Layers Peeled
Authors: Lacey Silks
Tags: #Romance, #Romantic Suspense, #Erotica, #Suspense, #adult, #womens fiction, #Erotic Romance, #Series, #erotic suspense, #contemporary romance, #lacey silks, #layers trilogy
Layers Peeled
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-978-1-927715-07-9
New life binds them,
Past ghosts haunt her,
Fresh secrets distract him,
...and history repeats itself.
Allie, a rookie cop
hired and desired by a private investigator, is about to knock the
wind out of Tristan with the biggest news of her life... right
after she recovers from the announcement that he just fired
her.
Tristan, owner of Cross
Enterprises, has a few surprises for Allie as well. And she won’t
see them coming.
While the couple tries
to deal with their predicament and growing romance, ghosts from
Allie's past haunt her, slowly calculating the timing of their
return. With new assignments distracting Tristan, fate has stacked
deck against them. Can Allie and Tristan peel away their protective
layers for long enough to see the danger brewing at their doorstep?
If they don't work together, trusting and sharing information, it
may be too late.
And history may repeat
itself
Layers Peeled is Book 2
in the Layers Trilogy and should only be read after Book 1, Layers
Deep. No cliff hanger and a HEA ending! Contains sexual content
suitable for adult audiences only.
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CONTENTS
1
Tristan’s
words rang in my ears over and over again. “You’re fired. You’re
fired. You’re fired.” That definitely wasn’t the reaction I was
expecting after I’d told him I was carrying his child—which I
hadn’t yet. The news stuck in my throat, and suddenly that little
surprise box on his desk, wrapped in gift paper to conceal tiny
white booties, didn’t belong there. How in the world did this
perfect morning turn into a nightmare?
The room
seemed hazy and I felt weak in the knees. The golden streams of
sunlight filtering between the blinds like ribbons of silk lent the
situation an unreal quality. The setting completely didn’t match
what was going on inside me. Rage slowly boiled in my veins, but I
couldn’t let him see it. Pigs would fly before I let a man affect
me this way. I would raise this baby on my own if I had to. Forcing
adrenaline into my body, I squared my shoulders, forming a quick
plan in my mind. I had to get out of there, and it had to be
now.
Recovering
from a gunshot, pregnant, and fired now topped my résumé.
I stood there,
staring at Tristan with my mouth open, waiting for that perfect
moment my brain would think of something wise to say so I could
leave without arousing suspicions. Unfortunately, my brain, bathed
in new hormones that I hadn’t quite figured out yet, did not want
to cooperate.
Shit! I should
close my mouth. I cannot show him I’m weak. I am a strong woman. I
always have been!
As soon as
Tristan noticed my gaze darting from him to his desk, I rushed
toward the gift. Yup, my brain was definitely fried with the
estrogen levels of a deranged pregnant woman. He blocked my way and
grabbed my wrist before I could reach for the little box. How dare
he?
I knew he
could be a jerk sometimes; after all, his job as a private
investigator required him to act like one in desperate
circumstances, but I had no idea he could be that much of a jerk.
Inside I screamed for him to get the fuck away from me – but again,
my mouth was perfectly shut in a straight line.
I’d left my
job for him.
I’d let him
place me in danger and even helped rescue his ex-girlfriend from a
drug maniac who almost sold her to a pimp.
I’d spread my
legs nice and wide so he could knock me up. Actually, I’d be lying
if I said I regretted our sexual relationship. Tristan blew my mind
every time we had sex, in the most exotic and delicious kind of
way. The past three weeks of abstinence due to my recovery had left
me wanton and drooling like an animal in heat. I’d wanted Mr. Sexy
over there to touch me and rock my world the way he had before the
nearly fatal incident, but he hadn’t. And up until now I’d assumed
the gunshot wound, a whack in the head, and a near disastrous
undercover operation had scared him off a bit to touch me. I’d
thought he wanted me better first, when in fact he’d been
distancing himself to bear the bad news.
And then in
the hospital I found out I was pregnant. The little bundle of joy
in my tummy was a surprise, but now that it had happened, I
couldn’t be happier—except for the ‘being fired’ part just now.
This was how
he repaid me? The mother of his child! By firing me from the only
job I had?
Yet there he
stood, all smug, with that cute dimple on his chin and the scar on
his bottom lip that twisted his smile into a sexy lopsided grin.
Ah, how I wished I could touch that lip! And why were my nipples
hardening from just looking at him?
Stop
thinking about Tristan and sex!
My conscience decided to be
vocal in the back of my mind.
This was all
about Kendra, wasn’t it? He still loved her; and as much as I
wanted to believe he would let Julian, his older brother, and
Kendra be, he’d never let her go.
“What’s this?”
he asked, picking up the box with his other hand before I grabbed
it.
“Give it back,
you jerk. It’s not for you.” Everything inside me shook. I wiggled
out of his grip and reached for the box like a little girl as he
held it high up above his head. I jumped up and down a few times.
The scene reminded me of a playground, and I did not care a bit how
immature I looked or sounded.
“’Jerk’?
Allie, I think you misunderstood my intention.” The care in his
voice didn’t match what he’d just done. Had he the balls to mock
me? One more word and I’d make sure the two little spheres under
his dick would be squared off, forever. Okay, they weren’t that
little. In fact, they were the perfect size and weight to fit into
my palms when I blew him.
Oh, God! Stop
thinking about his balls!
But of course
I couldn’t help it. It had been way too long since Tristan had made
love to me. My three-week recovery had not only taken its toll on
my health but also on my sex life. What kind of a relationship did
we have, anyway? I knew he was my boss – ex-boss now – and once
he’d introduced me to his little sister as his girlfriend. Yet we
had never discussed nor defined what was happening between us. It
just was. Well, now he could add ‘Daddy’ to his CEO title.
“I understand
your intentions very clearly. No wonder Kendra stabbed you. You
used me for a job and once it was done, you decided to throw me in
the trash like a piece of meat.”
By this time
the tears were rolling down my cheeks like marbles. I didn’t notice
when they started. My hormones were completely out of control. I
wanted to roll into a ball and curl away in a dark corner, so that
someone else could clean up the mess I was in.
“Allie, baby,
calm down. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
When he said
‘baby’ I broke down even further, adding an extra sob to my slurps
and sniffles.
The door to
his office flew open and a bunch of people yelled, “Surprise!”
Among everyone were Laura, my roommate; Julian, his brother; the
secretary from the front; and Gene and James, who both worked with
Tristan. What was Laura doing at Cross Enterprises? I thought she
had the day off?
“We may need a
few more minutes,” Tristan said to them. Seeing my puffy face, they
slowly backed out of the office, clearly confused. So was I. I
needed to compose my thoughts.
“No, I think
we’re done here.” I wobbled toward the door, but Tristan was
quicker and blocked my way before I reached the closing frame.
“Allie, I beg
you. Please let me explain. I have to fire you.”
“You are the
boss. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want, and clearly we
are not the ones you want.” I was yelling.
Oh God, how loud was
I?
It didn’t seem like me. It was someone else. “I can get a
new job. You mean nothing to me. I can do all of this on my
own!”
Was that voice
even mine?
“‘We’? What
are you talking about?” He caught my stare at the little box.
Holding me by
one hand, Tristan dragged me back toward his desk. I hated this
part. I despised that my recovery placed me at a disadvantage. His
pure strength was too much for my weakened pregnant body. And why
did I, all of a sudden, want to sleep so badly? He pinned me
between his hips and the desk, spreading his legs apart to encase
me. I couldn’t escape. Warmth swooshed through my belly.
My phone
buzzed with a text from Emma. I reached into my pocket to read:
Emma:
I’m calling it Baby-Puss for now ;)
It was another
one of her baby name suggestions I’d been receiving for the past
three weeks. Tristan’s little sister had helped me keep my secret
by forging my blood work at the hospital in exchange for choosing
the baby’s name. So far all of them had been from the
Flintstones.
Tristan tore
the wrapping paper off the gift box. The clear plastic case held
the booties I’d packed, which could have been the most beautiful
Christmas tree ornament I’d ever seen. My body melted at the sight,
and I had the urge to take the tiny cotton shoes and hold them
against my chest and smell them and rock them.
“Allie, what
is this?” His body slowly eased from around me.
There it was,
almost over. I might as well get it out of the way. He’d already
fired me. Now all that was left was to let me go. Let us go.