the fun of it – okay, maybe
more than a few – but my friends didn’t know that little secret.
Maybe that’s why I’d jumped in on the bet. Perhaps I secretly knew
that once Grace took Hunter home, her life would be changed and
she’d forget about the bet I was about to fulfill. But then again,
I’d never normally get a chance to do anything this crazy in my
life. My over-protective brothers and the family’s company
reputation wouldn’t allow it. As a private investigator at Cross
Enterprises, I had a duty to act in a certain way. Prudence was
expected of me, yet I wanted nothing to do with it. It may have
been arrogant, but I blamed my caring brothers for this. As the
youngest child and only girl, sometimes it seemed I had three
fathers instead of one – my two brothers acting twice more cautious
around me than my dad.
I let the
thought pass through. If I was going to complete this dance and not
get booed off the stage, I’d need to stop thinking about the people
I deep-down held responsible for my actions. For me, the quiet
rebellion had never stopped. What was the point? I’d lost enough in
my life, and now I was determined to live it up until I joined
David in his everlasting peace.
Grasping the
pole with my right hand, I stepped around it. The light shifted,
flashing across the floor and that’s when I noticed that the room
was full. Well, for an establishment the size of this run-down
hole, that was still only a few dozen people.
Holy crap!
I can’t do this!
A wave of nerves flew from my bare chest down
the middle of my stomach to my sparkling area of jewels. I didn’t
fail. I never failed. I had to do this to prove to myself that I
was as brave and daring and exciting as my reputation of a fearless
private investigator. Granted, I rarely got to go out into the
field, but when I did, nothing and no one could stop me. There was
no case I hadn’t solved or wouldn’t take on.
A few whistles
sounded from my friends in the front row, bringing me back to the
room.
As I made
another circle around, a pair of beautifully light eyes at a table
in the corner caught my attention. He was sitting by himself, with
a bottle of water in his hand.
Who drinks
water at a bar?
The man wore a
plaid shirt and a cowboy hat that must have been covering his face
earlier. There was no way I would have missed those sky blue eyes
otherwise, even from a mile away. And with the dark complexion, he
looked like a perfect mix of beautiful genes. The primitive way he
looked at me, as if he’d never seen a woman before, warmed my
insides and heated my cheeks. I was used to the “You’re so hot I
want to fuck you now” looks from men. I dismissed most of them, but
there was something different about this guy. His eyes held respect
as he devoured my body with his gaze. I even thought I’d seen his
jaw twitch – like he wanted to cover me up instead of removing the
gems to see my bare flesh.
Gently swaying
my hip his way, I let go of the pole and slowly made my way to the
side stage. Aware that he’d get a good look at my best asset and
its decoration down the middle in less than three seconds, I held
his gaze. I wanted to see his reaction, and I wondered whether he’d
appreciate the view as much as any other man would. I crouched
lower, holding my palm over my front, covering my opening as my
knees spread apart to the side, and then slowly, as if possessed by
a snake, I curled my body upward.
No other man
in the room mattered any longer. It was just me and the cowboy –
who frowned, stood up, and left.
What the
hell?
I sashayed
back toward the pole and climbed up as part of the routine I’d
practiced, knowing that my friends’ jaws were probably on the floor
by now. Grasping the pole, I swung my legs up and above my head,
twining them around the metal rod, and let the rest of my body,
including my perky tits, fall back gracefully as I looked through
the crowd upside down, searching for the mystery man. Finally I
caught him by the bar, downing a shot. The raw charm that drew me
to him disappeared and was replaced by a simple need to know more
about the man who had captured my interest for longer than a
minute. What had him so angered? Why was he here?
I finished my
dance, and the crowd, otherwise known as a group of half-drunk and
bearded men who’d left the foam on their facial hair for later,
whistled and cheered.
I guess I
wasn’t that bad after all.
“OMG! Emma,
you were amazing. I swear you missed your calling.” Grace hugged me
when I came backstage.
“Did you see
that guy?”